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AUGUST 30, 2005

We're still updating our Hurricane cartoons --take a look.

Civil War on the Table

As a political cartoonist I sit around all day watching cable news pundits argue with each other. That's what all of the political cartoonists do. Our cartoons are nothing more than more screaming voices on the editorial page and our cartoons typically amplify the standard opinions we hear on TV, where pundits offer ready-made opinions on every issue. All I have to do is pick from the tasty opinion smorgasbord that is served up to me, 24 hours a day. The problem is that lately, I'm feeling a bit overstuffed, and the opinions I'm being served aren't tasting very good.

The ready-made opinions on Iraq come in three flavors:

1. Stay the course and fight the good fight for democracy and freedom (this is what the President and the far-right pundits tell me).

2. Iraq is a big mess, but it would be worse if we left because there would be civil war (this is what most of the pundits tell me).

3. We should get out now (this is what Cindy Sheehan and the far-left pundits tell me).

All of these choices leave a bad taste in my mouth. As a cartoonist, I want a bad guy to bash. The only good cartoons are the ones that bash a bad guy. Most of the cartoonists have chosen to bash President Bush as the bad guy for getting us into Iraq and keeping us there. In my own cartoons I've chosen to bash the insurgents in Iraq; they seem like the obvious bad guys to me. The Sunnis hate America. The Sunni insurgents don't have much success blowing up American soldiers, so they spend most of their time blowing up Shiites; they oppress women, they boycott the elections, they refuse to negotiate on a new constitution. They seem like good, all around, bad guys.

The Shiites are bad guys too. They also hate America, they want an oppressive religious theocracy to rule Iraq, they oppress women, they are aligned with Axis of Evil member, Iran; but at least they negotiate, they vote, they don't blow things up as much as the Sunnis, and they are the majority in Iraq. I'll call them: "less-bad guys." (We like the Kurds, so we'll ignore them.)

The TV pundits tell me that we must stay in Iraq because if we leave there will be a terrible civil war. All of the options seem dark and gloomy. I wonder why none of the pundits ever discuss the bright side of civil war. I see four arguments for civil war in Iraq:

1. There are a lot more Shiites than Sunnis, so the "less-bad guys" would win.

2. With the Shiites fighting the Sunnis, we (and the Kurds) can sit back and watch until it's over

3. We've learned that the American army is the world's best at destroying things, but we do a lousy job of building things and keeping peace. We should quit trying to do the things we do poorly.

4. There will be a lot of death, destruction and suffering in a civil war, but many pundits argue that our initial war was so clean and efficient in targeting only the military and sparing the civilian population in Iraq, that the Iraqi people never suffered enough to be willing to make the compromises necessary for peace and democracy. Until they suffer enough to cry, "Uncle Sam," there is no reason to expect the Sunnis to be civil; they lost their man Saddam and lost their control over Iraq. Of course they would be in a surly mood.

Iraq seems to be having a civil war now anyway, but we're keeping the heat down by constantly stirring the Iraqi pot. It is a natural American tendency to think that if we stir the pot, the stew will be better; but we could turn up the heat, sit back and let the stew simmer until done. That seems to me to be a recipe that would taste as good as any of the others that are being offered to me, and I'd like to have it served up along with the other dishes on my TV pundit smorgasbord.

Daryl Cagle

Steve is also a fine artist and he does great oil paintings. The painting below hangs in my living room. I laugh whenever I look at it. Click here to see a collection of Steve's oil paintings. Click here to see Steve's editorial cartoon archive.

Painting by Steve Sack

I read with interest your question whether or not other cartoonists in the South get the same type of bigoted mail you do. The short answer is, Yep.

Since the launch of my comic strip, Prickly City, I have received more mail over the one year life of the strip then in the nearly 20 years of editorial cartooning. As you are familiar with my editorial cartooning you know it is not for want of trying to piss people off. I just think more people read the comics page than the editorial pages.

A large number of these letters and e-mails use every regional slur they can think of. And liberals, not caring too much about plagiarizing, (as the NY Times has shown us), often use the slurs De Jour posted on some web site.

As I do not claim to have a corner on the truth, I can respect a note that takes me to task for being wrong on a given issue. But because there is often no rational argument the Left can make they use name calling. (Lending credence to the idea that Democrats are the children and the Republicans are the grown-ups in our current political environment).

I have been called everything from a knuckle-dragging redneck to cousin-screwing cracker. Which is funny. Because they base this slurring on my online bio. If they read further, (which I am not sure they can given that they are, no doubt, products of public education), they would learn that before taking the job as editorial cartoonist of The Birmingham News I was born in Southern California and raised in Wisconsin.

However, I am still deeply insulted as; 1) my children were born in the South and 2) I happen to like it here. With the exception of high humidity and people who refuse to use their turn signals when changing lanes on the freeway, Birmingham has been a happy surprise. So much so that I am coming up on my nine year anniversary at The News. The South offers southern hospitality, affordable housing and the only truly open discussion on race relations in the country. Hence, for all of the outside moral superiority, Birmingham is, by light years, the most integrated city I have ever lived in. Which is the right and proper way to live.

So, I wouldn't worry too much what some yankeecentric putz with attitude and a laptop living in his parents basement blowing dope thinks of us. After all, they're just mindless stereotypes, right?

Pray for them,

Scott Stantis
Send an e-mail to Scott


Cartoon by Scott Stantis Visit our Back to School Cartoons.

