Roger's Rules

September 21st, 2009 10:50 am

Breaking News! National Endowment for the Arts Renamed National Endowment for Propaganda. Stay Tuned. “This is Only the Beginning.”

Then we have Yosi Sergant, the NEA official whom we first thought had been fired when the media got wind of the effort to transform the NEA into an arm of the White House PR office — but whom, we subsequently learned, was merely “reassigned.”

Yosi Sargant and President Obama

“Welcome to your government,” Mr. Sergant began:

We fought for a chance to be at the table and not only at the table but we’re setting the table. And now [we're setting] the official rule of the National Endowment for the Arts, as director of communication and say, we here at the NEA are extremely proud to participate in the president’s United We Serve initiative.

This is a chance to partner with the White House. … This is just the beginning. … We are just now leaning how to really bring this community together to speak with the government. What this looks like legally, we’re still trying to figure out the laws of putting government web sites on Facebook and the use of Twitter.

“This is just the beginning.” Who could doubt it? Reading through this transcript, I was struck by two things. One was the aroma of self-intoxication. These bureaucrats and artists and activists are utterly besotted by the contemplation of their own virtue. They know what’s good for the country, and what’s good for you, and they’re willing to devote themselves ceaselessly to making it happen.

The second thing that strikes one about this transcript is the aura of menace that floats just behind the talk of passion, pushing the president’s agenda, connecting with “labor unions, progressive groups,” etc., etc. As Yosi Sergant’s pep talk suggests, these people regard legal obstacles not as boundaries to be observed but as impediments to be overcome by “tactics,” a word that frequently appears in the transcript.

There is a German word for what we are witnessing at the NEA and elsewhere in the Obama administration’s effort to push its agenda. It is Gleichschaltung. It means two things: first, bringing all aspects of life into conformity with a given political line. And second, as a prerequisite for realizing that goal, the obliteration or at least marginalization of all opposition.

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120 Comments

1. Gaffe Prices:

I’m sorry, but this is hilarious. I never shy away from any analogy, metaphor, characterisation of B.O. except one, and I strenuously and successfully avoid it, as there are so many alternatives… (to it)

And yet there’s Yoshi…Yogi…(>sorry<) Yosi, whatever, with the nerve to stand in front of mister president B.O. and call him his very…

…that very thing. ROFLMAO!

Sep 21, 2009 - 12:36 pm 2. ehunter:

Thank you for that invaluable addition to my vocabulary Gleichschaltung

Sep 21, 2009 - 12:43 pm 3. Poor Citizen:

Sorry, just cant work up any interest in another “gettin old fast” subject. So I offer no opinion. My dinner is ready anyway.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:29 pm 4. NCBob:

Speaking of corruption, a good friend was late in getting his bid for the Illinois Senate seat vacated by Obama. Blago had closed the bidding and named his guy.
It seems clear that the process to fill the Massachusetts Senate vacancy is subject to the same sort of activity.
Let’s say that some one wanted to “bid” on the Massachusetts Senate vacancy. Would it be best to contact the Governor (a man beyond criticism because he is black) directly or would a more indirect petition be better. What is the dollar estimate for the winning bid what with all the special handling and skullduggery the replacement requires.
Note the quality of recent democrat replacements, Burris in Illinois and Paterson in Albany.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:30 pm 5. Go_Fish:

Yay. Yet another instance of the Obama administration hosing the taxpayer by using their money to promote things they hate. For the next 3 and half years he’s going to do what he damn well pleases no matter what people think, isn’t he?

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:37 pm 6. Sebatian Shaw:

President Obama does want to be Dictator Obama. However, we American must stop the interloper before he can usurp too much Executive power. I am sure with the help of the internet & Fox News shining the light on Obama’s corruption will only help as the fringe media plays catch-up once more & plays Obama’s shameless defense.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:37 pm 7. JupiterSuite:

The Big Government-Media-Hollywood Complex…

NEA: Nefarious Expenditures on Agitprop
http://bigchase.files.wordpress.com/2007/01/obey.jpg

ACORN: Child “Services”, Financial “Services”, “Voter” Registration —Democrat Funded
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:39 pm 8. JupiterSuite:

Michael Skolnick:

“Tell the country, tell the young people: what’s cool; what’s not cool.” Ehh, gross.

“…the President has a clear arts agenda [in its simplest terms: the people pay for their own brainwashing]”

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:40 pm 9. pedro:

I want to listen to Bach or Lynrd Skynrd. Pease no more Mr.Obama for a day or two. His voice is getting to me. Did Castro do this to the people of Cuba? Damn , I would grab a dingy and leave for uncharted waters to if I had to hear this on a daily basis.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:45 pm 10. billslayer:

Let’s play a game called…Who Wants To Be Tin Pot Third World Dictator! Our number one and only contestant is…. Barry!

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:46 pm 11. Deborah:

Please—would you provide a pronunciation for Gleichschaltung.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:47 pm 12. Ed Wallis:

Excellent commentary, Mr. Kimball.

Thanks for spreading the news about Breitbart’s efforts which, based on the evidence of post #1, is vital to rescuing our grand country from these totalitarians.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:48 pm 13. David Thomson:

Barack Obama is either a conscious liar—or a stark raving madman. He has consistently shown his contempt towards the laws of our country. This is not something new! Have we already forgotten the 2008 campaign funding scandals? Why weren’t a number of his top people indicted for such flagrant criminal activity? We know for sure that Obama’s campaign disabled the security software to allow illegal donations. No realistic doubt exists whatsoever. The man is committed to overthrowing the United States by any non-violent means available. On a gut level, if not even consciously, Obama does not believe that any inconvenient laws should hinder the turning of our country into a socialist utopia. He is convinced that this is for our own good.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:49 pm 14. Khan Krum:

NEA renamed Ministry of Propaganda is more like it.

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:57 pm 15. Professor Guvinoff:

A burst of conspirational energy… The lefties have long dreamed about subverting our institutions and our culture, but it’s unusual for them to have the levels of power in their hands.

I hope and pray their amateurism and childish notions sufficiently get in the way of their deliberate and mischievous plans to derail their sinister machinations.

Perhaps BHO is performing a public service after all, showing us the turns a tyrannical entreprise takes on its road to engineered catastrophe, a.k.a. man-made disaster. Terrorism from within joining forces with terrorism from without!

Sep 21, 2009 - 1:57 pm 16. biblio44:

You mean the Obama administration is releasing transcripts of its plot to “[enforce] conformity through propaganda”? What amateurs! Why we couldn’t even get a list of the NAMES of the people Cheney met with the set our energy policy!

