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Steve Brodner
November 2008
Be Free, O Turkey, Fly, Fly!
posted:
In today's Op-Ed, LA Times
Team of Rivals
posted:
Maybe the idea of Hillary as secretary of state is taking this idea a little too far. (BTW, as soon as I did this I saw where Mike Luckovich of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Aasif Monvi of The Daily Show just ripped it off. The place is crawling with spies I tell you). New Yorker this week.
Marcelo Lucero
posted:
Marcelo Lucero was an Equadoran resident stabbed to death two weeks ago on Long Island because he looked like a Mexican. Seven teenagers, marinating in our hate-filled environment, killed him for his appearance.  So Patchogue joins Laramie and Jasper as a hot boil on the racism-pocked face of America, reminding us how much work there still to do.

The first order of business would be to respond to an atrocity like this with outrage.  And that is happening.  And to resolve to speak out against racism everywhere (and I suspect there’s a fast commodity futures market here).



St. Joseph’s College is taking up a collection to help pay for repatriation and burial costs. Checks can be made payable to SJC - The Marcello Lucero Fund and sent to the Institutional Advancement office.

St. Joseph's College

155 West Roe Boulevard

Patchogue, New York 11772





 
The "Family Values" Gang: RIP
posted:
Before the memory fades, let us recall those special moments of the Republican culture wars with its greatest warriors. These pieces all done for “You Don’t Know Me: a Guide to Republican Family Values”, by Win McCormack, published this year by Tin House Publishing.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, tried the Method on women on the sets of his movies.
Bill O’Reilly given to the harassment of a young producer (he called a loofa a falafel, which even in the shower tastes better).
Newt Gingrich, big-time Clinton accuser, was really a small time Clinton imitator.
Rudy Giuliani announced his divorce at a press conference.  That’s how his wife found out about it.
Neil Bush, younger brother of President Bush, admitted to engaging in romps with women in Asia.
In the early 1990s, Bob Barr was photographed at a fundraising event licking whipped cream off of a woman.
Larry Craig, after an encounter, presumably after praying, would say, “You don’t know me.”
Naked Campaign: Coda
posted:
Here is the last film in our series for The New Yorker.  We are honored here by an appearance by the great jazz trumpeter Jon Faddis, whose honest and beautiful solo gives this piece something hard to put into words. Works well with Bob's brilliant cover this week as well.  Many thanks to all our friends who supported this series and in a very real way made it all possible. Si se puede.

 
Here’s a shot of our crew, a wonderful bunch who made these 28 films happen through their great generosity and sheer will. Gail and I will be eternally grateful to them and hope to reward their belief in us with future projects (er, at better pay, natch). They are Christine Riley (holding Lucia, miniature greyhound and deep strategic thinker), Brian O’Connell, Richard O’Connor (the geniuses of Asterisk Animation), Ben Shapiro (our DP), Gail and a familiar ink-stained wretch). Thanks also to Chris Curry, David Remnick, Pam McCarthy, Blake Eskin of the New Yorker who were very easy on us, even in the throes of extreme political angst (like the night of the New Hampshire primary when everyone KNEW Obama would win!). This was a rare moment in illustration and American history and we are grateful to have been in the cat bird seat. Here’s to an extended-play miracle. The US and the world can use one.
Wake Up Call
posted:
“Mr. Capitol” may be a little hung over but won’t have much time to sober up. Washington hasn’t woken up to Global Warming in a serious way . . . yet.  David Corn’s story in the current Mother Jones lays out the record of Congress taking tiny steps toward dealing with a crisis that will be felt most when it is too late to act.  There is at least the hope that we can act before it gets to that point.  May the Obama Effect come by here.
Yes We Can
posted:
In Conclusion . . .
posted:
Red, NY and Blue
posted:
Here’s an Election Day comic about a political junkie who leaves his apartment to vote only to find he can’t see straight anymore.  This was a project brought to me by Bob Mankoff  with very smart art direction by Bob, Chris Curry and Caroline Mailhot, who suggested I draw this while looking in the mirror. Oiy.  Hope tomorrow’s a lot easier than this.
Western Expansion
posted:
Dr. Drew Western
A relatively unknown story this year has been that of Dr. Drew Western a psychology professor at Emory University who a produced the first data-driven political language for progressives.  He wrote “The Message Handbook for Progressives fro Left to Center”.  His successful “framing” of issues has been a large factor this year.
 Frank Luntz, highly successful GOP language framer says, “It’s as though the Republicans have fallen back 15 years in their communication at the very moment when Democrats vaulted ahead 15 years.”
 Drew contends the American moderate-to-liberal impulses are strong.  It’s all in how you talk about them.
 For example, you don’t lecture African American churches on same sex marriage, he says, you talk about the “human desire for dignity and respect”.  In a Georgia race he advises, don’t use the word “government” but rather “leadership”.  “Health care is a right of citizens who work hard everyday.” Who can argue with that?
So the results tomorrow will not just be a response to the man at the top of the ticket.  It will also be because Democrats have at long last (at least for now) found something like a voice.
NY TIMES STORY ON WESTERN
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