Helen Thomas, the oldest member of the White House press corp and writer for Hearst Newspapers, is asked by a cameraman during the White House’s Jewish Heritage Celebration if she has any comments for Israel. Thomas responds, saying ‘tell them to get the hell out of Palestine’ which she follows with an eerie cackle. The aging anti-Semite then tells the cameraman that they should go back to their home in Germany and Poland.
Just in case you find this blatant bias hard to believe, here’s the video:
She thinks the Jews are “occupying” the land. Perhaps she has never read the Bible.
Tail wag: Mary Seales
UPDATE, Sunday, June 6: Helen Thomas has been dropped by the speakers’ agency that served as her agent:
“It is with a heavy heart that Nine Speakers, Inc. announces its resignation as the agent for Helen Thomas, Dean of the White House Press Corps.
Ms. Thomas has had an esteemed career as a journalist, and she has been a trailblazer for women, helping others in her profession, and beyond.
However, in light of recent events, Nine Speakers is no longer able to represent Ms. Thomas, nor can we condone her comments on the Middle East.
Nine Speakers will continue to enthusiastically represent all of our other current and future clients.”
UPDATE, Monday, June 7, 1PM EST: According to an article in the Washington Post, Helen Thomas is retiring today!
Veteran White House reporter Helen Thomas announced Monday that she is retiring, effective immediately, in the wake of a controversy over her comments on Israel, according to a report from her employer, Hearst News Service.
By Arlen Williams | Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010 at 2:01 pm
Investigative reporter James O’Keefe has released video demonstrating massive payroll fraud in the U.S. Census. And if the Census workers are being trained to falsify their payroll reports, how is our actual Census data being handled?
On April 27, 2010, I got a job with the United States Census Bureau in New Jersey. With a hidden camera, I caught four Census supervisors encouraging enumerators to falsify information on their time sheets. Over the course of two days of training, I was paid for four hours of work I never did. I was told to take a 70 minute lunch break, was given an hour of travel time to drive 10 minutes, and was told to leave work at 3:30pm. I resigned prior to doing any data collection but confronted Census supervisors who assured me, “no one is going to be auditing that that level,” and “nobody is going to be questioning it except for you.” Another Census supervisor only said he’d adjust my pay after I gave him a letter recanting my hours.
“I don’t think anyone’s going to be questioning it, except for you.”
O’Keefe does the math: this could mean rampant fraud with workers trained to embezzle as much as $1,000,000,000 of taxpayers’ money, throughout the nation. The video is shown and James O’Keefe’s article continues at BIGGOVERNMENT.
Another undercover video report released today, reveals similarly systematic, trained, and approved embezzlement, in Louisiana. Again, this appears to be the order of the day and done on a massive scale:
Videos are found at the veritasvisuals page on YouTube..
The White House is officially running this operation. It took management of the U.S. Census away from the U.S. Department of Commerce, where it is traditionally administered. This is the same White House which is historically allied with ACORN and other Marxist/fascist operations and their operators, worldwide. Further, they are failing to enforce laws against massive illegal immigration, while persecuting Arizona for attempting to enforce official United States policy.
This purposeful and systematic abuse of government is clearly in line with the Cloward-Piven (or Alinsky, or Marxist, or… communist) strategy of corrupting, overwhelming, and collapsing American government, economy, and society. All, to bring about the revolution. This has been revealed by numerous Internet venues, including this one.
The hint of a White House bribe helped U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak in the Democratic primary for the Pennsylvania US Senate seat. But it will be a liability in the general election.
In an environment of massive anti-incumbent sentiment, it was advantageous to Sestak to differentiate himself from the self-serving Arlen Specter, who had switched parties to gain Obama’s sponsorship in hopes of saving his place in the Senate. One does not reach a high level in the military without being socially and politically prudent, and Sestak rose to the rank of three-star Admiral. He was also street-savvy enough to win two terms in Congress after that. Yet one can understand how he was tempted to let the story of the White House job offer, purportedly made last July, slip during the taping of a mid-February public affairs television show.
