LARRY ROIBAL

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California is broke. For the second time since the Great Depression, California is paying it’s bills with I.O.U.’s.

Happy Independence Day Everyone!

Karl Malden passed away yesterday, Malden was extraordinary at portraying the ordinary man. In 1951 he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor portraying Blanche’s suitor Mitch in A Streetcar Named Desire and he was nominated in 1954 for his role as a tough dockside priest in On the Waterfront. Growing up I watched him play Lieutenant Mike Stone opposite Michael Douglas in the television series The Streets Of San Francisco. He was 97.

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The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled in favor of Al Franken, making him the next Senator of Minnesota. The SNL alum earned a BA degree in political science from Harvard College, graduating cum laude. Prior to his run for Senate, he wrote and performed for Saturday Night Live for fifteen years, penned five NYT best-selling books and had his own talk radio show. The victory gives the democrats a filibuster proof majority in the US Senate.

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Madoff was sentenced to 150 years. Here are some other sentenced notables, From top to bottom: Shalam Weiss was sentenced to 845 years for bilking $125 million from National Heritage Life Insurance. Bernard Ebbers got 25 years for taking WorldCom for $11 Billion. Jeffrey Skilling is serving 24.3 years for fraud and conspiring to mislead investors of Enron.

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TV pitchman Billy Mays passed away. It seems we’re loosing all our pop-culture icons. He was 50 years old.

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Yesterday marked the first military coup in Central America since the end of the Cold War. The president of Honduras had been attempting to lift presidential term limits and expand the powers of the president. The Honduran Army stormed the presidential palace, arrested the president and placed the pajama clad Zalaya on a plane to Costa Rica.

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He was 50 years old.

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Yada yada yada. It may be the cynic in me, but when a public figure reveals a titillating story to the press, I liken it to a magician distracting me with one hand while the other is hiding the real deception. Yes, I feel sorry for his wife and young family, but that’s a private matter between them. I always want to know; Was he being blackmailed? Did he offer anyone a job? Who paid for the trips to Argentina?….Everything else is flash paper.

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The sidekick to which all others are compared, Ed McMahon passed away yesterday.  A  gracious man who was content not being the center of attention. He was 86.

Ed circa 1962

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There is no debating that these are tough times for auto makers. But of the big three, one appears to be in a positioned to survive this economic downturn. What’s the variable that separates Ford from the others?… Family.

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Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist, David Rohde was abducted and held captive by the Taliban for seven months. The Times did not report on the incident before now, believing it would place him in greater jeopardy. After weeks of planning, Rohde and Afghan journalist Ludin succeeding in tiring their captives with a board game before scaling down a wall with a rope they had kept hidden from their captives.

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Weather permitting, enjoy the barbecues, the US Open and the day with your children.

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Do we need less Obama? That’s the question put forth this week by a number of Obama supporters. That inspired me to attempt a dots and dash portrait, devoting a lot less ink to the president.

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The faux president of Iran is looking over his shoulder as the media clampdown is expanded to include blogs.

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Ahmadinejad’s days as President of Iran may be numbered. Yesterday top cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said the vote was a fraud.

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Here in the north east, it has rained or been overcast every day for two weeks. Crops are suffering, rivers are cresting, mold is growing and meteorologists are predicting more of the same.

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Yesterdays win over the Magic gave the Los Angeles Lakers their fifteenth NBA championship in franchise history. Once again, hard work and determination proved to be the most important variables to success. Kobe Bryant worked harder than any other player in the league in route to winning his fourth NBA championship and the MVP award.

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Ordinarily I don’t blog on the weekend, but this is an important date in history. Not because 82 years ago, aviation hero Charles Lindbergh was honored with a ticker tape parade in New York City, or that 74 years ago James Braddock became boxing’s heavy weight champion by beating Bax Baer. It’s not even that the US space probe Pioneer 10 was launched 37 years ago today and became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system when it crossed the orbit of Neptune. Yes, those are all important events, but they pale in comparison when you consider that my father-in-law, Charles Edward Hilyard married Joan Marie Opdyke 50 years ago today. Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.

