Fox News: ACORN, Jennings Among Top Stories MSM Missed in ‘09

From Fox News’ Nine Big Stories the Mainstream Media Missed in 2009:

ACORN Tapes

Filmmakers James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, posing as a pimp and a prostitute, went undercover to the offices of the community organizing group ACORN in the summer. They secretly videotaped employees instructing them in how to falsify tax forms and seek illegal benefits for 13 “very young” girls from El Salvador whom the pair said they wanted to import to work as child prostitutes. New videos emerged daily, but the mainstream media ignored the growing scandal for days, even as federal agencies began severing their ties with the group and members of Congress cried for an investigation. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, acorn scandal, ACORN tapes, climate gate, Fox News
Posted Dec 31st 2009 at 2:43 pm in ACORN, Education, Media Criticism, News, Obama, Politics | 5429486 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/12/31/fox-news-acorn-jennings-among-top-stories-msm-missed-in-09/Fox+News%3A+ACORN%2C+Jennings+Among+Top+Stories+MSM+Missed+in+%E2%80%98092009-12-31+22%3A43%3A33Publius

The Green Religion and ClimateGate: Interview With Steven Mosher

This morning on The Dennis Miller Show, Guest host Andrew Breitbart interviewed Steven M. Mosher, a frequent contributor to the web site ClimateAudit.org.  You probably haven’t heard of Mr. Mosher, but you should have.  And that was the reason for our interview this morning.  Andrew used his six hours of national radio time (yesterday and today) to highlight the top stories from the “Under Media”.   ACORN, NEA, Van Jones, ClimateGate, stories that were virtually ignored by the major networks and pooh-poohed by the NY Times were, in fact, the stories that not only grabbed YOUR attention, but also drove legislation here at home as well as in Copenhagen.

Mr. Mosher was instrumental in promulgating the now infamous “hacked” emails from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia.  These e-mails have called into question the methods, the calculations, the peer review process, even the overall SCIENCE involved in the Global Warming arguments that drove the Cap and Trade Legislation as well as the UN Climate Conference and Kyoto Protocols.  Mr. Mosher obtained these emails on a CD from an unidentified colleague.  After days of review, Mr. Mosher realized the importance of the information he was sitting on, and he began the process of posting the information on various “Climate Change” websites and blogs.  Because the postings came from Mr. Mosher, the community immediately took them seriously.  The rest is “Under Media” history.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Adam Baldwin, Andrew Breitbart, cap-and-trade, carbon emissions
Posted Dec 29th 2009 at 1:54 pm in Environment, Featured Story, Media Criticism, News | 53342128 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sright/2009/12/29/the-green-religion-and-climategate-interview-with-steven-mosher/The+Green+Religion+and+ClimateGate%3A+Interview+With+Steven+Mosher2009-12-29+21%3A54%3A20Larry++O%26%2339%3BConnor

A Song for Bon Bon

I host a late night Internet Radio Show on Blog Talk Radio called “The Stage Right Show”.  I focus on many of the stories written here at Big Government and on our sister site, Big Hollywood.

When the infamous NEA Conference call story broke, I spent much time discussing it and the various players involved.  One of my very talented listeners, Gary Eaton wrote a song about the central figure in the saga, Yosi Sergant.

Andrew Breitbart liked that song so much that he had us post it over at Big Hollywood for all to enjoy.

Recently, Andrew “Volun-told” Gary to write a song for our favorite ACORN personality, Alvivon “Bon Bon” Hurd.  You remember Bon Bon.  She was that charming and talkitive ACORN protestor who admitted on tape that ACORN had worked nefariously to get Obama elected even though they were supposed to be bi-partisan.

