GOP fist shirt on ebay

I put up one of my shirts on e bay to try it out. Not too much response so far. No one has bid yet so it could be yours for seven dollars, as opposed to the usual twelve. I designed and hand pulled them. The shirt listed is a large, but if you need something different just send me an e mail after you've purchased.Buy Here

Idiot Box signed to online syndication deal!

Idiot Box has been signed to an online syndication deal with the Universal Press Syndicate. It will still be on this site but will also be a part of their service My Comics Page, which delivers comics to your inbox every day. If you're into comics it's a pretty good deal. They have 130 comics to choose from and have a lot of alternative toons, like Ted Rall, Slowpoke, the K Kronichles, Tom The Dancing Bug, The City, Too Much Coffee Man, and all kinds of dailies. If you're tired of reading Marmaduke and Family Circus in your local paper check it out.

My Comics Page


Here's the official copy for Idiot Box:

With his weekly mutli-panel comic strip Idiot Box, Matt Bors relentlessly tracks and targets the foolishness and folly of the political scene, and casts a merciless satirical eye on pop culture strangeness. Whether parsing the latest catchphrase or deconstructing a demagogue, discoursing on "The Manchurian Populace" or sussing out which candidates pass "the Barbecue test", Bors consistently delivers illuminating and entertaining insight. In a wigged-out world with a 24-7 news cycle, IDIOT BOX provides a colorful, humorous coping mechanism. Please add it to your tool chest today!

The Christian Taliban

Although they think the rapture will soon be upon us, before Jesus returns to send Muslims, Liberals, and abortionists to Hell the religious fundementalist Christian movement is trying to impose their medeval belief system into our secular school system.

Revision Marches to Social Agenda

By Scott Gold Times Staff Writer

SPRING, Texas - Outside the Spring Church of Christ, a large roadside sign says a lot about the prevailing sensibility in this cordial town. It reads: "Support New Testament Morality."

This is the home and powerbase of Terri Leo, a state Board of Education member representing 2.5 million people in East Texas.

At the urging of Leo and several other members who describe themselves as Christian conservatives the board this month approved new health textbooks for high school and middle school students after publishers said they would tweak references to marriage and sexuality.

One agreed to define marriage as a "lifelong union between a husband and a wife." Another deleted words that were attacked by conservatives as "stealth" references to gay relationships; "partners," for example, was changed to "husbands and wives." A passage explaining that adolescence brings the onset of "attraction to others" became "attraction to the opposite sex."

Leo said she pushed for the changes to combat the influence of "liberal New York publishers" who by "censoring" the definition of marriage were legitimizing same-sex unions.

Yes, because the definition of marriage is of one man and one woman as laid down by GOD in the Bible, the ultimate textbook of Truth. This seems to be an instance where the religious right is against censorship for once, although their logic is screwed. They are using their power to impose their fundamentalist, superstitious ideologies into our classsrooms, replacing facts with religious conjecture. They have been insisting for years that evolution is a sham and carbon dating unreliable, citing the fact that evolution is still considered a theory. Things that aren't theories to them? Well, the Earth, of course, is 5,000 years old. Any scientist that tells you differently must have a liberal secular agenda.

Research, much of it conducted by the federal government, has raised a host of questions about the effectiveness of abstinence programs in preventing disease and pregnancy. Teenage girls who are taught in the programs do wait longer before having sex, many experts believe, but are less likely to use protection when they do causing them to contract sexually transmitted diseases at the same rates as those who have sex earlier.

"I have very little use for this religion-driven curriculum," Sewall said. "This confuses sex and moral education."

Another thing they love is pushing abstinence only programs that don't work. The right will never let themselves believe the simple fact that under the "immoral" Bill Clinton both teen pregnancy and abortion rates were down. Under Bush they have gone up.

Texas is the second-largest buyer of textbooks in the nation, after California. Books purchased here wind up in classrooms across the nation, because publishers are loath to create new editions for smaller states.

As a result, five social conservatives on the 15-member Texas board, frequently joined by five more moderate Republicans, have enormous clout and often control the content used to teach millions of children.

Publishers have no choice but to heed many of the group's wishes, said Don McLeroy, a dentist, Sunday school teacher and Texas Board of Education member.

