Ahmadinejad's security detail

The Packers' offensive line has been truly offensive, and not in the marching down the field and scoring points way.

Drunk ASSemblyman

Wisconsin State Rep. Jeff Wood, was pulled over for OWI last week. Apparently he wasn't drunk but, he had been popping pain pills. It's the fourth time he has been arrested for suspected OWI. Ironically he voted with the rest of the Assembly to toughen the state's drunken driving laws, making the the fourth OWI conviction a felony. It's currently a misdemeanor. The Governor has not signed the new legislation into law yet, but he likely will when it gets to his desk.

I tried to point out the irony of the 4th OWI arrest in the cartoon, but the lawyer for the Wisconsin State Journal nixed the sketch. Rep. Wood has not yet been convicted of his 3rd OWI, (it happened earlier this year), and the attorney thought I was overstepping the line by pointing out the Wood's arrest would have been a felony if the legislation he supported had been state law.

Bring the Troops Home

Afghanistan looks like it is seriously becoming a quagmire for the United State military, but I think we should seriously listen to our generals thoughts on how can stabilize the country, and train the Afghans to protect themselves before we pull our troops out. Our soldiers have fought too hard, for too long, for us to abandon the mission, as soon as it gets difficult.

A Wii bit too much fun

Sheriff's Deputies in Polk County Florida got caught on tape playing a Wii bowling game at the house they were searching for drugs and other contraband. You have got to be kidding me.

Wisconsin's Most Wanted

About 12,000 DNA samples taken from the 120,000 or so convicted felons in the last decade are lost or missing. The Attorney General's office and the State Department of Corrections are blaming each other for the mix-up. In the meantime, at least one person has been killed by a convicted felon and suspected serial killer whose DNA was not in the system. For more information check out this story from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/60116757.html

Drunk Driving in Wisconsin

The Wisconsin State Assembly passed some pretty piss poor legislation to "toughen" drunken driving laws. Wisconsin is still the only state where the first drunken driving offense in not a crime but a civil infraction. Now under the new "tough" laws the first offense is crime, only if there is a minor in the car and the 4th offense (not the 5th) is a felony, but only if the 4th offense occurs within 5 years of the 3rd offense. Only one other state, North Dakota, lets repeat drunks off the hook for a felony until the 4th offense. A third offense felony is pretty standard.

On the bright side, considering that a good chunk of lawmakers have been pulled over after having a few too many, the Assembly didn't loosen the drunk driving laws.

Hoop Dreams

This is becoming a pet peeve of mine. Every state legislature across the country continues to put off the real difficult budget decision, in hopes that the economy will come roaring back. Legislating isn't all ribbon cutting, and passing resolution honoring the local high school football team. We put our representatives in office to make tough decisions, and the decisions don't get much tougher than deciding how to fix these broken budgets.

I really liked the message I was able to get across with this cartoon. It is a little clunky, and I'm not crazy about having the two panels, but I thought the idea was strong enough to withstand the pedestrian layout.

Awe Nuts

It was really fun drawing these squirrels up in a tree. I think the cartoon is pretty funny too. It's not the deepest of editorial cartoons, but sometimes it's to draw a nice simple cartoon with a cute and funny message.

Climate Change

I think I probably should have made fun of hicks in Missouri with this editorial cartoon, but this was probably the last baseball cartoon I'll be able to do this year. And the Brewers need some love anyway.

Recent Cartoons

I've missed some updates, while I was out of town at a wedding. Here are the cartoons I didn't post.
This is an illustration I drew for the cover of the Wisconsin State Journal Sunday Opinion section.

I like all of these projects, but it seems like ever there was a year to cut back.
I love platform shoes.

This i a simple image, but I loved drawing it from a unique and dramatic angle.

Pink Flamingos

The Madison City Council voted to make the Plastic Pink Flamingo the city's official bird. As an editorial cartoonist, I really love this city sometimes. The city council is full of crazy characters with crazy ideas, and it' really quite entertaining.

The motion was prompted by a prank from the 1970s when students put over 1000 pink flamingos on the lawn of Bascom Hill, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Lockerbie Bomber released for Oil

I was pretty disgusted to hear that the British Government released the Lockerbie bomber as part of a deal to secure an oil contract (check out this story). But that's not as rich as how outraged so many Americans are that a government would something so dastardly, just to get their hands on cheap oil. Hello? Does the War in Iraq ring a bell?

Disney Buys Marvel

This is just a fun cartoon.

Mercury Marine

It looks like Mercury Marine, a manufacturer of outboard motors and the largest employer in Fond du Lac, will be closing down their Wisconsin headquarters and moving to Stillwater, Oklahoma. And the Union that represents it's hourly employees in Wisconsin is solely to blame.

The company asked the union to accept some concessions, including giving up a 2% pay raise in the coming years, and requiring new employees, and employees returning from a layoff to accept at 30% cut in pay.

The International Association of Machinist, Aerospace Workers and Morons Lodge 1947 voted against the concessions, and so the company is going to consolidate it's manufacturing efforts at their non-union facility in Oklahoma. Apparently, the union thinks it's better to not have a job, than to withstand the insult of a pay cut.

From what I have gathered from the news coverage of this affair, the union thought Mercury Marine was bluffing, called the bluff, and lost. But it's not just the union employees losing out. Many salaried workers at Mercury Marine's Fond du Lac plant will lose their jobs, and several local Fond du Lac manufacturing firm that supplied Mercury Marine with parts will have find new clients, or (more likely) shut down, and put more people out of work.