Taking the Field

Field of Dreams roosevelt-t-firemens-field.jpg

Oyster Bay Long Island residents opposing the proposed Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Museum location in his hometown have their web site up, and sort of running.

Their call to arms:

“Our purpose is to prevent this 3.5 acre multi-use public space / parking field from being used as the site of the proposed Theodore Roosevelt Library. Our group takes no official position on the existence, size or timing of the Library, only asking that it not be placed in Firemen’s Field. “

They explain that they’ll flesh out their objections in greater detail. That’s to be hoped for, because right now in defending the largely empty Firemen’s field they paint a portrait of elementary school students denied boat launching facilities, or something.

“It provides the only contiguous flat public view shed of the waterfront in downtown, and links the Roosevelt Elementary School’s playing field with the Roosevelt Park launching ramp and swimming beach.”

roosevelt-t-rough-rider-classics-illustraited.jpg We shall of course provide complete coverage of the battle of the flood plain.

Not Fit To Shine His Shoes?

Not Happy reagan-holding-cash.jpg

 

Reagan progeny Patti Davis despairs at the Republican Presidential field’s efforts to all look like true sons of Ronnie. She seems particularly upset at Mike Huckabee’s fashion choices huckabee-hunts.jpg for bird slaughter, then closes with this send off:

“…imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery; it’s just an indication that the imitator is going through a serious identity crisis.”

Burnt Out

bush-burnt-house.jpg Home on the Range

First the Cheney office fire, now arson has struck a childhood home of President Bush.

Odessa Texas’s thoughtful recreation of mid-American mid-century middle class splendor bush-home-odessa.jpg has suffered damage to “the green carpet inside the living room, the mid-20th century radio console near the door and the ceiling. Much of the porch roof is burned, and smoke damaged the ceilings throughout the home.”

But hope lives: “The Bush family photos in the northwest bedroom were not damaged”

A youthful George W. Bush moved to Odessa Texas with his parents at age two in 1948. His short-lived encounter with the region lasted but a year, then the family enjoyed a brief sojourn in California. After tasting such delights as Bakersfield and Compton they returned to West Texas in 1950, but this time they settled in the comparative glamour of Midland.

All this too and fro, and what can only be called rootlessness has left multiple Former Bush Homes scattered over the landscape. The family had three addresses in Odessa, then three in Midland before heading to Houston. When George W. Bush lived in Midland eleven years as an adult he had four more addresses.

The fire-damaged home is the only one remaining in Odessa, moved from it’s original location to the backyard of the covering-all-bettingly named “Presidential Museum and Leadership Library,” presidential_museum_outdoor_photo1.jpg which bizarrely enough claims to have actually preexisted both Bush Presidencies.

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Traditional Odessa rivals down the road in Midland have their own entry in the recreation race. Pledging that “The George W. Bush Childhood Home will be one of the Nation’s first 1950s residential restorations,” the George W. Bush Childhood Home Inc. has visions of raising $7 million to gussy up one of Bush’s Midland homes.

bush-childhood-home-midland.jpg Seven Million Dollars, American

Hype Your Reality

Nixon ’08 nixon-langella-frost-nixon.jpg

All I know about Richard Nixon’s exile comes from stories and pictures of the demolition of his Saddle River New Jersey house.

From that slim base of knowledge, I have to say that the photo released flogging the upcoming “Frost/Nixon” film does seem to capture the crummy dreariness of Nixon’s home, before the mold.

And Nixon wasn’t even living there when he taped the interviews.

nixon-saddle-river-tv-floor.jpg The odd shaped rooms, nixon-saddle-river-rot.jpg

the pointlessly complicated lighting fixtures. nixon-saddle-river-demo-dining-room.jpg

Complicating the film’s promotion for the expected 2008 release may be this site. Wait till the Nixon and Frost profiles appear and hit “click here to watch.” Enjoy the show!

Past Time

bunning-baseball-card.jpg The Bunning of History

Full disclosure. That’s what Hillary Clinton’s detractors demand. Endless rounds of stories about her husband’s Presidential Library, the tantalizing secrets it might hold, clinton-rnc-library-card.gif and endless speculation with a sprinkling of facts about who funded it.

But a bill to require donor disclosure by the Clinton and all future Libraries has failed again to make it to a vote. For months the block was Kentucky Republican Senator Jim Bunning, but now a new stalwart paper-bag.jpg has stepped forward to anonymously block Senate consideration.