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If you’ve never heard of Ilya Repin, blame it on the Iron Curtain. Repin enjoyed more fame in his lifetime than any other Russian artist in the nineteenth century. A book on his life and work, Ilya Repin, Painting * Graphic Arts, translated from Russian by Sheila Marnie and Helen Clier is one of my prized possessions. When the cold war ended I had the great privileged to see his Barge Haulers masterpiece at the Guggenheim.

Recently The Russian Museum, in order to increase art appreciation, is placing replica masterpieces like Repin’s “Reply of the Zaporozhian to Sultan Mehmed IV of the Ottoman Empire” around Moscow and St. Petersburg. What a great idea! I’d like to see that in the New York subways.

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Most days I work at home, so my mornings consist of finding the paper on my front lawn, doodling a portrait or two over my morning coffee and heading up to my studio to start my day. But occasionally, on days like yesterday, I have to commute to New York for a model reference photo shoot. On those days I wake up early, do my morning doodle, blog, then head to New York. I always buy another paper because the New York tabloids always have more fodder for me to doodle. The excursion is a bumpy ride on overcrowded trains with poor suspensions. I guess it is an obsession because I still draw. It’s about a 35 minutes ride… This is how I passed the time. A bakers dozen doodles on yesterdays paper.

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A Picasso notebook was stolen from a glass case at the Picasso Museum in Paris. The red notebook containing 33 drawings by the Spanish artist was discovered missing Tuesday. It is worth is estimated to be $11 million.

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President Obama’s Education Secretary Arne Duncan supports merit pay for teachers by linking raises and bonuses to student performance. The former professional basketball player said “To somehow suggest we should not link student achievement to teacher effectiveness, is like suggesting we judge sports teams without looking at the box score.”
That seems logical. So, why hasn’t it been done before?…Well, in Washington, lobbies and interest groups have always trumped logic, and there is no lobby more powerful than the teachers union, who opposes merit pay…That’s Change.

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Laura Ling is a journalist who crisscrosses the globe reporting on major stories shaping our world for Emmy award-winning, independent media company, Current TV. Laura has covered subjects including the avian flu crisis in Asia, slave labor in the Brazilian Amazon, China’s booming sex industry, and marijuana cultivation in California’s national forests. Prior to joining Current in February of 2005, she worked as a series producer for Channel One News where she produced reports from over two-dozen countries. Laura co-created “Breaking it Down,” a documentary series on MTV that aired between 1999 and 2001. Her work has also appeared on ABC’s “Nightline,” NBC, PBS and the WB.
She and fellow journalist Euna Lee are currently being detained by North Korean for having allegedly crossed the border between China and the rouge nation. Yesterday they were convicted by the Central Court of a vague “grave crime” against North Korea and each was sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

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A talented actor sometimes crafts a character so convincingly that we, the audience, begin to project that persona onto the actor. In the case of David Carradine, a calm, centered, spiritual man. At least that was my perception of him, which is a credit to his great gift as an actor, because the reality was not always so. The star of the seventies TV series “Kung Fu” and movies “Kill Bill” 1 and 2, is believed to have taken his own life in a hotel room in Bangkok, Thailand. He was 72.

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On the eve of a major speech President Obama will deliver to the Muslim world from Cairo Egypt, Obama was hosted by Saudi King Abdullah. The King praised the president and presented him with the King Abdul Aziz Order of Merit, the kingdoms highest honor.

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Former US Attorney Chris Christie won a decisive victory against Steve Lonegan in yesterdays New Jersey GOP primary. Christie will be slated against Democratic Governor Jon Corzine in this fall’s gubernatorial election.
Christie earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Delaware and a Juris Doctor degree from Seton Hall University School of Law. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey in 2001. As prosecutor he won many convictions for corruption including Sharpe James.

