Contempt

Here's my editorial cartoon for the Thursday, August 2, 2007 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader. I don't know. I've had better luck on Dick Cheney and while I like my George W this time around, it's too obvious that I sheared the image a little and frankly, he kind of looks a lot like a monkey. You might criticize my Harriot Meiers as unkind, but I'm sorry, she's just that ugly. If only we could all look as clean cut ans bland as Josh Bolton!

Mid-life crisis?

"It is never too late
to be
what you might have been."
~George Eliot

I don't know, maybe I'm deluding myself to think that I could ever make a living as either a writer or a cartoonist, but they're still persistent dreams. I like teaching, I just like drawing and writing more. I have a lot of doubt in my abilities. Just be cause I enjoy doing something, doesn't mean I'm good enough at it to deserve to be compensated in a way that would even match, let alone exceed the living I eke-out as an educator. But hey, when you run across a fortune cookie on your google home page like the one above, it almost reignites that glimmer of hope in the corner of your soul. Of course, then you shake your head and remember that you're not superstitious and even if you were, it's not a real fortune cookie, it's a goofy google gadget. Good grief!

Ouch

I think I've said before that I'm a huge fan of this cartoonist at the Christian Science Monitor. He makes such a profound point, in such a cute, sweet, gentle way... Please look close to notice what the Bush administration is using as a drop cloth.

Longshot visits pizza joint

Traci and Pete Christophersen listen to Republican Presidential candidate John Cox at the Picadilly Circus Thursday afternoon, July 26.

John Cox is a venture capitalist from the Chicago area who is running for the Republican Presidential nomination. Cox stopped in Mapleton last Thursday as part of a tour of all 99 counties in Iowa.

Cox spoke mostly about Iraq, pointing out that it is producing less oil than it did before the United States invaded four years ago. He believes that it is a mistake to expect either a military solution to work, like other Republicans, or to look for a political solution, like many of the Democratic candidates propose. Cox believes that the best thing for Iraq is an economic solution.

Cox proposes an approach similar to the “Marshall Plan” used to reconstruct Europe after WWII. Except that rather than having America pay for it, he believes that Iraq can pay for it’s own recovery because it is capable of producing five million barrels of oil per day. According to Cox, that much oil would bring Iraq somewhere between 75 and 80 billion dollars a year, enough to pay for plenty American force or private security.

Cox imagines that kind of prosperity arousing envy among Iranian citizens and transforming the Middle East.

The former lawyer and accountant considers himself a Reagan-Republican and proposes eliminating all income taxes and replacing them with a 23% national sales tax that he believes would discourage indebtedness and encourage investment.
___________________________________________________________________________________ Back Story; The regular reporter was gone today at the Mapleton PRESS offices so Ann, the Office Manager asked me if I wanted to go over and get a picture of this guy, "if you want to, I don't really care."

Neither of us had ever heard of him. I looked him up on the web to get a little background.

Seems he told the Sioux City Journal that he's "No Barack as far as drawing crowds," but that's not going to stop him. Traci, Pete, their son and I were the only three people in the place. He rattled on about how we could win in Iraq if we could just have their power on for more than an hour a day and then zeroed in on me, like I'm gonna give him SO much publicity and it will be SO positive.

Our publisher made it clear back when I tried covering Obama that our coverage of candidates will be short and general for all of them in order to be fair and balanced.

Note to ALL candidates if you want a crown, tell people sooner than ten minutes before that you're coming.

"Did you give him the hard questions?" Ann would ask me later. I don't know, we had all of five minutes and I hadn't really prepared.

The 23% sales tax really threw me. Here I thought that most Reagonomics fans were brazenly in favor of helping the super-rich and the corporations enough already- AND I thought that Steve Forbes was a nut job with his idea for a 10% Flat tax back in the 90's. Could you imagine having to pay 23% on a gallon of milk and a loaf of bread? How about adding 23% more to a gallon of gas? Try tacking on another 23% to the cost of a house. What is he THINKING?

Talk about hurting the poor, working class, and middle-classes and letting the wealthy and big companies hold onto their stock options, portfolios and inheritances! I appreciate his concern that America had a negative savings rate last year and that credit is way too easy to come by so we're all spending ourselves into a hole, but get real.

And these Reaganites think we Lefties are whacked? No wonder in recent polls most Americans say that their favorite G.O.P. candidate is "none of the above!"

Corny Concerto

Note; It really tans my hide when people whine about the "Liberal Media." Duh, how about the Corporate-tool media, as in NBC=GE, CBS=ViaCom, ABC=Disney. Or how about the COMMERCIAL media, as in selling something and making money- hello? THAT's what all TV news is, selling us exactly what we want- and guess what? "The customer is always right." Oh, except of course, FOX News, which of course is SO fair and SO balanced (and NOT Republican propaganda in any way shape or form at all, NOOO.)

