Ted Rall by Ted Rall

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  1. edmondd

    edmondd said, 3 months ago

    I think of both Ted and Obama as smart folks of good souls and with the best of intentions; and so I’m amusedly, or grievously, torn between either laughing or balking at this cartoon.

    Mr. Ted, you sure you don’t wanna go to the beer summit next time?

  2. Bill_Clay

    Bill_Clay said, 3 months ago

    How did Biden wrangle an invite to the Beer Summit anyway? Did they want to make sure that Sgt. Crowley didn’t feel outnumbered?

  3. bromonation

    bromonation said, 3 months ago

    nice. nice. nice.

    Ted, good to see you’re using your balls.

    9.5/10

  4. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    Two Huge American Tragedies and One Big A$$ Mistake America.

  5. stingray185ba

    stingray185ba said, 3 months ago

    After 8 years of non-stop stupid, the occasional gaff is no big deal.

  6. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 3 months ago

    Bingo!, stingray. You hit that perfectly. And by the way, the officer was behaving like a typical self-righteous control-freak cop. He knew he was talking to the owner of the house, who was angry for being mistaken for a burglar, and the over emotional commentary could have been nodded off and left alone. It is not a crime to call a cop an idiot, or any name at all. And that’s why the “authorities” had to drop the charges. Because there is no law against insulting a cop.

  7. Corosive Frog

    Corosive Frog said, 3 months ago

    I’ve sait it before and I say it again; at least nobody died in that gaffe.

  8. Ted Rall

    Ted RallGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    @edmondd: I dunno about Obama’s intentions. He obviously never intended to give us national healthcare or end Bush’s wars. Anyway, count me out of the beer summit: the president drinks Bud Light–the urine of beers!

  9. Ted Rall

    Ted RallGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Definitely, the cop was 90% at fault. Sure, Gates could’ve been more polite–but he doesn’t have to. What I don’t get is, how come Gates doesn’t have a state ID or drivers license with his address on it? How does he get past airport security? Also: why didn’t he offer to show the cop something in the house–mail!-with his address on it?

  10. cjr53

    cjr53 said, 3 months ago

    Was it the constitution or the bill of rights that gives us the right against unreasonable search and seizure by “authorities?”

    There are many ways the cop could have handled that better.

  11. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    CJ: It’s the Bill of Rights, and it doesn’t apply here. The cops have “just cause” to enter the house. If your house is being burglarized, and the cops investigate because a witness called, do you want them to knock on the door and ask the burglar for permission to enter? (None of this applies in this case)

  12. benbrilling

    benbrillingGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Obama is the first President in 8-1/2 years to honestly and promptly admit his mistakes instead of insisting everything is just hunky dory at each and every obvious mistake. And boy Bush made plenty of them!

  13. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 3 months ago

    Ted, I don’t know what Gates offered the cop to look at, but the cop was made aware that this was Gates’ own house that he was attempting to enter. When they arrived at that juncture, Gates probably had heat waves coming off his head, and his own self-righteous indignation took over. The rest is history. I am astounded by so many Americans who think the cops have authority to arrest you if you are not nice to them.

  14. Tigger

    TiggerGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    So there would be 2 black men and 2 white men at the table.

    rikoshayrabbit:

    Please explain why the Black Officer that was on the Scene said the White Officer was Justified in Arresting he Black Man?

    Obama fell for the bait and the Media caught him like a Rat in a Trap.

  15. michaelwme

    michaelwme said, 3 months ago


    1. Every other cartoonist who’s posted has been a ‘Genius.’ I assumed all cartoonists got free ‘Genius’ accounts. But Mr. Rall posts as a peon, like the rest of us lumpen proletariats.


    2. It bothers me that the cartoonist I now respect the most, the one who seems to have the best handle on TRVTH, is the one fired by the New York Times, and the one about whom one of the most common comments is, ‘I’m going to stop reading this comic because he’s completely out of line and he’s unpatriotic since he’s against the US.’


  16. sirrom567

    sirrom567 said, 3 months ago

    Ted, your single-panel cartoons always seem better than the others, and this is one of the best. Totally over the top, which is the essence of great satire.

  17. mattro53

    mattro53 said, 3 months ago

    @Tigger
    Have you ever heard of the Blue Brotherhood? Have you ever heard of black cops engaging in racial profiling against blacks? Have you ever heard about a black cop beating the snots out of a black person? If not, you really need to broaden your media horizons.

  18. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 3 months ago

    Hello Tigger. It doesn’t make any difference if the other cop was plaid or polka-dotted… once again… this is just another episode of “kiss my badge.” And like I said at the end of my previous comment, the charges against Gates HAD to be dropped because there is no law against refusing to suck up to the cops. I’m not crazy about Obama whatsoever, but he was totally correct when he said the cop acted stupidly.