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:16 pm 17. biblio44:

Ooops! Last few words should read: “who set our energy policy.”

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:18 pm 18. rrpjr:

3. Poor Citizen:
“Sorry, just cant work up any interest in another “gettin old fast” subject.”

Try harder. The coupling of the state and the artistic community is fascism. Think about it. Read the transcripts.

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:32 pm 19. Michael:

Not amateurs exactly but that too. The problem is that they just can’t see that using tax payers money to further partisan goals is hubris at best and illegal in any event. That is the point.

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:33 pm 20. billslayer:

You wonder why the kids these days seem to have evolved from beagles? Seriously, I’m starting to think there were two strains of evolution. One from ape and one from beagles. They have that glazed over-nothing-going-on -upstairs look… Absolutely no pretense of individuality. It’s disgusting, and the Obamessiah has their remote control: “tell our country and our young people sort of what to do and what to be in to; and what’s cool and what’s not cool…”

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:33 pm 21. Instapundit » Blog Archive » BREAKING NEWS: National Endowment for the Arts Renamed National Endowment for Propaganda. Stay Tune…:

[...] BREAKING NEWS: National Endowment for the Arts Renamed National Endowment for Propaganda. Stay Tuned. “This is On… [...]

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:46 pm 22. Jonathan Nolan:

Gleichschaltung was the subject of several of my rants on my old blog immediately prior to the election. It is obvious to anyone who has actually studied Nazism. Of course it is rare to find anyone who has studied -anything-, let alone studied THAT.

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:57 pm 23. billslayer:

The unholy alliance of the two most contemptible concepts:Propaganda and Pop Culture. Ever wonder why BO’s adverts looked like Abercrombie/Gap/GreenDay/Starbucks ads?….”you guys tell our country and our young people sort of what to do and what to be in to; and what’s cool and what’s not cool.”

Sep 21, 2009 - 2:57 pm 24. Anthony:

If the White House asked him, well, so what. The White House has a political function. The issue is the NEAs involvement.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:05 pm 25. Scott:

We’re the cool kids. We’re running the student council now!

That’s about the level of rhetoric here. “Tastemakers”.

Please.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:08 pm 26. Noah:

Didn’t the Gleichschaltung also involve setting up various youth organizations with compulsory membership? Thank God we haven’t gotten to that point yet….

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:11 pm 27. The Monster:

“Please—would you provide a pronunciation for Gleichschaltung.”

Let’s break it down. The G is like in Good, not fudGe. The L is pretty much like it is in English, but your tongue should hit the roof of your mouth instead of your upper teeth/lip.
EI is always pronounced like “eye” in English.

CH after an I is the hissing sound made by air moving past the tongue ALMOST hitting the roof of the mouth. SCH is like SH in English. When you say them fast, these two may sound the same.

The rest is pretty much “all tongue” in English, although the vowel is closer to OO in bOOk.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:18 pm 28. bc:

This analogy will fall apart unless the leftists are willing to take the next step and start physically beating up the opposition. This is a door they must walk through or guys like Breitbart will eat their lunch. Chavez figured this out, and now goon squads routinely beat the crap out of his opponents. Pelosi wrings her hands worried about violence. When it comes, expect an effort to blame the victims, who of course will be on the right end of the political spectrum. Not just our economy will soon look like Argentina’s. Time to pay more attention. Current events isn’t for sissies anymore.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:18 pm 29. Countrylawyer:

11. Deborah: The word is a compound noun, consisting of “[g]leich” and “[S]chaltung” (the verb form would be “gleichschalten”). The “ei” dipthong is pronounced like a long I, and the “ch” sound is that upper throat clearing sound which causes English speakers to suspect a smoker’s ailment. In the latter component, the “sch” is pronounced just like we do “sh,” and the “u” is a gutteral between a long and a short “u”. It’s capitalized because it’s a noun, and its gender is feminine, as indicated by the “ung” ending. It is, for those familiar with German, a very instructive word: While “gleich” means simply “equal” or “the same as,” “Schaltung” comes from the verb “schalten,” meaning “to switch,” as in to throw a switch to one setting or another. In other words, it implies a mechanical, even a mechanistic change. In contrast, depending on context, the verbs for “change” would be most likely something like “wandeln” or “wechseln” or their variants (German is big on tacking prefixes onto verbs). There are others equally benign, like “tauschen” and its variants for “exchange.” But “schalten” for something done to humans and their institutions? A “Gleichschaltung” implies a forcible alteration from without (in the Nazis’ case, above) rather than a volitional process from within. It is, however, extremely appropriate to the sort of faux-scientific approach to government peddled by what Hayek described as the “socialists of all parties.” And it fits the preferences of today’s leadership much more closely than most Americans would really prefer, IMHO.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:19 pm 30. Ed Wallis:

Wiki is unreliable as a rule but in this case not too bad a description:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleichschaltung

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:25 pm 31. Sebastian Shaw:

“This analogy will fall apart unless the leftists are willing to take the next step and start physically beating up the opposition…”–BC

The SEIU purple shirts have already beat up innocent protesters in August at Obama’s command. You need to pay attention little thing.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:26 pm 32. GayPatriot » In re: NEA Scandal, What Wasn’t Recorded?(At NEA & other agencies):

[...] [...]

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:28 pm 33. malclave:

@29
Am I correct in understanding that a well know example would be the phrase “Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia”?

And on that subject… I vote that the NEA just get it over with and change their name to MiniTru.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:28 pm 34. Anna:

28. bc:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good thing those “old white men” signed those silly old papers with that second amendment thingy, huh? LOL I’m not really laughing, though. It’s getting a little serious.

Sep 21, 2009 - 3:41 pm 35. LeighB:

What exactly are the President and Yosi doing in this photo? PDA?

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:08 pm 36. J. Oliver:

I may have said this before, but in case I haven’t, a useful film to watch is “The Lives of Others.”

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:10 pm 37. joh:

Sorry, just cant work up any interest in another “gettin old fast” subject.

Tell me about it. I pretty much just automatically assuming anything the democrats are doing is corrupt. I’m still hopeful they’ll prove me wrong one day. But no such luck.

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:10 pm 38. Instapundit » Blog Archive » RADLEY BALKO: The “Tenther” Smear. The American Prospect, The New Republic, and other left-of-ce…:

[...] But if it stands in the path of power, it must be eliminated or marginalized. Gleichschaltung. [...]

