Massachusetts senior U.S. Senator John Kerry provided a letter on Senate stationery that supported constituents who participated in last December’s anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Gaza Freedom March, led by President Barack Obama ally Code Pink.

Democrat Representative Andre Carson of Indiana’s 7th District also provided a letter of support for participants in the so-called Gaza Freedom March.

Kerry is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and was the Democratic Party’s 2004 presidential nominee.

In the letter, Kerry wrote that his staff met with the Massachusetts delegation before they left, and his staff would be briefed about the trip upon their return.

Code Pink co-founders Jodie Evans and Medea Benjamin used Kerry’s letter at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo, Egypt to pressure the Egyptian government to allow 1300 leftists passage into Gaza from Egypt.  The leftists gathered in Cairo from around the world to mark the one-year anniversary of Israel’s defense against Hamas’ rocket and mortar attacks.

Images of the letters from Kerry and Carson were posted by the publisher of The Electronic Intifada, Ali Abunimah, on his blog at Posterous.com.

Abunimah wrote that he, Benjamin and Kit Kettridge met for over an hour with “three officials, including Gina Cabrera, head of US citizen services, and Gregory D. LoGerfo, First Secretary in the Office of Economic and Political Affairs. The third official, whose name I did not note, identified himself as a ‘regional security’ official.”

Benjamin and Kettridge also met with “the embassy’s Deputy Director Matthew Tuellar, in command while Ambassador Scobey was on leave,” according to Abunimah.

(Margaret Scobey is a career Foreign Service officer who was appointed ambassador to Egypt by President George W. Bush in 2008.)

The Christian Science Monitor mentioned Kerry’s letter in a report from Cairo, but failed to question why the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was supporting the anti-Israel, pro-Hamas Gaza Freedom March.

The letter was written on letterhead from Kerry’s Boston office. The name and phone number of staffer Christopher Wyman was included as a point of contact.

Wyman did not return a message left at that number seeking comment by Big Government. The Boston office declined comment, as did Tomeika Bowden, a Kerry spokeswoman on the Foreign Relations Committee.

Rep. Carson’s press office also did not return a message from Big Government seeking comment

An article about Massachusetts residents preparing to travel to Gaza with Code Pink published by a Massachusetts paper, The Reminder, quoted Medea Benjamin saying that Hamas had given Code Pink its guarantee that the terrorist group would keep the marchers safe while they were in Gaza.

The text of Kerry’s letter is below, followed by the text of Carson’s letter.

December 23, 2009

To Whom it May Concern:

I am writing to express my strong support for members of the humanitarian delegation from Massachusetts that will be traveling to Israel and the Palestinian Territories from December 27th to January 15th. The humanitarian delegation from Massachusetts is sponsoring this visit and they plan to meet with non-governmental organizations, assess the health care system and observe human rights and trade union conditions among Israelis and Palestinians.

I respectfully request that every courtesy be given the members of the delegation during their visit. My staff has met with members of the group and is impressed with their ability, dedication and commitment to the peace process. We look forward to seeing them again upon their return and hearing about their visit.

For any questions or concerns please feel to contact Christopher Wyman in my Boston office at 617 565-8522

Thank you for cooperation in this very important matter.

Sincerely,

John F. Kerry

United States Senator

December 18, 2009

To Whom It May Concern:

I write to recognize the 1100-persons delegation, including some of my constituents, traveling to Gaza on December 29- January 2 to participate in the Gaza Freedom March and meet with NGOs and the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

The delegation, which is traveling at the invitation of UNRWA, will cross the Egyptian borders at Rafah on December 29th. I hope the Egyptian authorities will facilitate their journey, and that Israeli authorities will respect their non-violent march on December 31.

Families in Gaza, West Bank and Israel have been deeply affected by the violence in the region. I applaud all Americans, such as this group, who are working toward peace for all.

Sincerely:

Andre Carson

Member of the Congress

Kerry visited Gaza one year ago, just after Obama took office, but made a point of not meeting with Hamas.

Code Pink has worked as a conduit between Hamas and Obama, delivering a letter from the terrorist group to Obama last June. Jodie Evans met with Obama administration official Buffy Wicks at the White House after Code Pink brought the letter out of Gaza.

Jodie Evans, who was one of Obama’s top funders and donors in the 2007-2008 presidential campaign, gave Kerry $1000 in 2004 for his presidential run.

Code Pink claimed to have delivered tens of thousands of dollars worth of humanitarian aide to Hamas-controlled Gaza. The act was a reprise of the group’s efforts in late 2004 to deliver humanitarian aide to “the other side” in Fallujah, Iraq while U.S. Marines were fighting to clear the terrorist safe-haven of al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and other Sunni terrorists.

That effort was aided by Democrat Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Democrat Congressmen Raul Grijalva of Arizona, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Henry Waxman of California.

The name of Obama funder and terrorist sympathizer Jodie Evans turns up twice in recently released White House visitor logs.

Buffy Wicks, center, 2008 photo by St. Louis Argus

The logs show that a ‘Jodie Evans’ met with Buffy Wicks, the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement (OPE) on June 19, 2009. The meeting came just days after Evans’ group, Code Pink, visited the terrorist group Hamas in Gaza from May 28th to June 14th and was given a letter by Hamas to deliver to President Barack Obama.

On December 30th, the Obama administration released 25,000 records of visitors to the White House complex from the latter half of September. Mixed in those records were visits from other dates, including two by ‘Jodie Evans’ in June.

One visit is listed as a two-person meeting with Buffy Wicks in Room 146 in the Old Executive Office Building (OEOB). The meeting was scheduled at 19:02, June 16th for 10:30, June 19th by Ashley Baia, Staff Assistant with OPE. The meeting end time is recorded in the default setting of 23:59 for that day.

The record slots are blank for arrival, departure and cancellation notations, as are many of the records for visitors. There is no record of who was the second person in the meeting between ‘Jodie Evans’ and Buffy Wicks.

A week later, on June 24th, ‘Jodie Evans’ is listed as part of a group of 183 people given a “10 AM STAFF TOUR” that the log says met in the “RESIDENCE” in “WH.”

The log shows that visit by ‘Jodie Evans’ was scheduled five minutes after the tour began and was set by “VISITORS OFFICE.”

The June 24th appointment was apparently made by ‘Max Palevsky,’ a name shared by Jodie Evans’ ex-husband and current partner (it’s a California thing), on June 22nd at 17:53.

Taliban sympathizer Jodie Evans and President Barack Obama, Oct. 15, 2009

Like Jodie Evans, Max Palevsky was a bundler and donor for Obama’s presidential campaign. He was a co-host of Obama’s breakthrough Hollywood fundraiser in February 2007 along with Jodie Evans and the Dreamworks Trio.

When names of controversial associates of Obama and his administration have turned up in the visitor logs, the White House has denied that it was the controversial person and just a coincidence that similarly named people were on the list–including  ‘Jeremiah Wright’, ‘Bill Ayers’ and ‘Malik Shabazz’.

In last week’s holiday data dump, the name ‘Bertha Lewis’ turned up. The White House went on the record to deny that it was ACORN chief Bertha Lewis who visited the Obama residence in the White House. ACORN’s Bertha Lewis also denied it was her on the list.  In Big Journalism’s debut on Jan. 6 (Big Government’s sister publication), Andrew Breitbart reported about his confrontation with ACORN’s Bertha Lewis regarding her name on the White House Visitor Log.  She again denied it was her.

