April 17, 2010

A Tea Party composition, reframed and recolorized...

... with an emphasis on the color red.

DSC09073

(Here's the wider view in black and white.)

83 comments:

Unknown said...

Very vivid; I'm assuming a little tweaking of the color values, or did everyone use Cheer on their colored apparel?

Ann Althouse said...

... with an emphasis on the color red.

... but their hearts, unlike that of their President, are red, white, and blue.

Jeremy said...

Do you have an even wider view that shows anybody who is black...or even brown?

Alex said...

As usual Jeremy OBSESSED with race. It's sick man.

Anonymous said...

Those graphic anti-abortion images are disgusting. What is even more disgusting is the way that Rightists - especially religious Rightists - shove those images in the face of everyone else, including very young children. I think that is child abuse; no child should have to deal with the trauma of being exposed to that sort of graphic violence.

Somehow I don't think that terrible graphic truck image was driven there by a Tea Party Infiltrator. No, no... that's the real authentic child-abusing Tea Partier mentality right there.

Or maybe I am all wrong? Perhaps that is not, in fact, an anti-abortion image... Perhaps it is an infant who was killed and charred by one of our fine military people in Iraq or Afghanistan??!

Oh wait... I forgot the fucked-up Rightist mentality: Graphic anti-abortion images are GOOD; graphic war images are BAD.

Sorry, my bad.

You can go back to harming children now.

Alex said...

JRH - I agree about the anti-abortion images. It seems that depending on where a tea party is happening, composed largely of the radical Christian right.

Alex said...

Also I agree - let's show the war images and let the American people decided.

Peter V. Bella said...

Jeremy,
you are soooooooo predictable. Same stupid talking points, same regurgitation of propaganda, same hatred, same old same old, same old. Like a broken record.

You should lay off the recreational pharmaceuticals.

By the way, what have Democrats ever done for people pf color except enslave them. First as property. Then they created a new slavery and plantation. They called it welfare and housing projects. The racist elitist Democrats created the war on poor people.

Funny how no projects were built in liberal suburbs. Funny how liberals moved to all white areas to get away from Blacks and Hispanics. Funny how you people are such fucking hypocrites.

"Love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal."

So keep being a liberal racist.

Alex said...

What I find amazing is that Obama continues to allow the CIA Predator drone strikes that MURDER Afghan babies and the left allows him to get away with it. Sure Bush was the original murderer, but Obama could have canceled it on Jan 20th 2009. But he hasn't. Not only that, but he's intensified them.

Alex said...

To his credit Robert Cook has called out Obama as a murderer of Afghan babies. But not Jeremy, JRH or the rest.

Peter V. Bella said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Alex said...

Peter:

When conservatives do it it is murder, genocide, assassination. when the left does it it is statistics.

True enough. The left are utter hypocrites on the war.

Peter V. Bella said...

Well Alex,
When they do not have the power, they are anti-war. When they have the power assassinating Americans living in Yemen with drones, bombing neighborhoods, family gatherings, pharmaceutical plants, baby formula plants, sending our boys off to be killed is perfectly acceptable.

When conservatives do this, it is murder, genocide, assassination. when the left does it it is statistics.

Anyone who protests liberals are terrorists. Just ask ole Uncle Festus Clinton.

Anonymous said...

So who parked the abortion truck conveniently in the background of your carefully framed photograph, Ann?

And come on Ann, isn't the real reason you're posting this photo to tar the Tea Partyists as anti-abortionists? Folks who had nothing whatsoever to do with those vans.

Geez, Ann, why not just pay someone to carry an "I Hate Niggers" sign while you snap away.

Your photo slimes the people in the foreground and deliberately places them in a false light, people who had nothing whatsoever to do with that truck in the background.

I hope they sue you for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.

It's despicable what you're doing with these photographs, Ann. You're deliberately framing Tea Party Americans as a bunch of fucking whackjobs and by carefully framing your photographs placing innocent individuals in a false light and publishing those photographs.

