“You’re fiscally conservative,” my very liberal friend Candy told me.

That’s true. I’m liberal on women’s issues and especially on conservation or animal issues. Yet I often make fun of Democrats – it’s easy, isn’t it? (And every time I do, I lose my subscription ranking in Gocomics, for a week! Well, I used to, but not now.) And I disagree with Obama most of the time.

conservative cartoon on illegal immigration

Why is the category of being on the right or the left  important for a cartoonist? Because it’s important to newspaper editors. I’ve talked to dozens of editors this year, who tell me they want either conservative or liberal, or want a balance of liberal and conservative (and  they count ‘em!)

Since I began my roundup of cartoons each week for the Los Angeles Times, reading almost 300 cartoons each week, I realize how true it is that there are hardly any conservative cartoonists out there. Making fun of everything Obama does isn’t conservative, it’s lazy writing.

And illegal immigration is such a hot-button issue, with every liberal blogger in the universe hoping to point a finger or etch a K three times, that I didn’t find more than one or 2 cartoons saying illegal immigration is wrong, because, oh yeah, it’s illegal! Everyone’s afraid of being called a rac-ist! (Hyphenated because Google is terrified of that word, too, and takes away my ads.)

It took me a few days to figure out how to approach this issue, but I finally got it: Arizona is right, and the other states should man up and take control of the situation, if it’s happening in their state. Sadly, Republicans hire illegals instead of legal older folks looking to supplement social security or legal teens looking for college money, who are both just as cheap, and equally as deserving of a job. Even though in their hearts they know it’s wrong. Liberals follow their own self-satisfied and sanctimonious path.

Still, I do ask the question! And who else is drawing Jack and Jill? No one. What a crazy pair.

You can find all of my cartoons on Yahoo!News or Slate. (Sorry, no links now. Uclick threw away 2 years of my cartoons on Slate, Gocomics and Yahoo News when they kicked me out of Gocomics.)California cartoons are here.

Cartoon caption: The question is, why is illegal immigration still allowed in the other 49 states?

(left) We like illegal immigrants! They give us the votes we need!

(right) We love illegal immigrants! It’s cheap labor, and undocumented!

Oh, okay, then.

More cartoons:

1. Nobody is born a conservative.
2. The beach, the surf, and California’s political campaign. Aah.

The oil spill got me the maddest, so let’s start with that. The media kept calling it An oil spill, as if it were natural, and not a huge MANMADE disaster by BP, which is cleverly hiding its name: British Petroleum.

matt davies cartoon of oil spill, of politicalcartoons.com

Some very good cartoons are starting to come in – Signe Wilkinson perhaps the best so far, and certainly more moderate than mine on Friday! – but I chose this one by Davies for the Times. I just love a little sarcasm with my coffee! And Matt Davies’ style certainly matches the subject. I would have dropped the labels, which I’m sure he added just out of habit. I mean, who can’t tell it’s oil? Nice round edges of the thick chemical crawling up the beach.

daryl cagle of political cartoons.com on Arizona's illegal immigration law

It’s funny, Daryl is quite mild-mannered in person, and also reasonable and fair. He’s a good person to run Political Cartoons.com, and I’ve told the Times he would also make an excellent cartoon editor there. Yet his cartoons are often rather violent, so there may be another side to him! Here is an excellent example, with a huge nail embedded on the stick held by Arizona, and the destroyed pinata looking like a possible corpse with a sombrero… Daryl is very liberal, and, well, you’ll have to interpret this one for yourselves.

