The Big Goverment Open Thread

I may miss the Next Big Thing, which Breitbart of Big Government has promised for noon ET.

BACK LIVE:  It is a tape of the controversial NEA call of Aug 10. With ACORN Breitbart had good follow-up tapes. I think he will need more here for this to take off.

Comments

[Sue]

That tells me there is more to come. "a shameful time" He is a sly fox...I'm starting to really like him a lot. Kind of cute too.

[centralcal]

Oh cool, Sue! You wanna stop fighting with me on first dibs/Cheney, and instead claim first dibs Breitbart?

[centralcal]

On a serious note, I am thinking he is scattering clues, too, Sue. . .

to the lefty (?) media (reporters) and the lefty (?) blogosphere (netroots).

[JM Hanes]

This all part of the same pattern I was looking at in my "White House Calvary" database posts over at Quasiblog back in March. Even further back, in Novemenber of 2008, Karl Rove was already pointing out bread crumbs on this trail:

There are also plans to use the Obama campaign's email list to lobby for Mr. Obama's policies. The Chicago Tribune, reporting comments from Obama spokesman Steve Hildebrand, summed up the plan this way: the email list could be used "to challenge Democratic lawmakers if they don't hew to the Obama agenda. 

"Just one problem. It's illegal. There are statutory prohibitions on the White House from using tax dollars to directly lobby Congress by unleashing emails, calls and visits. That's up to outside groups to do.  

Even giving the list to outside groups raises problems. Such strong-arming irritates allies, infuriates fence sitters, and enrages opponents in Congress. Lawmakers dislike grass-roots lobbying by those representing people in their states or districts. They'll be livid if the White House facilitates it. Gregory Craig, slated to be White House counsel, will likely put the brakes on use of the campaign's email addresses.

No brakes appear to have been applied, and the political wing of the White House has been busy building the kind public/private partnerships Obama has always had in mind ever since.

[Janet]

Tom Delay - ((Definitely, a guy with a raw deal from playing the same game as the democrats pull in their dominant states.))

Amen JiB. When a Rep. plays like a Dem. they get brought up on charges. The examples are endless, and that is what is SO frustrating. The double standard. The selective outrage.

I printed off one speech Tom Delay gave in Israel that is wonderful. A strong true believer in conservatism, and his Faith.

[JM Hanes]

Sue:

How long do you suppose it will be before Breitbart is "called out" as a publishing terrorist?

[Jane]

JMH, re: KHO, think RWR tattoo on the butt, unless you slept thru that.

Who was on the other end of that conference call?

I think it was the Josie (spelled wrong again) guy who later was transferred.

Hmmm I want to stake a claim on Breitbart too....

[Pofarmer]

someone told me that 174 of the 175 indictments against him have been dismissed (and the last is expected to have the same fate) and it has cost him $11 million to defend and he's just about broke.

Tom Delay
Matt Blunt
Sarah Palin

How many others are they trying to take out with baseless lawsuits?

[Original MikeS]

Should we believe that these people were conspiring to violate the Hatch Act, or should we believe that they were conspiring not to violate it?

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Sorry ladies of JOM, I declared on the two Andys well over a year ago: Andrew Breitbart and Andy Levy.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Should we believe that these people were conspiring to violate the Hatch Act, or should we believe that they were conspiring not to violate it?

You should probably believe, based on their ignorance of all things American, that they never even heard of the Hatch Act.

[clarice]

Taranto has neatly picked thry the transcript so you needn't to find a devastating refutation of Anon Liberal's dreidl:
http://online.wsj.com/article/best_of_the_web_today.html#printMode

He also kicks Joe Conason hard where he's long deserved to be kicked. What a disgusting p.o.s. he is.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Bookworm has a bullet points summary of the NEA call.

[bad]

Powerline has great perspective on this issue. Andy McCarthy sent me there.

LUN

[Charlie (Colorado)]

So what happened in NO?

That's where ACORN originated, and that's about the time the Rathke brothers scored a cool million off it.

[hit and run]

OK, for JMH, a http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AaocC8D-KoogZGhwczQyMmZfNDBmMzQ0eHdjdw&hl=en>google doc'erized version of the transcript

There may well be errors and whatnot in the process of transferring it to this format, but maybe this would be helpful.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

On a serious note, I am thinking he is scattering clues, too, Sue. . .

