Political Cartoons This Week 30 Jan 2010

From Denny: This has been an interesting week. The State of the Union address by President Obama basically summed up how the Republicans have been screwing over the entire country in every aspect of our lives and how much fun the Republicans have had screwing over Prez Obama at every turn while he continues to be inclusive and gracious to them.

Let's see, then our very own highest court in the land decided to screw over the American people by letting loose the floodgates of the greedy Big Business monopolies to fund elections and completely control the politicians elected. Granted, the corrupt basically control most of the politicians, all of the Republicans and far too many of the Democrats.

And the most recent group to get screwed over? The print publishing industry. Those adorable hold-in-your-hand books may soon be no more. Why anyone is shocked is the surprise. Come on; we all grew up on Star Trek and Sy-Fy spin-off shows where they featured hand-held computers and digital books decades before computers were any smaller than a football field, filling whole cavernous rooms like over at NASA. Of course, comparing Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, to God is a bit of a stretch - OK, it's downright creepy. :)

Take a look and chuckle for the day at how the cartoonists responded to this week's news stories:


Obama's State of the Union:

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Jeff Parker - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Dave Granlund - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by John Trever - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Bob Englehart - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by John Darkow - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by David Fitzsimmons - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by David Fitzsimmons - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Eric Allie - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Nate Beeler - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by R.J. Matson - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Adam Zyglis - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by John Cole - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Joe Heller - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

The Obama Scream vs. Big Banks

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Daryl Cagle - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Nate Beeler - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Patrick Chappatte - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Jimmy Margulies - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Stephane Peray - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

Screwed by the Supreme Court that is supposed to guard our liberties:

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Pat Bagley - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by R.J. Matson - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Mike Keefe - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Larry Wright - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

And the latest tech toy the iPad:

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Cameron Cardow - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Patrick Corrigan - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

Can it be the death of print books as we know it?

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Dave Granlund - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Jimmy Margulies - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

OK, this one is a little scary...

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Manny Francisco - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Jimmy Margulies - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

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12 Funny Things You Can Do Outside With Shrubs

From Denny: These are some whimsical plant sculpture eye candies! How do people think up these things? I wonder how long it takes to create just one of these sculptures?

The "I just woke up from an acid trip and found elephants on my lawn" sculpture:




Harry Potter's mail owl on steroids:




Just what have you been feeding your pet frogs this summer, anyway?



An Eskimo and his pet moose lounging in the summer garden:



The newest summer version of the NBC network's peacock logo:



Those famous dancing bears who created "The Elmo Dance" on Sesame Street:



The biggest escargot in human memory and it looks like he's on wheels. Psst! Don't tell the French... he's trying to make his getaway.




Two egrets in full The Hulk green body makeup desperately trying to blend in while fishing, otherwise known as "doing lunch."




Two pandas who woke up to discover someone dyed their white fur green for a peppermint patty mint commercial:






A Canadian Goose who looks like he just won the Kentucky Derby race and came in first:




And who could ever forget that adorable six foot tall imaginary rabbit named Harvey? You do see him, don't you...?




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67 Charities to Donate: Helping Haiti Heal

From Denny: The outpouring of donations worldwide for the relief of suffering in Haiti following a 7.0 devastating earthquake is incredible. The following are a list of 67 well-known established charities to which you can donate safely.

The Mobile Giving Foundation has received over $30 million in text pledges from cell phone donors the past two weeks. Even the Pew Research Center was well impressed and threw out some statistics:

14% donated by text message
12% donated by phone
23% donated via the web
5% donated via email
39% donated in person via a church or other group

Here's something I doubt any of us thought about when we donated by text message or phone: how long will it take for the phone companies to send out that donation? Turns out it can take from 30, even up to 60 days to transfer customers' contributions, which is then added to the mobile phone bills.

The biggest carriers like Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile have all decided to expedite those donations.

Here's each company's status:

Verizon Wireless: Last Friday, 22 January, they transferred $2.98 million. Today, 28 January, they transferred $4.84 million. Jeffrey Nelson declared the campaign "the largest outpouring of charitable support by texting in history — by far. In all of 2009, all mobile giving (via texting) to all charities totaled just under $4 million for the year."

AT&T: Donations are up to $10 million. The company says they will "advance payment of verified texted donations" to the Red Cross.

