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 "Tsunami relief? Bah humbug - what about my inaugural!!" [c-470] I may have been out of step here as I believed that the inaugural for Jan 20, 2005, was paid for by the government, ie., the taxpayer, but I have been apprised at least some of the blingy and gaudy excess is donated by corporate fat cats, etc. Nevertheless, when I drew this the administration had offered less money for the Indonesian tsunami relief than it had allocated to its four day inaugural binge, so this was my reaction to that reality. Drawn amid the Christmas hoopla, I felt a play on old Mr. Scrooge's niggardly reputation wasn't too far afield metaphorically.   Seal of the New Reality in American Politics - [c-452] Just like old Rip Van Winkle who awoke in a daze, it would seem as if them poor misguided donkeycrats have been asleep for twenty years too. Everything they do, think, or hope for is mocked, diminished, ridiculed, demeaned, degraded and hooted off the stage. The left is badly in need of intensive care. Maybe even a brain transplant. Goodness knows, the Democratic National Committee certainly is. In the meantime, the Great American Eagle --soaring on one wing -- is doing just fine, thanks.  The Dynamic Duo comes to the Rescue! - [c - 471] Slow to wake up and slower to respond, W. Bush and Co. finally got on the stick and joined the rest of the world in attempting to mitigate some of the unthinkable horror resulting from the tsunami in Indonesia. On top of the aid package of $350 million the administration was shamed into ponying up, Bush the Younger hoodwinked two ex-presidents, his Poppy, Bush the Elder (#41), and Bill Clinton (#42), into acting as figureheads in heading up a relief effort. To what value these two Big Names will add is moot at this point, but their socking it to Katsushika Hokusai's famous wave is at least a start.  Square peg [c-466] What more is there to say? Doesn’t look like a great fit -- even the guy in charge seems a bit nonplussed...  "I Know it works! Fix it anyway!" - [c - 472] The old saw “if it ain't broke, don't fix it” would seem to obtain in the case of Social Security, but apparently not for the Bush brigade. I am reminded of an old "New Yorker" cartoon by George Booth: as I recall the cartoon’s venue was the outside of an old junk shop and a sign over the door says, "If it ain't broke, break it" -- the quintessence, in my opinion, that underlies everything the Bush League does.  Beating the drum again [c-465] Even though the votes were still being manufactured from the 2004 election, the newly “elected” president was already floating the idea of Iran’s nuclear hoard as unacceptable to Mr. World Cop. The implications couldn’t have been clearer: it’s never too early to consider war. But since the U.S. is broke, maybe we’ll be spared yet another colossus of ineptitude; one disastrous war at a time seems ample enough.  The Birth of Trouble - [c-474] We’re all born all innocent, of course, but all too soon thereafter degenerate into trouble, some of us into more trouble than others, and some even into lots and lots of trouble. Considering the multitude of hells George W. Bush has spawned, I felt he epitomizes the ultimate in Big Time Trouble: just imagine how many people wouldn’t have been killed, murdered, injured, tortured, orphaned or made homeless if his daddy had only -- only! -- left him strutting around Crawford instead...  The New Republican Elephant -- [c-463] The nation got a new emperor and they are elephants. And the elephants if not already comfortably ensconced in all three branches of the national government, will likely be shortly. This extreme takeover doesn’t necessarily imply a New Fascism is emerging, but the tea leaves look suspiciously ominous. To be on the safe side, better fasten your seatbelts.  “And what have you given us, Dr. Franklin?” -- [c-439] In the 228 years since it was ostensibly muttered, Ben’s famous retort, “A republic, madam, if you can keep it,” was seldom so timely, urgent and necessary a reminder to the citizenry than at the present. I decided to have the good doctor enumerate a few of the salient forces currently at work undermining the republic. P.S. When I drew (wrote) this cartoon, the likelihood of John Ashcroft resigning seemed impossible. It still does, but the Lord moves in mysterious ways.  Missing from America [c-215] I wrote (drew) this milk carton cartoon after Bush the Terrible had been occupying the White House for over two years. To me it was a summation of the devastation we were experiencing in a rapidly changing America, not all but much of which having been perpetrated on a hapless citizenry by a heartless, self-serving -- and mega-corporate-serving -- bunch of radical madmen. They were raping America -- the good America, the little-guy America -- by tax cuts that drained the treasury from funding vital services, by pigging out on defense spending, by shipping jobs overseas, by passing fear-inspired legislation undermining our constitutionally guaranteed bill of rights (such as the outrageously unconstitutional USA ‘PATRIOT’ Act) -- the list goes on and on. Like the helpless and incredulous witnessing a rampaging storm, we the can only look on in horror and remorse. This is one of my favorite drawings. I keep a copy pinned up on my studio wall, as a reminder of the mammoth cultural upheavals I’m living through (not that I could ever forget them, but age plays funny tricks on us all). If any of the categories are ever “found” in my lifetime, I promise I’ll run a milk-carton retraction, and joyously so. But don’t hold your breath. I’m certainly not holding mine.  Bush's Improving Economy [c-444] Hoover redux, anyone? Unfortunately, all the spin in the world doesn't help the three (3) million jobs lost during the Bush administration.  "See how safe I made you!!" [c-403] The neorad’s constant refrain, that we’re all now safer with Saddam in a pokey somewhere, pushes logic right off the cliff and into the drink. But Americans, it seems, would rather wave the flag than question why they’re waving it. Safer? Our attacking yet another Arab nation only acted as a clarion call for Osama’s anti-American jihad, that's all... Oh well, maybe the Pentagon can write off our Al Qaeda recruiting efforts as a business expense.  