Toon: The American Family Health Plan

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It's a classic.

Toon: Fun Times at the Supermarket

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I'm off to Seattle and the annual AAEC editorial cartooning convention. In the meantime, I leave you with this tasty morsel.

Mark Fiore: "Obama vs. Obama"

Great Flash animation by Mark Fiore, "Obama vs. Obama."

Toon: Barack Obama, Fierce Advocate of LGBT Rights!

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Disappointed, yes. Surprised? Not really.

For more angry venting, you must watch and/or read the bad-ass speech my pal Jaclyn Friedman gave at the Boston Dyke March on this topic. A sampling:

That Presidential Proclamation? It would sure sound sweeter if it were backed up by actual action to end discrimination against gay, lesbian, bi and trans Americans willing to DIE in service of our country's military whims. And it would be more than a little helpful if Obama would stop caving to the religious right and start condemning marriage discrimination, instead of defending it like he did today.

Of course, marriage rights themselves would be a lot less important if quality, competent health care was available to every person in this country regardless of marital status, income, age, race, sexual orientation or gender identity. But who needs universal health care when you've got a shiny proclamation that proves the president knows we exist? He likes us! He really likes us.

Even the HRC is getting feisty about Obama's odd—Clintonian, even!—interpretation of "fierce advocacy."

P.S. Rachel Maddow is so rocking this topic:

What's Good for GM...

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I drew this cartoon about the GM plant closings (about plant closings in general, but specifically with the Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan in mind.

Oddly enough, before I even got a chance to post it today, I received a nice email from the webmaster of UAW Local 735, saying that he had been given a copy of an earlier cartoon of mine on the effects of plant closings ("Jane Reaction") and asking for permission to run the cartoon on their site (which I of course granted).

I'm not from Michigan myself, but I am from Lowell, a historic manufacturing city in Massachusetts that has had its share of ups, downs and plant closings aplenty (the American Industrial Revolution, anyone?). More recently, we used to be known as Spaghettiville, even, till Prince left town in 1997 taking hundreds of jobs with it.

Toon: George Tiller, a Tribute

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(Drew this several weeks ago when I first heard the news, the day I got back from Europe).

It's less a cartoon, and more an angry illustration trying to cut through all the mainstream media crap about how he was a so-called "controversial abortionist."

Here's a quote from a piece by Carol Joffe at RH Reality Check on Tiller's legacy

In simplest terms, many of those who came to George Tiller's clinic for late second or third trimester abortions were women (and their partners) who were carrying much wanted pregnancies that had gone horribly wrong. These were women in many cases who had already set up cribs and had baby showers. Some of these women had fetuses with heartbreaking anomalies, that were discovered only later in pregnancy, such as anencephaly, a lethal birth defect in which most of the brain and parts of the skull are missing. Other women had themselves become very ill in the course of a pregnancy, such as the onset of cancer, which demanded a course of chemotherapy. Tiller, himself a practicing Christian, had set aside a space in his clinic -- a Quiet Room -- for grieving parents, who could if they wished, be counseled by a chaplain on staff, and participate in a baptism or other blessings for the lost pregnancy.

In a perceptive piece written immediately after Tiller's death, the journalist Michelle Goldberg points out the irony that many of the procedures that he performed, for wanted pregnancies that had gone terribly wrong, "are as far away from the much-reviled concept of 'abortion on demand' that one could get... Almost anyone of childbearing age could end up needing Tiller's services."

Barbara Ehrenreich on the real toll of the recession

Ehrenreich has a must-read Op-Ed ("Too Poor to Make the News") on the lazy journalism of the recession, and its obsessive focus on the recession's effects on the rich and middle-class. I particularly love this opening paragaph:

THE human side of the recession, in the new media genre that?s been called ?recession porn,? is the story of an incremental descent from excess to frugality, from ease to austerity. The super-rich give up their personal jets; the upper middle class cut back on private Pilates classes; the merely middle class forgo vacations and evenings at Applebee?s. In some accounts, the recession is even described as the ?great leveler,? smudging the dizzying levels of inequality that characterized the last couple of decades and squeezing everyone into a single great class, the Nouveau Poor, in which we will all drive tiny fuel-efficient cars and grow tomatoes on our porches.

Maybes: APE in San Francisco this year; new LGBT cartoon collection

Masheka and I may go to APE (Alternative Press Expo) on October 17-18 in San Francisco this year. If we do, I plan to put together a collection of my LGBT-themed political cartoons (which I've been meaning to do anyway).

"Free speech" doesn't equal "free from criticism and consequence"

Great post by Barry (which he calls "horribly earnest") about the bigoted radio DJs who called for violence against transgender kids.

My only small quibble is that I don't see why we have to support the pencil manufacturer if we don't like his/her views (why couldn't we buy pencils from someone we like better?) See my cartoon "Victims of Gay Rage" for more on this.

Don't you hate it when thriftiness clashes with politics?

Like when a book is 40% off on Amazon, but you could buy it full price and support a cool progressive bookstore that needs your help? (via @jaclynf and @jennpozner on Twitter)

I'm trying to resolve to buy less often, but put my dollars in more progressive/sustainable places when I do buy. But I'm such a book fiend! (In the end I gritted my cheap teeth and paid the full price to help support the indie bookstore--I can always get the other books that were on my wishlist at the library!)

Reminder: At MOCCA Art Fest this weekend

Masheka and I are at this year's MOCCA Art Festival sharing a table with our Cartoonists With Attitude pal Brian McFadden and the talented Melissa J. Gibson (Made by Melissa). We have mini-comics (new), books (old) and dolls and T-shirts.

Where?
69th Regiment Armory
68 Lexington Avenue, between 25th and 26th Streets

When?
June 6th and 7th, 11am-6pm

Cost?
$10 per day
$15 per weekend
MoCCA Members: $10 per weekend

Back from Europe!

Just got back from a 2-week+ trip to the UK, France and the Netherlands (a "short holiday" by the standards of the guy at passport control, a very long holiday by my sad American standards!) Will be at MOCCA this weekend with Masheka. Was horrified to return to awful news of the assassination of Dr. George Tiller.