Obama-Joker Artist Unmasked!

Holy art project!  The LA Times has run  to ground the man behind the Obama-Joker poster (but not the "Socialism" caption) - he is a 20 year old Chicago student irked that Obama is insufficiently liberal and (my inference) not tough enough on Israel:

Bored during his winter school break, Firas Alkhateeb, a senior history major at the University of Illinois, crafted the picture of Obama with the recognizable clown makeup using Adobe's Photoshop software.

Alkhateeb had been tinkering with the program to improve the looks of photos he had taken on his clunky Kodak camera. The Joker project was his grandest undertaking yet. Using a tutorial he'd found online about how to "Jokerize" portraits, he downloaded the October 23 Time Magazine cover of Obama and began digitally painting over it.

Four or five hours later, he happily had his product.

On Jan. 18, Alkhateeb uploaded the image to photo-sharing site Flickr (shown at right). Over the next two months, he amassed just a couple thousand hits, he said.

Then the counter exploded after a still-anonymous rogue famously found his image, digitally removed the references to Time Magazine, captioned the picture with the word "socialism" and hung printed copies around L.A., making headlines.

Eventually we are treated to his political views:

Alkhateeb says he wasn't actively trying to cover his tracks, but he did want to lay low. He initially had concerns about ...

... connecting his name with anything critical of the president -- especially living in Chicago, where people are "very, very liberal," he said.

"After Obama was elected, you had all of these people who basically saw him as the second coming of Christ," Alkhateeb said. "From my perspective, there wasn't much substance to him."

...

Although Alkhateeb claims he was making no political statement with the artwork, he's plugged into the Washington debate. Though born in the United States, his Palestinian family closely follows Middle Eastern politics.

"I think he's definitely doing better than Bush was," Alkhateeb said of Obama. Alkhateeb's views on foreign relations align with the Democrats, he said, while he prefers Republican ideals on domestic issues.

Alkhateeb's assessment of Obama: "In terms of domestic policy, I don't think he's really doing much good for the country right now," he said. "We don't have to 'hero worship' the guy."

Dennis Kucinich is famously a man of the far left.  I am guessing that since he has a Palestinian family Mr. Alkhateeb is aware of the Kucinich view on Israel - here is how the Council on Foreign Relations described it:

Rep. Kucinich (D-OH) is critical of Israeli use of force in the Palestinian territories. Although he has said that Hamas should renounce terrorism, he opposed the Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006, arguing that the legislation would exacerbate a humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territories. He said the United States should urge Israel to “accept the Palestinians' right to self-determination and economic survival and humanitarian relief, for food, medical care, for jobs.  

In July 2006, Kucinich expressed concern that Israel’s response to the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers was disproportional and risked worsening conditions for Palestinian civilians. He called on Hamas to back down, but also argued that Israel should “halt its incursion into Gaza” and begin to work again toward a two-state solution.

Well - does this mean the Obama-Joker poster is no longer racist, and is it now anti-Semitic, or simply anti-Zionist?

Well - progressives are deeply irked with Obama just now (hence his renewed desire to loudly denounce DOMA), so maybe the Obama-Joker poster can now safely be hailed as visionary.  And Eerily Prescient, since it was made prior to the inauguration.

Comments

[MayBee]

When Identity groups collide.

[glasater]

The guy got lucky if you check out the rest of his artwork on his flickr page:)

[Jane]

Wait - didn't the administration file suit to make marriage non-discriminatory while simultaneously opposing its own position?

[pagar]

Jane, It must be true,I don't think you can make this stuff up.

[Jane]

Sad, isn't it Pagar?

[Jim Ryan]

Guy's a Kucinich supporter? Makes sense. Kucinich has brains, can speak extemporaneously and fluently in paragraphs, and stands for something besides himself. Alkhateeb at least demands this much substance in his politicians. He can spot a phony.

Alkhateeb will be conservative by 2020.

[Captain Hate]

Don't get too carried away on praising Kucinich, Jim; particularly the standing for something besides himself. The guy is a demogogue of the worst sort who's never done a thing to foster an economic environment for his constituents to succeed. In fact he needs them to consider themselves victims in order to create a need for him, which would have a major appeal for a Pali.

[the bishop]

Didn't a river catch on fire, when he was mayor, I know this wasn't entirely his fault, Didn't he propose a "Department of Peace", hoe truly can you be.

[Pofarmer]

Now if the LATtimes could be bothered to find that video they have of him, or, just maybe, look into Barack Husseins Campaign finances, or, maybe his college records, or, heck, even the Annenburg Challenge documents. Curious what they are curious about.

[joe k. her]

Excellent political satire!!!

[Captain Hate]

Didn't a river catch on fire, when he was mayor,

No, the Cuyahoga catching fire (more than once) was either under Perk or Stokes. The city did default on its bonds, which is considerably worse in terms of the mayor was directly responsible for it happening, under Kucinich and there was a police strike which was characterized by Kucinich demonizing the men and women in blue before and during the work action. I'm sure there are other examples of his errors in judgement (some of his appointees were incredibly inept) but that was a long time ago.

One final bit of Kucinich trivia: Both of his ex-wives have agreed not to discuss him or their marriage in print ever. Does anybody know if that's a standard clause of celebrity/politician divorces?

[Appalled]

I was growing up in NE Ohio while Dennis the Menace was governing Cleveland into the ground. He's nothing anybody should waste time respecting.

I think the river buring was Stokes. Perk caught his hair on fire while using a welders torch to do a ribbon cutting. (Cleveland had a real bad run of mayors in the 70s...)

[Captain Hate]

Perk also turned down a trip to the White House because it was on his wife's bowling night.

[Ignatz]

I think Jim Ryan was pointing out how bad Barry is, not how good Denny K is; ie, Barry is not even up to the Kucinich standards of being able to speak without cue cards and possibly believing some of what he spouts.

[Dave]

if you spent $30 MILLION a day every single day for 2000 years it would still not equal to obama's $23.7 TRILLLION in financial bailouts

... the main reasons why people get poorer are because of higher taxes and inflation.

[BB Key]

TM
I would like for you to comment on the passing of Bob Novak. It was your coverage of the Plame affair that got me interested in following selected bloggers.....

[Thomas Collins]

The bishop, the famous fire on the Cuyahoga occurred before Kucinich was Mayor. See LUN.

OT, but do any Cleveland area JOMers remember journalist and news anchor Dorothy Fuldheim? She was quite a personality.

[Captain Hate]

I remember Dorothy Fuldheim; she was on TV it seemed like forever.