Posted on 11/01/2009 10:32:32 AM PST by 444Flyer
The National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities are expected to receive their highest levels of funding in 16 years from a bill President Barack Obama is expected to sign into law by this weekend.
Under the Interior Appropriations Bill passed Thursday by the House and Senate, both cultural agencies were slated to receive $167.5 million for the 2010 fiscal year. Last year's budget allocated $155 million.
The increase — amid a record federal budget deficit — comes after an aggressive push by lobbyists to show that arts organizations provide thousands of jobs across the country. Many arts groups, including the Baltimore Opera, have closed their doors or cut jobs because of the tough recession.
In a statement, the advocacy group Americans for the Arts credited Obama and key congressional leaders with edging federal arts funding closer to its high of $176 million for the NEA in the 1990s.
"This important budget increase recognizes the essential role the arts play in our lives, schools and communities," said Robert Lynch, president and CEO of the lobbying group.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
mmmmm....mmmmmmmmmm....mmmmmmmmm
The list, ping
It does make sense to fund the propaganda arm first, then everything else will fall into line.
“He Came, He Saw, He Kowtowed
The NEA is completely committed to Obamaism.”
“...But the story continues. Last week, Landesman gave the keynote address to the 2009 Grantmakers in the Arts Conference. In fairness, Landesman did not reaffirm the White House and NEA’s obvious initial intent to turn the allegedly independent government agency into an adjunct of Obama’s “Organizing for America” operation. He was more subtle than that.
Instead, Landesman embraced a timeless tactic of power politics. He debased himself with incandescently vulgar obsequiousness to his supreme leader. “There is a new president and a new NEA,” he proclaimed. “This is the first president that actually writes his own books since Teddy Roosevelt and arguably the first to write them really well since Lincoln. If you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar. That has to be good for American artists.”
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MzVjMDM1ZWZlNGNmZTRmMGVkYzIzOTZjM2YzOGQwOTQ=&w=MA==
____________________________________________________________
“Newly disclosed emails link White House directly to NEA politicalization scandal”
“Former actor and present White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi was directly involved in planning the controversial conference call hosted by a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) flack to encourage tax-supported artists to create propaganda for President Obama, according to emails obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
The emails reveal that Modi worked with now-former NEA national communications director Yosif Sargant in planning the August 10 conference call that was first revealed by Andrew Breitbart’s Big Hollywood.com web site. Participants in the conference call were encouraged to use their talents to generate public support for the Obama agenda in Congress.
Here are four of the most illustrative emails, according to Judicial Watch:
· August 10, 2009, 10:23 am. Email from Yosi Sergant to Kalpen Modi: “[The call is] organized by me…I’d ask you to come on and give the exact spiel you gave on Saturday. Walk them through the WH Arts Policy. They won’t know it. Then I will take them into United We Serve and the NEA.”
· August 10, 2009, 10:29 am. Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Oy. This would be awesome to be a part of. Let me know if you think it’s going long, or maybe I can get someone from here to do it if I can’t because of the Social Security mtg.”
· August 10, 2009, 11:04 am. Email from Kalpen Modi to Yosi Sergant: “Let me see if we can move Social Sec by a few mins. Agreed, it would be great to be on the call and helpful for us also.”
· August 10, 2009, 1:37 pm. Email from Yosi Sergant to Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement: “We have an important call at 2pm for UWS (United We Serve) and the Arts with my peeps. Indie producers around the country. Kal can’t join the call. Any chance you can hop on for 5 minutes and intro with Nellie and I?”
For additional information on the NEA conference call, including a full audio transcript of the conversation, go here, here, here, and here.”
“This important budget increase recognizes the essential role the arts play in our lives, schools and democrat political campaigns,” said Robert Lynch, president and CEO of the lobbying group.
Yes I like the arts but I seldom see a picture as beautiful as those that the NASA Hubble Telescope makes. These jobs in science and technology have made so many spin-offs that have enriched the global culture but now it appears that the NEArts and NEHumanities trump NASA in government funding. ARRGGGGGHHHHHH!
“DNC Uses Flag Desecration Video to Raise Funds”
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2373759/posts
AND
The ad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qO6hNnAfXOw
I can’t believe how long I have said this- DEFUND THE NEA!!! Let the “arts” do what they have always done- get private funding.
It’s only money. Easy come, easy go.
Okay, I’m prepared to be swayed. Show me ten examples of publicly funded fine art, as an example of the excellence of the gov-funded arts concept. Show us all these ten works, post them on a .gov site, and let us see them along with their complete descriptions/justifications. I’m an artist. I can judge. The taxpayers need to experience this in order to have faith in our government.
I’ll wait right here. ...(crickets)....
Big payoff to his strange friends!
Then there’s this:
‘Last First Middle Arrive Depart Visitee People MEETING_LOC MEETING_ROOM Description’
MOORE MICHAEL W 6/27/2009 10:30:00 AM VISITORS OFFICE 251 WH RESIDENCE GROUP TOURS
MOORE MICHAEL E 4/22/2009 11:14:01 AM JENIFER KARWOSKI 2 NEOB 10103
MOORE MICHAEL A VISITORS OFFICE 318 WH RESIDENCE
MOORE MICHAEL C 6/22/2009 1:15:00 PM POTUS 120 WH ROSEGARDE TOBACCO BILL SIGNING
MOORE MICHAEL A 7/9/2009 2:15:00 PM VISITORS OFFICE 66 WH EW100 MEETING
MOORE MICHAEL W VISITORS OFFICE 268 WH RESIDENCE 0830 GROUP TOURS
MOORE MICHAEL P VISITORS OFFICE 168 WH RESIDENCE GROUP TOUR*
MOORE MICHAEL P VISITORS OFFICE 179 WH RESIDENCE GROUP TOURS.
http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/Sections/NEWS/PDFs/white_house_visitors_release_2009_10_30.pdf
$300m? not too bad. got to fund the propaganda machine after all
/sarc
Somewhere in early retirement from under the O express bus, Yosi Sergant is smiling.
barf me out...
“Obama ‘Most Powerful Writer Since Julius Caesar,’ Says NEA Chief
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2374141/posts
Yeah by spreading Propaganda
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