MSNBC recently announced it’s replacing Dan with Rachel Maddow (aka Olbermann-lite). Seems Dan has no intention on bowing out gracefully and is laying his cards on the table.

They’ve put out a video (below) that asks its members to pray for rain during Barack Obama’s coronation… I mean, nomination at the Democratic Convention in Denver. And not just rain, but “umbrella ain’t gonna help you rain, swamp the intersection rain, network cameras can’t see the podium rain, attendees can’t walk back to the indoor arena without wish for hip waders’ rain, God doesn’t care about black people kinda rain”

Ok, I made the last one up. But you get the idea, they really wanna rain on Obama’s parade. Just one problem - Rainbows!!! Can you imagine the reaction if a rainbow formed over Obama? In the prophetic words of Hillary Clinton, “The skies will open, the light will come down, celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect.”

He’s the creator of Afuganisu-Tan, a “historical” comic that chronicles the turbulent past of Afghanistan through disarmingly cute characters each of which represent a country. Afghanistan is portrayed as a poor pitiable child, while America is depicted an arrogant bully who coerces the rest of the world into the global war on terror.

As if this revisionist history wasn’t skewed enough, Osama Bin Laden is drawn as a frisky cat who playfully bites America on the hand (picture right). The gross caricature of America then indiscriminately attacks Afghanistan, and only after America leaves is there a miraculous peace between Afghanistan and its neighbors.

I wonder how the author would react if someone drew a comic where a sweet little birdie named America took a dump on a stereotypical looking Japanese man to represent the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during WWII.

If you want to read Afuganisu-Tan in its entirety (around 30 pages) you can download it via bittorrent or sign-up at Hanashi and download it directly.

But is anyone really surprised that a case about Lesbians resulted in a hung jury?

Denver’s homeless will need to find a new place to loiter when the Democratic National Convention comes to town next month. The city plans to bribe them to stay away, or at least out of sight, with movie tickets & zoo passes

So much for the party of inclusion.

But officials insist they’re not “hiding the homeless,” they’re “housing them.” Jamie Van Leeuwen, head of Denver’s Road Home, defended the plan saying “Homeless veterans get very scared when there are lots of helicopters and lots of guns. And there’s going to be a lot of that here.”

I know politicians are a detestable bunch, but comparing them to the Viet Cong? And “housing” the homeless by sending them to the zoo… where have I heard that before (see video right).

Instead, she revealed her own ingenious energy plan to take 10% of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) “and use that to put on the market so that we increase supply, reduce price. And when the price comes down, we can buy back the oil at a lower price, put it in the SPR, use the spread for renewable energy resources.” When Biltzer pointed out to her that the reserve is supposed to be for dire emergencies, Pelosi said that we’re in one.

WRONG!

The 1973 oil embargo that quadrupled prices was a dire emergency. You think $4/gallon gas is bad, imagine $16/gallon. Not to mention that our military runs on oil and we’re in the middle of 2 wars so burning through our reserves wouldn’t exactly be strategic.

Regardless, doing so wouldn’t provide any real relief. The SPR holds about a 727 million barrels so 10% would be 72 million barrels. But as Pelosi herself points out this oil would just be put on the world market which consumes over 83 million barrels a day. In other words, less the 1 days worth.

As far as “buy(ing) back the oil at a lower price,” well that’s just ridiculous. It reminds me of that commercial where a guy buys a painting at an auction and then tells the auctioner “I’d like to go ahead and sell it now.” Who elected this crazy dame anyway… oh that’s right Californa! (figures) If the Dems have any hope of being re-elected they’d better talk some sense into Pelosi, ’cause with an approval rating of 17% they’re starting to make Bush look good.

Oh, and here’s an idea why don’t we ask our NAFTA partners to the north, Canada (from whom we import 99% of of our oil & who have the 2nd largest proven reserves in the world) to increase supply.

It’s the ultimate political Rorschach test. And what the paranoid leftists over at the Huffington Post see is a smoking gun: “Because it’s got all the scare tactics and misinformation that has so far been used to derail Barack Obama’s campaign — all in one handy illustration. Anyone who’s tried to paint Obama as a Muslim, anyone who’s tried to portray Michelle as angry or a secret revolutionary out to get Whitey, anyone who has questioned their patriotism— well, here’s your image.”

Now I know there’s some dumb people out there, but do you honestly think some guy’s gonna see this cartoon and go “Ah Ha! I knew it,” as though it were proof. This preemptive demonizing is nothing new though. During the Pennsylvania primary the Huffington Post claimed that people who voted for Hillary Clinton did so only because they were racist (see post).

Naturally, we can expect a “special comment” on this from Keith Olbermann tonight. He’ll undoubtedly try to compare it to racist cartoons of the past, and claim Michelle’s wild, untamed hair, gun, and fist bump are fear-mongering allusions to the Black Panther party. And just as he attacked Hillary Clinton for “giving the Republicans ammunition” so too will he attack the New Yorker.

I’d like to know where all these high-minded liberals were when President Bush was being painted as a vampire sucking the blood out of Lady Liberty? Was that tasteful?

The legislation was spearheaded by the Great Apes Project (GAP), which believes (among other things) apes aka “community of equals” should enjoy the right to due process including “the right to appeal, either directly or, if they lack the relevant capacity, through an advocate, to a judicial tribunal.”

You show me a monkey (And yes I know apes are primates, not monkeys, I’m intenionally being speciesist), show me one that can “directly appeal” its case in court and… well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle. And if monkeys really are equals as GAP claims, then how far behind can inter-species marriages be? Well in the immortal words of Charlton Heston, keep “your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!”

First of all, the monkey in question is a long established mascot for the company not some recent invention dreamt up to stick it to blacks. Secondly, there is nothing demeaning in the ad. On the contrary, the whole point of the commercial is that everyone loves the monkey (and who wouldn’t with a deal like that). And besides, it’s completely understandable that they would be unaware of this uniquely Western faux pas, as Japanese culture reveres the monkey.

And why is no one complaining about similarly questionable American commercials. For instance, a new ad for Johnsonville Bratwurst shows a white man at a BBQ offering a black man chicken to which he responds “Do I look like a chicken guy?” Maybe it’s just because the Japanese ad is in… well Japanese. And people are assuming that narrator’s say bad things about them.

Regardless, people need to lighten up and not be so sensitive. Saying certain things are off limits reeks of fascism. I mean is bondage porn, which can include whips and chains (so I’m told), off limits to blacks because it conjures up images of slave days for some people. Frankly if being turned on by pornstar Jada Fire getting hosed down while suspended in midair (movie clips) is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

Forget the fact that this commercial distorts McCain’s words in which he said he’d be fine with staying in Iraq for 100 years “so long as” our soldiers were safe such as in our bases in Japan & Germany. Not to mention it’s an all-volunteer army.

This from the same liberals who complain of fear-mongering! What could be more menacing then insinuating that if John McCain is elected your baby will die. Well two can play this game, check out L7 World’s 1st political cartoon in the webcomics section (direct link).