The South Will Rise Again!

Let's face it, Nixon had a "Southern Strategy" and Lee Atwater had Reagan start his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi to take advantage of "latent" prejudices essentially to the capture the Confederate voters who left the Democratic party when LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act and the Republican party has pretty much been the party of anti-intellectual, straight, white, Evangelical males ever since. Now we have Rick Perry because Mitt Romney isn't Christian enough and Sarah Palin and Michelle Michelle Bachmann are still women.

A 'C' student governor from Texas that everybody would love to have a beer with... hmmm, where have I seen this movie before?

Conciliatory to a fault?

Been a long time

Obviously this is inspired by the song about Santa Claus.
I suppose you could substitute Big Brother for the NSA, CIA or Wikileaks,
depending on your personal paranoia.

Has it actually been a year or more since I've posted any cartoons at all? Well, these are REALLY fast/sketch ones. I just had these ideas for jokes and our school upgraded our Photoshop, so I thought I'd throw them together quickly. Can't promise I'm back in the habit, but I'll try to take a sketchbook home with me over Christmas break. Who knows.

I couldn't decide whether to make the cook the donkey, Uncle Sam, or President Obama. This one is really vague and broad, so it could almost be timeless. Beltway Republicans like red herrings. They also like to put up "straw-men" so they can knock them down. Previous examples were flag burning and gay marriage, not to mention terrorist boogie-men. These days they're claiming to be deficit-hawks who want to cut government spending, even though they're pretty bad at math since they're so hell-bent on tax cuts for the super rich. Watch, next will be Tax "Reform," and of course Wikileaks. 

Yeah, maybe you think it's cheap or "cheating" to use some collage elements in there instead of actually drawing them but let me point out-

1. I said I threw them together quick so I wasn't being really meticulous.
2. These are pretty much just for me or for this blog, so there's no editor or publisher to try to impress. 
3. Check out some of the work of German 1920's/30's DADAist John Heartfield (aka: Helmut Herzfeld). The guy was a genius. 

His politically charged photomontages provoked the ire of the Third Reich. I admire Heartfield almost as much as I do Thomas Nast or Jeff McNelly, so I see no problem with using all the tools available to craft whatever it is you call what I have saved on this blog thing here.

Can't wait to see Russell Crow in the role

This story shouldn't surpirse us, I've been accusing the GOP of capitalizing on our fears for a long time. This story deserved a cartoon so much, I made one in English AND one in Spanish too.

RNC document mocks donors, plays on 'fear'

The Republican National Committee plans to raise money this election cycle through an aggressive campaign capitalizing on “fear” of President Barack Obama and a promise to "save the country from trending toward socialism."

The strategy was detailed in a confidential party fundraising presentation, obtained by POLITICO, which also outlines how “ego-driven” wealthy donors can be tapped with offers of access and “tchochkes.”

The presentation was delivered by RNC Finance Director Rob Bickhart to top donors and fundraisers at a party retreat in Boca Grande, Florida on February 18, a source at the gathering said.

Mad as a hatter

These are three of Glenn Beck's actual quotes. What a nut! And he loves to throw "tea-parties."

"If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?
— The Mad Hatter"
— Lewis Carroll (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass)

Happy Holidays

Maybe they're macabre, or secretly in league with the Devil, maybe they're all huge fans of "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," maybe it has something to do with Mexican revolutionary editorial cartoonist José Guadalupe Posada who's famous skeletons of rich dandies make Ddia de los muertos so much fun- whatever the reason, this great American combination of cynicism, satire and silly pictures should be celebrated and remembered on Oct. 31 each year.

I suggest writing your local newspaper editor and demanding that they hire one. If they have one, write them and demand that they keep him/her. Perhaps write a letter to an editorial cartoonist and let them know that you enjoy and appreciate what they do- even when you disagree with them. The best thing you can do is to send them a card or some cookies!

Seeing as these days, everyone with a keyboard thinks of themselves as a reporter and everyone with a cell phone thinks of themselves as a photojournalist- what the hell, if you have a scanner, why not try some political cartooning for yourself?

Not sure you're up for it? Whatever, the very LEAST you can do is to buy a newspaper just for the editorial cartoons. Maybe clip one out that you like a post it on your door/cubical/bulletin board/fridge. If nothing else, you may as well explore some great editorial/political cartoons. Use these links to help you find some.

