The Forever Stamp

Now, I don't want to toot my own horn here, but this is a really good investment idea. You could buy sheets of forever stamps (currently at 41¢ a stamp) and sell them in ten years for a few cents below market value on ebay. With the way postage climbs, my calculations put your returns on par with any mutual fund, mortgage or good night at the craps table.

Dylan

Here is an illustration I did of Bob Dylan for the Boston Phoenix.

This was my first color scheme.

Safe Smokes

This is the same topic as the recent comic I did with Alan Blum. He wrote that one and I had a few jokes of my own on the subject so here it is.

Philip Morris is opening a $350 million "research" facility to develop "safer" cigarettes. It seems like such a lavish amount of money you'd almost think they mean it. But that's just the cost of staying in business--smoking bans and other legislation can cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in potential sales. This way they can portray themselves as a responsible corporation (very en vogue these days) and develop new safety measures like the filter that do nothing or next to it. The cigarette market is slowly shrinking with smoking bans and increased health awareness so they recognize the need to adapt to current market conditions, so to speak. That's why cities like Portland are test markets for smokeless, spitless tobacco pouches that can be consumed in bars and restaurants. (no word on the health benefits of these products yet).

Nuts.

It's just amazing how much political difference there is between America and Europe in regards to pious politicians.

Tony Blair avoided talking about his religious views while in office for fear of being labelled "a nutter", the former prime minister has revealed..."you talk about it in our system and, frankly, people do think you're a nutter."

[His former spokesman] has now acknowledged to the programme that his former boss "does do God in quite a big way", but that both men feared the public would be wary.

They would be wary of a politician talking about religion. In America, blind faith in god is a prerequisite. Candidates for president proclaim how many times a day they pray and how many pages of the Bible they've memorized.

And I like how they add that T-E-R to the end of Nut. Nutter. Hey, you. You're a nutter.

Great Economic Indicator

A Walmart opening in the Cleveland area announced they would be hiring 300 employees.

6,000 people showed up to apply.

When Impeachment Was On The Table

"Impeachment is off the table."
-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

I understand that ousting Bush from office is not realistic. As we near the next election it becomes less and less likely. But at some point does Congress have an obligation to the country and Constitution to at least try to impeach Bush--to have an actual debate over whether he committed any crimes--to make some historical record that a President should not do this in the future--to send a message that they actually care about the rule of law?

There are a few conservatives who care as much as liberals. Jack Clark, of the Blast The Right podcast, interviewed conservative constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who drafted articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton and supports impeaching Bush and Cheney. In the interview Fein says, "None of the candidates for 2008 have sought to distance themselves from these extravagant claims of the President and the Democrats in the House and Senate or relatively mute as well, which suggest that there is a fear factor at work in the country that is very dangerous to the future of checks and balances and measured government." Fein, along with other disaffected conservatives, has founded americafreedomaganda.org which has created a 10 point pledge for Republican candidates that includes denouncing torture and restoring habeas corpus. Only Ron Paul has signed it. Looking at the entire list, I have doubts about any "top tier" Democratic candidates singing on.

Bruce Fein supported impeaching Bill Clinton on pure principal, not for political reasons. He lied under oath. While they voted not to remove him from office, his impeachment could have sent a message to all future leaders: Lie about anything--even a blowjob--and we'll go after you.

The Bush Administration's actions have to leave people wondering what exactly one does have to do to warrant impeachment these days. If Bush were to physically shred the actual Constitution or personally torture a muslim detainee not charged with a crime on live television, I imagine Harry Reid would send out a fundraising e-mail.

Whether in two years or two hundred, a new power hungry madman or woman will want to gut the Constitution and consolidate power. When they look back at how the country responded to Bush they'll see the message is clear: Have at it!

John Swift

Last Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported that John Kerry was readying a response to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the group who's attack ads against his presidential campaign were so vicious and damaging that "swift boat" is now a verb. Kerry did nothing at the time, but years later is rising to defend himself.

One of the groups financiers, a Texas oilman aptly named T. Boone Pickens, recently offered a million dollars to anyone who can disprove a single allegation of the group.

