America's Abu Ghraibs

Please go read what Bob Herbert has to say, it's important:

Most Americans were shocked by the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison. But we shouldn't have been. Not only are inmates at prisons in the U.S. frequently subjected to similarly grotesque treatment, but Congress passed a law in 1996 to ensure that in most cases they were barred from receiving any financial compensation for the abuse.

We routinely treat prisoners in the United States like animals. We brutalize and degrade them, both men and women. And we have a lousy record when it comes to protecting well-behaved, weak and mentally ill prisoners from the predators surrounding them.

Very few Americans have raised their voices in opposition to our shameful prison policies. And I'm convinced that's primarily because the inmates are viewed as less than human. (more...)

The Bush Budget
Guess where it's going?

So the new Bush budget is looking to cut funding for schools and veterans. Remember those taxes you paid back in April? For the most part, they went to such crucial social projects as building weapons and bombing Iraq. (If you haven't seen it yet, this True Majority Flash animation is worth checking out, though I can't help feeling using brand-name foods to explain the federal budget is a bit creepy.)

New Cartoon: Irony Deficiency
Do they really just not see it?
Also--join the Mikhaela mailing list!

(click image to see full cartoon)

It's amazing what these guys can say with a straight face.

P.S. Wanna get links to my newest cartoons in your inbox each week (and updates on events, signings, etc)? Send an email (subject doesn't matter) to newtoons-subscribe@mikhaela.net.

P.P.S. Ruben Bolling has an excellent cartoon on the slippery slope argument...

License to Kill: "Trans-panic" defense continues
Defense pays "expert" to justify slow, brutal torture and murder as "understandable"
Meanwhile, Araujo's mother petititions for post-humous name change for her daughter

Why do some people find it easier to sympathize with young straight men who slowly and brutally beat, strangled and murdered a 17-year-old girl than to sympathize with the girl herself? I'm sorry, I'm about to throw up in a fit of rage and frustration. I can't even bear to quote this so-called "expert", so you'll have to go read the article ("Expert backs 'panic' defense: Sex with transgender teen might prompt partners to 'flip out'") for yourself. Here's the part I don't mind quoting:

"Defenses like this really allow defendants to have a license to kill people that they perceive to be transgender," said Tina D'Elia, hate crimes project manager at Community United Against Violence, a San Francisco organization that works to end violence against gays, lesbians and transgender individuals.

"There is bigotry within that type of defense," D'Elia said. "It is making a statement that if a transgender person wants to sleep with you or touch you, you have the right to react with violence, gratuitous violence."

Meanwhile:

Also today, Araujo's mother -- Sylvia Guerrero -- is expected to appear in a Fremont courthouse to petition the California Superior Court to legally change Araujo's name from Edward Araujo Jr. to Gwen Amber Rose Araujo

(See previous posts and responses to the cartoon "Shallow Grave": part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8 and part 9)

Defining Deviancy Down

You have to read Tom Tomorrow's latest cartoon, because he is so right about this. You should also keep an eye on his blog for more of his thoughts on the situation.

P.S. While on the subject of cartoons, while web-surfing I came across the cartoons and blog of another Massachusetts political cartoonist, Brian McFadden. Drop by and tell him I sent you.

New Cartoon: Crying at Weddings
Happy Belated Legal Same-Sex Marriage Day, all

(click image to see full cartoon)

Enough with that separate and unequal crap, just in time for the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, another groundbreaking ruling goes into effect. Clip this one out folks, it's a collectors' item--not only is this a rare upbeat Mikhaela cartoon (I promise I'll return to doom and gloom next week), this is history in the making. I only wish I had actually been in Cambridge at midnight when they started issuing licenses. Sigh... I really do cry easily, and watching this on TV made me sob like a baby. Where's my handkerchief?

By the way, if you don't know what he looks like, the guy in the bottom middle panel of the cartoon next to George W. is Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney... Romney's been trying to use a 1913 law originally designed to prevent interracial marriage to stop out-of-state same-sex couples from marrying in Massachusetts.

