Read My Lips

Cidu Bill on Jul 29th 2009

nonewtaxes.gif
Okay, is this at all funny to anybody who was around during George H.W.’s term (or comprehensible to anybody who wasn’t)?

Filed in Bill Bickel, George H.W. Bush, Show, comic strips, comics, humor, taxes | 23 responses so far

23 Responses to “Read My Lips”

  1. Pinny Jul 29th 2009 at 09:37 am 1

    Yes, it’s funny-in-a-sad-way for those of us who remember Poppy. (I only voted for him the first time.)

    It is also very funny as a standalone political joke.

  2. Mark Jul 29th 2009 at 09:54 am 2

    Don’t know if this has been brought up before, but on Firefox, the right side of the page goes missing and there does not appear to be a way to scroll over to see that stuff.

    Mark from NJ

  3. Nicole Jul 29th 2009 at 10:03 am 3

    The joke is the play on words, no new taxes … just doubling the old taxes (Hah hah hah). This could have just as easily been the phone company saying “there will be no new charges this year … we are just raising the old charges”

    However, I think those of us around during George the first’s presidency get an extra kick out of it.

    Is that last bird on the right Mallard Fillmore ?

    I use Firefox and have no problems

  4. Daniel J. Drazen Jul 29th 2009 at 10:05 am 4

    Bush41? Heck, I thought the character was originally modeled on Tip O’Neill! After all, it’s Congress that has the power to raise/cut taxes.

  5. Nicole Jul 29th 2009 at 10:12 am 5

    Daniel - I believe that particular character WAS modeled on Tip, however Bush41 was famous for saying “Read my lips…NO NEW TAXES!” and then raising them

    Anyway — this is close enough to that saying that Bush41 leapt to my mind when I read it.

  6. Tim Jul 29th 2009 at 10:25 am 6

    That’s funny, because I immediately thought of the current rascals (as opposed to the old rascals that got voted out). I heard people saying that the Tea Parties were silly, because taxes would go down with the new administration. Then it was announced that the tax tables were filled with typos, the “stimulus bill” was passed for billions, they pushed for health care reform…

    It reminds me of the old joke - how do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving.

  7. Charlene Jul 29th 2009 at 10:27 am 7

    The tea parties were silly because the Republicans didn’t know the meaning of “teabagging”.

  8. Frosted Donut Jul 29th 2009 at 11:01 am 8

    @Mark from NJ
    Have you tried resizing the browser window? I use FireFox on the Mac and the strip is usually cut off at my regular browser size. But if I resize the window to be wider, then the rest of the strip comes into view. There’s no scroll bar at the bottom, which adds to the confusion.

  9. Lola Jul 29th 2009 at 11:22 am 9

    I’m using IE on a pc and today (but not yesterday, nor any time recently) I’m having the same issues. Not wide enough and no scroll bar on bottom.

  10. Cidu Bill Jul 29th 2009 at 11:28 am 10

    I re-sized both comics, and everything should be fine now. When the comic is too wide for your screen, though, the simplest solution is to click on it.

    Nicole, the reason I said this wasn’t funny to those of us who remember H.W. is that existing taxes WERE raised — so all Shoe is doing here is showing us something that really happened; and it sure wasn’t funny at the time.

  11. DevilDan Jul 29th 2009 at 12:13 pm 11

    Not hilarious, certainly, but understandable to people who don’t know much about the better Bush’s lips.

  12. ShireNomad Jul 29th 2009 at 12:15 pm 12

    They could have updated it to be “No new spending without removing old spending!” and worked from there.

  13. Bishop Jul 29th 2009 at 01:57 pm 13

    It’s about the current administration. Obama promised that 95% of people wouldn’t see their taxes raise. However, he’s going to let President Bush’s tax rate reductions sunset, therefore, letting people’s tax rates rise. As with all of Obama’s promises, they have an expiration date.

  14. Dave Van Domelen Jul 29th 2009 at 02:35 pm 14

    This is filed under “tases”. Does this mean the IRS has been issued tasers now?

  15. CIDU Bill Jul 29th 2009 at 02:42 pm 15

    Don’t tax me, bro!

  16. Blork Jul 29th 2009 at 04:09 pm 16

    If you can’t see the whole image, right click and select “View Image”.

  17. J-L Jul 29th 2009 at 05:02 pm 17

    Isn’t that guy a bit too honest for a politician?

    I mean, I have no trouble believing that a politician would say the words in the first panel, but openly admitting what’s said in the second panel?

    At the very least, he’d wait until AFTER the election to admit that.

    (Then again, maybe it DOES take place after the election.)

  18. AaronB Jul 29th 2009 at 08:21 pm 18

    Firefox problem

    For what it’s worth, the horizontal scroll problem in Firefox is caused by the last block in style.css:

    #header, #content, #sidebar, #footer, .widget
    {
    overflow:hidden;
    }

    If you delete the overflow property, or set it to “visible” instead of “hidden”, the horizontal scroll bar shows up when it should.

  19. Mitch4 Jul 30th 2009 at 07:15 am 19

    I never really understood why “Read my lips” was supposed to convey determination or sincerity or emphasis — or whatever it was he meant to express. I mean, wouldn’t all those things be enhanced more by speaking loudly, clearly, and firmly, so that people can simply LISTEN and not need to READ YOUR LIPS?

  20. Carl Jul 30th 2009 at 07:58 am 20

    Well, keep in mind that it isn’t a problem for bird politicians. Birds don’t have lips.

  21. Morris Keesan Jul 30th 2009 at 09:20 am 21

    Maybe it’s just me, but doesn’t it look like the politician guy is trying out a stand-up comedy act? (sitting on a stool, hand-held microphone, compared to the usual political-press-conference podium with 20 mics)

    And the way GHW Bush got around his promise is that the man had no lips.

  22. Todd Aug 1st 2009 at 01:48 pm 22

    It’s comprehensible, just not funny, without knowing about the older Bush’s promise.

    I find it funny, because at the time Bush said it, that was my exact response, but I wonder what’s the point in doing it now.

  23. KobeClan Aug 1st 2009 at 05:04 pm 23

    Bishop,

    Obama’s promise to not raise taxes on the poor and middle class has already expired.
    One of his first acts was to raise cigarette taxes which impacts the poor and/or stupid the most.
    I believe liberals refer to this as a “regressive tax”, as opposed to “progressive tax”, i.e., “soak the rich”.

    This was a LOL for me.

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