(Images moved here.)
Lifted from TBogg, who is always worth reading.
Huh?
Bush said it’s important to celebrate a “peaceful transfer of power” and that he suspects inauguration guests have been generous in donating to tsunami victims. “You can be equally concerned about our troops in Iraq and those who suffered at the tsunamis with celebrating democracy,” he said.
Peaceful transfer of power?
He, uh, does know that he’s been president for the past four years, right?
Story, via Greg. And speaking of the inauguration, both Greg and Bob have noted that…
Parade performers will have security escorts to the bathroom, and they’ve been ordered not to look directly at President Bush or make any sudden movements while passing the reviewing stand.
Celebrate democracy — but no eye contact please! It might disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Classic
Hat tip: reader Nick.
Looking ahead
The Christmas ornaments were pretty last-minute this year. We’re hoping to give ourselves much more lead time for the next holiday season. Right now, the ornaments under consideration are Sparky and Blinky with full bodies (not just heads) — Blinky with a scarf, and Sparky with or without a Santa suit. And a third, more limited ornament, for those of you who remember Wilbur the Talking Stomach and his untimely demise — a glittery Wilbur angel, complete with wings. (If we actually produce that one, I might as well retire, because it’s hard to imagine that I will ever achieve anything stranger.)
Anyway, we’re still in the planning stages, so I’m open to requests. What TMW chotchkes and/or ornaments would you be likely to purchase in large quantities and proudly display? (One thing I’m pushing for is a child-safe plush doll, largely because a 19-month old of my acquaintance is quite taken with Sparky.)
…And before some tedious stick-in-the-mud starts whining about “selling out” — the Christmas ornaments this year represented about .00000002% of my 2004 income. I’m working on this stuff because it genuinely amuses me, not because it’s making me rich, ha ha, rich beyond dreams of avarice. Though as I’ve stated before, that’s certainly one of my main goals in life. And I think I’ve clearly chosen the most obvious career path toward that objective. (Astonishingly, I do occasionally get email from readers who berate me for not presenting a conservative or moderate/right point of view — my motivation for this omission, apparently, being the extreme marketability of left-wing cartoons. One thing you learn, doing work in public, is that — well, that this cartoon was not far off the mark.)
Sometimes I even scare myself
In last week’s cartoon, I suggest, in my usual over-the-top satirical way, that conservatives will soon be using the tsunami to push their Social Security agenda (“Speaking of tsunami relief — this tragedy clearly highlights the need to reform the Social Security system — before IT is wiped out — by a FINANCIAL TSUNAMI!”)
The typical reader, upon encountering this panel, undoubtedly set the newspaper down, took a sip of coffee, and mused, “Amusing, yes, but in an overstated kind of way. No actual conservative would really be so blatant and thoughtless!”
And I would have agreed, until I received the following email:
On the ABC News program “This Week,” Dr. Frist said that a “huge demographic tidal wave” would hit the program in 2008, when the first baby boomers reach the age of 62 and can obtain benefits, reduced for early retirement.
Nice job, but please try to improve your performance – I’d like two know what the right-wing nutjobs are saying TWO weeks in advance.
I’ve said this many times, but it’s really hard to stay ahead as a satirist these days. I did a cartoon awhile back for the American Prospect in which a psychotic right winger is shouting at a timid liberal (I know, hard concept to visualize, but just go with it). I was looking back through my TAP files to see if there were any evergreens I could resize and keep in my backup folder, to use for my weekly strip in case I’m ever laid up some week — and I noticed that in this wacky satire, written a couple of years back, I have my outrageous conservative saying, “I suppose YOU want to CODDLE the terrorists, DON’T YOU? Well, I think we should STRAP THEM DOWN and TORTURE THEM!” (Or something close to that — I’m paraphrasing from memory.) This was written before the Abu Ghraib revelations. It was meant as over-the-top satire, a ludicrous exaggeration. Once again, reality outpaced satire. What once seemed unthinkable is now commonplace.