BAGnewsNotes

The Futility Of The Iraq War Picture (Or: Bombs Away, Far Away)

The more I look at and think about this image, accompanying a NYT war update a little over a week ago, the more questions it raises.  For example:

>> If the photo was taken in Arab Jabour, south of Baghdad, what is it doing illustrating a story about Mosul, to the north?

>> The caption names the location, but the scene has more a sense of the outskirts than a specific town.

>> With the U.S. soldiers apparently departing a conflict zone - and, given the wounded Iraqi is "split in half" -- the image more than leaves hanging exactly "what went on back there?"

The question of what is or isn't happening, however -- just like the disconnection between the setting of the photo and the setting of the article -- does, in fact, fill us in on something very important about the war.  What it shows us is how little connection exists between the war news and the war pictures, and how little continuity carries over from one war report to the next.

Picking up on this quality, a post a week ago at AfterDowningStreet looked at how recent media reports from Iraq have been not just highly selective, but myopic in detail.  David Swanson's post called out two recent MSM stories, one from the LA Times, the other from the NY Times, dealing with particular suicide bombings or IED attacks.  Although either buried or just casually noted, the common denominator Swanson found was the matter-of-fact reference to intense American bombing.

Your Turn: Floats Like A Butterfly...

Two things spurred me to post this image from the Obama website, a shot I've been looking at for some time now.  One was Maureen Dowd's terrible last column, in which she continues to perpetuate the passive "Obambi" tag.  The second was the possibility that Obama might actually nudge into the recognized front runner position over HRC by Monday, or Wednesday.

I'm interested in your take on this image, including Obama's pose, the composition, the analogy to Ali, and the significance of Ali lording it over Sonny Liston in their heavyweight rematch in Maine --  the sight of Sunday's caucus, by the way.

(If you go here, then click on the thumbnail of the fight scene, you'll get as large a look at the popular fight poster as you need.)

Muhammad Ali versus Sonny Liston (Wikipedia)
Muhammad Ali (Wikipedia)
Darkness and Light (Dowd)
from: The Vanity Fair Bono Cover Series (Obama and Ali)
A wingnut interpretation of the photo above (Bob McCarty)
Other pics from Obama's Senate office: 1, 2

(image: unattributed)

Papering Over The Differences

As a small bit of synchrony, a reader called out this ad the same day I read Digby's The Lovers And The Fighters.  Digby writes:

I have often thought that the two parties could be described as two fundamental archetypes: The Lovers vs The Fighters. I don't mean that pejoratively in either sense, but rather that temperamentally, we seem to be motivated by different impulses, both of which are part of all human beings, but which I can loosely characterize with these two terms. This has even been borne out by psychological studies....

As I watch the primary unfold, and see what looks increasingly like a deep desire among the Democratic rank and file to assert Obama's positive, uplifting vision of politics, it looks like Americans may have the starkest choice between a Lover and a Fighter in my lifetime. The man the Republicans appear to be about to nominate is so combative that even his own party fears he's going to knock their heads together as much as the other guy's....

The Gawker

What is becoming more clear now -- having dropped out of the race to protect the country in wartime -- is how much Mitt's campaign was like amateur hour.

How else do you explain this shot of Mitt and Ann last month in the Michigan state capitol rotunda under a portrait of Mitt's father, the late Governor.

Even if you are feeling awe, you don't stand there --across from the photographers, in the middle of your presidential campaign --looking wide-eyed with your mouth hanging open, especially when your Dad -- larger-than-life, and venerated above you -- is looking like he still owns the place.

Miscalculations Dogged Romney From the Start (NYT)
image from Romney Drops Out Of Presidential Race (WAPO slideshow)

Romney: A Shadow Of The Real Deal (BNN)

(image: LM Otero/AP.  Michigan. Jan. 11, 2008. washingtonpost.com)

Harry Reid, I Can't Even Look At You Anymore

So here's Reid, close up like he's the big man in town, hitching his arms and comin' at ya.

Says last night's caption: Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, controls the next steps on the economic stimulus bill.  Control?  What stands out more is the sense of aversion, the lack of eye contact with you and me, and the body language of the guy just behind.  (Likely a typical downward glance, but I can't help reading "hang dog.")

