Barack Obama -- The Propaganda Operation

Propaganda Machine

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Obama has the best propaganda machine since Joseph Goebbels

The Press Is AWOL

Byron York did a Nexis search on the Van Jones controversy, on September 4, 2009. Here are the results:

Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the New York Times: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy in the Washington Post: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on NBC Nightly News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on ABC World News: 0.
Total words about the Van Jones controversy on CBS Evening News: 0.

If you were to receive all your news from any one of these outlets, or even all of them together, and you heard about some sort of controversy involving Obama's Special Adviser for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, your response would be, "Huh?" If you heard that that adviser, Van Jones, had apologized for a number of remarks and positions in the recent past, your response would be, "What?" And if you were in the Obama White House monitoring the Jones situation, you would be hoping that the news organizations listed above continue to hold the line -- otherwise, Jones, who is quite well thought of in Obama circles, would be history.

Sometimes, propaganda is what you don't report.

Obama's Plan To Desecrate 9/11

Obama is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert 9/11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.

This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that Obama promised during last year's election campaign. Obama signed into law a measure in April that designated 9/11 as a National Day of Service, but it's not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.

Obama's plans were outlined in an August 11, 2009, White House-sponsored teleconference call run by Obama ally Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Liv Havstad, the group's senior vice president of strategic partnerships and programs.

On the August 11th call, Yearwood and other leaders kept saying repeatedly that they wanted 9/11 to be used for something "positive," "forward-leaning," and "productive," said a source with knowledge of the teleconference.

The plan is to turn a "day of fear" that helps Republicans into a day of activism called the National Day of Service that helps the left. In other words, nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all meaning.

"They think it needs to be taken back from the right," said the source. "They're taking that day and they're breaking it because it gives Republicans an advantage. To them, that day is a fearful day."

Continue reading here . . .

Rage Against The Obama Propaganda Machine

"Choose you this day whom ye will serve." That may be from the Bible's Book of Joshua, but it could be from a book of Barack Obama. Kathryn Lopez asks, is that hyperbole? Only slightly, unfortunately.

In U.S. Department of Education materials surrounding the first national presidential address to public-school students, children were encouraged to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help Obama. After some genuine and vociferous backlash, the Obama administration took back some of these recommendations for recruiting students to the cause that is Barack Obama.

But the pullback came around the same time that an elementary school in Utah was scheduled to show students a video parade of celebrities pledging allegiance to Obama, and to the liberalism for which he stands. In this video, various tabloid types seeking to "Be the Change" vow to "smile more" and "love more." Other plans include "to be the voice for those who have no voice"; and to not always flush the toilet, for the sake of the planet; "To pledge allegiance to the funk, of the United Funk of Funkadelica"; and, most audaciously, "To free one million people from slavery in the next five years." Yes, it was a bit of a mix.

The culmination of the whole mess, however, was very clear; to "pledge to be of service to Barack Obama . . . to be a servant of Obama and all mankind."

Rational people would argue that the head of a republican government serves the people who elected him, not the other way around. But reason does not live in an era of vague feelings.

The video was produced and directed by noted thespian and liberal scold Demi Moore and her husband Ashton Kutcher, who recently told Reuters: "There's an assumption that this one man is going to take on his new job full-time and somehow wave a magic wand of change, and I don't believe that to be true. I think that we have to be the leaders, and that's not celebrities -- I think that we as citizens have to be leaders of the movement that we want to create." Evidently, in order to get people to be the change, you have to get to them early, when they're in public school. "We're all in this together," one celeb declared. Would that have only been the case when George W. Bush was president? Instead, examples of celebrity service during that era took the form of actress Cameron Diaz (who makes an appearance in the Moore pledge video) declaring on the Oprah Winfrey show during the 2004 election: "If you think that rape should be legal, then don't vote. But if you think that you have a right to your body, and you have a right to say what happens to you and fight off that danger of losing that, then you should vote."

What the heck is she talking about? Abortion, obviously, once you cut through all the craziness. It's safe to say Diaz wasn't into presidential servitude back then.

The school indoctrination stories have been airing at the same time as revelations, on the right-leaning Web site Big Hollywood, of a government body organizing an artistic propaganda machine. Film producer Patrick Courrielche was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts to join a conference call sponsored by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We Serve, the organization created by Obama to promote volunteer service. The stated purpose of the call was "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."

A few days after the call, Courrielche noticed that the starry-eyed Rock the Vote campaign, whose "mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country," sent out an e-mail declaring: "We can't stand by and listen to lies and deceit coming from those who are against reforming a broken system...Young people demand health care now." Unsurprisingly, Rock the Vote is in favor of a public component to said health care.

A representative for Rock the Vote was on the NEA conference call. He picked up the orders.

These have been tough times for Obama. With a majority in Congress, and an adamant imperative that his health-care reform will should be done, he had to let summer recess in Washington come and go without his commands fulfilled. You can understand wanting to use every resource available to him.

Aristotle said that art completes what nature cannot bring to a finish. Perhaps Obama's NEA might say that art completes what democracy isn't obedient enough carry out.

The problem is that, if the National Endowment for the Arts exists -- which some of us think has always been regrettable in a nation that has more than enough private resources and enthusiasm to support the arts without need of government support -- it is not at the political service of a politician. It's not meant to be an extension of his communications office.

