Friday Funday: Extending Our Family

In putting together today's edition, it occurred to us how interconnected our little staff is. Paul's wife finished Amy's wedding dress. Amy and Shawn went to school together over twenty years ago. Paul and Shawn have worked together for over a decade, beginning at the Nebraska Press Association.

We've known each other, been friends with each other, worked together, travelled together, and enjoyed each other's work for a long, long time.

We're a family, of a sort - and frankly, we sometimes communicate with each other more often than we do members of our own families.

Our friends, Sarah and Ian, are beginning their lives together - officially - today, adding to their own extended family, which includes us.

It amazes us sometimes, when we think of the incredible people who make up our extended families. From lawyers and lobbyists, to seamstresses, business people and car buffs. There are a great many theatre people in our extended family, and several large clusters of folks who work in radio, print, and web too.

There are more cartoonists then you can shake a Hunt Crow Quill pen at. From the man behind Hagar the Horrible, to Batman's body double/Mad Magazine cartoonist; from the man behind the Undercover Cockroach and the Martians, to the first cartoonist in space (ok, it was his work that went up in the shuttle, but still...)

While all of these people are incredibly talented, we'd love them even if their skill sets consisted of merely being good friends.

It's often said that we don't get to choose the families we're placed into. Whether through biology or adoption, that's at least partly true for almost everyone.

For the most part, the families that we each choose as we become adults - our spouses and friends - are individuals who often have characteristics we admire and strive for in our own lives. Whether those characteristics include beauty, intelligence, loyalty, integrity, or a combination of all those qualities and more, the people we choose to bring into our larger families are no less important to us than the people we grew up with.

With that in mind, as our friends join together their already somewhat mixed families, we proudly welcome their newest members into our own extended family.

Congratulations, you two.

May you have many, many, many long years of happiness together.

"Like Grapes In A Jar"

There are times that doing what we do is incredibly difficult.

Attempting to create fresh new content five days a week, drawing a cartoon, writing a commentary, editing the commentary, finding links, and putting it all together takes a great deal of work. Researching to make sure all the facts are right is another time-consuming task. With regular jobs, families, non-work lives, and occasional traveling thrown in, what we provide for you can take a lot of extra energy at times.

Then there are those days where a politician, or two, or more, shove their shoes halfway down their gullet, and we breathe a sigh of relief for an easy day of work. You could say it's as easy as shooting fish in a barrel - or getting grapes from a jar.

Today is one of those days, courtesy of the leading Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, and current Nebraska Attorney General, Jon Bruning.

In case you missed it, although it was covered locally here, here, here, here, and here, and nationally here, here, and here - we recommend you watch the YouTube video of Mr. Bruning making multiple insults in the span of a few seconds, right here.

In short, Jon Bruning gave a speech at an event in Papillion, Nebraska, last weekend where he compared people who are on welfare to scavenging raccoons.

The racist and classist overtones alone should have scared off anyone with a half a brain from using the comparison he did. That Mr. Bruning also delivered those words publicly in the midst of an ongoing recession, displayed either a severe lack of understanding of the economic sensitivities of millions of Americans - or displayed a craven grab at attention from the media. Or both.

Some of our staff have met Jon Bruning before. At least one has has enjoyed a beverage or two with him at a Lincoln bar. He's not a horrible fellow, though he is definitely a bit green. He's not overtly racist, nor is he overtly classist. He is, however, more than a bit ambitious.

Ambition isn't always a bad thing - but it can easily be abused by powerful outside forces, and turn a rising star of any kind into a puppet zealot. The advisors and assistants an ambitious person chooses to surround themselves with need to be more than just toadies and sycophants - and they certainly can't be incompetent.

Like whichever staff member Mr. Bruning delegated to write the speech he gave in Papillion.

If the goal was to get people talking about John Bruning, the staff member who wrote that disgusting line in his speech certainly did his or her job. We'd also fully agree that the staffer's observation of the tactics of that known slimeball and piece of human trash, Karl Rove, paid off in terms of getting Mr. Bruning attention, from both the press and the public.

