Part II after the jump.

It’s a good thing there are conservatives willing to expose this administration for what it is.

President Obama and Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement

But the question is, what’s next? How can this be countered and how can the Obama administration be forced to back down? As it is, liberal groups, news organizations and individuals continue to cover up for the administration. Perhaps someone will be thrown under the bus again, but the thugs of Team Obama will remain in place and continue to “transform America.”

Exposing their tactics is necessary to fight them, but it’s not enough to actually beat them. Mr. Breitbart and team have learned that the tactics the left has used against conservatives for decades; to discredit them works wonders. But if conservatives want to take back the government, we have to copy the left’s organizing skills as well.

It’s an outrage that the NEA has been turned into a propaganda tool by the most liberal president the U.S. has ever had. But there is a reason the administration spoke to artists on the August conference call and was willing to take the risk of exposure: artists influence the people. The effect isn’t always immediate–it may take years for artists to truly influence society as a whole–but it’s there. If you want to “transform” society you need artists on your side.

Liberals have always understood this. They’ve been working with artists for decades. A lot of art already is politicized. The only reason this is a scandal now is because the radical left isn’t some fringe group at this moment but is in charge of the government. As Buffy Wicks put it, “we [meaning they] won.”

If they weren’t in charge of the government but were still activists, some would still be outraged, but it would not be considered a big thing. The strategy is nothing new–the only new aspect of it is that these people have taken over the government and continue to use artists as propaganda tools.

Whether we like it or not, this strategy has paid off. Liberals have influenced society tremendously by, among other things, using the arts to indoctrinate the American people. They’ve done this in the United States and in Europe. They’re influencing society by doing what free market thinker Friedrich Hayek told conservatives to do: getting second-hand dealers of ideas on their side who then slowly but surely influence society by a constant and never-ceasing flow of propaganda.

If we conservatives want to fight back in the long run, instead of just bringing down this particular liberal administration, we have to do what liberals have been doing for years. We too have to get as many second hand dealers of ideas on our side. Then and only then will be successful in the long run.

Breitbart has taught us that the strategies the left has used to discredit the right can be used against them. We have to act on that, continue to do what Breitbart and some here at Big Hollywood have been doing. But we have to do more than that: we have to destroy and create. And the wonderful thing is that to do this we can learn from the left once again, we can use their tactics against them in this aspect as well.

If we want the victories of the last weeks to be permanent, we should copy the left’s strategy in every way possible. Destroy and create.

Let’s get going.

Sure, the NEA gives money to major established arts organizations – symphonies, ballet companies, repertory theater groups, and the like — but that is how they maintain their veneer of staid respectability, all the while promulgating their Leftist, nihilistic agenda through their smaller grants.  For example, I know a truly great American artist, Harry Carmean, who, among his other credits, was the Chairman of the Fine Arts Department at the Art Center College of Design  in Pasadena, California and taught there for 43 years.  He applied for NEA grants repeatedly to help fund his work but was rejected each time because his paintings were deemed “not edgy enough.”   Translation: he actually possesses artistic talent, skill, and discipline, which he uses to create beauty instead of pseudo-artistic, politicized claptrap.  We all know he would have had a far better chance of getting a grant out of the subjective and ideologically driven apparatchiks at the NEA had he used dog feces to paint images of female genitalia.

Like President Obama and his advisors who live within an Alinskyite bubble of Leftist Chicago politics, the NEA also maintains a closed, incestuous relationship between it’s administrators and the “artists” it funds.  To them, art, by definition, is inherently political in nature.  To produce “real” art today, artists must embody narcissistic self-indulgence and infuse their work with identity politics or otherwise “challenge” their audience. To be “meaningful” art must shine a spotlight on the dark underbelly of society or explore the twisted depths of human iniquity.  By contrast, art that celebrates the higher aspirations of humanity or embraces beauty as a mere end in itself is thought to be frivolous and, therefore, unworthy of financial support.

So, it came as no surprise to me that the White House and the NEA teamed up to conscript the arts community into helping promulgate their agenda.  I’m sure that over at the NEA they are totally perplexed by any outcry against their call to enlist the aid of “socially conscious” artists to help push the self-evidently wonderful Obama Administration plans for radically altering the American landscape.   The fact that their radical agenda is unacceptable to so many Americans has never even appeared on their radar.