Sprint: Donations so far are $3.1 million. By Friday, 29 January, they will advance 80% of the donations with the remaining 20% placed into the usual 30 to 90 day settlement cycle.

T-Mobile: They are working hard to expedite on a weekly basis.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Relief Agencies where to donate:

Action Against Hunger 877-777-1420
Agape Flights 941-584-8078
American Red Cross 800-733-2767
American Refugee Committee 800-875-7060
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee 212-687-6200
American Jewish World Service 212-792-2900
AmeriCares 800-486-4357
Beyond Borders 866-424-8403
B'nai B'rith International 202-857-6600
CARE 800-521-2273


CarmaFoundation
Catholic Relief Services 800-736-3467
Childcare Worldwide 800-553-2328
Church World Services 800-297-1516
Clinton Foundation 501-748-0471
Concern Worldwide 212-557-8000
Convoy of Hope 417-823-8998
Cross International 800-391-8545
CRUDEM Foundation 413-642-0450
CRWRC 800-55-CRWRC


Direct Relief International 805-964-4767
Doctors Without Borders 888-392-0392
Episcopal Relief and Development 800-334-7626
Feed My Starving Children 763-504-2919
Food for the Poor 800-427-9104
Friends of WFP (World Food Program) 866-929-1694
Friends of the Orphans 312-386-7499
Habitat for Humanity 800-422-4828
Haiti Children 877-424-8454
Haiti Foundation Against Poverty


Haiti Marycare 203-675-4770
Haitian Health Foundation 860-886-4357
Healing Hands for Haiti 651-769-5846
Hope for Haiti 239-434-7183
Hope for Haiti Now 877-99-HAITI
International Child Care 800-722-4453
International Medical Corps 800-481-4462
International Rescue Committee 877-733-8433
International Relief Teams 619-284-7979
Islamic Relief USA 888-479-4968


Lions Club International Foundation 630-203-3836
Lutheran World Relief 800-597-5972
Medical Benevolence Foundation 800-547-7627
Medical Teams International 800-959-4325
Meds and Food for Kids 314-420-1634
Mennonite Central Committee 888-563-4676
Mercy Corps 888-256-1900
Nazarene Compassionate Ministries 800-306-9950
New Life for Haiti 815-436-7633
Operation Blessing 800-730-2537


Operation USA 800-678-7255
Oxfam 800-776-9326
Partners in Health 617-432-5298
RHEMA International 248-652-9894
Rural Haiti Project 347-405-5552
Salesian Missions 888-608-2327
The Salvation Army 800-725-2769
Samaritan's Purse 828-262-1980
Save the Children 800-728-3843
ShelterBox



UN Central Emergency Response Fund
UNICEF 800-367-5437
United Methodist Committee on Relief 800-554-8583
World Concern 800-755-5022
World Hope International 888-466-4673
World Relief 800-535-5433
World Vision 888-511-6548


Text to donate:

Text/ Number/ Giving campaign/ Amount

"HAITI" 90999 American Red Cross $10
"QUAKE" 20222 Clinton Bush Haiti Fund $10
"GIVE" 25383 MTV telethon $10
"HAITI" 25383 International Rescue Committee $5
"HAITI" 85944 International Medical Corps $10


"YELE" 501501 Yele Haiti foundation $5
"HAITI" 52000 The Salvation Army $10
"HOPE10" or "UNICEF" 20222 UNICEF $10
"HABITAT" 25383 Habitat for Humanity $10
"OXFAM" 25383 Oxfam America, Inc $10


"HAITI" 40579 National Religious Broadcasters $10
"SAVE" or "SAFE" 20222 Save the Children Federation $10
"GIVE" or "WORLD" 20222 World Vision, Inc $10
"CARE" 24383 CARE (Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere, Inc) $10
"AJWS" 25383 American Jewish World Service $10


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Mission of Hope Run by American in Haiti

From Denny: A few years before the disaster struck in Haiti, American Brad Johnson decided to move there and help the people in his parents' ongoing Christian mission to Haiti. He was in a unique position to help after the earthquake as he already had an established school, an orphanage and a medical clinic operating, along with plenty of supplies. His mission is just outside of Port-au-Prince. He is busy distributing supplies to survivors and has been within hours of when the disaster hit.

