A Closer Look at the Deconstruction of John Edwards

One of my favorite observers of the media has done it again, exposing how the cross hairs of the image-making-machine targets its casualties.
Take exhibit A:

Given the power of impressions, however, the media has effectively “taken Edwards apart” in two pictures. (This should not be surprising, though, as any candidate that trends left and threatens to play outside the establishment rules is probably doomed to the same fate.)

On first go around, Edwards was feminized and sissified. On a slow simmer for years, that stage really got hot in early March after Ann Coulter publicly called Edwards a “faggot.” It culminated in late April, however, when Adam Nagourney, Maureen Dowd (viewable via johnedwards.com) and Howard Kurtz, within the same week, not only jumped all over JE’s pricey Beverly Hills haircut, but seemed to relished the opportunity to revive what Nagourney termed the “Breck Girl sobriquet” with all three journalists plugging (read: blessing) the infamous, Edwards-slandering “I Feel Pretty” You Tube video.

[...]

Phase two crystallized this past weekend with the publication of the NYT Magazine, above.

In the cover story, Matt Bai spends an impressive 7,827 words intimating that John Edwards is a filthy-rich hypocrite who is playing the poverty issue for political advantage. “Writes Bai: “Whenever you wrap yourself in the mantle of morality and conviction … even the smallest hypocrisy can leave an indelible stain.”

The entire post is worth a read, see the rest at HuffingtonPost.com.

The “Gay Bomb”

Ha, ha, this is too funny. Back in the early 90’s the Pentagon considered making a "gay bomb":

Edward Hammond, of the University of California’s Sunshine Project, obtained through a FOIA request Pentagon documents that indicated the military had, in 1994, investigated building a "gay bomb." The bomb would release a strong aphrodisiac that would cause the enemy army to become "irresistibly attracted to one another."

Vanity Fair’s 20 Africa Covers

Vanity Fair is running 20 covers for its Africa issue and they are all stunning. Of course they are stunning; after all, the covers were shot by Annie Leibovitz. Here are just four of the covers: George Bush and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Maya Angelou and Madonna, Bill & Melinda Gates and Oprah Winfrey, Warren Buffet and Bill & Melinda Gates.

Pace Out, War Doubter In

Interesting tidbit via TalkingPointsMemo.com:

With Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Mullen replacing Gen. Peter Pace as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Wall Street Journal noticed an interesting trend among top military officials.

Adm. Mullen, like many of his four-star colleagues on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was skeptical of the decision to send additional U.S. troops into Iraq.

This comes on the heels of Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute’s admission that he, too, registered his opposition to the president’s surge policy.

And that came on the heels of Defense Secretary Robert Gates expressing his own opposition to the surge.

In other words, Bush will have a chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a “war czar,” and a Pentagon chief — arguably the three most important war-related posts in Washington — filled by officials who are at least skeptical of the central strategy underlying the president’s Iraq policy.

Odd.