The Dark Side of the Moon

A NASA senior research physicist, who's an international authority on planetary topographical image analysis, has been spending his nights analyzing the topography of Bush's back in the first debate. He tells Salon the obvious, that a wrinkle couldn't possibly have produced the bulge. What he can't explain, I suppose, is why the rest of the press, with the honorable exception of CNN's Paula Zahn, is abdicating its ethical responsibility to report this story, leaving it to Salon and to bloggers. It makes me feel sick for my profession. Anyway, look at the pictures the analyst sharpened for the clearest view yet of all the president's wires.

Update 10/31: I feel even sicker after reading Dave Lindorff's comprehensive update at MotherJones.com reporting, among other things, how the NASA scientist, Robert M. Nelson, was rebuffed when he offered his analysis to major newspapers (The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post). Nelson has now analyzed Bush's ever-evolving back bulge from all three debates, and tells MotherJones.com, "In the first debate the bulges create the impression of a letter T with a small feature which appears similar to a wire under the jacket running upward from the right. In the second and third debates the jacket has a generally padded shape across a large part of the entire back which tapers inward toward the spine in a downward direction. This is consistent with the hypothesis that a pad was inserted to conceal the T-shaped device seen in the first debate."