Free Republic

Longtime Kansas Sen. Bob Dole is planning an ambitious fundraising effort to build the long-debated Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial in Washington, and he will have help from Tom Hanks, Tom Brokaw and others. Dole told The Associated Press on Friday that he aims to raise $150 million in private funds, if necessary, to build the memorial after more than 15 years of planning. Critics of the memorial's design have stalled funding in Congress. The 92-year-old World War II veteran says it's time to honor "Ike," the 34th president and supreme Allied commander during World War II. Organizers hope to create...

The Eisenhower Memorial is dead. Not the memorial itself, but the wildly unpopular design by Frank Gehry. The decisive blow is Congress’ 2014 budget, which denied the $49 million in construction funds requested by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, the body charged with building the memorial. Instead, Congress allotted $1 million for operations, thereby halving the Commission’s previous annual budget. Congress also reinstated the requirement that the Commission possess 100% of construction funding before it can break ground. This sets an impossibly high bar. The Commission’s 2014 budget request estimated that it would need an additional $25 million in construction funds...

Each year, the world's newest skyscrapers are pitted against each other for the Emporis Skyscraper Award. Chosen for its aesthetic and functional design by the team of editors from the construction project database, the winner of this year's renowned prize was none other than 8 Spruce Street in New York City. Also known as New York by Gehry and The Beekman, 8 Spruce Street was designed by Frank Gehry and completed in 2011. It is the first skyscraper by the renowned architect, and won over the Emporis jury with its undulating stainless steel exterior. "8 Spruce Street stands out even...

...The present Eisenhower Memorial design, by postmodernist Frank Gehry, has virtually nothing to do with the Dwight David Eisenhower of history. Plans call for Ike to be memorialized in sculpture as a barefoot farmboy on the Great Plains: not the great wartime leader; not the soldier-diplomat; not the chief executive of the United States who presided over eight years of peace and prosperity. The Gehry conceit seems both obvious and entirely in tune with the postmodern deconstruction of history: There are no great men; there are no great virtues; there is no great striving; nor is there great accomplishment or...

Melanie Morgan, founder of Move America Forward, the nation’s largest pro-troop organization, led about a dozen conservative activists who protested at the Venice home of Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans at a Saturday afternoon fundraiser for California Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown. Morgan reports the pro-American protesters, “blocked the entrance of hundreds of wealthy Democrat liberals, including Sally Kellerman and Cindy Asner, ex-wife of Ed Asner.” Protesters laid down on the sidewalk outside the entrance gate where guests had to step over them. Event host Jodie Evans was visibly angry at getting a taste of her own medicine and had...

PACIFIC PALISADES - Wanting to see America beyond the beltway of power and politics in Washington, D.C., British Prime Minister Tony Blair began a two-day visit to Los Angeles on Monday - the first official trip to the Southland by a sitting British prime minister. Blair, who is here to discuss the environment, world politics and business, started with a meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at the Port of Long Beach, where the two signed an agreement to tackle global warming. Later, Blair was the guest of honor at a reception hosted by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the recently reopened...

Capping a five-week trial that grew out of a sweeping investigation into City Hall corruption, a federal jury on Tuesday found two former Fleishman-Hillard executives guilty of padding bills to the DWP by more than $300,000. Doug Dowie, a power broker who headed the Los Angeles office of the prestigious public relations firm, and John Stodder, his right-hand man, showed little emotion as the verdicts were read by U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess. The jury deliberated 51/2 days before finding Dowie, 58, and Stodder, 50, guilty of conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Dowie faces up to 240 years in...