Michael Ramirez for April 13, 2009

Maybe it only needs one arrow… if used correctly?

Is lying now an accepted pratice among political cartoonists?

Plus Obama’s $ boast to veteran’s hospital, the biggest in 3 decades!

It’s still a 4% increase, and they’ve taken the broken arrows purchased by Reagan/Bush 41 and Bush 43, thrown them in the trash where they belong, and are only buying the ones that work.(If they can find any from the limited supply available from a monopolized U.S. contractor pool.)

to dtroutma – do not worry fishwoman Luxembourg will protect USA

If I take one dog hair out of Sooky’s fur, he won’t freeze to death just for one hair, right?

(Sooky Rottweiler, standing on a pile of shedded fur, says; No, but I’ll be barkin’ mad, even if it’s shedding season anyway!)

Cut ten percent of the military budget of the country that has twice armement of any other one, he’s still the leader.

Besides, we all need protection. But what is the point of protection if there is nothing left to protect?

Lying appears to be the modus operandi of anyone claiming to be a conservative or a Republican since Karl Rove started being their ‘coach’ and Limbaugh started being their spokesman. Lie often enough they think and someone will believe you. Hopefully the 75% of my fellow citizens with brains are paying attention to the fact that the lying is the only thing these people are capable of at the moment. They certainly have no new good useful or effective ideas about how to fix the economy.

Forget the fact that Sec. Gates is going for a more efficient military, and that the VA is getting much more help for our soldiers. The toon is a lie, and DianeKovacs states a very important point.

The military budget Gates proposed is $21 billion larger than Bush’s. He’s trying to do what everyone, including John McCain, said needed to happen: get rid of wasteful spending on weapons that don’t work as hoped and will never be used. Gates shifted priorities and increased spending on military personnel, another thing everyone gives lip service to doing. I feel like a broken record. And the same lies and distortion will come up tomorrow and the day after and the day after that. How discouraging.

rikoshayrabbit, boy am I glad you’re nowhere near that button. I’m sure we will always have different views, but it is my belief (based on my faith) that it is never appropriate to threaten mass destruction. That is the work of the devil. Threatening to “vaporize” those who “just give us some cr@p” is akin to saying “I can do what I want because I’m bigger.” That is immoral. Period.

Of course, Obama was talking of making wounded vets pay for their expenses, due to combat injuries, through private insurance, to save money, but thankfully he got an earful from even some liberal Dems and backed off, but that shows what he really thinks.

Also, before World War 1 and World War 2, we let our military preparedness fall and that led to countless lives lost when we went to war without the proper equipment. The Obama administration thinks we don’t need things like F-22s, because, of course, we aren’t likely to get in a war with someone like China. The problem is, if we do get into a war with someone like China, you can’t just whip up the needed equipment overnight.

Also, when you show weakness, that only encourages dictatorships- Hitler was cautious, at first, as he was building up his power and taking Austria, Czechoslovakia, etc., as in the 30’s he knew he needed many more years to build up, but he found that England, France and others were too scared to risk a war, so he thought he could keep getting away with it, including Poland. Showing strength to dictators is always the best way to keep them from trying to get away with stuff!

Boeing paid to build the B-17 prototype, great airplane. A-10 Warthog- great plane, does the job. F-22- dog, not raptor. F-35 is having serious development problems. Fifty year old B-52s are still flying missions because B-1s and B-2s can’t. A strong defense depends on weapons that work, not just cost a lot.

riko, I’m suggesting “some cr@p” is a stupid immoral reason for vaporizing a population. I’m suggesting it is always immoral to vaporize a country. Period. Having said that, this cartoon is stupid because the military budget is bigger now than last year – it’s just that projects like the F-22 that never lived up to their billing are being scrapped for more effective systems.

Take a look at the new Russian jet-fighters. Why?

dtroutma, Right on. An excellent case in point is the Eurofighter Typhoon FGR-4. The F22 is three times the cost, and no more effective. Someone over there did their homework. Gates killed the F22 because we won’t be able to sell it to the other countries against “foreign” accomplishments such as this. It is already deployed in England.

It is probably one of the arrows that were taken by killing Native Tribes many years ago.

Junior, great post!

I agree with you, RogOregon

So, Junior, what tribe are you from? My husband is Comanche, and French/Irish. My part American Indian sons, do bow hunt. And two of them hunt for the U.S. They hunt our enemies. So not all the Indians were killed with those arrows.

teaguemj: I am about 5/8 german; 2/8 irish; and 1/8 Native. Unfortunitaly i never got to really talk to my grandparents before their passing, and my mother never cared to much about family history, so i am lost as to what Tribe i may have the honor of claiming.