Great colors and design, Daryl! And we certainly need more cartoons about candy.

michael ramirez cartoon of gocomics.com on arizona illegal immigration

I found this cartoon amusing! This is the 2nd cartoon of Michael’s that I’ve chosen – he was the last editorial cartoonist for the LA Times before they decided to drop cartoons as a regular, important feature.  Immigration is a huge issue in California, of course, and both Daryl and Michael are locals, so I think it’s only fitting that their cartoons are spot on for this Times roundup. (Michael Ramirez is conservative, and I wanted a take opposite Daryl’s, so that’s why there are 5 cartoons in this collection rather than 4.) Michael is Hispanic himself (I assume, and also having met him) so it’s a particularly interesting perspective, and one I haven’t seen anywhere else. Oh, and I agree with it.

cameron cardow cartoon of politicalcartoons.com on the good samaritan failure story in nyc

Because we had some big upsetting issues this week, I thought I would throw in Cameron Cardow‘s cartoon on a more human story – the homeless man who acted as a Good Samaritan and then died as everyone ignored him.

Police say the 31-year-old was stabbed to death after intervening in an argument between a man and a woman. In a video released late last week, Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax is seen falling to the ground in Queens after intervening in a fight and running after the suspect.

For nearly an hour, he lay on the ground as passers-by turn their heads to look at him, gawk or pause and walk off.

Is not this one funny?! I laughed out loud! In fact, out of the 300 or so cartoons I reviewed for this roundup, this is the only one that made me laugh. Maybe you have to be on Facebook to get it, but that is exactly how that stupid Farmville stuff works!

Well, it’s not exactly unusual to ignore a homeless man on the sidewalk. But I’m pretty sure Los Angelenos fancy themselves kinder than New Yorkers, so they’ll enjoy doing a little quiet gloating.

I like Cameron’s style a lot, and what a nice example of good perspective. I often disagree with his politics, so we’ve gotten into some tiffs on Facebook, however. :)

clement cartoon of gocomics.com on goldman sachs and volcano

For Honorable Mention this week, here’s another cartoonist from Canada: Clement, the cartoonist with one name. I’ve seen some very good cartoons on Goldman Sachs – Sleazeballs, Inc – , but of course they all say the same thing: GS is bad. This cartoon is rather an odd juxtaposition of both Goldman Sachs and the Iceland volcano. Well, Goldman Sachs did erupt. But mostly I just liked the look of this beautiful little watercolor (or Photoshop facsimile), and darn it, the LA Times deserves some good artwork! Dig those leaning buildings, too. Thanks, Clement!

As always, thanks to everyone for several hours of amusement, surprise and occasional delight this week. How and why I am doing these roundups is explained here, as well as how to submit your own cartoons.

My own cartoons this week:

goldman sachs cartoon by donna barstow

Comments on Facebook cartoon are 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.)

delta smelts fish cartoon by d. barstow

Comments on fish cartoon are here. (no link now, see above)

bp oil spill cartoon by donna barstow

Comments on first PB oil cartoon ever published!

And your own comments and critiques of the cartoons are most welcome!

Captions for blind Google:

Oh great. As if I have the time or inclination to help a dying homeless man…What’s this? Sally needs a bag of fertilizer for her Farmville Farm? I better get right on it.

Fortunately, sophisticated machinery, techniques & expertise can be used to ensure that the delicate offshore drilling component of the energy bill is unharmed. Big Oil.

Arizona swings at Mexican pinata, Goldman Sachs erupts like volcano

I love Mexico immigrant has Illegals Boycott Arizona sign and guy says Mission Accomplished.

Delta smelts in California waterways, bp plc is a liar about oil spill, goldman sachs facebook group

More cartoons:

1. The beach, the surf, and California’s political campaign. Aah.
2. Have you ever tried to wipe oil off your soul?

As happened last week, as I start going through the week’s cartoons I always start thinking – there aren’t enough good cartoons here. Uh-oh. And by the end I’ve picked more than I can use, and I feel very happy that there are so many great, entertaining cartoons out there! In spite of the economy, the foolish newspapers who have let their Editorial Cartoonist go, or use less cartoons than ever (LA Times, I’m looking at you), cartoonists are like crocuses, popping up even in the snow. Very proud to be part of the gang.