U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak … stands behind his contention that the Obama administration offered him a federal job if he would back away from a Democratic primary race against Sen. Arlen Specter.
“Yes, I was offered a job,” Sestak said….
Sestak said top party officials urged him to abandon his Senate bid when Specter joined the Democratic Party….
“Look, I am comfortable that I answered honestly,” Sestak said. “I said I would never agree with the type of deal that was done with Specter, so I would never go for a deal for myself.”
As early as last June, establishment Democrats were lining up against his then unannounced candidacy.
The public mulling of a Senate bid by Sestak – a retired admiral who’s just begun his second term in the House – is giving heartburn to many influential Democrats in Washington and in the Keystone State. Democratic leaders painstakingly worked to recruit Specter, potentially the Democrats’ filibuster-breaking 60th vote in the Senate, under the assumption that the former Republican would be able to coast through his adopted party’s primary on his way to another term.
Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell personified the great disconnect between Democratic incumbents and public sentiment, and proved himself a dismal prognosticator, when he assumed a loss for Sestak last June:
Gov. Ed Rendell (D) offered especially blunt words against a Sestak candidacy, telling MSNBC that “Joe should not run for the Senate in the Democratic primary. He would get killed. … [If] Joe Sestak runs against Arlen Specter, he is out of the Congress after just two short terms. We will lose a terrific Congressman and when he loses to Arlen, he fades into political obscurity.”
Now Sestak has handily won the primary, and the spectre of Specter has instead faded into political obscurity. Within Democratic circles, Sestak is diametrically opposed to the incumbent administration. He was a Hillary Clinton supporter. And there is a more painful fact, one that most political pundits overlook — Obama’s minion Admiral Michael Mullen, currently Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was responsible for ending Sestak’s 31-year naval career.
Sestak’s Navy career ended in a less-than-ideal fashion. In July 2005 – within a week of Adm. Michael Mullen’s swearing-in as chief of naval operations – Sestak was dismissed as deputy chief of naval operations due to a “poor command climate,” according to the Navy Times…. The ouster represented a stunning (albeit temporary) reversal of fortune for Sestak.
So much for the machinations of the Democratic primary. The story of the job offer, potentially a bribe intended to interfere in the electoral process, has taken on a life of its own. The White House denies it, but Sestak is sticking by his story.
Democratic Senate Nominee Sestak Repeats Claim: White House Offered Him Job to Drop Out of Race Against Specter
Friday, May 21, 2010
Rep. Joe Sestak, the Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate seat, said again this week that the White House offered him a job to keep him from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in the Democratic primary.
Rep. Joe Sestak’s allegation that the White House offered him a job to drop out of the Pennsylvania Senate primary race against Arlen Specter is a crime that could lead to the impeachment of President Obama, Rep. Darrell Issa said….
Issa, R-Calif., is one of many inside and outside Washington who want the Democratic Senate primary candidate to explain in detail what offer the White House made.
“It’s very clear that allegation is one that everyone from Arlen Spector to Dick Morris has said is in fact a crime, and could be impeachable,” said Issa, who is threatening to file an ethics compliant if Sestak doesn’t provide more details about the alleged job offer.
….Sestak, a former vice admiral in the Navy, first alleged in February that the White House offered him a high-ranking position in the administration last summer if he would sit out the primary against Specter, who won the backing of the White House and state Democratic leaders for switching parties.
U.S. Constitution Article II, Section 4 – Disqualification – The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Impeachment – Impeachment, in the U.S. and Great Britain, proceeding by a legislature for the removal from office of a public official charged with misconduct in office. Impeachment comprises both the act of formulating the accusation and the resulting trial of the charges; it is frequently but erroneously taken to mean only the removal from office of an accused public official. An impeachment trial may result in either an acquittal or in a verdict of guilty. In the latter case the impeached official is removed from office; if the charges warrant such action, the official is also remanded to the proper authorities for trial before a court.
During his bid for the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania Sestak claimed that he was offered a job in the Administration if he would agree to drop his bid to challenge the incumbent, Arlen Specter.
This is a felony according to the law.
