5 republicans defect and join jerry brown on the other side (left)

Jerry Brown wants to hurry up and put a proposition on the ballot in June for voters: can he set up a special election to extend higher tax rates on sales, vehicles and income for five years. It’s not exactly raising taxes, but doesn’t lower anything. (Our sales tax is almost 10%, outrageous.)

From the Sacramento Bee:

Brown is negotiating with a splinter group of five GOP lawmakers, whose wish list contains issues that have divided the Capitol for decades.

Republicans want to curb union power and demands, and put a hard cap on spending.  So why are these 5 Republicans acting like rogue elephants (dangerous when separated from their herd!) and acting beguiled by Governor Brown’s tax increases? Beats me.

Business Week says:

Republicans are seeking rollbacks of public employee pensions, a cap on state spending in future budgets and business-friendly regulatory changes…

Steinberg and Brown have complained that Republican lawmakers have not been specific about what they are willing to trade for their votes on a special election.

However, 2 of the Republican runaway leaders said they gave Brown a “wish list.” Oh, Amazon.

Even John and Ken, some of my favorite hosts on KFI got involved, along with state Republican Party official and blogger Jon Fleischman and Jon Coupal. From the LA Times:

The activists offer no alternative budget plan and say no policy concessions on Republican priorities — such as a state spending cap or a pension overhaul — are worth ceding ground on taxes.

When these anti-tax rabid rabble-rousers found out 5 Republicans were negotiating with Brown, Fleischman dubbed the group the “Rogue 5.” (John and Ken call them and people they don’t agree with, Heads on a Stick. Eyuuh!)

Sometimes that’s all it takes to make a cartoon, folks!

More cartoons:

1. If California was as cool as Glee.
2. Meg Whitman’s maid has nothing on John and Ken.

I think it’s just a temporary glitch – at least I hope so. Otherwise my Christmas will be rather glum… We only get paid by hits, you know!

Meanwhile, I’ll post them here for any interested parties. Christmas, anyone?

food stamps cartoon by d. barstow

In California, only 50% of eligible recipients get them, says the New York Times. Surprised our system is that lame – we usually love feel-good programs here. California is losing federal benefits because of their negligence. :)

But what was most interesting to me as a journalist is that there is an economic theory that those who get food stamps can then spend other available money to buy taxable goods. And that tax goes to the state coffers! So food stamp users are then contributing to state income. (can’t find that link again for the life of me.)

I did 2 versions of this cartoon, one with and without the word instead: State officials claim Food Stamps (now called CalFresh!) help the economy, allowing the poor to buy iPads or TVs, which include sales tax. My other version of this caption said: State officials claim Food Stamps (now called CalFresh!) help the economy, allowing the poor to buy iPads or TVs, instead... Which might make the idea clearer, I don’t know.

Rest of the cartoon: Or buy guns, or pit bulls…Pass the pug, please.

Because no one understands the poor, or what they will do. :) The pug part is just a little alliteration and joke. Yes, we had a pug in the family. Excuse my silliness.

This pug cartoon (Sorry, again no link now)  has over 40 comments on Gocomics.

More cartoons:

1. Santa was laid off. AGAIN.
2. If California was as cool as Glee.

My editor at CalWatchdog, Steven Greenhut, like many journalists in many states now, is really interested in pension reform, and what pensions are doing to the rest of the state as they grow more humongous. I haven’t read his new book yet, Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation (I prefer serial killer novels for the summer), but he’s been on the radio and tv talking about it, so it must be great!

are police pensions so high they make you scream?

Yeah, I had to read up about it to understand the nuances. Or to understand anything, really.  It’s actually very simple: unions (mostly) arranged for moderate to low wages in certain industries, by including benefits on the back end, like retirement pensions, that laborers could feel reassured with.

This makes sense. Until you think about pyramid schemes. I’ve known for a while that the police can retire super young, like 40, and still get a livable pension, while even starting a different career. Since they work so hard, in dangerous situations, it seems fair. But somehow the pensions start to multiply, and with interest rates less than 1%, where will all this new money come from? The city, county and state. Oh.

It becomes more annoying when it’s state workers, who live in cubicles or offices and aren’t in danger at all, unless they jump out a window. I went to a seminar just a couple years ago at the LA Press Club when a smart entrepreneur said that all of us laid off journalists should go get state jobs, with little experience, with wonderful benefits, which you got no matter your age when you started. He teaches courses in Sacramento and other cities, and has a book out on this, too. He made it seem very enticing!