Demagoguery Leading the People - [c-196] Demagoguery is to Bush the Younger as water is to a fish, and his handlers were quick to capitalize on the tremendous smoke screen this pose offered immediately after 9/11. Four years later he clings tenaciously to a mantle of “War President” as a ploy to deflect as much criticism as possible on his inept and and frighteningly regressive legislation during an election year, and of course to taint his adversaries as unpatriotic. The irony is apparently lost on him that the very war he both started unnecessarily and presides over so arrogantly he has done such a colossal job of botching.  You'll love 'em pal - [c-xx] As the buying of Congress has become more and more commonplace, We the People have been more and more marginalized from the political process. About all We the People (a.k.a. We the Schmucks) are good for now is to provide the leg work for the corporations; since corporations can’t vote -- not yet, anyway -- it’s you and I who still have to hump it down to the local school gymnasium every couple of years to put their surrogates in office. (N.B. Location of original unknown -- gone missing. Only copies are available of this drawing.)  Uncle Sam shooting up - [c-163] Despite all the flag-waving and super-patriotic rhetoric being pumped out by the White House for going to war, the undergovernment had less publically articulated reasons for the control of the Middle East.  Ready, Aim, Fire - [c-405] Dubya hit the bull's-eye, OK... only trouble was it was the WRONG bull's-eye...  Fifty years of Progress in Civil Defense - [c-288] The ability of our elected officials to protect the citizenry from the horrors of nuclear threats hasn’t changed much in the past fifty years. Boneheaded incompetence seems pretty well entrenched.  "Sorry, Kid..." - [c-272] True to form with just about everything this so-called president touches and hypes as populist fare, his “tax cut” was anything but. It further sunk America’s down-and-outers in their helpless and hopeless economic quagmire while shoveling yet more excesses to the more than comfortable Haves. In the process Bush the Compassionate seemed to have all but altered St. Nicholas’ final salutation by Clement Moore, more or less alluded to here: “But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, Happy Christmas to the few, and to the few a good night.” Please note: This image also available as a Christmas card.  Ship of State -- [c-156] Karl Rove -- hornswoggler extraordinaire -- is much more widely known as the Svengali Karl Rove -- hornswoggler extraordinaire -- is much more widely known as the Svengali behind the Bush throne than he was when I did this cartoon. As con artists go, this guy is a master. At the time we published him sailing the Ship of State toward the rocks (1 September 2001 -- 9/11 was still waiting in the wings) many of us were only dimly aware the colossal influence this largely hidden man wielded over the entire Bush administration. Every day since, though, most of us can all too clearly discern his handiwork. The finger prints of The Karl are ever present. Few administrations have been more relentlessly or transparently political. Nor have they been so highly successful at lying, spinning, and deceiving -- pretty much all thanks to the machinations of Karl Rove & Co. Image, image, image is what obtains with this bunch of bamboozlers -- be it saluting from the door of Air Force One, posturing with the giants of Mt. Rushmore, or swaggering in a flight suit (at a cost to We the Schmucks of $1 million) on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. Substance is largely irrelevant to the Bush league.  "So I says, why shouldn't I have a profit margin like Merck and Pfizer?..." [c-447] One of the more obvious scams perpetrated on We the Schmucks is the unconscionable high prices of prescription drugs. Joe here is only following in the great American capitalist tradition of the Big Boys, which is to say, screwing anybody he can.  Latest Greed-Deriven Merger - [c-44] The corporate monsters just keep multiplying and growing more dominant every day. The abandonment of any pretense to enforce the antimonopoly laws in the books, if they’re even in the books any more, has created corporate colossi that have wiped out any semblance of economic fairness. The constant mind-numbing reiteration of “privatization” and “market driven forces” to justify these huge monopolistic giants inevitably rips off the consumer in whose name they exist, but in reality at whose expense corporate America ultimately flourishes. The terrified lady on the right who’s screaming “Run for your life” seems to be articulating some pretty sage advice. Too bad there is no place to run to.  Yawning Boy [c-404] David Letterman put Yawning Boy in the spotlight big time. 13-year old Tyler Crotty did his best to survive a W. Bush speech, but Tyler's gallant efforts to stave off sleep fell a bit short of success. His struggle was caught on camera and edited in such a way as to make an hysterically funny 30-second clip of poor Tyler constantly nodding off and almost collapsing from boredom. Few, of course, could blame him.  "Sure glad water runs downhill..." [c-421] The luckless enlisted schmucks didn't stand a chance. Ronald Dumbsfeld and the brass all harrumphed and feigned mock indignation; the Congress dutifully shook its collective finger; all the oh-so-humbled generals promised immediate internal investigations to root out the transgressors no matter how high up the chain of command this unconscionable breakdown of civilized soldering should lead. Of course nobody was fooled. The low life caught on video cameras were dead meat. End of story.  "Dear Santa..." [c-366] Needless to say this cartoon showed up in a Christmas issue, and even more needless to say, before John Ashcroft resigned. It is the kind of cartoon that is the most fun to write (draw). It’s silly enough to possibly evoke a smile but still carries a bit of a punch. The little kid seems to have her head on straight for one so young -- too bad there aren't more like her down in Washington during this dismal Troglodyte Era. | Return Home | How to buy stuff | Mea Culpa Dept. | Visit CARTOON GALLERY here | WATERCOLORS here | peruse CHRISTAMAS CARDS | Common questions (or even uncommon ones) | Contact Mike Here | links | special request Dept. | |
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