Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern
by John NolteAt first glance, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conference call of August 10th, 2009 sounds innocent enough because it’s supposedly been organized by Michael Skolnik, political director for Russell Simmons and someone not officially associated with any government agency. Skolnik appears to be acting independently as a concerned citizen and to have taken it upon himself to gather together a group of artists and art organizations hoping to move them towards “national service.” And how nice of the White House, the federal government and the NEA to make the time to participate in the call and aid this group of American artists motivated to help their country and community.
But this is only how things appear.
All evidence points to the fact that the conference call was a ruse, a front for a White House using Skolnik as a kind of beard in order to put an innocent spin on their abuse of the NEA and two non-partisan volunteer organizations (United We Serve – an initiative overseen by The Corporation for National and Community Service – a federal agency, and the White House’ Office of Public Engagement).
The goal: To motivate a group of hand-picked pro-Obama artists (grant recipients or those wanting grants) to push the President’s flagging agenda, especially health care — and to funnel this promotion through the ACORN related- Serve.gov website.
***
Documentation gathered by Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche and the Washington Times, coupled with a newly revealed audio recording of the full conference call, points to eight troubling facts that put the full context of the call in a very disturbing light.
1. The NEA did not want it known they had any part in organizing the call. When the Washington Times asked Yosi Sergant, the NEA’s then-Director of Communications (he was “reassigned” on Sept. 10th after the story broke) about the call, he claimed the NEA was only a participant and that Skolnik had set up the call.
2. We know Sergant lied to the Washington Times. The NEA did send the email invite for the conference call. Worse, Sergant himself sent it, letting this group of artists and art organizations know the call would focus on “core areas of recovery,” starting with “health care.”
3. We know that United We Serve (with the ACORN-related Serve.gov website) claims they were merely a participant in a conference call arranged by someone they referred to as an “individual interested” in their group. It seems obvious they mean Michael Skolnik.
4. Michael Skolnik was not merely an “individual interested” in United We Serve, but in fact was asked by the White House and the NEA to round up artists on their behalf. We know this because in the newly revealed audio of the call, Skolnik says so.
5. The conference call audio makes clear that everyone addressing the artists and art organizations are fully aware they’re speaking to pro-Obama partisans; the same artists who helped the president win the 2008 election.
6. While addressing this group of Obama supporters, United We Serve, The Office of Public Engagement and the NEA repeatedly focus on four areas where “national service” is most needed … and health care always comes first.
7. We know that both Nell Abernathy of United We Serve and Buffy Wicks with The Office of Public Engagement heard and did not dispute Michael Skolnik’s opening statement asserting he had brought these artists together at the request of the White House and NEA, and that one of the goals of the call was to “push the president and push his administration.”
8. The remainder of this piece will prove a pattern shared by all three “guest” speakers: Sergant, Wicks and Abernathy:
- As mentioned above, all know this is a gathering of pro-Obama supporters.
- All make clear they want these pro-Obama artists and art organizations to funnel their activism through Serve.gov, which we now know filters activists to ACORN.
- When it comes to specific areas of activism, health care comes first.
***
THE PLAYERS:
Michael Skolnik – call moderator, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.
Nell Abernathy – Director of Outreach for United We Serve, an initiative overseen by The Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency.
Buffy Wicks — The Office of Public Engagement (White House).
Yosi Sergant – Communications Director for the NEA, now “reassigned.”
***
THE CALL: [all emphasis added]
0:00 – 8:30: This time is eaten up with everyone involved getting settled into the call. Jokes are made about how many people are on from Los Angeles. This fact will be pertinent in establishing that Buffy Wicks and Nell Abernathy were on the call from the beginning.
Michael Skolnik
Michael Skolnik — 8:40 – 12:50:
Skolnik’s opening statement sets the stage for the call; why the call was arranged and what the goals are.
Skolnik states openly that the White House and NEA asked him to round everyone up…
I have been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a conversation that was had. We had the idea that I would help bring together the independent artists community around the country.
Skolnik believes that only those who campaigned for President Obama are on the call:
[I]t’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and taste-makers and marketers and visionaries on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president and also during his first 200 some odd days of his presidency and the president has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some of the issues that we face here in our country and also to engage people.
Skolnik lays out the goals for the call, ending with, “push the president and push his administration.”
