Father Figures 
Production looms for Oliver Stone’s long awaited George W. Bush biopic “W.”
The story of Bush’s uncertain rise to greatness, the title has shifted from “Bush” in the course of preproduction, “Young Bush” apparently having been rejected.
How they deal with the already existing “W: The Movie” is unclear.
Additional casting has been announced, with daddy Bush to be played by James Cromwell. Right wing whining about left wing Cromwell has already begun from people apparently untroubled by his roles as homicidal police chiefs and Kiefer Sutherland’s loathsome dad.
But the standout casting remains Elizabeth Banks, 
as the Laura Bush you never knew.
Book ‘Em! 
Their dream of a massive paperless Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Library has run into trouble, and plucky North Dakota may beat them in the race to debut a presidential library with no actual documents. Now the Theodore Roosevelt Association is having trouble keeping what papers it owns.
The former acting Executive Director of the Association has been charged with stealing a Roosevelt letter, and with forging a document saying it was his. Edward Renehan’s attorney appears to be leaning towards an insanity defense.
Renehan is doing his part to get off. His blog links to his TR book, 
but his bio has no mention of working for the TR Association. It does share that
“I was diagnosed as bipolar (aka, manic depressive) during the summer of 2007. This is a progressive biochemical disorder from which I’ve evidently suffered for a very long time, perhaps even since childhood, and which had reached a grave critical mass in recent years. I am currently under treatment, on meds that my doctors and I are fine-tuning, and I am slowly learning how to cope more efficiently and constructively than I have in the past. This, too, is a part of my journey.”
A March 27th blog entry intriguingly titled “My Only Answer” shares memories of his childhood:
” I lay on the cot masturbating while reading a thick paperback containing the complete editions of a bawdy Victorian magazine: The Pearl.”
and plaintively asks “Medicating Away Creativity?
Now Live The Life! 
Another puzzled visitor to the Reagan Library tries to make sense of the odd angles taken:
“There is Air Force One (you can go inside!), there’s Marine One, there are those big black Secret Service Suburbans, and, revealingly, there’s even an LAPD police car and motorcycle, just because those kinds of things will excite people who get excited about Marine One.”
Even further removed from reality, a real memento of events Reagan only knew in the movies.
“There’s the “historical artifact” (perfectly encapsulating the story of Reagan) of the Notre Dame sweater worn by Knut Rockne given as a gift to Reagan at the end of his term in recognition of his role in the movie Knut Rockne – All American, playing George Gipp. “
Where Did The Time Go? 
Part of the entertainment value of thumb-suckers musing over the Bush Administration’s “Legacy” is who asks the questions. It’s our old friends and perpetual whipping boys, The Media!
A part of society which for the most part went unquestioningly into battle in Iraq, and which let Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford go to their graves as demigods, is in charge of the searching questions in the last months.
And don’t think Bush’s people aren’t watching. Dick Cheney’s Lincoln/Truman lonely visionary talking points have been consistent over time, with Gerald Ford thrown in on occasion. The most recent example came in a follow up to his “So?” interview dismissing popular opinion over the war. Cheney claims that nice things said during Ford’s funeral week justify the Nixon pardon, which also means Iraq will look great in three decades.
“…he demonstrated, I think, great courage and great foresight, and the country was better off for what Jerry Ford did that day. And 30 years later, everybody recognized it…And I have the same strong conviction the issues we’re dealing with today — the global war on terror, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq — that all of the tough calls the president has had to make, that 30 years from now it will be clear that he made the right decisions, and that the effort we mounted was the right one, and that if we had listened to the polls, we would have gotten it wrong.”
Destiny’s Darlings 
Dallas is only beginning to come to a reckoning on the true costs of the George W. Bush Presidential Library.
The Dallas Morning News brings us a roll-call of soon-to-be dead retail, doomed when the Park Plaza Shopping Center is flattened to make room for Bush and the world of swank he brings to Southern Methodist University.
A culinary landmark of sorts will go with the closure of La Madeleine’s original location, filling America’s need for vaguely, plausibly “hearty” French food since 1982. Another landmark under threat is Pokey O’s 
cookie/ice-cream parlour, whose web site holds out hope of a franchise near you, someday.
Another tenant facing eviction is the Dallas Flower Mart. 
Now we may never know what the place looked like.
Be sure to send their “Greater Glory” 
arrangement to those about to die that the Bush Library might live.
