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This Christmas, Give The Gift Of Possible Copyright Infringement!  

In time for the holidays, the Abraham Lincoln Library is flogging their “Civil War In Four Minutes” on DVD for the low, low price of $12.99, or less than $4 per minute!

The brief animated film tells the history of Civil War battles and the collapsing Confederacy.   A version appeared on YouTube when the Library first opened, but got yanked for possible copyright infringement.

Now you may own this sacred tape, but must you go through the Lincoln Library itself?

Whack-A-Mole efforts to suppress online versions continue, so your only chances to celebrate the North’s triumph for free at home may be here, here,  here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Yesterday Once More

The cutting edge of Ronald Reagan cultism just got a whole lot hipper, with the unveiling of a spankin’ new Reagan IPhone app.

Your Reagan Library [still Iran-Contra free!]  can’t keep track of its holdings or recall our love affair with Pakistan’s      loathsome General Zia, but they are going for techno-bloat with an app bringing you all Reagan’s greatest hits – now you need never be without the wry asides and soft chuckles that killed communism.

Trunk Line   

Your Results May Vary

Thoughtful readers of sprightly Internet phenom Talking Points Memo reacted in horror today to the display ad which popped up on some screens.

Continuing the Go-It_Alone, maverick-y before it was cool ways that endeared him to a nation, the George W. Bush Presidential Library bought space on the liberal bastion, reaching out to a new generation.

Diet Deficit Delight

Sarah Palin continues rummaging around the Reagan legend cupboard, searching for a usable past.

She fished up a gem in her Thanksgiving day ramblings, quoting the voice from beyond that

“all great change in America begins at the dinner table.”

What change did the master of folksy smarm propose back in those halcyon days?

His salute to domestic furniture’s decisive role immediately preceded a speech section where Reagan sought to mobilize today’s youth, calling on them to fink out their parents if insufficiently “American.”

“…If your parents haven’t been teaching you what it means to be an American, let ’em know and nail ’em on it“

What one American did to the American diet is clear: Reagan helped further degrade our already tenuous relation of food to nutrition.

The legend is true: Reagan’s administration tried to pass off delicious corn syrupy ketchup as a vegetable until laughed out of town. But they also killed studies of American’s diets, and abolished the office issuing diet and nutrition guidelines.

And Reagan was of course the Father of Frozen Food Day.

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.