And I think all of us who are on this phone call were selected for a reason, and you are the ones that lead by example in your communities. You are the thought leaders. …
And so I’m hoping that through this group and the goal of all this and the goal of this phone call, is through this group that we can create a stronger community amongst ourselves 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 some of the president’s initiatives, but also to do things that we are passionate about and to push the president and push his administration.
Skolnik then introduces Nell Abernathy with United We Serve – Serve.gov, who immediately hands the call over to Buffy Wicks with the White House Office of Public Engagement.
***
Buffy Wicks
BUFFY WICKS – 13:00 – 21:42
Buffy Wicks also believes that the only people participating in the call are partisan artists and art organizations who helped elect Obama:
I, first of all want to thank everyone for being on the call and really just a deep, deep appreciation for all the work that you all put into the campaign for the two-plus years that we all worked together.
We can assume Wicks was on at the beginning of the call and heard everything Skolnik said about the goal of the call being to “push the president and push his administration” because she references her “L.A. peeps.” She wouldn’t know her “L.A. peeps” were on the line unless she was on to hear everyone introduce themselves before Skolnik spoke:
I was the field director in California so I hear my L.A. peeps out there, so it’s exciting to hear those voices.
Ms. Wicks talks about how everyone can bring others into the United We Serve-Serve.gov effort and make them a “part of this administration”:
And as part of my role here is working on service, and so when we were thinking about how do we take a lot of this energy that’s out there, how do we translate folks who have just been engaged in electoral politics and engage them in really the process of governing, of being part of this administration in a little bit of a different way because politics is one thing and governing is something totally separate, we really saw service as the platform by which we can do that.
Wicks then talks about the four main areas she wants everyone to focus on, starting with health care:
So we focus on the four main areas: One is health care. Obviously, that’s a big issue.
After going through her laundry list, Ms. Wicks then refers everyone to the central clearing house for “national service,” the Serve.gov website that funnels activists to ACORN:
So those are the four areas that we focused on, and we’re managing the whole thing through Serve.gov, which is a new Web site that Nell and I can talk to you about here in a second.
***
![OrganizingForHealthCare[1]](http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/files/2009/09/OrganizingForHealthCare11.jpg "OrganizingForHealthCare[1]")
NELL ABERNATHY – UNITED WE SERVE: 21:50 – 28:30
Again, the context here is that Ms. Abernathy is sure she’s speaking only to a group of pro-Obama supporters:
This will sound very familiar to many of you, we’ve basically been working to do this using the same tools we found so successful in the campaign.
Ms. Abernathy then directs everyone to the ACORN-related Serve.gov website:
So accessibility has been a main thing for us and we created Serve.gov, which is a Web site very similar to some of the Web tools we used on the campaign in that you can go in and type your zip code and in return service opportunities would come up.
Ms. Abernathy doesn’t discuss any specific issues. Instead she says Yosi Sergant of the NEA will talk about “specific ways WE feel the art community is critical to this…”:
I think Yosi is on and is going to talk about some of the specific ways which we feel the art community is critical to this; both what’s already going on and some opportunity for future partnership.
We also know Ms. Abernathy has been on the call since the beginning because, like Buffy Wicks, she references the Los Angeles callers – therefore she heard Skolnik’s opening statement:
I want to echo again what Michael said about feeling truly humbled in the presence of some of the real taste-makers across the country. And I lived in L.A. for a long time, so I have a particular soft spot for you folks out there.
***
President Obama with Yosi Sergant
Yosi Sergant: –28:45 – 39:00
Sergant also believes he is talking to people and organizations who support and helped to elect President Obama — and he’s excited about the opportunity they now all have to “set the table”:
Hello everybody. It’s really good to hear so many familiar voices. Welcome to your government. …
The very fact that the telephone call is happening to me is a really bold statement. And I think it’s reflective of all the hard work that went down during the campaign, all the time and energy that each and every one of you put in, myself included, it’s paying off.
This is what we fought for. We fought for a chance to be at the table and not only at the table but we’re setting the table.
Sergant spends nine minutes ginning up this pro-Obama group to get involved in national service, gives them examples of how to go about it, and then, like everyone else, pushes the ACORN-related Serve.gov site:
The Corporation for National Services is available to all of you to turn on your community, to act as the message spreaders of this program. So how do we do that? There are three really quick and easy steps. One would be to look at Serve.gov. What Serve.gov really is, is it’s a place where people can go and find out about service opportunities in their neighborhoods.
At the end of his pitch Sergant then gets to what appears to be the specifics Ms. Abernathy and Ms. Wicks referred to earlier:
Pick — 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 [The Corporation for National and Community Service]has identified as the areas of service.
