SMU Profs: Bush Library Will Be A ‘Censored Library’ And Will ‘Cheer-lead’ For The President
SMU Profs: Bush Library Will Be A ‘Censored Library’ And Will ‘Cheer-lead’ For The President
In Nov. 2006, President Bush launched “an eye-popping, half-billion-dollar drive for the Bush presidential library. That campaign finally paid off last week when officials at Southern Methodist University announced that the Dallas-based university will be home to Bush’s $200 million library — despite protests from faculty, administrators and staff.
However, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will come with a catch. It “will also feature an institute — independent of academic governance of the university — to sponsor research and programs designed to promote the vision of the president” and “celebrate” Bush’s presidency. One university professor said that “[a]cademics everywhere should be concerned about this” adding that it “goes against the idea of dispassionate inquiry”:
Benjamin Hufbauer, an associate professor of art history at the University of Louisville and author of Presidential Temples: How Memorials and Libraries Shape Public Memory (University Press of Kansas), said that the model agreed to at SMU was “totally different” from the approaches at other universities with presidential libraries. The institute that is part of the complex “has a partisan agenda — that’s very significant,” he said.
“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.
Unfortunately, the caveats to Bush’s library don’t end there. The executive order Bush signed in 2001 “which gives presidents and their families more control over presidential papers, could result in material being censored.”
Referring to the executive order, Rev. William McElvaney — professor emeritus of preaching and worship at SMU’s theology school — asked: “What self-respecting university would accept a censored library?” Susanne Johnson, an associate professor of Christian education at SMU, said the point of a presidential library is to reflect, academically, on the presidency, “not to cheer-lead for a particular president”:
“The whole purpose of a library is for unfettered, unbiased, critically reflective academic inquiry into the administration of a given presidency. It’s not to cheer-lead for a particular president. It’s not to be groupies,” she said. “We all know very well that this institute — which has no lines of accountability to the faculty — is about getting some scholars lined up to put window dressing on the presidency of George Bush.”
While it seems Bush is not interested allowing his presidential library to explore the truth about his administration, at least he is showing consistency.
UPDATE: d at LGM has more.
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94 Responses to “SMU Profs: Bush Library Will Be A ‘Censored Library’ And Will ‘Cheer-lead’ For The President”
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“A censored library and Will cheerlead for Bush”.
Of THAT, I have not the SLIGHTEST doubt.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pmEven the statue censors the goofiness of President Bushit.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:27 pmI certainly hope they construct a large shitatorium in Bush’s honor.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:29 pmPlease tell me it will be called the GWB Presidential Liberry.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:31 pmJust watch, local and university police will hit a record in burglary reports.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:31 pmJesus, that bust is something out of a Twilight Zone episode.
Where we all live until next Congress/next Prez decides to finally push a prosecution of BushCo for SOMETHING.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:33 pmthe proper name could be the George W. Bushitler LIEbrary.
or…
The Joseph Goebbels Memorial LIEbrary of George W. Bushitler.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pmBush will get back with you once he learns what the meaning of “dispassionate inquiry” is. Until then, he has no further comments.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:35 pmBiggest P. O. S. ever.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pmAnd he’d better be for leaving the country by this time next year if he doesn’t want to see young family members being mailed to his house in a fairly small box.
Those packages and their contents being generated by someone other than myself of course.
SMU Freshmen for decades to come can enjoy vandalizing it. Hell, I may violate my longstanding “never-set-foot-in-Texas” rule, and go down there with a case of Charmin and a few-dozen free-range browns.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:36 pmBet they are so gosh darned proud to have the most censored library of the WORST PRESIDENT IN HISTORY.
Where’s the Black Opps Room where they torture innocent brown people, or the illegal wire tap room, the celebration of the rebuilding of New Orleans room, the tax cut for the uber rich room, the illegal invasion of Iraq room, the ignored memos of Bin Laden is going to attack room, the outing of CIA agents room?
Oh, you mean those are the censored rooms, I see, well just what are you going to put in there that makes the chimp look good?
