Americans for the Arts has recently sent a request to Big Hollywood to retract the statement that they were a participant in the August 10th National Endowment for the Arts conference call: [emphasis added]

Robert Lynch President and CEO, Americans for the Arts

“Immediate corrections about Americans for the Arts need to be made to stories that you have published in various newspapers, blogs, television, and radio programs.

“Americans for the Arts was not a participant on an August 10, 2009, conference call involving the National Endowment for the Arts. …

“The Washington Times later published an unconfirmed invitation list to the August 10 conference call, speculating that actress Kerry Washington had participated on the call. The affiliation next to Ms. Washington’s name is incorrect. Ms. Washington is not, nor has ever been, a board member of Americans for the Arts.”

During the conference call in question, it was suggested by a participant that the moderator, Michael Skolnik, send a contact list for all those that were on the call. We were then requested by Skolnik to send our contact information for a contact list that would be distributed later in the week:

SKOLNIK: Mark, great suggestion and we will.  If anyone has not e-mailed directly –this is Michael again — please do so, and I’ll give you my e-mail address. I think I’ve heard from most of you.  But just in case you’ve spoken to Yosi or someone else, please e-mail me with your contact information. I’ve put together a large list of the people.  So my e-mail is … I will definitely distribute an e-mail list by the middle of this week.

Two days later, on August 12th, Skolnik sent the following email [click to enlarge] to the group. In the email, at the end of the first paragraph, he states, “please find attached a contact list for those who were on the call.” 

In the attachment was a full list of those that participated on the conference call. Included in the list was Kerry Washington. Her bio reads:

actress/arts activist. She sits on the board of The Creative Coalition and Americans for The Arts (arts and arts education advocacy organizations) and serves on the board of two organizations committed to the use of theater arts for social change: V-day and The People Speak.

[ed. note: below is a document created from the original spreadsheet Michael Skolnik attached to his email.]

 –

Violation of this law, in turn, violates 31 U.S. Code §1352, which, if read broadly, bans the use of federal funds for lobbying by the recipients: “funds appropriated by any Act [may not be] expended by the recipient of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with any Federal action …”  

But that’s not all.  The conference call also violates the Hatch Act – in particular, 5 U.S. Code §7323(a)(4), which prohibits federal employees from “knowingly solicit[ing] or discourag[ing] the participation in any political activity of any person who – (A) has an application for any compensation, grant, contract, ruling, license, permit, or certificate pending before the employing office of such employee …”  

And then there are regulations of the Office of Management and Budget.  At least one organization represented on the conference call – Americans for the Arts — has charitable 501(c)(3) status.  Under OMB Circular No. A-122, Attachment B, Section 25, federal moneys going to 501(c)3s cannot be used for “(1)Attempts to influence the outcomes of any Federal, State, or local election, referendum, initiative, or similar procedure, through in kind or cash contributions, endorsements, publicity ,or similar activity; … (3) Any attempt to influence: (i) The introduction of Federal or State legislation; or (ii) the enactment or modification of any pending Federal or State legislation through communication with any member or employee of the Congress or State legislature (including efforts to influence State or local officials to engage in similar lobbying activity), or with any Government official or employee in connection with a decision to sign or veto enrolled legislation; (4) Any attempt to influence: (i) The introduction of Federal or State legislation; or (ii) the enactment or modification of any pending Federal or State legislation by preparing, distributing or using publicity or propaganda, or by urging members of the general public or any segment thereof to contribute to or participate in any mass demonstration, march, rally, fundraising drive, lobbying campaign or letter writing or telephone campaign …”  The responsibility falls on the federal agencies to implement the OMB circular.  If any of the 501(c)3s on the call received federal moneys at any time near the conference call, the federal agency authorities who approved such disbursements violated this circular. 

Also, many of the groups on the line were 501(c)(4) organizations, tax-exempt civic organizations who are generally allowed to lobby.  Except if they receive federal funds, that is: “An organization described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 which engages in lobbying activities shall not be eligible for the receipt of Federal funds constituting an award, grant, or loan.” (P.L. 104-99 §129.)  “Lobbying activities” are defined narrowly – they apply to contact with federal officials.  But that, of course, is the whole point here: these artists are supposed to provide the groundwork for such contacts, which is barred by law.  

It gets even worse.  Under 18 U.S.C. §371, it could be found that this call was designed to defraud the United States: “If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.”  Courts, in fact, have found that action designed to accomplish political activities with federal funds falls under this statute: in 1980, the 8^th Circuit held in United States v. Pintar that where individuals conspired to use a federal program “to accomplish political objectives … unrelated to legitimate [agency] business,” they had defrauded “the United States of its right to have programs of an agency financed … by the United States Government … administered, honestly, fairly, without corruption or deceit.” 

