Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 03, 2010

yeah, like us Americans. We clearly know when to give up and start licking our corporate masters’ boots.

@Radfish: Because we’re just the unwashed, uneducated (oh, and racist, of course) masses who can’t possibly know what’s good for us.

JRC123: The problem with using irony is that others can choose to ignore it and take you at your word. You, umm, were being ironic, right?

You know what’s ironic? People who don’t understand irony trying to use irony.

I love the smell of liberal outrage in the morning.

I think the Russians said the exact same thing about Afghanistan. In that part of the world, you need to conquer the rocks before you can conquer the people. The difficulty is sorting them out from each other.

On a related note, it seems that the Obama administration is negotiating with the Russians to get them to return to Afghanistan alongside NATO forces. Supposedly, the Russian helicopters are better suited to the harsh landscape. I wonder what Rambo would think of that?

“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.” - Vladimir Putin

Too bad Cheney had to give Mushie of Pakiland billions of dollars for military “aid” to arm themselves against india instead of stationing troops to stop the taliban retreating. And shame on President Obama for continuing that aid.

WMDs in Iraq.

Enough said.

The re-election of Harry Reid just proved the point.

Incidentally, I don’t understand the symbol for, er, the shrub. Seems like he has some bent french fries on top?

Bush-Dick never learned the lessons of Vietnam, because he spent that time supporting the war and making sure that he did not have to go.

I agree, Rina, that the symbol is not working too well. It was, originally, around 2003, a Roman centurion’s helmet, but as Bush-Dick two invasions got worse & worse, the helmet lost more & more of its plumage.

@Ira Nayman: Well, I thought I was being ironic, but then a paused briefly on MSNBC this morning and I’m no longer sure!

Rina - the Bush icon is that brush-like appendage to a Roman centurion’s helmut. It’s the same icon GT used during W’s presidency, but it’s showing a bit more wear now.

@JRC123

Give MSNBC a little slack - a few of them are still in shock after telling their viewers all weekend that the R’s had no chance of taking the House.

@ Brian, I thought the drooping plumage was more an indicator of Bush’s losing energy and support than of the situation getting worse and worse. Either way, in retirement, I don’t think it is an appropriate symbol any more. He’s not wearing any hats at all these days.

the helmet is too destroyed now even to be an “empty hat” - an asterisk with a microphone, and when you heed the “*” in case there is a footnote to the banality of his evil, there’s nothing….nothing except the book moolah and the speaking engagements moolah, and perhaps someone other than Trudeau will have the courage to throw another shoe at that misbegotten gladiator, that legend in his own dry drunk mind.

and so true, Ouirsophuct. tell it!

so wish I could smile rather than feel such sorrow - off a duck’s back it.

what amazes me is why the man hasnt been rung up on war crimes charges? it seems that he better STAY laying low and out-of-mind or risk that ¨Hey! Wait just a minute, there….¨ light bulb going on in the media.

Keep digging Roland, In Matt Lauer’s interview Bush sez nothing got under his skin during his presidency more than Kanye West. I guess he’s going for the Taylor Swift sympathy vote.

Gotta go to a parade. Cheer the Beard.

Ach du lieber! Funftuppelspammerflaggen!

@ dfowensby, somehow I think that the odds of an impeachment resolution passing the House has suddenly become very, very remote, but please contact your representatives in Congress and see how much traction you get with that.

@ babka, lots of shoes have been thrown, all with the same level of accuracy. The worst things Bush did in office were when he behaved as an irresponsible liberal, including and especially his inability to veto spending packages. It was the pre-Tea Party right who threw the most shoes at the time for that, and considering his spending record, the Tea Party and Bush would not have gotten along.

It is ironic that President Obama is being consistently heckled by protestors on a liberal agenda issue in which Bush significantly outperformed him.

