What Did Kumar Know, and When Did He Know It?
by Alexander MarlowMeet the face of Obama’s Ministry of Propaganda: Kal Penn. Best known for being one of the hapless stoners in the sex-bong-fart franchise “Harold & Kumar,” Penn was brought on to the Obama Administration to be the President’s Associate Director of Public Engagement. After failing to grab more than a headline or two in the five months since his hiring, he has entered the fray in a big way as the White House representative to a National Endowment for the Arts conference call promoting the Obama administration’s political agenda.
Patrick Courrielche reported on the call this morning:
Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, was to represent the White House and key representatives from the National Endowment for the Arts were also to participate.
Did you catch that? Kalpen Modi is the given name of the actor known as Kal Penn.
Naturally, Penn’s decision to leave a co-starring role on Fox’s hit series “House” and perhaps delaying the release of “A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas” garnered due media coverage. Some at Big Hollywood felt it premature to cast judgment at that point despite the implications of an increasingly blurred line between entertainment and politics. Still, while actors have been known to run for office, leaving the red carpet for the red tape of government bureaucracy was, in retrospect, fishy.
While Penn bided his time, waiting for an opportunity to parlay his Hollywood chops into a victory for the administration, this NEA story began to unfold and now we’re at a point where George Will wondered aloud on This Week if the NEA has broken any laws.
So the question is, what did Kumar know, and when did he know it?
Was coordinating a transformation of the NEA into a propaganda arm of the Obama Administration his role from Day 1? Was this a plan of attack handed down from the President himself?
An appeal to the cult of personality is an essential ingredient to this adminstration’s success, and using Kumar to sell the Obama agenda to the arts community on behalf of the White House is worthy of our ire.
The Kumar story emerges on the day Obama addressed students, complete with lesson plan (a repeated theme in the lesson is “What is the president asking me to do?”). Moreover, just last week Ashton Kutcher’s “I Pledge” video resurfaced in a public school (to parental outrage) where Kutcher and a motley crew of celebrity activists “pledge to serve our President.”
Whether or not Obama actually coordinated with Kutcher, Demi Moore, and the Asian Guy from MadTV to make that video is not the point–after all, Obama might not have been able to fit them into his schedule between golfing and brunch with will.i.am—but Kumar works for him… and for us. He ought to be held accountable.
A historical trend exists in totalitarian states where art lionizes its leadership, while in free states art holds power accountable. Same goes for the mainstream press. Given Obama and Kumar’s NEA strategy, it is clear that with regards to the arts world, we are headed down a path where the state’s influence spreads wider than it ever has, and the man with the most information might be the one who just passed the blunt.
Color me a narc, but let’s bring him in for questioning.
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89 Comments
Say Goodbye, Kumar!
Hmm. I liked Kal Penn on House, he seemed to be a pretty good actor. I'm afraid, though, that I can never take him seriously thanks to "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle." It's not so much about the movie's crudity (though there is that), I just can't believe that anyone would actually want to go to a White Castle.
Color me livid.
This administration over reaches in every single thing they do.
I wonder how long it will take before Mr. Penn or Kalpen Modi comes to understand that he made the biggest mistake of his life. He had a good gig on House but the writers killed him when he left the show so a return is not possible. Talk about burning bridges. I am sure it had nothing to do with Polotics but had to do with breaking a contract and hurting the show. They made nice in public but the fact that they had his character commit suicide speaks volumes. Now that he is in the Big Arena of Politics he will find that he will be left to fend fo himself without any protection. The next time he carries out a directive from above that does not go well he will be the one sacrificed and never the guy who told him to do it.
Interesting, it is always the small things that come out of left field that take the high and mighty down, never the big stuff.
I saw this somewhere else earlier and I thought it was a JOKE.
This administration is a JOKE. But nobody is laughing.
They over-reach and under-whelm.
Not the Asian guy from Mad TV! I kind of liked him.
Seriously, if the NEA is being used for pro-Obama propaganda, and it appears it is, then Kumar has to go. I don't care if he goes to White Castle or back to House or wherever, but he needs to be gone.
NEA???!!! That means National Endowment for the Arts?
Aw HELL!!!!!
And here all along I thought it was the chemical composition of FART GAS.
Cal Penn?
Sounds like a lousy football game.
Betcha the ticket prices are in the $h!tter
Looks like Penn will be the next one to be thrown under the bus by the Obama administration.
To make such incriminating statements on a conference call will not bode well for Kal Penn. This evidence indicates a direct link of tax payer money being funneled into Dear Leader's Propaganda machine. Nefarious revelations like this fuels the fire of why people do not trust The One and his minions.
Well, Kumar you might get ensnared in the political amateur hour that is Barry, to cool, and funny at the same time. “Weee’ll roll another one, just like the other one,” another Barry nitwit down the drain, it really is sad.