I’m into unions, really – have been in a real Hollywood one, and the NWU, which is sort of a quasi-union. And people should have a comfortable retirement. But I have no idea how to solve this problem, except have people in charge who are economists and realists.

This article by Steve on police and crime isn’t exactly about pensions, but gave me a beginning idea for the cartoon. But the ice screams truck was all mine.

Caption: Policeman: Yes, little girl, I promise to keep you safe. And my hefty pension, too! Ice screams truck for flavor.

More cartoons:

1. Political cartoons for teh LA Times for February 2011.
2. Yahoo! News Editorial Cartoon on food stamps.

Well, my main issue is that not only do I often not understand them, it’s that you often admit in the commentary below your cartoons that you have grave doubts that your audience will understand them. I think there was one in which you said you didn’t even get it yourself. Other times, you go to great lengths to explain the cartoon and why you think it’s funny. Chris

ESL cartoon English as a Second Language

Another man wrote me to complain about the cartoon above. (We’ll call him Anthony, since his name is Anthony.)

I saw this cartoon and decided immediately that you are out of touch with reality.  For you information, even school districts in Kentucky, (not known as a bastion of education reform) require all students in high school to take Spanish as a second language. It’s obvious from your cartoon your are a RACIST AND BIGOT!

Spanish is spoken by thirty four million Americans in the U.S. and that number is growing. Only right wing, Bible thumping school districts, like those in Texas, would not teach the fastest growing second language in the U.S.!

A little education for you, since it’s apparent you failed your ESL!

Spanish was the language spoken by the first permanent European settlers in North America. It was brought to the territory of what is the contemporary U.S. in 1513 by Ponce de León. In 1565, the Spaniards, by way of Juan Ponce de Leon, founded St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the continental U.S. …

Your Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh mentality is apparent!

Chris, meet Anthony.

Actually, I don’t normally explain my cartoons – I write about why I did them, and talk about the news. But in this case, I guess I do have to explain it, since you say you often don’t get them, Chris, and for sure Anthony didn’t get a word of this. And Anthony, I don’t normally respond to rude and rac-ist name-calling, but since you say you’re an author (The Third Cell)….maybe you will understand words better than cartoons.

According to this LA Times article:

California schools educate 1.6 million English learners, a quarter of all students; they comprise the largest concentration of English learners in the nation.

Nearly 60% of English language learners in California’s high schools have failed to become proficient in the language despite more than six years of a U.S. education, according to a study released Thursday.

The article goes on to say this threatens the economic future of California!

But they develop major deficits in reading and writing, fail to achieve the academic English needed for educational success and disproportionately drop out of high school, according to the study by Californians Together, a statewide coalition of 22 parent, professional and civil-rights organization who support English-learners.

The flaws in California’s English-language programs have placed hundreds of thousands of children in academic jeopardy, dashing their dreams for college and imperiling the state’s economic future. The off-spring of immigrants make up 55% of Los Angeles County’s child population.

This is on top of many failures for ESL – they’ve come up with the same fail for decades. As my cartoon points out, hopeful libs and Dems still believe what their hearts tell them – just try harder!

The cartoon says: ESL has failed. The man makes a little joke about making Spanish the second language – which it already is, of course. The woman says Ola. (A combination of Hola and Ole.)

I think a good education always includes learning a second language, Anthony; I myself took several years of French and Latin (I was considering being a lawyer) and even a tiny bit of Greek! So why can’t foreigners (in California,  they are usually here ILLEGALLY) learn English in 6 or even 12 years, huh?

Don’t assume you know who I listen to on the radio or watch on TV, either. And don’t call me the r-acist word – as Tammy Bruce would say, that’s just being a lazy writer. And the fact that you call me that because I do a cartoon about the Spanish language….is an example of how whites get targeted unfairly ALL the time! Also, retarded.

Caption for search engine: THE LIBERALS FIX EDUCATION. This study says ESL has failed again. No problemo. We still have some money left. Let’s try Spanish as a Second language! Ola!

I’m told this cartoon got lots of excitement and comments over here.  (Sorry, no link now. Uclick threw away 2 years of my cartoons on Slate, Gocomics and Yahoo News when they kicked me out of Gocomics.) And if you want to read my California cartoons before they’re in Slate, go to Calwatchdog.

