McNaughton’s Group  

Special thanks to the eagle eyes at Wonkette, who’ve spotted a big one.

Extraordinarily cheezeball artist Jon McNaughton has brought forth a gathering of greats, as the ghosts of presidents past hover around sullen, stand-offish looking Barack Obama, variously annoyed or aghast at his literal TRAMPLING ON THE CONSTITUTION!

McNaughton is the kind of crank who rambles along in incoherent Founderspeak for numbered paragraphs, passive aggressively concluding:

“The information is historical. If it is not familiar to you – Google it.“

Cramming all these figures into the frame seems to have skewed McNaughton’s perspective.  Small but perfectly formed James Madison is so upset at Obama’s boot-heel to our liberties that he’s bent over pleading, but appears to be almost Obama’s height.   The Forgotten Man is a giant seated on a toy town bench. Such is the occasion that Franklin Roosevelt walks.

McNaughton’s painting doesn’t leave much to chance, featuring ominous clouds, flags at half staff, and an accompanying video lush with  piano chords of doom.

Meet Your New Overlords!

Hopes for a dynasty-free nation soared with the sputtering end of George W. Bush’s administration and the announced retirement  of the Kennedy’s last office holder.

Over The Shoulder, Out Of Reach

But new threats emerge.

Jimmy Carter’s Grandson has been elected to the Georgia State Senate, and Richard Nixon’s Grandson aspires to do in a Long Island Democratic Congressman if the Republican nomination can be secured.

The drums have grown silent on George P. “little brown one” Bush’s inevitable rise to greatness, but all this can’t but help build the tired stench.

What’s Under The Tree For You & For Me? …

There’s Something About A Train 

 For the Presidential Transport Complete-ist, exciting news from the plains of Texas.

MTH Electric Trains has launched a series of HO model trains commemorating an obscure tribute to former President H.W. Bush.

In 2005 the Union Pacific Railroad appears to have had time and rolling stock on its hands, so the company painted up one of their engines to vaguely resemble Air Force One’s color scheme, and slapped Bush’s name on it.  It served as the highpoint of a railroad exhibit mounted by Bush’s Presidential Library, with as little apparent connection to his presidency as the Clinton Library’s ill-fated “Art of the Chopper” fiasco.

MTH’s model engine comes complete with a “Detachable Scale Snow Plow” and  “(2) Cab Figures“  , all for just $ 189.95.  Coming soon is a more glamor-ific model for a mere $ 429.95.

Why the Union Pacific’s interest in Bush family sucking up?  UP CEO Richard K. Davidson served on a Homeland Security infrastructure advisory board, presumably working to assure that security didn’t get in the way of tons of toxins riding the rails.  He served the Bushes in other ways as well, bundling for Junior and receiving a Kennedy Center board post.

Iron Horse Came

Bold New Platform       

George W. Bush has announced exciting new plans for his Presidential Library, spraying the horizon with many, many numbered lists of intentions, notions and fanciful ideas.

Just what will his legacy be all about?

The Bush Library will continue Bush’s on-going worldwide effort to devalue words by grasping them tightly to himself:

Join The Freedom Registry for only $50!

In the spirit of the age, the Bush Library hopes to mobilize the sinister power of social networks through its Member Advocates. But if the roaring success of the Bush administration alumni blog is an indicator, Face-book will remain fairly Bush-free.

The Bush Library web site is doing its part to erase the Kennedy assassination stain from local consciousness, offering a map of “Dallas Landmarks” with Dealey Plaza unmarked.

Not From Around Here?

We’ll be seeing a lot more of Bush’s attempts to tie himself to great “dissidents,” hiring a guy from Columbia whose “One Million Voices Against FARC” Face-book page harnesses the power of the web against the plucky jungle fighters by presenting seven [7] photos, one of Cheney and two of them of Bush.

Something called ” The Freedom Collection of the Bush Institute’s Oral History Project” looms, in which “the Institute will bring together dissidents who are participating in the Freedom House oral history project. They will share their experiences and promote best practices.”

Not to be confused with the just announced “George W. Bush Oral History Project,” by the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

 Friendly Ghosts

What sort of probing questions might the Miller-narrians ask?

Lets take a loving look back at the Reagan Administration, the Millerists’ hard hitting interview with Caspar Weinberger.

What did they chat about?

The interviewer glides lightly over Iran-Contra, and asks Weinberger no questions about hiding documents in the Library of Congress, lying about it to the Special Prosecuter, his indictment, or his pardon by George H.W.Bush on eve of trial.

“Weinberger’s notes proved to be an invaluable contemporaneous record of the views and activities of the highest officials regarding those sales. They revealed, among other things, that contrary to his sworn testimony, Weinberger knew in advance that U.S. arms were to be shipped to Israel in November 1985 without Congressional notification, in an effort to obtain the release of U.S. hostages, and that Israel expected the United States to replenish the weapons Israel shipped to Iran. Weinberger’s notes also disclosed that, contrary to his sworn testimony, he knew that Saudi Arabia was secretly providing $25 million in assistance to the contras during a ban on U.S. aid.“

Lame or not, the Miller Center best get going,  given some Bush administration figures shall we say slippery memories.

        Grave Importance   

Fancy color sketches and models of the George W. Bush Presidential Library have been loosed upon an anxious world, and must be mined for clues.

Like, where will they bury him?

Assuming Bush follows the pharaoh-ic path of FDR, Truman, Ike, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and his father’s plan at College Station, he’ll have to be buried on site. If the “Texas Rose Garden” above is a little too outdoorsy, there is the Freedom Tractor Beam inside.

 

The careful viewer will note a presidential quote on the wall behind the generic assembled white folks.

It’s a line from Bush’s 2004 Republican Convention acceptance speech, in which he claimed we are summoned by a “calling from beyond the stars.“  Here on Earth Bush had begun the year attempting a call to greatness with a vague drumbeat for Mars exploration, then buried the exciting initiative by the time of his State of The Union address.

The convention speech itself was delivered with a spaceport motif. 

The Library grounds are touted as a Bush gift to the nation, or at least SMU, providing “numerous spaces for events and gatherings,” but don’t plan your protest rally just yet.

“… unlike the formal, tree-lined landscape of the main campus, this garden contains hills and draws and winding paths that conceal surveillance cameras and other security equipment.“