They are trying to crucify Tom Toles over his soldier cartoon.

[w8liftinglady]

I plan to email the washington post and let them know that I support Toles,and that anyone with two brain cells that synapse would know that the cartoon was a criticism of Rumsfeld,not an exploitation of the soldier.feel free to send some DU love to Toles-he is one of their braver cartoonists.
[e-mail]

[boobooday]

1. The truth hurts

I think contacting the WaPo to show support is important. I'm sure they are getting a flurry of hate mail from the other side.

[CottonBear]

2. The "other side" seems to have much in common with the angry Muslims

although, I'm sure they would not like the comparison to a group that wants to ban free speech and expression.

[GrpCaptMandrake]

4. Agreed!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x313199

[boobooday]

5. Just like Bush seems to have more in common with Osama

Than with any average American.

Both of them are rich boys who are used to inheriting power, acting with arrogance and impunity, and using others as pawns in their power games.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

10. I don't want free speech banned

but I'm still upset about the cartoons. I have tried to explain why Muslims are upset, but the only responses I have gotten is basically "get over it". My point of posting was to try and explain a Muslim point of view, but for many apparently my efforts are for naught.

[CottonBear]

14. Are you a Muslim? I don't know what post you made or when.

I certainly don't think that all Muslims have the same opinion regarding the Danish editorial cartoons. I do think that the Danish paper had the right to apologize or not. Apparently they did do so. Personally, I don't think they should have. Maybe the uproar was over the actual depiction of a the prophet which is not allowed in most Muslim art or illustration.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

29. That is part of it

You are very correct-you don't depict drawings of the Beloved Prophet-he was a man, and not to be worshipped. To display a drawing of him would be like taking a golden calf into a synagog and worshipping it-just not done.

The other part is the implication that all Muslims are terrorists, support bombing, etc, which is not so.

What bothers me most about this is that it is following a pattern we saw some 70 years ago in Europe, when another Semite people were demonized and their faith ridiculed in jokes and cartoons.

And I am a Sufi initiate. Sufism is the mystical sect of Islam. About a third of Muslims think we're heretics-which makes for interesting dialogs at Islamic websites! :)

[CottonBear]

33. The owner of my local internet service provider is a Muslim and a leading

citizen in my community. He also translates for CNN from time to time! He was the official translation voice of Hussein during the first part of the war. He also is a leader of the local mosque and the mosque worked with the local Jewish synagogue and a local Baptist church to build a Habitat for Humanity home called Abraham House! My firm even helped to sponsor the home! He also writes about Islam for our local paper. This Muslim man is a great respector of free speech: he owns an internet service in a 'blue' university town in a red state!

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

34. I'm glad that there are places where folks can live and work in peace

this is the way it should be.

[CottonBear]

15. Dupe. Delete. n/t

[formernaderite]

36. except they're probably not going to blow us up

I have no problem with their outrage or their boycotts, I would have a problem if the Post gave in to them. Both sides express freedom of expression...threatening to kill people is not quite the same. I've practiced boycotts and outrage over things they've said too.

Toles happens to be one of my favorite satirists out there...

[FSogol]

3. The Joint Chiefs obviously have miss placed priorities.

The Joint Chiefs need to put down the editorial page and make sure our troops have non-contaminated water, non-perished food, and the proper body armor. The fact that they let all these things happen is a million times more offensive than any cartoon.

[w8liftinglady]

6. You've got that right!

[emulatorloo]

8. to0 busy WILLFULLY misunderstanding Toles

They claim Toles is attacking our Troops and Military, when it is clear that it is an attack on Rumsfeld for not supporting our troops by adequately protecting them.

[Coexist]

38. Right - stop making sense please

it confuses us poor Americans.

[Just Me]

7. It's blatantly obvious what's depicted is Rummy's attitude toward soldiers

,...and the military (heartless exploitation while totally ignoring the travesty suffered by those men and women)). Naturally, they turn it around and assert that Toles was disrespecting the soldiers, which is total bullshit.

[emulatorloo]

9. just as they claimed Kerry was attacking our soldiers

when Kerry was criticising Rummy policy putting them in harm's way.

This "willful ignorance" is SOP for these Karl Rove Fueled attacks.

[KoKo]

11. Thanks for the post. I sent a message to the Ombudsman but Opinions

is probably a better place for support for Toles.

[Zenlitened]

12. Done. Q for media: How much of this GOP shit are you going to put up with?

Here's what I wrote to wapo:

Don't get punk'd by the right-wing Manufactured Outrage Machine, please.

The cartoon was OBVIOUSLY a jab at Rumsfeld. No sane person could see it otherwise.

But the republicans are slime, quite frankly, and have no compunction about pretending otherwise if it will inflame their sick little followers a bit further.

Seriously, I'd like to see you do a story about the entire phenomenon, whereby the right-wing propagandists willfully distort reality to manipulate a gullible segment of the public -- often with the media's help.

It is a form of lying, and it's wrong. And now that you're on the receiving end of it, I hope you'll take up the discussion and cast some light on this despicable practice.

