Propaganda in the Morning Paper

I guess I picked the wrong day to get out of bed.

I was browsing through one of the regional newspapers, the Ft. Smith (AR) Times-Record, and came across today's choice for their editorial cartoon, a Joe Heller composition from the Green Bay (WI) Press Gazette. I understand why many newspaper do not do their own editorial cartoons: cartoonists require paychecks and there aren't that many good ones to pick from (or so it would seem). Yet there are choices from among the many who allow their work to be used, and some of them, you might think, would be focusing on the issues of the day instead of trying to "refocus" our attention on the sins of the past:


Notice the lapel pin: GOP Spending 2001-2008.

Where do you start? First, the pin should read, 2001-2006. Since the mid-term congressional elections in 2006, the Democrats have controlled Congress AND spending. No one wants us to remember that. These are Pelosi-Reid-Bush deficits, the result of truly bipartisan pork. That includes the execrable $750 billion TARP fund that Democrats were only too eager to seek GOP support on.

Second, since the ascension of The One, we've now added over $2 trillion in new spending, anticipating a budget deficit this year alone of $1.7 trillion, which is more than four times larger than the biggest Bush deficit. Most Republicans have abstained from this spending, having discovered a latent talent for fiscal responsibility. Better late than never! What is taking place is without factual doubt clearly a work of the left-leaning Democrat party.

I would expect socialist Green Bay to applaud an editorial cartoon pinning "spending disease" and hypocrisy on Republicans. But I think the Arkansas newspaper is seriously out of step with its readership. Worse, the column beneath the cartoon by John Brummett of the Arkansas News Bureau (whatever the hell that is) dumps on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, a conservative Republican, for telling the nation that the solution to our problems is not the bigger -- massively, humongously bigger -- government that President Barack Obama is creating. Asks Brummett:

"What's Bobby Jindal's better idea? I guess he'd cut our taxes and give us all an Ayn Rand book."

Well, Mr. Brummett, that's not such a bad idea. The tax cuts alone would provide real relief to productive Americans, and a bit of education in capitalism a la Ayn Rand would counter-act this suicidal notion currently prevailing in this country that the solution to over-spending and big government is more over-spending and big government. We cannot continue to punish those who risk and build while rewarding those who merely criticize and say "gimme."

Only those who do not understand the nature of productive work and the lessons of history can afford to be so clueless.

And I thought the Tulsa World was a bad paper.

Yes, there are those in both parties who are spending hypocrites, and each and every one of them should be removed from office, by the voters, at the earliest possible opportunity. Meanwhile, our nation's newspapers should do more than merely act as the cheerleaders for the socialists who are taking us to Destination Ugly.