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader,
Thursday, July 26, 2007 – Page 3

It is that time of year. The symphony of summer is reaching a pitched crescendo.
July reached it’s unbearable hottest and at last evening thunderstorms broke loose. The fireflies have mysteriously faded away and the cicadas have conspicuously replaced them.
Kids are actually beginning to become weary of their constant sunburns, mosquito bites, and scuffed knees and elbows, some are even getting a tiny bit bored with their routines of late nights and late mornings, bike rides, pools and freedom.

Yet there is the shadow of a gathering cloud on their horizon. The bitter dull anxiety that another school year is encroaching on their worlds. They look forward to seeing so many of their friends again and changing their routines, yet they dread the homework and responsibilities and pressures.

Neighbors are laying their offerings of squash, zucchini, and rhubarb on the altar of friendship (and unloading their surplus on all the stoops and porches around town).

The beans are at their deepest, darkest greens so that if you’re on a road between two fields you feel like you’re adrift in a sea.

The corn has tasselled-out. It’s like the zenith in the grand finale of a fireworks show.
The melodic postlude of the home grown tomatoes is still a few weeks off, but right now is that crescendo, the fever pitched sweetness of perhaps God’s greatest gift to Iowa, her crowning glory- the harvest of the sweet corn.

Many an amateur theologian has postulated that wine and beer and chocolate are proofs of His love, but none are quite as generous, like a grandparent offering a child candy, as sweet corn.

My friends and family in far flung places like Arizona and California just don’t get it. Only Midwesterners- rural and small town Midwesterners have a true appreciation of this gift.
Like the best blessings, it is appreciated more if it is preceded by adversity.

I don’t know how many years I have whined about July weather in Iowa. Too hot, too humid, too buggy, together that’s too miserable. Ever the optimist, my Farmer-in-Law would remind me that it’s bad for people and livestock, but wonder full for the corn.

This may be theologically incorrect, but isn’t there a song that says “you gotta go through Hell before ya get to Heaven?”

Bushels of sweet corn are given to friends and neighbors and pastors. Truckloads are sold at farmer’s markets and on roadsides, but some of the sweetest sweet corn are the arm fulls you help pick and prepare.

I always offer up a prayer for the veterans of Vietnam when I trudge through the jungle, enduring heat and insects and the itch and cuts and scratches and sweat.

The field corn a few more rows in stands almost twice as tall as the sweet corn, but we had to keep bending over to pick ears. I suppose since it’s been so dry the corn hasn’t got the energy to suck water up from way down in May to reach the kernels.

Eleven months of the year corn is a side dish or an ingredient. In Iowa in July, corn is the main dish. Often the only item on the menu and that’s fine because it is so sweet, so creamy, and fresh and so spectacular that it constitutes appetizer, main course, side dish, and desert.
Butter, salt and pepper, plenty of napkins, toothpicks, and maybe a broom are all the accompaniment that are needed for this culinary concert.

Here are a few recipes if you actually get tired of eating it off the cob. You can use these later in the year with the corn you "can" too;

Sweet Corn Chowder

2 strips raw bacon -- diced
1/2 sweet onion -- diced
1/2 c red pepper -- diced
2 c sweet corn cut from cob
3 tbsp fl our
3 c chicken or veg. stock
1 c russet potatoes -- diced
1 c heavy cream
1 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper -- to taste

Cook bacon over medium-high heat in a large sauce pan
until crisp; add onions, peppers, and Florida sweet corn and
stir for approximately two minutes; add fl our and stir for one
minute; andd stock and stir until smooth, birng to a boil, add
potatoes and simmer for 15-20 minutes to desired consistency;
add cream and simmer 2 more minutes. Season with fresh
parsley, salt and pepper.

Brown Rice & Sweet Corn Salad

1 lb Brown rice, cooked
1/2 lb Sweet corn, cooked
1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c diced red pepper
1/2 c diced green pepper
2 lg Firm guavas, diced
(or try kiwis or tart apples)
4 T Vegetable oil

Heat the oil in a large wok or pan and saute the onion until
translucent. Add the diced green and red peppers and saute
until tender. Reduce the heat and stir in the corn, rice, and
fi nally the guava. Remove from heat and season to taste. Chill
in the refrigerator and stir again before serving. For a fl avor
accent, you may toss in a vinaigrette dressing.

