Information is Beautiful has created a beautiful infographic showing the political spectrum of the Left vs. Right. They made both a World version and US version.

Note: The graphic shown here is the “World” version where left = red & right = blue.

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Renegade Art and Democracy, an art auction and fundraiser for Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, takes place October 4th at The Gardens at Cornerstone in Sonoma.

The event features a Conversation of Renegades including Mark Pauline of Survival Research Labs, Mickey Hart of the Grateful Dead, filmmaker Lynn Hershman and writer/director Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo & WALL-E), hosted by co-founder of Wired Magazine Jane Metcalfe.

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photo by Scott Beale

Back in 2007 when Chicken John Rinaldi was running for Mayor of San Francisco, Loid of Mongoloid painted a wonderful mural on the side of Chicken’s warehouse “Chez Poulet” on Cesar Chavez in The Mission. The mural has gone through a few changes over the years as Chicken decided which public office he wanted to take on next. Based on the latest incarnation, his current aspiration is that of city Dog Catcher.

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As It Ought To Be is a new progressive blog founded by Matt Gonzalez, who was a former San Francisco Supervisor, Green Party candidate for San Francisco Mayor in 2003 and Ralph Nader’s running mate in the 2008 presidential election.

This is a progressive blog which hopes to encourage thought and action related to contemporary political and cultural matters. It takes its name from the quotation below by Thomas Paine. The writers do not belong to a particular political party, nor are they expected to adhere to any set program. They all value progressive democratic principles and have a healthy skepticism for the lesser of two evils and unnecessary compromise.

via RE/Search Publications

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U.S. Government Stages Fake Coup To Wipe Out National Debt

Congress says that with no way to actually pay back our debts, faking a coup to eliminate financial obligations is the best plan for the U.S. economy.

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guest post by Laszlo Thoth

There’s an unusual sign in the window of the former Nob Hill See’s Candies of 1519 Polk Street. Landlord, horse farmer, fountain parker, and “911 Bounty Hunter” John Jenkel explains that the San Francisco candy maker has been evicted due to their contribution to the “Enron-sponsored” 9/11 attacks. The eviction notice places the candy company in a plot involving Warren Buffet.

photo by Laszlo Thoth

Confused? I was too, but I think I’ve figured it out:

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William Shatner made an appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien last night doing a recitation of Sarah Palin’s resignation speech in the form of beat poem, complete with an accompaniment of bongos and a bass.

via Huffington Post

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White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs tells CSPAN that Twitter is blocked on White House computers.

via Los Angeles Times Top of The Ticket

UPDATE: Mediaite is reporting that The White House is not actually blocking Twitter.

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The Naked Cowboy (Robert Burck), who can often be found playing guitar in his underwear in Times Square, has just thrown his (cowboy) hat into the race to be the next Mayor of New York City.

Robert Burck, aka Naked Cowboy, has been listening to the needs of native New Yorkers and tourists alike for over a decade. A hard-working, self-made entrepreneur, he’s become one of the most recognizable one-man brands in the world — all with just a pair of undies, six strings and a lot of hard work. No one’s done more with less than Naked Cowboy, and now he’s bringing this special talent to the mayoral race of New York City.

With both Reverend Billy (who announced his candidacy in March) and now The Naked Cowboy on the ticket, it’s very reminiscent of when Chicken John, Josh Wolf and several other unique candidates ran for Mayor of San Francisco in 2007.

via The Art of The Prank

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Reverend Billy is running for Mayor of NYC. He will be in San Francisco next week and is having a ELECT-A-LUJAH! fundraiser event on Tuesday, July 21st at DNA Lounge.

JOIN US FOR A SERMON AND CELEBRATION WITH REV. BILLY TALEN
from the Church of Life After Shopping & the documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?”