(more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Big Hollywood, Blog Talk Radio, Bon Bon, Gary Eaton
Posted Dec 21st 2009 at 1:27 pm in ACORN, Culture | 4913456 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/sright/2009/12/21/a-song-for-bon-bon/A+Song+for+Bon+Bon2009-12-21+21%3A27%3A26Larry++O%26%2339%3BConnor

‘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…)

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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 | 4708633 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

Mike Flynn on ‘Glenn Beck’ and ‘Kudlow’

In this first clip, Mike Flynn and Glenn Beck connect the dots between the White House, the NEA conference calls, and the beating of tea party-goer Kenneth Gladney by SEIU thugs.

~~~

After the jump, Flynn talks with Larry Kudlow about the 2009 elections, the tea party movement, and the possible rebirth of the Reagan coalition.  (more…)

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Tags: Doug Hoffman, Ed Cox, Glenn Beck, Kenneth Gladney, Kudlow Report
Posted Nov 4th 2009 at 3:35 pm in News, Politics | 2565457 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/11/04/mike-flynn-on-glenn-beck-and-kudlow/Mike+Flynn+on+%27Glenn+Beck%27+and+%27Kudlow%272009-11-04+22%3A35%3A01Publius

Solidarity Schmolidarity: Teacher Larry Sand Exposes His Union

 When you spend day after day examining the self-serving agenda of the nation’s two largest teachers unions, you develop a tendency to think badly of teachers.

That’s a mistake. We have to remember that there are millions of great teachers out there, doing their best to help our children develop on a dialy basis. We have to remember that many teachers do not subscribe to the left-wing political agendas of their unions, or approve of their tactics.

Larry Sand is a great example. This recently-retired educator from Los Angeles was a member of the NEA-affiliated California Teachers Assocation. To his credit, he’s also a major pain in the backside of the CTA.

(more…)

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Tags: AFT, California Teachers Association, California Teachers Empowerment Network, Larry Sand, left wing
Posted Oct 27th 2009 at 9:30 am in Big Labor, Education, Politics, State Politics | 1972641 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/10/27/solidarity-schmolidarity-teacher-larry-sand-exposes-his-union/Solidarity+Schmolidarity%3A+Teacher+Larry+Sand+Exposes+His+Union2009-10-27+16%3A30%3A41Kyle+Olson

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…)

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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

White House Creates ACORN for the Arts

Over the last week, Big Hollywood and Big Government have been extensively covering the August 10 conference call between the National Endowment for the Arts and a group of artists – a call on which the artists were encouraged to support President Obama’s agenda, with the tacit promise that they would be handsomely rewarded with government grants.  The NEA representative on the call was then-Communications Director of the NEA Yosi Sergant.

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. (more…)

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Tags: ACORN, Anita MonCrief, Arlene Goldbard, Center for Community Change, Communications
Posted Oct 5th 2009 at 9:35 am in ACORN, Culture, Featured Story, Obama, Politics | 1259451 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bshapiro/2009/10/05/more-evidence-at-may-12-meeting-the-white-house-creates-an-acorn-for-the-arts/White+House+Creates+ACORN+for+the+Arts2009-10-05+16%3A35%3A37Ben+Shapiro

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…)

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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

Teachers’ Unions Block Reform For Their Own Benefit

Earlier this year Robert Chanin, the recently retired general counsel for the National Education Association, discussed the effectiveness of teachers unions at a gathering in San Diego:

Despite what some of us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child.

NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.

You can see that portion of his 20 minute speech here:

Chanin’s honesty was, in a way, refreshing. For too long the NEA, as well as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), have been hiding their intentions behind the guise of student advocacy, using children as human shields to block criticism.

But the truth is that the NEA and AFT are huge national labor unions with political agendas and have a great deal of influence with state and national lawmakers.  NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com are designed to bring attention to those facts.

(more…)

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Tags: AFT, American Federation of Teachers, Arne Duncan, Barack Obama, charter schools
Posted Oct 3rd 2009 at 12:05 pm in Big Labor, Politics, State Politics | 1182678 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/kolson/2009/10/03/teachers-unions-block-reform-for-their-own-benefit/Teachers%27+Unions+Block+Reform+For+Their+Own+Benefit2009-10-03+19%3A05%3A36Kyle+Olson

