News item

109 year-old woman, daughter of a slave, casts her vote for Obama.

via Buzzflash

Great stat...

...heard in passing on Air America just now:

Apparently, a poll was done of people who had already voted in the State of Florida, and 6% of those people were... you guessed it... still undecided about who they were going to vote for.

Fighting Words: 10/27/08 Cartoon...

"Karate Kid, Part V"...

Worst of the Worst

Esquire has a list of the 10 worst members of Congress.  Hard to argue with most of their choices, but...

OK, you know when someone does a list of the 10 greatest rock songs of all time or 10 greatest pro sports teams of all time, and some music/sports geek (like me) has to post a screaming rant protesting the exclusion of one or more choices?  I hate to be that guy, but...

C'MON!! How you gonna do a list like this and not include a guy who has to be one of the top 10 assholes in the entire history of congressional assholery? SERIOUSLY PEOPLE... put some effort into it...

Watada

Good news:

If the Army tries to court-martial 1st Lt. Ehren Watada a second time, it cannot prosecute him for refusing to deploy to Iraq, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

Seeking a conviction on that charge -- the most serious that Watada faced -- would constitute double jeopardy, U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle in Tacoma decided.

The Watada case was the inspiration for this cartoon last year...

Fighting Words: 10/20/08 Cartoon...

"Alien Society, #7"...

A Little Anim...

To make up for the lack of animation on this week's 'toon, here a little somethin' somethin' to look at... my first walk-cycle! I did this a while ago, part of my perpetually in-development second full animated short:





Doesn't look like much, but that's actually a lot of work on Flash.

As unbelievably complicated as Flash is for a numbskull like me, it actually starts to get fun once you get the hang of it...

Fighting Words: 10/13/08 Cartoon...

"Period Piece"...


Tryin' something a little different with this one... no animation yet, but I'm sure I'll come back to it at some point this week and pick at it.

Debate Deux

I found it interesting that David Gergen, in CNN's post-debate cluck-fest, said he thinks Obama's "blackness" (his word) will automatically cost him 5 points on election day... as if that many people who go into the booth fully intending to vote for Obama will all change their mind at the last second when they remember he's a black guy.  I usually like Gergen's levelheaded analyses, but you gotta wonder here what century he thinks he's living in... or more to the point, if he's actually correct, what century that 5% of voting Americans think they're living in.

Matt has a 'toon on the subject...

Flash Probs

I'm getting more reports that the Flash versions of my 'toons aren't working quite right for some. I've noticed myself that it's hit-or-miss on Safari, especially when linking in from certain sites. However, it seems to work just fine in Firefox.

Two solutions for now: view the animation in Firefox, or click on the link to the non-Flash version above each cartoon.

Thanks for bearing with me...

Fighting Words: 10/6/08 Cartoon...

"Corporations: CRISIS!!"...


Some previous episodes with the Corporation Guys:

Ghosts I - IV

Updating this post, I did indeed end up buying a "copy" of NIN's online album offering, Ghosts. I gotta say, even though it's all instrumental, it's damn good.

Great zone-out-while-working album...

Random Thoughts

• You might notice that my "Moron" posts have disappeared... they haven't gone away forever, but they won't necessarily be every week anymore. I'm not gonna do 'em unless I have something interesting that I really want to talk about. I will be doing more posts on other topics, though...
  


• I've made my Archives front-page a little more user-friendly...
  


• Seeing Griffey back in the MLB playoffs brings back some fuzzy memories. I have a vague recollection of my hometown having a successful baseball team once. I can't be sure, though...
  


• I think if I don't talk about my favorite TV shows more often, they're going to suspend my blogging license...
  
  So anyway, if Fox cancels Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles, I'm gonna be supremely pissed. I watched the pilot last year out of curiosity, fully expecting it to suck, and I've been totally hooked ever since. Lena Headey brings a really cool vibe to the title role...
  

Veepin'

I'll call that a successful prediction... Palin didn't sound quite as stupid as she had the potential to (aside from her bizarrely exaggerated folksiness), and yet not a word escaped her lips that might indicate that she has the capacity to formulate independent thoughts on most important issues.  She was clearly coached to steer the topics toward answers that she had already rehearsed ahead of time.

Most prescient pre-debate editorial cartoon:

(click here to view)

Clay Bennett Chattanooga Times Free Press Oct 1, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com

Palin debate ramp up

As is often the case, I'm reminded of a quote from the West Wing:

C.J.
Toby, I'm absolutely terrified we're going to lose the expectations game. I can't believe how many times I get asked what would be a win in the debates. At this point I feel like if -- and only if -- Ritchie accidentally lights his podium on fire does the President have a fighting chance.

