Best of 2007

I can't believe that tomorrow will be 2008! It seems like this year has gone by so fast. Again, my thanks has to go to New Jersey, for providing me with such great content, that it's hard for a cartoonist to go wrong!

This is my second year as a professional cartoonist, and a lot has happened on that front in 2007. I began doing cartoons for PoliticsNJ, a great local site on New Jersey politics. Who would've guessed that a couple months later they'd be changing their name to PolitickerNJ and expanding into 6 new states, with more to come in 2008.

It's been difficult sometimes to come up with ideas for states clear across the country, but Ive found that much like New Jersey, each state has it's own particular interests and political environment.

Here are some of the best of my Non-New Jersey Politicker toons so far:

Thanks to everyone that's been keeping up with my cartoons, and have a Happy New Year!!!!

Did he torture dogs left handed too?

Well, it's finally happened. Michael Vick, the quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges that he sponsored a dogfighting operation where dogs were housed, trained and fought at a property owned by Vick in Surry County, Va.

And it doesn't just stop with dogfighting. It gets a bit more grisly, with the loser of the fight either dying in the pit, being soaked and then electrocuted, drowned, hanged or shot.

It's a disastrous allegation for Vick, who according to Judy Battista of The New York Times, stands to lose quite a deal of wealth, not to mention freedom, if found guilty. Since he joined the N.F.L. in 2001, Vick’s No. 7 jersey had been among the top five sellers among all players. Not to mention his many lucrative endorsement deals with companies such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Hasbro and Kraft, among others.

I guess that Madden curse is real...

Vick Indictment a Predicament for the N.F.L.
The New York Times

Indictment puts Vick's earning power in limbo
ESPN

And here's the clip of the dog being hit during the Tour de France. Not to worry, the dog came out of it unharmed, which is more than can be said for Vick's pups:

Coming and Going

My editors wanted a cartoon to user in the beginning of the summer. I instantly thought of a Norman Rockwell painting entitled Going and Coming, and wanted to play a modern gag off of it. Here's Rockwell's original painting:


I have to say, it's pretty intimating working off Norman Rockwell. Growing up, he was always one of my favorite artists. Kristen and I had the good fortune to visit the Norman Rockwell Museum up in Stockbrigde, Massachusetts. If you thought his paintings were amazing printed, you should see them up close. The layering; the parts where the canvas shows through; seeing his individual brushstrokes. It's pretty amazing.

Anyway, here's my sketch:

Remembering the troops

Ooops. I almost forgot to post my Memorial Day cartoon on Memorial Day!

Global warming is not the REAL threat

Here's the sketch:

Dumb terrorist plot foiled

By now you all must have heard about the foiled plot by 6 self-titled "terrorists" that targeted Ft. Dix in New Jersey. For those of you that haven't, check out the news links below for the story and a video of Chris Christie talking about it.

What struck me about this whole situation is how they're touting it as a "Homeland Security works" advertisement, but they didn't catch the terrorist driving around Ft. Dix as a pizza delivery man, making detailed maps and determining where and how to hit. Nor did they intercept phone calls or catch them casing out other potential targets, like Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

They were caught because the 6 morons brought a VHS tape into a video store in Mount Laurel and asked the clerk to transfer the contents to DVD. The clerk watched the tape, which included 10 men shooting assault rifles and calling "Allah Akbar" ("God is great"). He called local police, and then the police got in tough with the FBI, and then the FBI infiltrated their group and ultimately apprehended them.

So dumb terrorists beware. If you plot an attack on any American target, we'll catch you. Provided you're dumb enough to leave us some obvious clues.

Fort Dix Terror Plot Thwarted

Six arrests thwart attack on Fort Dix

U.S. Attorney Discusses Arrests (video)

Here's the sketch:

Keep reading Rove's emails...

Here's the sketch:

A new planet for us to exploit

I don't know if you heard the news earlier this week, but European astronomers have found an "Earth-like" planet outside of our solar system, and relatively close, orbiting a red dwarf star every 13 days only 120 trillion miles away from Earth.

Dubbed Gilese 581 c, according to CNN, the new planet is about five times heavier than Earth, and gravity there would be 1.6 times as strong as ours. The research team believes the average temperature to be somewhere between 32 and 104 degrees and that set off celebrations among astronomers.

So pack your bags and get ready for a long ride, because with our existing technology, the journey would take roughly 87,509 years.