The U.S. Code specifically forbids anyone from seeking to tamper with an election by offering a bribe or anything else of value or substance to a candidate. This is known as ‘quid-pro-quo.’ And it is a serious offense for which a person who is convicted of the crime could spend up to 5 years in prison….
How could the White House claim that nothing inappropriate took place when the very fact that Sestak was engaged in conversations with Administration officials during a hotly contested campaign is a highly suspicious act in and of itself?
Why would the White House even wish to talk to Sestak at all when it had clearly thrown its support to Specter?
Someone in this sordid mess is lying. And there are only 2 choices–Sestak or Robert Gibbs at the White House, who as press secretary must state to the public whatever he is instructed to say by the President and his advisers.
If Sestak is lying and the entire story is bogus, then his chances of beating the Republican in the Fall will drop like a lead balloon. But if he is telling the truth and continues to refuse to name the parties at the White House who offered him this deal, then he is protecting a felon. Either way Sestak loses.
This latest bribery allegation reflects a disturbing pattern by the Obama White House. We still don’t have all the details about involvement of Obama administration officials in the sale of Obama’s former Illinois U.S. Senate seat by Rod Blagojevich. And we still don’t have answers about the charge that Obama Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina offered a federal job to Colorado Democratic Senate candidate Andrew Romanoff to keep him out of the Senate race. There is also the report that President Obama tried to push disgruntled White House Counsel Greg Craig out of the White House by offering a federal judgeship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. And now we have Joe Sestak.
The Chicago Machine has truly come to Washington.
Other than impeachment, other parts of the law might be relevant, according to Judicial Watch:
According to Judicial Watch, the following laws (among others) may have been violated in the Sestak matter: 18 USC 210: Offer to procure appointive public office; 18 USC 211: Acceptance of solicitation to obtain appointive public office; 18 USC 595: Interference by administrative employees by Federal, State or Territorial Governments; and 18 USC 600: Promise of employment or other benefit for political activity.
That legal opinion is reinforced by Jay Sekulow of The American Center for Law & Justice, who said in an interview:
Well, article 2, section 4 of the Constitution is there for a reason. And … this is spinning out of control, as far as the White House is concerned right now. This is getting big coverage and it’s getting big coverage because something’s wrong here. It’s undercutting democracy if, in fact, offers were made to have someone not run.
And it’s not just one or two sections of federal law that’s been violated here. We’ve done an analysis of this. There could be four or even five sections of the federal criminal code that was violated….
These are serious allegations here. …. I understand why Mr. Sestak is trying to not say anything right now because he’s now obtained the nomination and he may want the White House support. But the reality is, somebody’s going to have to speak. And if, in fact, it is established that an offer of employment was made so that he would not run, that is interference with a political campaign, it’s interference with elected office, it’s the promise and solicitation of a job opportunity in order to forego something. That violates … not only the Constitution, it violates federal law….
The opinion by most legal observers seems to be that Obama must have known if a job offer was made, but that someone else in the administration will take the fall for it. We, as ordinary citizens, watch this play out and have to decide who is not telling the truth — a high ranking military officer or a community organizer from Chicago. Hard choice that!
UPDATE, May 28 3PM: I can’t do any better than this. Go visit The Right Side of Life to read Phil’s excellent compendium detailing the progress of the White House spin machine. They have elected to throw Bill Clinton and Rahm Emanuel under the bus on this one.
This whole affair stinks like a pile of rotting dead fish. The preposterous story being put out by the White House may prevent a legal challenge, but the whole mess will probably hurt the Dems in the general election. By saving Obama’s bacon, they have damaged their candidate and made him look like a liar.
The Sunlight Foundation drew about 30% more tweeters than the White House for last week’s health care summit. Both websites carried a live video stream of the whole event from 10AM to 6PM, but with one crucial difference.
As each participant was speaking, the Sunlight page displayed a list of the speaker’s financial contributors next to the video feed. So, for example, if a senator was advocating pro-big-pharma solutions, you might see a list of his big-pharma donors displayed next to the video as he spoke. It puts a whole different sunlight on things!
