But I wrote a big long report about the incompetent killing machine, the LA County Animal Shelters, and you might like to take a look. It’s in my animal/park blog, Griffith Park Interrupted. This was my first blog I started, and I have been able to see results from it, fortunately.

There are lots of pictures, too, taken by some of the worst photographers in the state, some of the shelter employees. Here’s one to whet your appetite.

Cold Water. Yes, that's what this is labeled. I'm going to guess there is a fish in here somewhere... Half the horses listed don't have a pic at all.

Excerpt from the post:

The photographs are so bad that I started making copies of them, and put them in my collection of Worst Shelter Pictures Ever. Some look like experimental art, and others like the animal is being tortured. I’ve asked several shelters if they need new cameras. No, they have several.  Each animal is photographed on intake (or should be) by the intake officer who picked them up, so the blame (or praise?) is on them. Shouldn’t the worst photographers be disciplined or trained or put on another job?

But let’s be honest here – EVERYONE has a camera with them at all times, in their cell phone if nothing else. No one needs itraining on how take photographs anymore. And no one would take pictures this bad of their friends or family. It’s unfathomable.  So what is their excuse for photos this terrible? This is the point at which we should seriously examine their motives: are these bad pictures a way to keep animals from being adopted…job security for the shelter workers, in other words?

More cartoons:

1. Ted Rall scolds Time Magazine for their Top 10 cartoons.
2. Who’s your rac-ist?

You can’t know the excitement here about…a Freeway. The worst freeway. The one everyone hates to hate, the 405. The warnings started weeks ago, and lighted signs everywhere else let us know that even on the East side we’re not safe.

They’re closing the Freeway for July 16 and 17 for 10 miles – but they really start work at 7 PM on Friday night, so it’s 2 1/2 days. Just like the riots, they’re warning everyone not to go anywhere. I guess we’re allowed to walk, since they’re into fitness, however.

405 shut down cartoon, as a portent for the future rapture - or rupture

Not that they’re improving the freeway – they’re tearing down a bridge. Half a bridge. The other half comes down a year later, but they aren’t publicizing this part as much, because then everyone would know what an assy plan this is.

I know Rob Long, and he’s a funny and clever guy, but I don’t get his take on the freeway closure here. There’s nothing funny about it…it’s just true. The 405 is horribly unpredictable and terrible.

Cartoon caption: THE PROLOGUE TO THE RAPTURE: The 405 Freeway shuts down July 16 to 17.

Interpretation of cartoon: Well, it’s funny! I saw a postcard years ago of one of the original Rapture paintings, and never forgot it, with people flying out of car crashes, graves, etc, into the sky. I was truly shocked. (Although I’m easily shocked). Somehow that stuck in my head with cars being thrown off the Freeway. Both are sort of unlikely, but hey, one of them is happening this weekend.

Found a good source for all Rapture paintings, and you can see the one I was thinking of there. I give you this link with some reservation, however: the site is called something like Jesus needs new PR, but it is both un-Christian and unethical and BAD BLOGGING for him to use all those images and not link to anyone or mention the artist in any of them!! So there!!

This cartoon also runs in Daily News this weekend.

More cartoons:

1. Second Amendment cartoon on the 4th of July.
2. Am I mean?

Arnold S cartoon - he talks to the media about his bastard child

Arnold cartoon

I know I said I wasn’t going to do a cartoon about this, but the story was so big that my editor of Calwatchdog, in Sacramento (state capitol), specifically asked me to! Sure, I was reading all the details, but…I just hate outing people, even politicians, for their sexual escapades. It’s kind of private.

In this case, I actually didn’t vote for Arnold because of his sleazy ways towards women in the studios before he became Gov’r. I worked in the studios for a while. I know what’s it’s like. Yes, I believed the LA Times stories on his groping, although other sources said they were lies at the time. So it was him taking advantage of the ladies that repulsed me, not the sexual inclinations.

This week, Orange County politicians called him a nasty word. I don’t like that word, so go see it.

Ooh, I found a lot of pictures of Arnold and the housekeeper, Mildred Baena here. Leave it to the British press!

Cartoon caption: Arnold Schwarzenegger talks to the media about his affair and illegitimate child with Baena? He says, Yes, I was a movie star, a groping governor, and now an adulterous father of a ba love child….I hope you will all accept me as a true American now.

Below, update on this blog.

