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.

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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 | 56930114 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

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”

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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

‘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.

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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

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.

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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 | 626692 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

Demand Congressional Investigation: NEA Conference Call Broke Laws

In the aftermath of the Andrew Breitbart/James O’Keefe/Hannah Giles-broken ACORN scandal, President Obama and his allies in Congress have distanced themselves from the community organizing goliath.  Congress has cut off funds, and Obama has refused to speak about the matter.  End of story, right?

Wrong.

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

Let’s start from the beginning.  On August 25, artist Patrick Courrielche told the story of a conference call he attended on August 10.  That conference call was hosted by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve.  The goal of the conference call: “to help lay a new foundation for growth, focusing on core areas of the recovery agenda – health care, energy and environment, safety and security, education, community renewal.”  The call would push “a group of artists, producers, promoters, organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain cool people to join together and work together to promote a more civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!” (more…)

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Tags: "Scrubs", ACORN, Americans for the Arts, Americans for the Arts Artists Committee, Anti-Lobbying Act
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 11:20 am in Culture, News, Obama, Politics | 6214No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/bshapiro/2009/09/21/demand-congressional-investigation-nea-conference-call-broke-laws/Demand+Congressional+Investigation%3A+NEA+Conference+Call+Broke+Laws+2009-09-21+18%3A20%3A19Ben+Shapiro

EXPLOSIVE NEW AUDIO Reveals White House Using NEA to Push Partisan Agenda

**NEA conference call full audio and transcript here**

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

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

The question still requires debate but the facts do not.

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

President Obama with the NEA’s Yosi Sergant

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

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

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Tags: Americans for the Arts, Barack Obama, Corporation for National and Community Service, health care, Hope poster
Posted Sep 21st 2009 at 8:45 am in Culture, Featured Story, Justice/Legal, News, Obama, Politics | 6110No Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/pcourrielche/2009/09/21/explosive-new-audio-reveals-white-house-using-nea-to-push-partisan-agenda/EXPLOSIVE+NEW+AUDIO+Reveals+White+House+Using+NEA+to+Push+Partisan+Agenda2009-09-21+15%3A45%3A41Patrick+Courrielche