7/31/06 Cartoon

"War Crimes Club"...

While this one is a comment on everybody, here's an older one on Israel's propensity for disproportionate responses.

Boycott ESPN

Harold Reynolds got screwed...

They've got Rick Sutcliffe drunk on the air, Michael Irvin getting arrested with drug paraphernalia, and Harold is the one who gets fired for giving a chick a hug?! Harold's a good man, he deserves better...

I am never again watching Baseball Tonight (which sucks, because I loved that show).

Totalitarianism Update

Man, I gotta do a cartoon on John Yoo...

What a freakin' lunatic...

The United States Senator from Oklahoma says:

Inhofe no like global warming activists... Inhofe say they like Third Reich!!! Inhofe say it greatest hoax of all time!!! RRRRRRRR!!!! Unnngh!! INHOFE SMASH!!!!!

Hmmmm.... Inhofe say it kinda hot out today...

Amen, Sister...

Molly Ivins nominates Bill Moyers for President.

I'll drink to that...

More on the "Worst President in History"...

Aside from some general factual data that can be found anywhere, really my only source this week was Sean Wilentz's recent article in Rolling Stone, "The Worst President in History?" Wilentz notes that a distinguishing characteristic of Bush's abuse of power that sets it apart from previous presidential abuses of power is that the Bush administration openly seeks to overturn our balanced system of government as it was envisioned by the Framers, as demonstrated by their pushing of the "unitary executive" theory and Cheney's stated ambitions to fulfill "the legitimate authority of the president."

7/24/06 Cartoon

"History Machine: Great Presidential Moments"...

Greed and Sports

The Onion, as always, gives us a unique perspective on the matter...

There's a running debate going on right now in Seattle as to whether any of us should give a crap that the Sonics have one foot out the door. One school of thought, even among some die-hard sports fans I know, is that it is simply inexcusable for multi-millionaire players and multi-billionaire owners to expect the public to pay for new arenas and stadiums every 10 years, when there are so many more important things to spend money on. While I agree that this would probably be true in places like Detroit or Pittsburgh or New Orleans, I am of the opinion that the Seattle area is so freakin' rich, I could give a crap if upper-middle class restaurant-goers have to pay an extra 50-cent luxury tax on their salmon dinners to pay for stadium improvements... I just want to watch my teams, man. Billionaire owners and millionaire players come and go, but Sonics fans who've been following and enjoying their team for years should not be expected to just hand it over at the whim of some corporate types, city council members, or henpecking "activists" who don't like sports and think nobody else should either.

So there.

Cartoon Drop

So, in a "clumsy" effort at war propaganda, Israeli planes are dropping copies of two cartoons on the streets of Beirut, depicting the head of Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on the body of a snake.


What a dumb idea for a cartoon...

More on Reagan, the Suck-Ass 80's...

Some older articles this week: check out Tom Turnipseed on Dubya and Reagan's shared affinity for corporate media consolidation, and their mirror subservience to General Electric; Diane E. Dees on the similarities in the public personas of Dubya and Reagan, and their similar use of rhetoric; and David Kusnet on the resemblance between Dubya and Reagan's economic policies.

I wanted to go deeper into the inherent flaws of supply-side economics, but did not have the space this week... perhaps later. Nonetheless, check out a couple of excellent recent articles by Alan Wolfe and Charles Sullivan on the inherent flaws of conservative governing philosophy, particularly in regards to militarism and the corporate welfare state.

Lastly, check out the great cartoon by Mr. McFadden last week, and the odd response to it by a publisher.

7/17/06 Cartoon

"Back to the 80's!"...

More on Reagan here (an older 'toon from right after his death).

VRA

Following up on the cartoon from a couple weeks ago on the GOP and racism, 33 House Republicans should have their titles permanently changed to reflect their votes today... as in Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-VOTED AGAINST EXTENDING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT):

“This is multiculturalism at its worst,” Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, said, referring to bilingual ballots. “When we come from various ethnic groups and races, what unites us? It’s our language, the English language. We’re hurting America by making it easier for people not to learn English.”

So, you see, he was actually standing on principle. Nothing at all to do with racism...

And what about you, freshman Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-VOTED AGAINST EXTENDING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT)?

"It's true that when the Voting Rights Act was first passed in 1965, Georgia needed federal intervention to correct decades of discrimination," said freshman Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland (R-Ga.), whose amendment to ease the pre-clearance requirement failed 302 to 118, although a majority of Republicans backed it.

Surely 41 years of the VRA should be quite enough to fix 400 years of racial oppression, right?