How many eggs are going to be cast at the Propaganda Library in the first year?
Buck Fush
February 25th, 2008 at 4:37 pmtombaker, it’ll probably become a frosh hazing ritual, to run naked around the building, pissing and shitting on everything in sight whilst hurling eggs, tp and the fourteen burritos you ate for dinner.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pmugh… this crap mountain will be less that 8 blocks from where i live! I can hear the property values crashing
February 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pmI think the majority of the AMerican people will recognize this library for what it is and stay away from it. How will furture funding be provided for this library?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pmWow — not even NIXON demanded that his presidential library and birthplace be nothing but a monument to his supposed greatness. All his stuff is there — even the stuff that isn’t terribly flattering to him.
As it has been with every presidential library so far.
What’s Dubya afraid of?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:38 pmYou know what really sucks? The Republican President and Congress were EVERY BIT the horrible nightmare that I worried it could be.
F#%* Republicans. I’m going to the Bush Presidential Liberry, eating corn tacos with jalapenos and beans, washing it all down with a giant lactose-rich milkshake and taking a giant diarrhea sh1t all over men’s floor.
Then I’m going to take a stick and scrawl in undigested beans and corn “NOW YOU CLEAN UP MY MESS”
February 25th, 2008 at 4:40 pmkeep the papers secret forever - Burn it down
February 25th, 2008 at 4:40 pmOT; go to http://www.alternet to read a great article by Sara Robinson-posted 22 Feb “When Change Is Not Enough: Seven Steps To Revolution.
When those who make peaceful revolution impossible, they make violent revolution inevitable.–John F. Kennedy
February 25th, 2008 at 4:40 pmVOTE NADER - split the votes
February 25th, 2008 at 4:41 pmAmazingly, the eyes of that bust display more curiosity than those of the model upon which it is ostensibly based.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:41 pmSMU will come to regret its foolish and intellectually corrupt decision to host this propaganda center. Bush’s standing will undoubtedly continue to decline. It remains to be seen how much dirt comes out after he leaves office, but I expect that it will be considerable. His chances of beating the worst president ever rap is slim, and he may well come to be hated by all but a tiny number of Americans. I suspect that the Republican party will join in trashing what little is left of his putrid reputation after party leaders and supporters fully grasp the long term damage he has caused to the party.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:42 pmHis Lie-brary will be censored? What a surprise!
February 25th, 2008 at 4:43 pmWill there be a display of the princeling’s Cheerleader outfits from his elitist prep-school days??
February 25th, 2008 at 4:44 pmFor the first time in history, a library will attract people who hate to learn. And the SMU admissions office will see more illegibly written applications from kool-aid drinkers looking to spend their next four years in heaven.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pmEven his statue has a dull and clueless look. It takes a lot of stupid to overwhelm the skill of a talented artist, but dubbie did it!!!!
February 25th, 2008 at 4:45 pmPolitical Prostitution can’t be good for Academia.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:46 pmSomeone stick a banana in that bust.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:46 pmGood thing the bust has more viable brain cells inside it than the genuine article does………..
February 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pmNow soccer moms from around the country know where to arrange their next field trip! “An educauhnal expurience!”
Will Dana be their guide?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pmAs a Texan (born here, unlike Shrub), I am soooooooooo embarassed! The neo-cons boot lickers at SMU and in Dallas proper are so yesterday. They willl support this dimwitted, non-intellectual, verbally stumbling, can’t run a company or nation, silver spooned, all hat no cattle, nutjob as long as they can get hay out of it. I bet Cheney will have a office tower or some federal structure named after him in Dallas! Most of the Bush supporters here are ‘tupid. They can’t see the good riddance of the end of his presidency if you plastered the national debt and his failed Iraq policy on the side of the new Cowboys stadium. What a crock! I can’t wait for McCain or Hillary or Obama to start appointing centrist/liberal judges to the supreme court, just to see these idiots squirm.
