The History of Wisconsin Governor Walker – in Cartoons

Many of you already know that my stepfather, Lyle Lahey, is a veteran political cartoonist in Wisconsin, having worked for decades at the now-defunct Green Bay News-Chronicle.

For the past several years, he has been producing his political cartoons for the web, only taking a leave of absence recently to accommodate a move across town. Then he picked a great time to come back: right in the middle of the brouhaha over Wisconsin's right-wing governor, Scott Walker, and his plans to radically alter the state's politics and economics. (Let's just say Lyle puts the "haha" in "brouhaha").

Here, then, is a small collection of Lahey comics on the topic of Wisconsin's famous and infamous maximum leader. You can see new and more than 560 archived Lahey comics at his main site, and you can follow his new ones on his blog.

Click on the cartoons to view them in larger format.

Meg Whitman Behind the Times on Climate Change?

This is one of those times when I have to stress that my views expressed here are mine and mine alone -- not those of my employer, which is strictly a nonpartisan/bipartisan nonprofit organization.

That said, this news story is likely to be seen by many to be reason enough not to vote for Meg Whitman. She doesn't appear to understand climate change, the new economy that's being built, or being a leader on a cutting-edge issue.

That's all too bad. Because I'd love to see a female California governor. As Governor Shwarzenegger noted earlier today when he introduced several of the state's leading public policy experts on the environment, California wouldn't be the leader it is today on the green economy without those three strong women.

Luckily, this state has plenty of talent to draw from for its governor's mansion.

Photographing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger

Above: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger meets with three of the environmental public policy leaders in California. The meeting took place in the kitchen of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, right before Schwarzenegger spoke to Climate One at The Commonwealth Club about the state's leadership role in building a green economy. Below: Schwarzenegger makes a point to the audience. (Photo by John Zipperer)

Today at noon, I had the pleasure of being my organization's photographer for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's appearance at The Commonwealth Club's Climate One program in San Francisco.

Here are some of the images; you can read more about the event here.

Above: Schwarzenegger listens while a question is read from the Commonwealth Club's audience. Below: Schwarzenegger declares that California should not be a follower when it comes to environmental policy; it should be a leader. (Photos by John Zipperer.)