Sir, let me repeat these same old questions...

The Maple Curtain

What's going on with Verizon trying to leave Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont?

Go find out now at PolitickerNV.com.

Free at Last?
PolitickerME

Does the GOP know where Nevada is?

What's that elephant doing to the great state of Nevada?

Go find out now at PolitickerNV.com.

O'Malley won't like this

Here is a link to today's cartoon over at PolitickerMD.

And here's the sketch:



O'Malley and Franchot battle over slots
PolitickerMD

Corzine gets a payback from Rutgers

It's Wednesday, so that means a new cartoon over at PolitickerNJ.

This story just caught my attention the minute I read it. I can't say it any better than Wally did over at PolitickerNJ:

Governor Jon Corzine is already getting a return on his investment. He announced this week that he would contribute $1 million to Rutgers University as part of his decision to help raise money to privately finance a stadium expansion. Now Rutgers has announced that they have hired Jeannine LaRue, Corzine’s Deputy Chief of Staff, for a new position to advise Rutgers on government relations at an annual salary of $250,000 – about double what she was making in the Governor’s office.

I seems to me that Corzine's biggest enemy sometimes is his own checkbook.

Here's the sketch:



Here are some links:

You can't make this stuff up
PolitickerNJ

Carroll objects to Rutgers' $250k lobbyist
PolitickerNJ

And just for fun, when I went googling for Rutgers reference pics, this is what I found:



"Log off, that "cookies" shit makes me nervous!"

Playoffs?!??!! Playoffs??!?!

The best of the Coors Light commercials.

The look on the black guy's face is absolutely hilarious!!!!!

Tom Kean Jr. = Mirror World Spock?

I report...you decide.

Future budget crisis insurance enclosed

Here is a link to today's cartoon over at PolitickerOR.

Education in Orgeon is underfunded because the state has absolutely no savings or rainy day fund for when the economy goes sour. Oregonians love getting money back from the government in the form of a kicker check, but they also cry foul that our schools are falling apart because we don't fund education from property taxes - they get their money from the general fund.

Since the kicker checks went out there have been numerous ads and columns on how and where you can donate your kicker money to the community. Here's a quote from a press release from the Oregon Center for Public Policy:

Oregon is the only state in the country with a law that automatically "kicks back" revenue to taxpayers when it exceeds the state's forecast for the two-year budget period by 2 percent or more. This year's kicker refund -- the largest ever at about $1.1 billion and 18.6 percent of taxpayers' 2006 liability -- is being sent out between now and December 15.

Here's the sketch:



Kicker sends message: “We don’t have the political will”
Oregon Center for Public Policy

Ron Paul hearts Paul Pope

So this post mixes comics and politics. The internet's favorite candidate, Ron Paul, spoke to ComicMix about his favorite superhero, and the answer may surprise you (if the fact that he had a favorite super hero did not):

"My favorite comic book superhero is Baruch Wane, otherwise known as Batman, in The Batman Chronicles. "The Berlin Batman," #11 in the series by Paul Pope, details Batman's attempts to rescue the confiscated works of persecuted Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, from Nazi Party hands.

“Batman's assistant Robin writes in the memoirs, "[Mises] was an advocate of individual liberty, free speech, and free thinking... and so, should I add, the Berlin Batman. Batman, a Jew in hiding in Nazi Austria, was willing to risk his life for the sake of the promulgation of freedom, and I find this to be super-heroic."

Hat tip to: The Beat

New Indiana Jones movie poster

I am terrified about this movie. The Indiana Jones trilogy (especially Raiders of the Lst Ark) ranks up there for me among my favories, including The Third Man, 2001, Raging Bull, and others. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited about seeing how it turns out, and that I wouldn't be seeing it opening night.

Here's the first of what seems like is going to be at least four movie posters for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Going back to the well, they've enlisted the aid of Drew Struzan, the famous poster artist who brought us images for the previous 3 films.

Why can't films have painted posters any longer? They are much more evocative and impressive them the lame, photoshoped pieces of garbage that blanket the posters and dvd covers today. I remember when Bill Sienkiewicz came to the Kubert School, he had a painted poster and comps that he did for Clint Eastwood for Unforgiven that were magnificent, but ultimately they went the photo route.

Not that it changed how I felt about the movie, because it's still great. It's just one thing that has disappeared that I miss.