We’re in a dogfight with the terrorists
Posted by TheDon

I don’t know how it’s playing around the country, but in Atlanta we are following the story of Mike Vick *allegedly* being in the dog fighting business with a lot of interest. It’s a bottom-feeder sport which appeals to the most cruel instincts of “humans”. In order to be involved in the “sport”, you have to believe that it’s ok to train dogs to tear each other to pieces.

from SI.com:

“It’s [Vick’s] property; it’s his dogs. If that’s what he wants to do, do it,” Portis said. He added that if Vick were convicted of dogfighting, he would be “behind bars for no reason.”

It’s the same mentality that allows the current White House to kidnap, torture, rape, bomb and kill “terrorists” – as defined by them. In their minds, terrorists are generally brown people, generally Islamists, and always hate America. Terrorists are NOT good-old-boys from Alabama with guns and bombs, looking for abortion clinics to blow up real good. They are NOT attendees of Jerry Falwell’s funeral, looking to use home-made bombs to stop troublemakers. They are certainly NOT human.

So torture away, Gonzo. Keep Gitmo open, Bob Gates. And keep killing A-Rabs, Mr President. If that’s what you want to do, do it. And if anyone goes to jail for war crimes, perjury, obstruction of justice or corruption during the execution or defense of your plans, they will be “behind bars for no reason.” In your evil low-life minds.

Ted’s in Central Asia…But New Guest Bloggers Are in Da House!

The siren call of the Stans is luring me back to the windswept steppes and soaring peaks of post-Soviet Central Asia and tumultuous South Asia too, but the won’t be dormant while I’m traipsing through the Pamirs. Instead, say hi to my special new guest bloggers who’ll expound on anything and everything they deem interesting.

Enjoy and see you soon.

Be very afraid
posted by TheDon

I’m really afraid that when the current administration is told this:

The NYT fronts word that experts who are advising intelligence agencies say the interrogation techniques used since 2001 are outdated and inefficient. In a study commissioned by the Intelligence Science Board, the experts said the government has not taken the time to perfect interrogation techniques and is frequently relying on harsh tactics that are ineffective. Some are urging intelligence agencies to pick up new techniques from sources such as law enforcement and marketing. “We have a whole science literature on persuasion,” one of the experts said. “It’s mostly on how to get a person to buy a certain brand of toothpaste. But it certainly could be useful in improving interrogation.”

the only part they hear is “the interrogation techniques used since 2001 are outdated and inefficient”. And maybe toothpaste.

New Cartoon Collections by FORs:

If you’re in the market for some interesting, hard-hitting political cartoons, please check out two new books by my friends Mikhaela Reid and Masheka Wood. Mikhaela was in “Attitude 2” and Masheka is up and coming. Both are self-published, so every dollar (well, most of them) goes to cartoonists at a critical time in their careers. Come on, support new talent, folks! Ordering information, etc. follows:

Mikhaela and Masheka’s Books:

Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela! Cartoons by Mikhaela Reid (Foreword by Ted Rall).

Bushies are bum-rushing Cheney’s secret bunker! Ex-gays are quaking in their closets! Abstinence educators are shivering in their shiny silver purity rings! Greedy CEOs are heading for the hills and Minutemen are bolting for the border! Cartoonist Mikhaela Reid is on the rampage—and no hypocrite is safe! Attack features 150 of Reid’s greatest cartoon hits, plus rarities, odds, ends and behind-the-scenes commentary! Available June 4 at Lulu.com!

Deep Doodle: Cartoons by Masheka Wood.

Masheka Wood takes you deep into the warped, candy-colored recesses of his brain as he tackles a variety of social, political and just plain grody targets. Here are Wood’s “Not Just Knee Deep” cartoons, assorted illustrations and a delicious dose of old-school comics. Prepare to lose your mind—or your lunch! Wood’s work has appeared on MTV, The New Standard and Jackson State University’s art exhibit, “Other Heroes: African American comics creators, characters, and archetypes.” He is a 2007 Glyph Comics Award nominee for ‘Rising Star.’ Available now at Lulu.com!

