{"article":{"id":109574,"heading":"'You should be ashamed of what you did to Tillman'","author":"Ted Rall & Bill O'Reilly","created":"2004-05-06 15:42:05","modified":"2005-08-15 02:55:57","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 09:55:57","article":"
TED RALL COMMENTS ON HIS TILLMAN CARTOON
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Pat Tillman
Rallblog, May 03, 2004
Today's cartoon is getting a lot of coverage from right-wing media outlets as well as more legitimate ones like Editor & Publisher. As is often the case in these situations, it's impossible to reply to each email individually, so I'll just say what I have to say here.
My cartoon is a reaction to the extraordinary lionizing of Mr. Tillman as a national hero. First of all, the media's decision to genuflect to a cult of death is terrifyingly similar to the cult of Palestinian suicide bombers in the Middle East and the glorious coverage given by the Japanese during World War II to fallen kamikaze fighters. Nowhere has this excessive praise for the act of voluntary death been more extreme than in Mr. Tillman's case.
The purpose of a political cartoon is to stimulate discussion, and there was no discussion about America's post-9\/11 death cult.
Second, Mr. Tillman served an evil president and an evil cause. Anyone with an open mind after 9\/11 could easily have learned the truth, that the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq occured instead of a war on terror, not as part of one. A person who planned to risk his life in combat should reasonably be expected to dig a little deeper rather than to fall for Bush's transparent lies. We all judge each other, and while Tillman's decision to sacrifice millions of dollars for his beliefs is admirable, his belief that killing the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan had something to do with defending America was not. At best, Tillman was foolish and misguided.
Finally, it's time for troops who signed up post-9\/11 to take a little personal responsibility. It's one thing for a career soldier to go where the politicians tell him or her to go, but quite another to join the military when the \"president\" is an illegal usurper occupying the White House, he's an out-of-control warmonger using the deaths in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania to promote a partisan political agenda and his wars are nothing more than grabs for control of oil and gas resources and pipeline routes. Liberals tend to let volunteer soldiers off the hook, but let's not forget the hard, cold truth:
If no one had enlisted after 9\/11, we wouldn't be fighting these immoral wars based on lies and greed now.
Update as of Tuesday: I'll be the lead on tonight's O'Reilly Factor, on Fox News, 8 pm Eastern time.
SEE: http:\/\/www.rall.com\/rants.html<\/a>
BILL O'REILLY COMMENTS ON RALL'S TILLMAN CARTOON
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O'Reilly Blasts Cartoonist Rall on TV Show
by Editor & Publisher, May 05, 2004
NEW YORK On his weeknight Fox News chat show, Bill O'Reilly often goes out of his way to give guests he plainly despises what he calls \"the last word.\" When he didn't offer that opportunity to cartoonist\/columnist Ted Rall on Tuesday night, you know he had to really hate the guy.
These were O'Reilly's final words to Rall: \"You should be ashamed of what you did to Tillman.\"
This was a reference to Rall's controversial syndicated cartoon earlier this week which raised the question of whether ex-pro football star Pat Tillman, killed in Afghanistan last week, was actually a hero or possibly an \"idiot\" for volunteering to serve a less than noble cause overseas.
