These aren't just words or phases. They are incendiary slogans that, whether spoken or billboarded to the nation as word pictures, convey that much more weight, recognition and resonance to terms, finely-crafted for cultural wedge-driving and linguistic repetition, that otherwise aren't justified either coming off the lips of a...
Continue ReadingLooking at this photo from the brilliant AP propaganda slideshow of the U.S. leaving Iraq last week, I could help thinking of this cartoon.
Continue ReadingThe day of the anniversary itself: Alan Chin, Stanley Greene, Andy Levin, and Mario Tama in New Orleans.
Continue ReadingWhat took the pundits and the opposition off-guard at the Lincoln Memorial was not Beck's play to the center, but his hard turn toward the heavens. His obsession with the deity and the use of the God card -- overriding what, up-to-know, has been the separation of church...
Continue ReadingIn removing signs from his rally at the Washington Memorial, Beck did more than just conjure up the appearance of sanctity and kumbaya. He also transferred the picture of anger and hysteria onto the
Continue ReadingLee Celano, Alan Chin, and Mario Tama: Eyes on Katrina, Five Years Passing
Continue ReadingIf Glenn Beck had even tried with the best PR minds to create an image for his event that appropriated King's dream, he couldn't have come up with anything better.
Continue ReadingWhat's most notable throughout The Times article, especially in contrast to the photo, is the emphasis on what happened as uncommon knowledge -- uncommon, that is, to the white corporate media and the military establishment that created a narrative of siege, then waged war on the: "poor blacks and...
Continue ReadingThis week's VWIR focuses on the hysteria surrounding the proposed Park 51 Islamic cultural center two blocks from Ground Zero as a prelude to the upcoming 9/11 anniversary and a wedge issue in the mid-term elections.
Continue ReadingI thought this was a striking visual commentary offered by an AFP/Getty pool photographer about the culture war gripping Lower Manhattan, and the rest of the country.
Continue ReadingKen Mehlman ("the most powerful Republican in history to identify as gay") still has a way to go in reconciling his sexual and his political orientation.
Continue ReadingThose who decry “compassion fatigue” have plenty to support their claims, but if we look closely we might see differences that warrant less knee jerk reactions. As a case in point, consider the difference between the floods in Pakistan and the mudslide in Zhouqu County, China.
Continue ReadingIf Rubio is the brightest young star in the GOP constellation, the way he's been framed over the past two years shows how much the Republicans lack an identity.
Continue ReadingWhat the Times pic calls out is the phoniness and impersonality of the photo op -- reflecting the cynical and hateful campaign McCain ran.
Continue ReadingSo, what's with all the fire extinguishers?
Continue ReadingWhen are the Democrats going to understand that right-wing framing, as simple-minded and redundant as it is, happens to work? In other words, if 11 % of the population thought you were Muslim last week, then 12% the next day, then 18% the day-before-yesterday….
Continue ReadingThe presence of this Tea Party flag at a Lower Manhattan anti-Muslim protest demonstrates how confused and easily manipulated the so-called movement really is.
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