...if copies of "My Pet Goat" will be on sale in the gift shop.

Many former presidents get libraries built in their honor. Usually - but not universally - appropriate. For Bush II? I can think of much more appropriate structures:

• An outhouse, symbolizing the state in which he left the country.

• A giant shredder, for the millions of pages of secret documents that are surely gone

• A shredder can also signify the great use to which he put the quarter-trillion dollar surplus Clinton left him.

• A gallows. The penalty for treason is still hanging, is it not?

The Onion headline on Jan 21, 2001 read, "Our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is Over". We laughed that day.

A nation's low points, just as the high points are historically interesting. It stands to reason that GW Bush's reign will be of particular historic interest.

Apart from that though: $500 million? That's an insane amount of money. How much can it really cost to build a small library?

Come on Stefan, the reason it costs so much is the use of Blackwater (or Xe as they now call themselves) for security and KBR for the construction.

To save some money, they didn't send all the books to China to be colored, "W" has to have something to do once all the brush has been cleared in Crawford.

I guess I always assumed GW had a team of gardeners who would plant new brush for him.

Ok, I checked the costs for Clinton's presidential library (the biggest so far) - it wasted $165 million! According to Wikipedia "... the archives of the Clinton Library are the largest, containing two million photographs, 80 million pages of documents, 21 million e-mail messages, and nearly 80,000 artifacts from the Clinton presidency."

I wonder whether all this money couldn't be put to a better use. Maybe found a memorial presidential charity, or build a real library for a city or university, with books someone will actually read. The presidential documents could probably be fitted on a DVD. Put a few copies in the university library - just in case.

I hear they will be renaming the university now as well. The new name is going to be: Southern Methodist University Cabalistic Kakistocracy. And of course it will also be known by its abbreviated form: SMUCK.

I just did a quick check for info about costs of libraries. In Dover, Delaware, the city is pondering plans for a 46,000 square-foot library that would cost around $18 million, maybe more.

In Onalaska, Wisconsin, the library just added 2,200 square feet, at a cost of $2.2 million.

How the hell does it cost $500 million for a library that will likely be the rpository for documents that will be shredded, censored or hidden from the public for decades to come?

Oh...I forgot...there will also be the "three Shakespeares" that George bragged that he read.

Don't forget the Camus! George the Lesser claimed to have read The Stranger along with them there Shakespeares.

Berries are so innocuous.

I get GWB was a poor President, but this is not funny or insightful.

Wow. Those sour grapes must be puckering up your mouth something terrible today. I was about to say the contrary. I think Keef's cartoon is one of the most apposite and incisive he has done in a while.

Reminds me of a comment by a comedian when they were building the Reagan Library - "Seventeen million dollars? For a shelf?"

I get GWB was a poor President, but this is not funny or insightful.

-- Max Fromage

I dunno. Pointing out that the most proudly less read president in history is seeking $500 million -- three times as much as the most spent in history -- to build a library was particularly insightful. Funny? More sad and typical of a presidency more concerned about enriching his friends than improving the country.

(And does anyone NOT think that at least half to two thirds of this $500 million is meant to go straight into Bush's pockets?)

How - sickeningly - poingnant! How a pro po! (pardon my bad spelling of any French words; I'm just feeling rather Gallic today.)

This is the BEST K Chronicle YET!

The economy is a bit tipsy, so it's going to take a while to get this library done.

I lived in Austin with the Johnson library, and it was one of the first mega-libraries out there. Previous presidential libraries were much smaller.

I believe there is something pyramidish about the whole process where each presidential pharaoh builds the next monument to himself a bit bigger than his predecessors. Then again, this is all private money, so I can't complain too much.

Remember that the library will contain all the papers that the president generated -- which includes the top secret stuff than no one will be allowed to see for generations. This includes all of Cheney's goingons too. He was president for eight full years, and each successive administration seems go generate more and more paper.

Some day, if America survives that long, scholars will comb through this library and find out who was involved in Cheney's energy task force, the real reason for the Iraqi war, and who were the "bad apples" on the top who were responsible for instituting torture.

After all, didn't the Old Ones adequately recompense him for his loyal service...oh. He failed to seal the deal, you say? Well, in that case, he won't need a library at all, will he? Muhahahahah...:)

Yep, and that was the last time anyone sane laughed for a long, long time...:P

My son graduated from SMU, but we don't talk about it anymore. The idea of a George W. Bush library and "think tank" is so ridiculous as to be comical,We used to be proud of my son's degree but we just don't mention it anymore.

I know everyone will have suggestions for other wings, but since this is dedicated to massive f**k ups -- he really needs a wing, dungeon, or septic tank for the Economic Crash of 2008.

He'll just do so by flying over it at 30,000 feet, one time, with a concerned look on his face and a photographer nearby.