UPDATE!

This week's remix, featuring the brand new Iron Man #1, is up here!

And as for Willie Horton... I love how every conservative who argues that Willie Horton wasn't a racial talisman automatically assumes that we must be totally ignorant of Horton's heinous crimes. You don't have to be an apologist for violent crime to see the Horton case as a textbook example of race-baiting. I can promise you that, contrary to what Jeff Jacoby says, if Willie Horton had been caucasian it wouldn't have been anywhere near as big an issue, and it certainly wouldn't have carried such weight in the south.

I'm not trying to refigth Campaign '88. Dukakis was by all accounts an inneffectual and regrettable candidate, actively despised by many in his own party and loathed by a large percentage of citizens in his own state. But Republicans who refuse to awknowledge their party's extensive and unapologetic history of race-baiting politics - and hey, that's about all of them - and wonder why the black vote stays mostly in the Democratic column, I have no pity for you.

Billy and the Boingers

Hey, you know how I said I'd be doing the Political thing for the muckety-mucks i nthe newspaper strip world? Well, I guess I lied, because its just about 5 AM and I have to get to sleep sometime soon, and I sure as hell ain't pulling another hour out of my ass right now.

This has been a fun series to do. There's no greater agenda at work here, other than the fact that I think its endlessly fascinating. Of course, if someone wanted to think of something useful to do with this data, that would be fantastic, but as it is, its really just fun to see how many people in the undustry are either apathetic, poor, or both. I honestly expected to see some bigger donors on the Marvel board, since I know that there are some fat pocketbooks thereabouts. There was one far-left Hollywood type but besides that, not a lot. I was also surprised to see that Stev Geppi was a centrist-Democrat, supporting Dick Gephardt, of all people. I didn't think anyone supported Dick Gephardt.

It was also interesting to find that Richard Parsons, the chairman of Time/Warner is a far-right Republican... makes sense considering his socio-economic status, along with some of his cryptically Libertarian public comments, but still. Perhaps its my good Liberal breeding, but I still get confused when I see a black Republican. Did I miss the part where the Republicans apologized for using Nixon's "southern strategy" to get white Southern votes by appealing to that region's worst impulses well into the 1980s? I must have missed the press conference where Bush Sr. came out and apologized for Willie Horton, and Reagan apologized for the "welfare queen" remarks, et al. At least the Democrats publically expunged their Dixiecrat "heritage" a long time ago, whereas the Republicans still have people like Trent Lott walking around. Oh well. I guess they think we'll just forget these things.

Anyway, you should remember the contest, and if you live in Boston you should stop by the Common Ground tonight to meet The Hurting and Wife. As I said, I'll be the dude behind the chick with purple hair.

Ah hoy hoy.