Even a stopped clock...

Family Guy makes fun of editorial cartooning.

The recession is officially over...

You may not have officially noticed.

Friday: Polanski channels Obama

Don't forget Slinky

If Hollywood is set to make Battleship and Candy Land into movies then Inchworm really isn't that far off.

Cry me a river

While researching yesterday's cartoon (i.e. procrastinating) I came across this video from some reality show where a hermaphrodite was a contestant. Check out the pleasant things the judges have to say.

Did they read it?

Lloyd Dangle points out a controversy over a Keith Knight cartoon that reveals a startling lack reading comprehension in our schools.

God's word

Evangelicals always get upset when an edition of the Bible gets updated with more "PC" language. Maybe it's god's will.

Illustration Friday

A salon claims to be kid friendly, but gives you the stink eye when you bring one in.


This guy was frustrated about waiting ten minutes for a table and stormed out swearing one moment before they called him.

Mulligan Program

How could our involvement in Afghanistan get worse? By propping up an illegitimate president that Afghans hate with our blood and treasure!

ACORN reforms itself!

ACORN should lose its paltry federal funding. If your employees are dumb enough to answer those questions the way they did you forfeit your seriousness as an organization. The right has been out to destroy them and they were hiring inept morons willing to help pimps exploit young girls. Totally not in keeping with the whole "helping the poor and downtrodden" thing.

The funny thing is how important ACORN is to conservatives. I'm pretty sure it's one of the top Communist cells in Obama's Secret Agenda that Glenn Beck made up in his head. To others it does boring grunt work involving poor people that they never heard about until this year. Any chance of getting that idiotic fake pimp over to Iraq to ask questions of Blackwater employees? Apparently, that's the only way Congress will pull their funding.

Adding: An interesting development brought to my attention by August.

Friday: Karzai gets a Mulligan

Safe, Legal and Public

This is a new one. There's no "Modest Proposal" tone to her voice. She is serious.

So to review: don't force Americans to pay for abortions with tax money but force them to have abortions between the food carts and the swing set.

Voice Overs

I've done some voices for Ted Rall's animated political cartoons recently. I'm the Sub-Mariner in his latest and a BlackWater thug in a previous one.

Fetus Funding

Abortion opponents always argue they shouldn't be forced to pay for something they find morally objectionable while not extending the same courtesy to others with the pet peeves they hysterically wave signs about. There's a bipartisan consensus on this for some reason.

I'd really like my hip replacement proposal put into Max Baucus' crappy bill. Throw the left some red meat! It shouldn't be a worry anyway, since that old racist is a mythical creature according to apologists for the crazed opposition to Obama. I guess people who call the president an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug" are simply worried about the deficit neutrality of the bill.

I should have worked in a fetus somewhere. They are always fun to draw.

Wednesday: ACORN gets militant!

Round-Up

Recent cartoons I like:

Mr. Fish on Carter
Mr. North on Batman
Mr. Rall on Wolves
Mr. Millionaire on Escape
Mr. McFadden on a Seat

Someone catch him up

Today on This Week with George Stephanopolus, during a discussion about Obama's critics, George Will let it be known that he has no television, computer, radio and does not read newspapers:

I have yet to see evidence, is there -- does evidence even intrude in this conversation? Is there any evidence that these people are racists? I think not.

Excessive Labeling Award

Yes, it's the inaugural award for labeling above an beyond the call of duty!

(click here to view)

Ann Cleaves Freelance Sep 19, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Ann will be sent this personal labeler so she can label all day long!

Crying Turd Alert

You know what that dragon is sniffing for? He detects the foul odor of a large turd.

(click here to view)

MStreeter Savannah Morning News Sep 19, 2009 EditorialCartoonists.com

Illustration Friday

A guy's new girlfriend talks to him with the bathroom door open while she poops. He hates it.

This is the sketch that wasn't chosen.

Mob Rules

Wingnuts continue to win major concessions on a health care bill they will never vote for while smearing the president as a racist, muslim and socialist--quite an amazing feat when you think about it.

Most Americans have a knee-jerk reaction to providing health care to illegal immigrants. Why should people who work 50 hours a week in jobs we consider beneath us get the luxury of chemotherapy? Democrats seem to agree.

