The art of agitprop By Alex Beam

“The NEA was not created to encourage artists to address issues,’’ he said, and he’s right. State-sponsored agitprop, or agitational propaganda, is a tool usually associated with totalitarian regimes. According to its website, the NEA sucks down about $150 million a year from Congress, to support “excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education.’’ This year, for instance, the endowment gave over $1 million to Massachusetts nonprofits “threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn,’’ among other local grants.

Keep Your Kids Home From School Tuesday, Sept 8, 2009

Obama’s Sept. 8 speech to schoolchildren from Michelle Malkin

http://michellemalkin.com/2009/09/01/obamas-sept-8-speech-to-schoolchildren/

President Obama told a student reporter last month that he would be making an address to schoolchildren on September 8…

The Daily Paul picked up the story last week and linked to teachers’ manuals pegged to Obama’s address, which have now been linked on Drudge.

The documents have a heavy activist bent:

During the Speech:

• As the President speaks, teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful. Students could use a note-taking graphic organizer such as a Cluster Web, or students could record their thoughts on sticky notes. Younger children can draw pictures and write as appropriate. As students listen to the speech, they could think about the following:

What is the President trying to tell me?

What is the President asking me to do?

What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?

• Students can record important parts of the speech where the President is asking them to do something. Students might think about: What specific job is he asking me to do? Is he asking anything of anyone else? Teachers? Principals? Parents? The American people?

• Students can record any questions they have while he is speaking and then discuss them after the speech. Younger children may need to dictate their questions.

After the Speech:

• Teachers could ask students to share the ideas they recorded, exchange sticky notes or stick notes on a butcher paper poster in the classroom to discuss main ideas from the speech, i.e. citizenship, personal responsibility, civic duty.
• Students could discuss their responses to the following questions:

What do you think the President wants us to do?

Does the speech make you want to do anything?

Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?

End the Occupation! Dear Leader to Address Public Schoolchildren Nationwide from Vocal Minority

http://vocalminority.typepad.com/blog/2009/09/end-the-occupation-dear-leader-to-address-public-schoolchildren-nationwide.html

Dear Leader Chairman MauObama Addresses School Children from Canada Free Press

Mock Address: http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/14353

Critics Decry Obama’s ‘Indoctrination’ Plan for Students

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/02/critics-decry-obamas-lesson-plan-students/

..The goal of the speech and the lesson plans is to challenge students to work hard in school, to not drop out and to meet short-term goals like behaving in class, doing their homework and goals that parents and teachers alike can agree are noble,” Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, told FOXNews.com. “This isn’t a policy speech. This is a speech designed to encourage kids to stay in school.”  But in advance of the address, the Department of Education has offered educators “classroom activities” to coincide with Obama’s message. Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.” Teachers are also given guidance to tell students to “build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.” During the speech, “teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful.” For grades 7-12, the Department of Education suggests teachers prepare by excerpting quotes from Obama’s speeches on education for their students to contemplate — and ask as questions such as “Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us?” Activities suggested for after the speech include asking students “what resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrase do you remember?”

 Texas Adult protective services kidnap elderly couple

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=ff5_1251737909

DALLAS – They’re not criminals. They’ve broken no laws. But they’re being held against their will by the State of Texas. Why? It’s a tragic story about what can happen when you are alone in the world and lose control of your rights, your money, and your ability to complain. Jean and Michael Kidd never imagined their retirement would play out like this. “I feel like I am not in America,” said Michael Kidd. “I can’t believe I have been hi-jacked off the street, virtually from the hospital, and imprisoned,” Kidd told FOX 4. Michael Kidd and his wife Jean have been living out of a tiny room for months. They have lost control of their money, their home, even their car. They say they’ve been robbed of their dignity and their voice. And who do they say is responsible? The State of Texas. Video at link above. “It is a shock to our system,” says Kidd. “We are still kind of in a state of shock,” Kidd told Reporter Becky Oliver.

Pelosi and Frank – at it again- attempted co-opting the only good piece of legislation this year

http://www.auditthefed.com/

A year ago, no one in the political establishment would have believed that a bill to thoroughly audit the Fed would have almost two-thirds of the House (including every Republican representative and nearly one hundred Democrats) and a quarter of the Senate on board. Certainly, no one would have bet that three-fourths of the American people would support such an audit. As many of you may have heard by now, recent statements from Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, have indicated that the House will vote on Audit the Fed in the next few months.However, rather than voting on HR 1207 as a standalone bill, many in Congress hope to roll it into the comprehensive regulatory reform package recently proposed by the White House. This reform package grants new, more comprehensive powers to the Fed and strengthens the government’s control over our economy. Campaign for Liberty and other friends of liberty stand in opposition to this proposal, as well as any other attempt to convert this historic movement for transparency into yet another rubber-stamping of politics as usual. It is imperative that Audit the Fed come before the House and Senate on its own merits. The American people stand behind a thorough audit of the Fed, and we should not be adding additional powers when we don’t fully know what is being done with the ones they currently have. Call Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office today at (202) 225-0100 and urge her to stand with the American people by giving the Audit the Fed bill full debate and a standalone vote on the House floor.

US Funds UN Group That Supports Teaching 5-to-8-Year Olds about Masturbation

http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=53243

A United Nations group that supports teaching 5-to-8-year-olds about masturbation is partly funded by the United States, which will contribute $78.1 million in the 2010 fiscal year to the group, according to the State Department. As CNSNews.com previously reported, the U.N. Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) released its International Guidelines for Sexual Educationin June, and among the topics to discuss with 5-to-8-year-olds, according to the report, is “masturbation” and that “girls and boys have private body parts that can feel pleasurable when touched by oneself.”  Although the United States endured tension with the group and even withdrew its membership for two decades, President George W. Bush announced in 2002 that the United States would rejoin UNESCO, with funding to re-commence in FY2004 at $84.1 million. Since then, the United States has contributed nearly $536 million to the organization. Bush told the U.N. General Assembly in 2002, “As a symbol of our commitment to human dignity, the United States will return to UNESCO. This organization has been reformed and America will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights and tolerance and learning.” UNESCO’s biennial budget for 2008-09 was $631 million, or approximately $315.5 million per year in that period. The United States gave $75.1 million in 2009, which is about 25 percent of UNESCO’s annual budget.  While UNESCO was originally set up chiefly to advance education, some critics say the Internet has rendered that task obsolete, and the lack of a clear mission has now translated into concerns about waste, fraud and abuse. Additionally, UNESCO has taken controversial, far-left positions and has been perceived as increasingly anti-American since its ranks grew to 193 nations, many of them from the third world.

 Childhood Obesity Report Calls For Government Regulations to Limit Access to ‘Unhealthy’ Restaurant Chains from CNS News

 http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=53374

A newly released report by the Institute for Medicine and the National Research Council details strategies for local governments to combat what it calls an epidemic of childhood obesity, including enacting zoning and land-use regulations that would “restrict fast food establishments near school grounds and public playgrounds.” The report, “Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity,” was compiled by the Committee on Childhood Obesity Prevention Actions for Local Governments, a committee of health care professionals, academics, and policy makers. The report offers nine “action strategies” for healthy eating and three “actions for increasing physical activities.”  The report, unveiled at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington on Tuesday, also advises local governments to impose higher taxes “to discourage consumption of foods and beverages that have minimal nutritional value” and to mandate that chain restaurants (those with 20 or more stores) provide caloric information on menus. When asked by CNSNews.com if regulating where restaurants can be built could harm communities by taking away jobs, committee members said the report presents “options” and that studies show that fast food restaurants are disproportionately located in low-income and minority neighborhoods.