ALR designletter [4.4 special election edition]

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Welcome to a new issue of the ALR designletter. Sorry for the long delay, we’ve had a busy summer/fall here at ALR and with the impending election our resources have been spread across many local voting related projects alongside of our usual work. With so much going on we’ve decided to focus this issue on just the most urgent topics. Don’t worry we’re planning on a follow up before the end of the year with our regular mix. As always we welcome your comments, suggestions, criticism and/or praise. Thanks for reading. And don't forget to vote on Tuesday.

Noah Scalin, founder
ALR design
socially conscious graphic design
http://www.ALRdesign.com

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[01] ALR NEWS

ALR has created a voting initiative campaign for its home state of Virginia. The “Yes, Virginia IS a swing state” campaign is centered around posters and web ads, which let residents of the state know that the George W. Bush only won the 2000 election by a margin of 8%. In the traditionally Republican state, few people realize that the election was so close, especially considering that nearly half the eligible population didn’t vote at all. Read the facts at http://www.8percentva.com/

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The aforementioned posters have found an unlikely home in Day of Defeat (DoD), an online combat game. DoD enthusiast Jason Hock turned the poster into a colorspray that he can post directly onto the walls of DoD’s virtual landscape for other online gamers to see. Check it out at
http://msnusers.com/8virginia/shoebox.msnw?action=ShowPhoto&PhotoID=1


[02] CALENDAR

Would Michelangelo’s David look better in boxers or briefs? Noncense, a global poster collective out of Savannah, Georgia specializes in work that addresses the problem of censorship in its many forms. They’re holding a poster contest and will exhibit the winning submissions around the world including shows in the United States, France and Korea. November 8th is the entry deadline. Check out http://www.noncense.com for guidelines.

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Pop and Politics’ Farai Chideya will be hosting a roundtable discussion, “Using Technology to Move the Progressive Agenda Forward,” in Washington, D.C. on November 18th. Taking what’s been learned from 10 years of Internet organizing, culminating in the widespread grassroots efforts of this year’s election, the roundtable will examine strategies for engaging progressives in new ways. ALR’s Noah Scalin will be participating. For times and ticket information, check out
http://www.2004progressivetech.com/


[03] ELECTIONS

What do you get out of voting? If you send a picture of yourself at your local precinct and a copy of your voter documentation Get Off the Internet and Vote will give you a shot at a gift basket filled with cds, t-shirts, and postcards. All entrants will receive a small prize just for entering. Pictures due November 5th and the winner of the contest will be announced on the 6th, even if the winner of the election isn’t. For more information, go to
http://www.getofftheinternetandvote.com/

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Voting your conscience and voting strategically can leave a voter with divided loyalties. This Green Party’s explanation of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) shows how having voters rank candidates can overcome that, and offers a policy, rather than a candidate, people can support. For more on IRV visit
http://www.greensforimpact.com/doc/sol.cfm

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The night before the first presidential debate, Public Enemy’s Chuck D got a break from his Air America Radio commitments long enough to host the Slam Bush National Rhyme Competition in Miami. Check out 28-year-old Vanessa German’s winning work, “Thank You George Muthaf@%#king Bush” at
http://www.slambush.net/nationalchamp.cfm#poem

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Not everyone has a problem with the Bush administration. In fact Jen Trivication, Noah Countability and the rest of the folks at Billionaires For Bush are more than happy to tell you about all the dividends they will receive from another 4 years of W. Taking irony to it’s highest degree the Billionaires use clever marketing and street theatre to talk about the effects of current administrations economic policies. To see what the fat cats are up to now go to http://billionairesforbush.com/

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What if Bush wins Ohio, but Kerry takes Pennsylvania and Wisconsin? The L.A. Times electoral vote tracking map lets you line up dream-team scenarios for different combinations of swing states falling red or blue, as well as track the latest state by state polls for presidential and senate races. Check it out at http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/election-test-fl,0,1851284.flash?coll=la-home-multimedia

