Atlantic County Executive

One of the more interesting races to watch in the state is right here in Atlantic County. Dennis Levinson, a former history teacher and the only Republican county executive in the state, is defending his Atlantic County Executive seat against his challenger, Sheriff Jim McGettigan.

Already a contentious debate with 3 months to go, this fight will just continue to degrade and degrade, until the candidates are simply reduced to pissing on one another.

From Matt Friedman at PoliticsNJ.com:

"Each candidate insists that his opponent is desperate. Levinson often repeats of McGettigan, “The only time he opens his mouth is to put the other foot in.” McGettigan, for his part, says that Levinson’s campaign is in a “tailspin.” The personal animosity between the candidates is palpable, with charges of pension padding, misuse of public resources and incompetence flying back and forth on a daily basis."

Atlantic County Executive fight
PoliticsNJ

McGettigan peppers executive race with salty language
Press of Atlantic City

Here's the sketch:

Who deserves the blame?

Not much time to chat right now. Maybe I'll expand on this cartoon a bit later.

Here's the sketch:

What say you Senator Lance

I did this cartoon yesterday for PoliticsNJ criticizing State Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, and he spoke to Max Pizarro in an attempt to answer the 'not reporting for duty charge.'

"I’m obviously not missing," said the 55-year old leader at a fund-raiser for state Senate Republican candidates today at the Trenton Marriot. "We’re here in the dog days of summer, and I look forward to working with and helping our candidates in all of the important targeted races."

Lance fights the missing in action tag

Night court

The Attorney General's Office and the state judiciary have launched inquiries into how the men charged in the Newark schoolyard slayings was out on bail at the time of the shootings.

Dick Codey criticized the lowering of bail for one of the suspects, Jose Lachira Carranza, whose bail was reduced in a child-rape case. "It is our understanding that Jose Carranza's bail was reduced from $300,000 to $150,000 as a unilateral decision by the judge, without allowing any input from the prosecutor's office, which is simply unacceptable," Codey said in a statement.

Why would Superior Court Judge Thomas Vena's have decided to lower his bail to $150,000 from $300,000? A chronology released by the office of Essex County Assignment Judge Patricia Costello said the bail was lowered with the consent of Margarita Rivera, the assistant Essex County prosecutor handling the sexual assault case. According to the Star-Ledger, the prosecutor's office said that it never gave such consent.

And on MSNBC last night, they showed footage from the courtroom where Vena asked Carranza for his social security number, and Carranza responded, "I don't have it." The prosecutor clarified the statement, saying Carranza didn't have a social security number. No flags were raised. Nothing.

Of course, with Newark being a major metropolitan city, cries of overbooked courtrooms and overflowing prisons are the norm, but something this egregious shouldn't have been swept aside so easily.

And now 3 boys have paid the price of a system's incompetence.

Criticism spurs probes of slaying suspect's bail

Sunday Strips

Over on the Strippers Guide, Allan Holtz, a comic strip historian, covers the changing (and quickly dwindling size) of Sunday comic strips in American newspapers. It's a really interesting read.

Hat tip to: The Comics Reporter

How could it get any worse for Michael Vick

So you thought it couldn't get any worse for everyone's favorite quarterback Michael Vick? Well, according to Fox News, in addition to the federal indictment he faces over an alleged dog fighting ring, Vick's been sacked with a "$63,000,000,000 billion dollar" lawsuit by a South Carolina inmate that claims the quarterback stole his pit bulls, and instead of fighting with them, Vick sold them on eBay to (and I'm not making this up) buy "missiles from Iran."

Ridiculous? Here's the link:

South Carolina Inmate Hits Michael Vick With '$63,000,000,000 Billion Dollar' Lawsuit Alleging Al Qaeda Ties

Hat tip to Jesse Chadderdon

Has anyone seen this Senator?

Here's a link to this week's cartoon on PoliticsNJ.com.

Check it out, and let me know what you think. If you haven't signed up for a username over there, take the second to do so. It's free, and you could find yourself debating with some pretty interesting folks.

Mike Wieringo, Comic Book Artist, Dead at 44

Mike Wieringo, a well-know comic book artist that worked on "The Flash", "Robin" and "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" died in his home Sunday of a heart attack. He was 44 years old.

I first become of Wieringo's artwork when he teamed up with Mark Waid on issue #80 of Dc Comics "The Flash." It's still one of my favorite super-hero comic book runs, especially as it got into the 90's with Impulse and the dreaded speed force.

I only met him once at a comic book show. He signed an original piece of artwork I had from his Flash run that I also had signed from Flash writer Mark Waid, and inker Jose Marzan, Jr.

Mike Wieringo passes away
Newsarama (with Wieringo's last blog post from August 10)

And here's a link from the Newsarama message board with reaction from Mark Waid, Todd Dezago and Karl Kesel:
Remembering Mike Wieringo

Hat tip to: Karl Savage

Don't trip on the way out

I did this cartoon back in March, but it seems fitting to re-post it today.

Here's the sketch:

Mayor Levy...where ARE YOU?

Mayor Levy is like the Invisible Man of Atlantic City, and these days, it's probably best that he keeps out-of-sight. Between a recall bid and his recent health problems, Levy has been a pre-occupied man. Add to that the latest in-fighting between the Atlantic City Council and administration, and their reluctance to okay the resort's budget, and it's not been a great week for Mr. Mayor.

Here's the sketch:



Responding to recall bid, Levy says he won’t quit

Atlantic City Council passes budget