Joe "You Lie" Wilson wants to go further and deny them emergency room care. Imagine the scenario: An illegal immigrant is working in construction, building things for rich white people, when suddenly some heavy machinery slices his abdomen open. He is rushed to the emergency room where an orderly demands to see proof of citizenship from a dying man holding his guts in his hands. When he can't provide any, he is left to die on the floor. No matter how long it takes for him to bleed out--10, 12, 48 hours--he will not be given treatment.

Sounds a whole lot like the inhuman tyrannical system of uncaring bureaucrats the tea bagging right claims to oppose.

For a great column in defense of Joe Wilson--and what Democrats should have been yelling--see Dave Lindorff here.

Get out the asshole vote

Wilson/West 2012

MIA

The war in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly unpopular. There doesn't appear to be an endpoint. Yet there is no no movement against the "good war." We've been there eight years and we'll be there eight more.

For Sale

They don't even try to hide it.

Illustration Friday

A sloppy drunk cougar was preying on a young man at a concert.

Font Wars

The Times doesn't waste space covering Michael Jackson or Jon and Kate. Too beneath them. Leave it to the Post. However, they do cover the consequential world of people mad over IKEA catalogs. As someone with a degree in graphic design I do sympathize. I have it out for overused fonts. My creed: don't support businesses that use Papyrus in their logos.

D.U.M.B.

I always thought commies were supposed to purge the capitalist piglets from government, not themselves. Maybe the conspiracy is deeper than we think...

Clever play, Van. Here are two comics from the presidential campaign showing how deep Obama's secret agenda runs.

Friday: Font Wars!

Van Jones

We live in an age where a Facebook update from an unemployed hillbilly can cause cowering legislators to remove language from a bill and the paranoid rantings of Glenn Beck and his sycophants can end promising careers. Just think: if I get three million rabid readers, I too could squash my foes. Screw Uncle Ben's advice.

Was it calling Republicans "assholes", being a former Marxist, or signing the 9/11 truth petition that did Van Jones in? All three of those things are insurmountable horrors to the Washington establishment.

I think the 9/11 "truth" movement is wrong, to put it mildly. But most people hold beliefs that are completely bonkers: UFOs, religion, new-age pap, liking the band Korn--and yet they are smart and able to carry out their jobs magnificently. 9/11 truth is completely ignored and ridiculed by the media. That's fine. It's nonsense. But why aren't other equally ridiculous beliefs seen as political non-starters?

For instance, how many conservatives have expressed their belief that the creator of the universe guides US foreign policy? Our last president believed he talked to god. Why aren't people this delusional purged from government and given counseling and/or anti-psychotic medication?

The next time a politician claims we are a christian nation, that evolution is a lie, or professes belief in the "invisible hand" of the market I'd like to see David Gregory rapidly convene a Meet The Press pundit-packed panel to pontificate about which corner of DC the person should set up their cardboard sign and tin cup.

Mailbag

I received a lot of mail about my Kennedy strip from people unable to get over Chappaquiddick and angry that I would dare suggest anyone on earth is more immoral than Ted Kennedy. I thought I'd post the following exchange since it sums up my feelings on some things more succinctly than I could probably get across in my wordy comics.

On Sat Sep 5 20:55 , 'SYeomans' sent:

Do you seriously believe that there is not moral difference between fighting the Taliban after being voted for by the Dems in the congress and getting drunk, driving off a bridge and leave a young lady to die alone in agony? I think you got the result of your game wrong.

S Yeomans

On Sat Sep 5 22:01 , 'mattbors' sent:

Given the amount of innocent civilians that were killed, no I do not.

On Sat Sep 6 0:16 , 'SYeomans' sent:

When do you start the count for Obama and congress?

On Sat Sep 6 1:09 , 'mattbors' sent:

Jan. 20th, 12:01 pm

Think Of The Children

Tom Tomorrow has released his first children's book, The Very Silly Mayor. From the sample pages provided on the site it looks like a good book with a good message. (indoctrination! RRAARRR!!!)

Your runts should already be reading the Weekly Woof comic I do.

And whatever you do, don't buy them this.