We have laws in this country, you know.

Unknown said...

One might casually note that more than 9 of 10 African Americans voted for President Obama. Racist? Apparently the Tea Partiers are white in about the same percentage. Racist?

Is Jeremy a racist? I have no idea, but he certainly plays an idiot on this blog.

Alex said...

New Ham - those people in the foreground don't seem to have much of an issue with the abortion truck. I have to assume they are all radical Christian nutjobs.

Alex said...

9/10 African Americans voting for Obama is not racist.

Alex said...

Althouse is simply showing us what is. Remember - cruel neutrality.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Alex said...

New Ham - if those people are in the photograph then they are implicitly anti-abortion whackjobs. I mean come on, I would have noticed the truck and fled immediately. This is why I won't attend any rallies, too many whackjobs around.

Alex said...

Althouse does the Tea Party a favor by exposing the hard Christian right's influence in this.

Trooper York said...

Sometimes you can be more effective if you dial it back just a little.

Just sayn'

Alex said...

Trooper York - anyone who knows my history on this blog knows I lost it after the 2008 elections. I raged and raged for days. But I couldn't do what New Ham does, months at a time. His blood pressure must be pegging by now.

New Ham - I know you feel THE RAGE. But if you look at history as a continuum you're realize that we'll get through this.

garage mahal said...

Sometimes you can be more effective when you haven't lost your damned mind.

Alex said...

garage - I assume you mean Code Pink/PETA/ELF as well?

Alex said...

BTW, where is Code Pink? Obama is murdering Afgan babies and they're nowhere in the streets. I can only assume they were not anti-war, but anti-Bush.

garage mahal said...

They're still at it Alex. I know they attempted two citizens arrests on Karl Rove recently. No I don't have a problem with it.

Anonymous said...

Trooper,

Here is what the left is doing ... attempting to create a false light on Tea Party Americans.

Ann Althouse - a government official we pay with our tax dollars - has sickeningly joined them by posting highly edited photographs designed to expose innocent people in the foreground to public ridicule by placing them in a false light illegally. We have laws against publishers doing this for a reason. It's wrong and immoral.

Ann Althouse owes her readers an apology for her over-the-top depictions of honest Americans participating in the political process as a bunch of anti-abortion nuts just because some third party parked a truck on a public street near a protest.

It's sickening what Ann is doing - deliberately editing blood red photos to heighten the redness and cropping a photograph in such a way as to cast innocent people in this false light.

Alex said...

garage:

They're still at it Alex. I know they attempted two citizens arrests on Karl Rove recently. No I don't have a problem with it.

Ah, just keep demonizing the Bushies. Never mind that Obama keeps murdering Afghan babies. You liberals are really trash. Hypocritical trash.

Trooper York said...

I don't know if she is that deliberate. She just likes to take weird photos of strange juxtapositions.

You should check out her series of dogs urinating.

It's not malicious. It's just strange.

Alex said...

The point is that Althouse professes cruel neutrality and this is evidence of it. Liberals have been accusing Althouse of just being a teabagger lately, and she needs to push back.

Anonymous said...

I don't know if she is that deliberate. She just likes to take weird photos of strange juxtapositions. It's not malicious.

I encourage you to click the larger black and white photograph, Trooper.

The "red version" has been highly edited, admittedly by Ann herself, to showcase the abortion truck and make it even redder than it was in real life. She deliberately goosed the saturation to increase the redness on the bloody fetus in the background on the side of a truck that was parked near this meeting of innocent Americans.

She has also highly cropped the photograph to make it appear as if the truck is central to the Tea Party protest, when in fact, it is parked quite a ways away. she's deliberately done this so as to create the impression that the people in the foreground support the message in the background.

If you look at the original photograph (which Ann has desaturated) on Flickr, it is apparent that this red-colorized photograph (which she has labeled in a post "abortion") was deliberately altered to place those innocent Americans into a false light.

