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Obama has the best propaganda machine since Joseph
Goebbels
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The Press Is AWOL |
Byron York did a Nexis search on the
Van Jones controversy, on
September 4, 2009. Here are the results:
Total words
about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words
about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total
words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total
words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total
words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.
If
you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even
all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy
involving Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and
Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that
adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions
in the recent past, your response would be, "What?" And if you
were in the Obama White House monitoring the Jones situation, you would
be hoping that the news organizations listed above continue to hold the
line -- otherwise, Jones, who is quite well thought of in Obama circles,
would be history.
Sometimes,
propaganda is what you don't report. |
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Obama's Plan To Desecrate 9/11 |
Obama is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to
erase the meaning of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the
American psyche and convert 9/11 into a day of leftist celebration and
statist idolatry.
This effort to reshape the American psyche has
nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing
the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that
Obama promised during last year's election campaign. Obama signed
into law a measure in April that designated 9/11 as a National Day of
Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day
was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission
controls, and radical community organizing.
Obama's plans were
outlined in an August 11, 2009, White House-sponsored
teleconference call run by Obama ally Lennox Yearwood, president of the
Hip Hop Caucus, and Liv Havstad, the group's senior vice president of
strategic partnerships and programs.
On the August 11th call,
Yearwood and other leaders kept saying repeatedly that they wanted 9/11
to be used for something "positive," "forward-leaning," and
"productive," said a source with knowledge of the teleconference.
The plan is to turn a "day of fear" that helps Republicans into a
day of activism called the National Day of Service that helps the left.
In other words, nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all
meaning.
"They think it needs to be taken back from the right,"
said the source. "They're taking that day and they're breaking it
because it gives Republicans an advantage. To them, that day is a
fearful day."
Continue reading
here . . . |
|
Rage Against The Obama Propaganda Machine |
"Choose you this day whom ye will serve." That may be from the
Bible's Book of Joshua, but it could be from a book of Barack Obama.
Kathryn Lopez
asks, is that hyperbole? Only slightly, unfortunately.
In U.S. Department of Education materials surrounding the first
national presidential address to public-school students, children were
encouraged to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help
Obama. After some genuine and vociferous backlash, the Obama
administration took back some of these recommendations for recruiting
students to the cause that is Barack Obama.
But the pullback came
around the same time that an elementary school in Utah was scheduled to
show students a
video parade of celebrities pledging allegiance to Obama, and to the
liberalism for which he stands. In this video, various tabloid
types seeking to "Be the Change" vow to "smile more" and "love more."
Other plans include "to be the voice for those who have no voice"; and
to not always flush the toilet, for the sake of the planet; "To pledge
allegiance to the funk, of the United Funk of Funkadelica"; and, most
audaciously, "To free one million people from slavery in the next five
years." Yes, it was a bit of a mix.
The culmination of the
whole mess, however, was very clear; to "pledge to be of service to
Barack Obama . . . to be a servant of Obama and all mankind."
Rational people would argue that the head of a republican government
serves the people who elected him, not the other way around. But
reason does not live in an era of vague feelings.
The video was
produced and directed by noted thespian and liberal scold Demi Moore and
her husband Ashton Kutcher, who recently told Reuters: "There's an
assumption that this one man is going to take on his new job full-time
and somehow wave a magic wand of change, and I don't believe that to be
true. I think that we have to be the leaders, and that's not
celebrities -- I think that we as citizens have to be leaders of the
movement that we want to create." Evidently, in order to get
people to be the change, you have to get to them early, when they're in
public school. "We're all in this together," one celeb declared.
Would that have only been the case when George W. Bush was president?
Instead, examples of celebrity service during that era took the form of
actress Cameron Diaz (who makes an appearance in the Moore pledge video)
declaring on the Oprah Winfrey show during the 2004 election: "If you
think that rape should be legal, then don't vote. But if you think
that you have a right to your body, and you have a right to say what
happens to you and fight off that danger of losing that, then you should
vote."
What the heck is she talking about? Abortion,
obviously, once you cut through all the craziness. It's safe to
say Diaz wasn't into presidential servitude back then.
