Are You In?

You’ve got to hand it to Obummer, his timing’s impeccable. On the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King — and one day before capitulating to the Rightists and allowing military commission trials of Guantanamo detainees — Obummer rolls out his 2012 re-election campaign, complete with a smarmy, grassrootsy video, and asks, “Are You In?”

“Are You In?” Jeezus, what the hell kind of slogan is that? It sounds like the wrapup for a venture capital pitch, like a question asked by some newly-minted Stanford MBA trying to schmooze a few million for his crappy-assed Internet start-up.

The “official” unemployment rate is nailed at around 10%, the foreclosure rate is climbing, bankers are getting fatter than ever, Bush’s tax cuts for the rich are still in place, the healthcare system is still in the hands of corporations, we’re up to our asses in three wars, the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay is still open, our civil liberties are in worse shape than ever, Obummer’s just rolled over for John Boehner on the budget deal — and now Obummer’s got the sheer gall to ask me if I’m “in”.

Like hell I’m “in”. Take a goddamn’ hike, piker.

“Unemployment”, 11×17 color .jpg image, 660kb.
“Foreclosure”, 11×17 color .jpg image, 884kb.
“Guantanamo”, 11×17 color .jpg image, 1mb.
“Drone Strike”, 11×17 color .jpg image, 928kb.
The complete series, 11×17 color .jpg image, 1.1mb.

It's Schwagfest Time!

Happy New Year, gang, and it’s getting to be that time again — that time when every major politician who’s sociopathic enough to want to be El Presidente announces their intentions to run, kicking off the Presidential campaign season for the elections of 2012 — or, as any Democrat will tell you, The Most Important Election Since A Large Disk Of Dust And Proto-Planetary Matter Accumulated Around Our Sun.

This time, though, there’ll be a chance for all you betrayed, irate Lefties out there (or, “purists” and “whiners”, as The Most Progressive President Ever might refer to you) to get the jump on all the Liberal appeasers, Fauxgressives and other assorted Democratic Kool-Aid drinkers out there with this suitably cynical and ironic set of images mocking Shepard Fairey’s iconic 2008 “Hope” poster — available on T-shirts, stickers and fridge magnets, each in nine delicious flavors at the Cartoon Schwag Shop.

T-shirts, $25; 3×5″ stickers, single $4, 10-pack $30; 2×3″ fridge magnets, $5.

Downloadable images, 550 x 905 pixels, 72dpi jpeg:
“Aw, C’mon”, 44kb | “Whiners”, 48kb | “Purists”, 68kb | “Appease”, 68kb | “Centrism”, 64kb | “Pwned”, 68kb | “Compromise”, 64kb | “Caved”, 64kb | “Civility”, 52kb

Decision 2012 (pardon my Herblock)

Oh, gaahhhdddd! Not only another election cartoon, but a cartoon with items metaphorically labeled, old-school! Jeez, I can hear my pal Gregor yelling right now... "Goddammit, Mike! Herblock is DEAD!"

Yeah, y'know... once the election ideas get going, it's pretty much hopeless. The usual Repuglican "stars" are already making noises about running; we're hearing about Sarah Palin possibly running (sigh), and Newt Gingrich (spit) -- and I even heard about Dick Cheney (double spit) on Joe Scarborough's program this morning (triple spit).



OK, granted, 2012...I may be a bit ahead of myself, here, but still... if you check out The One's record of achievement (or lack of same) in just his first year in office, plus the rash of FAIL in the special elections this year, you're looking at a raft of Donkeycratic politicians with a whole fistful of "achievements" pinned to their respective asses, and damn' near little ability to defend them come next year's midterms -- which, by the way, will be held after the Afghanistan debacle's had about a year to soak in.

So, would that be next year's repudiation of last year's repudiation?

11x12" medium-res color jpg image, 556k

2012: They Were Warned

It's the end of the world as they know it...
but they feel fine!

Those of you who've followed my work for any length of time will remember my complaints about the early start of the Presidential "election" cycle (John Edwards announced on Christmas Week, 2006) in the form of the four-part "Jackass Slate for 2008".

So, here it is, at least a year before the "official" start of the 2012 Presidential campaign season, and here I am already doing a '12 Election cartoon. I don't know what else I can say for myself, other than that when the muse visits me, she absolutely refuses to quit pestering me until I've committed a creation to paper. It really was a "perfect storm" of events, recently: we had the epic FAIL of the Obama Administration in the areas of healthcare, the economy, and the war in Afghanistan; the Democrats stumbling in the recent elections in Virginia and elsewhere; the GOP hopefuls for '12 already jockeying for position; Obama's approval rating finally dropping to a level representative of normal objective reality; the ominous spectre of a sound butt-paddling for the Democrats in the 2010 off-year elections -- and a movie just out about the end of the world in 2012, which was pretty much the icing on the conceptual cake.

Now, I'm not into clairvoyance or prophecy or any of that woo-woo, but the events of the past year -- most notably the healthcare "reform" debacle -- had gotten me to thinking that at least in one respect, the Mayans may have been on to something...



Medium-res .jpg image, color, 1mb