Yesterday I read an interesting article in Newsweek about the connection between tornadoes and climate change.

Newsweek’s story explained how top climate scientists were concerned about several ominous and fundamental changes occurring in Earth’s weather patterns.

David Fitzsimmons / Arizona Daily Star (click to view more cartoons by Fitzsimmons)

Evidence that Earth’s climate was changing in the wrong direction, the article said, included a shorter growing season in England, higher average temperatures at the equator and an increase in tornadoes like the monster than killed at least 24 people in Tornado Alley this week.

“Last April,” wrote Newsweek, “in the most devastating outbreak of tornadoes ever recorded, 148 twisters killed more than 300 people and caused half a billion dollars’ worth of damage in thirteen U.S. states.”

Newsweek’s article went on to say scientists weren’t sure what was causing the global climate to change and could not predict how it would affect specific local weather conditions.

But the news magazine said top weather scientists were certain of one thing: They were “almost unanimous in the view that the trend will reduce agricultural output for the rest of the century” and result in “a major climatic change that would force economic and social adjustments on a worldwide scale.”

Oh, I forgot to mention a few important facts.

The date on that Newsweek article was April 28, 1975. The headline was “The Cooling World.” And the climate change scientists were almost unanimously worried about was a global cooling trend.

Global cooling, the Big Climate Scare of the 1970s, wasn’t blamed on humans, and weather disasters like Hurricane Sandy and this week’s tragedy in Oklahoma were not politicized by climate illiterates like Babs “The Weather Girl” Boxer and her fellow U.S. Senator from Rhode Island, Sheldon Whitehouse.

Both Boxer and Whitehouse jumped on the Oklahoma City tornado tragedy this week to exploit it for political gain.

While they were still pulling survivors out of the wreckage, Whitehouse gave an idiotic speech on Monday linking “cyclones” and other extreme weather events to climate change.

Then he beat up Republicans for not believing the myth he and his political soul-bothers believe — that climate change is catastrophic, man-made and only fixable by great climatologists like Al Gore and wise Washington politicians.

Whitehouse later apologized, saying he wrote the speech before he knew about the tornadoes striking Oklahoma. But his climatic ignorance and his crass, opportunistic politics were exposed.

Meanwhile, Sen. Boxer had no excuse. She took a break from her gun control crusade to spend time on her other crusade — climate control.

On Monday she expressed her condolences to the tornado victims, then twisted another natural tragedy into a political issue. She blathered that the tornado was “proof” of climate change.

Sorry, Ma’am, but tornados have been around for a long time. That’s why we call it Tornado Alley, not “Global Warming Alley.” In Florida and the Carolinas we have Hurricane Alley. I live in Earthquake Alley.

Next time a natural disaster strikes, I have some advice for all the climate-control freaks in Washington.

Please shut up. Nothing you say or do will change anything. Oklahoma is not going to get safer if Earth gets cooler.

And Boxer, Whitehouse and their ilk are not going to make tornadoes disappear like Newsweek did.

Believe it not, senators, climate is not something that Washington can control.

It’s ultimately affected — and controlled — by Almighty Nature, not humans and their carbon burning. And certainly not by agenda-driven politicians.

Copyright ©2013 Michael Reagan. Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of “The New Reagan Revolution” (St. Martin’s Press). He is the founder of the email service reagan.com and president of The Reagan Legacy Foundation. Visit his websites at www.reagan.com and www.michaelereagan.com. Send comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. Follow @reaganworld on Twitter. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com.

Having just helped my mother with her annual yard sale, I have come to a disturbing conclusion.

As much as it pains me to say it, for the sake of buyers and sellers alike, the federal government needs to intervene in the yard/garage sale industries.

Nate Beeler / Columbus Dispatch (click to view more cartoons by Beeler)

Homeowners displaying collectibles for sale need to receive some sort of stipend for enduring endless sob stories from shoppers whose mothers saw fit to dispose of valuable baseball cards, etc. And the shoppers themselves need consoling via a free copy of the LGBT-approved book “Heather Has Two Mommies — And Both of Them Threw Out Her Comic Books!”