The
school indoctrination stories have been airing at the same time as
revelations, on the right-leaning Web site Big Hollywood, of a
government body organizing an artistic propaganda machine. Film
producer Patrick Courrielche was invited by the National Endowment for
the Arts to join a conference call sponsored by the NEA, the White House
Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve, the organization
created by Obama to promote volunteer service. The stated purpose
of the call was "to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on
core areas of the recovery agenda -- health care, energy and
environment, safety and security, education, community renewal."
A few days after the call, Courrielche noticed that the starry-eyed
Rock the Vote campaign, whose "mission is to engage and build the
political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change
in our country," sent out an e-mail declaring: "We can't stand by and
listen to lies and deceit coming from those who are against reforming a
broken system...Young people demand health care now."
Unsurprisingly, Rock the Vote is in favor of a public component to said
health care.
A representative for Rock the Vote was on the NEA
conference call. He picked up the orders.
These have been
tough times for Obama. With a majority in Congress, and an adamant
imperative that his health-care reform will should be done, he had to
let summer recess in Washington come and go without his commands
fulfilled. You can understand wanting to use every resource
available to him.
Aristotle said that art completes what nature
cannot bring to a finish. Perhaps Obama's NEA might say that art
completes what democracy isn't obedient enough carry out.
The
problem is that, if the National Endowment for the Arts exists -- which
some of us think has always been regrettable in a nation that has more
than enough private resources and enthusiasm to support the arts without
need of government support -- it is not at the political service of a
politician. It's not meant to be an extension of his
communications office.
The video, the Department of "Political"
Education directives, the secular crusading ... these are alarm bells.
An emptiness exists, created by a tyrannical reign of elite secularism.
And self-declared servants of Obama may not realize this yet, but it's a
void that ultimately can't be filled by hollow rhetoric and bureaucratic
disasters.
We are a culture that understands art as an
elevation, not as a campaign tactic. And there is a higher
authority than the Resident of the United States whom you're still free
to pledge service to if you so choose. |
|
Obama "Appointed By God" |
Obama was "appointed by God," we are instructed by a man boasting
academic credentials.
Writing in the Orlando Sentinel,
Jeremy Levitt, "associate dean
for International Programs and a
distinguished professor of international law at Florida A&M
University College of Law in Orlando," makes this case at the conclusion
of a rambling attack on critics of ObamaCare and the right in general:
I would remind the far right what the Apostle
Paul wrote, " ... there is no authority except from God, and the
authorities that exist are appointed by God." Hence, Obama is
the U.S. president and leader of the Free World because he was
appointed by God.
Thomas Lifson
wonders how much criticism this statement will encounter on the
left, from the militant atheists and church-haters?
How many
Obama supporters actually believe this "distinguished professor"? |
| Brainwashing Kindergarteners |
Criminney! Reader "JH" just emailed me
another one. The
perpetrators of this outrage are so proud of their "song,"
they even have a
website, complete with
the words, and additional pictures of the
children subjects. Here's their
email.
I'm sure they'd love to hear what you have to say about their
wonderful, wonderful work.
This is wrong on so many levels. This is
nothing more than the brainwashing of children -- and these children
haven't even reached the age of reason yet. It's just not wrong,
it's criminal. Everyone involved with these outragous videos
should be fired.
Just imagine what goes on in these classes
when the cameras are off?
Here is the
email
to the principal of the B. Bernice Young Elementary School, Dr.
Denise King, and here's Mrs. Carol Zulla's, the vice-principal's,
email.
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Americans Say Media In Tank For Obama |
Much of the Mainstream Media has a low opinion of the American
people -- just like Obama. They believe them to be mindless cattle
who are easy to influence. To the MSM, it was propaganda that got
us into the war on terror, and it is their job to use propaganda to get
us out. The problem with that theory, is that the American people
are not dumb. They mistrust government and ask lots of questions
which is why people tend to gravitate toward the conservative point of
view. And one thing's for sure they see through the Mainstream
Media's act.
The latest update of the Sacred Heart University
media poll asked people about their attitudes regarding the Mainstream
Media. Most Americans felt that the media is not neutral, it tries
to influence public opinion and policy. They feel that most media
has a STRONG liberal bent, Fox news is the most accurate of news
services, they don't want one red cent spent on bailing out the
Newspaper Industry, and the media is in the tank for Obama.