The video, the Department of "Political" Education directives, the secular crusading ... these are alarm bells. An emptiness exists, created by a tyrannical reign of elite secularism. And self-declared servants of Obama may not realize this yet, but it's a void that ultimately can't be filled by hollow rhetoric and bureaucratic disasters.

We are a culture that understands art as an elevation, not as a campaign tactic. And there is a higher authority than the Resident of the United States whom you're still free to pledge service to if you so choose.

Obama "Appointed By God"

Obama was "appointed by God," we are instructed by a man boasting academic credentials.

Writing in the Orlando Sentinel, Jeremy Levitt, "associate dean for International Programs and a distinguished professor of international law at Florida A&M University College of Law in Orlando," makes this case at the conclusion of a rambling attack on critics of ObamaCare and the right in general:

I would remind the far right what the Apostle Paul wrote, " ... there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." Hence, Obama is the U.S. president and leader of the Free World because he was appointed by God.

Thomas Lifson wonders how much criticism this statement will encounter on the left, from the militant atheists and church-haters?

How many Obama supporters actually believe this "distinguished professor"?

Brainwashing Kindergarteners

"Obama, Mmm, mmm, mm!" (02:24)
( lyrics here )

Criminney! Reader "JH" just emailed me another one. The perpetrators of this outrage are so proud of their "song," they even have a website, complete with the words, and additional pictures of the ~~children~~ subjects. Here's their email. I'm sure they'd love to hear what you have to say about their wonderful, wonderful work.

This is wrong on so many levels. This is nothing more than the brainwashing of children -- and these children haven't even reached the age of reason yet. It's just not wrong, it's criminal. Everyone involved with these outragous videos should be fired.

Just imagine what goes on in these classes when the cameras are off?

Here is the email to the principal of the B. Bernice Young Elementary School, Dr. Denise King, and here's Mrs. Carol Zulla's, the vice-principal's, email.

Americans Say Media In Tank For Obama

Much of the Mainstream Media has a low opinion of the American people -- just like Obama. They believe them to be mindless cattle who are easy to influence. To the MSM, it was propaganda that got us into the war on terror, and it is their job to use propaganda to get us out. The problem with that theory, is that the American people are not dumb. They mistrust government and ask lots of questions which is why people tend to gravitate toward the conservative point of view. And one thing's for sure they see through the Mainstream Media's act.

The latest update of the Sacred Heart University media poll asked people about their attitudes regarding the Mainstream Media. Most Americans felt that the media is not neutral, it tries to influence public opinion and policy. They feel that most media has a STRONG liberal bent, Fox news is the most accurate of news services, they don't want one red cent spent on bailing out the Newspaper Industry, and the media is in the tank for Obama.

• 86.6% strongly and somewhat agreed that the news media have their own political and public policy positions and attempt to influence public opinion.

• 85.3% strongly and somewhat agreed that the news media have their own political positions and attempt to influence public policies.

• 83.6% agreed that national news media organizations as very or somewhat biased.

• 89.3%, agreed the national media played a very or somewhat strong role in helping to elect Obama.

• 69.9% agreed the national news media are intent on promoting the Obama residency.

• 56.4%, agreed that the news media are promoting Obama’s healthcare reform without objective criticism.

Details here . . .

Why I do what I do.

Capitol Hill Switchboard Used For Partisan Purposes

Warner Todd Huston says this certainly can't be legal… can it? If you call the switchboard for Congress, the number you'd call to be put through to your Congressman or Senator's office, you get a short message selling Obama's healthcare policies before being transferred to the switchboard operator. This should be the sort of story the Old Media would investigate fully. But will it?

How can this even be legal? After all, this isn't the Democrat Party hotline we are talking about here. It is the main phone number representing all of Congress, not just Obama and his nationalized healthcare policies. I repeat, this is the phone number for all of Congress, not an activist's number to sell Democrats and their policies.

While it lasts, try it yourself and you'll see. The number is 1-800-828-0498.

Here is the transcript of the message you'll hear:

Thank you for calling your Representative and your Senators.

Please urge them to vote yes on health insurance reform. Because the American people can no longer wait for more choices, lower costs, and coverage we can count on.

After this little message the phone rings once again and is patched through to the switchboard operator.

Here is the audio that I recorded just in case the Obama administration does the "transparent" thing and makes this message disappear down the memory hole.

I have to say, this message is frightening. We can't even call our representatives without being hit over the head by the socialized healthcare message. Not to mention the fact that the message is a arguably untrue. A good argument can be made that ObamaCare will not give us "more choices," ObamaCare will not "lower costs," and ObamaCare will not give us better coverage.

I just cannot see how this is legal, and even if it is legal it is gauche and not right. Can the message for the Congressional switchboard be used for partisan purposes? I just can't see it being legal.

Naturally, the big question here is if the Old Media will report this? If a Republican president or a Republican controlled House and Senate were to sponsor such a phone message on the Capitol Hill switchboard, one would think that the Old Media would lose its collective mind that a general government service was being used for partisan purposes. One might rather imagine that the media would fall into a feeding frenzy over such a thing were it to occur with the GOP in controlling power.

I received a single email suggesting this may be a scam. However, I called the number myself before posting this item. The operator who answered was very annoyed, and suggested that she would put me through to my rep (So. Boston's Steve Lynch). I said that would be useless, connect me with any Republican, and she put me right through to the Republican Congressional Committee.

The Obama Show

Matthew Continetti says it's time to change the channel.

