Obama Funder ‘Jodie Evans’ In White House Visitor Log days after Code Pink Hamas Trip

[Note: This is the latest segment in an ongoing series about Code Pink and its co-founder Jodie Evans. Click here to read earlier articles.]

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.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andrew Breitbart, Barack Obama, Bertha Lewis, Big Journalism, Bill Ayers
Posted Jan 8th 2010 at 6:07 am in Defense, Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics | 56930113 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/taylorking/2010/01/08/obama-funder-jodie-evans-name-in-white-house-visitor-log-days-after-code-pink-hamas-trip/Obama+Funder+%27Jodie+Evans%27+In+White+House+Visitor+Log+days+after+Code+Pink+Hamas+Trip2010-01-08+14%3A07%3A04Kristinn+Taylor+and++Andrea+Shea+King

‘Clueless’ Clark Alert: The Top Ten Undernews Stories of the Year, Part I

Because nobody who’s anybody reads the The New York Times these days, except the die-harders and dead-enders along West End Avenue, as well as the editors of Time and Newsweek, you may not know who “Clueless” Clark Hoyt is, but it really doesn’t matter because he doesn’t know who you are, either.  For those scoring at home in their pajamas, Mr. Hoyt is the “public editor” of the Times, i.e. the hapless fellow who has to write those tedious Sunday reports to the readers, in which he explains why whatever the Times did was right and whatever they didn’t do… well, hey, they didn’t know about it!  What do you think they are, a “newspaper of record” or something?

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.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, ACORN videos, Andy Stern, Buffy Wicks, Clark Hoyt
Posted Dec 18th 2009 at 5:29 am in ACORN, Culture, Featured Story, Media Criticism | 4708632 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mwalsh/2009/12/18/clueless-clark-alert-the-top-ten-undernews-stories-of-the-year-part-i/%27Clueless%27+Clark+Alert%3A+The+Top+Ten+Undernews+Stories+of+the+Year%2C+Part+I2009-12-18+13%3A29%3A53Michael+Walsh

Anatomy of a Beat-Down Part 3: Why Kenneth Gladney Was Beaten And by Whom

In Part 1 of this series we detailed the events leading up to the assault on Kenneth Gladney on August 6^th and revealed the document written by Margarida Jorge at Health Care for American Now (HCAN) a front group funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) which laid a blueprint for the unions to follow that evening at Rep. Russ Carnahan’s town hall meeting.  Yesterday, in Part 2, we exposed a second town hall meeting that occurred the same night in Tampa Bay, FL with Rep. Kathy Castor that followed the same structure and had very similar results.  We also detailed the relationships of key decision makers at HCAN, Rep. Carnahan’s office and the White House and showed how they were all inter-related at SEIU, the Obama for America campaign and the two accused of assaulting Kenneth Gladney that evening.

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

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Barack Obama, Bob McCulloch, Buffy Wicks, Carnahan town hall, Elston McCowan
Posted Dec 2nd 2009 at 3:19 pm in Big Labor | 4009449 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sright/2009/12/02/anatomy-of-a-beat-down-part-3-why-kenneth-gladney-was-beaten-and-by-whom/Anatomy+of+a+Beat-Down+Part+3%3A+Why+Kenneth+Gladney+Was+Beaten+And+by+Whom2009-12-02+22%3A19%3A01Larry++O%26%2339%3BConnor

Anatomy of a Beat-Down Part 2: Why Kenneth Gladney Was Beaten And by Whom

Yesterday we discussed the events leading up to the August 6^th health care town hall meeting featuring Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO).  The event was hosted by Health Care For American Now (HCAN) and Organizing for America (OFA), the former a front group for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the latter an off-shoot of the Obama Campaign now run by the Democratic National Committee (DNC).  We revealed a four page document released by HCAN two days before the August 6^th town hall meeting.  In that document, guidelines are revealed for members of HCAN (union members) on how best to stifle the protestations of ObamaCare.

