Moral Clarity

The Devil Makes Work For American Idle Hands.

The Newshog

"Legal Plunder" by Tom Delay

political, cartoons, Political Cartoons, Satire, War, Middle East, Israel, Lebanon, Condi Rice, Condoleezza Rice, Rice, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld

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Joe Lieberman

Firedolake has the latest on the Lieberman /Lamont Senate primary race in Connecticut.


political, cartoons, Humor, Satire, Political Cartoons,ned lamont, Connecticut, Senate, Republicans, Joe Lieberman, Lieberman

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Stupid Quote of the Day

"If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America."

George W. Bush

White House Lost Their Minds

The White House doesn't know when to quit when they're behind.

U.S. citizens suspected of terror ties might be detained indefinitely and barred from access to civilian courts under legislation proposed by the Bush administration, say legal experts reviewing an early version of the bill.

A 32-page draft measure is intended to authorize the Pentagon's tribunal system, established shortly after the 2001 terrorist attacks to detain and prosecute detainees captured in the war on terror. The tribunal system was thrown out last month by the Supreme Court.

This will be declared unconstitutional faster than Guantanamo Bay. If foreigners have a right to U.S. courts then U.S. citizen certainly do. Americans are ignorants to the rights of outsiders. When it comes to themselves that is another story. The administration is dealing with resistance on the domestic wiretaps. I doubt a president with a low approval rating can sell this convincingly to Americans.

Hat tip to Shakes.

Conpassionate Conservatism: Paris Hilton Edition

A Republican-sponsored bill just passed the House. Part of the bill is to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25. Republicans aren't even trying to hide their lack of enthusiasm.

"Every principled conservative knows this is horrible stuff," Rep. Tom Feeney (R-Fla.) said.

Why exactly is this a bad thing? It's been nine years since the mimimum wage last went up. The Republican talking point that raising the minimum wage will create unemployment is a myth. Florida raised the minimum wage and is experiencing low unemployment. In 1997, national unemployment fell and 3 million jobs were created. Bush did not raise the minimum wage during the first term. He did create the least amount of new jobs of any President in recent history.

Why then are Republicans backing a bill to raise minimum wage? The answers are twofold. The first being GOP House members are scared of facing the wrath of voters. The second is the bill contains the Trojan Horse of permanent abolishing the estate tax. Republicans don't care about below-poverty workers, but do they have a mad on for helping those who pass along estates worth over $1,000,000. (AKA the Paris Hilton tax.)

This is the same sneaky tactic the White House used to pass the Orwellian-named Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act. The legislation did nothing for job growth and a great deal for cutting capital gains taxes. Which ending up helping to crreate the deficit.

Kevin Drum has an excellent chart on "stagflation." Basically, economic growth has still and inflation is setting in.

Update: Kenneth Quinnel has a post that backs up my minimum wage and unemployment assessment.

Quote of the Day

"I was a Republican until they lost their minds."

Charles Barkley

Ohh, It Makes Me Wonder

The most hysterical reason I heard of not holding a protest. Making the signs would take too much time. The protesters in question are the Florida Cannabis Action Network. The target of their bong-filled ire was Katherine Harris. Until the organization's leader Anthony Lorenzo realized, "She's only going to be around for another six months anyway."

Who doesn't know that Harris' campaign is dead? The White House is going out of their way to keep her out of photos with Bush.

Happy Meal

political, cartoons, political cartoons, Satire, War, Iraq, Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Last Throes, Dead Enders, McDonalds, Mayor McCheese

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Class-Size Does Matter

The St. Petersburg Times has a great article of how high schools in the Inverness area are facing record-breaking enrollment. Which makes Jeb Bush's efforts to scale back the class-size amendment all the more maddening. Bush is more brighter than his brothers George and Neil. Does Jeb realize how wrong he was on class-size. If he does then why go to such great lengths to repell the amendment? Now that's a scary question.

This goes beyond ideology. If anyone doubts that Bush will someday run for president need look no further than his education policies. Florida's K-12 program continues to be a national joke. It's also no coincidence that the Religious Right loves it. Jeb supports vouchers (which wouldn't solve overcrowding) and denounce evolution as a "theory" that he does not accept. His signing of Terri's Law was more red meat to Christian conservatives.

Both Terri's Law and class-size have been losers for Jeb. This is a matter of politics deciding the policy. Not the other way around.

