Worst Candidates Ever

There's been a back-and-fourth in the 1st district where Assemblyman Jeff Van Drew is challenging Nicholas Asselta for his Senate seat. Both oppose the notion of selling or leasing toll roads to private owners, and both have been repeatedly attacking one another on the issue. Asselta attacks Van Drew for being against monetization, but voting for a budget that included monetization language. Then Van Drew attacks Asselta for supporting an asset monetization measure in 1999.

Even though when it boils down to it, they essentially agree on the other's position, albeit for different reasons.

How about debating or discussing other important matter that effect your constituents? Lay off the monetization talk for a while. The Public isn't buying it anyway.

Here's the sketch:

Top Chef

So, those of you that know me know that I'm a big fan of Bravo's Top Chef. This week I wasn't able to watch it live b/c my buddy, Anant "The Closer" Shenoy came down from Boston to hang out and defend his boy Michael Vick (I still stand by my long-held statement that Michael Vick is NO Jim Kelly).

So I was surprised last night that Joey ended up being voted out. He started off as kind-of an annoying, but then seemed to soften up, especially because of his love affair with sweaty, pepper-grinding Howie. But alas, Joey made a teary exit from the show so do-nothing complainer Sara could stay, undoubtedly there to be voted out next week.

I check out the BravoTV's blogs after each episode, mostly to read Colicchio's blog. This week, Anthony Bourdain guest-blogged, and it's great. He rips apart Rocco DiSpirito, calling him the thatsa speecy, spicy meatball!" shill-for-hire and ex-reality show personality, and here's how he sums up the elimination challenge:

There was no glory to be had last night. There were no winners. Not when everybody, contestants and judges alike, were left wiping Rocco's Frozen Love Juice off their faces at the end.

Here's the blog: Lost in the supermarket

Photosynth Prototype

Found this on the Crazy Leaf Design Blog. I find all of these new applications and the experimental interactivity that goes with them really fascinating. I'm not sure if any of them will ever be marketable or user friendly on a global scale, but it is incredibly interesting to watch this ever-changing technology grow right in front of us.

How cool is this rocking chair?

Hat tip to: MoCo Loco

Staggs christens the ice cream shop

Alex Stevens sings!

Karl Sleeping

Kyle loves a good straw

Out of the office tomorrow

Tomorrow I have the day off, so I'm going to be spending it doing something OTHER than drawing or blogging. Enjoy whatever you all are up to out there on the internets, thanks for your emails regarding the UPS cartoon, and check back on Friday for some new cartoons.

What can brown FINALLY do for you!

My weekly cartoon is up now at PoliticsNJ, so go have a look, and let me know what you think.

Here's the sketch:

NASA taking tips from Lohan

Sorry, no time to chat today. Here's the sketch:

Is Monetization dead?

Is "Monetization" dead? Probably not. Corzine hasn't released any details of his plan yet, and has said he won't consider doing so until after the November elections.

But is "Monetization" in danger of being dead politically? Yes.

Corzine continues to claim that he doesn't have the plan nailed down yet, but he and Abelow have been working on this thing for quite some time, so they must have some working knowledge of the plan they'd like to put forward. If they don't, what have they been working on all this time? Maybe they have a plan like the one recently put forward for the Lincoln Tunnel; pay $30 for a fast-lane past traffic that can zip you into the city in no time! Would you pay $30 to bypass Exit 8 on the turnpike? How about $50 for a fast lane on the parkway from Toms River down to Atlantic City?

The possible saving grace for the governor; the spectre of raising taxes. A Monmouth University/Gannett poll released last Wednesday clearly showed that a majority of people would prefer monetization over higher taxes. Corzine could take the position that the choice for New Jerseyans would be higher taxes, or asset monetization.

Hooray!!! The government is safe!!! The spending may continue!!!

Here's the sketch:

Dump them in the sea? Sounds like a GREAT idea!

I first heard about this story from an editorial in the Press of Atlantic City.

Basically, New York City has offered to give New Jersey (out of the kindness of their golden hearts) 600 stainless steel subway cars for placement in offshore artificial reefs.

Right off the bat, I thought about the stories from Florida, where they are now attempting to retrieve discarded tires used for the same purpose, as they have found them harmful to the coral reefs in the area.

As the editorial in the Press lays out, New Jersey doesn't have any coral reefs to worry about, but there are important questions to be asked, like if the artificial reefs are creating new fish habitats, or just merely attracting fish from other areas.

Not to mention the potential environmental impacts of such a dumping.

MORE SUBWAY CARS FOR THE SEA? End dumping program
Press of Atlantic City Editorial

Ocean off N.J. likely to be last stop for subway cars
Press of Atlantic City

I'll take Chapter 11 please

Things just keep getting worse. According to the Star-Ledger, New Jersey taxpayers have promised health insurance packages worth almost $69 billion to current and future public retirees. This includes $11 billion in municipal costs and $58 billion to be paid by the state.