Here is the website: Mission of Hope in Haiti

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Beautiful Zen Nature Photos

From Denny: Lately, I've taken to writing more than photographing but still like to combine the two mediums, blending into one statement. Blogging is the perfect use of art in word, poetry and images, enjoy! I like to thank my fellow flickr photographers whenever I place one or more of their photos on my blogs. They are generous enough to place many of their best photos in the Creative Commons area for use by online writers like me! Thank you so much!

There are a total of 13 photos in the Rain Blessings poem.

Be sure to check out the poem Rain Blessings to see why these photos were chosen and are such a perfect fit with the words!

Sunset

sun_set, originally uploaded by anirbanbiswas_c8.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.






Lightning on the Columbia River

Lightning on the Columbia River, originally uploaded by phatman.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.





Red Rain

54 - Red rain, originally uploaded by tourist_on_earth.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

Rain Rain Go Away...

Rain, rain, go away..., originally uploaded by muha....

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

The Philosopher

The Philosopher II, originally uploaded by h.koppdelaney.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

Into the sun...

Into the sun, originally uploaded by James Jordan.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

Full moon and clouds

nuages_n&bl_Lune, originally uploaded by luc.viatour.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

Going with the flow...

go with the flow..., originally uploaded by muha....

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

Buddha in the Rain

A Buddha in the Rain, originally uploaded by h.koppdelaney.

Thank you! Your photo was placed in the poem Rain Blessings.

*** Be sure to check out The Social Poets for the poem Rain Blessings to see why these photos were chosen and are such a perfect fit with the words!

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Artist Inspires With HOPE Sculpture

From Denny: It's odd today as I was going through this blog I found I had this post in draft on New Year's Day. How so much has changed in light of the Haiti earthquake disaster. Somehow, this post now seems more poignant than ever.

Artist Robert Indiana, known for his LOVE sculpture, now at age 81 is promoting HOPE around the world. He says the time is right for Hope as the world is so in need of it.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Spectacular Photos of Eyes

From Denny: This is the first of seven photos in a series on eyes. Most of these are All Rights Reserved so keep that in mind in case you wish to use these photos. You can go to flickr and blog them. (Using the BLOG THIS button is permitted for All Rights Reserved to your own blogs just like I did here. When an image is blogged flickr notifies the photographer so they can see where it went.) Enjoy!

Zen-Mind, originally uploaded by h.koppdelaney.

Oneness

In my eyes
I recognize

All Rights Reserved for this photographer from Germany.

apophenia2, originally uploaded by gwennie2006.

Cool colors and reflections!

All Rights Reserved for this photographer but at least we can blog it from flickr.

Face of an Angel, originally uploaded by looneylusty.

All Rights Reserved for this photographer.

James Dean 2008, originally uploaded by Amsterdamned!.

All Rights Reserved for this photographer but at least flickr allows us to blog it. Cool photo!

speak2, originally uploaded by gwennie2006.

All Rights Reserved for this photographer but at least we can blog it from flickr.

From the photographer, put up on 11 Sept 2008 for the anniversary:

Today marks a very sad day for so many. In my heart I hope we can learn to reach out in a better way. I lost some close friends seven years ago, and their memory will last forever. They were kind and gentle people with energy that fueled the imaginations of many. I can not begin to imagine the horror they went through and the violence in which they died.

Heroes rose in our country that day. Firefighters and emergency crews of all kinds poured into buildings that had become infernos. They rescued thousands. They showed the world of their courage, and set an example of what compassion is all about. This spread an enormous amount of Patriotism whithin our country. We had been stunned and shocked beyond belief. The heroes that rose that day forever changed our country, and much of the world for the better.

To my friends that perished, I miss you and love you. To the many that came to help and rescue, I thank you. I hope someday I will see my friends again, and I hope by then our world is a more peaceful place.

...and crown thy good with brotherhood...

bedouin, originally uploaded by saikiishiki.

Gives new meaning to "bedroom eyes"! :) Cute puppy peeking out from under the blanket.

All Rights Reserved for this photographer but at least we can blog it.

eye mystic, originally uploaded by dax4u.

All Rights Reserved for this photographer but at least they allow us to blog it! So unusual!

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