Increasing the possibility that it's a little nose-pushing of the legacy media, challenging them to link the hints first.

[Sue]

Oh cool, Sue! You wanna stop fighting with me on first dibs/Cheney, and instead claim first dibs Breitbart?

Bwahahaha! You must still be drunk from your birthday party to even utter those words. (Happy, happy birthday, btw!)

[Sue]

Sue:

How long do you suppose it will be before Breitbart is "called out" as a publishing terrorist?

They haven't already? Well, the 6:00 o'clock news hasn't aired here yet. Give them time.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

NEA and SEIU Diverted Forced Union Dues to Corrupt ACORN Offices

[Rocco]

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.

That would be Shepard Fairey who also made the OBEY sticker famous. Maybe we need an "OBEY OBAMA" sticker in Fairey's agitprop style.

[hit and run]

JMH:
How long do you suppose it will be before Breitbart is "called out" as a publishing terrorist?

Even worse?

It won't be long before someting Breitbart does in his efforts to expose the left cause a good portion of the Clean Toga Club to get their panties in a wad.

He won't care.

Neither will I.

But we will be treated to a large argument on the right about how we shouldn't become like them, blad de blah blah.

And resources that could be used to help dismantle the corrupt left will instead be employed to help stymie those efforts.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Justice Department Inspector General Launches Internal ACORN Probe.

[hit and run]

Rocco:
Maybe we need an "OBEY OBAMA" sticker in Fairey's agitprop style.

We have this one...

[Rocco]

Or better still, use the HOPE poster but change Hope to OBEY. Fairey stole the image from an AP photo so it's only fitting we steal it from him? Hit?

[Rocco]

DOH! That's perfect! We gotta make that go viral!

[Pagar]

Next government news release will be:

Justice Dept IG fired, Obama has lost confidence in him.

[JM Hanes]

Wow. An embarrassment of bullet pointed riches! Thanks to all.

Jane:
Now I'm really depressed, because my sieve-like brain has apparently let the RWR butt bit slip too. I also meant the other other end of that call. And to think this looked like such a perfect day when I got up!

[daddy]

"Tom Delay
Matt Blunt
Sarah Palin

How many others are they trying to take out with baseless lawsuits?"

Please don't forget Ted Stevens in the mix. That was a monstrous success for the Dem's, the model for how to do it on the cheap. Simply have a bunch of corrupt FBI folks inundate a small population state with a ton of bogus lawsuits, then hold the Trial in DC, 4,000 miles away from where anyone lives who would know in a minute from actually walking thru Steven's A-frame shack that the charges were bogus, and populate the Jury with employee's from the NEWSeum.

Voila, Senator Mark Begich!

[daddy]

Clarice's ">http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204488304574427111444082906.html"> Taranto if it hasn't yet been linked.

[flodigarry]

I'd love to see that poster with any of the following: "DOPE", "NOPE", or "DISOBEY"

[Rocco]

OT: I'm sure this is just coincidence but doesn't the logo for the Weather Underground newspaper Osawatomie look like Obama's O logo?

[daddy]

Taranto quoting Joe Conason defending ACORN:

"ACORN's troubles should be considered in the context of a history of honorable service to the dispossessed and impoverished. No doubt it was fun to dupe a few morons into providing tax advice to a "pimp and ho," but what ACORN actually does, every day, is help struggling families with the Earned Income Tax Credit"

No wonder the Left can be so nonchalant speculating that May Jo of Chappaquidick would be satisfied her death resulted in good works by Teddy.
Yet the meme remains that we Repubs are the ones who don't care about individuals and want to starve children. I heard it from my daughter's grade school buddy's when I field-tripped them around town last year.

"Daddy " she asked me, "Are you a Republican or a Democrat?"

"A Republican" I answered.

'That's what I thought", she answered, but when I told that to John and Aiden and Joey and Logan they said you couldn't be a Republican, because Republican's are mean, and since you're not mean they say you must be a Democrat."

We still got lots of work to do folks.

[Extraneus]

Aiden?

