America 2008

Several people ask:

hi im a big fan and i know you’re busy, but i was wondering if you could briefly explain to me your latest comic ‘america 2008’. maybe im not keeping up with the latest news but why would america look like that in 3 years? what is this a commentary on?

The militarizing of government functions domestically, recently exemplified by Bush’s proposal to suspend Posse Comitatus to allow the military to respond to a possible avian flu epidemic (by setting up internment camps for victims).

Meatcake

Dawn asks:

Dear Mr. Rall,

I love your cartoons! But I have a question about the last frame of your cartoon of 9-22-05. What is “meatcake?”

It’s a reference to an old George Carlin record. Meatcake is whatever you want it to be, really. Like winning the war in Iraq.

Biographical Info

Jim from Costa Rica asks:

I thought this paragraph from your Slate biography was both funny and intriguing:

In 1984, Rall was expelled from Columbia Engineering for disciplinary and academic reasons. He gave up drawing cartoons during the mid-’80s, instead devoting himself to his work as a trader/trainee at Bear Stearns brokerage firm and a loan officer at the Industrial Bank of Japan. He moonlighted as a telemarketer and taxi driver.

My question is why is this most wonderfully ironic passage not included on your website?

I haven’t worked for Slate in years (but I would if they were interested in having me back!), so they’re using an outdated form of my bio. I remain unashamed of my past as a college dropout/expellee. It should also be noted that I eventually graduated from Columbia, with honors in history.

Today’s Email from a Real Republican Voter

Courtesy of Rader:

i would first like to say that i fully support the first amendment, and i support your expressing your opinion. however, i must know, where on EARTH do you come up with the things you express? the negatives towards our presidential administration are unprecedented, wild, and i fail to find anything anywhere to corroborate what you say. do you use sources along with actual news and events or do you just randomly imagine the president screws things up and attempt to make lame jokes about it? please regard my first amendment to also say what i like. on that note i would like to say that you disgust me. thank you for your time.

I love my country and its president,

Well, I like Al Gore even if I don’t love him exactly. Still, it’s always good to hear from guys like Rader. Right-wingers have become pretty quiet lately; even the death threats have dried up as of late now that every single utterance of the post-9/11 era has turned out to be dead wrong.

Martial Law? It’s Already here

Russ writes:

You’re about 4 years late – we’ve been living under martial law since passage of Patriot Act.
In fact some Constitutional scholars hold that suspension of habeas corpus equates with martial law.
The Patriot Act effectively provides for this, allowing President to declare ANYONE an ‘enemy combatant’ who can be held incommuicado indefinitely.
“The martial law concept in the U.S. is closely tied with the Writ of habeas corpus, which is in essence the right to a hearing on lawful imprisonment, or more broadly, the supervision of law enforcement by the judiciary. The ability to suspend habeas corpus is often equated with martial law. Article 1, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution states, “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_law#United_States_of_America… Okay, Wikipedia isn’t scholarly source, but it’s probably accurate.)

Russ makes an excellent point. Moreover, Bush signed a secret executive order granting him the write to execute anyone, including American citizens, he declares to be an “enemy combattant.”

Bloggers Can’t Make up Their Minds

A blog called bloggledygook references me as someone who puts down people who voted for Bush:

Those lefty bloggers can now sit back and sneer I-told-you-sos and in true Ted Rall fashion, portray Bush voters as stupid and sinister all at the same time.

Well, far be it from me to shy away from the characterization someone who doesn’t read much of my work has for me. So yes, I’ll fess up: Anyone who voted for Bush is a Goddamned fucking idiot. Fuck them. Why progressives should suck up to such morons instead of ridiculing them as they well deserve–which, incidentally, might remind them to think more carefully the next time they exercise their franchise–is beyond me.

On the other hand, Bernard Weiner lists me as a “journalistic hero” for standing up to the Bush regime’s attempt to loot the treasury while destroying American democracy and personal freedom.

Oh, well. Back to the Bush voter-bashing cartoons for this week.

