Due credit must be given to this painting for inspiring the parents.

Also, this Oscarina also appears at The Huffington Post today, here.

And we’ve had a few Oscarina’s in the Huffington Post! I try to make sure there’s on there every Monday. I call it “Political Monday at Oscarina.”

This one is about the middle class worker’s duty to strike:

Congratulations to New York, where we can all be gay in every sense of the word now, as equally as anyone. Boo to you Ruben Diaz, but as this is a democracy, we have to uphold your right to dissent from common sense if you must. Do everything else right, and I’ll be okay with you. But you better do everything else right, bud.

I’ll have to repost this Oscarina (as seen on the Huffington Post recently) in honor of it all. Blow it out your asses, conservatives! (click on the image if you need it bigger).

Also in the news, I’ve created a page on Facebook, for those for whom newyorkette is not enough!  Please feel free to go there and “like” away. I need at least 25 likers before I can get a username, they say.

I haven’t been submitting much to The New Yorker due to working on more personal stuff, but I’m getting back in the groove, and you will be seeing me there again soon, if they haven’t given up on me in disgust, thinking I just got lazy.

Meanwhile, here’s the lastest Oscarina, for your entertainment. Click on the image to open a larger one if you can’t read the text.:

www.thedailyshow.com

Above is how time flies for me. I did this doodle this morning while drinking my coffee. Suddenly I realized it was time to run to my day job! Thus, “time” and “carrots.”

As far as cartoons go, here’s my latest in The New Yorker:

And here’s my debut on 23/6, the Huffington Post’s comic relief site, with a musing on President Bush and the Shoe Incident.

We’ve finally made it into the 21st century!  Obama is the first bi-racial president of the United States.  I am emphasizing that he is half white and half black, and this is why: I am half hispanic, and half white, with a little Jewish thrown in.  What does that make me?  That makes me American. And that’s how I related to Obama.  I related to him as an American. Even though he was forced into choosing black over white for political purposes, he is multi-racial, and that is the future of not only the USA, but also of the world.  Which is good, because it means love is prevailing!

Welcome to the 21st century! The future is finally beginning to look like the future, and not the past!

Now! Where’s my Jetsons space-car?  :)

Okay, so I have the day off today, never mind all the errands I have to do, but I decided to do my civic duty and check that the voter assistance websites and phone numbers were actuallly assisting people, since on the last day of in-person registration, they totally let us all down by giving out false information on pre-recorded (and out of date) messages, with no live operators to back them up, since it was a Saturday. Mind you, I know where and how to vote: I’m doing this to see how the system would work for someone who doesn’t know.

The first thing I did was a Google search of “voting in New York”. I came upon this phone number, listed on a few sites: 1.886.VOTE.NYC
This is the WRONG number. The correct number begins with (866), not (886). See what happens if you dial the (886) number. Imagine what you’d do if you were a less spirited person facing that crazy loop: give up, or perhaps just listen to the conspiracy theories that have begun swirling in your head?

If you find the official voter assistance website, you’ll see three options for finding out how and where to vote:

Search with the Online Poll Site Address Locator

Call the Voter Phone Bank at 1.866.VOTE.NYC

E-mail your complete home address to us at vote@boe.nyc.ny.us and we’ll e-mail your polling place location back to you. (Please put in the subject line the borough in which you reside.)

From: carolitajohnson
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 10:37 AM
To: *VoterRegoutsideEmailAddress
Subject: manhattan

[imagine my complete address here, which I’ve deleted now for this post because I don’t want to give it out to the world]

> On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 12:50 PM, Cathy Basham 
> wrote:
>> GO TO WEB SITE
>> WWW.VOTE.NYC.NY.US
>> AND CLICK ON POLL SITE LOCATOR
>>

So I replied:

>——-Original Message——-
> From: carolitajohnson
> Behalf Of carolita
> Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 12:58 PM
> To: Cathy Basham
> Subject: Re: manhattan
>

> Thanks for nothing, lady.
>

On Fri, Oct 24, 2008 at 12:59 PM, Cathy Basham wrote:
> WHAT DID U WANT
> U SENT NOTHING BUT YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS
> YOU ARE WELCOME
>

On this website, which I presume you know about:
http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/pollingplaces.html
there are the following instructions:
E-mail your complete home address to us at vote@boe.nyc.ny.us and we’ll e-mail your polling place location back to you. (Please put in the subject line the borough in which you reside.)

It does not say to include a letter of introduction, and a Hi How are you?

-carolita johnson

 

I have not heard back. Poor Cathy.  I guess she didn’t know that all those emails would be forwarded to her. What surprises me is that I’m apparently the only one clicking that link and following instructions.  Way to get the word out, Voter Assisters!

Anyone else feel like writing to Cathy?
Here you go: CBasham@boe.nyc.ny.us

Other problems include:

UPDATE:
after trying several websites and phone numbers, this is my recommendation for the best, non-partisan information information online: rockthevote.org, and for the best by phone, call 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683), where you can “oprima el numero 2” if you need spanish-language help. You can make sure you’re registered where you think you’re registered, as well as ask any question—they’re very patient—, and report any abuses you may encounter.
If you’re registered but simply don’t know where to vote, try a google maps search: maps.google.com/vote

UPDATE: I found the SNL link!  I think she says “terriers”! Not sure, but that’s what I heard!
Crazy McCain Rally Lady

This cartoon was inspired by the very desperate search to keep ahead enough of the news to submit cartoons that might still be valid for at least a few days.  At least time enough for the magazine to come out! It aint’ easy!  

Things change so quickly! For example, McCain will pull the Decency Card a few days before the debates, mystifying everyone till the day of the debate when he says, “I repudiate people when they get out of line!” (Which is true, but only for that one time that he made sure he got on TV a few days before the debates, saying “Obama is a decent family man”!) Till the debate, I thought he had simply lost his marbles again, like that time he hugged President Bush, with a beatific smile. Here is my take, the day of that repudiation, which did not anticipate its use as fodder for the debate:

I was so innocent and naive! His true love, after all, is Joe the Plumber, a guy ” who thinks Barack Obama “can tap dance – almost as good as Sammy Davis Jr.”! Now that’s a supporter McCain can be proud of….?