Asymmetrical Information

Hmmm....

I actually thought that the covering up of the image at the DoJ was a myth.

You mean Ashcroft actually ordered that?

It was my understanding that it was a PR thing as opposed the AG's prudish sensibilities. The PR thing, of course, being impish press photographers making hidden editorial comments by framing the AG with a gigantic breast near his left ear.

It amuses me that this meme has gotten this far.

Klug,

So they DID do it then?

And what's the difference between PR and the AG's sensibilities? If the AG has no prudish sensibilities why would there be any PR problem?

Jane

Great post about the phoniness of the NYT. MoDo had a great hummph about Ashkkkroft wasting $8,000 for drapes.

While this is not your point, of course it was all creative accounting, a/k/a The Big Lie. Someone can make a curtain barrier for $80.

Funny, we never heard that it cost $8,000 for Janet Reno to have some meeting or another, which cost could've been made up by GOP creative accounting from the salaries of all help involved X the # of hours involved.

Funny GT doesn't realize that all pols look for photo ops which won't come back to haunt 'em. Think a Lib Dem would now have his/her photo taken in a govt bldg with the Ten Commandments behind him/her if he/she could avoid it?

TomCom

PR does not appear to be DOJ's strong suit. H.L. Mencken readers wonder if Ms. Barbara Comstock, spokesperson for DOJ in this case, is related to Anthony Comstock (1844-1915) the American reformer who led crusades against obscenity.

Tom,

I just wish those on the right would at least agree on what they are saying.

SO according to you Ashcroft did order spending the money becasue he was personally or politically offended by the statue?

Of course, it's not just those prudish religious right "wackos" draping nudity. Ashcroft has a legitimate PR point (the Times itself ran a photo of Ashcroft with a boob protruding from his head).

What about allegedly liberal feminist professors like Nancy Stumhofer, who back in 1992 had a copy of Goya's "Naked Maja" removed from a classroom, arguing the painting embarrassed her and made her female students "uncomfortable." (Nadine Strossen of the ACLU has more examples of such feminist prudery on campus, but I can't find it right now.)

As our friends on the left would say, isn't it the mission of a college campus to challenge students and make them "uncomfortable"?

See the Naked Maja here: http://www.usc.edu/schools/annenberg/asc/projects/comm544/library/images/633.html

I would oppose Nancy Stumhofer being in charge of Justice as strongly as I oppose Ashcroft.

What is this obsession with Ashcroft and his possible prudishness? It makes me laugh that the AG can arouse this much passion, especially because 'Ooooh! He's a fundamentalist!" I guess the lefties have as much of a hardon for Ashcroft as people did for Reno. Well, live and learn, I guess.

If you would like a pretty sensible review of the incident, click here:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/ashcroft.asp

I'm guessing, GT, if we were to see pictures of you, there'd be a giant naked breast behind your left ear, too, huh? What, it would be distracting?

GT

I don't know for sure who ordered the drape & for what purpose.

I just want to know why you are shocked that a pol might set up a photo op & why a pol might not want a female boob in his ear for the late nite comedians to laff at. And where the $8,000 came from & why MoDo & other reflexive Ashkkkroft haters didn't care how much Janet spent for her froo froo conferences.

(Jeez, the $8,000 could've paid for 10 yrs. of school for Elian G. down there in Cuba!)

TomCom

> I guess the lefties have as much of a hardon for Ashcroft as people did for Reno.

Can't see why--he hasn't roasted anybody yet.

> I guess the lefties have as much of a hardon for Ashcroft as people did for Reno.

Furthermore, in his previous life, he was a well-respected Senator--at least I haven't heard anything comparable to Packwood's or Toricelli's carryings on alleged of him. Reno, on the other hand, was (in)famous for being an enthusiastic follower of the Child Abuse Witch Trial™ hysteria while a prosecutor in Florida.

Kirk

Are you accusing the Hon. J. Reno of McCartyhyite "witchcraft" prosecutions? Shame on you; only Rightwingers can be guilty of McCarthyism. Anyway, she atoned for all that by protecting Elian from the evils of Capitalism!

TomCom

PS: Now we're really getting off our Host's point (MoDo's hissy fit about Ashkkkroft's Comstockian coverup is hypocritical in view of the NYT's similar coverup). I'm guilty of it too with my sidebar on $8,000, which I thought was Enron accounting by the Hate Ashkkkroft crowd, but which Snopes says was the DOJ figure.

If true, & Snopes is usually accurate, then the govt. employee should tell us why he/she paid that much when it would seem that he/she could've gotten, at a fraction of the price, the same thing (a few pipes & some cloth) from one of those home furnishings chains (made by outsourced labor; OK, OK, I'll stop with the wiseguy sidebars).

TomCom

Have you noticed that the same people who object to the covering of Justice's boobs also say exposing Janet Jackson's boob was no big deal? I guess they're just pre-boob. Wait a tick....

As seen in the picture, photographers were positioning their camera angles and their fields of view so as to deliberately belittle the Attorney General of the United States. Those shots were not accidental; professional photographers presumably know how to frame a shot, and editors typically have a variety of photos of the same event from which to choose.

Attorney General Ashcroft apparently decided that since the children at his press conferences couldn't control their giggling, it was time to take away their distraction.

I'm glad he did. His decision had nothing to do with art. It had to do with the increasing pettiness and immaturity of the press corp.

I am with Jeff. Who would like to have breasts above his forehead in every picture taken of them? Even Larry Flynt would object.

More proof that 99% of the Washington Press corps are jerks. The bill for this curtain should be sent to the Press Club.

That's unfortunate. With porn so hard to get these days, I feel sorry for all the folks under 18 who were relaying on Ashcroft's interviews to provide them with a visual stimulus.

That's unfortunate. With porn so hard to get these days, I feel sorry for all the folks under 18 who were relaying on Ashcroft's interviews to provide them with a visual stimulus.

$8,000??? How big are those statues anyhow?

That's a much better looking boob than Janet Jackson's. Just my opinion.

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