So, that's why Portugal pulled out. Kerry should stay out of foreign affairs.

Well, it's a good thing he didn't sit in the Tierra del Fuegan section of the coalition. We need those penquins in our global war on terra.

Maybe they still have some pictures of Istanbul to demonstrate how beautiful Baghdad looks. Or at least shake it up a bit by using Dubai or something...

Time to update my grandmother's advice to believe none of what you see and only half of what you hear...

For the lazy, here is the information:
ExifTool Version Number : 6.66
File Name : Kerry11.jpg
Directory : -k
File Size : 23 kB
File Modification Date/Time : 2006:12:28 15:39:25
File Type : JPEG
MIME Type : image/jpeg
JFIF Version : 1.1
Resolution Unit : inches
X Resolution : 180
Y Resolution : 180
Image Description :
Make : Vivitar
Camera Model Name : Vivicam 8400
Software : 1.0009.5V
Modify Date : 2006:01:09 12:57:38
Y Cb Cr Positioning : Co-sited
Exposure Time : 1/30
F Number : 4.0
Exposure Program : Program AE
ISO : 100
Exif Version : 0220
Date/Time Original : 2006:01:09 12:57:38
Create Date : 2006:01:09 12:57:38
Components Configuration : YCbCr
Shutter Speed Value : 1/30
Aperture Value : 4.0
Exposure Compensation : 0
Max Aperture Value : 2.8
Metering Mode : Center-weighted average
Light Source : Flash
Flash : Auto, Fired
Focal Length : 85.0mm
Warning : Unrecognized MakerNotes
Flashpix Version : 0100
Color Space : sRGB
Exif Image Width : 3264
Exif Image Length : 2448
Sensing Method : One-chip color area
File Source : Digital Camera
Custom Rendered : Normal
Exposure Mode : Auto
White Balance : Auto
Scene Capture Type : Standard
Image Width : 500
Image Height : 375
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Shutter Speed : 1/30
Focal Length : 85.0mm
Light Value : 8.9

and the pathetically gullible cliff may -- an advisor to the iraq study group -- in that capacity shared the email with the isg.

the EXIF date's probably wrong, since that camera wasn't available at the time.

and, the photo's probably un-doctored. for evidence, here's another shot of the same gathering, from a different angle. (warning, Malkin)

note that in the other picture, though, Kerry doesn't look at all "alone". that little fact alone deflates the wingnuts' gleeful ranting about how much the troops hate Kerry and how he had to eat 'all by himself'.

He sat at a table full of people before he sat at that one.

But seriously, from a hardcore Kerry '04 supporter:
Kerry? Yawn.

I agree (tentatively) with MMalkin; the press release for the availability of the Vivicam 8400 was February 13 2006.

http://forums.photographyreview.com/showthread.php?t=18244

(People, please set the date on your digital camera. Future generations will thank you.)

Maybe the picture is fake but accurate.

For me, the issue isn't the image data -- it's why there's a Portugese flag on the wall, and why anyone gives a shit about Kerry's eating buddies.

Seriously ... what in the hell is it about the right that makes them unable to get over ... well, almost anything? Clinton, Gore, Kerry -- two are out of politics, and one will probably never run for President again, yet the wingnuts simply can't stop talking/typing about them.

Let it go ... sheesh.

Well if you look at Michelle Malkin's site the evidence is pretty strong that the picture's legit. Will Steve Benen please comment?

propaganda catapulting at its finest.

Christ, Steve -- why would you let simple things like facts and the truth cloud an otherwise rollicking good GOP meme du jour?

Spoilsport.

JH, we don't like to go to porn sites - our v-chips get all befuddled - Please do tell us tomorrow how she fared on BillO's entertainment tonight show.

John Hansen: "Well if you look at Michelle Malkin's site ..."

You lost me -- and about 75% of people in general -- right there.

The right never gets over anything. I still see bumper stickers about Jane Fonda, fer chissake!

Donald from Hawaii,

Did you go back and look at my comments about Cliff May? I was being sarcastic about his never serving his country.

If not, please do so. Didn't expect to get hit with friendly fire. Bad enough with Hansen and all the trools.

