If you haven't been over there yet, do check it out. I've got a bunch of fresh posts up. You don't want to miss the corn hat!

Don't be shy about leaving some comments. For all you folks who complain about my lack of a comments section here, now's your big chance!

My adventures in Denver have begun -- and my first post is up on c-ville.com. Much more convention blogging to come this week!

These presidential races are getting painfully predictable. The Democrat is slightly ahead, the GOP machine unleashes torrents of slime, the media spread said slime by discussing it as though it were legitimate, and idiocy carries the day. One hardly needs to bring up issues anymore -- just feminize and exoticize your opponent, and if he's black, sexualize him (but couch it in other messages just enough to give you plausible deniability). It's no happy accident that the McCain ad discussed in the cartoon echoes the ad against Harold Ford of Tennessee, which featured a white bimbo imploring Ford (who is black) to call her. I find this all very depressing, if not surprising.

McCain's eagerness to leap into a new Cold War with Russia gives me the willies. While Googling the McCain logo, I came across this image on Democratic Underground:



Simple but effective, methinks.

In the last panel of this cartoon, I wanted to take McCain's absurd message (delivered via some guy they found a newsclip of) that "hot chicks dig Obama" to its logical conclusion, but I came up against the problem of not wanting to sound like those mean-spirited "no fat chicks" t-shirts. So I tried to make my ugly chicks as goofy as possible, a la Basil Wolverton's famous Lena the Hyena (Wolverton specialized in drawing laughably hideous people of both sexes). I think it's pretty clear from the context that I'm mocking McCain's boorishness rather than picking on women with Neanderthal brows and both eyeballs on one side of their head.

PS-- Speaking of ugly, check out these finalists from the Sonoma-Marin World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

The leader of the Pray at the Pump movement, which seeks divine intervention to bring down gas prices, was apparently in Charlottesville recently. I'm guessing that's his solution to global warming too.

Had a nice time at DemocracyFest this weekend and sold a decent number of books. Wanted to meet this guy, but this was as close as I managed to get:


You can actually watch his speech on CSPAN. Direct link to the RealPlayer video is here (there isn't any other permalink as far as I can tell).

The AFL-CIO is hitting back at John McCain with this mailer:




Exactly what the Obama campaign needs to be saying. I also like the angle of the photo of McCain -- looking up at him from below, as his net worth towers above yours. (Yes, I know Kerry was wealthy, but his economic policies weren't elitist like McCain's.)

Via TPM.

I will be speaking after Howard Dean (!) this Saturday, August 16 at DemocracyFest, to be held at the Holiday Inn - Dulles Airport (45425 Holiday Drive, Dulles, VA). While the conference is for paying attendees, Dean's speech is open to the public, as is the entertainment afterward. He's going to be a tough act to follow, but I'll do my best. Dean is scheduled to speak at 7:30pm, and I will be going on sometime in the 8:30-9:00 range. More info at DemocracyFest.net

I initially resisted doing a strip about made-up Olympic sports, partly because I've done it before (see "The Slowlympics"), but mostly because I figured everyone would be doing it. Sure enough, as I was putting the final touches on this strip, I spotted Brian's blog post referring to his upcoming cartoon on new Olympic games. The thing is, it's fun to come up with wacky sports, and the possibilities are endless. So I was like, "Screw it. I want to draw monk tossing."

I've been watching the Olympics a little bit, and it all seems so normalizing. Awareness of the Chinese government's acts of inhumanity is gently massaged away with every breaststroke and backflip. I imagine pointing out things like China's arming of Sudan against the people of Darfur makes one sound like a cranky old pooperoo to some people. But when you really stop to think about, it's weird that a country that ran over its own citizens with tanks less than 20 years ago is hosting this super-happy spectacle. As Matt notes, the documentary called "Tank Man" shows that many Chinese college students don't recognize the famous photo of the guy standing in front of the tank in Tienanmen Square, because the massacre has been purged from historical records there. There's something profoundly eerie -- and shameful -- about how easily all the bad stuff can be glossed over.

I expect someone will write me saying I have no right to criticize the Chinese leadership as an American, since our current government has some, shall we say, issues. But of course I don't approve of those people either.

Apparently the BBC Radio 4 documentary about cartoonists was a hit over in the UK, so they've posted it permanently online. I figure some of you may have missed it during the week it was available, so have at it!

I finally got to hear the program, and I must say they did a brilliant job of tying together remarks from so many different cartoonists in a mere half hour. I get in a few lines in the last third of the show. I'll have you know I had a hand in choosing those beers host Phill Jupitus mentions he's drinking.

I've written a piece for CampusProgress, in which I address the question of why there are so few female political cartoonists. It sums up a lot of things I've been thinking about, so check it out!

It's official -- I've got my credential letter in hand, which means I'll be blogging live from the Democratic National Convention in Denver for C-VILLE Weekly. You can follow the fun -- and get the straight, unfiltered scoop, at c-ville.com from August 24-28. I'm totally chuffed.

Mr. Slowpoke and I found ourselves at an Outback Steakhouse last week, where we spied a placard on the table with the ornate offer described in the first panel. Should you desire to see a movie other than "Swing Vote," you'll be happy to know the $5 is actually good toward any Disney or Touchstone Pictures film. Since when did special promotions require the customer to purchase three totally separate products in order to save a measly five-spot? Whatever happened to "$5 off your dinner"?

Then, at a local drugstore the following night, we saw an ad touting the Pond's "Clean Sweep" facial towelette/"Mamma Mia!" connection. I wonder who paid whom? Does Pond's pay "Mamma Mia!" for moist towelette sponsorship rights? Or does "Mamma Mia!" pay Pond's for targeted access to legions of moist towelette users? It's all very curious.

Came across this snortworthy t-shirt ad on the regressive website Townhall.com:



Sexy! Though more like "Powered by Chinese slave labor" these days.

I checked out the other offerings at ThoseShirts.com, and found these more disturbing designs:





And then there's this:




I'm sure the families of all the reporters who've died in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere will appreciate that one. And anyone aware of some things that happened with ropes and trees here in the South.

A bunch of prominent wingnut bloggers have apparently agreed to promote the company's t-shirts on the front page of the site. Interesting how cable news seems to focus on the "angry liberal bloggers" but this stuff, not so much.