Ted Rall by Ted Rall
- November 09, 2009
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Tags: Mapping Things Out Add Tags
Deploying the razor-sharp wit and incisive take-no-prisoners satire characteristic of his generation, Gen Xer Ted Rall has become one of the most widely read editorial cartoonists in America. Twice the winner of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, Rall's work has appeared in hundreds of newspapers, as well as such magazines as Time, Newsweek, Fortune and MAD. He is also the author of 15 books, including several graphic novels and political polemics about Central and South Asia.
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Comments (22) Jump to Comments Form
scottfreitas
said,
11 days ago
I am becoming a huge Ted Rall fan as of late. :D
I’m not even going to comment, this cartoon so brilliantly speaks for itself.
I will instead spend the next 5 minutes or so in awe, analyzing the multi-faceted layers of thought evident in this this drawing…
PS I will pretend I never saw an earlier, flawed prototype of this cartoon used against “W” awhile back… ;)
edmondd said, 11 days ago
The reference was obscure for the rest of us. Good thing you left a clue Ted. Steinberg. I googled “Steingberg” and “Map”. Voila!
http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1976-03-29
http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/newyorkcity/entry/anewyorkersviewoftheworld/
I do think Obama deserves some credit at least on the passage of the Health Care overhaul in the HoR…any comments Ted?
Or cartoons?
I agree however, that the President should start moving forward more radically on the progressive agenda unless his term be a four year bipartisan stagnation. And hire Bill Maher as a political adviser by the way.
Ted Rall
said,
11 days ago
I dunno, I sat next to Bill Maher on the air as he repeatedly came out in favor of torturing Muslims in CIA prisons. Not the best influence on a president.
Obama’s healthcare bill still has to go through the Senate meatgrinder; we’ll see what that yields. I have a feeling there won’t be much that’s revolutionary about it in the end. Anyway, anything short of socialized medicine is bound to fail.
nemesis-of-empire said, 11 days ago
Health insurance reform has progressed to the point where the nature of its impending failure becomes imperative for determining what kind of America we’re going to have in four or eight years. No one seems to have drawn any inference from the fact that countries with strong public health systems, Japan, Germany and China included, are recovering from the Bush Depression faster than we are. Or that nations that emulated the US system of real-estate speculation, such as Iceland, are also in decline.
What happened to health insurance here is what happened to Niagara Falls in the 19th Century. Instead of being a national resource, it was allowed to be exploited by a few for private gain, so much so that you couldn’t get even a view of the Falls unless, then as now, you went to Canada.
My fear is that in the name of a misguided sense of what constitutes private industry and its role in the life of the nation, we’re going to wind up with the medical system of a poor Eastern European nation behind the Iron Curtain, while paying moonshot prices.
How poor do we have to get, how rapacious and arrogant our Masters, before we throw off the yoke of privilege and this disgusting bondage we call ‘the healthcare industry’?
comYics said, 11 days ago
I agree, very powerful cartoon Ted Rall.
Im thinking Obama has made too many plans, and his plate s quite full. Health Insurance and the unemployment/economy is a huge portion alone. If we work together to fix those, it will move along much smoother. Just getting the eco friendly services campaign aloft and going is going to reduce much of that problem.
edmondd said, 11 days ago
He said he supported torture? That’d be so Jekyll & Maher of him that it’s kinda tough to believe it.
I saw you guys on his show once not too long after the 9/11 demolitions I think, but I don’t remember him saying such a thing…he usually makes so much sense to me. I especially enjoyed his “I have a dream” speech of not everything having to make a profit.
I’m quite surprised.
Maybe he was being sarcastic? I mean, cryptically sarcastic?
Nemesis you should read
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+58&version=NIV and keep on raising your voice like a trumpet.
I guess Ted is already rising up his cartoons….although somewhat impatiently methinks. Give him a chance Ted, I’m sure he’s gonna get better.
Palestino said, 11 days ago
I can’t see Palestine on the map..
