Aug 30, 2011

Word-Ception

Milt Priggee, 8/29/11:
Martin Luther King was in favor of peace, in case you had forgotten.

He has a new statue, too, which is presumably why this cartoon exists -- though it's basically just saying that nice things are nice, which is not the tough, principled stand we hope for from our political cartoonists.

Square Pegs

Henry Payne, 8/29/11:
Payne, one feels, is in favor of Bachmann, so one must wonder why he draws her so she can only fit in the derogatory hole that he's drawn for her.

Is he perhaps trying to imply that the media -- it's clear from this cartoon that he doesn't like the media, and perhaps has also forgotten that he is the media -- has formed Bachmann into this shape, so she can only fit in the square hole?

Aug 28, 2011

You Better Run

Kevin Kallaugher, 8/28/11:
Getting an important government job is difficult, and keeping it is just as difficult.

Perhaps Kallaugher sees this as a bad thing, and thinks it should be dead easy to become an MP or Congressman.

Aug 27, 2011

Two-Headed Janus

Rob Smith, Jr., 8/26/11:
All of those little people to the left are millionaires, since that's who Buffet said should pay more taxes.

And they made their money in the stock market, which is, Smith insists here, nothing more than gambling.

You can look for intellectual coherence here, if you like, but I don't think you'll find it.

Gotta Weed the Garden

Chuck Asay, 8/26/11:
If you let those dark-skinned people rule themselves, they'll just mess it up.

Installing heavy-handed dictators is for their own good, really!

Aug 26, 2011

Presenting Today's Obligatory Drive-By Insult

Paul Fell, 8/25/11:
When no other idea strikes him, the professional editorial cartoonist can always fall back on his old stand-by, the "that guy sucks" cartoon.

As Fell does here.

Aug 25, 2011

Hewn From the Living Rock

Daryl Cagle, 8/23/11:
There are two possibilities:

1) MLK was a filthy rotten Commie agitator.

2) His memorial does not look quite as much like him as one might like.

Courting the Post-Mortal Vote

Brian Adcock, 8/23/11:
It's nice to see that Chicago isn't the only big city where the deceased maintain their right to vote.

Deadlines Think Alike

Bob Gorrell and Nate Beeler, 8/24/11:

Once again, if a cartoon is obvious enough that one of your peers might be doing it at that exact same moment, you might want to take a few minutes to think up a different concept.

Aug 24, 2011

I Met a Man Upon the Stair

Kirk Anderson, 4/23/11:
Yes, that's right -- there are no rich people in the USA.

Income inequality has not increased, we don't have more billionaires now than ever before, and we certainly shouldn't pay any attention to the man behind the curtain.

Aug 23, 2011

Get It? "Honorable Member"?

Bill Leak, 8/15/11:

I do not know what this cartoon is about.

I do not want to know what this cartoon is about.

But I saw it, and now you have to see it as well.

(Leak is cartoonist for The Australian, so any Aussies who want to try to explain it should feel free.)

Labeled

Mike Peters, 8/19/11:
Given the headline, shouldn't those "union labels" look more punitive -- like footprints, perhaps?

Bare Larder Blues

Mike Lester, 8/18/11:
It's so true -- returning to the tax policies of the Clinton or Reagan years would be exactly like cannibalism!

To say nothing of the Communist tax policies of Eisenhower!

Aug 22, 2011

Job Creation? Hire Those Nice Little Dwarfs.

Randall Enos, 8/20/11:
Michelle Bachman's magic mirror is even more prone to non sequiturs than she is, which shouldn't surprise any of us.

Seriously: in what world is that exchange a coherent conversation?

The President Is Not a Potted Plant

Milt Priggee, 8/20/11:
Obama is in the teapot, which means...something.

He's been consumed by the Tea Party?

He enjoys a nice cuppa a bit too much?

He really needs to get out more?

Aug 21, 2011

One Monkey Don't Stop No Show

Joel Pett, 8/19/11:
Scientists already know everything, so any experiments are just wastes of time and money.

Bless This Mess

Mike Keefe, 8/18/:
Now that is one awfully lumpy stadium. I can definitely see why "Invesco" -- and is that a real name, anyway? it sounds like something Lex Luthor might run in the next Superman movie -- would want to run away from it before it starts falling down.

