Sunday morning toons: The week of the non-story

Ted Cruz is indeed legally qualified to run for president (His mother was an American citizen. End of story.), although a lot of people had fun suggesting this was somehow evidence of hypocrisy or double-dealing on his part.

Ted Cruz gave a speech at Liberty University, where the student body was required (under penalty of a fine, if I have the story right) to attend. This makes it a little like the kid that was so ugly the parents tied a pork chop around his neck so the family dog would play with him, which is a funny image but not much of a story.

And in a Cruz hat-trick, the Senator signed up for health insurance under the PPACA. This was widely seen as an unwilling admission that the PPACA is successful when the far more likely explanation is that Cruz (who certainly has multiple options for coverage, unlike most of the newly-insured on Obamacare's rolls) is simply trolling for first-hand evidence that Obamacare is an unconstitutional failure.

Indiana, the state where I was born but not the state I'm from, recently passed a law that makes it legal (pending the SCOTUS hearing) to discriminate against gays again like the good old days, and people responded reasonably enough with protests, demonstrations, and boycotts. Lost in the shuffle is the fact that several other states have passed similar religious-right-to-discriminate laws, and several more are contemplating it. Although, as Darrin Bell documents, California is currently several lengths ahead in this race.

And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid is not going to run for re-election, but he'll still be in office for almost two years, and now with very little to lose by sticking it to McConnell at every single opportunity.

Today's toons were selected by a somewhat more arbitrary than usual process from among 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, Ted Rall, Rebecca Hendin, Rob Rogers, Drew Sheneman, Signe Wilkinson, Darrin Bell, Kevin Kallaugher, Steve Kelley, Chan Lowe, Jim Morin, John Darkow, David Fitzsimmons, Matt Wuerker, and Monte Wolverton (marking one of the rare cases where Godwin's Law deserves its recognition).

p3 Best of Show: Joel Pett.

p3 Legion of Merit: Steve Benson.

p3 Croiz de Guerre de Cruz: Tim Eagan.

p3 "Really Futile And Stupid Gesture" Medal (with clusters): Jeff Danziger.

p3 World Toon Review: Ingrid Rice (Canada), Christo Komarnitski (Bulgaria), Enrico Bertuccioli (Italy), and Pavel Constantin (Romania)

Ann Telnaes notes that Utah is running out of bad ideas.

Mark Fiore has mixed feelings about a likely Ted Cruz flame-out.

Tom Tomorrow gives us a peek at the future, through the miracle of Tomorrow Vision. He also comes this close to sharing a p3 Certificate of Harmonic Toon Convergence with Marshall Ramsey.

Congrats to 2015 NAACP History Maker Keith Knight. Here's the kind of thing that helped get him there.

Tom the Dancing Bug brings the long-awaited (Although, really, why should that be? Shouldn't we have known?) return of Percival Dunwoody, idiot time-traveler from1909, plus other Super-Fun-Pak Comix goodies.

Red Meat's Ted Johnson supposes that Mrs. Johnson is right.

The Comic Strip Curmudgeon, for reasons I can't fathom, gives the punchline to the beetles, not to the paranoid-yet-fraternal beavers.

Comic Strip of the Day brings good news from the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, followed by an inspired Clark 'n' Jimmy panel.

I'll deliver the Technicolor hen-fruit for ya! And there, in a nutshell (eggshell?), is the somewhat-garbled summary of the plot to "Easter Yeggs," directed in 1947 by Robert McKimson from a story by Warren Foster. Credited: Portland's own Mel Blanc (Bugs Bunny, the Easter Bunny, and the Dead-End Kid), and musical director Carl Stalling. Uncredited, uber-voice Arthur Q. Bryant (Elmer Fudd) and orchestrator Milt Franklyn. Here's the Easter Rabbit, hooray! Watch "Easter Yeggs" at Trilulilu.

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.

The Big, And Getting Bigger Since We Welcomed Back The Departed, Oregon Toon Block:

Ex-Oregonian Jack Ohman spots those two little words.

Could-Be Ex-Oregonian Jen Sorensen has some ideas for a conversation, including a word that, if you're lucky, you didn't even know existed!

Matt Bors reveals Ted Cruz's hope for 2016!

Jesse Springer looks at some likely consequences of Democratic control of both houses of the Oregon legislature and the governor's mansion. All it needs is Dame Maggie.

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