  19. benbrilling

    benbrillingGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    Quote from the beer summit:

    “We hit it off right from the beginning. When he’s not arresting you, Sergeant Crowley is a really likable guy.” -Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

  20. Bill_Clay

    Bill_Clay said, 3 months ago

    “When he’s not arresting you, Sergeant Crowley is a really likable guy.”

    That should be on a t-shirt!

  21. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 3 months ago

    Hyland–you were not there, stop trying to be such an “expert” on what transpired. It is evident you have somehting against police.

  22. mattro53

    mattro53 said, 3 months ago

    Yeah, sure. We all know the criminal justice system never makes a mistake, and that police are not mere mortals, but are on a higher plane.

  23. Dale Hopson

    Dale HopsonGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    mattro53, the thing is it’s the some of the police who put themselves on a higher plane. I do know a few members of the NYPD and not been happy with some of the things I have heard between them. Some even look down on the NYFD stating “Oh, they just sit around all day waiting for a fire”. Well, how many members of the NYPD really risk their lives every day?
    Also so many in the police department are in it for the wrong reasons… “you do your 20 years, retire and live on a pension” and not for helping out the community.

  24. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 3 months ago

    There’s nothing “expert” in my reporting, howgozit. I’m relaying what is common knowledge of how the whole scene went down. I most definitely have something against police who operate by drama queen emotions and overstep the bounds of their oath. The oath, to the Constitution, is a promise to obey the law. And there’s no law that says you will be convicted for getting angry at a cop. So much of this stroking of the police, so many people saying it is against the law to disagree with a cop and you should be arrested for it, reminds me very much of Stockholm Syndrome. Welcome to America… “Land of the Fee, Home of Behave.” Another thing that lots of folks may not understand about this incident… it had nothing to do about race. Gates was perturbed that he was suspected of being a burglar and nothing else. The 911 dispatcher attempted to get the neighbor to identify whether these guys were black. She didn’t take the bait and said maybe one of them is hispanic, but this was at the urging of 911.

  25. Bill_Clay

    Bill_Clay said, 3 months ago

    Just to point out a glaring inaccuracy in Ted’s cartoon - Obama never “retracted” his statement. And he never apologized for it. He only expressed regret that he didn’t phrase his statement better. That’s hardly a retraction.

    You’re nitpicking, Ted.

  26. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    DALE: (again, I preface this by saying I’m not a cop, but I do follow them around all night long for TV news)

    Once again you have no idea what your talking about. Cops respond to alarms going off, break-ins, bar fights, people acting irrationally, domestic fights, and shots fired ALL NIGHT LONG! When they get the call, they head towards it, not away from it. Just because 99.99% of these calls are resolved “without incident”, or even having to pull their weapon, doesn’t mean they haven’t put their lives on the line. They don’t know what they will be walking into when they get there. Even something as “simple” as a ticket could be deadly. (None of this will be on the news, BTW, unless there is video and something goes horribly wrong. And even with that, the odds are low that it will make air unless there is a “twist” to the story.)

    That is why they are TRAINED to be aggressive and take charge. They are NOT social workers. If they were, many more would not go home at the end of the day.

    After 20 years of having their adrenaline rush every day (it keeps them alive), and deal with an unappreciative public like you, I won’t fault them for being eager for their pension.

    And I have never heard a NY cop bad mouth FD, except during contract negotiations, or negotiations on who is the primary agency on scene.

    Now that I’ve expressed my support for police, I’m sure I’ll be getting a ticket ant day now– I’m overdue. And I’ve never had interaction with cops that ended well (for me). Thus is life.

    Unlike people like you who look to an ever expanding gov’t to be involved in every aspect of their lives, I prefer to keep involvement with ANY gov’t agency to the barest of minimums. In that respect, I’m surprised you don’t love the police.

  27. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    @TED: Re: your column: You want to draft cops to rid us of the personality trait of those that apply? Was this a serious proposal?

    You don’t even want a military draft, but you want a police draft. Can you imaging the public outcry of this policy? ”You’re sending my baby to fight crime in the ‘hood?” “What do I care if some guy’s getting ripped off. No skin off my nose.” I know you’re an “anarchy” kind of guy; this proposal is right up your alley.

    If your name were pulled out of the hat, we’d find you in Canada.

    And I don’t think I’d be comfortable with you responding to a robbery in progress. No offense, but stick to the keyboard.

    And BTW, they did some kind of “blind” test on speeders on the NJTP and, for some unknown reason, blacks speed more that whites. I don’t know what to make of this, but you left it out of your “analysis”.