Before his final words, O'Reilly called Rall \"a far left guy\" who \"makes (Gary) Trudeau look like Rush Limbaugh.\" He added: \"Something is the matter with you, Mr. Rall.\"
O'Reilly also challenged Rall's statement to E&P on Monday, in which he said Tillman was serving an \"evil cause.\" In a debate over Afghanistan's part in the 9\/11 terrorist attacks, Rall said it was myth that Osama bin Laden had admitted responsibility for those attacks on the U.S. and he might be innocent. The war against Afghanistan he said \"was just as big a scam as the war on Iraq.\"
When O'Reilly predicted that not even five of Rall's usual clients for his cartoon would dare run it, Rall observed, \"Editors are kind of cowardly.\"
O'Reilly did thank Rall for having the guts \"to show up here.\"
In vintage form, O'Reilly also called Los Angeles Times' columnist Robert Scheer \"a left wing bomb thrower\" and took other shots at Doonesbury, the \"left wing\" New York Times and other members of \"the anti-Bush media.\"
SEE: http:\/\/www.mediainfo.com\/eandp\/news\/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000502800<\/a>\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/gif","summary":"Bill O'Reilly called political cartoonist Ted Rall "a far left guy" who "makes (Gary) Trudeau look like Rush Limbaugh." ","numcomment":8,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2004\/05\/rall_042904.gif","filesize":"34.5 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2004\/05\/109574.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2004\/05\/rall_042904.gif"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":109578,"heading":"Tillman sets an example","article":"for all young people - of what not to do. By the way, is it all that surprising that a guy who would beat someone almost to death in a vicious brawl outside a pizza parlor would also think it was a good idea to sign up to incinerate Muslims?","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-06 17:00:59","modified":"2004-05-06 17:00:59","fileurl":""},{"id":109622,"heading":"Keep censoring, vaginas","article":"douchebag rene shitirez had his day in the sun with his idiotic opinon piece. now it's numbnut rall's turn with his diarrhea-based comic strip.\r\n\r\nfuck you, rall. \r\n\r\nyou're not fit to carry Tillman's jockstrap.","author":"Van Hellsing","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-07 03:14:40","modified":"2004-05-07 03:14:40","fileurl":""},{"id":109625,"heading":"Good one...","article":"... Mr. London.\r\n\r\nI am Mammon.\r\nI need more meat. I am hungry. Thank you.","author":"Torx III","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-07 04:34:32","modified":"2004-05-07 04:34:32","fileurl":""},{"id":109628,"heading":"Who is evil?","article":"The liberal is evil. \r\n\r\nHe thinks robbing Peter to pay Paul is an original idea and the solution to all economic problems.\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil. \r\n\r\nHe calls any capitalism that doesn't serve his big government social experiments \r\n"greed."\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil. \r\n\r\nThriving on divisiveness, he'll risk a race war if it keeps him in power.\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil. \r\n\r\nBlind to history outside the scope of his dogma, he'll make the same mistakes \r\nover and over again.\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil.\r\n\r\nHe'd rather focus on expensive false solutions requiring others' money than the \r\nreality of trade-offs.\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil.\r\n\r\nWeakness corrodes what once was strong as centuries of societal culture are \r\ndismissed, replaced by faddish trends.\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil.\r\n\r\nZero values. A conscience based on negatives. The end justifies the means.\r\n\r\n\r\nThe liberal is evil.\r\nThe liberal is evil.","author":"The liberal is evil.","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-07 05:43:24","modified":"2004-05-07 05:43:24","fileurl":""},{"id":109640,"heading":"conservatives are...","article":"Conservatives, categorically speaking, are single-minded. They are effective in highly linear and partisan pursuits, but not in situations that demand more flexibility. They do not trust flexible, multifaceted approaches, and attribute "evil" intent to those who espouse them. They also ignore any evidence that said approaches are effective in dealing with certain scenarios, in keeping with their tunnel vision.\r\n\t\r\nhttp:\/\/www.crosswalk.com\/news\/1211434.html\r\n","author":"lucius","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-07 11:58:03","modified":"2004-05-07 11:58:03","fileurl":""},{"id":109643,"heading":"robbing Peter to pay Paul","article":"Actually, I am in favor of taking back the wealth that capitalist\/landlord Peter stole from Paul. Whatever justified criticisms may be made of Lenin, he was right on the mark when he said that it is time to "loot the looters."","author":"Meyer London","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-07 13:14:48","modified":"2004-05-07 13:14:48","fileurl":""},{"id":109775,"heading":"let's criticize the living ones","article":"Twice I've been at anti-war vigils where veterans passing by get all pissed off, and then vent their anger. It's been at women both times (and the vets were young men). What the hell is up with this? There are usually more men than women, and they could just as easily come up to one of the men and shout at us, but, they choose the women.\r\n\r\nI used to have more respect for people who enlist, but, lately, I just think of some of them as sadists and cowards. They were probably troubled going in, and made worse by the abuse.","author":"more rational","parent_id":109574,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2004-05-08 21:13:35","modified":"2004-05-08 21:13:35","fileurl":""}]}