The Sunlight Foundation is the premier organization pushing the envelope of Internet technology to empower citizens with insider information about our politicians and about legislation before Congress. We urge our readers to get familiar with their many offerings:
Open Congress — everything you want to know about legislation, including its current status and the full text with support for your comments. “Everyone can be an insider. Learn how to track, comment, and share.”
Capitol Words — If you want to know what Congress is really thinking, track word frequencies in the Congressional record. Currently, they are concerned with health care more than fiscal and spending issues by a ratio of more than two to one.
Foreign Lobbying Influence Tracker — shares “information that representatives of foreign governments, political parties and government-controlled entities must disclose to the U.S. Justice Department when they seek to influence U.S. policy.”
Party Time — “From the early hours of the morning until late in the evening, politicians are partying. Sunlight’s PARTY TIME can help you find out who is partying, where and when.”
For the interesting story on how Sunlight prepared to carry the health care summit live, read Sunlight Live Recap: How We Did It by Jake Brewer.
Rumor has it the White House told Reuters to scrub the details of the middle class tax hit. Here’s a screenshot of the sanitized page. Usually we don’t copy entire articles from news sites, but abide strictly by “fair use.” However, just in case this information could be lost, we are going to make an exception here. We pulled this copy from a surviving Canadian site. [Note: Within moments of our taking the copy, the Canadian site was also scrubbed.]
Backdoor taxes to hit middle class
Mon Feb 1, 4:09 PM | By Terri Cullen
NEW YORK (Reuters.com) –The Obama administration’s plan to cut more than $1 trillion from the deficit over the next decade relies heavily on so-called backdoor tax increases that will result in a bigger tax bill for middle-class families.
In the 2010 budget tabled by President Barack Obama on Monday, the White House wants to let billions of dollars in tax breaks expire by the end of the year — effectively a tax hike by stealth.
While the administration is focusing its proposal on eliminating tax breaks for individuals who earn $250,000 a year or more, middle-class families will face a slew of these backdoor increases.
The targeted tax provisions were enacted under the Bush administration’s Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. Among other things, the law lowered individual tax rates, slashed taxes on capital gains and dividends, and steadily scaled back the estate tax to zero in 2010.
If the provisions are allowed to expire on December 31, the top-tier personal income tax rate will rise to 39.6 percent from 35 percent. But lower-income families will pay more as well: the 25 percent tax bracket will revert back to 28 percent; the 28 percent bracket will increase to 31 percent; and the 33 percent bracket will increase to 36 percent. The special 10 percent bracket is eliminated.
Investors will pay more on their earnings next year as well, with the tax on dividends jumping to 39.6 percent from 15 percent and the capital-gains tax increasing to 20 percent from 15 percent. The estate tax is eliminated this year, but it will return in 2011 — though there has been talk about reinstating the death tax sooner.
Millions of middle-class households already may be facing higher taxes in 2010 because Congress has failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, most notably a “patch” that limited the impact of the alternative minimum tax. The AMT, initially designed to prevent the very rich from avoiding income taxes, was never indexed for inflation. Now the tax is affecting millions of middle-income households, but lawmakers have been reluctant to repeal it because it has become a key source of revenue.
Without annual legislation to renew the patch this year, the AMT could affect an estimated 25 million taxpayers with incomes as low as $33,750 (or $45,000 for joint filers). Even if the patch is extended to last year’s levels, the tax will hit American families that can hardly be considered wealthy — the AMT exemption for 2009 was $46,700 for singles and $70,950 for married couples filing jointly.
Middle-class families also will find fewer tax breaks available to them in 2010 if other popular tax provisions are allowed to expire. Among them:
* 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.
Reuters published a story titled “Backdoor Taxes to Hit Middle Class” late afternoon on Monday; however, shortly thereafter retracted the story and removed it from its website. The White House had contacted the news service to point out “significant errors” that were made in the story, which ultimately led to removing the story. Initially promising an update, Reuter’s will not [be] writing a substitute story. The article addresses the expiration of the Bush tax cuts and how they will end up hurting the middle class, which they will.
