You Lie!

Originally posted on Facebook 2/7/11

I saw a political cartoon the other day that was blatantly biased. It pissed me off.

As an artist myself, I usually enjoy political cartoons. No matter which party it favors, I can appreciate the talent and effort behind its creation.

If it’s honest…

The whole point of a political cartoon is to make a poignant statement about a current political issue in a humorous or at least metaphorical manner by using facts in one quick, easy to absorb image. If the cartoon both accurately shows facts in making its point and also makes sense, then the cartoonist has done his job well. I admit, sometimes I have no idea what they mean, but I just figure I’m unfamiliar with the subject. Or I’m an idiot. Whatever. Shut up.

Here’s an example of a good political cartoon:

It points out the hypocrisy of the Republican party scoffing at President Obama's health care reform that would spend one trillion dollars to try and help Americans live healthy lives while at the same time gladly spend 3 times that amount of money to kill people in another country for no reason. The information is close to accurate, however both price tags will most likely end up costing a bit more. Having said that, neither party disputes the two figures represented in the cartoon. *

The Washington Post: The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond

Is this cartoon biased because it portrays Democrats in a favorable light? No. It is not intentionally manipulating information to portray Democrats in a favorable light. It is simply stating reality in the form of a visual metaphor. It is what it is.

However, if a cartoonist pulls shit out of his ass and completely makes everything up to purposefully portray one party favorably and the other unfavorably, then that is biased. And the cartoonist is a pathetic asshole and a disgrace to both his profession and the human race. Here is an example of a bad cartoon; the one I saw the other day:

1/21/11

The obviously Conservative cartoonist is trying to say the main stream media is liberally biased (notice the angry eyes when speaking of Bush and the Democratic donkey agreeing) and said Bush sucked because gas prices due to his policies reached $2.79/gal. but that the liberal main stream media also heaps unflinching love onto Obama even though gas prices are much more expensive at $4.00/gal. 

This cartoon, like it says at its top left corner, is comically incorrect. The whole thing is a big fucking lie, which is why this is not only not a good cartoon, but also a piece of shit.

Two specific problems. 1.) The Bush gas price is a lie. 2.) The Obama gas price is a lie.

And unlike mathematics, two lies do not make a truth. Or something.

In case you have a short attention span, I offer you proof. The Bush $2.79 gas price says 2008. Here are three photos of gas prices from June of 2008:

Not only do I remember paying almost $5.00/gal for gas when Bush was President (it was only two and a half years ago and I have a long attention span {that’s what she said}), but here is proof. Now, for the $4.00 Obama gas prices, are you going to believe what the biased cartoon tells you to think, or are you going to use your own fucking eyes right goddamn now? Because the gas prices near my house have been hovering between $2.95-$2.99/gal for the past three months. A little less than the $4.00/gal intentionally misrepresented in the bullshit cartoon. I did see a gas station near the highway with gas at $3.05/gal. But gas stations near highway ramps are always more expensive no matter the artificially inflated OPEC oil barrel price.

I tried to find pictures online of a current gas price sign, but all I could find were pictures photoshopped to look like gas is 5 & 7 & 9 dollars/gal. Asshats.

Here are two photos (albeit crappy) that I took of gas station prices from an intermittently rainy today, 2/7/11:

 

For fun, here’s a graph of gas price averages over the past 3 years from GasBuddy.com:

Where the gas prices are going to be in a year, I don’t know the answer. Only god does. (Hey! I’m as smart as Bill O’Reilly! I just proved there IS a god by using his “Ignorance” method!! {see blog titled “Fact vs. Truth”}) Of course, let’s not put it past OPEC to take advantage of the rioting in the Middle East right now to artificially inflate the price of oil. And let’s also not put it past the Republican Party to then blame that, in turn, on Obama.

(As of this re-posting nine months later, gas still never reached $4.00/gal. It did reach up to nearly $3.70, but it dropped back down to around $3.20, then back up to $3.35 and back down to $3.25.)

However, you can be sure of one thing: the right-wing lemmings will blindly believe this cartoon's lie and never bother to check the facts. Even though they drive past gas stations right now that do not show $4.00 Obama gas. They are stupid. This cartoon is stupid. But at least their biased stupidity is backed up. That's all they care about. Not the truth.

Oh, one more specific problem, Mr. Cartoonist: Presidents do not set gas prices. Dickhole.

Excelsior!

* Bush never put the cost of the wars on his budget, intentionally making it look like he didn’t spend that much money - deceptively fake budget numbers the “conservatives” likes to use to make it look like Obama is spending more than Bush - although Obama IS putting the cost of the war on the budget. Also, when calculating debt levels, Conservatives only use government debt for Bush, but use both government and public debt to exponentially increase the number for Obama. This falsely allows them to proclaim Obama spent more money than all the other Presidents put together. This intentional hypocrisy is probably illustrated in another political cartoon… In January 2000, when Bush took office, the national debt was $5.7 trillion. In January 2009, when Obama took office, the national debt was $10.7 trillion. That didn’t take into account that Bush’s $700 billion TARP policy was not funded until after he left office and the Bush administration’s projected deficit for 2009 {calculated LONG BEFORE Obama was elected} was $1.3 trillion - an additional $2 trillion before Obama even set foot in the oval office that wasn’t counted toward Bush’s deficit. Yet it gets lumped onto Obama’s deficit numbers and Republicans repeatedly use this skewed calculation to claim Obama has spent more in his first year than all the other presidents combined. Yet the deficit right now - Fuck it. I’m tired of typing. Look at these two graphs. Info from CBO & White House data. They are from last year. [Realize Republicans praise CBO numbers when it shows their policies favorably but also claim dismissively that they’re ‘only an opinion’ or from the ‘Liberal-controlled CBO’ when not favorable - in true hypocritical fashion.] This is the reality of the “fiscally conservative, smaller government” party - spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow – blame the Democrats…

Republicans are “fiscally conservative” my rosy red American ass. Just look at the last column, “Increase Debt.” Eisenhower and Nixon are rolling in their (actually conservative) graves.

Good day.

P.S. - Yes, I said “scoffing.” Deal.