John Boehner - Jackass O' Lantern

Now that I've been furloughed I have some extra time to draw. What better way to spend my unpaid, unnecessary, unwanted vacation than to draw unflattering portraits of the idiots responsible?

Considering the proximity of Halloween, and Boehner's orange hue, I figured it would be appropriate to draw him as a weepy Jack O' Lantern.

Senator Ted Cruz

Considering the ocean of shit on capital hill nowadays, and Senator Ted Cruz's very large role in it, I couldn't help but draw this quick caricature last night.

To say I am angry at Cruz is a bit of an understatement. I was so pissed last night, this was the most eloquent caricature that I could think of. All of the brinksmanship with the US budget is borderline blackmail and bullying. This treat of a government shut-down will accomplish nothing except harm the US economy and impact a lot of hard working federal employees. For anyone who thinks that federal employees are lazy, I invite you to talk to one of the people who actually work on the ground. Most of them work their asses off. And they are the exact people who would be impacted by the partial shut-down. Not the politicians who waste millions of dollars a year posturing and grandstanding.

Fuck you Ted Cruz! (That has a nice chanty ring to it. haha)

Mitt Romney, Man of the People

This is my response to Mitt Romney's latest comments wherein he stated (erroneously) that 47% of Americans have a victim mentality and expect a hand out from the government, and that all of those entitled voters support the Democratic party.

First of all: perhaps it seems a bit callus to attack people who don't pay federal income tax as "believing they are victims", when 75-90 percent of those receiving federal entitlements are the elderly, seriously disabled, or the working poor?  Maybe that seems a bit dickish?  Well, Romney stands by his statement.  He says he was highlighting the differences between those who would vote for Obama, and those who would vote Republican.  

But even that statement is inaccurate.  The states paying the lowest federal income taxes overwhelmingly vote Republican, while those paying the highest rates of federal income taxes vote for Democrats.  This all made the news months ago.  Not to mention, most of the people getting those tax breaks are elderly, who also generally support the Republicans.  He's spitting insults at his core voters.

Every interview and quote I hear from Romney makes him seem progressively more insular and incapable of empathy. Is this really the best that the GOP can offer?

The Romney Economy

I drew this a couple of weeks ago after the RNC.  With the inclusion of Paul Ryan as Romney's running mate, I have never been so adamantly opposed to a republican ticket. 

I think it's especially funny/horrifying that Ryan is meant to be a budget hawk, but hasn't even run the numbers of the Romney budget that he has come out in support of. He literally said so himself.  

In fact, after Romney's recent statements on Meet the Press, I don't even think there are numbers to run.

Todd Akin = Moron

A bit of political venting.

If you haven't read the news at all in the last 48 hours Todd Akin, a Tea-Party Republican from the House of Representatives, recently made the following statement in a television interview:

"From what I understand from doctors, pregnancy [as a result of rape] is really rare.  If it's legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down."

Barring how insulting and ignorant his comments were, the scariest part of me is that this guy is actually on the United States House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, and he doesn't even know how the female reproductive system works.  There really should be a scientific aptitude test that politicians have to pass as a pre-requisite to serving in congress; let alone to serve on the department that has jurisdiction over NASA, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (to name a few).  In fact, there are only four congress people on the entire board that have a background in sciences other than the medical profession (and political science of course).  Perhaps the real scariest part is that the committee on science, space and technology is dominated by lawyers.

The Contenders

The last couple of days I've been drawing caricatures of the current presidential contenders.  I've just been doing it for fun to relax between reading scientific journals.  Yesterday while I was working on Gingrich's face my wife looked at it and said, "He looks like Krang."  After that statement there was only one thing to do- stick him in the robotic Krang body from the animated series.

Here's my caricatures of Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul as well.  I also included some quotes from the candidates - just for fun.

Lamar S. Smith

This illustration is a bit of political venting.

A lot of people were really upset about Congress in general for threatening to pass the SOPA bill, but I don't think enough ire was directed at the chief sponsor of the bill - Lamar Smith of Texas's 21st Congressional District. Why a congressman from San Antonio has ANYTHING to do with the internet piracy is beyond me (none of the big movie/music production companies fall under his constituency from what I can tell). Could it have something to do with the fact that media companies were his largest campaign contributors?  

The really frustrating thing is that, since I don't live in Texas, I have no say in whether this guy stays in the House. And he's up for re-election this November. It's all up to the people of San Antonio, Austin or Texas Hill Country to boot this guy out... *hint hint!*

I originally drew this during the height of the SOPA controversy, but haven't had the opportunity to finish it until now. I was afraid that this picture would no longer be topical, but it looks like ole' Smith is at it again.

I thought this story was pretty funny too - though a bit petty.