The conference call initiated by the NEA brings up larger issues about what happens when the Government attempts to engineer society via its largesse.  All along, the NEA has been doling out money to its group of anointed artists and now the Government is simply calling for payback.  While all Government handouts come with inevitable strings attached, in this case, since the vast majority of artists on the receiving end of NEA munificence are on the Left, they see nothing wrong with overtly working to further the Obama Administration goals.  This toxic symbiosis comes as a result of turning the arts community into yet another “entitlement” group.  There are innumerable examples of artists complaining bitterly that their “freedom of expression” has been abridged when federal grant money is denied them.  In other words, government handouts (of other people’s money) have so weakened them that they actually imagine it is a “right” to have their self-indulgent art paid for by the taxpayers.

It has long gone out of fashion for artists to simply want to create things of beauty and to derive satisfaction from bringing joy to the lives of those whose lives are touched by their art.  Instead, for so many, artistic significance is now only measured by how politically or societally influential a work of “art” is.  The White House and the NEA know well the psychology of their hand-picked group of leftist artistes.  That is why they could be so confident that the “arts community” would jump onboard with both feet and embrace the opportunity to “serve” the President.  The fact that grants might be coming down the pike for those who “serve” particularly well is, in the end, of only secondary importance to massaging their narcissistic feelings of self-importance.

Creating political propaganda is not the province of real artists, though.   While it is obvious that throughout history great art has been created when artists have been commissioned to do so, all real artists recoil at the idea of making propaganda art to support the State.  That these NEA grantees seem so willing to “make a stink” (as Yosi Sergant so colorfully put it in the NEA call) to benefit the Obama Administration says volumes about their lack of artistic integrity.

And I quote: “It’s time for us as a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, tastemakers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together…”

I’m a producer and an artist.  I’m even a leader at times.  And anyone who’s ever had one of my patented kick-ass margaritas (SeizureRitas®) can attest to my tastemaking abilities!  Just to prove my worth to the cause, I’d like to submit the below painting, an homage to German artist Hubert Lanzinger, I call “Obama, the Standard Bearer.”

During the call, of course, Yosi Sergant includes himself in the mix, as is evident when he opens with “It’s time for us.”  Because Yosi must be one of us, right?  Let’s see…

According to his bio in Wikipedia, Yosi got his degree in World Arts and Culture from UCLA.  I guess that makes him an arts aficionado, if not an actual artist.  He’s worked in “marketing, public relations, brand management and business development for over 10 years.”  So I guess that places him in the “promoter/organizer” class.

Oh, but wait!  According his entry in IMDB, he’s a producer, too!  He’s responsible for that incredible film, “Bacon Wagon.”  Haven’t heard of it?  Well, according to the one user comment, “Bacon Wagon” rates a robust ten stars.  And I quote:

“We could all learn a thing or two from The Bacon Wagon Man. This movie was filled with fabulous dark comedy and great production design. He’s got a live pig–I believe his name is Wiggles.”

And just who wrote this glowing review?  I can’t be sure, but that breathless style is almost as good as a fingerprint.  Could it be that Yosi is a film critic as well as a P.R. flack?

Why… that would make him a “tastemaker.”

Still, my Wikipedia entry is about twice as long as Yosi’s.  Plus, his IMDB credits are a veritable pimple on the ass of my IMDB credits.   So why, Yosi?  Why no invitation for Big X?

I guess I’m not “just plain cool” enough.

“Rule #7: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” – Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals

For a presidential candidate to dispatch his agents of Change® to recruit artists & entertainers into his campaign is one thing. He understandably wished to avoid becoming old news. Heck, even radical activists get bored. So, to maintain their excitement and involvement, professional community organizers must constantly devise new tactics. And, as so many enjoy smugly reminding us all, “the ‘One’ won!”

Poli-end-zone-dances notwithstanding, for the President of the United States of America to use the power of his Office and the lure of his NEA’s favor, potential grant funds and the ideological “yes, we-can-change-the-world” Hope® & prestige for artists to create promotional propaganda for his Serve.gov & Corporation for National & Community Service partisan political agenda, produces an entirely different pattern and data set.

As George Will recently observed, “I don’t know how many laws that breaks but I’m sure there are some.”

Ben Shapiro cites The Anti-Lobbying Act (19 U.S. Code §1913) & 31 U.S. Code §1352.

The Hatch Amendment has also been cited elsewhere.

In any case, this story along with the ACORN scandal, the President’s close ties and history with ACORN, coupled with his lesson plan, disseminated by the federal Dept. of Education — with whom Ms. Wicks “worked closely” – that assigned schoolchildren to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president” (IOW, ‘write letters to themselves about how they can become agents of change for the president’) raises many red flags and questions.

