I’m guessing the news out of Connecticut sparked the idea the cartoonist intended to convey about the so-called “stimulus” bill, i.e., it shows all the sense one might expect out of a chimp like Travis. So in the cartoonist’s image, the chimp stands for Travis, with perhaps a nod to the “infinite monkeys typing” story (though I find that unlikely).
The cartoonist and editors should have considered the close identification of the bill with the President and the inflammation of feeling from the history of association of African-Americans and chimps. If those associations has occured to them I suspect they would have spiked it, or had to change it drastically.
I hear a Protein Wisdom discussion about intent and communication and who controls discourse. One does suspect that those aggrieved over the offense taken from this cartoon will have more control over future discourse than those aggrieved over “Piss Christ” mentioned by mister man earlier. Interesting, that.