Cartoon by Ingrid Rice

AUGUST 20, 2005

CAPTION CONTEST

Our resident greeting card/gag cartoonist/madman, Dan Reynolds, recently held a caption contest in our newsletter. Here is the winning gag, along with a note from Dan and some of the runners up. Don't like Dan's choice of winner? Complain to him at dreynol3@twcny.rr.com --Daryl

I had hundreds of gag line respondents emailing their best quips of what the scarecrow was saying in this REYNOLDS UNWRAPPED cartoon. Most of the replies could be broken down into the following categories:

1) Those who thought the objects on the plates were brains and those who thought they were a part of the male anatomy (they were, btw, brains!);

2) Those who likened the characters (or the brains/male parts on the plates) to a political figure, and

3) Those who actually dealt with the OZ characters.

I've broken up the best replies into:

"The Winner," "Runners up," "Honorable Mention," and "Just Bizarre."

--Dan Reynolds

1st runner up

Lions and tigers and BRAINS, oh my!... KATHLEEN ROSEBROCK

2nd runner up
"WHOA!!! When I said I wanted a brain
marilynp

3rd runner up
"If I had a brain, I'd probably find this quite ironic"
Dan Brokaw

HONORABLE MENTION

"Guess you have to be careful what you wish for"
Lee Nelson

"I was always told you better be careful what you wish for! "
"So that is why they call them Munchkins!"
Chip Klaiber

"If I had a brain, I'd wouldn't be here eating one!"
Ted Bachmann

"If I only had a sense of irony. "
Leigh Cambre

"I've wolfed down flying monkey eyeballs, various parts of dead witches and Toto-steaks for this show, but I really have to draw the line at Munchkin tuckus."
DJ Johnson

"We have to eat these monkey testicles?"
Bert Holder

"Prairie Oysters?"
William Fletcher and Rita Renee Roque

"I THINK I'LL PASS ON THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS"
W W ELSTER

"Oh no, not TOTO!!!!... "
Wendy Golenbock

"UH OH! Where's Dorothy?"
Susan Kinsella

"No wonder those munchkins sing with such high pitched voices."
Karen McCauley

"I know I said I wanted a brain but eating a flying monkey's brain
isn't what I had in mind"
Sam I Am DePriest


JUST BIZARRE

"Sweetbreads?! I thought we ordered burgers?"
Maureen Landis

"Lion, or tiger, or bear poop -- oh my!"
Holly Pechter-Walters

"Maybe they're lollipop flavored?"
clover

"Dorothy may have been abducted by space aliens who cut off her toes and blew them up to twenty times their normal size.....I think the witch has a conehead, under the black hat."
Mary Lu Weiland

DC

If my "fan mail" is any indication, I lack the requisite empathy to the castigations of a grieving mother in Crawford. According to the news we get down here in the South -which I am aware is largely inaccurate and a day late, Cindy Sheehan's list of demands is by all accounts accurate. Except for the "Peter Jennings" quip. I made that one up.

While I'm at it, I've often wondered if other cartoonists get hate mail referencing their part of the country(?) as some sort of reason for the opinion we draw? Like it's in the water. Are California cartoonists called "tofu eaters"? Are New York's called "Mao-lovers"? I've never asked and would be interested to find out.

From my own experience, It is interesting to note the constant reference to my geographic location: Georgia. (Let me be quick to exclude the People's Republic of Atlanta -or more accurately, "The City of My Birth That Desperately Wants to be Little New York"from what I call "Georgia".)

I've been called every tired cliche in the book. We've heard them all. While it is true that we eat grits three times a day, I drive a monster truck w/ a huge Confederate flag painted on the hood, a Calviin pissing on a Ford logo decal and Lynard Skynard blaring from home made speakers and I am married to my sister...

we have chosen to remain childless and handle snakes at church.

Mike Lester

From: Eric Levy
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 11:00 AM
Subject: Peter Jennings - Remembered as a dirty ashtray?

Wow. To be immortalized by political cartoonists as a dirty ashtray. Ol' Pete deserves better.

Why not have him riding with the (dead) Marlboro Cowboys? Or show him with the other greats stricken down with the same disease (Yul Brenner, etc.)?

If someone died of intestinal cancer, would you show a sewer?

The dirty ashtray doesn't make a statement about how he lived, only about one aspect of his life (and death).

I get the smoking references, but I think its wrong, and a big stretch.

My opinion.

P.S. I'm an ex-smoker. Even though I despise smoking, I don't despise smokers enough to memorialize them as them as refuse.

Eric Lev

From: David Plotkin
Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 11:00 AM
Subject: JENNINGS SMOKER CARTOON - THANK YOU

Thank you for your illustration of Peter Jennings' last message to the public. Those who say it was tasteless would rather forget that he died for nothing and 20 years too early due to an addicting habit fostered onto the public in the name of profits. Peter realized his mistake at the end and perhaps earlier in his life as well; the point of his last message was that despite this horror, we must face facts & stop the addictive habit.

Everyone who smokes should be forced to look at your illustration (I avoid the word "cartoon" which implies, to me, humor) at the start & end of each day.

By the way, if you have a link to that last message I'd like to get it so I can print it out.

Thanks again,

David Plotkin

I myself am a smoker and you know what, no one has ever made me smoke, its my decision and my choice as is the American way. I just wanted to say Thank You! You took a persons last message and made sure that it was portrayed in a way that either people hate or love (again, the American choice) but either way, they got the message and they won't forget it. So thank you and please, keep up the freedom of expression be it right, wrong, or indifferent at least its true to you and to some of us as well!!

Melissa Kastraba

I smoked for 16 of my 41 years. I haven't had a cigarette in nine.
I made it through some pretty rough times in my life, and in the world in those nine years.
I also gained 100 pounds in those nine years.
Some days, I don't think the 100 pounds was worth giving up the butt.
I realize it may have been his "last message", but you don't see alcoholics or drug addicts get as much publicity when they die as you do with smokers.