[Extraneus]

I tried to post this earlier for flod. Here's from DrewM at Ace of Spades.

[matt]

how does one insert an image?

[Extraneus]

It usually works, and I'm not sure why it doesn't when it doesn't, but if you have the source URL, use the img tag, like this:

[img src="http://i36.tinypic.com/21dn41s.jpg"]

(Replace [ and ] with < and >, and add border="0" if there's a border you don't want.)

[matt]

[img src ="http://oceanaris.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/obama-mao-with-congress2.jpg"]

[matt]

well, self, that didn't work.....

[Extraneus]

Just replace the brackets with < and >, Matt. If it's done right, you should see it in Preview, but it only fits here if it's a small enough pic to fit in Typepad's area. I just checked and the one you tried here is too big. (For your own blog, you can probably use tags like height="320" width="250" to shrink the pic, using proporitional nums; e.g., if the real pic was 640 x 500, but I don't think that works here no matter what height and width tags you try.)

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

No space between src and equal and you forgot to replace the [ ] with < >

[Rocco]

Matt...try again with the less than < and more than > symbols instead of the brackets []

[hit and run]

< >

not

[ ]

And make sure the image that is no more than 500 pixels wide...

[Original MikeS]

Obama seems to be more into symbols than past presidents. He has is own logo. It's the letter O with a rainbow across it.

At one time he had his own seal. It was before he was president. He also has logos for the anticipated economic recovery, and health care, and I don't know what else.

Most world leaders don't have their own logo or a symbol like the Obama "O" that they are associated with.

The U.S. did have propaganda programs during WWI and WWII that depended on graphic images, posters, comics, etc. That propaganda was meant to promote unity against our enemies. The NEA was established in 1965, but I think Obama is the first President to ask the NEA to get the recipients of grants involved in promoting his policies.

[Rocco]

good catch sara

[Charlie (Colorado)]

You need to replace the '[' and ']' brackets with less-than < and greater-than > Matt. But the image is so big it overruns the page.

[Charlie (Colorado)]

Here's the link to Matt's image.

[test]

test

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

Via Instapundit:

REUTERS: U.S. charges Obama fund-raiser in $290 million fraud. “Hassan Nemazee, a fund-raiser for Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other Democrats, has been indicted for defrauding Bank of America, HSBC and Citigroup Inc out of more than $290 million in loan proceeds, U.S. prosecutors said on Monday.” Boy, the hits just keep on coming, don’t they? Plus, it sounds like Obama may have actually gotten the money: “The office of the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan and the FBI said he used the proceeds of his scheme to make donations to election campaigns of federal, state and local candidates, donations to political action committees and charities.” Say, does ACORN count as a “charity?” Just wondering. . . .

[Janet]

test is actually me, Janet. I was following the instructions to see if I could post an image. I feel kind of crappy that the first image I ever posted online is Obama!

[clarice]

BTW, I'm glad that TM has caught my typo bug..or did he not have enough money in his account to buy an N.

[Sara (Pal2Pal)]

I remember this quiz and taking it and getting a score in the mid 90s, but this new report just leaves me even more speechless than I was back then at the original results by students.

Via Patterico:

It’s not just Berkeley:

“Students at many of the country’s most prestigious colleges and universities are graduating with less knowledge of American history, government, and economics than they had as incoming freshmen, with Harvard University seniors scoring a “D+” average on a 60-question multiple-choice exam about civic literacy.

According to a report released yesterday [Note: This article was published in 2007] by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, the average college senior at the 50 colleges and universities polled did not earn a passing grade.

“At the most expensive colleges, they actually graduate knowing less,” the executive director of the Jack Miller Center at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, Michael Ratliff, said. “Colleges and universities are not directing students to the courses that would educate them. We want to know whether after getting $300 billion to do their work, universities are actually educating their students.”

At universities such as Princeton, Yale, Cornell, Duke, and Berkeley, seniors scored lower on the test, available here, than freshmen, living proof of the broadening relevancy of the old Harvard adage that the university is a storehouse of knowledge because “the freshmen bring so much and the seniors take away so little.”

[Extraneus]

I think that's a feature not a bug, Sara.

