This cartoon is being posted late due to the announcement of our new book, Black & White World II (note that there are new shipping options).
CNN reports: Ukraine opposition cancels talks.
Opposition officials say they have cut off negotiations with Ukraine's government aimed at settling the country's bitter and divisive presidential election dispute.The behind-the-scenes talks had been progressing alongside parliamentary debates and the Supreme Court's consideration of opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko's charges that voting irregularities cost him victory in his contest with Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych.
The crisis has brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to Kiev, where Yushchenko supporters have blocked government buildings for several days. ...
With Western observers saying the election did not meet acceptable standards of fairness, the United States and Europe have refused to recognize the results.
But Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose country still has much influence over the former Soviet republic, congratulated Yanukovych and complained of Western meddling.
Putin on Tuesday repeated his call for the Ukraine crisis to be resolved without international intervention.
Black & White World II is available from a number of sources. To order the book directly from us, simply click here -- you will be taken to a page where you can order this book and our latest book. Or you can order book II from Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com.
This volume contains over 450 cartoons (four times the number in our first book) and covers over two years of work -- starting in September 2002 and ending in November 2004 with the conclusion of the presidential election. Many of the cartoons have appeared on the pages of The Detriot News, Investor's Business Daily, and The Washington Times.
The book includes almost every new cartoon that has appeared on this Web site, plus there are also about 40 cartoons/illustrations previously unpublished or unposted. (Click here to see the back cover.)
Black & White World II also features:
-- TIA COVER ART: Illustrations for The Intellectual Activist magazine with commentary by Editor and Publisher Robert W. Tracinski;
-- LGF CARTOONS: From Fiskie Awards to "lizardoid" cartoons created for the Little Green Footballs weblog with commentary by Charles Johnson;
-- EXTRA CARTOONS: T-shirt designs, gag cartoons, spot illustrations, and more;
-- CAPTIONS on many cartoons with commentary and excerpts from news articles and editorials;
-- INTERVIEWS with Cox & Forkum, including a previously unpublished interview on the topic of Israel;
-- An EDITORIAL by Robert W. Tracinski, "Anti-Bushites for Bush";
-- An INTRODUCTION by Felix Grabowski, creative director of The Detroit News Web site and author of the Cartoons in the Classroom projects; and
-- An INDEX for finding your favorite cartoons by names, such as Uncle Sam, George W. Bush, John Kerry, Michael Moore, Dan Rather, Jacques Chirac, Yasser Arafat, Israel, Iran, Iraq, and of course the Donkey and the Elephant.
Sample cartoons from Black & White World II:
"Leftist Math" (Hitler and Bush)
"Nuclear Ends" (Iran and nukes)
"Reaper" (Saudi Arabia and al-Qaeda)
"Status Quash" (Bush and Taiwan)
"Motherly Hate" (Palestinian terrorism)
"Bowling for Fallujah" (Michael Moore)
"Food for Dictators" (United Nations)
"The Good, The Bad, The Media" (Media and Abu Ghraib)
"Urban Blights" (Protestors at the RNC covention)
"Down From The Mountain" (Dan Rather and bloggers)
"Scare Tactics" (The military draft)
"Global Test" (John Kerry)
"Decision 2004" (Presidential election)
Black & White World II is huge compared to our first book: 8.25" x 11" with 260 pages. And the price?
If you enjoy our cartoons, the book is a must-have. And need we say that the book makes a great gift, too?
Black & White World II is available from a number of sources. To order the book directly from us, simply click here -- you will be taken to a page where you can order this book and our latest book. Or you can order book II from Barnes & Noble.com and Amazon.com.
We hope that you enjoy the book!
Note About the Cover Illustration... Recognize the Uncle Sam on the cover? John's art is based on this cartoon.
Contributors: Robert W. Tracinski, Charles Johnson and Felix Grabowski.
This previously unpublished cartoon appears in our new book, Black & White World II.
USAToday reported Wednesday: Rather: 'Time for me to move on.
