George W. Bush has always said he thinks history will be his judge. His decision not to give history very much to work with, however, is causing some problems at Southern Methodist University, which recently agreed to house his presidential library:
While presidential libraries are usually seen as a coup for any university, bringing with them prestige and tourists, the Bush library has provoked anger among academics and religious leaders.
A number of academics at SMU and elsewhere in the US believe the war on Iraq and the president’s views on issues such as gay rights and torture made the university an unsuitable location.
Alarm has also been expressed over the independent institute that will fund research promoting Bush’s ideas and vision. Academics have also said that an executive order, signed by Bush, which gives presidents and their families more control over presidential papers, could result in material being censored.
Benjamin Hufbauer, an associate professor of art history at the University of Louisville, said the agreement at SMU was "totally different" to that of other universities hosting presidential libraries, reports the Inside Higher Ed website.
"Academics everywhere should be concerned about this. Clearly this goes against the idea of dispassionate inquiry, of looking at things on the basis of fact and merit. If it’s ideological, that’s opposed to the mission of a university," Hufbauer said.
The Rev William McElvaney, a professor emeritus of preaching and worship at SMU’s theology school, added: "As long as that executive order is in place, it’s really a censored library. What self-respecting university would accept a censored library?"
The religious thinktank Ekklesia said some Christians believed Bush’s views were against church teachings, and reported that those opposed to the library would continue their fight in court.
The Rev Andrew J Weaver, a united Methodist pastor and SMU alumnus who has led a petition against the library plan, said: "SMU has signed something that is totally out of bounds, and it’s only a matter of going to court with them. It will be David vs Goliath, but David won the first time."
I can see how being home to the Bush approved propaganda archives could be academically troubling. Gives a whole new meaning to the term "spin room."
(h/t Jim M.)
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No title, Jane?
title-free!
This post has no title.
Is it a contest?
Hi Jane!
Lou Dobbs just called out Russert on CNN.
They’re closing libraries around the country for lack of funds. Why don’t we just not build this one?
It would really be poetic justice if he wanted a library and had to build it himself on his own property.
Here’s the money quote:
Bush is the anti-christ. Basically, everything he does, and most of what he says, is in direct opposition to what Christ taught. He may call himself a Christian, but he has repeatedly proven that every word he speaks or mutters or blurts is a lie, including “and” and “the.” (h/t Mary McCarthy)
Let’ see for a title:
The Neo-Library”?
Bush’s NIMBY Legacy
Jeebers. That must have been strange. Whadhesay?
No self-respecting university would agree to house a George W. Bush library with censorship in place and a mandate to glorify the Bush administration.
SMU must be lacking in self-respect.
If I were an alumnus of SMU, I would be deeply offended if the university were to enter into such a bargain.
The White House water closet already contains the full Bush library:
1. My Pet Goat
2. King George’s Cliff-Notes version of the Bible
But he seems to neglect history…
Mission Accomplished…
The Neo Nano Lieberry.
He said that Russert and Williams had biased the whole debate towards Obama.
What’s the big fuss over who gets his comic book collection?
Oops, linky here…
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/…..038;page=1
And it seems McCain blew up his own spot with the Cunningham thing
li·brar·y (lī’brĕr’ē)
n., pl. -ies.
gunna ave ta call it sompin othder dan a liberary.
Thanks, your title was better than mine, changing…
By the time Commander Drydrunk finishes shredding and the custodians of his papers chuck everything they don’t want, his Presidentin’ Libary should fit comfortably into two 8″ x 11″ storage boxes from Staples.
I can not believe I missed a My Pet Goat joke.
I’m slipping.
He’s already given a dry run to the plan of “my official papers belong to me, not to the people.” When he left office as governor, he shipped his papers to the Bush Sr. Presidential Library, and it took action by the Texas AG to get them back to be inventoried by the public record (though only temporarily, from what I can find.)
How about Liebrary?
This is total hoseshit. First of all this was written in 2005 right after the new rules concerning flight training were put in place. All foreign flight students are being vetted by any of the FBO’s I’ve been around in the northeast for the past 6 or 7 years.