I make it a point of honor to never allow that haridan to register a legitimate hit from my IP.

So Kerry's, like, this total loser, nkay? Like, this complete nerd who, like, nobody in the whole school caf wants to sit next to. Gag me with a speeewwwn.

Signed, the GOP

It's not like Kerry is going to be the Democratic Nominee or anything. Anytime the wingnuts spend trashing Kerry is time they cant spend trashing other democrats. The thugs just cant resist attacking a strawman.

Well, the old bumper sticker in California saying, "Jane Wyman was right" lives on and on.

Depends on what you mean "legit," John Hansen. Leaving aside that we don't really know when it was taken or where or by whom. Does it really mean anything? How do we know why in the picture he was alone, whether others he was with were only momentarily out of camera range, why no one was with him at that moment, etc. (It's not like we can believe these people who send e-mails to right wing propagandists; check out the Cliff May fiasco.) We could take any number of pictures of GWB looking pathetic and making up stories about why; but it wouldn't make them true or significant.

(People, please set the date on your digital camera. Future generations will thank you.)
Posted by: Bill Arnold on December 28, 2006 at 4:11 PM | PERMALINK

My daughter's HP 812 locks up when you set the date.

(HP cameras are the worst fucking pieces of shit ever).

(the press release for the availability of the Vivicam 8400 was February 13 2006.)

it's always possible the camera was released earlier elsewhere in the world.

La dee frickin' dah. Could be the one moment all day Kerry was sitting at a largely empty table. Doesn't prove a thing. If I take a picture of one largely-empty remote upper deck section at a ballpark, does that mean the game was poorly attended?

JH: Maybe the picture is fake but accurate.

Maybe the picture's accurate and totally insignificant of anything that actually matters to anyone.

cazart.. there's a joke in your post somewhere.. Kerry was for sitting at that table before he was against sitting at the table.

It might be a amusing diversion for right-wingers, but laughing at Kerry still doesn't stop the insurgency and the deterioating situation in Iraq. It seems like all right-wingers do nowadays is look for diversions, instead of facing the reality in Iraq.

This appears to be the blogger that took the picture:

http://benofmesopotamia.blogspot.com/2006/12/schaudenfraude-or-john-kerry-visits.html

And he describes himself as:

"Ben of Mesopotamia is a Harvard PhD and Presidential speechwriter called back to Active Duty for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is currently serving as a U.S. Army Captain in Iraq. All opinions expressed herein are the author's alone, and do not express or reflect the opinion of the United States Armed Forces or the Bush administration."

He gives no context. He says he grabbed his camera when someone called. In the powerline blog another friend of a friend says that Kerry showed up in the last ten minutes of the mess hall's hours. So how many people should have been there? How was Kerry's trip announced? What photos did Mr. Presidential Speech Writer not publish? He says other people are of course treated better and then uses one example of a very well publicized Bill O'Reilly whose daily show airs on Armed Forces Radio (IIRC). What about other senators though? How are they treated? What is the context here?

This sounds like typical right wing bullshit being spread this time by a former presidential speechwriter.

There was a picture in the local Seattle newspapers when Dan Quayle was still VP - He and a deli owner were standing alone in front of the deli - Not a sole around - They were shaking hands while talking.

However, I was across the street - Immediately behind Quayle were several members of the press with Secret Service surrounding them. Immediately behind were 20 some vehicles, countless Seatlle PD officers, snipers across the way on a roof.

Yes, Dan just "happened" to be out for a stroll before that fund raiser in Bellevue.

Don't look at the scores of Iraqi bodies piling up daily. Don't look at the nearly 3,000 flag-draped coffins. Don't look at the widows or the orphans. DOn't look at the parents who had no joy this holiday season.

no, instead, look at a picture of John Kerry. After all, his dinner companions, or lack thereof, are what really matter, paramount above all.

Michelle Q Malkin says that Scott Hennen is protecting his source. How come no one is asking Ben O Mess what he saw?

"not a sole around"

Nor a soul, either - Pike's Place fish market was about six blocks west.

Check the kerning!