Aug 20, 2011

Bo Ate It

Rick McKee, 8/18/11:
You can just make the economy better -- by working hard enough at stuff that this margin is too small to contain -- and so not doing so is proof of laziness.

There's a New Lawman in This Town

Pat Bagley, 8/18/11:
Texas Governor Rick Perry -- whom Bagley, bucking the standard for editorial cartoons, courageously does not label (though his reporter does have a "Press" label in his hat) -- isn't just tough on real-world criminals, but he'll clean up the world of entertainment as well, executing all the varmints and villains he can get his hands on.

Aug 19, 2011

Slow Bus Movin'

Glenn McCoy, 8/18/11:
Obama secretly wants America to fail -- because, of course, he's a Marxist Kenyan sleeper agent for the Eighth International.

Aug 18, 2011

Investments With High-Yield Payloads

Drew Sheneman, 8/16/11:
Silly banker! You don't hunt zombies with nets! You have to use shotguns and flamethrowers!

Aug 17, 2011

In the Passing Lane

Tom Stiglich, 8/16/11:
What, exactly, is the blue car supposed to represent?

(Canada, maybe?)

Aug 15, 2011

If This Were a Real Editorial Cartoon, It Would Have Made an Actual Comparison by Now

John Sherffius, 8/12/11:
What do these two things have in common? Well, they're both large economies in trouble -- and that's enough, when Two Things Make a Cartoon.

Oh, the Humanity!

Glenn McCoy, 8/11/11:
It was so horrible! Wall Street bankers dragged from their trading desks and forcibly given huge bonuses! CEOs ripped from their boardrooms with massive golden parachutes!

Anarchy in the First Form

Ingrid Rice, 8/11/11:
There are infallible ways to tell which young people will cause "trouble," and only weakness keeps us from determining them ahead of time and keeping them from ever making a fuss.

Aug 11, 2011

The New Four Horsemen

Joel Pett, 8/10/11:
If anyone gets thrown under the bus, does anyone seriously think it will be old people -- who both vote and have a lot of free time on their hands to write letters and otherwise complain -- as opposed to, oh, poor people, who even Pett here caricatures as piggy-faced "Welfare"?

The Sick Man of America

Chuck Asay, 8/10/11:
That's right -- the economy would be just fine if we hadn't been mollycoddling it so much. It's like a kid in a '30s movie; it just needs to get the belt a couple of times, and then it'll learn what's good for it and get back to work!

Aug 10, 2011

Bat-war Is Hell

Randy Bish, 8/9/11:
Americans have a boundless capacity to be surprised by the fact that soldiers get killed during a war. Every single death comes as if a bolt out of the blue -- well, every death on our side, that is!

(By the way, Batman was dead last year. This year, it's the Human Torch.)

Cat's in the Cradle

John Auchter, 8/9/11:
The only thing that can possibly ruin the future is failing to read to your children!

So ignore politics, bury your head in the sand, and let your overlords get on with the serious work of running your life for you.

Aug 9, 2011

Mint in Package

Randy Bish, 8/8/11:
I can't be sure: is this an "Obama has ruined the economy with his Kenyan socialism" cartoon, or an "Obama is a budding dictator who will override the constitution to destroy white people like me" cartoon?


On the positive side, we can now be sure that Bish has discovered the channels on the upper end of his cable system.

Aug 8, 2011

Look at This Line-Up!

Jake Fuller, 8/5/11:
Sure, most people might not be able to find a connection between Our President's milestone birthday and the fact that length of unemployment is longer now than any time in recorded history, but Fuller is smarter than that.

He knows that any Two Things Make a Cartoon.

Hot Spell

John Deering, 8/5/2011:
Oh, snap! Poor ol' Obama's been bamboozled by that sneaky ice-cream man again! He keeps promising that the ice cream will stay in the cone this time, but it always falls on the sidewalk!

Mustache-Twirling In Our Time

Ann Cleaves, 8/5/11:
Cleaves is making a typically subtle and understated point about the loving relationship that America's bankers have with our communities.

