flippin' the bird

by now you've surely seen this picture, and maybe even the video it was taken from:



(i could've sworn i blogged about the video, but can't track down that post just now...)

last night leno aired some brand new video footage that appears to be bush yet again flipping off the press as he walks away from him. this morning, john at americablog posted about the video, along with a link. by the end of the day, the white house had called him to say that bush was in fact giving the "thumb's up" gesture.

but weirdly, when reporters asked scotty mcclellan about it, he refused to deny it.

if it's so outrageous that scotty won't even "dignify it with a response", then why did the white house bother to actually contact bloggers about the story? and if it's important enough to contact bloggers about, why can't scotty answer a question about it on the record?

watch it yourself: it's funny. maybe it is his thumb. but it sure as hell looks like a middle finger. and either way, the reactions--from the bile displayed in the onegoodmove comments to the bizarre bipolarity of the white house's response--are interesting. ¶