To better understand today's 'toon from Tom Tomorrow, we must turn to the fount of knowledge on the Web:
[x Wikipedia]
Jack Bauer is the protagonist and hero of the Fox television series "24," in which he has trained and worked in various capacities as a government agent, including US Army Delta Force, LAPD SWAT, CIA, and finally the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) Los Angeles. Within the "24" storyline, he is a key member of CTU and is often noted as the best agent CTU has. Bauer's job usually involves him helping prevent major terrorist attacks on the United States, saving both civilian lives and government administrations. On many occasions Jack does so at great personal expense, as those he thwarts subsequently target him and his loved ones. Actor Kiefer Sutherland portrays Jack Bauer in the television show and video game, and in 2006 signed on for at least three further seasons.
Interestingly, the Jack Bauer character uses a plastic milk jug as the water vessel for waterboarding. When WaterboardBoy (Christopher Hitchens) underwent waterboarding for Vanity Fair, the video showed the "interrogators" using a plastic milk jug for pouring water into the towel over WaterboardBoy's face. In "real life," WaterboardBoy ended the procedure in a matter of seconds. In "24" and real-"real life," waterboarding goes on and on and on. In real life, CIA interrogators waterboarded al-Qaeda's Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times and another terrorist suspect, Abu Zubaydah, 83 times. The end result: the United States of America joined the ranks of the most oppressive regimes in history. Has the United States brought the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks to justice thanks to waterboarding? Cha-Chunk, Cha-Chunk. The damn fool Dumbos use "Jack Bauer" as the justification for waterboarding al-Qaeda underlings to save the Land O'The Free and the Home O'The Brave. If this is (fair & balanced) national dishonor, so be it.
[x Salon]
TMW — "Ticking Bomb Scenario"
By Tom Tomorrow (Dan Perkins)
[Dan Perkins is an editorial cartoonist better known by the pen name "Tom Tomorrow". His weekly comic strip, "This Modern World," which comments on current events from a strong liberal perspective, appears regularly in approximately 150 papers across the U.S., as well as on Salon and Working for Change. The strip debuted in 1990 in SF Weekly.
Perkins, a long time resident of Brooklyn, New York, currently lives in Connecticut. He received the Robert F. Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism in both 1998 and 2002.
When he is not working on projects related to his comic strip, Perkins writes a daily political weblog, also entitled "This Modern World," which he began in December 2001.]
Copyright © 2009 Salon Media Group, Inc.
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Copyright © 2009 Sapper's (Fair & Balanced) Rants & Raves
