[Hat-tip Van Jones via Twitter.]

If American politics and political discourse is going to devolve into little more than a bad Disney cartoon --- and it has, as this election season demonstrates in spades --- why not just cut out the middle man and cut straight to the cartoon chase?

Our thanks to Stephen C. Webster at RAW STORY for drawing our attention to the latest escalation in the Glen Beck Toon Wars (so far, a one-sided war, in truth).

The first volley was the "duckin' brilliant" remix of Donald Duck cartoons by Jonathan McIntosh of Rebellious Pixels --- wherein our hero is driven daffy by the paranoid tea bagger rantings of the Fox "News" superstar.

In response, Fox' finest fantasist has seemingly become convinced the whole thing is a Big Government conspiracy out to get him. "Some of these remix videos, I believe, get federal funding," declared Beck on his radio show last week. "We're looking into the funding of this gentleman, and the incredible propaganda against me," he said. "We'll find out if it's been federally funded, ya know, as part of the stimulus package."

Well, apparently Mickey Mouse isn't taking Beck's latest goofy conspiracy theory lying down, as YouTube poster "ikat381" helped us to learn over the weekend...

Keep it comin', Glenn! We're lovin' these toons! So, we'd be outraged if we were you!

If you missed McIntosh's brilliant original, here it is again. It's as smart a take on (and reflection of) today's political environment as anything else we're likely to see, at least until the elections are far behind us. So sit back and enjoy it...

Duckin' brilliant...

[From Rebellious Pixels, by way of Boing Boing and Will Shetterly with hat-tip to Ana Marie Cox.]

Guest blogged by Ernest A. Canning

Paul Conrad, 1924 - 2010

Paul Conrad, winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, whose poignant political cartoons were so effective in speaking truth to power that the criminal cabal inside the Nixon White House placed Conrad on its "Enemies List," has passed at the age of 86. Conrad regarded placement on the Nixon's enemies list as a badge of honor. He lampooned the ethically challenged former President in this biting cartoon.

We at The BRAD BLOG join with the Los Angeles Times in mourning the loss of one of the giants of 20th Century journalism.

[Hat-tip BRAD BLOG toon sherpa, Pokey Anderson]

[Hat-tip Climate Progress, via @GreenNewsReport.]

(Note: See bottom of toon for a quick comment of mine in response. - BF)

This from a panel of today's Tom Tomorrow strip, titled "Too Much Crazy," depicting New York Times Public Editor Clark Hoyt "as a weasel"...

Much more crazy in the full strip.

The quote in the above panel is taken from the mindblowing emails Hoyt sent to me recently, as one of his reasons for not recommending the "paper of record" issue retractions for their repeatedly inaccurate and misreported coverage of the James O'Keefe/Andrew Breitbart ACORN video "pimp" hoax, as The BRAD BLOG has now been covering for weeks.

In addition to the absurd justifications that Hoyt (who can be emailed at Public@NYTimes.com) offered for refusing to responsibly recommend corrections, the paper's Senior Editor for Standards, Greg Brock, offered equally absurd reasons for standing by their reporting earlier, including O'Keefe's appearance on Fox News, "wearing what HE said was the same exact costume he wore to ACORN's offices."

"If there is a correction to be made, it seems it would start with Mr. O'Keefe himself. We believe him," Brock (who can be emailed at SeniorEditor@NYTimes.com) incredibly asserted via emails we posted here. "Therefore there is nothing for us to correct."

While working on some followup to my exclusive on the lies of James O'Keefe, Andrew Breitbart and, in particular, the failures (and lies?) of the New York Times, this toon seems particularly appropriate...