Bush in Biloxi: The fine art of the "carefully orchestrated backdrop"

[Human Torch]

Bush Cites Progress in Gulf Coast Visit

By ANNE E. KORNBLUT and DAVID STOUT
Published: August 28, 2006



http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/28/washington/28cnd-bush.html

BILOXI, Miss., Aug. 28 — On the eve of the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, President Bush returned to the devastated Gulf Coast today promising to continue federal assistance, and eagerly pointing out signs of progress. “It’s amazing, isn’t?” he told a gathering under a sweltering sun. “It’s amazing what the world looked like then and what it looks like now.”

Mr. Bush, his presidency still marred one year later by the slow government response to the storm, spent the afternoon demonstrating his empathy and optimism in meetings with residents and officials along the storm-wracked coast. The trip marked an attempt by Mr. Bush to recast the legacy of the year before, when he lingered on the other side of the country before cutting short his vacation to deal with the crisis.

Mr. Bush acknowledged that, for some, rebuilding may have been so gradual as to seem non-existent. But, Mr. Bush said: “For a fellow who was here and now a year later comes back, things have changed.”

Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass.

[Disturbed]

1. Busholini, the Photo Op

selected Resident.

[Supersedeas]

9. the Photoop Snowjob Presidency continues

[Eurobabe]

2. Push the camera off Bush like they did with Powell

Remember that interview with Colin Powell, where the camera operator pushed the camera off of him during an interview and focused squarely on the ocean backdrop? They need to do this to Bu$h the lying sack of shiite that he is....expose his ass.

OOOPS, so sorry Mr. pResident!

[radfringe]

3. Hey, isn't that the Potemkin's house....?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potemkin_village

Potemkin villages were, purportedly, fake settlements erected at the direction of Russian minister Grigori Aleksandrovich Potemkin to fool Empress Catherine II during her visit to Crimea in 1787. Conventional wisdom has it that Potemkin, who led the Crimean military campaign, had hollow facades of villages constructed along the desolate banks of the Dnieper River in order to impress the monarch and her travel party with the value of her new conquests, thus enhancing his standing in the empress's eyes.

Modern historians, however, consider this scenario of self-serving deception to be, at best, an exaggeration, and quite possibly simply malicious rumors spread by Potemkin's opponents. Potemkin did mount efforts to develop the Crimea and probably directed peasants to spruce up the riverfront in advance of the party bringing the empress by boat to the Crimea. But the tale of elaborate, fake settlements, the glowing fires of which were designed to comfort the monarch and her entourage as they surveyed the barren territory at night, is largely fiction. Potemkin had in fact directed the building of fortresses, ships of the line, and thriving settlements, and the tour – which saw real and significant accomplishments – solidified his power.

So, while "Potemkin village" has come to mean, especially in a political context, any hollow or false construct, physical or figurative, meant to hide an undesirable or potentially damaging situation; the irony is that, in fact, there appears to have been no such thing.

"Potemkin village" has also frequently been used to describe the attempts of the Soviet government to fool foreign visitors. The government would take such visitors, who were often already sympathetic to socialism or communism, to select villages, factories, schools, stores, or neighborhoods and present them as if they were typical, rather than exceptional. Given the strict limitations on the movement of foreigners in the USSR, it was often impossible for these visitors to see any other examples. <1>

This practice was certainly not confined to the Soviet Union, but rather has been common in countries with "actually existing socialism." "The Big Fish" is a famous story from People's Republic of China which deals with the visit in the early 1970s of foreigners to an urban market Potemkin Village (Chen: 135-150).

It has been applied even more widely. The term always carries a tone of disapproval or extreme doubt. It has been used to describe Iraq--both by those on the right to criticize Saddam (Ledeen) and those on the left to criticize Bush (Raimondo)--as well as North Korea (Sullivan). It has even been used to describe something as remote from the original meaning as hype in the Internet business in Ireland (AircomTribunal).

[Lisa]

10. in time, the term "Bush Backdrop" will surpass that phrase!

More examples of the White House's intricate stage-management:

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/


Great article on the "Mission Accomplished" photo-op:

http://www.peaceaware.com/papers/Bush_Top_Gun.htm

[ixion]

4. You are no 'fellow', Herr *

You are reptile, at best.


There's a very telling phrase he used.

“The truth of the matter is, we can work together and will, but when disaster strikes, the first people that you rely upon, the people that matter most, are your friends,” Mr. Bush said at another point. “It’s friends helping friends that turns out to make an enormous difference in saving lives and helping to get by the trauma of the first days.”


This is a quaint way of saying that you're on your own.


“A year ago, I committed our federal government to help you,” he said. “I said we have a duty to help the local people recover and rebuild. I meant what I said.”

I find the phrase 'local people' to be of interest, and curious at best. These are US Citizens, not a remote tribe in Borneo.

[ClintonTyree]

5. He's got his sleeves rolled up again............

:eyes: like he's actually going to DO something. Same as the "heck of a job, Brownie" photo event a year ago. Everything is a photo-op for this horrible little man. We all know that nothing actually gets done.

[bluerum]

6. Dutiful, sycophantic US press corp.

I have 0 respect for the profession these days.

[ms liberty]

7. The media could have blown him out of the water, just by panning

the cameras as he was speaking. Did they do it? No. Effing enablers. I'm so sick of this crap, I could just hurl.

[radfringe]

8. anyone else notice

The red "x" on the house? just beneath the overhanging branches... hehehheheh.. wonder if the photographer did it accidently on purpose?



Today's toon Meet the POTEMKINS: http://radfringe.tripod.com/