The Obama administration’s 100th day in office has hit, and while 14 weeks + 2 days might seem like an arbitrary time to review the President, hey: this is America. We like round numbers. And we like ratings and reviews and grades and polls, too.
On our end, we like using products as our own cultural barometer. Since all the merchandise in our system is user-created, and since we have a couple hundred million things for sale, it means that we get a pretty good idea of the zeitgeist using the mighty T-shirt as our guide.
The polls will tell you that Obama has about a 2/3 approval rating, and the merchandise tells us roughly the same thing. America is still largely in favor of the new President – from superhero to homeboy, T-shirt designers have made their voices heard through 3.7 million Obama T-shirts and other products.
But the critics are vocal, too: almost a million products showcase colorful dissent, with the socialism/communism theme being a trend. As for specific policy, censure of the stimulus package and the bailout plans are the most common themes.
Over and above mapping to polling data, the merchandise is telling us something else: a renewed sense of patriotism has hit America, and the flavor of it has changed radically since the Bush administration. This time around, those critical of the government are doing so under the same patriotism umbrella of those supporting it. The Right has drastically changed its messaging, and disagreement with the government no longer sits under the header of “treason” or “traitor.” Indeed, the T-shirts are telling us that the Right feels that disagreement with the governmentisthe new patriotism.
The Left, for its part, has stayed consistent with the pro-Obama messaging that was adopted throughout the election. With not much to rail against, the biggest shift in post-Bush liberal merchandise is the lack of anti-anything sentiments.
Whatever your take on the new administration, one thing’s for certain: the Obama administration has given voice to a new generation of American patriots. Some of them are celebrating with cheers; the others are throwing tea parties.
While issues like Intelligent Design bring up the age-old tension between science and religion, it’s not every day that a pandemic threat does the same.
Israel has taken offense to the term “Swine Flu,” feeling that it’s insulting to Jews due to their religious belief that pigs are unclean – hence the dietary restriction against eating pork. So instead of “swine flu,” Israel has opted to call the outbreak “Mexico Flu” instead. Israel has two suspected cases of Mexico Flu; both men did in fact travel to Mexico.
Scientists, however, are not planning to rename the virus. Keiji Fukuda of the World Heath Organization noted that the illness is called “swine flu” because the virus is of the type that affects pigs. Noted Fukuda:
“This episode started basically with that name, and the virus that is identified is a swine influenza virus. We don’t have any plans to try to introduce any new names for this disease.”
As it stands, the World Health Organization has changed their swine flu standpoint from “very concerned” to “pandemic alert level Phase 4.“ What this means: the virus can be transmitted to humans by humans and animals, to an extent that there could be a “community-level outbreak.” The CDC is still providing its latest updates via Twitter.
With over 1000 cases in Mexico and isolated cases in Canada and the United States, the World Health Organization lists their worry status as “very concerned.“ Of course, for a populace trained for 8 years on color-coded terror alerts, the “very concerned” status is a bit vague – particularly given that no official body has recommended canceling that Mexican vacation. (UPDATE 4/28: that recommendation has now arrived.) Apparently, “very concerned” falls somewhere between “You’re more likely to be killed by a lightning strike” and “Get out the Michael Jackson masks and stay inside! Now!”
America had a previous swine flu scare in the ’70’s that led to a series of government-sponsored vaccinations against the potentially deadly disease. As it turns out, only one person died from swine flu that time around. But not to be outdone, the swine flu vaccinations killed 25 people and gave about 500 of them a serious disease before the vaccine program was halted.
30 years later, world government response protocols to a pandemic threat haven’t changed much. Bird flu led to talks of a widespread U.K. innoculation program to safeguard against it; America has also spent billions of dollars on contracts to produce vaccines against smallpox (the post-9/11-scare), SARS, bird flu, and pretty much any ailment making headlines and/or being referred to as a potential pandemic.
Baxter, one of the companies contracted to produce the swine flu vaccine this time around, is the same company that accidentally shipped vaccines tainted with live bird flu to 18 countries. The injections were used on ferrets and the mistake was discovered before an actual pandemic began due to the injections. The ferrets, however, were not so lucky.
With news of the latest swine flu outbreak taking the Internet by storm, getting information isn’t the problem. But getting good information is harder given the sheer volume of chatter. While “swine flu” is a trending topic today on Google and Twitter, the best source for 140-character swine flu instruction is probably best left to the CDC, which is in fact posting real-time updates via Twitter. For those who prefer a simple Q&A format, those are out there as well.
With all the pandemic T-shirts in the catalogue and the interest in pandemic preparedness, you might wonder whether we’re customizing disposable facemasks yet. We regrettably must inform those of you interested in fashioniable facemasks that we have no plans to add them to the catalogue at this point. However, for those of you crafty folks good with a needle and thread, we did find some interesting thongs that could perhaps be modified to suit your needs.
