New Toon: War Marketeers!

Inspired by a quote from a recent New York Times piece, "Civilian Casualties Undermine Allies' War on Taliban":

The subject of civilian casualties was the source of intense discussion on Wednesday in Brussels when the NATO secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, met with the North Atlantic Council, the top representatives of the coalition. But the conversation was less about how to reduce casualties, according to participants, than about how to explain them to European governments.

And...

“If your mortars are not getting you out, you call in close air support and that will be less precise,” said one senior American official who follows the action in Afghanistan closely. “We know that the Taliban hide in villages. The job that we have not done as well is making it clear to European publics that it’s the Taliban who are exploiting the civilians.”

In other words: we don't need to try harder to avoid killing, torturing and bombing the crap out civilians, we just need to spin it better!

Read more after the jump...

New Toons: Abstinence Education, Shock Prez + Apocalypse Bob

A new federal study shows that abstinence education has no effect whatsoever on delaying sexual activity. Shocking!

Also, there really is a (comedy) movie called Killer Condom: The Rubber That Rubs You Out, though I haven't seen it myself. OK, so maybe New York charging cars $8 to cut down on pollution and traffic and improve public transport won't stave off environmental apocalypse, but it's a start. (Personally, I'd rather see NO personal cars in the city—maybe then I'd be brave enough to take my bike into Manhattan!). A sequel to 2005's "Sick Confessions of a Serial Bomber!" I did it before I went away on vacation, and it already feels pretty dated. Ah well.

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

P.P.S. My first book collection, Attack of the 50-Foot Mikhaela!, goes on sale in just a few short weeks!

Read more after the jump...

Three new toons: Trans workplace discrimination, NYPD spies & predatory credit-card lenders

My goodness, I don't know what I was thinking but I did three this week (four if you count one for Lambda Legal that will be up soon)! Yikes! Here we go:

This cartoon was inspired by the recent re-firing of longtime Largo, Florida City Manager Steve Stanton after Stanton announced he planned to transition to life as a woman and change his name to Susan. (I only say "he" because Stanton is, as I understand it, still using that pronoun for now.) I say "re-firing" because the Largo City Commission held a hearing after its initial discriminatory decision to fire Stanton, and made the same bad decision again despite testimony in his favor.

Stanton's firing is far from unusual, so I decided to make the cartoon about anti-transgender workplace discrimination in general, rather than focus on that case. I'm not sure how many people realize that in most places in this country, employers are legally permitted to fire transgender and gay employees on the basis of their gender identity or sexual orientation. We need a national ENDA (employment non-discrimination act) and now!

I haven't seen the new documentary "Maxed Out" yet, but I did just read a terrifying must-read investigative series in the Boston Globe, "Debtor's Hell: Preying on Red-Ink America", that takes a close look at unscrupulous debt collection practices.

Finally, it came out in the New York Times last week that the NYPD spent tons of time and money placing spies in non-violent peace groups around the country before the 2004 RNC. The cartoon was inspired by this bit:

Marco Ceglie, who performs as Monet Oliver dePlace in Billionaires for Bush, said he had suspected that the group was under surveillance by federal agents — not necessarily police officers — during weekly meetings in a downtown loft and at events around the country in the summer of 2004.

“It was a running joke that some of the new faces were 25- to 32-year-old males asking, ‘First name, last name?’ ” Mr. Ceglie said. “Some people didn’t care; it bothered me and a couple of other leaders, but we didn’t want to make a big stink because we didn’t want to look paranoid. We applied to the F.B.I. under the Freedom of Information Act to see if there’s a file, but the answer came back that ‘we cannot confirm or deny.’ ”

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

Read more after the jump...

New Toon: The Addict & the Enabler

I have nothing against Nancy Pelosi, but I totally disagree with her decision to push through that "anti-war" war funding bill. Congress has the power to stop this war right now if it wants to by refusing to fund it. It's nice that the spending bill includes a pullout date, but the pullout date is in September 2008, more than a year away. How many more Americans and Iraqis will be dead by then? How many more billions will we have spent on an unjust and evil war--billions that could have gone to education, health care, social services, fighting poverty, battling AIDS, you name it... ? Why are the supposedly anti-war Democrats giving Bush even that much more time to mess up Iraq, now that they finally admit how wrong this whole mess has been?

All of this seems to be wrapped up in the idea that sending more troops to die is the best way to support the troops. If you believe the war is wrong, that makes no sense. Refusing to fund the war isn't refusing to support the troops--a bill could be written that would fund only a pullout, no?

P.S. I know, I know. I realize I'm just angry and griping and idealistic, and Pelosi is just doing what she has to do, and they're aren't enough votes for an earlier pullout and Bush is most likely going to veto this thing anyway. But I'm still frustrated with the entire Congress--the vast majority of Americans have been against the war for some time now, but instead of a pullout all we've gotten is a surge.

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

Read more after the jump...

New Toon: Supporting the Troops, the Bush Way

For some of my older toons on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, see "Patriotism, Pentagon-Style" and "Letters of the Law". It's always struck me as particularly painful that under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, LGB service members can't communicate honestly and openly with their sweethearts for fear of being outed.

For another recent cartoon on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, see August, and for another one on the conditions at Walter Reed, see Matt.

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

Read more after the jump...

New Toon: "Dick Cheney's Magic Universe"

Dick Cheney's bizarre insistence that the war is going well makes even less sense than the weird stories I used to tell my extensive collection of My Little Ponies as a child.

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

Read more after the jump...