dreaming of a muscular, courageous sean hannity

I just learned through the Daily Kos site that a group of Republican comic book makers has banded together to launch a series they’re calling Liberality for All. Here’s how they set-up the scenario:

America’s future has become an Orwellian nightmare of ultra-liberalism. Beginning with the Gore Presidency, the government has become increasingly dominated by liberal extremists. In 2004, Muslim terrorists stopped viewing the weakened American government as a threat; instead they set their sites on their true enemies, vocal American conservatives. On one dark day, in 2006, many conservative voices went forever silent at the hands of terrorist assassins. Those which survived joined forces and formed a powerful covert conservative organization called “The Freedom of Information League,” aka F.O.I.L. The F.O.I.L. Organization is forced underground by the “Coulter Laws” of 2007; these hate speech legislations have made right-wing talk shows, and conservative-slanted media, illegal…

Got that? The liberals have ended free speech and joined forces with Islamic terrorists, and Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North (each “uniquely endowed with special abilities devised by a bio mechanical engineer”) are our nation’s only chance for survival… It sounds like really great stuff. In the first episode, they even “thwart Ambassador Usama Bin Laden’s plans to nuke New York City.” (That’s right – Osama is an Ambassador to the United Nations.)

Here, as if that weren’t enough to get your latte-infused blood boiling, is an image (from the first issue of Liberality) of us, the evil liberals, clapping for Osama bin Laden as he enters the chambers of the United Nations.

I’ve been thinking about it for a while now and I’m pretty sure it’s not a joke. At first, I was convinced that it was just the work of some very brilliant marketing people who knew that they could make something so outlandishly paranoid and delusional that it would sell on both sides of the ideological isle. (I’m fighting with every ounce of strength not to buy a copy.) But, now I’m pretty sure that it’s just what it seems, the work of some seriously delusional young men, who, lacking strong male role models in their own lives, have turned to their radios for comfort in these confusing times…

Some day, I hope a copy of this comic is in the Smithsonian, right next to the display on McCarthyism and the “red scare.” It speaks volumes about the state of our country today.

And I wonder why Rush didn’t make the cut. Was he perhaps one of the “conservative voices (that) went forever silent at the hands of terrorist assassins”? I know some people who would buy the comic for that alone… Or, could it be that the men behind Liberality weren’t able to afford the licensing rights to the Limbaugh name? I wonder if that’s even an issue… Would Hannity, North and Liddy have to sign off on something like this, or is it allowable under current law for artists to use the images and names of famous people so long as it’s not viewed as libelous? The reason I ask is because I’m working on a comic in which Hannity goes to Iraq and shits his pants?