Folks-

The whole reason the wingnuts posted the picture in the first place is because "nobody would sit with him". Malkin herself posted another picture that shows him eating with, and apparently conversing with, a bunch of troops that are sitting with him.

That picture...um...kind of invalidates the whole wingnut meme, doesn't it? I mean, what it says to me is that out of several pictures from when Kerry visited, someone picked the one at the end of breakfast when the crowd was clearing out, and tried to pass it off as proof "noone would sit with him" (when other pictures demonstrated the opposite.)

Sorry, but all this picture is "proof" of is wingnut infantilism.

the thirdPaul:,/b> "Didn't expect to get hit with friendly fire."

Your sarcasm was lost on me at the time, but that was probably my fault, not yours. I'll certainly go back and re-read your piece. Sorry 'bout that, chief!

And next time, I'll yell "incoming" ...

Whether or not the camera was available, the picture's authored on date was nine months before the botched joke.

What the conservatives are looking for is the short, sharp shock of propaganda. They want to break the stride of the average liberal or independent. They want to continue to market the "Kerry as shunned traitor" notion, and use the bad aura they maintain around him to discredit other liberals, and having discredited other liberals they want to push back and get their way on things.

The only problem with this, and what I want to point out to all of you, is that their logic on Iraq amounts to maintaining an expensive, provocative presence in Iraq, even expanding it, having already failed to prepare beforehand the financial wherewithal and troop numbers necessary to make this work. They want to be big and tough, but they come to the gunfight with a knife, having left their gun at home.

All this B.S. about the cowardice of withdrawal (whether we're talking about going in a couple years, or tomorrow) betrays the real cowardice, the cowardice that might have even scarier consequences for this country. They too f***ing spineless to step outside beyond the safety of party talking points to look at what actually has happened.

Nearly every supporter of this war who has taken a close look at the facts on the ground has come away with a negative opinions of how things are going on. The Iraq Study Group, the Senate Intelligence Committee, our weapons inspectors under both Kay and Duelfer, and even Bob fricking Woodward, author of the hagiographic Bush at War What is this picture of reality that turns everybody who comes away from these close examinations of the facts into a critic of this administration?

Because these people dismiss this all as the product of a malicious liberal media, they have no familiarity with the situation worth crediting, and as they push a short-term surge which will do exactly what they said withdrawal would do, which is inspiring the insurgents to wait us out, they will push us all to waste our last chances to build a political solution.

These people need their asses kicked with the facts. They need to be pushed so long and hard that they either go nuts and self destruct, or they finally admit the necessity of looking at what's really happening.

Whether or not the camera was available, the picture's authored on date was nine months before the botched joke.

just FYI, it's pretty easy to change EXIF information - and it's a completely undetectable operation. which is not to say this one has been changed, only that there's no reason to take EXIF data as gospel.

Ben of Mesopotamia is a Harvard PhD and Presidential speechwriter called back to Active Duty for Operation Iraqi Freedom. He is currently serving as a U.S. Army Captain in Iraq.

Does this make anyone else a bit suspicious? If there was a member of the Bush White House on active duty in Iraq, we'd have heard about him a million times or so by now. A little Googling doesn't turn up any mention of a Bush speechwriter serving in Iraq.

Of course, it just says "Presidential" speechwriter, so maybe he served under Clinton.

A brouhaha over a photograph with no context that aims to make fun of one of the democratic party's most marginalized "major" players- if the wingnut blogosphere is reduced to the equivalent of snickering about how somebody was caught picking their nose in gym class last year then we're in better shape than I thought.

Applying honest and critical thinking, we can learn a lot by comparing the first two photos on Malkin's site (the one in dispute and the one with Kerry having a meal surrounded by soldiers, which was definitively taken on 12/16/06):

(1) He is wearing the same shirt and is seated at an extremely similar table. Of course this doesn't prove anything, but it's pretty strong circumstantial evidence that the photo in dispute is not one of him in London.

(2) There seems to be a Christmas tree on top of a display case in the background. AT least that's what it looks like to me. This also seems to corroborate the wingnut version.