And I do not believe that places like Emery-Riddle are doing this either, so this is just more fear mongering bullshit and it really pisses me off.
where the truth goes to die: The George W. Arbusto Preznitentional Lie-Bury
Almost right. As usual, Russert and Williams had biased the whole debate towards Russert and Williams.
I can not believe I missed a My Pet Goat joke.
I’m slipping.
no kidding.
The newest location being submitted for Bushes Library.
It was Lou Dobbs who accused them of biasing towards Obama.
The library should be located in Paraguay or the Green Zone in Baghdad.
-G
Yep. Bet the new location is full of shit too.
I won’t argue with ya, it is Brian Ross and ABC reporting…! There are some kernels of truth tho…!
The newest location being submitted for Bushes Library.
notice the conservative bias in the rightward tilt.
that works :)
The whole idea of a Bush library makes no sense. It’s an oxymoron.
Brian Ross.
Oy!
He HATES General Aviation and is always pushing these false aviation stories.
where’s that Montgomery War catalog, anyway?
I thought about this one in Antarctica, but it was too nice.
OT- here’s the letter I just wrote Democracy21 re their glaring silence on McCain’s election fraud:
Folks,
Your hue and cry can usually be heard loud and clear whenever there’s anything to cry foul about. However, this time you are noticeably equivocating. This smacks of your organization selling out. On one side of the scales is what is the right thing to do and on the other side of the scales appears to be your relationship with McCain. When you leave the side of what’s right, you lose your credibility in favor of access. You are not the first organization to be heading down this path. It’s a major disappointment and a big disservice to our country.
As you well know, we are in one of the worst messes our country has ever been in. McCain isn’t likely to be the one to head the country in the right direction. Speak up – like you have so often in the past. Do what’s right. Serve our country. We all need it.
Thank you,
It should be in an undisclosed location, encapsulated and, thus, preserved for the historical curiosity it will be.
Wolf Blitzer is a toad.
Sen. Larry Craig has already donated a personal stall with a confessional slide window already built in.
-G
George Bush will eventually have to have his library on a boat somewhere on the ocean, because no one will want to house it on any mainland. The boat will be empty too, of course.
LMAO!
Blitzer fellates Ed Rendell while Rendell touts the upcoming Clinton victory in Pennsylvania
…that rare species of bearded toad.
Ouch. Shit. That stung my eyes.
An appropriate design for the Bush library in this cartoon from Steve Bell of The Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cart…..20,00.html
Why does the media insist on spouting the ’surge is working’ when the number of Iraqi deaths indicates otherwise?
Feb-08 648
Jan-08 554
Dec-07 548
I call that a steady increase.
-G
Whoa, that’s some sick shit!
My view is that the George W. Bush Library need only contain one book. “The Pet Goat”, a.k.a. ‘My Pet Goat’. I can’t imagine anything more ridiculous that a Bush liberry. Sort of like a GWB memorial think tank.
I know Bill McElvaney, and I’m sure he had much more to say on the subject of George Bush, in addition to his thoughts on this library.
Good for him!
Because the news has been cancelled.
What I’d really approve of is the George Bush prison library.
now that is an extreme makeover project I could bet behind!
Love it. It would also be appropriate to have a live goat in his library chewing on garbage which is exactly what will be left over after Georgie and his Thugs go through the archives and destroy what they don’t want the public to see. ;-)
a GWB memorial think tank.
here’s the winning design. notice how it allows washing hands of all responsibility.
I think that if they ever sentence George Bush to prison, he should be put in a cell surrounded with nothing but books.
GWB has a led a perfect example of to live a life. A perfect example of what not to do. Man o man, is this character a loser, or what?
TexBetsy should be here. She posted this a while back.
“To highlight the President’s accomplishments, the museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate them” ~ TexBetsy
LMAO! *screaming laughter*
From the Inside Higher Ed piece on this:
Universities that are “not run by standard academic procedures” often end up having a hard time keeping their accreditation.
But why should we be surprised that the Bush Library wants to avoid any sense of oversight and accountability? From Day One, the library is living up to the vision of its namesake: rules and oversight are for other people, not me.