"I welcome the opportunity to prove that you are a man of your word and that the so-called 'Swift Boat Veterans for Truth' lied," Kerry wrote to Pickens. "While I am prepared to show they lied on allegation after allegation, you have generously offered to pay one million dollars for just one thing that can be proven false. I am prepared to prove the lie beyond any reasonable doubt."

If only Kerry would have responded this strongly the day after their first ad appeared he may be in the White House. Which has higher stakes: A million dollar challenge from T. Boone or the Presidency of the United States?

On Break

I'm off to the coast for the weekend for a much needed break from news and computers. I'll be back Monday with more cartoons.

Hearts and Minds...and eyeballs and fingers

John Lee Anderson of the New Yorker has written a great article, Inside the Surge, which examines why violence has ebbed in recent months. The three main reasons are the increased presence of American soldiers (which cannot be sustained), the decision by Sunni Tribesmen to turn away from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for security (which hopefully lasts), and the Madhi Army's six month freeze on violence ordered by Moqtada al-Sadr (which ends in about two months).

One of the reasons is that ethnic cleansing seems to have been completed in some neighborhoods so there's no one left to kill.

Most of the articles details the revenge spree of a man named Amar against the Madhi Army for killing his brother. Many would resolve themselves to find the perpetrators, but Amar thinks big. Like, Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" big.

That night, Amar told Karim that, at the morgue, he had sworn over his brother’s body to take revenge. He had vowed to kill a hundred Mahdi men—ten for each of Jafaar’s fingers.

He goes on to murder fathers, brothers, and friends of the killers. He works with the occupation Army and turns over militia men, who think he is sympathetic to them. Other times (with the help of Karim) he abducts them or has them over for conversation and tea, which he drugs. “They fall asleep, then I shoot them in the head.”

All of this goes on with the mother's enthusiastic support. The mother, Um Jafaar, isn't satisfied with a simple report of the killings--she demands body parts be cut off the victims and delivered to her.

Um Jafaar went on to tell me that she took the body parts of Amar’s victims, wrapped in cloth, to his grave, in the holy city of Najaf, and buried them there. “I talk to my son, I tell him, ‘Here, this is from those who killed you, I take revenge.’ ” Moving one hand in a horizontal circle, she said, “I put them around the grave. So far, I have taken one hand, one eye, an Adam’s apple, toes, fingers, ears, and noses.” (Karim told me that the hand had made the house stink for days.) I asked her how many Mahdi men Amar had killed. “I don’t know: eighteen, twenty? But still my heart hurts. Even if we kill all of them, I won’t have comfort,” she said.

With men like Amar working with coalition forces, it's hard to understand how we are winning hearts and minds. His mother is literally collecting hearts. Millions with the means to leave Iraq have done so. They are the doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others needed to form a civilized country.

On helping with the killing of 20 or so people, Karim employs a Bushian logic saying, "We had to kill these guys, because they were killing too many people."

Hearts and Minds...and eyeballs and fingers.

John Lee Anderson of the New Yorker has written a great article, Inside the Surge, which examines why violence has ebbed in recent months. The three main reasons are the increased presence of American soldiers (which cannot be sustained), the decision by Sunni Tribesmen to turn away from Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia for security (which hopefully lasts), and the Madhi Army's six month freeze on violence ordered by Moqtada al-Sadr (which ends in about two months).

One of the reason is that ethnic cleansing seems to have been completed in some neighborhoods so there's no one left to kill.

Most of the articles details the revenge spree of a man named Amar against the Madhi Army for killing his brother. Many would resolve themselves to find the perpetrators, but Amar thinks big. Like, Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" big.

That night, Amar told Karim that, at the morgue, he had sworn over his brother’s body to take revenge. He had vowed to kill a hundred Mahdi men—ten for each of Jafaar’s fingers.

He goes on to murder fathers, brothers, and friends of the killers. He works with the occupation Army and turns over militia men, who think he is sympathetic to them. Other times (with the help of Karim) he abducts them or has them over for conversation and tea, which he drugs. “They fall asleep, then I shoot them in the head.”