Festival Sweet Corn Salsa

1 c corn kernels, cooked
1 ripe papaya, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4 dice
1/3 c diced red onion
2 ripe diced tomatoes,
1 1/2 ts minced garlic
1 tb grated lime zest
1/4 c Lime juice
1/3 c Chopped cilantro

Any salsa is best when served fresh. If it isn’t convenient to make the salsa just before serving time, prepare and refrigerate all your ingredients ahead of time and toss together 15 minutes before serving. In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except cilantro. Toss together. Refrigerate, covered, for up to 2 hours. Just before serving, toss with cilantro.

Jimmy Breslin on impeachement

You guys have got to read
How the Good Guys Finally Won
by Jimmy Breslin

I ran across this awesome book about the summer of 1974 and Tip O'Neil's work on the Nixon impeachment proceedings. Breslin really takes you inside and makes it a human story and even a little fun some times. Everyone's talking about Gore's Assault on Reason   but I think we need to give this book some attention too. And while we're at it, Lee Iaccoa's Where Have All the Leaders Gone?  really pits the Bushies and NeoCons in their place too.

 
_____________________________
http://tedscolumn.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Hair Spray

What I appreciate most about this cartoon is not so much Gary Varvel's opinion, so much as his uncanny ability to caricature all the major candidates with only their hair and eyes and have every last one of them instantly recognizable. That's a skill to aspire to.

Ferris Wheels

Color can be really effected by time of day. These were taken with my new Cannon at the local county fair. To see more, visit http://tmal.multiply.com

Fun Fair pictures, beautiful Loess Hills pictures and more

I'm so excited about the pictures I've managed to capture this summer that I really want all my friends to see them at http://tmal.multiply.com
You won't just see amazing shots that i just took with my new camera, and really gorgeous stuff of the Loess Hills here in Western Iowa, but you'll notice that I keep my editorial cartoons and lots of other artwork there too- as well as great links, silly videos and recommendations for powerful books you'll want to read. I'm really sorry to send a "spam" like this instead of a real note- I'm just really excited to get people to see these pictures. I hope you'll enjoy them. FYI you don't have to join Multiply to see them, just to leave comments on them- but you can always just email those. Hope you like them. Thanks for visiting http://tmal.multiply.com

JulyIowa

Ain't nuthin but a hound dog

The Blue Dogs are a coalition of like-minded Democrats whose primary mission is to promote fiscally responsible budget reforms and accountability for taxpayer dollars. Many members hail from conservative-leaning districts, where liberal Democrats and liberal values are a decided minority.

Yellow dog Democrats were voters who would vote for a yellow dog before voting for a Republican.

I always used to think of myself as a Blue Dog- I found Reaganomics irresponsible, let alone detrimental to the socioeconomic fabric that permitted the middle-class American dream to flourish. But this Bush administration has certainly radicalized me. I always used to be a centrist and wanted to think of myself as bipartisan, independent, even "post-partisan" as so many Gen-Xers thought of themselves. But my patience is worn out.

Ah, but NOW, when nearly 70% of Americans want to impeach Bush and Cheney but the Democrats in Congress refuse to do anything about that and fail to end his trumped up war- I'm beginning to get fed up with them. You know what you get when you mix blue and yellow don't you? Green. What holds me back is that Al Gore might be President right now if Ralph NAder had kept his enormous ego out of the 2000 race.

Grrrrrrrr

James Madison on GW

In spite of what Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck might want you to believe, people on the left read, admire and strive to live by the ideas of people like George Washington, Tom Jefferson, James Madison... and Republicans like Dwight Eisenhower. They're not just icons we pull out on the Fourth of July or people we claim were more "Christian" and use to support our causes- they were thinkers and writers and they debated and shared and argued and hashed out solutions in an effort to compromise (yikes- dirty word!) that is to say, they worked hard to balance out divergent interests and prevent the consolidation of power in any one person or party. How refreshing. Their toil and sacrifice produced one of God's greatest gifts to mankind, the United States Constitution. What a shame that we think so little of it, know so little of it, and take it do for granted, that we've permitted people to trample it in the ways they have in the last six years.

King George W.: James Madison's Nightmare

Robert Scheer
George W. Bush is the imperial president that James Madison and other founders of this great republic warned us about.  He lied the nation into precisely the "foreign entanglements" that George Washington feared would destroy the experiment in representative government, and he has championed a spurious notion of security over individual liberty, thus eschewing the alarms of Thomas Jefferson as to the deprivation of the inalienable rights of free citizens.  But most important, he has used the sledgehammer of war to obliterate the separation of powers that James Madison enshrined in the US Constitution.

With the "war on terror," Bush has asserted the right of the president to wage war anywhere and for any length of time, at his whim, because the "terrorists" will always provide a convenient shadowy target.  Just the "continual warfare" that Madison warned of in justifying the primary role of Congress in initiating and continuing to finance a war--the very issue now at stake in Bush's battle with Congress.

