The photographer who took the "Mission Accomplished" pic? Larry DOWNING.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

How's THAT for irony?

Note to Mr. Downing: I LOVED your STREET MINUTES!

:toast:



Wag the Turkey
Bush’s Thanksgiving in Baghdad was the latest in a string of expertly staged presidential image-burnishing media productions

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3660806/

web exclusive
By Brian Braiker

Dec. 5, 2003 - The photograph was ubiquitous in the days following Thanksgiving. President Bush, all smiles and sporting an Army windbreaker, appears to be serving turkey to surprised American troops in Baghdad.

Bush's bird is big and luscious, golden brown and generously garnished. But, The Washington Post reported on Thursday, the bird was just a prop. Soldiers were actually served from steam trays; the White House said the turkey in the photograph was simply on hand to prettify the chow line.

The revelation is the latest in a series of stagecrafted moments designed to shine an impossibly perfect light on the president. Turkeygate unfolded merely one day after British Airways announced that none of its pilots made contact with President Bush’s plane during its secret flight to Baghdad, despite White House claims of a dramatic midair exchange that nearly prompted Bush to call off his trip. On May 1, Bush landed on the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln and, in front of a giant banner emblazoned MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, declared “major combat operations have ended.” Six month later he would deny that his staff had hung the banner there, though there’s little doubt they had. To give a speech in New York after September 11, Bush brought in extremely powerful lights to illuminate the Statue of Liberty behind him; for a talk he delivered at Mount Rushmore, cameras were positioned so Bush’s profile was perfectly aligned with the presidents carved in stone.

[HR_Pufnstuf]

1. yee-ha

"Get Down-ing!"