Outrage from New Hampshire! (Sickening! Bush Crashing into WTC)

PoliticsNY.com ^ | 2/8/2002

[toupsie]

Outrage from New Hampshire!

Our friends at sister site PoliticsNH.com brought this offensive political cartoon to our attention. It was drawn by Mike Mariand and printed in today's Concord Monitor.

We don't have a problem with those who criticize President George W. Bush. In fact, we've taken a few shots at the Commander-in-Chief ourselves, when we thought he deserved rebuke. But to use the horrific September 11th terrorist attack on the World Trade Center that killed almost 3,000 innocent civilians to make a political point about the president's budget is disgusting. If Mariand were drawing cartoons in 1941, would he have drawn President Franklin Roosevelt piloting one of the Japanese fighter planes that participated in the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor to convey his opinion on an issue of the day?

If you would like to tell the folks at the Concord Monitor what you think about their political cartoon, we urge you to e-mail Mark Travis, the editorial page editor at mtravis@cmonitor.com. (2/8)

[TN Republican]

"A majority would rather forgo tax cuts than see a return to the Reagan-era practice of foisting debt onto the next generation."

The only people who wish to pass a "debt onto the next generation" are those who wish to forestall any serious reform of the antiquated Ponzi scheme that was depicted in your disgusting cartoon. Social Security is a rip-off, it is unsustainable, and will eventually fall from its own weight. The sooner this system is overhauled, the better shape our children and grandchildren will be in.

[Strawberry AZ]

Subj: Bush Budget Cartoon
To: The Moron Who Published It

Hope you're in the penthouse suite, you tasteless hack! You deserve nothing less!

[Nitro]

To be honest I haven't sent many letters along, I just don't have much to say!!

But this version of the Post Office shut me down, just a heads up!!

[TN Republican]

Yeah, but their knee-jerk habit of using the terms "right-wing" and "Nazi" together like a four-syllable word is particularly annoying. To call someone a socialist, statist, left-wing Nazi for wanting to abolish your 2nd Amendment rights is a far cry from calling a Republican a right-wing Nazi for wanting to slow the growth of government.

This reminds me of the legend of Robin Hood. The Marxist interpretation is that Robin Hood's band of merry men stole from the rich to give to the poor. The conservative interpretation is that Robin Hood was about resisting an arrogant state that monopolized the land, overtaxed its populace (although not as much as ours is taxed now, for whatever that's worth), and treated them as subjects with no right to self-protection.

[sneakypete]

This isn't disgusting,it's something far on the other side of that. I really don't have words to describe how vile and tasteless this is. Beyond the attack on Bush (and I am FAR from being a Bush-Bot!),it is also a attack on all the victims of 9-11,as well as their families. It trivilizes their deaths and suffering to the point where all this amounts to no more than a political cheap shot.

[oyez]

What? They lost another sugar tit program? That's being heartless to the heartless.

[Republican Wildcat]

bump

[rockfish59]

what can you say about major league @$$HOLES???

[cartoonistx]

As a member of the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, and a member in good standing of the "Fourth Estate", let me weigh in on this issue with some perspective. First, although I find the artist's opinion to be infantile, banal and pig-headed reactionary bile, his right to have it printed by a willing editor must remain beyond dispute if we as Americans truly value the First Amendment. Secondly, even though his choice of imagery is, perhaps, in poor taste, I fail to see any real difference between the disaster/tragedy/outrage of the attack on the WTC and the OKC bombing or Pearl Harbor (both of which have been used as cartoonist's fodder in countless panels). Powerful images of such horrific historical events have been exploited by those in my chosen field from the earliest pre-Thomas Nast era. This particular cartoonists "crime", as I see it, was not allowing a decent time interval between the event and its use as graphic background in an opinion cartoon, not that he chose to use it at all!

[okiedust]

It's kind of like pornography, if it has to be explained you probably won't get it, but most people know it when they see it. It requires a certain level of humanity to understand not whether to use these images, but how to use them. (please refer to toupsie and seamole's letters on the subject they say it so well.) The guy has every right to draw this cartoon and his editor to run it. The antidote to bad speech is more speech, and I think that point has come home to both these guys as the public responds.

This event was used to portray the president as deliberately evil and destructive because he wants to adress social security in a new way (as well as his budget). Most people recognise it was not a politcal commentary, but a personal one, using one of the most horrific events in our history to take a cheap political shot. They were repelled by this (like the James Byrd ad) and rightly so. It reduces the power of politcal debate, to vicious ad hominem attack, which of course the cartoonist could try on, as his "right." To hide behind the censorship banner is just an effort to justify his own stupidity and lack of moral or itellectual reference. Using this event in such a cheap way, is cruel to everyone who has suffered, indeed the entire country, as well as the president. It is the level of cruelty in the cartoon to which people responded. At the point where commentary crosses the line into insensitive cruelty, people recoil. I'm glad that they spoke out so strongly. That is how this free speech thing works.

regards

[freekitty]

The person that did this and the people that supported it are just plain sick. I hope somewhere down the road; they will see how sick their methods really are.

[SpookBrat]

Bump for later reading.

[RikaStrom]

Over here W. Once my temper cools I will write my letter to the editor. I have a few things to say about this cartoon and about the "apology that wasn't".

[Demidog]

Demidog calls us 'the real terrorists'.

You obviously cannot read. Congress and those who demand that we succumb to national ID and other violations of our privacy and security are the terrorists just as surely as those who crashed planes into the WTC. If you are one of those people then yeah, I consider you a terrorist.

Those Americans who used the tragedy in an attempt to take away our rights should be tried for treason and executed.

[Republican Wildcat]

bump

[Republican Wildcat]

Nice attempt at changing the subject. It fails, however.

[Rebelbase]

Thanks!

[PhilDragoo]

Right, I saw that on Fox News Sunday this morning.

Tony Snow showed the cartoon.

He reads his email.