In his Political Observations, written years before he served as fourth president of the United States, Madison went on to underscore the dangers of an imperial presidency bloated by war fever.  "In war," Madison wrote in 1795, at a time when the young republic still faced its share of dangerous enemies, "the discretionary power of the Executive is extended ... and all the means of seducing the minds are added to those of subduing the force, of the people."

How remarkably prescient of Madison to anticipate the specter of our current King George imperiously undermining Congress' attempts to end the Iraq war.  When the prime author of the US Constitution explained why that document grants Congress--not the president--the exclusive power to declare and fund wars, Madison wrote, "A delegation of such powers [to the president] would have struck, not only at the fabric of our Constitution, but at the foundation of all well organized and well checked governments."

Because "[n]o nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare," Madison urged that the constitutional separation of powers he had codified be respected.  "The Constitution expressly and exclusively vests in the Legislature the power of declaring a state of war...the power of raising armies," he wrote.  "The separation of the power of raising armies from the power of commanding them is intended to prevent the raising of armies for the sake of commanding them."

That last sentence perfectly describes the threat of what President Dwight Eisenhower, 165 years later, would describe as the " military-industrial complex," a permanent war economy feeding off a permanent state of insecurity.  The collapse of the Soviet Union deprived the military profiteers and their handsomely rewarded cheerleaders in the government of a raison d'être for the massive war economy supposedly created in response to it.  Fortunately for them, Bush found in the 9/11 attack an excuse to make war even more profitable and longer lasting.  The Iraq war, which the president's 9/11 Commission concluded never had anything to do with the terrorist assault, nonetheless has transferred many hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars into the military economy.  And when Congress seeks to exercise its power to control the budget, this president asserts that this will not govern his conduct of the war.

There never was a congressional declaration of war to cover the invasion of Iraq.  Instead, President Bush acted under his claimed power as commander in chief, which the Supreme Court has held does allow him to respond to a "state of war" against the United States.  That proviso was clearly a reference to surprise attacks or sudden emergencies.

The problem is that the "state of war" in question here was an Al-Qaida attack on the US that had nothing whatsoever to do with Saddam Hussein's Iraq.  Perhaps to spare Congress the embarrassment of formally declaring war against a nation that had not attacked America, Bush settled for a loosely worded resolution supporting his use of military power if Iraq failed to comply with UN mandates.  This was justified by the White House as a means of strengthening the United Nations in holding Iraq accountable for its WMD arsenal, but as most of the world looked on in dismay, Bush invaded Iraq after U.N. inspectors on the ground discovered that Iraq had no WMD.

Bush betrayed Congress, which in turn betrayed the American people--just as Madison feared when he wrote: "Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it compromises and develops the germ of every other."


_____________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

Holy cow; adventures in agricultural photography

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, July, 19, 2007 – Page 3

It’s not always easy to get pictures of kids and their animals. The critters generally aren’t good posers. They kick up dust that catches the flash and shows up in the picture as mysterious glowing orbs. Inevitably pictures can be blurry, eyes are closed or beasts are baring their worst sides.

The first year I covered the livestock shows at Achievement Days I struggled to get the best possible shot of the kid’s face. Being born in a city I didn’t know any better. After the NEWSpaper came out, my farm native wife explained to me that the whole point of a livestock show is the livestock. Live and learn.

In order to guarantee the best possible shot, I usually keep the subjects there for an eternity so that I can take at least three pictures in hopes of getting at least one that will turn out.
This year I kept one young lady even longer and took four, just to be on the safe side.
There was this group of boys sitting on the gate behind the show ring. They were giving the presenter a hard time, urging her to ask me to take yet another picture.

I recognized at least one of them from Boyer Valley where I teach. These are the kind of middle school kids who wear their boots to school even on field day and wear Carhart jeans even when everyone else in school have on shorts because it’s 100°.

They don’t walk they saunter and from the way they speak you’d guess they were from Oklahoma, Arkansas or Texas, you’d never guess that they’re Iowa born and bred.

“He won’t care, he’s-” something something. I wasn’t sure what they said to the girl but I was sure it was about me. I didn’t know what the problem was but I knew these ornery eighth graders were lucky I wasn’t going to see them in school on Monday because it was summer.

Of course, eventually when I was processing the night’s pictures on the computer I realized that they weren’t just giving me or the girl a hard time. As it turned out the Heifer was relieving itself in all but the last photo.

Later that same night, my Iowa native wife had another nugget of wisdom for me; don’t wear a red shirt and get into a ring full of cattle. Incidentally, our mascot at my high school, Shadow Mountain back in Phoenix was the Matador. I however don’t enjoy being charged by animals that weigh over half a ton.

