I went in several visual directions before sketching up this image. Almost did an oil derrick/frame drilling into consumers/customers/victims – or whatever you call people who got shafted by the bank biz – but I thought this was a more amusing take on the “framework” motif. I really thought long and hard about putting in the “greed” label, as I really loathe labeling, but I loathe ambiguousness more, so the label stayed in.

The President’s already compromise-laced proposal to overhaul the financial regulatory system is now in Congress’ sweaty palms and will be further weakened by bank lobbyists who didn’t get their way during the White House cobbling-together session. Predictably, their only interest is in preserving the structure holding up that vast belly. My dream is to one day be able to afford my own lobbyist.

Playing issue catch up after the relaxing week I took off was of course filled with unrelaxing, high political dudgeon – and consequently interesting material for cartoons. Nice to be back at the drawing table.

In case you can’t tell, I think our positive overtures to the Arab world are badly needed, and long overdue. They may not be a panacea, and won’t make any difference to the Al Qaeda loonies, but the rest of the normal Arab world welcomes our friendship and alliance. I still have no idea why a tiny group of sick terrorists and criminals were allowed to define our entire foreign policy, seeing as that is exactly what they wanted.

Also…Just a quick warning to all my loyal readers – The dedicated antagonists, proud sympathizers and the fiercely indifferent alike. I will be off this week and will not be posting anything new until next Tuesday. Feel free to talk among yourselves in my absence, though. And seeing as web use is a compulsion for even the strongest willed human these days, I’m sure I won’t be able to resist checking in here while I’m gone. Have a great week, all.

It might take the Muslim world a little time to adjust to a different strategy from the US. Let’s hope it is in fact a new strategy – And let’s hope they adjust.

Mayor Bloomberg got the City to bend the rules and allow him to run for a third term – Presumably because he thinks New York City simply cannot continue to exist without him. I oppose term limits on principle, because they walk a fine line between being ultra-democratic (not allowing someone to stick around too long in their fiefdoms) and anti-democratic (not allowing voters their choice for office). Too meddlesome if you ask me. However, Bloomberg is a bazillionaire. Nobody can come close to outspending him and he is the incumbent, so basically, the mayor’s race will be a simple coronation, because no real contender for his office is going to challenge him. His expected challenger, Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner decided not to run against him for those two daunting reasons – Not very democratic at all.

(A small tip of the hat to Thomas Nast with this cartoon.)

I hate when I get all skeptical, but I can’t help feeling the nationalization of GM is going to simply kick the day-of-reckoning can further down the road. When I was a kid growing up in Britain, I remember watching Maggie Thatcher nationalize British Leyland, which was a long, expensive disaster. Like GM, the workers who built the cars had become so politically organized, powerful and expensive that the cars themselves simply became an unprofitable sideshow. The spiral affect of a car company existing purely to keep its adversarial workers paid was that BL cars earned notoriety for their utter crapiness in both design and quality, therefore losing market share, thereby requiring more infusions of taxpayer money to keep workers employed. Even with vast amounts of government financial lubrication, BL eventually collapsed under its own automotive irrelevance.

Admittedly, the situation is somewhat different in America in 2009. In Britain there was a cripplingly high rate of inflation that was salting the economic wound. But there are some alarming similarities to the British nationalization model in the GM takeover. I really hope we don’t make the same expensive mistakes. If GM is allowed by the unions and politicians to lavish its focus on car-buying customers, they – and the automotive workers – will survive.

Not saying anything new in this cartoon – I just had this drawing in my sketchbook all week, and I chuckled everytime I looked at it, so allowed myself a little artistic self-indulgence for Sunday’s page.

The menacing rumbling sound coming from Pyongyang? North Koreans’ stomachs.