do you know of the paintings smirk hung on the oval off. wall?

[donsu]

http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/04/26/torture_policy/


From Norman Rockwell to Abu Ghraib
To understand how Bush justifies a torture policy that is the bane of our nation, consider the sentimental cowboy art that decks his Oval Office walls.


-snip-

The notion that there might be an aesthetic that informs the Bush presidency would seem to be an unfair and artificial imposition on a man who prizes his intuition ("I'm a gut player") and openly derides complication ("I don't do nuance") -- that is, if Bush himself did not insist on the connection. Indeed, he appears on the official White House Web site, conducting a tour of the art and artifacts he has chosen to decorate the Oval Office, assuming the duty of docent himself. He holds forth on the large windows and the rug with rays of the sun emanating from the seal of the president and the provenance of his desk before getting to the artwork. (On April 19, Bush recounted to a crowd in Tipp City, Ohio, a story he has told many times, of how he commissioned his wife, Laura, to design the rug and then in defense of his Iraq policy simply remarked, "Remember the rug?")

"Each president can put whatever paintings he wants on the wall. I've chosen some paintings that kind of reflect my nature," Bush says in his video tour. He points to portraits of Abraham Lincoln ("The job of the president is to set big goals for the country") and George Washington ("You couldn't have the Oval Office without George Washington on the wall") and pats busts of Lincoln ("You can tell he's one of my favorites"), Dwight Eisenhower ("steady") and Winston Churchill ("gift of the British prime minister ... Churchill was a war leader ... resolute, tough").

Bush takes special pride in pointing out two paintings he has hung that highlight his motives and legacy. He consciously placed these pictures in the Oval Office at the beginning of his tenure to serve as prescient cultural markers. "The Texas paintings are on the wall because that's where I'm from and where I'm going," he says.

One of them, by little-known painter and illustrator William Henry Dethlef Koerner, titled "A Charge to Keep," depicts a hatless cowboy followed by two other riders galloping up a hill. Their faces are intent as they pursue some quarry in the distance that cannot be seen by others. Or are they being chased? "I love it," Bush said, further explaining his intimate feeling for the painting to reporters and editors of the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper. He offered his interpretation: "He's a determined horseman, a very difficult trail. And you know at least two people are following him, and maybe a thousand." Bush added that the painting is "based" on an old hymn. "And the hymn talks about serving the Almighty. So it speaks to me personally." When he was governor of Texas and the painting hung in his office, Bush wrote a note of explanation to his staff: "This is us."

-snip-

In 1995, at Bush's inaugural as governor of Texas, his wife, Laura, selected an 18th century Methodist hymn, written by Charles Wesley, titled "A Charge to Keep." Its words in part are:

A charge to keep I have,
A God to glorify,
A never-dying soul to save,
And fit it for the sky.

To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill:
O may it all my powers engage
To do my master's will!

After the ceremony, one of Bush's childhood friends, Joseph I. "Spider" O'Neill, managing partner of his family's oil and investment company, told him that he owned a painting, remarkably enough titled "A Charge to Keep," and that he would happily lend it to the governor. O'Neill and his wife, who attended Southern Methodist University with Laura, as it happened had also played Cupid in arranging the first date between George and Laura. Presented with the cowboy painting, Bush enthusiastically displayed it at the Governor's Mansion and now the White House.

The idea of Bush as a Christian cowboy, dashing upward and onward to fulfill the Lord's commandments, inspired him to title his campaign autobiography (written by his then communications advisor, Karen Hughes) "A Charge to Keep: My Journey to the White House." Sample: "I could not be governor if I did not believe in a divine plan that supersedes all human plans."

-snip-

In his private study off the Oval Office, Bush displays another artifact, but one that is not featured on the Web site tour -- Saddam Hussein's pistol, seized after U.S. soldiers captured him in December 2003. "It's now the property of the U.S. government," Bush announced at a press conference shortly afterward. The president has had the gun mounted like a trophy. "He really liked showing it off," a visitor told Time magazine. In his fortress of solitude, surrounded by images of the rider and the Alamo, the determined pursuer and the last stand, the gun has become a token of Bush's inevitable victory.
-snip-
--------------------------------


simpletons in the White House

if what I posted makes you nauseous, the snips will make you throw up.

[Buzz Clik]

1. Interesting. I'd seen his "Study of the Three Stooges in Fingerpaints" that he did in rehab.

I had no idea of the other...