Unemployment is close to 10 percent. The government is embedded in the auto, banking, housing, and insurance sectors. Obama's domestic agenda hangs in the balance. Things aren't rosy on the global front, either. Public opinion has turned against the war in Afghanistan just as a major decision on troop levels must be made. The Iranians are busily working to obtain nuclear weapons. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict remains as intractable as ever. It's a dangerous world at an uncertain time, and last week Obama responded by going on the Late Show with David Letterman.

It's all too apparent: Faced with the choice, Obama prefers the comforts of celebrity to the duties of leadership. In addition to Letterman, there was his appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno last March and his running commentary in the ESPN broadcast booth during baseball's All-Star game last July. You might imagine a lame-duck making such media appearances, but not one barely nine months into his term. Obama clearly sees himself as a sort of salesman-in-chief, and considers endless speechifying and interview-giving as the best way to further his agenda. The adoring crowds, raucous applause, and obsequious press coverage that accompany his appearances are cherries on top.

So, in order to pressure Congress to act on health care and "call out" all the lying racist, nihilist cynics who stand in his way, Obama delivered his major address to a joint session of Congress on September 9. He followed that up with giant "Si Se Puede" rallies in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and Maryland and a dizzying turn on five Sunday morning news shows. Amazingly, Obama has also found time in September to deliver a speech to the nation's schoolchildren; give major addresses on the financial crisis and climate change; and contribute remarks at Walter Cronkite's funeral. The month isn't even over yet, and the salesman-in-chief has become a poor imitation of the late pitchman, Billy Mays.

Continue reading here . . .

Selling White House Policy Through Art

Patrick Courrielche received a call from his cousin. He’d been hearing some chatter from the family about something happening with a series of NEA articles that I’d written for Big Hollywood and wanted to find out from the horse’s mouth what was going on. His question was simple and concise.

"What did the White House do wrong," he asked.

"The White House attempted to use federal agencies for political gain," I blurted out.

yosi-obama-kzo
Obama with former NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergant

And that is The Big Truth in a nutshell. A moment of clarity hit me, and as with most eureka moments, a path of how to explain this big truth came into sight. The full story needed to be told -- including possible collusion, the White House’s novel mode of operation, and the eventual cover-up -- to fully understand and illuminate the government’s intention with their arts effort.

Up until now, I have not discussed Sergant’s former job in the White House Office of Public Engagement, where Buffy Wicks currently resides, because the story had to develop to understand the significance. I also haven’t discussed the email that I received from Michael Skolnik, the moderator of the call, immediately after the publication of the original conference call article -- an email that attempted to revise history and the role of the NEA and the White House in the meeting. And what has yet to be discussed is the White House’s recent ability to set up an ArtistCorps, brought into existence with less than 20 words in the Serve America Act. (more…)

Jarrett’s Ministry of Culture

Conservative journalists have exposed the Obama administration’s attempts to politicize the National Endowment for the Arts. Andrew Breitbart’s website has detailed two conference calls in August aimed at recruiting artists to shill for health care "reform" and environmental legislation. However, it has been overlooked that an NEA official and numerous employees in Valerie Jarrett’s office hosted an earlier meeting on May 12 to enroll "artists" in advancing its political agenda – and to get their input in shaping it. Both aspects are troubling, as the invited participants included several of Van Jones’s ideological fellow travelers, three people who claimed the CIA sells crack in minority neighborhoods, a Jewish lesbian who confessed to having "a little crush on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ," representatives of the SEIU and the Tides Foundation, a publisher who dubbed 9/11 "a major piece of performance art conceived by" a jihadist with "an artist’s mind," a director who wrote 9/11 was tied to Ronald Reagan’s withdrawal from UNESCO, and the "former International Spokeswoman for the Universal Zulu Nation."

The evidence shows the heavy involvement of Valerie Jarrett’s office -- and possibly Jarrett herself -- the participants’ explicit understanding they were to promote Obama’s legislative agenda, and the administration’s acceptance of those whose beliefs are at least as radical as those of Van Jones.

The furor began when word leaked out then-National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) communications director Yosi Sergant invited Patrick Courrielche and 74 other artists to participate in an August 10th conference call supporting the United We Serve Program. Sergant invited his readers to "celebrate how the arts can be used for a positive change!" The call’s organizer, Michael Skolnick said (as administration officials listened in) that artists who had worked to elect Obama must continue "to support some of the president’s initiatives…to push the president and push his administration." Sergant then emphasized, "I would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment…." (Read the full call transcript.)

However, it was one of Valerie Jarrett’s employees, Deputy Director of the Office of Public Engagement Buffy Wicks, who was most explicit about the call’s partisan goals. She told the participants, "we’re going to come at you with some specific asks here." She did this because, "We’re actually running the government. We need your guys’s help to promote this."

Continue reading Ben Johnson here . . .

Obama Receives Nobel Peace Prize

No, this is not a joke. I Googled (News) to make sure this one was on the level -- it is.

Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Nobel Committee said in Oslo today.

The Nobel Committee awarded Obama his Peace Prize after only 11 days in office.

Obama says he's humbled. Why are you laughing?

Obama, 48, last year was elected on a platform of extracting the U.S. from the Iraq war (which he hasn't) while increasing focus on an eight-year conflict in Afghanistan (which he hasn't). All U.S. forces are scheduled to be withdrawn from Iraq by 2011 (which they won't), after the 2003 the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Obama is the third occupant of the Oval Office to be awarded the prize, following Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 and Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter won in 2002.

