Sunday morning toons: Thank you, Pfizer –

– for reminding America why our health care should absolutely not be traded on the NYSE. 

And, in case you were wondering, I didn't let any Trump/Macy's Parade balloons jokes or Thanksgiving turkey/Middle-Eastern Turkey East jokes get through this week. Except for Glenn McCoy.

But I do have a question: Now that print phone directories are scarce as turkey's teeth, what do families seat tots on to let them see over the top of the table at Thanksgiving dinner? (Thanks, Nate Beeler!)

And here's a reminder: your humble scribe is nearing the end of Day Two of the p3 Annual "Little Drummer Boy" Competition. No wagering please – this is for exhibition purposes and the joy of the sport only.

Today's toons were selected by a platoon of multinational tax-dodge experts from the week's offerings at McClatchy DC, Cartoon Movement, Go Comics, Politico's Cartoon Gallery, Daryl Cagle's Political Cartoons, About.com, and other fine sources of toony goodness.

p3 Picks of the week: Mike Luckovich, Signe Wilkinson, Robert Ariail, Steve Benson, Jeff Danziger, Matt Davies, Clay Jones, Dan Wasserman, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton.

p3 Best of Show: Lisa Benson.

p3 Legion of Merit: Stuart Carlson.

p3 "I Get It" Award: Joel Pett.

p3 Croix de Guerre: Tim Eagan.

p3 World Toon Review: Heng (Singapore), Terry Mosher (Canada), and Luojie (China).

Ann Telnaes moves up the gift return timeline by a few weeks.

Mark Fiore is thankful for crayons and future Fox News pundits, in that order.

Tom Tomorrow salutes the land of the spree and the home of the knave.

Keith Knight wasn't by any means the first gentleman toonist to get there, but it did make me chuckle when I pictured the Bethlehem inn as part of the Trump hotel chain.

Reuben Bolling salutes the latest ISIS recruitment drive.

Red Meat's Ted Johnson relies on a simple home (improvement) remedy.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon marks the holiday weekend with references to the Kantian imperative and centaur erotica.

Comic Strip of the Day pays tribute to little weasels, futile gestures, and a comic strip he didn't understand at the time.

I came to tell you that you could axe me to marry you (hyuck, hyuck, hyuck)! Last week I mentioned that Bluto's theme in the very first Popeye animated short in 1933 was lifted from a bawdy 19th century drinking song called "Bollocky Bill the Sailor." Two years later, director Dave Fleischer, with uncredited musical director Sammy Timberg (who composed some memorable work over the years, but was never shy about lifting from the public domain when it suited his needs) took it all the way, in an exploration of the passive-aggressive relationship between Popeye and Olive, with "Beware of Barnacle Bill." There are fairly tame versions of the song (like this 1930 recording, featuring Hoagy Carmichael, Bix Beiderbeck on cornet, Tommy Dorsey on trombone, Benny Goodman on clarinet, and Gene Krupa on drums), but the original version(s), surely at least somewhat familiar to 1935 theater audiences, was pretty raw. (Uncredited voice work by Billy Costello as Popeye, William Pennell as Bluto/Barnacle Bill, and Mae Questel as The Slender One.)

The We-Don't-Check-Papers-At-The-Borders Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman puts the American holiday season in its proper perspective.

Possibly Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen looks at Thanksgiving, past, present, and future.

Matt Bors points out – quite correctly – that it's a fine line between the drunken, opinionated boor at the end of the bar and . . . well, you'll see.

Jesse Springer is discouraged – and why wouldn't he be? – by the recent assault on the campus of Lewis & Clark College.

Test your toon captioning superpowers at The New Yorker's weekly caption-the-cartoon contest. (Rules here.) And you can browse The New Yorker's cartoon gallery here.

The p3 Sunday Comics Read-Along: Pearls Before Swine, Doonesbury, Rhymes with Orange, Zits, Adam @ Home, Mutts, Over the Hedge, Get Fuzzy, Prince Valiant, Blondie, Bizarro, Mother Goose & Grimm, Rose is Rose, Luann, Hagar the Horrible, Pickles, Rubes, Grand Avenue, Freshly Squeezed, The Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee, and Jumble.