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: (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, Americans Coming Together, Buffy Wicks, David Axelrod, Democratic National Committee
Posted Dec 1st 2009 at 1:42 pm in Big Labor, Featured Story | 3913455 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sright/2009/12/01/anatomy-of-a-beat-down-part-2-why-kenneth-gladney-was-beaten-and-by-whom/Anatomy+of+a+Beat-Down+Part+2%3A+Why+Kenneth+Gladney+Was+Beaten+And+by+Whom2009-12-01+20%3A42%3A37Larry++O%26%2339%3BConnor

Obama’s Shock Troops: SEIU and Political Intimidation in St. Louis

Yesterday, Pastor Himes provided powerful, and courageous, witness to the union violence he and his wife saw in St. Louis on August 6th.  They provided strong testament to the union attack on Kenneth Gladney. But, his comments only dealt with the events of that day. Evidence is emerging that the events of that day went far beyond St. Louis and may have been part of a nationally orchestrated campaign to intimidate and silence dissent.

When Congress went into its summer recess at the end of July, an organic movement erupted to protest Congressional proposals to inject government deeper into our health care system. The ferocity of citizen’s reactions caught most congressmen off-guard. The citizen’s spontaneous protests against Congress dominated the news coverage. It was only a matter of time until the left struck back,.

On the morning of August 6th, Sam Stein reported at the Huffington Post that labor unions had released a comprehensive memo, detailing tactics to counter what were called “town hall protestors”. That same day, a White House official said to reporters, “If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard.”

Those both happened the morning of the assault on Kenneth Gladney. Is it any surprise that on the specific day that Big Labor and the White House signaled a commitment to ‘punch back’ at the town hall protests, an innocent bystander, Kenneth Gladney, was brutally beaten?

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andy Stern, Barack Obama, Big Labot, Bob McCulloch, Buffy Wicks
Posted Nov 6th 2009 at 7:41 am in Big Labor, Featured Story, Tea Party | 2646290 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2009/11/06/obamas-shock-troops-seiu-and-political-intimidation-in-st-louis/Obama%27s+Shock+Troops%3A+SEIU+and+Political+Intimidation+in+St.+Louis2009-11-06+14%3A41%3A56Mike+Flynn

Politicizing the Arts Community: What Did the White House Do Wrong?

The allegations raised in “White House Creates ACORN for the Arts” and prior stories about the NEA enlisting artists who receive government grants to support President Obama’s political goals certainly raise a number of issues.  Foremost among them is whether such actions violate White House policy and potentially federal law.  The White House Counsel was concerned enough about the conference call that it was compelled to issue new guidelines for public outreach meetings, noting that some of the comments on the call may have been “misunderstood as seeking to inappropriately politicize activities of the NEA.”  But beyond violating these White House guidelines, which could result in further forced resignations but little else, what is really at issue with the alleged conduct?

By seeking to enlist the private sector in lobbying for the President’s agenda, the alleged conduct may have violated the Anti-Lobbying Act (18 U.S.C. §1913), which as Ben Shapiro pointed out in a previous piece, explicitly provides:

No part of the money appropriated by any enactment of Congress shall, in the absence of express authorization by Congress, be used directly or indirectly to pay for any personal service, advertisement, telegram, telephone, letter, printed or written matter, or other device, intended or designed to influence in any manner a Member of Congress, a jurisdiction, or an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or oppose by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law, ratification, policy, or appropriation, whether before or after the introduction of any bill, measure or resolution proposing such legislation, law, ratification, policy or appropriation.

The Anti-Lobbying Act, according to government handbooks, prevents government employees from engaging in “substantial ‘grass roots’ lobbying campaigns … expressly urging individuals to contact government officials in support of or opposition to legislation …. Provid[ing] administrative support for lobbing activities of private organizations”

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Anti-Lobbying Act, Ben Shapiro, Buffy Wicks, Hatch Act, Henry Waxman
Posted Oct 8th 2009 at 8:38 am in Culture, Featured Story, News, Obama, Politics | 1444638 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/spakovskyberke/2009/10/08/politicizing-the-arts-community-what-did-the-white-house-do-wrong/Politicizing+the+Arts+Community%3A+What+Did+the+White+House+Do+Wrong%3F2009-10-08+15%3A38%3A56Hans+von+Spakovsky+and+Elliot+S.+Berke

Was Buffy Wicks Also Behind Missouri’s Obama Truth Squad?

