(Hat-tip BRAD BLOG emailer "Jazzolog")

Courtesy of The Onion...

(Good God is this toon on the money. Can barely come up for air while trying to keep up with it all...This is amazing...)

The Los Angeles Times continues to beg readers to cancel their subscriptions altogether.

Their latest plan: Dump the progressive, interesting, non-white comic strips.

Last week, the Times decided to dump both Candorville, whose strip we've been running here from time to time --- the only one, mind you, that we're aware of which dealt with the e-voting issue directly. La Cucaracha, the paper's only Latino-based strip (in LA!), was dumped at the same time.

The latter was re-instated after a flood of reader complaints. So far, no return of Candorville, however, the last African-American related strip of note in the once-great Los Angeles newspaper, now gutted by its conservative Chicago Tribune owners/rapists. The Trib also recently canceled the strip as well.

We've gotten to know Darrin Bell, the strip's creator, a bit over the last year or so. He sent The BRAD BLOG the following announcement a few days ago on the latest corporate-media idiocy, noting that though his strip has been dumped, "Blondie and Marmaduke are still safe" at the Times.

The only good news in the bargain: The world's unfunniest "comic strip," Mallard Fillmore, has been put out of our misery. Finally. A dead duck we can all be happy about.

"Without at least one of these two papers," Bell writes in regard to the cancellations at both the Times and the Trib, "Candorville can't continue to annoy the knuckledraggers in two of our most important cities, and the strip itself may not be long for this world."

He also asks that complaints be sent to readers.rep@latimes.com. We join him in that request, and are happy to post his note in full below...

Apropos of our earlier article today concerning the fake Fox "News" Channel "comedy" show 1/2 Hour News Hour, Darrin Bell, the creator of Candorville dropped us a note to point to today's strip (see below), which touches on same.

He wrote: "I had to admit to feeling a bit guilty when I read the closing line of today's entry. I am guilty of helping draw more attention to that crap."

Don't worry, Darrin. Even though we wrote that last line, we're still guilty of same. We did write that article, after all. Oh, how we do loves the paradoxes and ironies here at The BRAD BLOG.

We're also happy to see attention drawn to the propagandistic garbage that is the Fox "News" Channel in MSM papers all over the country. Even if it's "only" on the comics page. So, thank you, sir, and keep up the good work!

NOTE: Bell links back to our story from this morning, in his daily blog which he now runs along with each of his strips over at his website. We're happy to return the favor...

Both Doonesebury and our friend Darrin Bell's Candorville take on the "DemocRAT" issue in today's Sunday strips.

In addition, Bell has turned blogger at his www.Candorville.com site and has been providing additional commentary about his various strips. Today he writes, in part, as a companion to his Sunday toon that though George W. Bush refers to it as the "Democrat Party"...

Both strips follow in full...

Last week we covered the very lame duck, Mallard Filmore, whose right wingnut and unfunny creator Bruce Tinsley had been arrested, yet again, for drunkeness (in this second instance, while driving).

But there was more news of note last week from the rightwing comic strip world as Prickly City's creator Scott Stantis has been recuperating from rotator cuff surgery and Guest Cartoonists have been taking his place.

Here's how things began last week as the strip was taken over by centrist --- and apparently Democratic --- editorial cartoonist Matt Davies...

While Prickly City is nowhere near as strident, cloying, obnoxious, and irrelevant as Mallard, it also has the added benefit of being interesting and even mildly entertaining on occassion. Last week, however, with Davies at the helm, actual humor managed to find its way into just about each day's strip (even if by Thursday, they had gotten a bit knee-jerk.)

Credit is due Stantis for allowing a less-than-Republican to take things over, even if his strip had already become far less Republican-ish over the last year or so. Monday's toon is above, the rest of Davies' strips from last week follow below. The best one --- for our money --- was Wednesday's...

No worries. After the pathetically unfunny Mallard Fillmore is eventually put out of its misery, we're certain that intimidated newspaper publishers will work hard to find another unfunny "conservative" "comic strip" to take its place. Lest they be accused of not being "balanced" in the funny pages and all...

Seriously, are there any Republicans left out there who don't suffer from blatant and utter hypocrisy?

Other than that...What are you thankful for this weekend? Consider it an open thread...