For some time I’ve been a fan of the artist and illustrator Molly Crabapple. I’m not quite sure how to describe her style. The Guardian once described it as “equal parts Hieronymus Bosch, William S. Burroughs and Cirque du Soleil.” She once described it herself as “Where’s Waldo for Perverts.” To place it in the most general terms, much of her work has the feel of high-end contemporary graphic novels. In any case, recently I got a PR email saying she’d just been down to Guantanamo Bay to draw the detention facility and the court proceedings. And I thought, wow, that seems like such a culture clash or coming together of two worlds, Crabapple on the one hand and the tight, hyper-secretive, militarized scene down at Gitmo, I’ve just got to hear more about how that went. So TPM’s Catherine Thompson interviewed her about it (she also wrote a long graphic essay for VICE) and she was kind enough to share several original sketches from her time down there. Here’s the piece which I’m thrilled we’re publishing.
Patrick B. Pexton, former Washington Post ombudsman, has one piece of advice for new owner Jeff Bezos: fire Jennifer Rubin. In a briskly indisputable judgment he says “She’s just plain bad. She doesn’t travel within a hundred miles of Post standards.”
TPM Reader ML wonders what kindling to the fire may have been added by the McCain/Graham visit to each which, remember, President Obama greenlighted …
As a person who worked on national security issues in the federal government for many years, I will certainly comment. If you are representing your country abroad on official business, you have to be very mindful that you are not on the hustings in Iowa. You must measure your words with excruciating exactness. When I saw senators McCain and Graham commenting from Egypt on CBS News, I told myself “boy, this is not good.”
President Obama breaks through the wall of cable chatter to deliver a statement on the situation in Egypt.
A Marist poll out today put the New York City Mayor’s race at a dead heat between Chris Quinn and Bill de Blasio at 24%. Former Comptroller Bill Thompson was at 18%. That’s different than the Quinnipiac Poll from Tuesday which put de Blasio in the lead at 30% with Quinn 6 points and Thompson 8 points back. But I think the upshot is clear: the Q poll was no fluke. From looking to be all but out of the running several weeks ago, he’s consistently gained ground over recent weeks and now likely holds at least a small lead in what is shaping up as a three way race.
Also, notable, Christine Quinn, who was started off as the almost prohibitive frontrunner in the race, looks to be in some trouble. She might well still come in first in the primary. But if you don’t get 40% of the vote, which seems highly unlikely for any contender at this point, you go to a run off. And the polls have consistently shown her losing to either Thompson or de Blasio in a hypothetical run off.
So today the RNC, in its summer meeting in Boston, will hold a vote on whether to boycott CNN and NBC over plans to run Hillary Clinton made for TV movies.
CIA acknowledges existence of Area 51 testing ground.
RNC Chair Priebus calls ‘self-deportation’ “horific” and “racist.”
Late Update: I was a little surprised when Reince Priebus called the moronic concept of ‘self-deportation’ racist. And it turns out he didn’t. The quote originally came from Business Insider. But it now turns out he said not “racist” but “it hurt us.”
A very ‘normal’ truck fire on the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge sparks some unsettled memories for New Yorkers. Pictures from TPM Reader CS after the jump … Read More