Strangers, orphans and widows

I was thinking about the sinking campaign of Mike Huckabee. While I disagree with him on a lot of the issues he seems like the candidate with the strongest character. Guess that's why he's going down, as opposed to Giuliani, who went down because he had the least integrity. Of course, Huckabee isn't especially bright for a national politician.

I really liked it when he defended illegal immigrants by saying, ""After all, these are children of God." Of course, this went down really badly with the hard right base of the Republican party.

His current plan is to force all illegal immigrants to leave in 120 days or else face automatic deportation if located. That seems like the wrong stand for a Baptist preacher to flip-flop to:

Thus saith the LORD; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. (Jeremiah 22:3)

I'm not a Fundamentalist Biblical literalist, but I absolutely believe that kindness to the foreigners in our midst is God's will. And bashing single moms gets him angry too. Hey, we gotta guard the borders and hunt down terrorist cells, but have a heart!

On the whole comics front, still at work on Top 10 Volume 3. Hope to be done soon. My editor at WS wants a cover for a different project, but otherwise trying not to get distracted. I think you'll like this work, when you finally get to see it.

And planning on running a table top RPG in two weeks. I am a many splendored geek!

Don't buy Blueline Pro products

Just some kindly advice.

I bought some inks from Blueline. The prices were pretty good and the shipping was cheap. It took a few weeks to arrive, so I didn't want to buy from them again.

They're mainly famous for papers. Cheap crappy bleeding ink all over the page paper. I get handed it at cons to do sketches on and it's always sucked eggs. Use a nice Strathmore instead (here's a link for a local Chicago art store). Phil Noto lent me a sheet of Strathmore Windpower and it's the nicest Bristol I've ever used.

After buying inks from Blueline I've been overwhelmed with spam from them. I've "unsubscribed" twice and it hasn't worked. When I get a chance I hope to report them to the FTC for violating federal spam laws.

So if you want your drawings to look printable and clean, and your inbox clear of harassing sales emails, stay away! I regret ever dealing with them.

Bush creates timeline to leave Iraq!

I'm a consistent Democrat now, but that doesn't mean I always like the Democratic Party. I find them weak kneed and apologetic. I may hate Bush's policies, but he doesn't apologize for them.

So now that Bush has shifted to the left of Hilary Clinton on taxes and withdrawing from Iraq, he's done it forthrightly:

The president forecasts a $48 billion surplus by 2012, keeping a promise he made two years ago when strong revenue predictions made it look far easier....

"Our formula for achieving a balanced budget is simple: create the conditions for economic growth, keep taxes low and spend taxpayer dollars wisely or not at all," Bush said in his budget message.

Democrats said the forecast of a budget surplus in 2012 was based on flawed math that included only $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in 2009 and no money after that [my emphasis]. The budget plan also fails to include any provisions after this year for keeping the alternative minimum tax, originally aimed at the wealthy, from ensnaring millions of middle-class taxpayers.

Wow. A politician unapologetic about forcing an Iraq withdrawal by cutting all war funding and willing to raise taxes to balance the federal deficit. That's what I call political courage.