Mikhaela and Masheka’s Book Tour:

Click on any of these events for more details or view the calendar here.

Three Troops Missing in Iraq

4,000 U.S. soldiers are searching for them. For three people.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Iraqis have been kidnapped–some by gangs, others by insurgents, others by U.S. forces. But the U.S. occupation forces don’t lift a finger to find them.

It’s been said before, and I’ll say it again anyway: Until we start acting like other people’s lives count for as much as Americans, people overseas are going to hate our guts. Who can blame them, really?

Ted Rall Discusses the French Elections: Live in Washington DC

I’ll be joining Radio France Internationale correspondent Claude Porsella, TF1 correspondent Guillaume Debré, and fellow cartoonists Jeff Danzinger (New York Times Syndicate), Kal (The Economist, ex-Baltimore Sun) and Nick Galifianakis (Washington Post Writers Group) for a panel discussion about the French presidential elections tomorrow night in Washington.

When: Wednesday, April 25, at 6:30 pm

Where: Alliance Française, 2142 Wyoming Avenue NW | Washington, DC 20008 | Phone 202.234.7911

Cost: $8.00 for members of the Alliance Française, $12.00 for all others

Cartoonists wth Attitude in San Francisco

Today is day two and the final day of the Alternative Press Expo (APE) independent and small press comics creator confab at 620 7th Street (near Brannan) in San Francisco. Come out and buy artwork and books by yours truly, Mikhaela B. Reid, Masheka Wood, Ben Smith, Matt Bors, August Pollak, Stephanie McMillan and others. Look for the CWA booth! Yesterday was fun but soggy; today is looking to be sunny and dry. It’s today between 11 and 5; hope to meet you there.

Congrats, Censors!

Media Matters for America, founded by David Brock, is crowing from the sorta-left (can you really trust an ideological traitor?) about Imus’ firing. MM is even distributing a hit list of right-wing talk show hosts and others who they want to see fired for spewing what they deem to be offensive language.

Over on the probably-right are outfits like BeliefNet, that are using Imus’ firing as a staging ground for attacks on popular music. Tipper Gore, call the batcave! Here’s what BeliefNet’s latest email says:

Don Imus Controversy
With Imus Gone, Let’s Clean Up Rap
“Imus got what he deserved, but the root of the problem is our vulgar culture. As a black woman and a child of God, I ask, Why don’t Christians stand up to rap artists?”
Poll: Should Imus Have Been Fired? | Discuss
His Apology: Accept It | Not Enough
Talk Radio Is the Real Culprit
“It’s time to stop handling these rappers with kid gloves and letting them run free every time they cry “I’m innocent.” Young minds are at stake every time they turn on the television and see a man disrespecting a woman, sliding a credit card down the crack of her backside–thanks, Nelly–or just allowing women to exploit themselves in a music video for a crummy paycheck. (Yes, the women agree to be in these videos by their own free will, but when will they decide they don’t want them to sell themselves to the highest bidder anymore?) Young ears are being flooded with the poisonous lyrics of today’s rap music. Stop conveying the message that it could ever be appropriate to call a woman a “‘ho” or a “b*tch”–regardless of what you personally know about them. It’s not okay, ever–whether you’re an African American rapper or a white talk-radio shock jock. “

Charmers all around, I’m sure.

Well, congratulations. It took you 30 years to notice that he told tasteless (and often funny) jokes, many of which relied on racial and gender stereotypes, but he’s gone. Hurrah!

Meanwhile, the Rutgers women he offended have seen their lives improve not…one…bit. Their fathers and brothers still risk getting pulled over and searched and beaten and raped and murdered by police for no reason whatsoever. African-American team members whose parents live in inner cities spent their spring breaks in areas that have been abandoned by city and state governments that don’t care what happens to them. Their own job prospects are limited by their skin color. But hey, at least they got that loud-mouth talk show host fired. Yay for racial justice!