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.’”

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Barack Obama, Bob McCullough, Buffy Wicks, Glen Boyer, Jefferson County Sheriff
Posted Oct 7th 2009 at 7:57 am in Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 1395846 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2009/10/07/was-buffy-wicks-also-behind-missouris-obama-truth-squad/Was+Buffy+Wicks+Also+Behind+Missouri%27s+Obama+Truth+Squad%3F2009-10-07+14%3A57%3A26Dana+Loesch

Official at ACORN Funder to Head Corporation for National and Community Service

President Obama announced he plans to nominate Patrick Corvington to be chief executive of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. Big Government readers will remember that “the Corporation” assumed a prominent role on the infamous NEA Conference call, where ”the Corporation’s” Nell Abernathy joined White House and NEA officials to nudge artists to produce works supporting the Obama Administration’s legislative priorities.

Although the charity Corvington works for, Annie E. Casey Foundation of Baltimore, Maryland, has granted funding to ACORN during his tenure, it is unclear if Corvington has ties to ACORN.

Nonetheless, Corvington is part of the same cluster of organizations that provides financial and other support for ACORN which is a longtime fixture in the activist community.

Since 2001 the Annie E. Casey Foundation has pumped at least $1,705,500 into the ACORN network, according to philanthropy database information.

Of the $1,705,500, at least $850,500 was earmarked for ACORN operations in Baltimore, Maryland, home of the ACORN branch office first shown in the recent undercover videos that debuted on BigGovernment.com. Those videos show James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles pretending to be a pimp and a prostitute and receiving mountains of advice on evading laws pertaining to tax evasion and prostitution (among other things).

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a major funder of other groups on the left.

Looking at just the first letter of the alphabet, its grant recipients are labor federation AFL-CIO, abortion rights think tank Alan Guttmacher Institute, and liberal policy shop the Aspen Institute.

Although most of its grants go to groups on the political left, the foundation has funded at least one think tank on the political right. It has provided a few grants to the American Enterprise Institute.

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, ACORN Baltimore, ACORN video scandal, AFL-CIO, Alan Guttmacher Institute
Posted Oct 6th 2009 at 9:51 am in ACORN, Obama | 1336224 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/10/06/official-at-acorn-funder-to-head-corporation-for-national-and-community-service/Official+at+ACORN+Funder+to+Head+Corporation+for+National+and+Community+Service2009-10-06+16%3A51%3A15Matthew+Vadum

The Big Truth: Selling White House Policy Through Art

A few days ago I received a call from my cousin. He’d been hearing some chatter from the family about something happening with a series of NEA articles that I’d written for Big Hollywood and wanted to find out from the horse’s mouth what was going on. His question was simple and concise.

“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…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Buffy Wicks, Michael Skolnik, nea, Nell Abernathy, Obama
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 12:47 am in Culture, Featured Story, Politics | 12514No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pcourrielche/2009/10/05/the-big-truth-selling-white-house-policy-through-art/The+Big+Truth%3A+Selling+White+House+Policy+Through+Art2009-10-05+07%3A47%3A39Patrick+Courrielche

Buffy The Integrity Slayer

Right, so let’s say you’re Buffy Wicks.  You’ve were the director of the Obama campaign in Missouri, probably doing some “organizing”, you were there during those raucous Texas caucuses, and you were Obama’s California Field Director.  You love you some Barack Obama, and you’re great at what you do, which is rabble rousing, “organizing”.  Now you call it “engaging”.  You were great at this when you went after Walmart for the UFCW Union as political director of the WakeUpWalmart campaign.  Anyway, people noticed, and now that your candidate won, there’s a spot for you in the White House!  In fact, when you visit one of your immediate bosses, whether it’s Christina Tchen or Valerie Jarrett, you probably have to pass the Vice-President and Rahm Emanuel’s office before you reach the stairs to the second floor.  Oops, careful Buffy, because if you walk much past those stairs you could walk right into the Oval Office….you are definitely in the White House!