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One of the more subtle pieces of misinformation during the vice-presidential debates was Dick Cheney’s characterization of “an independent website sponsored by the University of Pennsylvania.” He urged voters to visit factcheck.com to cross-reference his record with Halliburton, but when people went to the site—at a rate of over 100 hits a second—they were mysteriously rerouted to George Soros’ decidedly anti-Bush blog. Cheney screwed up when he gave the address. He should have said factcheck.org, a website indeed run by the non-partisan Annenberg Pubic Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania that had defended Cheney from accusations of profiting directly off Halliburton’s contracts in Iraq, while confirming however that the then-C.E.O. had been in charge while the corporation engaged in fuzzy accounting, had business dealings with Iran, and is currently being investigated on charges of bribery under Cheney’s watch. As for factcheck.com, a small for-profit advertising site, they redirected to Soros both as a political protest, and because they knew he could afford the flood of visitors his website would get after being announced on national television. So do your fact checking at http://factcheck.org/, and get details on this story at http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/06/unintended_consequen.html


[04] DESIGN

Everyone’s talking about red states and blue states, a distinction NYT op-ed writer’s David Brooks redresses as “spreadsheet thinkers” and “paragraph thinkers.” So in which camp to graphic designers fall? Michael Bierut’s Design Observer provides a nuanced discussion of the politics of designers at
http://designobserver.com/archives/000199.html
(thanks to list member John Emerson for pointing us to this one)

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The rights to free speech and free assembly come with responsibilities as well. That connection can become even more obvious when your city is about to be a staging ground for a major demonstration that draws hordes of out of town protestors. In anticipation of the G8 Conference coming to Georgia this past summer, a group of five Savannah College of Arts and Design grad students and their teacher created a line of posters aimed at reminding protestors of their responsibilities. Check out their work, sponsored by the City of Savannah, and used later in NYC at the RNC at http://www.nuidea.org.


[05] MEDIA

Need something to keep you busy while you are waiting for election results? The makers of Emogame, an online video game about emo music, remove their tongue from their collective cheek long enough to stick it out at the current administration with the new Bushgame. In it Bush, Cheney, and the evil Lord Voltron are overthrown by an aging Hulk Hogan and a cancer stricken Mr. T desperate for health care. Included is an option to view only the “educational parts”. Check it out at http://www.emogame.com/bushgame.html
(thanks to list member Jonathan Presson for sending us this link)

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These days especially, staying informed can get depressing. But Ode (http://www.odemagazine.net/), a solutions oriented magazine out of Europe, believes that there is a lot of hard-hitting good news out there that often gets overlooked. From European energy sustainability policies to new trends in pesticide-free farming, Ode brings news from around the world that you’ll want to read. Get a special 6-month subscription for only $10 at http://www.odemagazine.net/special-1subscribe.htm


[06] MARKETING

It was a great moment in American history when Harry Belafonte endorsed Kennedy for president in a television ad. Missed that one? Now you can enjoy it along with more than 250 others through The American Museum of the Moving Image’s online exhibition of election commercials from 1952 to 2004. It’s searchable by year, issue, and narrative approach. http://livingroomcandidate.movingimage.us/index.php

[07] NOSH


From the Mother Jones Stats of the Union (Mother Jones May-June 2004):

In 2001 476 more Americans died of malnutrition than from terrorism.

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The ALR Designletter is a semi-regular update on the activities at Another Limited Rebellion design, the world of socially conscious design, and beyond. You are on this list because you have worked with, contacted, or have a personal connection to ALR design. The names on this mailing list will never be sold or given away. If you no longer wish to be on this list, just respond with "REMOVE" in the subject section and there will be no hard feelings. Back issues can be found on our web site in the ISSUES section.

Sources are listed when information was found in one specific location. However, articles are not quoted verbatim in this newsletter. The addresses provided below are to encourage further reading and support of these fine publications and information services:
Mother Jones: http://motherjones.com/



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