Caveat: we make no promises as to potential effectiveness of the thongmask in preventing infectious disease. If you have questions on the efficacy of such a thongmask, perhaps a tweet will reward you with a 140-character answer.
Or so says Alaska Fund Trust spokesperson and Sarah Palin’s longtime friend Kristan Cole. Palin is faced with half a million dollars in legal fees stemming from various lawsuits concerning her alleged ethics breaches; the most recent lawsuit comes from an Alaska citizen who claims that Palin flew to a right-to-life rally on PAC dollars. The legal defense fund has been set up, in the words of Cole, for this reason:
“Over the past months it became increasingly clear that supporters of Gov. Palin needed to help defend against the onslaught of frivolous attacks against her. These baseless accusations are designed to inhibit her ability to focus on the issues Alaskans truly care about and force massive personal debt on her and her family.”
Is moose meat a good way to raise money for the fund? Is it just suggesting that Palin’s in the crosshairs (or that she has antlers)? Hmm… we’re not sure. The design at right, we’re assuming, might indicate that Joe the Plumber is managing the defense fund (it came up under a search for “palin fund,”) but as far as we know Joe the Plumber hasn’t yet made this career switch. Then again, he does seem to be a plumber of many toolbelts…
Anoop Desaiples are despondent today, as the geek in the pink was voted off last night along with Lil Rounds. The double-elimination was a result of the judges’ save of Matt Giraud last week.
Anoop seemed to be an unlikely hopeful, showing up to auditions in his preppy college-boy finest. This understated everyman vibe was particularly jarring in this year’s glitzy Idol lineup, which is full of rock star style and glam and hair and makeup…
Seriously, though – this year’s lineup is arguably the best and most diverse Idol has ever assembled, and with so many contestants hitting the stage with their “looks” already highly crafted, Anoop stood out as the everyman hopeful. Anoop’s biggest competition this year was most likely Danny Gokey – not just because of their both of them hit that R&B, soulful vibe when they sing. Danny has a little more Michael McDonald in him (and a lot more Robert Downey Jr.), but both he and Anoop are hitting a similar vibe when they sing.
Lil Rounds started out as an early favorite; Randy’s favorite “you could sing the phone book” compliment was applied more than once. Unfortunately, Lil struggled with finding her identity as a solo performer; the judges kept on her about avoiding high-end “karaoke,” but ultimately Lil wasn’t able to distinguish herself enough to stay in the competition. The problem: this year it takes more than smoking vocal ability to impress the judges and – more importantly – the fans. With folks like Adam and Kris changing up arrangements in the spirit of the David Cook legacy, the contestants need an inherent understanding of and ability to transform song structure to stay competitive this year.
And so we bid a fond farewell to Lil and, most especially, to Anoop. We’re sorry to see you go, Noop Dogg, but hey: we’ll always have the T-shirts.
With Oprah on Twitter, it seemed that the novelty of 140-character limited messaging had truly hit the big-time. Sure, Ashton Kutcher and other celebs have been playing around with it for awhile, but when Oprah became a member of the Twitterati last week it was a sign that even someone who owns multiple media outlets finds a value in character-limited public texting.
Today, Gavin Newsom proved that making an impression via micro-blogging isn’t just for Oprah. Newsom used Twitter to announce his bid for the California Governor’s seat, apparently taking a cue from the Obama campaign’s successful use of social networking sites to attract younger voters.
While the California Supreme Court put the kabash on legal same-sex weddings for 4 years due to them having been banned in 2000 by popular vote, Newsom was on-hand to perform the first legal California same-sex wedding in May of 2008 when the California Supreme Court then overturned the gay marriage ban as unconstitutional. Gay marriage was legal in California until November 2008, when Proposition 8 passed by popular vote with a 5% margin. The headlines haven’t stopped there, however: Iowa and Vermont are the latest to protect same-sex marriage, with their rulings quoting liberally from the California Supreme Court’s 2008 ruling. While gay marriage is most certainly not the only issue of import to California residents, given Newsom’s history it’s sure to hit the spotlight again as the gubernatorial race progresses.
With the California budget crisis making national headlines this year, the Governor’s job is going to be a big one. California has been in so much financial trouble that former Governor (and current Attorney General) Jerry Brown – known in the 70’s as Governor Moonbeam – is thinking about running. Other names for the Democratic party include current Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, as well as veteran Senator Dianne Feinstein. At 41, Newsom is 30 years younger than Feinstein and Brown, and 15 years younger than Villaraigosa; with his use of social networking sites and other Internet outlets, it seems that Mayor Newsom plans to use his youth as a competitive advantage rather than downplay it.