Undoubtedly, there is more to come here.  At the very least, a bevy of federal laws have been violated.  Any failure by the Congress of the United States to initiate a full-scale investigation must be considered action designed to enable the misuse of taxpayer funds in violation of federal law.

At the very beginning of the call, the general ‘moderator’ of the call, Michael Skolnik, political director for Hip-Hop mogul Russell Simmons, explains the genesis of the call:

I have been asked by people 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.

This is important, because in the immediate aftermath of the breaking story, the NEA has tried to state that a ‘third party’ organized the call. This clearly isn’t true. The e-mail invitation to the call was sent from Mr. Sargent’s government-provided NEA e-mail address. In addition, as the transcript reveals, Mr. Sloknik was “asked” by the White House and NEA to organize the call.

(more…)

]]> http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/mikeflynn/2009/09/21/taxpayer-funded-propaganda-the-abcs-of-the-nea-conference-call/feed/ 0 http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bshapiro/2009/09/21/demand-congressional-investigation-nea-conference-call-broke-laws/ http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/bshapiro/2009/09/21/demand-congressional-investigation-nea-conference-call-broke-laws/#comments Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:11:00 +0000 Ben Shapiro http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/?p=231114 In the aftermath of the Andrew Breitbart/James O’Keefe/Hannah Giles-broken ACORN scandal, President Obama and his allies in Congress have distanced themselves from the community organizing goliath.  Congress has cut off funds, and Obama has refused to speak about the matter.  End of story, right?

Wrong.

There’s only one problem: the ACORN mentality – pinpointing and mobilizing particular groups in support of a radical-left agenda – is no longer restricted to government-funded private non-profits like ACORN.  The ACORN mentality now dominates the government itself.  Taxpayer dollars are being used by elected officials to encourage the deification of President Obama and his agenda.  And one of the chief organs of the government propaganda machine is the National Endowment for the Arts.

Let’s start from the beginning.  On August 25, artist Patrick Courrielche told the story of a conference call he attended on August 10.  That conference call was hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve.  The goal of the conference call: “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.”  The call would push “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!”

If this sounds suspicious to you, that’s because it is.  Never before has the NEA explicitly urged artists to tackle particular social issues like health care.  But that is how this Administration works.

The people behind the conference call, Courrielche reported, were Yosi Sargent, Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve; Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and Michael Skolnik, Political Director for Russell Simmons.  Sargent sent the actual email invitation.  When The Washington Times called Sargent for confirmation, Sargent denied involvement with the email.  He claimed that Skolnik had sent the invitation.

He lied.

The email came directly from Sargent – which is to say, from the NEA itself.  Most astonishingly, the email contained a copy of a notice from United We Serve.  That notice read: “A call has come in to our generation.  A call from the top.  A call from a house that is White. … President Obama is asking us to come together … Now is the time for us to answer this call.”  Sargent has since been “reassigned” at the NEA.

Two days after the conference call, on August 12, 21 separate arts organizations came out and endorsed Obama’s health care plan.  One of the endorsing organizations, the non-profit “charitable organization” Americans for the Arts, denied any presence on the conference call.

Like Sargent, they too were lying.

According to The Washington Times, both a participant on the call and a partial list of participants confirm that Americans for the Arts board member Kerry Washington was on the call.  In the past, Washington has testified before Congress as a representative of the Americans for the Arts Artists Committee.

Kerry Washington

Americans for the Arts is a 501(c)3, which means that legally, it must remain apolitical and cannot endorse candidates.  It has an associated 501(c)4, ArtsVote or Arts Action Fund, a non-profit political action wing that can stump for causes, not for candidates.  Naturally, the two wings are closely associated; the CEO of both is Robert Lynch, who participated in a subsequent NEA call that occurred on August 27.  The 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 have the same Washington D.C. and New York addresses.  And Lynch, naturally, supports President Obama to the hilt.

In fact, the private organizational participants sponsoring the call comprise what can best be described as ACORN For The Arts.  Each and every organization was deeply involved with President Obama as a candidate, and each and every one pledges allegiance to him now that he occupies the Oval Office.

Americans for the Arts: There is no hard line between the Americans for the Arts 501(c)3 and the Arts Action Fund 501(c)4 websites.  In visiting this page, readers find a “Headline of the Week” currently entitled “New Report Shows Cost of Healthcare Critical to Arts Nonprofits.”  There is also a legislative message: “Tell your Senators and Representatives to support a funding increase for the National Endowment for the Arts to help support our nation’s cultural treasures and the arts in under-served communities.”  There is also an immigration-related message: “There are currently two challenges affecting the international arts community: unreasonable delays by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on foreign artists obtaining U.S. entry visas and the lack of funding for cultural exchange programs.”  This is a lobbying organization, pure and simple.  And it is a leftist lobbying organization.

