Archives: June 2007
Five things I hate about Washington politics
- 1. K Street
- 2. The White House Office of Political Affairs
- 3. Procedural votes
- 4. The phrase, "We don't have the votes."
- 5. Executive privilege
Global Distrust of America Hits Nixonian Levels
Guess who's paying the price for the Bush Administration's handling of Iraq, Afghanistan, for "hurting the world's environment the most" and for promoting policies that widen the gap between rich and poor nations? -- guess. Give up? It's you. You're paying the price for it. You and I are paying the price, paying it in lost goodwill, lost friends, lost respect and admiration and all the countless ways that translates into money and peace of mind.
The big bones of contention the world seems to have with us are Iraq, the environment and trade policy, with Iraq being the star of the show. In 43 of the 47 countries surveyed, the proportion of the population saying the United States should withdraw its troops from Iraq ranged from a low of 50 percent (Britain and South Africa) to a high of 93 percent in the Palestinian Territories.
That's 43 of 47 countries surveyed having a majority of their citizens against our handling of Iraq. OUCH! My guts have spilled out all over the floor. Is there any way to spin 43 of 47 into a positive? Let's ask White House Press Secretary Tony Snow. "The survey clearly shows that a combined 1.7 billion respondents around the world support the president's leadership on Iraq," Tony would say. Or, as President Bush would decisively put it, "Freedom is on the march!"
Luckily, all is not lost. We're not completely hated yet. Overall, views of America remain favorable among majorities in 25 of the 47 countries, particularly sub-Saharan African nations, Israel, Japan, South Korea and Poland. WICKED COOL!
Inside Look at Ratatouille (Starts Today!)
Ratatouille - Inside Look
Posted Apr 18, 2007The story is of a rat named Ratatouille who lives in a upmarket Parisian restaurant run by an eccentric chef.
This is not political news, but it sort of falls under the category of foreign affairs. As you may or may not know, I am a sucker for cartoons and puppets, and Director Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and Pixar Animation Studios (Cars, Finding Nemo) are back with Ratatouille, out in theaters today. I am SO looking forward to this movie.
Early reviews of the film have been excellent. Rottentomatoes.com, one of my favorite film review sites because it links to actual reviews by movie critics nationwide, has it at a 93 percent positive out of 73 reviews counted (68 good reviews, 5 rotten ones).
Why Warren Buffett's Secretary Deserves a Raise
"You miserable old coot! I'm walkin' if you don't pony up more money. You're sitting on $50 billion and I get $20 an hour!? WTF!?"
Speaking at a $4,600-a-seat fundraiser in New York for Senator Hillary Clinton, Buffett said “The 400 of us [here] pay a lower part of our income in taxes than our receptionists do, or our cleaning ladies, for that matter. If you’re in the luckiest 1 percent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 percent.”
Bravo.
He said that he was taxed at 17.7 percent on the $46 million he made last year (in actual income; doesn't include the value of his billions in Berkshire Hathaway stock), without trying to avoid paying higher taxes, while his secretary, who earned $60,000, was taxed at 30 percent. Buffett told his audience, which included John Mack, the chairman of Morgan Stanley, and Alan Patricof, the founder of the US branch of Apax Partners, that US government policy had accentuated a disparity of wealth that hurt the economy by stifling opportunity and motivation. As if they hadn't already noticed.
Buffett said that he was a Democrat -- KABOOM! -- because Republicans are more likely to think: “I’m making $80 million a year – God must have intended me to have a lower tax rate.”
He lashed out against a Republican proposal to eliminate elements of inheritance tax, which raises about $30 billion a year from the assets of about 12,000 rich families and added that the Republicans would seek to recover lost revenue by increasing taxes for the less prosperous. Ouch.
“You could take that $30 billion and give $1,000 to 30 million poor families," he said. "Or should you favor the 12,000 estates and make 30 million families pay an extra $1,000?”
When the man called the Oracle of Omaha, a guy regarded as the most successful investor in America, comes out against Republican tax policy, it does more than grab headlines; it makes people think.
KAPOW!
Dick Cheney's Ten Commandments of Secrecy
My personal favorites...
Thou shall have no other branches of government before me.
Thou shall not meddle in my secret affairs.
VENETIAN PRINCESS: I Got A Crush On.... Giuliani
VenetianPrincess is a YouTube monster. She's one of the more popular members on the site, having posted hundreds of clips over the past couple years, but this is her first foray into politics. I wouldn't exactly call it hilarious though, but what the hell -- here it is.
I think CottonKing2000's I Love Obama clip is funnier.
RED STATE UPDATE: Submit a Video Question for Jackie
Watch more in the series...
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Mike Gravel
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Barack Obama
CNN YouTube Debate Question: John Edwards
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Immigration
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Law & Order
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Hillary's Sopranos Parody
CNN YouTube Debate Question: The War In Iraq
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Campaign Theme Songs
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Joe Biden
CNN YouTube Debate Question: Dodd
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 1-The Red Carpet
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 2-Prison Fashion
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 3-Prison Cuisine
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 4-My Entourage
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 5-A Graceful Exit
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 6 - Entertaining at Home
Paris Hilton Prison Diaries: Day 7 - Spa Day
Q&A Interview: Justin Gardner of Donklephant.com
Donklephant.com is a site I feel a particular kinship toward. Editor Justin Gardner is a man after my own heart, dedicated to respectful, civil, reasonable debate -- no partisan cock fights here -- with just a touch of the outlandish thrown in for good measure.
