War Is Boring #17

Read it here.

This starts the Afghanistan trip David took recently.

No Place Like Home

Check out this feature in the latest issue of Atlantic Monthly. They've taken a Google shot of a street in a Baghdad neighborhood and detail the homes that have been abandoned, guarded, raided, or had residents that have been killed or kidnapped.

House 1

Occupied by a Sunni family of seven, headed by a well-known businessman. In the Spring of 2006 his four-year-old grandson was abducted and ransomed for $20,000. The kidnappers sent a note of apology with the boy, saying they need the money to leave Iraq.

(via David Axe)

The Secret!

I have a new one page comic in the Boston Phoenix about The Secret.

You can read my first comic about the self-help book and all I really have to say on the subject here.

Mail Bag

Patrick writes:

"I just read your cartoon about Sex Ed on the ACLU website and was surprised that it almost perfectly describes lessons that I received from the Operation Keepsake organization at Wiley Middle School (in University Heights) about five years ago. They lied about STDs and condoms, saying that HIV could easily pass through the microscopic mesh that condoms are made of (the instructor used the chalk board to illustrate this) and that sperm sometimes wiggles on through. They pressured us to sign abstinence pledges and we learned about "secondary virginity" in case we were already tainted. We played fun games about the doom of premarital sex (complete with a Wheel of Misfortune containing STIs, pregnancy, depression and a couple get away free spots). Gay people were not in the lesson plan. I'm pretty sure some of my classmates got pregnant in high school."

Christians United for Armageddon

Max Blumenthal is back again with a video from another conference, Rapture Ready: Christians United for Israel. by "for" Israel they mean for it's destruction in the second coming.

New Toon: Guantanamo Health Care

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As Michael Moore shows in SiCKO, Guantanamo detainees are given top notch health care while poor Americans are denied treatment and dumped on skid row. hmmm...I wonder if something is wrong with our system. So when conservatives talk about how great evil-doers have it down there--how it's like a five star resort--they would be right if only for the having no legal rights and being tortured thing, which is kind of strange in light of the fact that they get better health care than many Americans.

And I always love an excuse to draw people getting tortured. Not sure why. I did manage to refrain from drawing a detainee with panties on their head. Cartoonist Masheka Wood recently informed me that I do that a lot.

PRISON THRILLER!

Courtesy of the Filipino Justice System.

Person Of The Year

August is right. Liberals shouldn't get upset that Rupert Murdoch is on the shortlist for Time's Person of the Year.

I realize that this is a painful exercise in futility one must go through every. Single. Flipping. Year, but Person of the Year isn't an award. In fact, it's not even supposed to be an "honor." It's a special profile that recognizes, and I'm quoting here, "the man, woman, or idea that for better or worse, has most influenced events in the preceding year." One of the richest people in the world in control of one of the most influential media empires in the world taking over the most influential financial information resource in the world sort of qualifies, don't you think?

I find this irksome as well. Hitler was once given the Person--well, Man back then--of the year award. Osama Bin Laden should have been granted the title in 2001 (one could make the argument that he changed the world that year). Instead we got "America's Mayor."

These days we get things like "The American Soldier" and, the worst of all, "You" to appeal to people in checkout lines at the grocery store.

Myopic Madness

What, did you think I was exaggerating?

Rudy Giulinai: Asked about HIV, He Answers With 9/11

Asked about increasing federal support for HIV medications, Giuliani discussed what he considers appropriate federal responsibility in health care. "I don't want to promise you the federal government will take over the role," he said, drawing applause and shouts of "all right." Then, in some interesting twists, he turned the HIV question into a 9/11 answer:

"My general experience has been that the federal government works best when it helps and assists and encourages and sets guidelines… on a state-by-state, locality-by-locality basis. It's no different from the way I look at homeland security. Maybe having been mayor of the city, I know that your first defense against terrorist attack is that local police station, or that local firehouse."

Then later he just lies about healthcare:

"We don't want socialized medicine. Maybe you should go see 'Sicko,' see if you agree with Michael Moore that we should have the Cuban health care system. That's where the Democrats are taking us… All the places that have government-run health care, it's inferior to us."