Harold & Kumar started out with some promise, but it quickly deteriorated.
It officially jumped the shark when they rode the cheetah.
"Still, while politicians had run for office in the past". I'm shocked! (Did you mean "actors" maybe?) Seriously. Get a friend to proof read. Other than that, great stuff.
For such a great president, he sure seems to need a lot of help from the NEA and the "I Pledge" celebrities. If he was truly transformational and the "one we were all waiting for" he wouldn't need these "crutches"! Its going to get a whole lot more interesting to watch as each radical advisor surrounding Obama is done in by the weight of their unchecked baggage!!
Doooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood.
White Castle is the bomb. It's crap food that feeds the soul…and your clogged arteries.
I love me some White Castle burgers, however eating 2 dozen of them and sitting in the bathroom for the next 2 hours is more enjoyable than sitting through that movie again.
Obama:"This is not the stoner doofus actor I thought I knew. Let me be clear: I reject Kal Penn and all his work trying to get artists to paint even more pretty pictures of me than they already would've anyway."
I used to like him when he was on House (could care less on his characters in Harold and Kumar and the Van Wilder movies)…. But now I don't know if I can watch him again… :/ especially if he is behind/apart of the NEA debacle..
Im starting to get tired of this!!!!! number 1: I think u (Alexander Marlow) r just jealous cus while ur trying to get some name on the media talking about other people, Kalpen Modi (thats his name not Kumar, or do u call Schwarzenegger terminator???) is already famous and he doesnt need to bee talking about anyone else to have a name.
Number 2: I think is very unfair judgehim this quick, give the guy some time.
Number 3: i Think hes credencials speak for theirselfs, he attended UCLA, where he double majored in film and sociology, Penn served as a visiting lecturer in Asian American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and he has a graduate certificate in international security from Stanford University.
Number 4: Hes not the firs actor who also is interested in politics (should i start my list??)
So seriously why dont u make a more complete researchment before writting something??
KUMAR for president 2016!!!!!! Bong hits for Jesus!!!!
Plus, the Harold and Kumar movies are far more intelligent than anything I have seen on this site.
Take a bong hit and chill out!
I think the spelling, grammar, and logical progression of the foregoing speak volumes about the typical Obama/Kalpen Modi fan.
The point, stickysweet, is that Kumar's Georgetown PhD in international relations and his Boy Scout Silver Buffalo award are completely irrelevant to the fact that he has apparently violated the Hatch Act and several other Federal laws. Get it?
Giggle, giggle. Don't Bogart that joint, my fren'
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You are all a bunch of Racist. Sorry folks just preparing my ears for the fresh rounds of cat calls from the Progressives
Kal Penn's only good movie was the Namesake. No one saw it but it was a decent story and he was not bad in it. It made me go "Isn't this Kumar?" But acting in a decent film aside if he was the moron that could not figure out that using the NEA to help make "Obama Art" in any form was straight out of the Propaganda playbook. If this was his brainchild then he needs to go. I'd rather see a cross in a jar of pee than any artwork that could have been created for this. The artwork produced during WW2 was one thing. It was never about FDR. I'm an artist and this just creeps me out, like finding out Hitler designed the Nazi uniforms and regallia. I guess Obama can't draw.
Harold and KuMARRRR!
Mr. Marlow, if I'm gauging the tone of your article correctly it does sound as if you have some kind of hangup with Asians, and Hindu's in particular, no? You wrote, " Did you catch that? Kalpen Modi is the given name of the actor known as Kal Penn.", a fairly innocuous statement but lets read a little further. It seems that after you let us all in on the secret of Mr. Modi's birth name you've became quite content to refer to him as anything but that during the balance of your article, using references such sd Penn, Kumar, that Asian guy from Mad TV. I do agree with your analysis of the situation, but I sure wish you had checked the good-golly-gosh malarkey at the door. Ronald Reagan would've found a way to eviscerate the miscreants without insulting a vital segment of our population, and come to think of it I'm sure that Bobby Jindal would've too.
Dude, we in a battle for hearts and minds, ya know?
This is why I'm for the Separation of Hollywood and State.
Even Kumar knows when he broke the law; but eveidently Kalpen Modi doesn't.
I see an amendment coming.
The plot thickens. Popcorn ready……….. (seriously, kumar?) Didn't see that coming…………….How many does this make that will be thrown under the bus ?? I hope it all ends on " who is driving this bus?"
My kids aren't allowed to view art, listen to music, or read poetry after circa 9/1/09. There libs, how's that for paranoid. Guess I'm too dumb to raise my kids.
