…here’s Kirk Anderson’s last poltical cartoon for the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
Of course, nobody in St. Paul knows this, because the paper pulled his final cartoon. So it’s up instead at, of all places, Dork Tower‘s
website.
Here’s hoping his unemployment is a short one. Of course, I’ve been
hoping that for all of my friends too, and it hasn’t been working all
that well…
AOL’s front page today has some heavy stuff on the unemployment
problems so many folks are facing. And then there’s the poll results from their questions:
What do you blame for the scarcity of work?
32% Bush’s policies 47,288
28% The depressed market 41,667
25% Nothing specific, it’s cyclical 36,144
15% Corporate scandals 22,036
Total votes: 147,135
(current as of when I looked last)
And if you happen to think that Bush has something to do with the
corporate scandals and the depressed market– well, you might be right.
In any event, a real damning situation. I read recently that Bush has
presided over the biggest job loss in America since Hoover… and look
where that led us.
For those of you who’d like to read more about it, click here.
I just grabbed a copy of the book from Simon & Schuster earlier
today, and it looks quite neat. (Yes, I read the other stories a while
back, but it’s still a good package, and you should click on the link
below and buy it if you haven’t already. Mama needs a new cable to hook
up her DVD player…)
No Surrender (Star Trek: SCE, Book 4)
is now out from Simon and Schuster. Written by by Mike Collins, Ian
Edginton, Robert Greenberger, Jeff Mariotte, and yours truly bringing
up the rear. Last time I looked, the book was in the top 5000 in sales
at Amazon. Unfortunately, the time I checked before that, it was in the
top 3000… and I refuse to buy my way to the top like some authors do;
I want you to buy them as well.
There’s a bill kicking around that would repeal the 22nd amendment,
which restricts US Presidents to two terms. Follow the link and search
on H. J. RES. 11.
Bush might really want to try for his open-ended junta, but I’d bet a
lot of money that if this passed, Clinton would come back and mop the
floor with him. It’s noteworthy that it was introduced by Jose Serrano,
a New York Democrat.
From a poll on the AOL/Netscape sidebar:
Has the war in Iraq made you more likely to vote to re-elect President Bush?
* Yes, he’s my choice now
* I would have voted for him anyway
* I would never vote for Bush now
Oh lord, how can there be so many problems in so few words…? Perhaps more interesting are the results at the moment:
Yes, he’s my choice now – 15%
I would have voted for him anyway – 40%
I would never vote for Bush now – 45%
55% voting for him, eh? Those are damn soft numbers coming off a war… and that’s before we look at the depressed economy.
Excellent essay by Steve Gilliard over at the Daily Kos.
I want to get back to his topic of fear at some point, as soon as I can catch my breath…
Let’s see, two journalists were killed when US troops shelled a hotel. We’ve already lost David Bloom and Michael Kelly. At least one other journalist from the BBC was killed.
Do those numbers seem a bit high to you?
Take
a good look at this photo. It’s an AP photo by Paul Sakura. She bears
wounds she says she got after she was fired on by police during a
anti-war protest in Oakland, CA. This one.
Police opened fire with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest at
the Port of Oakland Monday morning, injuring several longshoremen
standing nearby.
Police were trying to clear protesters from an entrance to the docks
when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were caught in
the line of fire.
Six longshoremen were treated by paramedics and at least one was
expected to be taken to a hospital. It was unclear if any of the
protesters was injured.
“I was standing as far back as I could,” said longshoreman Kevin
Wilson. “It was very scary. All of that force wasn’t necessary.”
Let me say that again. Police opened fire on protesters.
Now, look at that woman above. I’m willing to bet $50 I know who it is.
I think I went to college with her. The rest of the circumstances fit.
But you know, it doesn’t matter if I know her or not. This woman was
fired on by police for speaking out against the war.
Look at the location of the bruises. At best, her jaw has probably been
dislocated. A few inches up and her eardrum would have been ruptured
from impact, or her eye.
There are a few folks who are convinced that the War in Iraq won’t be a
replay of the Vietnam War. To which I say… really?
From the Chicago Tribune:
Despite promises that the war in Iraq will make the United States
safer from terrorism, residents of the city most affected by terrorism
are far less enthusiastic for the war than other Americans. And the
more personally a New Yorker was affected, the weaker the impulse seems
to be for avenging the more than 2,800 lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001.
New York’s antiwar chorus includes many lower Manhattan residents,
Sept. 11 survivors and others like the immigrant dishwashers, busboys
and cooks who lost their jobs at the Windows on the World restaurant.
A poll released this week showed that just after the conflict began,
New Yorkers became more supportive of the war and President Bush’s
handling of the conflict. Still, even as about 70 percent of all
Americans back the war, just 47 percent of New Yorkers support it,
while 49 percent oppose it….
“`Rally `round the flag’ is the resounding cry heard throughout the
nation. In New York City, that cry is muted,” said Maurice Carroll,
director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Many New Yorkers with direct ties to the Sept. 11 attacks say their
painful experiences helped form antiwar opinions….
Maria Weisbin, a book editor who has lived six blocks north of the
trade center site since 1979 recalled her husband screaming for revenge
from the rooftop of their apartment building as they watched the towers
burn and collapse.
She supported the war to remove the Taliban from Afghanistan. “I could
throttle bin Laden myself,” said Weisbin, 53.
But she and her husband oppose the war in Iraq, she said, because they
believe there is no connection between Saddam Hussein’s regime and the Sept. 11 attacks.
[emphasis mine]
“We have come the closest of anyone in America to seeing war in our own
neighborhood,” Weisbin said. “We don’t want our grief to be used.”