Ahmadinejad the Cat nuclear energy cartoon - Christo Komanitski from Cagle Cartoons

It’s funny, I don’t like foreign movies at all, but I do like some of the international cartoonists very much. Look: I’ve never seen an editorial cartoon that is completely wordless! You could use this for Wordless Wednesday! No labels, perfect.

This cartoon is not only quite charming, in a French 1950′s textbook way -  it explains a complicated, sensitive international news item in a way everyone can appreciate. I can’t speak for the cartoonist, but I read this as Ahmadinejad waiting for scraps to fall from the table of the bombs Obama and Netanyahu? are dismantling.

In Los Angeles, we’re of two minds about cats: we pass laws that they can’t be declawed, but also don’t want feral cats to just die…Anyway, I think it’s usually a dog who waits for scraps from the master’s table, and this looks more like a monkey, but the point is clear. Thanks, Christo!

Joel Pett death coal cartoon from Gocomics.com

I thought news teams did a great job this week investigating the Massey scandal of ignoring safety violations in the coal mining disaster in West Virginia. I read one story where one of the men who died, Josh Napper,  had a premonition the weekend before the disaster and wrote letters to his family – perhaps stimulated by gas leaks so bad the day before that the miners got out of work early. UGH to this disgusting company! And I’ll have my own cartoon on coal mining up tomorrow on Slate and Yahoo.

Joel of Gocomics lives in Kentucky, and I think they have a lot of mining there, too. (I don’t know the area that well, just as I’m sure Joel doesn’t know a lot about California, although he chooses cartoons for the LA Times.) Interesting that he didn’t dis the mine owners responsible…just pointed out that mining is dangerous, almost like the deaths are the fault of the meanie coal!!  The little button reads Friend of Coal;the text is a little small, and this is a problem online, and I ignore lots of cartoons because of this – hello, learn your medium, guys.

But Joel did a great job with the menace of the death skull, and the whole idea, so kudos, Joel.

Dana Summers cartoon on immigration from GoComics

Dana Summers has a loose, easy style that I always like. This is the only cartoon of all the ones I reviewed that made me laugh! It’s okay to laugh, even when you’re reading the LA Times. How much of the news this year has been about health care?  Too too much. On to the next White House problem. And, uh, yeah, immigration is always the problem hiding in the corner, in California. Great work, Dana.

Honorable Mention goes to Randy Bish at Cagle Cartoons.

Randy Bish on paying taxes cartoon at Cagle Cartoons

UGH, tax week.

I didn’t read this in the paper, I heard it on talk radio from Tim Conway Junior: that almost half of all Americans don’t pay tax!!! I thought I misheard it. I couldn’t believe it. And filling out forms is the worst part, I think.  I still haven’t finished doing taxes! Too many little receipts floating around and Schedule C is the pits.

Randy’s style and big lettering is certainly ideal for online cartoons! I like the funny little outline around each figure, and even around the orange juice!

Thanks to everyone for participating, and remember to send me one cartoon each week if you think I might not find your cartoons elsewhere. An explanation of this roundup is here.

My own cartoons this week:

Massey coal mine is run by a dwarf. (Sorry, no links now. Uclick threw away 2 years of my cartoons on Slate, Gocomics and Yahoo News when they kicked me out of Gocomics.)

Earthquake cartoon.

Easter bunny and the Tea party cartoon. No.

Cartoon captions for Mr. Google: Who do we see about switching sides? About half of Americans pay no federal income tax.

Death figurehead is friend of coal mining.

Can we please move on from health care? Si. Immigration.

Silent cartoon: Ahmadinejad the Cat sits at the feet of Obama, another important man, and the nuclear bombs.

Joel’s picks for this weeks cartoon are over here (no, they’re not) – I think. The LA Times has always had a problem linking cartoons, even when I was in there every week.

More cartoons:

1. Editorial cartoons for the Los Angeles Times Opinion section.
2. Obama, pedophile priests, political Cartoons for April, 2010.