Your cartoon did not depict his message to quit smoking.
Ted Bachmann

Sorry to read of the hostility directed your way--and I find it interesting how vehemently smokers deny themselves reality. Nicely done.

I commend you for passing on the message Peter Jennings wanted to share with us ....

It's up to each one of us individually what we will do with this message.

Thank you,

Ann Sanchez
Titusville FL

Well, you certainly made your point. Harsh, but effective. Keep up the good work, but get a little less lefty-political....
Larry

Well thought out even as an old smoker I see nothing wrong with it
Dave

I like a good cartoon and am a non-smoker. Yet, I have to agree with the responses. It was a good try but came across unfairly negative for Jennings without hitting the 'don't smoke' mark.
Carson

As a person who smoked for 38 years and quit 12 years ago, I think that your

"cartoon" of the ashtray with PJ's name and dates of birth and death was
very appropriate. It struck me that after noting the date Peter resumed
smoking-after 20 years of not smoking-he was another victim of the terrorist

attacks almost 4 years ago. He died too young, but he had choices, as we
all do. I respect the man and his request to honor the fact that he was a
smoker and that probably contributed to his early death of lung cancer.
Your effort to honor that was superb--right on! Alyce G

I think your cartoon showing the ashtray filled with smoked cigarettes with Peter Jennings' name on the ashtray a very important message. Smokers everywhere should head Mr. Jennings' warning and quit while there is still
time.

It is sad to lose a great newscaster like Peter Jennings due to lung cancer, but I know how bad it is for us to smoke. I smoked for nearly 32 years and I gave it up on National Smoke Out day in 1999. I was glad that I went through the millennium smoke free. The amazing thing is, that I haven't wanted a cigarette since I laid them down. I could no longer breathe when I walked for just short distances. I appreciate your tribute to him and I hope more people will take the warning personally and to heart. It could just save their lives.

Morgan Perret

I like the TV news memorial much better. I know a lady who is dying of lung cancer and she NEVER smoked. The "stop smoking campaign" is good, but it's not what I"ll remember about Peter Jennings.

JAS

Excellent cartoon.

Imagine JFK's magic bullet, unmarred by any impact; this one resonates
as much, in different ways.

Bravo.

You got it right. We are all an accumulation of our stupid decisions.

No Man is free until he conquers Himself

Daryl.
I am a smoker so I will say that and get it out of the way. The Peter Jennings memorial was as it should be and as his life and reporting wasto the point. I have beaten every habit in my life but smoking. In my younger days it was drugs. They are history. Drinking was the next to overcome. That was accomplished. But smoking seems to be something that is harder than the others combined. I know what it can do and is doing but continue anyway. And I classify myself as intelligent (?). Thanks for having the courage and conviction that I saw in the cartoon. It is another vivid lesson as to why I need to put down, as they are called and justly so, the coffin nails.

Bill Bomar
Huntsville, AL USA

I liked your cartoon. Ramirez in the LA Times had a similar one but yours was more powerful.

outstanding cartoon
afraid Americans are getting more & more immature living in hollywood and religious dreamworlds
keep the knife sharp and cut to the quick!
cheers,
ed

Dear Mr. Cagle,

I applaud all of your work but, the series of memorial cartoons paying tribute to Peter Jennings is outstanding.

Don't pay attention to "morons" who don't like being reminded that smoking kills! Your cartoon was right on target!

You are to be respected, admired and applauded for your work!

Sincerely,

Louise Angelis

Hi,

Smokers would not listen to Yul Brynner either.

Our family did not listen when we watched my brother-in-law live his last year on this earth with half a face because of cancer caused by cigarettes. My favorite picture of him shows a young, handsom sailor in uniform with the usual cigarette in the corner of his mouth. He always had a lit cigarette hanging there. That's where the cancer began.

This man survived doing his duty on a mine sweeper checking out Tokyo bay so the Missouri could come in for the signing of the surrender but was done in by a small bit of weeds wrapped in paper.

This was a great cartoon.

Marilyn Hansen

Daryl,

Your ashtray cartoon was right on the mark..

John J Flood

I thought the tough ones were just what Peter wanted. It was a real memorial to him as he wanted to get the message out about the results of smoking. The rest of the cartoons were touching and thoughtful. I never smoked but had lung surgery early on because my mother and my first husband smoked. I am fine but he died of a heart attack attributed to the results of smoking. Peter was couragious enough to say "I am paying for my mistake of smoking!" How can that be disrespectful?

Betty Roberts

And what if Peter Jennings had died from a heart attack due to being overweight, and his last request had been that the American public "shape up"??? Or has it gone unnoticed that obesity has replaced smoking (oddly enough) as the No. 1 public health problem that no one wants to talk about (much less do cartoons about), complete with financial repercussions for health costs in general?

Sincerely,
Paul Kozelka

Very dramatic: Peter would have approved. You have said without words what Peter was unable to say at the end. Thanks from Arizona!

I appreciate your message in the cartoon. I recently lost a good friend to lung cancer. She tried to quit several times but just wasn't able. There have been others lost that way as well and they just don't get that they are destroying their lives as well as some of those exposed to second hand smoke.
Thanks for your web site. I was a fan when you were on Slate's and I am glad you are continuing to give us cartoons from this country and around the world. We live in Utah and it is good to see how the rest of the country sees life in the USA.
Mary Melton

Hello,

Although I don't often feel compelled to respond to a political or newsworthy cartoon, this time I must. Kudos to you for creating it, not to mention distributing it online. Anyone with a grain of sense or worldly education, knows that smoking is unhealthy, in many ways. My deceased father and my ex-husband both smoked heavily ­ the former a pipe; the latter cigarettes and pipe. Even though I have intentionally divorced myself from being around smokers for 20+ years, I know that I was affected by second-hand smoke many years ago (and more recently while traveling throughout the rest of the world surrounded by smokers). Within the past several years I have developed allergies, especially to smoke.