Call it the nanny state gone amok, but we need protection from ourselves. Folks displaying unappreciated shower gifts they received in the past six months need a spin doctor to help them respond when the gift giver unexpectedly shows up at the sale. (“Believe me, I discovered at the same time you did that this ‘Steve and Marcia, Wishing You A Lifetime of Wedded Bliss’ platter was a shower gift.”)

Likewise, sellers may need emergency relocation if their minister makes a surprise visit and sees all the shot glasses, bawdy T-shirts and well-thumbed “Playboy” magazines. This service is popularly known as the “Federal Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program.”

Peace negotiators must be rushed in to quell angry mobs in normally quiet cul-de-sacs where one homeowner always thoughtfully advertises “Free Beer For 18-Wheeler Drivers.”

The Department of Education should give crash courses to children of overprotective mothers, so when mom warns, “Don’t touch those toys — you don’t know WHERE they’ve been,” the youngster can retort, “Don’t reelect that congressman — you don’t know WHERE he’s been.”

Troops must be dispatched to those homes with towering stacks of used romance novels. Deodorant, nose hair trimmers and 21st century underwear will be airlifted to the males in the household, and a tactical nuclear strike will take out their wide-screen football games.

Public service announcements could help sellers be more selective about buying souvenirs, trinkets and whatnots in the future. (“If you find yourself exclaiming, ‘Hey, I forgot I had that!,’ maybe the memorabilia wasn’t so doggone memorable in the first place.”)

Perhaps the U.S. Forest Service could do something about all those unused fondue sets and treadmills that have crossbred and gone feral.

For the shoppers who set out to buy 25-cent items armed only with a roll of twenties, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving could produce a special Boy Scout-themed bill. (“Always be prepared — for dirty looks!”)

Maybe the FBI could offer help to sellers who line up thousands of sale items only to receive countless creepy inquiries about the clothesline, the mailbox, the family lawnmower and other not-for-sale items. (“So, how much for your grandmother’s ashes in that hermetically sealed box tucked under your upstairs bed?”)

The sellers who won’t budge from the latest “retail plus 20 percent” prices on their heirloom George Foreman grills need a surprise visit from the Environmental Protection Agency. (“Contrary to your beliefs, our inspection really does detect an aroma wafting from your bathroom.”)

Yes, the issue is a puzzle with a couple of pieces missing. Speaking of which, how many popcorn poppers with slightly chewed cords would you take for that puzzle with a couple of…?

©2013 Danny Tyree. Danny welcomes reader e-mail responses at tyreetyrades@aol.com and visits to his Facebook fan page “Tyree’s Tyrades”. Danny’s’ weekly column is distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. newspaper syndicate. For info on using columns, please email Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com or call 800 696 7561.

Rick McKee / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by McKee)

He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavoured to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.

Was President Barack Obama or his White House staff aware the IRS was targeting Tea Party and conservative-leaning organizations and purposefully delaying their approval process for non-profit status?  If he didn’t know, he could go down as the most incompetent president in our nation’s history.

First, the IRS blamed these acts on a few rogue employees in their Cincinnati, Ohio office.  Then yesterday, the White House changed their story, noting that Counsel to the President Kathryn Ruemmler told Obama Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other top administration officials last month.  They claim the President was never notified about these egregious actions loaded with the potential to rock his administration to its core.

The Washington game of the ever-changing story has begun and this is clearly only the tip of the iceberg.  As the IRS was busy auditing new organizations such as True the Vote, and long-established conservative training groups like Morton Blackwell’s Leadership Institute, they were also illegally leaking the confidential tax records of 31 groups to a George Soros-funded media operation, ProPublica.  Recently ousted IRS Chief Steven Miller, the poster boy for bad government, admitted Tuesday in the Senate Finance Committee hearing that these actions were “absolutely” partisan.   Does all this sound like just the work of a couple employees in Cincinnati?

Now, Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS division who received lavish bonuses while singling out conservative groups, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights on Wednesday when she appeared before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to avoid self-incrimination.  The actions taken by the IRS are a full frontal assault on America’s cherished free speech rights and a blatant abuse of power.  There is a major scandal here which needs an independent and thorough investigation, but without the appointment of a Special Counsel, the investigation will remain under the purview of President Obama’s own Attorney General Eric Holder.  The American people must demand an investigation of the IRS that is not conducted by Obama’s own loyalists.

