TPMDC Morning Roundup
It's Official: Caroline Ends Senate Bid
Caroline Kennedy released a short statement declaring that she was ending her bid to be appointed to Hillary Clinton's former Senate seat: "I informed Governor Paterson today that for personal reasons I am withdrawing my name from consideration for the United States Senate."
Obama's Schedule For Today
Here are President Obama's morning events: A closed-door meeting with economic advisers at 9:40-9:55 a.m. ET; a 10:00-10:15 a.m. ET closed meeting with senior staff; a 10:30-11:35 a.m. ET meeting with retired military officers, with pooled press. Then in the afternoon: A closed meeting with Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser James Jones and Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, from 1:50-2:30 p.m. ET; and then he and Hillary will speak to State Department employees, from 2:40-3:00 p.m., with pooled press.
Today: Obama Expected To Order Gitmo Closure
The New York Times reports that President Obama is expected to issue his executive orders today to close the CIA's network of secret prisons and to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison camp. The orders will require an immediate review of the 245 detainees at Gitmo, though the whole process of closing the camp will take place over a year's time.
Former Gitmo Prisoner: The Prison Will Still Hurt America
A former Guantanamo inmate told CNN that the legacy of Gitmo will continue to damage the United States even if President Obama successfully shuts it down. "Guantanamo Bay is the most notorious prison on earth," said Moazzam Begg, a British citizen who was captured in Afghanistan and later freed in 2005, without ever having been prosecuted.
Obama Staffers Discover Primitive White House
The Washington Post reports that the new White House staffers, who were used to a campaign driven by technology, are now discovering a White House setup with old technology and legal prohibitions on the use of Facebook, outside e-mail accounts, instant messaging and other modes of communications. "It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari," said spokesman Bill Burton.
Obama Stimulus Could Be Boon For K Street
The Hill reports that lobbying firms are cautiously optimistic that business will pick up from corporate America, even in the difficult economy, due to the impact of President Obama's stimulus proposals. "Big decisions are going to be made, and corporate America is aware of it," said Smith Davis, a partner at lobbying firm Akin Gump.
LAT: "Hope" Poster Apparently Swiped From Photo
The Lose Angeles Times reports that the iconic "Hope" poster of Obama appears to have been copied from an Associated Press photo of Obama from 2006. Perhaps worse, the possibility exists that at the moment the photo was taken, Obama was listening to a very grisly speech about the genocide in Darfur.
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"Big decisions are going to be made, and corporate America is aware of it," said Smith Davis, a partner at lobbying firm Akin Gump.
Boy oh boy, Corporate jobs for everybody! Yay!
Seriously, no.
January 22, 2009 9:29 AM | Reply | Permalink
BFD about the Hope poster originating from a photo. Is there anything unusual about a piece of graphic art being based on a photograph? Granted, possibly a problem if there was an effort to conceal this fact.
"Perhaps worse, the possibility exists that at the moment the photo was taken, Obama was listening to a very grisly speech about the genocide in Darfur."
What the hell? "Perhaps worse . . ."? Again, BFD! Obama's expression in the pic is resolute and thoughtful, an appropriate reaction to news of genocide, if that's what he was hearing. And if the problem is supposedly that there is some kind of clash with the message of HOPE, that's absurd. Seeing a leader looking thoughtful in the face of reports of either tragedy or triumph makes me feel hopeful.
January 22, 2009 9:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Right there with you. Assuming the artist did, in fact, use that particular photo as a reference, the result was pretty clearly transformative rather than derivative. Notwithstanding that the use into one of the categories identified in s. 107 of the Copyright Act, IMHO, it would be held to be fair use.
If I were the artist and heard AP was going to file a Copyright claim, I'd say "bring it."
But, more generally, the column is a frank expression of exactly the kind of pissiness I expect will be pervasive in the AP's reporting and commentary (to the extent there's a difference" for the next four years.
January 22, 2009 10:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Whoops, my bad. Its an LAT employee who's being pissy, though the effort to track down a source photo is, in itself, incredibly churlish.
January 22, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
what you said, plus the fact that the image was reversed to make the print, and obama looks twice as serious in the original image.
January 22, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
If anyone knew their damn facts you would realize the artist that made the hope poster LITERALLY SAID HE FOUND A PHOTO ON GOOGLE, then made the piece.
January 22, 2009 9:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,"
Welcome to government employment and the computer usage regulations that come with it...
January 22, 2009 10:02 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know it! Keep in mind that for every dumba__ rule there's a perfectly rational and reasonable excuse...
January 22, 2009 10:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
...and 100 citable examples of previous abuse.