Smoking is not only unhealthy, already proven to cause cancers and other related maladies, but it is also a filthy and costly habit. I often wonder how many people I see smoking can afford it. Think of how all the money spent on cigarettes and tobacco could change the world!

Thanks for listening.

Lynda L. Everman

Mr. Cagle:
To quote someone using their words and/or with a cartoon depicting their thoughts/sentiments is a compliment which I believe your work was intended to be.
I would be surprised if your work is not intended to generate emotional responses - - sometimes laughable, at other times not so funny.
As a former smoker who quit over thirty years ago, the death of Peter Jennings gave my gratitude list a boost for having quit when I did, and my monkey mind a jolt that I should have quit sooner, and an underscore to my regret that I should have never smoked in the first place!
If I die at my current age of 73, I have lived my life to its fullest, and a few more years will be welcome but not because I deserve them. My only regret is that we humans take too much time to reach the point when we can be or are allowed to live independent from our parents who teach us bad habits, and we humans lack the animal instinct responses found in all creatures great and small which are born with the built-in knowledge of what to do, and by heaven they do it!

Keep up the important work you do.
Don Jones
Apple Valley, California

Thank you, It said so much.
My smoking daughter will see this one.

I think the cartoon with all the cigarette butts was very appropriate and one that Mr. Jennings himself would have admired. I think you did a terrific job.

Margaret Button
Trussville AL

He's dead, but he's not saint to be held up to an adoring public. He was a lifelong smoker who lived and worked in one of the worst air quality cities in the world. Putting smoking and breathing New York air in the same lungs just about guarantees a horrible death.
You know what Lincoln said: You can please some of the people....
My addenda to that is: And I don't really give a flying f**k about what any of them think. I speak my mind and back up what I say with facts. If anyone doesn't like it, they can kiss my quasi-royal...well, you can figure out the rest.

I am a former smoker -- quit 1 year, 8 months. I know how difficult it is to not smoke -- and how easy it is to start again, especially when something traumatic happens. Peter Jennings will be missed. He was always a gentleman and we need more of those. It's not fair that his return to smoking during the 9/11 tragedy should result in his death -- but maybe his plea about not smoking will get thru to someone out there and save a life. Keep on reminding people of what he said.

Deb
Columbia, SC

Dear Daryl,
To be quite honest I think Mr. Jennings would have thought your cartoon was right on the mark. There are alot of messages that Peter could have left with us but he choose his smoking habit and once again he would have thought you nailed it right on the head.

Keep up the good work Daryl.......

Sincerely,
Scott B. Kelly

mad Gail misses the point.. '' would you have done that if he died a different cancer'' ahhh no Gail '' just go light up and relax '' we wont take your cigarette away.. she sounds like a 9 year old sad sad sad susann Dallas Texas

Peter Jennings was a consummate professional. How many high school dropouts
ever get to where Jennings was in the TV news industry, or any industry for
that matter. So he smoked. Big whoop. I don't smoke; never have, never will.
I feel your cartoon was disrespectful in the extreme. Smoking wasn't his
legacy. His professionalism, class, and his reporting was. Shame on you!

Thomas Klem, NJ

Reality is a hard thing to portray but the truth is the truth. Smoking does kill a lot of people. Drinking and smoking finally killed both my grandfathers, one was 86 and the other was............also, 86.

Smoking mixed with stress kill more people than passive smoking and a sip every now and then. Cancer isn't selective. My Mom has it and she was never on the nightly news or in the public eye. Hers is more real to me than Jennings or Reeves. Like my Mom, they are, or will be, just another statistic.

The focus should be on a cure, not the cause. Prevention is nice but all the preaching hasn't reduced the Federal governments $1.3 Billion subsidy of the tobacco industry. How many researchers would that money buy? Now there's a Cagle cartoon.

I do not smoke, never have. However, I was uncomfortable with the cartoon of an ash tray and cigarettes with Mr. Jennings' name and dates on it. Mr. Jennings did say "don't smoke". However, his legacy will be more than an ash tray filled with cigarette butts. I prefer to remember Mr. Jennings as the articulate reporter.

P.S. My parents did smoke. Mom died from congestive heart failure aggravated by smoking. Dad died from emphysema. I tell my son every day to not smoke. I also tell him every day how much I love him. I hope he will remember both.

Dianna Phillips

Love the 'toon, sad but true. I've stopped smoking in the last few months & looking at your drawing reminded me why I don't want to start up again even though I regularly yearn for the cancer sticks.Well done for the bold statement, I'm sure the man himself will be applauding you from hopefully a smoke-free afterlife, thanks Soo

The cartoons are so appropriate!! Peter Jennings probably cut short his life by at least 10 years, possibly 20. Was it worth it? I don't think so. My Mom, who started smoking at age 20, died from lung cancer in 1977. She also cut short her life by many years. She has missed the opportunity to meet some pretty wonderful sons-in-law and some equally wonderful grandkids. She did not see her own last child graduate highschool. I would scream it from the rooftops if I could - - - smoking causes cancer and cancer kills.
Unbelievably, there are still several people in my family who smoke - - -some took it up after our Mom died. That really gets my goat!!!! Sorry for the rant. I really do love all the cagle cartoons. Keep up the great work!! :-)

Regards,
Louise

Pretty hard hitting there, Mr. Cagle. I think Mr. Jennings would agree that it's not hard hitting enough though. Will it make anybody stop smoking? It might make them think about it, but addiction is a tough thing to break under any circumstances.

People who think the cartoon too harsh should go through the prolonged agony

that is losing a loved one due to lung cancer caused by smoking. It's like watching someone whittle on a perfectly good stick until there's nothing left. A little experience gives one a sort of different perspective on your efforts here, Daryl.

