Michelle and Barack Obama: The New Yorker Magazine Cover – Smear or Satire?

 

  The July 21, 2008 cover of The New Yorker Magazine has a cartoon of Michelle Obama as a afro-wearing, gun toting militant and Barack Obama is depicted dressed wearing traditional Muslim garb.  They were greeting each other with a “fist bump”, with an American flag burning in the fireplace, and a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall of the Oval Office – the image was drawn by Barry Blitt.

I have been on the road so I didn’t see the cover of the magazine until late today.  Earlier when my sister described the cover to me I redundantly kept asking her, “The New Yorker magazine?” “The New Yorker had that image on their cover?”  “Are you sure it was the New Yorker?”  I couldn’t believe The New Yorker would use such a distasteful cartoon.  I was skeptical because I have read The New Yorker for years as a New Yorker who lived in Manhattan it was a must read for smart, well written, in depth articles.  The New Yorker has great contributors and is a well respected magazine.  I don’t know how well The New Yorker is known outside of New York and D.C. so I don’t know what impact this will have on the general public but it sure will give ‘media types’ something to talk about for a day or two.  As I questioned my sister about the cover I hadn’t seen at the time I started to think about why The New Yorker might have used such a crazy unthinkable cartoon on their cover – they are well-known for their satirical cartoons.  I own a couple of their cartoon posters – their cartoon styles are easily recognized and are collectibles — no doubt this will be a collectible.

That said, now that I have seen the cartoon (I still haven’t read the article as yet) it just does NOT work.  ‘Satire’ is literary work in which human vice or folly is attacked through irony, derision, or wit.  So satire is like a Saturday Night Live or a Colbert Report sketch but in this case it’s illustrated as a cartoon image.  I am not a stand-up comic, but I know that  if you tell a joke and then you have to EXPLAIN it – it didn’t work.  This cartoon didn’t work for that reason – they had too much ‘xplaining to do.

The New Yorker says the cartoon is intended as a satirical comment about some of the distorted right-wing attacks on the Democratic senator.  Much the same as a DailyKos diarist named ONECITIZEN created the photo-shopped face of Michelle Obama on a body being lynched in the name of satire. That image completely pissed me off.  Read the full article about ‘the lynching’ of Michelle Obama at http://letustalk.wordpress.com/2008/05/24/leave-michelle-obama-alone/

Economy — IndyMac Taken Over By FDIC 7/14/08

  Nervous customers of IndyMac Bank today lined up at branches in Pasadena and elsewhere, anxious to withdraw their money from the failed institution that was seized by federal regulators last Friday.

With some customers arriving as early as 4 a.m., fueled by coffee and packing lawn chairs and stools in anticipation of a lengthy stay, depositors waited for the bank to reopen at 9 a.m. It has been closed since Friday.

“I called in sick,” said Margie Harbottle, 62, a vocational counselor from Pasadena who arrived around 8:30 a.m. “This is going to take a couple hours.”

To calm customers’ fears, employees of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — the bank’s new manager — made their way down the line, which wrapped twice in front of the building on Lake Avenue and stretched around the corner. They answered questions and explained the bank’s new policies.

“This right now is one of the strongest banks in the country,” said FDIC spokesman David Barr. But he acknowledged customers “just want to get their money — we understand that.”

Yet not all customers would be able to access all of their funds. Customers with $100,000 or less in deposits or with $250,000 or less in a retirement account would have full access to their funds, which are insured by the federal government.

There are, however, an estimated 10,000 IndyMac depositors who had a collective $1 billion over federal insurance limits. In an unusual move, the FDIC said it would give those customers access to 50% of their uninsured deposits. Any additional payments would be made only if the sale of IndyMac assets proved sufficient.

For all depositors, interest rates on most individual accounts would remain unchanged until the accounts mature, the FDIC said. That’s good news for many customers because IndyMac has been paying among the highest rates in the nation for certificates of deposit in recent months. As of last week, the bank was offering an annualized 4.3% on a six-month CD.

Paulette