Worst of Aprl 2005

Comics 'n' Politics

My Worst in Politics Picks for April 2005

1)13 year old girl, ward of the state, living in a shelter home for kids, gets pregnantRandall Terry and Jeb Bush icons of morality and reason bar the kid from obtaining the abortion she seeks due to the fact that a)she was raped b) she has no education c) no home d) no job or job prospects and at 13 is too young to attain full time employment. When she asked the judge appointed to her case how they thought she would be able to care for a child when she has none of the above, the judge refused to answer her other than saying the "State of Florida is doing whats best for the child." Exactly which child are they talking about, as I see absolute neglect in regard to the 13 year old girl and the foetus she carries. Once again, GOP lackeys prove that hypocrisy, cynicism, and dominance know no bounds when wraught by the Rethugs.
2)Shrub pushes his agenda to destroy social securitythe system that has workedsince the New Deal to provide a safety net to all American's of retirement age, yet also helps disabled Americans and those who loose parents before they reach 18yrs of age.
We have allowed an entitled fuckmonkey whose political experience included a 5 year stint as the "Texicutioner", governor of the state of the union that executes the highest perchentage of prsioners each year. He bankrupted 5 businesses prior to taking Executive office, and now is bankrupting the country. He sits on the board or is a major shareholder of various oil and devlopment companies, and yet YOU IDIOTS who support him expect that he will make choices influenced by whats good for Americans, not corporations. As the next 5 years disintegrate thisonce great country and all we hold dear, just remember you can tell your kids *I voted for Bush*
3)GOP house members vote against aid for our troops in the form of armor for humvees and other vechicles. Here ya go with those results:
Last Thursday, the Senate agreed to an amendment (mentioned on the blog) to change the Emergency Supplemental to provide an additional $213 million in funding to produce armored Humvees. Here's how the vote broke down:

YEAs ---61
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN) Next time you want to slap a yellow ribbon and a bush/cheney
Biden (D-DE) Sticker on your car, remember who actually SUPPORTS the
Bingaman (D-NM) TROOPS-THE DEMOCRATS. THE PARTY OF PROSPERITY, THE
Boxer (D-CA) PROSOLDIER, PROCHILD, PROEDUCATION, PROSOCIAL
Burns (R-MT) SECURITY PARTY.
Byrd (D-WV)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chafee (R-RI)
Clinton (D-NY)
Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corzine (D-NJ)
Dayton (D-MN)
DeWine (R-OH)
Dodd (D-CT)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lieberman (D-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lott (R-MS)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McCain (R-AZ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Santorum (R-PA)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Schumer (D-NY)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Talent (R-MO)
Thune (R-SD)
Wyden (D-OR)

NAYs ---39Akaka (D-HI)

Alexander (R-TN)
Allen (R-VA)
Allard (R-CO)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Craig (R-ID)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Frist (R-TN)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Inouye (D-HI)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Roberts (R-KS)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thomas (R-WY)
Vitter (R-LA)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)

4)FRIST, DOBSON, et al and JUSTICE SUNDAY. Bringing down the separation of checks and balances and attempting to do away with checks and balances as gaurenteed by the US SENATE.

5) The pathetic attempts of Tom Delay to flaut the ethics rules that apply to our "elected" officials and escape yet again with impunity. Texas People, wake the hell up! Is this what you want, who you feel represents your interests? We need to see some action here folks, the only system we currently have is the failed, flawed republic that we live under in the US. MAKE IT WORK FOR YOU. GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND GET ACTIVE AND MAKE YOUR REPS DO THEIR JOBS!

Next time, the importance of campaign finance reform.

Best of April 2005

Comics 'n' Politics: April 2005

SEVEN SOLDIERS: ZATANNA and KLARION

Leave it to Grant Morrison to take obscure characters from deep within the strata of the DCU, and make them exciting, engaging, and fresh. While Zatanna is the best known of the characters recieving the Seven Soldiers treatment, she has arguably been underused, undervalued, and seriously under developed. While she has always been one of my favorite JLAers, the true reason is simply that she's totally hot. Within the world of Hellblazer, Zatanna has been used in a much more interesting manner, as John Constantines occaisional lover, magick equal, and coconspirator. Yet we still see so little of what makes her tick. Certainly in ID Crisis, a truly human depiction begain to scratch the surface-Dr. Light's mindwipe was orchestrated by Zatanna, setting off the chain of events and mindwipes to come, and finding our JLA heros at odds with their teammates, and their own conscience.
Leave to to Grant Morrison to find the core of Zee, to really show what makes her tick...No more relegated to the hero that doubles as a magician and uses backwards directives to cast her spealls, we finally see her as she experiences the world, and we see that her experiences are much like our own. Zatanna's life outside the league is emotianally resonant as she finds herself in ethical and moral conundrums, and attempts to combat her very human inadequacies through attending self help groups. She also is powerful beyond her command and has yet to realize her full potential. Through Morrision's lens, it seems that we finally truly know Zatanna, after 67 years of regular appearences. Ryan Sook's pencils are gorgeous, and I always appreciate Zatanna depicted as lovely as Sook renders her.
Klarion hasn't been around quite so long, being introduced in the original Kirby version of The Demon in 1973 as a nemisis of Etrigan's. Not so much of a Demon fan, I was unfamilair with the ins and outs of Klarion the Witch Boy.
An admittedly cliched story of a homegrown rebel doing battle with authoritative community leaders as old as Footloose itself recieves deft development through Morrison's masters touch. Penicils, ink, and colors by Frazer Irving create a beautifully creepy subterranean home dimension.
If you haven't checked out 7 Soldiers yet, it's well worth the trouble and definitely lives up to the hype.

