BAGnewsNotes

BAG Past, Present And Future: An Old Half-Baked Idea That Might Finally Have Arrived

I was meeting this morning with my board of advisors (for some reason, I can consistently find them around the kitchen table), and one said:  "Hey, I bet a lot of your newer readers don't know why this site is named the way it is."

And another one said: "Yeah, and they probably don't how The BAG was an experiment playing around with visual metaphor to see how much of a news story you could pack into one picture."

So, with that in mind, plus the fact this is one of the big holiday weekends, and because things have been almost unrelentingly serious around here, I offer you this "original" that appeared back in August of '04.

Digby's post on Monday helps recollect why Iraq's potential next leader was on The BAG's radar at the time.  Of course, the other point this illustrates, as I've said before, is that: if you watch this administration long long enough, it all comes around again.

Wingnuts Looking The Part -- For A Change

Surely, you're familiar with that power-tripping phrase: "Are you going to believe me, or your own eyes?"

This Administration has consistently avoided judgement by defying expected norms of reaction and standard emotional cause-and-effect.

... What that means is, if a guy does wrong and that wrong catches up to him, we are neurologically wired to expect a certain type of behavioral response.  That reaction -- be it oral and tonal, or facial and gestural -- could be anything within a familiar spectrum, ranging from contrition or shame on one end to defensiveness or defiance on the other.  The completely subversive thing about this Administration, however, is that, with as much damage as they've done, one would barely recognize it because the physical and emotional indicators the key players display bears so little sign of impertinence toward laws, ethics, and moral standards, or much hiccup, at all, at the level of personal conscience.

That's why it's such a relief to me to see Senator Craig in these mug shots.

Craig's expression, playing out below or just short of the camera eye, appears to say "I'm not here.  ... And because I don't see you, I'm expecting (in my little bubble) you won't see me."  In the profile, his gaze appears downward.  Accordingly, we (as creatures each equipped with a set of emotional antennae) are trained to consider -- through instinctive, psychological pattern recognition -- a set vocabulary of corresponding emotions.  Likely in the expressive mix -- and easier to recognize if you happened to listen to "Larry on tape" yesterday -- are qualities of shame, denial and rationalization.

Extreme narcissists, like sociopaths, however, just don't come with that kind of emotional programming.  So while the world, based on their direct actions, could be on its way down in flames, what you are likely to see, even if judgement day is closing in on them, is a completely incongruous disconnect between the actor, his actions and his reactions.

Unfortunately for the country, the fact that you can get a mug like the one DeLay provided for his perp portrait, or ones like this or these, in the face of blatant wrongdoing and rampant abuse of power, sends a psychological signal, at a deep cognitive level, that nothing seems so wrong.

(image 1: Harris County Sheriff's Office/Handout/Reuters. October 20, 2005. Via YahooNews.  image 2: Metropolitan Airports Commission Police Department/Handout/Reuters)

More September Wallpaper: Ducks In A Row

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"W" offered congratulations, and Monday's headlines spoke of a political deal.

Inspecting more carefully, however, the decision reached among Iraq's factional leaders to restore military and civil service privileges to former Baath party members was far less than meets the eye. The agreement was not only the least significant issue dividing the warring factions, but even this understanding remains tentative, subject to formal ratification by the overall Parliament.

It was Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi (second from left) who announced the "breakthrough," even though the decision by his Iraqi Islamic Party to abandon the government remains in effect.

But no matter that al-Hashemi called out these agreements as trivial ("a wedding without a bride" was his analogy), of larger significance-- to our government by PR -- was the picture.  Besides hyping a claim  the Iraqi government had crossed some benchmarks off its list, what it also evidenced documentation of was an otherwise unreconcilable lineup of Iraqi leaders announcing collective progress at the same table.

If Vice Presidents Adel Abdul-Mehdi and Tariq al-Hashemi, President Jalal Talabani, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and the Kurd leader Massoud Barzani look mostly miserable, however, it was because American pressure forced their appearance, just as the pressure has ratcheted up for every other arbitrary American deadline and milestone.  Along that lines, perhaps the equivalent metaphor for Mr. Hashemi's "bride" expression, as well as the entire group photo, might be "shotgun wedding.")

Being back in country, I'm enjoying the chance to look at daily news in hard copy once again, especially when print content diverges from what's on-line.  In this instance, for example, the on-line photo has been cropped at the table line.

