Although most of the columns were quickly carted away and recycled after the September 11th attacks—to the consternation of experts hoping to examine them long before the so called “Truther” movement began—a certain amount of the beams were preserved and distributed to communities throughout the country. The library is scheduled to open in 2013, but there’s still no word on whether the notorious “Reading Mastery” workbook (which includes “The Pet Goat”) will make it into the collection or where the iconic “Mission Accomplished” banner will hang.

It’s been a while since we checked in on Ed Lover’s C’mon Son internet show, so it’s good to see that… A) It’s still on and B) This episode features a cameo by Kanye West, a funny one at that. Also featured is George W.’s bullshitty book and the most important caffeinated alcohol beverage to ever coat the throats of young Americans.

At this point, I’m not sure if Kanye believes the stuff he says or says it knowing he’ll get more publicity to hype whatever new projects he’s working on or is just a sensitive sap, but here is the rap diva, once again, apologizing for something. And this time the white person on the receiving end doesn’t deserve it, at all.

C’mon ‘Ye, anyone but George W. Bush. Plus, don’t do it on the Today show! But that’s exactly what he did. Watch him tell Matt Lauer how much he regrets being so prone to emotional outbursts and takes back calling him a “racist.”

When Kanye angrily told the world that “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” during the height of the unfolding Katrina disaster, I couldn’t have agreed more. In his new image-rebuilding book, Bush, for reasons known only to Skull and Bones members, said it represented an “all-time low” point of his presidency. Really? Even more than the time when you continued to read “The Pet Goat” to schoolchildren as the country was being attacked on 9/11? Or that unfortunate situation involving troops and Iraq? How about when you subverted the Constitution and spied on Americans?

Anyway, the former president isn’t a “hater” so he accepted the rapper’s mea culpa. But before the piece even aired, Kanye, in typical Kanye-fashion, flew into a Twitter rage, ranting about the media, Matt Lauer, and what he really meant to say and a whole bunch of other nonsense that can only be explained within the context of another PR stunt.

• Alaska Republican Joe Miller and his blue ox, Babe, are suing in federal court to uphold the senate election ballot count and something something, etc. You knew this was going to happen. |Joe Miller campaign|
• Miller’s also mad about federal money invading Alaska; it has a “pervasive and illegitimate sway” on voters and on unhappily married husbands. |Joe Miller campaign|
• Republicans are already coming up with ways to save America’s ca$h, such as, “we won’t spend money on programs that don’t exist.” |Think Progress|
• STFU already about Kanye West, fetus-outside-a-jar George W. Bush. |Daily Beast|
• While Bush continues to obsessively complain about how a pop singer insulted him once, a Baltimore woman is hunger-striking to protest the foreclosure on her home and the homes of millions of other people. |Newser|
• And children die senselessly. |Mother Jones|
• Bush says he would have endorsed Barack Obama over John McCain? “Bush continues to prove the point that nothing is worse then a dry drunk,” says a commenter. Yeah.  [Think Progress|
• Maybe Bush is just bullshitting us about liking Obama more than McCain, just like he might be bullshitting us about that fetus. |Pandagon|
• Sarah Palin did something dumb. |Raw Story|
• Arnold Schwarzenegger told Jay Leno (“People‘s Funniest Man Alive”) that “no one cares if you smoke a joint or not.” At that moment, California released every non-violent drug offender from its overstuffed prisons. |Daily Beast|
• President Barack Obama-Sotero gave a speech in Indonesia, one of his native countries. |WSJ|
• Indonesian minister Tifatul Sembiring touched Michelle Obama, even though Muslimism specifically forbids men from touching Michelle Obamas. The skin-to-skin encounter was all her fault, that teasy, touchy broad. |NY Times|
• Glenn Beck is guest-editing all the lady mags this season, to bring them up to his gold standard. |Jezebel|

METRO:

• 9/11 first responders get another week to sign onto the big city settlement that’s meant to make up for their health horrors. |NY1|
• Meanwhile, Latino workers say they’re getting left out of settlement talks. |Queens Courier|
• Councilman Eric Ulrich watched the Muppets Take Manhattan the other day. |Twitter|
• Toilet blaze! So hot.|NY Post|
• The city will happily accept your free ideas for its 2020 Waterfront Plan. What would you like: free yacht transportation? Montauk Monster rides? Beaches of cocaine-sand? Name it, it’s yours. |NYC.gov|
• Two Bahamian straw vendors who were arrested in NYC in September for selling counterfeit goods are back at work,  but they really don’t want to talk about it. |Nassau Tribune|
• Small Business Saturday is a new “movement,” brought to you by Am Ex. |Crains|

