Garbanzo Toons

Test

No, I can't draw. Not really. For a while I could. Many years ago I taught myself to draw using the book, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, by Betty Edwards. I hunkered down, followed the lessons step by step, and what do you know? I entered what I can only describe as a meditative state and actually drew things that looked like what I wanted them to look like.

That was a long time ago, and for many years I haven't drawn much of anything. When I do draw, the process isn't always pretty. I have comic strip ideas though, and they must be drawn. I can't promise that they're good ideas, but I'm going to draw them anyway. I tried getting others to draw for me, but that hasn't worked. The advice I've gotten from artists has always been, "draw your own." OK, I am drawing my own. But just remember, all of you people who can draw, but wouldn't draw my goofy ideas, this is your fault. You could have drawn these so that even if they were poorly written, at least they would look good. Perhaps over time, if I continue to fool myself into thinking I have something of value to say, and I work and practice real hard, my drawing skills will once again improve.

Until then, this is the first strip in a multi-strip story. When will the next page be done? Soon, I hope. It's already written. I'm going to start drawing right now.

Read it and weep.








UPDATE:Copyright 2011 by the Garbanzo Press

Labels: George Bush, Karl Rove, Oil

posted by Harry @ 2:25 PM 2 comments

We're Fighting Who, Where?

So this "war on terror" is a big deal that's been going on ever since 19 Islamic jihadists, who were in our country legally, flew some airliners into some prominent buildings and murdered almost 3000 Americans in the name of Allah. In response, then President Bush sent our armed forces after the perps - well, the ones who didn't sacrifice themselves in the name of the Ummah, rather they went after the brains behind the attack, and thanks to the tenacity, training, and skill of our armed forces, got the suckers.

In addition, we've had troops battling jihadists in Afghanistan and Iraq ever since. Our soldiers have removed tens of thousands of these terrorist scum (or Michael Moore's minutemen depending on the accuracy of your moral compass) from polluting our Earth. So why, oh why, does our government, under both Bush and Obama continue to welcome them into our country?

Before being granted refugee status in the U.S. and settling down in Bowling Green, Ky., Waad Ramadan Alwan was allegedly a sniper and skilled bomb maker targeting U.S. forces who bragged that his "lunch and dinner would be an American."

Alwan is one of two Iraqi refugees who the Justice Department announced Tuesday had been charged for participating in an alleged plot to send cash, explosives and Stinger missiles to Iraq for use against Americans.

The men are among 56,000 Iraqis who took advantage of special programs to come to the U.S. for people who demonstrated they were in danger from militias in Iraq for their religious beliefs or because they were translators for U.S. government or media organizations.

Alwan was admitted into the U.S. even though his fingerprint was found in 2005 on an unexploded roadside bomb that was set to blow up a U.S. convoy in Iraq. The print was loaded into a Department of Defense database, but a search of that database was not then a part of the application process for refugee status in the U.S.

So all the jihadists have to do to survive the onslaught from American forces, is to claim their lives are in danger for proper and politically correct reasons and get relocated to a comfortable American suburb. Once acclimated to life in America and added to local welfare lists, they are free to resume their Jihad against the Great Satan.

Even better, if they're caught committing jihadist activities, rather than facing the business end of a Hellfire missile or a marine's rifle, and ending up as temporary decoration scattered over portions of the landscape, they get a jail cell, three meals a day, a Qu'ran untouched by infidel hands, (probably fan mail and marriage proposals) and a team of lawyers as dedicated to the overthrow of the United States as they are. And if they're convicted, they get a nice long prison stretch where they have years and years of access to the most deranged members of American society who they can convert to Islam in order to spread their poisonous message. Because some of them will get out and will be only too happy to engage in the same anti-social behavior that got them locked up in the first place. But this time, as a special bonus, their violence, any murder or mayhem they wish to engage in, is done in the name of Allah. For them it's win-win. Slaughter to their heart's content, and gain paradise because of the slaughter.

It's not so great for the rest of us, but I don't think that's of any concern to the DHS or State Department weasels who are supposed to be working in the interest of the American people, not phony Islamic refugees who are invited into Dar al-Harb to wreak havoc.

Labels: George Bush, islam, Obama, terrorism

posted by Harry @ 8:16 PM 1 comments

Poverty in Uganda

I first read this article in the Detroit Free Press. It annoyed me at its simplistic and biased premise. Then it showed up on Little Green Footballs. And it bothered me more. I'm not going to jump on the "let's trash LGF" bandwagon, but for somebody who seems to pride himself on getting all of the information before entering into a fray, this post seems more of a knee jerk by Charles Johnson.

