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March 27, 2007
So Carmen Worked For The White House? That Explains A Lot
THIS JUST IN: SCOTT STANTIS GETS A CLUE
Unfortunately after yesterday's cocktease of a strip the headline isn't "Scott Stantis Quits Prickly City - Replaced By Talentless Ten-Year-Old - Everyone Notices Drastic Improvement." No, Stantis is seemingly still with us, but apparently he's at least been paying attention to the news.
It's true: Carmen was fired yesterday. From what job, I have no idea. See, here's where Stantis does something and doesn't realize the different meanings it can have. This is supposed to be a commentary on the seven (possibly more) U.S. Attorneys that were fired by Alberto Gonzales and the White House. The charge is that they were fired for political reasons, and then lied about it because it's not exactly kosher to fire those Attorneys because they didn't carry your water like Rush Limbaugh.
Stantis even makes the point that Carmen wasn't hard enough on the Dems so she has to go. So it seems as though Stantis is admitting that yes, Gonzo fired the U.S. Attorneys for political reasons. Can that be right? Does he realize that's the message he's sending? Or that with today's strip he's admitting that Carmen works for the White House?
On top of that we get a two-fer today: he also acknowledges the story about the FBI illegally spying on us and admitting that "mistakes were made" when not getting warrants and not telling anybody what they were really doing. That story's been buried thanks to the U.S.A.s firing, so thanks to Stantis for being two weeks behind the times and reminding everyone about it.
So where in the world is all of this going? It's interesting that Stantis took up this storyline since we're still learning things about what really happened every day. Since Stantis wrote this Bush has said that if anyone from the White House testifies: it's not under oath, there are no transcripts, and it's behind closed doors. We found out over the weekend that Gonzo blatantly lied to the Congress. And yesterday we found out that one of Gonzo's top advisors has said she'll plead the fifth(!?) if she's called to testify.
How is Stantis going to justify this? I'm sure in his own ham-fisted way he'll try, which is why he made poor wittle Carmen the victim despite not actually being an attorney or an official Republican (seems to me Stantis makes it very clear in his podcasts - remember those? - that Carmen isn't one of them, then he goes and does something like this - yes, he's an idiot).
Or will he admit that it's wrong to fire your own appointees because they followed the law instead of Republican talking points? And admit that there needs to be oversight and they should have to get warrants if they want to spy on us?
Who knows. And honestly, who cares? Stantis is in way over his head in this one. He tackled a subject without knowing the whole story, and I'm pretty sure that within the next few days he'll have Carmen say or do something that has nothing to do with the truth or what's really going on so he can simply excuse it away. It's what he does. Somehow it's all the Democrats' fault, and then he'll wish it away and talk about Britney in rehab and Winslow trying to fly.
Just another week in the lamest town around, Prickly City.
*UPDATE*
There actually is a new podcast up that was recorded on Friday. It's interesting, because Stantis brings up Candorville and encourages people to read it. It's also funny because we here at Shrubville know the real reason he wants it around - because Prickly City and Candorville are inexplicably tied in the eyes of editors and if they have to cancel a conservative strip like P.C. then Candorville will have to go too. He also tells an anecdote about how he got positive and negative letters from readers, but he had to go back to the days of his old Buckets strip. What Stantis, no positive letters about Prickly? Apparently not, since Toby reads a bunch of negative emails that Stantis really can't respond to since he knows their criticisms are right on.
On a serious note, Stantis also tells us that his father has been diagnosed with cancer. While we might not agree with Stantis and his politics or think he's any good at his job, it's nothing personal - and we here at Shrubville wish his father and his family the best in this very trying time.
Comments
I am the "Christopher" that Stantis gets a long letter from in the podcast. It was a very long and well-thought-out letter about my views on "Prickly City" as a comic strip throughout the past two-and-a-half years. He really watered down my letter for the podcast, which is understandable due to its length, but I was hoping that he'd at least respond to some of my criticisms.
He didn't. Not really. He kind of used my brief reference to his horrible "fall guy" gag from a week or two ago as a way to escape responding and change the subject. He explained that "the fall guy" was a reference to Scooter Libby. Well, yeah, Stantis, I got that. My point in the letter was that it was just another dull repetition of the old "Winslow wants to fly" gag. I was very disappointed in Stantis's failure to respond to actual, well-thought-out criticisms (as opposed to plain old hate mail) when they were staring him in the face.
But then, I guess you "Shrubville" folks don't have very high expectations for Stantis, huh? :)
-- Chris
Posted by: Chris at March 28, 2007 06:23 PM
yes, of course, nothing personal. The family will be in my prayers.
However, the f-wad DOES keep crapping his tights about Nancy Pelosi's facial expressions...he can't understand how to create a joke. It's like a t-shirt with a picture of a bear going "uhhhhh..."
it COULD mean something, but it doesn't.
Posted by: Jeff at March 30, 2007 11:34 PM
