Republicans May Postpone Their Convention Because of Hurricane

[Courtesy of Ann Telnaes From the Cartoonist Group]


Hurricane Gustav will strike Florida, Louisiana and Texas.


____

George W. Bush's Fin de Règne

While Dubya travels the Middle East and gives nonsensical speeches to the Israeli Parliament, Congress has sent him a farm bill that includes a lot of money for food stamps amid rising grocery prices (and a boost in farm subsidies in order to create a veto-proof majority). The Senate passed the bill 81-15 Thursday, a day after the House approved it with 318 "yes" votes, that means enough votes to override a presidential veto in both houses of Congress. Bush had threatened to veto the $290 billion bill, saying with a straight face that it is fiscally irresponsible. What is remarkable is that this is the very first time in seven and a half years that a number of Republicans rebel against the White House.

Will Dubya Have His "Presidential" Library?

As the worst President of the United States ever prepares his exit, in January 2009, plans are drawn to build a monument to his legacy: a Presidential Library that should be built at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, the alma mater of First Lady Laura Bush. The building should cost 0.5 billion dollars.

However, a group of teachers and staff from the School of Theology wrote to R. Gerald Turner, president of the Board of Trustees, to urge the board to “reconsider and to rescind SMU’s pursuit of the presidential library.” The letter, that you can read here, says among other things: "We count ourselves among those who would regret to see SMU enshrine attitudes and actions widely deemed as ethically egregious: degradation of habeas corpus, outright denial of global warming, flagrant disregard for international treaties, alienation of long-term U.S. allies, environmental predation, shameful disrespect for gay persons and their rights, a preemptive war based on false and misleading premises, and a host of other erosions of respect for the global human community and for this good Earth on which our flourishing depends."

The Chronicle of Higher Education decided to ask its readers to sketch plans for a building that would show the world the accomplishment of George W. Bush (on top, one of the 120 plans sent to the magazine) and the contest was a success, as Scott Carlson relates in this video.