Reading: Notes on the banality of "tyranny"

Charlie Pierce plants one deep in the bleachers this morning, reviewing the care and circumspection with which the signers of the Declaration of Independence thought through their use of the word "tyrant" to describe the obviously-tyrannical George III – and comparing that with yesterday's morally feckless, intellectually sloppy, and politically expedient party-line vote by House Republicans to sue President Obama for alleged offenses against the Constitution, offenses which, if true, ought to require them as a matter of law and conscience (!) to begin impeachment hearings by tiffin tomorrow.

I haven't yet located the full text of the resolution authorizing the House GOP's Impeachment Lite lawsuit, but we can safely assume that, when I do, the words "we mutually pledge our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor" will be nowhere in evidence.

Pierce's essay, "Words Matter," is going in the p3 Readings list.

A quantum of umbrage: Still no fun?

Updating my speculation from earlier this week that the modern GOP can't even enjoy winning if they don't do it dirty, there's this story:

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the [Republican-controlled Virginia state] House had told [Virginia's Democratic governor Terry] McAuliffe’s administration to be prepared to receive the budget no sooner than the Monday after Father’s Day. But the House pushed it through earlier than expected, and House Speaker William J. Howell ordered his clerk to have Capitol Police enter the governor’s office to deliver it, even though the executive suite was unoccupied during the holiday.

The timing of the delivery is important because McAuliffe only has seven days to read the budget, sign it, issue vetoes or take other actions after it’s delivered.

In a letter to the Speaker dated last week, chief of staff Paul Reagan called the breach “unacceptable.”

“This letter is to inform you that under no circumstances are you or any of your officers authorized to allow employees of the General Assembly to enter the secure areas of the governor’s office without my express permission, or the express permission of Suzette Denslow, the governor’s deputy chief of staff,” the letter said.

It's comforting to see that the modern Republican party still stays true to its Nixon-era roots.

And don't forget the reason for all this double-dealing and thimble-rigging:: To deny 400,000 fellow Virginians access to health care without the state paying a penny. Because, you know what accessible health care for poor people would mean, right? Healthier poor people.

Quote of the day: "Universal"

I think the health reforms could have been sold as universal health care, but that wouldn't have been true. […]

The problem is the idea of "universal". That is simply not an established American value. We are generally quite content to live in a country with vast disparities in rights, health, wealth and security out of some outdated fealty to "states' rights." And that lies at the root of so many of our problems.

- Digby, on the larger problem faced by ideas like Medicare expansion.

Thought of the day: On letters

Maybe if, instead of financially-cornered American workers quitting their dead-end-job-that-they-needed-for-health-insurance to become poets, they could quit their dead-end-job-that-they-needed-for-health-insurance to become right-wing legacy bloggers.

There's obviously a steady market there.

Just a thought.

Quote of the day: Choosing your friends

"Friend of mine owns 52 Wendy's, he's put pen to paper, he has 40 percent of his workforce insured today," Graham explained. "Under Obamacare, if 20 percent choose insurance, his insurance costs will double.”

- Republican Senator Lindsay Graham, demonstrating why it might be better for everyone if he knew 52 people who ate at Wendy's.

The unforgiving minute: This was utterly foreseeable

Charles Pierce quotes Rep. Paul Ryan (R - Innumeracy) on something most Oregonians would prefer to forget:

In 2011, Oregon's Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden and I offered ideas to reform Medicare. We had different perspectives, but we also had mutual trust. Neither of us had to betray his principles; all we had to do was put prudence ahead of pride.

(Briefly lapses into W.C. Fields impression) Ahhhhh, yessss. (Regular voice resumes) This was one of Ryan's previous scams, and he still hasn't learned that I Found A Sucker isn't a demonstration of bipartisan problem-solving. The Ryan-Wyden plan, which would have mixed private plans with a Medicare "public option," thereby blowing a hole in the Medicare guarantee, attracted the support of exactly nobody and went exactly nowhere. (In fact, to this day, it's hard to see what Wyden ever got out of the deal.)

I liked to think, then and now, that this unforced error by Wyden is attributable to: (1) his not having kicked the “senatorial courtesy” fetish that made him never turn down a photo op invitation with Oregon's then-Junior senator Gordon Smith, whether Smith was sticking to Bush like the skin on a weenie or desperately trying to put daylight between himself and Bush as re-election time grew near; (2) his evident and lingering disappointment that his Healthy American Act had been overwhelmed by events, including Obama's health care plan, to which Wyden's HAA was in some ways superior; combined with (3) a desire to stay relevant in the health care conversation.