Now as a photographer I’ve been hit by basketballs, volleyballs, referees, and have even had a couple of near-misses with football players. But I have a real respect for these kids in 4-H and FFA who look like they should have separated shoulders the way their cows and steer pull them around.

At that moment when two black beasts tried to start a mini stampede I was frozen. What I should’ve been thinking was “now’s a good time to jump over this fence next to me.”
The over-riding impulse of a really GOOD photographer would have been “now’s a good time to take a picture, what a great action shot.”

I’d like to say that either of these thoughts came into my mind at the crucial moment. Heck, I’d like to say that I was thinking either “boy, I hope one of these Dads and 4-H leaders who make their livings handling these creatures everyday can step in and get control of them before any of these kids or I get hurt.” They did of course, (in fact I think that they probably never got closer than five feet to me, but that’s not what I was thinking.

As a matter of fact, I can’t tell you what I was thinking because this is a wholesome family newspaper.

I can only tell that there was plenty of it around in the show ring and all the holding pens.

Dan the man Kuhlmann cleaning up my thoughts. Say, that "honey wagon" reminds me of an old joke. Seems like William Jennings Bryant was campaigning once and a crowd was so big that he had to climb up on a farmer's manure spreader so that people could see and hear him. He started off "This has to be the first time that a Democratic candidate has given a speech from a Republican platform."

COU FFA teacher Lee Stence just misses an interview with a champion market steer and his pet boy. "Mooooo"

Here's a couple of great recipes to getya ready for the Iowa State Fair:

Iowa Beef Sundae
1 package (17 ounces) refrigerated fully-cooked beef tips with gravy ( can substitute left over pot roast or browned hamburger)
1 package (24 ounces) refrigerated mashed potatoes

Toppings: Shredded cheddar cheese, dairy sour cream, cherry or grape tomatoes
Heat beef tips with gravy according to package directions. Heat mashed potatoes according to package directions. Using ice cream scoop, place 2 scoops (about 1/3 cup each) mashed potatoes in each of 4 individual sundae cups or serving bowls. Divide beef tips evenly over potatoes in each dish. Sprinkle with cheese and top with dollop of sour cream, as desired. Place 1 tomato in center of each serving for a “cherry.”

Pork chop-on-a-stick
8 6-ounce boneless pork loin chops, about 1 inch thick
1/2 cup bottled Italian dressing
Peanut oil
8 8 x 1/4-inch-thick wooden skewers or dowels
Honey mustard or BBQ sauce

Place chops in a resealable plastic bag set in a shallow dish. Pour salad dressing over chops.; seal bag. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour, turning bag occasionally. Preheat oil to 350° F. Drain chops, discarding marinade. Insert a wooden skewer into a short side of each chop. Fry the chops, half at a time, for 5 to 8 minutes or until 160° F. Maintain oil temperature around 350° F. Remove chops from hot oil and drain on wire racks. Serve chops with honey mustard.

Case for a dying art

Star's editorial cartoonist makes his case for his craft and for his dwindling peers
By David Fitzsimmons
Arizona Daily Star, Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.15.2007

The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists is so old it qualifies for the AARP. A number of newspapers, however, are retiring their cartoonists.

Celebrating its 50th year, the cartoonists association works to keep its members from going the way of the gargoyle carver and the dodo wrangler. The ferruginous pygmy owl of the newsroom, the American cartoonist is a cranky and endangered critter.

A century ago America's papers fielded nearly 2,000 cartoonists. Today there are fewer than 80 staff cartoonists interpreting events, zinging their targets, challenging the perspectives of their readers and making their editors uneasy.

Few journalists can skewer with the entertaining unfairness of these First Amendment cage-rattlers. Searing visual satire is as American as an apple pie in the face.

Cartoonists, right and left, are being erased from newsroom budgets. Kenneling and feeding a rabid local cartoonist seems like a poor bargain when benign drawings scrawled in distant newsrooms about distant topics are available for peanuts.

Therein lies the value of the local cartoon. Occupying a space the size of a Pop-Tart on our nation's opinion pages, the hometown cartoon is a unique local voice addressing issues.

The New York Times has no staff editorial cartoonist because it views cartoons as a grotesque, low art form that oversimplifies and distorts the truth to convey an opinion.

Bingo! A sharp, unforgettable cartoon does all that in an instant.

A cartoon doesn't bother to carefully prosecute the accused with arguments. That is the realm of the editorial writer. A good cartoon condemns and executes on the spot.

Evoking a quick and intense reaction with an extreme and often absurd image, the cartoonist traffics in a unique persuasive art.