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:23 pm 39. Gaffe Prices:

Per the yoski pic again:

“…We fought for a chance to be at the table and not only at the table but we’re setting the table. And now [we're setting] the official rule of the National Endowment for the Arts, as director of communication”.

Just who is teabagging who here(?), once under the table, but not so much there anymore?

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:23 pm 40. Rick Caird:

I don’t think enough of us thought the “Chicago Way” could come to DC. Well, it has and it has landed with a thud. The lesson is to get rid of Obama at the first opportunity and never, never, allow someone from Chicago into an executive position.

Rick

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:55 pm 41. Now and Then:

Sorry, no there there.

Sep 21, 2009 - 4:57 pm 42. seanmahair:

Any conservative who is surprised by this………….needs to join the other party frankly. This was all on display during the campaign but most people wouldn’t listen to those who were crying “the sky is falling”. Unlike Chicken Little however, the sky has fallen

I guess a better analogy is the boy who cried wolf………except those who cried wolf were in deadly earnest and the villagers were the ones who would listen. Sigh ;’(

Sep 21, 2009 - 5:24 pm 43. monkeyfan:

Gleichschaltung!

How apt.

America doesn’t even have a word that so properly encapsulates all the fascist crap the prObama propagandist vanguards have been pulling…On the taxpayer’s dime no less.

I don’t know what disgusts me more; The Fabian weasels pulling their strings or the clueless apathetic worker drones who willingly practice fascism whilst proclaiming their opponents on the right to be fascists.

These brain cell murderers have no clue that the very fascists they’ve seen everywhere under their noses are in truth their own reflections from their funhouse mirror of opaque “transparency” and left-handed “integrity”.

Reality-based community and their culture of corruption indeed.

Every damn day these progressive punks demonstrate what little respect they hold for the rarity of the free-standing structures our founders built from the rubble of the one true Revolution and the last Civil war we fought, nor do they show any respect for the legacy left us by those many generations of American patriots who defended our Liberty with their blood, sweat, tears, and treasure.

I have no desire to forgive them for the 8 years of so-called “civil discourse” they imposed upon this country to gain their beloved power to Change us kicking and screaming into their brave new world.

A pox on all of them!

Sep 21, 2009 - 5:27 pm 44. Dave:

This reminds me of Stalinesque posters of great muscular men wielding hammers and sickles, and busty sturdy women bringing in golden sheaves at harvest time, perfect wonderful Soviet men and women in a worker’s paradise… while in reality, millions starve and suffer..

or what about Nazi posters of square jawed, blond and blue eyed men of action, with lightning bolts in the background as the Aryan race conquers the world..

propaganda. Art. It is coming our way, and we’re going to pay for it. Dammit.

Sep 21, 2009 - 5:38 pm 45. BrainTrust:

It is my profound believe that Public Citizen is actually either Robert Gibbs or Rahm’s other brother, Abraham (“Honest Abe”) Emmanuel.

Sep 21, 2009 - 5:50 pm 46. Gaffe Prices:

Amen, monkeyfan.

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:00 pm 47. Art Rogue:

Being an artist you can imagine who surrounds me.

I’ve been arguing with my friends, some of who know Obama’s propaganda teams personally, about why the NEA is a bad organization.

I try to explain that no matter who or what side is in power they, the politicians, will use useful idiots for their own purposes.

I sell art to people that want to buy it and I’m not about using tax dollars stolen from hard working people. It’s very lonely in this business.

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:27 pm 48. craig:

pronounced “glysh-shaltoong” or “glike-shaltoong” to-mato to-mat-o

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:31 pm 49. Banned by Huffpo:

Calling Leni Riefenstahl! Calling Leni Riefenstahl!

We really need another “Triumph of the Will” documentary!

Where’s Bill Moyer when you need him??

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:36 pm 50. Silvana Ferrin:

Inpeach him, you got him now, congratulation

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:39 pm 51. Thomas Casey:

Not knowing a word of German, I knew I had run across “gleichschaltung” not long ago. It was in Robert Lifton’s classic book, “The Nazi Doctors”, and referred to the omnipresent pressure to conform to the new order. Or else.

Obviously it was quite effective in that time and place.

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:49 pm 52. Tina:

I just cant believe all of this is happening. I feel like im coming to the point where I just dont want to know whats going on with this administration, It makes me so sick to my stomach. The sad thing is for the people of America, Is most people dont really know whats going on. If you dont watch fox news you have no idea. I was dumfounded yesterday when I was talking to someone of the ACORN tapes, that they had no idea what I was talking about. They hadent even heard about it. SICK, and Very SCARY. Most of the American people are blind to whats really going on here.

Sep 21, 2009 - 6:52 pm 53. Ariel:

“Intoxicated by their own virtue” is exactly right. Added to that is their gruesome straight-faced mastery of the business-new age-life coach seminar lingo in speaking of their readiness for the task.
Things could be worse! Things were almost unbearable in the early months of BO’s administration when most of our conservative leaders were passively conceding the next eight (8) years to Barry, & seemingly no one balked as he announced his plans for one ghastly statist program after another.
Thank God so many of us have come back to life, and our momentum is now unstoppable.

Sep 21, 2009 - 7:11 pm 54. Jane Hughes:

I cannot express the profound sadness I am feeling as I read new examples day after day that prove our worst fears. The only hope and solace I find is that the breathtaking speed at which Obama and his followers have attempted to trash the country as we know it has awakened more and more Americans to a true understanding of what “change” really means, and it isn’t pretty. We must translate our disgust and anger into significant changes in Washington in 2010. Right after Acorn is de-funded they should be banned from any “voter registration” activity. All voting places should have citizen volunteers with videos at the ready for any suspicious activity. Meanwhile, a full court press must be continued on all elected officials to oppose these massive government takovers- cap and trade and the healthcare disaster in the making.

Sep 21, 2009 - 7:28 pm 55. Deborah:

Thank you! #27 The Monster and #29 Countrylawyer

Sep 21, 2009 - 7:34 pm 56. Kastaco:

# 14
The ministry of Truth would be more like it

Sep 21, 2009 - 7:36 pm 57. Trevor:

I’m 2/3s of the way thgh te trans, and, I have to say:

Don’t most of you recognize this? IF you’ve been in business, the military, heck – any post-high school activity in which you has to have a group of people together to , you know, accomplish something…

Don’t you recognize these people? The best thing we’ve got going fot us is that they’re the pople that “they” have. Do you follow?

