Loss Leader 
Shut out from the Simpsons Movie premier [remember that spirited contest?],Springfield Illinois faces another identity dilemma.
The fancy new Lincoln Presidential Library gets all the glory, plus federal, state and local tax money. But long before the new boy got built, Springfield had a Lincoln Library, the city’s municipal Library.
Now the Springfield State Journal-Register is asking if the city library should give up on the name. In a classic whoever shows up reader poll, “Click your Pick“[near bottom of page] asks:
“Should the name of Springfield’s public library, Lincoln Library, be changed to differentiate it from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library?”
The Presidential Library has killed before. The University of Illinois at Springfield’s Abraham Lincoln Presidential Center for Governmental Studies was forced to drop the name.
The city Lincoln seems to have been erasing itself for some time, demolishing it’s classic library building for something 
resembling a bad regional HMO office. 
Masks of Stateliness 
Matthew Yglesias sums up the current political search for Daddy’s old clothes:
“The Republican hagiography of Ronald Reagan is embarrassing but the JFK business is even more detached from reality.”
Lucky 13 
Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub provides an excellent roundup of all the celebrations planned around the 13th President’s birthday on January 7th.
As a special bonus attraction, the writer explains the blog’s name origin in H.L. Menken’s invention of the Fillmore First Whitehouse Tub myth, and links to a vast and sprawling guide to the endless replication of First Tubbaldry, including the Reagan Library’s falling for the story. “The Ronald Reagan Foundation wouldn’t lie to us, would it?“
Out of tragedy, new insight 
Or in the case of the fire at Hyden Kentucky’s Richard M. Nixon Recreation Center, new opportunities to enjoy part of Nixon’s sunset years, early edition.
To recap, the 1978 dedication of the building bearing Nixon’s name was one of the first public appearances by the Disgracedformerpresident
after his 1974 resignation.
Nixon entertained the recreation-seeking locals with a forty minute speech. He called for strengthening the CIA to confront “aggressive dictatorships,” presumably Cuban intervention in Africa, attracting the attention of Ronald Reagan, then plotting his 1980 run.
The Recreation Center fire prompted a local TV station to put a 25 year retrospective on the event up on their web-page. Sadly the only sound from Nixon is him commenting on how hot it is, but the era’s immense cars provide some excitement.
A sample of how Hyden’s youth spend their time these days can be found here.
Arson Investigation[Simulation]
“Sleepless In Midland” gets all crime scene investigatory on the Bush home arson.
The blogger seems to believe they found the source of the crime:
“V” for Victory?
“…notice the “V” shape of the fire damage on the wall to the left of the front door suggesting that the heat spread upward from a point on the porch. And you can also see a charred spot on the cement porch that could be the spot where the fire investigators thought the fire originated. So one possible assumption is that an accelerant was poured on the cement porch and set ablaze. But a chemical analysis would be necessary to confirm that.”
Even as a long time fan of blurry grassy knoll action 
I have to confess I don’t see it.
For the Bush arson completist, the blog does provide a thoughtful link to the town’s press release regarding the fire.
Other Citizen-Journalists share their views.
In other Presidential Hot Spots, the Richard M. Nixon Recreational Center in Hyden Kentucky has had a boiler room fire.
The Rec Center’s 1978 dedication was the scene of one of Nixon’s first public outings after his resignation, visiting the federal fund-loving mountain Republicans of the obscure hamlet.
