May 1st will be the first anniversary of ”Mission Accomplished” and Bush’s first campaign commercial. Remember it well. mjh

Keepers of Bush’s image

George W. Bush’s ”Top Gun” landing on the deck of the carrier Abraham Lincoln will be remembered as one of the most audacious moments of presidential theater in American history.

The Image of Security

Tom Ridge, 57, is talking a lot about ”branding” these days. …

THE campaign commercial

All this so one draft dodger could put on a show for the cameras? So an AWOL Texas air guardsman could play hero for a day? So an armchair warrior could gloat over defeating a fourth-rate army while our fighting men and women were forced to spend an extra day away from their families? I want my money back, Mr. President. — JON DRUCKER

Frankly, I think if your position never changes, you’re probably dead. Still, it is amazing how the myth of a ”resolute” Duhbya is so out of touch with the reality of Duhbya:

* in the 2000 campaign, he opposed using the military for nation building
* in the 2000 campaign, he said the president should ”jaw-bone” OPEC to lower prices
* in the 2000 campaign, he claimed to be ”a uniter, not a divider”
* Bush opposed the Homeland Security Department
* Bush refused to let Rice testify before the 9-11 Commission
* Bush invaded Iraq because of 9-11, no, to destroy WMDs, no, to depose a tyrant, no, to liberate a grateful populace, no, to make democracy bloom in the Middle East, no, to find WMDs …

This is just part one, off the top of my head. I honestly think one should not expect people to never change a view; I appreciate subtlety and nuance. However, it seems to matter to Bush that Kerry ”flip-flops”. In that case, I say hoist Bush on his own petard, hang him by his own words, make him eat his own dog food.

Please contribute other examples of Bush’s flip-flops. Thanks. mjh

Fiore’s animation is usually worth a weekly visit. Today’s is particularly good. mjh

On Message 4/28/04

This site has several interesting maps based on contributions to Democrats and Republicans. I found this at blogsforbush.com, which I got to through a long, strange series of clicks from sportsmenagainstkerry.com to armedliberal.com and on and on. The armedliberal was almost as odd as the pro-choice republican. mjh

The Money Map

Secret Service questions student about anti-war drawings By Associated Press

U.S. Secret Service agents questioned a high school student here about anti-war drawings he turned in to his art teacher, one of which depicted President Bush’s head on a stick.

Another pencil-and-ink drawing depicted Bush as a devil launching a missile, with a caption reading ”End the war — on terrorism.”

The 15-year-old boy’s art teacher turned the drawings over to school administrators, who notified a police officer assigned to work with the Prosser High School campus.

”We involve the police anytime we have a concern,” Prosser Superintendent Ray Tolcacher told the Tri-City Herald newspaper. ”From our perspective it was an incident that needed to be reported to the police on campus.”

Secret Service agents interviewed the boy last Friday. The student, who was not arrested, has not been identified.

The school district disciplined him, but district officials refused to say what the punishment was. Tolcacher said the boy was not suspended.

Tolcacher insisted it was not a freedom of speech issue, but a concern over the depiction of violence. …

”If this 15-year-old kid in Prosser is perceived as a threat to the president, then we are living in ‘1984’,” Cravens said.

I think the important fact of this story is that a teacher betrayed a student and turned that student over to the government. So much for fostering independent thought and reasoning.

High school students should know they have no rights and no freedom. In this zero tolerance age, all search and seizure is ‘reasonable.’ No doubt this will make for very pliant, docile citizens in the future. mjh

Bush and Kerry Tied Among Likely Voters in New Mexico

George W. Bush and John Kerry are tied among likely voters in New Mexico according to a survey by the American Research Group. A total of 46% of likely voters say they would vote for Bush if the presidential election were being held today and 45% say they would vote for Kerry. A total of 3% of likely voters say they would vote for Ralph Nader and 6% of likely voters are undecided.
In a race between just Bush and Kerry, Bush and Kerry are tied at 47% each, with 6% undecided. …

A total of 45% of likely voters say they have a favorable opinion of Bush and 45% say they have an unfavorable opinion of Bush.

A total of 42% of likely voters say they have a favorable opinion of Kerry and 19% say they have an unfavorable opinion of Kerry.

[Also polled:]
Iowa
Wisconsin
West Virginia
New Hampshire
Florida

This is one of two stories involving photos of flag-draped coffins. In this one, Russ Kick used the Freedom of Information Act (created after Watergate and which Bush does everything he can to shut down) to obtain photos taken by the Department of Defense.mjh

Air Force adds to controversy with its own coffin photos By Hal Bernton and Ray Rivera, Seattle Times

The week before Kuwait cargo worker Tami Silicio lost her job for releasing a photograph of soldiers’ coffins, the Air Force made its own release of several hundred photographs of flag-draped coffins to the operator of an Internet site.

The Air Force photos were shot by personnel at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and released — reluctantly — in response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by a 34-year-old First Amendment activist [Russ Kick].

Release of the more than 360 photographs further erodes a 13-year-old ban on the media taking photos of the transport of coffins from overseas battle zones to Dover, site of the military’s largest mortuary. …

In coming days, there could be more coffin images circulating as Kick’s Web site offers “high-resolution” Dover photos.

Some of the Dover pictures, already posted online, depict rows of flag-draped coffins of American soldiers killed in Iraq being unloaded from Air Force cargo planes. Some show soldiers kneeling to adjust flags on coffins.

In an interview, Kick said he believes the public has a right to see the pictures, and that they are respectful to grieving families.

“I would make the argument that trying to hide the photos of these people who gave everything for their country is actually dishonoring them,” Kick said. “They went over there in all of our names and died, and then when they come back home, they’re hidden behind a curtain. I think that’s wrong.”

Kick, of Tucson, Ariz., initially filed his Freedom of Information Act request in March 2003. The Air Force denied that request. But after he filed an appeal, “to my amazement” the ruling was reversed, he wrote on his Internet site [mjh: www.thememoryhole.org — off-line as I write this].

And on April 14, he received a CD with the 361 images.

Bush: Military should respect family privacy on photos of flag-draped coffins by RANDALL CHASE, CBC News

Democratic Representative Jim McDermott of Washington, who served in the navy during the Vietnam War, said photos of caskets coming home from Vietnam had a tremendous impact on the way Americans came to view that war.

”As people began to see the reality of it and see the 55,000 people who were killed coming back in body bags, they became more and more upset by the war,” he said. ”This is not about privacy. This is about trying to keep the country from facing the reality of war.”

An unrelated story in Wired about other Russ Kick activities. mjh

Wired News: Traveling Down the Memory Hole

As the Sept. 11 commission conducts hearings in Washington to investigate the government’s response to the terrorist attacks, a controversial video of President Bush is making the rounds on the Internet.

The video, which shows Bush sitting in a Florida classroom watching children read for more than five minutes after being told the United States was under siege, has become a popular Internet download. It’s posted on The Memory Hole [owned by Russ Kick], a website dedicated to publishing official data that is hard to find, censored or in danger of being lost.

Google Search: Russ Kick