All of this goes on with the mother's enthusiastic support. The mother, Um Jafaar, isn't satisfied with a simple report of the killings--she demands body parts be cut off the victims and delivered to her.

Um Jafaar went on to tell me that she took the body parts of Amar’s victims, wrapped in cloth, to his grave, in the holy city of Najaf, and buried them there. “I talk to my son, I tell him, ‘Here, this is from those who killed you, I take revenge.’ ” Moving one hand in a horizontal circle, she said, “I put them around the grave. So far, I have taken one hand, one eye, an Adam’s apple, toes, fingers, ears, and noses.” (Karim told me that the hand had made the house stink for days.) I asked her how many Mahdi men Amar had killed. “I don’t know: eighteen, twenty? But still my heart hurts. Even if we kill all of them, I won’t have comfort,” she said.

With men like Amar working with coalition forces, it's hard to understand how we are winning hearts and minds. His mother is literally collecting hearts. Millions with the means to leave Iraq have done so. They are the doctors, lawyers, teachers, and others needed to form a civilized country.

On helping with the killing of 20 or so people, Karim employs a Bushian logic saying, "We had to kill these guys, because they were killing too many people."

Praying for Rain

"We've come together here simply for one reason and one reason
only: To very reverently and respectfully pray up a storm"

-Sonny Perdue, Governor of Georgia/Moron

Georgia is in the midst of a severe water shortage (of biblical proportions!) so the Governor organized a massive rally to plead to the creator to drop some H2O on their heads. Hardly anyone there thought it odd.

Let's just put aside the issue of whether the government should be organizing rallies to pray for water to fall from the sky and just get right to the theological implications. If god (talking about the christian god here) responded to this massive prayer attack in some sort of verifiable manner, it would mean two things. 1) god exists. 2) god is a monster.

First, no matter what you believe, its clear praying doesn't automatically fix everything. If it did, well, I wouldn't have drawn that comic. The notion that an all powerful being watches over us and fulfills some desperate pleas for help and ignores others is beyond the pale. If god gives you the strength to get through your breakup but doesn't bother to drop in on the person who commits suicide, what are we supposed to gather from that? The ultimate fall back is that all this is simply "god's plan." It's some plan. I guess I could rework a Donald Rumsfeld quote here: You pray to the deity you have...not the one you wish you had.

What criteria does god use to decide which prayers get answered? Do the ones who happen to beg to the right god deserve intervention? And is it dignified to grovel to him because he has more power than you? Christopher Hitchens has said living under this maniacal being would be like a "cosmic North Korea."

I never understood why religious people believe in prayer of all things. They say living in a godless universe is meaningless and cold. Ha! If I thought all the pain in the world could be relieved in an instant but god just doesn't feel like doing it, I would jump off of a fucking bridge in despair.

Anyway, I could go on, but I'll stop alienating most of you with my atheism.

I caught this comment under the story on msnbc.com

I am Iranian. I read most of the comments. I am shocked. I can't believe these are what Americans believe!

Yes, my friend. This is what about half of the country believes. And they want to bomb you.

Mail Bag

A reader writes:

I don't get what point your trying to make with the november 16th comic. Don't you know what happened to the native americans once the europeans started settling the americas? I hardly think that illegal immigrants are going to begin systemic genocide of US citizens, but pointing to the early american settlers as a reason for having open border is just...stupid. In your next comic you should point to the fall of troy as why its a GOOD idea to never worry about sneak attacks.

I like most of your comics, but this one has to be one of the worst
you've ever done.

Native Americans most likely wished the border was closed back in those days, but I'm not advocating for a closed or open border with this one. I thought I would take this "anchor baby" canard nativists use and apply it to a situation on this continent hundreds of years ago where it might have made more sense, hopefully for humorous purposes. Today, an "anchor baby" born on this soil is a citizen with the same right to be here as a so-called minute man patrolling the border.

As for the "dirty, disease ridden" part, there can't be much arguing about them beating today's immigrants in that department. I tried to make the pilgrims as scrubby as possible--they couldn't have looked any better than modern day Amish who use our hospitals and buy toothpaste at the drugstore. Every reference photo I looked up had these strange people in nicely pressed pilgrim suits like they just picked them up at the cleaners. The guys' faces look like they're in a 17th century Gillette commercial.