Of course, each of us had parents who echoed one another when they taught us that there are different kinds of attention - and the kind Mr. Bruning has received for this gaffe isn't positive.

Since we know Mr. Bruning is an occasional Daily Felltoon reader we'll simply say this to him: Jon...? Find out who the twit is who wrote that racist, classist drivel, and fire their ass. With cause. Regretting you said those words is nice - but Americans are tired of pretty words and apologies.

Americans want leaders who are going to tackle the problems of the present and the future. Not people who surround themselves with those who should know better - and still choose poorly anyway.

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, including giving speeches - and hiring assistants.

Right now, it's obvious you've failed on both counts.

Reaping What Was Sown

When a person lives any length of time in Nebraska, if they're any sort of observant individual, there are a few things they'll likely pick up on.

For example, Nebraskans tend to wear a lot of red. Especially on days that a Husker football, volleyball, basketball, baseball, softball, or other team has a game or match - which pretty much means Nebraskans wear red most of the time.

Nebraskans also tend to be proud of their state capitol building, with the statue on the top named "The Sower". For those of you unfamiliar with Nebraska, The Sower is a  massive bronze statue of a man sowing - or planting - the seeds of the future. Like any farmer, when those seeds have grown into crops, and are fully mature, they'll need to be harvested. If a farmer sows seeds that are filled with weeds and bad seed, they'll likely reap crops filled with weeds and rot.

Sadly, it appears many Republicans, both in Nebraska and around the country - including U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, the former governor of Nebraska - have yet to learn that simple lesson: that you reap what you sow.

If Senator Johanns had better recall of his Nebraska roots, he might have been more prepared for what he encountered at his town hall meeting on Monday, at the Cornhusker Hotel in Lincoln. To say that his constituents were unhappy would be a bit of an understatement. From a source we had at the event, it wasn't just Democrats, liberals or progressives that were calling for taxes to be raised on the rich - some Republicans were also behind that idea. Sadly, Johanns not only openly opposed that idea, but he made things worse by sowing more lies about GOP plans for Social Security.

Senator Johanns' friend, Sen. John McCain didn't fare much better halfway across the nation in Arizona.

Americans across the country are beginning to comprehend the effects of the bitter seed Republicans have sown all over the nation.

In the latest CNN poll, released on Tuesday, for the first time in history Americans don't believe their elected representatives in Washington deserve re-election. On fact, only 41 percent of Americans think their U.S. House member deserves another term.

The numbers are far worse for Republicans than Democrats.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans disapprove of the Republican party, nearly two out of every three U.S. citizens. At the same time, while 47 percent of Americans disapprove of the Democratic Party, an equal 47 percent approve of Democrats in Congress. Compared to Republicans, that's a 14-point lean by Americans towards the Democratic Party, and away from Republicans.

Tea Party candidates have only harvested growing distain from the people they purport to represent. Only 31 percent of voters have a favorable opinion of the Tea Party, continuing the downward slide of opinion- one of the worst showings since Tea Party numbers started to be measured about 18 months ago.

The results of some the recall elections in Wisconsin last night only further prove our point. [The results of at least one race in Wisconsin can't be trusted as honest - though it appears that Wisconsin Democrats have caved and won't be contesting the results, as they should.]

While many of these numbers seem to have surprised more than a few pundits, we're not surprised at all about the way the pendulum is now swinging back towards the political left.

Instead of making the hard choices, and fighting to conserve those things which have been good about our government - which is what being conservative truly is - the Republican party over the last decade has continually reached for candidates and actions that have merely gained them attention. Whether that attention has been positive or not hasn't seemed to concern the GOP. They've sown the seeds of anger, hatred, ignorance, and arrogance indiscriminately.

It appears, heading toward 2012, the American political right may now be about to reap the fruits of their actions.