They likely had nothing to do with that truck being parked there and except for Ann Althouse's deceptive editing of the photograph, it is obvious to any general observer that the truck itself or its presence parked on a public street is hardly representative of the views of the people she slimes in the foreground.

She's trying to slime innocent people.

What she is doing is deliberate, it's despicable, it's immoral and I'm certain that it is illegal.

And I hope she's sued for it.

Anonymous said...

Alex said: "BTW, where is Code Pink?"

Actually, I got a message from them the other day.

lucid said...

Ann,

I have often felt that your pictures of or with people are not nearly as good as your other photographs. But this one begins to approach the striking quality you seem to effortleessly achieve with your non-people pictures.

Anonymous said...

"It's not malicious. It's just strange."

Was it malicious when Time Magazine darkened a photograph of O.J. Simpson to make him seem more evil?

This is no different than what Ann has done. She's made the blood-soaked fetus more red, deliberately altering the photograph she took to create a false light impression and using that photograph to hold the innocent people in the foreground up to public ridicule.

It's an amazingly stupid thing for a publisher to do and is widely regarded as being unethical and immoral.

Alex said...

New Ham - the first rule of rallies is: be aware of your surroundings. Those people do not have my sympathy. They are more then likely to be fundies themselves.

chickelit said...

The first thing I noticed in the photo was the beautiful old bank building in the background. It was made with Madison sandstone quarried near Hoyt park I believe.

Anonymous said...

Alex,

The first rule of public streets is that anyone can park any truck anywhere they want to on them.

But when you have useful idiots like Ann Althouse to edit your propoganda photos, then I guess you just have to go with what you have.

Frankly, I think Ann Althouse (who, after all, is part of the elite set of government workers making hundreds of thousands a year in taxpayer salaries and pensions) will find that many of her readers don't appreciate this deliberate sliming of their newfound political party.

And they see right through your little act too.

Remember - In November.

Alex said...

New Ham - I'm on your side. If you keep being paranoid you'll just alienate everyone. Are you implying Althouse is a secret Alinskyite?

rhhardin said...

Red with dog.

chickelit said...

A minor quibble:

That truck is momentarily stopped at a light, not parked. There's a driver visible inside if you enlarge it. Those people in the photo probably never even saw it since they were facing away from it.

wv glyhos = sweet tarts

Anonymous said...

Are you implying Althouse is a secret Alinskyite?

I'm implying that she's deliberately editing and framing photographs she is taking at Tea Party events to place people in a false light.

That truck wasn't put there by the Tea Party. It's a private individual expressing a view that is not being expressed by anyone at a Tea Party rally.

It's offensive what she's done and she should be called to account for it.

This is no different than the Democrats planting racially offensive placards in the crowd so they'll be seen in photographs - except that Ann is deliberately cropping her photographs to create this false light impression and is deliberately editing the blood-red fetus to make it even bloodier.

That's sickening. It's also illegal to place the people in the foreground in this false light in this way as a way of holding them up to ridicule.

I have no idea what her motives are. I expect she's pro-abortion and that is her motive for sliming these innocent Tea Party Americans who probably don't even know that truck is parked there and certainly don't have the power to do anything about it being in the background of her highly-cropped photograph.

Perhaps she can explain herself.

I doubt she'd deign to lower herself to our level to explain how this photograph is anything except a lie she has created.

Alex said...

New Ham - if Althouse was so evil, she'd ban you already or delete all your comments. I say support her quest for Cruel Neutrality!

Anonymous said...

"That truck is momentarily stopped at a light, not parked. There's a driver visible inside if you enlarge it. Those people in the photo probably never even saw it since they were facing away from it."

I can't tell if it's parked, or moving since it's a still photo and because the truck is so far away from the actual crowd of activists, but the people in the foreground who Ann is holding up to public ridicule certainly seem oblivious to it even being there.

It's almost like someone momentarily held up a "I Hate Black People" sign and Ann snapped a photo of it just to create a false narrative. This is no different.

