A candidate congressman in Baghdad ... (dialup warning)

A candidate congressman in Paris Baghdad

There is an old saying about traveling: "I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog to see the moon when it is full.” (Lord Hensay) But for some it is just a part of a selfmade campaign to come home and show some pictures. While some might chose their travel destination wisely, there's only one destination for a Republican candidate for congress who strongly supports the troops and their missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. Oops, no, these are two destinations. But let's forget Afghanistan for a while. Oh, you already have? Okay. So has he. It's Iraq then. You might not only bring lots of pictures back; you actually might find the missing WMDs if you're over there. Now that would be something!

A 10-day trip might be enough for this, even including photo ops with the Congressional hopeful posing next to soldiers (after making sure that Cindy Sheehan doesn't have another son over there - you wouldn't want to pose with him) to make sure your support is obvious in an 8 x 10 glossy picture (which will be added to your nifty website, right under the obligate star-spangled banner and this is important because it shows that you're an American, not an Armenian or something funky.)

That's exactly what the Honorable Howard Kaloogian (http://www.kaloogianforcongress.com/) had in mind. He is, after all, a successful businessman, educator, attorney, conservative political leader and world traveler. He has developed a national following with his dedication to public service and his keen and insightful analysis of current events. So there's actually no way around visiting Iraq; it’s imperative to formulating an “insightful analysis of current events.” You must go there and take a look for yourself. Of course, the insight might be deeper and more honest if you were over there as a soldier. That's the ultimate support, but in this case, wearing a khaki shirt (it's hard to see you in the desert then, and isn't Iraq all desert, anyway?) will have to do, in lieu of a uniform.

And smiling. Lots of smiling. Remember: One smiling guy might prove wrong the insights on Iraq of the old-line media (yes, the commie pinko journalists who write for the New York Times or the Chippadwick Chattanouga Observer).

Back to the traveling wannabe congressman, all was set for Iraq and Baghdad in particular, because if you get lost while wearing a kahki suit in the middle of the desert, you are lost. Let's make this part short: All went well, the speeches were made, the photos taken, and the anticipation of showing this evidence to the world ran high. So then, you're home again and have much to share, in terms of insightful analysis:

"Iraq (including Baghdad) is much more calm and stable than what many people (the pinko commies, remember?) believe it to be. But, each day the news media (like the Chappadwick Chattanouga Observer) finds any violence occurring in the country and screams and shouts about it - in part because many journalists are opposed to the U.S. effort to fight terrorism (Right. But I saw journalists wearing khaki pants; does that count? Nothing is at stake yet. And there are still 'good journalists' who speak the truth: they're all working on Fox.)"

Along with this –short (but meaningful, nonetheless), keen and insightful analysis of current events in Baghdad and Iraq, the ultimate proof was posted. A color picture of a street in Baghdad, so calm and peaceful that one is calm, at peace and trusting just from looking at it:



Let's face it. It just doesn’t get any better than this. And the women are easy on the eyes, too. There's a nice shopping mall, an ice cream parlor, a ticket or newspaper stand. (Sorry, no Chappadwick Chattanouga Observer available over there; that’s one of those sacrifices you have to make for Freedom) and a huge advertisment for sunglasses. Sure, the desert is quite close, and you wouldn’t want to forget to bring your sunglasses. Got somewhere to go in the desert? Call a cab. Baghdad's full of those little yellow Renaults, and you'll get to your destination in no time. Here's another other cab picture from Baghdad:



Looks nice. Honestly, who wouldn't want to travel to such an attractive vacation destination? And I hear that those Baghdad belly dancers are a real hoot!

Of course, not all of the pictures taken in Iraq are published on Kaloogian's site. Personally, I don't know why they didn't choose this one. It's a better photo and shows the same place after all, but with more lovely ladies!



Look at the redhead with the blue shirt in the front. Nice! I told you so. I'm in the mood for buying some plane tickets, Baghdad and back, as soon as I post this. My wife loves sunny holiday locales, and our anniversary is just around the corner.

Good job, Honorable Kaloogian! You showed us what it's really like in Baghdad. May I say you opened our eyes to the your keen and insightful observation of current events and how things really are over there. The place is so nice and calm, you might not even need troops over there anymore. Just a bunch of tourists.

But what happened? Someone posted the picture of your Baghdad on Democratic Underground (commie pinko site)and asked whether it was really Baghdad. Of course it is, you said; it's a genuine picture your staff had taken there. Your honorable word should have ended all discussion, but it didn't. Some members of Democratic Underground, DailyKos, Huffingtonpost (all commie pinko sites) demonstrated their own keen and insightful analysis of current events.