The White House will have a harder time denying that it was Obama funder and terrorist sympathizer Jodie Evans who twice visited the White House in June.

Last month, Jodie Evans wrote about her working with Obama’s Office of Public Engagement to coordinate communications undermining public support for Obama’s recently announced Af-Pak war strategy.

Since Obama was elected president, Jodie Evans (and Code Pink) has met with the Taliban, Hamas, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Obama, raising questions as to whether she is acting as a conduit for the terrorist groups to or from the president.

Jodie Evans has been quite outspoken in her her sympathies for terrorist groups that target the United States and our allies.

In a reprise of Code Pink’s aid for ‘the other side’ in Fallujah five years ago, Jodie Evans helped deliver ‘humanitarian aid’ to Hamas-controlled Gaza this past week. The trip was Code Pink’s seventh “delegation” to Hamas-controlled Gaza this year.

Jodie Evans was joined in her efforts aiding Hamas last week by Obama’s Hyde Park, Chicago friends and neighbors Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn–both former Weather Underground terrorists who waged war against the United States.

Are they circling the wagons?  The Democrat-party-front-group-acting Media Matters for America took great delight in hectoring Big Government over its report on ‘Bertha Lewis’ visiting the Obama White House.

Media Matters has ignored BG’s articles about Obama and Jodie Evans so far. Let’s see if they also try to knock this story down about Jodie Evans’ visits to Obama’s White House.

These are the most Underreported Stories of 2009:

1. CLIMATEGATE
Al Gore needs something to sustain him and his big pimpin’ life down at his ginormous, energy-sucking mansion in Tennessee. Thus the green market was born, a made-up market chock full of products like carbon credits and other Willy Wonka (but not as cool) ish items for people to buy as a way to feel good about themselves and their contribution to the planet without having to actually do anything. They don’t need a God! They need a Prius!

Celebrities Botoxed within an inch of their lives began popping up in PSA’s about global warming, about how we need to drive inefficient clown cars that run on electricity (which is still produced in coal-powered plants but hey, whatever) to save the planet. Musicians like Sheryl Crow crowed about using just a square of toilet paper to remove waste that has a greater street value than her latest album. All the hubris manifested in regulations handed down from Congress upon the automobile industry, the coal industry, et al., until finally! Cap’n Trade appeared in the House.

Cap’n Trade will rape and pillage your energy bills and even boss you around when it comes to remodeling or rehabbing a home. It’s almost like … congress has nothing better to do.

Then … there was Climategate. Russian hackers revealed emails from a British university (whose edicts on global warming are included in the U.N.’s decision-making process on climate) which showed that the scientists basically had no idea what they hell they were talking about but they did know that their original assessment of increased global temperatures was unsupported by data, thus, “hide the decline.”
2. THE TEA PARTY MOVEMENT
I feel bad for the staffer that had to check Nancy Pelosi’s pants after over a million tea party protesters marched past her window on September 12, 2009.

The tea party movement sprung from plain old disenchantment, disappointment, and outright anger at being fleeced by a government who mistook their primary job as being “spend cash mon-nay” rather than execute the Constitution. What began as a few groups of several hundred people gathering in the cold back in February morphed into a movement so big that now talk of PACs and third parties (total crap idea, that latter) are commonplace and a Republican candidate has no hope of winning an election without the tea party support.

The most misreported and misunderstood thing about the tea party is its political leanings. The tea party has no political leaning. It stands straight for limited government, low taxes, and liberty for all. Disagreement with those tenets is an accidental admission of socialism on the part of the antagonist. The beauty of the tea party movement is that it is independent and thus a true check and balance of the Republican and Democrat parties. It’s not a pawn of the GOP, thus untouchable in criticism of the Democrats – I view it as an unattached conscience of the Republican party.

The tea parties have been smeared, and while some haven’t helped against the charges of astroturf due to their worship of both God and money, the movement is pure.

A new version of the Minuteman has sprung from this movement: the patriot activist with the Gadsen flag on her shoulder and a video recorder or camera in her hand.

Photo courtesy Rob Brenner.

3. FORT HOOD AND ISLAMIC EXTREMISM IN THE U.S.
A guy with a history of terrorist activity (the FBI had been watching him for months) and bent on mass murder screams “ALLAHU AKBAR!” before shooting a pregnant soldier point-blank at a military base and the media would rather cover its genitals like a dog and cower in the corner rather than define the terrorist as a terrorist.

Rather, the media interviewed people who said that shooter Malik Nadal Hasan had “trouble fitting in” and isn’t it so sad how he was treated differently because of his religion? Lightbulb moment: hey! Perhaps he was treated differently because he felt prejudiced against his fellow soldiers whom he viewed as infidels who should die?

Hasan had “soldier of Allah” printed on his business cards, for crying out loud.

Nevermind that he was a participant in Obama’s transition Homeland Security  team. Oops!

4. ACORN and SEIU
Only in America can you offer to help smuggle in underage sex workers as part of your description as a taxpayer-funded “community organizer” and still get federal dollars after the scandal breaks. James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles exposed ACORN for what it truly is: a malignancy that consumes the life out of depressed areas that it never, ever improves, ever, all in the name of making residents dependent upon the teat of government welfare so as to exploit them for votes later”neighborhood organizing.”

Michael Walsh explains the repurcussions of the dynamic duo’s work:

The Senate voted 83-7 in favor of de-funding the controversial group. The House voted 345-75 to cut ACORN’s funding, and more than 20 states have demanded either a full investigation of ACORN or that they lose their funding. The IRS also ended up cutting their connections to the group.

O’Keefe and Giles made a mockery of the media who retaliated by refusing to cover the story, further hammering the last nail into their own coffin.

Despite all of this, Big Government wrote how after this egregious corruption, Democrats like Roland Burris still found a way to push for continued ACORN funding by slipping a provision requiring such in Harry Reid’s senate fauxcare bill.

SEIU shares #4 with SCORN (typo and it stays) after several of its purple people beaters attacked Kenneth Gladney (a black street vendor who I’d previously seen selling pro-Obama buttons at Obama’s Arnold, MO townhall) at Russ Carnahan’s townhall in Mehlville, Missouri after profiling him and assuming him to be a black conservative. One of the country’s most shocking and underreported race-provoked attacks grew worse when his brother, Keith Gladney, spoke out in his brother’s defense and is said to have been canned from his job two days before Christmas as a result.

At the time of this writing neither Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, or President Obama have offered to arrange a beer summit between Kenneth Gladney and Andy Stern.

5. HCR COVER-UP
The majority of the country opposes Harry Reid’s Senate bill but nevertheless, Reid bribed it through. Government media served as a mouthpiece for the administration and its policy on fauxcare, giving the President multiple hours of free network prime-time hours to peddle his snake oil on the airwaves.

The Senate vote marks the turning point in our government where those elected to represent the constituency failed to do the jobs for which they were placed in office. It was a vote of tyranny, not of representation.
6. NEA
The White House is attempting to mimic Leni Riefenstahl by rounding up those in the arts and entertainment industry and using them as the vehicles through which President Obama can peddle his agenda, I wrote back in September. Big Government combed over this scandal which went completely ignored by the media. Union baby Buffy Wicks, from the Office of Public Engagement and Serve.gov, the NEA, and others joined a variety of artists and promoters on a conference call, the goal of which was to figure out how to create propaganda to support Obama’s policies.

