The Week in Editorial Cartoons – Who’s the Hair Apparent?

:: ::

There are a number of ways in which you can help tornado victims both in the short and long term

The massive devastation left behind by the April 27 tornadoes in Alabama and other southern states will take weeks, if not months, to clean. Rebuilding will take years and millions of dollars, and that’s just to replace material things like businesses and homes.

Barometric Pressure by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

:: ::

1. The American Red Cross is providing temporary shelter for the thousands of people who lost their homes in the tornadoes.  They’re also providing food, blood, emergency-response vehicles and other relief supplies. You can make a cash gift online or by visiting your local Red Cross office, and you can text message REDCROSS to 90999 to give a $10 donation via your mobile phone.

2. The Salvation Army is setting up mobile stations to feed thousands of people in storm-affected areas. You can give online at your local Salvation Army store. You can text message GIVE to 80888 to donate money via your mobile phone.

3. A new Facebook page is trying to reunite tornado victims with property and personal effects (photos, for instance) that were blown miles and miles away by the tornadoes.

4. The Governor of Alabama has posted information for people wanting to volunteer. Call one of the phone numbers here to begin your journey.

Twisters by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

THE WEEK IN EDITORIAL CARTOONS

This weekly diary takes a look at the past week’s important news stories from the perspective of our leading editorial cartoonists (including a few foreign ones) with analysis and commentary added in by me.

When evaluating a cartoon, ask yourself these questions:

1. Does a cartoon add to my existing knowledge base and help crystallize my thinking about the issue depicted?

2. Does the cartoonist have any obvious biases that distort reality?

3. Is the cartoonist reflecting prevailing public opinion or trying to shape it?

The answers will help determine the effectiveness of the cartoonist’s message.

:: ::

Trump, Gingrich, Bachmann, Boehner.

http://totallylookslike.icanha…

:: ::

INTRODUCTION

1. Bors Commentary – Dangle and Trump Sorensen cartoon.

2. Pat Buchanan – Birthers.

3. Sherffius or Breen as Tip Jar.

:: ::

Crowe blog –

It’s surprising enough that the Donald is being taken seriously in the polls.  But you might think the Mr. Richie Rich would be more at home with the fiscally conservative corporate, free enterprise, business end of the GOP rather than the extremist, socially conservative right wing populated by the likes of the birthers.

Perhaps he thinks he needs the birther nonsense to balance his wealthy businessman persona.  But then, you still have to pretend an egomaniacal reality TV show tycoon buffoon has any kind of credibility as a candidate.  The fact that Trump is polling better than any other GOP candidate at this point is more of a reflection on the quality of the field than the potential for a Trump presidency.

As for the Rapunzel analogy, that’s a spoof.  I’m not convinced that thing on Trump’s head is a comb over. I think it’s a varmint with a mind of its own. Late at night, it sneaks out of the house and does terrible things out of pent-up anger.

:: ::

1. Cartoons of the Week

If You Lie With Dogs…

Chan Lowe, Comics.com (South Florida Sun-Sentinel)

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

The Real GOP 2012 Contenders

Exploratory Newt by Rob Rogers, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Newt Gingrich has appointed an exploratory committee to test the waters of a presidential run in 2012. His biggest opponent will be his own behavior and hypocrisy. Now, he is claiming that his extra-marital affairs were due to an overzealous love of country. All I can say to that is: Run, Newt, Run!

— Rogers revealing that he is a big political fan of that paragon of virtue, Newt Gingrich

Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News

(click link to enlarge cartoon

of 3/23/11 in Peters’ archives)

We Hardly Knew Ye, Glenn

Tell No One by David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Star, Buy this cartoon

Fox News Drops Beck by Mike Keefe, Denver Post, Buy this cartoon

Will and Kate’s Excellent Adventure

Royal Wedding by Randy Bish, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, Buy this cartoon

The Royal Yawn by Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon

Bashar al-Assad: Like Father, Like Son

John Sherffius, Boulder Daily Camera, Buy this cartoon

Arcadio Esquivel, La Nacion (Costa Rica), Buy this cartoon

Muammar Gaddafi: Libya’s Strongman

Guy Badeaux (Bado), Journal LeDroit (Ottawa, Canada), Buy this cartoon

Gaddafi Steps Down – April Fool by Randall Enos, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon

150 Years Later, the Civil War’s Still Being Fought

Robert Arial, Comics.com (formerly of The State, SC)

David Horsey, see reader comments in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer

(click link to enlarge cartoon)

Americans Keep Confederates in the Attic, Slaves in the Cellar

Slavery was the perennial issue of contention in American politics from the writing of the Constitution onwards.  Decade after decade, as the boundaries of the country pushed west, national leaders anguished over the issue and struggled to forge brittle compromises that might forestall armed conflict for a few more years.  When, finally, the Southern states chose to secede, Confederate leaders forthrightly declared that preservation of the slave system was the impetus for their actions…

And so, after a century-and-a-half, it will not be enough to commemorate the war by simply going to our national attic to rummage through charming relics and try on old uniforms.  The ghosts of slaves remain locked away in the cellar.  We must go down there, as well, and open the cellar doors to the fresh air and the light of truth.

Read David Horsey excellent comment in full

Our Favorite Addiction: Imported Oil

Energy Arguments by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Buy this cartoon

The Republican Position on Women and Choice

Open The Hatches by Matt Bors, Comics.com, see reader comments on the Bors Blog

Republicans, the party of fiscally responsible wars and tax cuts for the rich, nearly shut the government down over funding for Planned Parenthood… Paul Ryan’s budget is being thought of as “serious.”  We live in Bizarro world.

