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White House Creates ACORN for the Arts
Posted by Ben Shapiro in ACORN, Obama, Politics, health care on October 5th, 2009
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. (more…)
White House Creates ACORN for the Arts
Posted by Ben Shapiro in ACORN, Featured Story, Obama, Politics, Wade Rathke on October 5th, 2009
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.
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.
New White House ‘Guidelines’ Are Pathetic Revisionist History
Posted by Ben Shapiro in Featured Story, Obama, Politics on September 25th, 2009
In the aftermath of the revelations that the NEA sponsored a conference call with artists across the country in order to promote President Obama’s political agenda, the NEA and White House are running scared. Yesterday, Yosi Sargent, the NEA Director of Communications who headed the call, resigned. Also yesterday, the White House Counsel’s Office released what it called a “memorandum” designed to create “guidelines regarding our vitally important outreach efforts.”
Ready? Here we go.
WH_COUNSEL_MEMO_GUIDELINES_FOR_PUBLIC_OUTREACH_MEETINGS
First, the White House suggests that all NEA employees “avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” According to the White House, “President Obama has pledged to restore Americans’ trust in their government. Strict adherence to the rules is not enough – we need to avoid even the appearance of politicization in order to ensure people’s faith in the actions of the Administration. This means always asking whether an action under consideration could be construed as inappropriate.” Good advice, to be sure. But this would be too little too late – and it also conflicts with the facts. The clear implication here is that no laws were violated.
As I have posted before, I believe several laws were violated. And there is no question that the call was blatant partisan outreach for President Obama. Michael Skolnik, who was a co-host of the call, mentioned that he was “asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago” to host the call. He then proceeded to lionize Obama supporters: “I think Shepard [Fairey] and the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president and also during his first 200 some odd days of his presidency and the president has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some of the issues that we face here in our country and also to engage people.” He went even further: “And so I’m hoping that through this group and the goal of all this and the goal of this phone call, is through this group we can … get involved in those things, to support some of the president’s initiatives, but also do to things that we are passionate about and to push the president and push his administration.” That does more than create appearances of impropriety.
That is impropriety.
Next, the White House suggests that the NEA “continue to ensure that decisions are merit-based.” The memo explicitly states that “it is the policy of this Administration that those funding decisions be free of political interference or even the appearance thereof.” Appearances like 21 organizations coming out two days after the call in favor of Obama’s health care plan – and the shady coincidence that 16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received $2 million in grants in the 150 days before the call.
Nonetheless, let’s give the White House the benefit of the doubt. They state that they want to ensure that agencies “serve the needs of the American public without regard to party.” Immediately thereafter, the White House then states, “This does not mean that government officials are not permitted to meet with individuals or select groups as agency needs and the public interest demand.” Of course, what the White House thinks the “public interest” demands is silence from those damn “teabaggers.” So any artist who forwards that agenda is properly targeted for help under this standard. Here’s the thing about art: nobody needs it, in the strictest sense. With that said, the White House’s definition of “public interest” needs is malleable in the extreme.
But the White House is not done. Next, the White House suggests that the NEA “engage only in authorized activities.” They state, “Each federal agency is limited in its power to act by its authorizing statute” – surely a shocking statement from an Administration that insists it has the power to create czars willy-nilly without authorizing statutes. The White House explicitly mentions avoiding Hatch Act violations (as discussed in my last piece) and violations of the Ethics in Government Act (an act dedicated largely to revealing the financial associations of federal employees).
What precisely is the NEA’s purpose? The NEA was chartered in 1965 under 20 US Code §954. It is supposed to provide aid or loans to groups or individuals to enable them to create “projects and productions which have substantial national or international artistic and cultural significance … meeting professional standards or standards of authenticity or tradition, irrespective of origin, which are of significant merit and which, without such assistance, would otherwise be unavailable to our citizens for geographic or economic reasons …projects and productions that will encourage and assist artists and enable them to achieve wider distribution … projects and productions which have substantial artistic and cultural significance …” In other words, blah, blah, blah.