I recently had the privilege of bending Justin's ear for a short time. Justin discusses how Donklephant.com got its start, how he keeps the site's many contributors on task, top challenges, and where Donklephant.com is headed in the future.
1. Take us back to the dawn of Donklephant. Where did the idea for the site come from, and how did it get started?
First off, I'm a moderate liberal. So back before the site started, I was a pretty avid reader of left wing blogs. But as time went on, it was getting increasingly harder to read them on a day in and day out basis. I felt there was little room for disagreement, and it just seemed to be getting more and more strident as the months went on.So around June 2005 I saw an advertisement from Duncan Riley (now a writer for TechCrunch) announcing the formation of a new blog network, The Weblog Empire. Back then he ran the Blog Herald, which was one of the top sites about blogging in the world. So I decided to pitch him the idea of a site where the entire political spectrum was represented and open, honest debate was encouraged. He liked it and we began blogging in July 2005.
2. The site has a growing network of contributors and authors. How do you keep everyone working on the same page, so to speak?
Once I invite people to blog at Donklephant, the page is literally theirs. I don't mandate any set schedule or policy for doing original posts. I just ask the contributors to keep their language clean and their arguments sharp. It's worked out so far, as we've had 3,163 posts and 17,142 comments, contained within 63 categories in less than two years.As for keeping everybody on the same page, it's not like a traditional group blog. It's more like a collection of diverse voices, where some blog more frequently than others, but most everybody has access to blog when they want to. I think it keeps the site fresh and makes for surprises if people want to come back and do a post if they haven't done one in a while.
3. Could you run us through a typical day in the life of Donklephant's editor?
I have a full time job, so a lot of my blogging is done in the morning or during breaks during my workday. And we're still a smaller site in the grand scheme of things, so my day usually just entails checking a bunch of news sites in the morning and finding interesting information I think our readers would enjoy. I also sometimes submit stories to some social news sites in hopes that people would find it interesting and vote it up the ladder. It helps with traffic and attracts new readers.4. What is your favorite thing about being involved with the site? Least favorite thing?
My favorite thing is just sharing information and opinions, and the ability to hear other people's. So I just love blogging itself, the way it connects people and ideas. My least favorite things are spam and hackers. I think I have the spam thing almost solved, but hackers will always be a consistent worry. They're just the realities of doing business I suppose.5. Where do you hope to take Donklephant in the future, and what can your fans expect from Donklephant 2.0?
I've given this some thought recently, and I really like the way that some of the bigger blogs have given users the ability to create their own diaries within their domains. But that seems like it would take a lot of infrastructure and I'm not sure we're at that point yet.In the end, I've found that Donklephant 1.0 is growing at a very nice, steady clip and maybe in a couple years when I have the traffic to justify it, I'll consider what a 2.0 will look like. For now, though, I'm pretty happy with the progress.
TAGS: Interview, Blogging, Donklephant, Reasonable, Politics, Political, Blog, Moderate, Republicans, Democrats, Conservative, Liberal, News, Forum
Mac Users, Download the Skitch Beta Screen Capture Tool Immediately!
A. Tool bar -- Pencil, line, circle, rectangle, paint fill, eraser, text, and arrow tools
B. Brush size -- Resize the line thickness of the pencil, line, circle, and rectangle tools
C. Photos -- Easily access your iPhoto library or images stored elsewhere on your computer
D. Image Resizer -- Awesome! Easily resize your finished image by simply resizing the display window
E. File name & format -- Autonaming feature to easily name and save files. Use the 'drag me' link to drag a copy of your new file to the desktop
F. Webpost -- Click once to automatically upload image to your MySkitch online image gallery. Click once more to quickly share with friends or post to a website or blog
G. Color bar -- Choose your colors for the pencil, lines, circles, arrows, text, etc.
H. Snap -- Click to choose an area of the screen you want to copy into Skitch for editing
Skitch is one of the coolest tools for bloggers I've seen come along in a while. It's developed by Plasq, makers of the awesome ComicLife program I use to make many of the political cartoons and illustrations on Pollyticks.com.
Skitch is a screen capture tool that lets you capture areas of the screen you're looking at, whether they're application windows or images online, and then easily add text effects, arrows, captions, and other effects without the need for complex image editing programs like Photoshop. What's more, Skitch then lets you upload your image to your own online storage area (called MySkitch) where it's easy to share with friends or embed in a website or blog.
For now Skitch is in beta testing, and this little overview is of the free beta version, but I urge anyone to head on over to Plasq's website to sign up for the beta because this application is too helpful to wait for. The final retail version of Skitch is due soon and should cost around $20, but don't delay. See if you can download a copy of the free beta test version before they close the beta program to new testers.
What used to take 3-5 minutes using Photoshop, where I'd copy an area of the screen to the clipboard using the Mac shortcut keys (Apple+Ctrl+SHIFT+4) and then paste them into Photoshop for editing, now takes less than 1 minute to do using Skitch. On top of that, the results look great!