Because we cannot trust the Obama Administration to investigate itself, Citizens United and I are proud to endorse the letter written by Rep. Matt Salmon of Arizona and 35 other Members of Congress, which calls for a Special Counsel to fully investigate the practice of targeting groups based on their political persuasion. The person leading this effort must have impeccable credentials and a reputation for impartiality.  Immediate action must be taken before damning evidence mysteriously starts to disappear.

Ultimately, this is a vivid example of why big government does not work.  Where does the power of the IRS end?  We now learn they also wanted copies of private Facebook posts, transcripts of Tea Party rally speeches, and even information about the content of prayers.  And to top it all off, in 2014, the IRS will hire 16,000 agents to enforce Obamacare and allow this hyper-partisan agency to have access to your medical history.

Our federal tax code is a mess and is being abused by the Obama Administration to silence conservatives using the most corrupt tactics imaginable.  It is time to investigate, eliminate the IRS, and move to a Fair Tax.

Taylor Jones / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Jones)

Currently, the various scandals within the Obama administration have put Progressives in defensive mode to protect an ideology built on lies. Each day brings with it a new scandal or a new angle to a previous scandal. Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS, and the DOJ’s seizure of phone records have one thing in common: suppression of truth.

Americans are discovering Progressivism isn’t all it is cracked up to be. Even the coolest of Progressive presidents can’t deliver the goodies they promise if what they really intended to deliver was hidden inside a bag of lies.

By now, most everyone understands Progressive-speak for “hope and change” translates into high unemployment, an abysmal economy, a disastrous healthcare bill, excessive poverty, starving children, ridiculous food prices, losing wars, and terrorist attacks on our homeland. Four bucks gets you a gallon of gas, a college degree gets you nowhere, and with each new scandal, the White House deflects the blame on someone else and runs off to play another round of golf. That, my friends, is Progressivism in a nutshell.

In a most enlightening article, “Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression,” author David Martin nails it when he states “strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government” and “the success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.” Without a doubt, we have the makings of a perfect storm.

If you’ve never understood the connection between Progressivism and lies, all you need to do is take an objective look at the current administration’s scandals. While all investigations are still active, a common thread weaves through each in that either the truth was suppressed to cover an action or an action was taken to suppress the truth.

In Benghazi it appears the administration suppressed the truth about an act (an al-Qaida-linked terrorist attack) to fit its pre-election “al-Qaida-free” story line. The same rings true regarding the seizure of reporters’ phone and email records by the Department of Justice. Attorney General Holder claims records were seized for national security reasons, but that doesn’t gel with what the Associated Press describes as an “unprecedented” seizure of records. In a recent statement, AP president Gary Pruitt said his organization held the in-question article describing a terrorist plot by an al-Qaida-linked group in Yemen “until the government assured us that the national security concerns had passed.” With that in mind, might a more reasonable reason be that administration officials spent an awful lot of time traveling around the country pre-election reporting al-Qaida was no longer a threat?

Each day carries with it new discoveries about the heinous IRS scandal wherein acts of suppression served to squash the voice and rights of those who, unlike Progressives, have the intelligence to differentiate between the U.S. Constitution and a roll of toilet paper and embrace the freedoms and protections therein.

If you don’t like what you see, it’s time to get loud (not violent) Americans. Silence is acceptance. And so far, your silence is deafening… and dangerous…because silence becomes the well-insulated womb to which tyranny is given safe harbor to grow.

—–

Susan Stamper Brown is an opinion page columnist, motivational speaker and military advocate who writes about politics, the military, the economy and culture. Email Susan at writestamper@gmail.com or her website at susanstamperbrown.com.

©2012 Susan Stamper Brown. Susan’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc., newspaper syndicate. For info contact Cari Dawson Bartley. E-mail Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561

Forget the political “blame game.” The biggest game in town now is the credibility game — a high -stakes exercise that will end with America’s political middle deciding who is trustworthy and who isn’t. Some key players:

Pat Bagley / Salt Lake Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Bagley)

President Barack Obama: In the case of the Benghazi emails, government snooping on the Associated Press and Fox News, and the IRS, the issue is now whether Obama is more ruthless than he publicly showed or is a hapless, out-to-lunch manager. The media and political class take his seeming delay in acting on their criticisms as a flaw. But could it be this is how Obama works?