It’s worth noting that Feinstein (also in San Francisco) is leading the polls despite not having announced that she’s going to run. Newsom has said that he’ll drop out of the race and support Feinstein if she decides to shelve the Senate floor for the Governor’s mansion.
While the number 4/20 may not mean anything to you, April 20th is a day for celebration among both cannibis culture activists and your average everyday stoners. (The more dedicated of these folks may also take a daily time-out at 4:20… hey, who said stoners were lazy?… so anyone wishing to teach meaningfully at Humbolt might consider scheduling morning classes.)
The origin of the 420 number has been subject to much speculation, with one of the more popular myths being that it’s the penal code for pot smoking. The real story is that the 420 term originated in a Marin County forest in the early ’70’s, with a group of high school kids that were hanging around with the Grateful Dead. Somehow, everyone’s memories are somewhat spotty as to who exactly coined the term and how exactly it spread, but Wavy Gravy perhaps put it best when he guessed that the term began “somewhere in the foggy mists of time. What time is it now? I say to you: eternity now.”
Right on, Wavy Gravy.
It seems fitting that this worldwide holiday has its origins in Northern California, which is to this day a hub of medical marijuana activism. California has already legalized medical marijuana (Mark Leno’s SB420 was aptly numbered), and now State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has drafted California AB390, which seeks to legalize marijuana in California in order that the state regulate and tax it. With estimates that California sells $14B of weed a year (that’s twice the money raised by dairy production), analysts and pot experts guess that tax revenues would be somewhere between $1 and $2.5 billion a year for the state.
We at CafePress have been working with NORML for years now, and we asked them what they’re celebrating this year. Allen St. Pierre, the Executive Director, had this to say:
“April 20 has become the official cannabis consumer holiday in the United States and around the world! NORML celebrates by offering supporters the opportunity to join at a special one-day only price of $4.20, convenes big public protests around the US and this year launches a nationwide TV ad campaign in favor of cannabis legalization.
Additionally, the recent election of Barack Obama and the signals he’s provided regarding reforms he favors for cannabis, along with unprecedented mainstream media outlets covering of ‘4/20’ will make this the most momentous 4/20 to date—which all bodes well for reform efforts.”
Whatever your stance on medical marijuana, perhaps we can all agree to be happy that this holiday can help stimulate the economy by encouraging the purchase of snack foods.
Rick Perry, of course, is the same governor who inspired a generation of T-shirt makers (and YouTube members) when he bid a reporter a less-than-fond farewell with an “Adios, MoFo” back in 2005. That colorful adieu stemmed from both Perry’s annoyance with the reporter’s comments, as well as an apparent lack of awareness that his mic was still on and the tape was still rolling. Which is to say that both Rick Perry and Jesse Jackson should perhaps consider using their internal monologues more when they’re anywhere near a microphone or a camera, just to be safe.
His remarks were delivered to a crowd chanting “Secede,” and despite his very public denouncements of the stimulus package (of which he’s accepting $16.5 billion) and his ringing endorsement of a recent states’ rights resolution, Perry is now claiming that he was misunderstood and that he wasn’t trying to suggest that Texas might secede. He then noted that he called America “a great Union.”
Texas Secession isn’t exactly a new topic, but it’s the first time that Rick Perry has er, might accidentally have led people to believe he, you know, maybe totally inadvertently suggested it. It also may be first time that former gubernatorial challenger Kinky Friedman seems like the conventional candidate.
In addition to the organics, though, we’re also doing a carbon-neutral T-shirt in honor of Earth Day. We teamed up with Carbonfund to offer this shirt, and Carbonfund will receive the proceeds from the sale of this shirt – so if you’ve been hankering for a new T-shirt but don’t want your carbon footprint to grow, this is an Earth-friendly purchase you can embrace. As a bonus, it’s a talking point for those of you who want to raise awareness and educate strangers about the various ways in which they can reduce their own carbon footprints. (Yes, we mean you, Berkeley residents.)
…is another man’s comrade.
Over and above mapping to polling data, the merchandise is telling us something else: a renewed sense of patriotism has hit America, and the flavor of it has changed radically since the Bush administration. This time around, those critical of the government are doing so under the same patriotism umbrella of those supporting it. The Right has drastically changed its messaging, and disagreement with the government no longer sits under the header of “treason” or “traitor.” Indeed, the T-shirts are telling us that the Right feels that disagreement with the government is the new patriotism.
The Left, for its part, has stayed consistent with the pro-Obama messaging that was adopted throughout the election. With not much to rail against, the biggest shift in post-Bush liberal merchandise is the lack of anti-anything sentiments.
With 
Earth Day