Big Government Editor Mike Flynn expounded further on the scandal and reminded readers how Wicks used the Serve.gov portal as a way to funnel volunteers to ACORN and other pro-Obama organizations, at taxpayer expense.

Jinkies! Looks like artists are going to have to work harder and nab more photos that other people have taken so that they can do cheesy, tri-color alterations to them that pass as pretentious, overrated and quasi-Photoshop Level 1 “art” to the people whose discernment went off the rails.

7. DHS, NAPOLITANO TARGET DISSENT
While the Department of Homeland Security and Janet Napolitano were busy marking down the names of veterans, grandmas, and college kids who waved the military-authorized Gadsen Flag or questioned Obama’s policies in public as “possible domestic terrorists,” real terrorists were already in our country, shooting up our military bases and attempting to detonate planes. Michael Savage, himself the target of the British government based upon his dissent, filed suit against Napolitano in April over DHS’s “right wing extremist” report. The charges stated:

“It is a civil rights action brought under the First and Fifth Amendments to the United States Constitution, challenging the policy, practice, and custom of the United States Government that targets for disfavored treatment those individuals and groups that are considered to be ‘rightwing extremists.”

Under the Obama administration, the government has brazenly trained its eye on those who respectfully question the government. Liberals who complained over the Patriot Act demonstrated their devotion to party over liberty by going silent as their American brethren were targeting for doing no more (less, actually) than they the liberals did under Bush.

7. KEVIN JENNINGS – FISTGATE
It wouldn’t be right if our current administration broke tradition with nominating completely inept radicals to high positions of power (gotta pay off those political favors!) and lucky for you betting types, that streak wasn’t broken with Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings.

Ah yes, the Three Rs and One F of education: Readin, Ritin’ and ‘Rithmetic. Oh, and Fisting. The required credentials for such a post:

Jennings was appointed to the position largely because of his longtime record of working to end bullying and discrimination in schools. In 1990, as a teacher in Massachusetts, he founded the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), which now has over 40 chapters at schools nationwide. He has also published six books on gay rights and education, including one that describes his own experiences as a closeted gay student.

Behold, the comedy gold:

“Jennings was obviously chosen for this job because of the safe schools aspect… defining ’safe schools’ narrowly in terms of ’safe for homosexuality’,” Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at the Family Research Council, told FOXNews.com.

“But at least half of the job involves creating drug-free schools, and we’ve not been offered any evidence about what qualifications Jennings has for promoting drug-free schools.”

Jennings’ detractors note that he made four references to his personal drug abuse in his 2007 autobiography, “Mama’s Boy, Preacher’s Son: A Memoir.” On page 103, discussing his high school years in Hawaii in the early 1980s, Jennings wrote:

“I got stoned more often and went out to the beach at Bellows, overlooking Honolulu Harbor and the lights of the city, to drink with my buddies on Friday and Saturday nights, spending hours watching the planes take off and land at the airport, which is actually quite fascinating when you are drunk and stoned.”

Er … oops? Nobody’s perfect, but it just seems practical to maybe not glorify drug use in your book while trying to get a job which requires you to keep schools and kids drug free. Too obvious?

Oh, but then came the revelations as to what GLSEN’s recommended reading actually included and Katy-bar-the-door. It was discovered that at a GLSEN conference (in conjunction with the MA Department of Education no less) elementary school kids were taught how to engage in sex acts.

Gateway Pundit reported mercilessly – as I’d hoped that anyone who cared about the well-being of our schoolchildren would do – about the “recommended reading” list Jennings chose for GLSEN and young schoolchildren which included graphic descriptions of rest-room sex and more.

State media was silent and liberal sites, such as Media Matters, defended Jennings.
8. VAN JONES
Van Jones signed his political death certificate when he signed a 9/11 truther petition stating that he believed that our own government took down the Twin Towers and not terrorists, the petition brought to light by Gateway Pundit. Of course, under an administration that refuses to even use the language because it may hurt the feelings of suicide bombers and be judged as “divisive,” one can see how Jones might not understand that the terrorists are actually our enemies.

The radical environmental czar (a one-time STORM participant, a Marxist organization) and admitted communist in the Obama administration was forced to resign, further tainting the judgement of the administration, who later admitted to not having vetted Jones well enough.

The disparity between the eerie silence from state media and the raucous exclamations from the blogosphere was expected but sad nonetheless.
9. OBAMA’S LACK OF SUCCESS
Don’t expect to see much media criticism – even if it’s objective and deserved – of our infant Messiah president. The media has a lot invested into him and they unofficially hung the last shred of their validity on his success. It’s not to say that conservatives don’t want a successful president; we define success differently than liberals. Conservatives want the United States to be successful in foreign relations, we want a thriving economy, success in maintaining individual liberty, all the good stuff of which America is made. Conservatives don’t want to see plans to nationalize and thereby socialize the private sector because the very irony of such economic strategy is that it hasn’t been successful in multitude of countries in which it’s been implemented.

Conservatives aren’t the only ones questioning Obama’s trajectory; he’s been sliding in the polls since spring; the majority of Americans disapprove of his march on health care reform; yet the media downplays all of this because they’ve gambled it all on the success of this political neophyte who quit his job as a senator so he could hightail it to Washington. (What was that the left said about quitters?)

The media’s complicity in shoring up a failing president has given an excuse for the current congressional body to repeatedly ignore the will of the people. Blogs are the new penny press; corporate media is dead.

Happy New Year!

Some editors told me they were not immediately aware of the Acorn videos on Fox, YouTube and a new conservative Web site called BigGovernment.com.  When the Senate voted to cut off all federal funds to Acorn, there was not a word in the newspaper, although a report in the Caucus blog that day covered the action. When the New York City Council froze all its funding for Acorn and the Brooklyn district attorney opened a criminal investigation, there was still nothing.

Well Mr. Hoyt, welcome to the world of the “undernews” – Mickey Kaus’s apt word for the news that everyone in the blogosphere knows about but, apparently, no one who gets his news strictly from the Times, other major newspapers, the newsweeklies, and most of the networks has the slightest inkling of.

10. “Fistgate”

Why it’s important: Because Obama’s “Safe Schools Czar,” Kevin Jennings, appears to be the kind of guy parents used to warn their kids about, and his elevation by Obama to a position of national prominence shows how far and how fast the culture has changed.  Jennings’s views – alien to most of America, but perfectly normal in his Harvard-educated social circle – are only now beginning to sink in, as his at least tacit approval of teaching various gay sexual practices to children has come to light.

Why the MSM ignored the story: Are you kidding?  And get branded as “homophobic?”  Far better to simply mainstream homosexuality in a non-judgmental way,  which has been one of the goals of the The New York Times for years now.   For a time after his appointment, Jennings appeared to be on the ropes over his 1988 counseling of a teenage boy regarding a sexual relationship with an older man.  But the boy turned out to be 16 at the time, not 15, so that’s okay then. (For a defense of Jennings, such as it is, go here:

9. Van Jones

Why it’s important: Because a self-identified communist, “Free Mumia” radical and 9/11 “Truther” nut became, however briefly, Obama’s “Green Jobs Czar,” a bogus position addressing an imaginary issue that turned out to be just another way to get Hussein’s camel’s nose under the tent in the president’s continuing end-run around the Constitution.