Significantly, however, nowhere in the authorizing act does Congress suggest that the purpose of the NEA is to provide funding, conference call rah-rah boosting, or emotional support for artists seeking to promote a particular president’s agenda. Even community service is not mentioned, despite the fact that hosts of the call repeatedly stated that the NEA was to be involved in the president’s new “service” initiative.
The White House’s concluding paragraph is truly a doozy: “We should consider this call to be a reminder and a teaching moment.” (If I had a penny for each “teaching moment” this Administration had provided, I could pay off the entire national debt personally. It’s time for the Obama Administration to stop providing “teaching moments” and start behaving in competent fashion.) But the White House continues: “It was organized with the best of intentions to promote community service and volunteerism, something the Administration does with many constituencies and something we will continue to do. The misunderstandings that flowed from the call should serve as a less going forward of the need to take extra care to ensure it complies with these general principles.” There was no misunderstanding here. The problem for the Obama Administration is that the American people understood precisely what was going on.
Finally, the White House concludes with these stirring words: “At all times Administration employees should be focused on the twin goals of furthering their agency’s mission and serving the public trust.” Wrong again. The purpose of federal employees is solely to fulfill the law by doing their jobs. The public trust doesn’t come into it – especially not the Obama Administration’s definition of public trust, under which the public trust is best protected by shilling for President Obama himself.
Here’s the bottom line: the proof is in the pudding. We must now carefully watch each and every distribution of NEA cash to each and every artist. We must analyze where our tax dollars are going. If the White House really wants transparency, they must immediately start a website that posts online the basis for each and every NEA grant and loan. Anything less is a boondoggle.
New White House ‘Guidelines’ Are Pathetic Revisionist History
Posted by Ben Shapiro in Featured Story, Obama, Politics on September 25th, 2009
In the aftermath of the revelations that the NEA sponsored a conference call with artists across the country in order to promote President Obama’s political agenda, the NEA and White House are running scared. Yesterday, Yosi Sargent, the NEA Director of Communications who headed the call, resigned. Also yesterday, the White House Counsel’s Office released what it called a “memorandum” designed to create “guidelines regarding our vitally important outreach efforts.”
Ready? Here we go.
WH_COUNSEL_MEMO_GUIDELINES_FOR_PUBLIC_OUTREACH_MEETINGS
First, the White House suggests that all NEA employees “avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” According to the White House, “President Obama has pledged to restore Americans’ trust in their government. Strict adherence to the rules is not enough – we need to avoid even the appearance of politicization in order to ensure people’s faith in the actions of the Administration. This means always asking whether an action under consideration could be construed as inappropriate.” Good advice, to be sure. But this would be too little too late – and it also conflicts with the facts. The clear implication here is that no laws were violated.
As I have posted before, I believe several laws were violated. And there is no question that the call was blatant partisan outreach for President Obama. Michael Skolnik, who was a co-host of the call, mentioned that he was “asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA about a month ago” to host the call. He then proceeded to lionize Obama supporters: “I think Shepard [Fairey] and the Hope poster obviously is a great example, but it’s clear as an independent art community as artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries on this call, the role that we played during the campaign for the president and also during his first 200 some odd days of his presidency and the president has a clear arts agenda and has been very supportive of using art and supporting art in creative ways to talk about some of the issues that we face here in our country and also to engage people.” He went even further: “And so I’m hoping that through this group and the goal of all this and the goal of this phone call, is through this group we can … get involved in those things, to support some of the president’s initiatives, but also do to things that we are passionate about and to push the president and push his administration.” That does more than create appearances of impropriety.
That is impropriety.
Next, the White House suggests that the NEA “continue to ensure that decisions are merit-based.” The memo explicitly states that “it is the policy of this Administration that those funding decisions be free of political interference or even the appearance thereof.” Appearances like 21 organizations coming out two days after the call in favor of Obama’s health care plan – and the shady coincidence that 16 of the groups and affiliated organizations received $2 million in grants in the 150 days before the call.
