Chicagoan 'Fesses Up to 'Joker' Poster

A 20-year-old college student from Chicago is the artist behind the now-famous image of Barack Obama as Heath Ledger’s Joker, the Los Angeles Times reports. Firas Alkhateeb made the image using Photoshop and Time magazine’s Obama cover when he was bored one day during winter break. It attracted over 20,000 views on his Flickr page, and was spotted by his still-anonymous collaborator, who added the “socialism” diss before posting it around LA and other cities.

Alkhateeb criticizes President Obama, and cautions against indulging in “hero worship.” But he doesn't agree with the dig condemning Obama's "socialism." It "doesn't make any sense to me at all," he said. "To accuse him of being a socialist is really immature. First of all, who said being a socialist is evil?"
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