These cartoon characters are going to make all this happen?

Now – they want to – as most here have already said, so they’re “dangerous” in that regard, but…

I’m just saying – read the whole transcript (from wherever, I did at biggovernment), and if you want to feel a whole lot better about their ability to succeed – try this exercise:

Imagine, as you read, that you’re there to actually help them. And no – don’t pretend you’re stupid. Be yourself – but an evil opposite version of yourself. And imagine that this is THE CALL YOU”VE BEEN WAITING FOR!

You’ll want to hang yourself by the end. They’re realy that full of nothing but buzzwords.

Rejoice.

oh, and Scott @ post #25: When I read you, I picture the ‘Architect’ from Matrix.

Neo: the Oracle.
Arch: “Please”

Someone embed that scene for us, ‘please’?

Sep 21, 2009 - 7:58 pm 58. Chileno:

Socialist mantra: “Let others pay for our grandiose social engineering!”

Hence, someone else must pay for their healthcare, their environmental agenda, their tax credits, even their ACORN-based voter frauds. Is it any wonder they want the taxpayer to pay for their propaganda as well?

Socialists do not create, they simply take. They use the pretense of “social justice” to take from the rich, those using too much carbon, or having too good a health insurance policy. And like veritable Robin Hoods, they see themselves as heroes to the poor (and thus can feel good despite their own excesses). But Robin Hood did not make fortunes, he simlpy stole them.

As Margaret Thatcher once said, “The problem with Socialism is that, eventually you run out of other people’s money.”

Sep 21, 2009 - 8:01 pm 59. Lisa Canning:

With all due respect, you really don’t get it do you? You don’t understand the power of the arts and the impact it should be having EVERYWHERE to innovate and be the change agent the general public, corporations, universities and YES, ESPECIALLY the government need most right now to evolve and reinvent.

Maybe- if you could OPEN YOUR MIND you could see there is a real opportunity to see another possible BRAND NEW view.

Lisa Canning

Sep 21, 2009 - 8:25 pm 60. Bob:

The National Geographic TV channel or “Nat Geo” as they now want to be called are advertising, in heavy rotation a program for Sun. evening. “Hate” is again alive in the land, the voiceover says, because of anti-immigration sympathies and distrust of the government. The program is called American Natzi.
I think the coordination and smears go way beyond propaganda requests of the NEA.

Sep 21, 2009 - 10:39 pm 61. PoliGazette » White House Uses NEA As Propaganda Tool:

[...] Roger Kimball: And it’s only the beginning! [...]

Sep 21, 2009 - 11:54 pm 62. Chileno:

@ #59. No, Lisa, it’s YOU who doesn’t “get it.”

“You don’t understand the power of the arts and the impact it should be having EVERYWHERE to innovate and be the change agent the general public…” Oh, I DO understand the power the arts can have. But when you say the impact it SHOULD have… According to whose agenda?

Any artist or band of artists can express whichever political point of view they wish -that’s free speech. But when an artist groups’ political views are promoted, even directed by the White House to advancie a specific political agenda, it becomes propaganda. And to do it on MY TAX DOLLARS is illegal.

When the government promotes specific artists, not for their art, but for their political value, it ceases to BE simply art, and becomes a tool within a politically motivated propaganda machine, akin to that used by the Soviets.

Sep 22, 2009 - 12:02 am 63. Rob:

I read a little about the rise of Hitler.
A lot of this, including the grandiose propaganda and threats of violence sounds pretty familiar.
The artwork, of course, seems to come straight out of the Soviet school of socialist realism. Soviet worker conquers all.

Sep 22, 2009 - 1:25 am 64. GayPatriot » Time for Buffy to Bid the White House Adieu:

[...] non-partisan National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), various bloggers’ reactions to this attempt to use art to promote the president’s agenda, I have scribbled a number of notes for a [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 2:37 am 65. Robinsolana:

I read a little about the rise of Hitler.

A lot of this, the cult of personality, the fawning media, the grandiose propaganda and threats of violence sounds pretty familiar.

The Obama artwork, of course, seems to come straight out of the Soviet school of socialist realism. Workers of the World Unite.

Haven’t we been here before?? And didn’t it come to a bad end??

Sep 22, 2009 - 2:46 am 66. Doctors vs Veterinarians (vs Big Government) « The 3 Monkeys Guide to Health:

[...] “This Is Only The Beginning.” [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 3:07 am 67. Will the Joint Chiefs dissolve the Government? « Mark Epstein:

[...] providing succor, and in league with America’s domestic enemies and are complicit in using taxpayer money to advance the administration’s fascist agenda, multi-generational theft, and ever-increasing [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 3:42 am 68. Denise:

I agree totally with #52 and 54. I am (like most of you) a hard-working, tax-paying American citizen. This is such scary stuff, and the mainstream media’s reaction is nothing. Look how long it took them to air anything about Van Jones and ACORN. We need to keep pushing them back. Write to them to register your disgust, write your Congressmen/women, keep pushing back or we will not be able to read Web sites like this or watch Fox News.

Sep 22, 2009 - 5:40 am 69. Right Sightings: Obama Dictatorship Edition | Right Soup:

[...] Using NEA For Propaganda: Pajamas Media Share this Right Soup with [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 6:42 am 70. SueAnn:

This news means nothing if it does not connect with the people and inspire them to actually pick up the phone and call/write/email a Congressman or elected official to speak their minds! This news means nothing if it does not inspire people to get up off of the couch and demand an end to the tyranny! Get up off of the couch people, and do what you can to save this great country! Make a loud noise! Be heard!

Sep 22, 2009 - 6:57 am 71. pelaut:

There are laws prohibiting government agencies and/or their employees using government (tax) money or facilities or on-the-govt-clock labor to do political propaganda.

Now where are all the “conservative” groups? Why aren’t they in court getting these people de-funded, fired and jailed?

Why, they’re in their country clubs, aren’t they?

Sep 22, 2009 - 7:20 am 72. Gaffe Prices:

democrat party is organized crime with massive PR

Sep 22, 2009 - 7:34 am 73. Charlotte Hudson:

Almost daily I send letters and or emails to congressmen/women and senators about this scary socialist pesident and I pray that there are a lot of people doing the same thing. It looks like we have to move fast because this idiot had all of this planned on how he was going to carry out his agenda before we, not me, elected this person. I pray every day that we can somehow get him impeached. I am afraid for all of us if he stays in the Whitehouse for 31/2 more years.