And considering that the monetization is fast becoming a dead issue, what is Corzine going to do about this budget? Even if monetization were on the table, and the state were able to raise $30 billion (as proposed to Nancy Feldman, the Director of the Office of Public Finance), it would still leave us woefully short of closing the gap.

Chapter 11, here we come! Ready to make history?

Report: Insurance costs $58B for state, $11B for municipalities
Star-Ledger

Corzine received $30 billion proposal for "monetization" of NJ Turnpike with management contract
Toll Road News

Monetization? Anyone? Hello?

A bunch of blogs sited a poll released yesterday by Monmouth University/Gannett New Jersey that found that, surprise surprise, most New Jersey residents are against leasing state assets like the turnpike or the parkway.

“The Monmouth University/Gannett poll showed that 55 percent of residents opposed the idea Corzine has dubbed "asset monetization" without explaining the details. Nearly 60 percent (59-30) opposed the leasing of the Turnpike or Garden State Parkway, and about the same number (58-33) opposed allowing private developers to build on top of train stations."

Corzine also continues to harm any chances of making a deal due to his steadfastness NOT to release any information to the public. Not to mention that Republicans, Independents and Democrats are running for the hills any time the plan is mentioned.

To quote a line from Little Caesar, "Mother of mercy, could this be the end of Corzine?"


Here's the sketch:

Savage times

Usually, I don't allow myself to succumb to my buddy Karl Savage's "me-ness." But I just can't help myself. He has a MySpace photo gallery set up, and he updates it daily with a new picture of himself. You have to have a MySpace acount to check it out, but it's bizarly interesting. Here are some of my favorites:

Day 33- Reasons Why NJ Sucks #3,652: Traffic jams at midnight


Day 27- Magnum P.I.S.S.E.D....


Day 38- Oh Lord, sweep me up...

Oh, and Karl is a graphic artist at the Daily Record(seen in the Day 38 pic), where they have him usually working on awesome projects and really creative enterprises, like this:

CSI: Hoboken

My weekly cartoon is up now at PoliticsNJ, so go have a look, and let me know what you think.

Camping trip to New York

As I promised to the three of you out there that are interested, here are some pictures from this weekend's trip to the Finger Lakes.

Here's the creepy hotel we booked while in Wellsboro. It's called the Penn Wells Motel, and was first built back in 1799.


This is the wallpaper that adorned the bathroom in our "unrefurbished" room.


A view from the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania (Walsh kept referring to it as the 'Great Gorge').


While we were in Corning, I was getting a bit dehydrated form all the walking. The solution? Beer!


These were glass sculptures done by Rudolf Blaschka back in the earlier part of the twentieth century on display at the Corning Museum of Glass. Blaschka sculpted these out of glass for the Harvard University Herbaria so students could permanently study the effects of fungus and bacteria on plant life without everything going rotten in the classroom. This particular sculpture is a Pineapple Pippin Apple affected by the fungus Venturia inaequalis. Phew!


A cool looking bowl in one of the displays at the museum.


A live glass-blowing demonstration at the museum.


Now, on to the wine festival! Monk drove up Sunday morning to be at the campsite at nine, which means they left Delaware around three in the morning. Poor guy. I almost feel bad enough for him NOT to take a picture. Oh well.


The wine festival itself was insane. On top of the over 70 wineries there, people were selling sauces, jewelry, food, soap, and all kinds of homemade stuff. It was pretty overwhelming.


It was also overwhelming to Monk, but in a completely different way. Gulp, gulp, gulp.


But he did have enough energy to beat up rubber after the festival.


Kristen and I at Seneca Lake after dinner.

I've been away, but now I'm back...

Wow! I'm back!!! What a great weekend! Kristen and I stayed at a creepy old motel in Wellsboro, checked out the Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, visited the Corning Museum of Glass, and did some wine tasting at the Finger Lakes Wine Festival. Phew!!!! I'll post some pictures later for the 3 people out there who are interested.

So I won't have any new cartoons until tomorrow, but I just wanted to voice my thanks to all of you regular visitors out there that have made my blog, much to my surprise, the 10th most influential blog in New Jersey, according to Blognewnews.com. Keep coming and ripping me apart for my cartoons, and maybe we can overtake people like Bob Ingle and the NJ Conservatives with Attitude!!!!

More cartoons for all the Internets to see

I'm dumping these cartoons now because I'm going out of town, and I won't be back posting until Tuesday. Kristen and I are going up to Wellsboro tonight, and we're planning drink a lot at the Finger Lakes Wine Festival this weekend up in Watkiss Glen.

So talk amongst yourselves. I'll give you a topic. The Thigh Master is neither a thigh nor a master. Discuss.