Whatever the reason, it was inevitable that Senator Wyden's move would accomplish nothing he wanted as far as policy goes, while handing Ryan a free ticket to claim his plan to eliminate Medicare enjoyed “bipartisan support.” And it certainly left a lot of dents in a lot of desks that perfectly matched the foreheads of a lot of Oregon Democrats.

Minute's up.

A quantum of umbrage: Toward a basic rhetoric for right-wingers

In case you missed it, agents from the Secret Service recently got to sample the delights of small-town Maine:

David Marsters, 68, who is running for selectman, says he told Secret Service agents who questioned him Tuesday that he was not threatening the president when he posted the message at 8:17 p.m. Friday. It appeared above a picture of Obama and a link to a story about how some Republican lawmakers think the president deserves to be impeached.

The message said, "Shoot the ..." and included a racial slur.

"I think it's a lot of hogwash," Marsters said in a telephone interview Tuesday. "I did not threaten the president. ... I might have used the wrong words. ... I didn't say I was going to do it."

He said his post was taken out of context.

"What I really meant to say is, 'When are we going to get rid of this (expletive),'" he said. "I should have said, 'I hope the bastard dies.'"

Perhaps wisely, perhaps not, he continued:

“I’m pissed off at the system, OK,” he said in an interview at his house Tuesday night. “We’re about to lose our benefits because of this ass****.”

Actually, that's “Mr. Ass****” to you, pal. But, moving ahead:

Marsters said his wife, Mary, had been in and out of the hospital recently and if they lose spousal benefits, something he fears Obama will suspend, his wife will die.

He said in retrospect that he should have chosen his words more carefully, adding, “I’m a forward man. I say what I mean.”

So here's what we've got to start with: We've got a guy who says his remark “Someone should shoot the n*****” was “taken out of context.”

Mr. Marsters, let me explain something to you. “Taken out of context” doesn't mean “understood perfectly accurately by people who now want to hold me responsible for it and that's a problem for me.”

"Taken out of context" seems to have become the go-to defense whenever some ignorant peckerwood commits a Kinsleyan gaffe (i.e., getting caught inadvertently telling the truth). The examples are legion, but the long march through the evidence would involve linking to pages I'd like to keep out of my beautiful browser history. But you can play the game at home: Try Googling "todd akin taken out of context", or "richard mourdock taken out of context", and you'll see what I mean.

Part of my reaction here is the exasperation of an editor and writer who is tired of not-very-bright people publicly abusing the basics of the American language, so let me first be clear about this: If Marsters had said, “Okay everyone, the next sentence I'm going to say is going to be the exact opposite of what I really mean and intend: Someone should shoot the n*****,” and then the Secret Service investigated him as a potential threat to the president, then yes – that would be an example of taking his remark out of context.

But as it turns out, Marsters doesn't even have that defense, since he claims, “I'm a forward man. I say what I mean.”

All right, that last bit is an exaggeration, and perhaps even a little unfair to Marston. He does seem to be a forward man, but I imagine he only occasionally manages to say what he means. He's an angry old guy whose mind is a Fisher-Price Corn Popper, and each little plastic ball has some bumper sticker-sized FOX News meme on it, like “Obama's a socialist,” or “Get the government out of my Medicare,” or “Cold, dead hands,” or "I say what I mean," or “I'm not a racist, but--.” Whichever ball pops to the top is what comes out of his mouth next. He is not alone in this among his tribe.

Note that when it came time for Marsters to walk back his comment, he didn't say, “I was wrong to advocate the assassination of the President of the United States.” He said, “I should have said, 'I hope the bastard dies.'” And that's his attempt to clarify things. So: Sniper rifle, suicide attack, plague, slip-and-fall in the bathtub – it's all good to Marsters as long as the proper political end is achieved.

And, unfortunately, that's not taking Marsters out context, either.

A quantum of umbrage: What's important to Greg Walden

(Updated below.)

Greg Walden (R OR-5) has his priorities:

Sixteen months before those elections, some Republicans cite no need to offer an alternative. "I don't think it's a matter of what we put on the floor right now," said Representative Greg Walden of Oregon, who heads the party's campaign committee. He added that what is important is "trying to delay Obamacare."

Hey, residents of Oregon's 5th District – 129,000 of whom (16.8%, above the national average) didn't have health insurance in 2011 – here's the kind of thing Greg Walden wants to protect you from:

This fact sheet summarizes new data on the significant benefits of the health care reform law in Rep. Schrader’s district. It also provides the first picture of the impacts of the law in districts redrawn or newly created following the 2010 Census. As a result of the law:

- 8,000 young adults in the district now have health insurance through their parents’ plan.

- More than 9,600 seniors in the district received prescription drug discounts worth $11.2 million, an average discount of $520 per person in 2011, $570 in 2012, and $880 thus far in 2013.

- 133,000 seniors in the district are now eligible for Medicare preventive services without paying any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductible.

- 209,000 individuals in the district – including 46,000 children and 87,000 women – now have health insurance that covers preventive services without any co-pays, coinsurance, or deductible.

- 227,000 individuals in the district are saving money due to ACA provisions that prevent insurance companies from spending more than 20% of their premiums on profits and administrative overhead. Because of these protections, over 4,800 consumers in the district received approximately $1.5 million in insurance company rebates in 2012 and 2011-an average rebate of $206 per family in 2012 and $368 per family in 2011.

- Up to 45,000 children in the district with preexisting health conditions can no longer be denied coverage by health insurers.

- 244,000 individuals in the district now have insurance that cannot place lifetime limits on their coverage and will not face annual limits on coverage starting in 2014.

- 114,000 individuals in the district who lack health insurance will have access to quality, affordable coverage without fear of discrimination or higher rates because of a preexisting health condition. In addition, the 45,000 individuals who currently purchase private health insurance on the individual or small group market will have access to more secure, higher quality coverage and many will be eligible for financial assistance.

H/t to Pierce, who points out that the GOP plan for health care is to have no plan.

(Update: Of course Walden, who merely wants to delay Obamacare indefinitely -- or until the Republicans control both branches of Congress and the White House, when they can quietly kill it --  has nothing on Utah's Sen. Mike Lee, who's prepared to shut the government down entirely at the first opportunity rather than let Obamacare continue to function as, you know, the law of the land, which it is. But Lee's from Utah. We expect better from Oregonian elected officials.)

A quantum of umbrage: This situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part!

And South Carolina's Republican state legislators are just the guys to do it!

South Carolina this week could become the first state in the country to restrict the enactment of Obamacare since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that law last year.

A proposed bill, on special order in the state Senate, would allow the state attorney general to take businesses, including health insurers, to court if he “has reasonable cause to believe” they are harming people by implementing the law. The bill already has passed the House.

If it passes, the bill could push South Carolina to the forefront of Obamacare resistance, giving the state’s Republican leaders a national stage. It also could push South Carolina into yet another costly legal battle in the federal courts that, critics say, is unnecessary and avoidable.

“It is going to get us in court, as we all know. But ... it is worth the risk to see if we can protect our state from this far-reaching federal legislation,” state Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, one of the lawmakers pushing for the Senate to pass the bill this week before it adjourns for the year.

Let's see . . . South Carolina . . . nullification . . . How did that work out last time?

What a lot of people are still getting wrong about the Romney “let Detroit go bankrupt” story

(And why it's worse than most people think. Updated at the bottom of the post.)

Mitt doesn't say he was “wrong on Detroit,” because he doesn't think he was. And the folks on my Facebook and Twitter feeds have been have a whooping old time with that.

If your browser won't display the embedded version, click here.

Letting Detroit go bankrupt! Detroit! The erstwhile symbol of American economic leadership (”What's good for GM is good for the world.”). Ground Zero of an American middle class that was once the envy of the world. The city where, in Mitt's childhood, his father was a merchant-prince.

And although that clip only catches a moment of it, he's been saying all along why he thought it was a good idea to let GM and Chrysler tank. In fact, in that clip, he said it twice. He's been as clear as a buttonhook in the well water about it for four years. It's one of his rare instances of non-self contradiction. But almost no one's really listening all the way through, because “Look! He wanted to let Detroit go bankrupt!” is the easier way to score points.

