Drone On

The news is a little old, but I appreciate that The Daily Iowan published my Rand Paul filibuster cartoon anyway.

This one was fun to make. I found a transcript of Sen. Paul's filibuster, copied and pasted a page of it into a Word document and made it fill the page without any margins. I drew the cartoon on another piece of paper, cut it out, and glued it on top of the transcript. When I scanned it, it looked like it was all on one piece of paper.

The filibuster, naturally, makes me think of one of my all-time favorite movies: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Nowadays, the filibuster has become more mechanical, but Sen. Paul returned to the romanticism by actually standing up and talking for hours.

The pun of this cartoon was too good to pass up. But really, this filibuster seemed to be a noble cause. First, I didn't believe that President Obama could attack Americans on American soil with drones. Then, Attorney General Eric Holder responded to the inquiry by saying: "It is possible, I suppose, to imagine an extraordinary circumstance in which it would be necessary and appropriate for the President to authorize the military to use lethal force within the territory of the United States."

And, I didn't believe that President Obama actually would target Americans with drone attacks, even if he could. But then I read somewhere a hypothetical question, "What if President Lyndon Johnson or President Nixon had drones at their disposal during the college campus protests and riots?" That made me realize that at least plausibly there might be some use for drones on American soil.

Anyway, maybe we should all be rest assured by Eric Holder's response to the filibuster.

Happy Oscar Weekend!

It's Oscar weekend, everybody.

Two of the leading movies for Oscar nominations seem to show different sides of the Obama presidency.

This cartoon didn't turn out quite as well as I hoped. In the letters of "Zero Dark Thirty," that's supposed to be a predator drone and someone being waterboarded. It's kind of hard to tell. And, I know there's a famous waterboarding scene in "Zero Dark Thirty," but the more timely story with President Obama is the predator drones. I don't know if there's anything with predator drones in "Zero Dark Thirty," so it might not be exactly accurate to combine current events with the events of the movie.

But, even if that isn't all clear in the cartoon, I think it still works. If nothing else, it associates President Obama with getting Osama bin Laden. Which might not be a strong criticism, but at least it's logical.

A Mathematical Lie

The rumors of President Barack Obama spending $200 million-per-day on his trip to India, it was another issue that for some reason I immediately responded to. I wrote a viewpoint, but there wasn't room for it on Tuesday's page and it was similar to other columns already published this semester.

So, it gets to be a blog-exclusive piece!

Enjoy!

A mathematical lie

‘You don’t have to make stuff up’

By J.J. Despain

There are three kinds of people in this world: those who can count and those who can’t.

When it comes to numbers in the news, they can be pretty intangible sometimes. Gigantic corporations or powerful countries get into numbers and figures that are hard for us to comprehend. A U.S. GDP increase of $151.5 billion, a national energy consumption of 86.4 million BTUs and the nearest star to our planet is 39.9 trillion miles away.

But what does it all mean? Any big number might as well be some other big number. The national debt is up to $13.7 trillion, but do we really feel a difference between 13.7 trillion and 1.37 trillion? Most of us have probably never seen a trillion of anything, except for occupied parking spaces on campus when we’re desperate for an empty one.

Big numbers usually wash over us without any effect. But one big number made a splash last week.

The rumor got rolling that President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to India was going to cost taxpayers $200 million. Each day. He had 870 hotel rooms reserved and would be accompanied by 2,000 people and a flotilla of 34 navy warships.

Those might be just big numbers. But if you think about them for a second, you will realize they are too ridiculous to be real. Is it even humanly possible to spend $200 million a day on vacation? For anybody? I doubt even P. Diddy and his entourage would be capable of such a feat.

If $200 million still seems likely to you, consider this: the entire war in Afghanistan costs only $190 million a day.

And rightfully so, before too long all these numbers about Obama’s trip were confirmed to be rumors. Wild, senseless rumors.

"We don’t speak to [presidential travel] in detail for security reasons," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said in a press conference. "But I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy … in support of the president’s trip to Asia. That’s just comical."

While Morrell and the rest of the Pentagon were laughing, die-hard Obama critics like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity were perpetuating the rumors (and therefore dismantling their credibility even further).

Rush Limbaugh made Obama’s trip part of his daily radio rancor on Nov. 2.

"It’s never been done before!" Limbaugh ranted. "You take this many people, this many airplanes, the question is: are you coming back?"

Rep. Michelle Bachmann went on Anderson Cooper’s CNN show to rail against Obama and his supposedly elaborate trip, but when asked to back up her claims she had no specifics to offer.

