DRAWING on OBSERVATIONS

Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

Court watchers listened very closely to the questions posed by swing vote Justice Kennedy. When he said that the individual mandate “changes the relationship of the government to the individual in a fundamental way”  the air seemed to go out of the government’s case  for the health care law.

It seems Justice Kennedy may be sympathetic to the goal but disagree with the means.

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Was reassigning known sexual predators from one parish to another enabling predators and endangering a new lot of unsuspecting parishioners? And can the person making said decisions be held liable?  That’s what a landmark case is trying to sort out in Philadelphia.

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Today starts a marathon three day argument before the supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of Obama’s Health Care Law.

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The mid-major, 13th seed, Ohio played their way to the sweet sixteen. Tonight they are up against number 1 seed, North Carolina.

Go Bobcats!

Update: In an exciting game, Ohio came back from an early 15 point deficit to tie the score at the end of regulation but North Carolina won in overtime 73-65.

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Never has such a big deal made about a trade for a backup quarterback.

Tebow made his first appearance here on Drawing when he was in college. Click here

Loads of fun!

Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

Four years ago today I posted my first Drawing on Observations doodle. Over the last four years, I’ve posted a drawing every weekday and occasionally on the weekend, for a crazy total of eleven hundred sketches. Because I doodled over the news, I find I enjoy looking back at the timeline of events more than the drawings.

On last year’s anniversary I posted this video.

Today I”m reposting the first post from March 20, 2008, when I did a sketch of Obama on a paper napkin while watching his speech on race and over the full text of said speech in the following day’s paper.

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Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

Two red stories.

link One

link Two

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A jury found Dharun Ravi guilty of the most serious charge of bias crime.

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W.C. Fields was credited with saying”Never work with children or animals”

After having to euthanize three horses during the filming of the series “Luck”, HBO announced it has canceled the series staring Dustin Hoffman.

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In the spirit of bipartisanship, after yesterday’s post about money and politics.

The president proved he isn’t above using a State Dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron to thank uber-rich donors and court members of the 1%.

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Freshman Representative from Queens, NY has enter the field of candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the US Senate seat held by Democrat, Kirsten Gillibrand. The seat Turner presently holds in the US Congress will likely be lost due to redistricting.

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With all eyes trained on the GOP primary and the Koch brothers all in, democrats have fallen behind in raising money for independent groups (Super PAC’s). Bill Maher, siting overconfidence on the left, kicked in $1 million to Priorities USA Action.

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… is my friend y’all. How knocking Gingrich down but not out, may help Romney in the south.

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The madness snuck up on me this year.

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A wealthy, connected, manager with a penchant for malaprops that struggles to connect with the middle class.

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Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

We hope that he’s wrong, but economically, we know he’s probably right, so it is interesting to speculate on what the political fallout will be. I, for instance, am shocked that the republicans are still clinging to social conservatism with the looming shit storm on the horizon.

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We met at nine

We met at eight

I was on time

No, you were late

Ah, yes, I remember it well

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Take it away Mr Holloway.

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A testament to perseverance. Mr Gay wasn’t published until he was in his late fifties. The self taught novelist worked as a carpenter, sheet-rocker, and house painter before two short stories were accepted by a literary magazine in 1998. A year later his first novel The Long Home was published.

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A charismatic guru, sweaty athletic bodies, suggestive poses, heavy breathing, increased blood flow, all while wearing your skivvies. Yup

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Those advocating making yoga a competitive Olympic sport cant be happy about the latest scandal.

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After the corrupt Nixon administration, Carter seemed like a good idea, but after four years of Carter, Reagan was looking pretty good and after eight years of George W. Bush I think almost anyone would have looked good,  so maybe you had to have lived through twenty four years of Saddam Hussein to understand why Maliki looks good to Iraqis. I can’t figure it out.

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Jean Dujardin from “The Artist” and Meryl Streep from “The Iron Lady”
“The Artist” also won for Best Picture, Direction, Costume Design and Score

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He who shall not be Googled vows to “fight fire with fire” (and brimstone) against Romney.

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I haven’t seen many of this years nominees, but I’ll watch.

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Recent studies have found that the death penalty is not a deterrent to homicide. I know we can argue the merits of that argument but in the mean time, many states still sentence murderers to death. I point this out to highlight the dichotomy between how we punish individuals compared to big corporations. The SEC believes having fraudulent Wall Street firms promise not to violate a law that they already promised not to break, without admitting guilt, to be a deterrent. When you stop laughing read this

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Yes, Amalia de Fortabat was known in Argentina as “The Cement Lady” but so much more.
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Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

Super PACs raised more money last month than the candidates they support, with the lions share coming from just a few individual mega donors and corporations.  Is this what the Supreme Court had in mind when they ruled on Citizens United vs. Federal Elections Commission?

Justice Stevens wrote in his decent “A democracy cannot function effectively when its constituent members believe laws are being bought and sold.”

I believe Justice Stevens got it right on this one.

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If I were to invent someone to root for following the contract dispute that shortened the NBA season, I couldn’t have imagined  a better storyline to help fans forget the fracas between the fat-cat owners and spoiled players than Lin. In only his second year in the league, Lin hardly had a dog in that fight.  In fact, Lin has little to do with any preconceived notions about the NBA or it’s players. The first NBA player of Taiwanese descent, he could never be accused of being a coddled athlete. Lin wasn’t offered Continue Reading

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When AJ was on, his stuff was nasty and unhittable, but game to game , inning to inning or batter to batter you just never knew. I wish him well in Pittsburgh.

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Ball point pen on today’s newsprint

New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning, foreign correspondent Anthony Shadid died Thursday of an asthma attack while on assignment in Syria. A consummate journalist and fluent in Arabic, Shadid often put himself in harms way to get a story. I was riveted last March reading his first hand account of being held captive for six days by forces loyal to Qaddafi.

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Hall of fame catcher and all around nice guy Gary Carter lost his battle with brain cancer. He was 57.

The 11 time All-Star played 11 years with the Montreal Expos, but will be remembered here for helping the 86 Mets win the World Series.

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The media rolled into the downtrodden, grieving city of Newark, New Jersey to cover the tragic story of Whitney Houston’s funeral with the finesse of a thousand clowns, building platforms, buying properties and renting rooftops. Not to cover the good works that Whitney did there but to gain a view of the bereaved celebs expected to attend.

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If James Carville were advising the Republicans, he’d probably be chanting the mantra he made famous. Not to keep his candidate (who had a penchant for freestyling) on message, but to save his candidate from a contrived, divisive brand of politics designed to win elections in the seventies.

Not even Mr. Conservative, Barry Goldwater could win a primary in today’s Republican party.

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