What the hell has Obama done to even be considered for this award -- it's a disgrace -- but when one reads the list of presidential honorees -- Wilson, Carter and Obama -- it kinda makes sense -- three losers!

The bloom was off the Nobel Rose when they gave the thing to Yasser Arafat.

Even 4th-Worlders are saying it's a joke.

Liaqat Baluch, a senior leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party in Pakistan, called the award an "embarrassing joke."

"Obama has a long way to go still and lots of work to do before he can deserve a reward," said Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri. "Obama only made promises and did not contribute any substance to world peace. And he has not done anything to ensure justice for the sake of Arab and Muslim causes."

Issam al-Khazraji, a day laborer in Baghdad, said: "He doesn't deserve this prize. All these problems -- Iraq, Afghanistan -- have not been solved... The man of 'change' hasn't changed anything yet."

White House Admits They Control News Media

Gina's blog at Sodahead reports Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled," White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government at a videotaped conference.

"Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control," said Dunn.

"One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters," said Dunn, referring to Plouffe, who was Obama's chief campaign manager.

"We just put that out there and made them write what Plouffe had said as opposed to Plouffe doing an interview with a reporter. So it was very much we controlled it as opposed to the press controlled it," Dunn said.

Dunn: "Whether it was a David Plouffe video or an Obama speech, a huge part of our press strategy was focused on making the media cover what Obama was actually saying as opposed to why the campaign was saying it, what the tactic was -- making the press cover what we were saying."

Anita Dunn's husband is Obama's personal attorney -- he's the guy that's keeping Obama's bona fides hidden from the American People -- and she's Obama's mouthpiece and a proud admirer of Chairman Mao -- it's a tight little bunch.

Obama Fumbles On Monday Night Football

Kyle Smith says his propaganda has seeped into everything.

Remember that time President Bush interrupted the Emmy telecast to tell people we should support reform of Social Security before it bankrupted the country?

Neither do I. Yet when I tuned in to watch "Monday Night Football" this week to check out the Miami Dolphins’ Wildcat offense, I didn’t expect to see Obama taking the direct snap and trying to pound his political message into the end zone.

Where’s the flag for illegal procedure? Obama is popping up everywhere but Cialis commercials. How long before we have to watch him and Michelle holding hands in matching bathtubs as they lecture us about executive compensation schemes?

With the full blessing of the media, Obama is still in election mode, and I say: If elections persist more than 24 months, it’s a problem. Especially when the networks are giving him free time to air what amount to campaign commercials.

Continue reading here . . .

He Came, He Saw, He Kowtowed

Jonah Goldberg says that Rocco Landesman, the head of the National Endowment for the Arts, didn’t get the memo, literally.

On September 22, stung by controversy over the administration’s effort to turn the arts community into proselytizers of its very special brand of hope and change, the White House issued a stern warning to all government agencies: Keep politics out of the arts.

The White House denied that was ever the intent. Many in the media, as is their wont, took the Obama administration at their word.

But not the website Big Government (which broke the story) and the Washington Times. They demonstrated that from the earliest days of the presidential transition, Barack Obama’s political operation sought to entrench the arts community in its "outreach" operations. Bill Ivey, Obama’s transition adviser on the arts, admitted in June: "I wanted to see some real connection between administration objectives and the capacity of all the cultural actors in government. I made some progress. I got some agreement."

That "progress" mostly came in the form of enlisting arts groups -- groups that received stimulus money -- in Obama’s national-service agenda.

Three days after Landesman was confirmed as the head of the NEA, his communications director, Yosi Sergant, told NEA grantees in a conference call: "I would encourage you to pick something, whether it’s health care, education, the environment -- you know, there’s four key areas that the corporation has identified as the areas of service."

Two days later, a host of arts organizations endorsed Obama’s health-care plan: "We call on Congress to pass: A health-care reform bill that will create a public-health option.... There is little time to waste...." Of the 21 groups signing the statement, 16 had recently received grants from the NEA or were affiliated with organizations that had.

Sergant was thrown under the bus, and the September 22 memo put an end to the story for the supportive media.

But the story continues here . . .

NEA Scandal Expands

The Lid blog reports on a new set of National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) emails that have been released, linking the White House directly to the NEA scandal.

Four weeks ago, Big Hollywood posted an audio of a conference call in which Obama administration officials asked "grant recipients to plug Barack Obama’s domestic agenda."

At least six federal laws and regulations were violated when then–NEA communications director Yosi Sergant and White House Office of Public Engagement deputy director Buffy Wicks tried twisting the arms of artists and arts groups interested in getting federal arts grants to produce government propaganda.

To protect the scandal from expanding further, the White House threw Sergant under the bus, denied that they were involved issued new guidelines for the NEA and promised that it will never, ever, cross my heart, ever happen again.

Last week, Judicial Watch, announced it had obtained documents from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) related to the NEA's controversial August 10 conference call encouraging artists to create work that promotes the Obama agenda. The first set of documents were internal NEA correspondence involving disgraced former NEA Communications Director Yosi Sergant, who resigned over the scandal, and former actor, star of House and current Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Kalpen Modi.

They indicate that the call was part of a specific White House Arts Policy to use the NEA as propaganda tool.