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…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, Buffy Wicks, nea, Obama, Valerie Jarrett
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 9:31 am in Culture, News, Politics | 6998No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jude/2009/09/23/buffy-the-integrity-slayer/Buffy+The+Integrity+Slayer2009-09-23+16%3A31%3A14Jude

Serve.gov Scrubs ACORN Listings from Its Site

Since first reporting that Serve.gov was listing activist positions with ACORN it seems now that all ACORN listings have been scrubbed from the taxpayer-funded site without any explanation as to why they were on it in the first place. The government was using our taxpayer dollars to advertise for volunteer opportunities to promote the president’s partisan agenda via a corrupt organization under investigation for voter registration fraud, among other things.

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. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: acorn scandal, AllforGood.org, Buffy Wicks, nea, Nell Abernathy
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 1:54 pm in ACORN, News, Politics | 6802142 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2009/09/22/serve-gov-scrubs-acorn-listings-from-its-site/Serve.gov+Scrubs+ACORN+Listings+from+Its+Site2009-09-22+20%3A54%3A04Dana+Loesch

Astroturfing the NEA: Winner & Associates in on the Scheme?

Color me unsurprised to find out that an employee of Winner and Associates — who you’ll recall we revealed were behind the astroturfing campaign to discredit Sarah Palin — was in on the National Endowment for the Arts phone call outlining how the Obama Administration would use that government organization to push its agenda.

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. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: astroturfing, Bim Ayandele, Buffy Wicks, David Axelrod, Ethan Winner
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 12:03 pm in Culture, News, Politics | 672262 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/rshackleford/2009/09/22/astroturfing-the-nea-winner-associates-in-on-the-scheme/Astroturfing+the+NEA%3A+Winner+%26+Associates+in+on+the+Scheme%3F2009-09-22+19%3A03%3A04Rusty+Shackleford

NEA Conference Call: Who is Buffy Wicks?

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.

  (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, Buffy Wicks, Change Wal-Mart Association, Huffington Post, Missouri
Posted Sep 22nd 2009 at 10:37 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama, Politics | 660651 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mvadum/2009/09/22/nea-conference-call-who-is-buffy-wicks/NEA+Conference+Call%3A+Who+is+Buffy+Wicks%3F2009-09-22+17%3A37%3A45Matthew+Vadum

Limbaugh: White House Using Fed Arts Agency to Push Obama Agenda

From El Rushbo:

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. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andrew Breitbart, Big Government, Buffy Wicks, George Will, National Endowment for the Arts
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 3:51 pm in ACORN, Big Labor, Congress, Culture, Obama | 6390103 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/21/limbaugh-white-house-using-fed-arts-agency-to-push-obama-agenda/Limbaugh%3A+White+House+Using+Fed+Arts+Agency+to+Push+Obama+Agenda2009-09-21+22%3A51%3A13Publius

Taxpayer-Funded Propaganda: The ABC’s of the NEA Conference Call

Today, Big Hollywood released a full audio recording and transcript of the NEA conference call. A full review of the call reveals several new and more troubling aspects to what transpired on the August 10^th phone call. What is inescapable is that the origin of the call reaches into the highest offices of the White House. It is clear, from the transcript, that the call was orchestrated by the Office of Public Engagement, whose Director, Valerie Jarrett, is among the closest advisors to President and First Lady Obama. It is also apparent that Ms. Jarrett’s office directed the involvement of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for National and Community Service, two independent federal agencies. (This is important, as neither is officially part of the executive branch.)

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

I have been asked by people in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago in a conversation that was had. We had the idea that I would help bring together the independent artists community around the country.