• 86.6% strongly and somewhat agreed
that the news media have their own political and public policy positions
and attempt to influence public opinion.
•
85.3% strongly and somewhat agreed that the news media have their
own political positions and attempt to influence public policies.
• 83.6% agreed that national news
media organizations as very or somewhat biased.
• 89.3%, agreed the national media
played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect Obama.
• 69.9% agreed the national news media
are intent on promoting the Obama residency.
• 56.4%, agreed that the news media
are promoting Obama’s healthcare reform without objective criticism.
Details
here . . .
Why I do what
I do. |
|
Capitol Hill Switchboard Used For Partisan Purposes |
Warner Todd Huston says this certainly can't be legal… can it?
If you
call the switchboard for Congress, the number you'd call to be put
through to your Congressman or Senator's office, you get a short message
selling Obama's healthcare policies before being transferred to the
switchboard operator. This should be the sort of story the Old
Media would investigate fully. But will it?
How can this
even be legal? After all, this isn't the Democrat Party hotline we
are talking about here. It is the main phone number representing
all of Congress, not just Obama and his nationalized healthcare
policies. I repeat, this is the phone number for all of Congress,
not an activist's number to sell Democrats and their policies.
While it lasts, try it yourself and you'll see. The number is
1-800-828-0498.
Here is the transcript of the message you'll
hear:
Thank you for calling your Representative and
your Senators.
Please urge them to vote yes on health
insurance reform. Because the American people can no longer wait for
more choices, lower costs, and coverage we can count on.
After this little message the phone rings once again and
is patched through to the switchboard operator.
Here is the
audio that I recorded just in case the Obama administration does the
"transparent" thing and makes this message disappear down the memory
hole.
I have to say,
this message is frightening. We can't even call our representatives
without being hit over the head by the socialized healthcare message. Not to mention the fact that the message is a arguably untrue. A good
argument can be made that ObamaCare will not give us "more choices,"
ObamaCare will not "lower costs," and ObamaCare will not give us better coverage.
I
just cannot see how this is legal, and even if it is legal it is gauche
and not right. Can the message for the Congressional switchboard be used
for partisan purposes? I just can't see it being legal.
Naturally, the big question here is if the Old Media will report this? If a Republican president or a Republican controlled House and Senate
were to sponsor such a phone message on the Capitol Hill switchboard,
one would think that the Old Media would lose its collective mind that a
general government service was being used for partisan purposes. One
might rather imagine that the media would fall into a feeding frenzy
over such a thing were it to occur with the GOP in controlling power.
I received a single email
suggesting this may be a scam. However, I called the number myself
before posting this item. The operator who answered was very
annoyed, and suggested that she would put me through to my rep (So.
Boston's Steve Lynch). I said that would be useless, connect me
with any Republican, and she put me right through to the Republican
Congressional Committee.
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|
The Obama Show |
Matthew Continetti says it's time to change the channel.
Unemployment is close to 10 percent. The government is
embedded in the auto, banking, housing, and insurance sectors.
Obama's domestic agenda hangs in the balance. Things aren't rosy
on the global front, either. Public opinion has turned against the
war in Afghanistan just as a major decision on troop levels must be
made. The Iranians are busily working to obtain nuclear weapons.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains as intractable as ever.
It's a dangerous world at an uncertain time, and last week Obama
responded by going on the Late Show with David Letterman.
It's
all too apparent: Faced with the choice, Obama prefers the comforts of
celebrity to the duties of leadership. In addition to Letterman,
there was his appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last March
and his running commentary in the ESPN broadcast booth during baseball's
All-Star game last July. You might imagine a lame-duck making such
media appearances, but not one barely nine months into his term.
Obama clearly sees himself as a sort of salesman-in-chief, and considers
endless speechifying and interview-giving as the best way to further his
agenda. The adoring crowds, raucous applause, and obsequious press
coverage that accompany his appearances are cherries on top.
So,
in order to pressure Congress to act on health care and "call out" all
the lying racist, nihilist cynics who stand in his way, Obama delivered
his major address to a joint session of Congress on September 9.