(Great first pic, Janet!)

[JM Hanes]

Obama on an ACORN? I don't know how you could get off to a better start, Janet! It's like an updated Presidential Seal.

[Soylent Red]

I think this is the poster everyone is thinking of...

[SWarren]

From Breitbart's twitter...For reporters, netroots looking for dirt, most of it is in New Orleans, '87-'91. a shameful time!

So what happened in NO?

I think Andrew is just thumbing his nose at those who are out to get him.

He was at Tulane '87-'91. His 'wild' years?

Heh. Gotta love a guy who won't be intimidated.

[Rocco]

In light of recent revelations about this NEA conference call, I would think the artists involved would lay low for a while. Not Shepard Fairey. He posted today...

"I am very frustrated by the number of people spreading misinformation, or disinformation,intentional lies, about health care reform. If you want to know exactly what health care reform entails please check out factsaboutreform.org and help counter the false information out there. Thanks for caring. -Shepard"

posted September 21st, 2009

[C.R.]

SWarren - Nice catch.

[clarice]

Shepard, I CARE..I really CARE..

[flodigarry]

Love that poster Extraneus

[Ignatz]

--The U.S. did have propaganda programs during WWI and WWII that depended on graphic images, posters, comics, etc. That propaganda was meant to promote unity against our enemies.--

OMS,

Other than the bourgeois running dog lackeys and decadent warmongers in the rising empire of Honduras, Barry doesn't see any enemies overseas. (Those distracting Iranian protesters are testing his patience but apparently don't qualify as full blown enemies yet).

So what's a New Party, progressive kinda guy gonna do? He's gonna turn the state organs on the domestic enemies of the proletariat, of course.

[TOPSECRETK9]

Pretty sure cause cast was on the conference call -- http://www.causecast.org/

they organiized this for what is it , Office of Engagement?
http://thevoluntour.org/

[Original MikeS]

He's gonna turn the state organs on the domestic enemies of the proletariat, of course.

"...doomed to repeat it."

[Pofarmer]

out of more than $290 million in loan proceeds

Holy carp.

That kinda makes Abramhoff look like a piker. Also, it's 1/4 to 1/3 of Obama's total campaign expenditures.

Could it be??

Could it be?

[Pagar]

"out of more than $290 million in loan proceeds"

Has any one actually figured up much these Friends of Obama have made off with?

Yesterday I posted a link to the SUNRISE EQUITY case where at least 80 - 90 million is missing and what wasn't given to Obama was apparently in Pakistan or somewhere with the missing owners. We know that Rezko alone accounted for a huge amount.

My guess is the answer is in the trillions.

[clarice]

All Middle Easterners, too.

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

SWarren,

That is hilarious. I never thought about that being his college years. ::grin::

On another note, I am staring at solid red heading my way on the weather radar.

Hope gmax is hunkered down. He is in, or close to, the eye of the storm.

[JM Hanes]

Yikes! Sue. That's one monster line of storms.

Here's an oversize national weather map, which takes some scrolling, but will eventually go into loop mode (clicking on any section of the map will bring up relevant regional radar pix).

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

Yeah, the leading edge is about 50 miles west of me at the moment. I will lose my internet when it gets here. Satellite internet sucks but when you live in the country you either do that or dial up and I don't do dial up anymore.

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

JMH,

Looking at your map, there is a gap between Texas and Oklahoma in the loop. I might get lucky since I'm almost in the gap area. The way it looks at the moment, I'll get the northern edge of the line in Texas.

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

It's close enough I can hear the thunder and see the lightning. The counties that border the Red River will get the worst of it, they always do. I'm about 45 miles south of the Red River.

[Jane]

JMH,

RWR is Ronald Wilson Reagan. Did you meet Katie on the cruise - sporting his tattoo? She stopped by here occasionally afterward.

That should fill in the blanks.

[TOPSECRETK9]

Ranger

ABC news just discovered that 10 years ago the brother of the founder of ACORN stole $1 million from the organization (talk about breaking old news).

LOL.

[Ann]

Sue, Stay safe and watch this before you lose your internet connection:

Janeane Garofalo Owns The Smartest Dog in the World, Bar None

That dog must come from the Mid-West or the South. :)
God Bless him!

[TOPSECRETK9]

Hey people -- LUN again, but I think this is rather important and start digging! (background -- this is a meeting or White House Briefing of the same subject and administration people , Buffy and Yosi (weird names!) in May of this year with art community people - list of attendees at the end and Washington Times reported on this doc now -- but I think it's rather strange they administration had a SEIU official address the "Healthcare" portion of their taxpayer finance propaganda push -- the bolded one being especially partisan and clearly legislative agenda combative which they earlier lied about them being.

Contact: Michelle MillerService Employees International Union (SEIU) Michelle.Miller@seiu.org

Summary: This group discussed the multiple roles that artists can play in support of health care reform.Artists can:

• Join with policy makers to help create a narrative about the current health care system. There is anongoing need for stories from inside the health care system, both stories of patients and providers.Artists can facilitate the development of these compelling stories by partnering with health care workersin hospitals/community health centers and helping people tell their stories on an ongoing basis. Thesestories serve to highlight the need for health care reform but can also be used to demonstrate theexistence of communities who rely on public hospitals/community health centers that are often underthreat of closure. For example, Los Angeles Poverty Department’s work on Skid Row in Los Angeles.

• Create a counter narrative to the Luntz memo/Republican talking points designed to destroy health carereform. They can offer creative, humorous voices that can think outside of white papers or New YorkTimes op-eds to communicate effectively about the importance of health care reform and diminish theincreasing attacks on our movement for reform. For example, the satirical webisodes SEIU is producingwith comedy writers with content from Lutz memo.

• Work with health care workers in skills sharing sessions. Artists provide ideas, strategy etc. for using thearts in medicine. Health care workers to provide care in return. Eg: Artist Access program at WoodhullHospital in Brooklyn, NY.

Page 14
White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery—12 May 2009 Page 14

• Participate in the Sarah Jones Health Equality tour: invite artists from other parts of the country wherehealth equality work is growing to performances on the Sarah Jones tour (Nashville July 7 / Minneapolis,July 11) to develop storytelling, arts and culture projects around building awareness and actionconnected to health care equality.

Oh and a another Art propaganda topic was immigration reform --

[clarice]

What did they sponsor-- an I love Obama serape making contest?

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

Ann,

OMG, that was wonderful. Thanks for linking it. I'll laugh all night over that one.

[clarice]

Someone should write
Michelle.Miller@seiu.org and ask if the organizarion produced those webisodes and where one might see them.
Also, would be interesting to know if they got NEA money to produce them but you might want to wait for an answer to the first questions before asking the second.

[bad]

Here's a cutie good for a couple of laughs, particularily around 40 seconds.

LUN

[bad]

Ann, I loved the link. Brilliant dog....

[clarice]

bad, that's great. Kid has rhythm

[Ann]

bad, I loved your link. Brilliant baby....
LOL

[bad]

Ed Morrisey is a tad bit late to the party:

This runs the real risk of exposing Obama as an empty suit.

Where has he been for the last eight + months?

LUN

[bad]

Isn't she adorable?

[bishop]

Is anyone getting the Vader/Lando Calrissian
vibe, here in the LUN

[bad]

Gee Golly Gee Bishop, I'm sure Russia has the bestest intentions....

[Sue The Skinny Bastard]

I'm about to see some fireworks. I'm going to shut down and watch it. Talk to everyone tomorrow, the good Lord willing and the creeks don't rise. ::grin::

I live on a hill. No creek will get me. ::wink::

[clarice]

good luck, Sue.

[bad]

Sue, the storm was pretty innocuous when it went through here. No hail and no electrical blinks, and the wind was much slower than advertised.

[Ann]

Way OT,

May I ask for some food/drink/appetizer suggestions for teen age kids and their parents prior to a Home Coming Dance this Saturday. I have about 30 kids coming to take pictures in front of our arbor before the dance and before they all go out to dinner. I am sure parents will come too and I am not sure what to provide. Help!

[laura]

Ann,
forget the food for the kids, just lots of sodas and mirrors for the girls (safety pins, hair spray, needle and thread, cover up, deodorant, etc etc) After my daughter's graduation weekend and final ball in June I realized we were completely irrelevant except to make countless runs to CVS.
The parents on the other hand will be eternally grateful for a stiff drink and a designated driver.

[JM Hanes]

Tops:

I posted an excerpt & link to this May 13th Washington Post version earlier somewhere, but I'll just go ahead and post the whole thing, this time. I think it's interesting that there seems to be a concerted effort to make it look like artists are soliciting the White House, rather than vice versa. Activists Ask White House for Role in Recovery:

A group of grass-roots activists representing arts, environmental and social justice organizations met yesterday with White House officials to discuss how they could collaborate with the administration on its economic recovery and general policy plans.

They wanted assurances of the Obama administration's commitment to the arts, and to offer their creative involvement when wider government initiatives intersect with their fields. The attendees met with seven administration officials during a two-hour briefing at the Executive Office Building.

Afterward the activists retreated to Busboys and Poets on 14th Street NW to develop strategies for their future involvement. Ideas included a follow-up conference, a partnership with the Labor Department and a Top 10 list of why the arts are important as talking points for the president.

Nick Rabkin, a former deputy arts commissioner in Chicago and now director of an arts research center at the University of Chicago, called the meeting "a first." "It was a demonstration that the arts have potential in helping the greater public good," he said.

Wendell Pierce, an actor featured in HBO's "The Wire" and the film "Ray," said administration officials made it clear there was an "open-door policy." "And I felt we can inform them more than they could inform us. They acknowledged they are inside the bubble and we are where the rubber meets the road," said Pierce, who also founded a redevelopment project in New Orleans.

The more than 60 participants, who paid their own way to Washington, were organized by the Nathan Cummings Foundation and three other partners. The diverse group of attendees represented organizations including the League of Young Voters Education Fund, the Advertising Council, the Old Town School of Folk Music, the Asian Arts Initiative, Roadside Theater/Appalshop, and individuals such as artist Judith F. Baca, writer Jeff Chang, hip-hop DJ Davey D and muralist Michael Schwartz.

"It was really, really inspiring," said Yosi Sergant, just appointed to the Office of Public Engagement, who's sometimes called the White House's "hipster in chief" for his campaign work with Obama poster creator Shepard Fairey. Sergant said the participants were particularly excited that "we have a president who values [both] arts and community organizing."

In general, advocates for the arts have been pleased with efforts of the Obama administration to include them in its initiatives. During the campaign, the Obama-Biden committee issued a platform on arts and culture, saying "the arts embody the American spirit of self-definition." The transition period continued this inclusion with an arts and cultural review team, headed by former NEA chairman Bill Ivey.
Last month the White House announced that actor Kal Penn would join the public liaison office with a concentration on arts and entertainment sectors, as well as the Asian American community (he was not at yesterday's briefing).

The arts groups were heartened by the $161.3 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in the budget proposal submitted to Congress last week, a $6.3 million suggested increase.

Still, the administration hasn't appointed directors for the three federal cultural agencies: the NEA, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

Rha Goddess, a Brooklyn-based performance artist and administrator, said the message she was taking home to her constituency of hip-hop entrepreneurs was one of service. "I want them to give back and develop more mission-driven enterprises," said Goddess.

As the participants divided into working groups at Busboys and Poets, Liz Lerman, who founded her Washington area dance company 33 years ago, declared: "This room is a think tank." She liked the way the White House "had tried to make personal connections," and said the challenge now was on both sides. "How do we continue to get our ideas to them? Artists are poised to work alongside" the administration's ideas, said Lerman, adding, "we just have to know what they are."

I also went through the NEA phone call transcript and pulled out the names of those who identified themselves, which I will put in a separate post. Haven't had a chance to google any of them yet, but there was a big contingent from L.A.

[clarice]

http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/?p=890

pizza on a stick,Ann..

[clarice]

jmh--and how was Obama supposed to show his "commitment to the arts"? LOL

Ann--sliders, too http://www.newsday.com/lifestyle/food-and-recipes/sliders-recipe-1.876962

Niters.

[JM Hanes]

Assuming I didn't miss anyone, here's a list of participants identified in the NEA conference call transcript. It clearly doesn't include everyone, since Patrick Courrielche apparently didn't volunteer his name.