Next career move: starring in Kumar Goes Under the Bus.
true believers alert…
Count the hapless Mr Penn as a full bore kool-aid Obama fan much like the dimwitted duo of Kutcher and Moore. They are ignorant to the communist playbook, namely create a 'Dear Leader' cult of personality that transends the person being worshipped. Look at Uncle Fidel.
Is he alive? Or, better question which of his doubles is still alive? Does it matter? Not when he's 'Dear Leader'.
You buy the crafted image. Which is what these lamebrains are up to, Penn included.
Will they come out of the ether? Who knows, who cares. The rest of the country has what seems to be an acute case of buyer's remorse…
In a just and perfect world perhaps. Ultimately though, liberals, particularly those with wealth and or power take care of their own. They punish and repudiate those that disagree and they elevate and empower those that do. It is the very soul of their community and why they dominate an industry like entertainment and media. They take care of their own, much more so than conservatives. Conservatives elevate based on merit, liberals do it based on ideals. It is the very core of the difference in the two ways of viewing those that we choose to surround ourselves with.
The case of Kal Penn is a heartbreaker. He was good at the roles he played, both in the Harold & Kumar movies (the first of which was good) and on House, even though they didn't give him much to work with. He didn't seem to be one of those preachy guys who always has to tell you about their politics although we later found out he's a left-winger. And when he gave interviews he always came across as a nice enough guy – he was actually able to joke about his role on 24 as a terrorist-who's-not-a-terrorist-but-is.
But his leaving to join the Obama adminstration was like a knife in the side, made worse by the idiotic way they got rid of his character on House (made yet worse by all the House fans insisting that "this is how suicides really work! You're normal and happy and jokey one day and dead the next!").
I attributed it to another sad case of identity politics – he's Asian, being Pakistani, so the call of a black president and working in a racially-oriented role (liaison to the Asian-American community, among other things) was apparently just too much for him. It's tragic enough when average people fall into the trap of identity politics; when smart people and role models do it, it's heartbreaking.
My secret hope was that one day he'd wise up and realize Obama is a fraud. But here he is still selling the man's Kool-Ade.
A sad day for stoners.
Okay, am I getting this right? Associate Director Of Public Engagement? A DOPE?
When I first heard this story about the NEA I told my mom about it and she was SHOCKED! Shocked I tell you. But I wasn't. Not one underhanded, unlawful, unconstitutional thing that comes out of this government shocks or surprises me. They're all crooked and corrupt and as long as we keep electing the same old people and refusing to make them accountable to us, they government will continue to grow and be more intrusive and Barack Obama will be king, and we will be expected to bow to him…and everyone will wonder "how the hell did THIS happen?" It makes me sad.
nice catch- they didn't think that acronym through too well, did they?
–Obama:"This is not the stoner doofus actor I thought I knew. Let me be clear: I reject Kal Penn and all his work trying to get artists to paint even more pretty pictures of me than they already would've anyway, FOR FREE."–
There ya go. Fix it for you!
I brought this issue up on another online discussion board I follow and so far none of the libs have had a problem with the NEA's propaganda effort. "What's the problem? Nobody's making them do this, right?" I'm not surprised to hear that the Obama machine would try to pull this stunt, but it's shocking when rank-and-file liberals have so completely drunk the koolaid that this doesn't even raise an eyebrow with them.
…..sex….bong….farts….gotta' love it…..
Another example of Obama using his dope smoking commie buddies to propagandize our youth and our nation. If you're a movie star, you are a franchise. It's like with my own company, my rule is that you never bring politics into business. You might make one customer happy, but you are sure to make plenty of enemies. After seeing that Ashton, Demi and Kumar are so deeply involved with Obama, I will never patronize any of their movies again. How is it that these people consider themselves smarter than any average person? It's really stupid. So, Kal, Demi and Ashton, I say good luck, may you and your next movie rot in hell. You might think you are smarter than the average American, but you are really just high on yourself. You don't have a clue about what is best for our country so please just stay home, count your money and SHUT THE HELL UP !!
Maybe "rode the cheetah" should be used as the movie equivalent to TV's "jumped the shark"…
I call Schwarzenegger the Governator, or AhhhNold in person.
Sweet'nsticky, get a clue. Give him some time? He went to UCLA and a double major, too? And a load of school credentials? Really? Is he ambidextrous too? Can walk and chew gum at the same time? Put pants on 2 legs at a time?
He is representing THE WHITE HOUSE, not some school lectures.
The Asian guy from MadTV is in reference to the "I pledge" video, in particular Iowahawk's commentary on it. I'm pretty sure Kumar Modi didn't make an appearance in the video.
Maybe they have a self-deprecating sense of humor. You don't suppose some of Hitler's folk made jokes like that, do you?
"Still, while actors have been known to run for office, leaving the red carpet for the red tape of government bureaucracy was, in retrospect, fishy."
