Art of the Union

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I’m trying to get back on track with my goal to draw every president and eventually have an art show. To date I have drawn Eisenhower, Kennedy, Obama, and now Nixon. His face is one that I’ve always found difficult, and I have drawn it at least 6 times before finally getting a final piece that I am happy to present.

Incidentally, at the time of drawing this portrait there has been heaps of allegations comparing President Obama to Nixon. I’m hard-pressed to find the link. Let’s take into consideration a key difference, being that the bugging of the DNC’s phones was initiated by Nixon and his associates, while President Obama’s alleged scandals were (depending on which one) initiated by rogue employees in agenies out of his control or carried over from past administrations and put into his oversight. Moreover, every Presidential Administration leaves office with it’s signature scandals. George W. Bush had “Lawyergate,” Bill Clinton had his love for women who looked like they were edited out of Reservoir Dogs, Ronald Reagan had Iran-Contra, and so on. Even Nixon’s predecessor, Gerald Ford, had to testify in front of Congress about the alleged scandal to pardon Nixon.

A more apt link between Richard Nixon and President Obama would not be in scandals but rather by comparing theaters of war. When Nixon came into office in 1969, he was tasked with ending the very unpopular war that he inherited (sound familiar) in Vietnam. Instead, in 1970 Nixon pointed off into the distance and shouted “What’s that?” While the nations head was turned, he approved the invasion of Cambodia with American and South Vietnamese troops. If you swapped the words “Vietnam,” “Cambodia,” and “American and South Vietnamese troops” with “Iraq,” “Pakistan,” and “drones,” you would have a series of events that could mirror the Obama Administrations approach to the War on Terror.

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In response to the allegation that his regime has deployed chemical weapons to combat the Free Syrian Army, President Assad responded with “Chemical whos-in-whats-its? No, never heard of them.” He then promptly released the hounds on the remaining reporters.

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Well, when I started this drawing it was relevant. I thought I’d still post it since I haven’t been on here as regularly as I used to be. As stated in my last post, things have been extremely hectic. I’m finally getting settled into my new home in Baltimore and it’s opening up more time for me to start posting here again. As much as I would’ve loved to post regularly for the past few months, sometimes life just doesn’t allow it. I make little-to-no money for the things that you see on this blog, so sometimes it has to take a backseat because my bills won’t wait for me to draw a picture of John Boehner in a diaper (by the way, I would never draw that. Don’t worry). So with that said, I apologize for the long gap and I will be back to posting art and commentary. Thanks for your patience!

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With the Obama Administration’s nomination of John Brennan as CIA Director and Chuck Hagel as Secretary of Defense, drone warfare is being treated with the same caution as a kite-flying contest at a Cub Scout summer jamboree. While drone warfare may be hailed as a new, cost-effective way to wage war, it has many implications that often go unreported. One being the effect drones have on driving up militant group enlistment, another being the heavy psychological toll that they inflict on the inhabitants of drone patrolled regions.

But perhaps the most heated topic when it comes to drones is the civilian casualties that it produces. When politicians and media outlets claim that the drone program has low to no civilian casualties, it should be taken with a grain of salt. As a report conducted by Stanford and NYU states, the CIA declares all adult males killed by drone strikes as militants. The report also goes on to state that out of roughly 3,325 people killed in Pakistan by drones, between 474 - 881 were civilians. 

The Stanford/NYU report titled “Living Under Drones” can be found at http://livingunderdrones.org/

I wanted to touch on the drone warfare issue one more time while it’s back in the spotlight, thanks to Rand Paul’s filibuster. If you are unaware, Paul filibustered the nomination of John Brennan as CIA Director to obtain an answer from the Obama Administration about whether they had the right to use drone strikes against U.S. Citizens.

Siding with Rand Paul on any issue can open up a long and dark conspiracy cavern on infowars.com if you aren’t careful, but he was not totally off his meds by asking this question. No matter how unlikely or inconceivable it may seem, historical occurrence’s such as the Kent State massacre can act as an example that even the U.S. Government can muster enough gumption to kill some citizens.

With that said, Rand Paul’s question is not my biggest concern when it comes to drone warfare. Even foreign civilian casualties, which I’ve touched on before (see above) is not my biggest issue. My true fear when it comes to drone’s is that it marks another step forward in the United State’s population being completely disassociated with it’s countries operations. 

