Political Deja Vu

The Bush years are starting over, even before they’ve ended. Watching Tucker Bounds, I’m reminded of the incompetent doofus, and how easily Rove twisted former Bush spokesperson, Scott McClellan, into spewing lies to the public.

Does the McCain campaign really think the American public is stupid enough to buy this story that Sarah Palin has foreign policy experience because she was “Commander-in-Chief” of the national guard?

It should be pointed out that at the end of this video, Tucker Knows-no-Bounds says she commands the Alaska National Guard. It’s been confirmed by Maj. Gen. Craig Campbell, that the Governor only commands the Alaska National Guard in times of natural disasters and other state emergencies. All national deployments are under the direction of the President of the United States. The only natural disaster that they’ve been deployed for are wildfires.

For some reason I’m getting this feeling that I’m being pushed a bogus story by a campaign desperate to twist the story in their favor, but looking only the more foolish for having done so.

What do you think?

Kathleen Parker, Smearest of Them All

A Soft Focused Smear Tactician from the Right

Kathleen Parker has an opinion piece over at the Washington Post that hits Obama hard on his abortion stance. As normally is the case, I have to do a Google search to find out that Kathleen Parker is a right-wing smear tactician disguised beneath the title “Syndicated Columnist”. Take the google search farther, and you get yourself a nice, soft-focused head-shot of the Rove diva herself. (I’ve reprinted it with a bit more soft focus since I didn’t have permission from the Washington Post.)

My contention with Kathleen Parker and the Washington Post is how she’s presented. The Washington Post has typically been a paper that is balanced, if not a bit more liberal. Why is this slime’s words being reprinted as a “balanced” opinion? I have no idea.

Fair and Balanced Assessment?

Of her supposed fair assessment of Barack’s abortion stance:

It is probably fair to say that Obama does not favor infanticide, though his position on the Illinois bill was extreme even by pro-choice standards. But Obama’s current problem isn’t really about his position on abortion. It is about his central weakness as a presidential candidate: He over thinks and ends up seeming not to know what he thinks.

She takes a nuanced stance on abortion, a difficult issue to reconcile by anyone except by the far-right, and applies it to Obama’s candidacy as a whole. She confuses “over thinking” with balance, “not-knowing” with empathy and listening, as if a President has to be rigid and settle on their own rightness, without considering other perspectives.

George W Bush Fascination Explained

This explains why Republicans elected George W Bush twice despite a failed war. It also explains why a candidate such as John McCain has remade himself into a persona he doesn’t even recognize. No wonder he’s acting like he’s lost.

UPDATE SEPTEMBER 25 2008: I feel like I should correct my statement a little bit against Kathleen Parker. I’m a fair person, and I normally don’t agree with Conservative commentators very often, but Kathleen wrote today, suggestion Palin should resign. I agree with this. Mark one up for Kathleen Parker.

UPDATE OCTOBER 14 2008: So now I feel like this entire post has been repudiated and I have a new respect for Kathleen Parker. So this post has been struck.

McCain Needs Bush…Kept Secret

This last week Bush did some fund raising for McCain (since it appears McCain isn’t a prolific fundraiser on his own).  The only caveat…Bush had to be kept out of the media limelight, as McCain, does not want anyone to connect a Bush 3rd term with McCain’s only 4 years to make history. That’s a problem though, because the only thing McCain really can stand on is the Iraq war, the surge, and his military experience. And Bush knows McCain is the only one who’s going to give his tarnished legacy any hope of possibly turning out different…as long as he has at least 100 years.

Shout from the Couch: Podcast: Episode 1

Well, here’s my second podcast. I decided to give my podcast a title. Shout from the Couch was an idea I had a while back for a politically-themed graphic novel, but now I’m thinking an audio podcast is more appropriate. Basically it’s me, hashing and remixing my dialogue with the media. I do this all the time when I watch TV (and now YouTube) and I’m sure you all do as well. So here it is.

As for cartooning, I’m also going to get back to drawing political cartoons, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with this (and it’s also giving me practice for my eventual goal of producing animations). Plus isn’t that the whole point of blogging? To have fun, and to of course contribute in some way to the enormous amount of user generated content that flows out into the pixel-ether.

Here’s a run down of this episode.

• Obama Takes a Vacation and CNN Captures “Exclusive” video
• George HW Bush and George Bush Speeches Overlay-ed to commemorate the 4000 US soldiers killed in Iraq
• Hillary and the Sniper Gaff Part II (She’d leave Obama’s Church, but Stays with Bill???)
• Top 10 Reasons to Not Be a McCain Republican

And I want to give some thanks to soundsnap.com for the great selection of free MP3 sounds available for download.

There you have it. Thanks for listening.

Note: This podcast is part of a slow evolution of Irish Spacemonk as a character. The reason I point this out, is because Irish Spacemonk is a space monkey lost in orbit. He floats around with his cadre of mice and watches the earth spin. He’s based loosely on the real character of Gordo, who on his last mission was lost at sea. Irish Spacemonk was launched on a similar mission, however on his return, his capsule was picked up by a British cargo shop, and eventually the chimp to be known as IrishSpacemonk was delivered to an Irish monastery for an undisclosed about of money…yeah I know a stretch but I had to get him to Ireland somehow.

By the way, it looks like 2008 might be the summer of Space Monkey’s as there’s a new animated film coming out. Pretty exciting.

Bush Lays Out the Foundation for Peace, One Body at a Time

Yesterday, Bush stated in an address, that the 4,000 deaths in Iraq have laid the foundation for peace.

The Blood Tag: 4,000 US dead. Nearly 30,000 US wounded.

The Treasure Tag: $500,000,000,000 USD and counting.

The Collateral Tag: 82,000 Iraqis and counting

That’s all I’m going to say.

Bush and Cheney Bury Nations Blood and Treasure

A lot has happened this week, including (insert surprise here) George Bush’s continued strategy to remain in Iraq until the end of his term, with a coordinated withdrawal of the “so called surge” troops right before the 2008 election.

When hasn’t this administration used terrorism and the Iraq War for political positioning?

Today’s cartoon was inspired by Martin Lewis on The Huffington Post (September 12, 2007).

Note: On the cartoon style this week - sorry, not as refined as my other ‘toons. I keep trying to get a drawing out everyday, but I continue to be slammed by other work.  Hope you enjoy either way.

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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