[EstimatedProphet]

2. Bush's usual paintings are hung on the refrigerator, aren't they?

[Cabcere]

39. Haha!

:spray: :thumbsup: Nice.

[Ganja Ninja]

3. What a self absorbed pretentious loser.

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so tragic. The man is a flesh and blood cartoon character.

[Beausoleil]

11. Like this cartoon character?

http://www.progressivedailybeacon.com/more.php?id=1508&ARCHIVAL=TRUE

The problem is that they can surround Mister Bush with the entire U.S. military and wrap him in the flag of every branch of service and it won't matter. He'll still be the Vietnam War draft-dodging chump that played dress up on an aircraft carrier, so that he could declare "mission accomplished" in a war that's only now, more than four years on, getting started. George W. Bush doesn't look like a tough guy when he calls press conferences and utters silly threats and gibberish...it makes him look like Yosemite Sam AFTER Bugs Bunny has him so flabbergasted that he's on the verge of blowing off his own face with his own pistol.

Not only do the staged macho moments make Mister Bush look like Yosemite Sam, but he comes across as a petty, rage-filled brat in the midst of an uncontrolled temper tantrum. Still, nothing makes George W. Bush appear more pathetic than in those moments that he accuses the Democrats of playing politics with the "troops" and then he turns right round and makes those same "troops" his hostages by threatening to keep them away from their families until the Democrats give into his demands.

It is time, perhaps, Mister Bush and his handlers realized that he is in no position to be picking fights or to be playing the macho part. What's more, if he keeps threatening to hold the "troops" hostage...George W. Bush is going to find himself in a whole lot of political trouble. And in that fight, his child-like Yosemite Sam routine won't impress anybody.

[Ganja Ninja]

17. He's more of a composite character.

The insanity of Daffy Duck + the belligerence of Yosemite Sam + the stubborn persistence and bum luck of Wile E. Coyote + a generous dose of arrogance and self entitlement.

[Beausoleil]

19. But he probably thinks he's a cross

between Bugs Bunny and the Roadrunner.

[Catshrink]

4. I expected he'd have this one...

or one like it:



or this -- righting the ship of state?

[wordpix]

5. "the gun has become a token of Bush's inevitable victory"---HUH?

His inevitable defeat, it should be.

[Cabcere]

38. Hmm, that's interesting...

I would've thought it was more of a phallic symbol. :shrug: Go figure.

[WinkyDink]

6. He loves that rug, doesn't he? The Sun King. L'etat, c'est moi.

[thereismore]

7. The Charge to Keep is full of symbolism:

"A Charge to Keep," depicts a hatless cowboy followed by two other riders galloping up a hill. Their faces are intent as they pursue some quarry in the distance that cannot be seen by others. Or are they being chased? "I love it," "This is us."



Bush** is riding a horse into an uphill battle. The horse symbolizes the nation. The riders following him are Laura and Barney, his only supporters in sight. The quarry cannot be seen by others because it is in fact not there. It is in his head only. He is not wearing a hat because he never had any.

[malachi]

9. Isn't El Diablo afraid of horses?

[alphafemale]

10. Well the only known photo of * on a horse is one where he's about 5. And that's a stuffed one.

A studio prop.

http://imgred.com/

[Bridget Burke]

49. No, that's a real pony.

Photographers used to go house to house with ponies & take pictures of kids. Mine was done in South Dakota.

But Bush never learned to ride. Too bad that Bush the Smarter never bothered to invest in Texas--he probably could have gotten some real Hill Country land before prices went up.

[enid602]

8. irony

What an irony if he pulls a Cho on himself with SH's pistol.

[jmowreader]

21. Which is why the Secret Service welded the slide

Let me ask you something: if you had to work around that man, would YOU let him have an operable handgun?

Well, neither would they.

[Marie26]

12. The picture:

He even looks a little like Bush. But there's nobody else following those two solitary cowboys. I think it's interesting that Bush has to keep all these symbols around. It's almost like he doesn't know who he is, so he has to keep modeling himself on these characters (the noble cowboy, the Sun King, the victorious warrior).

[thereismore]

14. Actually, it kind of reminds me of Custer spurring his men into

a fanatical pursuit of the Indians on the eve of his death. Or Captain Ahab. Just a fanatic with no regard for the horse or his men, who is not going to end up well. He is a tragic and sad character. See the depressive black and blue tones?

