Outer Banks, NC
Category: politics
Donald Rumsfeld on justifying war
Oh, this is rich.
“One thing that is very interesting, it seems to me, is that there really hasn’t been any indication from the administration as to what our national interest is with respect to this particular situation,” Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said in an interview with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto. 
This time it’s Syria
It’s looking more and more like the US will be launching air strikes in Syria, possibly as early as Thursday. You’ll have to excuse my cynical tone, but here we go again. Here’s an illuminating chart by a well-known Egyptian blogger which shows the complicated and constantly changing relationships in the Middle East. Of course our past policies have contributed to the never-ending cycle of violence in the region:
There are some congress members speaking out against military action.
Here’s my latest animation on the subject.
A very disturbing development…
Yesterday as I was finishing up a deadline, I noticed this at the Guardian website. The partner of Glenn Greenwald (one of the journalists who broke the Snowden/NSA story) was detained for 9 hours at London’s Heathrow airport. As an American and an editorial cartoonist, this is a very disturbing development. I remember right after 9/11 how ordinary people were detained for weeks without access to legal counsel, all in the name of preventing terrorism threats.
This reinforces one of my biggest fears- that people who criticize the government will be targeted. Every time I’m interviewed I always talk about how we American cartoonists never have to face the types of threats other cartoonists around the world do because we have the First Amendment to protect us. This is the first time I truly feel the situation has changed.
Here’s Glenn’s response and Andrew Sullivan’s piece challenging PM Cameron. Be sure to read the last line; the unfortunate reality is that it’s a question which needs to be asked.
Cartooning for Peace in NYC
I’m in NYC for a Cartooning for Peace interview with fellow cartoonists Liza Donnelly and Jeff Danziger. The filming was done at the historic Society of Illustrators building. We discussed the state of cartooning, free speech, and what limitations we deal with here in the US.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon buys The Washington Post
I work from home so I only go into the actual Washington Post building about once a month to meet with my editor and touch base. Since it was such a beautiful day, Jim suggested we talk over coffee at the corner Starbucks. As we waited for the elevator, groups of WPost employees were making their way down to a company wide meeting where everyone expected the announcement of the location of their new offices to be made (there were plans for months to sell the iconic 15th Street building). Right as we sat down Jim received a text and said something like “Holy sh**! The Washington Post was just bought by Jeff Bezos!” I thought he was kidding at first but as soon as I started scrolling my twitter feed, I could see it was true. Amazingly, no one saw this coming- it seemed like everyone at the WPost was caught by surprise and genuinely shocked.
More to come….