Twins, or as one of my commenters said, "Red(State)Rum"

Original photograph here. Open Thread below..

(via HuffPo. click for full-size image of both horrendous photoshop jobs)

In case you needed any more proof that FOX News is produced by 12 year olds with the temperament of 5 year olds (not to mention the Photoshop skills of 8 year olds), here you go. After NYT reporters Jacques Steinberg and Steve Radicliffe wrote a story critical of the propaganda news station, Fox & Friends hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade get their revenge by showing very poorly photoshopped images of the two.

Download | play Download | play

MediaMatters has more:

After putting up the photos of Steinberg and Reddicliffe, Fox & Friends also featured a photograph of Steinberg's face superimposed over that of a poodle, while Reddicliffe's face was superimposed over that of the man holding the poodle's leash.

Below is a screenshot of Fox & Friends featuring the photo it used of Steinberg, with the original photo on its left. Comparing the two photos, it appears that the following changes have been made: Steinberg's teeth have been yellowed, his nose and chin widened, and his ears made to protrude further.

UPDATE: The Times responds:

Neither Steinberg nor Reddicliffe were reachable for comment Wednesday. But Times Culture Editor Sam Sifton called the Fox photo work "disgusting," and the criticism of the paper's reporting "a specious and meritless claim."

"It wasn't a hit piece," Sifton told E&P. "It was straight news. This was a hit piece by Fox News. It is beneath comment." Asked if the paper planned to respond to Fox's actions, he said no: "It is fighting with a pig, everyone gets dirty and the pig likes it."

ROTUS provides photographic proof (we promise it's not a photoshop!) of this year's oft-overlooked voting phemom, "bald middle-aged white men for Obama." Open Thread below...

What a wild time! I took this picture in the balcony of the Kodak theater at the historic Democratic Presidential Debate Thursday with my iPhone. This was a special night.

Update: Just Above Sunset has a host of photographs for the entire event.

Friday, February 1, 2008 – Political Hollywood

The Los Angeles Democratic Presidential Debate, January 31, 2008, at the Kodak Theater on Hollywood Boulevard – JUST ABOVE SUNSET received press credentials and covered the event, live, here, from inside the hall. This was what was happening outside, just before the debate began.

The Photographs:

The Big Event

Gathering Opinion

The Media

Partisans

CNN Broadcasting

From Gambia Series V at the photoblog "The G8", winner of this year's Best Photography - Post Processing Award from The Photoblog Awards.

G8:

"Four eyes - one destiny.
Of the children that die under age of five:
* In Kenya 35% die of aids
* In Namibia 48% die of aids
* In South Africa 50% die of aids
* In Zimbabwe 50% die of aids
* In Botswana 64% die of aids

It is time to get angry, time to do something. We can no longer sit back and say "that is awful, somebody should do something". It is our world. It's our responsibility."

Open Thread below....

Will Bunch thinks so:

A publication for photojournalists called Photo District News has been covering the heck out of the Bilal Hussein situation, and they ran a long and interesting piece last night entitled "The Man from Fallujah." Overall, it's a good read for anyone who's been following the story, but I found this piece of the saga especially troubling.

Did an anonymous blogger some 11,000 miles removed from the front lines stir up the probe of the imprisoned AP photographer?

Sure sounds like "Rusty" played a key role here in all of this:[..]

Last week, The Jawa Report said a military source e-mailed to thank the blog for helping in the case against Bilal Hussein. The source told the blog he was an investigator at Abu Ghraib prison who recognized Hussein (who was held there for a time) as the much-criticized AP photographer, and notified his superiors.

In an e-mail interview, the blogger known as Rusty (who refused to give any details identifying himself) told PDN why he initially thought Hussein's work was so suspicious. He said Hussein was producing photographs of two particular insurgent groups in Fallujah, the Army of Ansar al Sunnah and Tawid wal Jihad, or al-Qeada in Iraq.