[Marie26]

35. Totally

This picture is facinating to me. It's not at all what I envisioned from the title - a picture of a glorious leader guiding his people to the promised land. Instead, it's a picture of obsession. This man has lost his hat, has left behind his companions, has exhausted his horse, and he doesn't care. His gaze is totally fixed on the horizon, and he is driven to the point of obsession toward some elusive goal that might only exist in his mind. The colors aren't hopeful or optimistic; instead it's bleak and harsh. This picture does not have a happy ending.

I want to tell Bush "this painting doesn't mean what you think it means." The artist originally painted it as an illustration for a short story called "The Slipper Tongue", and it was later re-printed for a story called "Ways that Are Dark". Hardly hopeful titles. It was only re-named "A Charge to Keep" much later. I'd be interested to read the short story that inspired this painting - it'd be ironic if this story was actually about robbers, or a doomed raid. The painting is almost a perfect symbol for Bush himself, who thinks he has a noble "charge to keep", but is actually motivated by ways that are dark, spin, lies and slips of tongue. In this way, he is a kind of tragic & sad character. It's also illuminating in one other way - Bush will never, ever, withdraw from Iraq. He doesn't care what happens to the troops, the country, or himself.

[Beausoleil]

23. It's a group of bandits

after they ripped off the stage and are high-tailing it for Paraguay. The one in front had his hat blasted off his head while making his escape. He's obviously the decider of the group. His saddlebags are just bristling with loot. The colors are muted because they are making their getaway in the dark of night. The one bringing up the rear is called "Poppy". I think they winged him.

[Lisa]

27. you said it --- surrounded by symbols, and meanwhile he is an empty shell

They try putting him into a fighter pilot or cowboy costume, but the vacancy shows. The handtooled boots with the presidential seal, the flag lapel pin, the monogrammed T-shirts -- it's as if he will forget who he is, without the constant reminders.

I suspect those two cowboys in the painting are yelling, "Stop, you idiot -- there's a cliff!"

[Marie26]

36. That's a great way of putting it.

That's what creeps me out about Bush. Even though Cheney is evil, in his interviews, I get the sense of a real presence, a real personality there. With Bush, it's different - it's like there's nothing at the core of him; like there's no there there. You know? He keeps trying on these different roles and different symbols to cover up the fact that he's empty inside.

[kskiska]

33. The same way he has to have his name & title embroidered on his clothes

I guess he figures that if it's stitched on it must be true.

[Ghost in the Machine]

37. To *me* it looks like a desperate man fleeing in terror from an angry mob.

How prophetic!

[Rick Myers]

13. Where's the painting of the cowboy riding a golf cart while hugging a Saudi prince?

:grr:

[Iwasthere]

15. That's it! Custers last stand.

This SOB * is Custer reincarnated. Asshole is going to get us ALL killed.

[teamster633]

16. I have to protest.

Custer was at least a distinguished soldier who saw real combat. Little Boots would quickly abandon his delusions if they required any personal courage or sacrifice.

[blogslut]

18. Thank heaven he "doesn't drink" anymore

Can you imagine him getting all blotto and chasing fat Karl down the halls of the White House with Saddam's gun?

Now, that's entertainment!

[Joe Fields]

20. What, no velvet Elvis?

[EstimatedProphet]

22. Or the dogs playing poker for that matter

Or a Gigi paintin of a little child with oversized gigantic tearful eyes.

[Joe Fields]

25. dogs playing poker is at the Crawford "ranch."

[Lisa]

26. next to his talking Billy Bass

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2001-04-13-bush-house.htm

[Joe Fields]

29. bwahahahaha!!!

[Coventina]

24. Bush doesn't know anything about Charles Wesley

or being a true Methodist.

What a self-important little puke.

:puke:

[donsu]

28. a real cowboy wouldn't ask his horse to run full tilt up a rocky

hill unless it was an acute emergency

[Lisa]

30. but a photo-op IS an "acute emergency", donsu!

Georgie wouldn't hesitate to make that call, if there were CNN cameras to posture in front of. After all, he delayed the return home of an aircraft carrier full of service personnel, just for his "Mission Accomplished" show. And if he's sending hundreds of thousands of troops into danger just to shore up his own ego, what's the sacrifice of a horse or two?