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George Tiller. MD studied at the University of Kansas School of Medicine. He held a medical internship with the United States Navy, and served as a flight surgeon. He planned to start a dermatology residency and become a dermatologist when his parents, sister and brother-in-law were killed in an aircraft accident. Tiller traveled to Wichita to assumed care of his sister’s one year old son and to close his father’s family practice. Upon arriving, he felt pressure to take over his father’s work. Tiller’s father had performed abortions at his family practice and after hearing the tragic stories of how women died from illegal abortions, he decided to sacrifice his own goals and serve the community by staying in Wichita to provide and advocate for women’s health care. For that, he was demonized by the anti abortion (pro-life) extremists. His opponents protested daily outside his offices, his clinic was bombed, and he was shot in both arms with an automatic weapon. How much easier life would have been had he been a dermatologist and not had to live with the constant threat. At her trial for the 1993 shooting, Shelly Shannon testified that there was nothing immoral about trying to kill Tiller, such was the climate that George Tiller worked, day in and day out. What a brave and self sacrificing man.

On May 31, 2009, George Tiller was shot to death during worship services at Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita where he was serving as an usher.

Rest in Peace.

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The Obama administration moved towards the inevitable this morning. One hundred year old company and number one auto maker in the world for 77 years in a row, will file for bankruptcy at 8:00 am this morning. All the bailout money in the world could not fix it’s broken business model.
Let’s hope he’s not the same as the old boss.

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There was a time, not too long ago, when having a woman run for president, be nominated to the Supreme Court or take on the job of Secretary of State was unthinkable, but WWII accomplished what activists couldn’t. With all able bodied men off to war, women entered the work force. Norman Rockwell’s portrayal of Rosie The Riveter appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post 66 years ago today, May 29, 1943, and the iconic image became a symbol for a new generation of women. When the War was over, men wanted women to return to the home, but the genie was out of the bottle. Gone was the iconic Gibson Girl hosting tea parties, the strong independent woman was here to stay. Women presently make up nearly half of the work force. Now if only they could receive equal pay.

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Harry Truman said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog”

Burris has become such a pariah, I think even canines are snubbing him. The countdown has officially begun on his short term as US Senator.

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President Obama nominates Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring Justice David Sutor. If confirmed she will be the first Hispanic to serve on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor was born in the Bronx, New York and was raised in a housing project just a few blocks from Yankee Stadium. She earned her A.B. from Princeton University, graduating summa cum laude, and obtained her Juris Doctor degree from Yale Law School where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal. In 1991 Sotomayor was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and 1n 1997 she was nominated by President Bill Clinton to the US Court of Appeals.

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In a young presidency already filled with tough challenges, North Korea may prove to be the toughest.

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….nough said.

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Today is my son Andrew’s 21st Birthday. Andrew is a senior at Rowan University finishing his undergraduate degree in Mathematics. He will be studying abroad in Rome Italy this summer and plans on applying to graduate schools upon his return.

Apart from his scholastic career, Andrew plays the guitar and bass. Working from my home studio, I’ve had the privilege to see and hear bands form and practice in my basement. He and his mates have played gigs at the famed Jersey club The Stone Pony, where some of the biggest names in music, including Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Cheap Trick, Joan Jett, Elvis Costello, Peter Frampton, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Patti Smith have graced the same stage. He is currently playing bass for Dan Wythoff performing gigs in New Jersey and in and around Philadelphia. Andrew also writes music reviews and conducts interviews for the on-line music magazine Praise For Wallflower.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Above left: Andrew playing at the Stone Pony

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The sleeping giant awakes. After the banking industry has all but ruined the worlds economy, the banking committee is coming to the rescue.

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Pete Townshend is 64 years old today. Best known as The Who’s guitarist and primary songwriter He wrote over one hundred songs for the band’s eleven studio albums, including the rock opera Tommy and the two albums I wore out as a kid, another rock opera, Quadrophenia and the classic Who’s Next.

Yes, he is the one

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President Barack Obama received an honorary doctor of laws degree Sunday during the commencement ceremony at Notre Dame University. While a small number of pro life protesters were arrested for trespassing, the majority of students and faculty at the Catholic University welcomed the president. Obama acknowledged the irreconcilable differences of opinion on the abortion debate, but urged both factions to stop demonizing the other and begin to work together to reduce the number of women seeking abortions by reducing unintended pregnancies.