Always, health care first.
But let’s back up a few seconds and look at the full context of how Sergant frames getting to the specifics; he speaks of how this is just the beginning, of still trying to figure out what things look like legally, and of learning the language in order to “speak with each other safely.”:
Really I want to emphasize, and I know that other people have brought it up already, but I want to just hearken back to it really quickly in that this is just the beginning. This is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation. We are just now learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What that looks like legally, we’re still trying to figure out the laws of putting government Web sites on Facebook and the use of Twitter.
This is all being sorted out. We are participating in history as it’s being made. So bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely and we can really work together to move the needle and to get stuff done.
Pick — I would encourage you to pick something ….
***
Rock the Vote health care art
Conference Call Rewards:
Sergant then turns the call over to Thomas Bates from “Rock the Vote,” who offers up an example of local environmental activism involving a garbage sculpture. Within days after this call Rock the Vote would launch a “health care design contest.”
A mere two days after the call a group of 21 art organizations endorsed health care reform.
Of those 21 organizations, “16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received nearly $2 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 150 days before the conference call.”
***
At the end of the call, things open for a Q&A. One of the artists listening in, a Ms. Manne, asks a specific question about specific partisan policies:
I think for the people that are on the inside of government to talk for a minute about Organizing For America and the differences between Organizing For America and Serve.gov and what we can do to help on critical advocacy issues like health care reform, cap and trade policy, if that should help move policies through the government, because this is a really important role that our creative community can also play.
Even though she and everyone else have spent the last 40 minutes ginning up a group of Obama-supporting artists to rally around health care, Nell Abernathy begs off answering a specific policy question, but *wink* – *wink* can get that information to their “beard,” Mr. Skolnik:
Yeah, I can address that a little bit, and the reason only a little bit is largely because in my role at a federal agency, I’m precluded from going too far down the specific steps what people can do to advocate. …
I could get that information to Michael and he could get it out. We can’t sort – [A]s a representative of the Corporation, I’m not capable of giving you more guidance than just sending you to the right person.
QUESTION: If Ms. Abernathy is “precluded from going too far down the specific steps to advocate” with the questioner, Ms. Manne, why is it okay for Ms. Abernathy to do exactly that with Skolnik? If her role at a federal agency makes that kind of partisan behavior inappropriate on this call, how is it appropriate to “get that information” to Skolnik off the call?
Skolnik then wraps up the call and closes with one last push towards health care and United We Serve/Serve.gov:
So what I had hoped in bringing this group together with the great hosts, which again, I want to thank for reaching out to their communities was that we could begin to bring together our community in the same enthusiasm, with the same enthusiasm and with the same energy that we all saw in each other during the campaign, and we could continue to work together on issues as important as United We Serve and Service and begin here and continue to work together on other issues that we feel are important, as we mentioned some of them, health care and others[.]
***
When you are the NEA, United We Serve and The White House Office of Public Engagement – when you are required to represent the government in a non-partisan capacity, it can only be a partisan act to take part in a conference call set up by the White House and the NEA with the idea of bringing together pro-Obama supporters from the artistic community to push priority number one: health care.
At the beginning of the call, Skolnik, the supposed independent moderator, admits he was asked by the White House and NEA to round everyone up and makes clear that one of the goals of the call is to “push the president and push the Administration.”
In this environment, it doesn’t matter if the word “reform” is used after the words “health care,” or not. It doesn’t matter if the phrase “public option” is used or not. George Will put it best:
“[T]he Obama administration is tightening the cinch on subsidized artists, conscripting them into the crusade to further politicize the 17 percent of the economy that is health care.
Almost as disturbing is how eager these artists are to be turned into propagandists.
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91 Comments
[...] Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern [...]
There is no justice if this is not reported throughout the media and the N.E,A, disbanded.
You would think that the government using artists to spread propaganda, and a federally-funded crime syndicate with ties to the president, would be news. Big news.
You would be wrong.
Does Charlie Gibson know about this…………………..?
We should have ran the NEA out with the crucifix in urine display. But no, they, like every other liberal waste of money gets a pass.
If the NEA is promoting Obama, how many other agencies are there doing the same thing, that haven't been caught yet.
Let's throw the bums out!
We need a complete and honest answer about where Yosi Sergant is, as well as Van Jone.
This is similar to getting the the lesson plans to our teachers of a different NEA. I am sure the pom poms were sent to each and every school and now probably also to every starving artist!