Among some of my favorite features are the easy resize tool (D above). You know how in Photoshop or other image editing programs, when you want to resize an image so it fits within the columns on your blog, or when you want to shrink a huge picture to send by email, it's a tricky process of balancing DPI (dots per inch) with the horizontal and vertical resolution, ala 640x480? Well, in Skitch, all you need to do is position your mouse pointer over the corners of the active window, click and drag the window to your desired size. That's it. Your image has officially been resized.
I also like the vector smoothing effect on the drawing tool (the pencil). When you draw shapes and symbols using the pencil tool in Skitch, the program automatically smoothes your lines, giving them a professional look. Trust me, it looks a lot better than the shaky lines I get when I usually try to draw something with a mouse.
TAGS: Tutorial, Skitch, Screen Capture, Image Editing, Photoshop, Digital Photography, Software, Review, Blogging, Tools, Tips
Why Cheney's Office Is Exempt from Oversight
To put it mildly, I don't trust the vice president.... Cheney's office, over the objections of the National Archives, has exempted itself from a presidential executive order that seeks to protect national security information generated by the government, according to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Since just one half of the story is being reported so far, I accept the possibility that there may be more to it than that, but considering it's Cheney we're talking about...
The vice president's explanation for why his office is exempt from oversight is simple: they don't have to. His office says that since the vice president's role involves legislative branch duties (since the veep also casts tie-breaking votes in the Senate) as well, it's not really part of the executive branch, so the executive order doesn't apply. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.
Not to worry -- a spokeswoman for Cheney's office said they weren't breaking the law. Whew! What a relief. Thank God for that.
What a laugh. The veep's office gets access to classified information because of its relationship to the president, not because of its legislative duties. It clearly falls under the umbrella of the executive branch.
Under the order, executive branch offices are required to give the Information Security Oversight Office at the archives data on how much material it has classified and declassified. Cheney's office had been complying with the order from 2001-2002, then stopped. In 2004, Cheney's office blocked the archives from doing an onsite inspection of his office to make sure classified information was being properly protected. Oversight shmoversight! They actually turned them away. "No, can't let you in. So sorry. Wouldn't be prudent at this juncture. You know, national security and, you know, 9/11 mindset and al Qaeda and -- gotta run."
"To my knowledge," said Henry Waxman, chairman of the government oversight committee, "this was the first time in the nearly 30-year history of the Information Security Oversight Office that a request for access to conduct a security inspection was denied by a White House office."
Since becoming vice president, Cheney has fought attempts to peer into the inner workings of his office, hid the identities of industry executives who advised his energy task force (for all we know, members of the Saudi royal family participated in the meetings), and withheld details about his privately funded travel and Secret Service logs showing who visits his office, among other efforts to maintain secrecy.
Mr. Vice President, I have a secret for you. You suck.
New Poll Shows Congress Less Trusted Than Jon Lovitz
I don't know.... I think she's too smart for that. She must be concerned. Just 14% of Americans have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in Congress. That's even worse than American confidence in HMO's, which stands at 15%. Can you believe that? Congress is less trusted than one of the most hated institutions in America. Score!
The current 14% confidence rating for Congress is also down from 19% last year and is the lowest in Gallup’s history, surpassing the 18% confidence in Congress measured in 1991, 1993 and 1994.
Across the board, the trend from last year is down, so it's not just Congress that Americans have less confidence in. But the drop from 19% to 14% is significant. That's a 26% drop. After the November elections I would have hoped to see the trend moving in the opposite direction.
Despite the trend, I don't think this Congress is as useless as this poll would have us believe. I think part of the problem is that a disconnect exists betweens what politicians tell people to expect from them and what they are politically capable of accomplishing.
Something that the newly unaffiliated Michael R. Bloomberg said yesterday really struck a chord with me. He was referring to the recent presidential debates and the job of the press to ask pertinent questions of the candidates. "The press really is not doing its job of holding their feet to the fire," Bloomberg said. "The tough questions are not what are you in favor of, but how are you going to get it through Congress?"
Exactly. At this point, who really cares what someone says they stand for or intends to do? Speak to us (Americans) like we're adults and tell us how you're going to get the job done. Most of us already know what's wrong with our system. We know the influence special interest groups and corporations have in Washington, we know what a filibuster is, know what earmarks are, know how Congress holds symbolic votes, know what a presidential veto is, know how many votes it takes to override a veto -- what I want to know now is exactly how the candidates intend to actually do what they say they're going to do. Let's drag the whole filthy system out into the light of day.
Vacation Time: One Way in Which Americans Are Getting the Shaft
It's true, folks. People all around the developed world are getting more vacation time than we are.
Unlike in most other countries on this list, in the U.S. there is no federal law mandating that companies pay employees for time off or that they grant them a minimum amount of vacation days unpaid.
The typical practice in the United States among large companies is 15 days paid vacation and 10 days of paid holidays for full-time employees with 10 years of tenure, Mercer found. And that's only for employees of large companies. In general, MOST American workers either receive two weeks paid vacation (plus holidays) or, in the case of one out of four American workers, absolutely none at all.
Contrast that with employees in Europe. ALL members of the European Union MUST provide workers with a minimum of 20 paid vacation days a year plus public holidays. DaaaaAAAAaaaamn.... Must be nice.
What do the Florida Democratic Party, Giuliani, and the Immigration Bill Have in Common?