And in my own housekeeping here…

• Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve blogged.
• I started a Facebook Page. Not personal, just my cartoons. Anyone can see it, anyone can Like it or join it. I also have a link to it in the sidebar. This coordinates all my cartoons in one place: political, general, for Psych Today, etc, so Like  it and get updated on all the new cartoons that go up.
• I had to disable comments because of so much spam this month. I’ll re-able soon, or when someone requests it
• My traffic took a big nosedive in February when Google changed their precious algorithm, and rewarded big sites, while they downgraded original, small sites like mine. They also weigh backlinks heavily now – that is, who links to the site. There are very few editorial cartoon blogs, and most of them are connected with newspapers, so they can’t link to me. Just a couple of politics sites link to me, and that’s not enough.
• Traffic went down again once school started this month. I have been keeping track of certain schools anyway. Cartoons aren’t free, people, just like lunches and blackboards and books and teachers aren’t. Just looking is fine, but I know certain places, who come back all the time, are using my cartoons in class. Infuriating. But at least now I have a list, for September, rubbing my hands together!
• I don’t know if I’ll continue this blog.
• How you can help: send OpEdCartoons (this site) to newspaper editors, link here yourself or suggest other sites link here. Or, donate to my Paypal tip jar in the sidebar. Otherwise, grab a shovel.

Check out my Father’s Day Cartoon in Psychology Today.

More cartoons:

1. Arnold and Maria split because Arnold lost his mojo. UPDATED
2. Governor Schwarzenegger’s Bequest – Toot, toot!

Arnold Schwarzenegger cartoon as the Governator

Arnold S’s history with women in the studios

I’ve never run into Arnold on studio lots or in public, but I remember reading the very scandalous stuff the LA Times dug up on him before he became Governor. Many women came forward to claim he had sexually grabbed them. Here’s that original LA Times article on Arnold before the 2003 recall election. There were lots of women who came forward over several days to tell their stories of how he groped them and said sexually explicit things. At the time, the Republicans said the LA Times dug all this stuff up just to threaten his election, because the Times is notoriously Left.

But I’ve worked in the studios, on and off, for several years, and I know very well the caste system there, and how it works, and the power actors have, and I am quite sure every accusation was true. I didn’t vote for him, based on those stories.

Breaking news: Arnold had a child out of wedlock!

Whoa, stop the presses!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I started this post just riffing on the breakup, and surmising that Arnold and Maria broke up because he stepped down as Governor, and Maria got bored with him, but just an hour ago it was announced Schwarzenegger had a baby with someone who was in their household staff, so she kicked him out!!  From the WaPost:

The Times reported Tuesday that Shriver moved out of the family’s Brentwood mansion earlier this year after Schwarzenegger acknowledged the child is his…

The Times did not publish the former staffer’s name nor that of her child but said the staff member worked for the family for 20 years and retired in January.

Such is the state of news now that it turns out, WaPo reported it, but that my own paper, the LA Times, broke the story. (2nd cartoon after the jump)

The Times says Schwarzenegger told his wife only after he left office (!) and that the woman in question just happened to quit working for the family a couple of months ago, after she met her goal of 20 years with them. So I guess she’s a woman who fools around, but also sets personal goals! What a gal. Can’t wait until they find out her name and what she did on staff.

Jerry Brown kicks Arnold Schwarzenegger out of Governor's office

That really is scandalous, to have it be your hired help. How humiliating for Maria, and says so much about Ahnold, to have him keep this mess next to him for years. I wonder why he told her now. Maybe he just couldn’t keep the secret any longer.

The Cartoons

Top Cartoon Caption: IF ARNOLD STILL HAD TERMINATOR TENDENCIES. Ahnold is at the podium, and says, Okay, the people of California voted down my tax plans. But I still control water, roads, electricity, etc. So…I’ll be back. I did this cartoon in May of 2009, the first one I ever did of Arnold, and/or California, since I had just started doing political cartoons a few months earlier. It’s also the best likeness of him! I did several more of him for Calwatchdog, and found him very difficult to draw for some reason. This might be because I think he’s handsome, and it’s harder to draw even features. Also, the Terminator is SO overdone – I never did that idea again, but I was a newbie!

I notice in his early pictures he had quite the jutting jaw, when he was more German (Austrian, really), and less American. More than one plastic surgeon said he had plastic surgery to correct that, and it’s pretty obvious to me that he did. Interestingly, this is the opposite of Bristol Palin, who just appeared with a totally new face last week, and now admits that she had surgery “correction”, which makes her jaw longer and more pointed. I don’t think I like it.

Bottom Cartoon: OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE…USED. Jerry Brown, who was the former Governor of California twice before, steps into the role once again in January of this year, and kicks Arnold S down the hall with all his boxes from the office. Arnold has a sign saying Don’t kick me…I’m Arnold.

Explanation: Since JB had already been Gov, he wasn’t New, he was Used. And Arnold never likes to be pushed. He looks back longingly at the Gov’s Seal. He had a title. Not like the Kennedys, but still.

UPDATE:

Honestly, I don’t know why I bother to do good blogging and journalism.  I’m rarely out first with a story, but this time I was. Now, commenters on PuffPost and Twitter stole my little condom joke (title above is: Arnold told his secret to Maria: he forgot to wear a condom.) and vomited it into the internet like it just occurred to them. Imitation is flattery only if I get paid for it.

