A Few Odds and Ends At the End of a Week

I’ll be speaking at MIT next week. Which is weird, because (a) MIT is a strange place and (b) my dad went there and (c) they threw me out of Columbia Engineering School.

I’m worried that John Kerry will lose against Bush. He came off like a serious prick on CNN’s “Inside Politics” with Judy Woodruff yesterday. Forget Howard Dean’s scream, Kerry went ballistic when she asked him about waffling. “Come on! Ask me a question about anything! Iraq? OK!” Look, I can imagine the frustration of getting ripped apart, but the idea is to save that shit for your friends and family. He needs to learn some patience, humor and grace if he stands a chance in November. He made Gore look like a barrel of laughs.

I still have 4 copies of “Waking Up in America.” If you want ’em, e-mail chet@rall.com.

Call me naive, but I bet the U.S. Supreme Court will rule against the Bush fascists on the Jose Padilla case. I fear for America if it doesn’t.

Check out the funniest thing I’ve ever read about myself.

AWOL or not, Bush Dodged the Draft

As usual, Democrats are missing the point by wallowing in irrelevant details.

Did Bush show up in Alabama in 1973? Did his pay stubs reflect actual service in the Air National Guard? None of that shit matters, because–during Vietnam–National Guard service was dodging the draft. All of this neo-politically correct BS about the National Guard being perfectly equal in risk and patriotism to serving in the infantry 30 clicks from Da Nang needs to go out the window. Tell your local editorial page, tell your friends, tell a Guardsman–serving in the Guard during the 1970s was a way to get out of Vietnam.

Bush went into the Guard, not Vietnam. He dodged the draft. Q.E.D.

P.S. Still have a few copies of “Waking Up in America” left.

ATTITUDE 2: THE NEW SUBVERSIVE ALTERNATIVE CARTOONISTS (NBM Publishing, February 2004, $13.95) is the revised title (“Alternative” replaces “Social Commentary” but the book otherwise remains exactly the same).

And this morning a package arrived from NBM containing the first copy of the book, hot off the presses! And it’s such a nice-looking book, too: perfect colors, dark blacks, no printing errors that I could find over my first cup of coffee. The mix of cartoons, flowed to perfection thanks to designer J.P. Trostle, is splendid, the interviews better than the first ATTITUDE.

Click the link to get your own copy of ATTITUDE 2 (and, if you don’t have it already, ATTITUDE 1!). ATTITUDE 2 includes cartoonists Alison Bechdel, Jennifer Berman, Max Cannon, Barry Deutsch, Emily S. Flake, Marian Henley, Justin Jones, Keith Knight, Tim Kreider, Aaron McGruder, Kevin Moore, Stephen Notley, Eric Orner, Greg Peters, David Rees, Mikhaela Blake Reid, Neil Swaab, Brian Sendelbach, Tak Toyoshima, Shannon Wheeler and Jason Yungbluth.

BOOK REVIEWERS/EDITORS: Contact me to receive a review copy.

Waking Up In America Offer Update

Got 10 copies left; let me know if you want one.

Send Me To Iraq

Every right-winger in America will get their wish if I succeed in pulling together enough journalistic commissions to make the trip to Iraq in time for next month’s anniversary of the US invasion. Unfortunately it’s not always easy to find daring editors willing to fund an award-winning war correspondent’s expensive journey, so if you’re an editor or you have a friend who is, please get in touch. The gameplan is to hit Baghdad for a few days to get over jetlag and hire a translator and driver, then to head off into the remote southwestern desert–where few American reporters have gone–to find out what ordinary Iraqis think of us.

My email is chet@rall.com if you have a lead.

Limited Offer: The Last Signed Copies Ever of WAKING UP IN AMERICA

It’s clean-up time and you’re the beneficiary! I’ve got 20 last copies of my first, long out-of-print book, the cartoon collection WAKING UP IN AMERICA (St. Martin’s Press, 1992), and these bad boys have got to go. True Rall fans know that WAKING UP, which contains my earliest cartoons from 1988 to 1992, is exceedingly hard to find, going for anywhere from $90 to $250 on eBay on those rare occasions when a copy turns up for sale. The cheapest copy on zBooks is $95 right now.