Celebrities Need Health Care Help Too! (Just Not In the Way You Think)

For those who watch MSNBC regularly and aren’t related to any of the hosts–and I mean both of you–you are familiar with the Will Ferrell Funny or Die video that came out a few weeks ago on health care.  I don’t want to embed it, but it was essentially multi-millionaires sarcastically talking about other multi-millionaires because they didn’t like how they made their money.  Seems it’s OK to make hundreds of millions of dollars speaking the words other people wrote on camera, but running a company that pays for other people’s health care should be something that only earns one just enough to get by.

That’s not to say that health insurance is perfect; some do some shady things and some people get hurt, but just because liberals find the worst case scenario and present them as the norm doesn’t make it so. The vast majority of Americans are satisfied with their health coverage. They aren’t masochists who like being screwed over when the chips are down; they get what they need when they need it.

And that’s not to say Will Ferrell doesn’t deserve the money he makes either, though I’m fairly certain he didn’t return any of the millions he was paid for Bewitched when it became the Ishtar of 2005.

If, as the Funny or Die video seems to imply, someone is to be paid based upon their contributions to society, health insurance executives do deserve to make a lot of money. Certainly they deserve to make more than someone who gets paid $20 million for 1-3 months worth of work, especially when the result of that work is something like Land of the Lost.

But that’s neither here nor there. 

(more…)

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Tags: Bewitched, Ed Show, Funny or Die, health care reform, health insurance
Posted Oct 2nd 2009 at 5:15 am in Culture, Featured Story, Healthcare, Political Humor | 1107482 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dhunter/2009/10/02/celebrities-need-health-care-help-too-just-not-in-the-way-you-think/Celebrities+Need+Health+Care+Help+Too%21+%28Just+Not+In+the+Way+You+Think%292009-10-02+12%3A15%3A49Derek+Hunter

‘Pioneer of Guerrilla Marketing,’ Specialist in ‘Leveraging’ Arts Community for Health Care Issues Coincidentally in on NEA Conference Call

The NEA apology from the White House is laughable, at best.  Again, if this was just all a big misunderstanding then why was a representative from one of the country’s largest political advertising firms involved?  And pushing the health care agenda on company time?

I believe the following information might help explain Bim Ayandele’s involvement.  Not only did he help set up the Office of Public Engagement, but before joining a division of one of the largest PR firms in the world — which specializes in “grassroots organization”, “issues management” and “crisis communications” — Ayandele:

served as the Director of Cures Now, a Los Angeles based non-profit organization leveraging a coalition of actors, directors, producers, musicians, and writers to promote the rapid, responsible and ethical advancement of science-related social issues, such as stem-cell research and diabetes awareness.

It seems Mr. Ayandele’s expertise is in “leveraging” the entertainment industry to “promote” health care related issues. A skill which would have been useful should, say, the White House or another interested third party wish to get NEA grant recipients to push President Obama’s health care agenda.

(more…)

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Tags: Bim Ayandele, Cures Now, nea, Rock the Vote, social media
Posted Sep 25th 2009 at 6:25 am in Exclusives, Media Criticism, Obama | 751830 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/rshackleford/2009/09/25/pioneer-of-guerrilla-marketing-and-specialist-in-leveraging-the-arts-community-for-health-care-issues-coincidentally-in-on-nea-conference-call/%27Pioneer+of+Guerrilla+Marketing%2C%27+Specialist+in+%27Leveraging%27+Arts+Community+for+Health+Care+Issues+Coincidentally+in+on+NEA+Conference+Call2009-09-25+13%3A25%3A17Rusty+Shackleford

Fox News: White House Met With 60 Artists Months Prior to NEA Conf. Call

On Monday the 21st, Big Hollywood reported on a May 12 meeting of 60 artists with the NEA and the White House to help “promote the administration’s agenda” — the one where The Department of Alternative Thinking was proposed…

Today, the Washington Times compiled a long list of the invited artists who are grant recipients, and…

Fox News followed up with this report:

“Rappers, dancers, writers and other activists from around the country were invited to a May 12 session next door to the White House where they were “challenged to come up with promising and attractive ideas about how artists can work to promote the administration’s agenda.” (more…)

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Tags: Art, artists, Department of Alternative Thinking, Fox News, May 12
Posted Sep 24th 2009 at 6:30 pm in Culture, Politics | 8342No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/24/fox-news-white-house-met-with-60-artists-months-prior-to-nea-conf-call/Fox+News%3A+White+House+Met+With+60+Artists+Months+Prior+to+NEA+Conf.+Call+2009-09-25+01%3A30%3A36Publius

