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Obama Joker Artist Didn't Intend it for Political Fame
Firas Alkhateeb, the 20-year-old Chicgaoan, didn't intend his Obama Joker face as a political statement to be seen around the world. Actually, it wasn't him who put the word "socialism" below it and then plastered posters in Los Angeles. "It really doesn't make any sense to me at all," he told the LA Times in an interview. "To accuse [Obama] of being a socialist is really ... immature. First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?" Alkhateeb had uploaded his Obama remix of a TIME Magazine cover on January 18th. By April, someone had taken it, deleted the magazine references and made the socialism poster found in L.A. By Friday, the original work uploaded to Flickr had around 20,000 views and was taken down by the company because of copy-right infringements.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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