  28. Dale Hopson

    Dale HopsonGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    churchillwasright said “DALE, once again you have no idea what your talking about”

    Excuse me, but I was giving my opinion of situations I have been in, so how in the #@$! can you write I have NO idea what I am taking about? You may not agree, but do NOT call me a liar!!!! I post under my own name with a pic of myself as well! Plus I have been friends with Ted Rall for two decades now ( in fact, I met his wife Judy before I met Ted ).

  29. Ted Rall

    Ted RallGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    @Churchill: The best place to comment on my column is at my blog, at tedrall.com. Sometimes I chime in there. I just don’t want to derail the conversation here.

    @BillClay: You’re right, it wasn’t a formal retraction. But it was a retraction in the conventional meaning of the world. He walked it back. He said he could have used better words than “stupid.” Methinks the nit-picking is more yours than mine.

    Hi Dale!

  30. Ted Rall

    Ted RallGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    I’m new to posting here. I’ll ask my editor at Universal to upgrade me to genius status. What the hell? The best things in life are free…like my cartoons when blogs rip them off.

  31. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    DALE: Someone who has no idea what they’re talking about is not a liar. I never called you that. Since “liar” is a term that liberals use whenever someone (in their opinion) is wrong or disagrees with them, I can see how you jumped to that conclusion.

  32. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    @TED: Thank you, I appreciate that. While I have your “ear”: I used to be able to read “comments” under your column, as well as every AP/Reuters story on my Yahoo News home page, but in the last week or so they’ve taken away all comments at the bottom of the story. Often the comments were more informative than the story itself (not in your case, of course:) I can’t find anyone to complain to about this change in policy. Any ideas?

  33. HOWGOZIT

    HOWGOZIT said, 3 months ago

    Dale that is a picture of you. For months I thought it was Jack Nicholson.

  34. Dale Hopson

    Dale HopsonGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    HOWGOZIT, was that Jack Nicholson from “Easy Rider” or Nicholson in “The Departed”?

  35. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 3 months ago

    Actually Dale, as far as the many Nicholson’s go, you would probably look closest to the scene from The Shining where Jack says… “Heeeeere’s Johnny!!”

    And while I’m here, I might as well beat this subject to death. After thinking about how this whole deal went down in Cambridge, Gates actually made the first, and most stupid mistake. Sure, he was fatigued and wasted after flying in from China. And then the door won’t open. After a few minutes the cops show up. When they all arrived at the conclusion that Gates was attempting to open the door, at his own house, Gates could have ended the entire episode on a cheery note! Such as… “Well, Officer Crowley, I’m sure glad we got THAT one figured out quickly!! Thanks for checking in and keeping the neighborhood safe! If I could have your card, you’ll be the first one I call next time I’m actually being burgled!!” BUT NOOOOO!! Gates had to get all indignant and snotty, and insulted, because the cop was doing his job! Which was investigating a possible burglary in progress. That’s what the guy does for a living. Gates wasn’t acting black, there wasn’t any racial implications involved in the scenario. He was just acting extremely thin-skinned. He was probably thinking… “Damn you, cop… you think I’m a stinkin’ criminal thief… but I’m HENRY LOUIS GATES!!! I’m famous! I’m amazing! I’m every mother’s dream!” So Gates flew off the handle and instead of laughing the whole thing off with the cops, and going fast to sleep in his own bed, he went downtown to have his pictures and finger prints taken. Gates definitely gave the first stupid performance here.

  36. churchillwasright

    churchillwasright said, 3 months ago

    ^Sorry, but you’re a day late and a beer short.

    But for the final word on the subject, watch this:

    http://tinyurl.com/lqaupt

    (I promise it won’t upset people of either persuasion)

  37. rikoshayrabbit

    rikoshayrabbit said, 3 months ago

    Ted!! Wow!! I just read your column “Everybody Hates the Cops.” You’ve had some really disgusting experiences… and so have I. You hit it directly, these guys are demented angry turds just looking for some fun. I’m reading a book that examines what makes people into aggressive power freaks. You hand somebody a ticket book and a ball point pen, and they flip out. The book is “The Lucifer Effect” by Dr. Philip Zimbardo. This guy did a thing called “the Stanford Prison Experiment” back in 1971. It was a two week gig that melted down into such torture and mayhem that he called the whole thing off after six days. The book also examines how events like Abu Ghraib, Rawanda, Cambodia and Nanking can happen… and also how people like Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and so many others are allowed to flourish. Powerful reading, but check your blood pressure.

  38. Ted Rall

    Ted RallGenius_badge said, 3 months ago

    @Churchill: I miss the comments section on Yahoo News too. I have no idea to whom one would complain, though, or whether it would do any good.