Friday, March 31, 2006

Kaloogian and Photos


When you drop in to Howard Kaloogian's campaign website the first image of Kaloogian that you see is the photo on the left. The picture is of Kaloogian with Brigadier General John Custer.

If you venture further into Kaloogianland, on the Photo Gallery page you find this picture again. To get to it all you have to do is go to the drop down menu selection that reads "Howard in Iraq - Supporting the Troops." When you do that, you will get a thumbnail of this photo with the caption that describes General Custer as "CENTCOM #2."

Two problems with the captions. The less critical is that General Custer is not the "CENTCOM #2," which would imply second in command. General Custer was the CENTCOM J-2, chief intelligence office, at the time.

But, more critical than General Custer's rank, is the location where the photo was taken. Certainly, Kaloogian's pull down description and the fact that the general is in desert camouflage fatigues, appears to be designed to give the impression that the two men are in Iraq. But, despite the pull down that says "Howard in Iraq" this photo was taken at MacDill Airforce Base in Tampa, Florida.

Incorrect caption and false description of the photo's location. Seems par for the Kaloogian course.

There's more.

The photo above looks exactly like the photo below from the Move America Forward website. The junior office at the right has been cropped out, but at least on the MAF site, the location of the photo is correctly noted.

I have two problems with this.

First, Kaloogian continues to attempt to give the impression that he was a hands-on guy when his crew traveled to Iraq, instead of a strapped in passenger being chauffeured around from one safe location to another.

Second, doesn't this photo belong to Move America Forward and isn't Move America Forward "a non-partisan, not-for-profit organization" whose501(c)3 tax exempt status would be jeopardized if they were actively involved in a partisan political campaign? How is it that all of the Kaloogian campaign's Iraqi photo album appears to be the property of MAF, yet shows up as part of Kaloogian's campaign website?