Statehood for Puerto Rico

The other day, Rick Santorum told an interviewer for Puerto Rico's El Vocero that their commonwealth would be welcome as the 51st state -- as long as they made English their official language. He later tried to backtrack the remark by claiming that he was just stating what's in federal law -- except that, despite Republicans' best efforts, it isn't federal law. At least not yet. And English -- along with Spanish -- is already an official language on the island.

This reminded me of a cartoon I drew back in 1998 when the topic of Puerto Rican statehood conditional upon their forsaking their native tongue came up. Now, a lot of cartoonists would have simply redrawn the old idea with Rick Santorum in it.

But I'm even lazier. I'm just posting the old cartoon.

The Konopacki Case, continued

The Dane County District Attorney is seriously considering filing charges against Madison editorial cartoonist Mike Konopacki. I relayed the story on Tuesday: Konopacki sent a fake press release (at right) purportedly from State Assemblyman Steve Nass to the editorial page editor of the Capital Times, satirizing the Whitewater Republican's having forced the University of Wisconsin to cancel an exhibit of pro-labor posters from this past year's state protests.

Konopacki tells the Wisconsin State Journal that he has been suspended from the Cap Times for six weeks (he has free-lanced for them since the 1970's). Potentially more significantly, he could face up to 3½ years in prison and a $10,000 fine if convicted of the Class I felony of impersonating a public official.

Unintimidated, Konopacki has struck again, but has at least learned to make it a bit more obvious that this follow-up press release is not the real McCoy:

Q Toon: Emocide

You may have thought there would be no more cartoons about Iraq.

Shi'ite militants in Iraq are reported to be stoning gay and "emo" youth to death -- the weapon of choice being cement cinder blocks. ("Emo" is shorthand for "emotional hardcore," and is a style based on 1980's punk, goth, etc.)

[Iraq] has been preparing to showcase itself to the world as host of a high-profile meeting of Arab leaders in late March ... But the news that young men in tight T-shirts and skinny jeans are being beaten to death with cement blocks and dumped in the streets has threatened to overshadow the new palm trees and fresh paint. The violence offers a reminder that the government has been unable to stop threats and attacks against small religious sects, ethnic groups and social pariahs like gay men.

Human rights groups put the death toll as high as 40, although official estimates are considerably lower. That the Interior Ministry itself has called emo "satanic" can only have encouraged the killings and motivated officials to downplay the problem.

Did WI Cartoonist Illegally Impersonate Legislator?

On Saturday, February 25, Wisconsin State Assemblyman Steve Nass did not send a press release to the (Madison) Capital Times.

The press release came from Wisconsin labor cartoonist Mike Konopacki. Upset that Nass had successfully forced the University of Wisconsin's School for Workers to cancel a display of posters and artwork from the protests launched in reaction to Governor Darth Snotwalker's attacks on state workers, Konopacki created a fake press release purportedly from the La Grange Republican. Tweaking quotations by Nass and his press secretary, Konopacki's fake press release reported that Nass wanted the Smithsonian Institution to remove pro-labor material from the National Museum of American History.

Konopacki mailed the gag release, appearing under a Photoshopped facsimile of the Assemblyman's official letterhead, to Cap Times editor John Nichols -- who mistook it for the real thing, and reported it on the Cap Times's web site as a genuine news item.

The report was only on line for 40 minutes, but that was long enough for Nass to sic the law on Konopacki for:

946.69 Falsely assuming to act as a public officer or employee or a utility employee...
(2) Whoever does any of the following is guilty of a Class I felony:
(a) Assumes to act in an official capacity or to perform an official function, knowing that he or she is not the public officer or public employee or the employee of a utility that he or she assumes to be.

I can't wait to see whether Sarah Palin tries the same tack against Julianne Moore.

This Week's Sneak Peek

Swarthiness alert...

Last week, the cartoon featured a map of Europe; this week, a foreign flag. Whatever happened to good old American comics, huh?

Q Toon: That's Entertainment

This week's cartoon takes us back a few years. And away from the usual preoccupation with LGBT issues of marriage equality, gays in the military, etc.

In Mr. Limbaugh's latest attempt at an apology for calling Georgetown student Sandra Fluke a slut and a prostitute whose sexual activities he would like to see posted on YouTube, he claimed to have accidentally departed from lofty conservative standards and become as bad as those lefty liberals:

 "This is the mistake I made: In fighting them on this issue last week, I became like them. Against my own instincts, against my own knowledge, against everything that I know to be right and wrong, I descended to their level when I used those two words to describe Sandra Fluke. That was my error. I became like them."

Conscientious conservatives must be relieved to know that Mr. Limbaugh was in no way emulating the elevated likes of Ann Coulter, or Andrew Breitbart of sainted memory. Nope, it was only a momentary lapse into liberalism. Liberanazilism, even. Sexually demeaning personal attacks are so unlike him!

Columnist Molly Ivins reported (Arizona Republic 10/17/1993) this incident from Limbaugh's TV show—"Here is a Limbaugh joke: Everyone knows the Clintons have a cat. Socks is the White House cat. But did you know there is a White House dog?" And he puts up a picture of [13-year-old] Chelsea Clinton.

"Some of these babes, I'm telling you, like the sexual harassment crowd. They're out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes." [Reported by Media Matters, 4/26/04]

One may at least take solace in the fact that Mr. Limbaugh is merely an entertainer, as many in the conservative movement have pointed out, and not a leader whom Republican politicians cross at their peril.

This Week's Sneak Peek

I was all set to put up the little snippet out of this week's editorial cartoon, but I don't think the little lady is at all pleased with it.