Cartoon Lounge: Tell us a little bit about yourself and XKCD.
Randall Munroe: Well, I draw XKCD, a webcomic about stick figures who do math, play with staple guns, mess around on the Internet, and have lots of sex. It’s about three-fourths autobiographical.
I used to work at NASA in Virginia. It was nothing glamorous; I was just tasked with making code compile for obscure projects, and I wasn’t very good at it. Now I spend most of my time drawing pictures and looking at funny things on the Internet, which in retrospect is largely what I did at my old job, too. Maybe that’s why they kicked me out. I also program, read, and try to get outside once in a while (any longer in front of this screen and my skin tone might actually hit #FFFFFF).
C.L.: You say that XKCD isn’t an acronym for anything, but shouldn’t it stand for eXcellent Kids Can Dance? That would be a good comic (and inspirational for kids).
R.M.: Well, in the absence of peer-reviewed scientific studies of the subject, I can’t in good conscience assert that excellent kids CAN dance.
The third and final debate between the 2008 U.S. presidential nominees had just ended. Democratic nominee Senator Barack Obama and Republican nominee Senator John McCain had just shaken hands moments before and turned away from each other, when Senator McCain suddenly lunged forward with his hands out in front of him and stuck out his tongue.
It appeared to me that McCain was reacting to moderator Bob Schieffer informing him that he was headed the wrong way off the stage, that he was not supposed to be following Senator Obama, but was supposed to be heading towards his own wife and family around the other side of the table.
In any case, when I saw McCain lunge and his hands start to come up I hit the shutter and made two frames before it was over. Some other photographers who were there expressed surprise when they saw my picture and said they had never seen it happen at all and asked when it had occurred.
DALLAS — There’s one “Joe the Plumber” who is already better off thanks to John McCain and Barack Obama.
Phones rang off the hook Thursday in the Amarillo office of plumber Joe Francis, whose Web site joetheplumber.com became an instant Internet curiosity the day after the final presidential debate.
McCain and Obama made multiple references to Ohio resident Joe Wurzelbacher — now famously “Joe the Plumber” — while sparring over their tax policies. But the name-dropping also reached to West Texas, about 1,200 miles away from the Ohio plumber, where Francis found his business suddenly in the spotlight.
Entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on a quick buck have called about buying the Web address. But many more are wanting T-shirts with the company logo, which features a droopy-eyed cartoon plumber revealing the ubiquitous “plumber’s crack” above his pants.
“I’m taking orders,” said Ronnie Bishop, who works with Francis. “It’s kind of wild.”
A: If she did, eventually she would get a question like this.
And she might, just might, realize she is right about one thing…it’s a heckuva choice to make…and wrong about another…that it’s hers to make for everyone.
So it turned out that Joe the Plumber became a big part of the debate last night. Much like the Bill Ayers “connection” that McCain made a centerpoint of his failing campaign, making Joe the Plumber the centerpoint of the third debate is currently is backfire mode.
All right, now let’s deal with that loaded title…
“Joe” in in quotes because the guy’s real name is “Sam”. As in “Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher”.
Republican is not in quotes because Sam is a Republican.
Linda Howe, executive director of the Lucas County Board of Elections, said a Samuel Joseph Worzelbacher, whose address and age match Joe the Plumber’s, registered in Lucas County on Sept. 10, 1992. He voted in his first primary on March 4, 2008, registering as a Republican.
—
It was [Wurzelbacher’s] “spread the wealth around” comment that caught the attention of conservative commentators, including Rush Limbaugh, and in discussions on the Internet. Mr. Wurzelbacher was a guest of Fox News’ Neil Cavuto on Tuesday.
Racist is not in quotes because of this interview…
COURIC: Could you just, Joe, explain quickly, and then we’ll let you go, how you met both of the candidates?
WURZELBACHER: I’ve yet to meet John McCain. Obama came to my neighborhood and my son and I were outside tossing the football, and all of a sudden he showed up, and there went our football tossing for a while. And, you know, neighbors were outside asking him questions, and I didn’t think they were asking him tough enough questions, so I thought, you know, I’ll go over there. You know, I’ve always wanted to ask one of these guys a question and really corner them and get them to answer a question of—for once instead of tap dancing around it. And unfortunately I asked the question but I still got a tap dance. Do you – almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.