UK Independent: Bush Claims God Told Him to Murder 100,000 People

Courtesy of Ken:

I am a devoted fan of your work and when I read this article I thought “Wow , this is great! Almost as good as something Ted Rall would come up with”. Only its for real. I’ve read some snippets of Bush getting messages from God, but nothing this well documented.
If you haven’t read it already please do check it out.
From: The Independent on line.
Bush: God told me to invade Iraq
President ‘revealed reasons for war in private meeting’
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 07 October 2005
….. Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath says Mr Bush told him and Mahmoud Abbas, former prime minister and now Palestinian President: “I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, ‘George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.’ And I did, and then God would tell me, ‘George go and end the tyranny in Iraq,’ and I did.”…
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article317805.ece

What is going on at The Times? Readers ask me all the time, as if I know because they used to run my work, but hell if I know. The Week-in-Review section has become a clone of Newsweek’s famously dismal gags-about-the news (yes, gag me) Perspectives section. To read either would be to miss the fact that editorial cartooning is currently in its golden age. Sadly you have to read the alternative weeklies, and the ATTITUDE compilations, to know. And the Web, of course. You sure as hell won’t find anything but donkeys, elephants, labels and all manner of stupidity in the Times.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Times’ Sunday Magazine has introduced a section called “The Funny Pages” which includes a one-page serialized graphic novel by, incredibly–the dead worst graphic novelist in America, Chris Ware.

Ware, best known for his Jimmy Corrigan GN of a few years ago, is a fine draughtsman who works wonders as illustration’s answer to Death Cab for Cutie. Sadly, he also fancies himself a cartoonist, i.e. an artist who works with words and ideas as well as pictures. That’s tough to do when you’re fairly stupid (read his interviews to see what I mean), aggressively out of touch with the world (no crime, unless you’re trying to be a cartoonist) and have had nothing of interest happen to you. His artwork has managed to seduce enough fans and editors (at the Times magazine, for instance) that they’ve managed to ignore Ware’s FEMA-like incompetence as a cartoonist, some to the extent that they call him one of the (cough) best cartoonists working today.

Of course, many of the same folks think George W. Bush is the best president we’ve ever had, so there you go.

The Tillman Link

The Nation has a piece on Pat Tillman, as referenced by Don:

You’ve probably read the articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Nation (see http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/zirin) on Pat Tillman’s opposition to Bush’s Iraq war and his fondness for Noam Chomsky, revelations that have Ann Coulter spewing chunks, but I’d be interested in getting your take on the matter.

Harriet Miers’ Experience

FOR Fred notes:

I saw a stat recently that sed nearly half of the supreme court justices throughout history (including Renquist) were not judges before taking the bench. I’ve even heard rumors that Bill Clinton is sniffing around for an appointment under the next democratic admin (and lets hope its the NEXT admin).
I’m not sure about this lady myself, but her lack of judicial experience is hardly unprecedented. Just proves my point that most folks in poltics (regardless, in this case, of right or left alignment) will reach for the nearest bat to pummel their opponent and worry about the hypocracy later (if at all.)

Lies, lies and damned statistics. It is true that many, indeed half of justices who served on the Supreme Court, did not work as judges previously. That doesn’t tell the whole story, however. Most of these non-judge justices served during the 19th century. Indeed, the trend during the 20th century has led to increasing experience requirements to serve on the highest court in the country, mirroring a general requirement in the employment sector towards increasing credentials: today’s BA is yesterday’s high school diploma, etc. Moreover, most of the justices cited as “inexperienced” by pro-Miers Republicans did have fairly impressive credentials. These included former senators and, in William Rehnquist’s case, a sitting deputy attorney general.

Miers’ experience doesn’t come close to the kind of resume justices have been expected to possess during the past few decades.

That said, the conservative revolt against Miers is a little strange. So Bush lied about guaranteeing an anti-Roe justice (even though seems about as pro-life as you can get short of having shot an abortion doctor herself). You didn’t seem to mind his lies when they worked towards your benefit–the tax cuts helping the economy, WMDs in Iraq, capturing Osama dead or alive, etc. Buy a rabid dog and eventually he’ll bite you too.