BARACK THE VOTE: A Who’s Who of Those Targeting Our Youth

Back in December, Rock the Vote came out with a video featuring Eva Amurri and Zach Gilford – who the hell are they, anyway? Guess I’m not young enough to rock — and a bunch of  other unknown wannabe actors encouraging young people to “rock the vote” by withholding sexual favors from anyone who dares to believe that a government takeover of health insurance is a bad thing.

Traditionally used to sell items like beer and aftershave, sex is now being utilized to encourage citizens to give in to an unconstitutional take over of one sixth of the American economy. Has sex really become that commonplace and tacky?

For example, in the video, a geeky-looking guy holding a “no death panels” placard is described as a liar, and the hot chick wearing a partially-unbuttoned plaid shirt is told to “lie right back” to him by telling him, “I’m on my period and I don’t have a vagina.” Har-dee-har. (There’s more, but you can see the lameness for yourself, if you so choose.)

The statistic “Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are the most uninsured age group in the country” is reported in the video as fact, but the fact that most of the people in this age group choose to go without health insurance because they’d rather spend that money on other things- – and ObamaCare will deprive them of this choice — is conveniently ignored by the video’s hipsters. (See this article for more on how young people are beginning to rebel against the idea of mandatory health insurance.)

Rock the Vote is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Because of their tax status, non-profits are…

…prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Basically, what this means is that non-profits can’t come out and say, “Vote for so-and-so,” or “Vote NO on this proposition,” or “Tell your senator to vote yes/no!” However, voter education activities are not prohibited if they are conducted in a non-partisan manner.

Tell me exactly how a group that comes out and tells people to support the current form of “health care reform” is non-partisan.

So who are the geniuses behind Rock the Vote? Big Hollywood takes a peek at some current and former key players.

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Co-Chairman Jeff Ayeroff:

According to Ayeroff’s TimeWarner bio, he is “Co-Chairman of Rock the Vote, a non-partisan, non-profit organization he founded in 1989 in response to a wave of political attacks on freedom of speech and artistic expression. Rock the Vote is dedicated to protecting freedom of expression and helping young people realize and utilize their power to affect change in the civic and political lives of their communities. To date, the organization has registered more than a million young people to vote.”

Take a look at Ayeroff’s campaign contributions for 2008 – nary a Republican in sight. And back in 2007, following the Dixie Chicks brouhaha and their subsequent sympathy win at the Grammys, the New York Times said that “Ayeroff, a longtime music executive and an academy member, said the resounding endorsement of the group reflected the fact that the academy represents ‘the artist community, which was very angry at what radio did, because it was not very American.’ Mr. Ayeroff said he voted for the Dixie Chicks in at least one category.”

What, voting with your wallet is un-American? And since the government doesn’t control radio – yet – it’s up to radio stations to decide if they want to play music from a particular group or not. Besides, when’s the last time we heard from the Dixie Chicks? Is Ayeroff still a big fan? Inquiring minds would like to know.

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Heather Smith

Executive Director Heather Smith:

From her official RTV bio:

Prior to taking over Rock the Vote, Smith founded and directed Young Voter Strategies, a nonpartisan project in partnership with The Graduate School of Political Management at The George Washington University with support from The Pew Charitable Trusts.  Young Voter Strategies provided the public, parties, candidates, consultants and nonprofits with data and research on the youth vote as well as best practices to effectively mobilize young people.

Interestingly enough, Pew’s president, Rebecca W. Rimel, is also included in Discover the Networks, listed as a former 1960s leftist and she directs funding to initiatives designed to stop global warming:

Rimel is a self-described 1960s leftist who once said, “If we could re-infuse the idealism of the Sixties into our work, there [would be] nothing this country couldn’t do.” She is known in philanthropic circles as a controlling individual who wants prospective grantees to demonstrate their solidarity with Pew’s leftwing ideals before she will consider giving money to them. The Tides Foundation and Tides Center are among her favorite grantees.

Back to Heather Smith’s bio:

Prior to her work at the New Voters Project, Smith was an organizing director for Green Corps’ Field School for Environmental Organizing in Boston.

