I want my money back…

PS: Thanks for the excellent site.

First of all, thank you for all of your comments – I suppose there’s nothing like politics to spark a healthy round of debate and discussion. I also noticed a lot of first-time commenters, so for those folks, welcome!

For those whose comments got erased, please know that it’s not censorship – Neatorama got moved to a bigger (and hopefully, faster) server. For a while, there were two copies of Neatorama floating around on the Net – therefore those who commented on the “old” copy (me included), their comments got erased. I apologize for this.

And let me say that for the most part, the comments are very articulate. I had feared that this would be an inane screaming match between the liberals and the conservatives. Believe me, I’ve had to erase some stupid comments on other posts on this blog (and even close the comment box)!

Now, a number of people wanted Neatorama to stop posting political items. This is a fair request, given Neatorama’s history of posting only “neat” stuff (some may argue that this is actually not true, for example, see the howls that I got for posting the Elephant Hanging story). However, I disagree and here’s why:

I’d like Neatorama to remain current, and in this election season, politics is a natural and important topic of discussion. Posting political news stories is one way to accomplish this, but there are other blogs that do this better (not to mention news websites).

So, I decided that Neatorama will carry editorial cartoons. The blog now syndicates two cartoonists: Steve Sack of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Nick Anderson of the Houston Chronicle.

Now, these guys are award-winning cartoonists (Nick even won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize!), but I must confess that I chose them because I like their cartoon styles!

Obviously, I don’t control what they draw, although I do pick and choose which cartoons to post. Steve Sack is a liberal cartoonist, while Nick Anderson is a “in-the-middle” guy (or supposed to be anyhow, I think he’s leaning to the left!). It’s my intention to syndicate a third, conservative, cartoonist. But these guys cost money, and so I thought I’d start with two.

Some people mentioned Boing Boing, DailyKos, and other prominent blogs. Let me say that it’s an honor to be compared to them. Obviously, controversy didn’t hurt them in the least bit, and I can only hope that Neatorama will continue to grow in readership just like these blogs.

So, is Neatorama a liberal blog? I don’t think so, but you be the judge. I don’t mind if you either love or hate Neatorama, as long as you don’t think it’s boring!

In closing, I’d like to thank everyone who commented – I appreciate their point of views. I hope you will continue to read the blog, participate by commenting and suggesting stories, and (I hope) telling your friends about Neatorama.

#45 Becki, you are spot on.

#45 Becki is spot on.

Blue congressional districts are Neatorama!

Pissing off Republicans with spot on political cartoons is Neatorama!

Reality is Neatorama!

I found this photo of John Kerry pleading for halp from Vietnam

http://www.givemetheinfo.com/blog/blogger.html

Seems John Kerry was stuk in veeyetnam long before anybody was ever stuck in Irak.

Let me just say this about Kerry: he’s so bad a politician, he actually made the choice to vote against Bush a difficult decision.

The Response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TbZ5jPJk4Dg&eurl=

Then there’s this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dc40lUpql10&eurl=

Don’t worry you’re still my favorite web-site though.

Hahahaha, Carole! He’s not that smart, though. He may be dumber than Bush and that’s not an easy task.

Well, Blacknimbus, he was right. It is and army of the poor and the black and the brown (Bush made a big deal of making Mexicans who fight in Iraq eligible for immediate citizenship, for example) and as far as war crimes? Does Abu Ghraib sound familiar?

Anyone who can think that John Kerry is anti-troops is a complete and utter moron.

George Bush lied to the country to start an unjust war which has killed thousands of innocent Americans and has only made terror stronger throughout the world. Furthermore, he has done things like cut VA benefits and not provide the appropriate armor for troops.

John Kerry was simply stating this fact. And if you don’t get it, well then you just don’t f*$@ing get it.

To sum: John Kerry cares about soldiers; George Bush pretends to, but only cares about his own interests.

Simple? It seems so. Yet half the country is too obtuse to figure it out. And, ironically, they are the half of the country who will suffer the most.

What a bunch of morons we have in this nation.

And if Neatorama is suddenly deciding to get ‘political’, by opposing a group of people who want to make torture a feature of Western Democracy, then i say, about frikkin’ time.

Actually, I think this is going to drive more Republicans to the polls this year. Frankly, most Republicans don’t care enough about gay marriage/civil unions/domestic partnerships/etc. to go to the polls just to vote against it during a non-presidential election year, or they’re like me – they’re going to vote FOR it. Kerry has just managed to mobilize the right wing – and the gay rights movement will pay for it.

If I were more of a conspiracy theorist, I’d say that Kerry did it on purpose to mobilize the right into voting, thus knocking down the gay rights bills that are coming up in this election. It’s not like he has a sparkling track record in support of gay rights.

But that’d be crazy talk, wouldn’t it? Heck, assuming anything Kerry does is intentional would be crazy talk.

I too am saddened to see this site go the way of boingboing…

“In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army “a greater anathema.”

“I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black and the brown,” Kerry wrote. “We must not repeat the travesty of the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply ‘doing its job.’

“Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people further from control over military activities,” he wrote.”

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20061102/D8L4QH580.html

I LOVED the Minnesota National Guard picture, though. Hahahaa!

As a European I don’t understand the deification of the troops. Soldiers aren’t supermen or heroes. They’re people with a job. A really scary job.

Both parties suck, but do you really want this cool blog to suck too?

How about starting a different blog for politics instead of alienating those of us who come here for apoltical “NEAT” stuff?

The political scandals that get the most press are usually the stupidest. In Canada, a lot of air time was given recently to whether one male representative called a female representative (his ex-girlfriend who went to another political party) a “dog” under his breath.

Kerry’s “lame joke” showed what he really thinks about the military: cannon fodder. Don’t know if Bush thinks the same thing, but at least he has the common sense not to say it. Bush having sense? Wow.