Dan Rather, the CBS Evening News anchor conservatives loved to hate, was a network news survivor of the highest order: He lasted a record 24 years despite repeated attempts to unseat him by people inside and outside CBS. Rather, 73, said he will continue to work for CBS, as a correspondent for both editions of 60 Minutes.But in the end, a single controversial story that Rather reported at the height of a brutal presidential contest, one that questioned President Bush's National Guard service during Vietnam, probably sped his departure. ...
Rather's departure could signal the rise and influence of politically motivated Internet "bloggers," who relentlessly attacked him and the documents that were used to back up his 60 Minutes story. Some political and media analysts have said the "Memogate" scandal damaged CBS News' reputation, especially among viewers in largely rural, conservative states -- the network's core audience. ...
As word spread Tuesday afternoon that Rather was stepping down, the anchor known for his quirky, folksy style addressed 200 CBS staff members -- some of them with tears in their eyes -- in his Evening News "fishbowl" in New York City. Dressed in a sweater, Rather said the time was right for him to go. But he also alluded to a possible driving force, the Guard scandal, which he referred to as the "hippopotamus in the room."
The scandal tainted what might have been an orderly transition from Rather to a new anchor, said Evening News producer Jim Murphy. "This thing obviously messed everything up. ... This has been a very trying time."
And from The New York Post: A Rather Ugly Exit. (Via Little Green Footballs)
In the face of compelling evidence that documents [memos] had been forged by a long-time Bush foe, Rather insisted instead that he was being targeted by enemies with political motives.The anchor postured and preened and hemmed and hawed before admitting, not that the documents were fake, but that he had made "a mistake in judgment."
That's one way to put it.
Andy Rooney, Rather's curmudgeonly "60 Minutes" colleague, had a different take last week -- more blunt, and far more accurate: "I am very critical of some of the people at CBS who make it apparent what their political leanings are," he said. "That's what happened to this thing of Dan Rather's that got out. There's no question they wanted to run [the story] because it was negative towards Bush."
Rooney clocked it: Rather has it in for the Bush administration.
To cite just one of many examples, as war clouds gathered over Iraq in February 2003, Rather proudly aired an exclusive interview with Saddam Hussein — set up by lunatic-fringer Ramsey Clark and filmed by Saddam aides.
But he refused a White House offer of Condoleezza Rice to appear to rebut Saddam's comments.
UPDATE I: A good article at The Economist on this subject (which also features a cartoon that works well with our title): Dropping the anchorman. (Via InstaPundit)
All through the recent election campaign, the new media outsmarted the old media when it came to setting the news agenda. Republican strategists admit that the Swift Boat veterans' attacks on John Kerry, largely ignored by the old media, would never have got anywhere without the online Drudge Report. Drudge was also instrumental in turning the “60 Minutes” story into an embarrassment for the Democrats, not Mr Bush. Local bloggers also had an effect; in South Dakota, for instance, they repeatedly highlighted Tom Daschle's partisan record in Washington, DC, something that the Democratic Senate majority leader's friends in the local print media had never laboured to expose.The bloggers have often been at their most devastating when they have been criticising the old media for bias.
UPDATE II -- November 29: This cartoon appears in today's (Tueday's) The Detroit News.
UPDATE -- November 26: From The Ayn Rand Institue and authored by Gary Hull: Thanksgiving: The Producer's Holiday.
Thanksgiving is a uniquely American holiday, because this country was the first to create and to value material abundance. It is America that has been the beacon for anyone wanting to escape from poverty and misery. It is America that generated the unprecedented flood of goods that washed away centuries of privation. It is America, by establishing the precondition of production -- political freedom -- that was able to unleash the dynamic, productive energy of its citizens.This should be a source of pride to every self-supporting individual.
From The Washington Times: Fed chief shakes markets.
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan shook financial markets [Friday] with a warning that foreign nations may tire of financing the huge U.S. trade and budget deficits.The dollar, stocks and bonds all plunged after he told the European Banking Congress in Frankfurt, Germany, that the U.S. currency will keep dropping and interest rates will have to rise considerably to keep attracting the foreign funds needed to finance the deficits.
