Larry Craig Presents Everybody’s Favorite Red Herring

When I saw the headline of Senator Craig’s editorial, I groaned:

Sen. Larry Craig: Enforce our laws, but mass deportations are too disruptive

Senator Craig writes:

Mass deportation of all illegal immigrants is not a realistic or feasible solution. Proponents of this idea overlook the economic disruption, massive costs and potential violations of civil liberties (of citizen and immigrant alike) in law enforcement searching door-to-door for illegal immigrants, and shipping them around the globe.

So Senator Craig then with pleasure knocks down the straw man he set up. Look, everybody says the solution is not mass deportation. Immigration opponents favor attrition. We enforce the law and get tough, (beginning with tough employment enforcement) let in the some of the millions who’ve been waiting in line legally and many will go home.

The fact that “not everyone” can be deported is no argument for the amnesty backed by Senator Craig. It’s utterly phony and it shows by the disengeuous argument he has to use to support it.

If it Quacks Like a Duck: The Great Idaho Cartoon Wars

Bubblehead attacks a sacred institution. No, not marriage. No, not the GOP, but rather Mallard Fillmore. Bubblehead oddly enough manages to links this to Bill Sali:

Thinking about it more carefully, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. Idaho has a lot of “Bill Sali Republicans” (represented in the Idaho blogosphere by Trish and Halli) who share the following characteristics: they generally lack military experience, have a pathological distrust of the U.S. government (to the point where they think that President Bush is trying to give away our sovereignty to a “North American Union” and that he ordered the 9/11 attacks), and lack a sense of humor. I figure these are the types of people who would oppose Day By Day and would want to keep the duck.

If you live in southwestern Idaho and don’t consider yourself to be this kind of person, I urge you to contact Kevin Richert at the Statesman and tell him to keep Day By Day. If you’re a liberal, I’m sure you won’t, because Day By Day presents the conservative case much more effectively than Mallard Fillmore ever could.

First of all, Trish and Halli’s blog is down for some reason. How you link two ladies who live in the 2nd District (Idaho Falls even) with one who lives in the First District, and as Bill Sali hasn’t expressed any views that 9/11 wasn’t caused by anything other than a terrorist attack.

I should also state that not all members of the Military are like Bubblehead. Trying to find a nice, but also accurate term for someone who like Bubblehead believes that we need to raise taxes (thus killing our economy) to sacrifice for the war (we can never sacrifice by cutting spending, because Lord knows we need tons of government programs) and I’ve come up with one. Bubbs is a Socially Liberal Starship Troopers Republican. However, not every veteran believes in a big state or is all that trusting of government. My father is a Green Beret who had a top secret clearance, and he doesn’t trust government. Anyone who has ever had to deal with the VA is going to have hard time singing the praises of big government.

I also don’t think that there’s something deficient with those who haven’t served in the military and the put-down is hardly becoming. I appreciate Bubblehead’s service but we have an all-volunteer force for a reason, and the attack is worthy of the Daily Kos.

The actual debate if you want to call it that over which cartoon belongs on the Statesman’s page comes down to humor and taste, and yes, I have a sense of humor. I don’t particularly care which ends up in the Statesman as I can see any cartoon I want without having to buy the newspaper. And this is really a dead tree media debate. However, since Bubbs started it, let me give my opinion of the two.

What I’m about to say will get me blackballed across the Internet. Day by Day is not funny. It never jumped the shark, because it didn’t need to. If you’re looking for a counterbalance to Dunesbury, this’ll work, but it’s really not funny.

The talent of the artists is that:

1) they can draw.

2) they’re great marketers.

It’s absolute genius to make it free for any blog to have your strip on their site. What a way to gain exposure, what a way to gain a way into market. But, that’s it.

Of course, that I say it’s not funny shouldn’t be too much of a foul. Most of what appears on the funny pages is far from humorous. Even the Masters used to strike out. Anyone think Blondie is hilarious, but it continues to be published despite the fact that it ceased to be funny (if it ever was) long ago.

In Day by Day’s case, they made up for their lack of humor by doing something that Lynn Johnston would never have dreamed of with “For Better or For Worse”: shoving the female characters into tight jean with exposed mid-riffs and revealing night gowns. (Please don’t sue me for the mental images of Elly Patterson in a revealing night gown, that’s your own filthy mind.)

