Just when you start to doubt the power of art: You might think that putting an art space in the Freedom Tower at Ground Zero is a good idea, a visible way of embodying the free speech, creativity, and diverse (if at times conflicting) viewpoints allowed to flourish here. Not according to the New York Daily News. Using today's front cover, the paper is pleading with Gov. Pataki to "show the door" to The Drawing Center, an important art center that would be a tenant in the building. The kind of "silly, self-important, half-baked pieces of 'political art'" shown there don't belong at Ground Zero, says the News:

A museum that is set to rise above the hallowed soil of Ground Zero has showcased art that the families of 9/11 victims are denouncing as offensive, anti-American - and a slap in the face of nearly 3,000 dead innocents.

The Drawing Center, a little-known cultural group in SoHo, has mounted works linking President Bush to Osama Bin Laden and showing a hooded victim of U.S. abuse at Abu Ghraib prison.

The storefront museum currently features a "pseudo-didactic PowerPoint presentation on the Axis of Evil" that appears to mock Bush's famous description of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

Previous exhibits include a drawing of four airplanes swooping menacingly out of the sky - one of which is flying directly at a naked woman lying on her back, legs spread-eagled. The acrylic image is titled "Homeland Security."

Full story here.