I don’t know if this story is more depressing or more infuriating. This week, some moron in Houston was charged with criminal mischief after he was seen running around his neighborhood posting copies of the “Obama as the Joker” poster. Why did he do that? To win what is undoubtedly the most douchebaggiest, video contest ever.

A right-wing radio talk show host named Alex Jones is holding a video contest via his website infowars.com. Now before I go any farther, let me say right here that if I’m anything, I’m a political moderate. I don’t like jerks, liars or vandals of any political persuasion. In my book, people should be judged by their actions more than their ideas. So if you want to believe that 9/11 was an “inside job” or that the president is somehow going to take away your food(!?) then you go ahead and believe that. But when you start propagating lies to push your agenda forward or if you encourage people to damage private and public property, well….then we’ve got a problem. And that’s the kind of garbage that’s going on over at Infowars.com. Actually, Alex Jones and his fans seem to have a bigger beef with the government in general than they do with Obama. They are equal opportunity protesters and they have plenty of anti-republican and anti-George Bush. Anti-John Mccain stuff on their site too. So I guess this isn’t really a left/right issue. It’s more of an assholes/non-assholes issue.

Anyway, back to the video contest in question. This Alex Jones guy is giving away 3 prizes; $1,000, $500 and $200 to the three best videos he receives of people hanging up the Obama as the Joker posters. This is from the instructions he posted on his site:

“The posters can be related to any subject you like, whether it be the swine flu vaccine, fluoride in the water, police brutality, genetically modified food, or the man-made global warming hoax. Pick any issue you like, make a poster and then film yourself posting it in public and upload the video to You Tube or similar websites.”

To be honest, this is a pretty good idea for a video contest. Participants have to include the name of the website on some or all of their posters so it’s a nice way to get a lot of cheap advertising. Plus it gets people’s attention. Hey…just look how many times I’ve had to mention Infowars.com in this post! So it is effective. But it also very irresponsible. Alex Jones is basically saying that if you commit vandalism you might win some cash. Ok, actually he says the opposite of that. Again, here’s a warning from his website:

“Note: Obama Joker posters should be posted in public commons where other fliers, public announcements, handbills, etc., are posted. Please do not post on federal or private property as this will be considered vandalism and will be counterproductive and diminish the message of the Obama Joker poster.”

Great. Alex Jones does not condone vandalism. Oh…except that he totally does. The contest has actually gotten a lot of entries and many of them show people breaking the law like crazy! Here are a few entries from the Infowars site. Keep in mind, these aren’t some videos that I pulled off of youtube. These videos were embedded on Infowars.com by someone who works on the website.

Both of these videos show people doing exactly what the Infowars website says they shouldn’t. Yet the website promotes and displays them anyway. The people in these videos are seen postering public and private property. The 16 and 17 year old kids in the second video are actually hanging up  posters with propaganda-filled bumper stickers. They’re sticking them on glass doors and vending machines for God’s sake. Vandalism that leaves a sticky residue is the most annoying kind of vandalism if you ask me.

These are just two of the many, many entries that show people breaking the law in the name of winning a stupid video contest. I don’t want to post anymore but you can see the other entries right here: http://www.infowars.com/the-obama-joker-1000-video-contest/

Wait, I will post one more. This video not only shows a bunch of idiots in clown make-up defacing things like newspaper boxes and parking signs, it features an especially bat shit crazy dude harassing some goofball reporter as he’s trying to do a story about the traffic or whatever. The clown make-up guy unleashes a tirade about the media and though he seemed a little freaked at first, the reporter goes on to handle himself pretty well. Notice that video cuts out when it’s the report’s turn to start talking. I’m guessing his best, most intelligent retorts didn’t make the final cut:

This dumbass video contest has been going on since August and 2 participants have been “detained” by police in at least two separate incidents. The first (a teenager in Florida) was questioned but never charged. He will probably have to make restitution of some kind though. He admitted to hanging 500 of the posters and sometimes used GLUE to stick them up.

The guy that was stopped by cops the other day also used F%^&ing glue to stick his posters on public and private property. People defending these guys say that their first amendment rights are being abused. Grrrrrrrrrrr. Do I even have to point out that the First Amendment does not give you the right to smear glue all over lampposts and newspaper boxes and street signs?

Here’s an article about the guy in Houston and it includes a news clip. In the video, you can see the aftermath of his handiwork; posters that can’t be fully removed because some jerk stuck them up with glue.

News Story: Man Charged Over Obama ‘Joker’ Posters

One final point, I’m not hating on this contest because I’m offended by the Obama as the Joker/Socialism poster.  But I am hating on it in part because the posters are stupid.  Can someone please tell me WTF The Joker has to do with SOCIALISM!?!?  In the movie, The Joker robs from the rich and gives to NOBODY!  If he took all that money and sent to it to AIG that would be one thing but he doesn’t.  The Joker burned his money because he’s a psychopathic anarchist not a “Socialist.”

Alex Jones claims to be the “creator” of the Obama/Socialism poster.  Actually he just stole the image from some artist’s flickr account and stuck the word socialism on there.  So not only is Alex Jones an instigator of vandalism he’s a content and credit thief.

The video contest is still open for another 2 days.  So if you’re a jerk and you want to enter I guess there’s still time.