Here's some more backstory from the Washington Postlast May!
Yosi Sergant gets a mention, and there's this for anyone who thinks the White House is not onboard with Sargent's emblematic political inititative, and in bed with the NEA:
Oopsy! Someone in the D.C. Park Service might want to take a swing out to Fort Marcy Park's parking lot and start looking for Buffy and Nell's "apparent" suicides.
Time to start contacting CNN, NBC, CBS, The New York TImes, ABC and demand they start covering this…
So, then, is there a debate at all as to the illegality of this? Will a senate hearing be started? Those were two legitimate questions that I would like to hear from other people about because as far as I can tell, it is black and white that this is illegal (we already know that it is 100% unethical and so do the participants in the conference call).
Finally, if this was illegal, but nothing is done about it in the goernment, then what do we take of these new (and some old) government organizations and websites? Although it is illegal, will hackers log up and destroy serve.gov like they have been known to do with other entities in the past?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by FloridaJayhawk and s maniscalco. s maniscalco said: RT @bighollywood: Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern http://bit.ly/43YdAD [...]
Art is meant to be thought provoking, it is meant to make one question, it initiates feelings. When I see the Obama propoganda I want to puke.
^
l
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See this Image, that is art, and this art symbolizes the conservative movement.
Shame on CNS for taking part in something like this. This is the parent agency for Americorps. To actively take an organization like this and use it as a political arm is beyond outrageous to me. As a former Peace Corps volunteer, I am glad that although Peace Corps members are openly opinionated about matters, the organization isn't actively involved in politics. That is the reason Peace Corps is so well known and well respected around the world. Americorps just seems to have problem after problem.
One of the missing pieces in this story that I like to see is a list of the artist on the other end of the conference call! I suspect you'll find that the "grass-roots" activists mentioned in the the WaPo article I linked above were well represented.
As "Activists Ask White House for Role in Recovery" suggests, there was a time when the "collaboration" of artists and administration was pegged as a feature not a bug. Perhaps Jacqueline Trescott, who wrote the piece, could supply some names — of both the "artists" and the "arts, environment and social justice organizations" they represent.
Conservatives aren't the only one who putatively speak in code. "Social justice" is the new, improved, more palatable name for "distributive justice."
How can anyone NOT find this creepy? When in our history have we ever idolized a sitting President in this manner?
Put your politics aside and accept this for what it is! Welcome to 1984.
I notice the one guy's email address is at current.com. Isn't that Al Gores stomping grounds?
"black and white"?
you racist!
It's better left for the cables anyway…
If Bush had done it….
don't hold your breath…
The Lamestream media would be on this 24/7 until executions were carried out if this were the Bush Administration's NEA.
If I may quote Jon Stewart, "Where the hell were you?"
"You are the new thought leaders". (was not bold in the article, but it stood out for me.
ick.
You're absolutely right.
RICO…
The George Will column offers the best prescription. Kill the NEA! These artists are pathetic teat suckers.
Yes. Whare are the FEDS? Oh! They are the FEDS…
Did "Rock The Vote" violate it's 501(c)(3) "non-partisan non-profit" status by engaging in the activity ?
The thin veil of "progressive" rather that "Democrat" seems to have been pulled back here.
"Almost as disturbing is how eager these artists are to be turned into propagandists."
I think the fact that artists are willing to go along with this – knowing the NEA is funded by the gov and is a .gov site – is WORSE. Artists are supposed to be independent thinkers. Artists were forced to leave Germany OR serve Hitler and the artists with INTEGRITY LEFT.
I am an artist and think the arts are important. I always hoped the NEA would receive adequate funding, regardless of president. But THIS IS DISGUSTING AND IMMORAL. Damn the NEA for RUINING their reputation and the reputation of artists. Not all of us are purchasable bootlickers!
wasn't this on Beck about 2 weeks ago? Had their chance already to report on this. George Will already said he thought some laws were broken. exposure of the MSM continues.