At age 45, after giving birth to 13 children in her village of thatch roofs and bare feet, Beatrice Adongo made a discovery that startled her: birth control.

"I delivered all these children because I didn't know there was another way," said Adongo, who started on a free quarterly contraceptive injection last year. Surrounded by her weary-faced brood, her 21-month-old boy clutching at her faded blue dress, she added glumly: "I fear we are already too many in this family."

On a continent where fewer than one in five married women use modern contraception, an explosion of unplanned pregnancies is threatening to bury Adongo's family and a generation of Africans under a mountain of poverty.

Promoting birth control in Africa faces a host of obstacles — patriarchal customs, religious taboos, ill-equipped public health systems — but experts also blame a powerful, more distant force: the U.S. government.

Under President George W. Bush , the United States withdrew from its decades-long role as a global leader in supporting family planning, driven by a conservative ideology that favored abstinence and shied away from providing contraceptive devices in developing countries, even to married women.

As I recall from just being alive for the past 50 or so years, Uganda has had other problems that have been much larger than a lack of contraception. Remember Idi Amin?

Idi Amin Dada, who became known as the 'Butcher of Uganda' for his brutal, despotic rule whilst president of Uganda in the 1970s, is possibly the most notorious of all Africa's post-independence dictators. Amin seized power in a military coup in 1971 and ruled over Uganda for 8 years. Estimates for the number of his opponents who were either killed, tortured, or imprisoned vary from 100,000 to half a million. He was ousted in 1979 by Ugandan nationalists, after which he fled into exile.

That's got to slow down a society's rise no matter how many children women are having. They got rid of him, but as always on the African continent, more troubles followed. Today, Uganda faces The Lord's Resistance Army, as twisted a group of primitive barbarian thugs as I've ever read about.

The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) , led by Joseph Kony, operated in the north from bases in southern Sudan. The LRA committed numerous abuses and atrocities, including the abduction, rape, maiming, and killing of civilians, including children. In addition to destabilising northern Uganda from bases in Sudan, the LRA congregated in the Bunia area in eastern Congo. They linked up with the Army for the Liberation of Rwanda (ALIR) and other rebel groups battling with forces from the Rally for Congolese Democracy (RCD)

Then there is the AIDS problem and the lack of tourism. Frankly, I'd want to know that I'd be safe from marauding bands of the LRA before I went to visit Uganda. And increased access to contraception will to what to slow down the spread of AIDS? Does the spread of AIDS have any effect on the economy? I'm guessing "yes."

To believe that poverty in Uganda is being caused by lack of birth control is naive. To present it as a news story in order to promote a "green" agenda and take another whack at the Bush Administration is dishonest. Treating the Ugandan population as pawns in this green Bush trashing article is criminal. How does this help Uganda rise out of poverty? It doesn't. In order to raise their standard of living, Ugandans would have to increase their "carbon footprint", and among Greenies that is a mortal sin. Better they should remain poor but have fewer children. That means fewer tiny poverty stricken carbon emitters, and the Greenies can pat themselves on the back for reducing the number of Ugandan poor.

As a final question, once contraception is available to Ugandan women, what will the excuse for Ugandan poverty be in a generation when women only have a child or two? Or will the greenies even care any more?

Labels: birth control, Detroit Free Press, environment, George Bush, Little Green Footballs, poverty, Uganda

posted by Harry @ 8:13 PM 4 comments

Question

Yes, it was a really stupid move for Senator Joe Wilson to call President Obama a liar during Obama's health care speech (even if Obama is a liar). He should not have done it. I think Senator Wilson understands that now. I do have to wonder though, how many of those denouncing Wilson for his boneheaded comment, and at his obvious lack of manners, cheered when that Iraqi journalist threw his shoe at President Bush during Bush's speech.

Labels: George Bush, Obama, Senator Joe Wilson

posted by Harry @ 5:46 PM 3 comments

Oh, the Irony

The Detroit Free Press has been breathlessly awaiting the latest stimulus plan. But so is everyone else who will be able to nose their way up to the government trough and grab some of that pork. And the Democrats are desperate for it so they can begin the payback of the groups that helped them attain their majority. It's pander city.

But there was also this article.

The Bush administration overpaid tens of billions of dollars for stocks and other assets in its massive bailout last year of Wall Street banks and financial institutions, a new study by a government watchdog says.

