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Posts Tagged ‘NEA’
October 31st, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Your Tax Dollars Fund Bus Art and a Video of a Man Yelling into a Woman’s Vagina

Earlier this year, the National Endowment for the Arts announced it was giving away almost $4 million of taxpayers’ hard-earned cash to artists, museum, theaters and other arts organizations it deemed particularly deserving.

One of the groups that snagged a federal handout was Freewaves, a Los Angeles-based outfit that creates media art using video, the Internet and mobile devices. The NEA gave Freewaves $25,000 to make two-minute art videos to play on buses in L.A. County. The unfortunate bus riders are subjected to ridiculous clips such as “Streaming (Tautological Transmissions),” which shows a loop of a ping pong ball floating in a stream and “Can You See Me,” a video of a girl’s blinking eye.

It’s hard to imagine that taxpayers are getting any value at all out of paying to screen videos such as these on public transportation.

Regrettably, the taxpayer-funded handouts to Freewaves didn’t stop with the NEA’s $25,000 grant. The California Arts Council, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and Pasadena Art Alliance all gave Freewaves lumps of cash recently – and all four of those organizations are partially funded by federal tax dollars.

When it’s not assaulting the senses of L.A. bus riders, Freewaves uses tax dollars to feature controversial videos such as “Between,” which is currently on the home page of the group’s website. The clip, which would offend many of the taxpayers who helped to subsidize its creation, shows blurry close-ups of various body parts over a bed of muffled talking and electronic whirs, until it concludes with a man yelling repeatedly into a nude woman’s vagina.

The NEA is a communist-style program that allows government to dictate what constitutes art, as well as what art is worthy of funding, then rips money from the pockets of Americans to fund the art preferred by a few well-placed bureaucrats.

Despite the best efforts of many limited government lawmakers to defund the scheme, the NEA still devours $154.5 million in taxpayers’ money annually.

Rather than having the government take our tax dollars to support the art lawmakers and bureaucrats like, why not just let us keep our money to support the art we personally value? The reality is that if the federal government announced tomorrow that it would no longer fund the NEA, Individuals, foundations and charitable organizations would step up to support art – and more styles and kinds of arts would emerge as a result.

Even without the NEA, Freewaves would still be funded if the organization could find enough donors willing to support its unique brand of “art” in the marketplace.

August 29th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
Teachers Union Spends $100,000 to Attack Fox News
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Now remember: they’re throughly nonpartisan and their main interest is the kids. From the Daily Caller:

A document the National Education Association filed with the U.S. Department of Labor in 2011 indicates that the teachers union donated $100,000 to Media Matters For America nearly two years ago, describing it as a payment for “public relations costs.” In the months that followed, Media Matters’ online coverage of teachers unions increased, focusing largely on attacking the Fox News Channel and other media outlets it considers “conservative” in nature.

… Since the date of the $100,000 payment, the liberal messaging group has published 41 separate articles online referring to the NEA and other teachers unions, each one staking out a position that’s favorable to organized labor and critical of a media outlet whose commentators disagree.

Almost universally, that media outlet has been the Fox News Channel. Of those 41 articles, 29 directly attacked Fox News or the name of a Fox host or contributor in their headlines. Many others attack Fox and its personnel more generally.

Remember this the next time the teachers unions plead hardship — they’ve still got six figures lying around to send to George Soros’ ankle-biters.

 

October 22nd, 2010 at 7:51 am
So Which Group Actually Spends the Most on the 2010 Election? Public Employee Union AFSCME
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Barack Obama has consistently failed to gain political traction with unseemly attacks against everyone from former President Bush to Fox News to John Boehner’s tan.  So Obama redirected his aim using illogical and baseless attacks against business groups whom he accuses of attempting to “sway elections” through sinister election spending.”  David Axelrod, Obama’s top political guru, has labeled election spending a “threat to our democracy,” and when pressed to identify a shred of evidence supporting Obama’s allegation of illegal foreign campaign spending benefiting Republican candidates could only reply, “do you have any evidence that it’s not?”

So which group has actually spent the most to influence this year’s Congressional elections?  The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a 1.6 million member union of public employees.  According to The Wall Street Journal, AFSCME has now spent $87.5 million, which outdistances the demonized Chamber of Commerce by a cool $12.5 million.  Of the top five spenders, in fact, three of them are big labor unions (the other two being the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and National Education Association (NEA)).