What the cultist will never understand is that America is a conservative country with a liberal culture. They have been shoving their pop culture down our throats for decades. They are selling and we are not buying. Only buyers are the malcontents and cultist who have already drank the cool aid. We all have to bide our time with his mutation of democracy, they are going to push every leftist wet dream they ever had. They are going to pass every leftist bill that takes away our liberties, rights, to the point we won't be able to think, except good thought about Obama. This is a Godless sick cult of people that hate everything around them. This is why they want to destroy everything around them. The flaw in their equation is one thing, WE THE PEOPLE who do all the work in this country and pay taxes are paying for all this insanity. They believe we have no say. The Golden rule is the guy with the gold makes the rules. Our money is backed by the fact that every achiever who has now been branded a racist by Carter and Cosby are paying for this madness. It is all going to come to a head, but we must allow these freaks to push this agenda so far out there that they can come back. Then we break if off in their asses. Newton's Law of motion is kicking in and we have 14 months to galvanize the conservative base, with moderates, independents and liberals whack jobs with buyers remorse. A slingshot effect will happen, we must at all cost throw our every congressman and senator that is up for re-election both Democrat and republican we must make a bold statement that WE THE PEOPLE have the final and total say when the rubber hits the road. With new citizen politicians and that is who is running out there take over the congress the Messiah is now one big ass lame duck and the media will be crippled. All they will do is what they always do, attack but with the new congress we now can go back investigate and bring to justice all this Democratic corruption that these lunatics have been getting away with since 1913. Every bill that these mad dogs have passed can be repealed. This is a long long fight but we have to begin now to finally destroy this cancer of progressivism, communism, gangsterism, 60s radicalism and we have to end this moocher mentality that people have the right to live off someone's hard work. We have to end this entitlement mentality that everything we need to live is a right.
This is all so overwhelming. If we could do something tangible about it, if we the people had control over our government it would be far less exasperating. How do you appeal to the better angels in those who are lured in by "free stuff"? I wonder how much corruption need be revealed before those lining up for the free stuff decide that the price of "free" is to high.
The narcissist often pretends to know everything, in every field of human knowledge and endeavour. He lies and prevaricates to avoid the exposure of his ignorance. He resorts to numerous subterfuges to support his God-like omniscience.____Where his knowledge fails him – he feigns authority, fakes superiority, quotes from non-existent sources, embeds threads of truth in a canvass of falsehoods. He transforms himself into an artist of intellectual prestidigitation. As he gets older, this invidious quality may recede, or, rather, metamorphose. He may now claim more confined expertise.____He may no longer be ashamed to admit his ignorance and his need to learn things outside the fields of his real or self-proclaimed expertise. But this "improvement" is merely optical. Within his "territory", the narcissist is still as fiercely defensive and possessive as ever.__
Yep. Current TV is Al's baby, the network those two girls captured by N. Korea were working for.
If it's anything like the ACORN mess they'll appoint someone themselves and cook the books. The ACORN CEO refuses to go before Congress with her books and her connections to other shady organizations. Why no subpeona??
ACORN basically defrauded the taxpayers of a lot of damn money but they are being handled with kid gloves….I doubt the NEA will get any worse….
Let's stop funding all these left wing groups that are simply propaganda outlets for radical left wing causes and the Obama administration. They should be free to conduct their propaganda and indoctrination campaigns but at their own expense and private contributions!!!! & Not by public funding!!!!!!!! All these groups are the same. ACORN, AMERICORPS. NEA, ETC.Just stop the public funding of these useless corrupt left wing groups.
[...] reading here: Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
Omniscience
The narcissist often pretends to know everything, in every field of human knowledge and endeavour. He lies and prevaricates to avoid the exposure of his ignorance. He resorts to numerous subterfuges to support his God-like omniscience.
Where his knowledge fails him – he feigns authority, fakes superiority, quotes from non-existent sources, embeds threads of truth in a canvass of falsehoods. He transforms himself into an artist of intellectual prestidigitation. As he gets older, this invidious quality may recede, or, rather, metamorphose. He may now claim more confined expertise.
He may no longer be ashamed to admit his ignorance and his need to learn things outside the fields of his real or self-proclaimed expertise. But this "improvement" is merely optical. Within his "territory", the narcissist is still as fiercely defensive and possessive as ever.
[...] NEA, ACORN, and “artists” all too happy to be pawns for the administration. Posted by Gabriel | Filed in MSM, Must Read, Obama-nation [...]
Notice the frequent recognition of how this "community" was instrumental in the campaign. Combined with the fact that 16 out of 21 of these groups got $2 million right after Obama took office, it all adds up to verify the sickening sense so many of us felt during the campaign that the fix was in: news media, pop and "arts" culture, and educational establishment.
