The Fund for American Studies/Flickr
Mitt Romney begins a two-day fundraising swing through Texas today, including an event with very generous donors at the Dallas-area home of developer Harlan Crow.
The Dallas Morning News' Wayne Slater noted that Republican presidential hopeful will get a "Texas-size sense of the American spirit" at Crow's spacious estate.
Crow is quite a collector. His personal library would rival a small college, complete with first editions on American history, several original Gilbert Stewart paintings decorating the walls and, under long glass displays, letters of famous people from Thomas Jefferson to the Wright brothers. Then there's the room mementos of the principals of World War II – on one wall, a painting by Winston Churchill, on another wall a landscape by Dwight Eisenhower and, on a third wall, two original paintings of a European city scene by Adolph Hitler.
On an antique table is a signed copy of Churchill's book on fly fishing. Outside, should Romney get an opportunity to wander the grounds, is a garden of tyrants. Crow has collected busts and statues of famous dictators of the past, which he displays with a certain elan on the lawn. There's a head of Stalin, a rare statue of Fidel Castro, a towering Lenin and various other bad guys expropriated from their countries of origin.
I know the right is worked up about President Obama fundraising with Anna Wintour, but I'd say Harlan Crow's colorful collection makes tonight's event at least as interesting.
(Image: The Fund for American Studies/Flickr)
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I wonder if they know that Winston Churchill, while a conservative on many levels, felt that healthcare was a right for everyone... ah well..
Every developed nation on the face of the planet has some form of universal health care.
Except the US.
I SOOO feel like I live in a third world country.
Why on earth should the right-wing care about Anna Wintour hosting a dinner for Barack Obama? I just don't get those guys at all.
Because it allows them to paint Obama as part of the Liberal Elite, out of touch with the ordinary man.
Either that, or he wears shoes previously owned by the Devil, or something.
I think most people would have to admit that Pres. Obama is out of touch with knuckle dragging racists that can't spell.
Who collects Hitler artwork? Really? A Hitler aficionado? Now who is "pallin" around with the wrong sorts?
Romney is trying to lock in the white separatist militia vote.
Oh come on. You might as well complain about him owning a copy of Inside the Third Reich. The fact that Crow is willing to have anything to do with Mitt Romney tells me everything I need to know about this character, but the collection is another matter. Personally I think it would be fascinating to be able to compare paintings by Churchill, Eisenhower, and Hitler.
I don't know, but somehow I don't think if I were running for President, I'd want to be photographed in a "garden of tyrants"...
Unless you were holding a sledgehammer in a menacing manner.
I got goose bump looking at that room, WOW can wait to see the size of this guys elevator since Mitt got a hand out to him!
Seems like this dude is pallin' around with dictators (or their statues) and is a fan of Hitler.
But I guess that's OK Etch-A-Willard.
Uh. This is someone's home ??????
Mitt has to go to Texas with his hand out just like Obama does in California. Except that Mitt doesn't really need more money.
Anyway, that's a shocking picture and story. Geez louise.
You don't know the half of it. He gives his pal Clarence Thomas rides on his private jet, among lots of other things.
Yay!
Hows it going CA? Got some beer on ice?
Its TIME
FREE THE WEED!
NO JAIL TIME!
NO DRUG WAR!
NO KILLING!
NO MORE LOSING YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE BECAUSE OF IT!
http://www.petitiononline.com/Legalize/petition.html
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/2/decriminalizemarijuana/
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/WEWANTWEED/
http://www.columbiatribune.com/news/2012/jan/22/group-to-begin-circulating-petition-to-legalize/
But if you want to bring it to a head!!!
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/legalize-and-regulate-marijuana-manner-similar-alcohol/y8l45gb1
I really don't want a law passed for just prescription use as would be controlled by the drug companies and well you know.
Legalise maybe but still the government has its hands on it and big business.
Decriminalise that's the ticket...So you can grow enough for your own use and not have to be a drag on the system.
Either way its TIME TO FREE THE WEED!
Good comment.
You REALY do need to click my name and read some of my articles. Feel free to cut and paste if you would like to improve.
The people being harmed are under 21, which is a waste of life for about 30 million people and counting. All of them are non-violent victimless offenders, so there is no possible justification for how criminal records would reduce violence and victims. All we've managed to do is turn the US into the crime capitol of the world.
We've wasted about $1 trillion proving that prohibition doesn't work a second time.
It's time to try another approach.
Cannabis shouldn't be totally legal because it can harm children kind of like how alcohol works. NIH has some credible research that indicates a permanent developmental issue can occur with pregnant women and users under 15. Most of the research is total junk science, but that one has some legitimate statistics.
That means it should be tightly regulated much like alcohol. People that handle money, transportation workers, and people handling classified/proprietary information should be prohibited. People under 18 or 21 should be prohibited (depending on the state).
The real issue is that people shouldn't be killing each other and going to jail fighting about human catnip. Laws need to be modified so store owners loose their reefer license if they get caught selling to a minor. Bus drivers and airline pilots need to be fired if they test positive.
Elevated blood concentration does not indicate impairment, so a different type of intoxication test is requried for public safety. Intoxication lasts only 24 hours but it can remain in the body for 3 months. Tolerance builds rapidly, so heavy users are impaired only when not using.
Regulating it and taxing it would provide $billions$ for things like rehabilitation programs and after-school programs that would reduce crime and drug use.
There is enough justification for this approach to get the votes required to pass both the senate and the house when it is phrased like this.
