Weekend Cartoons, Late Edition

It's been a pretty active week in world affairs and on the political front, so I won't comment a great deal before getting to the political cartoons. As usual, my comments are below selected cartoons.

This is the sad, shocking state that our military is in. A potential war with Iran, whether justified or not, absolutely cannot and must not be waged while we still have troops committed in significant numbers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The latest news coming out of Iraq about the country's oil reserves is neither shocking nor surprising, just that it took this long to step to the forefront of so many issues facing the country with one of the world's largest oil reserves. Without question, Big Oil is lining up to slice and dice the country, and that's a pathetic shame for the Iraqi people; after all, the oil belongs to them, not the greedy corporations trying to suck it out of the ground to minimum gain for Iraqis, but for billions in profit for the multinational oil companies.

This is about right - the surge is bin Laden's (remember him?) best dream - billions more American dollars pouring into Iraq, along with tens of thousands of more troops, with no end in sight.

These two are funny, in a tragic sort of way. What's going to be very interesting is how Republicans will make great sport out of trying to blame our economy, which is wobbling toward economic disaster, on the Democrats. I've written it many times, and it bears repeating - only Bush could start a war in a country that has one of the largest petroleum reserves in the world, only to see prices more than double. Nice job, Mr. President.

I don't think anyone is cheering the fact that Starbucks is closing 600 stores, but what goes up must come down. It's simply a sign of the times that people no longer consider it a good idea to pay upward of $5 for a latte every day.

I guess I'm taking an overly negative tone today, but I wonder what mind-numbingly stupid spin global warming deniers will put on the fact that the North Pole might not have summer ice for the first time in human history this summer? Without even hearing much yet, I'm already inclined to give the coming spin a five for creativity, an eight for stupidity and a ten for completely misrepresenting the facts. In other words, business as usual for people who continue to deny the obvious. The one good thing - like the North Pole ice, global warming deniers seem to be shrinking in numbers by the minute.

John McCain, the green candidate? I don't know if he's quite earned the label. For that matter, neither has Barack Obama. But, I take the positive view - hopefully both will realize that the US must embark on an alternative energy policy that will make the Apollo moon project look like a 5th grade book report.

My biggest pet peeve is when I hear the deniers on TV saying, "Well, if China and India don't do anything, it won't make a difference anyway." Again, I run the risk of creating boilerplate here, but I've written this many times, but it bears repeating...

1. We had our Industrial Revolution and over 50 years of economic prosperity. Now we look China and India in the eyes with a straight face and say, "Sorry, you can't have the type of growth that we did"? Yea, that going to resonate. It's unfair at best, and hypocritical at worst.

2. This one's related to the point above, but whatever happened to the US taking a leadership role in the world? During the Bush Presidency, the only thing we've taken a leadership role in is bombing and killing people. It's tragic that NOW Bush is "addressing" global warming, when his presidency is too far gone to do anything about it. In other words, he's concerned with his legacy, so if he gives the issue window dressing now, he'll be able to say with pride that "he took on this important issue," when in reality he has done zero to combat global warming.

3. The news is filled with horrific news about American workers losing their jobs, specifically in the manufacturing sector. I cannot even begin to fathom how well our economy will do if we take a leadership role in creating alternative energy sources. Just imagine how well American companies would do if we created the best solar panels, and came up with ideas that we haven't even dreamed of yet, if our next president gives American companies plenty of tax incentives to invent these technologies - what a concept! That would be a way to adequately spend our tax dollars. And the most important thing - these technologies must be Made in the USA - if these companies want the tax breaks, forget off-shoring the jobs. It's letter writing time to both candidates about this.

Sorry, but I couldn't possibly care less about Hillary's campaign debt. Period. I've written about this one before. I'm not giving her a dime.

I wonder where this cartoon came from - the Republican National Committee, or the McCain campaign? It's moving, and emotional, sure, but I repeat - being a POW does not qualify you to be president, period. What it does do is allow McCain to beat the patriotism issue like a cheap drum from now until election day, which does nothing for this country, and merely distracts voters from issues that matter and affect all of us (with the willing help of our corporate media, which has a vested interest in seeing McCain getting elected).

Thus far, the cartoon immediately above is the Sage Cartoon of the Year, hands down.

See Above

It's tragic watching Detroit's Big Three suffering horribly because their cash cow, SUV's and ridiculously large trucks, is no longer producing sweet milky profits. Last week I even heard whispers of bankruptcy for GM, which would be a corporate disaster of Biblical proportions.

My question when I saw this one was, "Why, because Faux News said so?" Gen. Clark could be spending his time talking about much more productive things, without question, but I do give Clark credit for having the temerity for going where no one else was willing to go - and that's talking about McCain's war experience. I'm not a sheep - he doesn't automatically get a pass on all things military just because he served.

This is getting virtually no coverage in our corporate media, and it should. We've fallen a long way from Bush thumping his chest on TV and boasting, "Wanted: Dead or Alive" about bin Laden. He must be laughing his ass off in a cave somewhere. Again, flogging Bush about this is like making fun of someone with a mental disability - it just doesn't seem fair at this point, because like a disabled person, Bush just can't help himself - his foreign policy is THAT broken. Here's some food for thought - just imagine if Al Gore hadn't brought bin Laden to justice. What would the neocons be saying about him?!? Talk about a hypocritical, ridiculous double standard.

Ben Bernanke is a disaster as chairman of the Fed. What does this guy do, anyway? The mortgage crisis is growing, the dollar is less and less valuable by the day, and the economy is collapsing. With his track record and a lack of accountability, I wonder if the Fed is hiring? Heck, I think I could get a job there - being wrong doesn't seem to have consequences these days.

A-men - who cares about his legacy? Only a handful of people.

The two best cartoons I've seen about the '08 election yet - I'm sick to death of the whole patriotism issue already. With each successive election, it seems like this issue only gets more and more play in the media, and I can't think of an issue that matters less to most American voters. What's next? Will candidates have to have a tattoo of an American flag on their biceps? I'm reminded of another sign of country loyalty that everyone had to wear nearly 70 years ago, but I don't really need to type it, do I?