(cont.) Regarding my third item above – I wonder what we would find if we tracked the involvement of these "artists" and groups with the Natl Education Assoc. and state & local educational administrations. Just like the iconography of the campaign, Obama and his fellows see the stakes in generational terms: in the wake of 25 years of the systematic corruption of US education, if you control "cool," you control the culture for the next generation and therefore the lens through which politics is viewed. / / These "artists" are pop artists – they know they already have the elite arts crowd – and pop "art" targets the young. Harness pop "art" after the educational system has already fit the bit into the mouths of the next generation, and you're ready to ride and ride and ride…
Of course the conference call was a ruse. Nothing is as it first seems in Obamaland.
There is no form or style of abuse that is beyond the cult of Obama. The co-opting of *everything* for the cause of the "progressive" agenda is ramping up quickly and I fear that as Obama feels himself threatened by the growing resistance movement in America, he will begin to act more quickly and decisively in the advancement of his hopey, changey Orwellian nightmare.
The new thought police are here. The Liberal Inquisition is coming…but at least we have been warned and can be prepared: "EVERYBODY EXPECTS…THE LIBERAL INQUISITION!" at http://firebreathingchristian.wordpress.com/2009/...
Will Newspapers be beolden to the Administration and Democrats with the passage of the Newspaper Bailout Bill?
I know, they are already shilling for them, but it is voluntary now.
This is truly creepy. It's flat out idolatry. Keep shining the light of truth on these cockroaches!
Alinksy Rule #13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it and polarize it:
The Big Government-Hollywood-Media Complex
NEA: Nefarious Expenditures on Agitprop
http://bigchase.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/obey….
ACORN: Child “Services”, Financial “Services”, “Voter” Registration —Democrat Funded
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
[...] Nolte has broken down the call, along with the significance of the call at Big Hollywood. In a nutshell, federal employees -paid by our tax dollars and including White House staff - are [...]
The Republicans should have defunded the NEA when they had the presidency, Senate and House. The Lefties/Bolshies would have howled, but like they didn't howl anyway and do everything they could to destroy Bush's presidency?
Absolutely frightening reading this…….How many laws has the press now broke as well – by being complicit in their silence – are they feeding this machine by back door on how to manipulate and manufacture – being that the "one" said yesterday he will be funding the bankrupt fringe media now?
Such hacking would definitely be unlawful.
[...] Nolte: Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern [...]
While the article appears to make a startling political statement about the involvement of the NEA in "promoting" Obama policies, this article makes two fallacious arguments. One, that the statement "push the administration and push the president" means pushing his policies. Yet without reading the full quote, there is no clarification as to whether pushing indicates "promote" or whether pushing indicates "to exert force". Regardless, the motives are insinuated because of the supposed overwhelming majority of Obama supporters. The second fallacy involves the supposed guilt of saying "get that information" to Skolnik. Unless information actually passed hands, there is no indication this happened or was desired, considering she followed saying "I’m not capable of giving you more guidance". In other words, this is a hack job, and one done perhaps illegally. Furthermore, the author represents his thoughts before releasing the facts, hardly the work of an unbiased journalist. He's telling you what to think.
Good one guys! : )
[...] The crew over at Big Hollywood and Big Goverment continued the continued the fight today. [...]
A few responses to Mr. Russell:
1. You honestly think that the caller might have meant "push" as in "to exert force?" What does that mean: the entire administration are seated in a giant shopping cart and the caller is asking the artists to push them down the cereal aisle? Really, Mr. Russell?
2. (a) The authors here don't present themselves as unbiased journalists. This is a commentary website. But the facts remain the facts. This is an actual recording from the conference call. I haven't heard the NEA or any other participant deny this. You are free to interpret it as you wish (even to believe the government officials on the line wanted the participants to push Obama around in a wheelbarrow).
(b) There is no such thing as an unbiased journalist. There are journalists who pretend to be unbiased. But if we've learned anything since the advent of blogging, they are all lying. Bias can exist in what stories you decide not to cover, as much as in how you cover them. The fact the so-called MSM have largely ignored this and a myriad other scandals surrounding the Obama administration tells us everything we need to know about their biases. Ignoring all the negative stuff is a most effective way to tell their audience what to think.
They weren't really breaking the law. The conference call was just a new type of performance art.
[...] Nolte: Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern [...]
Can Skolnik put together a coherent English sentence?
Great point!
Sounds like the "coordination" of the arts practiced by the Nazis.