Obama’s former speechwriter John Favreau, writing in The Daily Beast, says yes:

“The handwringers and bed wetters in the D.C. punditocracy should know that Barack Obama will never be on their timeline,” he writes. “He does not value being first over being right. He will not spend his presidency chasing news cycles.

“He will not shake up his White House staff just because of some offhand advice offered to Politico by a longtime Washingtonian or a nameless Democrat who’s desperately trying to stay relevant. And if that means Dana Milbank thinks he’s too passive; if it means that Jim VandeHei will keep calling him arrogant and petulant; if it means that Chris Matthews will whine about him not enjoying the presidency, then so be it. He’ll live.”

The Republicans: Are they overreaching and so visibly thirsting for scandals that the middle will dismiss their assertions?

National Journal’s level-headed Charlie Cook notes how in the Clinton impeachment Republicans were sure the country was outraged (it wasn’t) and how during election 2012 GOPers were convinced Mitt Romney would win (he didn’t). He points to polls showing Obama’s numbers firm, or going up.

“The simple fact is that although the Republican sharks are circling, at least so far, there isn’t a trace of blood in the water, ” Cook writes. “…But it might just be that Americans are more focused on an economy that is gradually coming out of the longest and deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression…One wonders how long Republicans are going to bark up this tree, perhaps the wrong tree, while they ignore their own party’s problems, which were shown to be profound in the most recent elections..”

It boils down to credibility — the kind of credibility undermined when a GOPer suggests these scandals are the worst in American history, or means Obama should be impeached. Talking Points memo has documented eight prominent Republicans raising the impeachment issue. A can of Chef Boyardee Ravioli on the shelf at Safeway would look at that hyper-partisan list and say: “Politically motivated!” And the Beefaroni would have no beef with that.

The Press: ABC’s John Karl wrongly reported as fact Benghazi emails inaccurately paraphrased to him by his Congressional Republican sources. Washington Post fact-checker Glen Tessler gave the White House “three Pinocchios” for calling the emails “doctored.” NY Journalism professor Jay Rosen says Karl “dragged the entire news division at ABC into his self-dug pit. He got played.” ABC and Karl later did a PARTIAL retraction, leading Rosen to write that ABC and Karl were “attempting to rescue his ‘exclusive… All to avoid confessing error and protect a misbegotten scoop.”

For years conservatives warned about liberal moles in the media. Now liberals talk about a conservative mole (Karl). Reporters and news organizations that make major errors and don’t totally retract them are weeds in the garden of press credibility.

Here’s a tip: In coming months, get ready to see some pants on fire.

—–

Copyright 2013 Joe Gandelman, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Joe Gandelman is a veteran journalist who wrote for newspapers overseas and in the United States. He has appeared on cable news show political panels and is Editor-in-Chief of The Moderate Voice, an Internet hub for independents, centrists and moderates. CNN’s John Avlon named him as one of the top 25 Centrists Columnists and Commentators. He can be reached at jgandelman@themoderatevoice.com and can be booked to speak at your event at www.mavenproductions.com.

What to get for the contemporary male who has everything? The Man Bag.

Arcadio Esquivel / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Esquivel)

The Man Bag is a high-style satchel — a purse, though its creators hate when you call it that. It’s designed to hold the modern man’s wallet, keys, sunglasses, iPod, cell phone, body spray, hair goop, diary and whatever other junk he totes around these days.

Why was the Man Bag created? According to manbag.com, three fellows — Brian, Peter and Thai — “were tired of being ribbed for carrying their gadgets around in hand bags. The torment reached a boiling point one night when Thai was called a ‘pursey’ at a party.”

That fellow who insulted him was lucky Thai didn’t yet have a sturdy Man Bag to smack him with.

So the three tormented fellows designed a special bag for men (they call theirs the MAN-n-BAG) and now sell it through their Website. The concept took off. The Nightline people said it’s the latest trend in men’s fashion. A GQ style editor they spoke with explained why:

“Once you’re out in the work world, do you really want to carry a backpack when you’re wearing a suit? At the same time, most guys don’t want to be like their dads and carry a briefcase.”

Which is precisely the problem.

