Nick Anderson's response to Rick Perry's cartoon pique

WaPo:

Nick Anderson, the Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist for the Houston Chronicle, rendered his commentary Tuesday, in which Texas Gov. Rick Perry is depicted as getting more outraged over a cartoon — by Sacramento Bee cartoonist Jack Ohman — than the actual oversight and regulation issues involving the West, Tex., fertilizer plant that exploded last month, killing at least 15 and injuring scores more.

Asked to share the thinking behind his cartoon, Anderson tells Comic Riffs: "I just have a question: Why do people seem more offended by a cartoon than they are by the lax regulatory climate that likely contributed to or even caused this tragedy?"

Nick Anderson is all over the governor lately. And his question is just common sense for everyone except the top two elected officials in Texas.

But for a state that has sent Louie Gohmert and Steve Stockman to Washington... and would like to send Ted Cruz to the White House (ain't hap'nin, but Lord, please let 'em nominate him) , it's just par for the course.

Until Battleground Texas get geared up, this tincture of craven and stupid is all on you, Republicans. And with Greg Abbott waiting in the wings, I doubt you're going to manage to do any better in 2014. In the meantime, we'll watch as Houston hosts the NRA's national convention this weekend, with a parade of Cruz, Ted Nugent (who soiled himself rather than go to Vietnam, and now blames military suicides on Obama), Sarah Palin, and Rick Santorum ahead of the very worst America has to offer.

The nation's premier gun-rights organization, with nearly 5 million members, expects more than 70,000 to attend the convention.

[...]

The NRA caps off Saturday night with a "Stand and Fight" rally featuring conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

Apart from the calls to the ramparts, the convention's heart rests in the 400,000 square feet of exhibit hall space where more than 500 firearms companies, hunting outfitters, gun antique collectors and others will display their wares. In addition, seminars feature topics such as "home defense concepts," "methods of concealed carry," and "advanced sausage processing - BBQ & smoke cooking techniques."

A response? Yes.

Outside the convention center, an array of gun-control advocates is expected to demonstrate opposition to the NRA and its lobbying prowess.

"I don't think it's a losing battle at all," said Heather Ross, an organizer for the "Occupy the NRA" group that plans to lead the reading of names of 4,000 gun-violence victims under a #NoMoreNames banner at Discovery Green, across from the convention center. The list will start with the 26 victims of gunman Adam Lamza at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last December.

Texas is not as uniformly pro-gun as most people believe, Ross insisted.

"The concept that we're all a bunch of gun-toting crazies is inaccurate," she said. "That's largely pushed by people elected to office."

The day is coming when this virulent strain of Republican rabies will come under control, but it won't come soon enough.

"This is why I don't think we have a strong president"

Cenk Uygur, “Edge Show” host Mark Thompson, The Nation’s Lee Fang, and comedian Jimmy Dore criticize President Obama’s inability to deliver on his first-term promise to close Guantanamo Bay. During a White House Press conference, Obama renewed his dedication to closing the prison. “I think it’s one of the great failed promises of this presidency,” Thompson says. “This is why I don’t think we have a strong president,” Cenk says. “This is an executive decision. [Obama] shouldn’t have any conversation with Congress about this.”

It is one of the enduring mysteries to me how closing Gitmo can possibly be so difficult or why it is even controversial. Republicans either are too scared to treat the captives legally, or they simply want to kill them all (as if that would solve anything). Obama's capitulation to the pants-crapping cowardice of the GOP is to say, "well OK; since you have screamed so much about it, we'll let you have your way".

Obama reminds me of one of those parents who refuses to discipline their shrieking, wailing child in the restaurant. You know, just let them cry themselves out.

Bullshit. Take that little urchin out to the car and whip his ass until he understands how to behave. Yeah, it's old school but it's how I was raised. And don't tell me about how people call DHS on parents like that, or that children can sue their parents as part of the analogy.

Republicans -- in addition to being cowards -- are bullies. Stand up to them and they will back down. Don't... and they'll keep up their act. Somebody's got to find their spine once in awhile, and we are way overdue for a discovery among the political class.

You have to hope it happens before Ted Cruz gets elected president, anyway.

It's just amazing to me that it takes a man with a broken back to demonstrate the kind of courage needed to slap Republicans across the face with their hypocrisy.