Comparison to Goebbels welcome. Because the republican party is carrying a tradition that should be repugnant to every American with a shred of decency left to them.

[w8liftinglady]

13. wow..great letter!

[Just Me]

25. SPOT - ONNN!!!!

Short, succinct, impactful!!!! :yourock:

[malaise]

16. The joke is that some people

want free speech only when the speech supports their view. Fugg all of them and leave the cartoonists in peace.
Edit. sp.

[Stephanie]

17. where's the cartoon?

I didn't see it

[w8liftinglady]

30. this one

[w8liftinglady]

31. the small print at the bottom says

"I'm prescribing that you be stretched thin.we don't define that as torture."

[Stephanie]

37. thx

I was squinting!

[Coexist]

18. Oops sorry- I just asked the same thing

hopefully that one will drop into obscurity. I am on it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=313752&mesg_id=313752

[BOSSHOG]

19. I'M A VETERAN

The assault on Toles is just one more reason to add to my growing list of why I hate "conservatives" irrationally. Fuck the Joint Chiefs and fuck any American who finds the cartoon offensive. "Conservatives" wave the flag and display magnets all for the purpose of getting our kids blown up and dismembered. They absorb bush's lies and enable the monster to put our kids in hospital beds in need of artificial limbs. "Conservatives" DO NOT SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. I welcome any dissenting opinions. I've anxiously looked for a "conservative" to set me straight for the past three years but they, like their hero, have failed miserably.

[Coexist]

21. Please send an email to WaPo and think about a LTTE

it will carry more weight coming from a veteran.
:-)

[liberalitch]

22. Thank you for your service.....

If you lost any friends in some horrible meat grinder I am sorry..... especially while you and they are fighting for the right of Toles and others to do exactly as they please.

How dare the RW pretend people aren't coming back a mere shadow of their former selves!

[w8liftinglady]

27. Military and their families need to support Toles

Please send what you wrote(ok-change fuck to screw)-It is the perfect thing to send them.Thanks

[Coexist]

20. I altered my OP and here it my letter.

It is obvious that the right-wing noise machine has geared up to punish Tom Toles because he disagrees with them, quite vocally, in fact. Notwithstanding the lack of concern on their part when the RNC mocked Vietnam veteran's war wounds with purple-heart band-aids, their outrage seems quite hollow. Did they rise up to protect the citizenry from Ann Coulter's screeching about Max Cleland, or the smearing of veterans John McCain and Jack Murtha.

What they are saying, with this stunt, is that it is okay to abuse actual veterans, but not to show an injured soldier as a metaphor for this administration's blinders?

Please don't punish people who are not guilty. It is wrong and sends a terrible message to those who believe in free speech.

[w8liftinglady]

28. great letter-thanks!

[Double T]

23. GET ON THIS ONE EVERYBODY...............

Once again the rethuglicans are attempting to take away YOUR RIGHT to free speech and expression. Tom Toles is GREAT and needs to hear from his supporters!!!

[Coexist]

24. K & R

[rinsd]

32. Free speech?

Who cares about free speech? Have you seen the threads dealing with the Mohammed caricatures.

It seems people only want to defend free speech if they agree with it.

[Double T]

35. ALL too true!!! You are ALWAYS walking on eggshells with........

fundamentalists that lack a broad sense of humor. Free Speech must always be defended, even if you don't agree with the ideas or words. Thank you ACLU!!!!!

[littlefrieda]

26. It's a Rumsfeld cartoon not a soldier cartoon

[Reader Rabbit]

39. Does anyone have a link to the cartoon in question?

I haven't been able to find it online.

[w8liftinglady]

42. this one

[Lisa]

40. I suppose they would go after WWII cartoonist Bill Mauldin too ...

If he were still alive and drawing.


I can just imagine the brass: "He draws soldiers looking grubby and depressed! He's harming the troops by undermining their morale! And he's encouraging insubordination!"

Several months ago, someone here at DU posted a story about soldiers returning to the green zone in Baghdad after a exhausting mission, and being shooed out of a restaurant by officers, because their uniforms weren't clean. Mauldin had already described this kind of situation:


"Th' hell with it, sir. Let's go back to the front."

http://www.5ad.org/BillMauldin.htm


"One photograph of Mauldin shows him sitting on ruins in Italy, sketching with a prankster's smirk as if whipping up the very cartoon that made General Patton flip his lid (which he did, in 1945, giving Mauldin the riot act for depicting GIs splattering officers with tomatoes)."
http://flakmag.com/opinion/mauldin.html

[Ksec]

41. The repubs and the terrorists have sooo much in common

Both are religious extremists. Both use propaganda. Both are at war with Liberalism.

btw w8liftinglady; I emailed the Post and gave my support for both them and Toles.

[Gabi Hayes]

43. anybody here ever read Paul Fussell? I'd sure love to see his take

on this.

thanks for this thread, and the many excellent insights

my father had his ass literally blown off in WWII, and he, like Fussell, had little love lost for any but his compatriots in the front lines of the infantry.