Top 5 Political Cartoons of the Week

I’ve scanned through about a hundred political cartoons to bring you five of the very best in roots humor from this past week.  Read, enjoy, and annoy Republican family and friends by forwarding these to them.

Since this was a particularly gruesome week (3,000 death milestone, Saddam's hanging, etc.), these political cartoons reflect their subject-matter.  Be sure to post links to other cartoons or humor from the last week that I overlooked.  Here are my top five from 12/31-1/6:

1. Angel Boligan, El Universal, Mexico City, Mexico, "Venganza," 12/31– a stark, haunting reminder of the price of Saddam Hussein’s head.  "Venganza" means "revenge," and this is the only political cartoon I've seen that renders the gruesome toll of American soldiers killed to bring W. his Saddam trophy.  Spare and simple, the most damning cartoons don't need words.

Venganza

2. M.E. Cohen, freelance, "Mr. 3000" 1/3 – Cohen’s caricature captures the mixture of entitlement, denial, and petulance (in that order) that marks the dark side of Bush’s frat boy image, here at the expense of 3,000 American soldiers.  

Mr. 3000

3. Bruce Plante, Chattanooga, TN, Chattanooga Times Free Press, "Amazing!" 1/3.  The only cartoon that I’ve seen which points out, as so many of you do every week, that America supported Hussein during the period in which he murdered tens of thousands of his own citizens.

"Amazing!"

4. Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal Constitution, "The Noose," 1/3.  Boligan covers the human costs of Saddam’s hanging, and Lucovich covers the political costs.  It has taken one of the most incompetent administrations in American history to turn Saddam Hussein into a pitiable victim in a bizarro-world al-Sadr-inspired lynching.

The Noose

5.  Monte Wolverton, The Wolvertoon, "Global Warming Denial," 1/1.  There have been a slew of global warming inspired political cartoons starring near-drowning polar bears lately, but only Wolverton’s cartoon stars a buff Al Gore.  

Global Warming Denial

Honorable Mentions

Bruce Plante, 12/27.  Worth a look simply for mini-Bush’s cowboy boots.

http://editorialcartoonists.com/...

Matt Davies,  The Journal News, 1/4.  A great critique of a grisly new-world snuff-voyeurism on you-tube.

http://editorialcartoonists.com/...

Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate.  Thank you, Ted, for pointing out something the Ford and Bush administrations shared other than Rummy and Cheney.

http://editorialcartoonists.com/...

and, of course, the Dailykos parody of the week goes to kestrel9000, who clearly has too much time to spare.

Me and Julio Down By the Schoolyard

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Historical quote of the week:

"We can have a special [flag]--our States do it: we can have just our usual flag, with the white stripes painted black and the stars replaced by the skull and cross-bones." -- Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness," 1901