Jules Feiffer has described Tony Auth best, "His perspective is that of a bemused and often angry comic historian. Irony, never a favorite form with Americans, is his meat and potatoes. He is not smug, and though he can be mean, he is never mean-spirited. Auth is a moralist and an optimist. He insists, even in this day and age, that hope is more than the name of a right-wing comedian or the shtick of a reactionary president."
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Comments (55) (Please sign in to comment)
Jeddidyah said, 7 months ago
He is on an acid trip alright.
Dredpiraterobt$ said, 7 months ago
If only.
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I view it as if Romney were the angler fish that has peacenik Romney dangling in front of his gaping maw of war and death and economic annihilation. A school of moderate fish is swimming by and Mitt’s just looking to peel off a few percent of the crowd.
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Given the state of schools, I am unhappy that I believe a few will stray from reason.
MortyForTyrant said, 7 months ago
The more I hear from him the more I have to conclude that he has no backbone, no convictions, that to him it’s all just a rich-mans game. You got half a billion dollar, a wife, five sons, a successful career, name recognition – the lot, so what is there left except to run for President? But that’s not enough. You have to have a deep driving force in you to HELP the citizens, to STRENGTHEN your nation.
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I’m not a big fan of Ronald Reagan (for the things he did, like Iran-Contra) but I will say this to his credit: he HAD “it” in him. He WAS that kind of person. One of the commentators on MSNBC paraphrased Reagan’s people (Kaspar Weinberger, I believe) thusly: “The most important foreign policy action RR ever did was to fire all the air-traffic controllers. He said he would, and then he did. That showed the Russians that he won’t get pushed around”.
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But for Gov. Romney everything is relative, negotiable, something that needs to be analyzed by his political team before he can say something about it. President Obama is not a chest-thumper, he takes his time, he wants all the data, all the information, but his decision will always be based on his core believes and what’s best for the nation. This is what I believe, and if you want to call me naive go right ahead…
Dredpiraterobt$ said, 7 months ago
@MortyForTyrant
“: “The most important foreign policy action RR ever did was to fire all the air-traffic controllers. He said he would, and then he did. That showed the Russians that he won’t get pushed around”.
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Not to go too tangential, but… What that reveals is the cognitive dissonance of the end of the cold war.
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Why did the CCCP fall? Was it that Ronald Reagan beat them? Or was it that the economic model of Communism just did not work in the Soviet Union?
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The right wants to have it both ways. Communism was a towering threat to the USA and if it weren’t for Ronald Reagan spending them under the table with the American equivalent of Vodka; Money, then they’d have snuck up and rounded up all your guns and taken over the nation!
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But at the same time they want to claim that Communism is a total and complete disaster as an economic system and Russia collapsed as a result of it.
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There is, IMHO, some small amount of truth in both scenarios. In my view, Communism is a workable model, but not in a nation such as Russia. Nor is it something that can be imposed upon the people.
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The New Deal is indeed a hybrid of the “Free Market Capitalism” that nearly destroyed the United States several times before the Great Depression and “Communism.” The New Deal reforms created a better system of both government and society.
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Ronald Reagan firing the ATCs didn’t show the Soviets anything. I can’t imagine that people who would have shot their ATC would be impressed by someone firing them. Government control of all aspects of the job was the norm, they would never have even noticed conformation with their norm.
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Romney’s political strategy has nothing to do with relativity or negotiation. Romney’s politcal policy is “say anything to get elected” then he will say anything to get the one of two things he really wants done done (eliminating the estate tax forever) and the rest of you can go pound salt. He just won’t care.
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Does anyone really think he cares about Israel? He cares even less than the fundie Xtians care. To him Jerusalem isn’t even the center of his religion. He’s friends with Bibi, and he’ll use that friendship to encourage Jews to vote for him, but beyond that, he doesn’t really care.
dtroutma
said, 7 months ago
Romney drives a bubble, not a bus.
M Ster said, 7 months ago
I think Romney’s new moderate stance is a “deathbed conversion”. He knew he’d lose by a large margin in the general election if he was consistent with what he said during the primary season.
That said, no other Republican candidate could have survived their primariy and then do well in the general election. The very process turned off far too many women, minorities, young voters and non-evangelicals. Just how many Americans want to give tax cuts to the 1% AND end Roe v. Wade AND slash the social safety net AND add another $2 trillion to the military budget AND double the interest on student loans?
Romney’s budget numbers aren’t the only ones that don’t add up.
ODon said, 7 months ago
LDS/LSD.. we report you decide.
fritzoid
said, 7 months ago
@M Ster
“I think Romney’s new moderate stance is a ‘deathbed conversion.’ He knew he’d lose by a large margin in the general election if he was consistent with what he said during the primary season.”
I don’t know if you can call it a “deathbed” conversion when it’s been his plan all along. Do you remember the original context of the “Etch-a-Sketch” meme? It was explicitly that the positions he espoused in the primaries would deliberately be erased once it came to the general election.
Donald Williams said, 7 months ago
Had this been a two-panel cartoon – with the second showing the bus traveling “all over the map” – I would have laughed a little harder.
walruscarver2000 said, 7 months ago
@
Don’t be mad Howie. It’s not your fault that your party’s candidate was born without a backbone.
disgustedtaxpayer said, 7 months ago
Romney will win Nov. 6th, if votes are counted legally;
he has proved in 3 debates, in 3 formats, that he is up to the job; but the #1 reason he will win is because HE IS NOT OBAMA.
Radish
said, 7 months ago
Mormon bishop’s daughter spills Romney’s ‘secrets’ …
‘Would you trust the judgment of a man if he truly believes he’s gonna be a god?’
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The author, who herself was married in a Mormon temple at age 19 but now considers herself a non-denominational Christian, says there’s a secret agenda Mormon officials don’t like to talk about publicly.
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“A complete takeover of the government,” she said. “They have more people in the CIA, the FBI. They have an employment office for Mormons in D.C. to be able to infiltrate them into the government.”
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“They’ve been trying since the beginning to get someone in the presidency, because they believe they have to establish their authority so when Jesus comes to Earth, the Mormon Church will take control of the government and the Mormons will be the government of God on Earth,” she continued.
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Erickson says her main concern is that the leader of the free world have the ability to discern fact from fiction.
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“It may be crucial to our survival,” she said. “If his beliefs are distorted, which they unequivocally are, why would it not be be critical to our existence to protect our country from being placed in the hands of such a person?”
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http://www.wnd.com/2011/10/354721/
Darren Blair said, 7 months ago
@Radish
I speak from personal experience when I say that WND isn’t to be trusted when it comes to Mormonism; a few years back I actually had an e-mail conversation with one of their writers, who knuckled under and admitted that all of his research on the church was 40+ years old.
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Also, what’s her proof of any of this? “Mormons want to take over!” is an old conspiracy theory, but nobody ever actually provides evidence to suggest it.
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Also, the whole “They’re in the FBI and CIA!” nonsense is just that – nonsense. The truth of the matter is that several government agencies actually place a premium on hiring returned LDS missionaries because they’re usually fluently bilingual when they return and generally maintain their abstinence from addictive substances.
Col Mosby said, 7 months ago
Actually, the old Romney is riding on top of the bus. He’ll be back later, no doubt.
Radish
said, 7 months ago
@MortyForTyrant
You know, Ronald Reagan had poor eyesight and was always in a sort of myopic bubble that kept out the real world. The air traffic controllers were fired because they had a federal contract that did not give them the right to strike but it was a signal to attack all unions that had the right to strike. Reagan was just a prop actor who they stood up to get right wing agenda across, and he really liked the part.