• Everybody’s talking about George W. Bush‘s fetus-jar sibling. But the follow-up question people should be asking is, “where is the fetus now?” Does Barbara Bush bring it out during family get-togethers and set a place for it at the table? |Huffington Post|
• Bush’s successor to the Throne de Tejas, Rick Perry, lied to columnist Dana Milbank about “salt police.” |Washington Post|
• House Dems are squabbling about who will be the minority whip. Steny Hoyer of Maryland has been the majority leader since 2006, but now that current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is eying that job, Hoyer is planning on moving on down a seat. (Always give up your seat for a lady.) But South Carolinian Jim Clyburn wants to be the whip too, because he just wants to be a somebody. They should all settle the matter by way of a pie-eating contest. |WSJ|
• Speaking of Palmetto state luminaries, O.G. Soulmate Mark Sanford is almost hiking the Appalachian trail for real. |Washington Post|
• “Dear U.S. Congress, you can’t win. LOL. —Sincerely, The Taliban Family.” |Fox|
• Friend of the courts Joe Francis got married. This means you still have a chance. |ONTD|
• Tea Partying House Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) wants to be the House Republican Conference chair. Sure, whatever. But don’t put her in charge of copy-editing, because she can’t tell the difference between “principals” and “principles.” |Bachmann website|
• The Republicans will use redistricting to screw up the country forever. |USA Today|
• Speaking of forever, that’s how long Americans will be unemployed, says Paul Volcker, in so many words. |Huffington Post|
• People want to get rid of GOP Chair Michael Steele so bad, but nobody knows who would replace him. Once again, pie-eating contest to the rescue. |Daily Caller|
• Would-be senator of beards Joe Miller hasn’t given up on that seat yet, because he heard this song on the radio recently. It inspired him, just like it did the first time he heard it. |USA Today|
• Glenn Beck says leftists are planning a violent government overthrow, so board up your windows and stock up on canned goods. Bonus: Watch Beck watch himself on television. Bonus-plus: He also releases some sort of countdown thing. |MMFA|
• “Dirty bomb[s] might not be that bad.” So stop worrying about them before you scare the kids. |Defense Tech|

(Photo: istolethetv/flickr)

Earlier we told you about a billboard that popped up along an interstate highway in Minnesota that features the image of a smiling George W. Bush next to the question, “Miss Me Yet?” Since it was confirmed that the billboard actually existed and wasn’t merely an urban legend, two questions have remained: who is behind it and what’s their motivation?

To get some answers, Yahoo! News tracked down Mary McNamara, the general manager at the Minneapolis office of Schubert & Hoey Outdoor Advertising, the company which owns and leases out the billboard space.

“The ad was purchased by a group of small business owners who wish to remain anonymous,” McNamara said. However, McNamara did offer this political bombshell: “Some of the people in the group who paid for this were Obama supporters.”

McNamara told us that the message the group hoped to convey was one of “Hope and change, where is it?” She went on to say that she has yet to receive any negative feedback about the ad, which has been up for about a month, and added that some have even contacted her office offering to donate money to keep it up.

However, not everyone is buying McNamara’s portrayal of the group’s ideological makeup. Cindy Erickson, the chairwoman of the Democratic Party in Chisago County, where the billboard is located, suspects the ad’s funders are conservative activists posing as Obama supporters.

“I don’t have any idea who did it, but my thought was that they’re Tea Party people,” she said. “Regardless, it’s been the subject of many conversations around here.”

While Minnesota has long been a blue state, Chisago is part of a Republican-leaning string of suburban counties surrounding Minneapolis and St. Paul, and Obama lost the 2008 vote in Chisago by 10%. But Erickson argued that local Democrats who voted for him are content with the job the president is doing. She added that if the intent of the ad was to reflect poorly on Obama, then it’s failed to deliver its message.

“I think most people have interpreted their message to be ‘If you think it’s bad now, don’t forget how bad it used to be,’” she said. “It’s just a goofy photo of him. It’s goofy.”

So the Tea Baggers are probably behind the ad but their message is being largely misinterpreted to reflect positively on Obama rather than against him. Hilarious!

Photo: Jeff Meidl

Photo: Minnesota Public Radio via NPR

I can 100% [confirm] the existence of the billboard. The first time I noticed it is when I was driving down I-35 South with my friends to the Twin Cities from Duluth. (I’m not sure how familiar you are with MN, but Duluth borders Lake Superior and the Twin Cities are south of us by about two hours … and we’re connected by Interstate 35 South). I remember thinking, “Oh my gosh, that billboard is hilarious” and pointing it out to my friends as we buzzed by it. We all had a good chuckle at its expense. So me being the obsessive photo nerd I am, I decided the next time I was going to take a road trip to the Twin Cities with a friend that I would bring my camera and see if I could snap a photo. I did and the results are the photo that I posted here on Flickr. It’s actually the original, the only reason its in sepia is because I was playing around with the camera as we came up on the billboard and it just happened to be in sepia setting. So there you have it, yes, it’s actually a real billboard heading South on 1-35 here in MN.

Photo: Jeff Meidl