TAMLC (Tortured Acronyms Make Lousy Cartoons)

Joe Heller, 8/6/11:
A) Because retirees had so much financial security after the '07-08 recession and associated crash.

B) Because retirees are stupid enough to have a substantial portion of their investments in stocks right now, when they're already retired and the market is this volatile.

C) Because no one who should be in the stock market now matters, only old people who should have their money in more stable instruments.

Schooled

Clay Jones, 8/4/11:
Remember: only right-wingers can call their opponents "terrorists."

Left-wingers get to call their opponents Nazis.

(Though note the special Limbaugh "Feminazi" codicil agreement, signed in 1994. In return, the lefties got the tech bubble and a budget surplus, though even that wasn't enough to get Gore elected.)

What's Going On In the First Panel, Anyway?

Chuck Asay, 8/6/11:
The US government, of course, has no place subsidizing transportation of any kind. That's why roads are entirely privatized and railroads have always had to pay for their rights-of-way.

Roasting Some Weenies

Henry Payne, 8/6/11:
The House GOP is really, truly devoted to cutting the budget this time -- unlike the last few decades, and every time they've controlled the whole apparatus of federal government -- and is in no way just using this as a cynical mallet to bash Obama with.

Really. They mean it this time.

Word-Association Game

Rob Smith, Jr., 8/5/11:
Remember: Tea Party members are generally young, happy people, despite anything you might have thought or seen.

Similarly, liberals love guns.

Or perhaps I should just note that Mr. Smith cartoons for The Glen Beck Program, and make one of those "know what I mean?" expressions.

Is He Thinking What I THINK He's Thinking?

Malcolm Evans, 8/4/11:
Sure, the rest of the world thinks the US's politics is crazy. But the upside of that is that they're never sure just how crazy we might be....

Aug 7, 2011

Medical Interventions

Terry Wise, 8/7/11:
Of course, every other medical treatment -- let's take Viagra as a comparison, purely for example -- is utterly safe, and has no potential side effects of any kind.

Or, in other words: keep your legs closed until your father picks you a suitable husband, and you'll do just fine, dear. If you can keep your mind closed, too, that will be even better. Perhaps you can find a Rick Perry prayer rally to go to.

Subtext Alert!

Chuck Asay, 8/7/11:
Asay prefers his Norwegians big and butch, wearing tight fur and leather outfits and invading his coastline with their strong-prowed Viking ships, probing inland to rape and pillage.

No, really: that's what this cartoon actually says.

Metaphors Run Wild Theatre Presents

Ingrid Rice, 8/4/11:
One might think that a Canadian cartoonist -- Rice hails from British Columbia -- would be a little more clear, and not make the bizarre physical green "debt ceiling" of the USA clearly attached to Ontario.

One might think.

Aug 5, 2011

The Ol' Hair-for-Oil Pipeline Again

Gustavo Rodriguez, 8/3/11:
The second guy is clearly Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi, but the first guy is trickier. From context, I suspect he's meant to be Venezuelan bantamweightman Hugo Chavez, though I'm far too much of a straight North American to have ever noticed any problems with his hair.

Waiting for a Sign?

Clay Bennett, 8/3/11:
We're all sacrificing -- but especially those goofy guys at the back of the sign.

No, seriously, what is the deal with that guy?

This may be the rare cartoon that needs more labels.

Obama IS Keanu in Speed III!

Chuck Asay, 8/3/11:
So Obama is responsible for the vast increase in federal spending (and loss of revenue, let's not forget) over the past decade?

Hm, let's look at that chart again:
'Nuff said.

Aug 4, 2011

Here Is the Paper Which Bears His Name Upon It

John Sherffius, 8/2/11:
Paying your bills when they come due is the moral equivalent of allowing Hitler to annex the Sudetenland.

Funny, I don't think I saw Sherffius toeing that particular line when millions of homeowners were being foreclosed on recently -- would it be giving in to Hitler for them to meekly agree to make good on the debts they've already accrued?

Aug 3, 2011

American Exceptionalism at Work

Henry Payne, 8/1/11:
The American people are simply horrible at technological innovation, and should just give up now on ever trying to do anything better, ever again.

Godwinized

David Fitzsimmons, 8/1/11:
Any fiscal argument can be refuted by Nazis.

No exceptions.