NYC Save the Date

I’ll be signing books twice the same week at two different stores in New York City.

Tuesday, September 28, 7:30 pm

Ted Rall Signing for GENERALISSIMO EL BUSHO and WAKE UP! YOU’RE LIBERAL at

at

Barnes & Noble Greenwich Village

Avenue of the Americas at West 8th Street

Manhattan

Thursday, September 30, time TBA

Signing for ATTITUDE 2: THE NEW SUBVERSIVE ALTERNATIVE CARTOONISTS

edited by Ted Rall

Meet David Rees, Emily S. Flake, Mikhaela B. Reid, Neil Swaab, Ted Rall and other cartoonists

at

Kim’s Mediapolis

Broadway between 113th and 114th Streets

Manhattan

I hope to meet you at one of these gigs!

Some Warblogger Has Been Busy

Lately I have received several inquiries along the following lines:

you got references showing 1) that the 9/11 hijackers were all members of egyptian islamic jihad 2) that bin laden was in pak when the US invaded afghanistan 3) that at the time, there was a bigger al qaeda presence in pak? not that i don’t believe you, but i want to be able to give better substantiation than “ted rall said it.” thanks.

As per my email rules, I don’t supply links to information that is readily available. By “readily available,” I mean going to Google and running a simple search on “hijackers” and “Islamic Jihad.” Which, if you do, gets you enough references to the first questiion make your head spin.

As for numbers two and three, why can’t people learn to use Google?

Cassandra?

A watchful FOR sends the following, which I post without comment:

This is from a 1999 article you wrote. Scary

Penny-ante bigotries (flashback: anti-Ayatollah bumper stickers) and antipathy toward the press are this decade’s early-warning signs that we may be heading once again into an ’80s-style rollback of basic civil liberties, spectacular tax giveaways to a tiny coterie of superrich and economically ruinous policies of wage stagnation and repression of workers. And don’t forget: Reagan’s trickle-down economics was a disaster for the middle class. It’s almost as if, after five or six years of incredible economic growth, right-wing, flag-waving, Bible-pounding twits would rather see their own portfolios evaporate than watch poor people and minorities begin to enjoy the American dream.

Nothing lasts forever, but good things invariably get murdered.

In Anticipation

It’s entirely possible that today’s cartoon won’t elicit more than the usual shrug and turn of the page. On the other hand, experience teaches that right-wingers freak out whenever you attack their sacred cows–and the gaudier the golden cow, the angrier they become when you point out that it’s nothing more than a lump of yellow metal.

By way of explanation for anyone who may have missed it, last week’s Republican National Convention featured a Tuesday-night September 11, 2001 commemoration wherein widows of the fallen were paraded out under blue tinted lights to urge implicitly and explicitly that America (in Rudy Giuliani’s words) owes it to the victims of 9/11 to vote the straight Republican ticket. As delegates whooped “yeahs” worthy of a football game, these horrible people pimped their dead husbands to score votes for a GOP that has nothing whatsoever to bring their killers to justice while increasing funding to the countries that played a role in the attacks. They actually compared the supposed actions* of the passengers of United Flight 93–“doing something”–to “doing something” this November, i.e., voting for Bush.

It doesn’t matter that some of the dead may have been Republicans. 9/11 should have never been used for partisan politics and it needs to stop now.

________

*Western Pennsylvania newspapers and TV stations report that debris was found eight miles away from the crash site, indicating that the flight was either shot down by the Air Force or suffered a catastrophic explosion. As much as we would all like it to be true, the fact that the US government has never publicly released the flight data recorder or voice cockpit recorders from United 93 sheds further doubt on the Drinkcart of Death theory.

Crash the RNC Party TONIGHT!

The party’s on…see you at Proof, Third Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets, 8 pm until ? $85 at the door, be there or you’re supporting Bush!

Book Signing Schedule Coming Together

The schedule for my appearances is shaping up. Here’s what we have so far, more details later. If you live in an area where I’m not appearing, this may be because your local daily or alternative weekly newspaper doesn’t carry my work. I’ve discovered that, without a paper to build an audience and to support the signing when it takes place, turnout tends to be dismal.