Check your glasses, maybe??
"The One we are waiting for". You mean like the anti-Christ? My mothers been waiting for him for 84 years.
"The One we are waiting for". You mean like the anti-Christ? My mother's been waiting for him for 84 years.
Excellent piece, Mr. Marlow. Very well written.
Thank you.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Ron Higdon and John Marzan. Ron Higdon said: Only the best & brightest in this admin. geez. RT @BiasedGirl: What did Kumar know and when did he Know it? http://bit.ly/2IRnZS [...]
Coming soon: Kumar Goes To Jail.
It's not a sad day for stoners. Stoners never have to face reality.
Kalpen chose his own screen name; Marlow didn't pin it on him. This is nothing to get hung up on.
Substance, George, substance!!!!!
This is all it takes to be charged with racism these days… oy.
It's not for the faint of heart (or stomach) But when you want some, nothing else will do.
I actually wondered if the way he exited House was a good analogy to his career; it's starting to indeed look like career suicide.
That's my thought on all these czars. They're not any kind of appointed official, they're speed bumps.
I started reading the legislation authorizing the creation of the NEA and cam across this gem:
Prohibition against Federal supervision over policy determination, personnel,
or curriculum, or administration or operation of any school or other non-Federal
body. In the administration of this Act no department, agency, officer, or employee of
the United States shall exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the policy
determination, personnel, or curriculum, or the administration or operation of any
school or other non-Federal agency, institution, organization, or association.
The NEA is supposed to be an independent agency that acts without supervision or direction from any other Federal department, agency, officer, or employee of the US. Hmmm, so if Kumar works for the White House, he should not have been involved in anything the NEA does.
Modi ben chod, White House mein kya kara hai? Jaldi baag!
Is it possible to actually be the anti-Christ and believe you're the Messiah? That might explain some of the boneheaded moves The One has made lately.
Indeed! I have to drive an hour to get some when the crave hits.
ok, thanks to this article, I'm getting a serious White Castle crave going here. Ah well, time for the hour long drive to Lansing.
I like the "fascis" behind his right shoulder. Perfect illustration of this administration.
do they think anything through all the way?
Even Shaquil O'Neil understands this very basic concept. "Republicans buy sneakers too"
cant seem to understand why the rest of the celebrity doesn't get it.
Don't have a White Castle here, but can find them in the frozen section. Wrong on so many levels….
It's pronounced ACCCCCHHHHHHHHHMED!!
Im 1000 % with u KR!!!
Well George i agree with u on some of the points, but i sure desagree with u and Mr. Marlow on the analysis of the situation, i think hes using Kalpen (Suresh i bet u guys didnt know that) Modi in a very disrespectfull way, is really that bad having and Indian name, now i suppose i can stop wonder about why we have all this hate crimes.
Representing the white house?? After Bush whats left to represent??
On that ur wrong, im not an Obama/Kalpen Modi fan, but a parently u r a Bush fan whos just bitter because McCain and Palin lost wich is maybe a good thing for her cus she still can see Russia from her house.
I would bet that most people you know aren't better off now than last year. Some are worse off even.
Hahaha.
Thanks!
What law is it you claim was violated? What is it you claim happened on that phone call?
What makes you think that what happened is out of the ordinary? Considering the fact that NEA funds no artists, exactly what is the harm you allege?
Where were you when George Bush and Ronald Reagan were working to gut these agencies?
No, just too narrow-minded.
Is any comment really necessary? Nah.
I refer you to biancanev's citation of the enabling statute.
Than there is the Hatch act, as well.
"Where were you when George Bush and Ronald Reagan were working to gut these agencies?"
Cheering them on.
and no consolation white castle burgers for him either! No doubt he did not go forth on this without orders from above, but he will be the one made to fall on his sword.
I have the Wight Castle right down the street, from me, maybe a mile. NOW I'm getting the crave!!
I can get the frozen ones too, but they're not quite the same.
Obey the Crave!
[...] as the latest propaganda arm of the Obama Administration. Share on Facebook var button = [...]
Have u been 2 Hollywood befoe?
[...] but similar conference call invitation scheduled for August 27th. That invitation was sent out by Kalpen Modi (”Kal Penn”), Associate Director for the White House Office of Public Engagement, and was sent [...]
This is what frustrates me about political commentary from either side of the aisle… total lack of common courtesy. Use the man's given name or stage name but not the name of some character he played in some childish film. I don't like what's going on in out current presidential administration anymore than anybody else her but acting like 13 year olds on Myspace picking on some classmate is immature, and frankly beneath what we conservatives stand for. Please tell me how acting like an enraged toddler is going to affect any positive change? If we don't grow up how can we lead this nation?
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