It's obvious what she's doing - from the blood-red fetus she deliberately edited to the tags she chose for this post. She's trying to tar these specific Tea Party Americans as rabid anti-abortionists.

It's highly unethical what she is doing with these altered photographs.

It's also very disappointing.

She should be ashamed to have sunk this low.

Alex said...

New Ham - pictures don't lie.

Anonymous said...

"pictures don't lie."

Pictures can be made to lie if they're edited. And this photo has been deliberately edited to craft an editorial commentary by Ann.

How about it Ann? Was this truck merely driving by when you took the photograph, as it appears to be?

You've painted these innocent people in the foreground as rabid anti-abortionists. Was that fair?

How about it Ann? Was the truck merely passing by when you snapped this photo?

Are you framing these people? Or not?

Ann Althouse said...

How could anyone think the people in the foreground are responsible for a truck that goes by in the background? It's just something interesting that happened that makes the viewer think.

MadisonMan said...

The first thing I noticed in the photo was the beautiful old bank building in the background. It was made with Madison sandstone quarried near Hoyt park I believe.

It is my absolute favorite building in Madison.

Anonymous said...

"How could anyone think the people in the foreground are responsible for a truck that goes by in the background?"

You tagged the post "Tea Party" and "abortion." You cropped the photo to deliberately highlight a passing truck and attempt to make it central to the scene when it was merely passing by on a public roadway.

You titled the post "A Tea Party Composition ..." as if to link the Tea Party protest with the abortion sign.

You're clearly deliberately trying to create linkage between the abortion truck and the people attending the Tea Party protest in the foreground.

You even deliberately edited the fetus to be redder.

And now that you've been called out you deny your own motives?

Alex said...

Wouldn't it be totally awesome if this one photo completely ruined the national Tea Party movement? Like WOW!!!!

MadisonMan said...

I can't tell if it's parked, or moving since it's a still photo and because the truck is so far away from the actual crowd of activists

You can't park where that truck is on the Square.

My guess is that the truck was circling the square.

Anonymous said...

"It's just something interesting that happened that makes the viewer think."

But it didn't "just happen" as you say.

You altered what happened. You edited the photograph to create a scene that was not true. You changed the colors to make the fetus bloodier. You deliberately cropped the photo so that the casual observer would think that it was central to a Tea Party protest. You tagged the post "abortion" and "Tea Party" to reaffirm this linkage.

These things didn't "just happen."

You made them happen. Deliberately.

This viewer thinks you're despicable. And you would do well to remember that publishers live by laws in the United States. And that it is illegal to publish photographs that are deliberately edited so as to depict innocent people in a false light for the purposes of holding them up to public ridicule.

former law student said...

Red will forever stand for Communism and the left in my mind.

How did it do a 180 in recent years?

Remember this 60s hit, my anti-Obama friends:

The east is red, the sun rises.
China has brought forth a Mao Zedong.
He amasses fortune for the people,
Hu er hei yo, he is the people's liberating star.
Chairman Mao loves the people,
He is our guide,
To build a new China,
Hu er hei yo, he leads us forward!
The Communist Party is like the sun,
Wherever it shines, there is light.
Wherever there is a Communist Party,
Hu er hei yo, there the people are free!

MadisonMan said...

Maybe I shouldn't state the obvious, but Red in Madison means one thing: Bucky! Go UW!

Trooper York said...

The first rule of public streets is....always pass by the guy on the soapbox screaming at the top of his lungs until spittle comes spewing out of his mooosh.

The second rule....Brad Pitt is a pussy.

Chip Ahoy said...

Good one, Anne.

Anonymous said...

"Good one, Anne."

Take a good long look, Ann, at the names of the commenters who are congratulating you on the way you've framed these people.

I think you'll find some uniformity in their political beliefs.

Do you really want to be a member of their ilk?

Didn't your mistake in voting for Barack Obama teach you anything, Ann?

