From BAGnewsNotes, “a prgressive blog dedicated to the political, psychological and media analysis of news images..”

Greeting Previous Mormon Candidate

Let’s see what he says, who’s in the audience and if he takes questions. Until then the breathless “Mitt’s Kennedy Moment” stories are kinda beside the point.

Kennedy spoke to the Baptist beast, Mitt faces the angry throngs of the Bush Library. And Kennedy took multiple questions from the assembled clergy after his speech.

Possibly here!

Today in History

“On this day in 1981, President Ronald Reagan signs off on a top secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), which gives the Central Intelligence Agency the power to recruit and support a 500-man force of Nicaraguan rebels to conduct covert actions against the leftist Sandinista regime in Nicaragua.”

It was going to be great.

Our proto “Coalition of the Willing” allies in the Argentinian death squads would train the Contras, who’d be welcomed as liberators. Later, as things dragged, there was Saudi money funneled by Prince Bandar, key-shaped cakes to Tehran, and Congress failing to impeach.

Everyone was there! Bush Ambassador for Troubled Situations John Negroponte was holding the fort in Honduras, current NSC advisor Eliot Abrahms aka “Mr. Kenilworth” was lying to Congress.

And now Danny’s back!

Reprieve, Not a Pardon

Today’s Washignton Post has TwinSpin on Tuesday’s Presidential turkey pardon.

Dana Milbank leads off with an account of the actual ceremony Tuesday, pausing to mention PETA’s continued unhappyness with the fate of the birds. As discussed previously, shipping the birds to Disney World is but a delayed death sentence – the 2005 birds died within a year and the fate of 2006’s is unknown.

Then Monica Hesse rips the lid off the the White House turkey pardon myth. She has trolled back through the archives and concludes that the ceremony’s alledged beginnings in the Truman admistration are false, that the Trumans ate theirs.

In fact the first documented Presidential turkey pardon came under the first President Bush.

As Hesse reports, it’s right there on the Truman Library web page.

Not So Lucky Duck

Your Name Here

The Clinton Foundation goes from strength to strength, raising $135 million last year, up 70% from 2005. The Foundation has paid off debts incurred building the Clinton Library, although it owes $1.9 million on a loan to renovate the Library gift shop.

Like all not-for-profits, the foundation reports income, not donors. Plans were different once:

“Officials said when Clinton’s presidential library opened in 2004 that it would include a wall recognizing contributors. So far, that wall has not been installed.”

If you were a wall, what would you be?

What we know of Clinton’s Library donors comes largely from Josh Gerstein in the New York Sun. When the Library opened he found a computer terminal on an upper library floor with donor information. The terminal has since been yanked.

If the wall of names ever rises it would include Steven Spielberg, the Saudi royals, the King of Morocco, and the governments of Dubai, Kuwait, Qatar, Brunei, and Taiwan.

Papa Bush’s Library has some big donors’ names displayed, many of them the same governments and access seekers as Clinton’s. But there is no overall disclosure, and Bush’s foundation is squirrely with names and numbers too. According to the Dallas Morning News,”Only five major donors and four minor ones asked to remain anonymous, said Roman Popadiuk, executive director of the Bush library foundation in College Station… “We never hid who donates,” he said. “Some donors want to be anonymous. Others for privacy reasons just don’t want it advertised how much they give.”

Sometimes anonymity helps the recipient as well.

God, Prophet and Washington Times impresario the Reverend Sun Myung Moon wasn’t satisfied paying Bush senior for some appearances, so he disguised a million dollar donation to the Bush Library by funneling it through the Greater Houston Community Foundation.