Pam debunks all that "Post-Racial Election" nonsense the media has been drinking

Over at Pam's House Blend.

LAST LAST LAST LAST LAST!

I didn't even watch the State of the Union Speech last night, but I just LOVE hearing the words "Bush" and "Last" in the same sentence. What a great way to start the day!

Also, how awesome is this chart?

Fan Postcard about my Mitt Romney cartoons

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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!

The Sky is Always Falling: Ampersand Cartoon on Nativism

Amp takes a look at Lou Dobbs types throughout time in "Immigrants are Ruining the Economy!".

President Huckabee

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How much do those two words together scare you? I'm really sick of the media ignoring what a Falwell-loving Darwin-hating fundamentalist Huckabee is just because he gets photographed playing guitars and wants the Rolling Stones to play at his inauguration. Blech. Here's the quote from the NYT magazine piece that inspired this cartoon:

Huckabee ordered soup and a sandwich without drama or comment and began talking about rock ’n’ roll. This is his regular warm-up gambit with reporters of a certain age, meant to convey that he is a cool guy for a Baptist preacher. Naturally I fell for it, and asked who he would like to play at his inaugural. ‘‘I’ve got to start with the Stones,’’ Huckabee said.

This cartoon is part of a long drawn-out series, by the way... See also: "President Giuliani: The Early Years." Now I've got to do one on McCain (and maybe one on Clinton).

How was YOUR holiday?

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Meant to post this right after the New Year. I'm a cheerful one, huh?

The New Green Hummer

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Seriously, GM actually unveiled a new "green" HUMMER at the Detroit auto show. But a little ethanol usage does not an environmentally friendly monster SUV make. We've got to rethink transportation on a much deeper level than that.

Warm & Fuzzy Holiday Moment #153

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Feel the ex-gay love. This was from December, of course.

Firm Resolve (New Year's Resolutions)

Firm Resolve (New Year's Resolutions)
Originally uploaded by M1khaela

Fun fact: This is the first time I've published a political cartoon featuring me and Masheka.

And in case you're wondering why I'm fantasizing about alien lizard queens eating the president, Ted Rall recently introduced me to the wonderful 80s science fiction miniseries V, about fascist man-eating lizards who do just that. I highly recommend it.

Oh, and I haven't ever actually broken the TV, though I have given it many satisfactory verbal tongue-lashings.

New Toon: Crafty Racists

Noose Incidents
Originally uploaded by M1khaela

Another cartoon from December.

I haven't actually observed any such exchanges in person, but there were plenty of wacko online blog commenters whose first reaction to a noose incident is always to claim that the victim faked it for publicity. By the way, were you aware of just HOW many noose incidents there have been lately? And how many were in NYC? Crazy.

I'm sure they'd argue that Emmett Till beat himself to death for the attention, too. Jerks.

New Toon: Mitt vs. Mike in Extreme Godmania Smackdown!

Mitt vs. Mike in Extreme Godmania Smackdown!
Originally uploaded by M1khaela

It's "Rowdy" Mitt Romney vs. Mike "The Minister" Huckabee!

This is a cartoon from December I hadn't gotten around to posting. Are you as scared of these dudes as I am?

Email bankruptcy!

Things have been busy over here at the Boiling Point in the past few months. you may have emailed me, and wondered why you never heard back. I've removed myself from every possible marketing list and email list and list serv and whatnot, and installed spam filters, but the email onslaught continues unabated. So I'm afraid I've just had to delete 3,000 unread emails from my inbox. If you desperately needed to reach me, please try again.

Random election thoughts

I've been neglecting you, dear readers, and for that I apologize--I've got quite a few projects cooking, and the blogging and posting and emailing of my cartoons have been taking a back seat. I do have a couple of random vague election-related thoughts following last night's Democratic debate in South Carolina.

On the Democrats, in no particular order:
• I heart Edwards. Of the three remaining major contenders, he's my favorite--I love the way he talks about poverty and healthcare as a moral issue. I love that he is so passionate about those issues and hasn't toned down his views in response to his poor showings in the polls. Of course, he probably won't be a contender for long, which is too bad because...
• Clinton leaves me cold. Sure she's amazingly smart and capable and take-charge and she's got great positions on many issues and... oh, wait, she's a crazy war-monger in bed with health insurance companies who seems to change her rhetoric every which way for reasons of political expediency.
• Obama, Obama, Obama... Sure he's inspiring and a great speaker and he talks gay issues and immigration issues in a very cool and progressive way. But I'm quite disturbed by his appeals to Republican voters and his invocation of Ronald Reagan and his lack of experience and a record of actually getting anything done as a Senator, among other things. My brother tells me he thinks Obama is a genius who will change the way politics work. It sounds like he wants to do what Reagan did in reverse--to create "Obama Republicans" (like "Reagan Democrats"). That will only make me happy if he can get those votes BUT still be just as progressive as Reagan was conservative.
• ...and no, I haven't forgotten Kucinich. Obviously my views most closely resemble his. I thought I had heard that he was planning to drop out and support Obama, but then I heard he was still running, so I'm confused.

As for the remaining GOP candidates, I honestly don't know who scares me more. Fake Maverick "100 years in Iraq!" McCain, Mike "Not Descended from a Monkey" Huckabee, Crazy Giuliani or Multiple-Choice Mitt. Maybe Huckabee and Giuliani are my top two nightmares, with Mitt a close second.

Cover Girl: The Wedding (Equality) Party

Here's a year-end cover illustration I did for Bay Windows. The cover celebrates the people who furthered LGBT rights in Massachusetts in 2007, such as new governor Deval Patrick. Massachusetts is so much awesomer without Mitt Romney around--lets hope he totally fails in his presidential ambitions, too!

And here was my initial rough sketch:

Calendar Girl: Get Your 2008 Lambda Legal calendar featuring my cartoons!

June: the perfect time to learn about sodomy laws!

The awesome LGBT rights organization Lambda Legal has put together a beautiful 2008 calendar featuring the cartoons from the Life Without Fair Courts Series (most drawn by me, but also some by Greg Fox, Ted Rall, Matt Bors and others!). Learn about a different crucial Supreme Court victory each month--and what might have happened had it gone the wrong way. The money raised goes to Lambda Legal's vital work, of course.

Masheka's 2007 Movie Hell in Review

Just in time for the New Year, Masheka reminisces about 2007's move monstrosities.