Cartoon

Here we have a fine piece of work from David Fitzsimmons of the Arizona Star.  In the background, we have the cruise ship Concordia, representing the United States, with lots of Americans onboard.  The ship is capsized in the water, with American citizens in trouble and drowning.  In the foreground, we have the captains, Wall Street and the Banks, wading safely to shore, and taking comfort in the fact that Washington won't discipline them.  The joke is that Washington lets the Wall Street fat cats get away with whatever, even when they screw over thousands of Americans.

First Semester In Review

First semester has gone well. I got into college (Northwestern!), got a job (minimum wage!) and, most importantly, have managed to be fairly lazy without failing any classes.  On the other side of that coin, I'm one of two Poli Sci kids in the whole school who still don't have an internship.  With only 7 days left to get something lined up, Graney must be feeling the pressure.  But I have faith in him.

Looking towards the second semester, I hope to maintain good enough grades that Northwestern doesn't rescind my admission offer, while putting forth minimal effort. In my new-found free time, I plan to rekindle my long neglected love affair with sleeping, as well as diversify my stock portfolio, and assemble a championship caliber fantasy baseball team.

A Political Cartoon: Romney Can Relate to Us

The message here is pretty simple: Pat Bagley of the Salt Lake Tribune is using sarcasm and mockery to make the point that Mitt Romney is not like us at all and can't relate to Americans who have been out of work for extended periods of time due to the economy.  We have a rather bewildered looking man who is dressed rather shabbily, and is holding up a sign saying that he needs work.  Meanwhile, Mitt Romney is offering his words of encouragement.  Ironically, Mitt Romeny's future employment may depend on this man and other's like him remaining unemployed (see last post).

Question of the Week #5

At this point, the Republican nominee has to be Mitt Romney.  The Republicans are going to face an uphill battle even with Romney running (which is rather pitiful, they really should run away with this election given Obama's lack of leadership), but they're essentially casting votes for Obama if they nominate anyone besides Romney.  Their other options are a far right conservative lunatics (Santorum), a man who is unrealistic at best, possibly insane at worst (Paul), or a pompous jackass named Newt (doesn't really have that presidential ring to it, does it?).  Oh, and there's Perry and Huntsman. As far as they go: thanks for playing.  In short, anyone besides Mitt Romney is just too extreme, and will scare away the moderate and independent voters.  The Republicans best hope is that the economy stays sluggish, and enough people are angry with Obama that they go out and vote for Romney whether they like him or not.  If the current trend of economic recovery continues (200,000 jobs created last month, unemployment down to 8.5%) the Republicans should probably give up on the White House and try not to get hosed in Congress, where the militant Tea Party Republicans who often won't even cooperate with their leader John Boehner have earned the 112th Congress an approval rating that hovers just above single digits.