Mail Bag

A reader writes in:

I don't get what point your trying to make with the november 16th
comic. Don't you know what happened to the native americans once the
europeans started settling the americas? I hardly think that illegal
immigrants are going to begin systemic genocide of US citizens, but
pointing to the early american settlers as a reason for having open
border is just...stupid. In your next comic you should point to the
fall of troy as why its a GOOD idea to never worry about sneak
attacks.

I like most of your comics, but this one has to be one of the worst
you've ever done.

ss
Glad you are liking most of my comics. In this one I'm not advocating
open borders, walled borders, or saying that illegal immigrants will
do what European settlers did to native Americans. All I'm doing is
taking this "anchor baby" canard nativists use and apply it to a
situation on this continent hundreds of years ago, hopefully for
humorous purposes. When a child is born here they become an American
with the same right to be here as a Minute Man patrolling the border.
As a zygote they don't have control over whether their parents are
legal are illegal and can't be held responsible for that. This is a
country of immigrants and many need reminded (on this week of
Thanksgiving) of exactly how that happened.


-------
.

Mail Bag

A reader writes in:

I don't get what point your trying to make with the november 16th
comic. Don't you know what happened to the native americans once the
europeans started settling the americas? I hardly think that illegal
immigrants are going to begin systemic genocide of US citizens, but
pointing to the early american settlers as a reason for having open
border is just...stupid. In your next comic you should point to the
fall of troy as why its a GOOD idea to never worry about sneak
attacks.

I like most of your comics, but this one has to be one of the worst
you've ever done.

ss
Glad you are liking most of my comics. In this one I'm not advocating
open borders, walled borders, or saying that illegal immigrants will
do what European settlers did to native Americans. All I'm doing is
taking this "anchor baby" canard nativists use and apply it to a
situation on this continent hundreds of years ago, hopefully for
humorous purposes. When a child is born here they become an American
with the same right to be here as a Minute Man patrolling the border.
As a zygote they don't have control over whether their parents are
legal are illegal and can't be held responsible for that. This is a
country of immigrants and many need reminded (on this week of
Thanksgiving) of exactly how that happened.


-------
.

Random News

• I don't think I mentioned it here, but cartoonist Kevin Moore recently joined our little Cartoonists With Attitude group. Kevin was featured in the Attitude 2 anthology and draws the political cartoon In Contempt twice a week.
  
• Some people have written to ask if my strip is still called "Idiot Box" now that I'm syndicated, seeing how I dropped the title from above each comic on this website. The answer is both Yes and No. Technically, I am being syndicated by my name, as an editorial cartoonist without a titled strip. As far as I know, all of my weekly clients still call the strip Idiot Box and future altweekly clients probably will as well, since they like having features with titles as opposed to Editorial pages in newspapers that like to run work with just the author's name. Don't ask me why these differences exist.
  
• I have a few cartoons in The Best Political Cartoons of the Year, 2008 Edited by Daryl Cagle, which just came out.
  

Anchor Babies

This week I thought I'd give you a look at the behind the scenes journey of one my editorial cartoons. Prepare to be underwhelmed. Click on the images for a larger view.

They start out as a script of barely legible chicken scratch. I do a lot of writing for my comics but almost never sketch them out. I'll do roughs for my more realistic work like War Is Boring, but for my cartoony stuff I just plan it out in my head and start attacking it.

For the wordier comics I could go through pages of reworking it but this one was fairly simple so I jotted down the line I had in my head and did a small sketch about an inch wide to get the placement of the inset panel right.

The rest of the process below is pretty self-explanatory: draw, letter, ink, then scan it in to color in Photoshop. These pencils are pretty tight, meaning I didn't leave much room for improvisation with the inks. If I'm doing a character like Cheney or Bitter Pundit Man that I draw often, I may just pencil their basic shapes and go ahead in with the inks. I ink most of it wit a brush and get the details with a dip pen.

War Is Boring

Our latest strip finishes up the Afghanistan stories. David is off to Somalia and Iraq this month so expect some stories from those places soon.