January 22, 2009 10:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
LOL, yep.
I did some work at a national lab recently and had to get permission to even check email. We ran into some trouble accessing some files, and I pulled out my flash drive and everyone laughed. Apparently even having a flash drive was strictly forbidden. (We used it anyway, or we would have wasted days of work) Of course we have a meth user at Los Alamos to thank for the flash drive freakouts...
January 22, 2009 11:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
Uhh, forgive me but I think the whole "Hope poster" thing is a complete non-story. "Swipe"? Really? Why try to hype it up?
I'm not saying it didn't come from that picture, but who cares if it did? All that is (possibly) unique about that picture is the tilt of his head, the rest is just Obama's face and a common Obama facial expression.
Why not just complain about Shephard Fairey "swiping" Obama's face?
And he could have been ordering an Egg McMuffin at the time of the picture for all I care.
January 22, 2009 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
Shephard Fairey was interviewed on Fresh Air and openly acknowledged that the poster had been created from an AP photo. He also said he had tried to track down the name of the photographer but couldn't find out who he/she is. He also has never been contacted by the AP or the original photographer. So apparently, the holder of the copyright to the photo just doesn't care.
January 22, 2009 10:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
Not to mention that Fairley chose that image from among thousands of others, apparently finding that it most suited his ends. Surely we can agree he judged correctly.
January 22, 2009 10:32 AM | Reply | Permalink
OMG!!!! - Shephard Fairey painted Obama without requiring him to sit endless hours without moving for a portrait sitting! THE SCANDAL!!!!!!
While I normally love this site, this is uninformed stupidity. What's next? Reports on Britney Spears love life?
The big mystery was which photo SF had used as inspiration - not whether he had used a photo.
Lets move on to something that matters like Obama's take on the FOIA.
January 22, 2009 10:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hopefully the Caroline Kennedy debacle does for Bloomberg what Bernard Kerik did for Giuliani. Of course she's not a criminal, merely woefully short on bona fides, but that obvious fact eluded Mayor Croesus.
As for Shepard Fairey's excellent poster, why should it matter that he - like Vermeer and Chuck Close among many others - copied from a another image in producing his work? Moreover, that a discussion of Darfur elicited the quiet, sober introspective pose Fairley selected only makes the selection seem that much more appropriate. This is what we voted for after all: a thoughtful, empathetic president who by listening and engaging tackles the toughest of issues.
January 22, 2009 10:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
This isn't the first time Fairey has been accused of lifting images. I think he'd consider himself a visual sampler, and in many cases I do prefer his take on the original. I suppose the question is whether or not he does this sort of thing too often, and what of Fairey's work is solely Fairey?
January 22, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
You might ask the same question of Andy Warhol for exactly the same reasons. What ever relevance questions of "artistic originality" have in the political blogosphere, they're a non-issue in the art world.
January 22, 2009 10:34 AM | Reply | Permalink
I have a BFA in painting and worked as a graphic designer till I retired and I beg to differ. If you borrow an image to create a new one, you are, at the very least, required to give credit.
Fairley claimed he couldn't find the photographer, but other people did, so how hard did he really try? He's also got a history of "borrowing" images without giving credit. If you take someone else's art and modify it, you need permission first to use it, and then you need to give credit when it's published.
January 22, 2009 11:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
speaking of xbox to atari...
January 22, 2009 11:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe as an issue pertaining to copyright protection over a mass-produced object, you're right.
But insofar as this is a question of an artist's creative legitimacy and authenticity it's a nonstarter, BFA or no.
January 22, 2009 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
"It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,"
...language we can all understand.
Better yet, going from a 3.4Ghz Dual Core IBM PC with a 1T hard drive, WiFi, HDMI and 12 USB ports, to a Commodore 64...
Here's hoping Obama's people have the sense to take full advantage of the internet. His virtual presence, live from the White House, would not only provide a more-secure mode for public discourse, it would let him reach out much more personally than appearing publicly in front of roaring throngs.
I was in Denver for the acceptance speech, and while I will always remember it as a great experience, the best seats in the house were occupied by the people sitting all around the nation and the world, who watched it on their TV sets, you all saw Barack more closely that day than I did from way up in the nosebleed seats at Invesco.
Considering how well they utilized the web during the campaign, it is hard to imagine that Obama's staff won't take full advantage of this revolutionary medium for the next 8 years.
January 22, 2009 11:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Someone please explain why they do not have absolute top of line commuticating skill technology in the White House. This is shocking to the core! More important, will they be able to make it available to our new leader of the free world? Who could possibly need it more?!
January 22, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink