May 2013
1 post
The Obstructionists
Republicans in Congress have made it clear that they will do everything in their power to prevent, or at least slow down, the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, known derisively as Obamacare.
Let’s take this apart. The ACA is the law of the land. Even the obstructionist-in-chief John Boehner had to admit that after Obama won reelection. It will be implemented, either efficiently or...
March 2013
2 posts
CU Hires a Conservative
The University of Colorado at Boulder on Wednesday named Steven Hayward as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy, a newly invented position and the first of its kind anywhere. I’m not making this up.
Mr. Hayward, a former fellow at the Heritage Foundation, received his doctorate in American Studies from the Cleremont graduate school. His one-year residency is being funded...
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Paul Ryan Balances My Budget
Paul Ryan is absolutely right. Every family needs to balance its budget, and the government does, too, although except for the constant squabbling, it’s hard to see how the government is like my family.
By all accounts, unless you’re listening to anyone who’s not a House Republican, Ryan has put forth a “serious budget,” so I thought it ought to make a good blueprint...
February 2013
8 posts
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What's Next
With the conservative majority on the Supreme Court signaling that they will vote to end key provisions of the Voting Rights Act, a number of organizations are contemplating challenges to other laws they view as no longer necessary.
“The Court’s majority is saying that the Voting Rights Act is so successful that it’s not needed any longer,” said a spokesman for the League...
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Sequester Happens
With automatic budget cuts looming on Friday, the war of words between President Obama and Republicans intensified.
Mr. Obama traveled to Newport News, Virginia, where he warned that thousands of shipbuilding jobs would be jeopardized by the continuing budget standoff.
Republicans, meanwhile, accused the president of playing politics and trying to scare the American people rather than working to...
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Cameras in the Court
The justices of the Supreme Court have rejected the idea of video coverage of arguments before the court, explaining that Americans would be incapable of comprehending what they were seeing.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor justified the decision, saying, “very few of them understand what the process is.”
“It’s not because they’re stupid, although they are,” growled...
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A Comet Tale
Only weeks before the almost certain extinction of all life on Earth, Senate Democrats were unable to muster enough support to force a vote on President Obama’s nominee to lead his proposed Comet Defense Task Force.
A visibly angered Obama vowed to take the fight straight to the people. At a speech in a field outside Dubuque, Iowa, at the very the spot where the massive comet is expected to...
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The Next Pope
Within minutes of the shocking announcement that Pope Benedict XVI would resign, the betting on who would be the next Pope began. The early line in Vegas made Cardinals Marc Ouellet of Canada and Peter Turkson of Ghana prohibitive favorites.
Ouellet, the head of the Congregation of Bishops, would be a logical choice given his place in the heirarchy. Turkson, if elected, would be the first black...
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Freshly Squeezed 2/6/13
I came up with the idea of Grandpaman a few months ago, but didn’t do anything with it until now. He’ll be making occasional appearances in the strip from now on. I love the idea of grandparents who, because of their special relationship with their grandchildren, can do things that parents can’t.
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Targeting Americans
A newly-released Justice Department “white paper” laying out the legal argument by the Obama administration for the targeted killing of Americans has come under scrutiny by alarmed members of Congress.
The undated and unsigned document asserts that it would be lawful to kill a U.S. citizen who poses an “imminent threat” to the United States. To date only one American,...
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Whodunnit
Frustrated administration officials admitted today that they were no closer to identifying those responsible for recent attacks on Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Defense.
A spokesman for the Defense Department said, “shadowy organizations calling themselves “Use Your Mandate,” “Americans for a Strong Defense” and “Secure America...
January 2013
14 posts
6 tags
Eureka
“Boss, I think I’ve got it!”
”%$#@! Do you know what time it is?”
“Sorry, boss. I couldn’t sleep. It just came to me! THE solution! It’s so SIMPLE! It works all day! I tell you, it’s GENIUS!”
“That’s what you boys down in Skunkworks said about the last brainstorm you morons had, Finley, remember? Total gridlock his entire...
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The Republican Response
Shortly after President Obama concluded his inaugural address, the Republican Party released the following statement:
Moments ago, President Obama challenged the American people to come together as one nation to address the many issues that confront our nation.
Without offering specifics, the president mentioned the numerous tasks we must undertake to ensure the continued strength of our nation,...
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Freshly Squeezed 1/20
Another in the series about social networking and the internet. Have Freshly Squeezed delivered to your inbox daily by going to GoComics.com/freshlysqueezed. You can read the ones you missed there, as well.
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Freshly Squeezed 1/18
My kids are always after me to tweet more, post more often on Facebook and use every available social medium much more extensively than I already do. Luddite that I am, I just can’t quite seem to get the hang of it. Most of it is a stubborn refusal on my part to dive in to that world, but at least some of my reluctance comes from the sneaking suspicion that most of what I have to say is...
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New NRA Ad
The NRA yesterday released a genuinely despicable ad featuring Obama’s children. One can only imagine what their next assault on reason and propriety might be:
Video: Spilt screen: Still picture of Malia and Sasha Obama/picture of Secret Service agents
Audio: It’s bad enough that Obama’s children have round the clock protection from armed Secret Service agents, and yours...
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Obama's Challenge
President Obama, in his inaugural address on Monday, will ask Americans to think small and lower their expectations.
“Our nation faces a series of enormous challenges and great opportunities,” a draft of his proposed remarks, obtained yesterday by this reporter, begins.
“Throughout our glorious history,” Mr. Obama evidently plans to say, “America has always risen to...
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The Problem With Hagel
Opposition to President Obama’s choice of Chuck Hagel for Defense Secretary continued to mount as Republicans and others voiced doubts about the selection. While representatives of Jewish and gay groups expressed concern about previous statements made by Mr. Hagel, the main criticism came from Senate Republicans.
“I’m a Vietnam vet like Chuck,” said John McCain, “I appreciate that he’s the first...
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Saturday's Freshly Squeezed
This is the last of this week’s series in which Nate worries about the weather and climate change. It’s probably as political as I’m going to get with what is generally a family-oriented comic strip. I’m still surprised by the vehemence of the responses I get when people comment on the GoComics.com website. As an editorial cartoonist I was used to a readership that...
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The Hottest Year
The National Agency for Climate Change Denial (NACCD) issued a statement yesterday denouncing the recent report that 2012 was the hottest year on record.
“We categorically reject the assumption that the so-called “record heat” had anything to do with human activity,” the statement read. “This is yet further evidence of the massive global warming fraud being foisted on gullible...
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Today's Freshly Squeezed
Okay, so my editorializing occasionally creeps into my comic strip. So sue me. This week’s series is in part a recollection of how much the news affected my kids when they were young. Probably because I worked for a newspaper, they were exposed to more hard news at a young age than most, and it sometimes deeply affected them. Not having the seasoned perspective of an adult, stories about...
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House Finally Acts
In a surprise move, the House of Representatives yesterday voted overwhelmingly to secede from the union.
Shortly after taking their oaths of office and posing for ceremonial pictures with House Speaker John Boehner, the newly-installed members of the 113th Congress acted on a bill offered jointly by Chuck Fleischmann, Republican from Tennessee, and Joe Barton of Texas, compelling the House to...
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New NRA Policy
The National Rifle Association (NRA), stung by outrage over its response to the slaughter of 20 school children in Newtown, Conn., yesterday modified its stance on guns in schools.
NRA head Wayne LaPierre, speaking at a hastily-convened press conference, said, “in the heat of the moment, after the terrible events at Sandy Hook Elementary, I proposed that teachers and school officials all...
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Avoiding the Cliff
In a rare show of bipartisanship, a reluctant House of Representatives yesterday went along with the Senate and passed legislation designed to avert the so-called fiscal cliff of tax increases and budget cuts scheduled to go into effect on January 1. The compromise legislation raises taxes on Americans making more than $400,000, extends unemployment insurance and buys Congress more time to address...
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December 2012
3 posts
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November 2012
5 posts
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An Open Letter From Mitt Romney
Dear America,
First, let me say that it was a great privilege to campaign across this great land for months and to get to know so many of you and hear about your dreams and your concerns. I wish the outcome had been different, but it was not to be.
I’ve had a chance these last few weeks to reflect on the campaign and on what the election results mean, and I’ve come to this...
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What Went Wrong?
Last week a group of Republican politicians and strategists met secretly in Washington for a high-level post-election debriefing. Yesterday, someone slipped a transcript of the meeting under my door.
Attending the meeting were Roger Ailes, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor.
