From a story by JoAnne Young in the Tuesday, January 15 Lincoln Journal Star (emphasis mine):

In four words: taxes are too high.

It’s become a gubernatorial mantra, oft repeated in a state that ranks high among its peers in the amount of money residents pay to live here.

Taxes in Nebraska are too high, Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman said to the Legislature in his State of the State address Tuesday morning. And if it was up to him, more relief would be on the way, in the form of $75 million in property tax relief, increasing the amount for each property owner from the current $83 to $151 per $100,000 of assessed value.

Last year, the Legislature lowered taxes, giving property tax relief, repealing the death tax, eliminating the marriage penalty, expanding the earned income tax credit and repealing the sales tax on construction labor.

From Don Walton’s column in Monday’s Journal Star (emphasis again mine):

Lots of imprecise, and often misleading, talk about the comparative level of taxes paid by Nebraskans.

Some recent stats on Nebraska’s ranking among the states:

* 2006 state tax revenue: 30th in terms of per capita taxes; 31st in terms of percentage of personal income; source: www.taxadmin.org.

* 2007 combined state and local tax burden, as defined by dividing total tax payments by total income; ninth; source: Tax Foundation.

* 2007 combined state, local and federal tax burden, as previously defined; 22nd; source: Tax Foundation.

Although on the high end in terms of local taxation, Nebraskans appear to be somewhere in the middle in terms of total taxes paid.

That’s not what you hear — and read — virtually every day.

Have you seen this? Some Bush supporter, apparently feeling victimized that the rest of the world can’t be forced to see things in the desired way, has crafted a hypothetical resignation speech from George W Bush.

I think the best part is that this is somehow supposed to build sympathy for the guy, or maybe convince defectors that they were wrong for losing faith in him when this his how one of his loyal supporters views the rest of the world.

Actual critics can’t even compete with this.

If Bush resigned today, this is what his speech would be…..

Normally, I start these things out by saying “My Fellow Americans”, not doing it this time. If the polls are any indication, I don’t know who more than half of you are anymore. I do know something terrible has happened, and that you’re really not fellow Americans any longer.

I’ll cut right to the chase here: I quit. Now before anyone gets all in lather about me quitting to avoid impeachment, or to avoid prosecution, let me assure you: There’s been no breaking of laws or impeachable offenses in this office.

The reason I’m quitting is simple. I’m fed up with you people. I’m fed up because you have no understanding of what’s really going on in the world. Or of what’s going on in this once-great nation of ours. And the majority of you are too damned lazy to do your homework and figure it out.

Let’s start local. You’ve been sold a bill of goods by politicians and the news media. Polls show that the majority of you think the economy is in the tank. And that’s despite record numbers of homeowners, including record numbers of MINORITY homeowners. And while we’re mentioning minorities, I’ll point out that minority business ownership is at an all-time high. Our unemployment rate is as low as it ever was during the Clinton administration. I’ve mentioned all those things before, but it doesn’t sink in.

Despite the shock to our economy of 9/11, the stock market has rebounded to record levels and more Americans than ever are participating in these markets. Meanwhile, all you can do is whine about gas prices, and most of you are too damn stupid to realize that gas prices are high because there’s increased demand in other parts of the world, and because a small handful of noisy idiots are more worried about polar bears and beachfront property than your economic security.

We face real threats in the world.

Don’t give me this “blood for oil” crap. If I were trading blood for oil I would’ve already seized Iraq ‘s oil fields and let the rest of the country go to hell. Continue reading →

Some of you may be surprised to learn that I’m not just a limousine ridin’, jet flyin’, kiss stealin’, wheelin’ dealin’ editorial cartoonist, but an illustrator as well.

Well this summer, I finished the work for “I’m All Boy and That’s a Fact,” a children’s book written by Lincolnite Katie Theisen. Now, after Katie has put in more than six months of phone calls and e-mails, I have just received word that the book is done!

Though the website still has a few typos, Trafford Publishing now has the book available on its online store. The book will be available from Amazon and Borders over the next few weeks.

I thought Katie’s bio on the page was cool, giving some insight into the origin of this story.

Katie Theisen, wife and mother of three, began writing short stories in 2005 with the inspiration of her middle child. She wrote stories for him using real situations that he got himself into. Her intent was to make her five year old son feel normal in a world where there is too much pressure for children to act grown up. She wrote “I’m All Boy and That’s a Fact!” as a gift for him after he completed a tough year of preschool. He loved it so much that they decided to share it with others.

It was a fun book to illustrate, and I told her I actually got a little sad when I completed the last page. It was like I’d spent a few months with the little boy that’s the main character. She assured me that there will be a follow up.

Over the past several years, I’ve been asked about working for the San Diego Reader, what it’s like, what’s publisher Jim Holman like, stuff like that. I’m a freelancer, so I don’t work in the offices, but I can say that I’m really proud to work for that paper (and I doubt anyone from the paper reads this blog, so I’m not just kissing up). I’m in a job where I am expected to stand for things, and as one anonymous person recently said in a comment elsewhere, “the Reader has consistently been [San Diego’s] one source of reporting on insider deals without evidencing any fear of retaliation.”

The origin of the questions often has to do with Holman’s personal politics, his involvement in anti-abortion campaigns and whatnot. I can honestly say I worked for the reader for at least 3 years, probably 4, before I had any idea whatsoever that he had any personal political causes, and I only found out because the Union-Tribune did a story on him. Never had any of his personal politics even remotely crept into the work I was doing — and I obviously do very political work.

Unfortunately, since there really is nothing to attack the guy for, his critics often seem to just assemble lists of facts, hoping that these facts will look like they expose some shady underbelly of the San Diego Reader, when instead, they do the exact opposite and reveal the integrity of the guy running the paper.

Take the latest hit piece from Voice of San Diego’s Seth Hettena: Little to Read in San Diego’s Reader. It’s basically an attack on the Reader that substitutes lists of advertisers and story headlines in place of actual critiques (Hey! The Reader runs ads from cosmetic surgeons! What a bunch of losers!).

Hettena is clever, creating a scenario in which the Reader can’t really defend itself. It sucks because the stories are crap and they’re phoned in. Um, excuse me Mr. Hettena, but the paper has won plenty of awards for its journalism. Oh … well nobody cares about awards! The Reader sucks! Continue reading →

The San Diego Union-Tribune has a year-end collection of some of Steve Breen’s best cartoons of 2007, available for download as a pdf (it’s apparently just a pdf of page B7 from today’s paper, which took me a while to figure out. I was like “Is that a Doonesbury strip in the best of Breen?”).

While I’ve never been much of a fan of his, I point you to this retrospective because I do think his Halloween trick-or-treaters cartoon from October 28 is one of the best of the year – from anyone. I really enjoyed that cartoon. It’s one that has only proven to be more dead-on in the months since.

My favorite reject of the year came with my favorite rejection of the year.

“This might be too cerebral.”

This one ranks so high as a reject for me partially because of the missed opportunity. Adrian and Lee had the potential to be a comedy duo to rival Jesus and Moses, but sadly their debut never saw print. This one still cracks me up.