The Social Poets: Cartoons: American and World Politics, Tea Party

*** Check out the latest from the cartoonists this week as they weigh in on the Sherrod unjust firing after they were all set up by Fox News lies. And some Tea Party funnies as a bonus.

Funny Einstein photoshopped as a rocker

From Denny: Talk about a news story that got so many "legs" (as they say in the news biz) that it got up and ran out of the neighborhood: The Unjust Firing of Shirley Sherrod. What this story has is all the right elements. It has injustice at the core of the story at a time when injustice runs rampant in our business world, economy and culture.

It has racial and gender aspects that just prove "the more things change the more they remain the same." Too many women have been waiting for their time of acceptance and to be treated like first class citizens in their own country instead of being treated like second class citizens. What makes it worse is when there are women like the Republicans who join "the masters" and condemn their fellow slaves mindset. Women who turn on other women without hesitation or thought of giving them the benefit of the doubt until the dust settles.

American female culture never has been terribly nice and usually very nasty in how women throw each other under the bus. And American women wonder why most men don't take them seriously enough. The problem is that the women who are serious, thoughtful, energetic about doing more for society and hard-working, like Sherrod, get short shrift because they are lumped in with the common perception of "the destructive maligning woman."

Nothing speaks to acceptance like being given the benefit of the doubt and be allowed the chance to explain the situation after you have been a loyal public servant for decades. Instead, Sherrod was immediately dismissed without a hearing, without a chance to explain the entire situation. More importantly, she was not given a proper investigation. Because she was female it was assumed she was a problem so her own Democrats dumped her unceremoniously. It had less to do with being black as her own President assumed she was guilty without so much as a thought as to maybe she should get a chance for an investigation first before firing.

What also needs to be addressed by the federal government is a return to the media restraint that was in force before 1987. There was a time (yes, it really is true) when everything that marched out onto the airwaves as news had a high standard of proving the veracity of their facts. There was a time when facts were separated from opinion in news stories whether they were on the air or in print. There was a time when every news program was demanded to accurately present both sides of the story.

The standard is to check your news story facts at least three times before running it in print or on the air. Fox News NEVER checks their facts as they are an entertainment network not a news network. After this incident the President needs to kick out Fox News from the White House briefings and to hell with the howling from other press people. They can threaten to not come back and the White House would just be the better off for it. The reality is that all the network news hounds will back down because they all want in on what is going on to deliver their news stories for profit. Obama was foolish to back down the first time when he first took office and wanted to kick out Fox from the White House press briefings. He should have trusted his instincts.

There was a time that people like Rush Limbaugh would have been jailed and heavily fined for the caustic lying he does regularly on the airwaves. Mind you those are supposed to be public airwaves and yet the government continues to give them away for free to blowhard versions of broadcasters like Limbaugh to make millions off of every year. The taxpayer should get a percentage of his earnings every year for his use of the public airwaves.

It's time Congress visit legislation about true privacy as well as the libel laws and update them. We would put an end to the majority of the political character assassination from the Republicans if the Democrats developed some steel spine and created privacy laws to include people running for office and restricted some things that the media can publish about private lives and family members. Maybe they ought to take a look at France's privacy laws.

Political Charade Cartoons

Shirley Sherrod shafted by her own Democrats who refused to investigate before firing her. If they had they would have realized she was the victim of character assassination and totally fabricated lies. This White House actually was foolish enough to take the word of a conservative blogger known for lying on a regular basis. How idiotic was that one?

Big Business:

American voters are spent:

Tea Party:

The saddest answer to the Tea Party racists:

Former VP Cheney's newest heart issue of getting a mechanical pump to be his new heart. That basically means he no longer has a pulse - literally, weird, huh?