Bernie Kerik

It looks like Giuliani's Bernie Kerik problem isn't going away and may turn into something even bigger. This is a comic I drew in 2004 when Kerik was nominee for the Secretary of Homeland Security. The final panel refers to an apartment near ground zero that was designated for tired workers inhaling poison. Kerik used it as a sex den to cheat on his pregnant wife. I guess we now know who the woman is: Judith Reagan.

(oh, and for newer readers wondering who is in the third panel, I used to draw Scott McClellan as a fat sweating head with no body.)

John Bolton

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to attend a debate featuring former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. well, I went, I saw, I cartooned. Bolton had some amazing things to say as usual, including a comment on torture that might even make right-wingers squirm.

I didn't get to ask him any questions, but I did write an article about the debate and what a great character Bolton is for cartoonists. You can read it and see tomorrow's cartoon over at campusprogress.org.

Floodgates Of Freedom

This is based off of a news story that I thought would get a little more attention. It looks like a real doomsday scenario.

The largest dam in Iraq is in serious danger of an imminent collapse that could unleash a trillion-gallon wave of water, possibly killing thousands of people and flooding two of the largest cities in the country, according to new assessments by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other U.S. officials.

Even in a country gripped by daily bloodshed, the possibility of a catastrophic failure of the Mosul Dam has alarmed American officials, who have concluded that it could lead to as many as 500,000 civilian deaths by drowning Mosul under 65 feet of water and parts of Baghdad under 15 feet, said Abdulkhalik Thanoon Ayoub, the dam manager. "The Mosul dam is judged to have an unacceptable annual failure probability," in the dry wording of an Army Corps of Engineers draft report.

Bushleaguers

I have a comic in a collection that the AAEC has put out called "Bushleaguers: Cartoonists Take On The White House."

It contains the complete exhibit, "Bush Leaguers: Cartoonists Take On The White House", which was on display at the American University Museum in Washington, D.C. in honor of the AAEC's 50th anniversary.

The books includes pretty much everyone: Rob Rogers, Clay Bennet, Joel Pett, Daryl Cagle, Mike Peters, Ted Rall, et al. I don't know the number, but they didn't print that many. Order it here.

Model T

You might have been impaled on the steering column if you got in a fender bender but that Model T sure got some good mileage. One hundred years after it was introduced and we still don't have flying cars. wtf?

O's School of Torture

When I first heard Oprah was apologizing for the abuse done overseas in her name, I thought she was concerned with America's Dungeon Archipelago. Turns out her all-girl African school was using teaching tactics pulled from Donald Rumsfeld's private diaries.

Dead Trees

Dead Trees. I like 'em. That is to say, when they are printed with news and cartoons.

For someone like me who draws editorial cartoons, I get nervous when the latest figures come out showing, yet again, that newspaper circulation has dropped. A story earlier this week in USA Today says that overall circulation has dropped 2.6 percent in the last six months. The New York Times is down a depressing 4.51%

The web has delivered the goods in the news and blog department, but it hasn't presented a good model for getting revenue yet. My other form of income is drawing illustrations for print papers and there's nary a website that pays for original illustrations.

Here in Portland, the Oregonian managed to only slip only 1.2 percent.

The Willamette Week speculates the slower-than-most decline may be due in part to the new design of the street edition they launched in June, which features a front page "designed to capture pedestrians’ pocket change with huge photos and sexy (ick) headlines that pump up sports, woodland creatures, rape and TV reruns."

I subscribe to the Oregonian and get a normal looking paper at my stoop every morning. But in the boxes on the street they redesign the front with screaming headlines and pictures reminiscent of a NY Post cover. I've always disliked it as it sensationalizes news and spotlights frivolous stories. It must be working though. People respond well to bright lights, loud colors, bells and whistles.

Is this the future of the daily paper?

After all, the newspaper started in an age when there was no cable news and i phones to get news from. A sea of text looked appealing. Some did try an ancient form of this though. It's unimaginable today, but in the early 20th century some papers would place political cartoons on their front page to catch the reader's eye.