The following are excerpts from the email correspondence:

Using Tax Money To Push Obama Agenda

WashingtonExaminer.com reports that buried in the interior appropriations bill headed to Obama's desk is a big spending increase for a controversial agency that his White House staff aims to use as artistic cover for creating political propaganda. The National Endowment for the Arts's annual spending goes from $155 million to $167.5 million, the most since the Clinton administration. A mere $12 million in a budget with $1.4 trillion in deficits might seem trifling. But documents obtained by Judicial Watch via a Freedom of Information Act request leave no doubt that Obama aides meant to put those tax dollars to work paying "artists" to create posters and other propaganda paraphernalia supporting the Obama agenda.

As The Examiner reported Friday, the documents made public by Judicial Watch include a series of e-mails from White House associate director of public engagement Kalpen Modi, whose boss is Valerie Jarrett, director of the Office of Public Engagement and a close Obama confidant. Modi worked with then-NEA communications director Yosif Sergant planning an Aug. 10 telephone conference call hosted by Sergant. The purpose of the call, moderator Michael Skolnik explained at the outset, was to encourage participants "to get involved in things that we're passionate about as we did during the campaign but continue to get involved in those things, to support the president's initiatives ..." Skolnik, political director for hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons, told conference participants that he was asked "by people in the White House and folks in the NEA" to organize the call, which was joined by officials representing 21 arts groups around the country.

Judicial Watch unearthed e-mail between Sergant, Modi and Buffy Wicks, deputy director of the White House public engagement office. Wicks campaigned for Obama in Missouri in 2008, and before that worked for an ACORN-like activist group known as Wake-Up Wal-Mart that was funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union. Use of government time, equipment and facilities in planning the conference call may violate the Anti-Lobbying Act, which says "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. ..." Sergant resigned from the NEA following disclosure of the Aug. 10 conference call. Why are Modi and Wicks still on the White House payroll?

Buffy Wicks ran Obama’s Missouri campaign and the "Obama Truth Squad." Along with two of St. Louis' high-profile prosecuting attorneys, Wicks' Truth Squad threatened anyone who dared to disseminate information that they didn't like about the then-candidate Obama.

One year ago on September 23rd, KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis reported that St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCullough and St. Louis Circuit attorney Jennifer Joyce joined a high-profile group of law enforcement officials (including Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer) threatening to invoke "Missouri ethics laws" against anyone the prosecutors determined had spread misleading information about Obama.

Obama has shown that he has no problem using goon squad tactics, whether the goons come from the SEIU or the halls of justice.

Obama Lunches With ObamaMedia

Michael Calderone says Obama met with several journalists for lunch today at the White House, according to a source with knowledge of the event.

The attendees for Friday’s lunch were as follows: CNN's David Gergen, Washington Post's Chris Cillizza, Newsweek's Jon Meacham and Howard Fineman, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution's Cynthia Tucker, POLITICO's Mike Allen, NPR/ Fox's Mara Liasson, Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall and New York Times trio David Brooks, Andy Rosenthal, and Gail Collins.

Also on hand were administration officials: David Axelrod, Anita Dunn, Bill Burton, and Robert Gibbs.

The off-the-record lunch lasted about two hours, and included a green salad, halibut and a pear fart for dessert (excuse me "tart" -- I couldn't help myself)

Obama's had several meetings with columnists, editors and reporters since shortly before inauguration. Early on, there was a conservative columnist dinner at George Will's house, followed by a meeting with liberal and moderate writers the next day. Just two weeks ago, Obama met with a group of mostly liberal columnists and cable personalities.

Obama and the Obots continue to compromise the American press, who have lost all sense of journalistic independence.

The ObamaMedia are now working directly for Barack Obama. They are now promoters of his agenda, and defenders of his questionable background.

Obama’s Great Leap Forward

When Barack Obama was campaigning in 2007, his backers frequently compared him to former president John F. Kennedy. After a year in office, however, Obama’s words and actions align more closely with China’s despotic Chairman Mao than with JFK’s.

When Mao Tse Tung conquered China in 1949, his secret goal was to dominate the world. When Obama was elected, many started referring to him as "President of the World." Both Obama and Mao had carte blanche to set out a path of radical change.

As part of his strategy, Mao informed his top echelon, "There has to be a personality cult…it is absolutely necessary." With the aid of the state media, Mao crafted an iconic image of himself as the savior of the common man. Propaganda was everywhere -- including the fields where workers could listen to messages from Mao as they worked.

Sound familiar?

In 1958, Mao kicked off what he called The Great Leap Forward, an extraordinarily creative intervention in China’s economic development. Mao planned to abolish wages and put society on a non-cash basis. He then set about abolishing private property.

The ownership of tools, animals, and other means of production were taken over by the state -- in the name of the people. Just as the ownership of the auto, banking and insurance industries of today have been taken over by Obama's government.

Chairman Mao, in the name of the people, also took over China’s health care. The "state" determined who would receive this essential service. The elderly were moved into "houses of happiness" so that they could be looked after -- by the state. Much like the proposed government takeover of America’s health care today.

Chairman Mao’s government also plunged the country into a deep debt by drastically increasing spending on the development of heavy industry. But the state-sponsored industry that developed was not only non-productive, it ended up wasting money and resources on a massive scale without producing anything of value. Much like the bloated government behemoth Obama’s policies are producing today.