As for Mallard Fillmore, it’s sometimes and usually on-point politically. Day by Day scores some points, but usually they get lost in whatever’s going on or are so esoteric that the reader scratches their head.

So, for the purposes of my amusement, I’m pleased to present the Battle of the Strips. A look at the last 7 days of Day by Day and Mallard Fillmore moving in reverse chronological order:

Sunday, June 3:

Day by Day:

Sam tells us that 1 in 3 lives are touched by cancer with a lame touching pun, featuring a host of drawn characters.

Mallard Filmore

An absolutely lame pun as a man complains of finding a jug of milk among the Orange Juice and is lectured by his wife for being too “lactose intolerant.”

Both are fairly lame, but for better artwork, I’m going with: Day by Day

Saturday, June 2:

Day by Day:

Sam gets into a battle of wits with an unarmed liberal. No contest. But shall we say a tad heavy handed and unrealistic. Liberals never give up like in the strip.

Mallard Fillmore:

A parody of reality TV shows featuring: “Habbing with the Stars.” Funny concept, but a non-descript celeb ruins the strip making it less funny.

Advantage: Day by Day

Thursday, May 31-Friday, June 1st:

Day by Day

(6/1) and (5/31)

Really a 2-part strip where Sam’s White liberal sister calls Damon, a Black Character, an “Uncle Tom.” This aspect of the story is made less funny because the light that’s shown doesn’t make it clear that Damon’s Black (if you haven’t been following the strip.) and the punchline on 6/1 is really not all that funny.

Mallard Fillmore

6/1 and 5/31:

6/1 is another reality show spin-off that pays a compliment to home schoolers. 5/31 is a joke I really don’t get about moderate mammoths.

I’ll give Mallard Fillmore Friday and Day by Day can have Thursday for having a white liberal call a Black Character an Uncle Tom.

May 30th:

Day by Day has a fairly good one featuring a forty-something male news editor (who surprisingly is not in tight jeans with an exposed mid-riff) that makes a good point about Iraq War coverage.

Mallard Fillmore

Corrects a commonly misquoted quotation in a way that barely registers amusement.

Advantage: Day by Day

May 28th and 29th:

May 28th May 28th 29th: We have the media using the terrorist as a source, with our intrepid hero pulling the plug on the source. Sure, let’s go for the lowest common denominator in allegations about the press. It works.

29th and May 28th: Two reality TV show parodies. One that’s fairly funny features a competition to become a notary and another is somewhat obscure.

Advantage: We’ll split the days.

So Day by Day wins 5-2 which tells us that of the two very unfunny strips, this week Day by Day has been more funny in my opinion. There was a time when Bruce Tinsley was funnier (really) but when you get successful, you can get away with more. But at Tinsley’s age (49) I’ll bet on Mallard Fillmore carrying him through until retirement, meanwhile Day by Day’s slick marketing techniques will make it a success. Those who don’t like what the Statesman decides should be good sports and read the other online.

I’d also add that as to which represents conservatism better, I don’t know. While the wall-to-wall coverage of the Iraq War has appeal, there’s more to my conservatism than that, and the jury’s still out on whether Day by Day can effectively represent that.

Take Their Money: Enjoy the Spoils of War

Take Their Money: Enjoy the Spoils of Victory

The following is a commentary from the Truth and Hope Report (http://www.truthandhope.2truth.com) Weekend update by Democratic Political Dave Screwtape

There has been some controversy over Democrats receiving large contributions from lobbyists and PACs for such industries as banking and big oil. Or I should say, there would have been had our allies in the press not ignored it.

However, there is a question that has been asked by some that I’ll endeavor to answer. Should we, as Democrats follow the same corrupt path of Tom DeLay and the K Street project, that opened our government up to shame and scandal?

You bet your life! Big money contributions are what makes Washington work.

There are three things in Washington: the majority, the opposition, and money. Money is bi-partisan . There’s little to be had for being an ideologue (unless you back the agenda of the Club for Growth) but much to be had for being a friend of special interests.

Money goes with the majority and if you lose your majority, you lose many contributors as well. After all, how much influence does the 9th ranking minority member of the Small Business Committee have?