It is also inhumane to withhold cannabis from people that have cancer, Alzheimer's, autoimmune disease, and similar health issues. The medical justification of a federal law should be separate from decriminalization and regulation.
Let 'em eat crow!
...
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Walker will lose but they will get drunk any way, because they have a whole bunch of D&C Kochschild vintage 2012.....stinks and a toxic whine!
WTF??? Only a certain type of person would collect Hitlers Artwork.
Not only is America the ONLY western country without a health care, it is the ONLY country that requires permission from the courts TO care for its citizens.
I've asked this question before. No one has been able answer so far:
Children love their parents because:
When they need shelter, parents provide,
When they are hungry, parents feed them
When they are sick, parents care for them
When they are in trouble or distress, parents will help them
Americans love their country, but:
When they need shelter, the country will not provide or help find
When they are hungry, the country will not feed them
When they are sick, the country will not care for them
When they are in trouble or distress, the country will not help them
And now the GOP wants to repeal Obamacare, Medicare, Social Security, hesitate to pass Obama’s Jobs bill, refuse to fund relief for hurricane Irene.
Americans love their country;
Why can’t the country love them back?
"They say love your brother but you'll catch it when you try..."
Grateful Dead (Bobby Peterson/Phil Lesh) - Unbroken Chain
This dude is palling around with Hitler? That is bad enough.
How about the millions given by the Koch brothers. THEIR fortune was started when grandpa Koch worked for Stalin and Hitler. (Google the pic of grandpa shaking hands with Stalin).
And this is the money that is buying--or trying to buy--the election and the country. Wow! Not having health care is the least of your worries, folks.
What the heck?! Paintings by Hitler?! Statues of Stalin and Lenin in the yard?! I don't care if you call them "historical" or "ironic" or whatever, I am amazed that Romney would attend a fundraiser there. And I'm not amazed by much that Romney does any more. What's next? A fundraiser in the John Wayne Gacy Art Museum, with entertainment provided by the Manson family?
Things that make you go... hmmmmmm.
I just wonder how many jobs could have been created if those SUPER PACKS would have invested in JOB CREATION rather than political advertising?!?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/belknaps/5036254339/
And of course there's Topridge Camp, the little Adirondack get away just a few mile from Saranac Lake.
I assume Crow probably thinks more of his Hitler art than Ike's or Churchill's paintings. He has the authoritarian odor of a Fascist.
Good ole Harlan, such a good friend and benefactor to Clarence Thomas (he of the Supreme Court) and now to Mitt. I just keep going back to the book by Jeff Sharlet "The Family." Doug Coe and his Fellowship are fulling their plan that they developed in the 30's to give all the power to the rich and getting rid of every social program. They have done this by infiltrating and gaining control of every branch of the government and the courts. Just a few more takeovers and they can yell from the rooftops "Success." Evil is very patient knowing that the sheep sleep.
So we are surprised that mr. Romney is dining with those that worship hitler?? Really?? Dark skin is cain. Equal pay for women is anethema. Equal rights is downfall of society...i am a lil bit frightened about where we are as acountry!!!
These guys aren't conservatives, they are far right radical reactionaries.
Has he READ those books, or just COLLECTED them?
Stuart. Gilbert Stuart. Not Stewart. (Geez, he was only the guy who painted the portrait of George Washington that was used for the dollar bill.)
First a required disclaimer. They opinions I express on this blog are solely and entirely my own. They do not express the opinions of my employer The Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens. The library of Mr. Crow looks like it is a bit modeled after Mr. Huntington's library that Mr. Huntington had built in the 1920s to house his extensive book collection that now serves as the Library's Exhibition Hall (currently closed for renovations) The Exhibition Hall displays among other things a Gutenberg Bible, the Ellesmere Chaucer of Canterbury Tales and a first folio of Shakespeare's works among many other rare books and manuscripts . Now Mr Huntington's next door neighbors were the Pattons. George S. Patton Sr and his son George S. Patton Jr.
Patton Jr. spent his youth riding over his next door neighbor's estate and the families were good friends. So it would be no surprise that when General Patton was on a brief leave after the war he left at the Huntington library a couple of "souvenirs" for safe keeping (FYI Mr Huntington died in 1927). He never told anyone what he wanted to be done with them. Well as we know General Patton died as the result of injuries from an automobile accident and the "souvenirs" remained in the Huntington's vault for decades. Nobody could decide what to do with them. What were these souvenirs? One of Hitler's personal copies of Mien Knopf and an original copy of the Nuremberg Laws.
Ultimately they were given to the National Archives where they should have gone in the first place. Apparently Patton was under orders from Generals Eisenhower and Bradley to turn over any artifacts from the Third Reich over to them. Patton being the iconoclast he was decided not to do so. The Huntington never displayed either artifacts though for a time they were displayed at the Skriball museum in Los Angeles as part of a Holocaust exhibit.
So personally to me the fact that Mr. Crow is displaying such items without it being part of a Holocaust display is disturbing to say the least. I work at a place that has Blue Boy and Pinkie. What does Mr. Crow have? Paintings by Hitler who was at best a mediocre painter and one of most terrible human beings ever to exist. Churchill a pretty good painter and a great Prime Minister. I have never seen a painting by Eisenhower to judge his talent and painting but I think he was an OK president.
So yes rich may not be like you or I but some can leave a legacy to be proud of that thousands of people can see. Others... well I'll leave up to posterity to judge.