That's just a lie. France, Spain, Italy--all have superior systems. In fact, we are ranked 37th in the world, just a few spots above a poor communist dictatorship called Cuba. Yay for us!

In Thursday's comic, I'll show the dark side of the free Guantanamo Bay healthcare system.

New Toon: Chinese Safety Standards

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That was pretty crazy how the Chinese government killed that bureaucrat for taking bribes. When you get executed in China, your family gets a bill for the bullet they discharge into your head. Nice.

Generation Chickenhawk

Check out Max Blumenthal's video from the College Republicans Convention in DC.

Fucking wow.

CWA Events

Cartoonists With Attitude will be making appearances at upcoming cons. Come out and see us. For the Stumptown convention in Portland, I am in the process of setting up one or two events outside the convention that will feature a slideshow and panel discussion (and maybe a signing).

• July 26-29 @ 10am - 7pm | San Diego: Cartoonists with Attitude at San Diego Comic-Con Ted Rall, Keith Knight, Shannon Wheeler and more! (San Diego Convention Center)
  
  
• July 27-28 | San Diego: Shannon Wheeler's Too Much Coffee Man Opera Wheeler reprises his hit comic opera for the San Diego Comic-Con crowd. Fri. July 27 at 5 p.m. and 11 p.m.; Sat. July 28 at 2 p.m. and 11 p.m. Evening shows $20, day shows free to Comic-Con attendees.
  
  
• September 28 @ 7 pm | Boston: Cartoon Signing and Slideshow with Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood (exact location TBA)
  
  
• September 29-30 | Portland, OR: Stumptown Comics Fest featuring Ted Rall, Shannon Wheeler, Matt Bors, Stephanie McMillan, Ben Smith and more! (Lloyd Center Doubletree)
  
  
• October 12-13 | Bethesda, MD: SPX Ted Rall, Mikhaela Reid, Masheka Wood, Brian McFadden, Jen Sorensen, Stephanie McMillan, August Pollak, and more!

War Is Boring #16

A new War Is Boring strip is up here. We have re-tooled the strip to be a full page from now on.

Muzzle Awards

Here is a cover and some spot illustrations I did for last week's issue of the Boston Phoenix. I haven't worked with photo illustration in a while so it was lots of fun. Plus the story was cool. The Phoenix has annual Muzzle Awards, for those who stifle free speech the best in the Boston area.

Here's the cover. In case you are dim, Eagles represent freedom. Barbed wire on eagles = not freedom.

Here are four of the ten spots. Clockwise from the top left, they represent Police spying on internet and phone records, Newt Gingrich's hatred of freedom, A protest dubbed "keep you rosaries off my ovaries," and a sinister plot to cover up or take down the Citgo sign assaulting Boston's skyline with its' Communist insignia.

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War Is Boring #15

Read it here.

New Toon: The Secret

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Oprah has no credibility. When she touts SiCKO and universal health care and builds a school in Africa, it's hard for me to think it's because she's a reasonable person. That's because for every good idea she has, there is a half-baked huckster hauled out on her show to be made into a millionaire selling their snake oil to her uncritical audience. Mediums, self-help authors, Deepak Chopra, and now the worst of all, "The Secret."

If you aren't familiar, The Secret is a book and DVD that purports to reveal a secret held onto by elites for most of human history (In reality it's been used in many other new age self-help books). It says that the "Law of Attraction" can create good fortune and happiness by simply willing it. You may have missed the reports of this finding in scientific journals. You see, the universe responds to positive thoughts. Put them out there and the universe will respond by making your wishes come true--be it health, wealth, or love. It's Karma minus patchouli plus greed.

Besides being patently ridiculous, there is an implication that when you don't have good fortune--poverty, death, sickness, loneliness--it's because you weren't thinking strongly enough. Or worse, you deserve it. Actually, it's not an implication. The book comes right out and says this in the plainest language. Maybe that's why it's sold millions of copies; it provides a justification for the fucked up state of the world, makes you feel superior to others, and provides a delusion that things can get better not by actions, but thinking positively.