P.S. Check out Michael Shaw's graphic (in the sense of images, not pornography) leftwing blog, BagNewsNotes, which featured one of my previous gay marriage toons the other day.

P.P.S. Yes my cartoon is sappy. But there should be more like it celebrating this historic event. And fewer Paul Reveres riding a horse to say gay marriage is coming (I don't even know what to make of that metaphor) or "the backlash is coming." Oh, and stop it already with the "morality is dead" or the "what's next? marrying dogs?" crap. Years from now, you'll just be embarassed.

P.P.P.S. OK, so it's time to be cynical again. Speaking of historic rulings, I mentioned Brown v. Board of Education. Of course, the sad part about that historic ruling is that in many parts of the country, thanks to white flight among other things, education is far from equal, as Lalo Alcaraz, Tony Auth, and Joel Pett point out.

P.P.P.P.S.Getting even more gloomy, I have not yet got around to my gigantic post about prison torture cartoons. But if you want to see the ones that make me wince and twitch in anger, please take a look at Glenn McCoy's stuff--his latest basically says that torturing Iraqis is NECESSARY to stop the violence in Iraq. A previous cartoon suggested that those photos were somehow appropriate revenge for Arab/Muslim treatment of women. Oh boy, torture is a feminist activity now? (We won't get into the cartoons this man has done about women's rights).

Counting down to same-sex marriage...
Which starts at midnight tonight in Cambridge, MA

Also, sorry that I haven't been posting much, I was busy what with the booksignings and all. I've been trying to compose a monstrously large post about the prison torture photos and the cartoons that have been done about them, but want to make sure I'm saying exactly what I mean before I do so. Sigh... For now, go read what Tom Tomorrow has in his blog about comparative degrees of media attention, and what Ted Rall has to say about cognitive dissonance.

Attitude in Boston May 14/15
Meet Ted Rall, Tak Toyoshima, and Me!

Please forward and repost widely (to any Boston/Cambridge-area folks, anyway):

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FRIDAY, MAY 14 • 7 p.m. * Ted Rall, Mikhaela Reid and Tak Toyoshima
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At Borders
10 School Street
Boston, MA
Phone: 617.557.7188
T stop: Downtown Crossing

And in case you miss the fabulousness the first time around, and/or want to support your local indie comic book shop:

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SATURDAY, MAY 15 • 2-4 p.m. * Attitude 2: Mikhaela Reid and Tak Toyoshima
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At Million Year Picnic (one of the coolest comic book shops in the country)
99 Mt. Auburn St.
Cambridge, MA 02138
T stop: Harvard Square

Cartoonists, Horses, and Bourbon A winning combination
Or, what I learned at my second AAEC Convention

(Yes, the convention was April 20, but I've been busy, what can I say?)

Me with the legendary Etta Hulme. That's her brandy, not mine.

Every year the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists holds an exciting, informative and alchohol-drenched convention at a different cartoonist's home base. Last year it was Rob Rogers's Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania party, and this year the festivities were at Joel Pett's Lexington, Kentucky headquarters. So not only did I get to hang out with Cindy Procious, Clay Bennett, Steve Sack, Signe Wilkinson, Etta Hulme, Kirk Anderson, Matt Wuerker, Dennis Draughon, J.P. Trostle, Ann Telnaes, Elena Steier (who has a great visual travelogue of the convention), and Mark Fiore, among many others... I got to bet on horses--and lose--with them.

I also got to meet my beloved late grandmother Melba's two favorite cartoonists (other than me of course), Dan Wasserman and Garry Trudeau (who was also my mother's graduation speaker at Mass Art some years back, in case anyone wants to know). A few other notes on the convention:

Cindy Procious and Clay Bennett are two of my favorite people ever. I first met them back when I was a college cartoonist for the Harvard Crimson, when Clay was on a Kennedy School panel on cartooning. They have also invited me out to play pool (which is very nice of them, since I can't play to save my life) among other things, and they are just way too much fun.