On one hand, it's doesn't seem unusual that Talabani, as President, would hold down the center and even preside over the presentation.  At the same time, however, with the Administration looking to toss the Iraqi Prime Minister, doesn't this read like Malaki (second from right), eyes downcast and legs pulled in, has actually already been deposed?

(image: Associated Press.  August 26, 2007.  Baghdad, Iraq.  via nytimes.com)

Katrina At Two

On the second anniversary of the Katrina disaster, we are fortunate to have a photographer as talented as Louisianian, Lee Celano, supplying material for Reuters.

The anniversary presents a mandatory backdrop for a parade of political figures.  Obama was prominent on the scene on Monday, and Alberto Gonzales was a big visual magnet yesterday, as was the arrival of Karl Rove.  Of course, last night's arrival of the President was the most ignominious.

As counterpoint, I offer you a shot by Celano that is circulating, hoping as many of his pictures as possible get picked up from the newswire.

The image above is a wonderfully "woven" play of two parts, evoking such tried-but-true metaphors as "the difference between day and night" and "being left in the dark."  Among the stew of elements, it collages:  (a.) Lower Ninth Ward residents gathered near (b.) an illuminated crucifix, which is leaning against (c.) a (supposedly temporary) trailer, as (d.) George Bush's (e.) helicopter fleet flies into New Orleans.  (Since Katrina, Bush exclusively helicopters into disaster areas.)

Candidate Abuse

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Did you happen to notice Sunday's front page NYT piece, "In 2008 Race, Little Ones Go on the Trail With Daddy" ? After the read, the pictures and the video, the one thing I can say for certain now is: this campaign is way too long to do anybody any good.

Basically, I felt forced by this article to wear my clinician's hat throughout.

I don't know about you, but I found the words and the images decidedly subversive.  Although the Dodd shot is quite playful, on one hand, the fact his daughter is in mischief mode, launching herself back while covering daddy's mouth, gives the impression (reinforced by the write-up) that 5 year old Grace has had it up to here with all the talking, and that Daddy need be gagged.

(By the way, the first two shots above were scanned from the print edition.  The Dodd shot is on line, but it's cropped.  Regarding the Obama image, I can't remember if it was first on the website then taken down, or it only appeared in the print edition.  Perhaps the exclusion can be explained, however, by the way this triangle, frozen in time, seems so cheaply libidinal.)

Overall, the piece sets up a damned-if-you-do/damned-if-you-don't form of judgement over whether a presidential candidate should take the kids out of school and on the road, or leave them behind at home.  It would have seemed more honest if the writer just flat-out claimed that running for President (as a parent of younger children) was a form of child abuse.

Gonzales: What Goes Around Comes Around

(Typically, the crashing-and-burning of any part of the Bush Administration is foreshadowed from the beginning. In honor of today's resignation of the AG, let's flip back the picture album thirty months to The BAG's visual confirmation hearing coverage of February 2, 2005.  This post was originally titled: "The Two Faces of Alberto Gonzales.")

Having mentioned Antonio Gonzales yesterday, I thought it was worth talking a closer look.  In doing so, I guess I'm actually going to post this picture.  I've been holding on to it for weeks, concerned that if I used it, people would find it cute.

I think it is illuminating, however, in a number of ways.  While it shows a picture of Gonzales' son making a face behind Senator Leahy's back, the boy's striking similarity to his father makes him look like a double.  Given that the senior Gonzales also looks remarkably young, the Gonzales in the foreground might as well be the persona the public isn't supposed to see.

If you've been following Gonzales' confirmation hearing to become Attorney General, you know the debate over the nomination was postponed from Tuesday to today (Thursday).  The reason for the postponement was to allow the Democrats more time to gather opposition.  The cause is right there in the photograph.  It would have been one thing if Democrats were merely troubled over Gonzales' view that the President is above the law.  The real dissent, however, stems from the feeling that Gonzales disrespected the Judiciary Committee through evasive answers and repeated refusals to respond.

Gonzales' response to many written questions was that he had not conducted a search for the requested documents. As Senator Kennedy explained:

"The documents we want may exist, but he's not going to look for them. There's nothing more arrogant to say to this body.... It's an insult not just to the Senate, but to the American people."

It was also disclosed last week that Gonzales, in response to a direct written question, failed to disclose his role in a legal arrangement allowing then-Governor Bush to avoid disclosing a D.U.I. conviction as part of a jury duty appearance.