The U.S. budget deficit last year reached a record $413 billion and is projected to stay above $300 billion a year unless budget policies are changed. The trade deficit is running at $600 billion a year -- nearly 6 percent of the nation's economic output.
"Given the size of the U.S. current-account deficit, a diminished appetite for adding to dollar balances must occur at some point" among foreign investors who have accumulated trillions of dollars in claims against the U.S. government and residents by financing the debt, Mr. Greenspan said.
Private investors from around the world already pulled back in a big way when the dollar started falling precipitously a year ago, forcing central banks — primarily those of China and Japan — to step in to keep propping up the dollar and financing the deficits.
History shows that most countries have a preference for keeping their investments at home and will not continue to underwrite spending in the United States indefinitely, he said.
While the United States has detected only "limited" resistance in trying to finance the deficits so far, the Fed chairman warned against "complacency" because odds dictate that the unprecedented torrent of cash coming in from overseas will not continue.
Stocks fell after Mr. Greenspan's warning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ending down nearly 116 points at 10,456.91.
From Caroline B. Glick: H-hour has arrived. (Via Little Green Footballs)
The agreement that France, Germany and Britain reached with Iran this week signals that the diplomatic option of dealing with Iran's nuclear weapons program no longer exists. To understand why this is the case, we must look into the agreement and understand what is motivating the various parties to accede to its conditions.The agreement stipulates that the European-3 will provide Iran with light water reactor fuel, enhanced trade relations and more nuclear reactors. In exchange, the Iranians agree that for the duration of the negotiations toward implementing the agreement -- including a European push for Iranian ascension to the World Trade Organization -- it will not develop centrifuges and will not enrich uranium. At the same time, the Europeans accepted Iran's claim that it has the legal right to complete the entire nuclear fuel cycle -- meaning, it has the legal right to enrich uranium. ...
Iran's interest in making the deal is clear. The IAEA governing board is set to meet next week to discuss Iran's nuclear program. By agreeing to the deal with the Europeans, Iran has effectively foreclosed the option, favored by the US, of transferring Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council for discussions that could lead to sanctions on Iran.
Aside from that, all along, Iran has been gaming the system. It has pushed to the limits all feasible interpretation of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, of which it is a signatory, to enable it to reach the cusp of nuclear weapons development without breaking its ties or diminishing its leverage over the Europeans as well as the Russians and Chinese. In so doing, it has isolated the US and Israel -- which have both gone on record that Iran must not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons -- from the rest of the international community, which is ready to enable Iran to achieve nuclear weapons capabilities.
UPDATE -- November 23: This cartoon appears in today's (Tuesday's) Investor's Business Daily.
From CNN: Sudan factions pledge to end war: 'Strongest warning' urged.
The move to conclude a two-year peace process for the south of the African nation came after U.N. chief Kofi Annan called on the council to issue its "strongest warning" to forces fighting in Sudan to sign a peace deal before the end of the year.In addition to finding an end to the civil war in Sudan's south, the council is meeting in Nairobi to end a humanitarian crisis in the western region of Darfur.
Nearly two million people have died, largely through war-induced hunger and disease, in a conflict between Sudan's Arab north and its Christian and traditionalist south.
The Darfur crisis began in February 2003, when non-Arab rebel groups took up arms to fight for more power and resources. The government responded by backing Arab militias, who have driven millions of villagers from their homes.
The United Nations has called Darfur one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, and Washington has labeled it genocide.
UPDATE -- November 22: This cartoon appears in today's (Monday's) Investor's Business Daily.
From FoxNews: Bush Taps Rice to Be Secretary of State.
[Condoleezza] Rice, considered more of a foreign policy hard-liner than [Secretary of State Colin] Powell, whom she calls a "dear friend and mentor," has been Bush's national security adviser for four years. ...Rice has long been Bush's most trusted foreign-policy adviser, leading to concerns that her elevation to secretary of state might not leave room for dissent within the administration.
"When Rice travels as secretary of state to other capitals, everyone will know that what she says represents with great fidelity what the president thinks" and vice versa, former presidential adviser David Gergen told FOX News.
