Saturday, March 06, 2004

9/11 does not belong to George Bush. He's free to use the images of that day to sell his campaign. It's logical, and relevant to his message. And people are free to criticize him for doing so. It gets more complicated if he uses pictures of individuals. If he were to run an ad showing pictures of Doug and Calvin, or include their names on a long list like the one at the 2002 Super Bowl, I would feel sick and angry, even if his point was that nobody else should die like they did. Getting permission from certain friends and family to use particular images is still tricky, because those people wouldn't speak for everyone, any more than the pissed-off protestors of the current ads do. Complicated. 6:27:34 PM    comment []

A scary op-ed in the Times: "a grave problem facing America: the Shiite revival in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein has reinvigorated a Sunni militancy that in turn threatens peace and stability in a broad swath of Asia from Pakistan to Lebanon." Also, how quickly David Brooks forgets. He makes a good point about wealthy candidates: "...the Democrats, the so-called party of the people, who won't nominate a guy unless his family had an upper-deck berth on the Mayflower." Two words from the recent past: Bill Clinton. 5:57:46 PM    comment []