I'm no lawyer, but isn't Nell Abernathy exhibiting "a guilty mind" with this statement, with the guilt being knowledge of participating in a conspiracy? "Yeah, I can address that a little bit, and the reason only a little bit is largely because in my role at a federal agency, I’m precluded from going too far down the specific steps what people can do to advocate. …
I could get that information to Michael and he could get it out. We can’t sort – [A]s a representative of the Corporation, I’m not capable of giving you more guidance than just sending you to the right person."
She's saying she knows that she is bound (I'm assuming by law or regulation) to not do something, figures out a way to do it, and enlists the help of another in doing it. Sounds like a conspiracy to me. But I'm no lawyer and I don't know if there is a law involved. Any lawyers?
Hi Steve you just describe my ex partners on my first film !
Google "engineering of consent." Also, don't act surprised at this sort of crap. It's obviously been going on for a long time, and is a tried and true marketing method. All that pop culture gutter talk, lowering of standards and all the rest is not accidental. Never has been. And this is the demonstrable result. Propaganda replaces art and a generation of low expectation losers flock to a simplistic demagogue with designs on being President for Life. Yep- he is attacking the 22nd Amendment as well.
Yesterday when a charismatic leader (whose biography revealed his latent racism) came to power in Germany, Edward R. Murrow risked death to walk down the bombed streets of London during the Blitz to warn his fellow Americans of the danger that leader.
Today when a charismatic leader (whose biography revealed his latent racism) comes to power in America, Katie Couric grins her perky little smile as she waltzes down a fashion runway in a delicious red silk gown.
The media is NEVER going to report this NEA conference call.
Time to digest info $8.5 Billion for "Community"+ $80 Billion for "Green" + $865 Billion "Health Care" + $Trillions in "Cap & Trade" more stimulus money for "New Jobs" in government 650,000 more. This is more than just art folks.
lol…probably not. i think he goes to bed around 4 and misses glen beck. lol
Obama Piss Art. He is pissing all over our nation. Just like a dam* dog pisses to mark his territory. Is there anything Obama won't piss on? He needs to be housebroken.
okay I am getting a little scared now. 1. The current administration wants the authority to regulate and approve the wages of bank employees and may have that already. 2. The current government wants the authority to remove student loans for the private sector and may have that already. 3. The current government has appointed someone to run GM. 4. The current government wants to regulate our health care system and some in congress are talking about passing the bill and "work the details out later". 5. The current government wants to "bail out" the newspapers. 6. The current government wants to review and regulate the Fed in order to improve it. 7. The current government has used organizations that have corruption ,ACORN ,as a means to an end( election) and now is trying to distance itself from the bad PR. 8. The current government is using a 501(c)3 orgainization as a means to an end i.e. NEA They have been in office for eight months and each month a new right or freedom is questioned. What is next, the internet?
Incredible, interesting how Obama had them paid upfront:
Conference Call Rewards:
Sergant then turns the call over to Thomas Bates from “Rock the Vote,” who offers up an example of local environmental activism involving a garbage sculpture. Within days after this call Rock the Vote would launch a “health care design contest.”
A mere two days after the call a group of 21 art organizations endorsed health care reform.
Of those 21 organizations, “16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received nearly $2 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 150 days before the conference call.”
There needs to be an independent counsel appointed to investiage what laws were broken.
One word stuck out at me throughout this: community. They keep referring to the "art community" (Skolnik called it the "independent art community" — talk about oxymorons!). "Community" is also used a great deal by ACORN and Obama ("community organizer"). In the case of this call, it's interesting that they shy away from referring to "artists" plural, but instead always try to group them into a community. If you want to matter, you can't be just an artist, you have to be a member of the artist community. I think it's a subtle way to marginalize anyone who doesn't share the same mindset. These people just assume that all artists think alike, just as Hollywood thinks all of its creative people think alike. I wish I could ban the word "community" and go back to a more (literally) pluralistic linguistics. Artists instead of art community, people instead of community, period. It's the difference between a more individualistic worldview versus a collectivist one.
Relax people! Let Hollywood run our country…they know what's best for us. The people who I look up to, other than the Dalai Lama, are the drama majors in college…you know…the kids who had such great human insight that took them to Hollywood to enlighten the ignorant masses. Please, let them guide us for we know not what is good for us. Drama majors make the greatest world policies. Think about it.
The NEA has now been unmasked as the 2000s successor to the 1930s WPA as the artistic arm of Socialism in America. We need the right wing equivalent of the Pulitzer for Breitbart and his cohorts.
Do you think Eric Holder is preparing a RICO lawsuit against the Obama administration?
