BAGnewsNotes

Iraq Civil War #10 - Day 44

2008-05-09T01:14:21-07:00

Like the image I posted back on March 27th, two days after Maliki declared war on the Mahdi, what lends the most poignancy to a situation we have otherwise grown numb to are pictures that are as this elemental.

In the latest de-evolution in the unrecognized Shiite civil war, American forces -- with the support of troops from the U.S.-installed, pro-Iranian government -- have so knocked the shit out of Sadr City that a mass exodus would surely take place (similar to the exodus from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities that nobody seems to be reporting much about) if only the people, now trapped and starving, could get out.

This woman's hands gripping onto a truck while waiting for food supplies to be distributed by Iraqi soldiers not only offers a powerful window on Sadr City, the personality, expression and adornment of those hands is an anguished and detailed portrait of an individual as well.

accompanying article: Aid Officials Urge Relief For Baghdad Slum (Reuters via NYT)
BNN Iraq Civil War thread
NYT Pictures of the Day, May 8 (nytimes.com)

(Photo: Petr David Josek/AP. May 2008. Sadr City. via nytimes.com)

The BAG Prepares For The Second Coming (Of Obama-Mania)

2008-05-08T15:30:24-07:00

(click for full size)

Back in the cold of January, when Alan Chin was up in New Hampshire shooting for TheBAG, he and I had absolutely no clue whether, come fall, the Obama story -- still electrified at that moment by the post-Iowa buzz -- was going to play out more like this or this.

Fast forward two months, and Alan (having spent another overnight on the lip of the Ohio primary, developing film) sends me the shot above as part of a basket of pictures. Of course, I dismissed it immediately. "And what didn't you like about the Kennedy-esque one?" Alan asked the next morning from a roadside Bob's Big Boy somewhere, I think, between Columbus and Cleveland. And in phrasing it that way, he pegged the source of my problem, knowing that, as dramatic an image as he had recorded, it in no way reflected how a struggling Team Obama had given up the pep rally in favor of the townhall. (And so, this is the "more representative" pic I went with.)

But today, today.

Today, just 24 hours after the results from Indiana and North Carolina, at the moment at which the Democratic race apparently reached its tipping point, I saw as quick and dramatic a flip in the visual tone as I've ever seen before. For the past few week, Obama has been largely portrayed in tandem with his controversial former pastor, or with not the friendliest looking white blue-collar workers, or standing alone on both the literal and metaphorical "other side of the tracks." Looking at the images flying off the wire the past few hours, however, it seems suddenly like none of those other moments and picture were ever made.

So, before turning the focus to the return of Obama-mania and the visual media's tilt-on-the-dime purification, glorification and idolization of the man who just a few days ago was fighting the shadows, I felt (although it's hardly a digitally-appropriate description) like dusting off that Ohio image.

Our Man in Ohio (March 08 - Alan Chin on the campaign trail for BAGnewsNotes)
Our Man in New Hampshire (January 08 - Alan Chin on the campaign trail for BAGnewsNotes)

(image: ©Alan Chin. Westerville, Ohio, outside Columbus. March 2, 2008. Used by permission)

McCain's Temperature (Or: Tweak Me Out To The Ball Game)

2008-05-08T02:15:13-07:00

Going back a few weeks, the topic of McCain's temper briefly grabbed the spotlight before being quickly shooed away.

I'm not saying that anger comes into play in this shot from Monday's WAPO Day In Photos. What I feel the photo does demonstrate, however, is an intensity or an emotional ferocity to the man -- his affective thermostat fixed in a range most Americans might want to think twice or three times about before trusting McCain with more than a bag of peanuts.

From the caption, we know that McCain is attending an Arizona - NY baseball game; that he's among fellow Arizona fans; and that he's standing beside the team CEO, Jeff Moorad. From the image, combined with previous observation, I draw at least two conclusions about McCain's wiring, one having to do with emotional intensity, the other having to do with reactivity and its effect on the ability to process and respond to more complex emotional situations.

If you compare McCain's reaction to every other fan in the photo (considering both the tonal and gestural response of the crowd, and in particular, the five, maybe six people we can clearly make out), it is exponentially more intense.

I can't say if the excitement of competition is what lights his fire, or what, but you can't find another emotional display here that is even close (except, perhaps in that arm, lower right, with the wrist watch). What it reflects -- echoed in interpersonal allusions in McCain's self-described history, as well as the oscillation in his patience on the campaign trail -- is the degree to which Mac is susceptible to intense emotional surges.

What is just as interesting, however, is what I describe as McCain's emotional reactivity. What I'm referring to is not just the intensity of the response but also its speed, and how much that, too, differs from the crowd's.

What I mean is, if you study the other people in the photo, what you encounter are emotional reactions that are more complex and nuanced. If you had to generalize, you could say they combine at least two different attributes, the first being approval and pleasure over what's happening on the field, but second, and the more prevalent one, a more open-ended curiosity, inquisitiveness and concern for what continues to unfold in front of them.

