Some folks tried to put together a healthcare reform rally and Sen. Johanns’ staff called the cops.

“Johanns’ voters– teachers, members of the armed forces, and SEIU members– set up a table with apple pie and signs welcoming the Senator and urging him to support a uniquely American solution to healthcare reform,” explained Jane Kleeb, SEIU State Director. “Instead of coming by and saying hello, the Senator walked right by us as we were surrounded by police, and the Senator said ‘good luck with that.’”

SEIU received advanced permission from the Nebraska Medical Center to greet the Senator as he started his day of roundtables on healthcare reform. Instead of greeting the healthcare reform advocates at the table, the Senator’s staff called the police.

I’m trying to think of some kind of catchy health-reform name that could double as naughty slang but I’m at a loss. Anybody have any healthcare rally concept name ideas that rival teabagging in its awesome vulgarity?

from the San Diego Reader

It was 4-panel cartoon week.

Adam Serwer:

Yesterday, Glenn Beck guest and former CIA official Michael Scheuer openly hoped for a terrorist attack on the United States, saying, “The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. … It’s an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.” Beck nodded solemnly.
[...]
But understand, this is not unpatriotic. You can wish all manner of horrors on this country, but as long as these horrors might serve a specific political agenda, you’re not being unpatriotic. Unpatriotic is a public health-care plan. Unpatriotic is a judge modifying sub-prime mortgage loans to keep a roof over someone’s head. Unpatriotic is phosphate-free detergent. Patriotic is wishing for a terrorist attack on the United States.

Steve Benen:

I’d just add that there will almost certainly be no consequences for this. Two nutty conservatives can talk about the advantages of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil — indeed, they can long for it — without facing any real pushback at all. There won’t be any suspensions or boycotts. No sponsors will withdraw. None of Beck’s or Scheuer’s allies will distance themselves, and neither one will be excluded from polite company.

It was, in other words, just another day on Glenn Beck’s highly-rated unbalanced national television broadcast.

I’d just add that, during the Iraq War, it was not uncommon for Republicans to pretend that Democrats wanted the war to go badly in order to sneakily achieve policy objectives. That was such a horrible thing, even imagining that it was true was enough to fire up the faithful. Yet here, it’s actually happening, and it’s embraced by the very tens of millions who were horrified by the thought of Democrats doing it. I realize that Glenn Beck and Fox News have long defied even the exaggerations of rhetorical questions, but what kind of sick freak hopes for a terrorist attack on Americans?

from the Omaha Reader

from the Lincoln Journal Star

I haven’t really thought about Michael Jackson in years. I just told my wife that I think I was always hoping he’d get normal again and return with some awesome comeback album. But when I was a kid, I was a huge Michael Jackson fan, and there’s actually a Michael Jackson tie to when I first started drawing for the amusement of others.

I was simultaneously fascinated and horrified by Thriller. Back when I was in probably kindergarten and first grade, watching the “Thriller” video was pretty much a staple of every birthday party. And for whatever reason, during every viewing, I started drawing what was basically a comic storyboard adaptation of the werewolf transformation from the opening scene. Eventually, we stopped watching the video, but people kept requesting that I draw my panel-by-panel version of the werewolf scene. I’m sure I loved the attention at the time, but in hindsight, that seems really weird. There may be dozens of original Neal Obermeyer drawings of that in shoeboxes and landfills across southeast Nebraska.

Other than that, pretty much my strongest memories of Michael Jackson involve being extremely embarrassed that I received two copies of Thriller on vinyl for my birthday one year, and watching my cousin Wade lip-sync and dance to “Bad” for everyone at an Obermeyer family Christmas, replacing the traditional nativity play.

from the Omaha Reader

from the Lincoln Journal Star

At the risk of opening him up to abuse from the usual gang of commenting idiots, my dad has a guest column in today’s Lincoln Journal Star supporting the proposed changes in the LPS calendar. It ran alongside the cartoon below. I told my editor it reflects the intellectual extremes in the Obermeyer men.

from the Lincoln Journal Star

To give you a little insight into what cartoonists go through to get an idea into the newspaper, the original sketch of this cartoon included the zombie organist demanding more brains — not hot dogs — in his bucket. My editor was concerned that the average reader was not as big of a dork as I am, and would thus not understand why the zombie wanted brains in a bucket. I swore that people would understand, using the SAT analogy that brains are to zombies as blood is to vampires. He was not convinced of the pop culture permeation of this sci-fi / horror dietary staple, so I was confident enough to declare that a newsroom survey would prove my theory.

I told him to ask Brian Christopherson — a Journal Star sports reporter, former pop culture reporter, clever man and cool guy, and normal enough to pass as a representative of “regular people” — what zombies eat. He had no idea. The second person shook her head no before the question could even be uttered. The third person didn’t fail me, giving both “brains” and “people” as answers (I argued that “brains” was a subset of “people” when you’re talking about food). Knowing I was down 1-2, I tried to put all my chips on L. Kent Wolgamott, but he was sadly out of the office at the time. So I lost, and the cartoon says “hot dogs” as a result.