Monthly Archives: October 2009
A window into the soul of “Americans for Prosperity”
It seems the greatest success of Americans for Prosperity is getting the sheeple to do the dirty work of preventing Corporate America — and particularly Koch Industries — from accountability and paying their fair share of taxes. And the un-American cheering of the loss of the 2016 Olympics by Chicago.
Keep up the good work, AFP!
Keith Olbermann to deliver Special Comment on health care reform
Keith Olbermann will deliver an hour-long “Special Comment” on health care Wednesday night, MSNBC announced Tuesday.
Wednesday’s “Countdown” will be devoted entirely to “Health Care Reform: The Fight Against Death.” According to a network release, it will focus on “the need for and meaning of health care reform in the United States” and Olbermann will “propose group action by patients, and how patients can reclaim the debate over health care reform.”
Keith has previously given two Special Comments on the health care reform issue: One about members of Congress being owned by the health care lobby; and the other was aimed at Quitter Palin’s fear-mongering about the so-called “death panels.”
Weiner confronts McCaughey support for plan to delay Medicare for seniors
Dylan Ratigan exposes Betsy McCaughey for the fear-mongerer and liar that she is. Well done Anthony Weiner, for not allowing this woman to dominate this particular conversation, and calling her out on her lies. McCaughey refuses (or simply cannot) answer Ratigan’s questions, and is reduced to whining about his skills as a moderator. Waahhhh!!
The Watering Hole: October 6 – Jason Lewis
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments.
On this date in 2007 Jason Lewis completed the first human-powered circumnavigation of the Earth. In accomplishing this feat, he traveled 46,505 miles (Excluding potty breaks, washing and meals which conservatively could have added another 300 miles to the 13 year odyssey.)
Jason Lewis and Moksha (Sanskrit for Peace) - Image by Philip King
Ahmadinnerjacket lies? Say it ain’t so!!
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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GOP: We don’t care if the American people lose everything, as long as we win!
Created for TheZoo by Paul Jamiol
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Paul Jamiol, Jamiol’s World
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Bikers are Animals – A Children’s Book on Motorcycling
Paul Jamiol has a new book coming out this month! (It’s “coming soon”…)
It’s a children’s book on motorcycling and motorcycle safety using his amazing talent as a cartoonist. Paul creates a dozen colorful, unique, loveable critter characters riding various kinds of very colorful, detailed bikes. Each character has a personality and little story, and are as diverse as the bikes. Delightful and entertaining! At the end of the book there are pages of his characters that kids can color.
His love for biking and the open road really comes through. I’ve previewed it and can’t wait to get my copy. 
It’s a perfect gift for your child or grandchild.. (Especially with Christmas coming up).
From his website:
“Bikers are animals,” a term that adults might use in the pejorative sense, has been turned by writer and artist Paul Jamiol into a book for children that brings joy and amusement while promoting safe riding and delivering a subtle but strong message against prejudice in all its forms. Jamiol’s community of motorcycle-riding fauna will keep young readers enthralled. It answers some of the questions about motorcycles that their parents may not be able to answer. Ed Youngblood – Ed Youngblood’s Motohistory
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Tweet! Tweet! BOOM!!
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Steve Sack, Minneapolis Star-Tribune
The Watering Hole: October 5 – Monty Python
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments.
On this date in 1969 the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on BBC. This show did not have a United States following until it was picked up by PBS as a series in 1974. The first US airing was on KERA-TV in Dallas, Texas.
Monty Python DVD cover - Fair use image
The only known moving images of Anne Frank
In the grainy black and white YouTube video, Frank is shown leaning over the balcony to watch an eager young newlywed couple as they walk past the sidewalk adjacent to the Amsterdam apartment Frank lived in before she and her family moved into the annex behind father Otto’s office to escape Hitler‘s regime.
The July 22, 1941 video is the first-ever released film image of Frank. It was given to the Anne Frank House from the married couple, who lived on the same floor as the Franks.
