Normally, a site like this one isn’t a place you visit to be confronted by issues, but because it’s Election Day, I’m making a special exception.

I’m not political by any means, but I’m voting today and strongly suggest you do, too.

If the campaigns in your state have been anything like ours here in Iowa (bitter, name-calling diatribes equivalent to 5th grade hair-pulling), you might be turned off to the concept of voting altogether. But in the face of the alternative, democracy is an institution worth taking a few moments out of your day for.

This year, each political seat is being hotly contested. I plan on voting for the corporate-sponsored whore who ran the less offensive campaign. For me, 9 times out of 10 it’s a Democrat. That’s not an endorsement, but in my experience, I can’t shake the stereotype that most Republicans are greedy, old white men who don’t live anywhere near the tax-bracket or planet I come from.

I find the attachment of the Christian-right to the Republican party particularly scary. I’m often offended that Republicans use “family values” as an issue when attacking their rivals. I can’t tell you how many ads I’ve seen where an ominous voice-over declares “Candidate X doesn’t represent Iowa values”. As if we all shared the same brain, or something. I know what’s good for my own family, thank you. I don’t need your mandate to make these choices for me. I can’t find myself voting for a party that believes we should all behave like some homogenized 1950’s nuclear family. Life is more complex than that.

Not that the Democrats don’t have their share of faults. More often than not, they seem to think throwing money at a problem will make it go away. It usually makes it more difficult for those who really need help to actually get any.

In the end, it all comes down to money. I guess the Democratic attitude towards it just offends me less.

I’m not trying to piss off anyone who is a die-hard, card-carrying member of either party. I’m just extolling a preference. So please redirect any energy you would misspend sending me hate mail and use it for getting your lazy 20-something brethren to go out and vote. That was the point of this blog all along.

I don’t vote because I believe in the candidates. I vote because I believe in the system the allowed these chuckleheads to get into power in the first place. If you cast aside your right to vote, you run the risk of losing it altogether. The best you can do is to mark your ballot and hope the guy you picked won’t screw as hard as the other guy would have.

I don’t want it to look like I’m harping on you guys, but please remember to vote for Theater Hopper at buzzComix EVERY DAY! I’ll probably mention this again in Friday’s blog since the one is kind of buried underneath my Jack Valenti rant. Just a head’s up

We’re slipping down the list and we’re currently languishing at number 14. Last time we held tight in the number 10 spot for the majority of November! I’m positive you can propel us into the stratosphere again!

Remember, there’s a pretty little art piece feature Theater Hopper characters I whipped up as an incentive if you just click a little link! Me thinks I may have to head back to the drawing board and whip up another!

I wanted to let everyone know that the list over at buzzComix has reset for the month of June. Please remember to vote for Theater Hopper every day. To help remind you, I’ve placed this handy graphic to the right that keeps track of our placement on the list!

Last month Theater Hopper cracked the Top 5 for the first time. I’d be a real treat to see if we could break into the Top 3!

I just wanted to send a quick shout out to my friend (and fellow Dayfree Press cohort) Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content for making it into The Hall of Fame over at buzzComix. It’s quite an achievement considering the short amount of time he’s been on the scene. I believe in some circles, that kind of meteoric rise is also known as “kicking ass and taking names.” Congrats, Jeph! (now if I can only figure out a way to get his readers to vote for me!)

Theater Hopper is currently in third over at buzzComix. If you’d like to vote to show your support, I’d appreciate it.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when Scary Go Round and WIGU joined buzzComix and everyone was all a-titter? Let’s just say that the irony does not escape me that they currently hold the number one and number two spot respectively. Oh, well. Such is life! I’m sure I’ll find a comfortable spot somewhere in the middle of the Top 10. RStevens just threw his hat into the ring with Diesel Sweeties. So I have that going for me… which is nice.

Actually, it’s really hard to pretend to be upset about this sort of thing. Simple science tells you that whenever any well-known creator joins a group you belong to, it raises the profile of everyone previously affiliated. Being so close to the top spot, I’m basking in some pretty sweet indirect attention! Why bother going to the trouble of making yourself distinctive when you can just quietly leech off the success of others!

Speaking of which, my good buddy Zach over at Joe and Monkey told his readers to vote for Theater Hopper this week. I’m inclined to return the favor. If you’re not reading Zach’s comic (and voting for it), then you’re really missing out!

Give a brother a hand!

You know what day it is… get out and vote if you are eligible. I thought it was funny when I saw the news headline yesterday: “Last day of early voting.” Well duh, it’s no longer early when the party has started.

“I see a red state and I want to paint it blue…” – ANYMOUSE

Okay, at first I wasn’t going to mention it because I didn’t want to harp on you guys about it like I did at the beginning of November. It was kind of sad. A little pathetic, really.

Then I thought, “One casual mention at the top of the month just to remind them couldn’t hurt. If we could cement a high placement early on, I wouldn’t have to bother them with it for the rest of the month.”

Then it appeared that buzzComix exceeded their bandwidth and the decision was made for me.

Well, buzzComix got their bandwidth back for the start of a new month. Incidentally, the top list has reset for the month.

Vote for Theater at buzzComix. It’s a nice thing to do. I promise I won’t annoy you about it. Just do it every day. We had a strong showing in November. I know we can do it again.

And that should be the last I’ll mention it.

This is something I forgot to write about, but then thought that it was worth its own little news post. I’m talking about voting for Theater Hopper at buzzComix.

As you guys probably know, we’ve be showing a strong placement in the number two spot for a couple of weeks now. I couldn’t be more proud. This is the highest ranking we’ve sustained in a quite a while. It’s noteworthy.

Of course, it’s been a little difficult to get around the current number one comic Order of the Stick. They’re about… oh, 40,000 ahead of us at the moment.

But the good news is this: After this month, OotS will be retired and placed in the Hall of Fame over at buzzComix, thus clearing the path for new comics to make it to the top. I figure we’ve been doing so well at number two for the last few weeks, why not make a push for number one?

This isn’t a “have to” situation and I know we were certainly helped by the hits we were getting from PvP earlier in the month, but it’s a nice goal to have. It’s just a bug I want to put in your ear when the buzzComix database resets at the first of the month.

Thanks everyone for your continued support!

I realized this morning that I forgot to upload today’s Top Web Comics incentive sketch.

So, if it’s not too late and you want to know what’s up with the old guy in today’s comic, vote for Theater Hopper at Top Web Comics to find out!

Thanks!