Our news media is noticeably absent went it comes to covering our war efforts, with Mother Jones’ fixture “We’re Still at War” being the only day-to-day coverage that I can think of. In fact, up until 2009, there was an 18 year ban on news coverage of dead soldiers returning from war zones.

Even more to that point, if the average American is aware of our war efforts, they probably only know of our recent adventures in the Middle East, being left unaware of our ever expanding war efforts into Africa. And yes, the African front has proved to be prime real estate for drone strikes.

Advocates for drone warfare often sight that it will make war cheaper and safer, but is that actually a positive? War inherently is not safe, cheap, or even good. When a nation goes to war, it should be an all in effort and experience, where even those who are not serving at least have some knowledge of what is happening. Drone warfare marks a change of sweeping war under the rug, not requiring the citizenry to be kept aware as the operations of the Government become ever more exclusive.

This Tuesday is scheduled to be the Senate vote for defense secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, finally one step closer to the ending of this incredible storyline and letting Hagel take the nap that his face has been screaming for since it started.

You are probably familiar with the accusations that have been trotted out against Hagel, everything from the Dan Friedman “Friends of Hamas” joke that went viral in the Senate halls to the idea that Hagel hates Jews (the monster probably didn’t even cry during Schindler’s List). Tactics that don’t even involve Hagel have been used to block Hagel, such as Sen. Lindsey Graham vowing to block the nomination until he receives more information about Benghazi. Don’t worry though, every other embassy attack during 2012 is ok in Graham’s book.

Most of the holdups on Hagel’s nomination have been purely cosmetic, an effort by a handful of Republicans to make sure we know they still exist after the election. But then you get to the real criticism against Hagel, and it seems that he is being punished for being ahead of the curve when it comes to disowning George W. Bush.

The Tea Party movement and new Republican ideology was (supposedly) spawned in part by a party upset with the direction that had been taken under Bush’s lead. And don’t forget that the 2012 Republican National Convention hid Bush in a closet like was a young Harry Potter. And yet, Hagel is being put to task for his tendency to go against the Bush Administration, primarily when it came to the Iraq War.

Fast forward 2009, and the whole Republican party had turned their negative opinions of everything that happened during the Bush Administration into the Tea Party movement. Anti-immigration, anti-government, and anti-spending. Logic would tell you that Hagel would be the “not in the mainstream” wet dream that Republicans are always trying to brew up in their dusty cauldrons.

Unfortunatley for Hagel it seems that he was ahead of the trend. And as with fashion, no one gets credit for predicting a trend, it’s not cool until it’s accepted by groups in the know. Hating Bush 10 years ago only made Hagel the guy in a coffee shop with a handle bar mustache trying too hard. 

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I will be rooting for Baltimore tonight, for multiple reasons. The main reason being that I’m a Dallas fan, so there are 4 NFC teams that I’m inclined to root against: The Redskins, Giants, Eagles, and Niners. Reason number 2 being that I absolutely hate the Pittsburgh Steelers, so seeing their nemesis win the Superbowl will bring me great joy as I picture all of the terrible towels laying silent in a closet as The Ravens hoist the trophy over their head.

Here’s a quick spot illustration I did for the Wall Street Journal.

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Things I learned this year:

• Gov. Rick Scott hates everyone who lives in Florida.
• Sheriff Joe Arpaio is not Joe Peschi’s racist grandmother, despite fooling me in pictures.
• Congress’s idea of doing their job is playing I Spy with their genitals, not legislating.
• Mitch McConnell’s head is not a thumb sewn on to a torso.
• Legislators refer to video games like they are a lost tribal people in the South Pacific.

Things I want to learn next year:

• Is Charles Krauthammer a human or a tie-wearing tobacco leaf?
• Newt Gingrich’s hair – real or glued on doll hair?
• If my suspicion that Harry Reid buried all the bodies of aide’s who didn’t like his garden in a Nevada Desert.
• What exciting thing Republicans think will happen once Hillary Clinton testifies on Benghazi, like that Jimmy Hoffa is buried under a Tampa Bay Huddle House.

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Hope everyone is having a Merry Bi-Partisan Christmas. May you have the strength to survive the inevitable political dialogue that will break out at Christmas dinner. Have the eggnog and rum handy for when your uncle wants to blame Obamacare for killing his business that’s been bleeding money since 2006.

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My friend asked me to do some various art prints for groomsmen gifts. They were assorted pop culture subjects, one of them being Iron Man. I had a lot of fun working on this one and hope to do more superhero art in the future.