The article’s writer, Terri Cullen, worked at the Wall Street Journal for over 13 years, where she was also the editor of the column “Fiscally Fit.” She has experience and knowledge in this category, so it’s not like Perez Hilton writing about derivatives trading.
Cullen wrote that middle class citizens would ultimately be hurt when the Bush tax cuts expire, but may have already been hurt because Congress failed to extend tax breaks that expired on January 1, 2010. The White House contacted Reuters and said there were “significant errors” in the story, none of which Cullen or the White House would point out.
This sounds like another case of the Obama administration controlling what information should and shouldn’t be released….
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 President Barack Obama — so they yanked it….
Obama administration aides appealed to the Reuters White House reporting team to kill a story by another reporter of the news service that suggested the president’s new budget blueprint included “backdoor” tax hikes….
If you didn’t read the Reuters article relative to this topic this morning, you are too late to do so now. The article has been “withdrawn”. Is it possible that all of the promises of “transparency” were just the necessary diversions needed in order to attain higher office?….
Reuters has always leaned to the left and at times sounded more like Pravda or TASS than the Soviet organizations themselves did. Today, they’ve solidified their hold on the title of News Agency That Kisses Obama’s Ass The Most….
Newspapers were meant to keep politicians in check but that ethos has all but been lost on the MSM with the exception of Fox News, the Wall Street Journal and the NY Post. The Founding Fathers must be rolling in their graves.
**Is it true that you removed a story last night that was critical of Obama’s new budget tax implications for the middle class because of pressure from the White House? If so, shame on you!
**I was surprised and dismayed by the retraction of the article regarding back door tax increases. This smacks of a political agenda where this organization appears to suppress stories that do not conform with its goals. The government has may methods for disseminating its point of view and I’m fairly certain that it does not need your organization to vet stories to present the government in a flattering light.
**Why did you bow to the white house pressure to cancel your report on the back door tax increases included in obamas new budget?? you people obviously have no spine to let a socialist/marxist radical change our country to his radical revolutionary mission with unsustainable deficits without reporting it to the readers of your news organizations.
**This morning I read your article “Backdoor Taxes Hit Middle Class” and now find that the piece has been removed with a message that it will be updated or replaced later this week. Why did you give in to the White House’s demand to scrap your article, “Backdoor taxes to hit middle class?” Did they threaten you? Regardless of your answer, your reputation has been compromised….
**It’s nice to know what was once considered a credible news organization is now taking its direction from the Obama administration. I am extremely disappointed in your caving in to the thought police…. Your succumbing to seemingly Obama censorship is just appaling. This is just one more indication how we are rapidly becoming a banana republic of the north following Hugo Chavez and Castro governement role models.
Last Sunday, September 20th, the flag of communist China fluttered in Washington DC. It had been the long-held dream of Chen Ronghua, chief of the U.S.-Fujian Association, to showcase his motherland in his new home. His wishes finally came true last week, in a celebration marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. The modest turnout marked the event with cultural activities, as shown in the video:
The event was good public relations for a group of Chinese-American trade associations who have cause for celebration. In 2007, the last year for which complete data is available, US imports from China totaled $330 billion, while US exports to China totaled only $79 billion. That’s a trade deficit with China of $251 billion. (Source.)
Rallies involving foreign interests are often held in Lafayette Park north of the White House, or on the Ellipse south of the White House. Both areas are administered by the National Park Service, and groups can assemble in these locations after obtaining a permit from NPS, not the White House. When the Chinese trade associations obtained their permit for the September 20th event, they reported to their correspondents in China that the event would be held “in a ceremony in front of the President’s residence” because they had a permit to assemble on the Ellipse. But the media reports incorrectly stated that the event would be held on the south lawn of the White House, and a firestorm of controversy ensued.
