corrente

Remember the scene in "Yellow Submarine" where Ringo says "I've got a hole in my pocket" and pulls out a black circle, representing said hole? It's the intro to "Nowhere Man," appropriately enough for our subject here.

Oh, and I've been following this saga of the Lincoln Library and Museum for years now. The first mention of this appearance by Dear Leader came last Friday in
the Springfield IL State Journal-Register:

President Bush and his wife, Laura, will travel to Springfield Tuesday for the dedication of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, the White House confirmed Friday.

The president and first lady will tour the museum, and Bush will speak at the dedication ceremony at 11 a.m., a White House spokesman said.

Following Friday's announcement, at the request of the Secret Service, city crews began removing streetlights, traffic signals and trees near Union Square Park, site of the dedication ceremony. The poles and trees could obstruct the view of government snipers who will be protecting the president, city spokesman Ernie Slottag explained.

The Secret Service has designated one security checkpoint, at Fifth and Mason streets, for everyone attending the dedication ceremony, Davlin said.

A three-by-three-square-block area between Mason, Washington, Fourth and Seventh streets will be cordoned off, and only people with general-admission tickets or credentials will be allowed to enter.

Every person attending the ceremony will have to pass through a metal detector.

Backpacks, chairs, umbrellas, strollers, food, beverages and other items are banned at the ceremony. The complete list of banned items is printed on the backs of the tickets.

They've been handing out these tickets for weeks now to anybody who wandered in and asked for one. As far as I know there was no vetting to weed out everybody but purehearted, rosy-cheeked True Believing Supporters of Dear Leader, like at his other appearances on the BamboozlePalooza Tour to Abolish Social Security.

My guess is this appearance was laid on the last minute. (If they'd known the SS was going to rip out the trees, they probably would have held off planting them till after this was over. Or just planted banana trees as is common in other banana republics.)