Introducing a NEW award category!

You've seen Turd Awards and Crying Turd Alerts. Now cartoonists that go above and beyond the call of duty with excessive labeling will be awarded their very own personal labeler!

Winners will be sent* an "Affordable, feature-packed" personal labeler to use at home, in the car, at a ball game--really any place that can be festooned with obvious labels! Your imagination (or lack thereof) is the limit.

So when will the first winner be posted? It's like porn--I'll know it when I see it.



*no they won't.

Sacrificial Czar

Fox News headline: "Jones' Resignation May Embolden Administration Critics"

They were openly carrying assault rifles the other week. What does emboldened look like?

Tyranny Everywhere!

A sizable portion of America has gone insane.

The concept of civics appears lost. The basic functions of government are derided--if they are even known. The president addressing schoolchildren about doing homework is viewed as the equivalent of a dictate from Chairman Mao. The country seems too dumb to proceed.

The only presidential address to children I'm worried about is Wednesday's.

Wed: Van Jones' plot

There will be time enough for accounting...

Ted Kennedy was about as good as Democratic Senators are going to get. He genuinely believed in, fought for, and enacted progressive change. Legislation he helped pass probably improved the quality of your life or someone you know. Conservatives hated him for it and constantly reminded us of Chappaquiddick, an event some of them managed to morph into a murder.

I don't totally begrudge them for constantly bringing it up over the years. Not only did Kennedy use his privilege to avoid the punishment that surely would have come down upon us normals, he managed to hold on to a frickin' Senate seat in the process--an admirable feat even for the most well connected. Later he mounted a presidential campaign! You can't even recover from an extra-marital affair in Argentina these days.

It's a deep stain on his legacy but one contrasted by a lifetime of doing good in the public sphere. The same can't be said for Bush, Cheney and Co. Their crimes are ignored by those who yelp about Chappaquiddick. And when they pass no criticism should be spared.

I'm no fan of dynastic privilege, nor do I feel any particular connection to the Kennedy family. This cartoon from earlier in the year encapsulates my thoughts on Camelot worship.

The woman on the right side of the comic is modeled after my cartoonist friend Mikhaela Reid.

Mailbag

Jeff writes regarding last week's cartoon:

The view that Democrats "cave" because they're spineless is a lie that has served them extremely well. Please seriously consider the alternate viewpoint that they are getting what they really want.

Good point. There are Democrats who would ideally like more progressive measures but are too gutless to push it. But too many are simply center-right (compared to other Western democracies) and/or in the pocket of industry (cough*Max Baucus*cough).

Harry Reid's recent statement on the public option is exactly what I was talking about in the cartoon. He's come out in support for the public option--as long as it's private. Republicans won't support the bill so who exactly is he conceding ground to? This is (sadly) one of the most powerful Democrats we have. He should be strong-arming the wussies into supporting a strong public option. Obama should be on the phone telling them he'll never give a soaring speech at their reelection rally unless they support this bill.

This is politics. Why won't they play it?

Strange But True: Paper Showcases Cartoon

Today is Scott Stantis' first day on the job at the Chicago Tribune. They ran his cartoon on the front page, something that wasn't uncommon back in the day.

Mailbag Douchebag--braindameishd edition!

A confused reader writes:

Your Cartoon about healthcare reform is so far off target it makes me wonder how deep into your pockets the democrats are. Sure Health Care needs reform but not as presented by any of the fools on capitol hill who have no connection with what really goes on. Ask Dr or a RN what the main problem is and they will tell you in three words... For Profit Hospitals. Since these name in vogue medical costs have skyrocketed driven not by illness but by Wall Street which demands a profit no matter the human cost or cost to the economy.

This person would not tell me which health care cartoon of mine they were talking about, but I don't remember trumpeting for-profit hospitals in any of them. Nor have I cashed any checks from the DNC. (They pay me under the table for my loyalty.)

Then there's Klaus:

I did not like it! Your drawing is not so great. Your thinking is under it. This message is from Finland and from a real socialist, witch you have never seen in land of the free and braindameishd. Do you have schools for those who read the Bible and those who read every book they can put they hand on. Have a nice day!

No clue.