From Scratch

After reneging on its promise to allow open Internet access to reporters covering the Olympics, China finally relented last week amid international criticism. Sudddenly, organizations such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders discovered their sites were accessible in Beijing for the first time in years. Of the many political cartoons about the situation, I […]

The Jerusalem Post runs a good cartoon strip by Yaakov Kirschen called Dry Bones, which usually takes on issues in Israeli politics. But one strip this past week was prompted by Barack Obama’s visit.

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I tried hard during my time off to avoid reading about things I write about and for the most part, I succeeded. But some issues attract global attention and can’t be ignored. I’m talking about the now-infamous “satirical” New Yorker cover of Barack and Michelle Obama fist-bumping, with him portrayed in Muslim garb. Brazil’s Simanca […]

One consequence of higher gas prices doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I welcome it, although I’m sorry it’s been necessary for all of us to dig deeper at the pump to bring this about. JD Crowe of the Mobile Register ilustrated it in a cartoon on Thursday.

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One of comedy’s most brilliant voices was silenced this week when George Carlin died. When he appeared on In the Actors’ Studio and host James Lipton asked at the end what he would like to hear G-d say when he got to heaven, Carlin thought for a bit then replied, “Now we’re going to have […]

I know they’re much higher in other countries, but when I see gas prices go up almost daily, one word comes to mind. Apparently, Daryl Cagle of Cagle Cartoons and MSNBC.com thinks of that same word.

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Two cartoons this week. Often I choose whichever one I’ve seen a few days earlier but still remember, either for the art, the cleverness or simply because it made me laugh. Sometimes I choose one that makes me say, “Ooh, perfect,” in terms of the subject. I had both situations this week, so take your pick […]

Roger Ebert, my favorite film critic and the only one to win a Pulitzer, once observed how rarely characters in movies talk about going to movies. Similarly, political cartoonists seldom reference artists and paintings, even very famous ones.
Mike Lane of Cagle Cartoons mixed political opinion with a painting I love and produced a very clever and […]

I wish I had a dollar for every cartoon this week about Scott McClellan’s book. My favorite, for its creativity and political memory, was Huffaker’s at Cagle Cartoons.
Related: Quote of the Month - March 08        Quote of the Month - May 08

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Who is Rupert Murdoch afraid of? Barack Obama, I guess. All three of this week’s Ramirez cartoons in Murdoch’s conservative New York Post were anti-Obama. Wednesday’s  was an example of a tired, lame editorial stance we ought to be past by now.

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It’s becoming almost farcical. After Hillary’s expected big win in West Virginia Tuesday, Obama picked up the support of enough superdelegates to take a small lead and is only 17 elected delegates away from a majority, but she refuses to admit defeat.
I’ll think of her the next time I watch Carrie, thanks to Frederick Deligne of France’s […]

Editorial cartoonists around the globe weighed in this week on Hillary Clinton’s refusal to quit the Democratic presidential race, despite impossible delegate math and the party’s coalescing around Barack Obama in the name of unity. I didn’t see a single one that took her side.
From Canada, Tab of The Calgary Sun went beyond criticism to sketch out […]

It’s been a horrid week for Britain’s Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose Labour party was routed and repudiated at the polls in London’s mayoral race. Eight-year incumbent Ken Livingstone is out, Conservative Boris Johnson is in and is already calling for Labour to remove Brown.
Brown, for his part, called it a “bad day.” Bad day? […]

At long last, the Pennsylvania primary has come and gone. It wasn’t the blowout for Hillary it seemed it would be a month earlier, but it wasn’t a squeaker either. So she lives to fight another day, despite Obama’s likely insurmountable lead in delegates.
I’ve come to think of the primary as Spinsylvania and, apparently, so […]

After what seems like months, not weeks, of increasingly-nasty campaigning, the Pennsylvania primary finally is at hand. And one issue I can’t believe even became an issue refuses to go away, especially among small-minded xenophobes.
Keefe of The Denver Post summed up my thoughts on Thursday with just a few strokes.

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