SteveB wrote:
September 8, Obama will be piped into all public schools for a speech.
Probably about how to snitch on their parents.

This is scary. This is sick.

Here's another dubious first:

NEA enlisting artists to use their talents to promote Obama's Agendae on
Health, Can and trade. "This is just the beginning"

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/...TEwNDEyWj.html

Seems like this was popular in Europe in the 1930s.

here is the article:

From "The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?" by Patrick
Courrielche, posted on BigHollywood.Breitbart.com on Aug. 25:

On Thursday August 6th, I was invited by the National Endowment for the
Arts to attend a conference call scheduled for Monday August 10th hosted
by the NEA, the White House Office of Public Engagement, and United We
Serve. The call would include "a group of artists, producers, promoters,
organizers, influencers, marketers, taste-makers, leaders or just plain
cool people to join together and work together to promote a more
civically engaged America and celebrate how the arts can be used for a
positive change!"

I learned after the conference call that there were *approximately 75
people participating, including many well *respected street-artists,
filmmakers, art galleries, music venues, musicians and music producers,
writers, poets, actors, independent media outlets, marketers, and
various other professionals from the creative community. . . .

Backed by the full weight of President Barack Obama's call to service
and the institutional weight of the NEA, the conference call was billed
as an opportunity for those in the art community to inspire service in
four key categories, and at the top of the list were "health care" and
"energy and environment." . . .

It sounded, how should I phrase it . . . unusual, that the NEA would
invite the art community to a meeting to discuss issues currently under
vehement national debate. I decided to call in, and what I heard
concerned me. . . .

Throughout the conversation my inner dialogue was firing away questions
so fast that the NRA would've been envious. Is this truly the role of
the NEA? Is building a message distribution network, for matters other
than increasing access to the arts and arts education, the role of the
National Endowment for the Arts? Is providing the art community issues
to address, especially those that are currently being vehemently debated
*nationally, a legitimate role for the NEA? I found it highly *unlikely
that this was in their original charter, so I checked.

The NEA published a book entitled "National Endowment for the Arts: A
History 1965-2008" early this year. Combing through the 40+ year history
of the NEA, I could not find a single instance of the agency creating or
supporting a national initiative that encouraged the art community to
address current issues under contentious *debate.

The NEA was created by the Congress of the United States and President
Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 as "a public agency dedicated to supporting
excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to
all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education." The issue of
health care is curiously absent from this description on their website.
.. . .

I leave you with a few statements made by the NEA to the art community
participants on the conference call. "This is just the beginning. This
is the first telephone call of a brand new conversation. We are just now
learning how to really bring this community together to speak with the
government. What that looks like legally? . . . bear with us as we learn
the language so that we can speak to each other safely . . ."

Is the hair on your arms standing up yet?