Ann Coulter Really Wants to Sell Books

Ann Coulter accuses Bill Clinton of being a gay man. Her reasoning is that Clinton has had sex with several women. I wonder what she thinks about Andrew Sullivan's sexuality.

Crist Fundraisers In Trouble

Charlie Crist's fundraisers have a habit of getting in trouble. The first being O'Neil Dozier.

Last week, he characterized Islam as ''cult'' and ''a dangerous religion'' on a radio show -- remarks that cost him a political appointment. On Tuesday night, he echoed that sentiment.

''We feel this way because we know our country was attacked on 9/11 and is still threatened by radical Islamic terrorists,'' Dozier told the commissioners.

You may remember that Dozier said that God told him that Charlie Christ will be the next governor. Dozier was forced by Jeb Bush to resign from the Judicial Nominating Commission. The question is why did Bush ever appoint this wingnut to begin with. Was it because of Dozier's passion for Jesus or the huge sums of money that he raised for the Florida Republican Party? I wonder.

The second Crist fundraiser to fall on hard times is Sergio Pino. He is under grand jury investigation over the Grand Bay delelopment project. He also pulled a play out of the Mitchell Wade playbook.

In a separate matter, the Miami Daily Business Review reported last week that it had obtained corporate bank records showing that Pino’s companies may have reimbursed $29,500 to 59 contributors to Gov. Jeb Bush’s 2002 re-election campaign. It is a violation of Florida election laws for a person to make a donation in another person’s name.

Crist publicly stuck by Pino. Democrats should make him pay for that folly.

Tom Gallagher's Education Commercial

Kevin Begos fact-checks the shit out of Tom Gallagher's latest campaign commercial. Personally, if I was Tom I wouldn't brag about having a hand in a educational system that got an F for science in 2005.

The scariest tidbit the Fordham Institute found wrong with the way Florida teaches science.

The institute took Florida to task for a "prevalence of errors in fact and presentation" in some subject areas. Example: Florida's standards say a second-grader should know "a thermometer measures the amount of heat absorbed by an object."

"This is careless and false: a thermometer measures temperature, or better, changes in temperature, not the amount of heat absorbed," the report says. "We hope that any second-grade teacher who cannot distinguish between heat and temperature will not pass this disability on to the students."

Apparently, Jeb Bush's education appointees are confusing a thermometer with a turkey baster. Keep on bragging, Tom.

Needles And Haystacks

Airline passengers are being entered into a potential threat database base. The reason is the Department of Homeland Security wants federal air marshalls to meet a monthly quota.

"Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft ... and they did nothing wrong," said one federal air marshal.

These unknowing passengers who are doing nothing wrong are landing in a secret government document called a Surveillance Detection Report, or SDR. Air marshals told 7NEWS that managers in Las Vegas created and continue to maintain this potentially dangerous quota system.

"Do these reports have real life impacts on the people who are identified as potential terrorists?" 7NEWS Investigator Tony Kovaleski asked.

Besides the obvious problem of civil liberties being violated - the quota is needlessly filling the database with nonthreats. Former Deputy Sec of Defense John J. Hamre summed it up best.

Using the metaphor "finding the needle in the haystack," since September 11 government agencies have been basically adding more hay to the pile, not finding needles. Finding the needles requires that we undertake more focused, rigorous and thoughtful domestic intelligence collection and analysis not collect mountains of information on innocent civilians.

Tony Snow

Next month, "Syria is the NEW Lebanon!"


political, cartoons, political cartoons, Satire, Tony Snow, FOX News, White House, Bush, War, Middle East

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If You Buy This You Are A Brainless Loser

This has to be the tackiest thing I have seen in ages.

Cat Power

Why can't I get hit on by Cat Power? (AKA Chan Marshall.) It might be because I'm not a girl.

Brad Swanson's Dirty Tactics

Brad Swanson is running a nasty letter campaign against Rose Ferlita.

"Our party is littered with these liberals," one flier says. "It's time to put a stop to it - and we can start with our local races."

Who knew the Republican party was one big tree-hugging ACLU convention? Swanson also accuses Ferlita of supporting higher taxes. Swanson's ammo is that Ferlita voted for the city's budget each year while she was on City Council. Certain taxes do go up to pay for things like schools, police, EMS, and other important functions. It's called inflation. Swanson might want to take an economics class sometime.

Swanson brings out the big guns.

