Hat tip to Karen l. Myers.

Thursday was a painful day to be a democrat. Minnesota Senator Al Franken, recently promoted from Hollywood clown to legislative Solon, delivered firm evidence of his worthiness for high office by delivering a nine minute speech endorsing the Dodd “Financial Reform” bill in the course of which he pointed to a Washington Post Tom Toles cartoon as evidentiary proof of the need for the bill’s passage.

Franken then actually proceeded to elucidate the cartoon at length, explaining to his fellow senators exactly what each detail represented and just how the whole thing should be interpreted: “There you see an apple core. A fishhead skeleton. A banana. You don’t want those on the ice, you just don’t want that. That’s bad.”

If anyone ever doubted that Franken was playing himself as the baggage handler in Trading Places (1983), there you are.

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Michael Ramirez cartoon

Hat tip to John Hinderaker via the News Junkie.

The Department of Justice publicly released the indictment of a Pennsylvania woman arrested last October, who had apparently been part of a conspiracy planning to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks.

David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, and Michael L. Levy, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, together with Janice K. Fedarcyk, Special Agent-in-Charge of the FBI in Philadelphia, today announced the unsealing of an indictment charging Colleen R. LaRose, aka “Fatima LaRose,” aka “Jihad Jane,” with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists, conspiracy to kill in a foreign country, making false statements to a government official and attempted identity theft.

The indictment charges that LaRose (an American citizen born in 1963 who resides in Montgomery County, Pa.) and five unindicted co-conspirators (located in South Asia, Eastern Europe, Western Europe and the United States) recruited men on the Internet to wage violent jihad in South Asia and Europe, and recruited women on the Internet who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe in support of violent jihad.

The indictment further charges that LaRose and her unindicted co-conspirators used the Internet to establish relationships with one another and to communicate regarding their plans, which included martyring themselves, soliciting funds for terrorists, soliciting passports and avoiding travel restrictions (through the collection of passports and through marriage) in order to wage violent jihad. The indictment further charges that LaRose stole another individual’s U.S. passport and transferred or attempted to transfer it in an effort to facilitate an act of international terrorism.

In addition, according to the indictment, LaRose received a direct order to kill a citizen and resident of Sweden, and to do so in a way that would frighten “the whole Kufar [non-believer] world.” The indictment further charges that LaRose agreed to carry out her murder assignment, and that she and her co-conspirators discussed that her appearance and American citizenship would help her blend in while carrying out her plans. According to the indictment, LaRose traveled to Europe and tracked the intended target online in an effort to complete her task.

Jawa Reports has photos and gossipy details on the defendant.

Seven of her associates were arrested in Ireland.

Vilks was targeted for the terrible affront to Islam of drawing the prophet in the form of a rondellhund, a whimsical Swedish street art fad resembling the cows that ornamented the streets of Chicago a few years ago.

An American woman with a mullet who converted to Islam and then conspired to murder a Swedish cartoonist? Sounds like the plot of a new Coen Brothers movie.

George Santayana observed that those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it. The above editorial cartoon, published April 21, 1934, shows that government pouring money into massive federal spending programs to try to improve the economy was tried before. The Great Depression continued up until WWII.

South Park explains the federal decision making process used by both the Bush and Obama Administrations for dealing with the current economic downturn.

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Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan.

Day By Day Cartoonist Chris Muir comments on Obamanomics at Big Hollywood:

Hat tip to Karen L. Myers.

Tom Cheney in the New Yorker, February 9, 2008