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

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, Americans for the Arts, Barack Obama, Buffy Wicks, Corporation for National and Community Service
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 3:19 pm in ACORN, Culture, Justice/Legal, News, Politics | 626688 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mikeflynn/2009/09/21/taxpayer-funded-propaganda-the-abcs-of-the-nea-conference-call/Taxpayer-Funded+Propaganda%3A+The+ABC%27s+of+the+NEA+Conference+Call2009-09-21+22%3A19%3A01Mike+Flynn

Conference Call Transcript Implicates Fed Art Agency in Government Co-Opt of Arts Community

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.

The National Endowment for the Arts denies that it was working with White House officials to promote the president’s agenda through the arts via this taxpayer-funded organization:

This call was not a means to promote any legislative agenda and any suggestions to that end are simply false. The NEA regularly does outreach to various organizations to inform of the work we are doing and the resources available to them.”

Unfortunately, the transcript of the actual call does not corroborate the NEA’s statement. BigGovernment.com obtained the full transcript of the conference call on which White House official Buffy Wicks (of the Office of Public Engagement and head administration official for Serve.gov; Wicks previous worked with WakeUp Walmart and was a lobbyist for the United Food and Commercial Workers’ Union), and others – including lead organizers with Rock the Vote and Current TV – discussed ways to co-opt the art community for political purposes and manipulate those around them so as to push things like Obama’s health care legislation. It’s a call that call participant Patrick Courrichie says raised the hair on his arms.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Buffy Wicks, Current TV, Leni Riefenstahl, Michael Skolnik, Mike de la Rocha
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 10:29 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Culture, Obama | 606684 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloesch/2009/09/21/conference-call-transcript-implicates-fed-art-agency-in-government-co-opt-of-arts-community/Conference+Call+Transcript+Implicates+Fed+Art+Agency+in+Government+Co-Opt+of+Arts+Community2009-09-21+17%3A29%3A12Dana+Loesch

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

At first glance, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) conference call of August 10th, 2009sounds innocent enough because it’s supposedly been organized by Michael Skolnik, political director for Russell Simmons and someone not officially associated with any government agency. Skolnik appears to be acting independently as a concerned citizen and to have taken it upon himself to gather together a group of artists and art organizations hoping to move them towards “national service.” And how nice of the White House, the federal government and the NEA to make the time to participate in the call and aid this group of American artists motivated to help their country and community.

But this is only how things appear.

All evidence points to the fact that the conference call was a ruse, a front for a White House using Skolnik as a kind of beard in order to put an innocent spin on their abuse of the NEA and two non-partisan volunteer organizations (United We Serve – an initiative overseen by The Corporation for National and Community Service – a federal agency, and the White House’ Office of Public Engagement).

The goal: To motivate a group of hand-picked pro-Obama artists (grant recipients or those wanting grants) to push the President’s flagging agenda, especially health care — and to funnel this promotion through the ACORN related- Serve.gov website.

***

Documentation gathered by Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche and the Washington Times, coupled with a newly revealed audio recording of the full conference call, points to eight troubling facts that put the full context of the call in a very disturbing light. (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, Buffy Wicks, health care, Michael Skolnik, National Endowment for the Arts
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 9:45 am in Culture, Justice/Legal, Obama, Politics | 6186No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/jjmnolte/2009/09/21/propaganda-health-care-and-acorn-full-context-of-nea-conference-call-reveals-disturbing-pattern/Propaganda%2C+Health+Care+and+ACORN%3A+Full+Context+of+NEA+Conference+Call+Reveals+Disturbing+Pattern2009-09-21+16%3A45%3A02John+Nolte

Another Big Labor Operative in White House has ACORN Ties

BigGovernment.com continues to wake-up America to Obama Administration relationships with ACORN and Big Labor.  BigGov’s  latest story highlights Presidential Advisor Valerie Jarrett’s crew member Buffy Wicks who is the former political director of forced union dues financed WakeupWalmart.com (Wakeup). In the conference call, Wicks highlighted the important role United We Serve (Serve.gov) has in President Obama’s Organizing America strategy. See Dana Loesch’s article about Serve.gov directing volunteers to ACORN.