Modern fellows don’t want to be like their dads — masculine fellows who defined themselves by their actions, not their high style. Fellows like my father.

My father has long known that if a thing doesn’t fit into a man’s pockets he shouldn’t be carrying it. He carries his keys in his right front pocket. He carries his change in both pockets, so he can dangle it with both hands while shooting the bull with the butcher, the mechanic and anybody else he encounters in daily life.

My father’s wallet is what a real man’s wallet should be — thick, fat and worn. It holds only the basic items a man needs to get through life: license, money and a yellowed photo of my mother from 1953. He keeps his wallet in his right rear pocket.

Nobody taught my dad to carry his keys, change and wallet this way. Nobody taught me, either. It’s hard-wired into male DNA. It is what men have always done because it is what we’re supposed to do.

But the genetic code is being rewritten in sensitive new-age men, such as the fellow who wrote a testimonial to manbag.com: “My chiropractor suggested your MAN-n-BAG because sitting on my overstuffed wallet was misaligning my spine.”

Ah, yes, we’re at war with tough-guy terrorists and our fellows are getting injured by their wallets.

I’m not certain how the American male has evolved to such a sissified state, but I have a hunch. The reason dates back 40 years or more, when the feminist movement kicked into high gear.

Yes, feminism brought us many good things. Women deserved equal opportunity and they’re doing well. But some feminists weren’t content with just that. They wanted to destroy the enemy — the American male.

First they convinced us we were wrong, that we weren’t socialized properly as boys. They changed the socialization process. They changed the education process, too. Their goal was to make us more sensitive and emotional — more like women.

Boy, have they succeeded. Now men spend hours fretting over their looks and style — they spend thousands getting their hair primped, their skin moisturized, their eyebrows waxed. They cry at baby showers and clap the first time junior uses the toilet to do No. 2.

They carry purses.

Well, nuts to that. Look, men, we need to get hold of our testosterone. Women are different from us. It’s best that way. It’s best that we distinguish ourselves from them in our actions, manner and dress. They carry purses. We don’t.

So what to get for the contemporary fellow who has everything? A thick, fat, worn wallet that he’ll knowingly slip into his right rear pocket.

It may misalign his spine, but at least he’ll have one.

©2013 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a 1970′s Childhood” and “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Cari Dawson Bartley at cari@cagle.com. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.

I thought it might be interesting and make the weights look heavier if I put a photo of them into the cartoon.

In more modern times, political cartoons were accomplished by etching and lithography. When the printing press was invented, these drawings could be mass produced. With the development of direct printing and then the offset press, cartoonists could do their work on paper using a pen and ink and sometimes a black pencil for shading.

In the early 1960‘s, the use of chemical shading was introduced to America by Pat Oliphant, an Australian cartoonist and one of my heroes. Pat completely altered the landscape of editorial cartooning with his skill and technique. In this process, a chemical is printed on the surface of the drawing paper. After the waterproof ink drawing was completed, the cartoonist would then apply a chemical developer to the paper surface and those areas would then darken. Some cartoonists continue to use this paper.

Around the same time, a product known as Zip-A-Tone came to be widely used. These were transparent sheets of dots or lines with adhesive backing that could be cut and carefully layered to a finished drawing and thus create additional shading.

These advances were often met with resistance among some in the cartooning community who feared the “purity” of their craft was being destroyed. There are also some who even complained about the use of cross-hatching to achieve shading and background.

I first started to ink the walnut, but then the notion of taking a photo of a walnut seemed better. It took some time to find a photo of one at the best angle.

All of these earlier advances pale when the use of the computer arrived and Adobe Photoshop began to be used by cartoonists. A new world of possibilities has opened. It provides the ability to scan an original cartoon, and then electronically add color and shading. What also emerged was the ability to “Photoshop” photographs into a cartoon. These photographs could be logos, type, or objects such as buildings, faces, shirts, or guns.

This is where the resistance of the “purists” become the loudest. They complain that mixing cartoons with photos is “heresy”. While some accept the use of adding color to backgrounds, they often reject the use of adding any of the other possibilities. They are coming to be known as the “Cartoon Police” or the “Tea Party Cartoonists” in their narrow-minded zeal to halt these practices and demand others follow only their notions of what constitutes a cartoon. Some are weekly cartoonists who are more like writers and use multi-panels with multi-captions to explain their point of view. A few are vitriolic in their criticism of daily cartoonists who use symbols like the elephant and donkey in a single panel cartoon. I admire all of them for the work they produce but there are many ways to cartoon other than their way.

