Bors Blog
Archive for August, 2008
Head Scratcher
This is yesterday’s cartoon from Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Ramirez.
Hillary is taking the “I” and “Y” in “Unity” to build “Hillary.” But why is there a giant red “H_LLAR_” right next to it? Where did those letters come from? There’s also the problem of it not even remotely representing what Hillary did at the DNC Convention.
Palin
A disappointing choice from McCain. I was looking forward to drawing Romney again.
The only worthwhile criticism they have of Obama is that he doesn’t have enough foreign policy experience. (John McCain, you may have heard, lived for some time overseas.) Are we to believe Palin has more experience than Obama and is ready to face down Ahmadinejad?
Here are some covers I drew for the Anchorage Press around the time Palin was taking the Governor’s office there.
Noun, Verb, POW
John McCain is now using his years as a POW to answer everyday questions. It’s because he has no new ideas and nothing to offer except claims that he is more patriotic and tougher than Obama. I expect the RNC convention to be three themes repeated endlessly for four days: The War On Terror, Obama is weak and McCain was a POW. Sub-themes include reminding us about 9/11 and endless troop worship.
This ad released today is one of the most pathetic things I’ve ever seen.
Kill The Yellow Man?
Great speech from Obama. I won’t bother opining further.
But I wanted to chime in on the music. That horrendous country tune that began when he concluded his speech seemed a little out of character. Then, as the talking heads began their chattering, “Born In The USA” started playing. Could that be the most misunderstood song in history?
Obama Not Qualified?
It’s a line we’ve been hearing ever since he launched his campaign.
There’s some writing in The Weekly Standard I feel compelled to waste my time yakking about. They are really starting to grasp at straws here. An article by Dean Barnett titled “Would You Hire Barack Obama?” calls him a “chronic underachiever” and dismisses almost everything he’s done:
It’s when Obama leaves law school in 1991 that his résumé starts raising questions. He didn’t begin a full-time job until 1993. Between 1991 and 1993, Obama divided his time between lecturing at the University of Chicago Law School, writing a book, and returning to his pre-law school activity, community organizing.
With childish hobbies such as University lectures, community organizing and penning an autobiography, there’s only one word to describe Obama’s refusal to get a 9 to 5: lazy.
What is striking about Obama’s résumé circa 2004, as he began his U.S. Senate campaign, then, is that 13 years out of law school, he had yet to commit himself to one line of work. More important, potential employers would wonder about a gulf between the ability Obama showed at Harvard and his actual accomplishments. Obama never made it beyond lecturer at Chicago, where he wrote no scholarly articles. He wrote one book, then stopped writing for over a decade.
Outrage! I demand a Tom Clancy level of output from Obama. Who does he think he is–JD Salinger?!
Bill Kristol, born into wealth, privilege and politics, doesn’t think Obama has accomplished much. He writes:
Here is Obama’s résumé: an Ivy League law degree, a few years of community organizing, seven years in the Illinois senate, three and a half years as a U.S. senator. Kind of modest.
Modest? What does Bill think of the rest of us? Of course, Bill finds George W. Bush to be a great President. Bush was a failed businessman and a drunk until he was pushing 40. Modest indeed.
The Green Convention
The DNC says this is the greenest convention in history. It seems laughable on its face. While they are doing an incredible amount to offset their carbon footprint, I remain a bit skeptical that they are beating out conventions that took place before the invention of the incandescent light bulb.
Friday: Noun, Verb, POW
Exiled
You may have seen the MTV show “Sweet Sixteen.” It was the one where the most privileged, annoying children on Earth spend more on their sixteenth birthday party than most American families earn in a year. As if to atone for the sin of creating that show (but actually just milk the success of it) they have created Exiled, a show where the Sweet Sixteeners, now around 18, are “exiled” for a whole week to live with poor indigenous people.
I caught part of the preview show where the girls are informed by their parents that they won’t have access to their multiple cars or shoe closet for a few days. One guy sat down his rich daughter and told her she would be headed to the Amazon to live with an indigenous tribe.
And then, I shit you not, this exchange took place:
Daughter: Have they seen people before?
Father: They are people.
There’s a dystopian sci-fi/action movie formula someone works into a film every 8 years or so that involves inmates exiled to some crazy prison island who must battle it out in arenas or on racetracks in brutal life or death spectacles to win back their freedom.
Someone should take these kids’ new cars, outfit them with machine guns and make them enter Death Race. I’d watch that show.
Fair Warning
We have about two months left until the election. Expect a lot of election toons. It’s (amazingly) not clear who is going to win and I have to get all the comic ideas I have on these turds down on paper before one retreats to the shadows in the shame of defeat.
Camp Kafka
Cross-posted at the ACLU’s Blog of Rights.
In Franz Kafkas 1925 novel, The Trial, a man awakens to be suddenly arrested and put on trial for an unspecified crime in a court where no evidence is presented. Hey, at least he got a trial! Most detainees at Guantánamo Bay are still waiting to defend themselves against their crimes real or imaginary.
In my latest Civil Discourse comic I riff on the unsettling fact that there is a super secret detention camp within Guantanamo Bay called “Camp 7.” Somehow, they have even less rights in that camp. Who knows–maybe there’s another prison inside that one!
I look forward to the day when we dont have to use the words “Orwellian” and “Kafka-esque” to describe our treatment of detainees in the “War on Terror.” Maybe the next President will try to live up to the writings Jefferson instead of Kafka.
Turd of the Day
Here’s one for you. Barack has big ears. Funny, huh?
This would have been lame a year and a half ago.
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d.rano
Conway & Berlin Daily Suns, Aug 25, 2008 |
Foreign Oil
Drilling has become a huge issue even though everyone agrees we won’t see the effects for quite some time and it will be a minimal effect at that. People want to get off “foreign” oil and get to drilling our oil in the good ’ol USA. As far as I’m aware, it burns the same. But it has the mental effect of looking like we are doing something–anything–to achieve energy independence. Perhaps driving around on a full tank of American Offshore Gas can become a source of national pride akin to watching Michael Phelps win gold medals.
Wednesday: The Greenest Convention Ever
No Sweat
While Olympic athletes are raking in millions for their hard work, it’s always good to remember the hard, thankless work that props up the giant companies that can afford to give athletes such money.
Clothing and shoes are mostly made in Asian countries by people who work for a pittance, often extremely low wages even in their poverty-racked countries.
In the late 90’s Nike tried to improve its image of using sweatshop labor by moving to better factories. But this report from an Australian news station just last month shows how forced labor (not simply sweatshop conditions) is used to this day to produce some of Nike’s goods. It’s not a Nike factory itself, but a contractor–some Malaysian sweatshop they don’t own so they can turn their head to the human rights conditions. Its truly appalling.
Nike is looking into the problems, of course.
Monday: The Dangers Foreign Oil