BREAKING: Yosi Sergant Resigns From NEA

Statement from the NEA:

Following is a statement from the National Endowment for the Arts. Please let me know if you have further questions.

This afternoon Yosi Sergant submitted his resignation from the National Endowment for the Arts. His resignation has been accepted and is effective immediately. (more…)

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Tags: nea, NEA Cn, NEA conference calls, NEA Scandal, Yosi Sergant
Posted Sep 24th 2009 at 2:50 pm in Culture | 8270No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/24/breaking-yosi-sergant-resigns-from-nea/BREAKING%3A+Yosi+Sergant+Resigns+From+NEA2009-09-24+21%3A50%3A26Publius

BREAKING: GOP Senators Request Explanation From NEA Chairman Regarding Possible Violations of Federal Law

Press release from U.S. Senator Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee:

Enzi Leads GOP HELP Committee Inquiry
Into Alleged NEA Political Activity

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), Ranking Member of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, today led his fellow Republican HELP Committee members in requesting an explanation regarding possible violations of federal law at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).  Enzi and his colleagues sent the request to NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman.

In the letter delivered today the Senators questioned the possibility of “taxpayer dollars to engage in lobbying activities to promote the President’s health care legislative agenda and other legislative priorities” during several August conference calls with NEA grant recipients and community stakeholders.

The letter also raises serious questions regarding how the NEA’s participation in these calls may have violated federal criminal restrictions on lobbying Congress, the Hatch Act, appropriations restrictions on spending funds for such purposes and possible contradictions with the entity’s mission under its authorizing statute.

“…The promotion to NEA grant recipients of topics that are at the top of the President’s legislative agenda and urging a call to action creates a serious conflict of interest,” wrote the Senators.

The full text of the letter to Landesman is below: (more…)

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Tags: Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, nea, rocco landesman, Senate
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 5:10 pm in Culture, Politics | 7614No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/publius/2009/09/23/breaking-gop-senators-request-explanation-from-nea-chairman-regarding-possible-violations-of-federal-law/BREAKING%3A+GOP+Senators+Request+Explanation+From+NEA+Chairman+Regarding+Possible+Violations+of+Federal+Law2009-09-24+00%3A10%3A36Publius

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…)

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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

NEA Conference Call: Get ‘em While They’re Young Mr. President

The participant list prepared for the White House/NEA/Ministry of Propaganda organizational conference call included autobiographical blurbs to apparently help the call’s organizers identify the participants since none of the “artists” involved could be considered a household name.  That is unless your household is comprised entirely of unemployed, surly twenty-somethings whose worldly possessions consist of an i phone, a Vaio, a skateboard and, perhaps a few cans of spray paint.

The conference call and other efforts now emerging were organized by the National Endowment for the Arts at the behest of the White House to try and coordinate and focus the existing pro-Obama passion of the artistic community to directly promote administration political objectives.

This effort is justifiably being criticized as a misuse of government resources and a creative example of adapting the Chicago pay-to-play style to the federal scene.  What is an alternative artists supposed to think when the largest artistic grant-dispensing agency of the federal government comes-a-calling asking for help?  It is only natural that one would expect a quid pro quo when it comes to doling out cash for all manner of non-traditional, (read: incomprehensible) art, while the chap who cleverly mocked up the Obama/Joker poster will probably not be in line to cash in at the federal trough.

(more…)

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Tags: Arts, Culture, hip hop, nea, Obama
Posted Sep 23rd 2009 at 6:30 am in Uncategorized | 657819 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/dobrien/2009/09/23/nea-conference-call-get-em-while-theyre-young-mr-president/NEA+Conference+Call%3A+Get+%E2%80%98em+While+They%E2%80%99re+Young+Mr.+President2009-09-23+13%3A30%3A37Doug+O%26%2339%3BBrien

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…)

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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…)

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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