8. September 2008 by admin.

I would like to thank the U.S. Government for making my job as a cartoonist so easy.

When it was first announced that Fannie Mae & Freddy Mac were going into receivership,  I started working on the verbage for the takeover.  Treasury Sec. Paulson gave me the weekend to reminate, and I’m pretty happy with the result.  Of the comic at least, not the government intervention.

It galls me, but I have to agree the move was necessary.  Continued turmoil in the housing market is an albatross around the neck of the economy, and if there’s any hope of breaking the recession there needed to be a big check on the downward economic news spiral.  Unfortunately, it’s being written from our childrens’ future.

The housing mess was avoidable.  Proper oversight would have caught the NINJA (No Income, No Job or Assets) loans, and this morning we discovered  Freddie Mac had overstated its financial cushion.  And yet, over the next few days the directors of Fannie & Freddie will be given a nice quite severance package in the millions.  They don’t deserve it.  If any small business owner had gone bankrupt while obfuscating their debts, they would be ruined and face potential legal action.  Take the golden parachutes and instead use them to pay off the mortgages of people who bought houses in good faith, the ones who didn’t try to pick up a McMansion but instead tried to buy into the American dream.  The three bedroom, 1 & 1/2 bath folks.  Pay off their mortgages and let them put that money into buying that new car they need, or saving for their kids’s college, or even just to be able to quit that second job so they can spend some time in the home they’re fighting for with the family for whom they bought it.

And a thought to leave you on:  We just put the housing market  under the control of the people who didn’t act to protect it in the first place.

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5. September 2008 by admin.

I don’t remember any protesters at the Democratic convention.

That’s what struck me most while watching Sen. McCain’s acceptance speech last night.  John’s speech was repeated interrupted by protesters being drowned out by delegates and images of the protesters being frog marched through the aisles.  I understand the incumbent party is going to draw more ire from the disaffected, but given the fervor some Republicans have against Obama, not to mention the anarchist and other groups who just hate government in general, I would have expected at least some attempted disruption during the Democratic convention.  Are the Republicans really that much more civilized?  Did the Republican Convention’s security really suck that bad?  How did those people get in the hall anyway?

I was glad to see that John said nice things about Barack last night.   After the hate-fest that was Wednesday, I was looking for a ray of positive energy and anti-partisanship.  I was really impressed with the McCain campaign for releasing the coolest political ad last Thursday where John congratulated Barack on his historic nomination.  It reminded me of the John McCain who ran his Straight-Talk Express into the ground seeking the candidatecy, and who excited me a lot more than Obama has ever managed to do.

Notice the past tense?

McCain the Candidate has become McCain the Canned.  Since he sealed the nomination he has become handled, packaged, controlled.  He is disciplined, on message, and boring.  His spunk, his spontaneity, and his willingness to be himself despite the consequences are gone.  It makes me sad.

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4. September 2008 by admin.

Doing something new, I’m going to provide small blurbs explaining the background of the Paper Bag Ninja comics.  I hope you’ll enjoy seeing how the creative process worked and it’ll remind me to post regularly.

Today we get a two for one:  when I updated the site on Monday, I forgot to actually post the new comic.  I didn’t realize my error until Wednesday, so today I posted the Thursday comic but left the Monday comic posted on the main page as well.

Monday’s comic was my first reaction to the announcement of Sarah Palin as the GOP VP nominee (say that 3 times fast, it’s kind of fun).  After all the fuss about Obama’s lack of experience, the McCain Campaign seemed to ditch that line of attack overnight.  Only to see it resurrected against them by the same party that had been claiming for months that it wasn’t truly important!  Each candidate embodies change indeed.

Thursday’s is typical of conversations between myself and my wife.  She is a much more grounded person than I am, and much more appreciative of people and policies as humanistic entities instead of power blocks to be manipulated.  But sometimes even she can’t help analyzing the situation from a political viewpoint.

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4. September 2008 by admin.

After a 3 month hiatus, I have returned.  Why, you may ask, was I gone so long?

Because quite frankly, things got boring.

The candidates were trading recycled fluff at each other, 4th Edition had come out for D&D and the world hadn’t ended, and inflicting my meandering musings on you, gentle readers, fell down my priority list.  I had planned on returned after the conventions were over, when the presidential race would be heating up and things should be interesting.  But I was pulled out of my stasis pod early.

I watched Sarah Palin speak last night, capping the list of people who came in second to John McCain, and while I thought she did a decent speech, as an undecided Independent voter I don’t feel it is the slam-dunk knock-it-out-of-the-park (I know I’m mixing sports metaphors) the pundits are claiming.   But that’s not what pulled me back to the keyboard.

I spent last night with a vague sense of discomfort watching Romney, Huckabee and Giuliani rant and Palin emote, and only after the tv was off did I figure out why.

During the Democratic convention everyone went to great pains to laud John McCain for his service and sacrifice.  The speakers seemed required to emphasize he was a good man, even if they disagreed with his positions.  I saw little if any reciprocal love from the Republicans, and the poor sportsmanship and return to the politics of division was jarring in its contrast.  The GOP came across as mean tempered bullies sucking sour grapes, and completely lost the opportunity to steal Obama’s mantle of running a different type of campaign, of moving away from politics as usual.  I’m hoping John assumes a more statesman like approach tonight; if all the Republicans show is hard edges, they may enthuse their base but I don’t see them  winning the undecided center.

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