And Don Evans? He was Dubya’s first Secretary of Commerce, and long-time buddy.
Wonder if the library will contain the ‘Libby Papers’?
I am actually drafting a letter to my pastor this week revoking my lifelong membership in the United Methodist Church over this. It is shameful that this church’s name will be forever linked to the human rights abuses of this president.
This meshes nicely with McMadCow’s strategy … after 100 years, there’ll be no Iraqis left to fight us … /s
it will be “the” library most likely to be used in the remake of Fahrenheit 451. But no one will care and fascism gets a break
What in the hell is there to “celebrate” about McPreznit? Oh. I know…
January 2009
You might instead address your letter to the president of SMU, asking that they change the name of their school. They chose to accept it, not your pastor or your church.
I sat in the sun for the afternoon and look what I return to. You can’t make up this stuff.
My vote is for Liebrary. Do you think shrub will ever visit it after the ribbon cutting ceremony since he doesn’t read?
I can’t help it. That pix at the top, everytime I am forced to view it, continues to bring out strange emotions in my deeper being. Emotions, if revealed, just might land me in jail.
Maybe they can find the missing emails to put in his liberry.
With so many of his stuff classified it will be a redacted lieberry.
That should be a quidkie read.
AP – Civil rights leader John Lewis dropped his support for Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential bid Wednesday in favor of Barack Obama. Lewis, a Democratic congressman from Atlanta, is the most prominent black leader to defect from Clinton’s campaign in the face of near-unanimous black support for Obama in recent voting.
Would you really trust him with scissors?
The library should also include that freeking book on Lincoln that Bush has been reading for 5 years.
They ought to locate the so called Bush Library in Death Valley.
Make fun all you like, but wait until you see the roster of respectible academics that get attracted by the large stipends that W’s think tank will offer. Money will buy W the reputation he so achingly desires. Money talks. So laugh while you can. You’ll cry later.
It’s a cinch the library will not contain “Profiles in Courage”.
Finally, a permanent home for Kristol, D’Louza & Co. … *g*
From the Dallas Morning News editorial board today:
Emphasis added.
I’d say that first bullet point is a good place to start. I’d love to see Senators Obama, Clinton, and McCain give it a push right now, instead of waiting until one of the three of them is president and issues a new executive order.
Might even be a good question to ask in a future debate.
”the independent institute that will fund research promoting Bush’s ideas and vision”
Taken literally, I assume that means that SMU will host a center for deaf and reading impaired trust fund babies with an addiction to alcohol.
Them too, but how ’bout Huntington?
Bush’s Neo-Library
where bad ideas go to die. it was Professor Glum in the Neo-Conservatory with the aluminum tubes.
I’m crying now. Those billions that went missing in Iraq. I have no doubt that some will be used to push the neocon/corporate agenda. I’m sure Ari’s group got some (either directly or indirectly).
Heh, the Wingnut Welfare trough deepens…!
If they’re truly respectable academics, the money won’t buy them.
But you’re right that “money will buy W the reputation he so achingly desires.” It already has.
Who’s to write the book “Mission Accomplished”? And who will be the librarian of this fiasco? Ralph Reed perhaps, another GOP intellectual giant.
LOL … one can but hope …
… and it’s filled with “Magic Water” … *g*
How’s it goin’, eh ?
I’m wating for the Lieberman Library, personally.
CNN regurgitates the Repuke spin on that stellar objective Time/Bloomberg poll.
To add insult to injury to any intelligent person they had to commentate, “The Arizona senator holds a clear advantage on dealing with the war in Iraq, according to the poll, and holds a 9 point advantage on economic issues over Obama, despite having acknowledged that area is not his expertise.”
Can we see this mythical poll to understand the questions asked and the political affiliations or the respondents?
Ahh! I see the plan. Leverage popularity that McCain lacks and replace Obama with loverboy. If they tell everyone McCain is more popular that will make it so.
Edited for accuracy…! ;-)
Wow, I just saw the Republican’s scare-mongering “Tell your congressman to vote to give president Bush the tools he needs to protect you yadda yadda yadda” ad on my teevee.