"They've got to sell books," he said. "It's business."

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"It does not help our kids to use them as pawns for divisive social agendas," he said. "It might be astute in the short term, but not in any meaningful sense for our kids or our country."

Read the full article here

Random Stuff

Ted Rall's always informative blog posted an article from the Asia Times that marks the return of the Afghanistan pipeline. Rall, who traveled to Afghanistan and wrote a book called Gas War, has been saying this from the beginning. After Michael Moore brought the pipeline to most people's attention in Farenheit 9-11 the right blasted him for being a conspiracy theorist and claimed that the plans for the pipeline were dead by the time his movie hit theaters. Hamid Karzai's connection to Unocal must have been purely coincidental in their minds.

A great weekly cartoon I discovered in the Cleveland Free Times: Big Fat Whale

I found a great site for conspiracy theories: infowars.com ,but not as good as David Icke's Reptilian Matrix Theories!

FUNNY: film strip international brought to my attention by another political cartoonist: Fighting Words

National Brawling Association

Assuming this story needs no intrduction, I'll begin: The NBA just handed down 'the harshest punishments in its' history" which included suspending Ron Artest for the remainder of the season. Hopefully Artest will face criminal charges and a lawsuit from the fan(s) (the idiot assaulted the wrong one anyway). I think he shold be banned from the NBA for life. Envision the following scenario: you work at a resturaunt and a customer throws a cup at your head. You then rush over to the table and punch someone they are sitting with. You would not only lose your job, but most likely be arrested. Artest should lose his job. Don't feel too sorry for him, in classic athlete-turned rapper style he will be releasing a rap album soon. I am sick at the extent professional athletes, actors, and famous rich people in general are able to skate away from everything from assault to murder. Being suspended for the entire season is a harsh punishment and he will have a hefty fine from the NBA and possibly face charges, but it's not enough for me. All over America numerous people are in jail or waiting trial for their assault crimes they commited last Thursday. Will Artest join them?

Imprison Bush

Being a corrupt president is hard work. written by Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis of the Columbus Free Press. Features cartoons by me and Kirk Anderson. 15 bones. Buy Here.

Get Your Road Map To Peace On

David Reese, creator of Get Your War On, has a great cartoon about Arafats death here.

yes O.D.B is really dead. If you aren't hip to Get Your War On already don't tell anyone. Read up.

Cover for the Front Weekly

Cover for this week's issue of the Front in Pittsburgh. The covery story is titled "Is American Literature Dead?" recognize anyone?

click for full size

Moral Values®

In the Democratic Party there's a battle brewing over this ridiculous issue of morals everyone supposedly voted on. Do we need to be more conservative? more centrist? more religious? We don't need to shift to their side, we need to take control of the argument. It is moral, Christian, and just to renounce torture, pre-emptive war, environmental destruction, and corporate handouts. These issues effect everyone's lives every day, unlike gay marriage which effects a small portion of our society and is inconsequential to the rest of us. Change will happen slowly, slower than we hoped It would a few weeks ago, but it will happen. In the short history of our country progressives have fought against slavery, for voting rights, women's rights, equal rights, abortion rights, labor rights, a minimum wage, social security, and environmental laws. We won every time. Let the Bushies have the evangelicals, we already have half of the population and history on our side.

Fan mail

This made me feel good while I was trying like hell to think of something funny for this weeks strip. I met Maira at an election night party. She was in from NYC to help get out the vote in Ohio and I hooked her up with an Idiot Box book.

Hey Matt,

Last night I read your Idiot Box booklet you gave me on that ill-fated night in Cafe Luna. After spending the last 48 hours in tears, it was so cathartic to laugh. Thank you for bringing humor back and getting me out of that deep funk. Your cartoons are disturbing and hilarious. Keep it up!