Rock the Vote: The Rock the Vote website is currently wholly a lobbying effort for Obama’s health care plan.  The website actually comes up on Google as “Rock the Vote on Health Care.”  And the front page features Zach Braff and Donald Faison of Scrubs pushing for Obama’s health care plan, as well as a giant slogan reading “YES WE CARE: DEMAND HEALTH CARE.”  There was also explicit rallying for Obama: “September 17, 2009: This morning at 11:00 a.m. ET, President Obama will be at the University of Maryland in College Park to talk about health reform.”

Russell Simmons

Russell Simmons: Simmons is a contributing editor at The Huffington Post, where he is a huge Obama supporter – his admiration borders on the creepy.  Obama, Simmons wrote, “is the candidate for the furthering of [the raising of consciousness] – his spiritual concern underlies a deep compassion and also a toughness that comes from being in touch with and at ease with yourself.”  Clearly, a man who is a critical and objective artist with regard to the Obama Administration.

The government involvement here is what is truly stunning.  Not only did the government sponsor a conference call specifically dedicated to recruiting artists to the Obama re-election and political strategy campaign – and not only did they co-sponsor the call with Obama partisan organizations — they list lobbying organizations on their website for United We Serve (Serve.gov).  As Dana Loesch of BigGovernment.com reported, ACORN is included in the “non-partisan” organizations listed by Serve.gov, among the other participants like the AARP grassroots advocacy organization (which asks you to “Be a part of a team of grassroots advocates that encourage elected officials to address the issue of health care reform…”).

All of this – particularly the government-sponsored conference call itself – is in blatant violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act (19 U.S. Code §1913), which explicitly provides: “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, whether before or after the introduction of any bill, measure or resolution proposing such legislation, law, ratification, policy or appropriation …”

Violation of this law, in turn, violates 31 U.S. Code §1352, which bans use of “funds appropriated by any Act [from being] expended by the recipient of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with any Federal action …”

According to a government guide put out by the National Institutes of Health Ethics Program (which is a governmental agency: ethics.od.nih.gov), the Anti-Lobbying Act prevents government employees from engaging in “substantial ‘grass roots’ lobbying campaigns … expressly urging individuals to contact government officials in support of or opposition to legislation …. Provid[ing] administrative support for lobbing activities of private organizations …”  Every provision was violated by this conference call, which urged artists to support the president’s agenda – and which connected potential voters to private lobbying organizations indirectly, as banned by the Act itself.

Violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act carries punishment: “Any person who makes an expenditure … shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such expenditure.”  And that’s not all: “An imposition of a civil penalty under this subsection does not prevent the United States from seeking any other remedy that the United States may have for the same conduct that is the basis for the imposition of such civil penalty.”  In other words, criminal prosecution is available here.

Every government employee involved in this conference call should be fined and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.  We need a full Congressional investigation – we already know that it infects members of the White House staff, including Buffy Wicks.  The transformation of our government into a self-entrenched continuous campaigning machine must be stopped now.

Should the National Endowment for the Arts encourage artists to create art on issues being vehemently debated nationally?

That is the question that I set out to discuss a little over three weeks ago when I wrote an article on Big Hollywood entitled The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?”

The question still requires debate but the facts do not.

The NEA and the White House did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address politically controversial issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.

President Obama with the NEA’s Yosi Sergant

But some have claimed that the invite and passages, pulled from the conference call that inspired the article, were taken out of context. Context is what I intend to establish here.

On August 10th, the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the Corporation for National and Community Service hosted a conference call with a handpicked arts group. This arts group played a key role in Obama’s arts effort during his election campaign, as declared by the organizers of the call, and many on the call played a role in the now famous Obama Hope poster.

Much of the talk on the conference call was a build up to what the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was specifically asking of this group. In the following segment, Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, clearly identifies this arts group as a pro-Obama collective and warns them of some “specific asks” that will be delivered later in the meeting.

Buffy Wicks

Play Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement:

• “I just first of all want to thank everyone for being on the call and just a deep deep appreciation for all the work you all put into the campaign for the 2+ years we all worked together.”
• “We won.”
• “I’m actually in the White House and working towards furthering this agenda, this very aggressive agenda.”
• “We’re going to come at you with some specific asks here.”
• “I hope you guys are ready.”