"Well, these are the numbers that have been coming out in the press, and of course those are the numbers that I have to believe," Bachmann replied.

What press? Limbaugh’s?

Multiple news sources have traced the $200 million amount back to an unnamed Indian government official quoted in India’s version of the Associated Press. No one knows who the official is, or if his information really is official.

In fact, many of the attacks on Obama have no basis in truth whatsoever. "Birthers" demand Obama to show his birth certificate, forgetting that the State of Hawaii and Obama himself have already released ample evidence of his American birth. And I never understood how enemies of Obama can accuse him of conniving with Christian preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright and then later condemn him for being a Muslim. Can’t Obama’s opponents at least pick one lie and stick with it?

Cooper couldn’t let Bachmann’s gossip stand.

"Michele Bachmann used up our air time last night, rather than answering questions about Medicare...and she chose to spread a story which is blatantly false," he said. "Now you’d think that if a member of Congress was going to use this figure as a fact, she would want to be pretty darn sure it was accurate, right? … There are plenty of reasons to oppose the president, plenty of things to point to as government waste and overspending. You don’t have to make stuff up."

If you want to give reasons why our president is a bad president, you can cite his takeover of General Motors, or his giving up on the public option in health care reform, or any number of things. So why resort to lies? The truth is weapon enough, and it won’t shoot you in the foot.

Cajun Ingenuity

Here it is, the column I've been meaning to write for a long time:

'Cajun ingenuity' - A real leader in war against BP oil spill

Billy Nungesser has just been very impressive to me as I've watched him on my Anderson Cooper 360° podcasts.

And, as it turns out, I wasn't the first one to come up with the idea:

Louisianan Becomes Face of Anger on Spill

Dispatches from the oil spill

I recently realized I need to make a correction. Earlier on this blog, and also in today's J Squared column, I identified Joe Barton as a senator. He actually isn't a senator, but a U.S. Representative. I apologize for getting those mixed up and not double-checking myself.

Also, briefly, I want to reply to a comment made on The Daily Universe website about my column on Gen. Stanley McChrystal. (If you want to read the comment, you can go here and look at the bottom of the page.)

I typed up a reply to the comment and submitted it, but in case it doesn't end up on the website, I'll include one here. I hope that 'chollan' (the username of whoever made the comment) finds my response here or on the DU website.

Of course Gen. Stanley McChrystal was punished for his contempt of a ranking official and sedition, not profanity. Of course his insubordination is the more serious issue. I know the profanity was only a secondary problem. If you read the column again, you will see that I talked about both the insubordination and the profanity, but I never claimed that McChrystal was fired just because he used the "F" word a few times. It was because he was "ornery, arrogant, insubordinate and skeptical." If it seemed like I made the profanity a bigger issue, I apologize.

And, my one-sentence bio that I write at the end of every column is just meant to be amusing. I'm sorry you didn't think it was funny.

For Those About to Rock, You'd Better Clear Your Desk

So, I was going to put together a J Squared column on Billy Nungesser, my new favorite Louisianan. But then, General Stanley McChrystal became big news. Even though I wasn't especially involved with or passionate about the subject, it turns out I had a lot to say.

Not McChrystal clear

We'll have to save Nungesser for later.

And, a cartoon:


With the BP oil spill mess, a lot of people blame President Barack Obama, a lot blame the MMS, some blame Dick Cheney* ... but everyone can agree that Tony Hayward and BP can be considered bad guys. Which is why Senator Joe Barton got in trouble for sympathizing with them.

So, I thought of other wronged folks the senator may feel like feeling sorry for...

From left to right: Sen. Barton, Hayward, McChrystal, a member of the Algeria soccer team (who the U.S. beat on the way to placing first in Group C for the 2010 World Cup) and Saddam Hussein.

(Of course, by no means am I trying to make Algeria out to be an enemy. Just a friendly opponent in a sports competition. Don't get nervous just because he's standing next to Saddam.)

But what is perhaps the part of today's page getting the most attention is a viewpoint by Jade McDowell. Jade and I are both from The Dalles, and we went to seminary and high school together. Now, both of us have joined forces to give some Dallesian influence to The Daily Universe. Jade is one step ahead of me in the BYU journalism program; she was an editor during winter semester and just finished an internship in New York City.

Anyway, she wrote a few words about her encounters with homelessness in the big city:

A plea for the homeless

Her story is very touching, personal and moving. I hope you enjoy it.

*Jump to 1:35 on this video.