Ooh, I tell ya, ‘dem blackies can dance!!
Now I don’t think he’s an out and out racist. And I don’t think he would actually admit it on TV, but as read his answers to the other questions begin expose a revealing pattern.
COURIC: Well, he supposedly will raise taxes only on people who make over $250,000 a year. Would you be in that category?
WURZELBACHER: Not right now at presently, but, you know, question, so he’s going to do that now for people who make $250,000 a year. When’s he going to decide that $100,000 is too much, you know? I mean, you’re on a slippery slope here. You vote on somebody who decides that $250,000 and you’re rich? And $100,000 and you’re rich? I mean, where does it end? You know, that’s – people got to ask that question.
This was before the previously posted answer (Sammie) and after this one..
COURIC: And again, why don’t you just reiterate quickly for us, Joe, because I want you to get back, get to your local news station where you are, how you felt about the statements made by the candidates vs. the statements you heard when they were out on the campaign trail talking to you.
WURZELBACHER: …
Obama speaks well, but the one thing that’s really important, that everyone in America really need to know is, you know, talk is talk. You know, he can speak pretty, but, you know, there’s got to be action behind it. We’ve seen McCain, we know his actions. Even if you disagree with him, at least you know where he stands. McCain – or Obama, we’re not sure where he stands yet, even after his debates. Like I said, he speaks eloquently, better than I do, but I honestly, I still don’t know where he stands. He’s said a lot, but none of his experience has backed it up. You know, the only experience I’ve seen or his actions are raising our taxes, so, you know, I’m middle class. I can’t have my taxes raised anymore.
I’ve put everything that I’m talking about here in italics.
Bascially is what Sam is saying, going back to the Sammie Davis, Jr. comment that he ended with (and that is important), is that he can’t trust Barack Obama because he is black. He can trust McCain because he is white. When you look at statements of candidates and records of flip-flopping objectively, both guys have done it, and McCain has a longer record of doing so, particularly in the last eight years.
Sam met Obama. Sam has ample access to the Internet and has watched the debates. To still say that you don’t understand simply stated policies and just don’t trust a guy you’ve met and researched. And the main reason you give is that the guy talks pretty?! That is a statement that sets off my b.s. alarms.
And it gets worse because the guy, Obama, isn’t planning on raising the guy, “Joe the Plumber”‘s, taxes at all. As Joe mentioned, he’s not near that tax bracket. His taxes would go down under Obama’s stated plan.
But he doesn’t trust the guy, and then to give an example of how pretty he talks, he picks a black icon known for how pretty he danced.
And for your viewing pleasure, here’s Obama “dancin’ like Sammie”.
Yea, doesn’t seem like much of a tap dance to me either.
[Note: When you watch that knowing that Joe is making up his hypothetical income, you can see how he doesn’t really want to hear the answer, which would explain why he still doesn’t understand Obama’s tax plan. UDPATE: Here’s the full, six-minute talk. At the end, the guy says he gets it. He plays along with his lie more obviously in the full clip as well. The “spread the wealth” soundbyte is in reference to a generally good economy, BTW, and not explicitly tied to tax policy as McCain has tried to make it.]
I know exactly what Joe was thinking while he was standing there in the sun and it’s not uncommon among rural Republicans.
It’s a basic distrust of someone standing in front of you, trying to answer your questions. It’s standing there, nodding your head on the outside, but calling them a liar on the inside [this is exhibited in the video above with the classic “crossing the arms” X sign]. In this case, given the facts and the evidence, I think it’s fair to call that reaction racism, and Joe the Plumber needs to get over it.
He also needs to get over idiotic Republican tax policies that have stagnated working wages and accelerated executive pay for nearly 30 years, that as I point out here haven’t worked out so well for everyone.
Here is Joe talkin’ ’bout how he, you know, just can’t trust the guy.
Yea Joe. I know. I’m from Texas. I see this crap all the time.
Joe, you and I are about the same age. Please wake up.
I know you represent the last vestiges of holdouts that only have one real reason for not voting for Obama. It’s the only thing that is keeping this from being a 20-point landslide. McCain thinks this makes up a samll percentage of his support, but I would put it at upwards of 30-40%. This is the 15% of Americans that still think Obama is Muslim (assuming they are part of the 50% that vote and will do so to keep Shariah law out of the U.S). And, yes, it is that big a part of McCain’s remaining support.
