January 29, 2007

Bush's Presidential Liberry: Tower of Babel Aiming to raise $500 Billion in donations, the George W. Bush Presidential Library would cost more than all other presidential libraries combined. Controversy around the library, involves an executive order that reverses the Presidential Records act. (The Presidential Records act makes presidential records available to the public after twelve years. Or it used to. Before the 9/11 freedom-loving terr'ist peoples of the world watched this drive.)

Southern Methodist University professors, where the new library is proposed to be built, are worried about their future academic freedoms due to the library's inclusion of a right wing propaganda institute which will continue the tradition of reasoned debate on issues.

posted by petebest 17 years ago
  • I am not saying that it does not cost more than all of the other presidential libraries combined, but your source for that seems to be a Doonesberry cartoon. How much was Clinton's compared to the ones prior to him?
  • Take another look at that main link. I read $500 million, or 1/2 billion. Still the costliest Presidential library ever, but let's get the facts.
  • I wonder if $500 Billion could put the damn thing on the moon... and him with it.
  • but your source for that seems to be a Doonesbury cartoon Classic.
  • Clinton library: $165 million
  • Yup, there's no history like cherry-picked history. That's what my Grampap always said, anyhow. Leastways, before them fellers in the black suits and sunglasses came a-callin'. And shoot, consarn ol' Cousin TJ and his pesky separation of church and state!
  • but your source for that seems to be a Doonesbury cartoon True enough, but I've chosen to break with Bush administration procedure and rely on facts. HA! Oh I'm so wickedly funny! Hmm? Tell me honestly now, I am aren't I? /Stewie Er, yes that should be "$500 outrageous" with an M, not a B. But if it's all donated money then fair enough; it's the destruction of a fundamental underpinning of our democratic government by making information secret without debate, consensus, or announcement that seems specifically problematic. 9/11. Nukular. Raise the pie higher.
  • "The Bush presidential library was destroyed by fire yesterday. It was a real shame because both books were destroyed. And he wasn't even done coloring the other one."
  • The new executive order would replace the 1989 Reagan decree and cover not only confidential communications between a president and his advisers but, as Graham put it, "almost anything in the White House files." Damn, the history books of the future sure are going to be thin.
  • Well, I'm setting up my own presidential library right here. Let's see... Giant Size Avengers #23. Thor #329. Some yellow stickies. Okay, i'm done.
  • Damn, the history books of the future sure are going to be thin. Only those who hate freedom would say that. These evil defreedomizers pose potential threats. From Africa. *Pause, look concerned, wait for Cheney to whisper next line*
  • As a concept, I'm all for spending as much money as possible on as many libraries as possible, but .... eeeeh. Will it contain a copy of The Pet Goat?
  • Hey, I said that first! To #2, but still.
  • Why would a president who can't read need such a luxurious liberry?
  • I have been to one Presidential library. It was his father's. Being a library, I expected there to be books -- perhaps even lots of books. I definitely expected there to be a lot of historical documents from the Bush presidency. As it turned out, I saw no books. None. The main part of the library is actually more like a museum dedicated to Bush. One room, for example, played comedy bits featuring Bush (including his very funny appearance on Saturday Night Live). There were other exhibits like that. There was some room dedicated to the Gulf War. But no books. So I asked an employee about the books and the historical documents. I was informed that they were upstairs. To view them, you had to request what items you wanted to see and make an appointment to see the items. Had I something in mind at that point, I could not have viewed the books or documents. I would have needed to make an appointment. I thought the museum was fine. It was pure propaganda, but it was interesting enough. I just -- for some strange reason -- had been expecting a library.
  • War is Peace. Book-less Libraries. yes, I might have plagiarized that from some pinko comic
  • Bush succhia. Bush saugt. Bush suce. Bush suga. Bush aspira. De struik zuigt.
  • So the question becomes what exactly is in the papers that he doesn't want us seeing? Given the state things are in, what's left to hide? My guess is massive drug use. Coke fuelel Cabinet orgies, with maybe some human sacrafice thrown in. Anyone else want to take a stab?
  • If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend a visit to the Richard Nixon library. It's delightful. They can't completely avoid dealing with Watergate. And they even let you listen to the "smoking gun" audiotape. But before you do, they make you listen to a little preface about how it doesn't actually prove Nixon ordered a coverup, and, really, it's all in how you interpret it. Then you listen to it, and it proves that Nixon ordered a coverup. Oops. Fun stuff.
  • So it's sorta like how in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World, Robot Lincoln is talking all about the Civil War, but doesn't mention that whole slavery thing? Beauty.
  • Ha! So Lincoln was a robot. That explains a lot.
  • It seems that the difference between the Nixon library and this one, jacobw, will likely be that Nixon's inner circle recognized . . eventually . . that what they had done was extraordinarily wrong and, in fact, criminal. (Okay G. Gordon Liddy excepted.) It seems highly unlikely that the neocon cabinet with Doctrinaire's Disease - from Wolfowitz and Rice on down, will ever "come around" to talking about their disastrous policy decisions in any sort of objective light. That's why the Nixon library will have a section on the secret tapes, and the GWBush Imperial Liberry will have a giant, shining marble edifice to brown-skinned-people's freedomes. Their utterly destructive self-delusional theories will survive despite the best intentions of language, logic, facts, and death.
  • So it's sorta like how in the Hall of Presidents at Disney World, Robot Lincoln is talking all about the Civil War, but doesn't mention that whole slavery thing? To be fair though, we all don't mention the whole slavery thing very much. It's not just robotic former Presidents. *bzzt* *clik*
  • In the Hall of Alternative Presidents in Alternative Disney, Human Gore talks about his response to the tragic events of September 11th.
  • Damn! I just heard on Veronica Mars that egging buildings is illegal. I hope, for the sake of the future Bush Prezidential Libary that that's not true.
  • I thought they were just gonna burn/shred everything?
  • There will be an interpretive art piece for the courtyard that depicts the steady decline in the president's approval rating. It will look like a limp penis. You heard me.