It's not that Romney's delusional (at least not any more so than usual). Or dishonest (at least not any more so than usual). It's just that no one's asked him precisely the right question in exactly the right way. And no one listens very closely to his answer. And most of the Democrats howling with glee about his bankruptcy “gaffe” don't appreciate how dangerous that oversight is.

Because what Romney wanted -- what he would have brought about had he been in the driver's seat -- was even worse. He wanted to see the auto companies go through bankruptcy and the resulting reorganization “to shed costs.” What “costs” are those?

Labor costs. Union contracts. Worker health care. Pensions. Step One of the Romney plan was to use bankruptcy to bust the unions connected with the automotive industry and break the fundamental promise embodied in their pension plans. And yes, as the governor took care to point out in the third presidential debate, some companies -- like Macy's and 7-Eleven -- do come through bankruptcy and survive. Others aren't so fortunate, though, especially if they have the bad luck to fall into the hands of chop shops like Bain Capital LLC. Romney's upset because, following the bankruptcy move, the Obama administration stepped in with bailout money which allowed the unions to keep a toe-hold in Detroit.

But, delightful as union-busting would no doubt to seem to the governor simply on its own merits, that's just Step One. Remember that part of the Obama administration's rationale for the bailout was that, even if the auto companies had gone through bankruptcy, no banks were then willing or able to step up with the money to help them rebuild. So even with court-enforced restructuring (and “shedding of costs”), where would the money come from?

I'm glad you asked. That's Step Two of the Romney plan. If the banks can't help and the federal government is prevented from helping, that just leaves the paper-manipulators (like Romney's own Bain Capital) to buy GM and Chrysler for pennies on the dollar, then strip 'em and flip em. In the third presidential debate, Romney denied his intention was to enable his vulture-capitalist cronies to gut GM and Chrysler, pay themselves off, and sell off the remaining assets. You've seen the short half-life of his stand on any issue. Do you believe him this time?

Laura Clawson at DailyKos Labor writes:

Romney may not have understood himself to be arguing for liquidation back in 2008. But it would have been the effect if his advice had carried the day. And to this day, regardless of how often and by whom the situation is explained to him, he cannot accept that he was wrong. His certainty that Mitt Romney, Businessman, is always right is too strong to allow for that possibility. And admitting he was wrong would drive home that if he had been president, the American auto industry would have gone under. Michigan and Ohio's economies would have been destroyed. A million jobs would have gone up in flames.

Yes, but that's a feature, not a bug. It's not that Romney wanted to save Detroit, but mistakenly advocated a plan that would inevitably have failed, and is now too vain to admit it. Romney never really wanted to save Detroit.^* Which is why he sees no point in backing down or changing his story.  The mistake is to think he's kidding.

^*(Update:) At least no more than he would presumably be interested in saving the East Coast this afternoon. As everyone is being reminded, and appropriately so, Romney's on record as saying that it would be "immoral" for the government to be involved in disaster relief, that this is more appropriately a state-level (or, ideally, a private-enterprise) function. Ironically, it's one of the rare moments in his political life where he's told the straight truth from the start and stuck to it without variation -- and no one seems to believe him.

The unforgiving minute: To future students cramming for their history finals

Today, the only thing anyone remembers (if they remember anything at all) about 13th century Scholastic theology is that people apparently spent a lot of time wrestling with this question:

How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

In the future, the only thing that anyone will remember about early 21st century American politics is that people apparently spent a lot of time wrestling with this question:

Which is worse: If they're really that intellectually dishonest, or if they're really just that dumb?

Minute's up.

It all depends on how you look at things

I remember a time when liberals and lefties were the ones with the reputation for looking at the glass as being half-full.

Has that changed since 1969? At a $30K per plate fundraise this week, Obama says it has:

Democrats, just congenitally, tend to get -- to see the glass as half empty. (Laughter.) If we get an historic health care bill passed -- oh, well, the public option wasn't there. If you get the financial reform bill passed -- then, well, I don't know about this particularly derivatives rule, I'm not sure that I'm satisfied with that. And gosh, we haven't yet brought about world peace and -- (laughter.) I thought that was going to happen quicker. (Laughter.) You know who you are. (Laughter.)

