BAGnewsNotes

Looking For Cover As Warming-Mania Sprouts

         

Well, shoot.  I was just thinking about the season's hot new (spin) color.  (As The Economist alleges: These days businesspeople are falling over each other to prove their greenness.)

(credits:  The Rob Esmay cartoon is from the May 14, 2007 issue of The New Yorker.  The Economist cover, June 2nd 2007, is the latest. Why they can't give a photo or photo-illustration credit, as good as their stuff is, I can't tell you.)

Will Ferrell Shows Bush The Greenhouse

Nobody objectifies GWB better than WF.

And if you just have to see how pathetically close the Ferrell piece compares to the real thing, check out this AP video of Bush's  bumbling, sight-read, so-called "green awakening" yesterday.

(video: youtube via TBS comedy special "Earth to America")

Al's Big Room, Nancy's Glacier, And All That Green Cred

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Yeah, Gore is happening right now, and I'm interested in your take on Steve Pyke's photo.  I think it's a really interesting combo publicity shot/ character study.

What I'm particularly interested in, however, is the growing buzz around eco-politics.  As usual, I'm thinking about "the look of it" with the attendant rewards and pitfalls.

With Gore's high visibility right now, and the perception he's way down the road on the issue, I'm struggling with the visuals of Pelosi's weekend mission to Greenland. Especially with Gore in mind, Pelosi's snaps make it seem like she's a little desperate (to catch up? to build up her green cred?).  (As further evidence of the strain on the PR hand, check out this shot on Nancy's blog with her husband and Anderson Cooper.)

I'm also wondering about the whole issue of "visual politics" when we're talking green.  My sense is that ecology, as ideological subject matter, somehow pulls for a more genuineness.  Perhaps that's why Rove placed Bush in a policy forum yesterday for his nominal jump onto the global warming bandwagon instead of in front of a polar bear.

(Case in point, that's why I posted Will Ferrell's piece on "Green Dubya" -- with a link to Bush's particularly lame speech yesterday -- just above.)

(h/t: David, Jamie. image 1: Steve Pyke for TIME. May 2007. time.com. Photo is part of a recent TIME slideshow, Al Gore's American Life and accompanies the article,  The Last Temptation of Al Gore.  image 2: unattributed.  speaker.gov/blog/)

Fellating Rudy

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Guiliani's authoritarian shtick which begins with bashing New York and New Yorkers ends by offering the right wing what they want much, much, more than they want romney's soft version. They *want* to be dominated by a strong man who despises them.  aimai

Just when you thought there was no way to ratchet up the fear factor any further, now Bush and Rudy have started threatening INDIVIDUALS and their children..."They're a threat to your children, David"; "It's (terrorism) a threat to your children, Jim"; "They will kill YOU for baring your arms in public". These people are not only shameless and cheap, they are cowards.  dave

He's the perfect post-theocrat GOP candidate: Strom Thurmond meets Mussolini -- throwing The Other off a train that runs on time.  Davis X. Machina

In line with Digby's apoplexy over Monday's fawning NYT Guiliani piece, I was admiring the accompanying photograph.  In juxtaposition with these comments from Digby's thread, all I can think of (in light of scary teeth; 9/11-era lapel pin; steely looking lady; those aren't Russian letters, are they?) is:

Disarm, disarm, disarm.

(h/t: Mark image: Toby Talbot/AP. published  May 29, 2007. nytimes.com. caption: Rudolph W. Giuliani getting a laugh from a comment by Winifred Stearns, left, at a campaign stop last week in White River Junction, Vt.)

George's Flat Tire

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With this three-week-old White House shot in mind, I found the pic above -- posted last week on TIME's White House Photo site -- particularly poignant.

The other day, a commenter on The BAG asked why so many interpretations these days -- even concerning more neutral imagery -- evokes war and militarism.  Without speaking directly to the point, those thoughts do surface for me again here -- even though Andrews Air Force base could simply be seen as a runway for Air Force One.

It's the flat tire on Bush's bike, though, that "speaks" most loudly.  The scene, admittedly coupled with the White House link above, suggests a portrait of someone rough on everything he puts his hands on.

h/t: Chris

(image: Christopher Morris / VII for TIME.  posted: Tuesday, April 24, 2007.  time.com)

Next Week, The Only Casualty Left In Iraq Will Be ... Reality

 

If the military is successful in enforcing the rule that no injured soldier can be shown by the media without obtaining consent first, what could possibly be the difference? 

Clip 1: Michael Kamber's slide show for the NYT  regarding search for missing soldiers in Iraq.  Published: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  (nytimes.com)

Clip 2:  Freedom Journal Iraq Episode 654 re: search for missing soldiers in Iraq. Multinational Force Official Website.  Broadcast date: Thursday, 24 May 2007

Bush In The Hospital ... And He's Getting Worse

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Is it just me, or are George Bush's hospital portraits with wounded soldiers growing progressively more weird and mechanical?

The shot above (part of a group of three) was taken in a visit to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda on Thursday.  If these were the most positive pics the White House got (over two days, no less -- according to the White House captions), I'd be afraid to see the rejects.

In this shot, Bush isn't making eye contact with the camera, the soldier or the Dad.  Also, Cpl. Ryan T. Dion's father, Thomas Dion, is pressed into the corner, seemingly intimidated or afraid.

If this shot carries the whiff of fear, the second shot of the three in the White House photo gallery, involving Cpl. Manuel Provencio and his family, is more characterized by suspicion.  Just look at that sad expression on Cpl. Provencio's face, and Bush's hesitancy to really embrace his mother.

Besides your thoughts about the current pics, take a look at these hospital visits from past White House photo galleries and tell me if you think they've grown progressively stilted.

in reverse chronological order, here are galleries of visits to the National Naval Medical Center, including August 2006 (link); three shots from December 2005 (link); and this "super perky" set from July 2005 (link).  There are also three earlier visits to Walter Reed, in December (link), April (link) and January 2003 (link).  (I can't vouch for it 100%, but I think these links include the total number of hospital visits with wounded Iraqi vets visually catalogued on the White House site.)

Gee, can't imagine why Walter Reed fell off the list.  Also, wonder why Laura barely ever goes.

(image: Joyce Boghosian/White House. May 24, 2007, in Bethesda, Md. whitehouse.gov)