(3) The photos were taken in an embassy lunchroom. That would explain the high concentratin of civilians.

I think its pointless to fret about the EXIF data. The guy may or may not have set his clock when he boght the camera, meaning that it could either in January 9th, 2006, or it could be nine days after he bought his camera and started using it, not bothering to alter the default starting data (which would have been January 1st, 2006).

So yes, I'd say the photo is likely to be legit. The more important question is why the Right could invest so much idiotic joy in a photograph that that no context to go along with it. When did he get there to eat? Did he request company? Were most soldiers already through with breakfast? How could anyone possibly chortle at this photograph without knowing anymore information about it?

Moreover, why should anyone be SURPRISED that our troops don't like Kerry? Is the left running under the delusion that most troops actually LIKE Hillary, Kerry and the gang, and only do things like cross their fingers while shaking hands because they are forced to? The military prefers O'Rielly (sp?) to Kerry- WOW, what a >>>SHOCKER

Let 'em have their pre-pubescant fun. Look at it as a last, desperate guffaw as they sink into the morass of irrelevency they've created themselves.

Ah, Kevin.

WHAT A RIOT!!!

Kerry is a pariah. Some CinC he would have made!

Reality hurts, don't it! LOL!!

John Hansen: Maybe the picture is fake but accurate.

Dittohead John Hansen distills the essence of the right-wing cult of mental slavery into a single sentence.

Ah, egbert - I have finally figured out your purpose. you are the wingnut that holds together the universe. So on't you ever die, you magnificently twisted bastard.

Oh, and it's still Steve.

This is just another tired meme expounded by wingnuts.

I've heard endless stories from them where they personally witnessed military personnel dissing Democrats because, as everybody knows, all military personnel know that all Democrats are anti-military. My guess is that these nuts actually believe each other.

I have to say that one thing that disturbs me most about this is finding out that so many people are not setting the dates on their cameras.

Am I really that anal? Yeargghhhhh!

egbert wrote: Reality hurts, don't it!

Yes, you must hurt quite a lot from the American people's overwhelming rejection of your right-wing extremist Republican crime gang in the November elections.

Oh, and it's still Steve

You just wasted your keystrokes.

Yeah, JH, maybe the picture is fake, but accurate - Maybe Rather's report on TANG was fake, but accurate. I'll give you yours, if you will give me mine.

Truth and reality are not relevant to the hard right-wing in America. Their psychosexual development is stalled somewhere around the fifth grade level.

So, the debate over the picture is:
1) Is the location, time, and situation misrepresented, or
2) Is just the key point the picture is being used to "show" misrepresented?

Seems to me, its not really "legit" either way.

So yes, I'd say the photo is likely to be legit. The more important question is why the Right could invest so much idiotic joy in a photograph that that no context to go along with it. When did he get there to eat? Did he request company? Were most soldiers already through with breakfast? How could anyone possibly chortle at this photograph without knowing anymore information about it?

Thank you. With emphasis.

This kind of.... not even trivia is perfectly suitable for occupying the mental space of an intellectual pygmy like Malkin, but that's about it. Jeez, let's leave this chickenshit with those who thrive on running their fingers through chickenshit. Please?

Jerry,

You missed the best part of Ben of Mesopotamia's posts -- from the second post on his blog which he began in January 2006:

Once the Army figured out who I was (Harvard PhD, former Strategic Planning Director for Iraq at DoD, Director of Speechwriting at the NSC, 92% lifetime winning percentage in Stratego), I received emails from MNSTC-I, General Casey's staff, and Embassy Baghdad notifying me they wanted to bring me on board. So in essence, I'll be travelling half way around the world and taking a 50% pay cut to do essentially the same work I've been doing the past two years,only now with people shooting at me.

From another post earlier in December 2006 comes this information about where to direct presents for an Iraqi school:

CPT Benjamin Runkle
MNF-I, Strategic Effects
Communications Division

Hmmm, I wonder what a captain in the Strategic Effects unit of the Communications Division does? Could it have anything to do with propaganda generation?