Keep up the good work, sir.

Joe Jacobs
Helena, MT

Linda Baumgartner

If you meant to shock (without class), you accomplished that. Peter Jennings gave up smoking 20 years ago. A joke like this should at least have waited until the body gets cold. Poor taste.

Your cartoon of an ashtray as a "memorial" to Peter Jennings was insulting and tasteless. Yes, he died of lung cancer. Many people do even though they know smoking is a powerfully addicting and harmful habit. Also many people smoke their entire life and do not develop lung cancer--there is a very strong genetic component to the disease. (My stepfather died of lung cancer several years ago and he, too, had quit smoking cold turkey 20 years before.) To focus on the cause of death and ignore the life's work and contributions of Jennings was really shallow. You completely missed out on a chance to show a little class and instead went for an image that made it seem as if he should be punished for his habit by death. Would you have attempted to moralize had he died of another type of cancer? Your cartoons are often of the caliber I would expect from a high school newspaper, not a nationally syndicated service. Our local paper made an error in judgement by running it and I will express this same opinion to them.

Dawn Dayton
Managing Editor
The Register-Herald
Beckley, WV

Political cartoonists are not much different from comic strip cartoonists; both draw an ongoing daily soap opera featuring a regular cast of characters. While comic strip cartoonists invent their own characters, the political cartoonist's characters are given to him by events in the world; we are all drawing our own little daily sagas starring the same main character, President Bush.

Around the world, cartoonists almost always draw President Bush as a cowboy. Outside America, a Texas cowboy is seen as: uneducated, ill mannered, a "trigger-happy marshal" or outlaw who is prone to violence. Cowboy depictions of the president by worldwide cartoonists are meant to be insults, but Americans see cowboys differently. In the USA, cowboys are noble, independent souls, living a romantic lifestyle by taming the wilderness and taking matters into their own hands whenever they see a wrong that needs to be righted. We are a nation of wanna-be cowboys.

The image of President Bush evolves with each cartoonist's personal perspective. Bush started out as most political cartoon characters start out, as a caricature of a real person, meant to be recognizable from a photograph. As time goes by, the cartoonists stop looking at photographs and start doing drawings of drawings, then drawings of drawings of drawings, so that the George W. Bush drawings morph into strangely deformed characters that look nothing like the real man, but are instantly recognizable because we've come to know the drawings as a symbol of the man. It is surprising that each cartoonist's drawings of the president look entirely different, but each is easily recognizable as representing the same character.

For some cartoonists, the president's ears have grown huge; a strange phenomenon, since the president doesn't have unusually large ears, and isn't well known for listening. Some cartoonists have seen President Bush shrink in height; a combination of these has the president sometimes looking like a little bunny rabbit.

The president who shrank most in cartoons was Jimmy Carter. At the end of Carter's term he was a Munchkin, standing below knee height on almost every cartoonist's drawing table. President Bush has shrunk for only some of the more liberal cartoonists. President Reagan grew taller during his cartoon term in office. President Clinton grew fatter, even as he lost weight in real life. Bill Clinton's personality was fat, and the cartoonists drew the personality rather than the man. President Clinton is now skinny, but he will always be fat in cartoons.

Another cartoon characteristic that has grown from years of drawing President Bush are his eyes, two little dots, close together, topped by raised, quizzical eyebrows. The close, dotted eyes are an interesting universal phenomenon, shared by almost every cartoonist, that doesn't relate to the president's actual features. Over time, most cartoonists will draw a character with eyes that grow larger, President Bush's eyes shrink, while his ears grow. There may be a political message in that, but I can't figure it out.

I once played "Political Cartoonist Name That Tune, " the game went like this:

"I can draw President Bush in SIX LINES."

"Well, I can draw President Bush in FOUR LINES!"

"I can draw President Bush in THREE LINES!"

"OK. Draw that President!"

and I did, two little dots topped by a raised, quizzical eyebrow line. It looked just like him.





AUGUST 7, 2005

CARTOONS FROM AFRICA

We feature cartoons from around the world on our site, but we don't see many cartoons from Africa. Cartoonist Tayo Fatunla is an African cartoonist who draws on African issues from his home in Britain. Tayo travels throughout Africa to promote the art of editorial cartooning and teach aspiring cartoonists.

Dear Daryl,

When I was approached by Terje Skjerdal of Gimlekolleion School of Journalism and Communication in Norway asking if I would like to fly to Ethiopia and give a lecture on Cartoon as a Visual Communicator at the Addis Ababa University - School of Journalism and Communication, I had heard news about Ethiopia over the years and recently, which was not encouraging as it  was always about famine and hunger and fighting. Even those who knew I was going to Ethiopia did not seem too excited for me to go. One commented, "are you going to do Cartoon AID there" ? As an African cartoonist though I was very keen and determined to go as it would be an opportunity and experience  for me and I would love to assist in the area of improving the skills of the few Ethiopian cartoonists in the country. On arrival at Bole Airport, Addis Ababa it was to my surprise that the airport was of western standard. I was very angry. Angry at the fact that the wrong impression given by the Westen media to the world of Ethiopia as a country, is that of gaunt looking starving children and adults. Nothing of that sort. I arrived the early hours of the morning and had to take a taxi to my hotel. Yes... hotel not huts not Shanties.

