Comics I Don’t Understand

“We’ve already established that, madam; now we’re haggling over price” [CJA]

Cidu Bill on Dec 23rd 2011

Friday Morning Miscellany: Kids in prison, Birthers foiled again, sex for World Series tickets, and more

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, CJA, World Series, prostitution | Comments Off

Does Every Presidential Visit Have To Bring a City to a Standstill?

Cidu Bill on Sep 22nd 2011

A tale of 400 cops and the New York Public Library (also “Why I Missed Dinner Last Night,” but that’s not in the article)

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, CJA, NYC | Comments Off

Dick

Cidu Bill on Jul 1st 2011

Mark Halperin has been suspended from his job as MSNBC’s senior political analyst for making this on-air comment about one of President Obama’s speeches: “I thought he was a dick yesterday.”

On the face of it, this seems perfectly reasonable: a mainstream television journalist shouldn’t be calling the President of the United States a dick. We didn’t even hear this out of Republican congressmen during Obama’s State of the Union address.

On the other hand — because these things really only get interesting when there’s another hand — Halperin made the comment only after confirming that the producers were using a 7-second delay, warning them that they would have to use the mute button, and feeling certain that the offending comment would not go out over the air.

But of course, human error being what it is, the comment was not muted and was aired. Whoops.

So should Halperin be taking the heat for this, or not? The video is here (I found it to be a slow download).

This is not a meant to to be a discussion of Obama’s speech or whether or not you believe he is in fact a dick.

http://bcove.me/3344qwum

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Mark Halperin | 39 responses so far

Key Question, Revisited

Cidu Bill on Mar 25th 2011

Something I wondered about two years ago got partially answered this week.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, White House | 6 responses so far

SBCIDU-2

Cidu Bill on Feb 7th 2011

Is President Obama known to be a Steelers fan? Lactose intolerant?

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, CIDU, Super Bowl, comics, football, humor | 21 responses so far

Gotta Defend Sarah Palin on This One

Cidu Bill on Jan 28th 2011

She’s drawing heat for this comment:

The President’s State of the Union address boiled down to this message: “The era of big government is here as long as I am, so help me pay for it.” He dubbed it a “Winning The Future” speech, but the title’s acronym seemed more accurate than much of the content.

No, this was Obama’s screw-up all the way: you do not coin a phrase without thinking about the acronym first.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Sarah Palin, State of the Union, WTF, politics | 49 responses so far

Obama! The Musical

Cidu Bill on Oct 26th 2010

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, YouTube, humor, musicals | 14 responses so far

Ann Coulter: ”Obama is Not a Muslim”

Cidu Bill on Sep 3rd 2010

“The nonsense about President Obama being a Muslim has got to stop.”

Wait for it, wait for it…

“I rise to defend him from this absurd accusation by pointing out that he is obviously an atheist.”

And then it gets really weird…

Filed in Ann Coulter, Barack Obama, Bill Bickel | 340 responses so far

According to a new poll…

Cidu Bill on Aug 19th 2010

… 18% of the American public believe Obama’s a Muslim. If you think that’s bad, what until you hear the percentage who believe he’s black.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, politics, polls, religion | 105 responses so far

Rahm, Spaceknight?

Cidu Bill on Apr 23rd 2010

Okay, since when is Rahm Emanuel “massive”? And why would Obama want to send him into space?

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, CIDU, Far Left Side, Mike Stanfill, Rahm Emanuel, comic strips, comics, humor, politics | 145 responses so far

Drillchronicity

Cidu Bill on Apr 14th 2010

Mitchell Marks: It’s not surprising that a topical event would stimulate multiple editorial cartoons in response. But these two are so thoroughly similar, from the over-wordy setup to the mild or disguised cursing.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, humor, political cartoons, synchronicity | 28 responses so far

The First Seder

Cidu Bill on Apr 1st 2010

Earlier this week, President Obama and his family had a seder in the White House.

Now, I could understand if Rahm Emanuel invited the Obama to his home for a Passover meal; but to have their own seder, just their immediate family… what was this, Act Like a Jew Day? There’s a religious significance to a seder — it’s not just a fun custom. Not to mention the tricky political implications of “Next year in Jerusalem.”

Now, as Joe Biden would say, “He’s the f****** president so he can do whatever the f*** he wants” — but still, it’s just weird.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, CIDU, Joe Biden, Passover, Rahm Emanuel, seders | 81 responses so far

100

Cidu Bill on Mar 30th 2010

When I placed this in the queue a few weeks ago, I had no idea what they were talking about. In the interim, I read The Audacity to Win, which discussed the fact that President Obama is seriously bowling-challenged. So this is no longer a CIDU, but a question remains: Is Obama’s inability to knock down tenpins common enough knowledge to make this comic work?

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Hi and Lois, bowling, comic strips, comics, humor | 19 responses so far

The Top Nontroversies of 2009

Cidu Bill on Dec 31st 2009

From NPR

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Carrie Prejean, Jon and Kate, NPR, Sarah Palin, Tiger Woods, birthers | 7 responses so far

President Obama returned from the climate conference to Washington DC today to a rare, heavy snowfall

Cidu Bill on Dec 19th 2009

Cue the global warming gags.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, global warming | 22 responses so far

Sexist or Not?

Cidu Bill on Nov 18th 2009

Sarah Palin complained that this week’s Newsweek cover is sexist, and… well, I think I sort of agree, though we might be dealing with semantics here: Certainly Newsweek chose this particular photo with the inten of trivializing Palin (the photo is real, but was taken earlier this year as part of a spread for Runner’s World magazine). And they probably wouldn’t have used this sort of photo to trivialize a male politician (can you imagine a cover story about Obama’s domestic policy agenda being illustrated with this?

