Once fully on stage last night with King Abdullah (playing chaperone and make-up date), and then on back on today with the recalcitrant Maliki, Bush met the customary marks with his seen-a-thousand-times TV face and that Southern charm. Still, through a psychological eye...
Continue ReadingOf course interpretations are simply that, but I'm thinking the TIME cover might have actually telegraphed Ratzinger's turnabout, in which he has reversed (or, simply stuffed) his attitude and performed a complete 180º regarding Turkey's bid to join the E.U.
Continue ReadingPerhaps congratulations are in order for The Times noting, if only briefly, that Assad, Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah aren't triplets, separated at birth, who spend weekend together playing dominoes behind the mosque. But then, too bad the picture (which, along with the headline, is about as far as many viewers...
Continue ReadingTo demonstrate that he and Bush are still at the table (or, that there still is a table), Cheney dashed off to Saudi Arabia to record something that at least looked like diplomacy.
Continue ReadingHaving served as an Administration mouthpiece in the build up to the war and seduced by to the political narrative of Hussein as viable foe, The Times seems intent on suggesting that this tape, its imagery, and the still frame above are all evidence that Saddam was already launching...
Continue ReadingThis image, released by the British Ministry of Defence, shows Tony Blair's heir apparent meeting with British troops last week in Iraq. The picture is like a Gordon Brown "HELLO, MY NAME IS" sticker as the politician enters the world stage.
Continue ReadingIt was inevitable, given the American holiday combined with the election blow back suffered by the Administration, that the two most famous turkeys in American political history would visually resurface today. The New York Times certainly bit in its on-line Thanksgiving Day Iraq update.
Continue ReadingThe "it" is the powerful reaction I had when I heard Robert Altman had died, and I saw this image leading off his photo gallery in the NYT.
Continue ReadingFor half-a-week, the American MSM seemed perfectly willing to pimp a disgusting interview, story and image of O.J.'s virtual confession.
Continue ReadingFor some reason, Putin had trouble engaging the Big Dog -- as shown in this 2000 APEC shot ... before they put on the funny costumes. With Junior (and his keen sense of character), however, it's been a smoother ride.
Continue ReadingCan't imagine the White House would have had Clinton's Vietnam visit in mind, would it? (More to follow...)
Continue ReadingGiven the all-too-real history and status of Bush 43's Iraq ride, "Junior in Vietnam" sounds less like a news event than a fabulous (and confabulated) idea for a Daily Show sketch.
Continue ReadingThere's no shortage of new iconography to appreciate now. The first place I'd start is with the Tester flat top.
Continue ReadingIf you haven't seen it around the 'sphere, take a look at the cover TIME did after the Republican's stampeded in '94. And, if you have seen it, look at it again. In nine days, I haven't seen any stormin' donkeys, any steamrollers, any locomotives, have you?
Continue ReadingOver the weekend, a morgue worker tends to body bags is Baquba, Iraq, in the province of Diyala, east of Baghdad. Diyala has a mix of Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites, which at this point is the equivalent of dousing sticks of dynamite with gasoline and sending in a two-year-old...
Continue ReadingPity James Baker, Lee Hamilton, James Baker, Sandra Day O'Connor, William Perry, Vernon Jordan and Lawrence Eagleburger for this view across the table.
Continue ReadingIn this photo-op plucked from the Sunday papers, Secretary of the Treasury Henry M. Paulson Jr. peers through a magnifying loupe as he inspects his signature on new 20-dollar bills at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington. Given the new atmosphere, it's funny Mr. Paulson looks for...
Continue ReadingForced to literally share the stage now, these new political circumstances have blown a gaping hole in the White House's air-tight, Stepford-like stage management practices. Not one week post rescue, and we are already the visual beneficiaries of tactical and behavioral information that would never have seen the light...
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