Imagine that.

Sorry Kids

Yesterday in Oregon Measure 50 was defeated with 60% of voters rejecting it. The measure would have increased cigarette taxes to provide health care for children.

Maybe people just didn't like the idea of it. But a quick look at the funding suggests something else. $3.4 Million was spent promoting the measure while $11.8 Million was spent by Tobacco Corporations in an onslaught of radio and TV ads. People don't make objective decisions in a vacuum where they are fully informed on every angle of an issue--they're influenced by what they see in read. Opinions are incredibly malleable. Framing an issue a certain way can be the determining factor in whether it sinks or swims.

This makes it a national record for money spent by Big Tobacco to defeat a state ballot measure: a whopping $24 per "no" vote. What would the result be if they spent no money?

Sadly, we live in a country where the lobbyist with the most cash get the laws written the way they want (sometimes they just write it themselves), Corporations with billions in resources smash grassroots activism and the candidates for president with the largest coffers are treated as inevitable nominees before a single vote is cast.

The Reagan Zone

I neglected to put a notation in the comic that this is true, so in case you think it's just my funny imagination, no. Romney proposed creating "The Reagan Zone of Economic Freedom." The name is a blatant play to Republican voters who worship the man and don't question whether the rest of the world actually thinks he is a deity and will name a trade zone after him.

The Reagan Zone Of Economic Freedom would act as an alliance working together internally, in the World Trade organization and elsewhere to push reforms and work cooperatively in areas like labor and the environment.

Right. Because Reagan loved labor and the environment.

One Panels

During the time United Media was considering syndicating my work, I was doing a lot of one panel cartoons to show them I had some versatility.

Most of them were released with my regular work but I kept some under wraps either because they stunk or the timeliness of them quickly faded. Here's two I never sent out.

This one I ended up working into the last panel of a comic I did a few months ago.

War Is Boring

Check out the latest War Is Boring comic strip. It concludes a story line that ran through the last few installments.

Bike Town

The New York Times had a great little video segment on its front page today about the bike culture here in Portland. Check it out if you're into that sort of thing.

Ticking Time Bomb Scenario

Conservatives constantly rely on the ticking time bomb scenario (TTBS) as the ultimate justification of torture. The issue has been brought up lately with the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. But I was specifically inspired by David Reinhard's column in last Thursday's Oregonian, which contained passages like this:

But is any and all waterboarding torture and therefore illegal? I don't think so. First, if all waterboarding is torture, why does the U.S. government waterboard its own folks in survival training programs? It doesn't gouge out trainees' eyes or rip out fingernails to get them ready to withstand the horrors of capture. Is it because waterboarding is safe and painless?

There you have it. We don't gouge out soldiers' eyes during training so we should institutionalize a practice used in the Spanish Inquisition. There are so many flaws in the logic of the TTBS and you never hear Democrats just come out and say it's a bullshit scare tactic that could never happen.

It will never happen. I feel silly even talking about it, but most Americans support torture based on fallacious arguments like this. If you do trap a terrorist in the TTBS, here are some problems you may encounter.

• Why wouldn't someone ready to kill thousands (and maybe themselves) just deal with a few minutes of pain?
  
• What incentive is there for a terrorist to tell the actual location of the bomb? If they beg for the torture to stop and say the bomb is in locker #3245 at Grand Central Station it's probable that they are using the tactic against you--telling you a false location to stop the torture and protect the location until detonation. I suppose you could get in your car, drive down, check it out, and drive back for more torture if need be.
• If you find out where the bomb is...so what? You've located a nuclear bomb that is going to go off in two minutes using torture. Congratulations. Take it all in as you realize that you have no idea how to dismantle a nuclear weapon.
  

Bodacious Offer

I only have enough comics to sell one last Bodaciously Valued Comic Pack. It's 272 pages of comics for $18.95.

You get a copy of Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online Cartoonist Edited by Ted Rall, both Idiot Box collections, and the two issues of "3 Car Pileup" that were printed when I was in college and contain short stories from me and three other artists.

Only two or three of the Idiot Box collections exist and contain cartoons not available on this website and that may never see print again. Get them all in the store.