DNC's Dean Pushes Back in Primary Date Dispute With Florida
Did you hear about this? It seems Florida's Republican-controlled legislature and GOP governor signed a bill that Florida's must-be mentally deficient Democrats proposed to move ahead the state's presidential primary to Jan. 29, 2008. Isn't that like a week from now? States are jockeying for position on the calendar, claiming they're doing it to have more influence in the primary process. Why not hold it tomorrow then? Because then they'd be fighting over time of day. "New Hampshire's primary has always been at 6am!" and Florida would be all, "We're moving ours up to 5:45!"I think this whole primary calendar shakeup thing is off target. It shouldn't be about who goes first. It should be about holding all the primaries as close together as possible. That would directly address the issue of undo influence that advocates of primary rescheduling claim they're trying to address. Hold all the primaries in the same week. That's how Blue Steel would do it if he were in charge.
This one's a clusterf*ck in the making. Dems will know who their nominee will be shortly after Christmas of next year, and that person is gonna be wearing a big 'ol bullseye for nine months. Hello, GOP! I'm your target!
Bush: Time to act on immigration
Talk about the blind leading the blind. "Each day our nation fails to act, the problem only grows worse," the president said at the National Hispanic Prayer Breakfast. "I will continue to work closely with members of both parties, to get past our differences, and pass a bill I can sign this year."Sen. Harry Reid (D-ork) is working to revive the immigration bill. Uh... why? Why is he doing that? See, I think this is political opportunism at its worst. Do the Democratic leaders in Congress expect anyone -- even Democratic voters like me -- to believe that they sincerely want to work with the White House to pass THIS immigration bill? Come on. The bill is broken. Start over. I think this issue is now more about capitalizing on Republican division than about passing a bill that's good for America. What I see here are Congressional Democrats actually putting aside the needs of the country to score political points. Shame!
Giuliani Says He'd Consider Adding Troops in Iraq for Success
I think Rudy's about two years late here. At this point, it would take an awful lot of fact-based convincing for me to support any further troop increases in Iraq. Rudy said he'd consider an increase if General David "New Guy" Petraeus said the strategy was working.Rudy, saying and proving are two different things, and the burden of proof rests heavy on the GOP and Petraeus to show that the surge strategy is working. Matter of fact, considering the widespread Iraq war skepticism that exists in America today, Patraeus would probably have more success building a bridge to China than he'd ever have convincing America that the surge is working. I can't see into the future, but I don't think the September surprise will be, "Baghdad is finally ours!"
CRAIG FERGUSON: The Rather Late Programme with Prince Charles
How much do you want to bet there are Americans out there who had their doubts about Craig Ferguson's loyalty to this country? Then they watched this clip and thought, "Hrmpf! Maybe that Craig Ferguson feller's alright after all because he's teasin' that there Prince Chawles."
Q&A Interview: David Dees, aka The CodFather
David Dees is an artist in the purest sense of the word. Does that sound corny? Hell yes it does, but what I mean to say is he lives his art. A lot of us here know him by his political satire, which now regularly appears on political sites like Bartcop and Fark, but he only recently threw his hat into the satirical arena. For three decades he's worked as an illustrator and musician, and that experience shows in his satire. He wields a mouse like he was born to use Photoshop, even though he's too humble to admit it.
In this interview I ask David about his creative process, the tools he uses to design, overcoming artist's block, and working as an illustrator.
1. How do you come up with the ideas for your political and social satire?
The ideas come from watching and listening to alternative news shows like Rense and Alex Jones, actually I listen to the archives while I am working on regular illustrations that I get paid for, and the hosts and guests talk in very creative language that brings to mind many cool ideas for political art. Just today I was tuned into Alex Jones interviewing Professor Steven Jones about the new evidence found by examining the WTC dust, and Alex commented that the "dam is about to break" on 9/11 truth.And right there, I knew that would make a great piece, showing a massive dam that had the words 9/11 truth, with big cracks and water spraying out, looking very dangerous, and somehow incorporating, like truth missiles hitting the dam, the best pieces of evidence, like the witnesses, the thermite, written on the missiles.
But to build such a piece takes many hours and I don't get paid to do the political art, so I have to work it into my busy schedule, but the first thing would be go to Google images and research what dams look like. Then decide from which angle would be the most dramatic, looking way up at it, or looking down to it. Then I would pull photos of cracks and water spraying out of things.
All the political art is built from photos found on the web, then using photoshop, just cut and paste, it is a really quite easy and I would encourage everyone to learn to do it, I have never had so much fun. It has more to do with thinking and imagining than actual technical skill. It is easy to develop your imagination, if you can imagine rearranging the furniture in your place and can clearly see what that would look like in your mind, then you can do art.
2. Do you ever suffer from artist's block?
People say I am so prolific and ask if I ever had writers block, and with the political art I actually have far too many ideas to ever illustrate them all, so this is not a problem there. But I am also a songwriter, and I remember way back when, early nineties, I wanted so much to write songs, and I would sit there stumped. Then I had written one silly song about a UFO abduction, played it for friends and they went really crazy for it, huge reaction.Well, I noticed this, and started writing wacky songs, and suddenly I hit the motherlode of inspiration, writing a song a day, and penned a hundred tunes. So art is about communication, and I had a lot to say when it came to funny songs, and then I got bored there and wrote two albums of new age and outer body experience type songs. I say to anyone with a block, that to find an area you have a lot to say, because it is just like talking, if you find a subject you like, you can talk all day, same with art, it is all about the desire to communicate ideas. 9/11 truth and globalists trying to enslave us are important ideas to discuss.