Nonetheless, let’s give the White House the benefit of the doubt. They state that they want to ensure that agencies “serve the needs of the American public without regard to party.” Immediately thereafter, the White House then states, “This does not mean that government officials are not permitted to meet with individuals or select groups as agency needs and the public interest demand.” Of course, what the White House thinks the “public interest” demands is silence from those damn “teabaggers.” So any artist who forwards that agenda is properly targeted for help under this standard. Here’s the thing about art: nobody needs it, in the strictest sense. With that said, the White House’s definition of “public interest” needs is malleable in the extreme.
But the White House is not done. Next, the White House suggests that the NEA “engage only in authorized activities.” They state, “Each federal agency is limited in its power to act by its authorizing statute” – surely a shocking statement from an Administration that insists it has the power to create czars willy-nilly without authorizing statutes. The White House explicitly mentions avoiding Hatch Act violations (as discussed in my last piece) and violations of the Ethics in Government Act (an act dedicated largely to revealing the financial associations of federal employees).
What precisely is the NEA’s purpose? The NEA was chartered in 1965 under 20 US Code §954. It is supposed to provide aid or loans to groups or individuals to enable them to create “projects and productions which have substantial national or international artistic and cultural significance … meeting professional standards or standards of authenticity or tradition, irrespective of origin, which are of significant merit and which, without such assistance, would otherwise be unavailable to our citizens for geographic or economic reasons …projects and productions that will encourage and assist artists and enable them to achieve wider distribution … projects and productions which have substantial artistic and cultural significance …” In other words, blah, blah, blah.
Significantly, however, nowhere in the authorizing act does Congress suggest that the purpose of the NEA is to provide funding, conference call rah-rah boosting, or emotional support for artists seeking to promote a particular president’s agenda. Even community service is not mentioned, despite the fact that hosts of the call repeatedly stated that the NEA was to be involved in the president’s new “service” initiative.
The White House’s concluding paragraph is truly a doozy: “We should consider this call to be a reminder and a teaching moment.” (If I had a penny for each “teaching moment” this Administration had provided, I could pay off the entire national debt personally. It’s time for the Obama Administration to stop providing “teaching moments” and start behaving in competent fashion.) But the White House continues: “It was organized with the best of intentions to promote community service and volunteerism, something the Administration does with many constituencies and something we will continue to do. The misunderstandings that flowed from the call should serve as a less going forward of the need to take extra care to ensure it complies with these general principles.” There was no misunderstanding here. The problem for the Obama Administration is that the American people understood precisely what was going on.
Finally, the White House concludes with these stirring words: “At all times Administration employees should be focused on the twin goals of furthering their agency’s mission and serving the public trust.” Wrong again. The purpose of federal employees is solely to fulfill the law by doing their jobs. The public trust doesn’t come into it – especially not the Obama Administration’s definition of public trust, under which the public trust is best protected by shilling for President Obama himself.
Here’s the bottom line: the proof is in the pudding. We must now carefully watch each and every distribution of NEA cash to each and every artist. We must analyze where our tax dollars are going. If the White House really wants transparency, they must immediately start a website that posts online the basis for each and every NEA grant and loan. Anything less is a boondoggle.