The cartooning profession is changing dramatically. Several cartoonists have established themselves as virtuoso Photoshoppers. Among my favorites are Clay Bennett, Mike Thompson, and John Sherffius. Notice when you open these links how they have taken photos of objects and incorporated them into their cartoon. You will see how Clay has taken a photograph of a shirt (notice the material of the collar), imposed the skull and cross bones of a photo, and planted it at an angle on some photographic material to a shirt label. It is an example of superb technical skill and it creates a fabulous idea.

When Neil Armstrong died, I thought of using the famous ‘First Footprint’ and adding stars in the upper left side, then using the parallel shoe imprints as the stripes.

Mike Thompson creates entire backgrounds with photographs, this one of a UFO, a chain link fence, and a rock ground cover while imposing cartoon characters in the foreground. Mike is singular among cartoonists with this technique.

When I first entered cartooning, it was important for me to establish strong drawing skills. Now I want to see where this new technology will lead me. Of the three, John Sherffius has had the greatest influence on me. Check out how John used a photograph of the BP logo and imposed an oil-soaked pelican in the center, making his statement regarding the Gulf of Mexico oil spill of several years ago. John has left editorial cartooning, being unable to support his family, but he continues to display an enormous array of artistic and technical abilities that astound me in the work he now produces. In the long conversations I have had with this polite and sincere man, he has encouraged me to further develop my technical skills.

The use of animation in editorial cartooning is a growing technical and artistic endeavor quite different from all that I have discussed here. As you can see, the boundaries are ever expanding. That is a topic for another time.

It is important for all creative people to stretch themselves beyond their comfort zone. It is how one continues to grow. Where this new technology will lead me is uncertain and filled with accidents, as I have learned. Only time will tell as I experiment with these new tools, learn, have successes, make mistakes, and prove I am human.

In addition, the internet and the use of cartoons is changing. Internet users care little for the publishing date of a cartoon, and care only about the message it delivers. With that, the rules of cartooning are changing. What will emerge is anyone’s guess.

One thing is undeniable. Time does not stand still.

Obama: Teacher! My woe is great.

Steve Sack / Minneapolis Star Tribune (click to view more cartoons by Sack)

Clinton: Tell me, my pupil.

Obama: It is true you told many exaggerations and frequently stepped well beyond the bounds of truth, yet your approval ratings prospered. This had been the case with me, too — until last week. Suddenly, many are second-guessing my words — even my friends in the media are turning on me!

Clinton: Well, it is not conceivable that you just learned about the IRS scandal by hearing about it on the news. I laughed out loud when I heard that one.

Obama: Teacher, you are the undisputed master of political rhetoric. You have engaged in activities that would have ruined lesser men, yet you are still loved by many. You must help me master such rhetoric or I may be in trouble.

Clinton: My student, I have been waiting for you to come to me. I will now share with you what I have shared with no other human being about the art of politics.

Obama: Please, teacher.

Clinton: I pose to you this question, student: What is the nature of truth?

Obama: I’m a brass-knuckle Chicago politician, teacher. How would I know?

Clinton: Excellent, my pupil. For the truth is the first thing one must abandon to be effective in politics.

Obama: Teacher?

Clinton: I ask you, student: If a man were convicted of a crime he did not commit, would he not proclaim his innocence with great vigor?

Obama: Yes, teacher, he would do so to pronounce the truth, and in so doing, he would make a convincing case.

Clinton: Yes, and for a man, then, to be persuasive in political rhetoric, he must speak with the same vigor as a truthful man.

Obama: But what if that man is not telling the truth?

Clinton: This is why a man must abandon the truth, student, so that he doesn’t know when he isn’t telling it.

Obama: You are good, teacher! But where I really need help is getting people to believe my words again. I tried to feign anger over the IRS scandal — I tried to show outrage — but people find it hard to believe a couple of low-level agents took it upon themselves to harass some 500 conservative groups. I tried to tell reporters that I did call the Benghazi incident a terrorist attack from the beginning, but they’re certainly not buying that. What am I doing wrong?