Is this Ms. Wicks ‘view’ towards “an onramp to a lifetime of service?”

I’m with this Marine:  “Stay Away From My Kids!” My kids are here to serve an higher power than any current fashionable ‘One.’

Professional forensic investigative journalists are now connecting the dots and reporting on the nexus, stalls, pens and troughs of the President’s national change agent (Animal Farm) agenda as organized through Serve.gov & ‘the Corporation’:

Serve.Gov/’United We Serve’

Corporation for National & Community Service

Organizing for America

White House Office of Public Engagement

Prior inconsistencies matter:

The NEA & White House responses assert:

NEA: “This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false. “

WH: “[T]he Aug. 10 teleconference ‘was not meant to promote any legislative agenda.’”

However,

Ms. Wicks stated on the call: “I’m actually in the White House and working towards furthering this agenda, this very aggressive agenda… we need you, and we’re going to need your help, and we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here… We’re actually running the government…  We need your guys’ help to promote this.

I’m actually in the White House and working towards furthering this agenda, this very aggressive agenda… we need you, and we’re going to need your help, and we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here.”

If not to promote the President’s legislative agenda (e.g., healthcare reform, cap and trade, not to mention his Dept. of Education lesson plans), then for what specifically did Ms. Wicks ask this collective of artists — that she clearly assumed to be strictly partisan Obama-supporters — for their help in promoting?

**

Other notable-quotables:

NELLIE ABERNATHY: we are really looking at reaching a new brand of people… We have 12 [do-it-yourself toolkits] that really allow people who are more self-directed who say I have a need in my community that I want to address, and it’s not necessarily attractive to me to go and serve soup at the existing soup kitchen with 80-year-old women… we are really looking at reaching a new brand of people.

YOSI SERGANT: whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know… My ask would be to apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative communities’ utilities and bring them to the table.

“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were, instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.” – George Orwell

“We have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.” – Hillary Clinton

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hello everybodies! Who we gots on the phones here?

MR. KIETH:  Toby Keith. Built Ford Tough.

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hokay, buddy!

MRS. BURGE:  Beverly Burge, Ocelot, Iowa. I do scrapbooking.

OAK RIDGE BOYS:  Howdy! We’re the Oak Ridge Boys!

MR. SMIRNOV:  Alrights, Branson in da house!

MR. HANEY:  Lester Haney, Sepulpa, Oklahoma.

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hey everybodies, I don’ts know if you see Lester Haney’s work, but he does some of the most beautiful chainsaw stump sculptures Yakov ever sees.

MR. HANEY:  Thank you.

MR. SMIRNOV:  I know you gots a gallery opening tonights at the I-35 Truck Haven in Wynnewood, so let’s move on. Who else joining us?

MRS. COHEN:    Sylvia Cohen, Boca Raton Florida. Driftwood and sea shell arrangements.

MS. CZARNOSKI:  Rhonda Czarnoski, McKeesport, PA. Victorian dolls.

MR. NEWTON:  Wayne Newton, entertainer, Las Vegas Nevada.

MR. SMIRNOV:  Tanks very much for yous to be here Wayne!

MR. NEWTON:  Danke schoene. Darling, danke schoen. thank you foooor all the joy and pain. Picture showwwwws, second balcony, was the place we’d meet, second seat, go Dutch treat, you were sweet…

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hokay, that’s enough Wayne. Who else?

MR. GREENWOOD: Lee Greenwood, and I’m proud to be in Bransonnnnn, where at least I know I’m free….

MR. SMIRNOV:  And the buffets are half price before 6! Who else?

MR. SCHMITKE:  Cody Schmitke. I’m a conceptual garden gnome-ist in New Braunfels, Texas.

MR. TABUCHI:  I am Shoji! I am much honor to also be in Branson America, Smirnov-san!

BALDKNOBBERS: Howdy y’all! We’re the Baldknobbers Jamboree!  Nyuk!

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hokay, it looks like we gots everybodies on the telephone.

