Brand Spankin' NEW!

Hello there, friends and lovers!

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog (as you can see), but there's good reason for that: all o my work on the brand spankin' new home for Ted Raskol Political Cartoons.

All of my future blogging will be rolled into this new site, which is based on WordPress. It's got a ton of great features- organized archiving, logical permalink urls, and features galore. Enjoy!

-Ted

Joe Blew it

I'm not really going to get into this, other than to say that Lieberman is a self-centered, droopy bum. A droopy bum sans "conscience," as he put it:


"If the public option plan is in there, as a matter of conscience, I will not allow this bill to come to a final vote because I believe debt can break America and send us into a recession that’s worse than the one we’re fighting our way out of today."

Truly a man of great conscience.



Here's an excerpt of Wikipedia's page for Lieberman's wife:

"Hadassah has also worked for the lobbying company, APCO Associates, that had many pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations among its clients, as well as four major drug companies such as Pfizer. In March 2005, Hadassah was hired by Hill & Knowlton as "senior counselor" in the firm's "health care and pharmaceuticals practice." Hadassah's close relationship with pharmaceutical and healthcare corporations while her husband introduced legislation benefiting these exact companies has raised questions about improprieties and conflict of interest."

The Crux of the Question

It seems apparent now that broadly speaking there are two schools of thought on the Afghanistan War. The first group believes that American military power can ultimately triumph over extremist movements in asymmetrical warfare, provided there is sufficient economic and governmental development alongside. The second group believes that American military power is generally an inflammatory element that sows anti-American sentiments wherever it is seen as an occupying force.

As far as I can tell, the efficacy of conventional armed forces in Afghanistan remains an unresolved question. Comparisons of America's war in Afghanistan to Soviet, British, and Greek (give me a break!) military excursions are irrelevant.

What are the consequences to projecting American military power abroad? Has it resulted in an increase or a decrease in domestic and international terrorism?



On December 10, Robert Wright and Christopher Hitchens engaged in an interesting debate on BloggingHeads.tv (which I have embedded below) on this very subject.

Thank you, Department of Defense

I never thought I'd have a reason to draw Tricky Dick. But the Defense Department was kind enough to his blunders and provide me the opportunity!

Thank you, DoD, for allowing me to follow in the footsteps of my cartoonist heroes and draw this oft-caricatured president.




I'd also like to mention that I'm lamenting the loss of the public option in the Senate version of the healthcare bill.

Toons, toons, toons!

Here are five new 'toons I've recently drawn up. The conflict in Afghanistan and its spread into Pakistan have been featured prominently in the media as a result of President Obama's decision to send in 30,000 more troops. I've been noodling it quite a bit as well.

Developments in Iran continue to be quite distressing. The same goes for that good old domestic punching bag of healthcare reform.

Otherwise, I'll let the cartoons speak for themselves.

Enjoy!

Oh (French and German) brother, where art thou?

ACK! It's been a whole SIX days since my last posting and there've been SIX cartoons on those days!

Here's the most recent one:



And I'll just throw down some links to the others here:

December 1 - "Swiss Miss"
http://www.cavcomics.com/raskol/?id=26

November 30 - "Peaceful Nukes for Iran"
http://www.cavcomics.com/raskol/?id=25

November 29 - "Republican Red Scare"
http://www.cavcomics.com/raskol/?id=24

November 28 - "A Concerning Diagnosis for Uncle Sam"
http://www.cavcomics.com/raskol/?id=23

November 27 - "Under the Vatican's Rugs"
http://www.cavcomics.com/raskol/?id=22

A different kind of turmoil in the mideast

... spreading to the West faster than any religious, ethnic, or political conflict.