Why the MSM ignored the story: Are you kidding?  Jones is exactly the kind of target the MSM isn’t going to go near: black, articulate, persuasive – and absolutely hostile to the kind of country America used to be.  Fundamental change!  What’s not to like?  Which is why the Huffington Post readers were stunned when Glenn Beck finally got Jones’ scalp.  Oh well…

8. Anti-Americanism as official State Department policy

Why it’s important: Because  Foggy Bottom – long regarded by sensible policy-makers as “Indian country” – has now fully embraced its inner Kim Philby and has gone completely over to the other side.  Yes, an institution so penetrated by enemy operatives that it makes porn star Jenna Jameson look like Bernadette of Lourdes, came down squarely on the side of the mullahs as protesters battled the evil Iranian regime during the recent “elections” and, via its lapdogs at CNN, barked at the Hondurans about an illegal “coup,” as they, perfectly constitutionally, removed a Chavez-wannabe from office and, in an orderly transition, replaced him and then held free elections.

Why the MSM ignored/distorted the story: Are you kidding? The CNN en Español correspondent on the case was named Krupskaia Alis, “Krupskaya” being the famously randy wife of you-know-who; they don’t call it the “Chavez News Network” south of the border for nothing!  (Remind me to tell you my favorite Soviet-era joke about “Lenin in Warsaw” some day.) In lockstep, the rest of the media parroted the White House party line that what occurred in Honduras was a “coup” — apparently the only word they could think of to describe a “constitutional regime change.”   Bravo to the Hondurans for telling the State Department to go pound sand.

7.  The National Endowment for the Propagation of Obama

Why it’s important: The White House and the National Endowment for the Arts were recorded during a conference call encouraging pro-Obama arts types to create “art” on the theme of health care (among other issues) at a time when health care reform legislation was heading toward hot-button status. This shameless attempt at propaganda was abruptly halted after the appearance of the story on Big Hollywood, and the revelations led to the resignation of the NEA Communications Director, Yosi Sargent, and the issuance of conduct guidelines by the White House to deal with the “appearance” issues of the call.

Why the MSM ignored the story: Are you kidding? There was a direct connection to Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama’s top aides, since Sergant’s boss, Buffy Wicks, reports to Jarrett, the jewel of Shiraz, Iran, who’s a major player in Obama’s Chicago mafia.  And you know how disinclined the MSM is to harm a Democratic administration, especially while their legs are still tingling.  Luckily, Sergant’s forced resignation gave the media a perfect excuse to roll over, go back to sleep, and not cover the story.  La Buffy, meanwhile, could not believe her good fortune:  “I’m actually in the White House and working towards furthering this agenda, this very aggressive agenda.” Smile, Buffy — you’re a model public servant!

6. Andy Stern and the SEIU

Why it’s important: Return with us now to those glorious days of yesteryear, when the labor movement ruled the roost and “collective bargaining” was often negotiated at the point of a gun, one way or the other.  It was a time when labor and capital were at each other’s throats, and every right-thinking, soon-to-be-the-parent-of a red diaper baby knew whose side the Engels were on.  Because, if your cause is just, it’s OK to beat the crap out of Kenneth Gladney, a conservative African-American selling patriotic gear, and call him a “nigger.”  After all, in the ongoing struggle between labor and capital, the ends justify the means, and if a black guy gets in the way of Hope and Change, tough.

Why the MSM ignored the story: Are you kidding?  Under Andy Stern – the most frequent visitor to the Obama White House – the Service Employees International Union has gone from “who?” to the most powerful muscle operation in the country.  Recruiting heavily from the minority community – which he uses as human shields, testifying by their presence to his good motives – Stern has cleverly positioned his collection of labor gangsters as the champions of the Little Guy, the better to fly under the radar of the MSM, which is more concerned the with the “narrative” than, you know, the facts.   Following in the footsteps of such great “labor leaders” as Louis “Lepke” Buchalter and Jacob “Gurrah” Shapiro, the new Stern Gang bids fair to surpass their achievements.  But he might want to avoid their fate:

This Afternoon: Part Two

Margarida Jorge

On the evening of August 6^th hundreds of citizens were shut out of the meeting and not allowed to question their elected official while hundreds of SEIU members were ushered in a side entrance to sit in reserved seats in the front of the hall.  This followed precisely the instructions penned by Margarida Jorge of HCAN.

• We need to stack our folks in the front to create a wall around the Member…
• Get to your location early and make sure you set up the venue in a way that ensures that the attendees you want are at the front and that any protesters who come are sequestered as far as possible from the stage.
• Make sure that you assign marshals to take care of moving the crowd, keeping people organized and orderly, and acting as security

According to eye-witnesses, Elston McCowan and Perry Molens approached Kenneth Gladney and began grabbing the “Don’t Tread on Me” materials that he was distributing.  This also was in line with the instructions laid out in the HCAN memo.

• Another way to limit protesters’ ability to hijack your event is to confiscate signs or leaflets that they may bring into the venue from outside.

The climate of intimidation and frustration created by following HCAN’s rules of “Responding to Right-Wing Attacks” led to the confrontations outside of Rep. Carnahan’s town hall meeting.

The St. Louis Police were dispatched that evening to respond to the assault on Kenneth Gladney and arrests were made.  Big Government has already revealed the 24-page police report detailing the police’s own account of the events as well as eye-witness testimony.  The suspects taken by the police that night were booked on assault charges and last Wednesday, November 25^th, more than three months after the incident, charges were finally brought against the suspects.

Elston McCowan

As anyone who has taken a high school civics class can tell you (or, more likely, anyone who has ever seen an episode of ‘Law and Order’), city and county attorneys are responsible for prosecuting suspects who the police arrest.  The County Prosecuting Attorney has ultimate authority over cases such as the arrest of SEIU senior staff members Elston McCowan and Perry Molens.  And the Prosecuting Attorney is an elected official which by definition makes that person a politician.  Who is the politician ultimately responsible for ensuring the crimes against Kenneth Gladney are brought to justice?

Meet Robert McCulloch .  Robert McCulloch  is the St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney in whose jurisdiction these arrests were made.  Last year, during the presidential election, Robert McCulloch was a central figure in something called “The Barack Obama Truth Squad”.  This “truth” squad was created at the request of the Missouri Obama for America campaign.  As KMOV reported at the time:

“They will be reminding voters that Barack Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes for anyone who makes less than $250,000 a year. They also say they plan to respond immediately to any ads and statements that violate Missouri’s ethics laws.”

McCulloch himself was quoted in the report saying:

“If they’re not going to tell the truth, somebody’s got to step up and say, ‘That’s not true. This is the truth.’”

That is what McCulloch said he would do on “The Barack Obama Truth Squad” in his capacity as Prosecuting Attorney, NOT as a paid employee of the Obama for America Campaign.  Please understand, in September of 2008, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch  took on as his responsibility as a public official, paid for by the good people of Missouri, the role of “Rapid Response” for the Obama Campaign responsible for informing the voters of what is true and what is not, all the time reminding everyone that Barack Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes for anyone who makes less than $250,000 a year.  I think even the most casual observer can look at this and reach the conclusion that Mr. McCulloch  brings with him a certain level of partisan bias when executing his duties as Prosecuting Attorney.

As the KMOV report stated:

“The Barack Obama campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading TV ad during the presidential campaign.”