Sep 22, 2009 - 7:55 am 74. Denise:

I wrote to the messiah on a weekly basis asking one question: Is there ANYTHING about the U.S. or about American citizens that you like? I never did receive a response, other than a pro-healthcare e-mail from Axelrod and another from the DNC. I also reported every one of them (messiah, Pelosi, et al) to that “snitchers” program that they used to have. We have won some of this (e.g., Van Jones, ACORN, snitchers gone), but we need to continue fighting.

Sep 22, 2009 - 8:34 am 75. steve:

Art used to break boundaries, but now it is being used to define those boundaries where people are either inside (and acceptable) and those outside (and therefore unacceptable)

If people like Lisa Canning believe this is a bright new dawn for mankind, may I refer her and others to look at the way art was used in Soviet Russia. If you think there is no comparison, please explain where freedom of expression went to in those years, other than in exile or to the Gulag.

Sep 22, 2009 - 9:06 am 76. Obama Recruits National Endowment for the Arts | THE D.C. WRITEUP:

[...] Simmons, who was contacted by the White House to set up the conference call. During the Call Skolnick spoke saying that those on the conference call had been [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 9:39 am 77. MESSENGER:

Americans better get on their knees and PRAY.
Obama is SELLING OUT THIS NATION.If you don’t believe it you are OUT of your MIND.You better HIDE all your EARTHLY goods. Obama is going to redistribute them to people he thinks have been left out.You are getting RATIONED his
RATIONED HEALTH CARE. You are NOT getting your
INCOME TAX REFUND next year. Obama gave it to
you during this year. He did not give you
DIDDLY. Bush gave us a tax cut, that we did not have to pay back. Sorry, but you been had.He gave you your REFUND ahead of time to stimulate the ECONOMY. Which did NOT happen.
Why do Americans keep going back for more lies, and manipulation?They are BLIND,DEAF
and DUMB!

Sep 22, 2009 - 9:58 am 78. Feel the Gleichschaltung » The Anchoress | A First Things Blog:

[...] Feel the Gleichschaltung Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 1:15 PM The_Anchoress Reading through this transcript, I was struck by two things. One was the aroma of self-intoxication. These [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 10:16 am 79. Jim:

The mouthpiece media is so far out of this it is unable to recover with any integrity. The daily twist is going to soon be too much and the rotted log is going to fall wide open. Rats have no ethics or morals, the evidence is available everywhere. Having made it through the Bubba years w/o watching them this will be a breeze. I did some work for a Secret Service agent some years ago and happened to ask if it would be too much trouble to put Jimmah on house arrest. Result; total loss of professional bearing.
Remember Alinsky: Keep the pressure on.

Sep 22, 2009 - 10:33 am 80. Corey Warren:

“With all due respect, you really don’t get it do you? You don’t understand the power of the arts and the impact it should be having EVERYWHERE to innovate and be the change agent the general public, corporations, universities and YES, ESPECIALLY the government need most right now to evolve and reinvent.

Maybe- if you could OPEN YOUR MIND you could see there is a real opportunity to see another possible BRAND NEW view.”

My mind is open enough to see what they are doing is illegal. You might have to take off your artfull blinders to see that, though.

Sep 22, 2009 - 11:24 am 81. Tina Trent:

What’s sad is seeing how these people have no interest in actually disseminating information to the public — useful things that would further debate, or even make an argument for a policy, none of that even seems to interest them. I imagine, if asked, they would say they support government transparency. But at heart, they are eager only to seize onto some pure propagandist impulse, no matter the content.

Creepy.

Sep 22, 2009 - 11:42 am 82. myth buster:

13. The answer is stark raving mad. Only a madman confuses himself with Jesus.

Sep 22, 2009 - 12:12 pm 83. Cons R Scum:

If you right wing terrorists damagfe the NEA, and I lose my job because of it (I work in non profit theatre) I will personally organize thousands of people, who will lose their jobs because of radical terrorists (conservatives) and indeed start breaking each and every one of your skulls wide open

Do not mess with my bread and butter. Do not disrupt the funding of non profit arts. I promise you blood will be shed, if my icome is disrupted by you sick freaks of nature

Sep 22, 2009 - 12:39 pm 84. WingNutsKilledAmerica:

I agree with the other poster, this will be war. Thousands are people have jobs because the NEAfunds non profit theatre, ballet, dance, chamber music. If you low life, Anti-American scum, hurt the NEA, it will be time to organize and destroy your lives as well

This is our livelyhood con scum

Sep 22, 2009 - 12:42 pm 85. Betty Force:

National Endowment for Propaganda. Kimball’s re-name fits it to a tee.

As Roger states, “The White House endeavors to use the National Endowment for the Arts as a propaganda arm for its left-wing agenda on health care, the environment, education, and “community renewal.”

Any similar asset that Obama possesses will be used that way.

Like Acorn, the national non profit organization for alleged vote stealing and massive multi-faceted corruption.

NPR.

National Propaganda Radio. They’re all the same arms of the same racist/progressive, Woodrow Wilson type socialist organizations. Saul Alinsky is doing back flips in his gave.

But, like the dawn’s early light of a new day, the worm is turning.

The Socialist tide is going out. Obama’s socialist flame is starting to seriously flicker.

My prediction. The Obama administration is going to drown in its own hate for America. It won’t be long before the entire Obama regressive administration starts circling the drain of hell.

Barack’s collosal mistake: playing his hand too soon.

Trying much too soon to bankrupt the U.S. with astronomical spending. Hoping by 2010 to devalue the dollar, create hyperinflation. Neuter the military. Dismantle missile defense on some strange idea that it’s destabilizing. Or it doesn’t really work.

Barack, your own Chantecleerian pride prevented you from playing your cards close to the vest.

Yes, your big mouth let the old cat out of the bag. Your actions, of course, have spoken even louder than your socialist words.

It’s as apparent as the Pinocchio sized nose on your face that every step you’ve taken, Mr. Obama, has taken us farther and farther down a dangerous road, one we don’t want to travel on; which eventually leads to the destruction of every ideal this great nation was founded on.

Private ownership of land. And of the means of production. The Constitution. The American Dream. Honest elections. Security through military strength. Self reliance. The state serving the people, not Obama’s other way around.

SPREAD THE WEALTH. Your mile a minute mouth let it out during the campaign to Joe the Plumber that sharing the wealth was your overriding goal.

Boys and girls, with a competent Republican opponent, that revelation would have blown Obama’s socialist campaign to smithereens. But, unfortunately, that wasn’t to be.