The Senator whose question he snubbed is the man Gonzales himself could as easily be standing behind wearing Junior's expression -- the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy.
](image: AP Photo/Susan Walsh in Yahoo News)

Katrina And The National Media: Absence Of A Soul

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As we head into this week's commemoration-a-thon, I'm thinking about how the national press has had such a hard time dealing with Katrina's ongoing humanitarian disaster.

Although this photo is poignant, speaking to futility and abandonment, the NYT Mag primarily devotes its Katrina second anniversary cover story to the insurance industry.  Likewise, the theme of TIME's anniversary cover story two weeks ago (which we discussed here on August 10) dealt mostly with flood engineering and the vulnerability of marshes, swamps and barrier islands.

I suppose the absence of even one soul in either cover is supposed to convey profound loss and disappearance.  Still, I find this tendency disconcerting.  Just like the lead image from Saturday's front page story in the LA Times (or the previous TIME cover on the catastrophe, for that matter), we hardly see a sign of life.

So, are these images effective for the absence of people, or do they reflect a disaster without a human face?

(image: Sasha Bezzubov for The New York Times. NYT Magazine.  August 26, 2007.  nytimes.com)

Are You My Mommy?

What's with the outbreak of injured and orphaned Iraqi children?

This past Tuesday, the NYT prominently offered no less than two, including the front page shot of an Iraqi policeman carrying an injured young boy through a hospital, and a slide show photo of a U.S. Green Zone emergency room medic holding a distraught Iraqi woman's injured son.

The week before, the image above accompanied the front page article: "Troops Shelter an Unlikely Survivor in Baghdad." The photo shows an infant, nine month old Fatima, who was recovered by U.S. troops after a death squad killed her mother and uncle in Baghdad.  We are told the child would likely have died if left where she was -- hidden under a piece of sheet metal in 120 degree heat.

It's curious how, in these "persuasion-charged" days, counting down to the White House Iraq status report, this Times article is mindlessly free of political context.  Rather, it's a do-gooder story casting American forces in the humanitarian role of saving those darn Iraqis from themselves.  (Notice how the infant's little finger line up perfectly with the stars-and-stripes.)

Iraq Status Follies

What these newswire pics express is what a farcical exercise the supposed Iraq war re-authorization showdown has become.

In spite of buzz about troop drawdowns, I don't see Chairman Bush, absent the opposition, signing on for any change at all.  As such, the martial feel of this halo shot -- matching the ludicrousness of Bush's off-the-wall speech before the VFW -- seems completely fitting.

And then, there's the whipping boy.  The non-stop, bipartisan chorus that Iraq is sinking because Malaki can't even walk and chew gum at the same time is the most callous and yellow Washington example of "blame the victim."

Lay it on that thick, and photo editors are only too happy to comply.

(image 1:  Jim Young/Reuters. Kansas City, Missouri, August 22, 2007. image 2:  Khaled al-Hariri/Reuters. August 20, 2007. caption: Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki tightens his laces during a visit the historical Umayyad mosque in old Damascus city. Via YahooNews)

Alive Day. Cut!

So, I've been working slowly, and looking at a lot of images for my first American Photo piece.  The theme I'm playing with has to do with how contemporary war images don't look like war anymore, so much as they look like the set or the staging for one.

In the middle of this, I get one of those PR emails from HBO touting a new documentary called "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq."  (If you're not familiar with the term, "alive day" is the day -- sort of like your birthday -- you were almost blown to bits in Iraq, but through the miracle of medical technology, your life was saved ... if minus some of your body parts.)

Anyway, I've had the opening shot of the HBO preview video sitting on my desktop, and -- with my "war versus constructed reality" theme in mind, I can't stop examining it.  You see, James Gandolfini is the host of this program in which he holds intimate conversations on a sound stage with vets who, having been seriously injured, have survived.

What I can't get over, however, is how:

--  A Tony Soprano (as if, here, finally ousting his shrink and commandeering her chair) would have little trouble lending himself to such otherwise unfathomable trauma and violence.

-- The camera operator -- bucking for visual parity with the other two -- seems to cue for "less of a show" feel and more hand-held reality.  (Which only makes for a better show.)

-- The veteran (or veteran/patient), sitting high, holds his body like a little boy.  (And who could have picked that t-shirt?  Seems like the last connection this man would need is to a cartoon monkey.) (Although maybe I don't get the reference.)

-- The camera apparatus looks like a component of the vets artificial legs.

...I'm sure there is plenty more.

(image via HBO Documentary Films and Attaboy Films)