Later that day I was met by my Ethiopian hosts Mesfin Belachew who was the co-ordinator for the Cartoon course at the University and the Acting Dean, Dr. Gebremedhin Simon  who together with other staff at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University, looked after me very well. Food was in plenty. The school was fully equiped with modern computers and technology and a modern building.  The students were so eager to meet me and gain from my experience as a Cartoonist and Cartoon tutor. This I did successfully and these Ethiopian Cartoonists and Journalists have much hope of a better future for cartoons and journalism in Ethiopia.They enjoyed my teaching them about Cartoon as a Visual Commentator and the Effective purposes of Cartooning. Techniques, Business of Art and the knowledge to draw cartoons were some of the subjects I touched on. There were also practical lessons done with the group. Their desire now is to project Ethiopian cartoons and Ethiopian journalism beyond Africa and be part of the global phenomenom called....The Internet.

They all received cerificates the students that is,  for successfully completing the three-day course on Cartooning.  Ethiopia has rising cartoonist stars. Infact, I was impressed to see female Ethiopian cartoonists doing good drawings as well. This friendly nation can go the distance just like it's world renowned athletes.

African nations can survive without begging for alms or handouts. Just like my cartoon that I did recently durig the Live 8 concerts around the world, instead of Make Poverty History in Africa,  Make Corrupt Leaders History and the mineral resourses and wealth of the nations as well as development and education will reach towns and villages accross the lands. I visited Addis Ababa's market which is said to be the biggest in Africa if not the world. I was told that you can get almost anything at the market. All goods of western production and influence are there. The world press should as well highlight the good of this country know as the Horn of Africa due to it's geogrphical location on the map of Africa.

Tayo Fatunla

See Tayo's cartoon archive. E-mail Tayo. That's Tayo in the middle of the Addis Abbaba class photo below, with the gray and pink striped shirt, and that's one of Tayo's cartoons below the photo.






AUGUST 6, 2005

Highway Porkfest Cartoon by RJ Matson of the St. Louis Post Dispatch Today we have a Cagle Cartoons Newsmaker Interview with Congressman Jeff Flake from Arizona, who is one of very few in Congress to vote against the pork-laden highway bill. As a libertarian cartoonist, I see this as the ugliest stuff that comes out of Congress. Kudos to Congressman Flake. ---Daryl Passing up the Highway Pork An Interview with Republican Congressman Jeff Flake of Arizona By Bill Steigerwald Jeff Flake, an Arizona congressman, was only one of eight House members to vote against the $286.4 billion highway bill and mass transit bill, a pork-fattened law that passed with bipartisan gusto on July 29 in the House, 412-8, and in the Senate, 91-4. The six-year bill, which took two years to pass, allocates federal Highway Trust Fund revenue (mostly the 18 cent federal gas tax) for road and transit projects in every congressional district in the country. Flake voted against it because, in addition to the usual money wasted on expensive highways to nowhere and light-rail lines relatively few people ride, it contained an estimated $23 billion in so-called "earmarks." Earmark is a congressional euphemism for setting money aside for one congressman's special project, i.e., boondoggle, into a large spending bill without having to put the specific project up to a vote by itself. The 1,752-page transportation bill's all-time record 6,376 earmarks included $231 million for a bridge in Alaska that would serve an island of 50 residents and $2.88 million to construct a Q: Why did so few congressmen vote against the transportation bill? A: Well, it's tough to vote against it when you have projects in it and there were only a few of us who didn't have projects in it. Q: You didn't have projects in it, because you declined to have a project in it, right? A: That's correct. We were all offered at least $14 million for our districts to spend however we wanted ­ and just try to relate it to transportation somehow. I just think we're headed in the wrong direction doing that. I had higher aspirations when coming to Congress than to grovel for crumbs that fall from appropriators' tables. Q: What makes you so rare in Congress? A: Well, it's simply become the accepted way of doing business, to get earmarks, and I just think it's the wrong direction to be headed. Q: It's not that you are against highways? A: No. Not at all. In fact, the more earmarks we have, the fewer highways that are built. If I'm going to get earmarks for my district, believe me, I want to have as long a list as possible. So it is unlikely that I'm going to say, "Hey, my $14 million or whatever I get should be spent to finish the 202-60 interchange," which may be the most critical need in my district. No. I'm going to say I want a bike path here. I want a transportation museum here. I want beautification of this street. And as we earmark things, less money goes to highways. That's the irony in this whole thing: the more money we spend, the less money we actually spend on critical needs. Q: When you're asked what your politics are, how do you describe yourself? A: In today's parlance, I'm a conservative. I prefer the term classical liberal, myself, a la Milton Friedman. But I consider myself conservative. Q: We at the Trib have been probably tougher on conservatives -- for not being very conservative -- than we have been on liberals. A: Well, I can tell you, I'm not pleased at the direction our party is headed on fiscal responsibility. We don't look very conservative at all. Q: What is good about that highway bill? Why is it so important that it be done right? A: Well, we have the gas tax. The purpose of a gas tax, initially, was to finish the Interstate Highway System. That was finished basically in 1980. Ever since 1980 we've just been floundering as to what to do with the money ­ how to allocate it back to the states. In 1981, I believe, there were a total of 10 earmarks in the highway bill. In 1987, President Reagan vetoed it because there were 150 ­ he considered that excessive. In 1992, there were 500 earmarks. Then Republicans took over and we said we're going to change the way we do business here. Yeah, we changed it. In 1998, I believe there were 1,500 earmarks and this time 6,300. We simply cannot sustain this trend. We're going to be earmarking every account and there will be less and less money going to freeways. I have a good bill I hope we can get to in the next five years, before we authorize a transportation bill again. Basically it's called the turn-back proposal. It would cost about 3 cents per gallon, instead of the current 18 cents, to maintain the Interstate Highway System ­ what is truly interstate. And then there's no reason for the other 15 cents per gallon to even come to Washington. It ought to stay with the states and to let the states spend it on their critical priorities. Q: It gets to be pretty silly. Pennsylvania is now a donor state-we pay into the fund more than we get back. A: Welcome to the fold. We've been there for a while. Q: What's the most absurd spending project in that bill? A: Well, there's a bridge in Alaska -- $200 million or so ­ going to an island with fewer than 50 full-time residents. I believe somebody pointed out that you could buy every resident on that island a Lear Jet for that amount of money. Q: But it's going to be built. A: Yes, it's going to be built. There are things just on their face that really look pretty funny. I think John McCain has pointed out one -- that $2.3 million in beautification along the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California. Reagan clearly would have vetoed any earmark like that. We'll be digging through this for years, finding little items that were included. This highway bill became a catchall for everything. Q: Part of this bill is money for mass transit projects, like one in Pittsburgh that will cost $400 million for a 1.5 mile light-rail extension under a river. How do you feel about the mass transit spending? A: Oh, there's a big chunk of it for Phoenix. And I can tell you, the only way they can sell it in Phoenix to Phoenix taxpayers and Maricopa County taxpayers, is by saying the federal government is paying half of it. That's how they leverage these projects that should not be built. I mean, this in Arizona is the boondoggle of boondoggles. Q: Maybe we should have a competition? A: To spend this amount of money on something at best estimates will carry 1 percent of all vehicle traffic is just absurd, but because it's federal money, people say, "Well, we can leverage our state money and it's the only way to get this transit money." The sad thing is, people defending this bill will say, "We've been all over this country and we've heard from mayors and county officials and governors that 'We need this bill. We need this money.'" Well, of course, what would they expect? If you were a governor or a county official or a mayor, who would rather have taxed for roads, you or the feds? You say the feds. You're always willing to pass the buck. Q: This is a bipartisan problem, though. There are a lot of people who call themselves conservatives, Sen. Rick Santorum being one, who votes for these road and transit programs without criticism and without fail. This must frustrate you, right? A: Yes it does. What frustrates me even more is to hear people like our leadership, over and over, refer to this as a jobs bill. "Jobs, jobs, jobs," we heard several times. "This is a jobs bill." Excuse me, but we're not all Keynesians, now. I didn't think we are, as a party. The notion that we ought to do this because it is going to create jobs, assuming that more jobs are created by taking money out of your pocket and spending it where you think it ought to be spent, rather than the taxpayers, is simply absurd. Q: You and your colleague John Shadegg asked that the $14 million in earmarks be sent to the state of Arizona's department of transportation. Do you suffer no political penalties for doing this from you constituents or supporters? A: No. This is how bad we've strayed. I had a Republican primary opponent last time. The first reason he said he was running was because "Flake won't bring home pork ­ won't bring home the bacon. Gratefully, that didn't get any traction among the general electorate. But I can tell you that I have three or four of the five mayors in my district that opposed me, which is pretty strange. But they think that is the only way they are going to get money. I've offered for years now what is typically referred to as the Flake tilting at Windmills Amendment, which I get about 50 votes for, which says if you get an earmark, fine, but it comes out of your state's formula, not everybody else's. Language to that effect is actually in this bill. So that's the dirty secret no one likes to talk about ­ those who are getting the earmarks, in particular. The high priority earmarks, now the big regional, mega-projects are still outside of it, but if you get a regular earmarked project of $2 or $3 million or whatever, that actually is coming out of your state's formula this year. So for those who are bragging, "Hey, I got this project or that one," that money would have come to their state anyway. It just would have been directed by their state DOT. Q: Is the highway bill a symbol of out-of-control federal spending ­ and the hopelessness of ever seeing it controlled? A: It's the best example out there. As I've said before, this is the best example of the worst of politics in Washington. Q: Do you see it being reformed or changed? A: Yeah. I think when voters across the country are fed up and punish those who are in control ­ and that's us ­ and it may be sooner rather than later. Bill Steigerwald is a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. E-mail Bill at bsteigerwald@tribweb.com. ©Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, All Rights Reserved. Bill is syndicated exclusively though Cagle Cartoons. Cartoon by RJ Matson of the St. Louis Post Dispatch Click here to comment on our new bulletin board.