"I think it does ensure closer cooperation within the administration," Gergen added, but if you "essentially purge the administration" of other voices, that would leave little room for alternative perspectives.
"Colin Powell and his group were often dissenters within the administration, but on some issues they turned out to be right," Gergen continued. He envisioned that Rice would bring in a "hard-line team" of lower-level officials to help her run State.
We're all for a State Department that takes a more "hard line" approach to America's interests compared to Powell's tendency toward appeasement. Our foreign policy message to other nations should be harmonious not dissonant.
UPDATE I -- November 19: This cartoon appears in today's (Friday's) Investor's Business Daily.
UPDATE II -- November 23: This cartoon appears in today's (Tuesday's) The Detroit News.
The full context and all relevant facts regarding the Marine-shoots-wounded-insurgent case are still not known, but the left-leaning mainstream media seem all too ready to turn the incident into the next Abu Ghraib scandal (as Charles Johnson put it). FoxNews reports: Military Probes Shooting of Prisoner.
The judge advocate general heading the investigation, Lt. Col. Bob Miller, told NBC News that depending on the evidence, it could be reasonable to conclude the Marine was acting in self-defense."The policy of the rules of engagement authorize the Marines to use force when presented with a hostile act or hostile intent," Miller said. "So they would have to be using force in self-defense, yes."
"Any wounded -- in this case insurgents -- who don't pose a threat would not be considered hostile," said Miller.
Charles Heyman, a senior defense analyst with Jane's Consultancy Group in Britain, defended the Marine's actions, saying it was possible the wounded man was concealing a firearm or grenade.
"You can hear the tension in those Marines' voices. One is showing, 'He's faking it. He's faking it,'" Heyman said. "In a combat infantry soldier's training, he is always taught that his enemy is at his most dangerous when he is severely wounded."
If the injured man makes even the slightest move, "in my estimation they would be justified in shooting him."
Meanwhile, little attention is given to incidents that are known and can be reported: the horror of insurgent rule in Fallujah.
UPDATE I -- November 18: This cartoon appears in today's (Thursday's) Investor's Business Daily.
UPDATE II: From today's Wall Street Journal: Semper Fi: The story of Fallujah isn't on that NBC videotape.
Some 40 Marines have just lost their lives cleaning out one of the world's worst terror dens, in Fallujah, yet all the world wants to talk about is the NBC videotape of a Marine shooting a prostrate Iraqi inside a mosque. Have we lost all sense of moral proportion?The al-Zarqawi TV network, also known as Al-Jazeera, has broadcast the tape to the Arab world, and U.S. media have also played it up. The point seems to be to conjure up images again of Abu Ghraib, further maligning the American purpose in Iraq. Never mind that the pictures don't come close to telling us about the context of the incident, much less what was on the mind of the soldier after days of combat. ...
When not disemboweling Iraqi women, these killers hide in mosques and hospitals, booby-trap dead bodies, and open fire as they pretend to surrender. Their snipers kill U.S. soldiers out of nowhere. According to one account, the Marine in the videotape had seen a member of his unit killed by another insurgent pretending to be dead. Who from the safety of his Manhattan sofa has standing to judge what that Marine did in that mosque?
UPDATE III: Jack Wakeland from TIA Daily writes: Who Will Defend War?.
In what universe is it "horribly wrong"--even criminal--for a Marine Corps rifleman to shoot a wounded Iraqi militiaman lying on the floor of a mosque in a combat zone (a shooting that was captured on video by an NBC cameraman)?Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's office felt the need to issue a statement that the Iraqi leader "is very concerned by allegations of an illegal killing by multinational forces in Fallujah." The interim prime minister brought up the incident with General George Casey, commander of the multinational force.
To make matters worse, US Ambassador John Negroponte told the press that "no one can be happy" about the incident "but the important point is that the individual in question will be dealt with."
This whole line of thinking comes from the rejection of war, as such.
------------------------------
Try TIA Daily for FREE:
From CNN: Powell resigns with three other Cabinet secretaries.