So if using a “sexy” cover photo of a female politician is a context where you wouldn’t use one of a male politician is sexist, then I find myself in the odd position of siding with Palin.

Of course what I found most interesting about all this was Palin’s comment on the cover, ending with “If anyone can learn anything from it: it shows why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, gender, or color of skin” — clear proof, I guess, that she writes her own material. I mean, I sort of maybe know what she’s kind of getting at here, but…

And actually what makes that quote more interesting is the fact that it was written (apparently) on the same day that she vigorously defended racial profiling on the Sean Hannity show.

Free Web poll for your Web site - freepolls.com

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Fort Hood, Fox News, Newsweek, Runner's World, Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, media, politics, polls, racial profiling | 43 responses so far

Campaigning Question

Cidu Bill on Nov 5th 2009

I’m wondering whether anybody knows… When the President travels to campaign for, say, a gubernatorial candidate, who pays for the Air Force 1 expenses, security for the President, police overtime onsite, etc?

And just for the record, I can’t speak for Virginia, but no matter what you might hear, the New Jersey election was not a referendum on either Obama or the Democratic Party: it was a referendum on Jon Corzine. When New Jerseyans went into the voting booth yesterday, Barack Obama was the last thing on our minds: We were too busy holding our noses as we decided whether the thought of reelecting Jon Corzine was distasteful for us to vote for Chris Christie.

Personally, I voted for Chris Daggett, since in this case voting for the third party candidate wasn’t taking a vote away from any decent candidate. He had me at “I’m not Corzine or Christie.”

As it happens, despite recent polls predicting up to 20% of the vote for Daggett, he ended up with about 5%. Which means, God help us, New Jerseyans got the governor we deserve.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Chris Christie, Chris Daggett, Jon Corzine, New Jersey, politics | 20 responses so far

Friday Morning Ewww

Cidu Bill on Sep 18th 2009

Nicole: Perhaps I have a sick twisted mind — I have been told as such, but to me it appears that Obama is getting ready to give congress a proctology exam

Chuck Douglas and Nicole:

Sarah-Louise Holmes:

Mitchell Marks:

Janice Rey: Definitely an EWWW for me – but I have to give Conley credit for the expression on Bucky’s face in the third panel.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Darby Conley, Ewww, Flying McCoys, Get Fuzzy, Reynolds Unwrapped, Watch Your Head, cats, comic strips, comics, humor | 23 responses so far

Obama’s Speech: The Aftermath

Cidu Bill on Sep 8th 2009

So… Was anybody’s kid exposed to Obama’s speech today and come home a gay, socialist Kenyan? My son’s school, which originally offered concerned parents the option of sparing their children from having to listen to the speech, changed their minds and banned the speech altogether.

Today’s civics lesson, kids: School policy should be set based on the fear of upsetting a vocal minority, even if that minority doesn’t even offer a rational explanation of their concerns.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel | 50 responses so far

President Obama’s Address to Students

Cidu Bill on Sep 4th 2009

I got a message from my son’s high school this afternoon assuring me that he would not be forced to watch Obama’s speech next week, and that the school would provide an alternative educational program for all students whose parents opted them out of watching the speech. I understand this sort of thing is going on in schools all across the country.

Is there any explanation for this other than mass insanity? I could understand it if Obama were intending to ask children to tell their parents to support his health care reform, or suggest they go through their mothers’ pocketbooks and send him all those little pieces of green paper with presidents’ pictures on them… but apparently he’s only going to offer a pep talk about working hard in school.

Just the sort of underhanded thing you’d expect from a native-born Kenyan!

Does anybody sincerely think this is controversial? And if so, why not just follow with an opposing viewpoint such as a clip from Ferris Bueller?

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Ferris Bueller, education, media, politics | 92 responses so far

”Do We Not Pay You Enough?”

Cidu Bill on Aug 18th 2009

Chris Reaves: Okay, this Doonesbury went over my head. Is the idea that the birthers won’t believe even the actual physical document? That they won’t show up to see it? That displaying it would be giving in to terrorists? That the birth certificate in fact DOES say “Kenya” on it? None are really funny. Furthermore, the language itself seems to imply that it’s the last option (the sentence trailing off where it does suggests the problem is with what they would see) which would be an incredibly uncharacteristic joke for Trudeau.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, CIDU, Doonesbury, G.B. Trudeau, birthers, comic strips, comics, humor | 44 responses so far

LOL-August 2

Cidu Bill on Aug 2nd 2009

Filed in Argyle Sweater, Barack Obama, Charles Manson, Dave Coverly, Doug Bratton, Leigh Rubin, Little Mermaid, Love Is, Pop Culture Shock Therapy, Rubes, Scott Hilburn, Speed Bump, comic strips, comics, comics that made us laugh out loud, humor, lol, xkcd | 18 responses so far

An Amusing Photo and a Disturbing Thought

Cidu Bill on Jul 16th 2009

In my lifetime, in parts of the United States, he could have been lynched for this.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel | 51 responses so far

Bizarre Realization of the Day

Cidu Bill on Jul 2nd 2009

Michael Jackson was four years older than President Obama.

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, Michael Jackson | 18 responses so far

Puff

Cidu Bill on Jun 22nd 2009

Not that President Obama has asked me for my opinion, but…

Of course I understand that as a role model for kids, the fact that he’s trying to quit smoking is a good thing — but honestly, with all his many responsibilities, do we really want him dealing with the distraction and crankiness that come with nicotine withdrawal?

(Of course, having just signed a major anti-smoking bill, he doesn’t have a lot of choice, does he?)

Filed in Barack Obama, Bill Bickel, cigarettes | 25 responses so far