Toon Town

The recent flap over Mike Rogers' energy plan -- local and national Arab-American groups are upset with the video's animated portrayal of anonymous, threatening Arabs -- made me wonder why he would spend his money on such a poor-quality vid in the first place.

As expected, Mr. Rogers dismissed the groups as (gasp!) politically-motivated:

Rogers said he questions the motives of the letter's release to his office Tuesday, when primary elections were held. While he did not receive a copy of the letter until Tuesday, Arab-American leaders were speaking out against the video to media outlets as early as July 29.*

Not to brag, but here in The Neighborhood we picked up on the demeaning portrayal (a/w/a the cheesy production values) waaaaaaay back in May:

Moving along to Mr. Rogers' website, we find a perky,
content-free animated (!) version of The Plan, complete with marching barrels of foreign oil, a green tree snuggled up to an oil derrick, and scary foreign leaders (look out -- it's an Arab!).

Here's the funny thing: I found another Republican exercise in crappy drawing and crude stereotypes!

Thanks to the ever-alert and shiny-maned Princess Sparklepony, you too can peruse the comic book mailed out by incumbent Oklahoma County Comissioner Brent Rinehart.

Toga-wearing gays, political figures, trench coat-clad henchmen, concerned residents and Rinehart make up the rest of the comic's characters.

In one sequence, Satan says: "If I can get the kids to believe homosexuality is normal!"

The angel replies: "Hey Satan, not with Brent around you won't!"

WOW! How can ominous Arab bad guys compete with this kind of offensive stereotype?

Seriously, though, since Mr. Rogers has shared talking points in the past... could this be a harbinger of a tsunami of cheapo GOP election-season 'toons?

It's enough to make one long for the golden days of classic animation, like Johnny Quest and Speed Racer.
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*You have to wonder why the reporter didn't ask the logical follow-up:

Mr. Rogers, you were unopposed in the primary. The letter was delivered on the day of the primary -- not the day before. Please explain how this adds up to "politically motivated timing."

Oh, well -- probably just another exercise in Rogers' office putting out a written statement and the local paper printing it verbatim...