Sunday Roast: The Supersizers Eat the French Revolution
This week, Giles and Sue go back to the 1780s, a time of great historical upheaval and discovery. Hot air balloons, electricity, velvet patches, and a huge divide between the rich and poor. A the nobility feasted on luxurious dinners, the starving poor rioted in the streets. Something had to give, and it turned out that it was the rich…
Part 1 of 6 (each about 10 minutes long)
Part 2
999-4377
Hello, Peter?
Yes, it’s bad news.
We’re full up down here.
No, I’m telling you we can’t take anymore.
Well, you see, the boss went on a bit of a buying spree.
Well, there is an upside – we’re broke. God, do you know how expensive it is for Congressmen these days?
Oh. Right. Of course you do.
But that does mean we won’t be adding to our inventory any time soon.
Yea, just the normal traffic. But it’s beginning to back up.
Can’t you just keep them in Purgatory a while longer?
Well, that’ll help a bit. But between the wars going on, and people dying from lack of health care, they’re just coming in faster than we can dig new levels.
Oh, we went way past the tenth level 6 years ago.
I know, I know, they’re not all sinners, but we get our share. I’m telling you, it’s hell down here.
Right. The irony doesn’t escape me either. But unless your boss starts to forgive a hellova lot more so-called…
I know, rules are rules. But I’m telling you, if something doesn’t change, and soon, all Hell’s gonna break loose.
KING DUFUS THE LAST
or
HOW A SON OF A BITCH BECAME GOD
(A real-life fairy tale by Briseadh na Faire)
“If God didn’t exist,” a philosopher once said, “man would surely have invented Him”. Oftimes it is said that a person only hears what he wants to hear, or sees only what he wants to see. Here then, is the story of how a man who would not be King, became God.
Once upon a time there was a King named Dufus. He was the last of a long line of Dufuses. The reason he was the last was that no princess would marry him. (After all, he was such a Dufus). Every princess whose father betrothed her to King Dufus would become so distraught that she would hurl herself from the castle keep. It got so that no King would enter his daughter into a marriage agreement with King Dufus.
King Dufus was depressed. So depressed, in fact, that he even considered marrying a commoner. After all, at least half of the blood line of an heir so produced would be royal. And half a Dufus would be better than no Dufus at all.
It soon became apparent, after several young ladies had flung themselves from the parapets, that even the common women of the realm would refuse to marry King Dufus. In desperation, the King decided to rely upon reasoning.
There existed in every realm young ladies with child, but without the benefit of being with husband. In the realm of Dufus, to father such a child was a crime punishable by death. Thus, rarely was a father ever identified. Life, on the other hand, was very precious to the Dufusytes. The young mothers were permitted to live, for the sake of their unborn child. The mothers were, unfortunately, thereafter condemned to be labeled with a term common to mongrel female dogs for the rest of their lives.
King Dufus set about finding such a mother. It was not long before one was brought before him. Upon questioning in front of witnesses, the young woman refused to identify any father (for fear of the father then being put to death). King Dufus then declared that this was a sign from God: since there was no earthly father, God had fathered this child to be the King’s heir. The young woman was given sanctuary in the castle, and the child was raised as the King’s very own.
Now it came to pass that the King grew very old, as Kings are want to do. He called his son to his bed-side.
“Son of a Bitch,” (he was named after his mother), King Dufus said, “my son. Soon I shall be King no longer. You are of age to rule in my stead. Go now and be King Son of a Bitch.”
“But I do not wish to be King, father.” the son replied.
“What then, Son of a Bitch? Prime Minister? Emperor? President? What? You have been raised to rule, and rule you must. The people must have a ruler.”
“I have no wish to be any of these. I just want to be myself.” said Son of a Bitch.
“Then you must put it to the people, and let them decide.” With that, King Dufus closed his eyes and breathed his last.
So Son of a Bitch let the people decide who would be their ruler. The Dufusytes discussed the issue at great length. Finally, a representative of the people came to see Son of a Bitch.
“Son of a Bitch” he started, “We the people of Dufus have discussed the matter of who shall rule us at great length. This is what we have decided.”
“You were declared to us by the late King Dufus the Last, to be a Son of God. Given to us by God to be our next ruler. Since you won’t be our King, you must be our God.”
With that, the kingdom of King Dufus came to an end. The people had become subjects of their new Lord. And they all came to be known as Sons of Bitches.