Scientists find most Earth-like planet yet
Major Discovery: New Planet Could Harbor Water and Life
Astronomers Find First Earth-like Planet in Habitable Zone

Here's the sketch:

What will come of it all?

Sometimes, there is no ignoring a story. With everything going on with Virginia Tech, I knew it was only a matter of time before one of the newspapers I do cartoons for asked for one covering the event. I was afraid, because I didn't want to do Hokie Birds or Uncle Sam crying, no bulletholes in the chalkboard or blood-stained bookbags. But at the same time, I didn't want to exploit the events for a cheap joke. So this is what I came up with.

Tax time

What if Chris Rock had said "Nappy-headed Ho's"?

Would he have been fired? Would he had even been booed?

Here's the sketch:

Gonzales aide pleades the fifth

Monica Goodling, a Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.

Which is interesting, because I didn't realize the 5th amendment protected an individual from the possibility of perjury! It's an interesting analysis of the 5th amendment she must have picked up at Regent University, which of course is Pat Robertson's law school.


Here's the sketch:

Free speech wins the day

Sorry, no time to expand on the cartoon today, which is probably for the best.

Here's the sketch:

Sanjaya...the newest tool in the war on terror

I can't believe I'm about to admit this, but while in school up in North Jersey, I was addicted to American Idol. I had to cut it off, not because I like the show any less, but it just sucked up too much of my time. Each episode was a couple of hours long, and there were three a week. Long story short, I haven't been following this year's contest.

However, I've read a lot about Sanjaya Malakar, the first person of Indian descent to make it to the top 12 on the show. Apparently, there is a website, Vote for the Worst, devoted to keeping him on the show. The founder of the website, Dave Della Terza even called in to the Howard Stern Show to discuss his and Howard's joint effort to encourage the public to vote for Sanjaya, strengthening the cause.

But I haven't heard Sanjaya sing...until last night. Needless to say, his rendition of "You Really Got Me” by The Kinks is what inspired me to do this cartoon.

Here's the sketch:

Rove is finally being dragged down

Here's the sketch:

Alberto and his poorly run department

Poor, poor Alberto. He got far by hitching his wagon to Bush, but it seems the ride is close to being over.

Attempting to use the Patriot Act to swiftly replace U. S. attorneys that weren't lock-and-step with the Bush administration, Gonzales has found himself on an island where his chief of staff has resigned, and Bush has singled his Attorney General out as having to go up to Capitol Hill and fix these "mistakes."

Mistakes that the White House had to know about and be involved in.

And if Gonzales is telling the truth that he had no knowledge of the discussions going on about the individual attorneys, then he really doesn't, as Senator Charles Schumer of New York suggests, "...have the foggiest idea of what's going on."

Here's the sketch:

Any other suggestions for Bush?

A black cloud over Cheney?

Well, much to my surprise, Scooter Libby has been found guilty on four counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice. Frankly, I didn't think it would happen, because the deliberations of the Jury went on for so long.

And according to Patrick Fitzgerald, "There is a cloud over the vice president." According to the International Herald Tribune, Cheney faces a civil suit from Joseph Wilson, even as he's being questioned politically for possibly letting his former Chief of Staff become a "fall guy" for the administration.

It doesn't matter anyway. The National Review Online already has an editorial calling for Bush to pardon Libby. So even if the vice president found himself in somewhat murky waters, I'm sure his pawn would ride right up and pull him out.

God bless the USA!

Here's the sketch:

Articles referenced:
Verdict in Libby perjury trial leaves Cheney exposed

Pardon Libby

And here's a funy video of taking the VP's words and turning them on him:

Does Ann Coulter need discipline training?

Oh, Ann Coulter. how do people even take you seriously anymore? And it's not as if this is the first time we've traveled this road with her. On Hardball with Chris Matthews back in July of last year, Chris Matthews asked her, "How do you know that Bill Clinton is gay?" -- referring to her comment the night before on CNBC's The Big Idea that Clinton "show[s] some level of latent homosexuality." Coulter responded, "I don't know if he's gay. But Al Gore -- total fag." Here's a video from her speech given before the American Conservatve Union at the Political Action Conference that's gotten her back into all this heat:

If the Right is going to complain about the "left-wing media bias," shouldn't they also have credible sources of information from their side to support their views? Coulter? Limbaugh? Hannety? Come'on!

Here's the sketch: