The drawing is based on his Big Star period, specifically this great YouTube video I stumbled upon as I binge viewed his music via concert footage.

Here he is in 1993 on a revival tour with a new Big Star line up.

And in 2006.

And in 2009.

Still sounded amazing. So long, Alex.

Anyway, I chose Lady Gaga, because she’s a challenge. It is really hard to caricature her. She defies exaggeration. There is nothing I could draw her doing or wearing that could top what she would choose for herself. So I thought I’d go for essence. She’s a strong performer, very bold in costume, sound, and attitude. I don’t get into her music, but isn’t that beside the point? Granted, I’m not entirely sure what point she is trying to make beyond “whoa, look at that crazy shit!” But that’s okay. As we entertain ourselves to death, we could do worse.

This week Cheney and Kristol, through their Keep America Safe political hit organization, put out a video attacking Department of Justice lawyers who had served as legal counsel for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, essentially accusing them of being traitors, al-Qaeda sympathizers, and (say it with me now) providing “aid and comfort to the enemy.” In other words, defending the legal rights of the accused in a court of law, military or civilian, is in their eyes undermining the War on Terror (Sic) and endangering American lives.

Naturally, Glenn Greenwald is all over this (and always worth reading.) But you know who else is pissed about this? Former members of the Bush Administration. And the influential conservative blog Powerline.

This all within the same week as a Politico story breaks news of a Republican National Committee powerpoint presentation outlining GOP fear and smear tactics, outraging the political talking class for at least a news cycle. The RNC tactic features the usual “socialism” and “big government” bullshit that is so old, I don’t understand how it has any currency with anyone; but as the teabaggers prove, there are a lot of gullible, uninformed people out there, so it works.

The Cheney-Kristol tactic doesn’t come from nowhere, of course. Prejudice against defense attorneys is embedded in our popular culture: stereotypes of sleazy mob lawyers, cynical shysters and ideological do-gooders from the (gasp) ACLU abound on shows like Law & Order, undermining the State, putting up trivial defenses, finding loopholes, getting bad guys off while the victim’s families cry. Mix that in with fears of Muslim Jihadist Extremist Islamofascist Radical Terrorist Swarthy Bad Guys and disdain for Fancy Talking Pinhead Liberal Elites — well, it’s a toxic brew.

Otherwise it is hard to find anything unique to say about this guy. So far he’s snapped from an “independent” or “moderate” Republican to a GOP drone. At his press conference following his swearing-in ceremony, Brown insisted he is the “forty-first vote” and claimed (falsely) that the stimulus bill from last year has not created any new jobs. I’m no fan of the unregulated bailout of the banks that have since scored huge profits and rewarded the architects of financial collapse with ginormous bonuses, but — que? His own governor thinks otherwise.

BTW – if you were expecting something on Sarah Palin’s palm notes, I think that subject has been pretty played out by now. Besides, every time I draw her or even tweet a snarky comment about her, some part of me feels diminished. She occupies too much oxygen in the American political discourse and certainly too much air time and bandwidth.

This caricature is the first installment of weekly caricatures I will be posting at this site. My approach so far is a caricature that offers some commentary or reflection of the subject’s role in society, persona, or behavior that has warranted public attention. I don’t consider them to be political cartoons in proper; there is no analysis nor opinion expressed here. There is a point of view, of course, an attitude toward the subject. But the approach is more in line with the traditions of illustration than with political cartooning.

As I mentioned last week, this week’s strip will be the last to appear on In Contempt. I have been at this off and on for ten years, and political cartooning in general for triple that, if you count my high school, college, and random underground work. But I have made very little money at it in all this time, and a lot of other projects have been put on the back burner or delayed due to this pursuit. Having just turned 40, I’m feeling a little urgent — a lot urgent, really — get those back burner projects going. That means I have to make a sacrifice. And this one is it.

I won’t go into the economics of political cartooning. There has been a lot of breath, ink and phosphorous expended on that subject. The recent sacking of Mr. Fish from LA Weekly speaks more eloquently on that subject. And quite a few great webcomics — D.A.R., Thingpart, Boxcar Astronaut, to name a few — have closed shop recently, as their creators start new projects and seek new directions.

My new direction is not really that new: I began Wanderlost under a different title (“Sheldon”) a couple years after starting In Contempt, but it has had many fits and starts over the years. Over the past few months I have returned to it in earnest. There are many stories to tell, the artistic challenge is interesting to me (and fun), and there are subprojects — games, animation, etc — that I want to create for it. Unlike In Contempt, the series is not political (intentionally, that is) and it takes a very gentle tone. My goal has been all along to create a kid-friendly comic that was not adult-hostile, something that was cute without being cutesy, and fun without being stupid. I think I’ve been pretty successful at that so far. Please drop by and check it out if you have not already.

My goals for In Contempt have changed over the years. At first I aimed it at the weekly alternative market. Then I turned it into a webcomic. Now this site will be an archive of my political work. But it will also become a portfolio of my caricature work. After this week I will be posting a new caricature every week. Don’t expect the kind of commentary that I have offered so far. But then, it won’t be just a series of silly drawings of famous people. My models are the late David Levine, Stephen Brodner, Barry Blitt, and others whose work has been stylistically unique while retaining a sharpness of attitude.

In other words, the strip is dead, but the site lives on. Very dramatic words, really.

Thanks to everyone who has supported my work over the years. Big shouts out to Ted Rall, Barry Deutsch, Matt Bors, Shannon Wheeler, Mikhaela B. Reid, Brian McFadden, Tom Tomorrow, Abell Smith, Jen Sorensen, and everyone else at Cartoonists With Attitude for your support, commiseration and friendship. Big smooches to Chris and Jen and Kip and Steve and Sara and Dylan and Erika. Big thanks to Lisa R. Jonté for guest-scripting earlier this year.

And many, many thanks to fans of the strip who have chimed in, blogged and tweeted over the years. Stuff like that really keeps a cartoonist’s spirit up.

I’d end this by thanking my wife and kids. So I will: thank you, wife and kids. But I won’t belabor that, because they will be putting up with my other creative endeavors in the future, putting the meaning into “long-suffering.”

Anyhoo, the situation in Haiti is terrible. The moment-by-moment coverage is necessary for awareness, getting aid delivered, and keeping track of developments. But the impoverished conditions Haitians struggle with day-to-day, earthquake or not, deserve sustained coverage and CONTEXT. That seems beyond the capabilities of the modern mainstream media.

Heads up: Next week’s cartoon will be the LAST cartoon strip for In Contempt. I will talk about it more then, as well as my plans for the site. But I wanted to keep y’all posted.

Goldman Sachs is expected to pay its employees an average of about $595,000 apiece for 2009, one of the most profitable years in its 141-year history. Workers in the investment bank of JPMorgan Chase stand to collect about $463,000 on average.

Divide either of those averages by ten. Then think about how the resulting figure represents the salaries of most Americans who are lucky enough to be employed in jobs that have actual social benefit: educators, health providers, emergency responders, public safety officers, and — yes, I am biased — librarians. I didn’t even list social workers who are overloaded with cases, but that should give an indication about social costs we all incur when we allow our priorities to benefit the money changers. As Ezra Klein recently observed, these insanely high levels of executive compensation amount to a redistribution of talent and wealth from the working and middle classes to private wealth:

Because Wall Street pays insanely high salaries as compared to, well, doing anything else, it attracts a lot of talented individuals who then spend their days creating absolutely no value. In that way, it’s worse than simply moving money around. It’s actively taking potential money out.

In other words, this is not merely a problem for this recession, an opportunity for populist outrage. This has long term social costs for the country at large, whether or not we are facing a downturn in two consecutive quarters of economic growth.