Powell said Bush accepted the resignation Friday, adding, "It has always been my intention that I would serve one term."But a senior State Department official characterized Powell's departure this way: "He was not asked to stay."
UPDATE I -- November 16: From The Wall Street Journal: The Powell Lesson: Will the State Department now support American foreign policy?.
[The State] department's idea of public diplomacy too often amounted to spinning itself to an obliging media as the supposed last bastion of sanity amid an Administration overrun by neocon crazies. In one example that somehow went unpunished, Mr. Powell's own chief of staff, Larry Wilkerson, described his colleagues at Defense and in the White House this way: "I call them utopians. I don't care whether utopians are Vladimir Lenin on a sealed train to Moscow or Paul Wolfowitz. Utopians I don't like. You're never going to bring utopia, and you're going to hurt a lot of people in the process of trying to do it." That kind of talk may have hurt the Administration, but it hurt State far more.The first task of whoever replaces Mr. Powell (as we went to press, Condoleezza Rice's name was being whispered) will be to ensure that the department acts as an arm of executive power and not as the in-house opposition.
UPDATE II -- November 17: This cartoon appears in today's (Wednesday's) Investor's Business Daily.
UPDATE III -- December 7: This cartoon appears in today's (Tuesday's) The Detroit News.
From The Washington Post's Charles Krauthammer: 'Moral Values' Myth.
In 1994, when the Gingrich revolution swept Republicans into power, ending 40 years of Democratic hegemony in the House, the mainstream press needed to account for this inversion of the Perfect Order of Things. A myth was born. Explained the USA Today headline: "ANGRY WHITE MEN: Their votes turn the tide for GOP."Overnight, the revolution of the Angry White Male became conventional wisdom. In the 10 years before the 1994 election there were 56 mentions of angry white men in the media, according to LexisNexis. In the next seven months there were more than 1,400.
At the time, I looked into this story line -- and found not a scintilla of evidence to support the claim. Nonetheless, it was a necessary invention, a way for the liberal elite to delegitimize a conservative victory. And, even better, a way to assuage their moral vanity: You never lose because your ideas are sclerotic or your positions retrograde, but because your opponent appealed to the baser instincts of mankind.
Plus ca change ... Ten years and another stunning Democratic defeat later, and liberals are at it again. The Angry White Male has been transmuted into the Bigoted Christian Redneck.
CNN reports: U.S. troops push into south Falluja.
CNN's Jane Arraf, who is embedded with the Army, reported Friday the soldiers are clearing the way for Marines, who are going door-to-door in an effort to find weapons caches and secure the area."They have essentially taken the south," Arraf said.
U.S. forces hope to take over the last rebel bastion in southern Falluja during the night, a U.S. Marine officer told Reuters news agency on Friday. ...
n Falluja the army unit cleared an industrial section of Falluja "where they found at almost every turn buildings wired to explode, bombs in the making, anti-tank mines, weapons lying around," Arraf reported. "The whole place was an arms cache."
The U.S. military has pounded the industrial area with airstrikes, wire-guided missiles and artillery fire to wipe out most large bands of insurgents.
"There isn't a block where there hasn't been a building that has been flattened, a tank round through it or a bomb dropped on it," Arraf reported.
UPDATE I -- November 15: This cartoon appears in today's (Monday's) Investor's Business Daily.
UPDATE II -- November 16: This cartoon appears in today's (Tuesday's) The Detroit News.
This cartoon has been updated from last year for the benefit of our new readers.
The Ayn Rand Institute has also reissued the excellent editorial by Edwin A. Locke: Giving Real Meaning to Veterans Day.
There is no more precious possession than one's own life. But without political freedom, human life is empty. Man cannot exist in any meaningful sense as a serf. The New Hampshire motto says it perfectly: "Live Free or Die."Because human life is so precious, war should never be undertaken unless our rights are threatened. It is often said that our soldiers must sacrifice themselves for our country. This is precisely what we must not ask them to do. A sacrifice entails the surrender of a greater value for a lesser one. But if a man loses his life on the premise, "I would rather die than live in slavery," it is a tragic loss -- but it is not a sacrifice. Such a man is acting in his own interests, to protect his most precious values.
