More on Bush Iraq Rhetoric, VFW Speech...

Articles for this week's 'toon:

• Anyone see anything a little incongruous between recent claims that "the surge is working," and the almost daily reports of record-breaking suicide bombings in Iraq? Even Hillary is apparently lauding the surge as being successful. The reality on the ground seems to be quite different, as many who have directly observed events there say "we have failed on every promise."
  
  So there appears to be a great deal of doubt over whether the surge is producing any meaningful results, which would merit our continued presence in Iraq. The question is, for people who are so consistently and completely WRONG on important decisions like this, at what point do they totally forfeit the benefit of the doubt? Shoulda been a hell of a long time ago, shouldn't it?
  

• Ari Fleischer's got a new little club of fun-loving guys, whose main goal is to produce ads connecting Iraq to 9-11, and then criticize people who ask them about it for "reliving old debates." Do yourself a favor and watch this clip of him on Hardball... never seen (guest-host) Mike Barnicle before, but he seems to have a knack for throwing out a good question every now and then.
  
  
• So the Prezdint Professor-man gave a speech at the VFW national convention, where he gave us all a much-needed lecture on the simple lessons of America's past wars. You see, in Japan and Korea, we did whatever it took (think Hiroshima and Nagasaki) and the outcome was totally good. In Vietnam, we lost our will (after 15-some odd years of war) and retreated like a bunch of wussies, and the result was a total disaster. So, the reason Iraq is going to hell in a handbasket is the galling lack of will on the part of those who criticize the war (all 210 million of us)... it's our fault, not his. It's just that simple. Maybe if all of us anti-war types spent a little less time complaining and a little more time reading Graham Greene, we'd know what we are talking about.
  
  
  
  
  Yikes...

Fighting Words: 8/27/07 Cartoon...

"Failed Post-Rove PR Tactics"...

More on VA Tech, Gun Control...

Articles for this week's 'toon:

• Personally, I respect the opinions of responsible, sensible hunters and gun owners, but it is logically clear to me that the "right to bear arms" is not a vital constitutional right... on par with, say, the right to free speech. It is a serious public safety issue, and guns are extremely dangerous tools that need to be heavily regulated.
  
  The Brady Campaign's Dennis Henigan debates gun control online, and makes an obvious point:
  

  The innocent victims at Va. Tech. did not die because a young person was deranged. They died because a deranged young person had access to guns. If he had been armed with a knife, or baseball bat, or shampoo bottle, 32 people would not have died.

  See also Alex Koppelman in Salon on why the Democrats dumped gun control from their agenda.


• The 'toon was partially inspired by a quote from an early West Wing episode, my favorite argument that I've ever heard on the gun control debate. It comes after the first season, when white supremacists try to kill Charlie Young and end up hitting Bartlett, and press secretary C.J. is giving a briefing to the White House Press Corps. It underscores perfectly just how preposterous that aspect of the pro-gun argument is:

  There were 36 homicides last night. 480 sexual assaults. 3411 robberies. 3685 aggravated assaults, all at gun point. And if anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victims themselves had been carrying guns, I only remind you that the President of the United States was shot last night while surrounded by the best-trained armed guards in the history of the world.



• A lot of the rhetoric in the 'toon was drawn from the "Facts" pages for the Brady Campaign and the NRA... the Brady page makes this excellent point:

  Ironically, the NRA forbids its own members from carrying guns into the NRA's national convention, but they want to force the rest of us to let those people carry guns into our schools, restaurants, parks, sports stadiums, streets, and anywhere else they want.

  However, the most valuable thing I read was this priceless "editorial" on the CNN site by Ted Nugent. Reads like it was written by a 5 year-old...

Fighting Words: 4/30/07 Cartoon

"History Machine 2: The N.R.A.'s Moments That Would've Turned Out Differently"...

See the previous episode:

More on Predicting the Future with Bush...

A few articles relating to this week's 'toon caught my eye...

Most of us know at least a few reasonable people who simply refuse to believe that certain terrible things could ever happen in our great American society, especially in "this day and age." They dismiss any notion that these things could happen as being "alarmist" or "science fiction." Things like the United States government maliciously spying on its own citizens en masse, not in any imperative quest to keep them safe from an outside threat, but rather in an effort to check political speech and document dissent. Or like our own government manufacturing a fake international incident in order to intentionally provoke a war, in an effort to fulfill dubious political goals. Or like our own government responding to a terrible disaster befalling its citizens, and basing its response on the racial makeup or political demographics of the citizens involved (let alone intentionally exacerbating the disaster in an effort to harm certain citizens). Generally, I think one should try to listen to such people, and take what they say into account... some conspiracy theories are, in fact, absurd.

