De-Fence Of Liberty
On the other side are liberals who see a subtle and no so subtle racism in the border debate and feel that all this talk of cultural dissonence is a false construct.... I think my theory is borne out by the right's increasing emphasis on the Mexican border...
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11 Reasons Why The Iraqi Army Has Been Going Nowhere (Featuring More Images From Photographer Alan Chin)
I didn't see it but the American advisers told us about it at the end of the day, I can't comment on whether or not it "seems likely" -- they were detaining people, letting some of them...
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Fit To Be Tried
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/4445150.stm Why do prisoners wear lurid jumpsuits? ...A regular feature in the BBC News Magazine - aiming to answer some of the questions behind the headlines The suits may be removed before the defendant appears in the court, but this is up to the contractor in charge of transporting the...
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The Steward Of Pottery Barn
For Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, as for the Iraqi dignitaries who had gathered here, it was a symbolic moment: a ceremony on a bluff high above the Tigris River at which the Americans formally returned the largest of Saddam Hussein's palace complexes to Iraqi sovereign control, 31 months after invading...
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Like Yesterday
Bound for Glory: America in Color is the first major exhibition of the little known color images taken by photographers of the Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information (FSA/OWI). Comprised of seventy digital prints made from color transparencies taken between 1939 and 1943, this exhibition reveals a surprisingly...
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New Orleans Update: Siege Mentality
Louisiana Sees Faded Urgency in Relief Effort http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/22/national/nationalspecial/22louisiana.html?ex=1290315600&en=96a67d624f89c525&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss The New Orleans native and Nerve photographer, Clayton James Cubitt (aka Siege) blog: http://operationeden.blogspot.com/ image gallery: http://www.claytoncubitt.com/publish/katrina/ http://operationeden.blogspot.com/ contribute page: http://www.wangmedia.com/operation_eden/index.html Tuesday, November 08, 2005 We had gotten to Seaside Heights the night before, to chill out and fuck off.... ...
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Cheney Latest Marks
Others can hash out why and how it happened. For The BAG’s purposes, however, the fact a technical glitch at CNN superimposed several almost subliminal “X” marks over Dick Cheney during his speech to the American Enterprise Institute makes for an evocative image. The perfection of the visual is...
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Woodward's Close Ties
Out of hundreds of possible file photos the NYT could have chosen to accompany an update on Bob Woodward (Post Editor Foresees Possibility of Naming Leak Source – link) why pick this one? The image, taken in April, shows Woodward helping Ben Bradlee, the former Post executive editor, with...
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Smiley And The Wal-Mart Identity Crisis
So, I ask you, Where else in the political blogosphere can you go to discuss the semiotic implications of the Wal-Mart smiley face? For yesterday’s “Wal-Martathon” at The Huffington Post, I did a brief comparative analysis of the posters for the dueling “pro” and “con” movies just...
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Your Turn: In Which President Seinfeld Meets The Wall
I was interested in your interpretation of this latest cover of The Economist. It is set at the Meridian Gate at the entrance to Beijing’s forbidden city. I think there’s a lot going on here. And while you are at it, I also invite your comment on the series...
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Who's Flexing The Muscle
In most every MSM story on Iraq, it seems the media goes out of its way not to pull back the curtain on American control over the government. That's why this article on Friday (Torture Charges Deepen Rift Between U.S. and Iraqi Leader-link) was particularly interesting.
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Losing Face: An Update On Guantanamo
I doubt one could find a better image to symbolize the legal and political netherworld we’ve created at Gitmo. And, with the news this week of the existence of secret American detention centers scattered throughout the world (link), the metaphor only get richer. (The false note, of course, is...
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All Trees, No Forest: The Strange Logic of Sam Alito
A BAGnewsNotes Character Snapshot: When it comes to Sam Alito, is the problem just a political issue, or is it also a psychological one? If this photo is "obtuse," could it capture the rather odd judicial disposition of our Supreme Court nominee? For some reason, Sam Alito and his...
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Left Is Right And Right Is Left
With all the powerful political images coming out of the Middle East this past week, I was interested in focusing on Condi and Hillary, both jointly and separately. A couple weeks ago, there was a some buzz that in the ‘sphere fantasizing about a Hillary – Condi presidential match-up. ...
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Vested Interest
I first saw the images of the Amman suicide bomber described as a "fashion show" on a right wing blog. Then, the Washington Post story on Tuesday described Sajida al-Rishawi as "modeling" the suicide vest. Like many others, my first reaction was: How could this woman still be wearing...
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Height of Omission
Sometimes I get some chiding for focusing so much on the hard copy newspaper when a.) I’m electronic, and b.) it’s a dying form. It’s not because I’m nostalgic. It’s mostly because the organization of the print paper with its variable relations and proportions lends an insight into the...
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Veterans of Foreigner's War
Is it just me, or was it dicey for Saturday’s LAT to run a front page shot of soldiers being sworn in as citizens? Combine a controversial and thankless war, questions about coercive military recruiting practices, problems regarding skewed demographics in the armed services, as well simmering tensions surrounding...
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The "See Through" Administration
Cheney is someone who is simultaneously so slick and so arrogant, one part of him operates with complete deniability while another part operates in open defiance. That’s why I think this shot — of Ahmad Chalabi leaving the State Department after meeting with Rice on Wednesday — is the...
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