"She repeatedly votes in favor of the gay agenda," Swanson said. "It is her responsibility to explain to the voters why at every turn she pushes the gay agenda and every vote opportunity she supports it."

Pop quiz? How many times have you heard a Republican say "gay agenda"? I swear these people read from the same playbook. Fertila responded, "I am not going to discriminate against anybody." Good for her for not being bullied. Especially, since she's a Republican. The "gay agenda" crap will only work if candidates don't fight back.

When Freepers Fight

It seems that the North Carolina anti-cohabitation law being ruled constitutional (not to mention unenforcable) as set the Freepers against each other. Mainly, the Freepers who live with their girlfriends Vs Freepers who live with their moms. Pandagan has the greatest hits from the feeding frenzy.

Neocon Dreamin'

Via Sinequanon. I already know that this plan will fail before the Condi's pitches it to our European allies.

On an unannounced trip to ravaged Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice outlined a plan Monday to deploy an international force, possibly led by NATO, in a buffer zone just inside Lebanon for 60 to 90 days, after which it would expand its mission to help the Lebanese army regain control of the south, Lebanese and U.S. officials said.

Remember, what Bush said of countries that didn't follow his lead unwaveringly...

"Over time it's going to be important for nations to know they will be held accountable for inactivity," he said. "You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."

This is a White House with no chips to cash in. This White House ignores recent history. Lebanon was one of Ronald Reagan's biggest failures. The words certainly sound the same.

Ronald Reagan on Sept 20, 1982: "... enabling the Lebanese Government to resume full sovereignty over its capital." and "... "not to act as a police force, but to make it possible for the lawful authorities of Lebanon to do so themselves."

We hear that now in Iraq. The neoconservatives have denied for so long that they center America's national security policy on Israel. Why aren't the neocons within and out of the White House telling Bush to avoid Reagan's mistake? The reason is The movement was founded by liberal Jews. (Lieberman fits into the modern movement.) The White House refuses to call for a seize-fire.

Jewish neoconservatives are entitled to be be concerned about the Motherland. That does not give them the right the endanger American lives to further Israel's security interests Especially, when they run counter to the United State's. Richard Perle was in the Reagan admistration when 241 American servicemen were killed during an attack. Perle is still a strong advocate of U.S. force in Lebanon. He isn't worried about the lost of life to U.S. military personal. Just ask Tom Clancy.

Tom Clancy told CNN news of a prewar encounter he had with Pentagon adviser Richard Perle who was one of the main cheerleaders for this invasion of Iraq . He said he almost “came to blows” with Richard Perle who as calling Colin Powell a wuss because “he was overly concerned with the lives of the troops.”

Clancy replied. 'And I said, 'Look ..., he's supposed to think that way!' And Perle didn't agree with me on that. People like that worry me.'"

People like that concern me, too.

Warrantless Tom

Holy shit. Tom Gallagher is advocating that Florida law enforcement officers shouldn't need a warrant to make arrest.

1. Give Florida law enforcement officers the power to arrest and detain those who have violated federal immigration law. Florida law currently does not allow state and local law enforcement personnel to make warrantless arrests for violations of federal immigration law. This must be changed. State and local police should have the authority to address immigration violations that they come across in the course of their normal duties. For example, if a state or local policeman reasonably believes that a person has violated federal immigration law, Florida law should allow the officer to detain that person and give federal officials the opportunity to take him into custody.

To be clear, state and local law enforcement should not be required to enforce federal immigration law—whether to do so involves their discretion and assessment of how best to use their resources. Nor should state and local officials seek to displace federal officials as the primary enforcers of immigration law. Rather, this proposal is based on the commonsense notion that state and local police should have the full legal authority they need to protect our people and to uphold the rule of law.

In the world according to Tom Gallagher, Florida law enforcement should not be "required" to enforce immigration law. Then why should these same law enforcement officers be given the power to make unwarranted arrest? I fail to believe that Gallagher actually takes the issue seriously. If law enforcement see a potential immigration they can legally use probable cause. The exceptions would be entering a house. Police would just wait ouside until the warrant arrived.

Unwarranted searches have been a political loser for Bush. Gallagher really has a politically tin ear if he thinks this is going to help him become Governor in a state with a growing Hispanic voting base.

Lieberman In Trouble

Joe Lieberman has been staging Bush-style campaign rallies. If you are not a true believer then you will not be admitted. Even if you have a ticket and are a registered Democrat.