On its website, the Green Corps’ Field School lists amongst its “campaign victories:

• Fighting global warming
• Winning solar energy victories
• Exploring the abuses of the bottled water industry
• Protecting the Arctic refuge
• Advocating for open space
• Stopping ocean dumping
• Protecting Southern forests
• Fighting water privatization
• Safeguarding fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico

They are also involved with the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal Campaign,” the goal of which is pretty self-explanatory when you look at the placard this young crunchy granola sucker is holding. The Sierra Club holds the dubious honor of being listed in David Horowitz’s website Discover the Networks, which describes it as “one of America’s most influential radical environmentalist groups; deems technological progress harmful to the natural environment; and elected eco-terrorist Paul Watson to its board in 2003.” Please don’t tell me that Smith came away from this environment with no agenda in mind.

In the question and answer portion of the bio, Smith is asked what the “biggest explosion you have ever seen/caused” is. Her answer? “Rallies, spontaneous dancing, and other expressions of pent of hope and fear and frustration and happiness on Election Night 2008… I was at the White House.” So, was she amongst the mob who was screaming at George W. Bush “na na hey hey goodbye” and people saying such tasteful things as “you can suck my **** Bush“? That certainly gives Smith her non-partisan props, wouldn’t you say?

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Vice President of Civic Engagement Thomas Bates:

Bates was a participant in the now-infamous conference call with the National Endowment for the Arts, the purpose of which, according to Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche, “was to bring together a group of pro-Obama artists to push the President and his agenda, with United We Serve as the first proposed effort. During the call, Yosi Sergant, then Communications Director for the NEA, encouraged artists to create art on the vehemently debated issues of health care, energy, and the environment.”

Again: Non-profits are expressly prohibited from partisan activities that could affect either pending legislation or election results. Hmmm…

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Vice President of Communications and Marketing Chrissy Faessen:

Chrissy’s Twitter account is littered with messages such as “Support health care reform that benefits young Americans. Quality care is a right for all Americans! #healthcare @2gov.” Again, Rock the Vote said it ran “the largest non-partisan voter registration campaign in history that saw 22 million young voters cast a ballot.” How can a group whose stated mission is “is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country” possibly run a “non-partisan voter registration campaign”? It’s like asking Ted Nugent to shill for PETA.

Chrissy’s LinkedIn profile notes that she also used to work for DDB Issues & Advocacy, which concentrate on “the most pressing issues of our time—health, poverty, human rights and the environment.” See? She cares.

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Director of Interactive Media Mary McClelland:

Mary’s LinkedIn profile notes that she used to be a national field organizer for Young Voter Strategies – which we mentioned above when discussing her boss, Heather Smith. Mary was also a campus organizer at CALPIRG, a California non-profit (are we seeing a trend here?) whose mission statement is:

When corporate wrongdoing threatens our health or our safety, or violates fundamental principles of fairness and justice, CALPIRG stands up for the public. We conduct investigative research. We publish consumer reports and exposes. We advocate new laws and other protections at the local, state and federal levels. And when necessary, we take corporate wrongdoers to court. Our results-oriented approach has won victories for Californians on a wide range of issues, including healthcare reform, prescription drug pricing, consumer privacy and product safety.

CALPIRG supports high-speed rail from Los Angeles to San Francisco, but it’s not certain how the near-bankrupt state will pay for it.

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Former president Jehmu Greene:

President of Rock the Vote from 2000 to 2005, Greene has moved on to greener pastures. (No pun intended.) She is now president of the Women’s Media Center, which was founded in 2005 by Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan and Gloria Steinem because they were worried about the “crisis of representation in the media.” I didn’t realize having fewer women in media constituted a “crisis.” I tend to view crises as things like natural disasters or the nation being attacked by an enemy. Obviously I need to be re-educated. According to the WMC press release welcoming her aboard, “Throughout her career, Jehmu Greene has skillfully worked with the media to build powerful social justice movements.”

Just remember: social justice is code for communism.