TOBY
I disagree.

C.J.
Disagree all you want, but I'm right.

TOBY
These two men are going to be side by side on the stage, answering questions. That's the ball game.

C.J.
If the whole thing is, he can't tie his shoelaces and it turns out he can, then that is the ball game.

TOBY
And I believe he'll have to do more than tie his shoelaces.

C.J.
Not much more.

I think everyone needs to cool it a little on the predictions that Palin will have a total meltdown in her debate. If it turns out she sounds just slightly less dumb than Tina Fey's caricature, then we'll be treated to a mudslide of claims that she "won" the debate... when she still hasn't actually said anything of substance.

Fighting Words: 9/29/08 Cartoon...

"Fuzzy Campaign"...

Even more debate thoughts...

I'm going to be hammering on McCain some more in the next 'toon, so I'll document here what's bothering me about Obama's performance last night.

What we have here is a tale of two Obamas. First, we have the Obama who is an electrifying presence and a dynamic public speaker, who energizes his base and motivates people to vote for him because he is Barack Obama. This is the guy we saw during the DNC.

Then we have the Obama who stumbles through his arguments and gets weighed down by figures, who kow-tows to the far right in an effort to ingratiate himself some mythical Democratic notion of the "reg'lar Amer'can," and who makes proud independents ultimately not trust him and feel ambivalent about their choice since they don't really see any difference between the two candidates. This, of course, is the Obama we saw last night, for the most part (congratulating John McCain for his stance on torture? What?! The same guy who voted against the ban on waterboarding?).

This second guy is the type who merely motivates people to vote for him just because... well, he's not quite as bad as the other guy. Ask John Kerry how this guy does in elections that should, by all accounts, be easily winnable.

Personally, I'd like to see the first Obama in the next debate.

Debate "whaaaaaa?"

Did McCain just try to compare Obama to Bush on Iraq at the end there?

That's an impressive little bit of hypocritical bullshit jujitsu to make that argument...



MORE THOUGHTS: Don't get me wrong, here... I wasn't entirely blown away by Obama's performance tonight.

But I did think he landed the zinger of the night when he finally came back at McCain's deranged mocking of the concept of international diplomacy with, "Look, nobody is saying we're gonna sit down and have TEA with these people, you disingenuous piece of shit!!!!"

Obviously, I added a bit there...

Free Palin 'Toon!

After seeing the Katie Couric interview with Sarah Palin, it's becoming clear that this is a person who is totally out of her league. She has no idea what to say beyond campaign slogans and generic talking points, and she even panics a little when pressed to do some critical thinking on rather simple issues:

COURIC: You've said, quote, "John McCain will reform the way Wall Street does business." Other than supporting stricter regulations of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac two years ago, can you give us any more example of his leading the charge for more oversight?

PALIN: I think that the example that you just cited, with his warnings two years ago about Fannie and Freddie--that, that's paramount. That's more than a heck of a lot of other senators and representatives did for us.

COURIC: But he's been in Congress for 26 years. He's been chairman of the powerful Commerce Committee. And he has almost always sided with less regulation, not more.

PALIN: He's also known as the maverick though. Taking shots from his own party, and certainly taking shots from the other party. Trying to get people to understand what he's been talking about--the need to reform government.

COURIC: I'm just going to ask you one more time, not to belabor the point. Specific examples in his 26 years of pushing for more regulation?

PALIN: I'll try to find you some and I'll bring them to you.

Makes me think that this week's cartoon should have looked more like this:



In fact, let's do this: if you click on that image above, you'll get a high-resolution JPEG that should print up pretty nicely. I'll do this Trent Reznor-style and say "this one's on me"... feel free to print that up, and fill in the bubbles with anything (words? doodles? photos? loogies?) that you think best represents what the heck Sarah Palin is really trying to say. Put 'em up in your office to annoy your Republican co-workers who are trying desperately to convince themselves that she is actually qualified! Here's a few more to play with, including some in black & white and some with fewer bubbles:



If you make use of these, do me a favor and shoot me an e-mail at nomind (at) fightingwordscomics.com describing what you came up with (or even scan it and send me a copy)... I'd love to see them!

I'll leave these on my server through the election. I took the byline off, but left my copyright on... all I ask is that you not sell it (as in this Creative Commons license).

Enjoy!

Yes

(click here to view)

Ed Stein Rocky Mountain News Sep 24, 2008 EditorialCartoonists.com