This is Historic Times » Obama

Platforms

deephurting — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 21:07:23 +0000

While my own, personal feelings on the execution of Osama Bin Laden weren’t quite as black-and-white as most, it’s inarguable that it was a major political victory for the Obama Administration, from the perspective of the American electorate. This is why I find it ridiculous that practically every candidate in the Republican Primary (with the exception of Ron Paul) apparently insists on sticking with the ol’ Conservative standby, “[Democratic candidate] is weak on defense!”

Are they planning on using this line in the eventual debates with the President? All he has to do in response is hold up a copy of one of the most-viral images of 2011. It’d be like yielding the floor for Obama to crow about presiding over Bin Laden’s death in whatever terms he wants, except worse because at least the latter strategy might make him look like a braggart, as opposed to merely responding to his opponent.

The tradition of attacking Democrats for being “weak on defense” goes back to at least Reagan/Carter, and I figure it’s at least as old as the Democratic tactic of calling Republicans dangerous warmongers. The truth is that Presidents from both parties have been excessively and overzealously attentive towards military force for far longer than I’ve been alive–a look at the “defense” portion of the federal budget clearly confirms that. Republicans on the campaign trail this cycle have asserted that Obama has cut the defense budget, which is not true: In fact, all his Administration has done (by request of the Pentagon itself, if I’m not mistaken) has been to ease back on the rate at which the defense budget will be allowed to grow. Growth, however, remains assured.

If the artwork in this cartoon looks any different, it’s because I got the stylus for my new Wacom back, which I’d previously left on a friend’s coffee table in Bellingham, Washington. I’m hoping this’ll eventually lead to a more painterly style in my coloring, though I am definitely still getting the hang of even the basics.

Yeah, This Won’t Backfire…

deephurting — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 15:12:26 +0000

I was developing a cartoon criticizing the economic policies of the various GOP Presidential candidates, but then I read this and decided the above might make a more appropriate year-ender. Before developing the economic policy cartoon, I wasted a few days trying to come up with something commenting on the recent US withdrawal from Iraq with which to end the year, but none of my ideas seemed to say much beyond the surface details of “a thing happened.” Besides, I couldn’t possibly outdo this outstanding illustration by Joel Pett, chronicling the whole blunderous enterprise, from its back-alley conception, to its ignominious conclusion, so I’m glad this specific angle was brought to my attention instead.

The very first post-withdrawal articles I read had made note of how Iraq was to be opened up as a prime market for US defense contractors, and I remember rolling my eyes as I read this, commenting to my friend online that arms sales–not “liberty” or “democracy”–were, and always had been, the ultimate purpose of the war.

But for some reason, it took the headline of the more recent article for me to make the connection between the past and the present on display in this cartoon, as well as in the post-occupation policies of the Obama Administration. Despite holding an official policy of neutrality in the Iran/Iraq conflict of the early ’80s, the Reagan Administration provided Saddam Hussien, a Sunni Muslim, with weapons and military funding under-the-table (until they were caught doing this, of course), for the express purpose of acting as a “counter” to Iran. Reagan didn’t really seem to care when Saddam began using the weapons we gave him to oppress and kill Shiites (like Nouri al-Maliki, the current US puppet in Iraq). Nobody in the US seemed to care, really, until Saddam invaded Kuwait.

A famous photograph of Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam began circulating on the web shortly before the more recent Iraq invasion, and has become symbolic of the folly of giving strongman dictators guns and an expense account for the Military Industrial Complex all-you-can-eat bonanza, not to mention the irony of having those very weapons turned against the US and its allies shortly afterwards.

It has been suggested to me that this cartoon may be difficult to understand, because people aren’t likely to recognize Nouri al-Maliki on his looks alone. If history is any indicator, he just might become as recognizable to the average person as his predecessor was, in a decade or so.

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 that 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!

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.

Quit Buggin’ Me

deephurting — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 14:00:57 +0000

As mentioned last week, this cartoon addresses Congress and the President’s renewal of expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act dealing with domestic spying.

I had a number of different ideas for what to put on the van, including just leaving it blank, or labeling it “UNMARKED VAN.” I’m still not sure what I went with was the funniest or most effective option.

Hope Croaks

deephurting — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 15:00:51 +0000

This cartoon references a classic piece of Warner Brothers animation, One Froggy Evening, which is widely considered among the greatest animated cartoons of all time.

This took quite a bit longer to draw and color than the last cartoon I made, which I banged out in an evening and an afternoon immediately after having the idea. I needed to spend some time re-watching the cartoon short and sketching characters from it, and after the lineart was finished, I carefully pulled most of my color palette from some framegrabs. I also spent some time researching the desk in the Oval Office.

I think this looks pretty nice, although I wish I’d come up with a good way to make the pattern on the Oval Office’s curtains without making the picture too busy. There’s a lot of careful design going on here, such as my decision to cross-hatch the background of the first panel in a manner reminiscent of a musical staff, while following a strong vertical line theme in the second panel, so as to make everything in it feel heavier.

Learning from Past Mistakes

deephurting — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 16:30:39 +0000