I'm disgusted with the Republican Party leaders.  They claim to be the party of values and morality while spewing fiction as fact in the same breath.  They've lowered the bar of validity to the election process by irresponsibly nominating a candidate who's major victory is that she didn't fall apart under pressure during the last debate.

But rather than address why they are losing on the issues, they've sent out their newest footsoldier to reach out and distract Joe sixpack with claims that Obama is a friend of terrorism.

Numerous mainstream news agencies including The New York Times, Washington Post, Time, and now CNN have revealed this latest salvo as a baseless hatchet job. I've been so impressed with how the Obama camp has used the Internet to directly and quickly go after these swift boat tactics.  I just wanted to do my part in getting the facts straight.

Send this article to a Republican who claims the high moral ground

Nevermind "Putin rearing his head", according to the recent Republican response to widespread criticisms of Palin's performance in interviews, the real enemy is The Media. 

If basic questions asked to challenge and, dare I say, seek a more detailed picture of a candidates' knowledge and philosophy on world issues are considered "Gotcha Journalism", then this is the single most blatant attempt to lower the bar in modern history. 

For the past 8 years the Republican party has fed America a steady diet of fear mongering fueled by a sympathetic and sleepy and brow beaten press core.  Now that a series of transparent poltical manipulations have awakened the mighty microphone, the repubs are returning to a clinton-era old standard, the attacks of the Liberal Media.  If there's one great lesson for them here, it's that in today's world of information, hiding is only slightly better for your candidate than facing tough "gotcha" questions like, "What publications do you read?"

With over 1.9 million views, I'm guessing that a few of you have seen this already.  If not, it's an amazingly brillian way to boil down the discrepancies of a massive, complex, and ovewhelming global community.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvTFKpIaQhM

A few months back Alina I grew tired of the battle with our New York Times "delivery boy" and cancelled our subscription in disgust.  I spent a couple hours yesterday driving around this literary desert trying to find a copy to no avail, kicking myself for the decision.  Tim O'Brien pulled-out the huge dose of brotherly love and scanned the beast for me in three pieces.

A big thanks to Aviva Michaelov for the last minute (barely exaggerating) assignment on friday for the cover of The Week In Review.  And what a week it was.  Stunts and posturing in order to appear Presidential while still just a candidate, sprinkled with a few extremely awkward Palin interview clips (ironically trying to ALSO look presidential).

Thanks Aviva, for the great opportunity and to own such a huge swath of NY real-estate.

My semi-regular relationship with Susan Levin at the Boston Globe also continued this week.  I find her to be one of the best thinkers in her field.  SHe almost always goes for the poetic, rather than the literal.

The text was a review of a historical book about witch hunts and the dynamics that fuel them (see not so subtle fingers pointing in the flames).  We went back and forth about whether the background added or subtracted from the piece.  In the end they went with the version without.

Thanks again Susan and Aviva.

This is my contribution to Michael Kinsley's column in TIME which discusses the ponzi scheme-like nature of America's economy being based on housing prices. 

Kinsley's full text often comes in long after the art is due, so the brief basically distilled this tough topic down for me.  "Housing as an unstable foundation for our Nation."

Story Here

I admit it.  I can't help myself.  I must be stopped.  I apparently am now magnetically attracting assignments about serial killers.

Just outside Seattle a crooning guitar-playing cowboy finally reached the end of his string of killings and rapes.  Known for his snake skin boats, a favorite cocktail named the "snake bite", and a penchant for strangling his victims with his bare hands, Michael Braae (known as Cowboy Mike) was a slick character who serenaded his victims before doing them in.  Story here

For the past 13 years, a mysterious lone killer that the cops have nicknamed "The Grim Sleeper" has been preying on young black prostitutes.  What is additionally disturbing, beyond the 13 known victims, is that the task force assigned to the case AND the existence of the killer were kept secret from the public.  One doubts that the string of killings would have been kept a secret if it was young college-age white women.  Story here

And for the cover of The Village Voice, this last image doesn't involve a serial killing, but it does reveal the US Military's apparent serialized method of hiding the true circumstances of accidental deaths of its' soldiers.  No, I'm not talking about Pat Tillman, this is the story of PVT  Michael Fremer  who was accidentally crushed between two vehicles during a training exercise in the U.S.

The story opens with a full-brass military burial service with a 21 gun salute.  The soldiers father describes it all as an elaborate smoke screen put on to distract them from the reality that the military would not release any official word on his son's cause of death.  Story here

 

And finally, a recent string of child pornography busts in St. Louis provided this cover opportunity for the River Front Times.  This one was too icky to talk about, but let me just suggest that if you have children, as I do, go hold them tight and give them a protective hug and a kiss.

The New York Times continues to be a source of challenging and thoughtful assignments. I'm sure fellow drawgers will confirm that NYT AD's consistently push the artists to bring their best work to fruition.  Since my days as an AD for a Weekly, many moons ago, I've been addicted to newsprint.  I love it for it's touch, it's smell and especially it's immediacy. Below are a few recent fixes for my newsprint habit.

Shortly before hopping on a plane to NYC for the SOI Politics 08 opening last week, I got a call from Veronica Ferre in the Science Section.  She had one of those topics that's just too rich to turn down.  We streamlined the process and knocked it out a few hours later.  It was about a patient in a demetia ward that specialized in hospice care for Alzheimer's patients.  The patient, named Pat, used to love to look out on the lush garden surrounding the grounds but had become completely catatonic and unresponsive.  One day a regular visitor came to her and spoke of the garden.  Pat spoke, for the first time in months, only one word as she was propped upright in her wheelchair.  "Beautiful".  She then slipped back into her failing mind.   Story here

Not long ago, Nicholas Blechman called from the Book Review with an assignment for the book,  'Palace Council,' by Stephen L. Carter.  It's a fiction work that portrays the world of a "clandestine fraternity of powerful white men who are bent on undermining democracy by deploying an armed black group called the "Jewel Agony".  Story here

We're all too familiar with the scene of a student violently lashing-out at student bodies, but what happens when it's the individual student that feels that the school is out to get them.  For many teens with behavioral disorders, this fear is a reality.  For the article entitled, "Calm Down or Else " Jennifer Pelzek assigned a section cover that she had hoped would convey the sense of isolation and violence these students face.   Story here

Leave it to Alina and me to pick 9/11 as the day to fly up to NYC for the Politics 08 show at The Society of Illustrators.  A big thanks to Tim and Edel for including a handful of my pieces for TIME and The New York Times in the show.  Being among this roster of artists is truely humbling.

Above, is one of the images that will be included.  It was for a Michael Kinsley column in TIME in which he discussed the utter futility and selfishness of former Hillary supporters who claim they will vote for McCain as a form of protest.  Kinsley pointed out that the real benefactors of this selfish act are the jobless, hardworking, uninsured, and forclosed families who need them the most.

I hope all who can will come to show and hoist a few with friends.  I'm sure the conversation will be lively. opening info here

The second piece was done earlier this week for TIME, again for a Michael Kinsley column.  It will not be included in the show but I thought it was appropriate to share. He discussed Governor Palin's quest for big pork.  There's some great facts in this one in case you get stuck next to a Palin supporter at your next dinner party.  story here

See you in the city!