WATCH: Senator Kyl’s START Gamble [Cartoon]

A little nuclear terrorism is a small price to pay for political gains.


Mother Jones illustrator Zina Saunders creates editorial animations riffing on the political news and current events of the week. In this week’s animation, Key Senate Republican Jon Kyl is upping the ante in his game against Obama: he’s determined to stop START, even after Republican bigwigs like Henry Kissinger and George Schultz came out in support of ratifying the nuclear missile agreement with Russia. Wiley Kyl smells victory in his gamble to put a Republican in the White House in 2012; after all, a little nuclear terrorism is a small price to pay. And since you ask: Yes, Saunders does all her own awesome songs and cartoon voiceovers.—The Editors

Here are the lyrics, written and performed by Zina:

Kyl’s feeling lucky, got the world on a string

He’s in a gambling mood and he’s betting everything

It’s a scary game but one he’s glad to play

He’ll show them what he’s made of and what he’s set to pay.

Missiles and treaties don’t mean a thing to him

Who cares about a war when there’s a race to win

Who cares if it’s disaster, who cares if it’s the end

He’s gonna get Obama out, replace him a friend 

Watch him as he gambles, spin the wheel and see

He’s betting with the world on taking back DC.

He thinks it might be useful if we should go to war

It would fire up his voters and even up the score.

WE'LL BE BLUNT:

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't find elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate