Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
The picture is not from the Post:
Quote:
Trying to Put a Finger on a Presidential Gesture
By Peter Baker Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, July 29, 2005; A06
Did President Bush show what he really thinks of the media with a flip of his middle finger? Jay Leno thinks so.
On "The Tonight Show" Wednesday, the late-night comic showed videotape of the president leaving a meeting with congressional Republicans on Capitol Hill earlier in the day and passing by a clutch of reporters shouting questions on the fate of the Central American trade pact. On the video, Bush striding away from the camera suddenly thrusts his right hand into the air and extends a finger -- precisely which one was unclear. White House officials yesterday said it was his thumb.
But there were other interpretations. "I think President Bush is getting a little fed up with the press," Leno said, and he then showed the video to much laughter from the studio audience, which seemed to see it the same way. "What was that all about, huh?" Leno asked. "You see? That's the great thing about the second term: Who cares?"
Certainly Bush does not always have charitable thoughts about journalists, and the video clip quickly made its way onto various Web sites. It was played around Washington yesterday as the curious tried to discern for themselves which presidential digit was raised. The speculation recalled last year's still-unresolved controversy over a hump that seemed to be under Bush's suit coat at one of the campaign debates.
"I was there with him, and I'm just not going to -- I'm not going to dignify that with a response," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said when asked about the finger at his daily briefing, where many days, no doubt, he harbors his own desires to finger his feelings about reporters. "I mean, I haven't seen the video that you're talking about, but I know the way the president acts. And if someone is misportraying it, that's unfortunate."
Unfortunate, but it would not be the first time someone from the administration offered raw commentary on Capitol Hill. When Vice President Cheney ran into one of his leading Democratic critics, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), on the Senate floor one day last year, words were exchanged and the normally mild-mannered veep snapped, "[Expletive] yourself."
Still, none of the journalists on the scene Wednesday reported seeing Bush make a rude gesture. Ken Herman, the Cox News Service correspondent representing other print reporters at the time, did not mention it in his pool report and said by telephone yesterday that he did not see the moment in question. "I think the video is inconclusive but leaning toward thumb," he said after examining the footage. "It's just hard to imagine."
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 7:19 pm Posts: 39068 Location: Chapel Hill, NC, USA Gender: Male
$úñ_DëV|L wrote:
The thread title should be "Bush Flips Off The Media?"
Without the question mark, it's a little misleading...
If I had any doubt ... I'd edit the title.
_________________ "Though some may think there should be a separation between art/music and politics, it should be reinforced that art can be a form of nonviolent protest." - e.v.
Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
There is no chance it is a middle finger either... look at the wrist and finger position... it is quite uncomfortable to mimic that photo with your hand... i really think it is a thumb, but a funny pic nonetheless. And i say this with nothing but utter disgust for this monster. but it is a thumb.
_________________ I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
And the night Jeff Buckley died
And the night Kurt Cobain died
And the night John Lennon died
I remember I stayed up to watch the news with everyone
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:51 pm Posts: 14534 Location: Mesa,AZ
ranting in e-minor wrote:
There is no chance it is a middle finger either... look at the wrist and finger position... it is quite uncomfortable to mimic that photo with your hand... i really think it is a thumb, but a funny pic nonetheless. And i say this with nothing but utter disgust for this monster. but it is a thumb.
Yeah, plus it is a bit short for a middle finger.
_________________
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Joined: Mon Apr 04, 2005 2:18 am Posts: 3920 Location: Philadelphia
Quote:
Yeah, plus it is a bit short for a middle finger.
unless he has a mini me middle finger, then it might be.
_________________ I remember doing nothing on the night Sinatra died
And the night Jeff Buckley died
And the night Kurt Cobain died
And the night John Lennon died
I remember I stayed up to watch the news with everyone
Joined: Sat Feb 12, 2005 6:30 am Posts: 6116 Location: NC
ranting in e-minor wrote:
There is no chance it is a middle finger either... look at the wrist and finger position... it is quite uncomfortable to mimic that photo with your hand... i really think it is a thumb, but a funny pic nonetheless. And i say this with nothing but utter disgust for this monster. but it is a thumb.
I can't see how that is possibly his thumb. If you look at the finger, the space to the left of the finger could easily be his index finger folded into the fist, and to the right of the finger, his ring and pinky fingers folded down. and His thumb could be folded into the fist rather than out of it. How could it be his thumb, it being almost in the middle of his hand?
edit: wait... I kind of see it now. His hand might be at at angle... but I don't know. it could go either way.
Joined: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:46 pm Posts: 9617 Location: Medford, Oregon Gender: Male
The pic is blurry which is causing the illusion. Take your right hand, palm down. Rotate it clockwise 45 degrees, so now your thumb is on top, and your fingers are pointing forward. Make a fist. Stick your thumb up. That's what he's doing.
_________________ Deep below the dunes I roved Past the rows, past the rows Beside the acacias freshly in bloom I sent men to their doom
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 12:06 am Posts: 4258 Location: RM
Peeps wrote:
holy fuck, this is a sin, the world should stop, this is an outrage....
oh, i see, the picture is from the randirhodes show, whew, thank god THEY dont skewer the news any more than FOX does
Yah i hate Bush and the crew as much as teh next guy....it just makes me mad when the people that are suppossed to be agreeing with me act like retards.
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