Cartoon by Sepideh Amjarooz


Every so often a cartoon comes along that gives an unusual insight into a very foreign point of view. The cartoon above is by Iranian cartoonist, Sepideh Amjarooz, who is a rare woman cartoonist in the Middle East. Iran is is a member of the President's "Axis of Evil," and is actively pursuing nuclear weapons (and lying about it), to the consternation of the USA and Europe. See more cartoons by Sepideh. E-mail Sepideh.

Click here to see our "War With Iran?" cartoons.

President Bush appointed grouchy diplomat, John Bolton to be the ambassador to the United Nations. The Democrats in Congress don't like Bolton much, but cartoonists like him because he's very easy to draw. Our humor columnist, Will Durst, doesn't like Bolton either ...

Click here to see our John Bolton cartoons.

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Cyclops Pink Eye
Raging Moderate, By Will Durst

President George Bush's nomination for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is John Bolton, a well known critic of that very organization. And to say he's a critic of the U.N. might be an understatement on the order of saying the Swift Boat Veterans were not John Kerry's biggest fans. Bolton has gone so far as to declare that as far he's concerned the U.N. doesn't exist. Call me wacky, but shouldn't the guy who's going to represent us at least accept the institution's existence? And does this skepticism extend to the structure itself? If so, how's the man going to get to work? Is he destined to wander aimlessly around the East Side of Manhattan querying strangers as to the location of his own personal Brigadoon?

The 56-year-old State Department chief of arms control, a hard-liner with a suspicious view of U.S. arms control treaties, is also on record to have said if you lopped off the top ten floors of the U.N., "it wouldn't make a difference." Oh yeah, let's have HIM run our diplomatic corps. Because who knows more about mending bridges than the guy planting the charges in an attempt to set fire to them? What does the administration have in mind for future appointments? Howard Stern to head up the FCC? Michael Jackson as official envoy to UNICEF? Kenneth Lay as the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission? Laugh at the first two, the last is not so funny.