OAK RIDGE BOYS:  Elvira, dohmp dohmp dohmp Elvira…

MR. SMIRNOV:  Oak Ridge boys, can you puts the phone on mute? Hey, in Russia, phone mutes you! Henghenghenhgg Hokay, now is time to stop for the jokings. For all yous on the phone I am Yakov Smirnov, and I am comedy artist escape from Russia. Now the President Bush he is making me the deputy outreach coordinator for the Nationals Endowments for the Art. What a country! This is why I make this phones call with all of you today. You are all very very important buddies from the Arts community and the Crafts community and the Vegas Lounge and Branson community. Is my job to lets you buddies know how much Mr. President Bush think you doing important Arts and shows. Is totally awesome!

MR. HANEY’S CHAINSAW:  vrrruuppp vruupppa winggadinggg vvvvwiiing wiiiiiiiiing

MR. SMIRNOV:  Mr. Haney, you put chainsaw on mutes, hokay? Now like Yakov say, Mr. President he is like many things you do with the lawn ornaments and needlepoints and like thats. But he knows is tough out theres for the Arts people and sometimes yous have to do two buffet shows every day to make the ends meet.  So he say, hey! How abouts that Nationals Art Endowments? It gots plenty money for my buddies. So he say, Yakov get my buddies together and talks about how they can go do the Art things for service to me. Oops, I mean America!

MS. CZARNOSKI:  Speaking as an artist, I would first like to say, what’s my cut?

MR. SMIRNOV:  Is very good question. Is very much sliding scale depending how much service yous do for Mr. Bush. I mean America community. Mister Bush he sees many places where is good for Art. Here is to explain Mr. good buddy vice president Dick Cheney.

MR. CHENEY: Hello everyone and thank you Yakov. I would like to say…

MR. SMIRNOV:  Please not to shoots me, Mr. Vice Presidents!

MR. CHENEY:

MR. SMIRNOV:  hhenng heh… heee…

MR. CHENEY:

MR. SMIRNOV:  uh… Yakov make bad joke. Please Cheney buddy, Yakov sorry.

MR. CHENEY:    As I was saying, the President and I believe the Hillbilly Arts and Entertainment community can play a crucial role in moving our country, and the political debate forward. Whether your home base is Branson or Myrtle Beach or Laughlin, whether your art is wind chimes or plywood ducks, all of you can leverage your talents to address the plight the GOP community. While winning valuable federal prizes! For example, let’s say you’re playing the weekend buffet show at an Indian bingo casino. Why not slip in a positive plug for Halliburton, or a zinger against Nancy Pelosi? I’m sure we Yakov here can find some NEA grant money to cover that as performance art. Another example — do we have any garden gnome-ists on the call?

MR. SCHMITKE:  Yes.

MR. CHENEY:    Great. You all know we are trying to grow support behind the surge in Iraq. Let’s say you wanted to illustrate this with an NEA grant to put a “surge” of 25,000 garden gnomes on the Capitol Hill lawn. Ka-ching, ka-ching ka-ching. That’s just the beginning. I encourage all of you to think about what you can do to support the President through your own individual creative medium, whether it is celebrity impersonation or macrame or welding whimsical mailbox stickmen.

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hokey dokey. Any questions?

MRS. COHEN:   Sylvia Cohen here. I guess I have two questions — one, is this art, and two, is this legal?

MR. CHENEY:   Jesus Christ, those have to be the two stupidest questions I have heard since the 2000 vice presidential debate. Jeez, do I really have to explain this to you? Of course it’s legal, you idiot! Because it’s art. And it’s art because, well, what the hell isn’t? That’s the beauty of the whole NEA system. According to the manual… what exactly does it say, Smirnov?

MR. SMIRNOV:  Let’s see… “art includes the expressive behaviors of ordinary people.”

MR. CHENEY:   Exactly, expressive behaviors. And isn’t that what you morons do? You just happen to express yourself with bead-dazzlers and lounge music. So what? Jeez, do you know how much money the NEA shells out on ‘expressive behaviors’ made from smeared poop? For your information, it subsidizes more manure than the USDA. Hell, if it wasn’t for the PR problems I would’ve asked for an NEA grant for shooting that guy in the face. So stop this silly crap about calling yourselves ’singers’ and ‘entertainers’ and ‘doll collectors.’ You are ARTISTS, kapiche?

MR. SMIRNOV:  Hokay, time for one last question.

MRS. BURGE:   Beverly Burge. I’m a scrapbooker myself, but I was wondering if this program paid for writers.

MR. CHENEY:   I dunno, I suppose. Why?

MRS. BURGE:   Well, my son David writes, and needs some money, so I thought…

MR. CHENEY:   Oh. That guy. Sorry, I don’t think we can push the standards that low.