Oh New Yorker...

So check out the cover of the New Yorker. (Click the second link for a picture.) Generally designed to provoke a response, they picked probably the worst possible cover they could and I think a ton and a half of grief is probably going to be flung their way in a big-ass hurry.

Who knows if they'll get this in Dubuque, but they sure aren't going to like it in Chicago: This week's New Yorker cover features an image of Michelle and Barack Obama that combines every smeary right-wing stereotype imaginable: An image of Obama in a turban and robes fist-bumping his be-afro'd wife, dressed in the military fatigues of a revolutionary and packing a machine gun and some serious ammo. Oh yes, this quaint little scene takes place in the Oval Office, under a picture of Osama bin Laden above a roaring fireplace, in which burns an American flag. All that's missing is a token sprig of arugula.

I kid you not. Why did they do this, you ask? Well...

The illustration, by Barry Blitt,is called "The Politics of Fear" and, according to the NYer press release, "satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the Presidential election to derail Barack Obama's campaign." Uh-huh. What's that they say about repeating a rumor?

I'm not sure I see the satire in the illustration, myself. Pasting every single rumor and untruth out there about Obama and putting them all in one handy, dandy illustration. So very smart. Soooooooo very smart of the New Yorker. The poop is going to fly over this one as well it should. Someone should rap the New Yorker for repeating the rumors that Obama is trying very hard to discredit. And if you repeat a rumor? Well, people could believe its true.