The Congressional Oversight Panel, in a report released Friday, said last year's overpayments amounted to a taxpayer-financed $78 billion subsidy of the firms.

The findings added to the frustrations of lawmakers already wary of the $700 billion rescue plan, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Congress approved the plan last fall, but members of both parties criticized spending decisions by the Bush administration and former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.

Now, as I recall, at the time, there had to be a bailout now, NOW, DO YOU HEAR ME? NOW! The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse were poised to rend our country asunder if there wasn't bipartisan support to rescue AIG and other financial institutions deemed too big to fail. There was no time to stop and read the fine print. There wasn't even time to figure out if this whole bailout thing was even a good idea, or as Michelle Malkin refers to it, "a crap sandwich."

So why is it all Bush's fault? Oh, that's right, because he's Bush. And for the next four to (God forbid) eight years, everything that goes wrong due to Obama's socialist-inspired policies will be blamed on Bush.

And now, there is another crap sandwich being shoved down our throat whether we like it or not because, remember those four horsemen? Well, they're still there, hunched behind Al Gore's private jet ready to pounce if Republican senators don't submit to Democrat's fearmongering - uh, I mean - if they don't return to the bipartisan spirit that made this country great. And if nobody bothers to actually read where this almost $900,000,000,000 is going. Because as we find out from the National Review, here's where some of the money is scheduled to be doled out:

$50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts
$380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children program
$300 million for grants to combat violence against women
$2 billion for federal child-care block grants
$6 billion for university building projects
$15 billion for boosting Pell Grant college scholarships
$4 billion for job-training programs, including $1.2 billion for “youths” up to the age of 24
$1 billion for community-development block grants
$4.2 billion for “neighborhood stabilization activities”
$650 million for digital-TV coupons; $90 million to educate “vulnerable populations”

and,

$89 billion for Medicaid
$30 billion for COBRA insurance extension
$36 billion for expanded unemployment benefits
$20 billion for food stamps

and

$2 billion for renewable-energy research ($400 million for global-warming research)
$2 billion for a “clean coal” power plant in Illinois
$6.2 billion for the Weatherization Assistance Program
$3.5 billion for energy-efficiency and conservation block grants
$3.4 billion for the State Energy Program
$200 million for state and local electric-transport projects
$300 million for energy-efficient-appliance rebate programs
$400 million for hybrid cars for state and local governments
$1 billion for the manufacturing of advanced batteries
$1.5 billion for green-technology loan guarantees
$8 billion for innovative-technology loan-guarantee program
$2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects
$4.5 billion for electricity grid

And there's more. Read it all and weep. Or contact your senators.

Labels: George Bush, Obama, Stimulus package

posted by Harry @ 8:07 PM 1 comments

Our President's Reading List

According to an article in today's Detroit News

When he isn't biking up hills or slashing overgrown brush, President Bush has 1,500 pages of reading material to fill his down time. The White House said Bush took three heavy books with him on his five-week stay at his Texas ranch. The titles are: "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History"; "Salt: A World History"; and "Alexander II: The Last Great Czar."

Since they pounced on him for exercising, including this dopey cartoon by Oliphant, what stupidly insulting things will the Bush Derangement Syndrome sufferers have to say about his reading habits?

By the way, I hope we remember that Bush had a higher GPA than John Kerry did at Yale.

Labels: George Bush

posted by Harry @ 4:18 PM 0 comments

The President's Speech

He made his case to the American people. The left, I'm sure, from the first words out of the President's mouth, began picking his speech apart. All the critiques will be all of the newspapers tomorrow. John Stewart will make fun of it on The Daily Show tonight. Ho hum.

I'm wondering (I don't like to predict) if my beloved(?!) Detroit Free Press will gather reactions from this country's largest Arab-Muslim community, since it just happens to be right here in Dearborn Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. Will the Detriot News offer Imam Elahi a column this Saturday so he can give one of his usual fair, non-biased, even-handed editorials? Muslims must be given a chance to respond, you understand. To not give them a forum might bring down charges of "Islamophobia".

Now the president, even though he spoke at length about the terrorist threat, terrorists, and the War on Terror, never said the words, "Muslim" or "Arab". Some folks are sensitive when it comes to talking about terrorists because well, let's face it. Who have the terrorists been?

I will post tomorrow as to whether any Muslim leaders are interviewed.

Labels: George Bush

posted by Harry @ 7:45 PM 0 comments