Caveat: St. Martin’s virtually refined “shoddy production” with this title. They scanned the cartoons at the wrong resolution, left date codes intact and generally didn’t give a shit about doing a decent job. And the cartoons reflect my, er, development as an artist (if you think I don’t draw well now, in other words, check this out). That said, completists and those interested in my earliest published work–i.e., people who have been searching out WAKING UP since they can remember–will want these.

Here’s the deal:

1. Send an e-mail to let me know that you’d like to reserve a copy.

2. Send your payment of $35 (check, money order, cash) to: Ted Rall, PO Box 1134, New York NY 10027. Includes shipping within United States.

3. Include a note with your payment telling me how you’d like me to sign your copy.

4. Yeah, I’m price gouging. That’s my reward for holding on to these books for so damned long. If you wanted to pay the $6.95 cover price, you missed your chance back in 1992 when it would have been appreciated. Or you can always buy a copy on eBay–heh.

5. As soon as I have 20 reserved copies, I’ll post a notice on the .

MY GUARANTEE: You won’t spend 35 bones on this book only to see me republish it next year. I have no plans or interest in republishing this title, and I own all the rights.

There is now complete pre-ordering information, including a chapter listing, for WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL: HOW WE CAN TAKE AMERICA BACK FROM THE RIGHT (Soft Skull Publishing, April 2004, $14.95) at Amazon.

This is my first 100% prose book, my first full-length political manifesto. It’s all-new material and will be one of the most talked-about books of this hotter-than-hot political season. A must for liberals, conservatives and anyone else who cares about America–pre-ordering now ensures that you’ll get your copy before anyone else.

BOOK REVIEWERS/EDITORS: Contact me to receive an advance review copy.

“Worst Thing” Sold Out

My award-winning first graphic novel, REAL AMERICANS ADMIT: THE WORST THING I’VE EVER DONE!, is now officially sold out.

Will there be another edition? That’s up to you. There were all of 9 copies left at Amazon as of this morning. If enough people order these anthologies of people’s answers to the question “what’s the worst thing you’ve ever done?”, we’ll go back to press.

If not, let’s not hear any whining.

All too many “fans” claim they want new books of one type or another and then fail to support them when the artists give the people what they want. Me, when I find something cool–especially from an independent publisher–I buy up a dozen copies and hand them out to pals as gifts. If you’re serious about an artist or band or whatever, prove it. Drop a few bucks on material you believe in.

Republican Challenge Results

Only one (!) of the countless conservative readers of the says he would consider voting for the Democratic nominee this fall over George W. Bush. The reason he’d so so? If Bush were declared clinically insane, presumably by experts.

Compare this attitude to that of Democrats. When Bill Clinton was caught commiting perjury, many libbies–me included–came out in favor of impeachment. For us, the Constitution and the rule of law came before any one man, even if he was a Democrat (though not much of one).

Republicans obviously don’t feel that way. Even if Bush were caught molesting children and small animals, they’d come up with some justification and pull the “R” lever anyway. I’d be tempted to decry their lack of patriotism and integrity, but what’s the point? Their singlemindedness allows their minority party to defeat our majority party.

More on this in WAKE UP, YOU’RE LIBERAL.

Bush’s Self-Appointed Intel Panel

Bush’s newly-announced panel of second-rate experts to look into the issue of bad Iraq inteligence is like investigating the gun industry after a convenience store robbery turns lethal: it misses the point. Intelligence agencies didn’t “hype” the Iraq threat; the administration misrepresented their intelligence to do so.

What’s really needed here is a Watergate-style special prosecutor with full powers to subpoena anyone and anything he wants to investigate how and why Bush Administration warmongers lied about Iraq’s fictional weapons of mass destruction to stampede an initially reluctant American public into an unwinnable, unending war in which more than 500 Americans have been killed and more than 3000 wounded.

Ken Starr, call your office.