Clinton: Your words and storylines are not consistent, my pupil. Keep the stories simple, and do not keep adding elements to them. Consistency is thus: If a man never tells the truth, how can other men determine when he is lying?

Obama: Excellent, teacher! But I worry. Now that AP reporters are aware my administration was snooping on them, many in the press are coming after me. Right or wrong, a new storyline is forming about me: that my administration used the might of the IRS to attack conservative opponents and help win the election. That we put politics above all regarding Benghazi and misled the American people, also to win the election. That my people and I really are hardened Chicago politicians who abuse our power to squash any opposition. My credibility is at stake. How can I return to the level where, when I spin the yarn, my words are effective and persuasive and nobody mocks my exaggerations?

Clinton: You do so the same way I did.

Obama: Teacher?

Clinton: Practice, practice, practice.

©2013 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of “Misadventures of a 1970′s Childhood” and “Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!” is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Cari Dawson Bartley at carii@cagle.com. Send comments about this column to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.

I was thinking of making this a four panel cartoon at first, with the doggie growing progressively bigger and a caption, but the simple two panel format won out.  here is the line art that most people will see in their newspapers that print in black and white.

And here is the color.  Readers love the doggies.

I drew the cartoon below when Obama made his first statement about the IRS scandal.  here’s the black and white most people see.

And here’s the color.

Before that I did this one on the ongoing, outrageous, sexual assault scandals in the military.

And I drew this “Energizer Bunny” cartoon about the Benghazi Scandal that the Republicans can’t bear to see fade away.

There was a time when I would see an Energizer Bunny cliche editorial cartoon every week. Alas, those were the good old days.

Up until about an hour ago, most Americans thought Benghazi was the guy who palled around with John Cassavetes back in the ’60s, but now it’s obvious we’re talking about the foreign policy arm of a multi-ramped tar pit the president has found himself swimming — up to his armpits. Yes, friends, it’s pity time at the White House.

Daryl Cagle / Cagle Cartoons (click to view more cartoons by Cagle)

After flogging the issue nonstop since September 11, the Fox News Team’s persistence finally pushed the story of the Libyan Embassy riot that resulted in the death of four Americans over the cliff into the public consciousness. Space available only because both Survivor and Duck Dynasty are on hiatus.

The hue and cry from the right is demanding many questions be answered. Was the protest planned or spontaneous? Did the group that initiated the attack have any affiliation with Arab terrorists? Who altered the talking points — the CIA or the State Department? Where were the drones? Queens? Wasps? Chigger mites? How many angels can dance on the head of a bent and broken Romney/Ryan pin? What would Cheney do?

Having taken all this in, the American people responded with what can only be characterized as even more penetrating questions such as: “Who cares? What difference does it make? Aren’t we stuffed to the gills with enough partisan gobbled-goop already? Does anyone really give an albino rat’s ass? Isn’t there a seafood buffet around here somewhere?”

The revelations have been as startling as mint jelly on lamb. Tragic, violent events occurring in the Middle East? Oh no! Not that. Perpetual infighting amongst government agencies? That couldn’t happen here, could it? Republicans accusing a Democratic administration of not being patriotic enough? What are the odds?

Next you’ll tell me the Justice Department investigation of the Justice Department’s seizure of AP reporters’ phone records will lead to the Justice Department concluding that the Justice Department did nothing wrong. The public’s eyes are glazing over like a fifth-grader lectured on the nutritional aspects of broccoli rabe.

Haven’t we been told for the last twenty, thirty years that Libya is a godless pit of iniquity and now they want us to heap truckloads of blame onto our own guys because someone got killed over there? After they themselves voted down additional money for embassy security? Another example of that whole “dynamite the front steps then complain what a pain it is to climb into the house on a rope ladder” school of logic.

But the GOP remains convinced they have the administration on the run, and is calling for all sorts of investigative committees and dedicated inquiry boards and pretty soon it will be special prosecutors and courtrooms full of hopping kangaroos and then pointy sticks and barbed wire and dungeon doors with keys specifically designed to be thrown away. Just in time for the midterms.

