From the pro-torture mail bag...

Kevin H. writes in response to my CIA torture cartoon:

1) We don't know what intel that was obtained at as a result of the waterboarding - curiously, that is the ONE piece of information the administration decided not to release. It is possible we learned quite a bit from this waterboarding that ultimately saved thousands of lives, but until they release all of the info about this, you and I will never know.

2) The two that were waterboarded 266 times collaborated with those who killed over 2000 people during 9/11. If it were me, I would waterboard each bastard once for each death they helped cause before I even started asking any questions. That would not begin to redress the loss they helped cause, but it would be a nice start. These aren't people, they are vicious animals, who would gladly do much worse than waterboarding to our captured servicemen if given a chance, before of course, they brutally be-head them (and by the way, their terrorist friends have indeed done much worse). And guess what? They will continue to do much worse, no matter how humanely we treat the terrorists we capture in the future. The only difference now is that they will have an easier time getting recruits to do their bidding, since the recruits know they won't be tortured if they are captured, and people like you and Obama will be more concerned about their rights than the rights of their victims. Frankly, I don't care what the CIA does with them, as long as they don't release them.

3) Its awfully easy to criticize when you are not the one responsible for keep our nation safe, and where you don't have all the facts. And you somehow conveniently forget the atrocities these monsters caused that lead to their waterboarding. Liberals like to point out how Bush never captured Bin Laden, well, did it occur to you that maybe they waterboarded these bastards that many times in an attempt to get information that would lead to his capture?

4) It would be nice if we all lived in a perfect world, where everyone respected human life and everyone threw away their guns and all nations, organizations, and groups strove to preserve basic human rights, such as not torturing anyone. I honestly would love to live in such a world. NEWSFLASH: We don't live in a perfect world, and we never will. Terrorists don't feel any moral obligation to observe any kind of code of decency or proper conduct, and I don't mind our Government returning the favor when we capture them, especially if we can get intel that saves U.S. lives in the long run.

Bigot Responds to Personal Border Wall Cartoon

This was posted over on Flickr in response to my Personal Border Wall cartoon.

Do you have one for uninsured drunk illegals crashing and killing innocent Americans?

Or how about one of a drophouse packed full of endentured slaves?

Or of an illegal killing a police officer in a sanctuary city?

How about the fragile desert environment full of trash?

BTW: I love Mexican food. Just hope an illegal with a contagious disease that wasn't screened at the border doesn't work at my favorite restaurant. Kinda challenging to draw a cartoon of that.

Seen by searching 'illegal immigrant'.

(Bolding added by yours truly).

What we can learn from this little racist rant:
• This just makes me all the more convinced that we need to encourage manufacturers to actually produce personal anti-immigration walls for xenophobes like this guy. He'll be so encumbered behind his wall and sunglasses and headphones that we won't have to listen to his racist rants. Maybe we can even pipe in a little Lou Dobbs to keep them sated.
• Anyone who claims that the huge rise in anti-immigrant sentiment has nothing to do with racism or bigotry is crazy.

I have to admit my response comment wasn't so restrained:

Oh please. Sounds like you could really use one of these walls yourself, it would protect you from all that "scary" Mexican food and protect us from your racist rants. Lay off the Lou Dobbs and get a life.

From the mailbox...

Brian M. writes:

I'm an ex-pat Canadian who, every time I read the news here in America, feel like I've landed in some form of malicious - though loopy - alternative universe. Yes, I know that crazy, rich fundamentalist nutters own all the media etc etc blah blah but still, HOW HOW HOW can science and universal health care be so successfully dismissed as extremist plots??? I have donned my Jane Goodall hat and am investigating. If I find out I'll let you know.

But, to the point, I just saw your cartoons and loved them. In fact, they made my day after super Tuesday, which was a rough day - I actually had to resuscitate my girlfriend at the polling booth!

Keep up the good work.

I have to say, I'm not even an ex-pat Canadian, and I also always feel like I'm living in some freakish dystopian science fiction America. Especially when I hear health care for all Americans being derided as "socialized medicine" or waterboarding defined as "not torture." Sigh.

On another topic, Miriam and Bruce were alarmed by the Google Ads that popped up in response to my anti-McCain cartoons:

Did you know that a banner ad on your site, right under the new "straight talk express" cartoon is for McCain? I clicked on it and it took me right to McCain's website…

What's going on?

Sadly, Google Adsense (which I use to offset my web hosting costs for this site) doesn't give much control to bloggers such as myself--it's based on keywords, so it just read the keyword "McCain" and blindly assumed that my readers would somehow be into John McCain. Silly Google!

Fan Postcard about my Mitt Romney cartoons

(click to enlarge)

My awesome art director at the Metro Times, Sean Bieri, passed this along this fan postcard recently. He also said it's quite rare that they get any actual physical mail any more.

A Republican Reader Asks: Why the Tunnel Vision?

Most liberal cartoonists (and bloggers) get a lot of mail like this, so I thought I'd share this letter and my response:

Ms. Reid,

I was shocked this week when I found that even Lloyd Dangle broke away from savaging Republicans, for a change. I was so excited that I immediately went to your latest offering to see if you might have found something, besides Republicans, to ridicule. No, nope, nyet...uh-uh. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of stupidity and objectionable behavior in my beloved Republican party; but, have you never found something worth mining for your cartoons among the Democrats? I here the Daily Kos is looking for a house cartoonist. You would be perfect for the job!

gb

P.S. I made up the bit about the Daily Kos looking for a cartoonist, but the rest is fairly accurate!

Here's my response:

Dear Gene,

Thanks for the thoughtful letter. It’s true that I spend a good majority of my cartoon energy criticizing Republicans, but I’ve got my reasons.

(1) They’re the party in power, with control—and the job of a satirist is to critique those in power. I wasn’t a cartoonist yet when Clinton was in office, but I guarantee you would have attacked him mercilessly. I’m looking forward to seeing a Democrat in the White House so I can critique him/her, believe you me. Not that I really like any of the Democratic frontrunners—but unlike the GOP slate, at least they don’t actively terrify me.

(2) Sure there are powerful Democrats who have their faults—spinelessness, ineffectiveness, poor organizational skills, lack of integrity, and so forth. I’ve done cartoons in the last year critiquing Clinton (Hillary), Pelosi, Barney Frank, Edwards, Obama and others, and I criticized John Kerry in the runup to the 2004 election.

(3) BUT I only draw one or two cartoons a week, and I’d rather go after what pisses me off the most in one given week. That tends to be things like torture, war, and anti-gay legislation, most of which generally come from the GOP.

All that said, watching Clinton and Obama sling mud at each other lately has been making me ill. So maybe you’ll see some of what you were hoping for sooner than you think.

Regards,
Mikhaela

On another note, it'd be awesome if any of the big-time weblogs really did decide to start paying for cartoons. Hint, hint.

P.S. The reader wrote back saying he appreciated my response very much, and signed his letter "a grudging fan." Nice!

Defend your cartoonist!

The Boiling Point launched on GoComics.com three weeks ago, but so far the only readers who have seen fit to leave comments are not exactly fans. Why not put in your two cents?

Morning gay-hate mail

From my inbox this morning, Lisa Labowski has this charming contribution:

Gays only have THREE rights: 1. the right to STAY IN THE CLOSET!!!, 2. the right to SHUT THE @#$$ UP, and 3. the right to BURN IN HELL!!!!

Show your bigot pride, sister!