He followed that up with giant "Si Se Puede" rallies in Minnesota,
Pennsylvania, and Maryland and a dizzying turn on five Sunday morning
news shows. Amazingly, Obama has also found time in September to
deliver a speech to the nation's schoolchildren; give major addresses on
the financial crisis and climate change; and contribute remarks at
Walter Cronkite's funeral. The month isn't even over yet, and the
salesman-in-chief has become a poor imitation of the late pitchman,
Billy Mays.
Continue reading
here . . . |
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Selling White House Policy Through Art
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|
received a call from his cousin. He’d been
hearing some chatter from the family about something happening with a
series of NEA articles that I’d
written for Big Hollywood and wanted to find out from the horse’s mouth
what was going on. His question was simple and concise.
"What did the White House do wrong," he asked.
"The White House attempted to use federal agencies for
political gain," I blurted out.
Obama with former NEA Communications Director Yosi
Sergant
And that is
The Big Truth in a nutshell.
A moment of clarity hit me, and as with most eureka moments, a path of
how to explain this big truth came into sight. The full story
needed to be told -- including
possible collusion, the
White House’s novel mode of operation, and the eventual cover-up
-- to fully understand and illuminate the government’s intention with
their arts effort.
Up until now, I have not discussed
Sergant’s former job in the White House Office of Public Engagement,
where Buffy Wicks currently resides, because the story had to develop to
understand the significance. I also haven’t discussed the email
that I received from Michael Skolnik, the moderator of the call,
immediately after the publication of the
original conference call article
-- an email that attempted to revise history and the role of the NEA and
the White House in the meeting. And what has yet to be discussed
is the White House’s recent ability to set up an
ArtistCorps, brought into
existence with less than 20 words in the Serve America Act.
(more…)
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Jarrett’s Ministry of Culture |
Conservative journalists have exposed the Obama administration’s
attempts to politicize the National Endowment for the Arts. Andrew
Breitbart’s website has detailed two conference calls in August aimed at
recruiting artists to shill for health care "reform" and environmental
legislation. However, it has been overlooked that an NEA official
and numerous employees in Valerie Jarrett’s office hosted an earlier
meeting on May 12 to enroll "artists" in advancing its political agenda
– and to get their input in shaping it. Both aspects are troubling, as
the invited participants included several of Van Jones’s ideological
fellow travelers, three people who claimed the CIA sells crack in
minority neighborhoods, a Jewish lesbian who confessed to having "a
little crush on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ," representatives of the SEIU and
the Tides Foundation, a publisher who dubbed 9/11 "a major piece of
performance art conceived by" a jihadist with "an artist’s mind," a
director who wrote 9/11 was tied to Ronald Reagan’s withdrawal from
UNESCO, and the "former International Spokeswoman for the Universal Zulu
Nation."
The evidence shows the heavy involvement of Valerie
Jarrett’s office -- and possibly Jarrett herself -- the participants’
explicit understanding they were to promote Obama’s legislative agenda,
and the administration’s acceptance of those whose beliefs are at least
as radical as those of Van Jones.
The furor began when word
leaked out then-National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) communications
director Yosi Sergant invited Patrick Courrielche and
74 other artists to
participate in an August 10th conference call supporting the United
We Serve Program. Sergant invited his readers to "celebrate how
the arts can be used for a positive change!" The call’s organizer,
Michael Skolnick said (as administration officials listened in) that
artists who had worked to elect Obama must continue "to support some of
the president’s initiatives…to push the president and push his
administration." Sergant then emphasized, "I would encourage you
to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the
environment…." (Read the
full call transcript.)
However, it was one of Valerie
Jarrett’s employees, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement
Buffy Wicks, who was most explicit about the call’s partisan goals.
She told the participants, "we’re going to come at you with some
specific asks here." She did this because, "We’re actually running
the government. We need your guys’s help to promote this."
Continue reading Ben Johnson
here . . . |
|
Obama Receives
Nobel Peace Prize |
No, this is not a joke. I
Googled (News) to make sure this one was on the level -- it is.
Barack Obama was
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to
strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the
Nobel Committee said in Oslo today.
The Nobel Committee
awarded Obama his Peace Prize after only 11 days in office.
Obama says he's humbled.
Why are you laughing?
Obama, 48, last year was elected on a platform of extracting the
U.S. from the Iraq war (which he
hasn't) while increasing focus on an eight-year conflict in
Afghanistan (which he hasn't).
