Wonder when the GOP.gov webmasters will delete this image they had ready for Shadegg winning. :-)

Boener won, as the other image reflects more accurately.

Cartoon 1: Depicting Muhammad as a terrorist.

Reactions: Violence. Burnings. Beatings. Boycotts.

Cartoon 2: Depicting Rumsfeld being callous toward injured U.S. Soldier

Reaction: Letter from the Joint Chiefs of Staff stating their disgust at the newspaper’s inconsiderate use of their free speech.

We were extremely disappointed to see the editorial cartoon by Tom Toles on page B6 in the January 29th edition. Using the likeness of a service member who has lost his arms and legs in war as the central theme of a cartoon is beyond tasteless. Editorial cartoons are often designed to exaggerate issues–and your paper is obviously free to address any topic, including the state of readiness of today’s Armed Forces. However, we believe you and Mr. Toles have done a disservice to your readers and your paper’s reputation by using such a callous depiction of those who have volunteered to defened this nation, and as a result, have suffered traumatic and life-altering wounds…
…While you or some of your readers may not agree with the war or its conduct, we believe you owe the men and women and their families who so selflessly serve our country the decency to not make light of their tremendous physical sacrifices.

As the Joint Chiefs, it is rare that we all put our hand to one letter, but we cannot let this reprehensible cartoon go unanswered.

Freedom of speech comes with responsibility. The speaker bears the responsibility to consider the impact of his words, and the audience bears the responsibility to respond civilly to those words. When speakers shirk their responsibility, the caliber of the audience is tested. In this case, the difference has been made clear.

UPDATE: Instapunk is running a “rewrite the cartoon” contest and some of the entries are creative. Check it out. Here are a couple of samples from poster McA:

Badge: Media
Speech Bubble: We normally care for the disabled but Bush-bashing is a higher priority.

Badge: Media
Sound bubble: Just remember you swore to defend our constituional right to urinate on your sacrifice.

According to Cindy Sheehan’s post on MichaelMoore.com, the Capitol Police officer who arrested her, Mike Weight, didn’t even know who she was when he first dragged her from her seat. She indicates that he changed his handling of her once he realized who it was. Sort of gives lie to the suggestion that she was targeted for being Cindy.

I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled, “Protester.” He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like, “I’m going, do you have to be so rough?” By the way, his name is Mike Weight.

The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, “That’s Cindy Sheehan.” At which point the officer who arrested me said, “Take these steps slowly.” I said, “You didn’t care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps.” He said, “That’s because you were protesting.” Wow, I get hauled out of the People’s House because I was, “Protesting.”

Rory O’Connor has 20 questions about Able Danger that apparently were previously unanswered. I have not followed that story as closely as I could have, so some of the details are lost on me, but go check it out.

Also, and interestingly, it appears that lawyers for Zacarias Moussaoui have called Curt Weldon to testify at his sentencing hearing. (H/T: Able Danger Blog)