Not to mention the lesson - clearly lost on you - of the Oregon teacher on his way to losing his job today because he was trying to falsely portray Tea Party activists.

Careful, Ann.

Michael McNeil said...

As the 04-15 New York Times' (you know: that paragon of rightist sentiment) poll on the tea partiers reveals, people who self-identify with the tea party movement share with the poll's general public's respondents almost exactly the same conviction that economic issues are most important right now (78% for the former vs. 80% for the latter) and even more nearly the belief that social issues are equally unimportant: 14% vs. 13%. Thus the prevalent left-wing meme that the tea parties have been taken over by right-wing social and religious extremists is completely false.

MamaM said...

I prefer the composition of the black and white photo. I like the tree in the center flanked on either side by the two buildings, the planted flags and the way the people are all looking different directions. It captures the tone, growth and uncertainty of the movement.

For me, the colored photo doesn't have the pull or interest of the B and W. But I like the invitation to take a second look.

For judicious use of red and brevity of title, I'm voting for Rhhardin's Red with Dog

Alex said...

interesting comment on Reason.com

Some Guy|4.17.10 @ 12:58PM|#
earlier I happened to peruse a new CBS/New York Times poll detailing the attitudes of tea party activists, who, it turns out, are more educated than the average American, more reflective of mainstream anxieties than any populist movement in memory

I read that poll, too. Convenient confirmation that the Tea Party is no more interested in reducing deficits than anyone else. They want "smaller government" except for anything that they get personal benefit from.

I wanted to go to a Tea Party and ask everyone in attendance whether they wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare benefits, then tell anyone who replied 'no' to shove their signs up their lying asses.


That's a great point. Most teabaggers are flaming hypocrites when it comes to spending. I especially love it when the media catches 'baggers with their Medicare cards!

Alex said...

Another example of the hypocrisy of teabaggers:

Laugh all the way to the poorhouse

Chip Ahoy said...

Sometimes those anti abortion activists go way too far.

(I hate myself)

Alex said...

Chip Ahoy - are you accusing Althouse of photoshopping the truck with a dead fetus?

Chip Ahoy said...

Alex, are you being thick?

Trooper York said...

Hey Chip did you notice that the aborted fetus kind of looks like a "Tickle Me Elmo?"

themightypuck said...

I saw Elmo as well. Sick but funny Chip Ahoy.

garage mahal said...

I happened to peruse a new CBS/New York Times poll detailing the attitudes of tea party activists, who, it turns out, are more educated than the average American, more reflective of mainstream anxieties than any populist movement in memory

88% of this "tax movement" in that same poll didn't know their taxes went down last year. educated perhaps. Informed, uh no

Alex said...

garage - there were no tax rate reductions, only 1-time tax credits or increase in deductions. A totally transparent attempt to buy an election. We see through you.

Fen said...

LibtardAlex: That's a great point. Most teabaggers are flaming hypocrites when it comes to spending

Thats your great point? That less government/less spending = no government/no spending?

Seriously?

Damn, you Libtards really ARE idiots.

Revenant said...

Those graphic anti-abortion images are disgusting.

You might want to reflect on why they seem disgusting to you.

I think that is child abuse; no child should have to deal with the trauma of being exposed to that sort of graphic violence.

As a follow-up to the above, you might want to reflect on how a simple medical procedure to remove an unwanted growth from a woman's body could qualify as "graphic violence".

It seems to me that you are playing into the hands of the religious right by implicitly arguing that the fetus has been the victim of violence, and that a picture of it is more disturbing than, say, a picture of an uncooked pot roast or some other unimportant piece of meat.

Revenant said...

88% of this "tax movement" in that same poll didn't know their taxes went down last year.

Probably because they didn't.

KCFleming said...

Weird; you hardly ever seen trucks with bacon advertising on them.

Anonymous said...

@Revenant-

As a follow-up to the above, you might want to reflect on how a simple medical procedure to remove an unwanted growth from a woman's body could qualify as "graphic violence".

