TELL ME WHY I SHOULDN'T CALL THE BUSH LIBRARY'S 9/11 DISPLAYS "CELEBRATORY"
(updated)

Look, I haven't actually seen how the new George W. Bush presidential library handles 9/11 and its aftermath -- but when I read Politico's description, the only conclusion I can come to is that Bush (who's said to have personally approved all the displays) is celebrating what happened and his own role in it:

George W. Bush was a wartime president, and his new museum won't let you forget it.

High ceilings mean visitors can hear the wail of sirens on Sept. 11 across adjoining rooms, as Bush bellows resolutely: "Today our nation saw evil." ...

... A sign next to [a] mangled [beam from the World Trade Center] blares: "...and then there came A DAY OF FIRE." A wall lists all who perished.

"He was thrust into a new and unexpected role: War President," reads the display.

Iraq and Afghanistan are not their own sections. Instead, they are conflated with the so-called "Global War On Terror" in a room called "Defending Freedom." ...

Well, this is pretty much what you'd expect from a guy who put a picture of himself not-at-all-solemnly speaking through a bullhorn at Ground Zero on pages ii and iii of his presidential memoir, so it's literally the first thing you come to when you open the book, even before the title.

There are other pictures of this moment, but Bush, for his book, chose one of himself in which he doesn't look the least bit solemn or mournful, even though he was standing on a mass grave. Bush looks cocky in this picture. It's all about him. And, of course, he was making an empty promise that day, implying that he'd get the guys responsible, which he failed to do, and never really cared to do once he became mesmerized by the shiny object of Iraq.

But right-wingers, at least during Bush heyday, always acted as if 9/11 was the greatest day of their lives. It made them and their president the moral arbiters of America. It made it impossible to challenge their political dominance. That's all they cared about. Bush clearly looks back on that moment of unchallenged power with nostalgia. He misses it.

The right is responding to the Boston bombings pretty much the same way. In a way, it's even worse -- if you went to right-wing sites after 9/11, you were at least likely to find memorial shrines to the dead with solemn patriotic music and illustrations of eagles shedding tears. With Boston, they're going straight the liberal-bashing, Muslim-baiting, and Democrat-hunting. Never mind the absurdity of the notion that 9/11 was somehow a triumph for their guy but Boston was a horrible failure for the current administration. What's also clear is the self-righteous joy with which they're waving real and invented evidence of intelligence lapses, cover-ups, and Muslim group guilt. They're doing an end zone dance without even a pro forma pause to remember the dead and wounded.

*****

UPDATE:

The Bush library is apparently selling Bush flight jackets. Cost appears to be around $550.

— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) April 25, 2013

There's nothing I can add to that.