At Least 6 Federal Laws and Regulations Violated By the NEA Conference Call
Posted by Ben Shapiro in Obama, Politics on September 22nd, 2009
Yesterday, I posted about the NEA conference call’s clear and obvious violations of the Anti-Lobbying Act (19 U.S. Code §1913), which 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 …â€Â 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 …â€Â Â
Violation of this law, in turn, violates 31 U.S. Code §1352, which, if read broadly, bans the use of federal funds for lobbying by the recipients: “funds appropriated by any Act [may not be] expended by the recipient of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with any Federal action …â€Â Â
But that’s not all. The conference call also violates the Hatch Act – in particular, 5 U.S. Code §7323(a)(4), which prohibits federal employees from “knowingly solicit[ing] or discourag[ing] the participation in any political activity of any person who – (A) has an application for any compensation, grant, contract, ruling, license, permit, or certificate pending before the employing office of such employee …â€Â Â
And then there are regulations of the Office of Management and Budget. At least one organization represented on the conference call – Americans for the Arts — has charitable 501(c)(3) status. Under OMB Circular No. A-122, Attachment B, Section 25, federal moneys going to 501(c)3s cannot be used for “(1)Attempts to influence the outcomes of any Federal, State, or local election, referendum, initiative, or similar procedure, through in kind or cash contributions, endorsements, publicity ,or similar activity; … (3) Any attempt to influence: (i) The introduction of Federal or State legislation; or (ii) the enactment or modification of any pending Federal or State legislation through communication with any member or employee of the Congress or State legislature (including efforts to influence State or local officials to engage in similar lobbying activity), or with any Government official or employee in connection with a decision to sign or veto enrolled legislation; (4) Any attempt to influence: (i) The introduction of Federal or State legislation; or (ii) the enactment or modification of any pending Federal or State legislation by preparing, distributing or using publicity or propaganda, or by urging members of the general public or any segment thereof to contribute to or participate in any mass demonstration, march, rally, fundraising drive, lobbying campaign or letter writing or telephone campaign …â€Â The responsibility falls on the federal agencies to implement the OMB circular. If any of the 501(c)3s on the call received federal moneys at any time near the conference call, the federal agency authorities who approved such disbursements violated this circular.Â
Also, many of the groups on the line were 501(c)(4) organizations, tax-exempt civic organizations who are generally allowed to lobby. Except if they receive federal funds, that is: “An organization described in section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 which engages in lobbying activities shall not be eligible for the receipt of Federal funds constituting an award, grant, or loan.†(P.L. 104-99 §129.) “Lobbying activities†are defined narrowly – they apply to contact with federal officials. But that, of course, is the whole point here: these artists are supposed to provide the groundwork for such contacts, which is barred by law. Â
It gets even worse. Under 18 U.S.C. §371, it could be found that this call was designed to defraud the United States: “If two or more persons conspire either to commit any offense against the United States, or to defraud the United States, or any agency thereof in any manner or for any purpose, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.â€Â Courts, in fact, have found that action designed to accomplish political activities with federal funds falls under this statute: in 1980, the 8th Circuit held in United States v. Pintar that where individuals conspired to use a federal program “to accomplish political objectives … unrelated to legitimate [agency] business,†they had defrauded “the United States of its right to have programs of an agency financed … by the United States Government … administered, honestly, fairly, without corruption or deceit.â€Â
Undoubtedly, there is more to come here. At the very least, a bevy of federal laws have been violated. Any failure by the Congress of the United States to initiate a full-scale investigation must be considered action designed to enable the misuse of taxpayer funds in violation of federal law.
Demand Congressional Investigation: NEA Conference Call Broke Laws
Posted by Ben Shapiro in ACORN, News, Obama, Politics, health care on September 21st, 2009
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.â€Â 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!â€Â (more…)
Demand Congressional Investigation: NEA Conference Call Broke Laws
Posted by Ben Shapiro in ACORN, News, Obama, Politics, health care on September 21st, 2009
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.â€Â 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!â€
If this sounds suspicious to you, that’s because it is. Never before has the NEA explicitly urged artists to tackle particular social issues like health care. But that is how this Administration works.
The people behind the conference call, Courrielche reported, were Yosi Sargent, Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve; Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and Michael Skolnik, Political Director for Russell Simmons. Sargent sent the actual email invitation. When The Washington Times called Sargent for confirmation, Sargent denied involvement with the email. He claimed that Skolnik had sent the invitation.
He lied.
The email came directly from Sargent – which is to say, from the NEA itself. Most astonishingly, the email contained a copy of a notice from United We Serve. That notice read: “A call has come in to our generation. A call from the top. A call from a house that is White. … President Obama is asking us to come together … Now is the time for us to answer this call.â€Â Sargent has since been “reassigned†at the NEA.
Two days after the conference call, on August 12, 21 separate arts organizations came out and endorsed Obama’s health care plan. One of the endorsing organizations, the non-profit “charitable organization†Americans for the Arts, denied any presence on the conference call.
Like Sargent, they too were lying.
According to The Washington Times, both a participant on the call and a partial list of participants confirm that Americans for the Arts board member Kerry Washington was on the call. In the past, Washington has testified before Congress as a representative of the Americans for the Arts Artists Committee.