EXCEPT WHEN WE ALREADY KNOW OUR GOVERNMENT HAS DONE THESE THINGS IN THE PAST:

• I already talked about the "Crusty" response to allegations of mass surveillance a few weeks ago...
  
  Check out this article by Paul Craig Roberts on the possibility that the Bush administration may be trying to engineer another "Gulf of Tonkin" incident in an effort to provoke all-out war with Iran, or perhaps another "U.S.S. Liberty" incident in partnership with Israel:
  

  In 1967 Israel attacked and destroyed the US intelligence ship Liberty, because Liberty'’s crew had picked up proof that Israel had initiated the war with Egypt and intended to attack Syria the next day. Some have speculated that Israelis hoped their attack on the Liberty could be blamed on Egypt and used to draw the US into the war against Egypt.
  In 2003 the Moorer Commission, headed by Admiral Tom Moorer, former Chief of Naval Operations and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, concluded:
  "That in attacking the USS Liberty, Israel committed acts of murder against American servicemen and an act of war against the United States.
  "That fearing conflict with Israel, the White House deliberately prevented the U.S. Navy from coming to the defense of USS Liberty.
  "“the Captain and surviving crew members were later threatened with court-martial, imprisonment or worse if they exposed the truth; and were abandoned by their own government.
  "That due to the influence of Israel'’s powerful supporters in the United States, the White House deliberately covered up the facts of this attack from the American people.
  "“That a danger to our national security exists whenever our elected officials are willing to subordinate American interests to those of 'any foreign nation, and specifically are unwilling to challenge Israel'’s interests when they conflict with American interests.'"”
  On the 30th anniversary of Israel's destruction of the liberty, Admiral Moorer said that Israel attacked the Liberty because Israel knew that the intelligence ship could intercept Israel's plans to seize the Golan Heights from Syria, an act of Israeli aggression to which the US government was opposed. Admiral Moorer said, "“I believe Moshe Dayan concluded that he could prevent Washington from becoming aware of what Israel was up to by destroying the primary source of acquiring that information--the US Liberty. Moorer reports that after a 25 minute air attack '“that pounded the Liberty with bombs, rockets, napalm and machine gun fire . . . three Israeli torpedo boats closed in for the kill . . . the torpedo boats'’ machine guns also were turned on life rafts that were deployed into the Mediterranean as well as those few on deck that had escaped damage."
  Admiral Moorer says, "“What is so chilling and cold-blooded, of course, is that they [Israel] could kill as many Americans as they did in confidence that Washington would cooperate in quelling any public outcry."



• A bombshell from Brownie, as he reveals that political concerns were ultimately driving decisions on the federal response to the Katrina disaster. To be honest, Brownie has about as much credibility on the issue right now as the White House does. And his accusation is that the White House wanted to federalize New Orleans, which I really wish they would have done much earlier in the process. However, Brownie's gradual revealing of previously hidden facts has the feel of an inside story that we haven't heard the last of, in the sense that there may have been many more decisions that were made based on political concerns. It's stories like this that make me more inclined to buy into suggestions like those made by Spike Lee in When the Levees Broke, that the levees were intentionally blown in an effort to fundamentally change the political makeup of Louisiana.
  
  I mean, would you really put it past them?

More on domestic surveillance...

For this week's 'toon, I wanted to stay away from the legal issues (which I touched on in this 'toon) and the theoretical social problems (which I talked about here) involved with the N.S.A.'s domestic spying program, so I could focus on issues like historical context and scope. But that doesn't mean I didn't read some good stuff on those other issues...

• Check out Glenn Greenwald on the gutsy decision a couple months ago by District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor, which flat rejected almost all of Bush's domestic spying program on almost all grounds. The fact that she even held that the program violates the First and Fourth Amendments is important because this would not be overcome by a Specter "compromise" bill (that, seemingly, would just let Bush do whatever he wants anyway). See more great stuff on the Taylor decision from Julie Hilden (twice).
  
  The decision was stayed until it could be reviewed by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which apparently will happen on January 31st. From there, it will probably go to the Supreme Court...


