New Cartoon: Make It Stop

As you may recall, I was none too pleased to hear that certain defense lawyers are blaming brutally murdered 17-year-old Gwen Araujo for her own death. As Jamison Green writes in his column this week on PlanetOut.com: "Being transgender is not wrong; killing is wrong."

(See previous posts and responses to the cartoon "Shallow Grave": part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, and part 8)

Winning GOP Hearts and Minds
Andrew Sullivan compares gay marriage to the U.S. occupation of Iraq
(And yes, he considers that a pro-gay argument)
Plus: It's just SOOOOO hard to be Republican

Oh, those wacky Log Cabin (i.e. gay) Republicans. Despite all the evidence that BUSH HATES THEM, they're still dithering over whether to endorse him (heck, just like any other wealthy white guys, they want their tax cuts--equal rights be damned!). At their Palm Springs convention this past weekend, Andrew Sullivan made his usual charming and brilliant comments. From the LA Times ("Bush Stand on Marriage Riles Gays in GOP"):

The British-born Sullivan — in remarks that were part pep talk and part defense of marriage for gays — acknowledged the difficulties of being gay and Republican in a world where most gays are liberal and most conservatives are heterosexual.

"I know the ridicule that many of you have faced," said Sullivan. "I know the marginalization within the gay world that you experience, and I know the marginalization within the conservative world that hurts and stings and wounds on a daily basis."

Yeah, it's so hard to be a gay person who DOESN'T CARE about poverty and economic inequality, or the lack of easily available affordable health care, or racism*... a person who doesn't want to feel guilty about voting for a bunch of virulent homophobes... a person who just wants to be left in peace to enjoy his tax cuts and egg on the bombing of Iraq. Speaking of which:

Like many Log Cabin members, Sullivan is a fierce defender of Bush's decision to invade Iraq and found parallels between the current state of that conflict and the fight for gay marriage.

"Don't get disheartened by the possibility of backlash," he said. "Backlash is a good sign. You can see it today in Iraq … where the closer progress comes, the forces whose power will be eroded fight back with a ferocity that one never expected. But their ferocity is the ferocity of fear and weakness and beleaguerment, because they know they're losing."

So in this analogy, is Bush a radical cleric urging on Iraqi insurgents (or as Bush would have it "terrorists"?) It boggles the mind. Honestly, I'd rather compare the advance of same-sex marriage to the advance of other forms of rights, freedom and equality, and not to an unpopular and bloody occupation. Just saying.

P.S. In case you think Log Cabin Republicans are just some kind of sick oxymoronic joke irrelevant to the coming election, please keep in mind that exit polls in 2000 showed that 25% of self-identified gay or lesbian people voted for Bush. Bush stole the election by a scant few hundred votes in Florida. There are plenty of gay people in Florida. Do the math.

* Apologies to loyal LGBT Republican readers (yes, I do have some). I know you're not all evil, and this isn't true of all of you. But I really just don't get it.

Essential Cartoon Reading

Ted Rall on language and the liberal media. And Kirk Anderson on democracy.

Gwen Araujo murder trial begins
Defense blames the victim

A year and a half ago, I did a cartoon ("Shallow Grave") about the brutal muder of a young transgender woman, Gwen Araujo. The trial of three of her killers began this week. Planetout has a roundup of articles on the case. The killers are using the hideous "transgender panic" defense (a variation on the classic "gay panic" defense)--i.e., that they were so filled with disgust and revulsion on discovering Araujo was transgender that they COULDN'T HELP but beat her brutally and strangle her to death over a period of two hours? Not only is the defense blaming the victim, they're implying bigotry is actually an EXCUSE for brutal murder? (This is hardly a perfect analogy, but would a gang of racists who killed a light-skinned woman after discovering she was of African or other non-white descent be allowed to do the same?) This is the same awful argument the defense used in a (failed) attempt to get the murder charges dismissed altogether.