Mao, through a cult of personality and firm control of the levers of government, had the ability to impose his own version of reality on China. Just as Obama has today.

Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Continue reading here . . .

Just How Brilliant Is Barack Obama?

John Lillpop says for nearly two full years now, the American people have been force-fed a steady diet of propaganda as to the formidable genius and superior intellect of one Barack Hussein Obama.

According to the mainstream media and other liberal sources, Obama’s superior intelligence was more important than the fact that, at age 46, this savant from Chicago had no practical problem solving experience and no accomplishments to his credit when he decided to seek the presidency.

His IQ is so extraordinary, they said, that he was entitled to step into the most powerful position in the world with only the Audacity of Hope on his resume, and the word CHANGE on his lips and loaded into his teleprompter.

Barack Obama was the messiah, the One, the Healer, all things good and glorious rolled into one clean and articulate ball of genius that would save the world, America, and all of mankind from eight years of W. and the Republicans.

Unfortunately, the American people bought into this bull excrement and elected an enthusiastic agent of CHANGE who was, and is, exactly clueless about the real world.

For the nightmare now residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, we can thank mainstream media and the Democrat party, and the 69 million people who voted with their hearts rather than their brains.

After less than a full year in the presidency, Barack Obama has distinguished himself as the most overrated and unqualified president in American history.

It gets better . . . continue reading here . . .

What Has Obama Accomplished?

Nancy Morgan points out a question that's making the rounds of conservative talk shows lately: "What has Obama accomplished so far?" The question is asked of Obama supporters and the answers range from "abolishing lobbyists" to "securing world peace" to "lowering taxes."

One thing all answers have in common: They are all grounded in perception as opposed to reality.

Obama has accomplished the amazing feat of convincing millions of Americans that black is white, that cold is hot, that the bad economy is the fault of George W Bush, and the only things standing between America and peace on earth are those darn Republicans and greedy capitalists.

As author Thomas Sowell points out in "Is Reality Optional," social history in the last 30 years has been a history of replacing what worked with what sounded good. And no-where is this more evident than in the "change" Obama is foisting on the American people.

The empty rhetoric of "social justice" and "compassion" is convincingly and successfully being used to justify ever more ludicrous social policies, which just happen to come with a huge price tag and more government control.

Ignored by the left and the media, however, is the inconvenient fact that every single policy promoted by Obama and passed by congress has been a dismal failure. From the jobs "stimulus" package that has cost taxpayers a whopping $236,436 per job created -- to the the "cash for clunkers" -- to the $61 billion bucks taxpayers just lost through the AIG and auto industry bailout.

Add in the $75 billion mortgage relief program to stem the largely government caused "foreclosure crisis." This program has helped a grand total of 31,000 borrowers to date, a paltry 4% of the 760,000 who have applied.

Despite the dismal failures of these policies, Obama and his cohorts continue advocating more of the same. As Dr. Sowell points out, "The anointed are often wrong but never in doubt."

Continue reading here . . .

Obama Compromises The ObamaMedia

The Post & Email reports that in the aftermath of yet another insult to our allies via the refusal to participate to the traditional events surrounding the award of the Nobel Prize including a dinner with the King, on the pretenses that the recipient was a very busy, sitting "President," responsible for not one, but two, wars and facing the worst economic crisis "EVAHHH," the White House is quietly organizing yet another vacation for the Obamas.

They would have you believe that nothing has been decided yet, when in fact the logistics of booking their 13 day vacations in Hawaii, from December 23 to January 3, are in full swing, and the invitations for the entourage are out!

Yesterday, December 10, AFP's Laurence Haim, the only French-Press-accredited, White House correspondent, revealed that she had received an email inviting her and a guest to stay for the duration of Obama’s trip to Hawaii, at a Hotel next to the Obamas’ vacations spot. Her revelations were aired on the French TV leading evening news program.

To listen to the program in French, go to the 20:00 mark in this broadcast.

According to Haim, the entire corps of White House correspondents, domestic and international has been invited (with a guest of their choice), to follow the Obamas under the sun at the American taxpayer expense.

In times when the American people are facing a bleak and sobering Christmas, when millions have lost their jobs and homes, the Obama Court is relocating to a Hawaiian paradise on the public dime. And to insure the cooperative silence of the Main Stream Media, it is bribing the lackeys of the press, with lavishing and outrageous favors.

This would be cause enough to raise eyebrows, but since when is 13 day vacation outside of the mainland U.S.A. accpetable the "President" of a nation at war?

I guess Christmas at home in Chicago or New Year at Camp David does not fit the standards of the Grandiose Obamas.

Probably not Historic enough!

State Control?

The Radio Equalizer says anyone wondering why an increasing number of conservatives now use the term "state-controlled media" (which originated with Rush Limbaugh) to refer to television networks and newspapers, here's one that drives the point home.

During his syndicated radio show Friday, libtalker and MSNBC host Ed Schultz relayed to listeners how he observed "Morning Joe" Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski take feedback directly from the White House during their program last week.

Schultz appeared on Thursday's Morning Joe and directly challenged Obama's David Axelrod on the current version of the health care bill under consideration in Congress. Interestingly, this particular segment has since generated a great deal of attention elsewhere, given the defensive nature of the White House advisor and the supposed conflict between the far left and the administration:

Is it really possible that the White House has a direct line to MSNBC's hosts, communicating with them during their live broadcasts? Now THAT'S state control!