And if everything goes according to plan, Hillary Clinton and her nascent 2016 Presidential run will wither and rot behind the same Benghazi charges. But the Republicans must know how tricky this sort of maneuver can be. As with all smoke screens, you have to pay real close attention to which way the wind blows, or you could easily end up choking on the same stuff you’re spreading.

Recipient of seven consecutive nominations for Stand-Up of the Year, Will Durst’s new one-man show, “BoomerAging: From LSD to OMG,” is presented every Tuesday at The Marsh, San Francisco. Go to… themarsh.org or willdurst.com for more info.

Copyright ©2013, Will Durst, distributed by the Cagle Cartoons Inc. syndicate. Contact Cari Dawson-Bartley at cari@cagle.com. Will Durst is a political comedian who has performed around the world. He is a familiar pundit on television and radio. E-mail Will at durst@caglecartoons.com. Check out willandwillie.com for the latest podcast. Will Durst’s book, “The All-American Sport of Bipartisan Bashing,” is available from Amazon and better bookstores all over this great land of ours. Don’t forget to check out his rooftop comedy minutes at: http://www.rooftopcomedy.com/shows/BurstOfDurst.

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Rhee attracted a lot of attention before getting the top spot in DC. When Mayor Adrian Fenty appointed her superintendent, she went from managing an education non-profit with 120 employees to running a school system with 55,000 students, 11,500 employees and a budget of $200 million. She’d never even been a principal before, and her only classroom experience was Teach for America.

She did not let seem daunted by the stage. She bragged that she only answered to the mayor and put principals on notice to get those test scores up. Rhee fired more than 1,000 teachers and 36 principals who failed to raise test scores and gave $276,265 in bonuses to employees who performed well.

Passing rates rose, and she became the “it girl” for education reform. Time and Newsweek put her on the cover. Oprah called her “a warrior woman,” and Barack Obama called Rhee “a wonderful new superintendent.” When Fenty lost re-election, Sec. Arne Duncan intervened in an attempt to keep her on the job because her reforms “absolutely have to continue.” When Rhee quit, he issued a press release so laudatory it almost included pom-poms.

Her star rose even further when the documentary Waiting for Superman touted Rhee as a national success. She went back on Oprah to announce she was creating an education reform project called Students First to spread her reforms to other communities. “I am going to start a revolution. I’m going to start a movement in this country on behalf of the nation’s children,” Rhee told Oprah.

Unfortunately, her success was a fraud. In 2011, USA Today identified abnormally high rates of wrong-to-right erasures that coincided with big jumps in test scores in more than half of all DC schools. And according to a “smoking gun” internal DCPS memo released recently, it was worse that suspected. There was evidence of excessive erasures by “191 teachers representing 70 schools,” yet Rhee did nothing to investigate.

Cheating is nothing new in high-stakes testing. Between 2008-2012, test-cheating scandals have occurred in 37 states and in the District of Columbia, but the cult of Rhee’s success has driven similar reforms in 25 states according to Students First. But if Rhee faked her success, why are we copying her?

A new study from The Broader, Bolder Approach to Education out Thursday discredits the fundamental assumption that market-based reforms produce results in education. The study, coauthored by a former program manager for Pearson Education, examined the claims of progress in DC and two other reform-driven school systems and found that test scores regressed and achievement gaps grew relative to other urban school districts.

Where Rhee claimed success, the report found that National Assessment of Education Progress “scores showed minimal-to-no improvement for low-income and minority students, and some losses. Moreover, higher scores were due in most cases not to actual improvements for any age group, but to an influx of wealthier students.”

There was no DC miracle. Browbeating students and teachers into raising scores on state tests only makes them better at taking—or faking—state tests, and reforming our schools in hopes of replicating an illusion is a petty crime against humanity. Even George W. Bush was forced to admit there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and we’ve long since gotten over the shock that Barry Bonds and Mark McGuire were juiced more than a Florida orange grove. We believe lies at our own peril. It’s time to stop waiting for Superman and focus on the hard work of teaching our children the way we know works.

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© Copyright 2013 Jason Stanford, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.

Jason Stanford is a Democratic consultant who writes columns for the Austin American-Statesman and MSNBC. He can be reached at stanford@oppresearch.com and on Twitter @JasStanford.