A Telling Chart
Saturday, February 26th, 2011 by Jen SorensenFrom ThinkProgress, about news coverage of Affordable Care Act rulings (click for full size):
That danged liberal media strikes again!
Archive for the 'Media' Category
Ignorance is Bliss
Monday, January 10th, 2011 by Ted Rall
Same old, same old, every night. Why bother to keep informed?
2011 Headlines
Thursday, December 23rd, 2010 by Cronjob
I’m driving out to Pennsylvania in a few minutes, and my internet situation could be spotty over the holidays, so I’m posting tomorrow’s cartoon today. It’s a Xmas miracle!
This cartoon has created a philosophical dilemma for me. I can’t decide if being molested by a monkey is worse or better than being groped by a human. The diaper seems to counteract the authority of the armband. This is what I’ll be thinking about as I slog westward on I-84 this afternoon.
Next Week: Obama’s Concession Stand
SYNDICATED COLUMN: WikiLeaks: The Devils We Know
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 by Ted RallCables Reveal Background of Pro-Dictator U.S. Policy
After the Soviet collapse in 1991 U.S. policy toward Central Asia was transparently cynical: support the dictators, screw the people.
As the U.S. stood by and watched, corrupt autocrats looted the former Soviet republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Dissidents were jailed, massacred—even boiled.
Well, actually, the U.S. was anything but passive. They negotiated deals for oil and gas pipelines. They rented airbases after 9/11. They poured in tens of millions of American tax dollars—all of which wound up in secret bank accounts belonging to the dictators and their families. Meanwhile, average citizens lived in abject poverty.
During trips to Central Asia the locals constantly ask me: “Why doesn’t America stop supporting [insert name of corrupt dictator here] so we can kill him and free ourselves?”
Poor, naïve people. They believe our rhetoric. They think we like democracy. Actually, we’re all about the looting. Dictators are easier to deal with than parliaments. One handshake and a kickback, that’s all you need with a dictator.
Central Asia only had one democratically elected president, Askar Akayev of Kyrgyzstan. George W. Bush ordered the CIA to depose him in a coup.
Americans who care about human rights have long wondered: Is the State Department stupid and/or naïve? Or did the diplomats in Tashkent and other capitals of unspeakable misery understand the brutal and vile nature of Central Asia’s authoritarian leaders?
An examination of the WikiLeaks data dump answers that question: Yes.
Hell yes.
Like those from concerning more prominent countries, the WikiLeaks cables on the Central Asian republics can be funny. President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, a U.S. “ally in the war on terror” who seized power in a palace coup following the death of Saparmurat “Turkmenbashi” Niyazov, is described as “the ‘decider’ for the state of Turkmenistan.” This is true. Turkmenistan is an absolute dictatorship in which millions starve while Berdimuhamedov’s inner circle feasts on the profits from the world’s largest reserves of natural gas.
A December 2009 cable describes America’s pet autocrat as “vain, suspicious, guarded, strict, very conservative, a practiced liar, ‘a good actor,’ and vindictive.”
According to an unnamed source, the outwardly conservative dictator has a Russian mistress named Marina, with whom he has a 14-year-old daughter. Though Berdy’s power may be limitless, his intellect is not. “Berdimuhamedov does not like people who are smarter than he is,” says the cable. “Since he’s not a very bright guy, our source offered, he is suspicious of a lot of people.”
No one’s perfect. Least of all America’s allies in Central Asia.
On the other side of the steppe in Kazakhstan, President Nursultan Nazarbayev presides over the world’s largest oil reserves with an iron fist. Among his greatest hits: the convenient “suicides” of his top two political opponents a few months before a presidential “election.” The two men apparently shot themselves in the back of the head, then bound their own hands behind their backs and dropped into a ditch outside Almaty.
Needless to say, Nazarbayev is another valuable U.S. ally in the war on terror.