I assume that the bolded phrase is an oxymoron, with emphasis on the last syllable.
Koolaid! Not magic water…! *g*
I think GWB should be forced to build his own library on his own property and on his own dime. Then Congress should determine that the only things the library can contain should be those things that they asked for but were denied access to while GWB was in office. That would include anything they subpoenaed or anything that was denied based on a claim of “executive privilege.” Then Congress should make it illegal for anyone to go there since everything in it is classified, just as everything they wanted access to during his administration was off limits to them. What was that phrase that Cheney used for classified material again…that should be the name of the library.
He’s still on the intro.
I want to say that I am sad at hearing about William F. Buckley’s passing. I’m serious. While much of what Mr. Buckley said I disagreed with, I found this man extremely interesting and smart. The opposite, quite frankly, of George W. Bush. I had a genuine respect and liking for Buckley.
I used to especially enjoy Firing Line when Mr. Buckley had his good friend John Kenneth Galbraith on.
Hey pups
Can someone tell me why Lou Dobbs? He has a show to pontificate his own ass backwards view why?
It could be the GWB Library/Amusement Park. Michael Jackson’s apparently dumping Neverland, so Bush could pick up some rides from there. Add a few more, and it should be good to go. Instead of a Lincoln robot, there could be a Condi robot. The possibilities are endless.
The actual library really only has to have a copy of “The Pet Goat”. It’s the only book that we know for certain Bush read.
The faux outrage is hillarious..what no immigrants to pick on?
LOL he called Dodd ‘disingenuous’ what a jack ass
Great idea! Cindy Sheehan lives near by and we can all hang out at her house to give Bush and his library the finger….
What fascinates me is the notion that they ignore the fact the Dems have had an amazing two to one advantage in turnout, in most of the primaries/caucuses to date! Am I missing something here…?
Yes. Voting machines programmed to eliminate the advantage.
I’m not sure I have the A to your Q, but here’s what I think it might be. Round about NAFTA, Dobbs took the role of defender of labor, voraciously. At some point thereafter, he got kicked upstairs, i.e. off camera. A little while later he came back on camera, I think perhaps because whatever replaced him didn’t do well (can’t remember what it was). I suspect that he extracted some sort of long term contract because, even though he’s gone round the bend, he stays in his designated slot. Or perhaps his ratings are good; I don’t know.
I loved Firing Line. Buckley and Galbraith knew how to debate. Both men respected each other’s point of view.
Another reminder that all of this “homeland security” apparatus seems to be more directed at citizens of the gd “homeland” than anyone else.
Please forgive me for going OT, or if this has already been posted…
Pete Seeger on PBS’ American Masters series tonight.
Click on “Check air dates for” on the right and enter your zip code for times.
Yup … I believe this is the #1 plan of the Neocons …
It’s all so exciting. The Bush library and Jenna’s bachelorette party in Florida.
Liebury.
Woof, woof, woof.
According to the governing agreement [pdf] between SMU and the library foundation, SMU gets to appoint two members of the board — but the foundation chair has a complete and unrestricted veto over who SMU can appoint. (p.97) Unbelievable.
Sorry, punaise, hadn’t seen yours.
Is it “great minds think alike” or “some things are just obvious?”
That notion had crossed my mind… Considering the vast expansion of the ‘No Fly’ list and as the ACLU points out…
I know I sleep better at nite…! ;-)
Here’s the story from wikipedia:
Dobbs left in 1999 to found space.com, after clashing with CNN President Rick Kaplan, noted friend of then President Bill Clinton. Kaplan left CNN in August 2000, and Dobbs returned the following year at the behest of his friend and CNN founder Ted Turner.
Yes. These guys in my estimation, were what intellecual civil discourse is all about. Strange, that this rabid progressive (me) should like Buckley so much. But I did. And I do.
Thanks. It was a question out of curiosity but also one equally out of irritation.
He’s bound and determined to resurrect the Clinton campaign single-handedly.