Editorial Cartooning

• Ted's Political Cartoons

• Alex Raffi, Southern Nevada's very own
  
• American Assoc. of Ed. Cartoonists
• American Political Cartoons: an Introduction
• Ann Telnaes, animated editorial cartooning goddess
• Comics on Slate
• Daryl Cagle's Pro Cartoonist Index
• Dirksen Center Collection
• Jose Guadalupe Posada, Mexican hero
  
• Keith Tucker, Tabloid Liberal
• Mark Fiore's animated editorial cartoons
• Mike Luckovich, one of my all time favorites
  
• Mr. Fish, of Harpers (a certifiable genius in my humble opinion)
• Neal Obermeyer, Of Lincoln, NE and San Diego, CA
• Pulitzer Prize Winners
• Stars of Political Cartooning
• Tim Eagan, another Genius
• Tribune Media Services
• Walt Handelsman, Chicago Tribune
• Washington Post Writer's Group

Lame duck or dead fish?

Come on all you Caribou Barbie fans, let me have it. I know that nothing provokes your ire more than my poking fun at the lovely yet often incoherent hockey mom.

If you agree with this cartoon, feel free to download, upload, email, print, post, embed, share, print or whatever you want with this cartoon. It drives me crazy that all I can do is post it on the web and not publish it in some newspaper or have it be distributed by some syndicate. Whatchya gonna do?

I can almost guarantee that- even though I'm no longer published in the Mapleton PRESS- it will receive some angry feedback from friends here in the Western Iowa area and from hard core conservative Christians and fellow Concordia Alumni (thanks to my posting it on facebook).

Why they can't see that you don't have to make anything up or lie about her to make her look bad because she does it herself, I guess I'll never know.

But seriously, do me a favor and send this around or hang it up. If not for the hope of increasing my visibility and therefore marketability, if only to propagate awareness about the idiocy of her nonsensical career! Thank you!

We will burry you

What a dweeb. He reminds me of Sacha Baron Cohen's character, King Julian the lemur from Madagascar. Feels good to be back in the saddle again- even though this was just for me and not for any newspaper or syndicate. Now I have to get to work on that illustration I promised Mayor Gonzo down in Key West.

Pucker Up, Butter-Cup

Here we go again

I think what this country needs now are more tax cuts for the rich and less regulation on business!

Phun in Photoshop

Remember the old Murphy Brown show? Recall how on the inside of her office door, she had a dartboard and famous politicians and media types often found themselves there? Like Dan Quayle. Well, here's my answer to it. Now that I have the template, I can put any perceived villain in the Polaroid. Fun way to blow off steam, huh?

One last dig

Note that Bush is Mickey Mouse (cannibalized that caricature from previous cartoon I did) and Washington is annoyed (I actually did that in Photoshop). The "Our enemies..." bit is an actual quote, one of the top three dumb "Bushisms." By the way "Misunderestimated" is a real Bushism too, although "Stategery" is not, it was made up by comedian Will Ferrel, but "misunderestimated" really was made up by our previous president.

I don't get technology

Steve King would be rolling over in his grave, but he's not dead

Their job, to make him look bad

Call it a preemptive strike. I don't know how long the honeymoon will last, and I want to try to keep an open mind and be willing to be critical when he does mess up, but you know the day will come when this cartoon is totally applicable, for all we know it may even be Wednesday already. I heard Newt Gingrich on NPR this morning and yadda yadda yadda, Republicans need to blame Bush, but we can't let the "LIBERAL" Democrats get away with too much, yadda yadda, position-himself-for-2012.

Deregulation run amuck

And we wonder why we wound up with a "culture of corruption."

Politics; the Republican coalition

There, less is more, right? I like this version a lot better. PLUS, this time I spelled "Strange" with an "r."

Happy NEW YEAR!!!!

I tried to appeal to their 'better angels,' but they wouldn't have it

No kidding, I reached out to right-winger friends on my main blog and on Facebook, and was met with a great deal of venom and bitterness. Obviously, if we're going to heal as a nation or cooperate across party lines, those of us on the left are going to have to give those on the right a while to cool off and get over their defeat.

On the editorial cartoon aficionado front, I've already noticed many more conservative cartoons on the American Association of Editorial Cartoonist (AAEC) website. Perhaps it's just as well that I didn't get anywhere as a political cartoonist, because Ed. Cartoonists are by definition members of the oposition and I'm just gullible enough to actually want to give hope a chance.