All U.S. forces are scheduled to be withdrawn from Iraq by 2011 (which
they won't), after the 2003 the U.S.-led invasion to topple
Saddam Hussein.
Obama is the third occupant of the Oval Office
to be awarded the prize, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and
Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won in
2002.
What the hell has
Obama done to even be considered for this award -- it's a disgrace --
but when one reads the list of presidential honorees -- Wilson, Carter
and Obama -- it kinda makes sense -- three losers!
The bloom was
off the Nobel Rose when they gave the thing to Yasser Arafat.
Even 4th-Worlders are saying it's a joke.
Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative
religious party in Pakistan, called the award an "embarrassing joke."
"Obama has a long way to go still and lots of work to do before he
can deserve a reward," said Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri. "Obama
only made promises and did not contribute any substance to world peace.
And he has not done anything to ensure justice for the sake of Arab and
Muslim causes."
Issam al-Khazraji, a day laborer in Baghdad,
said: "He doesn't deserve this prize. All these problems -- Iraq,
Afghanistan -- have not been solved... The man of 'change' hasn't
changed anything yet." |
| White House Admits They Control News Media |
Gina's blog at Sodahead
reports Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news
media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the
press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director
Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped
conference.
"Very rarely did we communicate through the press
anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn.
"One of
the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for
our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message
out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring
to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager.
"We just put
that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to
Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we
controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.
Dunn: "Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a
huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover
what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying
it, what the tactic was -- making the press cover what we were saying."
Anita Dunn's
husband
is Obama's personal attorney -- he's the guy that's keeping Obama's bona
fides hidden from the American People -- and she's Obama's mouthpiece
and a proud
admirer
of Chairman Mao -- it's a tight little bunch. |
| Obama Fumbles On Monday Night Football |
Kyle Smith says his propaganda has seeped into everything.
Remember that time President Bush interrupted the Emmy telecast to tell
people we should support reform of Social Security before it bankrupted
the country?
Neither do I. Yet when I tuned in to watch
"Monday Night Football" this week to check out the Miami Dolphins’
Wildcat offense, I didn’t expect to see Obama taking the direct snap and
trying to pound his political message into the end zone.
Where’s
the flag for illegal procedure? Obama is popping up everywhere but
Cialis commercials. How long before we have to watch him and
Michelle holding hands in matching bathtubs as they lecture us about
executive compensation schemes?
With the full blessing of the
media, Obama is still in election mode, and I say: If elections
persist more than 24 months, it’s a problem. Especially when the
networks are giving him free time to air what amount to campaign
commercials.
Continue reading
here . . . |
| He Came, He Saw, He Kowtowed |
Jonah Goldberg says that Rocco Landesman, the head of the National
Endowment for the Arts, didn’t get the memo, literally.
On
September 22, stung by controversy over the administration’s effort to
turn the arts community into proselytizers of its very special brand of
hope and change, the White House issued a stern warning to all
government agencies: Keep politics out of the arts.
The
White House denied that was ever the intent. Many in the media, as
is their wont, took the Obama administration at their word.
But
not the website Big Government (which broke the story) and the
Washington Times. They demonstrated that from the earliest days of
the presidential transition, Barack Obama’s political operation sought
to entrench the arts community in its "outreach" operations. Bill
Ivey, Obama’s transition adviser on the arts, admitted in June: "I
wanted to see some real connection between administration objectives and
the capacity of all the cultural actors in government. I made some
progress. I got some agreement."
That "progress" mostly
came in the form of enlisting arts groups -- groups that received
stimulus money -- in Obama’s national-service agenda.
Three days
after Landesman was confirmed as the head of the NEA, his communications
director, Yosi Sergant, told NEA grantees in a conference call: "I
would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care,
education, the environment -- you know, there’s four key areas that the
corporation has identified as the areas of service."
Two days
later, a host of arts organizations endorsed Obama’s health-care plan:
"We call on Congress to pass: A health-care reform bill that will
create a public-health option.... There is little time to
waste...." Of the 21 groups signing the statement, 16 had recently
received grants from the NEA or were affiliated with organizations that
had.
Sergant was thrown under the bus, and the September 22 memo
put an end to the story for the supportive media.