Supporters describe Bolton as a blunt, straight-talking, tough-minded, tell-it-like-it-is, not-afraid-to-ruffle-foreign-feathers-while-putting-America's-interests-first kind of a guy. But we already got one of those kind of guys in charge of the White House. And Bush ain't too internationally-minded either. If the Ambassador Nominee's function is to be the designated Rottweiler, I could understand, but we already got a kennel full of Rottweilers, most of whom appear to have missed the paper-training course in obedience school. "Tough Love" is one thing. "Rabid Frothing at the Mouth with an Unattached Ear Hanging Out Between the Teeth" is another.

His detractors insist Bolton is an abrasive, confrontational, insensitive, kiss-ass, prudent-as-a-flatulent-porcupine, abusive-with-analysts-who-disagree-with-his-views kind of a guy. Obviously, politics, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, but in terms of ideologues, this Administration has developed a serious case of conjunctivitis. And in a bullying Cyclops, with a bigger army than the rest of the world put together, that kind of pink eye can become diplomatically distracting.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not sure I totally disagree with all of Bolton's assessments of the U.N. Such as it's as useless as cellophane underwear. And corrupt. And hopelessly entangled in red tape. And guilty of fostering anti-American attitudes while monopolizing the seafood stand at our all-you-can-eat buffet and discarding their used oyster shells on our nice clean carpeting. But whatever happened to good cop/ bad cop? Bush plays: bad cop/hothead brandishing a multi pronged taser in the dark. What part of the word "diplomacy" does the president not get?

Political comic Will Durst thinks the president ought to give the Mary Poppins soundtrack a listen: paying special attention to "A Spoonful of Sugar."

Look for Will's collection of columns "Raging Moderate" in a bookstore near you soon. Email Will at willdurst@sbcglobal.net. ©2005 Will Durst.

Many of you wrote in to say that you enjoyed the Will Durst piece that I sent out last Friday, so here is another! Will writes two or three columns a month for us. Click here to see our "Quagmire in IRAQ" cartoons.

Todays two Quagmire cartoons are by Monte Wolverton, who also is a regular contributor to Mad Magazine. He draws in the style of his father, Basil Wolverton, who was one of Mad's founders. Remember "the Ugliest Girl in the World"?

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Scoundrel City
By Will Durst

Raging Moderate, By Will Durst

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." - Samuel Johnson

Okay, get this and get this straight. Criticizing our government is not the same as criticizing our armed forces. Okay? The same way that criticizing our government is not the same as criticizing our postal workers. Or criticizing our zookeepers or our ceramic mosaic tile grout installers. And let me make this clear, I am not in any way suggesting that any of these groups be criticized. Especially the postal workers.

Furthermore, telling the press that you are disgusted by reports of torture does not endanger our troops.

You're all so fired-up desperate to know what endangers our troops. I'll tell you what endangers our troops ­ greedy, cretinous, toad leaders who send them 12,000 miles away to a desert to fight a war based on lies. Lies about the threat and lies about a phantom desire to negotiate. That is what is responsible for putting our troops in harm's way. The idiots who sent them into this - and yes, its time to say it out loud - this quagmire.

Quagmire, as in bottomless morass. Quagmire, as in Vietnam. A minor conflict that tore our country apart about three decades ago. Perhaps some of you patriotic Republicans remember? I know none of you bothered to serve over there, but you must have seen a History Channel special on it. Does the movie "Apocalypse Now" ring a bell?

Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi calls the Iraq War a "grotesque mistake," and House Speaker Dennis Hastert reacts like she's funding secret poisonous kimchee research in North Korea. "Leader Pelosi and the Democratic leadership should support our troops instead of spreading inflammatory statements." Hey, Hastert! Pay attention. The lady said absolutely nothing about our troops. She was talking about you, you moron, and the rest of the majority leadership.

And trust me, I use the term "leadership" extremely loosely. For crum's sake, you pay enough for your polling, put the donut down and read some of it. Most of America agrees with Pelosi. Big, fat, enormous, monstrous, grotesque mistake. Repeat after me: "War - bad. Troops - good." See, it's possible to say and to mean it as well.

What bowling ball cajones you must have to scream at Senator Durbin, the anti-torture dude, instead of the idiots who keep sending our troops over there without the proper equipment.

You should be screaming at the over-inflated egos trying to take away benefits from those very same troops when they come home. It's like teaching the 9/11 terrorists a lesson by invading a country that had absolutely nothing to do with it. Oh, okay, I see. It's a pattern.

Are you saying it's treasonous to denounce torture? Or do you mean to imply torture comes with codicils?

"Torture is bad, unless it's us doing the torturing. In which case it is not torture, but rather 'results oriented questioning.'" Samuel Johnson was a piker.

With these scoundrels, patriotism is not the last, but the first, second and every other refuge. The Republicans need to learn: more strident does not make you more correct. If it did, Joan Rivers would be running things.

Will Durst is extremely happy that more strident does not mean more correct. Mostly because of the Joan Rivers thing.

Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the world. He is a familiar pundit on television. His two CDs are available at laugh.com. Look for Will's collection of columns "Raging Moderate" in a bookstore near you soon. Email Will at willdurst@sbcglobal.net. ©2005 Will Durst.

Monte Wolverton, The Wolvertoon -- Monte's work appears regularly in Mad Magazine - his editorial cartoon, The Wolvertoon, updates weekly - Visit Monte -- E-Mail Monte, Visit an archive of the artist's most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right. Click on the cartoon to e-mail it to a friend.

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