» There's more to this entry. Click here for the rest of it.
THE DAILY SHOW: How the Senate Doomed the Immigration Bill
My favorite part is Jon's response to Harry Reid's Dr. Seuss analogy, all the way at the end. My sentiments exactly.
And see Part 2 of this clip here: CLICK
Iran and NATO, Sitting in a Tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First off, I don't think this means war with Iran. It'll take more than this for the administration to justify war with Iran because we're (our military) not in a position to hurry.
As for whether or not we can trust these initial reports, who knows? Give the story a couple weeks to ferment, but this may come as a shock to my friends on the left: I pretty much assumed the Iranians were aiding our enemies, so if this turns out to be true, I won't be surprised. And I will defend my use of the term "enemies" because regardless of how we came to be in the position we're in today, we're here now, and we do have enemies. Absolutely, there are people in our government eager to confront Iran militarily. Be that as it may, I don't trust the current Iranian government one bit.
I've said before how I believe today's Iran cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons, and that I do believe acquiring them is one of their goals. Am I sure of it? Fairly sure. Does that mean I support an immediate attack on Iran? Of course not. There are far too many potentially devastating consequences to escalating a conflict with Iran now or in the near future. But as bad as George Bush has been -- and we're talking historically bad -- an Iran with a nuke would be far worse. I believe that with all my heart. Still, the U.S. is not in a position to spearhead a direct confrontation with Iran right now, and I think everyone relevant to the issue knows it.
So what happens now? Well, it looks like this will head to the U.N. The U.S. will push NATO to present its findings to the U.N., and from there who knows? Most likely Iran would face tougher economic sanctions. It would also further build the case against Iran on other matters, like their apparent continued enrichment of uranium. Iran seems to be making the case against them easier to prove with each passing day.
See What the Top 5 Posts on Pollyticks Were Over the Past 30 Days
The Landlord - Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, both formerly of Saturday Night Live (Ferrell as a performer, and McKay as a writer) have made two of the funniest movie comedies in the last few years, Anchorman and Talladega Nights, and this short featuring McKay and Ferrell as two roommates with their cranky landlord, Pearl, was the most popular post here on Pollyticks.com over the past 30 days.
20 Top Political Forums of 2007 - The second most popular post over the past 30 days was a rundown of 20 top political forums (now 23, thanks to the comments).
Crawford Man Convicted of Having Sex with Pet Goat - At Number 3 on the list was this bit of satire done one morning before heading off to work. I'm not sure what the hell I was thinking. I think it may have had something to do with Scooter Libby and talk of a potential pardon by Bush. Truth be told, I know very little about the reproductive habits of goats.
Rev. Jerry Falwell, 1933-2007 - This cartoon memorial to the late Rev. Falwell comes in as the fourth most popular post here on Pollyticks.com. I gotta say... what a friggin surprise that is. There's no accounting for taste!
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE: Weekend Update -- Manties - And rounding out the Top 5 posts of the past 30 days is this clip of Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update staring Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler.
Swear Jar - Bud Light - Honorable Mention goes to this Bud Light commercial here 1) because it has been the top link on Pollyticks since it posted less than a week ago, and 2) because OMG it's so totally hilarious!
Now You Can Make Political Cartoons With the Help of Your Computer
How to Make Political Cartoons with a Computer - From idea to storyboard to finished product this article will show how you can make your own political cartoons with a computer. Don't let that fancy computer go to waste!
How to Make Political Cartoons With ComicLife - A very basic hands-on video introduction to using Plasq's ComicLife to make political cartoons and comics (or any other kinds of cartoons and comics). ComicLife comes preinstalled on all new Apple Macintosh computers, and by July 2007 will be available for Windows PCs as well.
GIMP: A Free Alternative to Photoshop - GIMP is a great open source program (read: free) to edit and retouch your digital photos and other images, but the key thing to remember is that it's completely free. In features it compares well to the $79 pricetag Adobe sticks on Photoshop Elements 5.0. In this beginner's hands-on video look at GIMP, I highlight some of its features and walk you through retouching a digital photo.
Comic Book / Graphic Novel Digital Coloring Photoshop Tutorial - An excellent little picture tutorial that illustrates the steps involved in coloring and shading a hand drawn illustration using Photoshop (techniques also work with GIMP).
Worth1000.com Photoshop Tutorials - More than 80 different Photoshop tutorials covering just about every aspect of image editing and picture alteration, from shading to morphing different images together. Master the techniques described here and you'll be well on your way to a career as a professional graphics designer. Or, if making political cartoons for fun is more your speed, run through their tutorials on image masks and you'll have all the right skills.
TAGS: Political Cartoons, Cartoons, Tutorial, Help, Advice, How to, Photoshop, Comics, Art, ComicLife
Here's How We Solve the Illigal Immigration Problem
Most of the Democrats backed the bill, even though they called it imperfect, but most of the Republicans did not. The so-called social Republicans, the Republicans who say they believe the earth is 7,000 years old, say they're completely against any legislation that would grant amnesty to the millions of illegals here now, while most of the fiscal conservatives, the ones I call Reagan Republicans, supported the bill. They claim, of course, it's because we can't deport 12 million people to Mexico (good point), but I suspect their motives in most cases are ultimately simpler than that: US businesses like cheap labor. Consumers like cheap stuff.
