BAGnewsNotes

Taking It To Condi

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I was struck by two images of Condi Rice testifying before Congress for the last time concerning the State Department budget.  The Dada-esque first shot, framing members of Code Pink, seems to symbolize how Rice's tenure, the Bush foreign policy, and Condi's continued globetrotting, has become thoroughly farcical.

  Although the intended meme aims for "blood on her hands," the combination of red and pink, married to the silly-bored look on the face of the guy to the left of Condi and the woman set back to her right (and then, check out the pink tie on the guy far left) seems to only make a silly soup.

Shades of Sharon Stone, the second shot reveals Condi split in two, her mute, sullen head (fused into a handless-clock) is distinctly separated from her long, crossed, shapely and seductively lit legs.  I agree that Condi didn't have the head for the job, but the image seems to suggest the reason had something to do with her sex.

I have to wonder if this image still would have circulated if the country wasn't caught up right now in such  heightened tension over politics and gender.  I find it hitting "below the belt."

Anti - War Protesters Chant "War Criminal" At Rice (NYT)
On Race, Gender and Reconciliation (Docudharma)
Who Killed Benazir Bhutto? Is Anybody Looking At Condi? (Code Pink's first pass with the bloody hands - BNN)
Condi Picks Her Crowd (Most recent example of Condi over her head - BNN)
Registering My Dis-chord (Condi classics #1 - BNN)
The "It" Girl (Condi classics #2 - BNN)
Pictures of the Day, March 12 (NYT)
Reuters Pictures of the Day

(image one:  Doug Mills/The New York Times.  nytimes.com.  image 2: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters.  Washington, D.C.  March 12, 2008.)

Old Ferraro CW: Glass Ceiling Hero. New CW: Trouble From The Beginning

July 23, 1984

Sep. 3, 1984

The problem started with a refusal to release her taxes.

Deriving financial benefit from her husband's real estate business but failing to disclose it put Ferraro on the wrong side of House of Representative rules.  There was also the issue of a loan from the family to her campaign in violation of FEC rules.  Everything got addressed, but these questions following Ferraro's Vice Presidential nomination cast her in a terribly awkward light, and raised early questions about her legitimacy as a number two.

What comes through, in retrospect, is how personally combative Ferraro is.  In light of her unapologetic racist comments directed at Obama, motivated by an apparent blind loyalty to Hillary, the second cover (as if, suddenly, the embodiment of Ferraro's character problems) supersedes the tarnished frame of the "Historic" first.

In spite of the headline, there is an ambiguity to the gesture because of the slightly relaxed thumb and the fact the hand is turned out rather than in.  Still -- paired with the impression we're getting an earful -- it remains a clenched fist.

Ferraro Is Unapologetic for Remarks and Ends Her Role in Clinton Campaign (NYT)
Four TIME Ferraro Covers (TIME)
Show and Tell (Sep. 03, 1984 - TIME)

(image 1: July '84 issue: Diana Walker.  image 2: Sep. 3, 1984 issue: Ted Thai)