I spent Saturday at the Kentucky Horse Park with Cindy, Elena, and Elena's husband Rod, but sadly didn't get to ride any horses. I did learn all about different horse breeds and met some horse-racing champions, like 29-year-old John Henry.

Steve Sack, Signe Wilkinson and Rob Rogers aren't just brilliant cartoonists, they also give really good constructive criticism (i.e. they gave me nice portfolio reviews).

23 is not really all that old, except in horse years. The Lexington Herald-Tribune made much of the Cartooning Generation Gap:

Young cartoonists say they must wait years for their shot at a dwindling number of daily newspaper posts. Older cartoonists, who typically hang on to their posts for decades, lament that the Golden Age of newspapers is long gone.

Portfolios close at hand, Eric Shansby, 18, and Mikhaela Reid, 23, studied the crowds for a view of their industry's venerable lions -- grizzled veterans such as syndicated freelancer Pat Oliphant, Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Walt Handelsman of Newsday in Long Island, N.Y.

Said Shansby, of Silver Spring, Md., who contributes to weekly newspapers in that area: "All of the cartoonists are baby boomers. Since they stay in their jobs until they die ..."

"They really do," interrupted Reid of Lowell, Mass., who draws for the Boston Phoenix, an alternative news weekly. "They're like federal judges."

"We either wait 20 to 30 years for them to die, or we -- I don't know -- we can assassinate 'em," Shansby concluded.

For the record, I in no way want anything bad to happen to any staff cartoonists at daily papers. I want them to live long happy productive cartooning lives. And I have a full-time daily newspaper job of my own, thank you, so cartooning for weeklies is just fine with me.

Funny people think I'm funny. The final night of the convention, at a fancy banquet, we were treated to some stand-up comedy courtesy of Elayne Boosler. To my surprise, half-way through her act, Elayne gave me a shout-out. I don't recall exactly, but she was telling a joke about women's issues and then mentioned she had seen a cartoon in the AAEC show by a woman cartoonist, Mikhaela. "Is Mikhaela in the house? Stand up!" I did, somewhat flustered, and surprised she had actually pronounced my name correctly... She then proceeded to tell some jokes from my "Gay Marriage Drove Us to Divorce!" cartoon. J.P. took a picture of me shaking hands with her, but my digital camera died on me so you'll just have to imagine it.

New Cartoon: If You're Not With Us...
A Bush + Buddies quiz

Do these people look like terrorists to you? (please click for full cartoon)

You know you're an alternative newsweekly cartoonist when your cartoon contains footnotes. Ah well.

This IS Massachusetts, isn't it?

So why is Governor Romney busy trying to bring back the death penalty (see cartoon), make it harder for same-sex couples to marry, and cut taxes (rather than restore social services and education funding)?

P.S. Yes, I know, I live in Brooklyn. But I was born and raised in Massachusetts, and I cartoon for there, so it's still my state, OK?

Busy, Busy, Busy
...a quick Mikhaela update
Or, MOCCA, the AAEC, WAM, and other acronyms

So I've been incredibly busy, and unable to post about even a small fraction of what's been passing across my radar screen. But I did want to say, last Thursday's MOCCA with Attitude benefit event rocked (as did the after-party--what could be more fun than margaritas with Ted Rall and Scott Bateman?), and if you want pix of the event, August and Stephen have them.

Also, good times and inspiration were to be had at the WAM (Women & the Media) Symposium sponsored by the Center for New Words. More later.

Coming soon: an extended post on the fabulous Lexington, KY AAEC Convention (horse races and bourbon are involved).

P.S. Big apologies to anyone who has tried to order Attitude 2 from me or whose emails I haven't responded to. I'm a bit swamped right now, and it's not deliberate, I promise.