(As a sidenote, I have to say I was disappointed to hear my favorite new station, Air America Radio, referring to Gwen as "Eddie")

Nothing will bring Gwen back. But we can try to remember her (and the countless other transgender people whose lives were cut short by hatred and bigotry), and to fight for transgender rights and equality. So, FYI, at the end of this month (April 28-30), the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition is holding Lobbying Days on nondiscrimination and hate crimes issues in Washington DC.

(See previous posts and responses to the cartoon "Shallow Grave": part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7)

Meet me in NYC April 29, or Boston May 1
MOCCA with Attitude and Women & the Media

THURS. APRIL 29: MOCCA WITH ATTITUDE BOOKSIGNING BENEFIT

Featuring David Rees, Mickey Siporin, Tom Tomorrow, Mikhaela Reid (that's me), Neil Swaab, Ruben Bolling, Emily Flake, Jason Yungbluth, Peter Kuper, Scott Bateman, Ward Sutton, Jen Sorensen, Tim Krieder and Ted Rall.

Thursday, April 29 * 7-9 p.m.
MoCCA
594 Broadway (between Houston and Prince)
Suite 401 (Fourth Floor)
New York, NY 10012

$5

By subway:
6 to Bleecker St or Spring St,
N, R to Prince St,
F, V, to B'way-Lafayette St

RSVP: 212-254-3511 or info@moccany.org

SAT. MAY 1: Women & the Media: Taking Our Place in the Public Conversation

The 2-day conference features Amy Goodman and Katha Pollitt, among other speakers/panelists. I'll be on the Saturday, May 1 morning panel "Publishing & Provoking Online: Feminists in cyberspace." (A big thanks to Christine Cupaiuolo of the invaluable Ms. Musings for suggesting me for the panel!)

Aaron McGruder in the New Yorker
What to do when someone you admire says something screwed up?

"All the obsession over diamonds...and designer clothes—that just seems female to me."--Aaron McGruder, quoted in a not-so-flattering New Yorker profile

Anyone who visits my website probably has a clue that I love the Boondocks. I followed the strip from the start, but got especially into it after 9/11, when McGruder did consistently brilliant and Pulitzer-worthy work (strips featuring Flagee and Ribbon, Huey calling a terrorism hotline to snitch on Ronald Reagan, the famous Thanksgiving strip).

Which isn't to say I've always agreed with him. As you may recall, I was less than enthused about his whole "find Condoleezza Rice a date" series, and his "Ann Coulter is a man" jokes. And then there's his comments in this week's New Yorker.

So what's a fan to do? I'd tell you, but luckily my friend Yves (who just started his blog this week, so be nice) has a really good post on this, so I don't have to.

(OK, well, I will say this: I'm certainly not going to stop reading the Boondocks, and I still admire his work. But there's no excuse for that kind of crap.)

P.S. The New Yorker piece briefly touches on the history of black cartoonists, but the fact checkers obviously didn't read Tim Jackson's excellent Pioneering Cartoonists of Color web site.

Condi's teeth ain't that bad
Her problems are political, not dental

"Is that tooth gap caused by so much lying through her teeth?"; "Will someone please punch Condi Rice in the mouth? Maybe that will fix that hideous little gap between her lying front teeth."; "Why the hell couldn't she get flown off for braces between questionings?" (results from Google search for "Condoleezza Rice tooth gap")

OK people--enough with the teeth jokes already.

Now, I'm no fan of Condoleezza Rice. And as a cartoonist, I have no problem with a little caricature and exaggeration--I know Bush's ears aren't quite this big. But too often political commentators obsess over appearances to the exclusion of issues--John Edwards's hair and John Kerry's chin come to mind. And when it comes to powerful women, the punditry get extra, extra nasty about it--Hillary Clinton, Janet Reno or Katherine Harris, anyone? I'm sick of hearing just as much--or more--about political women's hair and makeup than their politics and policies.

So looking at Cagle's handy roundup of cartoons about Dr. Rice testifying, I got the uncomfortable feeling that some cartoonists delighted a bit too much in drawing her as ugly as possible--more so than with their usual caricatures. Why give the small gap in her teeth such a large role to play? Quite a few cartoonists made it the main joke. (And in a non-appearance related depiction, would a male politician have been shown making "rice pudding"?)