Tin-ear for political metaphor, or simply forgetting the origin of the connection between glasses of water and liberals? Probably the latter.

Glenn Greenwald provides a helpful list of some of the things that conspicuous that have become conspicuous by their absence from the glass these days. (Missing verb. Sorry.)

I guess it really does all depend on how you look at things.

Reading: The dog that didn't bark in the night on health care

Bob Somerby notes the two questions that even pretty-good health care reporting invariably fails to ask:

Why is William Mann paid so little? Why does his health care cost so much?

Somerby's post is going on the Readings column in the sidebar.

Reading: Billmon on disinformation

Yesterday I mentioned that Republican Eric Cantor's complaint that he, too, was a victim of the same sort of political violence (or threats thereof) directed toward Democratic members of Congress in recent days would be welcomed by the mainstream news media as permission to fit the story into the "both sides are to blame" narrative structure that they're most comfortable with.

In a reply to a comment from Chuck Butcher, who pointed out follow-up reports documenting that there was absolutely no basis in--for want of a better term--fact for Cantor's claim, I added this:

[T]he point is, this is apt to become a Zombie Lie that will continue to walk the earth even though it's been disproved multiple times, simply because its importance to the required narrative ["see? both sides are guilty!"] trumps the niggling fact that it isn't true.

Billmon, in a welcome return at DailyKos, has a really strong diary entry about the inner rhetorical workings of this strategy in Republican hands. Here's a taste:

The basic objective of all this, as I wrote way back when, is very simple:

The goal is to confront the public with two sides hurling identical charges at each other -- the better to convince them that it's just another partisan mudfight and who the hell knows . . . anyway.

Go read the whole thing. Don't get caught up about the title--he's kidding. But his point is dead serious. And dead right.

Proof? Billmon notes this headline from today's NYTimes:

Accusations Fly Between Parties Over Threats and Vandalism

Why bother distinguishing the facts of the matter when storylines like this are so much simpler?

Billmon's diary is going on the much-neglected Reading list in the sidebar.

GOP discovers they work for FOX, not the other way around

Interesting times.

Who'd have thought David "I Coined 'Axis of Evil'" Frum would get back-to-back appearances here at p3? Not me, that's for sure.

But it occurred to me that I've never actually seen a man actively campaign to get tarred and feathered by the base of his own party before, so this is kind of fascinating to watch:

Gallup polling reports that favorable reactions to the HCR bill have a 9% edge over unfavorable, and Kos is predicting that, far from making repeal the centerpiece of their November campaign, Republicans will start looking for ways to change the subject.

(Although he doesn't specify whether he means the Republicans in the GOP or their masters in the right-wing media.)

Interesting times.

Ordinary political calculations simply do not apply anymore

David Frum, March 21, 2010:

No illusions please: This bill will not be repealed. Even if Republicans scored a 1994 style landslide in November, how many votes could we muster to re-open the “doughnut hole” and charge seniors more for prescription drugs? How many votes to re-allow insurers to rescind policies when they discover a pre-existing condition? How many votes to banish 25 year olds from their parents’ insurance coverage?

Rep. Steve King (R - Iowa), March 22, 2010:

Mr. KING of Iowa introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on _______________.

A BILL

To repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
3 SECTION 1. REPEAL OF PPACA.
4 Effective as of the enactment of the Patient Protec-
5 tion and Affordable Care Act, such Act is repealed, and
6 the provisions of law amended or repealed by such Act
7 are restored or revived as if such Act had not been en-
8 acted.

And it only took 24 hours.

Frum's party no longer accepts the legitimacy of a two-party state, if one of them is the Democratic Party. Arguably, this has been the case since 1992.

Frum needs to decide if he's in or out, because the people running the GOP are clearly not listening to him. "I invented the phrase 'Axis of Evil'" won't even get him a bus ride home from the next Tea Party rally.

Quote of the day: the GOP's frozen moment

Here's Vanity Fair's James Wolcott's utterly apt characterization of the post-HCR passage conservative blogosphere:

Unhappy with the naked lunch at the end of their forks . . .

Sunday morning toons: Special "Hyman Roth Tribute" edition

Hyman Roth has been dying from the same heart attack for the last twenty years.