Check out my cartoons on Psychology Today this week: if your boss is an asshole cartoon, and my least popular cartoon on Psychology Today.

More cartoons:

1. Arnold as Baby-daddy for Father’s Day.
2. Governor Schwarzenegger’s Bequest – Toot, toot!

I found this from a friend of a friend on Facebook. I rarely even click on vids – so tiny, short, and many of them are stupid or pretend real. But I’m glad I did on this one! It’s so funny that I’ll give you $1 if you don’t laugh.

Btw,  I posted it on my page on Facebook, and got a lot of appreciative comments. But when I went to get it, to post here, it had disappeared, with all of the comments! I guess that was a copycat Youtube, not the original. I’m fine with attributing pageviews to the OP, and not these stealing copycat guys, so I hunted for it on Youtube, and this is the original, with about 18 million views at the moment.

However, if Facebook is so fussy about Youtube videos being stolen, how about cartoons or photos that are stolen ALL THE TIME, EVERY DAY on there?  They always pretend they can’t find what I am reporting!!! Could Facebook’s retarded and nonsensical rules (and illegal activity) get any worse? They are really king of copyright infringement (although MySpace taught them how to do it.)

But back to the dog. Love it!

More cartoons:

1. The official Osama bin Laden cartoon.
2. An odd couple of cartoonists.

Osama bin Laden cartoon of thank you letter to Pakistan

First Osama bin Laden cartoon

I was in shock for the first couple of days – I guess we all were – but the main question that nagged at me,  was why the sneak attack without Pakistan’s permission, and how could he possibly live there, in a bustling city, for so long, without anyone noticing? I can honestly tell you that I would have been on the phone to my Councilman, Tom LaBonge, within days of that house built and mysterious people moving in. So I did this cartoon right away, because I don’t like lying countries.

On the radio Wayne Resnick pointed out that the US is being very circumspect about both exclaiming that there is something suspicious about the whole thing, and yet on all the Sunday news shows, they denied that they have any evidence that Pakistan knew Osama was living there. Can’t wait til more facts are in on THAT one.

Interpretation of cartoon

Cartoon caption: Found in [Osama's] compound: some pressed violets, a machine gun, an old-fashioned photo of Osama bin Laden, and a thank you letter on creamy thick ecru stationary, reading: Dear Pakistan, I just wanted to thank you for giving me a home the past few years! Thanks for putting me up…and for putting up with me! I know I can be a handful, but you have always been a gracious host. You rock! Sincerely, your friend and America’s enemy, Osama bin Lad...and the note ends there, with some scattered drops of blood. We can only imagine what scenario took place there, and why the note ended so abruptly.

Since we kept hearing how the Osama team didn’t let electronics in the house, I wanted to use an old fashioned setup. Victorians were big on pressed flowers! And maybe Osama had picked some to give to Pakistan with the note. And I used an old-fashioned Kodak snapshot, from the 50′s or 60′s, as his picture.

Thank you notes are out of fashion now, but always appreciated.

Osama home videos

Also, I finally saw the Osama bin Laden home videos. Unlike the dog video, they were lame, as I expected. Time says:

But one video screened by the Pentagon offers a starkly different portrait of the infamous recluse. The seemingly candid video (above) shows Osama bin Laden sitting on the floor of his compound, watching satellite television. He holds the remote in his hand as he flips through the news networks to analyze the media’s coverage of him, a vain action he was said to engage in often…

Who writes this crap? Vain? Try living in Los Angeles, with actors everywhere you go. (but I love ‘em anyway!) And like everyone reading this doesn’t look themselves up in Google or post pictures of themselves in Facebook! Gah!

But it is not bin Laden’s vanity that has surprised so many web viewers, but rather his physical appearance. He appears frail and unkempt, with a beard that’s gray overall.

I’ve read this description in other sources, too. He doesn’t look frail to me, he looks cold. And, surprise, in Mideast countries they sit on the floor a lot, and they wear blankets and shawls all the time. It’s not enough that we killed the man – now the media wants to keep stirring the pot by saying silly slurs.

Image via Wikipedia - Osama is an author! He wrote this book!

The only thing I see wrong in the video is that the plugs are in a weird place on the wall, and the TV is much too small. Get a life.

More cartoons:

1. Obama found a horse head in his bed.
2. Ted Kennedy and Mary Jo’s purse.

This Mother’s Day cartoon is in honor of Cathy Seipp, a writer for National Review and many other publications, who taught me it’s okay to be a conservative.

doctor tells pregnant mom that she's having a non-partisan boy

Cathy was also a fine mother, which defined her almost equally with her political leanings. Doesn’t every new mother want to know how their child will turn out? Especially his or her politics? The sex alone just doesn’t cut it in the fortune-telling business of pregnancy now.