But that doesn’t stop American gossip. Nazarbayev’s defense minister, says an embassy staffer in Astana, “appears to enjoy loosening up in the tried and true ‘homo sovieticus’ style—i.e., drinking oneself into a stupor.” But alcoholism isn’t illegal. Graft is—and the president is public enemy number one.
“In 2007, President Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, celebrated his 41st birthday in grand style,” explains an April 2008 cable. “At a small venue in Almaty, he hosted a private concert with some of Russia’s biggest pop stars. The headliner, however, was Elton John, to whom he reportedly paid one million pounds for this one-time appearance.” How did he come up with all that coin? “Timur Kulibayev is currently the favored presidential son-in-law, on the Forbes 500 list of billionaires (as is his wife separately), and the ultimate controller of 90% of the economy of Kazakhstan,” states a January 2010 missive.
Membership has its privileges. The U.S. has never spoken out against corruption or human rights abuses in Kazakhstan.
So it’s clear: American diplomats have no illusions about their brutal allies. Interestingly, Central Asia’s overlords have a dismally accurate view of corruption in the U.S. government.
“Listen, almost everyone at the top [of the Kazakh regime] is confused,” First Vice President Maksat Idenov told the U.S. ambassador to Kazakhstan early this year. “They’re confused by the corrupt excesses of capitalism. ‘If Goldman Sachs executives can make $50 million a year and then run America’s economy in Washington, what’s so different about what we do?’ they ask.”
No response was provided.
(Ted Rall is the author of “The Anti-American Manifesto.” His website is tedrall.com.)
COPYRIGHT 2010 TED RALL
My Day at the Tea Party
Wednesday, April 14th, 2010 by Kevin Moore
Boston’s socialist Common was occupied by the Tea Party today to protest socialism and melanin. I stopped by for a couple hours and soaked up the stupid.
There were a decent amount of people there, probably a couple thousand, but I’d guess half were rubberneckers like myself or counter-protesters. Even if you lump us all in the same count, it was nowhere near the size of the Iraq War protest seven (!) years ago.
More pictures after the jump!
There was a little row of booths selling dumb t-shirts and even dumber ideas. The “Don’t Tread On Me” flags seemed to be the biggest sellers.
I have no objection to the sausage stand. Those things are good.
Well dummy, I’d stop calling you that if you wrote down some informed, intelligent shit.
The “Y” is stuck in his (her?) armpit, but I think “I AM ANGR” is a much better slogan for the Tea Party movement.
You can hang a rape whistle on your wallet chain to stop that from happening.
Yeah, media! WHERE ARE YOU? Too afraid to cover their TRUTH?
Oh, there you are, pointing your cameras at their dumb faces instead of fact-checking any of the stupid shit they say.
And that reason was protesting the extra tines Britain added to our forks.
Going Galt is the new slang for getting some fried dough.
This is the best photo of Palin I could get. Minutes after getting driven right up to the stage, she gave her usual rambling, incoherent version of a speech. When she was done, she hopped right off the stage and her motorcade was out of there.
The other speakers were just as bad. Some local talk-radio nobodies bitching about Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and some guy named Barack Hussein.
There were many flavors of counter-protesters too.
Some had obviously fake signs like this guy. But check out the sign in the background to the left. He must mean there is not enough time to give all the liberals hugs. He couldn’t mean anything violent, right?
These folks marched and shouted among the tight Tea Party crowd while Palin was jabbering about freedom and big, bad gubbamint.
And these folks politely stood off towards the back.
There was only one instance were things seemed to get a little tense. These guys were standing in front of this trailer teabaggers could sign. It was like the Declaration of Dumdependence…ON WHEELS!
And one of the Tea Party organizers took offense, initiating the lamest and least threatening stare-down I’ve ever seen:
Overall, it was a peaceful event. A peaceful mouth-breathing, selfish, xenophobic, war-mongering event.
I posted a few more photos on Flickr, if you’d like to see some more dumb stuff.