The real secret to success, it seems, is getting your crap into Oprah's hands and getting booked on her show where her minions will gobble up your bullshit and ask for seconds.

I have enough material for another strip on this--I want to touch on the self-centered greed aspect--so I may do that in the future. Please send feedback through your thoughts. Enough bad vibes and I won't do a follow up.

Kucinich, Idiot Box Fan

It's true! I ran into Dennis Kucinich at the AAEC convention last week and introduced myself as the cartoonist for the Cleveland Free Times (where he lives). He was familiar with my work and said he liked the cover of him spanking Cheney so much he wants the original.

We then snapped this pick with his tall, attractive wife who is young enough to be his daughter. It would even be physically possible for her to be his granddaughter if the Kucinich family had a particularly strong devotion to breeding young.

Kucinich delivered the keynote address at the main dinner banquet which was, for the most part, good. I was worried he would give the same kind of phony campaign speeches I've seen him give everywhere else. Even on Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman (a friendly venue if there ever was one) he still seems like a constantly on message politician and never like a normal person. For the first part of his speech he was seriously funny, making some harsh jokes at his own expense and getting the crowd to laugh.

After the speech he went to a Q&A. I'm not sure why this was part of the dinner, but it was a predictable snore fest from then on out. People lobbed questions about his long shot Presidency, terrorism, Iraq, etc, and he went on and on. And on.

Kucinich is the only person I'll name drop having met. Suffice to say, I had many drinks with many cartoonists I have been waiting to meet. I don't have the energy to recap it all. Daryl Cagle has some posts on his blog (scroll down) and Editor and Publisher did some write ups here, here, and here. And an article about the panel discussion on drawing comics during war with David Axe.

Oregon Media Outsiders

A new website that I will be contributing to, Oregon Media Outsiders, launched recently.

The website was founded by Portland based writer Kevin Allman, whom I met recently during the AAN convention. The site grew out of his frustration with the local media and what he sees at a lot of talented people not getting recognition or work. So he invited some local writers, journalists, critics, and cartoonists to this site to aggregate our blogs and writings in hopes of reaching more people.

My contributions will just consist of cross-posted items from this blog, but you might be interested in some of the other contributors based in Oregon. Shannon Wheeler of "How To Be Happy" is also a part of the site.

CWA Signing in D.C.

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Our big CWA signing in DC was a hit. About 120 people showed up with standing room only. Thanks to all those that came out. Above is a cover I did for last week's Washington Post Express Weekend Pass section to promote the event. They did a write-up on our group and interviewed Ruben Bolling.

New Toon: Global Warming

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I'm releasing this week's cartoon early, as I am headed to DC to attend the 50th Anniversary Convention of the AAEC. This is the same comic that is featured in the Union of Concerned Scientists contest right now (which you should go vote in). This will be my first time attending an AAEC convention and should be a blast. Dennis Kucinich is delivering the keynote address at the main dinner, which should be kind of odd seeing as how he's never been portrayed very positively in editorial cartoons. Also in attendance will be the Danish publisher of the infamous Muhammad cartoons and just about every pro in the biz.

And I'm going to remind you one last time: Cartoonists with Attitude is having a book signing and slideshow at Borders in Washington, DC on July 7th @ 2pm! If you like editorial cartoons at all, you can't miss this! Check out the massive roster:

• Ruben Bolling ("Tom the Dancing Bug")
• Matt Bors ("Idiot Box")
• Keith Knight ("The K Chronicles")
• Brian McFadden ("Big Fat Whale")
• Stephanie McMillan ("Minimum Security")
• August Pollak ("Some Guy With a Website")
• Ted Rall(Silk Road to Ruin)
• Mikhaela Reid ("The Boiling Point")
• Ben Smith ("Fighting Words")
• Jen Sorensen ("Slowpoke")
• Masheka Wood ("Not Just Knee Deep")

More info here.

I'll be back in a week, but don't forget! You can purchase shirts and collections of my strips in the store.