Curious why the Weather Channel started naming winter storms? Their explanation:

During the upcoming 2012-13 winter season The Weather Channel will name noteworthy winter storms. Our goal is to better communicate the threat and the timing of the significant impacts that accompany these events. The fact is, a storm with a name is easier to follow, which will mean fewer surprises and more preparation…

This is an ambitious project. However, the benefits will be significant. Naming winter storms will raise the awareness of the public, which will lead to more pro-active efforts to plan ahead, resulting in less impact and inconvenience overall…

Finally, it might even be fun and entertaining and that in itself should breed interest from our viewing public and our digital users.

Coming soon from the Weather Channel – sponsored storms! Hurricane Doritos is bearing down on the Northeast! Winter Storm Comcast is on the move!

Whenever I’m asked to speak at events or tell anyone that I’m a cartoonist, people are always fascinated with the process I use to draw cartoons. I wanted to use Twitter’s cool new App, Vine, to show this, but since it won’t work on my iPod Touch, I had to settle for making a simple gif:

Here’s the finished cartoon I drew for Media Matters, about Sarah Palin no longer getting $15 per word to spew nonsense on Fox News:

People made a big deal about the Mayan calendar heralding in the end of the world, but I think “Pete Rose: Hits & Mrs.” might be a more suitable symbol for the downfall of humanity.

Here you have a “should be in the Hall of Fame” baseball legend reduced to a knuckle-dragging opportunist, spouting chauvinistic cut-downs to a barbie doll fiance nearly 40 years his junior. The Learning Channel, indeed. (more…)

Eagles fans are getting restless as they wait for Jeff Lurie to decide on the franchise’s next head coach. At this rate, they may end up with sacked University of Delaware coach K.C. Keeler…

Check out PTI host Tony Kornheiser circa 1989 (sporting a thick mane of hair) interviewing the Playboy “Girls of Washington”from Champions Sports Bar in Virginia.

Also included in the creepiness are former Redskins Offensive Lineman George Starke and Tight End Craig McEwen, former Cowboys/Rams Wide Receiver Lance Rentzel, as well Don Geronimo, Michael O’Harro and Washington sports legend Andy Ockershausen.

Written for Newsworks.org

People are thankful for many different things by the time Thanksgiving rolls around. Some are thankful for their health. Others are happy they have close friends and a loving family.

I’m thankful for politicians. (more…)

Written for Newsworks New Jersey

“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.”

These are the words of Abraham Lincoln, as he closed his First Inaugural with an appeal to patriotism in his opposition of the secession of the southern states. That day, Lincoln made three legal arguments against the south’s desire to secede from the union, which obviously fell on deaf ears to a majority of southerners intent on forming their own country. (more…)

As a political cartoonist, I always love to look back at history through cartoons of the time.

Check out this cool cartoon by Charles Davidson, drawn for the Glasgow Evening Times and reprinted in the New York Times back on April 3, 1932.

Back in February of 1923, Adolph Hitler decided to run against German President Paul von Hindenburg in the Presidential election (and had to become a German citizen on February 25, 1932 to do so). In March of 1932, Hindenburg won the election, but was only able to secure 49.6 percent of the vote (Hitler received 30.1 percent), triggering a second election.

Hidenberg won with a majority of votes in the run-off election of April 1932, and was successfully re-elected.

Although the cartoon depicts Hitler as little more than a nuisance to Hindenberg prior to the run-off election, it established Hitler as a strong force in German politics. In fact, after two further parliamentary elections (in July and November 1932) hadn’t created a majority government, and under pressure from influential politicians, industrialists and businessmen to form an effective government, Hindenburg reluctantly agreed to appoint Hitler as chancellor, something he had promised he would never do.

From the October issue of Cosmopolitan…

Written for Newsworks New Jersey

Sometimes, political cartooning is an exercise in venting my frustrations.