It’s Comical, Part 4: Comic Book Books Edition

There are some cartoon characters who start out in the funnies and then show up in books. For example, there’s Little Orphan Annie. It was a daily comic strip written and drawn by Harold Gray. It ran for 86 years, ending in June 2010. We don’t have to miss it, though, as Governor Jan Brewer has taken her place.   Makes sense to me, as Governor Jan sorta looks like a Leapin’ Lizard.  You probably heard the sad story Jan tells about her father dying while fighting the Germans in World War II.  Such a good story.  Too bad it wasn’t true…

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(Sheriff Joe Arpaio is making a guest appearance as Daddy Warbucks Waronhispanics)

Heil-arious

From JOSHUA GREEN at the Atlantic:

An election year already notable for its menagerie of extreme and unusual candidates can add another one: Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio’s 9th District, and a Tea Party favorite, who for years donned a German Waffen SS uniform and participated in Nazi re-enactments.

Iott, whose district lies in Northwest Ohio, was involved with a group that calls itself Wiking, whose members are devoted to re-enacting the exploits of an actual Nazi division, the 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking, which fought mainly on the Eastern Front during World War II.

Now, now, kids, let’s not get all bent out of shape. Rich Iott is just a family guy with Republican family values. I’ve found some pictures that will show you what a nice guy ol’ Rich really is. In fact, he’s just like us (well, those of us who are not Christine O’Donnell, who is “you” (if you are not a witch). Before he grabs a shave, Rich takes a nice long bath and enjoys his morning tea while his cat, Rudolf Hiss, looks on.

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Look how proud he is of that Susan B. Anthony List endorsement!

(Don’t tell her the dog’s real name is Santiago!)

From POLITICS DAILY:

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer finds herself under scrutiny after telling a newspaper that her father “died fighting the Nazi regime in Gemany.” In actuality, Brewer’s father, Wilford Drinkwine, passed away from lung disease in California, ten years after World War II had ended.

Brewer’s comments were made to The Arizona Republic [actually, it’s The Arizona Guardian] newspaper, and came as she was discussing her state’s polarizing new anti-illegal immigrant law, which the governor signed into law last month.

“Knowing that my father died fighting the Nazi regime in Germany, that I lost him when I was 11 because of that… and then to have them call me Hitler’s daughter. It hurts. It’s ugliness beyond anything I’ve ever experienced,” Brewer told the paper.

It’s not the first time Governor Jan told slightly exaggerated stories about her tragic childhood. Did you know she wrote a book about it?

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TEXtbooks

From The New York Times:

AUSTIN, Tex. — After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

The vote was 10 to 5 along party lines, with all the Republicans on the board voting for it.

The board, whose members are elected, has influence beyond Texas because the state is one of the largest buyers of textbooks.

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Bye Bye Bybee

Jay Bybee has been a federal judge in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in  Las Vegas for 6 years.  He was little noticed until the release of a memo written by Bybee when he was head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.  The memo gave protection to what the Bush administration called harsh interrogation and what others call torture.  Liberal groups have called for Bybee’s impeachment.

The techniques excused by Bybee included waterboarding, sleep deprivation, beatings, and confinement in small boxes. In 2002, Bybee advised the Central Intelligence Agendy that they could use the tactics against Abu Zubaydah, a leader of al-Qaida.  Bybee said that the techniques were not torture, because there was “no intent to cause severe pain or suffering.”

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Dan and Ted’s Excellent Delusion

From Politico:

ANCHORAGE—In an unusual move, one of the Senate’s most senior Democrats is lending his name to the embattled reelection bid of its longest-serving Republican.

Hawaii’s Daniel K. Inouye, a Democrat, in a statement issued by the campaign of Alaska’s Ted Stevens, a Republican and longtime friend, answers criticism from Stevens’ Democratic opponent and predicts Stevens will win reelection Tuesday and later be exonerated on an appeal of last week’s verdict finding him guilty of hiding gifts.

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Don’t worry, Cindy Lou, you get pain meds after a nose job!

From The Christian Science Monitor:

Gilding the lily is nothing new to politics. From the 1840s when William Henry Harrison claimed to have been born in a log cabin (it was actually a Virginia plantation) to Ronald Reagan’s reminiscing about flying over Germany in World War II (he did, but only in a movie), politicians have taken perfectly good stories and embellished them.

This campaign is no exception.

…snip…

The latest embellishments come from the McCain camp. Cindy McCain has repeatedly referred to herself as an “only child.” This week came news that she actually has two half sisters, although apparently she had very little contact with them.

The McCain campaign had also put out the story that Mother Teresa “convinced” Cindy to bring home two orphans from Bangladesh in 1991.

Mrs. McCain, it turns out, never met Mother Teresa on that trip. (Once contacted by the Monitor, the campaign revised the story on its website.)

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