"The groups, at the time, routinely murdered any one they believed to be a 'collaborater' or 'spy'. It was also when any foreigner they found they held hostage and then beheaded," the blogger wrote. "Yet Hussein was given free access."

You've got to see Chris Jordan's work.

Image above shows detail of blocks made of blocks indicating the number of US children without health insurance.

From Running the Numbers, an American Self-Portrait:

This new series looks at contemporary American culture through the austere lens of statistics. Each image portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper (five minutes of paper use); 106,000 aluminum cans (thirty seconds of can consumption) and so on. My hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books. Statistics can feel abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6 million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 426,000 cell phones retired every day. This project visually examines these vast and bizarre measures of our society, in large intricately detailed prints assembled from thousands of smaller photographs. My underlying desire is to affirm and sanctify the crucial role of the individual in a society that is increasingly enormous, incomprehensible, and overwhelming.

Chris promises to add pieces as they are completed; well worth the bookmark.

AFP Via Yahoo:

Cecilia Sarkozy's decision to bow out of a picnic with the president of the United States this weekend is the latest proof of the French first lady's unpredictable, even rebellious take on her new role.

President Nicholas Sarkozy travelled alone to meet George W. Bush and his family at their Atlantic holiday home after Cecilia -- staying just an hour away at a US lakeside resort -- bowed out due to a throat ailment.

The US leader said he was "disappointed" but understanding after Cecilia called Laura Bush at the last minute to excuse herself, but the change of plan sounded a false note in what was billed as a rare personal get-together.

She was photographed later Sunday taking a stroll in town with two friends. Nicolas Sarkozy, meanwhile, was seen wearing earphones and jogging on a lakeside path with a seven-strong entourage. Read more...

Can you blame her?

GuardianUK: (h/t Gregory)

Tension between British and American commanders in southern Afghanistan erupted into the open yesterday as a senior UK military officer said he had asked the US to withdraw its special forces from a volatile area that was crucial in the battle against the Taliban.

British and Nato defence officials have consistently expressed concern about US tactics, notably air strikes, which kill civilians, sabotaging the battle for "hearts and minds" and infuriating Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president.

The coalition of the "We're willing, but not with you here"? Why does there seem to be so much more common sense and thoughtfulness on the part of British military tactics? I'd like to see our brass adopt some of the British forces' techniques. Sadly, this is likely the only guideline they will likely imitate:

Sweeping new guidelines barring military personnel from speaking about their service publicly have been quietly introduced by the Ministry of Defence, the Guardian has learned.

Soldiers, sailors and airforce personnel will not be able to blog, take part in surveys, speak in public, post on bulletin boards, play in multi-player computer games or send text messages or photographs without the permission of a superior if the information they use concerns matters of defence.

...Ironically enough, I am planning a trip to Kentucky later this year, but I don't think we'll put the Answers in Genesis Museum on the agenda...I prefer my children to get facts in their education.

Yahoo: (h/t JR)

Museum Founder Ken Ham anticipates 250,000 visitors the first year. And all to see exhibits as described in the NYTimes: (reg. req'd.)

The heart of the museum is a series of catastrophes. The main one is the fall, with Adam and Eve eating of the tree of knowledge; after that tableau the viewer descends from the brightness of Eden into genuinely creepy cement hallways of urban slums. Photographs show the pain of war, childbirth, death - the wages of primal sin. Then come the biblical accounts of the fallen world, leading up to Noah's ark and the flood, the source of all significant geological phenomena.

The other catastrophe, in the museum's view, is of more recent vintage: the abandonment of the Bible by church figures who began to treat the story of creation as if it were merely metaphorical, and by Enlightenment philosophers, who chipped away at biblical authority. The ministry believes this is a slippery slope.

Start accepting evolution or an ancient Earth, and the result is like the giant wrecking ball, labeled "Millions of Years," that is shown smashing the ground at the foundation of a church, the cracks reaching across the gallery to a model of a home in which videos demonstrate the imminence of moral dissolution. A teenager is shown sitting at a computer; he is, we are told, looking at pornography. Slide show here