Michael Corleone, "The Godfather, Part II"

Like Roth, health care reform has been in its "end-game" stage for months--certainly since before Christmas, arguably since late June. At least if you listen to the talking heads.

(Of course now, some five or six decades after the events in the "Godfather" sequel, very few Americans could financially afford to survive that many near-death experiences--except Dick Cheney, perhaps, for whom the government picks up the tab. Note, by the way, that we here at p3 don't mean to draw unfair comparison between Roth and Cheney. Roth, a fictional character based on gangster Meyer Lansky, was, after all, an unindicted crime lord. Cheney, on the other hand, is an unindicted war criminal. So I hope that's clear.)

In any case, the HCR final push--whatever that turns out to mean (see the Legion of Merit award, below)--is topic number one in this week's p3 toon review. (Apparently, some tickling and towel-snapping will be involved too.) As we traditionally do, let's kick things off with Daryl Cagle's toon round-up for the week.

p3 Picks of the Week: Mike Luckovich, Mike Lester, Pat Bagley, R. J. Matson, John Darkow, Steve Sack, Bill Day, Ed Stein, Rob Rogers, Jeff Darcy, Steve Benson, J. D. Crowe, and Monte Wolverton,

p3 Legion of Merit: John Cole.

p3 Award for Best Adaptation from Another Medium (tie): John Trever and Jeff Stahler.

p3 Frank Murphy^* Citation: Jim Day. (^*Look it up.)

p3 World Toon Review: Patrick Chappatte (Switzerland), Stephane Peray (Thailand), Pavel Constantin, (Romania), Manny Francisco (the Philippines), Ingrid Rice (Canada), and Cam Cardow (Canada).


We've got an Ann Telnaes two-fer this week: First: the wisdom of ethnic profiling; second: is that the pitter-patter of little feet? Nope.


Mark Fiore exposes the latest devilish plan of the congressional Democrats.


Disappointing: I generally like Michael Ramirez's stuff, especially his dazed-looking Democratic donkeys, but there are times I wish he could forget he was drawing for IBD.


Lance Mannion theorizes that Garry Trudeau is writing the satirical novel of our time--one panel at a time.


Update: Remember the Danish cartoonist accused of blasphemy and attacked in his home by an axe-weilding zealot? He was eventually relocated to Sweden for his safety, but apparently things are only marginally safer there:

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) -- Irish police arrested seven people Tuesday over an alleged plot to kill a Swedish artist who depicted the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog.

Just to be clear, the newest target is a different artist.


Savage complaints about minor inconveniences: Kind of sounds like a lost Tom Robbins novel, doesn't it? In fact, it's the Comics Curmudgeon's tribute to They'll Do It Every Time, placing the hoary one-panel wonder in its proper historical/anthropological context.


Portland homeboy Jack Ohman scores big this week.


The problem of pre-existing conditions: Let's begin with Too Much Information: Back in the day, I had a series of not-remotely-pleasant clinic sessions with a dermatologist. The saving grace of this experience was that the dermatologist herself was amazingly hot. (Yes, my life at the time was that nearly driven by sitcom premises. Alas, she also had that Doctor McCoy-like conviction that suffering was good for the soul--or sole, in my case--and was amazingly stingy with the pain-killers. But that's another story.) The point is, Popeye and Bluto can probably relate. From 1945, here's "For Better or Nurse," directed by Izzy Sparber, about the love-sick sailors' pursuit of, uhm, adequate coverage. It's dedicated to what may or may not be the end of the whole health care reform mish-mash.

p3 Bonus Toon: Glancing up from the business section, Jesse Springer observes that, as the stock market goes, so go we all.




Remember to bookmark:

Slate's political cartoon for the day.

And Time's cartoons of the week.

Good to know, I suppose

Here's the opening of a TNR thumbsucker from yesterday by Jonathan Cohn:

In the last week and a half, Obama has rediscovered his voice on health care--telling audiences he is determined to achieve comprehensive reform, not some piecemeal version, and that he is willing to fight for it. And, administration officials say, the sentiments are genuine.

I'm not sure what it is about that final sentence that depresses me more:

That administration officials felt the need to say it? Or that Cohn was able to repeat it without any apparent irony?