Is Barack Obama actually not in this photo of Barack Obama?

Salon ^ | 4/7/2001 | Alex Pareene

[Kleon]

Jack Cashill, the right-wing journalist currently winning the national game of "'prove' the most outlandish thing you possibly can about Barack Obama" with his both his theory that Bill Ayers ghost-wrote "Dream From My Father" and his claim that the president's father was actually Jimi Hendrix, dropped a bombshell today: Barack Obama is not actually in a photo of Barack Obama and his grandparents.

[shield]

We’ve known this for quite sometime...it was photoshopped and pretty poorly at that....

[Fred Nerks]

...not some conspiracy created by a very imaginative person.

OMG! You STILL don't get it, do you...that sequence I posted recently, to which I supplied the link on this thread, was the result of YOURS TRULY asking PhilDragoo TO REMOVE ZERO...ABOUT A YEAR OR SO AGO!

It wasn't anyones 'conspiracy theory' - it was a freeper research item. And anyone who has picked up on it since, (A YEAR OR SO LATER!) is simply following what they found posted on FR!

[Fred Nerks]

from my PROPERTIES: Friday, July 03, 2009, 8:44:06 PM

[patlin]

I totally get it..someone with the screenname of PhilDragoo took the photo from Time, using photo shop, this person took Obama out of the picture and then slid granny next to gramps so that she looks like she is all constipated and so uncomfortable that she can not sit right next to him like most couple do.

FYI...research begins with original work, all other is just speculation & conspiracy that has its origins in fantasy land.

I get it, I just do not buy into it.

[Viking2002]

I'm vertical, above the grass, and my keister is still attached. The rest I take day to day. Thanks for asking.

"But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: for men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away, for his name is Obama."

[cherry]

my opinion is my opinion...

[SaraJohnson]

We wear the badge of crazy kook birthers proudly. We are all racists, dangerous and extremists, too. And we are rich but stupid. :)

That picture looks photo shopped. If you looked at the video presentation, you can’t deny it unless you think Stanley was really the cartoon character plastic man in the disguise of a man. That could be, I guess. ;)

This guy is as fake as a three dollar bill.

[patlin]

Listen, I have no doubt the guy is a fraud. I wear my badge proudly! I just don't think going to extremes to create something that is not there helps our cause. But hey, if that's what your into go for it. I'm just calling it out for what it is so we can focus on the constitutional issue so it doesn't happen again. There are millions of people out there that need to learn, not conspire over some imaginary delusion that the picture was photo-shopped. When you do that, you feed the trolls.

Just sayin’

[Fred Nerks]

... not conspire over some imaginary delusion that the picture was photo-shopped...

And now that you have made it quite clear you believe I am under some 'imaginary delusion' you will please take me off your ping list. Now I finally understand why you have always been a PITA.

[SaraJohnson]

I think I already snared a troll. Just sayin’ ;)

[PhilDragoo]

The original shows the Dunhams washed out by sunlight, their polarizing sunglasses darkened—yet the inserted Obama is not sunwashed.

The body language of the couple works best with the two of them. The insertion of Obama is absurd—the couple have no relation to him in posture, gaze or gesture—Stanley's bizarre hand wave notwithstanding.

Obama was in the park and on the bench; just not at the same time as the Dunhams.

[Fred Nerks]

thanks Phil...

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2701383/posts?page=111#111

[Yardstick]

Yeah, without his knee her posture is totally wrong. That knee is ruining a perfectly good conspiracy theory.

[paulycy]

People like to talk about it.

This is a discussion forum.

[expatguy]

It ain't over till it's over

An American Expat in Southeast Asia

[Fresh Wind]

Here is the alleged "original" photo with areas highlighted that show clear evidence of Photoshopping. Remember this infamous picture showing alleged multiple Iranian missiles?

This was quickly debunked because of the obvious Photoshopping that is called out in this version. The same problem exists with the grandparents-minus-obama photo.

Note also the discontinuities in the bench and the top of the wall. Note the way the bench narrows as you move towards the center.

Now here's the kicker. If you take the "original" version of photo that I highlighted above, the one paulycy posted, and look at it using a hexdump program, as if by magic, the name Simon Maloy shows up, hidden within the image file. If you Google that name, the first link that pops up links him to Media Matters for America.

Another link identifies him as a "professional Rush Limbaugh watcher".

If you don't believe me, go here and download one of the hexdump utilities (I use hexdump32), and look at the file yourself.

This is a trap, people, and people like Maloy are laughing their asses off at you.

[LibLieSlayer]

Good to hear. Same here... trying to keep DC from zooming my Blood Pressure to the moon. Man these are some pathetic times.

LLS

[paulycy]

Look. I’m not trying to pick a fight. It may well be photoshopped. I personally don’t care one way or the other. I have photoshopped it myself several times. It is just an interesting topic for conversation. Apparently you like to talk about it too.

Your attempt to prove it to me won’t work, but only because I don’t care enough. For what it’s worth, it probably is photoshoped but so what?

As I said, it’s fun and I don’t particularly care who might or might not be laughing at me. They are fools if they care that much about it IMO.

[paulycy]