Remembering history the way they wished it had been
Book Buddies 
From Palestine comes a first: a Presidential Library honoring the dead leader of a barely functional fragment of an occupied territory. The Presidential Library contagion has now spread to the Israeli occupied West Bank, where an institute devoted to the late Yasser Arafat will now join the proud line of American inspired memorialist buildings.
Perhaps they can do exchanges with the new Rabin institute.
Everything Must Go! 
Whatever will they fill the SMU Bush Library with?
The White House has said it may have “lost” as many as five million emails, than said it didn’t know and resented the question.
Henry Waxman hosted the White House’s email trackers and the Archivist of the United States, exploring whether the Bush Library at SMU will have anything to put in the place.
Whatever they did to preserve email, Waxman says they did it intentionally.
“[The White House] dismantled an effective system and replaced it with a primitive alternative that just didn’t work…It initiated its own study of missing e-mails in 2005 and now derisively attacks its own work as incompetent and grossly inaccurate.”
Archivist Alan Weinstein is supposed to be watching how the White House keeps it’s papers, but appears to have been incurious to say the least. Bush named him to the post in murky circumstances, and he’s had trouble with papers before.
Turn That Frown Upside Down!
Amidst planning parking, demolition and President Bush’s Image Lab, Bush Library Host & SMU President Gerald Turner told the Dallas Morning News he’s found a special benefit for all of Dallas: easing what he thoughtfully calls the “Kennedy Issue.”
“But underneath all the details, he said, the library will provide global visibility for the school and for a city where the assassination of John. F. Kennedy remains entrenched in the memories of many…”A positive element … will be Dallas’ relationship with the presidency of the United States on the other side of the Kennedy issue,” he said”
In other happy image rehab news, George W. Bush Presidential Library Foundation President Mark Langdale says Karl Rove has emerged from his subpeona dodging long enough to render still more service to the nation.
“Karl’s pretty busy doing a lot of things in his private life right now, but he’s a critical resource about what happened in the administration, and he has a lot of good ideas about programming and positioning,” said Mr. Langdale”
And former White House counsel, CIA tape destruction bystander and Contempt of Congress scofflaw Harriet Miers is helping out with the Library’s lawyering.
Dallas Do-Over? 
Seem Familiar? 
An Israeli museum dedicated to Yitzhak Rabin compares itself to American Presidential Libraries, and it’s on the same path fueled by foreign money.
The Rabin received German and American government donations of $5 million apiece, and continues to fund-raise here.
Bill Clinton appears at Rabin events, and while not yet dead is honored by the “William J. Clinton and Hillary R. Clinton Memorial Gardens.” There is also a Reagan names project-like running tally on places and things named for the late great.
This Close 
The SMU Daily Campus reports that the University finally announces the Bush Library Friday.
Watch the skies!