Nondeductible Charities
Friday, April 9th, 2010 by Kevin Moore
Here are some jokes for tax time.
I have nothing especially long-winded to write about them, so I’ll use this space to ask you to please consider buying the BFW book, Fun Stuff for Dum-Dums. It’s a bargain and goes a long way in keeping me in business as newspapers continue to struggle at figuring their shit out. And a big sloppy, wet thanks to everyone who’s already bought it!
I’m still in the early stages of planning new BFW t-shirts. A busy April and May probably means I won’t be making any decisions until June, so if you have any input, send it my way!
Belated news about original art. BFW has been all digital for over six months now, so there’s a limited supply of bristol board inked with my dick and fart jokes.
Next Week: Going Green Guide
New Fads for the New Year
Friday, January 8th, 2010 by Kevin Moore
Flagpole sitting was a real thing, and every time I read about it, that dumb song from the Peep Show intro pops into my head.
Sadly, the last panel reflects my own philosophy towards covering politics in the comic strip. Even though I’m primarily a dick & fart jokesmith, I am deeply shamed to have something in common with the mainstream media.
If you already think I’m a dick, you should see how I interact with chuggers. Man, I hate those fucks. I’m a cartoonist covered in hair. Do I look like I have money?
Now I’ll be a bit of a hypocrite and do some chugging of my own. “Hello stranger! Let me be inappropriately friendly with you for a minute. Do you have a second to check out the BFW store? Or what about signing up for my VERY IMPORTANT UPDATES through Twitter and Facebook?”
“You, don’t?” Turn on passive-aggressive stink-eyes of hate. “That’s cool. Have a great day!”
Next Week: Crappy Electronics Show
Publicity Stunts for the War in Afghanistan
Friday, October 30th, 2009 by Kevin Moore
Consider this the companion piece to this cartoon. In another three years, when these two quagmires are still dragging on, I might do another comic where they team up in a drug-fueled raunchy comedy, kind of like Harold and Kumar.
A couple helicopter crashes and Michael Hoh resigning have improved things a bit this week, but Afghanistan has never gotten much attention. We can blame the media for some of it, but let’s not pretend that Americans have a deep thirst for knowledge that’s being stifled by the likes of Fox News. We’s a bunch of morons! The fate of Balloon Boy captivated the nation, but when it comes to foreign children getting blown up by Predator drones, we couldn’t give two shits.
I’m not excusing myself either. I love being a big ol’ ignorant goofball making fart jokes. I sleep better that way. If you want far more regular coverage of this mess, colleagues like Ted Rall, Kevin Moore, and Matt Bors are a better bet. (Sorry I didn’t link to anyone else, but my fart jokes don’t write themselves!)
And yeah, I created a Twitter account for Afghanistan War. I doubt it’ll get as much attention from me as the Tweeting Toaster.
Next Week: Internet Knockoffs
Future Pundit Prospectus
Friday, October 16th, 2009 by Kevin Moore
I started out with a cartoon mocking Glenn Beck, but my mind drifted off into absurd areas and my raging hatred of Cokie Roberts and Peggy Noonan.
Next Week: Halloween Tips n’ Tricks
Toon: Movies for Ladies!
Wednesday, July 15th, 2009 by Mikhaela Reid
Click to enlarge
Cause men! and women! are DIFFERENT! in HILARIOUS ways! More on this topic later.
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Mikhaela B. Reid * Angry Cartoonist
boilingpointcartoon@mac.com * http://www.boilingpointcartoon.com
Mikhaela B. Reid * Angry Cartoonist
boilingpointcartoon@mac.com * http://www.boilingpointcartoon.com
http://twitter.com/m1khaela
• “ATTACK OF THE 50-FOOT MIKHAELA!” by Mikhaela Reid, with foreword by Ted Rall. http://www.lulu.com/content/781402
Join my update list by sending a blank message to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net!
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