The Fear of Otherness in Comic Universes

Off in the Fanboy Rampage blog's forum, a really long and ultimately sad discussion has been taking place, discussing inappropriate comic book sexuality. A sad, small minded retailer had a coniption over the fact that New Avengers shows a very tame, very sweet same sex relationship between Hulkling and Asgardian. He wanted Marvel to keep comics pure "for the kids," gay kids be damned of course. Why should gay kids see positive representations of themselves in the best artistic/literary medium on earth? As a retailer, he didn't want parents getting on his ass, but more than that, the issue made him uncomfortable. As we all know, stupid white men (no offense to the smart white men among us) like to eliminate everything that causes them unease. My response to him went like this:Until it is acknowledged that homophobia (and for that matter, racism and sexism, though I save those issues for another time)are promulgated through insidious reinforcement of stereotypes, "values"(read: XTian thought policing), and biogtry, especially as dessiminated through the media, (all forms of media)we will never see any true progress and tolerance within our culture.Sex is a biological, not moral imperitive. It is people who create the construct of morals and values and then apply them to issues/things which are incapable of reflecting morals and values. Homophobia is promoted as acceptable every time that relationships between same sex couples are presented as "other", placed in context of being "racy", "extreme", "naughty", or "mature"; juxtaposed with the "safe", "innocent", "sweet", and "all ages appropriate" nature of the hetero relationship. As David noted, as a retailer, if you are not opposed to the teenaged Peter Parker and Mary Jane's USM relationship, then why would you be opposed to a same sex Young Avengers same sex teen relationship, played out just as innocuously as we see in USM?Marvel has ALWAYS, ALWAYS been the company that respects the intelligence of the audience. From the first ish of XMEN way back when, Marvel was doing something absolutely unheard of in comics at the time, which was questioning the status quo. Metaphorically, the mutants represented the marginalized in US society. The hatred, violence, and bigotry they experienced at the hands of nonmutant humans gave readers, many for the first time, a chance to see from the other guys' shoes. At the height of the civil rights battles in this country, the mutants exploits mirrored the experiences of the oppressed- they were noble and heroic, yet flawed, truly more human than the non mutants who so persecuted them for their differences- and for a child who may be indoctrinated daily by anticivil rights parents, each time they picked up an XMEN comic, they recieved subtle messages of tolerance and respect. People that are different from you are not bad, and they deserve freedom and justice an respect.As a gay teen in the mid 90's, I found so much salvation in the form of the Sandman series. Until that point, I had pretty much given up comics, and a big reason was that I couldn't relate anymore. That is, until the day I was turned onto Gaiman's Sandman book, where I saw myself reflected back in Gaiman's deft handling of his lesbian characters: just regular women, having a regular relationship, being portrayed w/o any indication that they were "other". There was no sensationalism, no exploitation. They were fully developed characters and they were gay. They were real. And it saved me in a way, and it brought me back to comics with a vengence, allowing me to come to the point today where my pull list is described by my store as "including every book that comes out, ever!"The fact that you would denigrate a current Marvel title for promoting *POSITIVITY,*(to paraphrase you JM)tolerance, and most importantly, validation for readers who, horror of horrors are GLBT; readers who so rarely get to see themselves among the pages of their favorite books, experiencing a relationship that reflects their own or the one they wish to have is pathetic. The argument that Marvel is bringing heat onto retailers b/c parents don't approve is even more pathetic and demonstative of the complete lack of personal accountability and responsibility in our society. If a parent doesn't like it, they shouldn't buy it for their child. Its not the job of retailer, publisher, writer or artists to parent the country's children, it is the parents' job alone. Until we see our relationships given the respect in portrayl they deserve, we will see homophobia remain rampantantly reinforced. Only when our relationships are treated with the respect given to hetro relationships (i.e. a non issue, just another relationhip)we will never see true tolerance. People like you JM just perpetuate the cycle, while hiding behind the "I'm not a bigot but..." tag line. Look at what the real issues you have with this portrayl of young love, b/c what I see is this: You feel UNCOMFORTABLE with the subject matter, so YOU don't want it accessible to anyone, after all, if not you, who will think of the kids...
Which brings me to my point, the lack of personal accountability within the greater US society. It boggles the mind that the concept of "culture wars" inspired by the likes of scumbags like Reed and Dobson can even exsist. What ever happened to free will? What makes it so difficult for people to accept responsibility for their own actions, and those of their families? Where upon did promotion of XTian values become the role of the US or state government for that matter? If you don't want your kid reading comics with magic, or same sex relationships, cursing, or whatever it is you wish to shield your child from, DON'T BUY THEM. Don't like Harry Potter? Don't Buy it. Don't want to watch CSI or hearing swearing on Deadwood? DON't WATCH IT.
People seem to feel that we need morality police making and legislating choices for us, ironically as they crow about "spreading freedom" in places like Iraq. It's time to take back the power of our own free will, and assert the need for others to do the same. Write to comic companies like Marvel and tell them you support writers freedom of subject matter. Write to the FCC and tell them to keep their hands off your airwaves. Write to your congress person and tell them that they need to support HR. 1440, the Stamp Out Censorship Act, and the separation of church and state. An enlightened society is the only way to ensure our freedom to be who we are. Lets start taking control back from these wingnuts, and let's make them see that personal responsibility is the only option. After all, why should James Dobson ifluence what YOU read, hear, or see? He has terrible taste.