In my lifetime, cartooning has evolved from the gray, indignant era of Herblock's (Herbert Block) Mister Atom Bomb and John Q. Public to the burlesque style of my generation, pioneered by Pat Oliphant and Jeff MacNelly. Mike Luckovich and Mike Peters are the current masters of this form.

In this age of war and terror, cartoons have grown darker and pungent.

The cartoonist whispers in the ears of polyester Gods that they are mortal and don't look now, buddy, but your fly is down. The big fish that reign in our little ponds need the satirist's harpoon to remind them that they swim among us, not above us.

The Star values publishing a local cartoonist. As our publisher and editor, John M. Humenik, says, the Star's mission is to be our community's best friend and most constructive critic.

The editorial cartoonist is the friend down at the local coffee shop who isn't afraid to be open and honest because he cares about his neck of the woods. He's the wiseguy who ribs the local yokels and happily takes the heat.

When Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Doug Marlette died on Tuesday, in a auto accident in Mississippi, I thought of the courageous and funny cartoons he drew for the Charlotte Observer about a local issue that had not yet become a national story.

His cartoons about Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's mismanaged PTL Club hit the local Goliath between the eyes every time. The marketing and advertising departments and nervous editors undoubtedly cringed. His cartoons served not merely a city and a newspaper, but a greater cause. His cartoons were the epitome of good local opinion journalism.

A local editorial cartoon is one of the things that makes the Star unique to the community we serve, and it encourages our readers to consider events and issues from a different - hopefully, an entertaining and humorous - point of view.

How does it get from here to there

I place mine on a layout template and use an FTP to upload it to a storage website and then email the gal that puts the papers together. Although since I'm working at the paper this summer, I just save it on the server there. Of course there's this whole rigamaroll of saving the layout as a post script file and then distilling it as a PDF and then using the FTP to upload it so that the guy at the printing plant can pull it down and do whatever he does. Whew! As George Jetson used to say, "Ow, my aching button finger!"

"Liberal Media"

Try COMMERCIAL media- as in , it's about making money , selling yourself- and the customer is always right.Editorial cartoon for Thursday, July 26, 2007

My Alma Mater

I really want to encourage all of my students to visit http://www.cune.edu/finearts/art
so that you can learn a tiny bit about the Midwest's greatest secret.

I've been told that at least one kid who transfered from Concordia's Art Dept. to THE Art Institute in Chicago, admitted that while AI may have looked better on a resume, CU was a way better preparation in skills! And let me tell you what, I guarantee that CU will be cheaper and a lot easier to get into.

If you want a cutting edge education, state of the art facilities and computers, with a small faculty and college community where you'll get individualized attention and support- you've got to give CU a look.

Dying Artform

Recently, one of my readers asked me if I'd ever gathered up some of my cartoons and submitted them to a syndicate/major newspaper/magazines whatever. I wasn't sure what to say- lack of time, lack of confidence, fear of rejection, disorganization... I basically muttered something about what a difficult field it is to break into and thanked him for the compliment.

I'll admit, it is a distant dream. Who wouldn't rather make a living drawing funny pictures, even if you really like your job?

It meant a lot to me because basically it was the first time anyone other than my mother has suggested that I do something like that. It's also just about the first time anyone has said "boo" to me about my cartoons. Almost every week I'll hear from people who tell me that they read my column, but pretty much no one ever says anything about the cartoons, even though they've been appearing in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and the Schleswig LEADER for over a year now.

Who knows, maybe now that I have amassed enough samples, it's finally time to start sending out copies with cover letters. But it's still a narrow, competitive field which is only shrinking. And I'm still unorganized, undisciplined and deathly afraid of rejection.

Meanwhile, I'm really fortunate, truly blessed to be published in a couple of tiny home-town newspapers in Iowa and to live at a time when I can self-publish on the internet so that I can delude myself into thinking that occasionally one or two strangers will surf by and take a look at what I write or draw.

As long as I'm here- here are a few of other people's cartoons and my comments on them as a life-long fan and hopefully an educated aficionado (I double-majored in History and Art);

Here's the thing- everybody always wants to blame the teachers. "Our schools are failing," they pine- but nobody ever stops to think that maybe parents, the student themselves, and a society that is more interested in Paris, Lindsay, and Anna Nichole than in poverty, war, genocide, climate change or political corruption?
This cartoonist is amazing. Such an economy of line, clean, spartan, and SO stylized. It's like a old Al Hirschfeld caricature and yet she has both her George W. and Dick Cheney down pat. I especially love the cultural reference to Slim Pickens cowboy ride on an A-Bomb in the closing scenes of Stanly Kubrick's 1964 black comedy, "Dr. Strangelove; How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb." See below-
And finally, the sad, cruel truth about all of us:

Maybe it's a bad idea to show so many really good cartoonists on my blog if I want to get serious about doing something with my own cartooning. I hope that it's not a huge breech in intellectual property rights or anything- I certainly don't make any money off of it. I like to think of it as clipping them out an taping them to my fridge. If you'd like to see more you can visit http://editorialcartoonists.com Or better, you could donate a hundred bucks to me so that I could join the American Association of Editorial Cartoonists too, that way maybe they'd post my cartoons there too!

