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Political Cartoon of the Week: Beck Followers Are Morons

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Health care reform is a bfd....

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Lady Liberty SOLD to Citizens United

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Update: Obama Photo Linked to Cartoon

If you haven't yet read it, click here to read the story about the cartoon published by The New York Post today. The cartoon, seen below, has become a major controversy, not only nationally, but internationally. Thanks to the right-wing owned Post (Rupert Murdoch), America is looking like a less than decent place to live. A place where the 44th president is in fact, depicted as a very dead and rabid chimpanzee.
On the Huffington Post, Sam Stein reports that in the actual newspaper today, the cartoon page was preceded by a page with an image of President Obama signing the stimulus bill, as seen below.

In the page preceding a New York Post cartoon that depicts drafters of the stimulus legislation as a gun-downed chimpanzee, the paper published a large photo of Barack Obama signing that very piece of legislation.

And according to The New York Times, a newsroom employee at the Post reported a major backlash via telephone. The employee also indicated that many Post staff members were themselves upset.

A newsroom employee at The Post, who spoke on condition of anonymity because employees were not permitted to comment on the matter, said its newsroom received many calls of complaints on Wednesday morning after the publication of the cartoon. “Every line was lit up for several hours,” the employee said. “The phones on the city desk have never rung like that before.”

On my earlier story, Lyn (see below for more info on Lyn) left a comment as to her opinion. It is a comment, the content of which, has been echoed across the net today by many other right wingers. And it is a load of unadulterated crap. Bolding is mine, comment is Lyn's:

NO it does not imply violence against any elected official. It's just a cartoon.
Mr. Delonas has free speech rights. His cartoon makes a critical assessment of the frenzied politics that gave us the Obama stimulus/fraud package.
There is no racism in this cartoon. Get over it people. It's a cartoon.

Oh please, darlin', let's just briefly examine the 'parody' parallel. According to the  NY Post Editor in Chief,  "It was a clear parody of..."

So, a chimp on Xanax, in an unprovoked attack, almost kills a woman and has to be shot and killed by police  = legislators and/or the President writing the stimulus legislation.

Yeah! I get it! That's a REAL KNEE-SLAPPER! I bet the woman who had her face ripped off by the chimp might have a thing or two to say about that!

And hey, that doesn't even address the issue of how black Americans have traditionally been portrayed as apes or ape-like in political cartoons for too damn many years. This sort of transparent racist ugliness is just another disgusting addition to a series dating back to the days of slavery in America.

Furthermore, and most importantly, the depiction of violence perpetrated on a rabid chimpanzee equated with either the President or with our legislators, is completely sick and inappropriate, and has not got a damn thing to do with free speech! Remember "incitement to violence"? 

Cartoon Depicting the President as a Dead Chimp Published by the New York Post

 

For Update No. 1, click here.

:: The cartoon depicts a dead and bleeding chimp, shot by two policemen. It is purportedly referring to the incident in Connecticut, where a pet chimp attacked a woman, and was subsequently killed by authorities.

However, it has overt racial implications, and implies violence against the president. It is completely disgusting so far as I am concerned, and the Post should be held responsible for attempting to incite violence against the president.

The Reverend Al Sharpton had this to say:

The cartoon in today's New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that "Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?

Meanwhile, the New York Post Editor-in-Chief Col Allanhas responded to the fury engendered by the cartoon, albeit inappropriately, in my view:

The cartoon is a clear parody of a current news event, to wit the shooting of a violent chimpanzee in Connecticut. It broadly mocks Washington's efforts to revive the economy. Again, Al Sharpton reveals himself as nothing more than a publicity opportunist.

What do you think about the intent of the Post?
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IPD Random Politics Weekly - February 1, 2009

Cartoon by Dan Wasserman

 

Where's the loyalty? Phil Gingrey, in his short-lived blast @ Rush Limbaugh, thoroughly emasculated in front of the world. The two GOP tools he was defending, John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, watched without lifting the proverbial finger. Gingrey is forced to apologize to Limbaugh. McConnell and Boehner are completely pathetic asses. [H/T Jason Linkins]

Johnny and Rush -  John McCain, who has long loved to call himself bipartisan, and sure as hell shoved it down our throats falsely when campaigning, stands up for NO. 1 GOP partisan, Rush Limbaugh in his assholishness towards President Obama.
McCain.YOU.SUCK. Limbaugh.YOU.SUCK.MORE.

The Dems and the business tax cuts -  Give it up. The partisan Repugs are not holding out a vote, they are holding out forked, sharp sticks. Take the damn business tax cuts back out, and tell 'em to screw themselves. We have a freaking majority. Use that power. Repugs = IRRELEVANT.

President Obama, and the 111th Congress -  Wall Street needs to understand that they can not take taxpayer money and then proceed to do business as freaking usual. Make them take back those bonuses and put someone in place to monitor their every idiotic move. You owe it to us. The American taxpayers. Really. DO. IT. 2012 is approaching.

That's it for this week, unless you have something to add via a comment.

Political News Summary, Monday, January 5, 2009

:: IPD Daily Political Cartoon Find.

Gary Wasserman, the Boston Globe
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:: Update on the Coleman-Franken senate race.

Political News Summary - Tuesday, December 16, 2008

:: IPD Daily Cartoon Find.

 
Bob Lang/It's only money

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