What scares me about McCain is not just the intensity of his emotions, but how their escalation is often based on snap-emotionally-based reactions to situations that are inherently more enduring and complicated.

Taking the picture as a modeling exercise, I'd feel a whole lot safer with a Commander-in-Chief more representative of the guy in the Hawaiian-looking shirt, the man in the red shirt, the lady in the turquoise and the white-haired guy to her right. What you get in that package is a candidate with more awareness in the moment; more feeling informed by thought; more sustained attention; greater inquisitiveness; and more recognition of a larger picture.

Sen. McCain's Anger (Olbermann clip/Salon interview via YouTube)
John McCain: Yeah I Get Angry (video clip - CNN)
McCain: A Question of Temperament (WAPO)
McCain Grows Testy on Question About ’04 and Kerry Partnership (NYT)
In Anger, John McCain Berates Woman Representing POW Families (admittedly 1992 video -- C-SPAN via Oliver Willis)
WAPO Day in Photos, May 5, 2008

(image: Jeff Chiu - AP. May 4, 2008. Phoenix. washingtonpost.com)

Winning, Going Away?

2008-05-06T22:33:29-07:00

The permanent campaign?
Never let 'em see you sweat?
Still carrying the white male vote?
I'm going to Disneyworld?
The Hillary Bubble?

This shot led yesterday's final NYT Indy/N.Carolina primary slide show. It seemed even more "reflective" this morning.

(h/t: Nathan)

Candidates Stump In Indiana And North Carolina (May 6, 2008 - NYT slideshow)

(image: Damon Winter/The New York Times. May 6, 2005. Indianapolis. nytimes.com)

Bill Ayers, The Flag, Steve Clemons, And Going Off The Deep End - Updated

2008-05-06T13:00:05-07:00

Oh please, where does this all end?

Apparently, the hysterical, formerly extreme right-wing "flag attack" on Obama has now wormed itself right into the liberal blogosphere, as evidenced by this image -- and the knee-jerk reaction to it -- on The Washington Note.

(Sorry for the brief commercial, but this is a perfect example of why we all could use a little more skill when it comes to looking at political imagery.)

Leading his post today, titled "Trampling the Flag," Steve Clemons grabs a lead image from an on-line Chicago Magazine feature on Bill Ayers. (I'll just insert, by the way, that the article and image lighting Steve's fire in the middle of this stretch of blistering condemnation of Obama, and anyone linked to him, has been sitting there since August of 2001.)

So, let's talk about the picture, both formally and symbolically.

First, Clemons assumes -- as I'm sure many people will now, especially our wingnuts friends -- that Ayers is stepping on the flag. Short of consulting with Ayers or photographer Jeff Sciortino, however, that's an assumption. Taking into consideration the "depth of field," what it looks like to me is that Ayers is either standing behind the flag, or standing with the flag at his feet with part of it looping between his legs.

(Because I'm not that technically versed, I also look forward to comments here regarding the following point: If you notice how the walls in this photo -- particularly the left one -- seem to curve, there is a distinct barrel roll to the image. How that characteristic, as well as the focus effects the perception and orientation to Ayers and the flag also could also bear examination.)

The larger point here, however, has to do with an attribute that perhaps did die on 9/11. I'm talking about irony and artistic interpretation. As a note to Steve, and anyone else who deems to project onto this image, consider that most intelligent people, in a less charged example, would choose to consider this image in context, as a posed portrait with a story to tell about a former member of the violent Weatherman who has since grown up.

In those terms, where is the logic of depicting Bill Ayers stomping on or even stepping on the flag? How, for example, would that account for any passage of time or personal development from the time when Ayers did, effectively, stomp and piss on old glory?

You see, with a photo like this, you still have to account for the story it's telling, for what we call the "narrative." If you read the article that accompanies and also underpins it, how does the reaction of Ayers wiping his feet on the flag square with the man who, although leftist and unapologetic about his past in many ways, has transitioned into a productive and even generative American citizen?

What I see here is an eloquent representation of a guy whose past will always frame him as an occupant of the back alley. I see a man who has to stand before the public, before his history and also his country, and account for the tension that is always there at this feet.

But then, I think the Clemons reaction forms a unique picture itself. It's an image reflective of the current times, and especially, the poisonous, polarized and bigoted atmosphere choking us right now.

Earlier, I mentioned the date of this photo. Let's think about that more specifically for a moment. It was August 2001. That was just a couple of months before those planes hit the World Trade Center, causing Cheney/Bush/Rove to hit the paranoia and patriotism buttons equally as hard, which led to the kind of literal, manic, kindergarten, p.c. litmus-testing with the flag that has gotten to America, gotten to Obama, and has now infected the liberal sphere.

(h/t: Miles)

UPDATE: 5/6/08 2:13 AM EST: The reader who informed me of the original Washington Note post was in communication with the photographer today and received the abbreviated notice that Ayers was, indeed, standing on the flag. This fact changes my reaction about 3%.