[donsu]

31. true

nt

[kskiska]

32. What strikes me regarding the Oval Office decorations

is the difference between the Clinton Oval Office, where the built-in bookshelves were filled with books, and the * Oval Office, where there are nothing but baseballs on display on those shelves.

[Lisa]

41. there's a very revealing photo from 2000 ...

Featured in Biography Magazine that fall, I believe.

It's a close-up of Bush's office. The desk is vacant except for a baseball and a couple of thin spiral-bound documents, looking pristine (probably unopened).

The next picture is of Al Gore's office. The desk is piled with books and documents -- also odd bits of machinery, unusual stones, feathers, and children's art. I remember that my dad used to chide me about my workspace -- "a messy desk is a messy mind". I used to retort, "in that case, what's a empty desk?".

[calimary]

42. YES!!! What is an empty desk???

Great! I'm gonna remember that one next time somebody gives me a hard time about my messy desk.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

34. I'm surprised the Chimp didn't have Saddam's penis cut off and mounted next to the pistol

One of the aspects of the Iraq fiasco was about the Chimp capturing and taking away Saddam's manhood and wasting the U.S. military, the lives of young American soldiers, our treasury, and our international prestige just so a Chimp could try to assert his own cowboy, chest-thumping manhood.

[merh]

40. the only image of the smirk on a horse

It captures the true childlike nature of the leader, the spirit of the "man" -- the phony on his pony.

[alphafemale]

44. Not only a "phony on his pony" put a "phony pony" that pony is a stuffed prop

The staged photo ops started early

[merh]

45. No shit?

How can you tell the pony is a stuffed prop?

wow, early staged photo ops in costumes, heh

[alphafemale]

48. The pony looks stuffed. The background is fake.

That's an indoor studio shot that doesn't look at all convincing.

[alphafemale]

47. delete posted wrong spot

[highplainsdem]

43. Jonathan Hutson's analysis of the painting at Talk To Action:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/5/12/7393/57216

Horseshit! Bush and the Christian Cowboy
By Jonathan Hutson
Fri May 12, 2006 at 07:39:03 AM EST

David Gergen believes that Bush's identification with Mr. Koerner's painting says something important about the qualities of his leadership. And Mr. Gergen knows something about what presidential leadership requires. He advised Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Clinton, and now directs the Center for Public Leadership as a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In the Fall 2003 issue of the school's magazine Compass: A Journal on Leadership, Gergen wrote:

"Bush's personal identification with the painting, which now hangs in the Oval Office, reveals a good deal about his sense of himself as a political leader--who he thinks he is, the role he plays, and the centrality of his religious faith.... His followers today tend to see in Bush what he sees in the painting: a brave, daring leader riding fearlessly into the unknown, striking out against unseen enemies, pulling his team behind him, seeking, in the words of Wesley's hymn, "to do my Master's will." They see him as a straight shooter and a straight talker. They take comfort in his religious faith and think he is leading us toward a mountaintop."

Ah, horseshit. He's riding recklessly up a cliff, believing he's on a God-given mission and enjoying it so much that he does not heed whether his horse is about to get crippled on the slick shale underfoot. The President, in macho mode, cannot imagine the possibility of leading his imaginary Christian nation right off a cliff. And so that is just what happens. As the Good Book says, "They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them.... In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them." (Deuteronomy 32:28, 35)

-snip-

But now there is a Koerner painting that does aptly illustrate the Bushie presidency. It's called "Boiling Over." The piece graced the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in 1925 and it reads like a parody of the one that Bushie calls "A Charge To Keep." Here, the reckless cowboy is replaced by a feckless driver. And the horse in danger of becoming crippled is replaced by an overheated jalopy. Our modern-era western rider is slipping the transmission belts of a 1925 Ford Model T touring car, trying in vain to tackle a rocky slope. He leans forward as if to spur his suffering mount, while his Ma and girlfriend throw him icy stares. Two dogs are along for the ride; one decides to bail. The dog is hanging his head over the side door, looking for a way out of this lunacy. As the car cruises to a halt, shy of the mountain peak, radiator sputtering in crisis, the dog spots a clear landing and prepares to make a leap of faith. The dog, at least, appears smart enough to scout the ground first, so he does not land in a pile of horseshit.

You can see that other Koerner painting on that page. Hutson's right - it's a much better illustration of Bush's presidency.

[Lurking Dem]

46. I thought it was going to be this one: