Off to Budapest and Prague
New cartoon in archive, "Dick Cheney, Ace Reporter"

Folks, sorry for the silence but I've been preparing for a trip to Hungary and had to do a bunch of extra cartoons and the like. I'll be gone til April 2, but if you want to check out the latest cartoon, "Dick Cheney, Ace Reporter" is on the cartoon archive page (that of course being a reference to Cheney's insistence that he was "right" about the insurgency being in its "last throes" and Iraqis greeting the U.S. troops with flowers, and that any views otherwise are media distortions). And you can view "Bush vs. My Cat" over on the Mikhaela section of editorialcartoonists.com on April 1.

Sadly I also don't have to collect all the amazing links and cartoons I've been reading lately for your interest. Please realize that I will not be checking phone or email while I am away, but if you have any info that urgently needs to reach me, let Masheka know, he'll pass it along.

Random Bush-hating kitty photo #2

This is another old photo of my kitty Riley from two years ago (he's much less scrawny now and no longer has nasty ringworn pinkness on his ears like he does in this photo) when he got hold of one of my reference photos of Bush.

I post it because I'm contemplating drawing a cartoon about the fact that Bush may be even dumber than my cat, which is no easy feat. (Yes, cartoons about cats are clichéd; no, I don't care).

Mikhaela's reading list, or Friday odds and ends
In no particular order

Random Mikhaela business
• First up, I apologize to anyone who's written me an email lately and not received a response. I've been beyond busy these last two weeks, getting ready for a trip to Budapest and Prague (I have to draw extra cartoons for while I'm away). I will try to get to your message when I can, but if I don't, my sincere apologies.
• I went to the vet this morning and learned my sweet little kitty Riley has severe asthma.
• As a result of these and other things, my website redesign is still on hold, but if you haven't already, check out my new logo sketches.
• I've also had to put launching a new comic strip on hold indefinitely, but if you're looking for fun character names, or just a way to spend a fascinating few hours playing around or seeing how the popularity of your name has changed over time, go play with the Baby Name Wizard's Name Voyager.

Cartoons and such
• After a bit of a hiatus, Masheka has been posting cartoons on a weekly basis, his latest is "Holy Calamity." Just FYI, that is his self-portrait (though I must say he's way cuter in real life). Also, he is available for all your illustration and hand-lettering and cartooning needs.
• Stephanie McMillan wonders how 37% (now 34%, I think) of Americans could still be so deluded.
• Brian McFadden has a charitable cause we can all get behind: stopping Early-Onset Republicanism. He also suggests you tune in to the House Lobbying Network".
• David Reese continues to get his war on and astound me with his complete and total achievement of sick brilliance.
• Matt Wuerker did a great Flash animation (his first?) for Sunshine Week.

Blogs and news and things
• Via Pam's House Blend, Molly Ivins has had enough.
• Ezra Klein puzzles over the "skin in the game" health-care argument. (See also my toon "Too Darn Healthy").
• Poynter has advice for avoiding patronizing clichés when writing about people with disabilities, and some story suggestions.
• Regular Boiling Point reader Janine let me know about the campaign to make "napoli" a nasty verb, in honor of Bill Napoli, a South Dakota Republican state senator who thinks abortion exceptions should only apply to brutalized religious virgins. I feel bad for the Italian city that has to share a name with him.
• Check out the latest Carnival of the Feminists. I should submit to one of those things again.
• Over at Alas, a Blog, Maia critiques the supposed progressiveness of all things open source.
• Matt Bors' little brother was targeted by the military's freaky cute and hipster-looking "What am I going to do next? campaign, which basically suggests that all careers and college attempts will end in aimlessness and misery, and only the military can bring true purpose and fulfillment, blah de blah. They forgot to mention the whole dying in a madman's pointless war thing, though.
• Talking Points Memo has the goods on Claude Allen's evil twin.
• Atrios has a welcome rejoinder to all that "you mean secularists scare religious people out of the Democratic party" nonsense.

I actually have a lot more links, but I've got to go do my taxes now. Maybe later.

New Cartoon: "Operation Heterosexual Freedom: The Sequel"
The Unadoption Mission

Brought to you by the coalition troops of Catholic Charities and the states of Ohio, Florida... and Massachusetts?!

Don't forget to check out my original "Operation Heterosexual Freedom" cartoon.

P.S. Join my weekly mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net!

Tuesday odds and ends
Cartoons and whatnot

In no particular order:
• Was just half-listening to NPR (WNYC's the Brian Lehrer show), and I think he just quoted a news story as saying that the Saddam trial has "more scoops than a Ben and Jerry's ice cream store." Are we that desperate for metaphors these days? Have we been taking our Spunk and Bite a little too much to heart? (As a disclaimer, I actually bought that book this weekend in an attempt to punch up my writing).
• Keith Knight celebrates the high profile of black women in Hollywood.
• Matt Bors designs some fashionable technology to keep the women of South Dakota on their backs.
• Leilah Rampa gets impatient.
• M.e. Cohen diagnoses Milosevic.
• Ted Rall jumps on the hipster-bashing bandwagon, but I know for a fact that he loves Soft Cell more than the kids in his cartoon, who are probably way more into the Decemberists or Fiery Furnaces or some other such indie rock troop. I actually have no idea what the Fiery Furnaces sound like, but I did read a cartoon about them the other day that claims they are "nigh-incomprehensible".
• You might notice that today's Boondocks contains the link to Granddad's Myspace profile, and I am proud to note that I am currently one of his Top 8 friends. Really, go look.

"Gay", not "homosexual": AP adopts smarter sexuality & gender identity stylebook
Respectful and accurate pronouns and other such yummy goodness

Back during the horrible and disrespectful coverage of the murder of transgender teen girl Gwen Araujo (see my 2002 cartoon Shallow Grave), many media outlets, including the Associated Press, referred to her as "Eddie 'Gwen' Araujo". Many incorrectly called her a "transvestite", or simply a "boy who dressed as a girl." Transgender rights activists rightly complained about this offensive nonsense, and media outlooks began to reexamine their quaint, disrespectful and outdated stylebook rules.

The mainstream media has also historically stumbled over gay language, frequently referring to gay, lesbian and bisexual people as "homosexuals", which sounds both outdated and vaguely medical and disease-like. It's also the preferred term of anti-gay activists and other such assbackward bigots.

Well, it took them long enough, but the AP has finally retired "homosexual": (from GLAAD, via Pam's House Blend):

In the previous edition of the AP Stylebook (2005), the entry for gay read as follows:

gay Acceptable as popular synonym for both male and female homosexuals (n. and adj.), although it is generally associated with males, while lesbian is the more common term for female homosexuals. Avoid references to gay, homosexual or alternative "lifestyle."

The updated 2006 entry reads:

gay Used to describe men and women attracted to the same sex, though lesbian is the more common term for women. Preferred over homosexual except in clinical contexts or references to sexual activity. Include sexual orientation only when it is pertinent to a story, and avoid references to "sexual preference" or to a gay or alternative "lifestyle."

The 2006 edition also relocates the sex changes entry under the more accurate and inclusive term transgender. The transsexuals entry, which used to direct readers to the entry for sex changes, now also points to transgender:

transgender Use the pronoun preferred by the individuals who have acquired the physical characteristics of the opposite sex or present themselves in a way that does not correspond with their sex at birth. If that preference is not expressed, use the pronoun consistent with the way the individuals live publicly.

Another welcome update for 2006 was the deletion of the term "lesbianism" -- another word that has taken on pejorative connotations. Prior to 2006, the AP Stylebook entry for "lesbian, lesbianism" had read, "Lowercase in references to homosexual women, except in names of organizations." GLAAD applauded the deletion of the term "lesbianism" and the removal of the reference to "homosexual women," though the removal of the entire entry was unexpected (currently, the AP's style guideline for "lesbian" is located in the entry for "gay").

However, as Pam notes, conservatives will continue to refer to gay people as "homosexuals" with "sick lifestyles"--when they're not busy calling them "fags."

Welcome, put your feet up, stay a while, etc.

I should draw anthropomorphic male body fluids more often. This weekend the renowned Atrios and Alternet blogger Deanna Zandt kindly linked to my "Every Sperm is Sacred" cartoon about the coming "sex-cell rights" movement. As a result I received more visitors in one day than ever in this blog's four-year history: a grand total of 5,585 yesterday, far above my previous record of 1,800-something and average 800-something.

So, welcome new readers! Dig into the cartoon archives! Buy a booklet or book! Read this blog! Join my weekly mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net!

Also, gratuitious plug: check out my boyfriend Masheka Wood's awesome cartoons, especially Supreme Court 3000 and New TV Shows. He's just starting out and has yet to find any regular newspaper clients, so show some love.

Abortion & Repro Rights Cartoon Roundup
The good, the bad and the shudder-worthy

You've already seen my cartoons about innocent sperm, Dr. Alito, morning after fashion, and coat-hanger company stocks, so here are some others for your perusal:

Cartoons I dig:
• Signe Wilkinson redraws the South Dakota map.
• Like me, Matt Bors can't sleep for worrying over innocent sperm.
• Clay Bennett footnotes an American principle.
• Steve Sack paints a charming knitting scene.
• Ann Telnaes models ankle bracelets.
• Dan Wasserman waits and waits and waits. And waits.
• Tony Auth shows some sympathy.
• M.E. Cohen does hard time with rough company.
• Jack Ohman goes into the export business.

Cartoons that make me want to shake their authors, not that it would do any good:
• Babies learn to make obscene gestures at doctors.
• Something with cowboys, or something, from the cartoonist who brought you heterosexuals puking after watching Brokeback.
• Watch out, if they approve EC, apparently eight-year-olds will start having sex.
• Um... anti-choice baseball, anyone?

Good cartoons not about reproductive rights
• Bad Reporter pounds the Iraq war hero pavement.

Would you buy a T-shirt that said "Masturbation is Murder" on it?

Or some other such slogan based on my "Every Sperm is Sacred" cartoon? I can't just use that phrase alone because it's a reference to Monty Python...

I ask because all my past T-shirt sales efforts have been complete failures, with one or two items sold at best, and thus not worth all the time I spent designing the shirts.

Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela!
Redefining the Mikhaela brand

I drew my old logo over four years ago. It's a simple, smiling self-portrait of me holding a marker, and wearing an anti-Bush T-shirt (changed from the Boondocks T-shirt I wore before my strip got picked up and I wanted to stop referencing someone else's strip in my logo).

But as I redesign my website, I've been thinking a lot about the image I want to project in my new logo. Am I a sad, resigned... liberal? A motivated progressive? The angry cartoonist woman reaching her boiling point? Etc. I finally decided that it would be more fun to pretend that my cartoons are a lot more powerful than they really are. So I present for your amusement my first sketches of Mikhaela the Angry 50-Foot Cartoonist:

And just so you know what sort of lengths I go to to get you your cartoons every week, here are my digital photoreferences (although unlike Brian's, they are not animated!)

"Take that, you election-stealing... stuffed Beanie-Baby alligator!"

New Cartoon: "Every Sperm is Sacred!"
Because birth control is MURDER.

Seriously, of course Birth Control isn't murder, or abortion, or anything but what it is: contraception. I drew this because I was so damn sick of hearing anti-abortion extremists claim that emergency contraception is abortion. (Feministe even had a link today to a study suggesting that EC prevents ovulation rather than implantation. Not that preventing implantation is abortion, but that's what many of the anti-EC forces were claiming). Anyway, once the crazies bring down Roe, birth control is the logical next step, no? Because they don't seem to get the idea that BIRTH CONTROL MIGHT REDUCE ABORTION RATES, huh? BECAUSE ABSTINENCE-ONLY EDUCATION DOESN'T WORK, PEOPLE.

Because their underlying goal is to control women, as suggested by their ">"traumatized religious virgin" exception to the South Dakota abortion ban.

Also, Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has distanced himself so much from his original quasi-pro-choice and not-totally-anti-gay views that he is against gay adoption and in support of that total South Dakota abortion ban that makes no exception for rape, incest, or a woman's health, but as I said, might allow for a "brutalized religious virgins" exception. (See my cartoons about Mitt on EC, Mitt dancing away from prochoice views, and Mitt just making an ass of himself on visits to red states).

Oh, and in regards to South Dakota's new abortion ban... I really hate when my gloomy coat hanger prediction toons turn out to be right. Really hate it. Can't I be wrong for once? It would be nice.

And I plan to do a proper abortion and EC cartoons roundup if I get time, but until then, this cartoon about EC is so full of horseshit, with that fake strawman "if EC is available over the counter then 10 year old girls will get it" argument.

P.S. Join my weekly mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net!

Fugging Editorial Cartoons

For a few years now, I've been doing occasional editorial cartoon roundups on topics like evil dead presidents ("Sure he supported apartheid--but he had a GREAT SENSE OF HUMOR!", Ray Charles forced to entertain Ronald Reagan in Heaven") and same-sex marriage. But I've always focused on the message or theme of the cartoons and have generally kept any snide remarks about drawing techniques or excessive use of labeling and symbolic donkeys and elephants to myself.

Thankfully the Comics Curmudgeon shows no such restraint in his first guest post for Wonkette, Cartoon Violence, in which he gives editorial cartoons the Go Fug Yourself treatment. If I drank coffee, I would have sprayed it out my nose.

The main Comics Curmudegeon site is pretty awesome in its own right, with hilarious close readings of the latest Mark Trail and Blondie strips, among others. I even discovered that there is a rabbit in For Better or For Worse that behaves exactly like my dumb, dumb cat.

(Thanks to Jape for the link).

Movies, Oscars, my Brokeback toon, etc.

I don't generally watch the Oscars, but I'm making an exception tonight because of Jon Stewart. And since most folks seem to expect 'Brokeback Mountain' to walk away with the Best Picture award, I figured I'd remind y'all about my 'Brokeback Mountain' cartoon, "Did you hear the one about the gay cowboys?"

Speaking of movies, go see Dave Chappelle's Block Party concert/comedy film right now (from 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' director Michel Gondry, no less). You'll enjoy it a lot more if, like me, you're already a fan of Mos Def and Dead Prez and the Fugees, but even Chappelle's off-the-cuff comedy bits and just random happiness and silliness are enough to make it damned worthwhile. I haven't felt that good and upbeat leaving a movie in a long time, although that could be because I have a tendency to watch depressing movies like, say, 'Brokeback Mountain'.

Update: Not that the Oscars matter that much, but... Jon Stewart managed to be totally unfunny, the dresses were by turns hideous and boring (yes, I do actually care, I like to sew and I love analyzing fashion), the nominees kept congratulating Hollywood for being some kind of force for good and progressive change (oh PLEASE) and CRASH won? I found a good description of why the latter was sad in the L.A. Times wrap-up:

For "Crash's" biggest asset is its ability to give people a carload of those standard Hollywood satisfactions but make them think they are seeing something groundbreaking and daring. It is, in some ways, a feel-good film about racism, a film you could see and feel like a better person, a film that could make you believe that you had done your moral duty and examined your soul when in fact you were just getting your buttons pushed and your preconceptions reconfirmed.

So for people who were discomfited by "Brokeback Mountain" but wanted to be able to look themselves in the mirror and feel like they were good, productive liberals, "Crash" provided the perfect safe harbor. They could vote for it in good conscience, vote for it and feel they had made a progressive move, vote for it and not feel that there was any stain on their liberal credentials for shunning what "Brokeback" had to offer. And that's exactly what they did.

Yeah, pretty much. But then I remembered that Chicago won for best picture not so long ago, so it wasn't like I had faith in the Academy's taste to begin with.

P.S. I haven't had a chance to see Hustle and Flow. I've heard it's a great film. But I couldn't help thinking the obvious while watching the over-the-top performance of the film's Oscar-winning song, "It's Hard Out There For a Pimp," which is "I'm supposed to feel sorry for the PIMP who's 'working hard to pay the rent'"?! Last time I checked, it was the sex workers in said pimp's employ who did all the hard work, no?

The Boiling Point now on MySpace, LiveJournal, and StumbleUpon!

Left-wing idealists don't always make the best publicists or businesswomen. I've been drawing The Boiling Point for over four years now. My work appears regularly in/on some really cool papers, magazines and web sites, I've been featured in a real honest-to-goodness book anthology, Attitude 2, and I've had a few radio appearances here and there.

I go to conventions, I have a web site and a blog and a business card, and I network in a rather haphazard manner, partly from an aversion to anything reeking of sleazy PR spokesmanship or anything that brings Scott McClellan to mind.

This is my really long-winded way of saying I just checked out a bunch of embarassing books on marketing and PR and CSS and PHP and MySQL and logos and business cards and letterhead from my local library.

And that you can now read my cartoons through LiveJournal or MySpace or StumbleUpon if you so choose. (I should note that I don't add anyone to my LiveJournal friends list that I don't know personally, but you can still add me as a friend to read the cartoons publicly. I'm still not sure of my MySpace friending policy, but probably anyone who seems like a genuine fan of my work as opposed to a spammer or troll will get an add.)

But the most reliable way to get my comic each week (as I don't always have time to post it to LiveJournal or MySpace) is to check this blog, or join my weekly email list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net.

"Elephant butt"? Or: How did you discover my cartoons/blog?

Are you a regular reader? Did you get here through a search or from another blog? Were you one of the four people who somehow got to this site today through a search for the phrase "elephant butt"?

Please respond in the comments if you have a minute! I ask because I want to improve this web site and get more readers, so I'm wondering how I earned the ones I already have.

I also have vague grand schemes to ramp up my blog writing quality, but my first priority is, as always, my cartoons.

Friday odds and ends
Ridiculously out-of-control long edition

I've been too busy redesigning this website (which I can hopefully debut soon, dear readers!) to blog much this week, yet I have so much to share.

In no particular order:
• Regarding abortion Feministing ponders the whole use of anti-abortion language by pro-choicers business, of which my good friend Ted Rall's latest cartoon is a prime example. He makes a really powerful pro-choice statement in the cartoon itself, but uses the anti-abortion language of "killing unborn babies" in his headline. I still like the toon overall, but in terms of the language debate, I agree with I'm with Katha Pollitt.
• Regarding awesome books: In fact, Stephanie McMillan and I actually argued with Ted about that very abortion language issue over beers last night following Stephanie's Barnes and Noble book-signing for Minimum Security. Which is a book you should buy, along with Tom Tomorrow's new book, Hell in a Handbasket.
• Regarding me in a radio interview: Speaking of good arguments with cartoonist friends, Matt Bors, Jeff Swenson and I had a good debate going over the Mohammed cartoons on the Humanist Network News' latest podcast.
• Regarding Mardi Gras being whiter than usual: Feministe gives Charlotte Allen a good thrashing.
• Regarding black cartoonists, and the lack thereof in the funny pages: There aren't many black comic strips in the funny pages, and when the genius that is The Boondocks goes on a six-month hiatus, there will be even fewer. However, the temporary departure of The Boondocks might speed the launch of a strip about a group of students at a historically black college, Watch Your Head.
• More reproductive rights must-reads: From Pandagon ("When I Give You My Sperm You Better Keep It"), Body and Soul, and New York magazine ("New York City: The Abortion Capital of America."). Also, Mother Jones has an excellent Plan B timeline. Oh, and Feministe on the "partial-birth" abortion ban.
• The Onion and I feel the same way about the spineless mass of jelly that is the Democratic Party as we know it.
• CJSD learns us some "Classroom Bias for Dummies."
• Good goddamn cartoons: Kirk Anderson draws a disturbing agricultural scene, Rob Rogers apologizes, Matt Bors exposes a vast homosexual conspiracy.

Read anything good lately? Have a blog to plug? Let folks know in the comments...

Fan and Not-Fan Mail: "What Planet Was That Email From?" and "Fail to See the Humor"

First, the fan mail:

Earlier this week, I received a fun "shut up and burn in hell" letter. Mr. "Shut Up" argued that I was a horrible person for making fun of Bush, who "does as much as he can to rebuild a city that should be scrapped". Longtime reader Brenda Ann comes to my defense:

Mikhaela,

Read this bogus crap in your blog, Shut Up and Burn in Hell".

I'd just like to know what planet the e-mail came from.. in the world I live in, we had a record budget surplus going into the Bush presidency, and now have a record budget deficit... sounds more like he's doing what he can to START a depression (I know he certainly depresses ME)..

Don't think I've ever seen you advocate anything of the sort he's accusing you of, or let for sure never have seen you making fun of anyone trying to help someone.... or maybe his logic says that pulling kids out of loving homes and putting them into foster care or state homes is helping them?? Mind you, the system does need a lot of work.. but let's fix the shit that's broken, instead of breaking the stuff that isn't.

Take care, and stay well.

Brenda Ann
Still in S. Korea (and glad of it)

You might be onto something, Brenda Ann. Mr. "Shut Up" really must have his brain protruding into another dimension to think Bush gives a rats ass about New Orleans (or to argue that a city with such a rich culture, life and history "should be scrapped"?!).

Now, the not-such-a-fan mail: Marc Adels takes issue with my cartoon screed against Health Savings Accounts:

Dear Mikhaela Reid,

Saw your cartoon in metro times today didn't see the humor since unfortunately you have no idea how a health savings account works. Study after study has show that when a doctor knows a patient has health insurance and there is no incentive for the patient to say no to a procedure expense typically are 50% higher than if a patient had a vested interst in the plan.

One doctor has decided to stop accepting insurance from his clients if they would pay cash and he said he would price all his services between a tune-up and a brake job. Everyone is happy. Health insurance is designed for the serious events such as your cancer example which would be paid for totally by the insurance co. for all the treatment after the deductible of $1000 or $1500 is met which can be paid off ast $30 to $50 per month. You don't expect your auto insurance to pay for oil changes brake jobs or wheel alignments though you seem to be able to pay for these just fine. Why can't you pay for dr visits and Rx on your own if the are done at the discounted ppom rate and are 100%tax deductuble. This is the only way health insurance is going to be affordable. When a patient has no incentive to question if a test is needed costs are only going to sky rocket. After all you get a second opnion on major repairs to your home or car why should health care be any different? If you want to educate yourself let me know.

sincerely,
Marc Adels
Clawson, Mi

Marc, I agree that America's current haphazard health insurance system is seriously messed up. But the problem is that Americans have too little insurance and health care, not too much. 46 million Americans have no insurance. As Malcolm Gladwell wrote in an excellent New Yorker piece recently ("THE MORAL-HAZARD MYTH: The bad idea behind our failed health-care system"):

The U. S. health-care system... has created a group of people who increasingly look different from others and suffer in ways that others do not. The leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the United States is unpaid medical bills. Half of the uninsured owe money to hospitals, and a third are being pursued by collection agencies. Children without health insurance are less likely to receive medical attention for serious injuries, for recurrent ear infections, or for asthma. Lung-cancer patients without insurance are less likely to receive surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation treatment. Heart-attack victims without health insurance are less likely to receive angioplasty. People with pneumonia who don’t have health insurance are less likely to receive X rays or consultations. The death rate in any given year for someone without health insurance is twenty-five per cent higher than for someone with insurance. Because the uninsured are sicker than the rest of us, they can’t get better jobs, and because they can’t get better jobs they can’t afford health insurance, and because they can’t afford health insurance they get even sicker.

Again, our problem is too little health insurance, and health savings accounts, which come coupled with high-deductible health plans, are not the solution. They make sense only for the wealthy and the healthy—and this being a crazy world full of chance and accidents and sudden illness, anyone could lose the latter at any time. A plan with a deductible of at least $1,050 per individual is an unworkable "splurge" for a person who can barely pay her rent. Out-of-pocket costs can be as high as $5,250 for an individual, $10,500 for a family. So when the choice is between buying dinner and "optional" preventive care visits, what is a low-income family going to choose? Again, from Gladwell:

People without health insurance have bad teeth because, if you’re paying for everything out of your own pocket, going to the dentist for a checkup seems like a luxury. It isn’t, of course.

Missing an oil change isn't a catastrophe. Missing a mammogram is. And comparison shopping and tax breaks are only rewarding if you have money to shop with and plenty of taxable income to get a break on.

But HSAs aren't just a problem on an individual level. They also go against the whole idea of insurance, which is to pool risk, slightly raising costs for the currently healthy and lowering costs for those of us who are sicker and/or older--which all young and/or healthy people will be some day.

Sure our current health care system sucks. But this country is too pig-headed to do the right thing and go for single-payer insurance. Long live the freedom for poor people to get cheap crappy health care or none at all!

See also my earlier blog post on this subject, which has lots more links and info.

Bush Lied, People Died
Katrina edition

A horrifying video released by the Associated Press proves Dubya was given a clear urgent early warning about the size and scope of Katrina and the likely breach of the levees:

On the eve of Hurricane Katrina's fateful landfall, President Bush was confident. His homeland security chief appeared relaxed. And warnings of the coming destruction — breached or overrun levees, deaths at the New Orleans Superdome and overwhelming needs for post-storm rescues — were delivered in dramatic terms to all involved. All of it was captured on videotape.

and

The president didn't ask a single question during the briefing but assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: "We are fully prepared."

and of course

The White House and Homeland Security Department urged the public Wednesday not to read too much into the footage.

"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," Bush spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."

...And he didn't do jack about it for days, just kept on eating cake and playing guitar. The media is dancing around this ("this APPEARS to contradict statements made by the president a few days later"), but as August explains, this is called LYING.

Pandagon has quotes from disgusting conservative attempts to explain this away. And Greg Saunders at This Modern World has some damning photo comparisons.

See also my previous Katrina cartoons:
• "Questions"
• "The Brighter Side of Hurricane Katrina"
• "Let Them Eat Toxic Sludge!"

New Cartoon: "Stop Republican Adoption!"
Save the babies!

Based on a real (tongue-in-cheek) protest bill. See also my previous cartoon on gay adoption, "The Saved Children."

On a totally different note check out some more Mardi Gras cartoons from Masheka Wood and Signe Wilkinson (I say more because I highlighted one from Ben Smith earlier in the week).

I have many more things I would like to blog about, but I just don't have the time at the moment, I'm afraid. Maybe tomorrow morning.

P.S. Join my weekly mailing list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net!