And they all lived happily ever after.
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Aaarrrgh Begarrrrr
Another fun and timely post by our friend, Hoodathunk. Enjoy it me hearties, or you’ll swim with the fishes!
Shiver me timbers. Swab the poop deck, matey, piracy is back. We’ve got our letters of marquee declaring the government backs our actions so hoist sail and hunt the prey. Grab your fan blades, prime the file cabinets for firing while we hunt. Arrrrgh…somebody shut that damn parrot up.
Bwaaack!!
Profits there be in plundering the weak, the sad sacks who think that by paying us to protect them we will listen. Yes, mateys, they hand over their coin of the realm and expect us to protect them from evils and illness but since we be blessed by the powers that be we can laugh…ha ha ha…while they wallow in their suffering. Even better, once we take their pitiful tribute we can hand them over to the debtor’s jails while we make port in Switzerland, safe behind our bank accounts.
Never fear, my friends, the Jolly Roger flies once more! We have bought the harbormasters and our plunder is not only secure but guaranteed. Our profits are our freedom. Just as it was in the old days, we have been given the right to plunder the unsuspecting in the name of making the world a safer and better place. No one notices that we are total privateers, embracing our booty, sinking whatever we find so we can enjoy the lifestyle we have become accustomed to. No one notices we provide no useful service other than pillage and plunder for our own gain. Pirates gather wealth and booty because that is what we do. Gold is our gain, our reason for being. We don’t have to supply anything else.
I always feel like somebody’s watching me!
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
From Einstein to Sarah Palin
Bill Maher and Richard Dawkins.
Wake
Edmunds to Kingston Ferry
Photo by Zooey
Uplifting
Wouldn’t want to let an opportunity go to waste…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Matt Davies, NY Journal News
Hardly…
All cartoons are posted with the artists’ express permission to TPZoo.
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle Editorial Cartoonist and Animation Artist.
For Nick’s animations, visit Nick Anderson: Animation Archives.
For Nick’s cartoons, visit Nick Anderson.
OBAMA LOSES OLYMPIC BID
Republicans across the country cheered as the news broke yesterday that the Olympics won’t be held in Chicago in 2016, in spite of President Obama’s high-profile trip to Copenhagen to speak in favor of the windy city.
Likewise, people in Brazil cheered as it was announced they won the bid for the 2016 summer Olympics. They see the Olympics as an opportunity for national prestige and a much-needed boost to their economy.
Republicans saw the Olympics as an opportunity to damage Obama and took to the airwaves. What effect their negative views on holding the Olympics in Chicago had on the IOC we may never know. But this much is certain. We didn’t just lose the Olympics for 2016, America has lost any serious chance to host the Olympics for the foreseeable future.
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The Watering Hole: October 3 – Buffalo Wings
This is our open thread. Please feel free to offer your own comments.
On this date in 1964 Buffalo wings were served for the first time ever at the Anchor Bar on Main Street in Buffalo, NY by Teressa Belissimo, co-owner of the Anchor Bar with her husband Frank.
The Anchor Bar - Image by Darmon
Shagged by a Kakapo
It’s not everyday I get to post a title like that…
I’m looking forward to the Homokakapoans. ;)
Pay no attention; no wizards here
Neocons and wingnuts hate David Brooks, columnist at the New York Times. “He’s not a real conservative!” is the most common response when Brooks is mentioned, because Brooks is part of a dying breed of conservatives who refrain from knee-jerk responses, and who do not view education and intelligence with disdain. Today’s column is exactly the sort of analysis that will send FoxNews and the wingers into a frenzy–so you know it has to be good.
Recently, we’ve seen a number of conservatives criticizing Glenn Beck as a nutcase, but Brooks goes one step further: he critiques the “giants” of Right Wing media not for being out of touch, not for being loons, but for being seriously overrated, by the Right and the Left.
After recalling the period leading up to the 2008 primaries and elections, he writes:
So what is the theme of our history lesson? It is a story of remarkable volume and utter weakness. It is the story of media mavens who claim to represent a hidden majority but who in fact represent a mere niche — even in the Republican Party. It is a story as old as “The Wizard of Oz,” of grand illusions and small men behind the curtain.