It’s only a difference in geography of one city block, but the difference in symbolic meaning is huge — White House grounds versus national park. And given Barack Hussein Obama’s many earlier ignorant breaches of protocol, lots of folk readily believed that he was responsible for a terrible gaffe. Throughout the Blogosphere pundits commented, “China has foreclosed on the White House.” The most eloquent lamentation came from Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) — Obama Allows Communist Flag over Washington!:
The communist government of China now owns a great deal of US debt and factions of their military threaten to launch a nuclear strike against the United States over possible conflicts involving our allies in Taiwan. They used to only be able to threaten to destroy the west coast of America, but due to the theft of our two stage missile technology, during the Clinton administration, China now has the nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons and delivery systems to attack every major city in the United States.
Chinese hackers are attacking major components of the US Military electronic infrastructure on almost a weekly basis now.
On the topic of immigration, China refuses to allow the return of over 40,000 illegal aliens currently under deportation order in the United States. So many Chinese illegal immigrants are now entering the US that the water stations placed in the deserts on the US border with Mexico now have instructions in English, Spanish, and Mandarin Chinese.
China has recently made demands of the Obama administration for more “assurances” that they will be repaid the over 1.4 Trillion dollars in debt Americans now owe. While we have not been able to ascertain what “assurances” the Obama administration is willing to offer, we do know that each American now owes communist China over $4,000 each including newborns and retirees!
…America’s politicians seem to be having trouble making decisions that are in the best interest of the American public these days….
Well, the event has come and gone, and the many Chinese in Washington DC have had a chance to enjoy their noisy music and dragon dances. Would communist China allow the expatriate Americans living there to hold a gathering in Tiananmen Square and hoist the American flag? Not likely. We’ll only see the US flag in China when one of our athletes gets an Olympic medal. But we are a different sort of country, full of folk who loved their homeland and have fond cultural memories, but who came here for their future life and love the United States also. The important thing is to ensure that the new arrivals are committed to upholding our Constitution, that they understand our foundational values (not that Barack Hussein Obama understands them, of course).
It is unclear whether the Chinese media or the American media screwed this one up. But another media screw-up it is. Cheers!
When Barack Obama issued a call to national service, being a Chicago-style pol, he meant HIS service. (We saw this reflected in his original lesson plans for the nation’s school children — “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”)
As health care legislation foundered, the Obama forces saw an opportunity to use the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to recruit artists to the national service of promoting the president’s agenda — “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.”
Despite the fact that this would be using public funds to advance partisan goals, three agencies went forward with plans for a conference call among about 75 leading artists on Monday, August 10th. These were the National Endowment for the Arts, the White House Office of Public Engagement overseen by Valerie Jarrett, and United We Serve. All three are government agencies.
The specific personnel involved in this endeavor were Yosi Sergant, the Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts; Buffy Wicks, Deputy Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement; Nell Abernathy, Director of Outreach for United We Serve; Thomas Bates, Vice President of Civic Engagement for Rock the Vote; and filmmaker Michael Skolnik representing hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.
The blatant political nature of this recruitment is betrayed by the inclusion of Rock the Vote. Although they pose as a non-partisan group with a mission to encourage young citizens to register to vote, they are currently engaged in a vigorous partisan campaign — “We demand health care NOW!” So the inescapable bottom line is that the White House planned to use public resources to promote the Democratic health care agenda, with the full knowledge of close Obama confidant Valerie “we love Van Jones” Jarrett, and therefore undoubtedly with the full knowledge of Barack Hussein Obama.
Among those participating was Patrick Courrielche, a filmmaker, marketer, and art community consultant who is also, it turns out, a decent American. Shocked by the attempt to use taxpayer money to further Democrat party goals, he tipped crusading Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck about the conference call. Here are the resulting program segments:
Part One: Taped Conference Call of the National Endowment for the Arts
Part Two: NEA Teaming Up with White House to Push Obama Agenda
As of yesterday, Yosi Sergant is no longer Communications Director of the NEA. He is now just an ordinary employee. The Washington Postnotes:
Beck Strikes Again; Yosi Sargent [sic] Reassigned at NEA
The National Endowment for the Arts has reassigned former communications director Yosi Sergant, who had become the latest target of FOX News talk show host Glenn Beck.