Later in the call, “specific asks” were delivered by Yosi Sergant, then Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts. What were the “asks”? They were for this pro-Obama arts group to create art on several hotly debated political issues, including health care:

Yosi Sergant

Play Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts:

• “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.”
• “And then my ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative communities utilities and bring them to the table.”
• “Again, I’m really, really honored to be working with you; the National Endowment for the Arts is really honored.”
• “You’re going to see a lot more of us in the next four and hopefully eight years.”

As someone that has been creating arts initiatives and marketing campaigns for over 14 years, I feel like I have a good sense as to how a pro-Obama arts group, when requested by the NEA to address politically contentious issues, could so easily turn very partisan.

Consider:

Three days after the conference call a coalition of arts groups, led by Americans for the Arts, a participant on the conference call per the meeting contact list and recipient of NEA grants, sent out a press release with the heading “Urgent Call to Congress for Healthcare Reform,” which called for the creation of “a health care reform bill that will create a public health insurance option.” Eleven days after the conference call, Rock the Vote, another participant on the call, announced a health care design contest. “We can’t stand by and listen to lies and deceit coming from those who are against reforming a broken system,” they stated in their announcement. “Enough is Enough. We need designs that tell the country YES WE CARE! Young people demand health care.”

These may both be coincidences and I am not suggesting that the NEA or these groups definitively violated the law in these efforts. That’s for others to discuss and investigate. As I’ve stated in various television interviews, the organizers never discussed any specific policies. However, as can be seen below in the exchange between Nell Abernathy of the Corporation for National and Community Service, a federal agency, and Michael Skolnik, the third party moderator, the meeting seemed designed to deflect any questionable conversations to the “third party”, while keeping the issue of health care top-of-mind with the precision of a well positioned product placement.

Play Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for Serve.Gov and Michael Skolnick, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons:

Debating the role of government is and has been the goal of bringing this conference call to light. The NEA tainted the creative process by encouraging the art community to address highly controversial political issues. ‘How?’ you may ask. The NEA is the largest single funder of the arts in the United States. This government agency has the power and ability to fund arts organizations and recently expressed a desire to return to funding individual artists, bringing more from the group into the pool of potential grantees.

The NEA did encourage a handpicked, pro-Obama arts group to address issues under contentious national debate. That fact is irrefutable.

This practice has never been the historical role of the NEA. The NEA’s role is to support excellence in the arts, to increase access to the arts, and to be a leader in arts education. Using the arts to address contentiously debated issues is political subversion. And the fact that the White House played a role in encouraging the arts to address contentious issues should also be considered a government overreach.

Many on the phone call may say and believe that this was a worthwhile effort. “What can be more inspiring then the NEA encouraging national service,” they may say. I would say that while it might sound like a noble cause, the big hand of government often enters the scene well manicured, but in times of desperation it all too often takes on the shape of a fist accessorized with brass knuckles.

And it appears that desperation may have been the impetus to the birth of this specific arts effort. This possibility reveals itself when we take a step back and view the environment at the time the invitation was distributed.

It was the beginning of August 2009, Congress was heading for a much-anticipated month-long recess after weeks of heated debate over health care legislation. At issue was President Obama’s desire for “universal health care” for all Americans, and he was losing that debate. The Administration attempted to push health care legislation through before the August recess, but the so-called Blue Dogs resisted the proposed public option.

After several grueling months of discussion, where the opposition accused the administration of creating death panels, inching the country closer to socialism, and desiring a single-payer system, the Democrats left for the August recess without a bill on the floor and a bit battered from their effort. The Democrats were presented with a daunting task – to face a public at town hall meetings that had gone nuclear. Each night a new incident of public outrage against the government takeover of health care was broadcast widely on cable news – each network painting the protesters as either a legitimate revolt against government growth, or the angry, uneducated, lunatic fringe.

Regardless of how this group was labeled, their mere existence pointed to one fact – the administration was losing the debate on health care reform.

It was in this environment that I received the invite from the National Endowment for the Arts to attend the August 10th conference call. When seeing that the NEA and the White House were inviting a group from the arts world to tackle health care, as well as energy and environment, it appeared to me as an attempt to create an environment amenable to the President’s positions on these efforts. Only after learning that this was the arts group that played a key role in getting the independent arts community behind then candidate Obama, was I convinced that this effort was unusual.