With our current campaign finance system, in order to maintain your seats, you must have the support of multiple interests. So, whether you like it or not, money is needed, and it is money by the hundreds of thousands. Corporate lawyers, lobbyists, and their friends will pour their money into the party in power. They run the halls of Congress. They paid to play and there’s little anyone can do about it.

The “solutions” offered are hard, if not completely unworkable. Public financing of elections is a pipe dream. It’d be incredibly hard to administer. Who’s a serious candidate? Who gets money? How much? How about third party candidates? How much do they get? If we could find a way to have all candidates funded at the same level, then incumbents would have an even larger advantage, but in open seats, Democrats would benefit from our friends in the mainstream press giving us an edge in their coverage.

The favorite Republican idea of eliminating all caps on individual contributions and requiring instant disclosure introduces a dangerous degree of unpredictability into our political process. If six or seven people can get together and provide $250,000 in seed money to a Congressional Campaign, this would do a horrendous amount of harm to those who make their living harnessing influence and raising obscene amounts of cash for members of Congress. In this economy should we really be putting people out of work?

In addition, for success, America requires a stable of government. We’ve worked hard to create a system where only those who are personally wealthy or well-connected to dozens of special interest power brokers can be elected to high office. Imagine what kind of harm would be done to the World’s greatest Democracy if just anybody could get elected to office?

If you’re in Congress, take my advice: take the money and use it. Buy yourself another term or so and feel good about it. You’ve shown those corporate scumbags a thing or two. You’re not selling out, they’re coming to you to pay protection money. Be sure to provide protection and you’ll continue to scare away anyone with serious thoughts of challenging you.

You should take great pains to show yourself that it’s all “worth it.” Be sure to fight for some cause of peripheral importance such as voting for non-binding resolutions affirming Roe v. Wade, and creating non-discrimination policies that don’t forbid gays from working in your office (whether you actually ever hire a gay person is entirely up to you.) Attack Bushco and know that as long as Democrats control Congress, America will be safe from the evils of corrupt Republican Congressmen.

The Screwtape Report is written by Adam Graham. The Screwtape Report is written from a Democratic perspective by a conservative in order to reveal Democratic strategy and thinking.

Both Parties are In Trouble

Democrats are unable to get even the most basic things done such as their 5-day workweek scheme or the whole thing about bi-partisan partnership instead of partisanship. Of course, the GOP isn’t doing much better. Republican Senators (clueless) as always are being picketed at home by their constituents over their support of the amnesty bill. No wonder, support for both parties has been tanking in the recent Rasmussen poll. Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney is even looking into a run for the White House.

These are just a few of the issues we talked about on tonight’s Truth and Hope Report podcast.

Also, we briefly talk about John McCain’s fading campaign. McCain never had a whole lot to offer other than his gracious plan to help exalt himself. It’s gotten so bad, Dean Barnett’s running a pool to see when he gets out.

Meanwhile, CNN is pumping up Jim Wallis’ bid to become the liberal Christian’s Falwell by agree to sponsor their debate, as Martha West points out, they wouldn’t do this for Concerned Women for America. To be honest, I can’t remember any Conservative organization (and political parties don’t count)that’s ever co-sponsored a debate with media outlets, but in addition to Sojourner with CNN, there’s also Fox News and the Black Caucus and in 2000 Al Sharpton got to sponsor a debate in Harlem.

No doubt, most folks have heard of a lesbian suing E-harmony. E-harmony’s basic answer is that they’re service is designed to match straights based on compatibilities that create a good marriage, and they have no such expertise with gays. So I guess this woman’s insisting that the same thing is required for two Lesbians to match up as a man and a woman.

I also discuss another dumb lawsuit coming out of Montana.

Then we have a public school teacher who co-opted her classroom for political purposes.

Then we turn to marriage and family life and a study that shows: Surprise, staying married helps your kids economically. (Hat Tip: Instapundit.)

Then we get into some miscellaneous news. We pander-er-panda a little bit with a talk about a failed Panda reintroduction move that will no doubt be repated, despite long odds of another result. Also, a lot of folks are joining the ultra-rich. Then we talk about Scrappleface’s latest.

Finally, we turn from Saturday Night thoughts to Sunday morning with a conversation about a recent study (covered by World Magazine and Christianity Today) that show the need of parents and teens to committ to faithfulness to God and churches to preach it.

We talk about this and probably a little bit more on tonight’s Truth and Hope Report.

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