Death Race 2011

My Cartoon Movement comrades from outside the USA can certainly be forgiven for being so caught up in the recent FIFA bribery scandal that they may have missed this bit of even more appalling news from Bahrain concerning FIA, the governing body for Formula One racing, and its recent decision to go ahead with the Bahrain Grand Prix, which had been cancelled in March owing to a problem with widespread mass peoples’ uprisings.

Even more galling was a gleeful Bahraini racing officlal quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that “stability has returned” after the uprisings had been brutally crushed, and was practically wetting his pants with delight to hear FIA’s decision.

That’s right, folks — mass popular uprisings in Bahrain have finally been violently suppressed by the Bahraini police and military with the help of Saudi troops using weapons sold to them by Barack Obama, and now that that unpleasantness is out of the way… gentlemen, start your engines!*

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*Yeah, yeah, I know…they don’t say “gentlemen, start your engines” in Formula One. Just a bit of artistic license. Gimme a break.

Sarah Palin: Rolling Blunder

Normally, lately, I’ve avoided doing cartoons about the current crop of GOP politicians because I think people like Sarah Palin are a distraction and a sideshow, and because I think the Democratic Party is the more serious threat to the Left in this country and thus far more deserving of a good skewering. Still, when Sarah Palin kicked off her Making Up My Mind Whether Or Not To Run For President Tour by barging in on the annual Memorial Day “Rolling Thunder” right-wing biker gang convention in DC, it was an opportunity I just couldn’t pass up.

Palin’s appearance at Rolling Blunder… uh, Rolling Thunder… was comical if anything; here was this squeaky-clean ex-beauty queen showing up in a brand-new leather jacket and a brand-new helmet and brand-new sunglasses and expecting us to believe she was a real “biker mama”. That day, she rivaled Jesse Jackson in her abilities as a media-attention-sucking cosmic vortex. Born to be wild? Born to be mild, more like.

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Come into my parlor...

...said the spider to the elephant.

Lately, the US media have developed an annoying habit of declaring every damn’ two-bit rinky-dink Congressional election a Referendum On (Insert Issue Here). This time, though — in the same manner that a thousand monkeys on a thousand keyboards could write a Shakespeare play given enough time — the media managed to get it right by stating that the victory of underdog Democrat Kathy Hochul over GOP screecher Jane Corwin in a special election in New York is, in fact, a referendum on the GOP’s Medicare/Medicaid “reform” proposals.

While the GOP’s “reforms” tanked in the Senate, most Republicans there are still clinging to it like the Raft Of The Medusa, although the Washington Post — in its classically understated fashion — refers to Senate Republicans as “uneasy”, although a more accurate characterization would be “pissing their pants”. As ol’ Jerry Garcia said, The Wheel’s turnin’ and you can’t slow down, can’t let go and you can’t hold on… They’re stuck where they are, like the mutant fly with the human head in that old Grade “B” horror movie, able to do nothing but give out with desperate, hopeless, tiny shrieks for someone to “Help mee-eeeee… HELLLLP MEEEEEEEE…!”

Mind you, these days, I’ve never been the type to believe that this country’s problems will be solved through an ethically bankrupt two-party system or an electoral system that’s broken beyond repair — or through elections at all, for that matter — but, still, I can’t resist the urge to do the Happy Dance after seeing a nasty rich old howler like Jane Corwin having her ass greased by a rookie Democrat.

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