James Taranto has a roundup of the conflicting stories about Yasser Arafat's "nuanced" state of being.
HonestReporting.com has a short video to remind us that Arafat is the Godfather of modern terrorism: Arafat's Legacy.
And Daniel Pipes examines Arafat's Bedroom Farce.
It is hard to find words adequate to describe the malevolent 40-year long career of the world's longest reigning terrorist (it began in January 1965), a man who fouled his nest in Jordan, Lebanon, and then in the West Bank and Gaza, a moral monster who fooled the world into thinking he had reformed (remember that Nobel Peace Prize?). Yet his farcical death-scene provides perhaps the appropriate coda to an unworthy life.
(Links via Little Green Footballs)
UPDATE -- November 11: CNN reports: Palestinian leader Arafat dies at 75.
UPDATE -- November 10: I think the "moral values" question on the exit polls was too vague to indicate anything useful (not to mention doubts about the polls themselves). But Paul Freedman makes the case that "moral values" didn't determine the elections, as some on the Left and Right would like to believe: The Gay Marriage Myth: Terrorism, not values, drove Bush's re-election. (Hat tip to Doug Messenger via HB List)
Did "moral values" -- in particular, the anti-gay marriage measures on ballots in 11 states this week -- drive President Bush's re-election? That's the early conventional wisdom as Democrats begin soul-searching and finger-pointing. These measures are alleged to have drawn Christian conservatives to the polls, many of whom failed to vote last time. The theory is intriguing, but the data don't support it. Gay marriage and values didn't decide this election. Terrorism did.
UPDATE -- November 9: This cartoon in today's (Tuesday's) Investor's Business Daily.
From The Washington Post: Karzai Vows to Crack Down On Warlords, Drug Dealers. (Via TIA Daily)
"The Afghan people have voted for a government based on laws, based on institutions, and that is what we are going to provide for them," said Karzai, who was officially declared the winner Wednesday after a protracted vote count and an investigation of alleged fraud at the polls. The election was held Oct. 9.Asked if his new government would be rid of the "warlords and drug money" that have tainted his interim administration, Karzai was adamant. "There will not be any private militia forces in Afghanistan. That's the first demand of the Afghan people," he said. "There will definitely, definitely not be any drug thing in Afghanistan."
But the Afghan president did make an amnesty offer to fighters and supporters of the defeated Taliban movement, some of whom have been waging an insurgency against Afghan and U.S. troops from havens in neighboring Pakistan. He said thousands of Taliban loyalists were welcome to return, except for the handful linked to al Qaeda or terrorist acts.
(This cartoon is presented with apologies to Rembrandt, and Houdon for that matter.)
UPDATE -- November 9: This cartoon in today's (Tuesday's) The Detroit News.
Here's a quick look a what we have planned for the immediate future, along with a quick look back.
First of all, we've been posting a higher volume of cartoons than usual over the last month. With the election over, we will be returning to our normal pace of three or four new cartoons a week. We've picked up many new readers over the last couple of months, so we hope everyone will continue to visit.
The big project at the moment is our second book, Black & White World II, which we hope to release before Christmas. The planned book will feature a knock-out, full-color illustration of Uncle Sam by John. It will contain cartoons starting from September 2002 and going all the way through this week's presidential election. That means over 400 cartoons. Most have appeared on this site but a few have never been seen, including one or two that missed the mark. We will make an official announcement as soon as the book is available for ordering.
The book will, of course, contain our John Kerry cartoons, which gives us an excuse to look back at some of them.
The above cartoon is from April 2003 [Year corrected.--Ed.] and was a reference to the fact that certain Democrats had assumed defeatist, anti-Iraq war positions before the quickly successful overthrow of Saddam's regime. It's the first appearance of John Kerry in our cartoons. Who knew that both Kerry and Senator Tom Daschle would suffer so badly? Judging by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's comments yesterday, it's safe to say that she still hasn't learned from the experience. I almost feel sorry for the donkey.