Maira

must be 18 years old to play

The Humanitarian Journal

...is an online political newsletter that carries Idiot Box. Subscribe by going here and entering your e-mail. You'll get the journal in your mailbox every two weeks containing news, opinion, and one of my cartoons. Here's a piece from the latest edition. Kevin Saliger has an interesting perspective on the bubbling culture war being a pro-life leftist:

This country is extremely religious, and as a result tends to also be very conservative (at least a large portion of it anyway). Two of the main religious issues that have come up in increasing levels recently. Traditionally the major one is abortion. Unlike most I leftists (including no doubt my fellow editors), I am against most abortion. If I were to base my political campaigning on this issue alone, without a doubt I would be a Republican. The problem with this for the right though is that, while I certainly understand and for the most part agree with conservatives’ disgust at abortion, I find it very hypocritical of right-wing political leaders like Bush to on the one hand claim to believe in a culture of life, and then bomb and shoot thousands upon thousands of Iraqi, Afghan, and other civilians to death.  How can you have a culture of life while you’re killing innocent people by the droves every day? This hypocrisy is disgusting to me, as is the murderous policy itself. Read more

subscribe-humanitarianjournal@yahoogroups.com

wow...

From the Associated Press:

A 25-year-old man from Georgia who was apparently distraught over President Bush's re-election shot and killed himself at ground zero. Andrew Veal's body was found Saturday morning inside the off-limits site, said Steve Coleman, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. A shotgun was found nearby, but no suicide note was found, Coleman said.

read more

Black Box Voting

Shouldn't we just move on? nah, check out Democartic Underground's info on the exit polls vs. actual results in Black Box states as opposed to paper ballot states. They have some neato graphs and this letter: House Judiciary Committee letter to GAO regarding voting machines

In Columbus, Ohio, an electronic voting system gave President Bush nearly 4,000 extra votes. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Associated Press, November 5.

An electronic tally of a South Florida gambling ballot initiative failed to record thousands of votes. "South Florida OKs Slot Machines Proposal," Id.

In one North Carolina county, more than 4,500 votes were lost because officials mistakenly believed a computer that stored ballots could hold more data that it did. "Machine Error Gives Bush Extra Ohio Votes," Id.

next stop: Washington D.C.

I plan on traveling to D.C. to protest the inaguration. Has anyone heard talk of this yet? If you know of any sources on the net e-mail me.

Karl Rove and the cartoon that never was

Here is the cartoon I began in hopes of a Kerry victory. There's not much to see, but the idea was that Rove would spin the results of the election as an informal poll of the people. The media, the people, and the democrats would all roll over and just let it happen. It turns out America is even less intelligent than I was going to portray them in the comic, they actually just went ahead and voted him in.

Karl Rove is now being hailed for his brilliant strategizing. In Bush's acceptance speech he thanked "The Architect, Karl Rove". After the 2000 coup Rove vowed to win the popular vote in 2004 to create the illusion of democracy and better pacify the public. It almost seems impossible that Ohio and Florida went to Bush. Did they go to Bush because of the untraceable black box voting machines? There's no way to ever find out, but thanks to their continuous efforts to manipulate people's fear of terror attacks, galvanize the anti-gay fundamentalist Christian movement, and somehow spin Bush's presidency into that of competent leadership 51% of voters drank the Kool-Aid.

Ron Suskind captured the mindset of our rulers in a recent article in the New York Times Magazine. After writing an article unfavorable of White House Communications Director Karen Hughes he was spoken to by who he only referred to as a "senior adviser" to Bush:

The aide said that guys like me were 'in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.'

America Approves Bush

America has endorsed the one party rule of the GOP, who has picked up seats in the House and Senate and elected an installed leader that will appoint Supreme Court Judges. Bush never has to stand in front of the voters again. By winning the majority of the popular vote the GOP has been emboldened. Americans have agreed to tax cuts during war, wars of aggression, corporate cronyism, environmental destruction, bottomless deficits, and the threat of a draft, among countless other issues. Droves of Americans went to the polls to deny homosexuals equal rights, while the youth vote Democrats and Puff Daddy were depending on showed no increase from the 2000 election.

In Ohio, a state that lost 200,000 jobs, a massive get out the vote effort by MoveOn, ACT, the NAACP, Labor Unions, and the Kerry campaign lost against the fear of terrorism and homosexuals visiting a dying lover on their death bed. Kerry has conceded graciously, calling for America to unite again. The harm that will be done to our democracy over the next four years may take the rest of our lives to undo.