Chan Lowe

New slideshow video-"Contradictoons"

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:28:21 -0500

"That's not funny at all." I get that a lot, usually from people who confuse "cartoon" with "comic." Editorial cartoons are commentary, and while humor is a tool editorial cartoonists frequently use, there are times when humor is not appropriate. Sometimes the serious cartoon has the greater impact. Don't expect to get a belly laugh out of this slideshow. I put it together in hopes it might cause people to reflect a little. It has an accompanying soundtrack. I hope you enjoy it.

McCain, Obama, and the general election

Mon, 12 May 2008 16:05:17 -0500

I guess we're in for a long campaign. You'd think McCain would let independently funded groups do his Swiftboating for him so he can hang onto his fig leaf, but he just can't seem to wait. Let's play on the Muslim rumor to get that Straight Talk General Election Express rolling. If he's a Muslim, he MUST be a closet terrorist, right? After all, he's Hamas' poster boy. I would imagine there are more than a few Klan members who plan to vote for McCain. That doesn't mean I'm going to be drawing him wearing a hood and burning crosses any time soon.

Reject corner...split decision!!!

Sat, 10 May 2008 14:15:31 -0500

So I said to myself, "Now that the caption contest is over, it's time to get another cartoon axed so I can post it in the Reject Corner." With that goal in mind, I deliberately set out to draw a toon that would fail what the front-office cheeses like to call the "Breakfast Test," meaning a piece so tasteless that it might cause some readers to gag over their Cap'n Crunch. What you see here are the fruits of that effort. I first showed the sketch to my opinion page editor, Tony Fins. To my horror, he said, "That's fine. Go with it." I wondered if Tony still carried bruises from previous Reject Corner reader comments. "I was kinda hoping you'd reject it," I said, glumly. "I need a reject for the blog." "Why don't you kick it upstairs to Earl (that being Earl Maucker, il capo de tutti capi)?" Tony said. "Maybe he'll reject it." Earl did not disappoint. Sure enough, he had problems with the cartoon. The word "sexist" was thrown on the table. He suggested less offensive visual alternatives, which I declined as not being germane. Earl also indicated that it was about time he made an appearance on my blog, in a "please don't throw me in that briar patch," kind of way. I owed him one, so I was happy to comply. Which of my bosses do you agree with? Let me know.

Cutting the budget

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:04:20 -0500

Thanks to budget cuts and higher food costs, the schools are having to choose between cutting back on the quality of the lunches they serve and raising prices, which will make them harder for low-income folks to afford. Is it just an economic issue, or is it a failure to assign the correct priorities? Somehow the legislature managed to keep funds in the budget for consolation payments to companies that lost out in bidding for state contracts.

Myanmar

Thu, 08 May 2008 16:22:18 -0500

In all the excitement with the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, gas prices, and the economy going to hell in a handbasket, it's easy to forget there are other things going on in the world that make our issues pale by comparison. It's also easy to forget that there is somebody still occupying the White House, trying to be relevant.

The Clinton and Obama Campaigns

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:52:47 -0500

After the North Carolina and Indiana primaries, we all watch in fascination, some of us in horror, as Hillary Clinton refuses to read the writing on the wall. Depending on your point of view, she is either to be admired for her toughness and resilience, or vilified for her selfishness and egotism. I particularly enjoy this colorful image, which I snagged from the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza's blog, The Fix: "Nor are there many among unaffiliated Democratic consultants who believe she is ready to bail out. 'She is the Japanese soldier in the Pacific island that hasn't been told the war is over,' said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. 'Occasionally she picks off a few islanders and considers it a victory. Well, yesterday she found out the war was over.'" I only disagree with the last sentence.

Florida Legislature blues

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:38:36 -0500

At a time when we're about to pay four dollars per gallon at the pump, you would think our legislature would do all it could to dedicate a funding source for the region's mass transit system, which is experiencing more ridership than ever before. You would be wrong, of course. Thanks to petty politics in Tallahassee, something to do with revenge on the part of one Orlando-area pol for not getting something for his own commuter rail system, Tri-Rail was denied the two-dollar surcharge on rental cars that would have kept the trains rolling without cutbacks. Bottom line? Enjoy your drive. Oh, they did manage to designate an Official State Anthem for us. The Official State Pie was already taken (a good thing, too--during the year of the State Pie, they spent days debating the merits of key lime versus pecan. It was one of those North/South things. I don't remember which won).

We have a Caption Contest Winner!

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:47:56 -0500

WE HAVE A WINNER! A couple of weeks ago, I inaugurated the first Official Lowe-Down Cartoon Caption Contest, and the results were phenomenal. Over 150 would-be cartoonists sent in their captions to complete my drawing. After the caption entry period ended, Editorial Page Editor Tony Fins and I sifted through the submissions, some of them inspired, some incomprehensible, some utterly tasteless. We narrowed the field to three finalists, which were submitted to a week-long Vote of the People. The people responded in force from locales all over America, as well as Jamaica, Brazil, and the United Kingdom, registering a whopping 488 votes by the end of the contest period. The runaway favorite, with 61.7% of the vote, was the caption submitted by Gary Pedullo of Deerfield Beach, FL. I have lettered Gary's winning caption into the cartoon posted above. Gary also wins an Official Lowe-Down blog t-shirt. Be sure to keep checking the blog for future contests, daily cartoons, audio/visuals, animations, and, of course, commentary.

The Economy and Global Warming

Mon, 05 May 2008 13:46:14 -0500

It seems like every day we pick up the paper, there are so many insoluble problems and other horrors that we can't even begin to fix them. So I thought, "Why not combine a few?" It's a little like getting one of those consolidation loans so that you can handle all your debts with one easy payment. One-stop cartoon shopping.

The First Official Lowe-Down Cartoon Caption Contest has moved on to Phase II -- The Vote of the People! Note to readers: I'm keeping this at the top of the blog all week, so please scroll down for new posts.

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:30:28 -0500

Opinion Polls & Market Research

We've received an overwhelming number of entries, a few of which were truly inspired. After several long, bitter horse-trading sessions, Opinion Page Editor Antonio Fins and I have winnowed the number down to the ones we believe to be the best three. Now, it's YOUR turn! You will have until Sunday night, May 4th, to register your preference by clicking on one of the captions listed above. The winner of the vote will receive the Grand Prize, an official Lowe-Down T-shirt and the reprinting of the cartoon and their caption, with credit, on the Sun-Sentinel's op-ed page, as well as here in The Lowe-Down. As they say in Chicago, "Vote early and often!" UPDATE!! On Day Two of the vote, the contest has gone international! In addition to votes from all over the United States, we now have a couple from Jamaica and one from Brazil. The Three Finalists "I keep telling him osmosis won't fill up the tank." -submitted by Ashley "911...Help, I need a hostage negotiator." -submitted by Gary "In a minute, Barbara. He's on a conference call with OPEC." -submitted by Fred

The Gas Tax Pander

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:30:02 -0500

Asking a politician not to pander is like asking a shark not to bite into your thigh. I just wish they wouldn't so brazenly insult our intelligence. They assume we're all idiots...now THAT'S elitism.

The economy--feeling the pinch

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:29:59 -0500

This cartoon was inspired by a business story about a well-known coffee retailing behemoth whose quarterly profits were, shall we say, disappointing. There are certain not altogether fatuous economic indicators that many experts follow carefully, for example the Macaroni and Cheese Index. When average people really start hurting, sales of this particular foodstuff show a marked rise. We hereby inaugurate the Latte Index, which drops in indirect proportion to the rise in economic woes.

Obama and the Rev. Wright

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:28:05 -0500

Well, he's gone and done it. He definitively "divorced" himself from the Rev. Nutcase. If it were anybody else--say, a white person running for President-- that would probably be enough. But he isn't just anybody else. For many Americans, he brings with him the fear of the unknown, the strange. Many in the chattering classes will continue asking the question, "Is it enough?" Since they're the ones who will decide if this story has legs, maybe they should be asking themselves that question, through the prism of their own prejudices. Speaking for the rest of us who put our pants on one leg at a time, I think there are more important things to worry about.

Jury still out on Scopes trial

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:45:11 -0500

I think everybody would agree that if one chooses to believe that the Earth was created in a week and that man emerged fully formed 6,000 ago, then it is his right and there is nothing wrong with it. Do the theological underpinnings for this belief belong in science class alongside the Theory of Evolution? About as much as Quantum Theory belongs in a church sermon.

The economy, the housing market, and your guzzler

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:38:18 -0500

It almost seems like we went to sleep feeling smug about our brilliant real estate investment, and knowing that we could take the behemoth wherever we wanted on the slightest whim. We woke up the next day upside-down on the mortgage and searching desperately for that old pump in the garage so we could run quick errands on the bicycle.