The Obama campaign boastfully promoted Wick’s moniker, “Buffy the Wal-Mart Slayer” that highlights her community organizing experience with Wakeup’s efforts to increase costs for Wal-Mart and the prices for its customers.  However, the Obama White House press release tones down Wicks past position:

Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.  Wicks has a long history in grassroots organizing and civic engagement. Most recently she was the Director of the Renew America Together effort, the call to service issued by then President-elect Obama. She also served on the Obama for America campaign in a variety of roles, including California Field Director and Missouri State Director, and helped develop the national grassroots field strategy. She has also worked in the labor movement, fighting for better health care and wages for disenfranchised workers. She is originally from California and graduated with a double major in Political Science and History from the University of Washington.

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: ACORN, Buffy Wicks, Dana Loesch, UFCW, United We Serve
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 8:57 am in ACORN, Big Labor, Obama | 5974116 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dloos/2009/09/21/another-big-labor-operative-in-white-house-has-acorn-ties/Another+Big+Labor+Operative+in+White+House+has+ACORN+Ties2009-09-21+15%3A57%3A41Don+Loos

How to Corrupt Artists in One Quick and Easy Telecon

If you’ve ever wondered–and worried–about where government support of the arts leads, look no further than the full transcript of an August 10 telecon  between an official at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and a group of “independent artists from around the country.” The short version: It leads to the use of taxpayer-funded culture as a means of propagandizing for specific, partisan political aims. Which corrupts not just art but artists.

As Patrick Courrelieche, an L.A.-based arts organizer who participated in the call, reported at Big Hollywood, the people running the call, including the NEA’s director of communications Yosi Sergant  and members of the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve, told the assembled crew of “thought leaders” that “we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here” (that’s a direct quote from Buffy Wicks of the Office of Public Engagement). 

Chief among the requests from Sergant (who was either “reassigned” from the agency or “reportedly resigned” after denying the full extent of his role in organizing the call) was “to pick something whether it’s health care, education, the environment, you know… [and] apply artistic, you know, your artistic creative communities’ utilities and bring them to the table.” Beyond the specific policy issues above, the call organizers stressed the ideologically loaded concept of “service” as the animating principle of the Obama administration and wanted the artists to do whatever they could to promote that. As Wicks put it, “We really view [our efforts] as an onramp to a lifetime of service. We really want service to be incorporated into people’s daily lives.”

Given that the NEA prides itself on being the single largest funding source for the arts in the country, such arm-twisting by agency officials, however masked in fulsome compliments to creators’ genius, is disturbing on its face. It clearly sets a political agenda for the very people who are likely to be applying for, well, NEA and other government grants. Does anyone think that the organizers were fishing around for projects that might complicate the public option for health care?

(more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Andres Serrano, Berlin Wall, Big Hollywood, Buffy Wicks, John Frohnmayer
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 8:51 am in Culture, History, Media Criticism, Uncategorized | 599869 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/ngillespie/2009/09/21/how-to-corrupt-artists-in-one-quick-and-easy-telecon/How+to+Corrupt+Artists+in+One+Quick+and+Easy+Telecon2009-09-21+15%3A51%3A05Nick+Gillespie

Pregame Report: The NEA Conference Call

On August 25th 2009, Big Hollywood’s Patrick Courrielche broke the story of a conference call he attended with other “rising artist and art community luminaries”:

On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve. The call would include “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!”

The email invite came directly from Yosi Sergant, then-Director of Communications at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and it advised this hand-picked group that the call was about laying “a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”

Courrielche describes the call this way: (more…)

Email this to a friend | Print | Share on Facebook | Tweet this |

Tags: Big Government, Buffy Wicks, Dana Loesch, George Will, health care reform
Posted Sep 20th 2009 at 7:25 pm in Culture, News, Obama, Politics | 5882No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/mflynnjnolte/2009/09/20/pregame-report-the-nea-conference-call/Pregame+Report%3A+The+NEA+Conference+Call2009-09-21+02%3A25%3A54Mike+Flynn+and+John+Nolte