Texasjuice
February 25th, 2008 at 4:47 pmHas anyone ever actually gone to a presidential library? They would call it pork if it were not for the stupid tradition of the whole thing.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:50 pm“to sponsor research and programs designed to promote the vision of the presidentâ€
———————————————
And which “vision” would this be? Perpetual war? Totalitarianism? Earth-raping? Speed-spending? The mind just reels with possibilities…
February 25th, 2008 at 4:50 pmTo sponsor research and programs designed to promote the vision of the president†and “celebrate†Bush’s presidency
A copy of “Three Blind Mice” and a party on January 20, 2009, will meet the necessary objectives ; no library building in President Cuckoo Banana’s honor is needed………..
February 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pmHas anyone ever actually gone to a presidential library? They would call it pork if it were not for the stupid tradition of the whole thing.
Comment by dbadass — February 25, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
I went to Jimmy Carter’s in Atlanta. It’s not as big as some of the others, but it was well put together, and I found it fascinating. I would also like to go to FDR’s sometime.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:52 pmI already have a copy of “My Pet Goat” on reserve.
Wonder how they are going to catalog the coloring book section?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:53 pmQuick question. Bush signed an Exec Order giving presidents and their families more control of their papers…can’t that simply be undone by a NEW Exec Order by, say, the next prez saying that they get very little control? An Exec Order is not The Law. Congress passes laws, Exec Orders are merely niceties allowed to Presidents and only so long as another Exec Order doesn’t come along to wipe someone’s ass with the previous Exec Order.
Why is Bush’s Exec Order such a big deal in this light? Hell, I’d LOVE to be President for long enough to totally eviscerate almost all previous Exec Orders, particularly any and all passed by Nixon, Ford, Raygun, Bush I, Clinton, Bush II. Perhaps Congress should pass a law about public records and the FACT that any and all documents generated by a mere President actually belong to the People. But that would take a functional Congress and we don’t have one of those.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:53 pmMaybe it will be filled with copies of “My Pet Goat”. I’m sure Dumbya likes all the pictures - of naked goats…
February 25th, 2008 at 4:54 pmSMU will be the laughing stock for the next 100 years……
February 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pmBoycott SMU !!! Even Evanjellycals must agree
February 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pmHe doesn’t even deserve a cheap, wood paneled, store front in a strip mall, let alone this half billion dollar septic tank containing his “thoughts”
I guess the docents will double as sherpas. That’s the only way they’ll be able to guide the stupid few, through the mountains of bullshit contained within.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:55 pmBut that would take a functional Congress and we don’t have one of those.
Comment by Praedor — February 25, 2008 @ 4:53 pm
Let’s work on building a functional 111th Congress. I’m sure it can be done if everybody will just wake up.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pmComment by missmolly — February 25, 2008 @ 4:52 pm
Cool. I mostly just want to go to the Museum of Barnyard Oddities
February 25th, 2008 at 4:56 pm“to sponsor research and programs designed to promote the vision of the president†and “celebrate†Bush’s presidency”
What exactly is his vision? Armageddon?
February 25th, 2008 at 4:57 pmHowever, the George W. Bush Presidential Center will come with a catch. It “will also feature an institute — independent of academic governance of the university — to sponsor research and programs designed to promote the vision of the president†and “celebrate†Bush’s presidency.
Interviews with prospective guides/workers kicked off this weekend ……..With fertilizer plant experience an absolute must…….
February 25th, 2008 at 4:58 pmPerhaps the Bush Preznitional Liberry will eventually compete with the Herbert Hoover Birthplace and Presidential Library in Iowa for pre-eminence in scholarship and stuff like that.
February 25th, 2008 at 4:59 pm“to sponsor research and programs designed to promote the vision of the president†means nothing more than to support propaganda.
SMU is either complicit with propaganda or on the take. Which is it?
Eitherway doesn’t speak very well for them.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:01 pmThose poor sods at SMU….what did they do to deserve this?
February 25th, 2008 at 5:02 pmThose poor sods at SMU….what did they do to deserve this?