Maybe that's because the parliamentary victory Reid won yesterday over the Pugs was mostly evidence of futility.  If Reid and Pelosi had hung tough and together, they could have channeled the glare of the stock market hysteria two weeks ago to leverage Bush into a joint House/Senate deal.  As it played out instead, Pelosi went her own way, and got left in the hallway by Paulson and Boehner.  So now, we see Reid looming large ... over a slow-motion train wreck.

With the economy supposedly tanking and that supposedly urgent, bipartisan slam-dunk of a stimulus package going the same way, we're looking for leadership.  Harry looks like he couldn't find his suspenders.

image from: Senate G.O.P. Blocks Additions to Stimulus Bill (NYT)
Still Not Making Trouble (Digby)
----
Update 8:04 pm: Okay, Harry got it done ... but by taking the deal worked out unilaterally by Pelosi, and largely driven by the White House.

(image:  Brendan Smialowski/NYT.  Washington. February 6, 2008.  nytimes.com)

Your Turn: San Diego

I was really fascinated with the McCain image that appeared on yesterday morning's NYT front page.  I found it particularly unusual as the shot they chose to mark his Super Tuesday victory. 

Given our mission at BAGnewsNotes,  we have a unique opportunity in the coming days to consider and analyze -- from the beginning -- how the media goes about visually framing McCain.  This photo, taken by Mario Tama, the fine Getty photographer and friend of The BAG, was taken at an aircraft company in San Diego on election day.  What do you make of it, both the shot itself, and the fact The Times elevated it the way they did?

If you're new to the site, or have been hesitant to jump into the discussion, by the way, I'm offering you special encouragement as we all visually move into the post-Bush era.

NYT Front Page image September 6, 2008

(image: Mario Tama, Getty Images. San Diego.  February 5, 2008.  via usatoday.net)

The Last Word On Super Tuesday From BNN Election Central

   

And, Quoting Olbermann...

That Sure Was A Lot For Four Delegates.

Ready To Party Like It's (Not) 2000/2004

Oh, the times they are a changin'.

I'm still looking at McCain imagery, and the radical intra-party cultural contrast between Mac and Bush.

What I think is somewhat mind blowing is how completely improbable this scene might have been just a few weeks ago.  In other words, what are the chances a newswire photo of a leading GOP Presidential candidate -- this one taken during the Superbowl, capturing party animals Lieberman, Graham and Gramm -- would have actually been set in a bar?  Whether Phil Gramm is nursing scotch or ginger ale (and same for turn-coat Lieberman, taking a guzzle in a companion pic), the setting, and the fact you can't tell if their "towing the holier-than-thou cultural line," feels like a dramatic social turn.

I should add, even if these guys are politically coming from outer space, it seems gratifying to me to think one could now have a fight with one of them over -- rather than about -- a beer.

(image: Charles Dharapak/A.P. Hotel lobby bar. February 3, 2008. Boston, MA.  Feb. 3, 2008. via YahooNews)

No Forrestalling The Inevitable?

(click for full sizes)

Somehow, poring over the Super Tuesday Eve pics, all the best material kept coming up McCain.

Perhaps it was pure coincidence, but I take it to mean that Hillary and Barack will only be passing another mile marker, while tomorrow, across the fence, we are likely to witness the true opposition emerge.

Anyway, I found these three images interesting in different ways.  Regarding the first shot (from Saturday), I did a double-take after reading the caption.  It states:

Sen. John McCain carries luggage belonging to a member of the traveling press as he boards his charter plane at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport en route to Nashville.

It's an open secret that McCain caters to the media (see below).  But the symbolism of McCain, like a bell man, actually carrying hefting the reporter's baggage for them?  That's too perfect.  (Is he delivering coffee, too?)

In the second shot, we see John and Cindy talking to reporters in Connecticut on Sunday. (Geez, what's with all the coffee cups?)  In the foreground -- already in our face -- is an issue of LIFE from July '67 featuring the fire aboard the USS Forrestal.    Stationed off Vietnam, McCain was on board the carrier at the time (about three months before he was shot down and became a POW).  The fire, by the way, was caused by a fighter jet accidentally firing a rocket while on deck.