April 27th, 2008
Josh Marshall, over at TalkingPointsMemo.com, asks about something I’ve observed and wondered about, too. That is, even though Sen. Obama leads in the Democratic primary, he has clearly lost the initiative when it comes to setting the national agenda; thus making it harder for his surrogates to go on the offensive on his behalf.
Here’s how Josh Marshall frames it:
His voice seems silent and has for a few weeks. Of course, he’s out in the field campaigning, not focusing on national media and catering to political junkies around the country. But what I really think this is that he’s not controlling the agenda. Hillary’s controlling the agenda, defining the race at the moment. And that’s made him recede into the background, even as he’s a constant topic of conversation.
Clearly it’s easier said than done, however, Sen. Obama needs to flood the national airwaves with a nuts & bolts summery of his agenda, and get away from another mere bio-intro (as candidates often do at this point in the campaign).
April 26th, 2008
Some sample images from Li Wei:
April 26th, 2008
As I previously posted, last week the NY Times reported that the Pentagon and Bush administration used domestic propaganda, in the form of so-called retired generals with direct ties to the Pentagon and to military contractors, to sell the invasion of Iraq to the American public.
Since then, and it should come as no surprise, the networks have refused to come clean on their use of, and participation in the Pentagon’s domestic propaganda program during the lead up to the war. And when the subject is finally covered by a minor network, PBS, an apologists of domestic propaganda — with ties to the Pentagon and to corporate media — is prominently featured in the segment.
The take away of the segment for me is that the networks refuse to acknowledge their responsibility for the war, and that they will simply ignore the NY Time’s report all together. Thus, again, the vast majority of the public, which still gets their news from the networks, will remain in the dark about this on going manipulation of the public discourse by the Pentagon and by the Bush administration.
For the record, as Judy Woodruff mentions in the segment:
And for the record, we invited Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and NBC to participate, but they declined our offer or did not respond. [Emphasis added.]
Let’s see how long the networks go on ignoring their complicity in this fiasco that’s the Iraq war. I bet it’ll be a long while before a word is uttered.
April 26th, 2008
If this comes to pass, I’d hate to be amongst those that disrespected the family when it was vulnerable:
I’m beginning to think Hillary Clinton might pull this off and wrestle the nomination away from Barack Obama. If she does, a lot of folks — including a huge chunk of the media — will join Bill Richardson (a.k.a. Judas) in the Deep Freeze. If the Clintons get back into the White House, it will be retribution time, like the Corleone family consolidating power in “The Godfather,” where the watchword is, “It’s business, not personal.”
So, who is Fredo in this tragic family epic?
April 26th, 2008
True, there’s plenty about Ansel Adams on the web. However, this article in the Travel section of NY Times is still worth reading, because it captures so well what so many of us amateur photographers attempt to do with our black & whites — that is, imagine that we’re Ansel Adams.
From the article:
Today, it is not unusual to encounter professional photographers and novices alike trying to retrace his path. They wait for the perfect minute of moonrise over Half Dome or a shadow on a fallen tree in Siesta Lake. They remember his photo of a juniper tree they saw in a museum, on a coffee cup or a monthly calendar.
And here are some of my B & W shots:
