Vote Posters from AIGA

There were some great “get out the vote” posters from AIGA. The RNC, and the McCain campaign is doing whatever they can to make sure people don’t get out and vote for Obama. They’re also working overtime to try and dissuade a political campaign built up by small donations from average Americans. By calling for an investigation into some small examples of donation fraud - it’s just outright pathetic. I mean, I want to know that the donations to the campaign are legit - don’t get me wrong, but the timing of this, in their desperate hour as the polls show McCain trailing is pretty sad.

In Conversation with a Republi’cant: Episode 4

Who the Hell Gets Polled Anyway?

Up. Down. Swing Around. Poll Dancing Explained.

Obama’s in trouble. Registered voters are now switching to McCain. Will he be back up by Friday?

Or will he drop again?

If you’re like me and you follow the daily tracking pulls such as the Gallup and the Rassmussen poll, you’re likely to get confused. How is it that people change their minds so often? I know that despite my candidate’s missteps I don’t change my mind…unless of course it’s revealed that he slept with his videographer or something.

As I’ve been working my way through The History of Western Philosophy (by Bertrand Russell) I figure this is a situation where we need to call on the wisdom of Socrates (complete BS of course, as Socrates and Plato weren’t necessarily fond of democracy and therefore would probably not enjoy polling in the first place).

5 Ways to Get Polled

The question “Who is Polled?” is a matter of deduction. A few things must be established and I’m going to attempt to answer them in completely biased fashion.

1. You must answer the phone despite the fact that you do not recognize the number on caller-ID. Or you do not have caller ID. Or you’re very lonely and would just like to have someone to talk pass a few minutes with.

2. You have to have found justification to have both a land line and a cellphone…which means your either use dial-up or DSL, or you’d swore you’d never use a cellphone because the government can listen in, or you’re concerned you might have to call 911 when you have the dreaded no bars.

3. You have to be unemployed, retired, or a stay a home parent. You could be all three, but that means number 4 would negate you’re chance at being polled.

4. You have to have nothing to do. Seriously, who wants to answer a series of question? And if you do want to answer a series of questions, it’s likely your interested in skewing the results to make a point.

5. Lastly, you’ll need to watch C-SPAN, FOX News, American Idol, be swayed by advertising but swear that you’re not, be scare of terrorists but more scared of the economy, remember one liners, have a disdain for nuanced diplomacy….

I hope I’ve answered all your questions about who get’s polled and why, and if you think you have something to add…please help me out.

Thanks. ISM

Thank You Hillary

Throughout this campaign this blog has not been the kindest to Hillary Clinton. I place blame for that squarely on reaction to what I felt was a devisive message from her campaign. And this feeling was only reinforced on Tuesday evening when a concession speech sounded more self congratulating.

With that sentiment, I watched her concession speech this morning and I have to say, it was probably the best speech she’s delivered.

Thank you Hillary. I for one feel that in this one speech you took ten giant strides to unifying this party for the November election, and the defeat of John McCain. And in the end, if Barack Obama does not win the nomination, it will not be because of your lack of effort, but the fact that John McCain was the better candidate…oh doesn’t the RNC and the Republican ditto heads only wish.

Best. And go Democrats in 2008.

(UPDATE: The illustration for this post was of course inspired by Shepherd Fairey, who was inspired others, who were inspired by even more others…). If you want to see more of his work, check out obeygiant.com.)

Weekend Diary of a Poltiical Junkie

SATURDAY

6:30 AM PST: Turned on CSPAN and watched 30 members of the DNC Rules & Bylaws Committee hash over various arguments on why two states that went against party rules should have a reduction in their penalty because no one thought Hillary would not be the nominee by June of 2008.

10:30 AM PST: Sometime around noon, after all grievances were heard, and the biased arguments of declared members of the committee had been fully aired, everyone took a break (a long break) and decided to talk behind closed doors.

11:00 AM PST: I turned off the TV and missed the removal of one unruly Harriet Christian, a Clinton supporter, but thankfully for YouTube I would later watch it multiple times as I went between fits of tears and laughter.

4:00 PM PST: Clicking between DrudgeReport, CNN and HuffingtonPost, I learned that Obama had officially resigned from his church, the United Trinity Church of Christ. I found myself both empathetic and a bit peeved that he did this (I’d not watched his explanation until later - and when I did, it made more sense, as it related as much to the burden being placed on the church than his political aspirations). Now I just wish people that weren’t going to vote for him in the first place would give it up.

5:00 PM PST: Or sometime around that time the DNC Rules & Bylaws committee finally meets again (yeah!) , and I watch as rude Clinton supporters interrupt continually during the motion, debate and vote period. Finally, as the ruling on Michigan is discussed, Harold Icki (a Clinton supporter, and supposedly the one that was supposed to stack the deck in her favor) decides it’s finally his time to pontificate and accuses the rest of his colleagues of hijacking 4 votes from Hillary (actually 2 votes considering they were half votes). He seems convinced that this would have made a difference and obvious to the fact that during the long recess his candidate was very close to getting a lot less.

SUNDAY

12:00 PM PST: Or sometime around this time, I learned that Obama lost Peurto Rico to Hillary Clinton (big suprise). Hillary claimed she’d now had the popular vote (bigger surprise considering she’s made this claim for over a month now and no ones been listening). And that she planned on continuing her campaign until she truly owned everyone in the United States a wad of cash.

3:30 PM PST: Logged on and created a profile on Hillaryclinton.com, thinking I’d try a bit of party unity myself and create havoc on the blog posts of Clintonistas. I think they saw through my black male disguise though because I never saw a single comment get posted.

4:00 PM PST: I decided, heeding her call for money, to donate $10 to her campaign. Along with the donation I sent a memo explicitly requesting that she use this money to payback the supporters she was defrauding with her argument that she actually had a chance to win the nomination.

5:00 PM PST: On barackobama.com I write a blog post, explaining my devious donation…and it seems Obamacans didn’t see my humor. I realized there really is a rift in this party…wow…I never would have guessed. I get a sense that this is what happens when generational shifts create chaos in government. The old skin doesn’t shed without some blood.

———

Note: Times are likely inaccurate but hopefully the general chronology coincides with your own weekend, fellow political junkies.

Estimated 75,000 Rally for Obama…Makes Drudge Report

And somewhere in that crowd is yours truly. So if you ever wanted to throw egg in my face or something (to those I’ve offended) that was your chance. Good luck.

This was truly a great event to have been a part of. Great weather, great crowd and most important, a great candidate.

It’s really weird to think that it’s been over 15 months that this cartoonist has been an unashamed, biased supporter of the Obama campaign. I’m starting to dust off my pencils again as I have a feeling I’m not going to have to draw any more pictures of Hillary Clinton.

In Black and White Day 4: Stencil Art as a Method of Propaganda

Stencil art could be considered black and white, at least that’s how it’s conceived and drawn up. But of course it gets mixed with whatever surface it’s placed on, whether it be a wall, a t-shirt, or whatever surface suits your taste.

I thought I’d take some time and join the numerous ranks that have created an Obama “CHANGE” artwork.

And then I wanted to give anyone who might like to try it out for themselves, either virtually (with Photoshop) or on a t-shirt, or…well you get the point. I’m giving you the stencil to do whatever you want with it.

Obama Change Stencil [PDF 324KB]

If you’ve never used a stencil before, it’s pretty basic.

1. Make a photo copy or trace the drawing onto a heavy card stock paper or cardboard
2. Cut the black area out with an X-acto knife (and just a secret I learned from my days in old-school graphic design cutting - use lots of blades)
3. Place the stencil above your surface choice
4. Spray
5. And if you’ve chosen public or private property, which is preferred for propaganda, then it’s best to remain anonymous and run

If you’re wanting to use this stencil in your own Photoshop artwork, then it’s probably best to use the EPS file (Obama Change Stencil.eps). I found that using the EPS file to create paths, and creating feathered selects is the easiest way to simulate the spray-paint effect.

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