The above cartoon is from June 2003. It was long before we knew that Howard Dean would be a contender. Or that Dean would eventually not be a contender. Or that Ralph Nader would run and present problems for Kerry. The cartoon makes it appear that we're somewhat prescient. We're not. No, really.
The above cartoon is from January 2004. Kerry had stated at the time, "Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South. Al Gore proved he could have been president of the United States without winning one Southern state, including his own." At the time, Glenn Reynolds noted appropriately: "Um, no. Al Gore proved that he couldn't win the United States without carrying one Southern state, including his own." And Kerry has proven it again.
The above cartoon is from February 2004. With Bush winning over 50% of the popular vote, it turns out that Kerry wasn't as mainstream as he thought.
That's it for the retrospective and preview of the next book. We'll resume posting new cartoons in the next day or so.
We're extremely happy that George W. Bush defeated Kerry, mainly because we take it as a mandate for America to pursue its war against Islamists. But we will continue to prod Bush to return to the Bush Doctrine, to quit his multilaterist tendencies, to keep church out of state, and to cut socialist spending instead of increasing it. In other words, we still have a lot of cartoons ahead of us.
Speaking of of the Bush Doctrine, TIA Daily brought to our attention this New York Post editorial by Ralph Peters: And Now, Fallujah.
TUESDAY'S decisive popular vote wasn't just for George W. Bush. It was for our troops, as well. The American people sent a message to the world: We know we're at war. And our men and women in uniform are going to win.We, the people, voted to fight.
The first military mission facing the president is the destruction of the terrorist presence in Fallujah. That city-state of terror has become the unifying symbol for our enemies, more vital to the Middle East's fanatics than the fate of Osama bin Laden.
Last spring, the administration made a fateful mistake, stopping short when our Marines were on the brink of victory. This time, our president -- with a mandate from the American people -- isn't going to stop until the last assassin lies dead in the last cellar.
But he needs to get on with the job. We should move against Fallujah immediately -- with the support of Iraq's interim prime minister. We have an ideal window for action while our enemies, from al Qaeda and the French to al-Jazeera and the BBC, are bewildered by their failure to dictate our election's outcome. Their vicious attempts to change our government failed. Now they're wondering what on earth to do.
While they're scrambling, we should be shooting.
UPDATE -- November 5: Reader Michael Kreutz in Germany sent us this noteworthy NewsMax report: 'Millions' of Iranians Celebrate Bush Victory.
In light of President Bush's re-election victory today, we thought it would be appropriate to re-post this image and, capitalists that we are, remind readers that it is still available for purchase on a quality t-shirt. If there's a Democrat or two in your life with whom you'd like to mend the fences after such a contentious election, well, this shirt is probably not a good gift idea. Then again, if want to rub it in a little...
UPDATE I -- November 4: ThoseShirts.com is now offering a long-sleeved t-shirt version of the above image.
UPDATE II: And in case you don't find them while poking around at ThoseShirts.com, here is the page with all Cox & Forkum t-shirts.
UPDATE -- November 4: This cartoon appears in today's (Thurday's) edition of The Detroit News.
From last week in The Washington Times: Terrorists hope to defeat Bush through Iraq violence. (Via Little Green Footballs)
Leaders and supporters of the anti-U.S. insurgency say their attacks in recent weeks have a clear objective: The greater the violence, the greater the chances that President Bush will be defeated on Tuesday and the Americans will go home."If the U.S. Army suffered numerous humiliating losses, [Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John] Kerry would emerge as the superman of the American people," said Mohammad Amin Bashar, a leader of the Muslim Scholars Association, a hard-line clerical group that vocally supports the resistance.
Resistance leader Abu Jalal boasted that the mounting violence had already hurt Mr. Bush's chances.
"American elections and Iraq are linked tightly together," he told a Fallujah-based Iraqi reporter. "We've got to work to change the election, and we've done so. With our strikes, we've dragged Bush into the mud."
