Time will tell if dreams become reality


Dawoud Bey, Barack Obama, 2008

This original photographic portrait of President-elect Barack Obama will be on view at Baltimore's Contemporary Museum (100 West Centre Street, noon to five) from January 14 through February 1, 2009. The President-elect commissioned renowned African American artist Dawoud Bey to photograph the portrait, which was taken in the Obama residence in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood in 2008.

* Top ten conservative idiots. excerpt:

7. George W. Bush

"George W. Bush began his presidency with an enormous display of pettiness - the incoming administration invented dramatic tales of White House vandalism by outgoing Clinton staffers and sold them breathlessly to the media (via the Drudge Report) in an effort to trash Bill Clinton as his presidency ended. Months later it was proved that no such vandalism occurred, but by that time the media had moved on and the lie had become part of the conventional wisdom.

"And so it is that Bush's presidency ends as it began. Recently Barack Obama asked the Bush administration if his family could move into Blair House - the president's guest house - a little early, so that his daughters could start their school term without too much fuss. Sorry! The White House refused the request on the grounds that there were 'previously scheduled events' at Blair House which could not be moved.

"And those 'previously scheduled events' would be...? It turns out that only one person is staying overnight at Blair House during the two weeks prior to the inauguration on January 20 - that would be John Howard, the conservative former prime minister of Australia, who also happened to be a big booster of the war in Iraq. If you guessed that he's in DC to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, congratulations - you win a stuffed kookaburra.

"Former British prime minister Tony Blair and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe (also in DC to receive the Medal of Freedom) decided to room elsewhere so as not to inconvenience President-Elect Obama. Apparently John Howard needed most of Blair House's 70,000 square feet of space, spanning 119 rooms, to accomodate his ego.

"And so the Obamas have been forced to stay at the Hay-Adams Hotel (at taxpayer expense) until five days before the inauguration, when they'll finally be allowed to move in to Blair House.

"Ten bucks says the Drudge Report will receive dramatic reports of vandalism after they move out."

* In June 1938 Disney rejected Mary Ford for a spot in the Inking and Painting Department's training school because "Women do not do any of the creative work in connection with preparing the cartoons for the screen, as that work in entirely performed by young men. For this reason girls are not considered for the training school." Further, as Disney employee Mary Cleane makes clear in the letter "The only work open to woman consists of tracing on clear celluiod sheets with India ink and filling in the tracings on the reverse side with paint according to the directions."

* "TV is chewing gum for the eyes." -- Frank Lloyd Wright