Anyway, I'm not saying this is true of all cartoonists and commentators. And I'm certainly not saying that cartoonists should erase the gap in her teeth or should try extra-hard to flatter her. Just keep in mind that Dr. Rice's problem is that she is a lying, equivocating, prevaricating and warmongering member of the Bush administration with blood on her hands. Her teeth and hair have nothing to do with it.

Update: Here's a good quote on the subject from Laura Flanders's new book, Bushwomen, excerpted on Alternet:

Condoleezza Rice became George W. Bush's national security adviser, having directed an oil company, managed a multi-million-dollar university and served as a Soviet expert in Washington during the collapse of the Soviet Union.

She was assuming a post in her second Bush administration, the top national security position in the cabinet; but when the New York Times ran a story on the 46-year-old professor, it didn't discuss her views on national security until the twenty-seventh paragraph. The subject cropped up near the end of the Times's long feature, which was dominated by talk of her dress-size, her hair, her hemline, and her place of birth... Los Angeles attorney, Connie Rice, a second cousin of Rice's, says such coverage is simply sexist: "You don't hear the press asking where Dick Cheney likes to shop."

I haven't read Bushwomen yet, but according to Salon, Flanders argues that Bush uses women like Condoleezza Rice, Elaine Chao and Christine Todd Whitman to "put a pretty face on ugly policies." In other words, not only is a focus on Rice's looks sexist, it distracts from a focus on the nasty things she is actually saying or doing. So let that be a warning--time spent starting at Rice's teeth could be time spent analyzing her lies.

Latest Cartoon: The Counting Game
Plus, we love freedom, right?

Sorry, I forgot to post this Wednesday. The count of U.S. military dead has since gone up to over 700, I believe (see the Washington Post for a detailed interactive graphic, "Faces of the Fallen"). The count of Iraqi civilian dead is still not officially counted (though Iraq Body Count has some estimates). And the count of Bush administration lies just keeps going up, and up and up (Condoleeza Rice's testimony, anyone?)

But what struck me the most last week wasn't as much of a direct factual lie as an insane oversimplification. In a speech Tuesday, Bush gave a typically nuanced political analysis of the situation in Iraq: "These people hate freedom. And we love freedom. And that's where the clash occurs." (quote via the AP)

Yes, it's really that simple.

(As a side note, I continue to be amazed that the U.S. administration in Iraq thought that shutting down a newspaper was a good way to demonstrate that commitment to freedom.)

P.S. Newsweek has some numbers, too.

Where are those pesky WMDs?

Check out this great cartoon from Kirk Anderson on Bush's not-so-funny joke. He also has a great one on activist judges. Just two of many of the fine cartoons you will see on his website...

The Pulitzers are in...
...and I'm somewhat vaguely associated with one!

First, big congrats go to Matt Davies for winning the Pulitzer for editorial cartooning.

Second, a big congrats to some reporters at my own place of employment, the Wall Street Journal (I work as a graphics artist there). Daniel Golden won in the Beat Reporting category for a series of articles on affirmative action, including a great piece on legacy admissions AKA affirmative action for wealthy whites ("For Five Supreme Court Justices, Affirmative Action Isn't Academic"), and an article on how the ruling wasn't really a victory for affirmative action ("Colleges Cut Back Minority Programs After Court Rulings").

But here's my own little brush with Pulitzer fame: Kevin Helliker and Tom Burton won in the Explanatory Reporting category for, in the words of the Pulitzer folks, "their groundbreaking examination of aneurysms, an often overlooked medical condition that kills thousands of Americans each year." It was an exceptional series of articles, and I had the good fortune to be allowed to draw an illustration/diagram for one, "Medical Ignorance Contributes to Toll From Aortic Illness". Scroll down the article, and you will see the web version (it looked nicer in print, they changed the fonts and things for the web, but still!) of my illustration/diagram, with my name on it!

Technical difficulties, please stand by

I realize the cartoon links aren't working at the moment, they will be fixed soon. This is a test to see if I can post with my new website host... anyway, this is a test, please ignore.