Speaking of misrepresenting Muslim people and nations, DCeiver tells us about Howard Kaloogian, a GOP Congressional hopeful in California who posted a lovely image of downtown Baghdad and wagged his shaming finger at the U.S. media for painting a grim portrait of a region where peace still obtains. Of course, by "Baghdad," Kaloogian meant "Bakırköy," a suburban area of Istanbul located 1,000 miles northwest of Iraq. 'S where the airport is. Nice sea coast, giant nightclubs, huge Western shopping mall. Not so much with the GWOT.
Needless to say it was a courageous citizen journalist who fingered Kaloogian, deftly recognizing the Turkish script plastered all over the ads in the picture. (Note to the 'loogian: "edo" is a popular ice-cream franchise. You can't swing your fez in Istanbul without landing your tassle in their dondurma.) So bloggers strike again, and that may very well be the point to take away: in the wake of Ben Domenech, America's enemies are back to doing what they do best.
Posted by Kriston at March 29, 2006 2:36 PMSorry, folks, if that showed up in your RSS readers 12 times. It took me a minute to get the characters in Bakırköy right.
Posted by: Kriston at March 29, 2006 3:33 PMA new photo is up on Kaloogian's site in place of the Turkish one. Honest mistake - they hit Turkey on their way back from Baghdad and the photos got mixed up.
I believe it, sure I do.
Posted by: T: Central at March 30, 2006 9:42 AMThe 'loogian's site isn't working right now, but maybe that's a reasonable mistake. And I'm sure it's possible to find rosy photo-ops in Baghdad. But it's condescending and beyond absurd at this point to hold the line that the media has conspired to hide the fact the war has gone very well and that Iraqis appreciate what's happening in their country right now.
Posted by: Kriston at March 30, 2006 10:40 AMHa, well, forget what I said about rosy picture-postcards—the updated Baghdad show was taken from space. What do you get when you cross a chickenhawk with a shutterbug?
Posted by: Kriston at March 30, 2006 11:25 AMMore awesome still, the 'loogian didn't scrub the metadata from that photo, which proves that the aerial photo wasn't even snapped during his vacation. This guy's a crappy liar—he'll be perfect for the House.
Posted by: Kriston at March 30, 2006 12:39 PM