More cartoons:

1. The Meg Whitman Fork-tongued Doll.
2. Meg Whitman’s maid has nothing on John and Ken.

I thought everyone could use some help on this. I’ve been doing cartoons on California and the upcoming elections for almost 6 months now for CalWatchdog, this extraordinary journalism site for a think tank in Northern California, but haven’t posted many of them here yet. It’s time.

demon sheep campaign by Carly Fiorina vs Tom Campbell

Okay, now this was  a pretty impressive campaign move. This Youtube on Tom Campbell as a demon sheep – or is it all other Republicans in general are sheep? – by Republican Carly Fiorina is classic Hollywood, and it went viral in days! Gather calls it “the most bizarre political ad ever.” And oddly enough, the makers of this video, just set up their own website 2 days ago, calling this a trilogy!

I think Fiorina’s…exaggerating. Plus, it’s not my voting dealie, so no comment on that election. More cartoons below.

meg whitman vs steve poizner in a technical Mexican standoff

I found the California Governor campaign much more shocking!! CalWatch journalist Steve Greenhut (formerly of the Orange County Register, and author of the best-selling Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives) said he thought these exchanges between the 2 candidates for Republican governor were rather silly and much ado about nothing, but I was truly horrified. (the words in the cartoon caption are what they really emailed each other.) I had no idea such arrangements happened in the backroom of fierce political campaigns!

Sure, when millions upon millions are spent – and both these candidates are made of  Croesus’s gold – I can see why they would try to keep costs down and expectations reasonable. But they actually try to bribe each other, and make backdoor promises? Do they really follow through on these promises?

What happened is that Steve Poizner made these emails from Meg Whitman public, and did report it to the FBI, or threatened to.

From the LA Times:

Steve Poizner’s allegation that Meg Whitman used attempted bribery and extortion in an effort to push him out of the gubernatorial race was merely an attention-grabbing stunt by a desperate dark horse, many contend. Hopefully, they’re right.Because if Poizner was sincerely angry and really does believe — as he wrote state and federal prosecutors — that the Whitman camp deserves criminal investigation, this is scary.

It raises the possibility that Poizner has no stomach for making political deals, the kind of mutual back-scratching needed for any democracy to function.

No, it’s not scary, it’s exposing the truth. I don’t think most people know or think these kinds of deals are “needed for any democracy to function.”

But the campaign has gotten even more violent, with car crashes, and worst of all, the name LIBERAL thrown like mud on each other! OMG, there’s nothing the right hates worse than being called that! And I agree! From the Times:

So it has come to this: Two Republicans who said they would bring cool business acumen to the governorship are, in the last weeks of their primary race, locked in a screaming match over immigration and welfare and the hot insult “liberal.”

This was not what either Steve Poizner or Meg Whitman said their campaigns were to be about….

For Whitman, the former head of EBay making her first bid for office, the turnabout from high-flying frontrunner to muddy brawler has been particularly brutal…

By last week, however, her once massive lead had diminished substantially and Whitman was firmly on familiar turf for a Republican primary — issues that play on cultural or racial notes.

The LA Times is on familiar turf, too, isn’t it? Saying if it’s Republican, it’s got to be rac-ist. UGH.

Who will win the sea lion prize? Whitman, Poizner, Brown political cartoon

Anyway, my last cartoon on them is ecological, of course. I seem to be the ONLY cartoonist on Slate who ever does cartoons on the environment or conservation. (except for the birds in oil, yuck, which are also cliche.) It’s true about the sea lions starving. I don’t know if it’s true that Meg Whitman doesn’t believe in green, or Steve Poizner said she’s not as pretty as he’s used to getting, or if Jerry Brown keeps a sea lion and other wildlife in his swimming pool. But he might.

You can find most of my California cartoons at CalWatchdog, the day they go up, and they have comments there, too.

Cartoon captions for blind Google: California: the most dramatic state in the union. I’m very rich. I’ll put you in the wood chipper! Don’t run for Governor – you can be a senator.- Meg Whitman. I’m mega-rich. Don’t threaten me! You bribed me! I’m telling. Hello, FBI? – Steve Poizner.

Does this picture make you think of Tom Campbell, Visine, or California’s need for a better Sheep Exorcist? Cartoon paid for by Carly Fiorina, For Senator.

Scientists say sea lions are starving because of El Nino. However, Meg Whitman doesn’t believe in El Nino, and Steve Poizner said she looks like a sea lion. Jerry Brown is keeping one in his swimming pool.

More cartoons:

1. Carly Fiorina would look good in shiny black leather.
2. The beach, the surf, and California’s political campaign. Aah.