And do MSNBC staffers actually carry out the administration's commands? In this case, they certainly made room on short notice for a lengthy segment featuring Axelrod, there to rebut comments made by Howard Dean and other recent guests.

Check out the videos, here . . .

ObamaMedia Provides Coverage And Excuses

TakingSides.com notes that Obama finally made a public statement about the terrorist attack on Flight 253 that occurred on Christmas Day. It was not remarkable in its content including statements such as "This was a serious reminder of the dangers that we face and the nature of those who threaten our homeland," and "We will not rest until we find all who were involved and hold them accountable." What was interesting was the timing of the statement coming three days after the actual event and only after much criticism of Obama's silence on the matter. Perhaps most interesting of all was the way some in the liberal media combined objective news reporting with custom made excuses for Obama's latest misstep.

According to an article in The New York Times, "Mr. Obama’s remarks to reporters were the first public comments he has made since arriving here Thursday and the first since a Nigerian man tried to set off explosives aboard a flight approaching Detroit on Friday" -- completely factual and objectively stated.

Yet several lines later the same article states: "Until now, Mr. Obama had tried to strike a balance between signaling that he is on top of the situation and not drawing more attention to it than it already was generating. Each day since Friday, his staff accompanying him here in his home state put out statements indicating that the president was holding conference calls and requesting action of government agencies. But he declined for three days to address it in public himself, cognizant perhaps of warnings by some terrorism experts against elevating such incidents and by extension their authors."

How do these supposed journalists know that the president was attempting to strike such a balance? Not even the usual "sources requesting anonymity" are cited for this information. And is it a journalist's job to speculate what a world leader might "perhaps" be cognizant of?

As Obama proves time and again that he and his cronies are not up to the challenges they face, the media outlets that worked so hard to help get him elected are twisting their professional ethics beyond recognition in a desperate attempt to defend his missteps, mistakes and miscalculations. They are delivering not just the news but built-in excuses for those who are making that news.

Obama is greater than Jesus

No media bias here.

The writer's description of ObamaCare, "...a welfare policy breakthrough ...".

Bad timing though, his messiah is turning out to be a disaster.

Lead by Playing Golf -- Another Obama First

Constitutional Guardian doesn't want to be distracted from the health care crime the Senate committed against the American people on Christmas Eve, yet the Christmas day terrorist attack in the skies over Michigan deserves our attention. Because, in essence, it is part of the same problem.

Irresponsible leadership.

Obama continued on with his Hawaiian golf vacation for almost three full days before he took the time to inform the nation that Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was "an isolated extremist." Except the problem is, he wasn't. He is a self confessed, Al-Quada-connected terrorist. And to make matters worse, while Obama was enjoying the links, his administration was busy circulating the Sunday news programs saying things like: "the system worked." That from Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, earning her the nickname: Janet Incompetano. I hate to draw an obvious comparison but does Janet Reno and Waco ring a bell?

And, may I ask where the critics are that assailed President Bush during Katrina? Demanding he end his vacation and return to the helm? Rest assured, they are still with us, still peddling their form of editorial journalism at places like The Washington Post, which declared Obama's un-response to the terrorist attack: "low key." Below is an excerpt from the Post's, December 27th report:

"President Obama has performed a difficult but familiar balancing act over the past few days: ordering new security measures in the wake of an attempted airliner attack without excessively alarming the public -- or triggering an outcry from civil liberties advocates.

He has done so almost entirely out of sight. On vacation in Hawaii, tucked away in a lush neighborhood where his family is renting a waterfront home, Obama dispatched surrogates back in Washington -- chiefly Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano and press secretary Robert Gibbs, who appeared on the Sunday talk shows -- to reassure the public and explain his approach.

Yet even as the president avoided cameras and played golf and basketball over the weekend, his aides were quick to explain how fully Obama minded the aftermath of the Detroit case."

No longer can we call this editorial journalism. This pathetic Pablum can only be called one thing: Propaganda. No where is the word "terrorism" or "terrorist" used. No where is Obama's delayed response challenged. No where is the Homeland Secretary's absurd statement: "the system worked" denounced or even thoughtfully examined. There is no outrage over his "lush" waterfront home or the fact that he amused himself with golf and basketball instead of addressing the American people in the aftermath of the terrorism.

The standards traditionally used to measure not just President Bush, but all former presidents no longer seem to apply. Ignore terrorists, ignore the airline security of Americans, ignore the cold-blooded shooting of our soldiers at Fort Hood, ignore the unemployed, ignore the Constitution, public opinion, common sense economic policies and most importantly, the truth and you will be hailed as "historic."

The question is: historic what?

Related: This is what is considered "journalism" in the Age of Obama - - from the Associated Press.

Obama Is Greater Than Jesus

No media bias here -- bad timing though, his messiah is turning out to be a disaster

The writer's description of ObamaCare is interesting, "...a welfare policy breakthrough ..."

Lead by Playing Golf -- Another Obama First

Ellie Light: Obama Astroturfer?

Patterico says a woman has written the same letter defending Obama to dozens of publications across the country, getting them published in at least 42 newspapers in 18 states, as well as Politico.com, the Washington Times, and USA Today. And the woman, Ellie Light, has claimed residence in many of these states.

Think there might be some phony Astroturfing there? At the Cleveland Plain Dealer, Sabrina Eaton makes a nice catch:

Ellie Light sure gets around.