But the story
continues
here . . . |
| NEA Scandal Expands |
The Lid blog
reports on a new set of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) emails that have been released, linking
the White House directly to the NEA scandal.
Four weeks ago, Big
Hollywood posted an
audio of a conference call in which Obama administration officials
asked "grant recipients to plug Barack Obama’s domestic agenda."
At least six federal laws and regulations were violated when then–NEA
communications director Yosi Sergant and White House Office of Public
Engagement deputy director Buffy Wicks tried twisting the arms of
artists and arts groups interested in getting federal arts grants to
produce government propaganda.
To protect the scandal from
expanding further, the White House threw Sergant under the bus, denied
that they were involved issued new guidelines for the NEA and promised
that it will never, ever, cross my heart, ever happen again.
Last
week, Judicial Watch, announced it had obtained
documents from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through the
Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related to the NEA's controversial
August 10 conference call encouraging artists to create work that
promotes the Obama agenda. The first set of documents were
internal NEA correspondence involving disgraced former NEA
Communications Director Yosi Sergant, who resigned over the scandal, and
former actor, star of House and current Associate Director of the White
House Office of Public Engagement, Kalpen Modi.
They indicate
that the call was part of a specific White House Arts Policy to use the
NEA as propaganda tool.
The following are
excerpts from the email correspondence: |
| Using Tax Money To Push Obama Agenda |
WashingtonExaminer.com
reports that buried in the interior appropriations bill headed to
Obama's desk is a big spending increase for a controversial agency that
his White House staff aims to use as artistic cover for creating
political propaganda. The National Endowment for the Arts's annual
spending goes from $155 million to $167.5 million, the most since the
Clinton administration. A mere $12 million in a budget with $1.4
trillion in deficits might seem trifling. But documents obtained
by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act request leave no
doubt that Obama aides meant to put those tax dollars to work paying
"artists" to create posters and other propaganda paraphernalia
supporting the Obama agenda.
As The Examiner reported Friday, the
documents made public by Judicial Watch include a series of e-mails from
White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi, whose
boss is Valerie Jarrett, director of the Office of Public Engagement and
a close Obama confidant. Modi worked with then-NEA communications
director Yosif Sergant planning an Aug. 10 telephone conference call
hosted by Sergant. The purpose of the call, moderator Michael
Skolnik explained at the outset, was to encourage participants "to get
involved in things that we're passionate about as we did during the
campaign but continue to get involved in those things, to support the
president's initiatives ..." Skolnik, political director for
hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, told conference participants that he was
asked "by people in the White House and folks in the NEA" to organize
the call, which was joined by officials representing 21 arts groups
around the country.
Judicial Watch unearthed e-mail between
Sergant, Modi and Buffy Wicks, deputy director of the White House public
engagement office. Wicks campaigned for Obama in Missouri in 2008,
and before that worked for an ACORN-like activist group known as Wake-Up
Wal-Mart that was funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers
Union. Use of government time, equipment and facilities in
planning the conference call may violate the Anti-Lobbying Act, which
says "no part of the money appropriated by any enactment of Congress
shall, in the absence of express authorization by Congress, be used
directly or indirectly to pay for any personal service, advertisement,
telegram, telephone, letter, printed or written matter, or other device,
intended or designed to influence in any manner a Member of Congress, a
jurisdiction, or an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or
oppose by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law, ratification, policy,
or appropriation. ..." Sergant resigned from the NEA following
disclosure of the Aug. 10 conference call. Why are Modi and Wicks
still on the White House payroll?
Buffy Wicks
ran
Obama’s Missouri campaign and the "Obama Truth Squad." Along with
two of St. Louis' high-profile prosecuting attorneys, Wicks'
Truth Squad threatened anyone who dared to disseminate
information that they didn't like about the then-candidate Obama.
One year ago on September 23rd, KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis
reported
that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and St. Louis Circuit
attorney Jennifer Joyce joined a high-profile group of law enforcement
officials (including Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer) threatening
to invoke "Missouri ethics laws" against anyone the prosecutors
determined had spread misleading information about Obama.
Obama
has shown that he has no problem using goon squad tactics, whether the
goons come from the SEIU or the halls of justice. |
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