I hate whoring for amazon… but please go pre-order my book… every sale helps.
Last weekend was amazing. Stumptown was a blast. I’m still overwhelmed by the experience. The only down side is that I think now I’m getting sick… blech.
I’ve been meaning to do a strip about those damned airport TVs for some time now, and this week seemed especially appropriate since I’ve been logging some serious time in airports lately. I know I said I was going to blog about the tour, complete with pictures, but I’ve just been too busy and tired. It occurred to me today how many different modes of transportation I’ve taken in the past week — planes, trains, automobiles, buses, light rail, subway. The only things I haven’t ridden are a horse and a segway. Oh, okay, I guess I haven’t been on a bike or motorcycle. I’ll work on that.
So yeah, I hate those TVs. Reader Greg in PA wrote in summarizing the situation nicely:
Those horrible gigantic flat panel TV’s tuned to CNN or Fox are a menace. I dread going to the doctor or dentist not due to the medical procedure, but because I know I will be forced to listen to a talking head idiot yelling at me for hours in the waiting room. You feel like Winston Smith in Orwell’s 1984 with the propaganda forced on you from a flat panel display in every room. At least they can’t see you through the display, yet.
Just a couple weeks ago I had to get an x-ray at one of the University of Virginia health system outposts, and lo and behold there was a TV blaring FOX News in the waiting room. I couldn’t believe it. Isn’t that antithetical to the calming environment that’s supposed to be the norm in doctors’ offices? The story was something gratuitous about a Muslim cab driver in New York (I didn’t catch the details because I was filling out a form and trying not to listen). But it was clearly bashing the cabbie for something he did, and it was getting some people in the waiting room riled up against “those people.” Probably not the best atmosphere for lowering the blood pressure of any patient who happens to look like “those people.” Later that evening I spent an hour trying to track down the e-mail address of an appropriate honcho to complain to, but no luck. It’s still on my very long to-do list.
I usually think it’s pretty lame when people post pictures of their pets on their blogs.
Except, y’know, when I do it…
Seriously, how freakin’ cute is this:
Click the image to see the full cartoon.
And the full explanation for it.
Tags: incontempt, judge arthur cooperman, sean bell, racism, police state
Trophy Awards….
Sat night were the Trophy Awards at the Stumptown Comics Fest.
We gave out awards….
Last night a bunch of us went out to dinner with Nicholas Gurewitch of Perry Bible Fellowship.
He hung from a pole.
cross-posted at ACLU blog
My latest Civil Discourse comic tackles the government’s “Terrorist Watch List” which has almost million names. Who’s on it? Toddlers, dead people, congressmen, and Iraq War vets. You know, the people most likely to harm America. See the ACLU’s watch list counter for more info.
Common names like “Robert Johnson” are listed without specific details. So far, 12 Robert Johnsons report being interrogated at airports. In an attempt to find the elusive John William Anderson they detained a six year old. Sometimes you really can be too careful.
The artist formerly known as Cat Stevens changed his name to Yusuf Islam. That’s too Islam-y for the government so he’s on the list as well. (He should change it to an unpronounceable symbol, like Prince did, just to mess with them). Were he to be allowed on a flight, the coach section could spontaneously break out into a rendition of “Peace Train.” The airline industry is suffering enough. We don’t need anyone reminding them of trains at this point–especially peaceful ones.
If you’re in the area, please come to this upcoming event, and please spread the word:
3 p.m. Sunday, May 4
Kick-ass, controversial cartoonist Stephanie McMillan will present a multi-media extravaganza (that’s fancy talk for a Powerpoint slide show) of her latest “Minimum Security? comic strips (syndicated online 5 days per week by United Media), scenes from her new graphic novel “As the World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial? (created with writer Derrick Jensen), plus a humorous and inspirational discussion about global warming, the Evil System, and resistance.
Bear and Bird Boutique + Gallery
upstairs at Tate’s Comics+Toys+Videos+More
4566 N. University Drive, Lauderhill (between Oakland Park Blvd. and Commercial Blvd.)
954-748-0181
www.bearandbird.com
www.tatescomics.com
Free!
Click here for a flyer:
http://www.tatescomics.com/Images/Special%20Events/Resistance/RtRflyer.gif
From the back cover of “As the World Burns”:
“…a hilarious satire and a passionate wake-up call that will inspire you to do whatever it takes to stop ecocide before it’s too late.”
“We think our simple solutions to the Earth’s problems are helping, but As The World Burns shows that they’re just distracting us from the terrifying truth. Jensen and McMillan unflinchingly confront these pressing issues, and their book is really funny, too….To a wild future!”
–Andy Hurley, drummer for Fall Out Boy
“Visionary and honest, As the World Burns offers a compelling yet brutal assessment of the state of the planet–and the state of mind of its most destructive tenants. It is a great read, a groundbreaking volume of graphic literature and a political polemic of the first order.”
– Ted Rall, Silk Road to Ruin
If you are familiar with flock, then feel free to ignore this post. I am testing its blog posting features. My friend/colleague/fellow theory monkey Allie got me curious about flock, a web browser designed for managing all the social software tools that one can’t seem to live without these days.
It’s actually pretty handy to have a sidebar that allows you to hop from email to blog to facebook to flickr to whatever and back again. But does making access more convenient to the various ways we can waste time really make our lives more meaningful? Is that question even relevant?
Anyhoo, I’m testing to see if it’ll make it easier to post to both my livejournal and wordpress blogs.
Tags: blogging, information tools, flock, social software
THIS WEEK’S SYNDICATED COLUMN: ARREST BUSH
Bush Confesses to Waterboarding. Call D.C. Cops!
“Why are we talking about this in the White House?” John Ashcroft nervously asked his fellow members of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee. (The Principals were Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General Ashcroft.)
“History will not judge this kindly,” Ashcroft predicted.
“This” is torture. Against innocent people. Conducted by CIA agents and American soldiers and marines. Sanctioned by legal opinions issued by Ashcroft’s Justice Department. Directly ordered by George W. Bush.
An April 11th report by ABC News describes how CIA agents, asked by previous presidents to carry out illegal “black ops” actions (torture and killings), had become tired of getting hung out to dry whenever their dirty deeds were revealed by the press. When the Bush Administration asked the CIA to work over prisoners captured in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere, Director George Tenet demanded legal cover. The Justice Department complied by issuing a classified 2002 memo, the so-called “Golden Shield,” authored by Office of Legal Counsel Jay Bybee. “Enhanced interrogation techniques”–i.e., torture–were legal, Bybee assured the CIA.
Tenet was a good boss, a CYA type. He wanted to protect his agents. So he got the Principals to personally sign off on each act of torture.
“According to a former CIA official involved in the process,” ABC reported, “CIA headquarters would receive cables from operatives in the field asking for authorization for specific techniques.” Can we beat up this guy? Can we waterboard him?
The Bushies weren’t otherwise known for dwelling on details. Osama was in Pakistan; they invaded Afghanistan instead. Two years later, he was still in Pakistan. They invaded Iraq. Bush and his top officials still found time to walk through every step of torment a detainee would suffer in some CIA dungeon halfway around the world.
“The high-level discussions about these ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ were so detailed, [Bush Administration] sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed–down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic. These top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top Al Qaeda suspects–whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding, sources told ABC news.”
Bush knew.
Not only did he know, he personally approved it. He likes torture.
“Yes, I’m aware our national security team met on this issue,” he confirmed. “And I approved.”
When the U.S. signs a treaty, its provisions carry the full force of U.S. law. One such treaty is the U.N. Convention Against Torture, of which the U.S. is a core signatory. As Philippe Sands writes in his new book “Torture Team:” Parties to the…Convention are required to investigate any person who is alleged to have committed torture. If appropriate, they must then prosecute–or extradite the person to a place where he will be prosecuted. The Torture Convention…criminalizes any act that constitutes complicity or participation in torture. Complicity or participation could certainly be extended not only to the politicians and but also the lawyers involved…”
George W. Bush has publicly confessed that he ordered torture, thus violating the Convention Against Torture. He, Cheney, Rumseld, Rice and the other Principals must therefore be arrested and, unlike the thousands of detainees kidnapped by the U.S. since 9/11, arraigned and placed on trial.
Because the torture ordered by Bush and his cabinet directly resulted in death, they must additionally be charged with several counts of murder. Fifteen U.S. soldiers have been charged with the murders of two detainees at the U.S. airbase at Bagram, Afghanistan in 2002. They were following orders issued by their Commander-in-Chief and his Principals.
One of the Bagram victims was Dilawar, a 22-year-old Afghan taxi driver. “On the day of his death,” reported The New York Times on May 22, 2005, “Dilawar had been chained by the wrists to the top of his cell for much of the previous four days. A guard tried to force the young man to his knees. But his legs, which had been pummeled by guards for several days, could no longer bend…Several hours passed before an emergency room doctor finally saw Mr. Dilawar. By then he was dead, his body beginning to stiffen. It would be many months before Army investigators learned a final horrific detail: Most of the interrogators had believed Mr. Dilawar was an innocent man who simply drove his taxi past the American base at the wrong time.”
At least four detainees have committed suicide at the torture camp created by George W. Bush after 9/11 at Guantánamo Bay. Twenty-five more made 41 unsuccessful attempts to kill themselves. The conditions of their confinement–ordered by Bush and his Principals–constitutes torture. It no doubt prompted their deaths.
If George W. Bush were an ordinary citizen, there can be little doubt that he would face a long prison sentence for the scores of acts of torture he authorized both specifically and generally. Four of the seven white hillbillies charged with the kidnap-torture of a black woman in Logan County, West Virginia are now in jail for at least the next ten years.
If Bush weren’t president, he would face murder charges. The maximum sentence in a federal murder case is death.
If Bush and his co-conspirators are not above the law, if the United States remains a nation where all citizens are equal, they must be arrested and indicted. But by whom?
The Supreme Court has never resolved the question of whether a sitting president can be arrested by civilian authorities. Even if he were charged and convicted, many legal experts say he could issue himself a pardon.
However, leaving the presidency in the hands of an self-admitted torture killer is unacceptable. Congress could ask a U.S. Marshal to arrest Bush as part of impeachment charges. But the ultimate outcome–removing him from office a few months before the end of his term–seems woefully inadequate given the nature of the charges. In any case, Democrats have already said that impeachment is “off the table.”
Bush could be extradited to one of the countries where the torture and murders were committed–such as Afghanistan or Cuba. But he could claim immunity as a head of state.
There is, however, a person who could begin holding Bush and the others accountable for their crimes.
She is Cathy L. Lanier, the 39-year-old chief of D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department. Chief Lanier, take note: you have probable cause to arrest a self-confessed serial torturer and mass murderer within the borders of the District of Columbia. He resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Go get him.
History is calling, Chief Lanier. Your city, and your country, needs you.
COPYRIGHT 2008 TED RALL
If you like my work, please nominate me for a Lulu Award! The Friends of Lulu encourage women to participate in the comics industry. I’m entering for my work on “As the World Burns.”
Nominations can be made by non-members, and those with the most nominations will get onto a ballot for a final vote (which is only open to members).
Here’s the nomination form: http://www.friends-lulu.org/awards08nomform.php (put your name where it says “member” — don’t worry if you’re not one), or you can email it to board@friends-lulu.org. Please specify that the category you’re nominating me for is “Lulu of the Year.”
The deadline is May 15.