Thought this might provide some laughs. Sorry no link. I don’t remember where I got it. Forgive me for not providing a link. I may have found it here or at another site.
Plans for the George W. Bush presidential library have just been released
The George W Bush Presidential Library is now in the planning stages. You’ll want to be the first at your corporation to make a contribution to this great man’s legacy.
The Library will include:
The Hurricane Katrina Room, which is still under construction.
The Alberto Gonzales Room, where you can’t remember anything.
The Texas Air National Guard Room, where you don’t have to even show up.
The Walter Reed Hospital Room, where they don’t let you in.
The Guantanamo Bay Room, where they don’t let you out.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction Room (which no one has been able to find).
The Iraq War Room. After you complete your first tour, they make you go back for a second, third, fourth, and sometimes fifth tour.
The Dick Cheney Room, in the famous undisclosed location, complete with shooting gallery.
Plans also include:
The K-Street Project Gift Shop – where you can buy (or just steal) an election.
The Airport Men’s Room, where you can meet some of your favorite Republican Senators.
To highlight the President’s accomplishments, the museum will have an electron microscope to help you locate them.
Last, but not least, there will be an entire floor devoted to a 7/8 scale model of the President’s ego.
When asked, President Bush said that he didn’t care so much about the individual exhibits as long as his museum was better than his father’s.
Going to a Bush library, would perhaps help me too understand what it would be like to study in a vacuum.
As I recall, the SMU faculty in general was quite opposed to this thing. I wonder …
Never mind. No I don’t.
I think TexBetsy posted that from an email she received. But then, I have CRS and could be wrong!
Yeah, I kind of noticed his ‘outrage’ and ‘tough questions’ rarely ventured far from Obama. i don’t normally watch CNN but I thought I would take a look.
What if you were forced to choose between these two options. Spending eternity in the George W. Bush Library, or being forced to spend the rest of your life with the intellectual, big brain Ann Coulter.
Suicide.
Solai posted it at 62 and attributed it to Tex…!
Bwa-ha-ha!
loved it.
Thanks. That’s a little different from my memory, but makes sense. Clash with Clinton via Kaplan was over NAFTA, that’s for sure.
i’ll take the library. There will be plenty of space and there will be plenty of fiction to read.
Hi Tut! I was pretty sure it was Aunt B.
Well it’s time to temporarily postpone my excitement at the events surrounding the possibilities of a Bush library. I’m making a bee-line to the kitchen to fix dinner. And it will be a very intelligent supper too. GWB is not invited.
Whoever posted it, it was priceless, don’t you think? I saved it and sent it to my daughter. That’s the only reason I still have it. Would like to attribute it to the original author.
…Brink’s delivers peace of mind to you and your family…
Tweety is all verklempt over Buckley.
The computers in the library will allow email function, but the Delete button is strangely permanently jammed.
Handicapped dogs for the blind will be allowed, but only if they “eat my homework”.
There will be a special “Foreign Policy Accomplishments” room with photographs of Bush “looking into the souls” of foreign leaders and displaying his accurate predictions of the characters of Putin, Musgharraf, Prince Bandar, Sharon, etc.
They’ll hang the graphs charting the economy graphically upside down and tell people they can be accurately viewed from looking down from the second story.
Oy! Peggers.
I seem to recall coming to the same conclusion a while back: if there are 200,000 names on the ‘watch list’, then by definition the watch list has failed. A. There aren’t anywhere near that number of real suspects/agents/bad-guys, so the process which put the list together is flawed, probably irreparably. B. The good guys are so distracted by the false positives that they will miss the real positives — exhaustion, dilution of attention, etc. C. The not-insignificant fraction of the population on that list (plural?) will be marvelously inconvenienced — or far worse. (I’m thinking of people having bones broken when half a dozen guards pile on or others dying when tased.) D. The watchers themselves are corrupted past usefulness by having a list that tells them that in every crowd of people, there are several terrorists, so force is ALWAYS called for. E. and on and on.
Hey Doodles, if she makes an appearance, we can ask her! I haven’t seen her online today!