“The Barack Obama campaign is asking…”  We have already discussed who was in charge of the Barack Obama campaign in Missouri, but I think it bears repeating:

• Buffy Wicks ran the Obama for America campaign in Missouri, Buffy Wicks now works for Valerie Jarret in the White House Office of Public Engagement and was involved in the NEA Conference Calls.
• Sara Howard worked with Buffy Wicks on the Obama for America Campaign in Missouri and Sarah Howard worked at SEIU in St Louis.  The day before the St. Louis town hall she was hired by Rep. Russ Carnahan.
• Margarida Jorge also worked at SEIU in St. Louis, just like Sara Howard and Margarida wrote the HCAN memo on fighting back against the right.
• Just like Jorge and Howard, Elston McCowan and Perry Molens worked at SEIU in St. Louis.  They have been charged with the bloody assault of Kenneth Gladney.

Now, let’s add THIS one to the mix:

• Robert McCulloch worked on behalf of the Obama for America campaign (Wicks and Howard) by aggressively promoting a pre-emptive strike against negative campaigning against Barack Obama.  McCulloch is the person charged with the duty to bring charges against McCowan and Molens for assaulting Gladney outside the town hall meeting of Carnahan arranged by Howard following the volatile template written by Jorge!  (Follow all that?)

So, how did McCulloch do in executing his duties in the Gladney case?  McCulloch handed the case over to county counselor Patricia Redington and washed his hands from that point on.  It is interesting that McCulloch moved so quickly in using intimidation tactics by wielding the power of his office and the threat of legal ramifications for any negative advertising that may have suggested that candidate Obama might not actually lower taxes on everyone making $250,000 per year (have you gotten your tax cut yet?) but he passed the buck when it came to this case.

Meanwhile, Redington let this case languish for months before finally bringing modest charges against the suspects on the afternoon before Thanksgiving (an obvious attempt to let the story disappear).  One week before the charges were brought, Big Government reported:

• Redington hasn’t spoken to Kenneth Gladney
• Redington hasn’t called any of the witnesses on the police report.
• Redington hasn’t contacted any of the Tea Party members that are seen on video
• Redington hasn’t contacted any of the people who shot video that night and whose YouTube urls are listed on the evidence page

Also, despite the fact that Redington never investigated the injuries Gladney suffered and never interviewed the medical personnel who administered assistance to Gladney, she still felt it best to reduce the charges down to an ordinance violation.  In the words of Judge Anthony Napolitano:  “The moral equivalent of jay walking.”

But, make no mistake; this is happening on McCulloch’s watch.  He has the authority to handle this case and to ensure that proper charges are filed, but he has chosen not to.  It begs the question:  If he jumped through the “Truth Squad” hoops when Buffy Wicks asked him to during the campaign, is it possible he has turned his back on this case for similar reasons?

Tomorrow:  We reveal a document linking the activities of HCAN and SEIU in August at the town hall meetings with the highest levels of the Government.

The meetings hosted by HCAN (like the one on August 6^th in St. Louis) were set up using these rules.  Americans showed up at these meetings thinking that it would be an opportunity to address their elected representatives and talk to them about the single most important piece of legislation our congress has proposed in decades.  Instead, they were pushed to the back of the room and shouted down by the well-trained SEIU members.  Eventually, an American citizen who was distributing “Don’t Tread on Me” flags and buttons was assaulted by a handful of the SEIU members.  His name is Kenneth Gladney.

Let’s look at that memo and how it matches the events of August 6^th:

• One advantage to organizing your own Town Hall or public event with Members of Congress is that you will have much more control over the event and limit the other side’s opportunities for disruption.
• Make sure you turn out a substantial number of people from your base and that everyone signs a sign-in sheet upon entering the event. Give everyone name tags so they are easily identifiable. If you want to ensure greater control over turnout, you can ask attendees to RSVP or even issue tickets to the event and require presentation of the ticket at the entrance.
• Choose a venue that is difficult for the opposition to access without being noticed. Get to your location early and make sure you set up the venue in a way that ensures that the attendees you want are at the front and that any protesters who come are sequestered as far as possible from the stage.
• Make sure that you assign marshals to take care of moving the crowd, keeping people organized and orderly, and acting as security should any need arise to ask noisy or disruptive protesters to leave.
• Another way to limit protesters’ ability to hijack your event is to confiscate signs or leaflets that they may bring into the venue from outside. The best way to do this is to make a blanket rule that no one can bring signs or leaflets and to advertise this fact as you do turn out in the weeks preceding the event. You can distribute your own signs in the event and offer them one as they enter if you choose to allow them to enter.
• It’s important that you take away right-wingers opportunities to talk with reporters by making sure that your staff or leaders are in constant contact with the media who attend.

According to Harris Himes an eyewitness at the scene of the town hall meeting the evening of the 6^th:

They let in about two hundred of us but had about 120 seats set aside, marked “RSVP,” and these were for Carnahan supporters. These people were let in by a side door for the “handicapped.” Many had purple t-shirts with “Organizing for America” in white letters on the back and large “SEIU,” smaller “Service Employees International Union” on the front. They shut the doors on about 1000 people around 6:30 pm for the 7:00 pm event. After being introduced, Carnahan spoke but was booed frequently while the supporters stood and applauded…. Finally, Carnahan stood for questions. It turned out that the questions had to be written and turned in. The dissenters booed, shouting that they didn’t know this and hadn’t been given a chance to write any. It didn’t make any difference, because he answered a couple of seminar questions and then announced that he had to leave about 8:30 for an “interview”—after most of the time had been taken up by the panel.

Also on the evening of the 6^th, a town hall meeting organized by HCAN and OFA was set up in Tampa Bay, FL with Rep. Kathy Castor.  An eyewitness describes what is seen on this YouTube video:

This is part one of the Tampa Town Hall meeting on August 6. Left Wing organizers are seen passing out Obama Flyers and signs.  Once they see that right wingers have their own sings, they quickly pick them up and hide them. Hundreds of people are outside trying to get in, many of them who had been waiting for hours while others were able to sneak in the back door. Even with all this, there was still many in the audience that booed once Kathy Castor started detailing the Health Care Plan.

And here is a second description on a YouTube video that shows the “marshals” and security forces in action:

Kathy Castor’s union thugs beat up a guy (in the green shirt – evidence 3:21) and shut the doors to prevent the opposing opinions from being heard. She then proceeded leave, not taking any questions, because “she couldn’t hear.

The Tampa Bay meeting and the St. Louis meetings followed the same templates and they were both arranged by HCAN and OFA.  Both ended with pushing and shoving (in both cases the pushing being done by card-carrying members of SEIU) and both ended with the elected official leaving after only answering a few scripted questions put forth by plants in the crowd.

It is hard to not reach the conclusion that the events of August 6^th were a result that could have been expected given the rhetoric from elected officials in the Democratic Party (Speaker Pelosi saying the protesters carries swastikas) and the President’s Advisers (Jim Messina telling Senators “if they hit you, we will punch them back twice as hard”) coupled with the instructions handed down to obedient union members by their union leaders.  If you agree that HCAN and OFA were instrumental in creating the climate for violent confrontation that led to Kenneth Gladney’s assault, then it is important to learn about the leadership of HCAN and the SEIU members who are suspects in the assault and learn who they are and what might have motivated their actions.

Meet Margarida Jorge.  She works for HCAN and is the person who released the memo that served as a template for the meetings in Tampa Bay and St. Louis.  Ms. Jorge worked for SEIU in Missouri prior to her position at HCAN.  She is often featured at the People’s World web page (a direct descendant of the Daily Worker the newspaper of the American Socialist and Marxist Movement).  In fact, Ms. Jorge was honored with an award from People’s World for her work with an organization called Progressive Vote, or Pro-Vote.  Pro-Vote is a coalition of many organizations including SEIU, HCAN and ACORN.  Their mission:  To fight for progressive issues and progressive candidates.