Ticking Time Bomb

Conservatives constantly rely on the ticking time bomb scenario (TTBS) as the ultimate justification of torture. The issue has been brought up lately with the nomination of Judge Michael Mukasey for Attorney General. But I was specifically inspired by David Reinhard's column in last Thursday's Oregonian. It contained gems like this:

But is any and all waterboarding torture and therefore illegal? I don't think so. First, if all waterboarding is torture, why does the U.S. government waterboard its own folks in survival training programs? It doesn't gouge out trainees' eyes or rip out fingernails to get them ready to withstand the horrors of capture. Is it because waterboarding is safe and painless?

There you have it. We don't gouge out soldiers' eyes during training so we should institutionalize a practice used in the Spanish Inquisition. There are so many flaws in the logic of the time bomb scenario and you never here Democrats just come out and say it's a bullshit scare tactic that could never happen.

It will never happen. I feel silly even talking about it, but most Americans support torture based on fallacious arguments like this. If you do trap a terrorist in the TTBS, here are some problems you may encounter.

• Why wouldn't someone ready to kill thousands (and maybe themselves) just deal with a few minutes of pain?
  
• What incentive is there for a terrorist to tell the actual location of the bomb? If they beg for the torture to stop and say the bomb is in locker #3245 at Grand Central Station it's probable that they are using the tactic against you--telling you a false location to stop the torture and protect the location until detonation. I suppose you could get in your car, drive down, check it out, and drive back for more torture if need be.
• If you find out where the bomb is...so what? You've located a nuclear bomb that is going to go off in two minutes using torture. Congratulations. Take it all in as you realize that you have no idea how to dismantle a nuclear weapon.
  

Conspiracies

8bitagent wrote in about my Wildfire Conspiracy cartoon and post saying things echoed by a few others, so I thought I'd address them.

Some of [your] comics imply the reasons that the US went into war were based on lies, and it was a lot to do about war profiteering. But then I saw your blog today where you lambasted people who have questions about 9/11, or even JFK's death.

And I'm thinking "well wait a second, just a few years ago it was taboo to say the US government was lying to get into Iraq", as we saw in 2003 when Michael Moore got booed off the stage at the academy awards.

When you say "to all my liberal friends who believe in those nutty conspiracy theories read this"... I'm wondering if you realize how many mainstream articles there are that clearly state the Bush administration is covering up for deep Saudi and Pakistani involvement/funding, and how many FBI agents have blown the whistle on obstruction from going after the hijackers? The idea that 9/11 was merely the work of Osama with no outside funding or help, even if its from Arab governments is as bizarre as the idea that Iraq has hidden WMD's in the desert.

I do know the Administration blocked a section of the 9/11 commission report dealing with Saudi Arabia and there is a lot of speculation about where funding came from. I agree Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are the countries we should have been looking at after 9/11. But this is all a far cry from saying Bush planed it. If it were as high-reaching as many people seem to think and the commission was a fraud, it doesn't seem there would be a need to redact any information since they are all making it up anyway.

I'm not lambasting people with questions. I'll admit that when I first saw some of the conspiracy sites, some things seemed fishy about 9/11. Interested in figuring out what was true, I looked into it and found many of the anomalies easily explainable. The comic is mainly targeting the hardcore Internet truth movement, which seems to be led by Alex Jones, that tirelessly call talk shows, troll blog and message boards, interrupt shows, and are shrill, annoying morons.

In other words...Republicans are evil and mean to support the Iraq war, but people who dare question 9/11 itself(and not question it as in did it happen, but what we were told) are also evil?

We should always question governments and authority, but not to the point of trading nonsense for fact. The more outrageous claims by truthers--that the towers were demolished, that a missile hit the pentagon, that Flight 93 phone calls home were faked by the CIA--have been completely debunked and explained. If you adhere to these things simply because you want them to be true to validate your view of how world affairs work, then you do deserve the harshest ridicule. And I never said they were evil, just stupid.

Maybe I should make a comic making fun of liberals who think Bush stole the 2000 election and lied to go into the Iraq war? :)

If that's how you feel, then go for it!

