“Sexing Up” The War: Chapter 2
In the lead-up to the Iraqi war, British analysts asserted that the WMD intelligence used to sell the invasion had been “sexed up.” If the phrase had metaphorical impact at the time, I’m sure no one imagined that it would turn out to have a literal significance down the...
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Giving It Back To Big Brother
As of May 2002, Soho had 59 privately owned surveillance cameras, 7 residential cameras, 2 police cameras and 2 federal cameras. The abuses that led from the Bush Administration’s military intelligence agenda in Iraq (as well as domestic abuses spawned by the Patriot Act) are shedding new light on...
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You Want A Peace Of Me?
In the mini-clip, “Bush For Peace,” by Sarah Christman and Jen Simmons (bios), the President comes up with a brilliant new approach to foreign relations. (Click on tv above, or click here.)
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Plane To See
The headline of Frank Rich’s NYT article last week about the new Broadway play, Assassins, was titled: “At Last, 9/11 Has It’s Own Musical.” Apparently, the “war” on terrorism has given the play an intensity and tension that it never had before. If you’re not familiar with it, the...
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Latest BAGnews Cartoon: The Buck Stops Here …Or Here …Or Maybe Over There
What Al Queda PDB? What memo about prison abuse? (I guess Paul O’Neill’s accusation about Bush being disengaged is looking pretty good right now.) send this cartoon to a friend!
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The Murder of Political Illustration …and the “Bushanos”
It's particularly dead on given the way the television family has begun to deteriorate just as the Administration's prospects have turned south.
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Rattling The Chains Of Command
I wasn’t thinking of running another Newsmap snapshot so soon. This afternoon, however, I was curious about how “big” the Abu Ghraib story was playing the day before Rumsfeld’s testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
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In Bed With Ahmed
When I read the other day that Salem Chalabi, Ahmed’s nephew, was put in charge of prosecuting Saddam Hussein, I thought about how the Chalabi family exploits power (while avoiding scandal) as masterfully as the Bush clan does. In an earlier cartoon, I sung Chalabi praises for his ability...
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Taking Up Arms
Words that typically come to mind in describing Fernando Botero’s painting would be “nostalgic,” “whimsical,” even “sweet.” In a significant departure, however, his more recent work reflects the violence that has been a fact of live in his native Columbia for a long time. In an otherwise calmer world,...
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What’s Mappening
For all the political wonks who read better pictorially then verbally, the Newsmap is long overdue. Basically, it takes the Google News aggregator and creates a graphical version of it, allocating cell spaces to particular news items based on how often the same story occurs across multiple news sites...
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Going Down Down Under
I was trying to track down what happened to the two guys who got arrested for painting the “No War” sign on the Sydney Opera House right before the Iraq War started. Apparently, British astronomer Dr Will Saunders, 42, and Australian David Burgess, a 33-year-old environmentalist, were sentenced to...
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Land Of (Spilled) Milk And Honey
Best newspaper shot of the day. Ariel Sharon after his party votes down his plan to unilaterally pull out of Gaza. (Front cover of Ma’ariv, May 3, 2004.)
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