No one is crowing louder than the left. There’s just one, or maybe two problems: One, it’s not like Imus will be replaced by, say, me. (I’m keeping my phone open just in case CBS calls, though.) Two, he was one of the most progressive voices on talk radio.

Obviously, Imus’ “hos” joke was stupid. But an apology was more than sufficient. He didn’t deserve to be fired. Could it be that the P.C. soft-liberal “left” has played into the Republicans’ hands–again?

Follow-Up Interview Re: Coulter Censorship

The excellent New England-based LGBT newspaper Bay Windows has a follow-up interview with me about the campaign by some gay organizations to get Ann Coulter’s column cancelled by newspapers. I oppose censoring Coulter because opposing censorship is always the right thing to do, even–especially–when the person being considered is unappealing. Sadly, the First Amendment is the least popular part of the Constitution–everyone is in favor of speech they agree with.

Human Rights Campaign Responds; I Reply

A spokesman for the HRC (I’ll spare her email in-box by not posting her name) has replied by email to my Open Letter about their campaign to get Ann Coulter out of newspaper syndication. Here’s what she wrote:

Thank you for contacting the Human Rights Campaign regarding censorship and the First Amendment.

We take freedom of speech and First Amendment issues very seriously, and we understand your concerns.

We believe that this is not a question of censorship. There are plenty of other people on the right who share Coulter’s values and views but understand the value of civility and respect.

Ann Coulter is free to spew her vile and hateful speech but as a community we are also free to exercise our collective power. And when Coulter defends herself on Fox News by saying “‘faggot’ isn’t offensive to gays,” it is our responsibility to make sure she, and those who carry her columns, understand that we know otherwise. “Faggot” is a loaded word — a word that too often is used as a weapon to demean and wound our community.

If she had made a racist or anti-Semitic remark, there would not have even been a question of whether a newspaper should continue carrying her columns. We must speak out in order to move the “F word” into that same column of universally understood hate speech.

Thank you again for contacting us and if you have any other questions please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Now here’s my reply:

I hate to belabor the point–well, really two points–but it’s important to note that Coulter’s comment did not appear in her column, but rather in a speech. Surely there’s a First Amendment issue involved when one is punished for one’s views, no matter how reprehensible, by being deprived of earning a livelihood in another forum.

If I own a restaurant, for example, should I fire a waiter after I learn he is a neo-Nazi skinhead? Even neo-Nazi skinheads are entitled to pay their rent, as long as they don’t spew their political beliefs at my customers, other waiters or myself. To believe otherwise is to advocate economic censorship. To say otherwise is to embrace the sophistic statement that one is free to say whatever one pleases as long as one is willing to accept starvation as a result.

You are mistaken when you write: “If she had made a racist or anti-Semitic remark, there would not have even been a question of whether a newspaper should continue carrying her columns.” Coulter has in fact made numerous racist comments in her column, including her use of the derogatory slur “raghead” to refer to Muslims. It is a tribute to the Muslim-American community that they did not try to counter her bigotry in this respect with a call for censorship–one that only would have served to strengthen her.

I agree with you that “faggot” is not a word that elevates civilized debate. Its use epitomizes not only homophobia in the most literal sense, but the anti-intellectual strain that keeps America from being as good a nation as it could be. But it’s only a word—and no word should prompt us to go down the road that leads to any form of censorship or would-be censorship.

There are more constructive ways for political progressives to flex their muscle. When gays and lesbians in Columbus, Ohio had trouble convincing local bar owners to open their doors to a “gay night” a few years back, they wrote “gay money” on their paper money and spent it locally. When “gay money” began turning up in the till, bar owners realized they were ignoring a potential source of income at their own detriment.

Anyway, Ann Coulter is not the enemy. The “mainstream” Republicans who embrace her as their attack dog, such as presidential candidate Mitt Romney who introduced her at CPAC, are those who are truly keeping us back.