Ailes: Gentlemen, are we all here? Where’s Mitt?
Cantor:...
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Takers
My neighbors David and Barbara are intelligent, witty and charming people of the extreme right-wing persuasion. They’re wonderful neighbors, pleasant, kind and generous. He’s 89 and she’s perhaps a year or two older. He just had a hip replacement, and she was hospitalized recently, as well. They shared a hospital room for several weeks while rehabilitating, which is kind of...
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Nail-biter?
This was a close election, right? A nation bitterly divided between red and blue. Two parties evenly splitting the vote. Two starkly different visions of America. Obama squeaking out a bare 50.3% of the popular vote, although he carried the electoral college handily. Except that it wasn’t really close and we aren’t that divided. No president presiding over an economy this bad should...
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Beyond FEMA
First, a reality check. Those who believe that climate change is happening and that it is at least partly caused by human activity predict warming of the oceans, melting of arctic ice, rising sea water and more frequent and more severe storms as the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere increases. Climate change deniers say it’s all a hoax. Given recent events, it would seem that the...
October 2012
5 posts
6 tags
No FEMA?
In the last few days, Mitt Romney has had to walk back yet another of his previous stands, that he’d do away with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It’s an article of faith among conservatives, despite conspicuous evidence to the contrary, that the federal government can’t do anything as well as state governments, and that governments in general can’t ever do...
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The Storm and the Election
All the TV commentators are wondering how Hurricane/Noreaster/Frankenstorm/ Superstorm Sandy will affect the election. They refer, of course, to voter turnout and to the perception of the how Obama and Romney respond to the crisis. What they SHOULD be wondering is why neither candidate has mentioned climate change during this election, and why nobody seems to be pointing out the obvious: that...
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RIP Newsweek
Tina Brown has announced that venerable but long-troubled Newsweek will cease publishing its print edition next year, going all-digital instead. After which it will quietly fade away, unless it has a business model nobody else in publishing has thought of yet. The digital destruction of print media continues, with nothing credible out there to replace the hard news coverage and investigative...
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September 2012
9 posts
8 tags
You Know It's an Election Year When...
assaults on U.S. embassies abroad provoke political attacks rather than a unified front from all parties. The Romney campaign, never particularly interested in the truth, attacked the Obama administration for its “disgraceful” response to the attacks on embassies in Egypt and in Libya, where the U.S. ambassador and two others were killed. Turns out, the statement Romney criticized was...
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Obama's Moment
Did Obama close the deal last night? Probably not, but he established the proper tone, beginning with the reminder that he IS the president. I thought the Republicans’ mocking tone at their convention was a false note that doesn’t play outside the hall. Ridicule may feed the red meat base, but I don’t think it sits well with independent voters. People still instinctively like...
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Vintage Clinton
Another high for the Dems, at least inside the convention hall. It was vintage Bill Clinton, speaking for 48 entertaining minutes instead of the scheduled 28, and nobody in the hall was ready for him to stop when he finally wound down. He made the best case yet for keeping Obama in office, blasting the Republicans’ radical notions of economic governance, somehow without demonizing the...
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The Dems
We found out some important stuff last night. Michelle Obama loves her husband. Just as much as Ann Romney loves hers. Maybe more, even.
What a different crowd from the immaculately tailored all-white GOP convention, which looked like a bridge party at a gated compound. Along with Whites, there were Black people, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans—and they all seemed to get along. Viewers...
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Better Off?
The Republicans have been hammering Obama with Ronald Reagan’s famous question, asked during his debate with Jimmy Carter, “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” It’s a trick question, of course. The economy collapsed at the very end of the Bush presidency, and the downward spiral continued until mid-2009, when unemployment reached 10%. The stock market...
August 2012
25 posts
7 tags
Liar, Liar
For a devout Catholic, Paul Ryan sure violates the eighth commandment a lot. His rousing speech last night at the RNC was so full of distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies he’ll need to spend a week in the confessional after the convention is over.
It’s really too bad, because I was hoping that the guy who’s become the face of the Tea Party economic agenda would show...
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THEY Built It
The theme of day one from the Republican National Convention was loud and clear: “We Built It” signs were everywhere in the hall, and speaker after speaker repeated the message in one form or another—that those of us who made it did it by the sweat of our own brows, we pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps, without help from anyone, especially not from government.
Sure you did....
