This is Historic Times » Barack Obama

Choose Your Poison

deephurting — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 04:50:17 +0000

The War Room

deephurting — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 04:58:03 +0000

Barack Obama: Capitalist Lion Tamer

deephurting — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 04:16:37 +0000

Strings Attached

deephurting — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 21:07:13 +0000

I was playing with the main idea of this cartoon for a few weeks, and decided now might be a good time to use it, because Congress recently passed an Act that would grant the President nigh-unlimited power to imprison anyone without trial, even US citizens, for the duration of the “War on Terror,” which is another way of saying “forever.” The White House quickly responded that Obama would veto the Act, as well he should, but that his reasoning for doing so wasn’t that it’d give the President too much power, but rather that the powers granted were not broad enough.

The veto threat ultimately didn’t amount to much, anyway, because Obama abandoned it and signed the bill today.

This is not the first time Obama’s reneged on his commitment to restoring civil liberties that were weakened, circumvented, or totally obliterated by the Bush Administration, and instead fits a trend of actually expanding attacks on due process and the Bill of Rights. I’ve done a few cartoons on the subject before.

The Obama Administration has already shown a lack of restraint when it comes to assassinating American citizens who align themselves with the enemy (and their families). While the target in that case may indeed have been a dangerous radical, I still found the force expressed to have been excessive–just as I said in the case of Osama Bin Laden, reasonable effort needed to be made to apprehend the terrorist in question and bring him to trial before bullets were fired or missiles were launched. Since no one in the military, the intelligence community, or the White House even tried to argue that such efforts were made, I don’t believe they were.

That being the case, it’s not just some theoretical future President we need to worry about overzealously exercising these new powers–Obama’s own record proves that he can’t be trusted to wield them with appropriate discretion and respect for the Constitution. Is authorizing missile attacks on Americans who advocate the violent overthrow of the country that far removed from indefinitely jailing members of the press who might expose wrongdoing and corruption in the government, for example, in light of these draconian “war” powers? I think not!

Unfortunately, it’s not like we can look to the opposition party to save us from the incumbent President in the next election, since they’re even worse in every way that he is bad, and offer none of his strengths besides. What can be done to defeat these measures, when someone who spoke out against their like and who represented the public will to put a stop to them has become their most aggressive champion??

Oh, a friend of mine asked if I’d also share the uncolored ink work for this cartoon. Here’s a link to that, for those interested.

Jobstructionism

deephurting — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 14:00:52 +0000

I spent most of the week trying to develop something on the Herman Cain sexual harassment story, but none of the ideas I had were any good. I figure part of the problem is that, while Cain’s antics make for great theater, he and his campaign have pretty much no substance worth the effort of serious commentary, for me.

In the meantime, I drew this fairly simple piece commenting on the Republican defeat of the President’s “American Jobs Act” in Congress, which was intended to bolster the anemic job market while repairing and updating the nation’s aging infrastructure. Unfortunately, Republicans would rather let millionaires hoard more of their money than redirect even a small amount of it towards job creation.

No Further Questions

deephurting — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:54:41 +0000

I originally wrote this gag for President Bush. In a way, that’s all that really needs to be said about Obama’s approach to the “War on Terror”–his policies have become so similar to those of the Bush Administration that they’re practically interchangeable.

I remembered the joke while trying to develop something on the Anwar Al-Awlaki assassination about two weeks ago, which was the first official targeted killing of a US citizen on charges of aiding and inciting terrorism. Additional air strikes since then have resulted in the death of Al-Awlaki’s son, so I read today.

The idea of targeted assassinations like these makes me uncomfortable. Even if the target’s a really bad person who may deserve it, I feel it’s dangerous to grant the President the same power to chase down individuals that we grant him to wage war for national defense. I also feel that assassinating terrorists before attempting to capture, try, and convict them like the crooks they are is a self-defeating strategy that only serves to inflame new, even harder to defeat terrorists, as these cartoons argued. It’s a bit like fighting bacterial infections–do so too aggressively, and even though it may kill off all the weaker bacteria, you’ll end up with stronger ones that are resistant to antibiotics.

I nearly finished this a few days after the Chris Christie cartoon, but I wasn’t happy with the results at the time, and so chose to spend more time working on it. Unfortunately, this overlapped with a trip I took to Portland, Oregon that ended up lasting much longer than I expected it to. I was staying with my sister, and even though she has a scanner, it’s of such a poor quality that it was useless to me except to sketch out colors before I could rescan the lineart with my own.