For those who point out that Ben of Mesopotamia isn't necessarily Benjamin Runkle, here's his story of encountering his former ROTC Sergeant Major in the process of preparing to deploy to Iraq; it pretty much ties Ben of Mesopotamia to the name, Benjamin Runkle.

Idiots.

The desperation is palpable, and, if not for the tragedy of the war itself, kind of comical.

Thanks, passing by. The whole thing makes a lot more sense now. He's not there to be an Army Captain; he's there to be a blogger and propagandist.

As Atrios would say, time for another blogger ethics panel.

So, the far right is pinning their hopes for the spread of democracy on their ability to slam Kerry. Oooh wow.

Iraq is in meltdown, they will be lucky if they can scrape together 10,000 trigger pullers to walk patrol.

They want to increase enlistments, but it will take at least two years and billions of dollars before any of those new, highly trained boots will hit the ground anywhere outside the US of A.

And all they can worry about is who Kerry sups with (and what Gerry Ford said). What a deluded herd of fucktards

Since conservatives have a well-established history of passing, on the internet as well as elsewhere, faked pictures, pictures out of context, pictures with fabricated context, and stories with loads of fabricated content surrounding a few accurate facts on numerous previous occasions, the smart money is on "not legit."

Can't count the number of e-mails I've received containing stories about liberal politicians that turned out to be "urban myths" (aka, lame fabrications by young conservative activists with too few morals and too much time on their hands).

Why was Kerry sitting alone? Simple. All the people sitting next to him had gotten up to get more pudding.

And Oberlin gave MM a diploma?

Remember the "story" about Sen. Clinton turning away a couple of members of the Gold Star Mothers that was making the internet rounds and being posted on a few veterans' web sites?

You know, the one that was such a total fabrication that the Gold Star Mothers put a disclaimer on their home page saying it wasn't true.

And how conservatives kept referring to the "incident" for months after the Gold Star Mothers had themselves refuted the claim?

More of the same.

Conservatives practice sleaze as an SOP.

It's a choice they've made and that they are perfectly happy with.

Excellent catch, passing by.

It's a Botched photo,I get it,Good one R's/ ha hah ahheheheha hah hah h

Why was Kerry sitting alone?

SBD.

Why is Clifford May back front and center in the media anyway?

Why are any of the neocon slugs hogging air and ink time after the midterms?

All I see on the cable news channels the last few weeks are the far rightest on the right, pushing for "surge" and "attack Iran."

Flood them with mail demanding alternative voices on the left, alternative policy-makers.

It's the only way to avoid a worldwide conflagration at this point.

Let's get our feet moving and our asses off the couch and stop this insanity!

Still, you have to admit Scott Hennen had it pegged pretty close -- what's being a measly year or two off?

It seems well worth noting that “Ben of Mesopotamia” — aka Benjamin Runkle — one of the RW bloggers who first really pushed hard on this non-story about the photo in question, is a self-described communications specialist (which means, in some quarters, ‘propaganda specialist’) who has worked for the DOD, the NSC, and according to his blog’s ‘About Me’ blurb is a “Harvard PhD and Presidential speechwriter called back to Active Duty for Operation Iraqi Freedom.”

Is this another example of BushCo’s proven policy of planting propaganda mouthpieces into supposedly non-partisan bailiwicks so that they can churn out pro-administration spin and misinformation? Could this be another sock-puppet soldier embedded with the troops so that he can influence them on the ground and feed back pre-canned points to the folks at home?

I’m not saying that he’s just another paid BushCo spokespuppet hiding behind a blogname, because I don’t have access to enough facts to prove or disprove that. But given the little bit of facts that are available to us on this end, especially coupled with this administration’s known history of using plants and fake pundits to feed false information to the public, it certainly seems to me like this is something that bears further investigation by those with more access to the details -- like, for example, the folks at the Washington Monthly.

92% lifetime winning percentage in Stratego

This is a joke right? He can't be serious. You boast about being a chess grandmaster, but a 92% lifetime winning percentage in Stratego? WTF? Who even plays Stratego after 8th grade? And what kind of geek keeps track of their win-loss record. I can just imagine him trouncing some sixth grader and jumping around like an idiot.

Freder, they are wingnuts, but, yeah, he was joking.