No doubt, a few at the top of SMU’s administration and on its board consider hosting the Bush Institute a good thing. No doubt many of its administrators, religious and other faculty, and students thought hosting a center of Bush excellence an immoral contradiction in terms.
Odds are pretty heavy that it was never a fair fight. Once the boy king or Cheney settled on SMU – rumor has them both wanting to settle there as dowager president and retired regent, respectively – it was pretty much curtains.
Texas is the political, social and economic home for Cheney, Bush and Rove, and many of their wealthiest supporters and retainers. It puts under a single state’s jurisdiction (with heavily GOP leaning politicians, state administrators and social leaders) both Bush presidential libraries and their digital and hard copy records and physical security. And there are enough neocon billionaires in DFW alone, never mind Texas, that they could endow SMU beyond its dreams – or dry up its fundraising and make its domestic regulatory life a nightmare.
As Cheney always says, “This is how we’re gonna do it.”
it’s obvious to great minds?
I know I sleep better at nite…! ;-)
:D
That’s what I meant when I said that “respectiable academics” will flock there. It’s all in the benjamins.
One of the things about the complete hoovering of all our calls/e-mails etal… Is the notion that there’s no way they can possibly digest all our communications…
Sounds like the premise of a new ring of Dante’s Inferno.
You know, somewhere as we speak a successor work is germinating, that will be a required classic 700 years from now, if we make it.
Don’t know who started it, but yes, very funny!
She’ll probably be along later, say arouund Late Night.
it’s obvious to great minds?
Done!
1,770 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…
Citizen kiddo and the Firepup Freedom Fighters:
“Yes, these guys in my estimation, were what civil intellectual discourse is all about…”
Don’t you believe it kiddo…Mr. Buckley was a tried and true, real American fascist with a brain. He rose durin’ a time that he had to be civil to those with whom he disagreed because the country was profoundly NOT politically conservative. One of his goals was to create an acceptable conservative intellectual image to counter the real life experiences Americans had with conservatism in the 20′-40’s. The other goal was to legitimize Joe McCarthy and advance anti-communism to split the organized political power of labor and New Deal Democrats. When he had the power to speak out against the rise of Bush fascism he was silent. When he had a chance, after creating a “conservative movement” and defining it intellectually , to separate the “conservative movement” from the fascism of Joe McCarthy, he instead wrote a book elevating the monster from Wisconsin to sainthood.
Buckley’s fascist pedigree goes back to Texas and the America Firsters of the 1930’s…his family migrated to the East coast to gain some social respectability among the old eastern oligarchy and he soon realized that the only way he could get accepted into the “better class” was politically.
No, brother kiddo, Buckley was NOT a “philosophe”, he was an intellectual charlatan who only put on the robes of civility when it was in his interest…if the Eisenhower administration or the Nixon administration had rounded up all “liberals”, unions members and radical students and thrown them into camps, Buckley woulda been writin’ the intellectual cover for those actions. And, finally, remember we have Buckley to thank for Joe Lieberman and the neo-con movement.
I’m not one to tell lies about the dead jest because they’re dead…that’s how we lost our history and have ended up in wars like Vietnam and Iraq.
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…DEAD FASCISTS KEN STILL BE DANGEROUS!!
With his desire to be a king it would seem appropriate to place his “library” at Regent Univ.
Good timing for a library- the first and only book that should be there is a a new definitive book just coming out on the true cost of the war. And that cozy image of George and John should be pasted on it.
And Obama should have a field day with it.
Total real cost of Bush’s war: 3 TRILLION DOLLARS
Total real monthLy cost: 16 BILLION F***ING DOLLARS PER MONTH
And those bastards didn’t didn’t want to waste a penny on helping kids educations or the unemployed.
“The Three Trillion Dollar War, by Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worl…..=worldnews
you’re closer to reality then you think, bush is a “dispensationalist”, a peculiar philosophy that teaches Armageddon will be a GOOD thing..and they will do whatever is in their power to bring that Armageddon forward
Perris,
It’s frightening when someone who believes in Armageddon has the power to bring it about…and I don’t mean Ahmedinejad.
http://newsprism.wordpress.com