Meanwhile, if you want to see over 130 of MY cartoons visit http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2 and please, leave a comment. Remember, as far as I know, I've only got one reader who gives a rip about my cartoons. I have a desperate, pathological need to know that I actually have an audience. And hey, here's an idea- if bands and musicians and film makers can start their careers with an online following, maybe you can help make me get somewhere by downloading, saving, posting, and emailing my cartoons or by bookmarking, linking and forwarding either this website or my multiply site to as many people as you think would like to read some cartoons. Have at it, my fate is in YOUR hands. Thanks.

Tell Your Senator(s) -- It's Time to Break Ranks With the President on Iraq

Dear Friend,

I thought you might be interested in this Working Assets
e-activism campaign. If you go to the URL below you can check
out what is at stake and send your own message directly to the
relevant decision makers. Take action on this action alert from
Working Assets at
http://actforchange.workingassets.com/campaign/levin_reed?rk=Y7wjOAp1KvV3W

It's Highly Unlikely but Just in Case

It's Highly Unlikely but Just in Case: Here's Impeachment 101

By Eric Black , Minnesota Monitor

Who can be impeached and why, who can impeach and how, and how impeachment differs from removal from office.

http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/article/2007/07/14/its-highly-unlikely-just-case-heres-impeachment-101.html

Hey History teachers, just thought that you may want to keep this handy when school starts (unless of course, you're deployed).



_____________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

The other white meat

Cartoon for the July 19, 2007 Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig LEADER

Language aquisition and other fun

Paris and Scooter- see more of Ted's cartoons at http://tmal.multiply.com/photos/album/2

Life with little people

Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, July 12, 2007 – Page 3

Recently my daughter Grace (8) decided to review some very basic stuff with her baby sister, Annamarie (2).We were riding in the family minivan on our way to see fireworks in Denison. Grace began by asking Annamarie, "What's your name, cutie?"

"Annamree." she responded.

"What's MY name?"

"Gacee," she answered confidently.

Grace then pointed to their middle sister and asked "Who's she?"

"Elwen!" Annamarie again answered firmly.

"Who's that?" Grace then asked, pointing to my wife.

"MOM!" Annamarie was on a roll.

Then she pointed to me and asked "Who's that guy?"

"Dad," she said matter-of-fact-ly.

"But what's his REAL name?" Grace pressed.

"Dad-EEE," Annamarie explained, somewhat frustrated that Grace didn't seem to know the obvious.

Two-year-olds are amazing people. One aspect of her character that I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by was how short her attention span was at the fireworks show. This is an unusual two year old. She will actually sit for long periods of time with me and watch baseball games on TV. She's much more patient for listening to us read story books than either of her sisters were at her age. So I thought for sure that she'd make it through at least 15 minutes of a 20 minute fireworks display. My mistake, she barely made it through five minutes before asking if we could go.

The problem with having two older kids is that you tend to forget how limited they were when they were two and therefore overestimate the current two-year-old. As in- always bring a stroller, don't ask her because she'll tell you she doesn't want a stroller, because she's a big girl and can walk the whole way. Let me tell you, pushing a kid half a mile uphill on wheels is a lot easier than carrying them on your shoulders- especially when they're falling asleep. Plus they can't pull on your hair or your ears if they're in a stroller.

Pediatricians and child psychologists will tell you that two year olds pretty much operate under the delusion that the wolrd revolves around them. Be that as it may, I just can't get used to having Annamarie answer me everytime I ask anyone else, like her mother a question.

"Did you need me to run down to the store for some (name whatever item here)?"

"Yeah, Dad," Annamarie will pipe in.

I know that one of the ways that toddlers learn to speak is by immitating people, but this kid doesn't know when to stop. The other night we were having supper out at the farm and our nephue Nolan was explaining which roller costers he liked best from his trip to Branson and darned if his cousin wasn't trying to tell everyone at the table how much fun she had on every single ride, complete with facial expressions and hand gestures.

Of course, being only two she's not always that easy to understand. For instance, her favorite meal is "French fries and Dot-Dogs smothered in Tatschup."

Draft Gore

Hello,

Ted would like you to visit the following online campaign, by iPetitions: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/algore2008

Message:
Hey readers, here\'s your chance to encourage the man we REALLY elected in 2000 to run again in 2008.

