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I've heard so many rumors and tantrums of hyperbole from the right about liberals and the Obama administration trying to create some kind of "giant army" of leftist minions who will shape your way of life against your will. Okay, if Obama actually had the power to raise an army of minions, could he go ahead and do that? And give 'em 401-Ks?

The strip's gonna take a 2-week hiatus after today. The next comic will be on July 13. I'll be away seeing family, friends, and fellow cartoonists in various whereabouts. I am sure you will do just fine without me, and will have a perfectly delightful July 4th weekend. I predict awesome tales of my travels await you upon my return. Maybe I'll even have a job. Wouldn't that be awesome?

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This is the best thing.

Like Garfield Minus Garfield, only for even huger dorks.

I share in Letterman's deep remorse over the incident.

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I noted a few weeks back that President Obama has utterly failed to deliver on almost all of the most major promises he made in his campaign. A large response was the expected, angered "you haven't given him enough time yet" excuse. When, Obama has apparently taken plenty of time to come up with a detailed and explicit legal brief supporting the Defense Of Marriage Act that goes as far as to include nearly verbatim right-wing talking points about why gay people shouldn't have equal rights.

For more on this, see Andrew Sullivan, Pam, Barry, and Matt, who points out how the Obama administration decided that this particular matter was a perfect time to suddenly start following the rule of existing law instead of parsing it for whatever personal needs were decided.

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I'm really not sure which part of his column reflects the quality of his position the most. I'm torn between the line about how it was "proven" that most "partial-birth abortions" (a procedure that doesn't exist) were elective, based on a single twelve-year-old Slate article, or how like most anti-choice pundits, he tries to smear (did I mention recently murdered? Because of a crazed anti-choice lunatic fueled by right-wing lies about him?) Tiller by "suggesting" he broke the law on restrictions on late-term abortions, based on an investigation and trial where he was acquitted of exactly that accusation.

So, yeah, good call there, New York Times. You picked a real winner here.

(See also: TBogg)

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Okay, this was stupid. It's not cute in any way to me. Of course if you, as a newsman, are recording an interview with the President, you can get him to play along with whatever you say. That doesn't mean you should.

The attitude the news media has with Obama is really irritating- almost as if they think he's a child they can constantly toy around with. There were countless puff pieces and journalistic ass-pats for Bush but I don't recall goading him into doing a promo for NBC like he was sitting in on the local radio station.

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For the most dynamic and insipring president in a generation, does Barack Obama plan to actually do anything dynamic and inspiring? No, I'm not one of those whiners wondering why he hasn't cured AIDS in his first 100 days, but the number of "coming soon" promises from his administration are staggering.

Obama's refusal to do anything to dare risk his precious aura of unity and harmony will only continue to yield horrible consequences for America. As I was inking this cartoon, the news came in of George Tiller's murder. The government, no matter which party is in control, does virtually nothing- nothing- to monitor and prevent terrorist attacks on women's clinics. For godssakes, nine times out of ten they won't even refer to it as terrorism. Animal rights groups get labeled as terrorists more frequently than anti-abortion militants. Federal funding for clinics is minuscule and every act of damage and violence committed against one is a drain on their already limited resources. And if you think President Hopey McChangethroughhugs, who can't even lift a pen to stop gay people from being blocked from volunteering to defend our country, is going to do anything about this beyond signing a strongly-worded letter, I'd also like a pony.

Shorter Barack Obama on any issue of serious urgency: watch this drive.

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Conservatives, who seem constitutionally incapable of viewing any non-white nominee as anything other than identity politics run wild, have already decided she's just a crass affirmative action hire.

Right-wingers, as always, are very adept at taking their own flaws and turning around as ammo against their opponents. Miguel Estrada, Condollezza Rice, and Alberto Gonzales were all grossly incompetent at, and unqualified for, their jobs, and yet all three were defended instantly by the right with accusations of racism and/or sexism. Meanwhile, with the possible exception of the guy who played Kumar, is there a single non-white male in the Obama administration, including Obama himself, who was not immedately dismissed by right-wing punditry as being hyped because of that non-white male status?

Of course, the bigest irony remains in the right embracing the candidacy of Sarah Palin, one of the most stunning examples of placing identity politics over legitimate qualifications in the history of American elections. I can only dream that in 2012, the Republican primary candidates will be asked to defend her qualifications four years prior lest they admit that the GOP are the greatest practitioners of abusing affirmative action around.

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Oh god, are we going through this crap again? It's about abortion. It's entirely about abortion. Yes, Bush's right-wing appointees obviously had hard-wired opinions on Affirmative Action and gun ownership and torture but it's still just about abortion. That's what liberals are going to demand. That's what right-wingers are going to bitch about. Stop acting like that's not what's happening with an increasing series of stupid fake issues and euphemisms.

Especially with a Democrat doing the nominating, I really don't get why a potential Justice has to play this coy little game with the Senate Republicans. I don't really see what's wrong with a Supreme Court nominee- who I would assume has a little bit of legal knowledge- pointing out that it wouldn't really be so bizarre and outrageous of them to agree that something declared legal only thirty years ago is (gasp!) still legal today.

And yes, Obama's nominee is going to be filibustered. The Republicans might as well just admit that as well. This stupid posturing nonsense for no one except the television cameras is infuriating.

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Total first date movie, am I right people?

It is not just the already-infuriating issue of the inhumanity of Guantanamo in itself. It is not just the blind, pathetic, moral ambivalence the American majority has already taken toward the simple fact that none of the men held in Guantanamo right now have even been charged and convicted of specific crimes despite being held there for over seven years. And amazingly, it is not even the concept that the previous fact creates the very strong liklihood that of the remaining 240 detainees in Guantanamo, at least some of them may very likely not even be guilty of crimes they have not actually been tried for in those seven years.

No, it is the fact that, with the exception of a handful of Senators and the President himself, nearly the entire elected representation of the United States government looked into a camera yesterday and decided that you, me, us- the American people- are so fucking stupid that they can argue that America- the country with the largest, most expensive, and most secure prison system in the modern world- cannot hold these men, and as such, the only thing preventing 240 suspected terrorists- who are of course all actual terrorists bloodthirsty for revenge- from running free and wild on the streets of American cities murdering people- is some razor wire in Cuba.

When they say there is a risk of "terrorists running free in America," what they are saying is that you are stupid. You are so fucking stupid that you might actually believe that will happen. You are so fucking stupid that you'll actually accept the idea that suspected terrorists will somehow, in some way that has yet to actually be described in any detail, might begin roaming free in your neighborhood like an unregistered repeat-offender pedophile unless they are held without trial indefinitely.

You know, after seven years of this shit, I really wish there was something out there that made me disagree with them.