That is Margarida Jorge.  She wrote the HCAN memo.  In the past she worked with Sara Howard.

Meet Sara Howard.  She used to work with SEIU.  She also worked for a group called America Coming Together (ACT).  In the 2004 campaign, ACT was very active in registering voters on behalf of the Kerry Campaign.  ACT was later fined $775,000 for taking illegal donations (including those from SEIU), the largest FEC fine in history.  She also worked as a Senior Strategist for Obama for America.  On August 5^th, the day before the St. Louis town hall meeting featuring Rep. Russ Carnahan, Sara Howard was named the Communications Director for the Missouri Democrat.

That is Sara Howard.  She is Russ Carnahan’s Communication’s Director.  When she was working on the Obama Campaign, she was under the direction of Buffy Wicks.

Meet Buffy Wicks.  Buffy Wicks is the Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement directly under Valerie Jarrett.  She was the White House representative on the infamous conference calls involving Yosi Sergant and the NEA which were exposed by Big Hollywood resulting in Mr. Sergant’s forced resignation.  Before her job at the White House Buffy Wicks ran the Obama Campaign operation in Missouri where she was instrumental in get out the vote programs involving SEIU, ACORN and Pro-Vote, where she worked with Sara Howard and Margarida Jorge.

That is Buffy Wicks, Sara Howard and Margarida Jorge.  In their capacities with SEIU and Pro-Vote and HCAN and the Obama Campaigns, they were involved with SEIU Public Service Director and former organizer Elston McCowan and SEIU Business Agent and Organizer Perry Molens.  McCowan and Molens are the men charged with the assault on Kenneth Gladney.

Let me just lay this out once more:

• Margarida Jorge worked at SEIU in St. Louis.  She wrote the HCAN memo on fighting back against the right.
• Sara Howard worked at SEIU in St Louis.  She also worked for Obama For America.  The day before the St. Louis town hall, she was hired by Rep. Russ Carnahan.
• Elston McCowan and Perry Molens worked at SEIU in St. Louis.  They have been charged with the bloody assault of Kenneth Gladney.
• Jorge, Howard, McCowan and Molens were all involved with Buffy Wicks at Obama For America in Missouri.
• Buffy Wicks now works for Valerie Jarret in the White House Office of Public Engagement and was involved in the NEA Conference Calls.

Does your head hurt yet?  If it doesn’t, it will tomorrow.

Tomorrow we will show how this small network of insiders in the leftist political power structure of St. Louis are inter-connected with the very people charged with investigating and prosecuting the individuals responsible for beating Kenneth Gladney.  And, how those same people were also instrumental in the Obama Campaign in Missouri in 2008.  We will show how the three month delay in bringing charges against the assailants appear to be motivated by political and personal relationships in the close-knit family that is the St. Louis Democratic Party.

The mandates of the office dictate how those entrusted with its power should act.  The Obama White House has failed to maintain the high standards of this office.  Rather than operating in a dignified manner the staff has desecrated the office by resorting to old-school Chicago-style politics.  That is to say they’ve used the Presidency to reward their friends and single out and attack their enemies.

The White House bully pulpit should be used to advocate for policies to benefit the American public.  Instead we’ve seen it used to inure benefits to political supporters and to wage campaigns against critics.

The National Endowment for the Arts call on August 10, 2009 is a prime example of how the Obama Administration has sought to reward its friends.  They invited “artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, tastemakers, leaders or just plain cool people” to advocate on behalf of the Obama Administration.  Buffy Wicks from the White House Office of Public Engagement used the call to express her “deep appreciation for all the work that you all put into the campaign for the two plus years that we all worked together.”  Ben Shapiro has revealed how this improper political call violated a slew of federal laws in a shallow attempt to reward Obama’s political supporters and enlist their aid in producing government sponsored propaganda.

While rewarding supporters the White House has also aggressively used the bully pulpit to attack and intimidate those who dare to offer a dissenting viewpoint.  These bullying tactics include singling out talk show hosts and engaging in a vicious campaigns against them.  Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has targeted Rush Limbaugh, Jim Cramer, and Rick Santelli.

The Obama Administration has also attacked Fox News calling it “a wing of the Republican Party.”  White House Communications Director Anita Dunn has been using her position extract revenge on Fox News for a grudge she still holds against the network resulting from its coverage of the Obama campaign.

Recently the Obama Administration has set its sights on the voice of business, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  The Administration has honed in on the organization for opposing the White House healthcare and climate change proposals.  The President has called their advertisements “completely false.”  He has made public statements criticizing the organization for its policy proposals and impact.  When viewed in light of the NEA call the lesson becomes clear, Obama welcomes your input as long as you agree with him.

The Obama White House isn’t winning on the issues.  Their fight for universal healthcare has not met with the approval of the American public.  They’ve had to enlist the help of the Obama Campaign machine which is now housed at the Democratic National Committee under the auspices of the Organizing for America banner to fight for the President’s policy proposals. 

While Organizing for America has advocated for the President’s policy proposals, Robert Gibbs and Rahm Emanuel have turned the White House into a powerful weapon used to quell political dissent.  Even the Left has to admit that President Bush had too much respect for the office to use it in such a distasteful manner.

Coincidence? Buffy Wicks ran Obama’s Missouri campaign and two of St. Louis high-profile prosecuting attorneys, both Democrats, threatened to target anyone who dared to spread misinformation about the then-candidate, known as “Obama’s Truth Squad.”

If the NEA conference call is any indication, the answer is no.

Wicks, who works in the Obama White House as the Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement, helped orchestrate, and took part in, the infamous NEA call which asked the artistic community to sell their souls for a partisan political agenda.

You know, in the name of art.

One year ago on September 23rd, KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis reported that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and St. Louis Circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce joined a high-profile group of law enforcement officials (including Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer) threatening to invoke “Missouri ethics laws” against anyone the prosecutors determined had spread misleading information about Obama.

Said McCullough:

“If they’re not going to tell the truth, somebody’s got to step up and say, ‘That’s not the truth. This is the truth.’”

The KMOV report stated:

“They will be reminding voters that Barack Obama is a Christian who wants to cut taxes for anyone who makes less than $250,000 a year. They also say they plan to respond immediately to any ads and statements that violate Missouri’s ethics laws.”

Is it too much to assume that perhaps Wicks convened with McCullough and Joyce to ask for their assistance in stamping out dissent?

KMOV reported:

“The Barack Obama campaign is asking Missouri law enforcement to target anyone who lies or runs a misleading TV ad during the presidential campaign.”

The campaign is asking. The only assumption with which we’re left is that Wicks, as the head of the Missouri campaign, was directly involved with the attempt to misuse St. Louis prosecutors against the people they serve – especially considering the precedence established by the NEA call. Wicks’s modus operandi is enlisting others to do Obama’s dirty work, disrespecting the skills and responsibilities of professionals and artists by co-opting their talents in the name of partisan politics.

These tricks bring to mind one of my favorite monologues from Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter):

“Growing up in the rural part of Georgia, I’ve been around compost all my life. I’ve seen it tilled and hoed and spread across fields far and wide, but until today, I’ve never seen it tied up and gift-wrapped in such a neat and tidy and pretty a package. Congratulations! You’re a very clever girl–but it’s still compost.”