My average is 86% for the board game, but only 56% victories in Stratego with that electronic version that sits on a tabletop--I have a hard time gauging how best to emplace mines and distribute my 3s and 4s properly.

Maybe the picture is fake but accurate.

Posted by: John Hansen on December 28, 2006 at 4:16 PM | PERMALINK

That didn't help Dan Rather, John, and it shouldn't help whomever was peddling this tripe.

Any right or left wing blogger cought in any lie. Take Notice the FCC will fine you. SO SWIFTBOAT OR LIE if you got the money

if we were winning this war, then this kind of "oo-ooh, look at the loser, sitting all alone" high school horseshit would be one way to pass the time, no worse than what appears in People or US magazinee. since we're losing this fucking war, and real people are dying, it's pathetic and immoral.

I don't care if the picture is legitimate or not. I don't care if the troops hate or love John Kerry. I do worry about the people in harm's way right now, and I do worry about America's world standing for the next generation because of this hideous debacle.

What the hell is wrong with Malkin?

Geez.

The picture is genuine.

However, a single photo of one moment in time is often not an accurate description of reality. To assume, without any other information, that this situation is the result of troops avoiding Kerry is ridiculous.

I've been waiting for hours for someone to quote Richard Avedon. All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.

Check out the following John Hopkins alumni page (see 1994 grads) for information on Benjamin Runkle (http://www.jhu.edu/~jhumag/0906web/alumnote.html).

And, then compare it to the information on the Ben of Mesopotamia site (http://benofmesopotamia.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_benofmesopotamia_archive.html).

The two are one and the same.

Runkle is listed as “country director for Northern Gulf affairs in the Office of the Secretary of Defense� in 2001-2002 here (http://www.wcfia.harvard.edu/misc/publications/centerpieceFall2003/fellows_program.html). I can’t find any link that ties him to the NSC, the White House, or speechwriting, but it may be out there somewhere.

They gave him flowers before they left his table. And a different cup. (From the first two photos on MM's site.)

Posted by: TN on December 29, 2006 at 12:01 AM

I also checked for references to Ben being a speech writer and came up empty. Did find the same info you posted.

As far as the photo goes, it doesn't appear to be a photoshop job. I'm a steadfast Kerry supporter and rather than go down the road of photoshop doctoring I think there's a number of plausible explanations why Kerry was at a table that wasn't full, including that he could have lingered there after others left and their places were cleared away. The wingnuts hate Kerry with a passion, they will turn the slightest thing into sad, sorry twist to play their games. We've seen this a thousand times now. -- So, John Kerry Was In Iraq

So this seems to be the real story here:

1. The picture is genuine but misleading. A little earlier, his table was full (as this M. Malkin photo shows, especially with a little brightening and contrast enhancement). I count at least 8, possibly 9, people sitting around Kerry in this photo, plus at least three standing at the end of the table.

2. The picture seems to have been taken by a US Army communications / propaganda operative who probably waited for the right moment and right angle.

3. Steve Benen moved too fast on this and should add an Update to his post. Kevin is usually much more careful about things like this -- he didn't even fall for the Dan Rather memos even though most of his commenters did.

But apart from this post Steve is doing fine IMO.

Homonym tag and 3rd Paul is 'it'.

'Not a sole around.'

Would that be shoe or fish, luv?

"Boots and shoes under the sea," the Gryphon went on in a deep voice, "are done with whiting. Now you know."

"And what are they made of?" Alice asked in a tone of great curiosity.

"Soles and eels, of course," the Gryphon replied, rather impatiently: "Any shrimp could have told you that."

The Lobster Quadrille - Chapter X
Alice's Adventure in Wonderland - Lewis Carrol

Ah wench, how thee smites.

Ah, but with a velvet touch. Touche.

JS, you're spot on

"2. The picture seems to have been taken by a US Army communications / propaganda operative who probably waited for the right moment and right angle."

As a former Public Information Specialist with the US Army I used to take grip&grins and dog&pony show shots every day. I used the photo lab to make them look exactly as I wanted them to or exactly as I was ordered to make them look.