It's more like a Brave New World.
Scary.
''Within days after this call Rock the Vote would launch a “health care design contest.”
A mere two days after the call a group of 21 art organizations endorsed health care reform.
Of those 21 organizations, “16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received nearly $2 million in grants from the National Endowment for the Arts in the 150 days before the conference call.”
I'M BEING TAXED FOR OBAMACARE BEFORE IT EVEN PASSES!?!?!
I used to be a leftist writer who regularly benefited from foundational and government grants. In the mid-1980s I stopped writing politically correct works. Funding dried up. My talent didn't decline; I still get screenwriting jobs in the private sector. I recently was rejected for a playwriting grant by a California foundation which funded an audiocassette driving tour of toxic waste sites along California's Highway Five; and which last year gave $40,000 to a non-indigenous woman to weave an "authentic" Indian basket.
Exactly. It's as if I were to tell a client, "well, I certainly can't hide evidence for you, being an officer of the court…. but Vinnie "the Shovel" right here, you might want to talk to him."
Got your answer Cowboy three days after he "quit" Van dirtbag Jones went back to the scum Soros run CAP where he is weaving as much muck as ever. Probably where this turncoat Yosi is..I am jewish and am ashamed to include him as part of my tribe..a curse on his empty stupid head
I AGREE BUT WE WILL NEED TOO GET A PIT BULL IN THE MEDIA LIKE GLENN BECK BECAUSE THE MAIN STREAM MEDIA DOESN'T HAVE THE BALLS TOO INVESTIGATE THIS MATTER.AMERICA BETTER WAKE UP AND CLEAN OUT THE DEAD BEATS IN WASHINGTON.
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IF you sociopaths mess with the NEA, thousands will lose their jobs. The NEA funds non profit theatre nationwide, every ballet, classical music concert, dance performance, etc.etc, is funded by the NEA
Think twice sociopaths, we will organize if we lose our jobs because of conservative terrorists, we will fight back, blood will be spilled
do not mess with our bread and butter
end the NEA?
so you advocate the end of dance, ballet, theatre, music?
You people are mental cases and sund like the REAL COMMUNISTS. Communists attacked the arts, this is what you freaks of nature are doing. Not to mention allthe thousands of jobs associated with the arts.
think twice about this, conservaterrorists, you are messing with thousands of jobs
*ALERT*
Takeover – Banking
Takeover – Auto
Takeover – Energy (pending)
Takeover – Healthcare (pending)
Propaganda – NEA
Propaganda – Legacy Media (zero scrutiny, free reign to appear on all programs)
Propaganda – College & University Faculty (not new, persistently socialist)
Propaganda – 9-11 becomes day of “service” / “Serv.gov” indoctrinating, “organizing” youth, poor
Propaganda – The Stimulus Bill: a shameless honeypot of goodies designed to preserve Democrat incumbency
DEBT: $11,000,000,000,000 with $10,000,000,000,000 anticipated adds over 10 years
What is even left to absorb?
Make that,
*RED ALERT*
[...] added. Guess the White House staff is too busy engaging the public (especially through independent federal agencies) to get behind the President’s health care plan, they don’t have time to actually [...]
[...] Read more on this story from Ed Morrissey over at Hot Air, by going here. Roger Kimball over at Pajamas Media also offers great commentary – one that is extremely astute and insightful – on this (no doubt, developing) story. Also be sure to check out John Notle’s analysis – suggesting that a far more disturbing pattern is at play- here. [...]
In 35 years of Marketing & Fundraising, professionally and as a volunteer, I can say from Firsthand experience that the NEA and indeed Most non-profit organizations are pro-Dem and actively (illegally) campaign in Every election. In the late 1990s, I walked into the offices of a "non-profit Arts & Cultural organization in WA state for whom I had done significant fundraising. Finding no one in the reception or executive offices of this multi-million $ org, I wandered down to the copy room. Most of the executive staff along with staffers and volunteers printing, folding & boxing Thousands of campaign brochures for the local Dem candidate. A shock since I was Campaign manager for 3 Repub candidates in that election!
I contacted the local newspaper and wrote and letter to the Editor, expecting many comments. Instead,with days, the Front page of that paper featured a photo of the Executive Director (of 3 mos) and her news of her resignation. She was scapecoat for this multi-million $ non-profit…and there are Millions of non-profits allover America using Our tax dollars for campaigning for Dems. I've seen it in many cities all over America, in Every election.
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