In recent weeks, Light has published virtually identical "Letters to the Editor" in support of Barack Obama in more than a dozen newspapers. Every letter claimed a different residence for Light that happened to be in the newspaper’s circulation area.

"It’s time for Americans to realize that governing is hard work, and that a president can’t just wave a magic wand and fix everything," said a letter from alleged Philadelphian Ellie Light, that was published in the Jan. 19 edition of The Philadelphia Daily News.

A letter from Light in the Jan. 20 edition of the San Francisco Examiner concluded with an identical sentence, but with an address for Light all the way across the country in Daly City, California.

Variations of Light’s letter ran in Ohio’s Mansfield News Journal on Jan. 13, with Light claiming an address in Mansfield; in New Mexico’s Ruidoso News on Jan. 12, claiming an address in Three Rivers; in South Carolina’s The Sun News on Jan. 18, claiming an address in Myrtle Beach; and in the Daily News Leader of Staunton, Virginia on Jan. 15, claiming an address in Waynesboro. Her publications list includes other papers in Ohio, West Virginia, Maine, Michigan, Iowa, Pennsylvania and California, all claiming separate addresses.

She has more houses than John McCain!

But there are a few more places her little pro-Obama missive appeared, besides those documented. Like . . .

Obama-Drooling Media

Joan Swirsky says, that's right, the Obama-drooling media created their own lame-duck, and it wasn't only Katie Couric.

For the past two years, when Obama was in campaign mode and after his Acorn- and foreign-money-fueled election, the entire leftwing media debased what once passed for legitimate journalism. With absolute consistency, they:

• Failed utterly to vet an inexperienced, document-concealing candidate (we still haven't seen Obama's Illinois law license or an authentic birth certificate).

• Failed to investigate the veracity of aggrandizing information spewed by Obama's spin doctors and then repeated their spin (they still say, for instance, that he was a law professor, which he never was).

• Failed to conceal their stunning lack of objectivity through the soft-ball questions they asked and, as Bernard Goldberg says, their "slobbering" obsequiousness.

• Failed to distance themselves from the leftwing radicals who see racism where none exists -- and even echoed their paranoia!

• Failed to camouflage their personal biases both for Obama and against any of his critics or political opponents and competitors.

• Failed to correct his virtual avalanche of lies, which John Ellis has catalogued in scandalous and chilling detail, saying that "the accumulated weight of Obama's deceit is overwhelming....as a result, this nation is now in a position where it cannot believe a word that he says, and that amounts to an unprecedented crisis of confidence in the Presidency."

Continue reading, "Tyranny of the American Media," here . . .

The "Ellie Light" Scandal

Brent Bozell says the declining (or is it dying?) newspaper industry has suffered another blow to its image as punctilious skeptic. So much for the motto, "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." It turns out a pile of American newspapers can’t manage to check out the most basic information about people who are flat-out using their pages to push political agendas.

A person with the name of "Ellie Light" has been successfully published with the same letter in at least 68 newspapers defending President Obama -- defrauding the editors by using local addresses. Reports have "her" published in two papers overseas.

Who is "Ellie Light"? We know this much: "She" is a fraud.

Is this an official White House or Organizing for America campaign? Is it simply a dirty trick? Is this brass-knuckles (and dishonest) politics from the DNC? Or an unauthorized Obama groupie? Some investigating conservative bloggers have found several candidates for the mysterious "Light" writer that could be connected to Obama.

But the ObamaMedia won’t. This story hurts Obama, so they’ll spike it. Count on that.

Continue reading here . . .

Gawker has confirmed that the mysterious pro-Obama letter-writer is, in fact, a nurse named Barbara Brooks from Kern County, Calif. Except now Brooks says it's really her husband, Winston Steward (picture).

Did Reuters Yank Article Because It Was Too Truthful?

Big Journalism says sometimes, the truth hurts. In the case of an article published yesterday at 4:04 p.m. Eastern, it appears that Reuters editors were afraid writer Terri Cullen’s adventure into truthful journalism might hurt their news agency’s relationship with Barack Obama -- so they yanked it.

Published under the headline "Backdoor taxes hit middle class," the article opened by describing the Obama Administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade as relying "heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families." Four hours and three minutes after it hit the wire, the story was "withdrawn," apparently at the Administration’s urging, with a promise that "a replacement story will run later in the week."

Why did Reuters pull the story? One site cited a Reuters rep as saying the piece was withdrawn "due to significant errors of fact" and "should not have gone out." I think it was the language used in the article that prompted Reuters to pull it. In particular, it was the series of phrases shown below that, combined with the one mentioned above, must have made the hair stand up on the back of Rahm Emanuel’s neck:

"…effectively a tax hike by stealth."

"middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases."

Perhaps the largest contributing factor to the article being yanked is a list of tax break provisions popular among middle-class families that Obama might allow to expire:

* Taxpayers who itemize will lose the option to deduct state sales-tax payments instead of state and local income taxes.

* The $250 teacher tax credit for classroom supplies.

* The tax deduction for up to $4,000 of college tuition and expenses.

* Individuals who don’t itemize will no longer be able to increase their standard deduction by up to $1,000 for property taxes paid.

* The first $2,400 of unemployment benefits are taxable, in 2009 that amount was tax-free.

The last line of the story was, perhaps, the proverbial "nail in the coffin" for the Reuter’s piece:

* Trickle-down-taxation.