More: Reporter John Mills’ response

Now we have new evidence that the White House itself has been using its sway to recruit artists – not just to support President Obama’s “volunteerism” initiatives, but to support basic planks of his political agenda, including health care.  In fact, the White House has been tapping its extragovernmental political allies to work with artists with the tacit promise that NEA funds will be in the offing for those who join the Obama Administration political program.

According to a briefing report from Arlene Goldbard, the Pratt Center for Community Development, State Voices, and the Nathan Cummings Foundation, on May 12, 2009, “more than 60 artists and creative organizers engaged in civic participation, community development, education, social justice activism, and philanthropy came together for a White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery.”  Each of the sponsors of the meeting was contacted by – yes, you guessed it – Yosi Sergant, who had just been promoted from the Office of Public Engagement to serve at the NEA.

According to the briefing report, the meeting had three segments: “(1) a meeting at the Kaiser Family Foundation to prepare for the briefing, (2) the two-hour White House briefing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and (3) a post-briefing meeting at Bus Boys & Poets to interpret and respond to what we had learned …”

Mike Strautmanis, Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Liaison, spoke at the White House meeting.  He introduced Sergant, and stated that Sergant represented the “commitment to bring in people not traditionally part of the political process to share their talents and skills.”  More ominously, he stated that “With Yosi and Anita Decker (Director of Government Affairs at the NEA) in place… people very close to the President are involved in the effort.”

Joseph Reinstein, Deputy Social Secretary for the President, spoke at the meeting as well.  When he was asked by one artist whether there was a “direct link between arts policy and the Department of Education,” Reinstein stated, “President Obama has asked for greater cohesion and collaboration between agency work and departments …”  In other words, departments under the President’s control are being coordinated with supposedly independent agencies like the NEA.

As if the promise of “quid pro art” weren’t explicit enough from that comment, one questioner (artist Doria Roberts) asked about grants for individual artists: “how open will administration policy be to grants for individuals?”  Reinstein replied that while he couldn’t speak to that issue personally, others in the room – read Sergant and Buffy Wicks – could.  The proper legal response would have been to reject any link between the meeting and NEA funding.  Instead, Reinstein punted, implying that such funding would be forthcoming.

Then it got downright disturbing.  Mario Garcia Durham, Director of Presenting for the National Endowment for the Arts, spoke as well.  Apparently, he explained that “what the NEA supports and emphasizes comes from artists and organizations.”  He also told people to apply to the NEA, and that the NEA was committed to “the new Administration’s goals.”  Then he made the king of all booboos: he announced that there was a direct link between shaping government policy and the NEA.  “Government and its policies,” the brief reports Durham said, “should be shaped by participants’ voices in connection with the NEA.”

Perhaps the most problematic aspect of the meeting, however, was that it wasn’t just the White House and artists at this meeting – it was the White House, artists, and community organizers: specifically, far-left community organizers in the ACORN mold.  The NEA has a commitment to be nonpartisan, but by inviting community organizers and unions to a meeting with artists, it breaks that commitment.

This meeting was designed to concretize the synergistic relationship between far-left community organizers, the White House, the NEA, and artists.  Last week, I said that the White House was trying to set up an ACORN for the Arts.  I was speaking figuratively.  This meeting, however, makes that accusation literal.

At the after-meeting, Michael Nolan of Communications, Contacts & Concepts headed up a group that discussed artists actually writing legislation – in particular, “finding places in the Stimulus Bill where Community Arts organizations can insert themselves.”  That’s right – artists, with the tacit promise of NEA funding, attempting to rewrite Congressional legislation.

It gets worse.  The post-White House meeting working group on Healthcare Reform was led up not by an artist but by Michelle Miller of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).  The SEIU is led by Andy Stern, who picked ACORN head Wade Rathke to handle SEIU’s organizing projects across the country (for more on the SEIU-ACORN relationship, see pieces by Don Loos and Anita Moncrief at Big Government).  At the May 12 meeting, SEIU was essentially tapped by the White House to lead artists in the right direction on health care.

The immigration reform working group was led by Sally Kohn of the Center for Community Change, a far-left pro-illegal immigration organization.  Again, why was the White House, in conjunction with the NEA, sponsoring an event for artists where leftist community organizers were tapped to discuss these issues with possible grantee artists?

The White House’s total unconcern with using the NEA to promise funding, then bringing in a combination of radical left community organizers to help brainstorm with artists is troubling in the extreme.  Again, if all of what has been reported in this briefing report is true, laws were broken.  By law, the NEA must remain apolitical.  By law, the White House must not funnel federal funds to its friends, or use the NEA to do so.  By law, neither the White House nor the NEA may use their governmental status to push outside entities to shape legislation, or provide administrative support for lobbying activities of private organizations.

All of these things were done at this meeting, if the briefing report is correct.  Congress must investigate this meeting, too.  And Americans must be on a sharp lookout for the quid pro art that is quietly and steadily taking place with our tax dollars.

“What did the White House do wrong,” he asked.

“The White House attempted to use federal agencies for political gain,” I blurted out.

President Obama with former NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergant

And that is The Big Truth in a nutshell. A moment of clarity hit me, and as with most eureka moments, a path of how to explain this big truth came into sight. The full story needed to be told – including possible collusion, the White House’s novel mode of operation, and the eventual cover-up – to fully understand and illuminate the government’s intention with their arts effort.

Up until now, I have not discussed Sergant’s former job in the White House Office of Public Engagement, where Buffy Wicks currently resides, because the story had to develop to understand the significance. I also haven’t discussed the email that I received from Michael Skolnik, the moderator of the call, immediately after the publication of the original conference call article – an email that attempted to revise history and the role of the NEA and the White House in the meeting. And what has yet to be discussed is the White House’s recent ability to set up an ArtistCorps, brought into existence with less than 20 words in the Serve America Act. (more…)

Anyway, once you get upstairs it’s literally a few short steps to Valerie Jarret’s office.  She’s been crazy busy integrating Van Jones into the new ruling class, so you might pass her office and it’s only one more door to go.  Now you’re at the corner suite of Christina Tschen, Chicago lawyer, long-time Obama crony friend and major fundraiser for his campaign.  She must have raised a lot of dough, because her office is pretty sweet, and it’s right above Barack Obama’s Oval Office.  Cool, huh? (more…)

Initially you could type “ACORN” into the search field on Serve.gov and various listings from planting trees to volunteering to get out the vote in Ohio, for ACORN, would appear in the results. It’s important to note that several ACORN positions were listed directly on the federally-funded Serve.gov – not just on the AllforGood.org website.

The act of removing these listings indicates that Serve.gov knew it was a) wrong to use a federal website to funnel volunteers to campaign for the president and DNC and, 2) bad for them to be seen further associating with ACORN in light of the recently released videos combined with ongoing investigations.

This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that the administration is finished with trying to recruit Americans for do-gooder volunteer opportunities that are subterfuge for unpaid political promotion; they’ve just realized that perhaps advertising it on a site for which we all pay perhaps isn’t the slickest way to go about it.

We’ve heard the audio from the now-infamous NEA call that asks for sympathetic artists to allow their skills to be co-opted by the administration so that they may push their agenda in a subtler manner. On the call we heard people like Buffy Wicks and Nell Abernathy mention Serve.gov and United We Serve together when discussing the topic of volunteer recruitment.

The White House has not offered an apology nor explanation as to why taxpayers were paying for a federal website to push an agenda that half the country opposes.

