Really, gang… all you need to know to understand this year’s State Of The Union is: ponies!

And, while I’m at it… am I the only one who watched the part of the speech where Obama gets all jazzed up about all the amazingly awesome fantastically innovative technological wonderfulness Americans have been capable of and thought for a moment that I was watching a segment of Oprah’s Favorite Things?

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At For Want Of A Nail: It’s Hard to Watch Your Speech When Our Power Has Been Disconnected, Sir…

Continue reading "SOTU 2011 Analysis: Ponies!" »

Happy New Year, gang, and it’s getting to be that time again — that time when every major politician who’s sociopathic enough to want to be El Presidente announces their intentions to run, kicking off the Presidential campaign season for the elections of 2012 — or, as any Democrat will tell you, The Most Important Election Since A Large Disk Of Dust And Proto-Planetary Matter Accumulated Around Our Sun.

This time, though, there’ll be a chance for all you betrayed, irate Lefties out there (or, “purists” and “whiners”, as The Most Progressive President Ever might refer to you) to get the jump on all the Liberal appeasers, Fauxgressives and other assorted Democratic Kool-Aid drinkers out there with this suitably cynical and ironic set of images mocking Shepard Fairey’s iconic 2008 “Hope” poster — available on T-shirts, stickers and fridge magnets, each in nine delicious flavors at the Cartoon Schwag Shop.

T-shirts, $25; 3×5″ stickers, single $4, 10-pack $30; 2×3″ fridge magnets, $5.

Downloadable images, 550 x 905 pixels, 72dpi jpeg:
“Aw, C’mon”, 44kb | “Whiners”, 48kb | “Purists”, 68kb | “Appease”, 68kb | “Centrism”, 64kb | “Pwned”, 68kb | “Compromise”, 64kb | “Caved”, 64kb | “Civility”, 52kb

Continue reading "It’s Schwagfest Time!" »

Sorry, gang; can’t help it. Sometimes a portrayal of a situation defies all subtlety and poetry, and forces me to “go Herblock” on it.

If you’ve been paying any attention to the news lately, you’ve probably heard all about the big CEO get-together up at Obummer’s Place, with all the attendant worried blather from the boss media chatterers about whether or not El Presidente is being seen as “pro-business” enough. Well, let’s see… there’s the bank bailouts, the health-insurance industry bailout (aka “Healthcare Reform”), the latest round of bailouts of the banking industry (aka “Financial Reform”) and, of course, the latest sellout to the rich in the form of the extension of tax cuts for the rich under the thin disguise of “tax cuts for all”. After all this, how could there be any doubt about how “pro-business” our Glorious Boy Emperor is? Seriously, the guy’s been pro-corporate since day one, and even before. What the hell are all these big shots on CNBC bitching about? He’s pretty much given them everything they want.

What I’ve enjoyed, though, is the defensive, pushed-button reactions of the White House and Democratic Party “leadership” every time any Progressives or Lefties call bullshit and point out how he’s sold out to corporations on every major issue; they go into the pre-programmed “compromise” rap and brand anyone who objects to “compromise” as an unreasonable zealot or “purist”. What Obummer fails to point out, however, is how all of his “historic reforms” are weak, watered-down half-measures at the very best, and how his “spirit of compromise” involves caving in to corporate interests at every opportunity, appeasing right-wing neofascists and wannabe theocrats, and colluding with the very same class of people who are responsible for the trouble this country’s in now. Y’know, if our side actually got something out of all this compromising, it might not be so bad, but we’ve gotten absolute zero.

So, if being appalled at crass opportunism, cowardice and hypocrisy makes me a “purist”, then, hell yeah, I’m a purist. If wanting an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the closure of Guantanamo and Bagram makes me a “purist”, then, hell, yeah. If wanting the control of the healthcare system taken away from corporations makes me a “purist”, then, hell, yeah. If wanting an end to warrantless spying and intimidation and the restoration of the Bill Of Rights makes me a “purist”, then, hell, yeah… just like Frederick Douglass was a “purist”, and Eugene Debs was a “purist”, and Emma Goldman, and Nelson Mandela, and Abbie Hoffman, and Bobby Seale.

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Continue reading "Uh Oh, It’s Herblock Channeling Time Again" »

Bite more, bark less, I always say.

If you’re like me, you’re probably at your wits’ end with the “civility” crowd. You know who they are, the people with stickers on the cars reading “choose civility” and “wag more, bark less”.

Do these people honestly believe that our reaction to the injustices, indignities and brutalities of the past decade should be in the manner of a UN bureaucrat drafting a resolution?

Are the corporations and the State being “civil” when they arrange for huge bailouts for themselves while the rest of us are scrambling for work or being thrown out of our homes? Is the State being “civil” when it seeks to cut back on Social Security benefits and raise the retirement age to 70 — essentially, working us to death? Is the State being “civil” when it strips away our Constitutional protection and basic dignity for the sake of cheap security theater at the airport? Is BP being “civil” by destroying ecosystems and livelihoods on the Gulf Coast and continuing to evade prosecution? Is the Democratic Party being “civil” when it panders to “progressive” constituencies in order to secure their votes, then spends the next two years publicly abusing and mocking them?

If you ask me, we need less “civility” and more people willing to organize and act on their own behalf instead of whining about how Liberal politicians are doing such a bad job of fighting their struggles for them, and how there’s so little “civility” these days. Take a tip from the British and the French. They’ve shut whole cities and countries down, with strikes and “incivility”. They’ve made their countries nearly ungovernable over issues — like corporatized healthcare and retirement “takebacks” — that make your average American shrug for a moment and go back to watching Top Chef. This is what needs to be happening here, instead of a bunch of Liberals bitching about “civility”.

Something else, too, that I found extra double-yum ironic about the Liberal “civility” crowd. If you — like me in ‘96, ‘00 and ‘04 — were or are a supporter of Ralph Nader and/or the Green Party, try this simple test on your average “civil” Liberal: bring up how hard the Democrats worked to prevent voters from having any real choice, and how the Democrats really lost the ‘00 election — and see how “civil” their reactions are.

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Continue reading "Whatever Happened to Civility?" »