____________________________________________________________
Create a petition, sign a petition: At http://www.ipetitions.com, your voice counts.

Write your representitive and complain

So I wrote my congressman and urged him to help impeach Vice President Cheney and this is all I got back. If you live in Iowa's District 5, please use some of these numbers to call, write or email him to tell him what a wiener he is or to ask him to do something about this run away administration too.

Thank you for your e-mail. I appreciate your taking the time to contact
me and always appreciate hearing from constituents on issues of concern to
them. Once I have had the opportunity to review your email, you will
receive a reply via the U.S. Postal Service.

If you have an immediate need, I urge you to please contact my Washington
D.C. office, or one of my four Fifth District offices. The contact
information is as follows:

Steve King
1432 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
(202) 225-4426 (main)
(202) 225-3193 (fax)
http://www.house.gov/steveking/ (website)

Storm Lake Office
607 Lake Avenue
Storm Lake, IA 50588
(712) 732-4197 (main)
(712)-732-4217 (fax)

Council Bluffs Office
40 Pearl Street
Council Bluffs, Iowa 51503
(712) 325-1404 (main)
(712) 325-1405 (fax)

Sioux City Office
526 Nebraska Street
Sioux City, Iowa 51101
(712) 224-4692 (main)
(712) 224-4693 (fax)

Spencer Office
P.O. Box 650
Spencer, IA 51301
(712) 580-7754 (main)


I am honored to have the opportunity to serve the people of Iowa's Fifth
Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Your input
helps me to best represent the people of the Fifth Congressional District
and be your voice at our nation's capitol. I look forward to responding
to your concerns.

Steve King
Member of Congress

Livestock Show

Here are some late night pictures from the Charter Oak Achievement Days swine show. Judging went till nearly 11:30 last night. So, not being a pig expert, my A.D.D kicked in so I tried taking some experimental "artsy" shots. See the winners in the July 19 edition of the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper.

Southwest corner of the county

The Jordan Township Cemetery, the Huff Warner Missouri River Access, and some of the Loess Hills Wildlife Area.

Charter Oak Achievement Days

Our town holds one of the few town-fairs left in Iowa. Most towns have let them go, so that the smallest you have are usually county fairs, but every July the 4-H and FFA pull out all the stops and show their projects and their animals. Here are a few "Art Shots" that I doubt our local newspaper will use:This is a bank shot off of the hubcap of a 51 Ford in the car and tractor show. If you look carefully, you can see a bunch of guys talking about a 61 Impala... me, taking this picture....and a toy rat that the owner of the Ford keeps on his hood. Creepy.

The losers in the annual duck race fundraiser at the city pool.


Night time at the Arboretum. I've taken so many "butterfly on the flower" pictures this summer, I thought I should give the moths a chance. Nothing like nocturnals.

Tell Congress: Impeach Dick Cheney

Dear Friend,

Do you want to see Dick Cheney impeached for his high crimes and
misdemeanors?

I sure do. Imagine how much more damage he can do if left in
office for another 18 months.

Send a letter to Congress using the link below:
http://actforchange.workingassets.com/campaign/impeach_cheney?rk=rpwjOAp1STd6W

More Wallace and Ladmo

Here's three great clips from my favorite show growing up as a little kid in Arizona; the Wallace and Ladmo show

Americans are finally sick of them too

New Poll Shows Majority of Americans Support Impeachment; ImpeachPAC is Launched to Support Pro-Impeachment Candidates

By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Zogby International, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,200 U.S. adults from October 29 through November 2.
The poll found that 53% agreed with the statement:

"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable through impeachment."
42% disagreed, and 5% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 2.9% margin of error.

Where's Duke?

So everybody wants Al Gore to run, Ralph Nader and Mike Bloomberg are hinting about running...
But where is the "compassionate facist" candidate, Ambassador Raul Duke?

Thompson just another cheater

According to an article in Wednesday's Boston Globe, GOP presidential hopeful, and one-time Republican Senator from Tennessee, Fred Thompson leaked information to the Nixon white house during the height of the Watergate investigation. In his capacity as the Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel, Thompson tipped off Nixon's attorney that the committee was aware of the president's secret tapping device, and would be making the information public.

How could we imagine that this guy would be any better or different than the likes of Cheney, Rumsfeld, or any of Bush's other leftovers from the Nixon days?

Scooter and Paris

Political cartoon for the Charter Oak - Ute NEWSpaper and Schleswig Leader for Thursday, July 12, 2007

These are of the Ingemann Danish Church and Cemetery South West of Moorhead on county road E54. Built in 1884.

Holly Hocks