Another wingnut cartoonist makes stuff up.

There's a reason why "conservative humorist" is such an oxymoron these days. They don't dare poke fun at the Bush administration, even though the Bush administration is to blame for the mess in Iraq, the ballooning deficit, the limp economy, the Plame case, and just about every single mess we're in.

Well, they could dare. They could poke a few holes in the president's hypocrisy or lampoon his ever-shifting excuses for the Iraq war. They could cast a withering satirical eye at Bob "This is EXPLETIVE DELETED" Novak.

But, as
Carl Moore's State of the Union strip makes clear, it's easier and less embarassing to just make stuff up.

Now, really. Nonsense like this makes "Mallard Fillmore" look smart and insightful. Someone kept a straight face while drawing this?

A good political cartoon takes a current event--something rooted in fact--and offers a new perspective that makes the reader grin and, maybe, think. This goes for liberal and conservative cartoonists alike. This one, however, is based on a lie--specifically, a lie told by Karl Rove.

Satire based on something that didn't happen and doesn't exist doesn't really qualify as effective satire. "Mallard Fillmore" and "State of the Union" are cartoons based on straw men, bogus information, and stuff that the cartoonists just made up.

It's gotta be hard to be a conservative humorist these days.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tell us something we don't already know

The MTA is clueless. Man, if you need a place to vent or learn the full story behind mass transit horror stories, check out Gothamist. The MTA admitted that the service was not acceptable on many accounts, from the flooding to the fact that the MTA's website was overwhelmed. Then there's also the fact that the MTA was urging people not to take the subways and opt for a bus instead, only for buses to be (A) few and far between and (B) crowded as anything. They forgot to mention "(C) fucking slow." Don't the people at the MTA feel really stupid when they say shit like this? MTA CEO Lee Sander said, "We really are sorry about the inconvenience that New Yorkers had to deal with. In terms of how it happened, we had three inches of rain in an hour. The system is designed to handle 1.5 inches." This isn't quite as appalling as last year's 9-day Queens blackout--you know, the one where Con Ed lied about the number of places without power--but it still in
Read more

We're the ones we've been waiting for, and all that

Via Blue Wave News , Van Jones' speech at the Campus Progress National Conference, which rang true to this cautiously optimistic liberal. More from Mr. Jones, via HuffPo: We are trying to build a pro-democracy movement in a country that, at least for eight years, was run by [inaudible] authoritarians. And it is not going to be easy. But I tell you, the most important thing I can say is... We feed the fearmongers. We feed the politics of division, by giving it so much attention and letting it fill up the space in our mind. We have to feed the hope. This country is an extraordinary -- I get choked up -- this is an incredible, beautiful country... That little idiot box off in the corner trying to depress you and make you feel like this is a horrible country and everybody believes evil things about the president... it is just not true. Cut it off, just cut it off and walk down the street and talk to real people in this country. They are sophisticated. They are wise. They don't kno
Read more