Why can't everyone in Washington just come out and say how they really feel about it? -- the social nut-jobs should just admit that they think Mexicans are filthy little animals, the fiscal scumbags should just admit that their business pals want the sub-minimum wage labor, and the Democrats just admit they don't really give a sh*t about the issue of illegal immigration at all.
As for the bill itself, it WAS imperfect and will probably remain imperfect. It'll probably get worse, matter of fact, if it's considered again anytime soon as all the different interests involved undermine the spirit of the bill with their own personal poison pills to weaken the parts of it they don't like.
I'm just one guy, and I'm not an expert on illegal immigration, but I think I still have a great plan for how to fix/improve the problem of illegal immigration:
Blue Steel's 4-Step Immigration Plan
- 1. Stricter penalties against businesses that employ illegal workers.
- 2. More resources to enforce stricter penalties against businesses that employ illegal workers.
- 3. A path to citizenship for most of the illegals here now. Yes, amnesty, with consideration given to length of residency in the country, employment, skills and education, and family status.
- 4. A more secure border with Mexico (useless without stricter penalties on businesses that hire illegals).
Why doesn't my plan call for placing demands on the Mexican government and the governments of other Central and South American nations? Well, because I think that would be a wasted effort. Why start by trying to change the other guy first? We can start by fixing ourselves first, and then maybe after that try to work on changing someone else. If we can't straighten out our own problems, what makes us think we can fix another country's?
As for the notion of amnesty and the folks who hate that word, I don't know what to say other than "Get over it." I don't think our government is competent enough to handle the expulsions of 12 million undocumented workers. Frankly, I don't think they're competent enough to catch them, much less arrange for their expulsion. I believe most of those 12 million who are here now are going to stay here as long as businesses will hire them. Sending them away is not realistic. That's my take on it, but you crack down on businesses employing illegals, and you can bet that many of those illegals would choose to leave on their own.
A recent Pew poll showed that people are unreasonable when it comes to that word: amnesty. When the word "amnesty" was not invoked, 62 percent of Republicans said they favored letting illegal immigrants now in the country obtain citizenship if they have jobs, pass background checks and pay fines. But only 47 percent of Republicans said they favored giving "amnesty" to illegal immigrants if they met those same conditions. Wake up call, folks. Amnesty, amnesty, amnesty. Get over it.
I hope I don't sound unsympathetic to the plight of immigrants into this country. I don't feel that I am, but I do think we've allowed people to enter the US illegally for so long now that we've painted ourselves into a corner. Any serious, well-intentioned effort to curtail illegal entry into America will unavoidably be seen by some as unfair and heartless. You know what? Someone will be hurt -- families, hard-working, decent people -- if the US moves to crack down (i.e. penalize employers) on illegal immigration. It will happen and it sucks. Welcome to reality.
Q&A Interview: Newshounds.us (They watch FOX so we don't have to)
In early 2004, eight middle-aged citizens from different backgrounds and locations around the USA teamed up via MoveOn.org and the internet (thank you, Al Gore!) to volunteer their services for OUTFOXED, a documentary film by Robert Greenwald on Fox News Channel. For approximately three months, each of them watched FNC conscientiously for five or more hours a week and posted their findings regarding Fox's self-proclaimed mission of fair and balanced reporting. After working on the film, the volunteers decided there was still work to be done to educate the public about Fox News Channel and to fight to keep Americans informed. The group went on to create NewsHounds.us.
Recently, I had the opportunity to bend the ear of one of the News Hounds (Ellen), who described the site and the work the News Hounds do. They believe a viable democracy depends upon viable media. What do you think?
1) How did you get involved with News Hounds, and could you describe how the site came to be?
Most of us (myself included) were researchers for Robert Greenwald's documentary film, "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's war on journalism." After our work on the film was finished, we wanted to keep working together and, after much discussion, producer Jim Gilliam suggested we start a blog. There's more on that in the behind-the-scenes featurette in the film. We've lost a few members and added a few members since then but we still work closely with blogfather Jim and assist Robert Greenwald with his Fox attacks videos and blog.2) With so many different features, from the blog, to the forum, MySpace page, newsletter, videos and more, News Hound must be a labor intensive effort. How much time does it take to pull it all together, and why do you do it?
Fortunately, there are six News Hounds so the work gets divided up. Still, I spend about three to four hours five days a week just getting my post(s) done and that doesn't count all the behind-the-scenes work -- discussions with the other NH's, reading comments, emails to the site, etc. all of which goes on 24/7. Right now, I literally have about 700 comments left over from last week to read.If I knew how much work it was going to be, I doubt I'd ever have agreed to do this but now that I am, I love it. It's fun... I have had the opportunity to "meet" a lot of people and, at this point, I'm deeply attached to my blogmates and some of our readers. It's also exciting when a post causes a big splash and reverberates into the blogosphere. My 2005 post about Neal Horsley admitting to Alan Colmes that his (Horsley's) first girlfriend was a mule put Horsley on the liberal map, so to speak. Just a few weeks ago, I heard someone on Air America (I think it was Thom Hartmann) referring to Horsley and his mulish history.
Even more importantly, I believe that the work makes a difference. Due to some process unbeknownst to us, our blog was chosen as a Google News source. So when people google FOX News, many of the FNC personalities and/or the stories covered on FNC, our site is often on the first page, if not at the top. So our message gets out. In the online world, a blog is less ephemeral than a newspaper... I hope our posts will still be there even when we're not.
