Keystone Kaloogian

March 30, 2006

I really have to wonder when these guys will ever learn.

You can’t get away with anything online anymore. A Republican congressional candidate in California posted a tranquil street scene he said he snapped in [tag]Baghdad[/tag] to prove the media are exaggerating the violence in Iraq.

Trouble is, the photo was taken in [tag]Turkey[/tag].

Millionaire [tag]Howard Kaloogian[/tag], who also bankrolls a controversial pro-war group called Move America Forward that buys TV ads saying the war is a great success, posted the picture on his campaign Web site after visiting Iraq last year.

“We took this photo of downtown Baghdad while we were in Iraq,” the caption read. “Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people believe it to be. But, each day the news media finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it.”

Josh Marshall dug his teeth into this — and that’s another thing, Republicans should just give up once JMM sets his sights on them — and discovered that [tag]Kaloogian[/tag], a leading GOP candidate in the race to succeed inmate Randy Cunningham, was trying to perpetrate a fraud.

The follow-up has been nearly as entertaining. He’s accused Marshall of being “picky,” and blamed his webmaster for the “mistake.”

What’s more, as part of his drive to prove that conditions in Iraq really are perfectly pleasant, Kaloogian replaced the fraudulent picture with an actual picture of Baghdad. You’ll have to go take a look for yourself, but let’s just say it’s hardly proof of Iraq being “calm and stable.” As Marshall noted, the picture strongly suggests Kaloogian “probably didn’t get outside the heavily fortified safe zones guarded by the US military,” and his choice of photographs reflects the fact Kaloogian is “just trying to bamboozle and con people.”

And just to top things off, it appears that one of the buildings in Kaloogian’s actual Iraq picture has since been blown up.

What a fiasco.

Update: As Tim noted in comments, let’s not overlook the key research by two Kos diarists that helped drive this story.

Kaloogian .. what a perfect occasion to coin a new verb.

To Kaloogian a document means “To misrepresent a photograph with a misleading caption or date”

Much as the verb “Gillooly” means to hit on the knee with a lead pipe.

  • Quotable Kaloogian

    “The impression most people have on the streets of San Diego is that car bombs are the norm when in fact they aren’t,” Kaloogian said. “Detroit is arguably a more dangerous place than Iraq.” – From Kos on Channel 8 interview

  • This is hillarious!
    Just to point out though – While Josh has been reporting on this issue a great deal it was actually jem6x on DailyKos who uncovered the evidence that proved the picture came from a street corner in Turkey.

    Is it me, or are the Republicans falling apart? On one hand you have this incident… on another you have a Republican claiming that Hillary is buzzing her home with helicopters and peeking into her bedroom.

  • “on another you have a Republican claiming that Hillary is buzzing her home with helicopters and peeking into her bedroom.” – Xeroman

    Just wait until Hillary is President and has the NSA to do the spying for her 😉

    Yes, not an original thought.

  • Sad thing is that San Diego will vote for this guy or someone like him and Duke. Just pitiful if you ask me.

  • How is the press in Kaloogian’s district handling this?

    By the way, “kaloogian” sounds like a knuckle-dragging “collegian” who never made it through the adminisions process. That, or one of the nicknames made up by the Regal Moron.

  • It’s one thing to swindle people into voting you into office and THEN turning out to be a fraudulent lying moron. But people who live in this district, you’ve been warned. Kaloogian should be frontrunner for no office.

    Do we really live in a country where it’s a foregone conclusion that a nitwit who isn’t afraid to show his true nitwit colors will win an election just because he shares some opinions with the voters on issues on which he’ll have zero influence or effect anyway?

    Pardon me, I’ll be in the corner banging my head against the wall most of the morning.

  • Pardon me, I’ll be in the corner banging my head against the wall most of the morning.-Chief Osceola

    That can lead to brain damage which in turn leads to voting Republican. For the sake of the country, STOP! All of you just stop.

  • Josh Marshall has single-handedly revived the antiquated verb “to bamboozle” and made it a mainstay of modern political conversation.

    Certainly, I can’t think a better term to describe the antics of people like “Recall Gray Davis” Kaloogian.

  • The kicker is, it seems like his “recent” trip to Iraq was actually in July of 2005, when things were certainly significantly calmer than they are now. And that newly-posted photo was still the best he could find?

  • There’s one other thing that’s even better (not sure if it’s on Kos, since Kos is blocked here at work):

    Someone on BoingBoing did some type of hack to determine when the “authentic” Baghdad pic was taken.

    It was actually snapped (or at least processed) in 2005. So even the replaced photo is a fraud.

  • I find it laughable that the constant drumbeat is that things are dangerous in the US so you must vote the “security-minded Republicans” into office, but things are peaceful and secure in Iraq led by the “Republican hawks”. If only the Rethugs had not been in power while things got more dangerous here this may actually be a good selling point. How does the domestic scare tactic work here. Maybe we should have the military take over things here. The irony/hypocracy is mind-numbing.

  • This is good for a laugh.

    As if anyone would believe that a single photo of some buildings and streets somehow is irrefutable proof-positive that things in Iraq are going just swell, but the old excuses start wearing a bit thin when the correction is only slightly less fraudulent than the original.

  • Much has been said about the Republican Culture of Corruption, but perhaps the most insidious problems with that political party is its Culture of Dishonesty. It’s so bad, I don’t think they can tell the truth anymore if they try.

  • I don’t know why everybody’s so surprised that the picture is taken from so far away. On the closeups on this picture you can see scads of bullet holes on the building. Kinda makes it look less than peaceful (especially with the tank in the foreground).

    • Comments are closed.