Easy Boy, Britney’s Not Hot No More

Remember the Pepsi commercial with Bob Dole? Those were the good old days of politics. No wars to protest, or George W Bush to battle. Just an ample dose of Viagra, cola…and of course Britney Spears.

By they way, did you know she was back? Me neither. But I guess she showed up at the MTV Awards in Vegas and performed miserably. I actually feel a bit sorry for the girl. One of the biggest criticisms of her performance…her less than rock solid abs. Geez, aren’t we shallow Americans. I’m sure a majority of us would trade our current abs for her less than solid abs any day. (UPDATE: I hadn’t watched the MTV Awards so I’d only seen a photo of her current abs. I watched this clip on CNN of Britney’s Performance and I take back my earlier statement. She does has abs like the rest of us - the only difference, we don’t get on stage and try to dance in front of millions….oh it’s sad.)

Anyway, enjoy a trip down memory lane and watch the ol’ Britney Pepsi commercial with Bob Dole.

Oregon Ducks Open The Flood Gates on Michigan in the Big House

I’m not a college football fan, but I can’t pass up a chance to root for the underdog, especially when they’re from Oregon.

And thanks to Dale for the caption he provided for the cartoon. It adds a bit of literacy to my often otherwise plain-spoken ‘toons.

American Politics At Home And Why Nothing Ever Gets Done

This drawing is a bit late for the Friday Drawing for a Reader (see the Blogger Bomb #2 for an explanation), but it’s here all the same.

I’ve overheard the above conversation many times, probably because we don’t typically get married based on political preferences, or one’s political disposition changes over time. Either way, reader Bill’s point about Oregon’s one Democrat and one Republican Senator canceling each other out is a direct reflection of this couch talk on the home front.

Perhaps we should get Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden together in a little counseling chat. Of course, my preference would be to change the color of Gordon to blue, but you can’t always get what you want.

History Lesson: Political Cartoonist Joseph Keppler (1838-1894)

The following is a quick and dirty history lesson on political cartoonist, Joseph Keppler (1838-1894). My goal with each history lesson is to expose my readers, as well as myself, to other political cartoonists that have gone before, and perhaps pique interest in their work. I am by no means an expert.

Joseph Keppler was born in Vienna in 1838 and emigrated to the United States in 1867 where he joined his father in Missouri. Having received his training in Vienna, he quickly found success in the US developing a weekly German publication, Puck. He would also develop an English version of this magazine a year later, but for a long time, the English version kept alive only from the profits of the German publication.

Joseph Keppler worked in a lithographic style, and perfected the process of developing highly refined drawings within this medium.

The following list of links provides additional information on Joseph Keppler.

• A great on-line resource of Keppler’s political cartoons
• A Lesson Plan for Incorporating Political Cartoon History in the Classroom
• A Concise History of Joseph Keppler

Image: “As Natural As Life - Patching Up the Republican Jumbo for 1888″ This cartoon was published in response to the new Republican strategy after suffering defeat in 1884. Read More.

Blogger Bomb #2: And Real Work Came Crashing Down

Well, as you can see, real work shat on me.

As you might have guessed, this cartoonist also works a 40 hour work week and that work week just went to 50 hours, killing a bit of cartooning time.

No fun there.

Sorry readers.

Check back on Saturday for the first political cartoonist history lesson. And on Sunday for sports.

Until then, best web travels,

- IrishSpacemonk

P.S. Bill, I’m still mulling your idea…it’s just a bit of a tough one.

Nukes Fly Over Midwest, Air Force Rushes to Take Inventory

OK folks, I think I’m onto something here.

Let’s see, 6 nukes are flown from North Dakota to Louisiana. Since I’ve started this blog, I’ve not had a single visitor from North Dakota. Hmm…!

What I found most intriguing about this article…the rush by the Air Force to take inventory. Shouldn’t they know where every one is? How did we ever expect to find Saddam’s WMDs if we can’t track our own.

Oh well.

Hope you enjoy today’s cartoon.

P.S. If you’ve seen the movie, The Castle, then you’ll understand where I snatched the punchline for this cartoon.

UPDATE TO POST (September 23, 2007):

The Washington Post has a great article with details on exactly what happened that allowed 6 nuclear warheads to cross the U.S.

For those with annoyed when little details are wrong in a cartoon…the shadow is not exactly that of a B-52. I’ve never head a B-52 fly overhead at a point where I could photograph it’s shadow, bu I did look at a B-52 and tried to calculate how much the shadow would shrink based on how high up it was.

I also realize that an errant nuclear warhead is not likely to find itself accidentally dropped…but this is a cartoon. And the incident was very serious.

The Purge Is Working Condi! Exclaims George Bush

“You mean, surge, Mr. President.”

“Ah, yeah, right, surge. Did I say purge?”

“It’s no big deal really.”

“Purge surge. Surge purge. That’s kinda gotta funny ring to it.”

“Just as long as you keep it straight when we get off the plane in Sydney.”

Ah yes. Why not start with a fictitious exchange between George W Bush and Condoleezza Rice?

For the next few months both sides of the isle are going to be parroting the Pres. “The surge is working. The surge is working.” Each one a bitty bit afraid of standing up for what’s really going on.

Well, I’d say, the purge is proving more effective than the surge. In the last month 1800 Iraqis were killed. In the month prior, over 1800 again. This doesn’t even consider the number of Iraqis displaced, estimated at close to 4 million. And how many Iraqi’s have we welcomed in our outstretched arms of patina. Yes, less than 200…

So of course, the surge-purge is working.

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