However, every day, more and more Americans are catching on; getting the true picture where Barack is trying to take this country.

And you don’t need red, white and blue crayons to color Obama’s intentions.

A pencil drawing of a hammer and sickle will do nicely. Barack’s model(Barack sleeps with a picture of Saul Alinsky over his bed) for America is the old Soviet Union, the one that once claimed they’d bury us.

Fellow Americans, I told you a month or two ago that the racist tag doesn’t wash anymore. Racist verbal bullets now shoot blanks. I guess Jimma Carter wasn’t checking his Pajamas Media.

Why does the racist mud no longer stick?

Well, the racist accusation machine officially lost its punch when Barry nominated an ethnocentric racist to the Supremes.

Once Sonia said over and over again that Hispanic women were vastly superior to white males, and Obama never tried to distance himself from that moronic babble, the age of racist accusations was officially over.

I laughed that day last week when I sat down to read the Wash. Post and read Jimmy Carter’s explanation for Joe Wilson’s statement of fact during the ObamaCare rant. Actually,I almost fell over in my chair in spitting-out-cornflakes laughter.

Of course, the Carter crazy talk was set up for a national mocking party partly by Obama’s knee jerk (actually more jerk and less knee) reaction when admitted racist Open the Door Henry Gates was arrested by Sgt. James Crowley, one of law enforcement’s best.

When, without any facts, Obama played the race card and called Crowley’s, the “stupid white actions of an undoubtedly racist cop,” the jig was up. America really started to understand where Teleprompter Man was coming from.

Between Barack’s racist remarks in the Henry Gates-Gate scandal and Obama’s nomination of Sotomayor who repeats over and over her signature racial slur about white males, charges of racism, nowadays, founded or not, will be laughed at as being themselves racist babble from hateful minds.

Goodness gracious America. Consider who was elected President? Sitting in the oval office is a brown eyed handsome black man. How racist is that? White Americans electing a black man. Yep, “that’s racist”. At least, that’s what Eric Holder would have you believe. You know where this is going.

What did the first black attorney general say a week after being sworn in? That all white males are racist cowards? Bingo. That’s what the man said.

Friends, is it any wonder that the race tag has lost all its stick-em. It’s like the boy crying wolf when there’s no wolf there.

The true racists are huddled together like fat city rats in the Obama administration.

My goodness, Van Jones just quit as an Obama adviser because his racist/communist remarks are all over You-tube. It’s not that other people call him a communist/racist. That’s how Van describes himself.

Today’s reality is this. America now sees through Obama.

It’s not the color of his skin we focus on. It’s the content of his character. (Martin L. King, 1968)

The jig is truly up.

Obama’s magnificent tingle-up-the-anchor man’s leg speeches are now only charactertures of themselves.

Most everybody agrees Obama’s grossly reckless spending has to stop.

Most everybody agress a half billion more of our tax dollars can’t be handed willy nilli out to Acorn and its corrupt officers dotting this wonderful country.

The fact that billions of taxpayer dollars went into developing a cracker jack missile defense system to keep our family’s safe is of no consequence to Obama.

The fact that missile defense makes the Russians nervous and jealous isn’t a reason for Obama to lobby for its dismantling. But Obama wants to kill it for some reason. He wants to kill a program that could save the lives of 300 million Americans. Is Obama crazy? Or is Obama, himself, just a red eyed full blown crazy communist. I don’t know. You tell me.

Then there’s Socialized medicine which, if passed by a corrupt congress, just might be the nail in this country’s financial coffin.

When Obama said it would pay for itself, I wanted to throw a shoe at the TV. Or worse.

The Communist mantra of “redistribution of wealth” will not stand. And will not grow on soil where liberty’s roots stretch from sea to shining sea.

As long as we Americans have a thinking and a metabolizing, those evils cannot be allowed to flourish in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

If planted on freedom’s soil, I and 300 million Americans will pull them out if need be.

One by one.

The National Endowment for Propaganda should be a national call to arms.

Sep 22, 2009 - 1:07 pm 86. Mike G:

The Democrats spent a half billion dollars to get 69 million Americans to vote for Obama in 2008. That is only one third of the eligible voters in the US. This does not give the Democratic party a mandate to cram everything they want down our throats. Nor would it have given the Republicans such a mandate. The Executive branch is elected to run the machinery of the State – not to wage a massive marketing campaign (with our own money no less) in an attempt to re-engineer society according to their pet ideologies. Every day I grow more and more sympathetic to the Libertarian position. Yes there are fringe extremists in that movement but their core concepts of limited government, personal freedom and personal responsibility are a shining light in the murky and heavy handed world of politics today.

Sep 22, 2009 - 1:30 pm 87. Jon:

The author is right to use the German term Gleichschaltung, he should have mentioned that it is a tactic used by the NAZIs to subvert democracy in Germany during the 1930s. That is clearly is purpose now.

From Wikipedia:
Gleichschaltung (German pronunciation: [ˈɡlaiçʃaltʊŋ] ( listen)), meaning “coordination”, “making the same”, “bringing into line”, is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control over the individual, and tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce. The historian Richard J. Evans offered the term “forcible-coordination” in his most recent work on Nazi Germany.

Sep 22, 2009 - 1:42 pm 88. BigD:

Every single day Obama and his administration cause some sort of controversy…He just can’t quit it! He is a Wrecking Crew and he is swinging at the Constitution…It has got to stop. His Oath of Office to Uphold the Constitution from all Enemies, both foreign and Domestic, meant absolutely nothing to him and his Wrecking Crew!!

Sep 22, 2009 - 2:22 pm 89. Now Can We Call It Fascism? « Tai-Chi Policy:

[...] Now Can We Call It Fascism? September 22, 2009 Posted by taoist in Obama. Tags: Democrats, Fascism, Tyranny trackback When federal investigations are launched on companies that issue warnings to their employees about how the healthcare bill could affect their insurance, or the National Endowment for the Arts is revealed to have played a large role in Obama’s campaign, a…? [...]