Today The Wall Street Journal noted What's At Stake: Tomorrow Americans decide whether to continue confronting terror with freedom.
It's tempting to think that al Qaeda is a localized problem and, although a concern, not something that can seriously undermine our way of life. After all, if Israel can survive in the face of daily terrorist attacks, why can't this nation as well? That, apparently, is what the Spanish electorate decided earlier this year. And it is one of the arguments of Michael Moore's propaganda film "Fahrenheit 9/11." But the truth is that America does not have such a "luxury." America stands as a symbol to the world that a society based on liberty is indeed possible and, yes, preferable. Because of that, the threat we face goes far beyond the few attacks a collection of thugs could pull off. This is a battle over the future of liberty at home and abroad.This is something Osama bin Laden fully understands. In a video released Friday afternoon, bin Laden said that Americans would be free from terrorists attacks only once "our security" is assured. But America's very existence is a threat to his own security and the security of all those who perpetuate a culture of hate, oppression and death. [Emphasis added]
UPDATE I -- November 2: I forgot to include this item from yesterday. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reports that Osama is not merely watching the election: Osama Bin Laden Tape Threatens U.S. States Not to Vote for Bush.
The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired on Al-Jazeera on Friday, October 29th included a specific threat to "each U.S. state," designed to influence the outcome of the upcoming election against George W. Bush. The U.S. media in general mistranslated the words "ay wilaya" (which means "each U.S. state") to mean a "country" or "nation" other than the U.S., while in fact the threat was directed specifically at each individual U.S. state. This suggests some knowledge by bin Laden of the U.S. electoral college system. In a section of his speech in which he harshly criticized George W. Bush, bin Laden stated: "Any U.S. state that does not toy with our security automatically guarantees its own security." ...Another interesting aspect of the speech is the fact that while bin Laden made his specific threat to each U.S. state, he also offered an election deal to the American voters, attempting to influence the election by these means rather than influencing it through terrorist attacks. This peace offer is a theme that follows up on his April speech directed to Europe, in which he offered a truce.
UPDATE II: Robert Tracinski writes in today's TIA Daily about today's election and Osama bin Laden's recent threats:
[Osama bin Laden] is offering Americans a truce. Vote against Bush and in favor of American withdrawal and passivity -- and you will be spared further terrorists attacks.Does any of this sound familiar? This is precisely the kind of deal bin Laden proposed to Europe, and it is precisely the deal the Spanish cravenly accepted when, after the al-Qaeda train bombings of March 11, they voted for a Socialist candidate who promptly removed Spanish troops from Iraq. Bin Laden hopes to achieve the same result in the US. ...
If you want a little glimpse of the future we can expect under such a "truce," take a look at a story from today's London Daily Telegraph about the murder of a Dutch filmmaker who dared to criticize Islam. ...
There can be no peaceful coexistence with a religion whose central goal is to assert its dominance over the individual mind through the use of brute force.
That is the reason why it is important to vote today, and to vote for Bush. Your vote will be a message -- not just to bin Laden or to the Europeans, but far more importantly to our own leaders -- that America has not lost the will to fight, that we want to remain on the offensive against terrorism, that we will not be so cowardly as to seek a little temporary safety by making a deal with terrorists.
Voting for Kerry is a vote for the success of bin Laden's strategy. I mean that, not only because Kerry stands for American withdrawal and restraint in foreign policy, but also because of another striking theme that leaps out at the reader of bin Laden's message.
What is most remarkable about bin Laden's speech is the extent to which it repeats, in exact detail, point for point, the rhetoric and arguments of the American left. Anyone who has seen Michael Moore's propaganda or is at all familiar with the ravings of the "Angry Left" will recognize every element: Halliburton and "My Pet Goat"; the Patriot Act; the "stolen" election and the Florida recount; Iraq as a "diversion" and a "quagmire" (translated in this version as "swamp"), and Iraq as the cause of soaring budget deficits; praise for weapons inspections and taunting about the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; it is all direct from the Democratic talking points.
UPDATE III -- November 5: Reader Lawrence Peck sent us this photo which looks familiar...