Acting NEA communications director Victoria Hutter said Thursday that Sergant had left the communications post. The move came after he had come under attack from Beck, a conservative commentator who accused Sergant of attempting to use taxpayer money to fund art to support the president’s initiatives….
The talk show host accused Sergant of arranging an August conference call with the White House Office of Public Engagement and United We Serve to recruit artists to create works in support of Obama policies. The NEA has denied that the call was inappropriate, and the White House has said that it did not force Sergant’s reassignment.
Sergant became well known during campaign 2008 for his work with artist Shepard Fairey around the iconic Obama HOPE poster, and first came to Washington as a staffer in the White House….
That is such a crock! The WaPo is trying to denigrate Glenn Beck by implying that he targeted this poor unfortunate artist. That is not the case. Glenn Beck is targeting the wannabe South-American-style-Marxist-dictator Barack Obama. And Glenn Beck never accused Sergant of attempting to use taxpayer money. The buck for this stops at the White House.
An effort of this nature is not approved by the Communications Director of the NEA. The National Endowment for the Arts has still not answered who approved encouraging a handpicked arts group, one that played a key role in the President’s election as mentioned throughout the conference call, to create art on the very issues that are currently under contentious national debate – those being health care and cap-and-trade legislation.
Barack Obama is only interested in Barack Obama. He uses these people and then when the going gets rough due to his own mistakes he lets them take the fall. So Yosi follows Jeremiah and Van under the bus.
All across America on April 15, outraged American taxpayers will protest Barack Hussein Obama’s profligate waste of hundreds of billions of OUR MONEY. There will be marches on city halls, speeches in public forums, and wherever there is a river, a bay, or a harbor there will be a “tea party.” Also on April 15, individual taxpayers will mail bags of tea to the White House.
The idea only got started a month ago, when CNBC reporter Rick Santelli spoke from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade on Thursday, February 19. Talking about the public wrath over the waste of the so-called “stimulus” money, he called for a “Chicago Tea Party” and the trading floor erupted in cheers (see video). Within days, cities around the country were holding impromptu tea parties.
In San Diego, political activist Chad Peace used MeetUp.com to organize a local group. His announcement quickly drew a large membership:
The Boston Tea Party was an act of direct protest by American Colonists demanding representation in the British Government. They became known as the original patriots.
The San Diego Tea Party of 2009 and Tea Parties all across America will reinvigorate that American and Patriotic spirit; one that demands respect for individual rights and property. As the bailouts spiral out of control, we are forced to fund failed banks. With foreclosures on the rise, we are made the collateral of reckless spending. And, when the bills come due, the IRS knocks on the door of “self-responsibility.”
ENOUGH!
America is the land of opportunity. To succeed AND to Fail. Without consequences, what is our incentive to learn? What is our incentive to produce? On July 4, 2009, those that ask nothing from the government but the protection of our inalienable right to succeed, will gather in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and many other cities across this great nation in an historic act of direct protest.
But Chad did more than just organize San Diego. He formed a political action committee called Political Exploration and Awareness Committee PAC (PEAC PAC) and created a website to coordinate news of tea parties across the country. His website, ReTeaParty.com, is now grassroots central for the tea party movement. There is an interactive map of the United States — you can click on your state and find out what activism is available to you in your own area.
Recently Chad was interviewed by Griff Jenkins of Fox News Channel concerning the bailouts, stimulus and the tea parties popping up all over the country. Here’s a clip:
The organizer is Rus Thompson, a true blue conservative taxpayer advocate active in western New York politics whose ancestors came to America on the Mayflower. Here’s the harbor:
And here’s a map:
Hey, this sounds like a terrific Saturday outing. For our readers who live in western New York, leave an RSVP for Rus in the comments section and make plans to attend. If it is a brisk March day on the waterfront in Buffalo, we recommend that after the tea party you go to Santasiero’s Restaurant on Niagara Street for dinner. My husband used to go there with his parents when he was a kid, and twenty-some years later he and I used to take our kids there for a Saturday night out. That was over forty years ago, and I’m told that the place is still terrific. If you need some convincing, check out this dinner for under $10:
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Obama's Spilt Oil