Reverend Billy, the performance artist and international activist, is running for Mayor of New York City. He has inspired so many to embrace a life beyond corporate control. As Mayor, he would be an global leader for local rights, economic and social justice, the environment and the arts.

http://www.voterevbilly.org

SPECIAL MUSICAL GUESTS
Samba-Hip-Hop-Funk-R&B from the Loyd Family Players!
DJ Smoove!

SPECIAL PERFORMANCES
Miss Rosie and friends
and more TBA!

ELECT-A-LUJAH!
Tuesday, July 21st
7 – 10 pm
DNA Lounge
375 Eleventh Street, SF

Buy your tickets online at http://www.tinyurl.com/revbillyca

Suggested contribution: $10 and up
No one turned away due to lack of funds.

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“He’s Barack Obama”, the latest video by JibJab about our superhero president.

There a are a bunch of great behind-the-scenes posts on the JibJab blog showing how the video was made.

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John Hodgman did a hilarious roast of President Barack Obama at the 2009 Radio & TV Correspondents’ Dinner, making fun of him being the first nerd president of the US.

Here’s President Obama’s keynote talk from the dinner.

See Previously: MaxFunCon 2009 Keynote Address by John Hodgman

via Charlie Todd

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The online protest group Anonymous, who have been fighting the Church of Scientology, have teamed up with the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay to help out Iran democracy activists with their new forum Anonymous Iran.

We are not a government agency, nor are we Iranian. We are simply the internet and we believe in free speech.

via Wired Danger Room

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Iran’s Disputed Election on The Big Picture

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Gavin Newsom, the current Mayor of San Francisco, has just announced on Twitter that he is running for governor of California. Gavin Newsom can also be found on Facebook.

See Previously: Gavin Newsom Talks About “Cities & Time” at The Long Now Foundation

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guest post by Aaron Muszalski

Inspired by a WWII era poster currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity in the United Kingdom, Matt Jones produced the image above, whose timely call to action – “Get Excited and Make Things” – is perfect for the growing DIY and Maker movement. (I especially like the crown of spanners. In fact, in the spirit of the poster, I think I’ll weld myself one out of actual spanners.)

Response for Matt’s design has been so strong that UK t-shirt vendor Howies has made it available as a t-shirt for men and women.

Matt’s version isn’t the first remix of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster. Designer Olly Moss previously produced this tellingly satirical inversion, “Now Panic and Freak Out”.

San Francisco art director and culture jammer Matthew Williams produced this Burning Man inspired version, “Get Funky and Burn Stuff”.

Lastly, there’s this appropriately British version, which cheerfully proposes that people simply “Drink Beer and Carry On”. And I think I shall.

images via Matt Jones, Keep Calm and Carry On, Olly Moss, Matthew Williams & Drink Beer and Carry On

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guest post by Hugh D’Andrade

I’ve been attending the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair (and creating graphics for it) for at least five years now, and the thing I love about it is the sheer size and cacophony of the event. You step inside and find booth after booth full of books, pamphlets, and zines on every conceivable fringe-y subject — plus comics, music, t-shirts, an art show, and speakers on subjects ranging from how to compost to how to survive industrial collapse.

Here’s the poster I created for the event this year.

Here’s a list of items I’ve bought at past Anarchist Bookfairs:

• very rare Emma Goldman classic, “My Disillusionment in Russia”
• a bike zine on how to build your own cargo bike which I have never used but will some day
• actual (pre-Kool Aid) Jonestown pamphlet from 1977, all about the beautiful utopia being built in Guyana
• “Resistance is Fertile” t-shirt with cool woodcut graphics
• hard-to-find copy of “Mr. Block” cartoons from old IWW papers
• Ken Knabb’s excellent memoir, Public Secrets, describing 30+ years of political agitation in the Bay Area

You don’t have to agree with everyone there — in fact, that would be impossible, given the wide range of totally contradictory ideas on offer. You’ve heard about the marketplace of ideas? This is what it looks like.