Ripit said, 11 days ago
Nice riff here, Ted. 8/10
itisme
said,
11 days ago
Try as I might I juist don’t get it.
cjr53 said, 11 days ago
He’s building business, American business, in Afghanistan and completely igorning why we are there in the first place.
Chasing down Osama Bin Laden so he can stand trial in the US for the crimes committed on 09/11.
He doesn’t see Barrack Obama as different from W & Crew in this case.
There may be more, but I’ll leave those details to others.
scottfreitas
said,
11 days ago
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss! ;D
(not really but I couldn’t resist saying so)
churchillwasright said, 10 days ago
It’s an Obama world.
audieholland said, 10 days ago
Yes, indeed.
It reminds me somewhat of a political cartoon with Ronald Reagan’s view of the world at the time:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2006/11/23/38-the-world-according-to-ronald-reagan/
(scroll a bit)
shunting said, 10 days ago
Hey scottfreitas,
Your earlier post here was HILARIOUS!
(not really but I couldn’t resist saying so)
scottfreitas
said,
10 days ago
Lol. That “Reagan” map was pretty funny, audie. It was good satire too, considering some parts of it were actually TRUE. ;)
I’m very glad I don’t live in the part labeled “DEMOCRATS AND WELFARE BUMS”, though…
PS they mispelled “Demoncrats”.
ADDED BONUS: The world according to Dubya:
http://strangemaps.wordpress.com/2006/12/03/44-the-world-according-to-dubya/
aldouswarp said, 10 days ago
Is this supposed to be a criticism of Obama? It really makes no sense to me. Could someone please enlighten me, a clueless liberal!
dongoddard
said,
10 days ago
You can google the phrase “mental map” to learn more. However, this is Ted Rall’s projection of what he thinks President Obama’s perception is, rather than a true mental map. Nearly everyone creates their own mental maps – things that are “closer” perceptually appear in the foreground of the map, are bigger, and have more detail – while things that are “further” from one’s perception appear far on the horizon, are tiny, and maybe even blurry. For those who ask for help understanding it, Ted Rall’s cartoon shows Pres. Obama having greater perception of things that exist between Penn. Ave. (Washington DC) and Michigan Ave. (Chicago) than he does of Kabul…and even less of unemployed Americans.
scottfreitas
said,
10 days ago
Notice Ted’s “APOLOGIES TO STEINBERG” note on the margins of his comic?
Here’s the original 1976 New Yorker magazine cover from which Ted obviously drew his inspiration:
(you can CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO to view the detail)
http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/24100/the-art-of-saul-steinberg/
Ted did a pretty good homage to it, I think. And picked a very deserving subject, too! ;)
d_legendary1 said, 10 days ago
Good one Ted. A map of the turds Obama has to clean up after eight years of diarrhea.
churchillwasright said, 10 days ago
LEGENDINYOUROWNMIND: All of the posts on here, including a fantastic analysis by DONGODDARD, and you are still clueless.
Drawings of Air America, MSNBC, NYT, MoveOn, plus Rahm, Axelrod and Wall Street, with the Middle East and unemployment in the distant background, and you conclude this is about Obama cleaning up Bush’s mess.
Amazing.
TED: Double Kudos!
BTW Ted, I emailed Yahoo! like you requested, but I’m sure it’s like throwing a note in the middle of the ocean without the bottle. Needless to say, no response.
Metzengerstein said, 10 days ago
Nice job, Ted. I am old enough to have gotten the reference, although I ddi appreciate the links so I could look at the original. There have been a lot of variations on it, but this is certainly among the best.
Regarding Maher: he is a huge fake “liberal.” He is only in it for the laughs and the audience and whatever lame convictions he might have can be easily thrown overboard. The only “politically incorrect” (and actually true) thing he ever said he immediately and abjectly apologized for, and he got fired from that job anyway. Since then he has been a good boy who utters only the safest conventionalities.
Bill Maher isn’t fit to lick your shoes, Ted. Not that I think you would want him to …
ReasonsVentriloquist said, 10 days ago
It’s been done.