Comment by Leftside Annie — February 25, 2008 @ 5:02 pm
Not laugh as hard as other college administrators did when 1st questioned of the prospect ……..
February 25th, 2008 at 5:04 pmComment by ralph the wonder llama — February 25, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
i’d say the whole enterprise is conceived with same kind of reverence and revisionist history that scientology has for l. ron hubbard.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pmAnybody know what the course ever really was? I heard it talked about a lot, and about a new way forward..but nobody ever said what it was really about.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:06 pmThe Bush Library will be as ideological as his Presidency itself.
What a shock.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:06 pmAnd which “vision†would this be? Perpetual war? Totalitarianism? Earth-raping? Speed-spending? The mind just reels with possibilities…
Comment by missmolly — February 25, 2008 @ 4:50 pm
You forgot the icing: numerous overpaid seats on corporate boards.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:07 pmIt wouldn’t deserve the “Bush” name if it wasn’t authoritarian, propagandizing, and shrouded in secrecy.
The Bush Institute of Texas may be new to SMU, but BUSHIT is nothing new to the rest of us.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:14 pmThe concession stands will serve Kool-Aid and pretzels and all of the employees will be trained in the Heimleich manuever in case “Duh-bya” ever stops by for a coloring session.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:16 pmWebsite of SMU, in case it hasn’t been offered here yet:
http://www.smu.edu/
You can write to them and laugh:
gshultz@mail.smu.edu
February 25th, 2008 at 5:16 pmOh Oh.
Dubya’s going to attend another institute of higher edumacation. Wonder what his advanced degree will be?
February 25th, 2008 at 5:16 pmdoes anyone think that the place won’t be vandalized? i bet within a month that people will be dumping cow’s blood all over the stuff.
oh not that i would, of course but i’d sure kick in for the defense fund of the people who get caught.
george bush is a vile little cocksucker who i hope spends all of eternity in the lowest circle of hell god and the devil devises.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:29 pmThe guest register will have optional crayons. And an unused spitoon.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:29 pmIf it’s anything like his prior business adventures, it’ll go bankrupt within three years.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:31 pmCensored, or redacted, to allow Bush to avoid prosecution?
I expect that, eventually, SMU will be forced to move the Chimp’s “library” off campus, due to sheer embarrassment.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:33 pm“One university professor said that ‘[a]cademics everywhere should be concerned about this’ adding that it ‘goes against the idea of dispassionate inquiry’”
…and what could be more emblematic of the bush tragedy/presidency than an institution that stifles dispassionate inquiry?
A fitting memorial to the worst administration and president in history.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:37 pmAny chance that they will commission me to paint a mural on the wall ? I have a great one planned out - think of the medieval paintings of Dante’s inferno - demons torturing the WTC, demons listening in on phone calls, demons in Gitmo boiling the lost souls in oil……
February 25th, 2008 at 5:38 pmThis is an oddity. A religious University allows a war criminal to have a library with a bust and all. But, the library is secret…we can’t get to the truth using anything in this library. Only Bush’s vision! Can anyone believe this? What kind of government is this…bettery yet, what is SMU, Southern METHODIST University? What institution of higher learning would put a library on it’s campus that is useless for research?!
February 25th, 2008 at 5:40 pmWouldn’t it be much more appropriate to house a “presidential library” in Chimpy’s name , inside one of our Federal Prisons ?
February 25th, 2008 at 5:40 pmBush can join Gonzo on the speaking circuit. They’ll meet a lot of people in orange suits.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:45 pmIsn’t that ridiculous!
$200 million for two books: “My Pet Goat” and the Bible.
Why not let George use with his own money, and let Halliburton build it for him?
February 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pmThere will be no science section in Bush’s library. No science, no censorship, no problem.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:11 pmhttp://newsprism.wordpress.com
The Liberry of Bushit should be located next to The Creation Museum.
The Koolaid concession would be huge.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:23 pmThe library will show Bush’s achievments..????