What it doesn't change is my protest and argument against the one-dimensional use of the portrait (any decent one having a complex and ambiguous nature, with multiple stories to tell) as a bludgeon to use against Ayers, and by direct association, Barack Obama. What it also doesn't change -- and perhaps even heightens -- is my concern over reading this photo out of context. How this particular image resonates in the current political atmosphere is fundamentally and unimaginably different that what it meant for Bill Ayers and this photographer to articulate the past of Joe Citizen in a city magazine in pre-9/11 and pre-"wear your patriotism on your sleeve" America.

God forbid that liberals somehow lose the ability to appreciate the sanctity and the license inherent in visual representation and expressive symbolism. Lose that, and then what's the flag worth, anyway?

(Image: Jeff Sciortino, 2001. chicagomagazine.com)

Obama's Last Day

2008-05-06T01:34:20-07:00

(Expand browser for full view)

I'm always wondering how much these primary eve slide shows are supposed to be predictive in some way. Short of that, however, I'm also wondering what this says about race (and if the black guy got out safely).

Last Day of Campaigning in Indiana and North Carolina (NYT Slide Show)

(image: Doug Mills/NYT. Evansville, IN. nytimes.com)

All The Obama-Wright That Can Be Fit Into Print (Or Digital, And Now, Broadcast)

2008-05-05T22:05:53-07:00

Adam Nagourney a TV star? I don't think so.

I just noticed, though, that the NYT has teamed up with MSNBC on a political broadcast called Primary Edition. What primarily stood out in today's edition, however, is that, eight days after the NYT starting milking the Jeremiah Wright story for all its color (and, on the eve of the Indiana/N.Carolina primaries), they are still working this linkage.

Choreographed with this split-screen, talking head Contessa Brewer begins today's report as follows:

So we start this hour with the front page of the NYT, and a new NYT poll indicates that Barack Obama has survived the controversy over Reverend Wright ... for now. But this could be an issue that follows him all the way through the general election.

(She might have added: "If the NYT has anything to say about it.")

Notice the screen caption, by the way. (No, not the reference to tornados, although that analogy might also fit somehow.) I'm referring to the remarkable implication that Wright, juxtaposed with Obama, somehow (still) qualifies for front page treatment.

screen shot from Primary Edition May 5, 2008 (NYT Video via nytimes.com)

Does this guy have balls, or what: Roberts declares `Wright - free zone' for Obama interview (AP)

Before The Heartbreak

2008-05-05T00:45:15-07:00

I was struck by this image of RFK in VF's new article and slide show, The Heartbreak Campaign.

At first, I thought my reaction involved a fairly straight one-to-one connection between Bobby sleeping with his dog on the floor of this plane, and that fateful image burned into my memory from the floor of the Ambassador Hotel.

On reflection, though, I think there is more to it than that. Nobody symbolized the politics of hope more than RFK (if the term even bears credibility anymore). And then, this photo is so syrupy innocent (sleeping on the airplane floor! curled up with his dog! THE AMERICAN WAY!), it makes the vibe of the current Presidential race feel about as dank as that ashtray compartment.

The Heartbreak Campaign slide show (Vanity Fair)
Article/book excerpt: The Last Good Campaign (Vanity Fair)

(image: Bill Eppridge)

Blowing Up The Surge

2008-05-04T22:45:09-07:00

When it's all said and done (sometime within the next hundred years), the most redundant image of the Iraq occupation could well turn out to be the razed car carcass. At this point, however, what could possibly distinguish one more crippled hulk from another?

In the former case (besides the fact it's an ambulance that took the hit), the method of infliction is worth noting. The roof of the car is caved in because it was damaged from the air by one of three U.S. Hellfire missiles. The specific view, however, is actually peripheral to the main target which Iraqis identify as a mosque and the American military described as a “criminal element command and control center.”

What everybody does agree on, however, is that the building next-door was a hospital, which made it that much more convenient to treat the twenty-eight people injured, including a group of kids who were collecting cans to salvage.

What the image also well signifies, by the way, is that the surge is dead. If it weren't, I don't imagine the American's would be resorting to bombing runs in the neighborhood -- just like that incredibly tragic one I flagged last week -- in order to pacify snipers, mounted machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades and AK-47's.

Which leads me to the distinguishing element of the second pic. Yes, the incinerated body, charred undercarriage and flattened tires are reflective of a roadside bomb. What's unique, however, is the "lineage" of the car, this one happening to be part of a motorcade ferrying President Talabani's wife. Combine Combine this action with the news from the NYT article that two more bomb attacks occurred in Nisour Square, targeting the deputy chief of the traffic police, no less, and you have to think that the surge is dead, with these singular carcasses testifying to the fact.

Missiles Strike Sadr City, Damaging Hospital (NYT)
Iraqi President’s Wife Not Hurt by a Roadside Bomb (NYT)

(image 1: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images, for The New York Times. May 3, 2008. Sadr City. nytimes.com. image 2: Iraqi President’s Wife Not Hurt by a Roadside Bomb. May 4, 2008. Baghdad. nytimes.com)