Sep 22, 2009 - 2:23 pm 90. Animator Girl:

I refer you all to Exhibits A and B:

“83. Cons R Scum:
If you right wing terrorists damagfe the NEA, and I lose my job because of it (I work in non profit theatre) I will personally organize thousands of people, who will lose their jobs because of radical terrorists (conservatives) and indeed start breaking each and every one of your skulls wide open

Do not mess with my bread and butter. Do not disrupt the funding of non profit arts. I promise you blood will be shed, if my icome is disrupted by you sick freaks of nature”

“Sep 22, 2009 – 12:39 pm
84. WingNutsKilledAmerica:
I agree with the other poster, this will be war. Thousands are people have jobs because the NEAfunds non profit theatre, ballet, dance, chamber music. If you low life, Anti-American scum, hurt the NEA, it will be time to organize and destroy your lives as well

This is our livelyhood con scum

Sep 22, 2009 – 12:42 pm”

Right. We “sick freaks of nature” deserve to be murdered by mobs of unemployed lefties, because we WANT them to lose their jobs and it’s OUR fault if they do. Also, our opposition to taxpayer-funded propaganda is in fact a form of terrorism. Just so we’re all clear.

83 and 84, thank you so much for opening my eyes to the error of my violent ways with your thoughtful and civil commentary. Excuse me while I go flog myself to save you the trouble of bashing my head in. If you do one day show up on my doorstep, however, I will understand and submit to my just punishment.

Sep 22, 2009 - 3:12 pm 91. seansarto:

‘Course, the “message” this Admin promotes is ultimately, “I can do everything wrong in life…I can kill folks cold-bloodedly for no sound reason an’ still be rich an famous for it….at least in the US, I can.”.

Sep 22, 2009 - 3:56 pm 92. Dave Surls:

“If you right wing terrorists damagfe the NEA, and I lose my job because of it…”

That would be a good thing.

The NEA should be shut down, now.

It never should have existed in the first place.

Sep 22, 2009 - 4:36 pm 93. myth buster:

These union thugs are going to be in for a surprise when the armed conservatives they attack with weapons blast them to Hell.

Sep 22, 2009 - 5:56 pm 94. Chileno:

@ #83 & 84

Are you for real or are you smoking something??
Where the hell to you come off thinking the government MUST fund your sorry ass non-profit livelihood – with MY TAX DOLLARS?? Is your job so sacred it’s worth KILLING FOR??? REALLY??? And you’re supposed to be the “cultured” group, prancing around doing ballet or fiddling with chamber music, and we conservatives are supposed to be the low-life scum??? Why can other dancers/musicians survive without government subsidies, but you can’t? You must really stink…

If your livelihood is so essential to society, why do you need to milk off the government to maintain yourself?? Why don’t you join some bleeding heart liberal arts college that will maintain your kind, or simply go out and GET A REAL JOB??

Sep 22, 2009 - 7:25 pm 95. Ariel:

Hi up there, whoever mentioned that BO showed his hand too soon.
According to a wildly popular conservative media star, that was exactly the plan.
To convert America into a soviet paradise, the strategy of Bammy and his cadre of billionaire lefties is to mimic the Apollo Moon Shot: So quick, and so massive, that it will be impossible to retract.
Those billionaire lefties are embedded in our culture, like unto a billion lice within a quilt.

Sep 22, 2009 - 8:27 pm 96. Libs R ILL and cant help it:

Cons R Scum said: “Do not mess with my bread and butter. Do not disrupt the funding of non profit arts.”

Hey dood, do you realize whose money is doing the ‘funding’?

It’s our tax money and we’re getting tired of people like you thinking it belongs to you! Since only 50% are paying federal taxes, then you need to behave yourself…dood.

Sep 22, 2009 - 8:43 pm 97. B Dubya:

The threats from the state funded “arts” apparatchik do not worry me at all.

I intend to see that the NEA is unfunded. I intend that you should go back to what you are most qualified to do, which is asking me if I want fries with that burger. If that offends, then feel free to be as violent as you are able, you and your 5 equally hard case comrads. Me? I’ll be waiting at my door with a 2nd Ammendment response.

Obama has clearly gone into the region of high crimes and misdemeanors which are a valid basis for trial and impeachment by the Senate. Perhaps not until 2010, when the loons in the Democrat party of treason lose the congress, but certainly after that.

I think David Thompson was prescient. Obama will resign before 2012 at this rate.

Sep 23, 2009 - 5:01 am 98. Harris Tweed:

I’d like to meet all of those unnamed “artists and thinkers and tastemakers and marketers and visionaries.” I had no idea that ” marketers and visionaries” are funded by the NEA.

And what the hell is a “tastemaker?”

Sep 23, 2009 - 5:51 am 99. Brigitte Goldstein:

Bravo Roger Kimball! Finally someone is saying the word “Gleichschaltung.” I would like to add to your definition that it is not merely a German word. It is straight out of the Nazi vocabulary. The literal meaning is make everything level and equal. It refers to efforts from the beginning to bring every facet of German life, every organization, every kaffeeklatsch circle, every youth group, every singing and hiking society under party control and make its members subservient to the Fuehrer and further a cult of personality, which is every dictators goal. In light of this, it gives you cold chills to see what is going on in Washington these days.

Sep 23, 2009 - 7:21 am 100. xtrees130:

Almost every day there is something else that is uncovered concerning this administration. Don’t just watch the mainstream medida – also tune in to Fox,etc. Once you do and see the difference you will be SHOCKED. Why is mainstream media just REPEATING news and not INVESTIGATING and REPORTING news?????????
Things that are happening are SCARY

Sep 23, 2009 - 7:41 am 101. xtrees130:

Sorry – Something else I had to say – Every day, take a portion of the time you spend on one of these sites and contact your elected officals and the white house and let them know that we, the AMERICAN people are watching their every move. If you are into researching – make a list of white house employees and see what you can find out about them(their past, their associations,etc.). It is scary,sometimes, where it leads you. It is our right to do as they are our public servants(they work for us – the AMERICAN people). We must keep our country, internally, safe.

Sep 23, 2009 - 7:54 am 102. The National Endowment for the Arts « Benighted Comment:

[...] Source [...]

Sep 23, 2009 - 8:51 am 103. ellamontgomery:

I am reminded how my mother would point to any form of utopian style art, you know, happy smiling perfect families with a perfect world backdrop and always a figurehead or governing icon seeming to direct this perfect blissful world from somewhere whether by an depicted actual leader or an organization. She would say in her thick Korean accent, “This looks like Chinese propoganda. I saw it alot during the Korean war.” I could see the memories of fear in her eyes as she pointed it out, not with many words, but the scars that have been buried deep in her childhood of the brutal war and events she was caught in so many years ago. She wanted to make sure I would recognize it, that it was very real, and very, very terrible in its consequences. She is one of the most patriotic Americans I know, for she could immediately spot the lies of communism, and she valued America’s freedom and liberty above everything. She was not college educated, in many ways illiterate by our society’s standards, but she knew the differences a government’s lies and propaganda could make, and she wasn’t a fool, she had seen the starvation, death, misery, and orphaned children firsthand. I wonder if there are many such immigrants who managed to escape from communist, totalitarian type governments, who see Obama’s tactics with art in the same way? I believe many do, and I think we better really listen.