It seems to me that you are playing into the hands of the religious right by implicitly arguing that the fetus has been the victim of violence, and that a picture of it is more disturbing than, say, a picture of an uncooked pot roast or some other unimportant piece of meat.


Oh, fuck you, you stupid cocksucking Alinskyite motherfucker!

You seem to think that because I find the image disgusting, I must be on the Democrat "side" and be all pro-abortion and all that.

Well, I'm not on their "side".

If there is one thing I hate about modern America, it's the fact that the country is filled with irritating assholes like Revenant who assume that everyone falls into either the Democrat Left or Republican Right camp.

Anonymous said...

@Althouse-

How could anyone think the people in the foreground are responsible for a truck that goes by in the background? It's just something interesting that happened that makes the viewer think.

Oh, come on. I don't think that truck being there was just a coincidence. Those disgusting anti-abortion images are intended to be noticed in the most provocative way. Even if the truck people are not Tea Partiers, it's likely they knew the Tea Party thing was going on and specifically brought the truck there to be seen.

Was the truck driving in circles around the block over and over?

Ann Althouse said...

Julius, I certainly think the truck was there to be part of the event, but I don't think the people who are standing and facing the other way have any idea it's there or any connection to it. They are all just different things/people attracted to the same event. It is what it is. The abortion truck would probably pull up to a pro-choice rally too.

Synova said...

"(I hate myself)"

I hate myself that I thought that was really funny.

Synova said...

I also think that the idea that Rev would think that everyone falls into Dem-left and Rep-right groups is sort of funny too.

Synova said...

And really... the graphic photo? It's no worse than what shows up on prime time network "forensic" television. My kids are older now, but the small kids I know seem to take something like Bones or CSI pretty much in stride.

Unless it's the subject matter more than the graphicness? Maybe small children will be harmed by the idea that people kill babies?

I can see how that might upset kids. I suppose that they ought to be protected from any suggestion that they feel insecure about the world they live in.

Sort of like terrorizing them about dying polar bears or the world burning up or flooding or other AGW catastrophe.

Children deserve to feel secure.

Revenant said...

You seem to think that because I find the image disgusting, I must be on the Democrat "side" and be all pro-abortion and all that.

I figured my post would push your buttons whichever side you were on. It worked.

irritating assholes like Revenant who assume that everyone falls into either the Democrat Left or Republican Right camp.

It is funny that a person who rants about "Rightists" would complain about people being pigeonholed. :)

Anyway, I wouldn't assume the truck was part of the rally. There's a similar sign truck here in San Diego that circles around downtown whenever any major public event takes place there -- Padres games, Comicon, you name it. I assume they're aiming to shock as many people as possible and/or get on TV.

Opus One Media said...

(viewed in black and white?)

frankly I see only white.

Roger J. said...

HD--you may see only white but you hear only Olbermann--May want to check some recent polling data on the composition of the tea party movement--that assumes of course you can read, and think--two unlikely assumptions.

Anonymous said...

Peter V. Bella:

Further to your 4/17/10 5:09 P.M. comment, Lenin said it, and Alinsky cited it in Rules for Radicals, although I paraphrase here;
When they have the power we exact change through the ballot. When we have the power, it is with the bullet.

MamaM said...

Old saw from childhood...
"I see" said the blind man, when he didn't see at all.


When HDHouse frankly says he sees only white, I believe him.

Synova said...

But (as someone already mentioned) Wisconsin is pretty much all white.

It's like Minnesota that way. Other than pockets of newly arrived Somalis and a few places in only the very largest urban centers with significant African American populations... not only are these states white... they're primarily Scandinavian. A Southern European looks down-right swarthy.

In all likelihood the Tea Party rally in Madison accurately represented the demographics of the state.

But don't expect that to stop HDhouse making an ignorant statement attempting to extrapolate unrepresentative data from a local area to the rest of the nation.