SECRET SERVICE CONCERN AFTER LOS ANGELES TIMES COMIC DEPICTS 'BUSH ASSASSINATION'
Anyone who grew up during the Vietnam era will remember the power and significance evoked by this photograph:
Now, Mike Ramirez of the Los Angeles Times has created a furor by using that photograph as the basis for a political cartoon satirizing the possible political fate of Shrub. Is this merely political commentary? Or can it reasonably be interpreted as an incitement to violence?
Understandably, Shrubbies are upset, but I don't know that anyone else believes, as they seem to, that Ramirez is advocating Shrub's assassination. This is not Israel, where public discussion by the Right of the need to assassinate Yitzhak Rabin led to exactly that result.
"The world's first political 'snuff' cartoon... there's a viciousness to this, that's just not funny," noted one White House reporter.
No, it's not funny, but then again, political cartoons aren't always designed to elicit laughs. Sometimes, as I suspect is the case here, the artist is trying to make a point. Is Ramirez advocating the assassination of the President? Unlikely. Is the cartoon in poor taste and open to misinterpretation? Without a doubt.
Anyone who is willing to examine the cartoon dispassionately will likely see the cartoon for what it is: a reflection on what Ramirez seems to feel may be the self-inflicted political fate of Shrub. Perhaps I might not have done it in the same manner as Ramirez, but I don't see his cartoon as an invitation to assassination. Even so, the indignation displayed by members of the Shrub Administration is misplaced. Perhaps if your man actually lived the integrity that he wraps himself in this sort of political commentary would be unnecessary. Get over yourselves, willya?? All you're doing is attempting to deflect attention from the intellectual dishonest of Our Sainted President. Nice try....