Kerry Washington
Americans for the Arts is a 501(c)3, which means that legally, it must remain apolitical and cannot endorse candidates. It has an associated 501(c)4, ArtsVote or Arts Action Fund, a non-profit political action wing that can stump for causes, not for candidates. Naturally, the two wings are closely associated; the CEO of both is Robert Lynch, who participated in a subsequent NEA call that occurred on August 27. The 501(c)3 and 501(c)4 have the same Washington D.C. and New York addresses. And Lynch, naturally, supports President Obama to the hilt.
In fact, the private organizational participants sponsoring the call comprise what can best be described as ACORN For The Arts. Each and every organization was deeply involved with President Obama as a candidate, and each and every one pledges allegiance to him now that he occupies the Oval Office.
Americans for the Arts: There is no hard line between the Americans for the Arts 501(c)3 and the Arts Action Fund 501(c)4 websites. In visiting this page, readers find a “Headline of the Week†currently entitled “New Report Shows Cost of Healthcare Critical to Arts Nonprofits.â€Â There is also a legislative message: “Tell your Senators and Representatives to support a funding increase for the National Endowment for the Arts to help support our nation’s cultural treasures and the arts in under-served communities.â€Â There is also an immigration-related message: “There are currently two challenges affecting the international arts community: unreasonable delays by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on foreign artists obtaining U.S. entry visas and the lack of funding for cultural exchange programs.â€Â This is a lobbying organization, pure and simple. And it is a leftist lobbying organization.
Rock the Vote: The Rock the Vote website is currently wholly a lobbying effort for Obama’s health care plan. The website actually comes up on Google as “Rock the Vote on Health Care.â€Â And the front page features Zach Braff and Donald Faison of Scrubs pushing for Obama’s health care plan, as well as a giant slogan reading “YES WE CARE: DEMAND HEALTH CARE.â€Â There was also explicit rallying for Obama: “September 17, 2009: This morning at 11:00 a.m. ET, President Obama will be at the University of Maryland in College Park to talk about health reform.â€
Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons: Simmons is a contributing editor at The Huffington Post, where he is a huge Obama supporter – his admiration borders on the creepy. Obama, Simmons wrote, “is the candidate for the furthering of [the raising of consciousness] – his spiritual concern underlies a deep compassion and also a toughness that comes from being in touch with and at ease with yourself.â€Â Clearly, a man who is a critical and objective artist with regard to the Obama Administration.
The government involvement here is what is truly stunning. Not only did the government sponsor a conference call specifically dedicated to recruiting artists to the Obama re-election and political strategy campaign – and not only did they co-sponsor the call with Obama partisan organizations — they list lobbying organizations on their website for United We Serve (Serve.gov). As Dana Loesch of BigGovernment.com reported, ACORN is included in the “non-partisan†organizations listed by Serve.gov, among the other participants like the AARP grassroots advocacy organization (which asks you to “Be a part of a team of grassroots advocates that encourage elected officials to address the issue of health care reform…â€).
All of this – particularly the government-sponsored conference call itself – is in blatant violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act (19 U.S. Code §1913), which 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 …â€
Violation of this law, in turn, violates 31 U.S. Code §1352, which bans use of “funds appropriated by any Act [from being] expended by the recipient of a Federal contract, grant, loan, or cooperative agreement to pay any person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a Member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a Member of Congress in connection with any Federal action …â€
According to a government guide put out by the National Institutes of Health Ethics Program (which is a governmental agency: ethics.od.nih.gov), the Anti-Lobbying Act 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 …â€Â Every provision was violated by this conference call, which urged artists to support the president’s agenda – and which connected potential voters to private lobbying organizations indirectly, as banned by the Act itself.
Violation of the Anti-Lobbying Act carries punishment: “Any person who makes an expenditure … shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such expenditure.â€Â And that’s not all: “An imposition of a civil penalty under this subsection does not prevent the United States from seeking any other remedy that the United States may have for the same conduct that is the basis for the imposition of such civil penalty.â€Â In other words, criminal prosecution is available here.
Every government employee involved in this conference call should be fined and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We need a full Congressional investigation – we already know that it infects members of the White House staff, including Buffy Wicks. The transformation of our government into a self-entrenched continuous campaigning machine must be stopped now.