Freedom From the Press

Responding to Sarah Palin's expressed fear that media criticism of her public comments amounts to suppressing her First Amendment rights, Glenn Greenwald gives a short lesson on freedom of expression as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution:

The First Amendment is actually not that complicated. It can be read from start to finish in about 10 seconds. It bars the Government from abridging free speech rights. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're free to say things without being criticized, or whether you can comment on blogs without being edited, or whether people can bar you from their private planes because they don't like what you've said.

If anything, Palin has this exactly backwards, since one thing that the First Amendment does actually guarantee is a free press. Thus, when the press criticizes a political candidate and a Governor such as Palin, that is a classic example of First Amendment rights being exercised, not abridged.

So, yeah, she may have more "executive experience" than Barack Obama, but I think we can see why a constitutional scholar would be more prefereable. That is, if the last eight years of domestic espionage, secret detentions and torture were not enough.

In Contempt (10/20/2008): Zombie Purge

Click the image to make it much bigger and more readable. Legible. Whatever.

In Contempt (10/23/2008): Kissed a Girl

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In Contempt (10/21/2008): Casualties of Language

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Attack Dog Meme

With Tuesday's cartoon I managed to beat one of my political cartooning heroes, Ben Sargent to the attack dog meme by one day. That said, he draws way better than I do.

Meanwhile, speaking of memes, here are a few more Halloween cartoons.

Mike Luckovich. A 401K costume.

John Branch. Another 401K costume.

Nate Beeler. Financial adviser costume.

Tom Toles. This one isn't bad. I like the use of a Halloween display as a chamber of horrors for the next president. It's better than his predictable 401K gag. (At least he was first out of the gate on that one.)

And a Joe the Plumber toon I actually like, courtesy of Auth.

Meanwhile, how many different ways is this Gordon Campbell cartoon utterly racist!? Come on, Gordo, isn't it possible that Colin Powell endorsed Obama because they share similar foreign policy views? You would know that if you had paid attention to Powell's comments on foreign policy for the last, oh, four years since he left the BushAdmin.

Matt Bors Mocks Halloween Cliché; Hack Cartoonists Everywhere Pout

A couple days ago I railed with righteous fury 'gainst the dull-witted jack-a-napes who demean the grand art of political cartooning with their anodyne usage of the Halloween trick-or-treat meme.

No one really cared.

BUT my good friend Matt Bors just happened to be drawing a cartoon mocking that very cliché. He posted it today, so, yo, check it. Forthwith, post-hate, with the seven winds against your back.

And, uh, what the hell is a "jack-a-nape"?

Smart, But Crazy

Two headlines from ArsTechnica.Com:

Internet searches may strengthen the aging brain

And:

Add Internet addiction to psychiatric disorders, says doctor

So in 50 years we'll see a lot of smart, neurotic people plodding around. Sounds like home.

In Contempt (10/16/2008): Deadly Silence

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Fraud and Suppression

Jack Tapper at ABCNews wrote the blog post that I was planning on doing on the ACORN controversy and the NY Times report of voter suppression tactics by various states, and he has done a better job than I would have done. So I'll just link to it.

Ben Smith at Politico also does a nice job of differentiating voter fraud and voter registration fraud:

The key distinction here is between voter fraud and voter registration fraud, one of which is truly dangerous, the other a petty crime.

The former would be, say, voting the cemeteries or stuffing the ballot boxes. This has happened occasionally in American history, though I can think of recent instances only in rare local races. Practically speaking, this can most easily be done by whoever is actually administering the election, which is why partisan observers carefully oversee the vote-counting process.

The latter is putting the names of fake voters on the rolls, something that happens primarily when organizations, like Acorn, pay contractors for new voter registrations. That can be a crime, and it messes up the voter files, but there's virtually no evidence these imaginary people then vote in November. The current stories about Acorn don't even allege a plan to affect the November vote.

The distinction is important because conservative McCain supporters are already alleging that the Obama campaign is trying to steal the election. The Obama-ACORN connection has been a favorite meme at FOXNews. If Obama wins, expect the Right to cling to this rationalization to the extent that the Left has nurtured its belief that Bush stole at least one if not both of the last two presidential elections — without, of course, anywhere near the justification

If Obama wins, he will do so despite voter suppression, not because of it.

In Contempt (10/9/2008)

Click that thing to make it feel bigger.

Random thought: John Lennon would be 68 today. And probably high.

Wanderlost Search Party Page 13

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In Contempt (10/1/2008): Criminal Mind

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Sorry for the lateness of the cartoon. I blame Chris Baldwin.