Future Liberations of iraq

With pre-emptive warfare a fashionable doctrine these days, other nations could soon invade to "free" Iraq from whatever they desire: Islamic extremists, the US, multi-nationals, et al.

Turkey looks like it may be first, invading northern Iraq to fight the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) a secular left guerrilla outfit. Condoleeza will be in Turkey Friday for talks. Who better to trust to calm the situation?

Ankara will tell Rice that the PKK’s presence in northern Iraq...is now tolerated and supported by the Iraqi Kurds... Turkish officials want the US secretary of state to accept and acknowledge this publicly and thus tell the international community that a possible cross-border operation by Turkey would be necessary to deal with the terrorist threat although Ankara is willing to continue trying diplomatic means.

Interestingly, the Kurdish cross-border attacks on Iran, under an offshoot named the PJAK, are not labeled terrorist actions and are rumored to be supported by the US. From the NYT:

But while the Americans call the P.K.K. terrorists, guerrilla commanders say P.J.A.K. has had “direct or indirect discussions” with American officials. They would not divulge any details of the discussions or the level of the officials involved, but they noted that the group’s leader, Rahman Haj-Ahmadi, visited Washington last summer.

Biryar Gabar, one of 11 members of the group’s leadership, said there had been “normal dialogue” with American officials, declining specifics. One of his bodyguards said officials of the group met with Americans in Kirkuk last year.

...

Guerrilla leaders said the Americans classify the P.K.K. as a terrorist group because it is fighting Turkey, an important American ally, while the P.J.A.K. is not labeled as such because it is fighting Iran.

In fact, the two groups appear to a large extent to be one and the same, and share the same goal: fighting campaigns to win new autonomy and rights for Kurds in Iran and Turkey. They share leadership, logistics and allegiance to Abdullah Ocalan, the P.K.K. leader imprisoned in Turkey.

I remember years ago, before we launched a shock and awe campaign on the citizens of Iraq, people suggesting that destabilizing Iraq could lead to civil war and ignite the conflict between Turkey and the Kurdish region in Northern Iraq, among other things.

They were called "Saddam Lovers."

Conspiracies

8bitagent wrote in about my Wildfire Conspiracy cartoon



Some of [your] comics imply the reasons that the US went into war were based on lies, and it was a lot to do about war profiteerings.

But then I saw your blog today where you lamblasted people who have questions about 9/11, or even JFK's death.

And I'm thinking "well wait a second, just a few years ago it was taboo to say the US government was lying to get into Iraq", as we saw in 2003 when Michael Moore got booed off the stage at the academy awards.

When you say "to all my liberal friends who believe in those nutty conspiracy theories read this"...

Im wondering if you realize how many mainstream articles there are that clearly state the Bush administration is covering up for deep Saudi and Pakistani involvement/funding, and how many FBI agents have blown the whistle on obstruction from going after the hijackers? The idea that 9/11 was merely the work of Osama with no outside funding or help, even if its from Arab governments is as bizarre as the idea that Iraq has hidden WMD's in the desert.

In other words...Republicans are evil and mean to support the Iraq war, but people who dare question 9/11 itself(and not question it as in did it happen, but what we were told) are also evil?

Maybe I should make a comic making fun of liberals who think Bush stole the 2000 election and lied to go into the Iraq war? :)

Conspiracies

eee

Oh my.

bit of a strange comic, no?

Ron Paul

Ron Paul is a pretty strange character so I was happy to illustrate the cover for his interview with the Rocky Mountain Chronicle. I don't agree with most of what Ron Paul believes--he would get rid of most every Federal program, but it's amazing to hear someone like him on stage with the Republican candidates.

In 1988, you ran for president as a Libertarian. You’ve since stated that you will never again run as a third-party candidate. Do you think there’s a problem in the system that prevents third-party candidates from being viable?

RP: Huge problem. And it’s disgusting when we’re so arrogant that we think we can go around the world and justify war and say we’re going to teach them about democracy. I hate the use of force to spread any kind of message, but it’s so preposterous to think that we should do it when we haven’t cleaned up our house here. If we had a very good system, people would want to copy us.