Artist Behind Obama Joker Image Revealed (Well, Sort Of)

By Firas Alkhateeb

Thanks to Mark Milian of the Los Angeles Times, we now know the artist behind the original image on the, now famous, Barack Obama Joker poster. The creator of the most striking political image of 2009 is Firas Alkhateeb, a 20-year old Chicago student, who created the image by altering a Time magazine cover using Adobe PhotoShop. Oddly enough, the Palestinian American, Alkhateeb clearly appears to not be the same person who created the "Socialism" poster using the same image. That individual who hijacked and altered that image from Flickr is still unknown.

Ironically, Alkhateeb does not seem to care for the Barack Obama Joker poster, and he does not appear to be against socialism. This is evidenced by a quote from Alkhateeb: "It really doesn't make any sense to me at all. To accuse him of being a socialist is really ... immature. First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?"

Also surprising, Alkhateeb appears to lean to the liberal side. He prefers Dennis Kucinich to the other prominent politicians. He does not seem to care much for Obama and says, "In terms of domestic policy, I don't think he's really doing much good for the country right now. We don't have to 'hero worship' the guy."

This is a surprising turn. Most of us were probably thinking the Obama poster was the work of Republicans or some crazy underground artist. It turns out the creator is just some student who shared his doodles online. The true poster bandit still appears to be at-large and enjoying his anonymity. One wonders if we will ever know the true identity of the person who made Alkhateeb's art famous.

Barack Obama Joker Gear Available at 57th State

57th State is selling Barack Obama Joker T-shirts, hats, mugs, clocks, etc. You can view the Obey line of merchandise at www.cafepress.com/57thstate/6850503 and the Socialism line of merchandise at www.cafepress.com/57thstate/6850584.

This vendor is not a sponsor of this site, and this site does not endorse this vendor.

Barack Obama Wants to Know What You Do on the Internet

In an article titled "U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears," Spencer S. Hsu and Cecilia Kang of the Washington Post are reporting that the Obama administration is seeking to reduce the Web privacy rules that apply to the Federal government.

Currently, the Federal government is largely banned from collecting data on visitors to its Web sites; however, the Obama administration wants to relax these rules. The excuse for reducing your privacy protections is that the government wants to bring more transparency to government. This claims is ridiculous. Obama's people want to reduce your privacy rights on the Web, because they want to make it easier for them to spy on you. For some reason, Chairman Obama's administration wants to know what sites you visit and how often. You should be deeply concerned about why the Executive Branch wants this information and what they intend to do with it.

Just imagine if you were doing a report on firearms for your job or a class. What if you spent an hour or so browsing Web sites that sell firearm-related products and then visited the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. The BATF would be able to access your cookies and flag you as someone who has a particular interest in guns. What if you happened to be working on a paper that specifically covers weapons used by terrorists. Who knows what could happen? You might get flagged as a security threat and wind up on a watch list.

Your private life is about to get less private.

Obama Administration Resorts to Unhealthy Tactics to Chill Socialized Medicine Debate

In a 6:55AM post on August 4, 2009, Macon Philips, The White House Director of New Media, used the official White House Blog to ask people to rat out their fellow US citizens who are disseminating unfavorable information about Obama's plans for socialized medicine. The post, titled "Facts Are Stubborn Things," urges people who receive or see negative information about Obama's government-run health care initiative that seems "fishy" to report this information directly to the White House by forwarding the critical material to flag@whitehouse.gov.

This means that your tax dollars are being used to monitor and review the way you and other private citizens choose to use the right of free speech. What do you suppose the White House plans to do with the information they collect? Why did they use "flag" in the email address? What happens if you are "flagged" by the White House? Will they investigate those who are speaking out against socialized medicine? Will Obama call them in for questioning? Will Obama order the dissenters be put on some sort of a watch list?

This is a tactic that was used in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Since the government cannot possibly keep tabs on everything said by every dissenter, they employ private citizens to spy on their neighbors. This is a creepy and disturbing move by the White House. Have we learned nothing from history? Perhaps, Chairman Obama has learned plenty.

Cash for Clunkers, America's Auto Bailout for Japan

It turns out the Democrats' much celebrated Cash for Clunkers program is greatly benefiting a country. The problem is the country is not America. It's Japan.

Out of the first 80,000 vehicles traded in and destroyed under the Cash for Clunkers program, 47% are American vehicles. The top ten trade-ins are all American vehicles. Making matters far worse, six out of the top ten new vehicle models being purchased under the Cash for Clunkers program are foreign models, primarily Toyotas and Hondas. Even if many of those Japanese vehicles are at least partially assembled by American workers, the Japanese auto companies are benefiting on the backs of the American taxpayer. After all the Cash for Clunkers program is being funded with Federal money, which the taxpayers supply. So, if you pay taxes, you are paying people, who probably should not be buying new vehicles, to have their American vehicles permanently disabled in exchange for a large credit toward buying a brand new foreign car. The auto executives in Japan must be dancing in the streets.

In case you are curious, here are lists of the top ten trade-ins and new car purchases in the Cash for Clunkers program so far.


Cash for Clunkers Trade-Ins
1. 1998 Ford Explorer
2. 1997 Ford Explorer
3. 1996 Ford Explorer
4. 1999 Ford Explorer
5. Jeep Grand Cherokee
6. Jeep Cherokee
7. 1995 Ford Explorer
8. 1994 Ford Explorer
9. 1997 Ford Windstar
10. 1999 Dodge Caravan

Cash for Clunkers New Cars
1. Ford Focus
2. Honda Civic
3. Toyota Corolla
4. Toyota Prius
5. Ford Escape
6. Toyota Camry
7. Dodge Caliber
8. Hyundai Elantra
9. Honda Fit
10. Chevy Cobalt

Posters Portray Barack Obama As Joker of Socialism

Posters portraying Barack Obama as Heath Ledger's Joker character from The Dark Knight have recently be seen in the Los Angeles and Atlanta areas. The posters show Barack Obama in makeup closely resembling that of Batman's greatest enemy and include the word socialism. No one has taken credit for the posters

How come nobody got upset when Drew Friedman gave George W. Bush a similar Joker makeover in "No Joke" published by Vanity Fair on July 28, 2008? Perhaps, the addition of the word socialism is what is really upsetting Obama supporters.

Barack Obama Acting Stupidly on Cambridge Police Racial Controversy

On July 16, 2009, Sgt. James Crowley of the Cambridge Police Department arrested scholar Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. for disorderly conduct. The conflict began when Sgt. Crowley arrived at the home of Henry Gates to investigate a reported break-in at the residence.

Gates, a Black man, overacted to the appearance of the police and began playing the race card, suggesting the police investigation was racially motivated. After being argumentative and rude, Gates provided a Harvard ID that proved he belonged in his own home. Gates then proceeded to express his anger at Crowley for questioning him. Gates was shouting and ranting, and that must have been enough to offend Sgt. Crowley, because he made the incredibly stupid decision to arrest Gates, on his own property, for disorderly conduct.

Sgt. Crowley should have just walked away the moment he realized Gates belonged in the house, but he chose to prove a point and arrest Gates. Arresting a person for disorderly conduct on their own property makes no sense when the conduct is in direct response to the unjustified presence of police. Crowley was probably just aggravated and chose to abuse his power to get back at Gates for his inappropriate and excessive racial tirade.

So what we have here is Henry Lewis Gates, Jr., a man with a ridiculous racial chip on his shoulder, and Sgt. James Crowley, a typical law enforcement bully who just loves to show who is boss. The whole situation is ridiculous. Gates should have not overreacted, and Crowley should have left the scene the second he realized no crime had been committed. Both parties were acting stupidly.

One would think that two people acting stupidly would be enough, but Chairman Obama just had to top them both and jump in the middle of the controversy. A wise politician would not get publicly involved in petty police actions, but Obama felt the need to voice his opinion in a live national primetime press conference by stating that the police "acted stupidly."

Even worse, after Barack Obama found out his words angered people, he began backtracking. On July 24, 2009, Obama attempted to distance himself from his own words. Obama said, "Because this has been ratcheting up and I helped contribute to ratcheting it up, I want to make clear that in my choice of words I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt. Crowley specifically and I could have calibrated those words differently."

Essentially, Barack Obama is stating he meant what he said, he just wishes he would have said it differently. How are we supposed to take that? It is almost as if he wishes he had been more deceptive when he spoke out. Perhaps, Obama normally uses doublespeak when stating controversial opinions, but he forgot to do it on this item. Why does Obama not just speak his mind or keep his mouth shut. Why is Obama always telling us he did not mean to say something the way he said it? Obama either needs to learn how to speak his mind in a articulate but truthful way or learn how to just stay quiet. A man in his position cannot afford to constantly be making stupid statements and then spend days trying to revise his own words. That is not the way a true leader behaves.