So, was it an actual picture of Downtown Baghdad? Unfortunately, no. Bummer. Your webmaster (you should have taken him/her with you to Baghdad) obviously put the wrong picture up. A picture taken in Istanbul, Turkey (as the members of the above-mentioned commie pink websites quickly pointed out), where you and your delegation traveled on the way home to the United States. They actually have belly dancers in Istanbul, and I hope you enjoyed your stay. Just between us - Istanbul/Baghdad, what’s the difference? They're all Muslims over there, anyway.

The mistake was pointed out and the picture has been replaced with the following calm and peaceful street in Baghdad:



At least from a safe distance. Nice blue paint. And I personally like the walls on each side of the street. I bet no pedestrian gets accidentally run over trying to cross the street, because you couldn't. That's what I call safety. Thumbs up!

And since we're on it, there's another picture. Remember the mosque someone blew up in Samarra, north of Baghdad? It's been rebuilt! You did that with your own two honorable hands, didn’t you? I can see it in your smile. Great job!

... whether the picture was actually of Baghdad! What a non-issue!

It was only placed there by a conservative Republican candidate for Congress, running on his full support for the Iraq War, to make the case that Iraq, and Baghdad, was safe & sound, and that the media are lying about it!

Who CARES if the picture wasn't actually of Baghdad?!

(A question: Did Kaloogian REALLY post the "blue-wall" picture as the alternative? I can't get onto his site)

K & R!:kick:

that in his mind, any picture would have done it ...

Yes, that's the actual picture that's on the site now. - I just wanted to check it out to give you the new caption, but it appears that his whole site is gone.

Finally, at 10:38 p.m. somebody at Free Republic thought it newsworthy enough to post. As of this post, there were only 12 replies. And they were predictably "up in arms" about it:

Big difference. And it's always the conservative they go after.
They (Kos) are also virtually silent on issues of two of the more liberal (R) candidates.

A miscaptioned photo? Big deal!

Go Howard!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1605953/posts

Please, sir, feed me more lies! I just can't get enough of them.

site like this and there was no mentioning about it at all. Kaloogian's site is gone now.

One little point though. The taxi is a Fiat Dogan and not a Renault. It's a car which is made in Turkey as the standard taxicab for the country and is not exported or produced elsewhere either. Just like the long-wheelbase Ford Crown Victoria which is the standard taxicab in New York. So somebody must have driven the car to Baghdad ;)

I thought reading someone's post about that the cabs there are Renaults, and I didn't look into it. Perhaps they really landed in Istanbul and took a taxi to Baghdad? ;)

It's your night to cook dinner, darlin'. :evilgrin:

I wish I was in Baghdad and would watch belly dancers! ;)

Seriously???

Is the mosque in the last picture---the one that practically ignited civil war in Iraq, when it was blown up?

If so, this man make Forest Gump look like a Rhodes Scholar.

That's the Hagia Sophia in the background. Which happens to be in Istanbul as well.

Your response just beat mine before I could see it. Thought it was that Moslem converted Byzantine church. It would figure an Armenian like himself would visit a place like that with mixed Christian and Muslim heritage too. :)

with leaving some background around him, and the perspective is wrong at all. But I'm sure he would have been able to built this with his bare hands ... If the 'webmaster' wouldn't have screwed it up I mean. ;)

Kaloogian looks like a blueprint of what he looked like standing next to that U.S. military officer in another photo from the same page he had up during his visit. Not sure what this mosque is. It looks like it might be a mosque in Istanbul, but perhaps it is Baghdad?

Maybe they photoshopped the mosque in.

According to this article, Move America Forward posted the same picture, but claimed it was taken at CENTCOM in Tampa, Florida.

"http://www.moveamericaforward.org/index.php/DailyFile/photos_from_ce ntcom_bbq/"

See "Hocking more Kaloogians" thread... the replacement is of a police station that has since been blown up. Peaceful Iraq indeed!

(there's some question as to whether the photo was actually taken by him, too!)

I'll have to check out that thread...thanks for pointing us in that direction.

From now on, maybe a fake photograph will be forever known as a "Kaloogian."

Or maybe it could become a verb, "Yep, I was "Kaloogianed" today, so I'm taking Photoshop off of my husband's computer."

Could it be they just made vacancies in Istanbul, claiming it be Baghdad - because there are muslims, too?

Thanks for the pointing to the other thread!

Send this somewhere--Newsweek, somewhere.
This is SOOO funny and proves that you just can't make this shit up.

I think he already learned the lesson ...

Nice try, prospective Congressman.

Honorable Prospective Congressman.