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Swear Jar - Bud Light
Friend, if you laughed your @ss off at this commercial, then you and I are alike in very important ways (no, not because we both lack @sses)
Why Putin Shouldn't Fear the Missile Shield
That's how much sense the missile shield makes to me.
So the president, in Europe for the the G8 summit, says he intends to deliver a memo to Russian President Vladimir Putin that seeks to calm Russian nerves. Our diplomatic relationship with Russia has steadily declined since Bush took office. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that. Russia doesn't trust America, but they were comfortable believing in the stabilizing power of mutually assured destruction, knowing that they could nuke America if we chose to nuke them (by launching ICBMs). The US-funded missile defense shield promises to disrupt that balance. We'd be able to block their missiles. Oops!
Fine, no one likes nuclear weapons, but if we'd had a better relationship with the Russian government since 2001, this could have been avoided. We could have cut the Russians in on the deal, built the expensive, wasteful missile defense shield to block -- I don't know -- North Korean or Iranian missiles, I suppose (which, BTW, aren't numerous or long range enough for the shield to intercept), and kept Russia happy.
But I sincerely believe the decisions that went into deploying this shield were business decisions, not strategic or geo-political ones. They were the other kind of politics, the bad politics, where one hand washes the other, manipulation through contract awarding, stuff like that. Many conservatives would probably call me clueless and shout "Don't you want to protect America, you stupid libtard!?" To those kinds of conservatives, I say "Piss off, jackass. Don't pretend like you know me. Go back to your Fox News and get the hell out of my face." But I'd say it with love. =)
Bush says the missile shield would be coordinated with NATO. He says he intends to urge Putin to participate. "Please send your generals over to see how such a system would work. Send your scientists."Ironically, I don't believe the missile shield is in any way meant to interfere with Russia's nuclear deterrent. Russia was probably the last thing on anyone's mind when they were looking to award contracts to build the shield. This wasn't about security, not really. It was about money. That's my opinion. I can't prove it, so I guess that means I must be wrong. I can't prove the sun is hot either, but I'll bet you $2 it is.
From FoxNEWS.com
U.S. experts contend the shield poses no threat to Russia because the missiles involved would be purely defensive and incapable of being fitted with warheads.Geez... don't you think the Russians know how the shield will work by now? By being a defensive shield, it is also an offensive shield, because it hurts the other guy's offense.
From FoxNEWS.com
You know what's really sad? I bet George really does believe the shield will dramatically help secure America. He's big business's perfect president because he'll believe what you want him to believe. He doesn't have to lie because he'll believe the lie. That's his gift. Joe Billionaire from Defense Contractor #1 tells him, "Mr. President, you're helping secure America. For that I salute you, sir!"
And George replies, "Sweet!"
20 Top Political Forums of 2007
Political Forums
If I'd known how addictive chatting in political forums could be, I would have started one on Pollyticks long ago, and if I had a nickel for every hour I've spent writing long-winded opinions to forum members on the Arab-Israeli conflict, Catholicism on the U.S. Supreme Court, or any number of other topics, I'd be a rich man! OK, not rich, but I'd have another $5.What follows aren't complete reviews of these sites and everything each has to offer. These are only reviews of their community discussion forums. I tried to stick to sites running traditional forum software, like phpBB and vBulletin, as opposed to comment blogs, with a few exceptions here for notorious blogs like Daily Kos, Huffington Post and Free Republic. Here you'll find forums on the left, forums on the right, and forums in the middle.
Just FYI, the name of the forum is bold, with the link and review underneath. Thanks to everyone who took time to build forums and recruit members. Your efforts have helped foster debate.
1. Whistle Stopper Political Forums
Toot toot!
Membership: mixed
Great layout. The entire site is focussed on the forum. Different rooms/categories on International Politics, U.S. & North American Politics (the largest category), Middle East Politics, Activism, Breaking News, Elections, Religion, and more, but despite the number of categories the user-friendly layout makes it easy to distinguish among them. Very active, close-knit community, and a surprisingly civil group (surprising considering the flame wars all too common on political forums). The site boasts 8,794 members and an archive of 1 million posts.
2. Democratic Underground
Democratic Diggers
Membership: left
A traditional forum layout. Needless to say, it's easy to get lost in the crowd at DU. The users are territorial too, guarding their particular categories/rooms. Most members choose one room and stick to it without venturing out into the DU no-man's land for fear of angering the locals. If the site suffers from anything serious it's bloat and an extremist membership. Dozens of different rooms, from General Discussion to Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Science -- you name it. Site claims to have 104,221 registered users, and about 30 million posts since January 2001. Yes, that's huge.
3. Bartcop Nation
Long Live Bartcop!
Membership: left
Not the biggest forum on the list. Bartcop, a living legend online, is more known for his daily left-wing e-zine, but the site also boasts a discussion forum. The largest individual forum room here has about 50,000 messages, which sounds large but isn't for the forums on this list. The conversation is lively, the membership close-knit. The forum itself is a little disorganized, and it's not the easiest layout on the eyes, but those are minor complaints. Has just a few rooms ranging from General Discussion to News and Announcements. Membership count not available.
4. Daily Kos: State of the Nation
Kos I Said So!