The obvious way to remedy this is to convince your paper to start carrying my cartoons and/or columns. Failing that, a book signing event can be made financially viable if a local group (typically a university) offers me airfare and an honorarium to speak in town.

Anyway, here it is:

9/28 – NYC

9/30 – NYC

10/20-10/30″

Seattle

Olympia, WA

San Juan Island, WA

Portland, OR

Berkeley

San Francisco

Los Angeles

It would be great to set something up in Santa Cruz, San Diego and/or Phoenix. If you’d like to help do that, please email me at chet@rall.com

Air America Friday

I’ll be on Air America’s “Unfiltered” tomorrow morning at 11:30 am–hopefully with some amusing war stories to tell. Stay tuned.

Reminder: “NY Hates W” T-Shirts

The first batch is almost gone, so if you want to receive your “New York Hates Dubya” Ted Rall-designed T-shirt parodies of the old “I Love NY” shirt, now’s the time to order.

Go to www.agitproperties.com

RNC Miscellany

Security is one thing, intimidation another.On the C train on my way downtown to the Air America appearance this morning, the subway doors opened up at 34th Street-Pennsylvania Station to an unusual sight: large cops in riot gear, smacking their billy clubs into their open palms at each door of every car. Hmm. Maybe it’s better to get off at 23rd Street.

The gruesome parade of 9/11 widows at last night’s RNC deserves comment. Americans should “do something,” one of them said. Though she harkened to the United 93 passengers who supposedly rebelled against the hijackers–still zero proof to that tale, of course–she meant we should all “do something”–vote Republican this fall. The politization of 9/11 continued with Rudy Giuliani’s bizarre assertion that we owe it to the victims to vote for Bush.

Ed Koch’s endorsement of the Bush-Cheney ticket retroactively belied his pleas, supposedly as a Democrat, to New Yorkers of liberal stripe to “make nice” to the Republican delegates. One is as one votes, and Ed Koch is as much of a Democrat as Michael Bloomberg is a Republican. Thanks, Ed, for finally outting yourself.

As the cameras scanned the sea of Caucasian faces across the convention hall, I was struck by something I’d never noticed before. Republicans, or at least Republican delegates, have no sparkle in their eyes. Like sharks, sheep and other braindead species, GOP adherents have a blank stare. Odd, and a little scary.

“Crash the Party” This Thursday Night in NYC

“Crash the Party”

A fundraiser to benefit the Kerry-Edwards campaign

Thursday, September 2, 2004

New York City

Between orange alerts and heartlanders in straw hats, there are loads of reasons to blow town during the Republican National Convention. But here’s an incentive to stick around …

On Thursday, September 2nd on the East Side of Manhattan, we are inviting supporters of regime change in the U.S.A. and their friends to join us for cocktails, conversation, and controversy in support of the team that wants to lead America in a new direction — John Kerry and John Edwards.

By any measure, the highlight of the evening will be George W. Bush’s acceptance of the Grand Old Party nomination, carried live on 25 screens through the miracle of television. Listen respectfully as our president recites his accomplishments on the economy, world peace and the environment … or, you could express your true feelings. (The conventioneers at the Garden will wonder what that dull roar coming from the East could be.)

Fueling our enthusiasm will be open bar (beer, wine, and liquor) and light hors d’oeuvres, accelerated by the soon-to-be-infamous Bushisms drinking game!

Attendance is limited, so reserve immediately!

CRASH THE PARTY

At

Proof

239 Third Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets

Manhattan

8 p.m. The party starts

10 p.m. W takes the podium

Admission:

$85 at the door

$75 in advance (Paypal to crashtheparty@mindspring.com)

All proceeds of this event go to support the Kerry-Edwards election campaign!

Presented with the support of the New York State Democratic Committee. Contributions to this event are not tax-deductible. RSVP and further information, please email crashtheparty@mindspring.com.