One would hope for more ethical behavior from a President who based his entire 2008 campaign on bringing “change” to our toxic political discourse.  What will be his campaign theme in 2012?  Instead of “hope and change,” he’s building a legacy of “hypocrisy and impropriety.”

September 24th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
Another Obama Man Done Gone, Mainstream Media Sings “Hail to the Chief”
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Ben Smith of Politico.com, reporting on the resignation of Yosi Sargent (former NEA Communications Director who organized and participated in call enlisting artists to support Obama programs):  “The White House has sought to downplay the story, which has gotten little mainstream media attention, despite heavy coverage on the right.”

Perhaps that would explain the latest poll findings on  national attitudes toward the media, conducted by Sacred Heart University:  “A large majority, 89.3 percent, suggested the national media played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect President Obama.  Just 10.0 percent suggested the national media played little or no role.  Further, 69.9 percent agreed the national news media are intent on promoting the Obama presidency while 26.5 percent disagreed.  Some, 3.6 percent, were unsure.”

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September 24th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
GOP Pushes WH-NEA Issue, Wants Congressional Investigation

CNSNews.com is reporting that “House Republicans are seeking a congressional investigation and information from the White House to determine whether the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) pushed politics in a conference call with potential grant recipients.”

The issue erupted when Andrew Breitbart, of ACORN-video fame, published details of the call on his Big Hollywood website in which the White House allegedly worked with NEA officials to encourage its grant recipients to push Obama’s top policy priorities, including health care reform, cap-and-trade and other issues.   

According to Rep. John Kline (R-MN), ranking member of the House Education and Labor Committee:

The Lobbying Act and the Hatch Act are there to make sure we do not see government personnel and assets used for political purposes. … It does appear laws were broken. I want to work within the jurisdiction where I have it, which is the ranking Republican on the Education and Labor Committee.”

In addition, Congressman Darrell Issa (R-CA), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has sent a letter to Obama Sr. Advisor Valerie Jarrett at the White House asking her to provide more information about the conference call, including:

  • A full and complete list of all participants on the August 10, 2009 conference call.
  • A full and complete explanation of how invitees to the conference call were selected.
  • A full and complete description of any consultation of, or opinion provided by, the Office of the White House Counsel or any other advisor regarding the legal implications of the August 10, 2009 conference call specifically and/or the relationship between the White House and NEA generally.
  • A full and complete description of how the conference call was arranged, including which White House staff initiated contact with, or were contacted by, NEA staff, the role of the White House Office of Public Engagement, and the role of the Corporation for National and Community Service.
  • A full and complete explanation of the White House’s expectations for call participants.
  • A full and complete list of, any material produced by call participants in response to the August 10,2009 conference call.

Sen. Mike Enzi (R-WY), Ranking Member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, is leading the effort on the Senate side.

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September 21st, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Congressional Appropriations for NEA… By Year

Since its inception in the mid ’60s, the National Endowment for the Arts (“NEA”) has received billions in taxpayer dollars. 

Here is a link to its Congressional appropriations by year (through 2007), as they’re disclosed on the NEA website.

Below is a snapshot of taxpayer funding for just this decade alone:

2000 $ 97,627,600
2001 $104,769,000
2002 $115,220,000
2003 $115,731,000
2004 $120,971,000
2005 $121,263,000
2006 $124,406,353
2007 $124,561,844

Here is NEA’s FY 2010 appropriations request totaling $161,315 million.

September 21st, 2009 at 6:34 pm
NEA Received $50 Million From Stimulus Bill

Following the news that the White House has been colluding with the National Endowment for the Arts (a public agency) to enlist artists to become propaganda tools for the President’s agenda on health care, the environment and other issues, we thought it would be prudent to remind readers that Congress earmarked $50 million for the NEA in the so-called Economic Stimulus Bill passed back in February.

September 21st, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Painted Talking Points?
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The White House has made a habit out of its secret dealings with outside groups, including unions.  However, now it appears that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is scheming to promote the President’s agenda.  One would think that White House talking points wouldn’t be the best muse, but let us not underestimate the power of “hope.”

According to the Washington Times and Breitbart, the NEA and the Administration set up a conference call to encourage artists around the U.S. to channel their creativity … with the help of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

What’s worse, when confronted by reporters, the NEA lied about setting up the conference call.   Here is the transcript. The Director who misled reporters did not resign, but has instead been reassigned.

As Patrick Courrielche of Breitbart wrote:

“I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part in a conference call that invited a group of rising artist and art community luminaries ‘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.'”

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