There is also the hysterical Lieberman and Barbara Boxer visit to a closed candy store. Only the press were infomed about this appearance. So much for meeting the people. Why, Barbara, why?



You can make a difference by donating to Ned Lamont. A recent Quinnipiac University poll found Lamont leading Lieberman 51 percent to 47 percent. Joe better keep collecting those signatures for an independent.

Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy

Progressives hate Rush Limbaugh. I love the guy. He provides bloggers like me with so much great comedy material. Check out this gem from his radio show.

There's something else going on here. There is a shadow government out there, Len. There's a shadow government going on out there that's doing its best to sabotage everything that we're doing. The one mistake that Bush -- well, the one mistake -- one of the mistakes Bush made was the new tone, when he assumed office. He didn't clean out the Clintonoids in some of these positions at the Pentagon and at the State Department, and the CIA, and they've been free to leak all this gobbledygook war plans and what have you.

People who mention shadow governments watch too many reruns of X-Files. The Wikipedia entry notes that shadow governments have been mentioned in FICTIONAL works involving the Antichrist, experiments on people, the Illuminati, and soul-harvesting. It's nice to know Rush is becoming the right-wing version of Oliver Stone.

Quote Of the Day

Courtesy of Condoleezza Rice. This is is her thoughts on the current Israel/Lebanon conflict.

What we're seeing here is, in a sense, the growing—the birth pangs of a new Middle East, and whatever we do, we have to be certain that we're pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old Middle East.

Condi describes an escalating war like it is a pregnancy. That is hardly an apt analogy. A pregnancy brings life into the world. War takes life away. What she views as growing pains is seen by the rest of the world as mass chaos. What is not surprising is Condi views all this as progress. Iraq is part of the "new Middle East" Rice speaks of. We have all seen how well that has gone.

Doctor Condi Rice

Bad Actor Update from The Heretik

The Satirical Political Report, regarding Bill Clinton's campaigning for Lieberman.

Zenyenta on the Compassionate Conservatives in Las Vegas.


political, cartoons, political cartoons, Condi Rice, parody, satire, television, T.V., commercials, Lebanon, Israel, Middle East

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Ariel Sharon...

...or A Real Sharon?





Welcome to the Freak Show.“…the conflagration both broke out and instantly became so fierce
and so rapid from the wind that it seized in its grasp the entire length of the circus..”

Tacitus, Annals XV, 38


The Newshog is thinking like a true martial artist.

political, cartoons, political cartoons, Bush, Condi Rice, Condoleezza Rice,David Bromberg, parody, satire, Lebanon, Israel, War on Terror, circus, freak show

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Bill Maher On the Henry Rollins Show

Here is a great back and forth discussion between Bill Maher and Henry Rollins.

Milhous Fillmore in Veto For Titilation

PRESIDENTIAL DAILY BRIEFING: BIN LADEN DETERMINED TO ATTACK DISCARDED BLASTOCYSTS FORMED IN THE U.S. AFTER AUGUST 8, 2001









political, cartoons, political cartoons, Mallard Fillmore, parody, satire, Bush, Right Wing, Stem Cell, Veto, Snowflake babies, Death Penalty, Capital Punishment, Hypocrisy

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Pro-Spleen Wisdom

Lots of people with political blogs get nasty comments, either directly in comments sections,or in emails. "So Long And Thanks For All The Frisch"? "So Long And Thanks For All The Hits" is more likely. Ban commenters and emailers, delete comments and emails. That would be the most expeditious way to deal with offensive remarks, and if the comments wander into the " dangerous threat zone", by all means, call the cops! But these remedies don't generate blog traffic, do they?

Toon in next week, same MoonBatGirl Time, Same MoonBatGirl Channel!


political, political cartoons, cartoons, satire, parody, Right Wing, Republicans, Politics, blogs, Malkin,Pro-Spleen Wisdom, Protein Wisdom

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War on Terror

Blonde Sense with the background story on the Petting Zoo Conspiracy!

Meanwhile, Ron continues working on the Coulter Plagiarism Story, Virushead wonders why the Department of Defense is reading her blog, The Heretik sheds some light on The Black Heart, Black Hunters, Preemptive Karma writes about the Military training the next Timothy McVeigh , and Tom Burka has a funny piece about the Republican Budget process.

political, political cartoons, cartoons, Bush, Terrorism, Homeland Security, War on Terror

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I'm Not Dead

Sine.Qua.Non sent me an email wondering why I disappeared from the internet. The reason is a have been rather busy. I don't like doing the Instapundit/Atrios one word link posts. I like to have time to write indepth about issues. I'm not a big fan of constant quicky posts. Links by themselves don't count as writing. Posts should contain concise information and be fact-checked. If I don't have the time to do that then I would rather not blog.