This year’s speakers this year includes my friend Chris Carlsson, talking about his new book Nowtopia: How Pirate Programmers, Outlaw Bicyclists, and Vacant-Lot Gardeners are Inventing the Future Today.

Here are the details for the event:

Bound Together Books Presents:
The 4th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair
Saturday, March 14, 2009 (10am-6pm)
Sunday, March 15, 2009 (11am-5pm)

SF County Fair Building
Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Valet bike parking and Kid/Family space provided
Free

And here’s a link to the CC-licensed Bookfair posters I’ve designed in years past.

poster by Hugh D’Andrade

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The New York Times is reporting that Reverend Billy (aka Bill Talen) of The Church of Stop Shopping has announced that he is running for mayor of New York City. He’s being backed by the Green Party and will be challenging incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The Reverend Billy For Mayor of NYC website has just launched and includes a letter from Reverend Billy announcing his campaign.

Today I am launching a campaign for Mayor of New York City. Our campaign will be devoted to nourishing and strengthening our common wealth, our city’s heritage, our lovely parks, roads, streets, neighborhoods, and the people who live in them. This city once belonged to us, and it will once again.

via BuzzFeed

photo by Eric Harvey Brown

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guest post by mikl-em

Last night on “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” on MSNBC, there was a pretty interesting confab between host Keith Olbermann (who is probably not @keitholbermann, based on some comments he made) and Craig Crawford (@craig_crawford) a columnist for CQPolitics.com (@cqpolitics).

@cqpolitics actually live-twittered their conversation, but they did so without using @’s for Craig or other twitterers that were mentioned, such as @clairecmc (Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri)–FAIL!

Claire does turn out to give good tweet. Here’s a really fine example of honest and thus compelling twitterature…

Further big points, from reading her other tweets, for her abbrevs & tpyos! All parents that don’t want to embarrass their children (of all ages) on Twitter (or Facebook) should follow her and take notes!

You can find out if your own US Rep and Senators have an official Twitter orifice by checking out Tweet Congress which not only lists all the congresspersons that have @’s, but also has running petitions directed at those who don’t to nag them into getting on to where it’s @.

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guest post by mikl-em

Marvel Comics celebrates Presidents’ Day with a special 6-page digital comic featuring Abe Lincoln, Spider-Man & Captain America. For more POTUS / crime-fighter crossover action, they also include a digital version of Spidey Meets the President, the mini-adventure set at Barack Obama’s inauguration ceremony which was published in a recent Spider-Man issue.

The comics are viewable for free using the Marvel Digital Comics Reader, a web-based program that renders the PDF-y pages of the many digital comics that Marvel offers. Scott wrote about the launch of Marvel’s Digital Comics Unlimited back in November 2007.

A couple words of warning: there were some technical difficulties earlier today. They may be fine now, but if the comic seems incomplete try quitting and re-launching the reader. I suggest browsing the comic using the “Smart Panels” option for the best readability, though it was likewise buggy at times.

The Presidents’ Day comics are fun but simple things, not much room for a story arc in 4-6 pages. In fact they remind me of the old one-page Hostess snack cake ads from the 80’s–there’s even a fruit pie reference at the end of the Lincoln comic as a nod to those ads. Seanbaby.com has a fantastic site dedicated to the old Hostess ads.

You can read 4-page digital samples of other Marvel issues (several classic Spidey issues are featured on the PrezDay page, but you can browse to others) for free. Subscribing to their service gives you all-you-can-eat access to a chunk of the Marvel Catalog (“5000 issues and growing”). No need for the titles to be mailed flat anymore, I guess.

For more free comic goodness, put May 2, 2009 on your calendar. That will be the 8th annual Free Comics Day, where your local comic shop will have a pile of free issues from numerous publishers–the actual titles for this year’s giveaway have just been announced.

Finally for those of you who thought that Presidents’ Day itself was a straightforward proposition, well Snopes has some must-read background for you.

via Kelly Sue and Comic Riffs

images via Marvel

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