Just ask Joe.
Or ask Gayle Quinnel, she sill believes it after being told it wasn’t true by John McCain in person.
UPDATE: I think this is kinda funny…more on Joe on taxes…
Wurzelbacher this morning told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer that he was talking about, in Diane’s words, the prospect, the hope that someday he would make $250,000.
“Well, exactly,” he said. “Exactly. I mean not that I don’t want to be taxed. You have to be taxed. But to — just because you work a little harder to have a little bit more money taken from you, I mean, that’s scary. You know as opposed to other people. I worked hard for it. Why should I be taxed more than other people?”
I might throw up some real analysis of the debate later, but I think this one was great on the split screen. I didn’t watch it with the dial-thingies, I really don’t like ’em, at least the first time through.
When you watch the debate (which can be quite boring and technical) with the dial, you tend to watch the stats, not the game. Kinda like all those “fantasy” players. Head lost in the numbers, they forget to enjoy the fact that it’s a game.
Politics, on the other hand, is a different kind of game, as the winners get the right to declare war on people and use nuclear weapons. So the sports things is fun and all, but as a metaphor it ultimately fails.
In that line of argument, I would have to say that of the two candidates, I liked the calm, friendly, smart one. Not the eye-rolling, thunderstruck, attacking one.
McCain seemed to be giving a lecture on conservative politics from the early 80’s, when he was elected to Congress. He seems to have missed what he has wrought with those policies. What policies you may ask? Cut taxes and spend.
Republicans always complain about Democrats being “tax and spend.” The sad part is that they do so with such vigor that their supporters (and even some themselves) miss the fact that “cut taxes and spend” is an even worse theory. Here’s the graph for the Federal debt since John McCain went to Congress in 1982.U.S. Debt Since McCain went to Congress.
Pay special attention to that part of the top graph post-1982, when John McCain went to Congress.
THAT’S WHEN IT GOES CRAZY!! Is it a conicidence?
Not really, IMHO, as McCain continued to advocate all sorts of new programs and government support (buying mortgages [$300,000,000], buying banks [$?], fighting autism [$?], fixing healthcare [$?], winning wars [$?], achieving energy independence [$?], ) while at the same time arguing VERY stenuously against any posibility of raising any kind of tax on anything anywhere. In fact…saying he is going to…somehow…enact a spending freeze. Does that make any kind of sense at all? It works emotionally….”I’ll solve all your problems for less than free…”
[UPDATE: real analysis of the debate…listening while writing…late..McCain even goes to the point of using “Joe the Plumber” to accuse any type of tax increase as being against “The American Dream”….and in fact denying it. That’s crazy. It’s not “Joe’s the Plumber’s” money that needs to be spread around. It’s the guys who got $125,000,000,000 is bonuses the last 6 years…remember…those guys on Wall Street!!?!
“No one likes taxes, let’s not raise anyone’s taxes. O.k.?” Yea..and then let’s get high on Unicorn farts and live in peaceful communities sharing the means of production. Sounds great on paper. Works like shit on Earth.]
Unfortunatley, this is the type of politics that leads to a graph like the one above.
And he views any tax on anything anywhere to be a tax on everyone everywhere. It’s crazy, and it’s the exact same philosophy that Reagan and W used to run up such a huge debt. Bush I raised taxes and Clinton slowed the bleeding, even reversing it before W & The Republicans used the same “trickle-down, supply-side, voodoo, laffer-curve, tax-cuts-pay-for-themselves, debts-dont-matter” economics to erase $11,000,000,000,000 of U.S. wealth in just two weeks.
It’s a political and eoconomic philosophy the market just went crazy proving was nuts. An idea built on the confidence that it was true, rather than evidence it made any rational sense.
AND IT’S JOHN MCCAIN’S GUIDING ECONOMIC PRINCIPLE.
Check the 26-year record since he’s been on the dole in D.C. It speaks for itself. Very, very loudly.
Joe the Plumber notwithstanding, you have to pay for that lunch ’cause ain’t nothing free in this world except nothing and….as some would have you believe….tax cuts.
Yea, that's how I reacted...
UPDATE: From that “Fair and Balanced” channel…so you know it’s true…
Robot Pirate Ninja 