Michael Skolnik, the person asked by the NEA and the White House to help bring together this arts collective, defined the group and its goal in his opening statement. I think it is made pretty clear how this pro-Obama group would react to losing the healthcare debate if prodded to speak to that very issue:

Michael Skolnick

Play Michael Skolnick, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons:

• “I’ve been asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA … we had the idea that I would help bring together the artist community…”
• “…the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries that are on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president…”
• “…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 issues that we face here in our country, but also to engage people. And I think all of us who are on this phone call, you know, were selected for a reason.”
• “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 we can create a stronger community amongst ourselves to get involved in things we’re passionate about as we did during the campaign. But to 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…“

I find it hard to believe that the very intelligent meeting organizers would think that this pro-Obama arts group would produce bipartisan art about health care at a time when the administration was losing a national debate on that very issue. As any parent can tell you, if you give your child a key to the candy drawer they’ll end up with a sugar high.

Were there artists on the call that would create imagery extolling the benefits of offshore drilling? Were there any musicians who’d drop an electro dance anthem warning of the Road to Serfdom that awaits us if we let government create universal health care?  Or how about artists that would wheat paste posters throughout urban areas, featuring a miner named Cole entirely sanitized, sitting in a clean room with the subtitle “Clean Coal.” If this was truly a bipartisan effort, why was I not invited to any conference calls held after the publication of my initial article?

In their zeal to recapture the enthusiasm of the campaign, it appears the NEA overstepped its mandate and forgot its role to the arts, a community currently in dire straits. If this arts group should be rallying around anything, it should be to directly help the arts community. The NEA’s mere participation in a meeting of this nature has put them and those invited in murky waters.

Setting up a propaganda machine is a dangerous precedent. The creation of a machine to address any issues, even ones with noble intentions, can be wielded by the state to create a climate amenable to the policies of those in power. Does anyone believe that once these artists are in place and we move to the election cycle, that the art they create will be bipartisan?

While much of the phone call was spent explaining the general concept of United We Serve – to be expected when explaining the infrastructure and rational for any national initiative – when the time came to get specific on what the National Endowment for the Arts wanted this arts group to do, it was simple and concise – create art focused on four main issues, and the two at the top of the list, and most mentioned throughout the exchange, were health care and energy & environment.

Yosi Sergant

Play Yosi Sergant, former Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts:

• “This is a community that knows how to make a stink.”
• “…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?”
• “So bear with us as we learn the language so that we can speak to each other safely…”
• “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.”
• “My ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative community’s utilities and bring them to the table.”

The National Endowment for the Arts needs to issue a statement with a bit more detail than the one issued at the time of Sergant’s reassignment. Not only have they not explained why Sergant was reassigned, their current statement is full of obvious contradictions and has only prompted more questions.

The NEA’s unattributed statement reads:

“On August tenth, the National Endowment for the Arts participated in a call with arts organizations to inform them of the president’s call to national service. The White House Office of Public Engagement also participated in the call, which provided information on how the Corporation for National and Community Service can assist groups interested in sponsoring service projects or having their members volunteer on other projects. This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false. The NEA regularly does outreach to various organizations to inform of the work we are doing and the resources available to them.”

By their own words and actions the NEA has attempted to distance the agency from the initiation of this meeting and have been outright dishonest in their role.

If the NEA has done nothing wrong, why have they been dishonest?

From their own words this effort was not something that the NEA regularly performed; otherwise their Communications Director wouldn’t have called this a “brand new conversation.”

As to the statement that the conference call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda, I believe the handpicked pro-Obama participants on the call and the vehemently debated issues that the NEA encouraged the group to address show clear intent on the part of the NEA. And that intent was to create art that aligned with the administration’s partisan agenda.

On September 4th I called the chairman of the NEA, Rocco Landesman, requesting a response to these inconsistencies as well as to request a statement from the NEA regarding their brand new arts efforts. As of the publishing of this article I have not received a response.

With each passing day, the National Endowment for the Arts’ credibility is tragically deteriorating. The only action that can restore its credibility is a full disclosure and accounting of the events that led to the launch of this arts effort, the rationale behind this new NEA function, and a clear explanation of the obvious contradictions in their statements related to this conference call.

I hope the NEA addresses this soon so that they can get back to their mandated artistic, not political, work.

MORE…

Patterico: The NEA, The White House, The Lies and The Cover-Up

Ben Shapiro: Demand Congressional Investigation: NEA Conference Call Broke Laws

Dana Loesch: Conference Call Transcript Implicates Fed Art Agency In Govt. Co-Opt of Arts Community 

Nolte: Propaganda, Health Care and ACORN: Full Context of NEA Conference Call Reveals Disturbing Pattern

Nick Gillespie: How to Corrupt Artists in One Quick and Easy Telecon

Don Loos: Buffy Wicks Another Big Labor White House Opertive with ACORN Ties

Full Transcript:

Full NEA Conference Call Transcript and Audio –