I don't make a living off blogging like the A-list bloggers. So posting every 15 minutes would only dilute the quality of the blog.

My absense was poorly-timed. The blog was starting to get link to sites like Raw Story and Media Matters. I certainly didn't intend to stop posting. Life often has other plans.

Piper at The Gates Of Dawn

Alone on the blogs all Blue?
Spying from High on down
Yippee! You can't see me,
But I can you!

Lazing in the frogmarch doom
shitting on you, forlorn,
No Fair! You can't hear me,
But I can you!

Watching Fox News shtup the lie
Sheep believe the Dandy Lyin'

Too much, I won't touch you,
But then I lie!

Streaming through the internet sky,
Traveling by telephone wire,
Hey ho, Here we go!
Ever so The Liar...

Alone with your spyware tool,
I'm lacing up my Brown Shoe...
Yippee! You can't see me,
But I can You!
R.I.P Syd Barrett

political, political cartoons, cartoons, Bush, Syd Barrett, Pink Floyd, NSA, wiretapping

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Republistiltspin:Spinning Strawmen Into Gold

....The country is so far into debt, Republistiltspin is going to need not only your first born, but your first born's first born as well, if the debt is ever to be paid off. So, there's one cartoon idea I haven't had time to draw yet.It was inspired by The Reverend Scott at Republispin, also of Me4President2008 fame.








I haven't been posting much lately. This is a rubbing of a Mardi Gras Medallion. I found it back in 1996 amongst the oyster shells and weeds down on Napoleon when I was visiting Nate and Clemma on the tail end of the G.Love in The King's Court tour that ended at Tipitina's. The cartoon chakra is slightly closed, and my energies have been elsewhere. Sometimes I'll get an idea, but I don't have the time or energy to follow through. For instance, Jeff Goldspleen fancied himself a poet! sometime last week or so. I was going to do a Goldspeen Wisdom post where he thinks he's Jim Morrison. I was going to call it "An American Brayer". Brayer with a "B", as in the harsh cry of an ass!

Blogs in rhyme
and out of season
the rightwinger stood
by the lie that he told
and leveled his numb,
calm calculus,
"Treason!"

Lament for my cock
sore and crucified
I seek to blog about you...
Powerline player,
ancient liberal hater,
sing your ode to my cock.
caress its lament,
stiffen and guide us, we frozen.
All join now and lament for the death of my cock.
A tongue of knowledge and feathered blight.
Blogs get crazy in the head and suffer,
I sacrifice my cock on the altar of silence.

This stuff practically writes itself.If only it would draw itself...More proof that conservatives are crazy, Goldspleen would probably think it was an "homage". Now, if he would just sacrifice his Blog on the altar of silence

So, here's how I get the cartoon chakra open...





Zippy the Pinhead always helps get the mind flowing. Here's one from 2000





Shortly after Bush went to Graceland with the Japanese Prime Minister, I found a cassette tape of Paul Simon's album, "Graceland", for 25 cents at the library's used book sale.The muse beckons... The first song is called "The Boy In The Bubble"!

It was a slow day
and the sun was beating
on the soldiers by the side of the road
There was a bright light
a shattering of shop windows
The Bomb in the baby carriage
was wired to the radio...

Staccato signals of constant information
A loose affiliation of millionaires and billionaires...

I need a photo-opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don't want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard
Bonedigger Bonedigger...

If You be my bodyguard
I can be your long lost pal
I can call you Condi
And Condi when you call me
You can call me Al!

The Cartoon Chakra says there's a cartoon in there somewhere. Now if I wasn't so busy making cider from the ancient summer apple tree in the backyard, maybe it will get done right after the Republistiltspin and American Brayer cartoons.Diamonds on the soles of Ken Lay's Shoes,baby...

Meanwhile, Steve Lafler and Steve Beaupre just came out with a great comic book, "40 Hour Man"!





political, political cartoons, cartoons, Bush, The Doors, Jim Morrison, Paul Simon, Graceland, comic books, Comics, G. Love, G. Love and Special Sauce, New Orleans, Chakra

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