Mike Skolnik, film maker and political director for Russell Simmons.

Called "Hosts" by Skolnik:
Hal Mendoza, Michael De La Rocha, Raymond Leon Rolker, Aaron Rose, Tayyib Smith, Rob Stone and Nicolette Vassel

Apparently serving as "Speakers":
Nell Abernathy, outreach director for United We Serve.
Buffy Wicks, Office of Public Engagement.
Thomas Bates, Rock the Vote
Yosi Sergant, NEA, director of communications
 
Ostensible Guests:
Chris Holmes
Apple Bea
Mr. Shriven from Mark Gecko
Rebecca Krause-Hardy
Hunter Haney from Voice Project
Liz Ban
Tom Bazis from Education Dynamics
Constance Schwartz
Lee Keyonis
Rachel Furman
Evan Surfoley
Mobaloge Akatunday from Chicago
Bim Ayandele from Winner & Associates in L.A
Jeff Kimmerling from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Joshua Fine with Baron Fine LLP in Los Angeles
Karen Kimmel from Los Angeles
Avia Shea from Los Angeles and fusicology.com
Tayyib Smith from Philadelphia
Kevin Strausner
Saskia [or Sauskia] Brown from Current in L.A.
Carmichael here from Los Angeles
Sean Bonner from Los Angeles
Michael Fog from Los Angeles
Nick Avala from Los Angeles
Valentine from Brooklyn, New York
LAZARUS: From New York
Sharon Lewis from New York, New York
Joe Scabara, Los Angeles
Mike De La Rocha
Pedro Alonzo in San Diego
Paul Roden, Pittsburgh, PA
Lynn Hasty from Green Galactic in Los Angeles
Sean Akatunday, Chicago, Illinois
Mark Bevin from Los Angeles
Victor Wong from Washington D.C.
Mat Clark filling in in Chicago for Mike (inaudible)
Lori Bull in Los Angeles with Shepard Fairey
Rob Stone from New York, Fader Magazine Cornerstone
Justin Runner, L.A.
Leo Bolero from Mark Gecko.
Black from Philadelphia
Nicolette Vassel from Dive Projects, New York

The detail that practically leapt off the page for me came when Nell Abernathy, outreach director for United We Serve, responded to a question about Organizing For America and the differences between Organizing For America and Serve.gov (emphasis mine):

Yeah, I can address that a little bit, and the reason only a little bit is largely because in my role at a federal agency, I'm precluded from going too far down the specific steps what people can do to advocate. But we have to, for these legal reasons, remain really separate what we do here from what OFA is doing, and so they're basically two separate goals with the same idea. We use the same techniques, organizing strategies, because basically they're both run by people from the campaign.

The conversation was also remarkable for its focus on politics, not art, although serpentine syntax deserves an honorable mention. The only originality on display was Slotkin's convenient spin on the hackneyed what-is-art question: "art in its definition is service."

[JM Hanes]

bad:

"Where has he been for the last eight + months?"

He must have been buried under an intellectual rock if he's only just now observing that, "I’m not the only one reaching the 'mile wide, inch deep” conclusion.'" Most of the folks here had pretty much reached that conclusion back when it was just a glint in Ed's eye.

That's probably a big part of why I only really visit Hot Air for the links to other stories these days. I think Allahpundit is burnt out and almost unreadable, but he still manages to put out a decent daily headline collection.

[matt]

this computer moron thanks you ChaCo

[matt]

the funny thing is that now that they are exposed, they have taken a massive credibility hit. Their general and their street cred is damaged by blowing it in front of the masses. Shepard Fairey is so 2008....

[Dave (in MA)]

That's probably a big part of why I only really visit Hot Air for the links to other stories these days. I think Allahpundit is burnt out and almost unreadable, but he still manages to put out a decent daily headline collection.

I only visit for the "Dude" links.

[BR]

Artists for sale!
Quid pro quo!
Hatch Act violation!
Artists Accepting Political Bribes!
RICO!

How long before impeachment!! My delicious pesto pasta with olive oil, crushed garlic & parmesan tasted like green car oil while reading this.