Cathy’s daughter is a proud Republican. You did a great job raising your girl, Cathy.

Cartoon caption: Doctor talks to pregnant woman in his office: It’s a boy, Mrs. Seipp, but we won’t know for a while whether he’s liberal or conservative.

Another Mother’s Day cartoon, about the movies.

And yet another, non-political Mother’s Day Cartoon, over in Psychology Today. Kind of a downer.

More cartoons:

1. Going as Octomom for Halloween?
2. Halloween party for liberals who worry.

He’s dead, as it turns out. I heard the news oh boy on Wayne Resnick, KFI. I always try to catch him each week, but this time I only listened about half an hour before I realized all the TV stations might run the President’s announcement, too, and so they did.

I’m glad they caught that SOB, but at the same time, I honestly don’t feel glee knowing that the Navy Seals set it up like an assassination. I mean, what do you call it when they target someone in particular and shoot to kill? That’s not war, it’s like illegal capital punishment.

And now we find out all the facts, like hiding behind one of his wives, and his being armed, are false. Some kind of mess there, for sure. Daily Caller talks about some of these conflicting accounts.

My first reaction to the announcement of his assassination, in spite of my personal problems swirling around me now, was to make a joke about it on Facebook, and turns out a lot of people liked it. So I’ve turned it into a cartoon. (cartoon after the break)

Osama cartoon about how his death affects single women - is he good marriage material?

Notes on art: one of the best ways to start experimenting in art is to have something happen by mistake. In this case, I just swooshed a bunch of color on the floor, thinking about the pine floor of a bar. Then I used a purply wound color for the background area. I also colored the TV a pale blue in other versions, but didn’t have time to do it here. (I’m going to try this cartoon out in Psychology Today tomorrow. They’re a rather conservative crowd (not in politics, in humor), so I’m not sure how this cartoon will go over there!)

Cartoon caption: Girls Night Out, with 3 women at a bar. One says, Okay, but let’s be honest, girls. Now there’s also one less available man around. Behind them is a TV with the news of Osama’s death.

Ann Coulter says her dog knows more about Arabs than Obama does. I thought she was going to say, knew more about how Osama died – like dogs have better noses, etc.

Image via Wikipedia- a Navy Seal posing

Speaking of Psychology Today, this writer says when we misspeak and say Obama, when we mean to say Osama, that’s meaningless. I’m not so sure. I’ve been doing it myself, and hear announcers say it, too.  Well, at least no one is talking about his birth certificate this week.

More cartoons:

1. The official Osama bin Laden cartoon.
2. Navy sonar is like unsolicited sales calls to whales.

Obama and Hillary Clinton discuss protocol for war and weddings

To the Royal Wedding, I mean. All the blogs are agog over it. I think I’d be more interested if the bride to be was a blonde. (J/K!) No, actually I find weddings to be boring, and pomp even worse.

Cartoon caption: Obama and Hillary Clinton stand before a map of Libya, with blood pouring down it. Obama says, It’s a difficult situation. Then, Since I’m not invited to the wedding, do I still have to send a wedding present?

Cartoon explanation

Oops. Has Obama confused Libya for England, or is he more concerned with having been rejected by the future King of England as a guest at the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Katherine Middleton? In other words, just a little joke. We think Obama is concerned about the problems in Libya, but he’s really thinking about the Royal Wedding. For the men in my audience, good manners (and wedding protocol) dictate that one sends a wedding present to the couple, IF one has been invited to a wedding, even if you are unable to attend. But in this case, he wasn’t invited, so…

And why wasn’t Obama invited? Really? Did Prince William have a tiff with Obama? I do consider it a slight against the United States, I do.

More cartoons:

1. Bill Clinton and the blue dress.
2. The Original Chia Pet Cartoon of Barack Obama.*

birthers cartoon with white bunny rabbit

Sure, I know Donald Trump is counting on that theory to keep his name in the news. From Daily Caller:

Donald Trump said Thursday he isn’t convinced that President Barack Obama was born in the United States ,but says he hopes the president can prove that he was.

…Trump insisted he didn’t introduce the citizenship issue, but he isn’t letting go of it either.

Well, at least I didn’t do a cartoon about Donald Trump’s HAIR.

Every. Single. Cartoonist. OMG.

Cartoon caption: Easter rabbit holding basket with Easter eggs talks to hotel concierge and says, “Just don’t tell the birthers where I’m staying, okay?”

Interpretation: Easter bunny is afraid the birthers will come after him and ask him where he’s from, so he has to sneak into town like celebrities do!

More cartoons:

1. The White Rabbit Cancels the Tea Party.
2. Mickey Mouse as human sacrifice for California budget?