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 Post notes:

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.

Patrick Courrielche understands this. He says:

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.

Related coverage:

Politico — NEA in politics flap

Big Hollywood — The National Endowment for the Art of Persuasion?

Big Hollywood — NEA SCANDAL: The Public Still Deserves Answers From the NEA

R & D Magazine — BECK for September 1, 2009: Transcript

The Rush Limbaugh Show — NEA Promotes Obama Propaganda