EDIT:
Ok, I uninstalled the versions that I had and reinstalled according to the directions listed below:
I ran:
POSTGIS_SQL_PATH=/usr/local/Cellar/postgis15/1.5.3/share/postgis
# Creating the template spatial database.
createdb -E UTF8 template_postgis
createlang -d template_postgis plpgsql # Adding PLPGSQL language support.
# Allows non-superusers the ability to create from this template
psql -d postgres -c "UPDATE pg_database SET datistemplate='true' WHERE datname='template_postgis';"
# Loading the PostGIS SQL routines
psql -d template_postgis -f $POSTGIS_SQL_PATH/postgis.sql
psql -d template_postgis -f $POSTGIS_SQL_PATH/spatial_ref_sys.sql
# Enabling users to alter spatial tables.
psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON geometry_columns TO PUBLIC;"
psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON geography_columns TO PUBLIC;"
psql -d template_postgis -c "GRANT ALL ON spatial_ref_sys TO PUBLIC;" 
then ran:
$ createdb -T template_postgis newdb
$ createuser --createdb poop
Shall the new role be a superuser? (y/n) y
Now Here is what I get for my db list:
$ psql -l
                                  List of databases
       Name       | Owner | Encoding |  Collation  |    Ctype    | Access privileges 
------------------+-------+----------+-------------+-------------+-------------------
 newdb            | User  | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | 
 postgres         | User  | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | 
 template0        | User  | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | =c/User          +
                  |       |          |             |             | User=CTc/User
 template1        | User  | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | =c/User          +
                  |       |          |             |             | User=CTc/User
 template_postgis | User  | UTF8     | en_US.UTF-8 | en_US.UTF-8 | 
(5 rows)
Making sure my version is correct:
$ psql newdb
psql (9.0.8)
Type "help" for help.
newdb=# SELECT PostGIS_full_version();
                                       postgis_full_version                                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 POSTGIS="1.5.3" GEOS="3.3.5-CAPI-1.7.5" PROJ="Rel. 4.8.0, 6 March 2012" LIBXML="2.7.3" USE_STATS
(1 row)
newdb=# \dt
         List of relations
 Schema |       Name       | Type  | Owner 
--------+------------------+-------+-------
 public | geometry_columns | table | User
 public | spatial_ref_sys  | table | User
(2 rows)
It looks like all dependencies are taken care of and the database looks happy, everything looks clean! (However, where is the geograph_colums I grated all users access to above?)
Now, settings.py:
DATABASES = {
    'default': {
         'ENGINE': 'django.contrib.gis.db.backends.postgis',
         'NAME': 'newdb',
         'USER': 'poop', # yes, I named my user poop
     }
}
now when I run:
$ python manage.py syncdb
I get a link through of various files ending with:
psycopg2.OperationalError: could not connect to server: Permission denied
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/var/pgsql_socket/.s.PGSQL.5432"?
Obviously my db is running because I can psql into it. However are permissions set up incorrectly?
pg_hba.conf:
# TYPE  DATABASE        USER            CIDR-ADDRESS            METHOD
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all             all                                     trust
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            trust
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all             ::1/128                 trust
ANSWER: Postgresql socket error on OSX 10.7.3 when running Django's syncdb