Weekend Cartoons

This was not a particularly strong week for cartoons, for some strange reason. I just didn't find any that really struck my fancy. Normally, I have to struggle to keep the ones I post and comment on here below 20, and I usually debate which one I want to include first, etc., but not this week. Maybe the A-List cartoonist took a much needed vacation this week. If they did, it's not like they haven't earned it - it's been one busy year for them, and it's only going to get busier, more tragic and a whole lot of other superlatives I can't even think of right now. I've little doubt that we will most definitely look back on '08, years from now, and say that it was a watershed year in many respects; not all of them good.

Anyway, on that cheerful note, on to the comics. Most of you know the drill by now, but for those of you who are new to the blog (and judging from the rising number of readers, there are a fair number of you) - my comments on selected cartoons are below the comic.

Enjoy...


This one is painfully true. I have two things to say to this year's college graduates - 1. Congratulations on your achievement - you will remember this day for the rest of your life because of all the hard work you put into getting your degree, and 2. Consider graduate school. In many fields today, grad school sets the standard, but I suggest it equally as forcefully today because once you get out there in the world, and you see how tough this economy is, trust me - graduate school will look like a tropical oasis. Welcome to the Bush economy!

I guess we can now officially declare that there is a problem with the polar bears, now that the Bush administration has formally mandated that polar bears are threatened. This is just another footnote to a failed policy as this administration mercifully comes to a close. Bush has ignored and denied the issue of global warming for well over seven years now, but as every president is wont to do at the end of eight years, he has his precious legacy to think about. So, finally, Bush acknowledges things like the dramatic drop-off in polar bear populations and the existence of global warming, so he can highlight that in his new $1 billion shrine to himself, his presidential library. Hopefully history won't be so kind to him regarding his willful disregard to global warming and its consequences, as well as his shameless pandering to industries that contribute so much to this problem.

How our government is paying for our blatant pandering, um, stimulus checks is getting appallingly little press. I've been writing about it for a while now, and my feelings about it are no less passionate now. It's fiscally irresponsible for our government to be borrowing about $170 billion to give it to taxpayers in the hopes they will "buy something to stimulate the economy." What's worse, I've read Congress would consider another reckless tax deferment this fall to give the economy another jolt. Just a week or two before the election, no doubt.

I've written it before and it bears repeating - we certainly could use the money, and we certainly won't send it back, either, but we have so many problems right now, I just don't think this is the course of action our government should be taking. Oh, and we're not buying something with our refund, Mr. National Embarrassment - we've paying down debt. But thanks for the cash, nonetheless.

This one speaks for itself - I can think of nothing to add, it says so much. This is the mark of a devastatingly on-point political cartoon.

The interviews of West Virginians before and during the West Virginia primary were a low point during the '08 campaign, thus far. I've never seen so many backward, country-ass !$##%&*#@! !@#$#!##*&!@ in my entire life. The Daily Show did a great piece on it - I'll try to dig it up.

Isn't this one the truth. It seems the housing crisis has been knocked off the front page for a moment, but it's not off the minds of tens of millions of home owners, that's for sure. And I haven't read or heard about any meaningful legislation to put a stop to predatory lending practices, either - just bailing out the many sub-prime lenders with taxpayer money. My money.

These mortgage companies have quite a scam going, that's for sure. And it's pretty fool proof.

This raping and pillaging of the American taxpayer by corporate America, (in this case, mortgage lenders) reminds me of a scene from one of my favorite movies, Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, James Woods Sharon Stone and Don Rickles. Best of all, it's directed by our greatest living American director, Martin Scorcesee. Anyway, in the clip above, at about the 4:15 mark, Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) collects on a debt from some dirt bag, and De Niro's voice over describing Santoro's, ahem, collection methods goes thusly:

Santoro: Ace [Rothstein, played by De Niro] saw Vegas one way, but I saw it another - I saw it as untouched. I mean they had bookies, pimps, drug dealers I could shake down - who the fuck were they going to run to? So I started getting everyone in line. Best of all, for the first time in my life, I figured out a way not to lose.

Rothstein: [Voice Over] Yea, he had a fool-proof scheme alright. It wasn't very scientific, but it worked. When he won, he collected. When he lost, he told the bookies to go fuck themselves. What were they gonna do, muscle Nicky? Heh, Nicky was the muscle.

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Okay, maybe a bit of a stretched metaphor, but hopefully you get the point - it seems like these corporations mislead, take advantage and screw the taxpayer, and when it works, they collect fat profits. When the unregulated system collapses, they go to the government with their hands out, and the Bush administration (and a fair number in Congress) are all only too willing to comply. It's quite a system... if you're a stockholder or an executive for the likes of Bear-Sterns or Countrywide. If you're the unfortunate holder of a sub prime, well, better luck next lifetime.

And I don't buy into the thought process of some people that goes something like this: "Well, no one FORCED these people to sign up for these mortgages!" Fair enough, but government can and must play a role in protecting the American people from predatory business practices. However, during the Bush administration, that had increasingly not been the case. Since Ronald Reagan took office in January 1981, the trend in our government has been deregulation, and by now I certainly hope it's become obvious to most that if big business is left to its own devices, the people getting screwed are the people from the middle class on down. It really is time to take our country back. It isn't going to be easy.

We should all be more than on guard about what John McCain is telling us he'll do about global warming. Flashback to 2000, when Bush ran on "mandatory carbon caps" by big business. He reversed that decision before his moving boxes were even unpacked in the White House. (As a bonus, he suffered NO political consequences.) I suspect McCain is doing the same thing - pouring honey in our ears, painting broad strokes about what he'll do to combat global warming, but if elected...

Just another reason McBush ought to be bounced out on his butt this November. If McCain is such a global warming activist, where has he been the last 20 years?

Hey! Welcome back, wedge issue of 2004! Where have you been, anyway? Glad you could make it for another election.

Clearly, at this point, Hillary has two reasons for staying in the race:

1. To get some of her campaign debt payed down. There has been an increasing number of reports and speculation in the media that Clinton will strike a deal with Obama when she gets out of the race where she'll get some, if not all of the roughly $20 million back that she has lent her campaign out of her personal finances.

2. She just might be setting herself up for 2012, especially if McCain wins, but maybe even if he doesn't. I'm not so sure about this one, because incumbent presidents being challenged by members of their own party are pretty rare in recent political history. No incumbent president has realized any sort of significant challenge from within his own party since 1980, when Ted Kennedy took a run at President Carter (and lost). It's easy to say now that Hillary will challenge Obama in '12 if he wins, but there are a lot of bones President Obama could throw Hillary's way. However, Hillary is only 60 years old - she certainly has a lengthy political future ahead of her if she wants one, and she would have more experience and undoubtedly more money to make a run in '12 if she's so inclined, regardless of who wins this November.