This, coupled with the NEA scandal, shows that this administration hasn’t abandoned its goal of using subterfuge to raise synthetic support for its agenda and will use any means possible.

From a list of those participating in the conference call:

After we uncovered the link between Winner and Associates, David Axelrod, and the smear campaign against Sarah Palin designed to look as though it was coming from the “grass roots” we begged — literally begged! — the MSM to look into whether the large campaign consulting firm was subcontracted by David Axelrod for work on the Obama campaign. As I noted at the time, I’m just a blogger and don’t really have the resources necessary to conduct a thorough investigation.

As Ace notes here, once Ethan Winner confessed that he was behind the video, the MSM concluded that there was nothing more to investigate. This despite the fact that I showed that at least two other Winner and Associate employees — a subdivision of the largest advertising agency in the world — participated in the astroturfing campaign during normal business hours.

Three employees, one of them the President of the subdivision and another a VP, claimed they were doing this on their own time — which we showed could not have been the case — and on their own dime. On their own dime? Maybe, but it still seems unlikely.

And now we have another Winner and Associates guy at the NEA conference call? He’s also listed as one of the founders of Generation Obama.

Are you going to now tell me that his relationship with Generation Obama is purely on a volunteer basis? And that his involvement with what appears to be a move to make the NEA push Obama’s agenda is being done pro-bono?

Winner and Associates: the largest PR firm in California, but all their major work is done for free!

Something. Doesn’t. Add. Up.

More over at Ace’s.

UPDATE:

Smoking Gun?

We found out, when earlier this year, one of our Senior Associates, Bim Ayandele, was asked by the Obama Administration to help with the launch of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement (OPE).

And who runs the White House Office of Public Engagement? Buffy Wicks, who set up the NEA phone call.

Thanks to Stable Hand.

UPDATE 9/22/2009: It looks like Bim Ayandele uses twitter. His tweets after the August 10th NEA conference seem to suggest that he’s involved in an orchestrated astroturfing campaign.

Follow the link and take a close look at the time stamps. He’s pushing Health Care and anti-Tea Party propaganda on company time during normal business hours.

Also not that none of his tweets prior to the conference call were political in nature. After the conference call nearly all of them are. Yet we are to believe that a paid political consultant with a firm that specializes in damage control and grassroots organizations just happened to be in on a non-partisan call for artists?

Artists who, after the call, “spontaneously” begin to support Obama’s health care plans?

Give. Me. A. Break.

This has all the signs of astroturfing. Will post updates at link above.

PS– Here’s the original Ethan Winner produced video mashed with an official David Axelrod/Obama produced video.

UPDATE NEWBIE: Its the Cover-up

Update by Howie:

Hmmm right after I started following Bim’s twitter feed. He took down his icon.

click for larger

Odie must have frightened him. He is kinda scary in a harmless comic book kind of way. I mean not as scary as Bim’s thug icon but pretty scary.

Oh and Bim, its called the Google cache.

Update II: Awww, you put it back, there you go Bim……if you’re going to be a thug, be a proud thug.

My sources in the progressive movement say Buffy Wicks handled the Obama campaign in Missouri last year. Obama lost in Missouri and activists in that state and people within the Obama campaign placed the blame for the defeat squarely on her shoulders. 

After failing to win Missouri for Obama, Wicks had a very hard time finding a job but somehow she landed a job in the Obama White House. It’s unclear how she did that.

 Wicks has indirect ties to ACORN. She worked with ACORN but apparently not for ACORN. A HuffPo writer lavishes praise on her for her abilities as an organizer.

Wicks used to work for Wake Up Wal-Mart (wakeupwalmart.com), which is not a formal affiliate of ACORN but is an ACORN-sponsored spinoff group. The group works very closely with ACORN and is modeled after ACORN’s own anti-Wal-Mart affiliate W*A*R*N* (Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now).

 Wake Up Wal-Mart entered into a national partnership with ACORN in 2005. In a Wake Up Wal-Mart press release from 2005, ACORN national president Maude Hurd said: “This is a new day in the fight to change Wal-Mart. We have created an unprecedented, bottom-up force for change which will demonstrate why Wal-Mart needs to change now.”

The group’s legal name is Change Wal-Mart Association. It has a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) of 20-2643179. It is a 501(c)(5) nonprofit, which means it is a labor-oriented organization. The group was formed in 2006 but no tax return (IRS Form 990) is available for the group at guidestar.org. This is unusual.

Donations to the group do not appear in philanthropy databases. Fortune reports that the group is funded entirely by UFCW.

Nexis reports that its office address is 1775 K St. NW, Washington DC 20006. This is the same address as the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW). This is not surprising because Wake Up Wal-Mart is a project of UFCW.

Wicks is identified as a Wake Up Wal-Mart employee in a press release issued by the group.

Do you remember that NEA phone call? I think it was back in August, the 21st or the 25th, and it featured basically a coordination from the White House to the National Endowment for the Arts to promote Obama’s health care and parts of his domestic agenda. One of the artists on that call got hold of Breitbart and said they’re turning the National Endowment for the Arts and www.Serve.gov, the latest website out of the White House, into political instruments, and there are four pieces written on this at BigGovernment.com. But all it really exposes up ’til now is that the NEA was lying about their coordination with the Obama White House on spreading propaganda. This is the thing that George Will had a comment on This Week, said some laws were broken in this call. Then after some attention was focused on this they announced that the National Endowment for the Arts director of communications Yosi Sargent had been reassigned. They said he was fired but he was actually just reassigned.

A week later George Will wrote a Washington Post column on this and understandably a lot of people are infuriated about the politicization of the NEA and turning it into an Obama campaign. I don’t know why anybody is surprised about this. Folks, the private sector of this country is being gobbled up like Pacman on steroids. The idea the Obama administration would be using some left-wing agency like the NEA to spread his domestic propaganda is not a shock. There hasn’t been any evidence up ’til now, though, of Obama being involved in it, just the NEA. But that is until today. Now, the BigGovernment.com website has full audio and a full transcript. It’s 44 pages. There are 25 different audio sound bites. We’re putting together a couple of key elements of the sound bites from this page and we hope to have it in the next hour, but the transcript and the full audio at BigGovernment.com. Apparently the full transcript here shows the White House orchestrating this through a woman named Buffy Wicks with the White House Office of Public Engagement. Buffy Wicks works under Valerie Jarrett, who is at the right hand of Barack Obama, The Almighty.

Also in the call, orchestrating service in the name of Obama to the NEA — you gotta go out and serve, you gotta advance the agenda in service, the name of Obama, Nell Abernathy, director of outreach of the Corporation of National and Community Service, which is the independent agency that is the parent of the president’s United We Serve initiative. Now, they got rid of Yosi Sergeant, they threw him under the bus, they reassigned him within but what happens is by getting rid of this guy they’re trying to cover up the fact the White House is involved in using the NEA to spread Obama propaganda and as George Will has speculated, there have to be laws being violated here. The White House and Valerie Jarrett admit that by reassigning Yosi that something was wrong, a tantamount admission by their action. But the White House it turns out, according to Breitbart’s website, is in charge of the call, has ties to ACORN, even. We know that www.Serve.gov, we mentioned last week, all it is is an end run now that ACORN is in trouble, Serve.gov simply, if you call in there, if you go to their website, they’ll redirect you to various front community organizations all tied to the White House designed to spread the Obama agenda.

Full audio and transcript of this segment of “The Rush Limbaugh Show” here.