Once again, Obama shows us that he is merely the good cop and the GOP is the bad. Unsolicited, he gives them something they wanted last summer: a pay freeze for federal employees, to last for two years. Which coincidentally is the likely remainder of his administration, given he'll win no GOP voters by these actions, and is losing more and more of people like me who did vote for him in the mistaken impression that I was voting for a Democrat with a spine and that the GOP would be out of power.
This is another of Obama's "compromises," which he defines as "pre-emptive capitulation." He's throwing them this as one would throw meat at wolves chasing one in hopes of distracting them. But he only makes the wolves hungrier and faster every time he does.
That's the charitable view. A less charitable one is that his job is to assist the GOP, while giving some Democrats the delusion of having a president. In any case, whomever he thinks he's president of, it's not any of us.
He'll be talking to the GOP soon, they say. It will go like this:
"Okay, I've given you everything. Now will Fox stop saying bad things about me?" "No." "Well...here's some more." "Not good enough." "My shirt. Here's my shirt. Now?" "We need pants too. And those are nice shoes." "Okay, I'm naked. Now can you let me stay president?" "Why would anyone vote for a naked man?"
Do you want a picture of his relationship with them as well? Here you go.
He is not our president. And we need to start looking for some way past him. And his apologists, more concerned with shutting up its own side than in holding Obama to what he lied that he stood for, need to remember that it's the good of our people, not of Obama, that is important.
The only difference between this and if it were a Republican is that in that case, the Democrats might at least want to appear to fight. Obama is incapable of fighting. Or of caring about those who actually voted for him. Who, by 2012, won't care to.
Looking at his face causes me to feel nauseous now. The stink of cowardice and failure tends to do that.
But it's not one for everyone. The great Evan Dorkin (Milk & Cheese, Dork, Bill & Ted, Action Planet, Beasts of Burden, much more) has appealed for help to save his sick cat Crushy. Details here at Evan's Livejournal. He and Sarah Dyer are offering commissions and discounted original art to raise money to pay the vet, which they cannot themselves.
Vladrushka Drawing Becomes Hypothetical Cover: The Degradation of a Mind Laid Bare
After a week of trying to meet print size requirements for those three books I keep mentioning, I'm just doing single drawings, character studies, this week. So what began as an exercise in drawing clothes on Vladrushka, which I've rarely done And you'll notice that I have Miss Prynn in Story of OH! in the same dress I've put Vladrushka in. I'm trying to learn more, I swear.
In this case the dress was a sort of 1957 Liz Taylorish number I saw Dan DeCarlo use a few times. Though that one wasn't strapless. It started here:
Then inked (as seen in my last post): Then colored, because I need to practice doing that. The pattern was partly inspired by the color scheme of the Soviet Wonder Woman in Millar's RED SON: And then I went overboard.
I don't even know what that means.
Now I think I have to honor the spirit of Mort Wiesinger and never let a cover go without a story. Hey, it's one game to generate ideas.
The fight over the Bush tax cuts will probably play out like this: What I predict is that the rich will get their tax cuts permanently, and the ones for the middle class and others will be eliminated.
Because each time Obama goes to play poker with these people, he loses his shirt and ours as well. Because he goes in, explains he doesn't know how to play poker so he'd rather play Go Fish. But then they keep playing poker anyway. He shows them his every hand all the way through the game. Then he wonders at the end why he lost.
Must have been the loony left letting him down.
It can't be that Obama wasn't yet suited to the office--given a short term as senator most distinguished by making sure his name wasn't on any important legislation that might be held against him later(god knows, no record of taking a stand on anything; that's not his way)--and is in over his head and is not our most effective possible defender against the ever-more-rapacious GOP. Couldn't be that.
It couldn't be that Obama is such an ineffective salesman of his supposed policies that he couldn't sell a whore to David Vitter.
It couldn't be that he is the least competent well-meaning president I have ever known of.
To be perfectly honest, I believe our main strategy for 2012 now should be to make sure the most moderate Republican possible gets the nomination, because we can't remove Obama--you remove the sitting incumbent and you lose anyway. But we can make sure it isn't Palin who's going to replace him.
Because two more years of this and WHOMEVER gets the nom in 2012 will win. Even her.
What's the point of continuing to pretend anything we say has any effect on him? He would only listen to us if there's an (R) after our name and/or we were saying it on Fox News. He seems to not listen to anything else, certainly not his own side. In the end he will extend the rich people's tax cuts AND remove the ones for the middle class. See if he doesn't.
Those of you still bothering to support Obama: why, when it's clear he does not support us? And if there is a plan to his presidency, it';s not the one we thought we were voting for. At this point the only reasons left to support him are (a) you like having someone with a (D) after his name in the Oval Office simply for its Go Team appeal and (b) you still think he's an important symbol of something.
He's not. We've lost. Our only way out is around him, not through him. We were bamboozled and the Republicans can't stop laughing at us. Those of you saying "but he's only had two years!"--half of the only term we know for sure he has. Sorry, but after two years, no excuses. You'll be saying " it's only been four years" in 2012 too and excuses still won't help a thing.
It breaks my heart. It really does. But I don't see how he can dig himself out of failure, and more importantly, our utter disillusionment, now.
I reiterate: I vote in every election, and I will still vote for him in 2012 just as I did in 2008. I do not expect anything to come of it.
...for what I've been busy working on, both collections of previous material. One is the first issue of what is to be an ongoing Vladrushka series. I felt it was best to start with everything to date in one place. I add a new 8-page story you've never seen, however, and this is the final version of that design you've seen so many times and which gave Cafepress the vapors:
And this is for a collection of two transactionally-minded treatises on capitalism you may be familiar with, STORY OF OH! (written by Charles Alverson) and SOFT CEILING. I decided a simple title and cover design would be best.
A third will be my autobio snippet Martha.
Expect all these (except Vladrushka, who was never there) to go down from the website soon, by the way.
Keep checking back here for when they're available, which should be soon, on Amazon, if all goes well. Christmas is coming and you may buy lots.
Twitter: Take That Stupid Smirk Off Your Face Right Now.
Yes, I have been fairly active on Twitter all of a sudden. I have no idea why. I can only say in my defense that I held back as long as I could. Stop snickering. At least I attempt complete sentences when I can.
Perhaps it's the decay of the beginning of advancing age: one's thoughts grow smaller, and smaller.
"Eternity in the company of Beelzebub, and all of his hellish instruments of death, will be a picnic compared to five minutes with me & this pencil." --E. Blackadder, 1789 Questionable
words & pictures from John Linton Roberson