— Bors criticizes the Republicans for their misplaced budgetary priorities

Abortion Rights by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see the very large number of reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Who’s Going to Win the Canadian Elections?

Steve Nease, Freelance Cartoonist (Ontario), Buy this cartoon

Haircut by Cam Cardow, Ottawa Citizen, Buy this cartoon

Air Traffic Controllers and Republicans Hard at Work

Rob Rogers, Comics.com, see reader comments in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Maybe republicans in Congress should have mandated power naps.  Not because they are falling asleep like air traffic controllers, but because if they were asleep they would do less damage to America’s most vulnerable citizens.

— Rogers has some advice for brain-dead Republican lawmakers and their callous ways of mistreating the have-nots of society

Air Traffic Control by Clay Bennett, Comics.com, see the very large number of reader comments in the Chattanooga Times Free Press

Their Taxes Need to Be Raised… and Soon

John Sherffius, Boulder Daily Camera, Buy this cartoon

Class Warfare by the Rich by Kirk Anderson, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

The Ryan Budget Proposal: Sinking Fast

Saving Medicare by RJ Matson, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Buy this cartoon

Boehner and House Freshmen by John Cole, Scranton Times-Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Economy

Facebook

Gitmo

Weather

“Godspeed, John Glenn Mark Kelly and Gabrielle Giffords”

Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald, Buy this cartoon

Steve Benson, Arizona Republic, Buy this cartoon

Mark Streeter, Savannah Morning News, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

2. If She Said So, It Must Be True

:: ::

Thompson recognizes racism and dog whistles, particularly when it comes from the mouth of people like Sarah Palin

Donald Trump had been playing the birther card so successfully that even Sarah Palin had tried neutralize the birther issue and Trump’s birther-driven jump in the polls by claiming she took “Obama at his word” when he stated that he was born in this country.  Right, just ignore all the evidence available before the release of the president’s long -form birth certificate; Obama’s “word” was the only proof of his citizenship.  That’s all we had to go on, just Obama’s “word.”  Which is a clever way of pretending to take the high road while continuing to sow seeds of doubt.

All of which goes to show that it really doesn’t matter what Obama says or does, conservatives like Trump and Palin will find some way to twist his words and actions.  Of course, this tactic is as common to politics as baby kissing, but what separates run of the mill political distortions from the birther movement is the element of race.  It’s an ugly tactic and it needs to stop.[

Donald Trump for President by Bill Schorr, Cagle Cartoons, Buy this cartoon

Jeff Koterba, Omaha World Herald, Buy this cartoon

PT Trump by John Darkow, Columbia Daily Tribune, Buy this cartoon

John Sherffius, Boulder Daily Camera, Buy this cartoon

Bob Gorrell, Nationally Syndicated Cartoonist, Buy this cartoon

Don Wright, Comics.com (Tribune Media Service)

Scott Stantis, Comics.com (Chicago Tribune)

The Donald by Bruce Plante, see reader comments in Tulsa World, Buy this cartoon

Steve Benson, Arizona Republic, Buy this cartoon

Dana Summers, Comics.com (Orlando Sentinel)

:: ::

3. As Rosanne Rosannadanna (Gilda Radner) used to say on SNL, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another”

:: ::

Lowe believes that nothing will satisfy the hardcore Birthers and it remains to be seen if Donald Trump will continue to exploit other issues in his naked quest to gain relevance.  I don’t believe that he has a snowball’s chance in hell to get the 2012 GOP nomination but I’m not too unhappy to see him drag the entire Republican Party into the sewer

So the White House finally did it.  The Donald is strutting around like a gamecock, taking credit for forcing the administration to do something no one else had been able to.  Effortlessly shifting gears, the pompous pompadour has moved on to questioning the president’s academic qualifications for getting into Columbia and Harvard, two institutions of higher learning that remained unattainable to Mr. Trump despite his financial advantages.

Meanwhile, the “legitimate” birthers are left scrabbling for a rationale, the way millenialists do after they’ve predicted the world will end and the sun stubbornly rises the next morning.  Not to worry. They won’t believe this birth certificate any more than the last one…

The fact remains that this is the first president in history who has had to present documents to prove his origins.  Some say it’s because his doubters believe he’s a closet communist.  They said that about FDR, too, but nobody asked if he was born in the United States.  John McCain has a much more tenuous hold on the “natural born” label than Mr. Obama, yet no birther movement coalesced to doubt his background, either.

I’m part of the group that feels the president did the right thing today. His disclosure may at least have allayed the doubts of those who were sitting on the birther fence. If any Republicans remain who are opportunistic enough to continue to fuel this fire, the existence of the original document will push them further into the corner with the crazies.  As for Trump, what he has done so far is despicable enough for a candidate. If his quest for the presidency turns out to be the mere publicity-seeking joke that many suspect, then he has compounded his sins to a point beyond redemption.

Chris Britt, see reader comments in the State Journal-Register (Springfield, IL), Buy this cartoon

Alien Concept by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see the large number of  reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

Walt Handelsman, Comics.com (Newsday)

Afterbirthers by Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune, Buy this cartoon

Trump Trial Balloon by Taylor Jones, Politicalcartoons.com, Buy this cartoon

Robert Ariail, Comics.com (formerly of The State, SC)

The Comb Over by Nick Anderson, Comics.com, see the very large number of  reader comments in the Houston Chronicle

Donald Trump – Birther by Daryl Cagle, MSNBC.com, Buy this cartoon

Birth Certificate by Joe Heller, Green Bay Press-Gazette, Buy this cartoon

:: ::

4. 2. Trump #3 – Bigotry

Do join in if you can.  Thanks.