Sep 23, 2009 - 9:19 am 104. Countrylawyer:

87 Jon: Thanks for the wikipedia quotation. I popped out my Duden (1983 edition) to see how the Germans define “gleichschalten,” the verb. It contains the parenthetical “(bes. ns.),” indicating it especially, but not necessarily, refers to the national-socialist context, but it runs, in full, “a) (bes. ns.)[mit Zwangsmassnahmen] auf eine einheitliche, zentral bestimmte Linie bringen, zu einer einheitlichen Denkweise zwingen, im Denken u. Handeln der Politik u. Weltanschauung der regierenden Machthaber unterwerfen . . . ; b) sich [der herrschenden Meinung] anpassen, unterwerfen . . . .” Roughly translated: a) [with compulsory measures] to bring into a unitary, centrally determined line, to force into a unitary manner of thought, to subordinate in thought and action to the politics and Weltanschauung of the ruling power; b) (reflexive) to conform or subordinate oneself to the prevailing opinion”. And there you have it; reckon how long Dear Leader will be willing to forego the Zwangsmassnahmen?

Sep 23, 2009 - 9:44 am 105. qwfwq:

Roger, art’s been thinly-disguised leftist propaganda for some time. ‘Death of a Salesman’ is the artistic equivalent to a soviet tractor. So is what passes for most visual art.

Sep 23, 2009 - 2:20 pm 106. matt:

Roger;

you may want to read my blog post on the Monistry of Propaganda from 3 weeks ago. Link above.

They are using the tactics of Mad Avenue, the graffiti world, Goebbels and McLuhan. Very scary.

Sep 23, 2009 - 7:46 pm 107. buddy larsen:

Art was very important to the steady Nazi takeover of Europe. As the essay says, art and politics are in the same realm of emotion. The brain trust has been doing its homework.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,644210,00.html

Sep 23, 2009 - 9:26 pm 108. Daniel:

Can’t these people look ahead?
The NEA at one stroke has alienated approximately half the population, and according to recent polls much more than that.
When Republicans regain control of the House or Senate, the NEA now stands a good chance of being defunded, and all the idiots who allowed this to happen will then loose their jobs and their support. And even honest Democrats will applaud.

Maybe these fools intend to support Obama’s subversion of the constitution to allow him to stay in power for life, like the former President of Honduras, whose illegalities Obama has abetted so vigorously.

Another ugly thing: the Obama administration has now admitted making a deal with the pharmaceutical industry to trade favorable treatment in the Obama plan for propaganda by that industry in favor of his plan. This seems to be the very definition of corruption: selling law for political support.

Meanwhile the NY Times, Washington Times, Time, NBC, CBS ABC never even question these policies. How shameful!

Honest people will have to pay attention and work to keep our form of government!
And if not in 2010, when?

Sep 23, 2009 - 11:00 pm 109. Original Dave:

There is a lesson in the posts of our two violent screaching loons at 83 and 84. Their livelihoods depend completely on continued handouts of politicians and bureaucrats and they are now completely owned by those that promise to fund them. Sadly, they are too far gone to realize they have become servile drones.

Sep 24, 2009 - 10:57 am 110. Politics for dummies:

Matt,

The Obama fecals aren’t using Madison Ave. tactics.

In advertising,the expectation has to closely resemble the realization (the product or service has to live up to what’s promised).

If it doesn’t, people will complain (protest like the 100 or so thou in Washington) and sales will erode.

Which is exactly what’s happening to Obama.
People thought he was talking about change that would be positive.

All the change Obama has implemented has been catastrophic both for individuals and the country as a whole.

Obama’s people wouldn’t recognize a true Madison Ave. tactic if it bit them in the butt.

Sep 24, 2009 - 2:48 pm 111. GayPatriot » With Yosi Gone, is Buffy Next?:

[...] [...]

Sep 24, 2009 - 5:04 pm 112. FroehlingHans, PhD:

Roger Kambell: What a pathetic, and public (!) display of underachievements . The amagdala has certaqinly overtaken the cortex of this poor individual . When will the Republicans go back to taking care of the people’s business and develop policies and recommedations instead of inventing lame slogans such as the “invention” of the term the “endowment of propaganda”. The Republicans are definitely in an intellectual crisis and a political downspin. Don’t think for a moment that the party will gain votes from independents by constantly engaging in watching their ever growing bellies . Being out of shape is not a recipe for success!

Sep 25, 2009 - 5:50 pm 113. Dr. Dealgood:

Left is curling into a fetal position.

Sep 26, 2009 - 9:54 am 114. FreebornSoprano:

Here is my pledge to Barack Obama:

I promise, as a freeborn, artistic American, who composes, sings, and paints, that I will never, NEVER take a dime from the NEA from now on, no matter how tempting it may be.

Those of you artists who left comments above saying that you *need* the NEA — I “feel your pain”. I’ve been a part of musical organizations that struggled with funding, and it’s tough. But seriously, I hope you’re joking!

Art will find a way to survive without the NEA, because people need beauty, and art is stronger than government servitude. If you don’t believe that, why are you artists?

Sep 26, 2009 - 10:16 am 115. Gaffe Prices:

So Herr Froeling, which one would, will you vote for?

Sep 26, 2009 - 3:13 pm 116. Dan:

Those threats from 83 and 84 are just too scary to contemplate, so be on the lookout for fruitcakes who’ve switched the lingerie for bricks in their fag bags.

Sep 27, 2009 - 7:10 am 117. ThinkingMeat · Wingnuts try — and fail — to dodge the blame:

[...] UPDATE 09/28/09 9:27 AM EDT: Here’s another example, from Roger Kimball at Pajamas Media: [...]

Sep 28, 2009 - 6:27 am 118. Afghanistan = Vietnam? « The Rhetorican:

[...] [...]

Sep 28, 2009 - 9:28 am 119. The Short Obama Legacy: Propaganda, Lies, and Deceit « Your Cross on My Back:

[...] President commissions National Endowment for the Arts to create propaganda for his policies [...]

Oct 14, 2009 - 9:08 am 120. The NFL’s Weird Standards « The Rhetorican:

[...] [...]

Oct 14, 2009 - 10:39 pm