Rip Off

Cross-posted from Brian's comment board:

Anybody notice that this new steaming pile of crap "Little Man" is a total rip off of an old Bugs Bunny cartoon, right down to the baby standing on a stool and shaving with an electric razor while smoking a cigar?

What a sham...

Even More Dick...

Dahr Jamail on the Cheney-Snake's twisted logic and use of fear tactics.

More on Cheney...

Check out Charlie Savage on the strangle-hold exerted by the office of the Vice President over new pieces of legislation through the use of "signing statements," a clearly unconstitutional practice cultivated by Cheney C-o-S David Addington (who, if you couldn't tell, was the green snake, with Scooter Libby as the blue snake); Murray Waas, who reports that Bush directed Cheney to publicly reveal portions of the highly-classified NIE in an effort to smear Joe Wilson (no doubt at Cheney's behest -- Bush probably can't spell "highly-classified"); David Remnick on the Agnew-esque tactics used by Cheney with regards to confronting unfavorable media reports; Ken Herman on Cheney reviving his "last throes" theory; and Dan Froomkin and Robert Parry on "The One Percent Doctrine," Ron Suskind's report on a bizarre Cheney foreign-policy "standard of action that would frame events and responses from the Administration for years to come."

See also the Frontline report on "The Dark Side"” (archived on the NPR site), which investigates the internal dynamics of the Bush administration during the run-up to war in Iraq, and documents the sweeping influence wielded by Cheney over foreign policy decisions.

7/10/06 Cartoon

"Wild Planet: The Cheney-Snake"...

ATTITUDE 3!!

If you haven't purchased your copy of Attitude 3 yet, what're you waitin' for, yo? Buy it now at Amazon, or your local Barnes & Noble.

Though I don't have an entry up in my store, I do have a few copies here... if you want a signed one from me, with a personalized message and a sketch of your favorite (or least-favorite -- my default is Bush!) character from a Fighting Words cartoon, shoot me an email at nomind@fightingwordscomics.com.

Personally, at first glance I was a little resistant to the more "minimalist" or outwardly repetitive works like Michael Zole's Death to the Extremist, Chris Dlugosz's Pixel, Robert Balder's Partially Clips, and Ryan North's Daily Dinosaur Comics (even though some of them probably have a much wider readership than I do!). But after spending some time reading them, I think they offer some of the most enjoyable and innovative dialogue in comics today. Definitely better than the crap you'll see in your typical daily newspaper.

I guess I of all people should know better than to be so visually superficial...


BTW: I'm aware that there's something weird going on with the archive... a second window is popping up when you click on an archived 'toon. I've dispatched a team of experts from my IT department to work on the problem (...meaning my webmaster is looking into it)...

More on Thomas...

An amusing little slip-up by the esteemed Justice Thomas, from his dissent in the recent Hamdan case (via Crooks & Liars and Cursor):

Ironically, Justice Thomas refers to Justice Stevens’ “unfamiliarity with the realities of warfare”; but Stevens served in the U.S. Navy from 1942 to 1945, during World War II. Thomas’s official bio, by contrast, contains no experience of military service.

Oops.

Spinzone Comics

Today is the "opening day" for Spinzone Comics, a collective of political and socially-minded webcomics. Included are Fighting Words, Mr. Bors' Idiot Box (at right), Brad Hawkins' Monkey Law, Jonathan Fischer's Death of the Party, Eddie Caplan's Line Item Vito, and J.E. Mills' Cosmic Awareness. Check it out!

More on Racism, GOP...

Check out Earl Ofari Hutchinson on the Republican leadership's shameless indulging of white Southern racism; Hazel Trice Edney on the rehashing of 40-year-old arguments regarding the Voting Rights Act; Samantha Levine in the Houston Chronicle, who quotes Rep. John Carter (R-TX) as saying, "I don't think we have racial bias in Texas anymore" (.... uh huh...); Margaret Kimberly on civil liberties "advancements" in South Dakota and Georgia; and Edward Lazarus and Charles Lane on a couple of cases that will allow the retrogressive Roberts Court to re-examine Brown next year.

See also an utterly disturbing report from New Orleans by Bill Quigley, who, besides giving a laundry list of seemingly insurmountable problems faced by the city, also notes that "not a single dollar of federal housing repair or home reconstruction money has made it to New Orleans yet." I am compelled to point again to an earlier post by Juan Cole, who predicted that most of the promised money would never arrive because rebuilding New Orleans is not politically advantageous for Republicans. As pessimistic as I am, when I read this I laughed it off. The fact that it seems to be coming true is, quite simply, obscene.

7/3/06 Cartoon

"GOP Filmstrips: Laws We Don't Need Anymore!"...

Tryin' something a little different with this one...