http://lajuntablog.blogspot.com/2009/02/new-morality.htmlYou may not know who Shepard Fairey is, but he fast becoming a central figure in the "New Morality" issue. Fairey is the fellow who did President Barack Obama's "Hope" poster. However, there is a problem with that. It seems that Fairey lifted the design from an AP photograph. He makes no bones about it; he freely admits taking the photographer's work and "posterizing" it. He claims this is "fair use". AP differs, and has brought suit against Fairey. Fairey also claims that he has made no money off the poster. Maybe so, but the Obama campaign and many others certainly have.
There is more to the Fairey story. He claims to be a "street artist". Here in The Smile Hi City, he would be called what he is, a "graffiti artist". Fairey has this tendency to spray paint other peoples' property without bothering to ask their permission first. He was recently arrested in Boston on two outstanding criminal mischief warrants for that very thing. He has been arrested for the same crime many times before. Fairey jokes about this. Apparently he believes it's OK for him to do this, because he is making "political statements". Understand that Fairey has not been arrested for his political views; he has been arrested for vandalizing other people's property with his political views. He does not appear to be able to distinguish the difference. Nor, apparently, can the President of the United States, whose people continue to send out emails asking for cash, and who continue to make money off the pirated photo. It appears that they have their own definition of "fair use", just as they have their own definition of "patriotism" (if rich people don't want to pay more taxes, they are not "patriots"; if wealthy presidential appointees don't want to pay more taxes, they have made "mistakes").
There is yet more to the Fairey story. Shepard Fairey is one of those "Characters Welcome" we see on USA Network television. Not only that, but this self-confessed vandal has been selected by the network as the recipient of a "Character Approved" award, honoring "Leading innovators shaping American culture." The mainstream media is honoring a vandal, a glorified tagger, as a "shaper of American culture."
This fits with what we have seen coming out of Washington, DC in the past couple of weeks, as one presidential nominee after another is bagged for not paying taxes or other ethical issues. They have the attitude that so long as they don't get caught, it's OK, and if they are caught, all they have to do is pay it off. Read that "pay off the Senate", if you will, because that's how I see it. It seems to work. That was Shepard Fairey's attitude over those warrants, too. Misconduct is not wrong. Getting caught is what's wrong. So I call this "The New Morality of the Democrats."
This "New Morality" is being taken even further by the United States Senate, as Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) moves to hold hearings about radio talk show hosts. She wants to gag people like Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter. Stabenow told nationally syndicated talk show host Bill Press that she wants to impose government-mandated "balance" in the radio marketplace. Stabenow feels that the "airwaves are being dominated by one view" that "overwhelms people's opinions - and unfortunately, incorrectly." In my view it's a toss up as to which are bigger wastes of airtime: Chris Matthews and Keith Olbermann, or Limbaugh and Coulter. But since when do the American people allow the government to tell us what we will listen to, what is right and what is not? Stabenow thinks the time is now. She wants to apply the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" as a gag. She wants to do it to save you from yourself. And, in case you missed it, so does President Obama, who has told the American people that they "...should not be listening to Rush Limbaugh...".
Shepard Fairey has a website, called "Obey Giant". You can see examples of his work there. It closely resembles the propaganda posters of the old Soviet Union, Red China, Cuba, and other such regimes. "Obey Giant" prides itself on two things: "Propaganda Engineering" and "Manufacturing quality dissent since 1989". Fairey is the darling of the Democrats. He likes to "manufacture quality dissent". He likes to "engineer propaganda". He likes to trash other people's property as well. Do you think that Stabenow wants to gag Fairey's "engineered propaganda"? Does President Obama? Or do they want to have the government deciding what you will listen to, based on what they think is "right"?