See the October issue of The American Prospect, out now, for a full-page Slowpoke cartoon! (FYI, the cartoon does not appear online.)

Also, my strip about hairdressers applauding John Roberts appears in the current issue of Ms.

I only wish the so-called "cost-cutting" measures to pay for Katrina were as benign as some of the examples in this week's cartoon. $25 billion cut from the Centers for Disease Control? Guess we're banking on the avian flu staying in Asia. $2.5 billion cut from Amtrak as the price of oil rises ever skyward? Smart! $5.5 billion to end all funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting? We certainly don't want people being too informed about how they're getting totally screwed. [Source: MoveOn.org]

Responding to my e-mail from a soldier in Iraq a few posts below, Scott in Iowa writes:

Today, I looked at your blog and noted the following comment from one of your readers:

"The anti-war movement could do a lot of good by providing humanitarian aid to the many benevolent and struggling Iraqi communities here... The pro-war movement should put their money where their mouths are and enlist."

A lot of wisdom there. In fact, even before His Fraudulency, G W Bush, took us into Afghanistan, I was one of the folks arguing that the best thing we could do to improve the world is provide humanitarian aid (food, medicine, supplies, doctors, teachers, etc.) to the rest of the world.

Mr. Bush had the opportunity after 9/11 to take the world and this nation into a new reality. Instead of returning violence with violence and destruction with destruction, we could have killed the beast of hatred with kindness. Alas, this is not what happened--but what else could we have expected?

I remember hoping shortly after 9/11 that we could sweep up bin Laden without an intentionally showy display of violence and widespread civilian casualties, which I believed would only incite more terrorism. Suffice it to say, pursuing shock and awe in Iraq did not even occur to me (though I did read a Washington Post article not long afterward about how some wanted to attack Iraq, which seemed nuttily implausible to me at the time).

It's looking like I will probably be around on Friday after all, so you can catch me at SPX either day (see two posts below).

Regular readers will know I'm not a big fan of Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. I could only stand to watch about ten minutes of the hearings -- the moment I caught was of Roberts fielding a puffball question from one of the Republican senators about what surprised him most about being a judge. My impression of him is surely colored by my knowledge of his long record of being The Man, but he really strikes me as a slick, paternalistic ass.

I did want to follow up on my earlier post about Roberts and gender, adding that he's made some egregious comments about race as well, such as his pompous suggestion during the Reagan administration that affirmative action programs failed because they "required the recruitment of inadequately prepared candidates." That alone should provoke big-time outrage, but alas, it has not. When pressed about the famed University of Michigan affirmative action cases during the hearings, Roberts gave an evasive answer. Look, affirmative action helps level the playing field for qualified people who face institutionalized, de facto disadvantages Roberts has never had to face himself. I submit Roberts' rudimentary understanding of society makes him an "inadequately prepared candidate" for Chief Justice.

Issues of equality aside, he deserves a "no" vote simply for refusing to answer so many damn questions. If you insist upon being an elusive, hair-splitting weasel, then you shouldn't get to sit on the Court.

This cartoon reflects my frustration that everyone is going about business as usual while an insidious revolution is taking place.

I'll be signing books at the Alternative Comics table next weekend at SPX in Bethesda. Stop by and say hello! [Update: Looks like I'll be there both days, Friday and Saturday]

I had an interesting e-mail exchange recently with a self-proclaimed "liberal soldier in Iraq" who had some words of wisdom to impart:

...I read some article about the local insurgency's jihad on Baghdad barbers. This is an ongoing struggle. At the time, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's boys were slaying Baghdad barbers for offering Western style haircuts. These days, it's for trimming beards shorter than the standard supposedly decreed by Muhammed. One death threat read something to the effect of "Our blades are ripe for barber's blood." (S'pathetic how these assholes never bothered to accost Hussein for his sub standard Islamic moustache.) Damned liberal arabic barbers with their western haircuts and hygeine! Fashion jihad!

Around the same time, I read a Time magazine article about Ann Coulter, who quoted her as saying "we should physically intimidate liberals." The parallel is obvious. Stoop to physical intimidation of those you disagree with (like issuing death threats for haircuts) and the next step is making a big pile of books and burning them. HEIL COULTER!

Upon recent investigation, I learned that Time quoted her out of context, and she said something like "we should execute John Walker (Lindh) in order to phys. int. libs..."

I just can't get enough of "HEIL COULTER!" I like the way it feels a rollin' off my tongue... I just want to get "HEIL COULTER!" out to as many people by any means possible.

So there you have it, folks. Spread the word.

Our man in Iraq also had this suggestion:

The anti-war movement could do a lot of good by providing humanitarian aid to the many benevolent and struggling Iraqi communities here... The pro-war movement should put their money where their mouths are and enlist.

Here's an interesting tidbit that ties into the final panel of last week's strip, about letting the "invisible hand" of the market decide who gets saved: in a column published in the Wall Street Journal, John Stossel posits that price gougers are actually saving lives. Stossel manages to avoid the thorny problem of people desperately needing that $20 bottle of water but not being able to afford it.

PS - I've just added an update to the post below.

Maybe some of you have seen this before, but I just stumbled across The Presidential Prayer Team, where you can give money for "prayer mobilization" to aid the victims of Katrina. If you scroll down, you'll find a section on "Additional Leaders to Pray For" where stunningly unqualified FEMA Chair Michael Brown is prominently featured. Insert your own punchline here.

[Update: Brown has been replaced on the prayer site with Thad W. Allen of the Coast Guard, now managing hurricane response for FEMA. Also see the Presidential Prayer Team for Kids, where last week children were encouraged to pray for torture czar Alberto Gonzales. This week, they are urged to pray for Allen and Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff. I would encourage kids, after praying for Chertoff, to also read the CNN article, "Chertoff: Katrina Scenario Did Not Exist."]

I've been busy with an assignment this week, which is why I haven't gotten around to commenting on the latest cartoon. Not that it needs much explanation. (For those who follow the cartoons via this page, they do get posted on Mondays, even if I don't have time to blog about them.)

A few years back, Mr. Slowpoke and I spent a few days in New Orleans as part of a cross-country road trip. We tried to avoid the tourist bars as much as possible -- though we did stop in Lafitte's Blacksmith Shop, a wonderful, historic pub on Bourbon Street. We still have a Lafitte's matchbook around the house somewhere.

One night we happened upon a local watering hole where the friendly bartender was so thrilled to have out-of-towners seeking places off the beaten path, he gave us a free round of Abita. I think he may have also been trying to compensate for the extremely wasted middle-aged woman next to us who, at one point, fell off her stool. He recommended that we also check out Donna's, where we later enjoyed the oompahs of a brass band over a bowl of fantastic jambalaya. I can only wonder what these places must look like now.

Some excellent coverage of the politics surrounding the Katrina debacle over on Talking Points Memo.

One gem: FEMA head Mike Brown got fired from his prior position as commissioner of (chuckle) the International Arabian Horse Association because of "lawsuits over alleged supervision failures."

The man couldn't even handle putting on horse shows.

How was he appointed to FEMA? The former head was his college roommate. Now, that's meritocracy, Bush-style. (see Boston Herald article, via TPM)