Speaking of Portland, I should probably point out part of why I was visiting, for any readers who happen to live there: I was looking for work, because I find the local arts community vibrant, and would like to move there. If anyone reading this can point me in the direction of some good job openings in the area for someone with my talents, or hook me up with some interviews, please let me know. Or, if you can’t help with that, you could put money towards helping me move, instead…

The Hand-Off

deephurting — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 20:40:33 +0000

I was trying to develop something on Obama’s Jobs Bill when the Solyndra scandal hit the news. For those who haven’t been following the “liberal media,” Solyndra was a solar-panel company, as well as one of the poster children for the economic stimulus program, which recently went bankrupt because of their apparently unsustainable business model–an ABC News clip which I’ve seen several times explains that they were selling them for only half of what they cost to manufacture.

As is to pretty much be expected at this point, the White House attempted to defer the blame by citing the previous Administration’s plans to deliver stimulus to the ill-fated company, while Republican representatives shot back that Bush’s people had determined the venture was too risky, and were planning to ultimately reject the project. I wasn’t sure what to think about this particular situation, but I do know there is already a history of Obama getting blamed for bills incurred by President Bush (such as TARP), and I realize most of the National Debt is the work of decades’ worth of Presidents and Congresses and wasting tons of money on dumb wars.

I developed the above cartoon along that more general track. It took quite a bit of time to finish, both because I had a false-start where I drew one of the figures facing the wrong direction, and because it took a ridiculous amount of time to color, but I’m quite happy with the results. There are a lot of puns at work here, even for me–see if you can identify them all!

That’s A Paddlin’

deephurting — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 21:25:50 +0000

I began drawing this cartoon at least a month ago, but when it was nearly finished, decided on something else, and shelved it.

I was planning on drawing something on Global Warming on Thursday, but when I read the news about the President caving to the GOP yet again, I thought it gave this gag some renewed relevance, so I finished inking it and then spent a ridiculous amount of time coloring it. I really need to find a speedier coloring technique–there’s got to be a way to get the same look in a fraction of the time it usually takes me.

As I said, I was originally planning a cartoon on Global Warming for today. I hope to follow this one up with that one, and a cartoon addressing the exploitation of 9/11. Stay tuned.

Whodunit

deephurting — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 14:00:38 +0000

It was difficult to come up with something expressing my outrage at the President, as well as many Democratic members of the legislature, for joining together with Republicans to put 100% of the responsibility for America’s debt on the non-wealthy. Continuing President Bush’s tax cuts for the rich means the government won’t have the funds necessary to maintain infrastructure, help states out with their struggling economies, or continue funding programs that take care of the poor and the sick. Members of the Middle Class will have fewer options to prevent them from losing their homes as a result of long-term unemployment, and the homeless will have fewer options to prevent them from dying of exposure. The populace will get dumber since there’ll be less government assistance available for education, at least without literally prostituting oneself to America’s corporate oligarchy.

But I’m meandering. I started drawing two other cartoons, different from the one you see above, and even got close to finishing one of them, but decided in both cases that they didn’t quite fit how I felt. Even the cartoon I completed wandered well away from its initial concept, which was simply to visualize Obama stabbing the people who voted for “Hope” and “Change” in the back. It still doesn’t quite communicate how angry I am, but even as it is, it teeters on being too heavy-handed, so I’m glad I didn’t push it further.

Regular readers may recognize several themes in this cartoon which have appeared in several others recently. I was especially reminded of this one while working on it.

Neo Cons

deephurting — Sun, 17 Jul 2011 04:50:02 +0000

It’s become increasingly common for Republican Congresspersons lately to refer to the obscenely wealthy as “job creators” in their quest to deflect the burden for government spending onto the poor and the middle class instead of those who can actually afford it without giving up a meal. Since recent history shows that cutting taxes for the rich didn’t prevent the high unemployment and other economic problems the US is currently experiencing, the relationship they’re trying to draw is pretty unreasonable–if there’s a correlation at all, it seems more likely to me that the tax cuts, as well as other giveaways to corporations (such as various deregulations), probably caused the recession, and continuing that trend is bound not to help.

This cartoon compares this blatant economic trickery to the “shell game” or cup-and-ball routine, both of which being sleight-of-hand used for centuries to con desperate or unsuspecting dupes out of money by presenting them with what appears to be a simple gambling game which is in fact impossible to win. The crowds surrounding a victim in this con are usually composed of shills or “muscle” whose job it is to either make the game appear to be winnable, keep the victim from leaving, or watch out for police (although the cop in this cartoon doesn’t really seem to be all that effective at protecting the public from these crooks, eh?). Another well-known form of the same basic trick is the Three-card Monte.