During the 2008 election, Garry was progressive enough to make a prediction on the election outcome in his panel. It’s a little sad that this time around, his only acknowledgement of the history made yesterday was to conservatively throw more shoes at an old target. Somehow, I missed seeing his name on the ballot, literally or by implication.

Tea Partiers are NOT Neocons. As long as they’re treated as such, they’ll continue to win power. The shoe missed by a mile.

Nemesys, typically, when an occupation turns bad, the public doesnt support troops in that nation.

Don’t forget about trampling on the constitution (Patriot Act), and two wars that, under him, had no end in sight.

Mr. Roberts, how can we forget them?? After all, our current administration continues to employ the powers imposed in the Patriot Act, which was last re-authorized in 2006 under a Democratic Congress. In the meantime, Iraq still has no real end in sight, and Afghanistan has been surged and significantly expanded, in accordance with what President Obama campaigned on.

We can’t forget them, because our current administration has validated them, and justifiably so. If our president is leveraging the legacy of our previous administration to help keep us safe, then more power to him, imnsho. I do not see it as a partisian issue, but a compentency issue.

Nemesys, the Patriot Act was still introduced under Bush, and a Republican Congress, I think a Republican Congress.

The issue of security is no more important than the issue of freedom. The Patriot Act was, and is, in my opinion, an illegal, unconstitutional, act, that should have been repealed.

As Nemesys said, “Tea Partiers are NOT Neocons.” But they’re not Neolibs, either, nor do they stand for some kind of amalgamation of the parties or for some middle ground between liberals and conservatives.

Tea Partiers are politically incoherent. Every one I’ve listened to, from Glen Beck to Rand Paul, sounds unhappy with the present state of the nation and nostalgic for a past that, like an unambiguous Constitution, never existed.

Incidentally, some respondents to my posts seem to have misunderstood my avatar, which has nothing to do with the Neoconservatives of a decade ago. “Neolib,” who is defined in my logo, is looking rather dazed after yesterday’s elections. Even Trudeau seems to be clutching at symbols of Bush-Cheney as if to reassure himself that he knows something the vox populi doesn’t.

I agree, Nemesys, that G.B. Trudeau has drawn such a worn-out helmet that it no longer reads, but it is still appropriate, considering that we are mired in two disgustingly imperialist occupations because of Bush-Dick. I am horrified that you consider Bush-Dick’s worst act spending money, when he has the blood of so many on his hands: thousands of Iraqi men, women, & children dead, thousands more wounded, the same true for Americans.

Of course, when you mention only the worst of Bush-Dick, you have a long list, since he did almost nothing well.

As for the Tea-Bags, I expect the media to lose interest in them. They will continue to protest, considering that our president still has darker skin than that of the Tea-Bag folk. I look forward to seeing whom the Tea-Bags will nominate against President Obama.

By the way, Nemesys, in 2006, the Congress was Republican.

I couldn’t agree more, Fowensby.

Lou, congratulations. I was rooting for the Rangers, but your Giants played well and deserve all the praise.

Neocon, you actually wrote a paragraph, your middle one, that makes sense: unbelievable, but congratulations.

Chikuku, I agree. The best thing to do with Afghanistan is leave it alone to solve its own problems. Forty years ago, it was doing all right. Then, the Soviet Union invaded; the U.S. got covertly involved, and it has been hell there since.

My goodness, how you Lefties love to harp on Bush2!

But if you think that takes attention away from the Big-O (like the current DB story line is trying to do), you are mistaken. In case you haven’t noticed, most of America doesn’t believe in Obama’s kind of Change.

Now if only the Tea Party can swing the Repubs to being a party of limited government like they have always pretended.

I’m a little surprised that nobody has followed up on GT’s reference, in each of this week’s strips, to Bush’s new memoir, Decision Points. Maybe Neocon is right about “neolibs,” as he calls us: we treat W as the source of Obama’s current troubles, as if W stood for what Hannah Arendt diagnosed as “the banality of evil.”