• Guess what? George W. Bush just declared in a signing statement that he has the right to open your mail without a warrant... and you bet your ass he's gonna do it. At what point have we officially crossed the line from "free society" to "police state?" Will someone let me know when it happens?


• Robert Parry on the previously proposed Total Information Awareness program, which was to include the use of "transactional data" (financial, educational, travel, medical, etc.) and "biometric signatures" (faces, fingerprints, gaits, and irises). The proposed office even set off alarms with the Da Vinci code conspiracy crowd, who noted the Masonic symbol in the logo and the ominous acronym that was going to be used.


• As far as I can tell, the use of surveillance cameras has not been identified as being part of the N.S.A.'s current snooping activities... but would you put it past them? Apparently, it's not outside the realm of possibility in the Western world these days... some sources say there are over 4 million surveillance cameras overlooking the streets in the UK, many with listening capabilities. I've noticed a few here and there in downtown Seattle... who do they belong to?


• Lots on the historical context of the current N.S.A. program, including this super-cool site from GWU with documents describing previous programs such as ECHELON, SHAMROCK, MINARET, CHAOS, and COINTELPRO. It also recounts the genesis of the FISA law that Dubya is openly violating, which, at the time of its development, was (of course) vehemently opposed by then-Ford staffers Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney.
  
  As one would expect, the ACLU has an excellent page on warrantless wiretapping, and also check out this cool online documentary from Julian Bond. See also Tim Shorrock on the scope and history of such programs.

See also my previous posts on this stuff...

Fighting Words: 1/8/07 Cartoon

"Crusty McCrotchety on Domestic Surveillance"...

Trying something a little different artistically again... see the previous Crusty episode here.

More on Conservatism as a Failed Ideology...

Some excellent sources for this week's 'toon, as we're witnessing some relevant breaking news on Gerald Ford's death:

• Ford's death is relevant, of course, because of Henry Kissinger's role in the Nixon and Ford administrations, which I also touched on in a previous cartoon. Many have argued over the years that Kissinger's involvement in the clandestine carpet-bombing of Cambodia and Laos during the Vietnam War and the 1973 Chilean coup have earned him an appearance before an international war crimes tribunal. It seems he can't go abroad these days without someone trying to indict him. And, according to Bob Woodward, this is the guy who has been advising Bush and Cheney lately on the best way to proceed in Iraq.


• Check out the terrific introduction to Sidney Blumenthal's new book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, a comprehensive retelling of the story of "the most willfully radical president in American history." The good points are too numerous to list, but he does note in the beginning that among Bush's 2000 campaign promises was to be a more "humble nation" with regards to foreign policy, and also to bring an end to the Clinton administration's policy of violating the civil liberties of Arabs accused of terrorism. Wow.


• A generally well-argued piece by Alan Wolfe entitled "Why Conservatives Can't Govern," which makes the claim that contemporary conservatism is a fundamentally contradictory ideology, in the sense that the conservatives who hold office must operate within the same federal government that they want to make "small enough to drown in a bathtub." As a result, he says, they attempt to "split the difference" by operating the government in a way that gives them the most political gain, for example, by giving tax cuts to billionaires. His best example in support of this hypothesis is FEMA, an agency that worked so well under the Clinton administration, but under Bush was reduced to a skin-and-bones operation run by the former head of the International Arabian Horse Association. The problem is that the Bush administration was trying to run an agency when they were fundamentally opposed to that agency's mission.


• Gary Kamiya's obituary of neoconservatism (which I think may be a bit premature). The neocons' foreign policy game plan is characterized by a belief that Americans hold a monopoly on nationalism, and by a purposeful ignorance of the varying cultural and historical contexts among different groups within the Arab-Muslim world. Which partially explains why, when we were attacked by a bunch of Saudis, we attacked Iraq...


• Kevin Baker on the conservative art of "the back-stab."


• A couple of articles on the back-story behind Robert Gates by Eric Alterman and Robert Parry, and a couple on Newt "the Outsider" Gingrich by Alex Koppelman and John M. Broder.

Fighting Words: 12/25/06 Cartoon

"Conserv-B-Gone!"... check out some other commercial parodies here, here, and here.

Runnin' a little late here, but it's crazy holiday time... I figured everyone would be opening presents anyway, or eating turkey, or drinking heavily.

To everyone who takes the time to read my cartoons every week: Merry Groksmas!... y'all are much loved. Stay tuned for the new year, should be some fun developments coming in the Fighting Words world...

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"...