Starting with ‘Mission Accomplished”…!!!
February 25th, 2008 at 6:25 pmwow- - Dert Conman is back - what a treat!
How ya doin’ Dert, ya big crazy nutter???
February 25th, 2008 at 6:38 pmFrankly, I’m surprised that Exxon is not building the George W. Bush Library. No need for documents, just pictures for faithful Republican cult worshipers to visit.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:49 pm# 72
February 25th, 2008 at 6:54 pm…….that one will be in saudia arabia with his counterparts in the business of oil
#38
SMU will be the laughing stock for the next 100 years……
Comment by Wayne — February 25, 2008 @ 4:55 pm
Every whore has its price…the really good news is that SMU has traded its intellectual integrity to become a political Disneyland.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:55 pmComment by BERT CONVY — February 25, 2008 @ 5:58 pm
What’s up weird dude? Nice to see you about. Did you forget to say Yippee Ki Yay?
February 25th, 2008 at 7:23 pmSMU will now be known for his kindergarten tour visit to the library of George W. Bush. On display will be the only book he has read ” My Pet Goat”. Now this is an example of why education has dropped so low in the United States.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:24 pmDisgusting as usual.
February 25th, 2008 at 7:41 pmGood looking statue for me to POOP on!
February 25th, 2008 at 7:42 pmI will do everything in my power to bring it down. Eitehr figuratively or physically. It will be hard to alight, as there is nary a piece of paper in it., and never will be. But I will try my hardest.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:11 pmLook for the kids to be the ones to visit the Idiot-in-chief Library. I’m sure the kids will be very excited to read My Pet Goat, the new version of the Harry Potter series.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:26 pmThey’ve dechimpized the face of the statue. It looks post-Neanderthalic now.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:29 pmThis, from a friend:
February 25th, 2008 at 8:47 pmSo I guess this effectively kills Disney’s plans to build their fairy tale castle at SMU? Certainly don’t need two.
February 25th, 2008 at 10:29 pmEven his statue makes him look like an idiot.
Good work!
- Tom
February 25th, 2008 at 11:44 pmWould that marble bust work as a voodoo doll???
February 26th, 2008 at 12:00 amWithout the smirk the bust doesn’t even look like Bush. This is an obvious attempt to make a silk purse out of a sows ear.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:26 am“To promote the vision of the president”
Looks like Bush is not going to end his presidency with his eight years term limits.
February 26th, 2008 at 12:39 amThis is a frightening prospect.
Can you imagine Bush’s anxiety over becoming a civilian after 08 and not being able to legally kill people anymore…?
N
N
N Korea’s Dear Leader Kim Il Jong couldn’t do any better.
February 26th, 2008 at 4:37 amI was thinking the same thing after watching a documentary on North Korea.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:22 amGuess he think’s he’s our dear leader.
Guess he is to trolls like good goofy and the brain damaged burt convey
take care\tony and guidedog Lido
I have visited the LBJ Library and plastered everywhere is his failure in Vietnam. In contrast to Bush, though, LBJ signed in a bunch of civil and social rights laws, to wit: the Voting Rights Act, Civil Rights Act, Medicaid etc. I was amazed and I was able to decide on balance for myself the merits and shortcomings of LBJ’s presidency. It really surprises me very little that this Bush guy and his supporters are so insecure that they need a “spin” annex to his library.
February 26th, 2008 at 11:00 am82. I was about to post the same thing….. Hilarous!
February 26th, 2008 at 1:39 pmNice bust… my kingdom for a baseball bat.
February 27th, 2008 at 1:04 amWhy not only complete 28% of the buildings for Those of the Willing. Perhaps SMU will need dead space for a parking lot in the near future.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:01 amEven though the United Methodist Church and SMU no longer have as much connection as in the past, it is embarrassing that a university with the name Methodist in it would agree to this.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:28 pmSaudi oil-money-students–Lets call it Southern Islamic Oilversity. Wrap the bust in a turban.
Ex Meth.
March 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pm