I haven’t seen the memoir as GT evidently has, but the NYT reviewer calls it “a dogged work of reminiscence by an author not naturally given to introspection.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/books/04book.html?_r=1&hp

@ Brian,

True enough about the Republican Congress in 2006. I stand corrected.

But your prejudged expectations of lighter-than-our-president Tea Partiers is interesting, considering that 2 new black GOP house members got elected yesterday riding the Tea Party wave, not to mention the ethnic diversity of so many of the new and existing red state governors. Hopefully, the racial issue merely represents wishful thinking, but the melatonin-challenged voters did not buy into it even if you did.

I do agree that it will be interesting times coming up - if the newly elected GOP representatives turn into the same old tax-and-spend drones as we’ve seen in Congress in recent years (from both sides), then the Tea Party will indeed nominate someone outside the usual GOP ranks to POTUS candidacy. Perhaps, however, we really will see a change in Washington this time. One can always hope.

Ahhhhh! Bush-bashing!

Who would have thought that a Lib would offer that as a theme? And Bushy’s head-dress has worn thin…I’m sure it has a metaphorical meaning?

Which prompts a question I posed two years ago…What icon would best represent Obama and his cohorts? [This part of your comment WAS disgusting, ACP, and has been removed. Please don’t post it again. -Mod]

BCrook@:

I’d like to return the compliment by saying that, for a neolib, you too occasionally make sense. But your anal-compulsive habit of responding to every post that contradicts your views belongs in a schoolroom. You can lecture us on imperialism and racism, but the martinet can’t hide the neolib.

Oh no! BCS is in control!

Brian, on Afghanistan, we should have had that mentality with Iraq. The U.S. is not in the business of nation building.

Nemesys, I expect that the Tea Party will fade away, only to be a footnote in history.

RinaFarina said, about 11 hours ago

Incidentally, I don’t understand the symbol for, er, the shrub. Seems like he has some bent french fries on top?

Nine years ago it was a full Roman legionaire’s helmet and it’s current state refelcts GWB’s successful nation building.

Thanks, Drome, for the link to The New York Times’ review.

Yes, Nemesys, the two African-American Republicans who won in south Carolina & Florida received some Tea-Bag support—of course, what’s more interesting is that the Tea-Bag found Paul Thurmond too establishment to support. In the 1st district of South Carolina, who wins the Republican primary wins the election. Skin color matters less than does party, and the Sarah Palin used Tim Scott as her pawn to show up the South Carolina Republican establishment. This was power struggle amid Palin, DeMint, & Graham.

As for Allen West, his win was a surprise, but it was in a district that is almost evenly split between Republicans & Democrats, and he won with heavy spending by American Crossroads in the campaign’s last weeks.

Sorry, Nemesys, but knowing a couple of Blacks does not stop you from being a racist.

I cannot envision the White-Tea Party nominating its own presidential candidate, separate from the Republican Party. The Republican Party has subsumed the White-Teas and will do what it wants with them.

Neocon, I am neither a “neolib” nor a martinet, and if you do not like my comments, then do not read them.

Thsoe who keep complaining about Mr. Trudeas not mentioning current events, you should reallize that that is impossible. As much as I would like to see Mr. Trudeau’s take on the election, he writes/draws these things weeks in advance.

I am fairly certain he’ll start publishing a “current events” story line (written now) when the Republicans start moving in December/January, though. Good opportunity for some old characters to return, and hopefully a few new ones created.

Brian, just by knowing someone only through internet posts, how can you tell if they are a racist or not?

Mrob, I was using the general “you”. I wasn’t referring to Nemesys him-/herself.

Of course, if one makes racist assertions in this forum, then one is a racist, don’t you think?

That would depend, Brian, what was nemesys saying?

I just guess that to many Americans, the change they got wasn’t what they had hoped for. Again, I quote a campaign slogan from the not too distant past “It’s the economy, stupid.”