Re-elect Obama 2012

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This cartoon is called Re-elect Obama 2012. In the cartoon, there is a poster of Obama which was advertised for the 2008 presidential election, but it says "No hope, no changes, no promises." These three things is what Obama persuaded us would happen if we elected him. However people think none has happened and that Obama hasn't really done much. The other part of the cartoon shows Obama and the caption reads "...I'm a little older and a little wiser!" It shows that Obama probably knows the real deal on running a country, that change isn't that easy. During the 2008 election, "change" was his motto. He promised the people of the United States that he was going to create change. However that change hasn't come so easily.

Government Shut Down

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The cartoon is called Government Shutdown. The elephant in the red represents the Republican. The donkey in the blue represents the Democrats. Both of them have shirts on with an arrow pointing to each other that says "He shut down the government." The message of the cartoon is that, the Democrats and Republicans are blaming each other for not coming to a budget agreement, causing a government shut down. The Republicans are saying that we need to cut a lot of spending due to the past excessive spending of the Democrat, vice versa for the Democrats. The cartoonist is unbiased so it's hard to tell of their political ideology. This cartoon relates to the current event that just passed. The House, whose majority is Republicans, offer a budget spending amount and then when it gets passed to the Senate, whose majority is Democrat, and the President, it gets turned down. Since they cannot come to an agreement, a government shut down where all federal jobs would stop getting pay, could occur.

Sprinkler of the House

As I was looking for political cartoons relating to current issues, I came across this about Boehner. The cartoon is called Sprinkler of the House, which is obviously John Boehner, the SPEAKER of the house. He has a reputation for crying about almost everything. In the cartoon, there is the former Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and she is telling him to do what she did, "have your tear ducts removed". Boehner is saying "I cry for the kids who will have to pay for these tax cuts for the rich!", and the cartoon is showing that he is crying, when he shouldn't be because he is rich and we have to pay the tax cuts for him. The funny thing about the cartoon that caught my interest was the "Sprinkler of the House" title. I think it's clever how they turned speaker into sprinkler. This cartoon doesn't have any relation to a current political event but in class, while we were watching Jeff Smith, he started to cry and the comment about Boehner was made.

Inflation

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In this cartoon, there are three objects coming at the man. One is a doctor and his clipboard reads "health costs". The other is a cash register roll which says "food prices", and the other is a gas pipe that says "gas prices". The man's face speaks clearly for itself. He is frightened and looks unsure of what to do and how to handle all the raising prices. All three things are crucial; food, health care, and gas for your car.

Recently, due to the Libya turmoil, gas prices have risen. Along with gas prices, food has gone up also. You need gas to transport the food around and if the gas is expensive, the food is going to be too. Health costs have also slowly risen. More and more people are not going to the doctors for treatment because they either have no insurance or they can't afford it.

 

Japan Tsunami

The cartoon reads Japan and it has a tsunami around it, describing the latest earthquake/tsunami. The word Japan is breaking and it looks like its about to shatter due to the impact of the tsunami. It is also floating in water. The point the artist is trying to prove is that the tsunami shattered Japan's economy. Japan is the third largest economy in the world and the tsunami caught it off-guard. Over 10,000 people are dead, millions are out of power, clean water and food. The nuclear power plants are having a meltdown and exposing high amounts of radiation. Japan has always been ready for earthquakes with its strong infrastructure, but with all the tsunami damage, Japan needs some major rebuilding.

State Budget Cuts

The cartoon's caption on the kid's book bag says "state budget cuts" and the boy's shirt says education.The cartoon is using the boy and the heavy book bag to show how big the state budget cuts will be for education. The artist is trying to say that cutting spending on education will affect students/teachers causing a strain, using the heavy book bag as an example. The cartoonist is obviously not in favor of the budget cuts. 

Pennsylvania's governor Corbett recently proposed the nation's biggest cuts of state funding of local school districts and public four-year colleges by 50%, which would increase many PA universities' tuition. He is doing this instead of taxing the gas drilling industries. 

Crazy Gadhafi

In the cartoon, there are no words but the image is speaking a thousand words. There is a hand and on the sleeve is a flag of Libya. The hand is holding Gadhafi in a nutcracker. The artist is using the nutcracker to portray how hard of a "nut" Gadhafi is to crack. Libya is trying hard and yet Gadhafi refuses to give in. 

The cartoonist is most likely a liberal because he has drawn a picture in support of the Libyan's effort to break Gadhafi's rule, therefore showing that he is pro-democracy. 

This political cartoon is related to the current turmoil in Libya. Inspired by Egypt, Libyans want to remove Gadhafi from his 42 year rule. However Gadhafi is being defiant and blaming the Al-Qaeda for the violence and killing.