Membership: left
A comment-based blog system, as opposed to a traditional forum with categories. Comments are tied to specific news articles and opinion posts. Impersonal because of its size, except for a small clique of top contributors. Daily Kos is so much more than a community. It's an activist empire, now into fundraising too. There's a good chance your comments might never be seen by the same person twice. It's easy to get lost among the hundreds of thousands of users, but if you like size, Daily Kos is extra large. Google lists 2 million links to Daily Kos. Worth checking out if you've never visited it before.
5. The Huffington Post
Huffpo Yo!
Membership: left
A comment-based blog system like Daily Kos, as opposed to a traditional forum. Like DK, Arianna Huffington's Huffpo is very impersonal, and the sequential way in which comments are posted lends itself to that. When you do post, it feels like your comments aren't being read by anyone, and the layout makes it difficult to directly address comments to specific members. Beware of trolls -- bands of bloodthirsty conservative trolls prowl the halls of Huffington Post, looking for posts to blast with gems like, "The Democraps and Nancy Peloozer are cowards!" But its sheer size means there are always active topics to discuss, no matter the time of day or night. Google lists 1,300,000 links to Huffington Post.
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Peggy Noonan Needs a Spanking
She, in a word, eviscerates the president, and all but calls the Republican Party dead. She says George abandoned the party, abandoned his base, abandoned all of humanity pretty much. The immigration bill, in her mind, was the straw that broke the camel's back. She makes George sound like the antichrist, and you know he very well may be, maybe not the antichrist, but close enough, yet something bugged me about Ms. Noonan's column.
She doesn't take or place any responsibility -- not an ounce -- on the people who enabled George for all these years. She'd have us believe that George worked on an island all by his lonesome, with no help from his own party.
She says that "...conservatives and Republicans are going to have to win back their party. They are going to have to break from those who have already broken from them. This will require courage, serious thinking and an ability to do what psychologists used to call letting go. This will be painful, but it's time."
Give me a break. Peggy Noonan is too damn smart to peddle this load of crap. Sure, conservatives ought to win back their party. That part's true enough, but before they win anything, they'd better figure out what the hell they stand for first because if you judge the Republican Party by the way its representatives have voted since 2000, on the votes they cast in Washington, their oversight of the White House, and the policies they helped enact, it paints a bleak picture, and the fingers don't all point at the current occupant of the White House.
George got his way because Republicans gave it to him. If Republicans are going to "take back" their party, who are they going to take it from? George Bush? That's awfully convenient, considering he's on his way out. She's conveniently making George out to be the root of all evil, the source of all the problems with the conservative movement, but George is George because Republicans and conservatives enabled him and gave him everything that he (and they, for the most part) demanded.
Ms. Noonan and others like her would prefer it if the problems with the conservative movement were isolated to the White House, but that's a fantasy.
Take a little responsibility for your actions, Peggy, and those of your elected representatives. You folks are the ones who put and kept George in diapers for so long. He's your Frankenstein, lady, and the world won't soon forget.
Why Al Gore Must Put Down the Doughnut
Fix the Mistake
I'm not afraid or ashamed to say that I want Al Gore to be president. I say be and not run because I am afraid of him running for president, and that's because the process of running for president sucks. I want him to be president and just skip the whole campaign. Seriously, by my account he won the last time he ran. Look at the job Bush has done. Come on, give it to Gore, for chrissake. Fix the frickin' mistake of 2000.Campaigning Bites
No one in their right mind should want to run for president -- all the mud-slinging, all the character attacks and dirty tricks. No candidate, no matter how squeaky clean, charismatic, kind hearted, honest, decent or brilliant can make it through an American presidential election cycle without at least one shocking revelation or scandal. That's one thing we can always count on as Americans.Gore Speechifying
Over the past five or six years, Gore has given some of the best speeches on policy I've heard in my entire life. I think context and reflection and human nature are part of it, but I don't recall liking Gore as much in 2000 as I did in 2003, after we got into Iraq. It took a few years of George to appreciate what kind of person -- maybe leader -- Gore probably would have been. You never know, but you never know, you know?Overnight Success
I do think Gore, if he announced his candidacy, would immediately become the front runner. I really do. I think he's got more credibility than any of the other candidates on the Democratic side, not that I don't like the other candidates (well, nevermind). He's presidential. People feel like they know Gore. I know I do. Gore has a larger-than-life persona. No, that wasn't a fat joke. And I absolutely believe a majority in the country are sentimental about Gore's popular vote victory in 2000. They look at today -- especially the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, quality of life for the poor, the cost of living, international relations -- and then see Al Gore on television and wonder "What if?"The Fundraising Question
I don't know about fundraising if Gore decided to run. I don't know what the so-called experts have to say about it and if Gore would have enough time to raise enough money to be competitive, whatever that means. I know that I'd donate everything I could to him, but then I haven't yet given any money to any of the other candidates, so I wouldn't have buyer's remorse. I don't know what I'm waiting for. I guess I just see the campaign as a long slog. There's plenty of time to donate, and I guess I'm holding out hope for Gore. I've been working under the assumption so far that I'd support either or both Obama and Edwards, two people I believe would make fine choices. They're my favorites at this point, you know, but I reserve the right to change my mind. Know what I mean, Al? Hint hint.Put down the doughnut, buddy! Do it for America!