It seems logical that Santa would visit the unemployment office AFTER Christmas, of course, but those pesky editors just aren’t in the mood to buy Santa Claus anything after Christmas Day – I guess they think the cartoon should be half price! This year, with over 10% unemployed (as Obama confirmed  in the oh so casual before Christmas White House Special that Oprah did, that has already aired twice – yeah, it’s over 10%.) seems like unemployment is any time of the year. There’s a good chance many Santas didn’t get to work this year at all, so I hope this makes sense both before and after Christmas.

Yikes, unemployment went up to 12.5% in California, the Los Angeles Times said!

California still has the fourth-highest unemployment rate in the nation, yes, and its unemployment rate is a whopping 4.5 percentage points higher than it was in October 2008. But the job gains are a significant part of a trend that’s seen the pace of job loss slow as the economy pulled itself back together again.

What the hell do they mean?

California actually added 25,700 jobs in October, making this the first month since April of 2008 that the state has gained jobs.

Truly, sometimes I think they just rearrange facts at the Times to have something new to say.

Anyway, I added 3 elves to this particular Santa, so we know he’s the real one, and I’m sure he worked this year. Didn’t I get some Christmas cards, and don’t I have a new monitor coming real soon?! Could not resist having one of the elves holding a new Christmas toy – perhaps an iPhone, or – wait a second- wouldn’t it make more sense if it were a BLACKBERRY?  Ho ho ho.

Cartoon caption: “But it says here you have 350 years experience in overnight delivery…” at the Unemployment Office.

I must say, I had a lot of fun fooling around with a rough bumbling Photoshop brush for the background, and even for Santa’s suit. The colors are exactly what I was hoping for.

More cartoons:

1. Santa is unemployed and may need Prozac.
2. Graduation chuckles for the undereducated crowd.

Did Assemblyman Mike Duvall have sex? Maybe!

We know he liked to talk about it, anyway, but…where’s the beef?

The LA Times reports the scandal:

An Orange County lawmaker who inadvertently broadcast explicit remarks about his sexual conquests over an open microphone abruptly resigned from office Wednesday after legislative leaders stripped him of his committee posts and launched an ethics probe of his actions.

The paper doesn’t mention that some of Duvall’s conversation was about him spanking the woman, which seemed to ignite a lot of interest anger.An ethics “probe” was started because one of the women was a lobbyist for a utility company. Okay, sexual favors aren’t okay in the State Senate. But who can prove such a thing? No, it was actually just the fact that he talked about it, and the legislature blushed, as it’s now 2011, and not another thing was heard about this man or his actions!

This writer at the San Francisco Chronicle is very disrespectful of politicians:

Orange County Republicans are like weeds. Cut off one and another will grow in its place.

She continues:

At least Duvall spared his wife, two children, himself, the Assembly and his party by resigning immediately. By not prolonging the embarrassment, he already has begun his rehabilitation.

Yes, Californians will remember Duvall for his caught-on-tape remarks, but they’ll also remember that he chose to exit gracefully.

I read that he resigned within 15 hours. I haven’t found one source, however,  that says he actually DID have sex with these women!  He’s an older man, and not particularly handsome, to my eyes. At least one of the women is a couple of decades younger, and one is a lobbyist. So…how do the women or Duvall prove their innocence now? This is unfair to everyone.

Finally, Sacramento Bee has an opinion I can agree with:

We say we want the government to leave us alone, and we especially don’t want them poking into our private sex lives. So why do we make it our business to gape into their private sex lives when it makes headlines? Why are we so surprised when we discover that our public figures have their own complex sex lives?

I have no interest in the sex life of any politician, none. I guess I’m just not jealous, like some people! And I think it is so stone-throwing of those who condemn them. Spanking? Who cares.

Cartoon caption: ASSEMBLYMAN MIKE DUVALL RESIGNS. “How awful. Not only did this man have sex, he talked about it with his good friend!”

“Honey, I’m still wearing the chastity belt you bought me for my birthday.”

The interpretation: The woman is very uptight and offended. The man is whipped, and has had to tamp down his own sexual urges with the chastity belt his wife gave him. (Obviously, there’s no such thing as a chastity belt for men!)

Orange County is just south of Los Angeles and is a bastion of very conservative, rich folks. There are a lot of laws about how you can decorate your tract home, etc, there. So I was thinking of having the caption for the woman say something like, “Oh my gah. You mean…people in Orange County have sex?” But I don’t want to be mean. :)

There may be more comments on this cartoon here.

More cartoons:

1. Bill Clinton and the blue dress.
2. Arnold as Baby-daddy for Father’s Day.