Courrielche Strikes Again With Reports Of A Five Month Old Meeting, Propaganda, And The SEIU

Yesterday on Glenn Beck's program, guest Patrick Courrielche, who brought us the National Endowment for the Arts "scandal", was at it again, linking Beck's favorite union, the SEIU, to the White House's supposed propaganda wing, linking to this conspiracy those names we heard during Beck's other conspiracy theory, involving Chicago's corrupt Olympic bid.

Courrielche speculates in his Big Hollywood blog that the original meeting, in which he recorded, was organized by Michael Skolnik, who was the call moderator, and Deputy Director of Public Engagement Buffy Wicks.  Courrielche writes that the organizer of these conference calls was "possibly Buffy Wicks given that she was the White House official on the call, but that is a question for Wicks and/or Skolnik to answer." 

How does he come to this conclusion?

From statements by Skolnik that he was “asked by folks in the White House and folks in the NEA” to put this thing together.  Let's not forget his tweets that Courrielche also finds so damning:

“Just met with Yosi Sargent at the NEA. What we can do with the arts in our country is so exciting. Yosi is a champion for our generation!”  — Michael Skolnik Tweet at 8:56 AM Jul 15th

“On conference call right now w/ some amazing folks from the Obama team talking about United We Serve! Even during tough times we must serve.” — Michael Skolnik Tweet at 12:13 PM Jul 30th

These "facts" lead to Courrielche stating that Glenn Beck's original target, Yosi Sergant, "did not act alone in initiating, planning, and organizing the meeting," and that the White House and the Corporation for National and Community Service were presenters of the meeting and who had knowledge of the "detailed structure" of the meeting.  A memorandum distributed by Buffy Wicks supposedly shows the administration's guilt, as well as cover up, and that he did not misunderstand the intent of the call... to him, the NEA was politicized.

Courrielche's blog showcases some of his dissatisfaction in the administration, in which he reference's Obama's "czars", even though it has been constantly pointed out that Obama had not created any such precedent, but his predecessor, President George W. Bush, had more "czars".  He even suggests that The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act would be used as a propaganda tool “providing skilled musicians and artists to promote greater community unity through the use of music and arts education and engagement through work in low-income communities, and education, health care, and therapeutic settings, and other work in the public domain…” (I kept the bold print in my copy and paste job so you can see what Courrielche stresses in his conservative conspiracy madness)

Also, considering his appearance on Glenn Beck, Courrielche mentioned that Valerie Jarrett is Wicks' boss.  Technically, Jarrett is the head of the department, but Wicks' is the subordinate of Director of Public Engagement Christina M. Tchen.  The only purpose for mentioning Valerie Jarrett is to add to the Six Degrees of Separation between Obama and any wrongdoing.  As we all know now through Fox's crack reporting, Valerie Jarrett, who has been called by some Obama's "Olympic Czar", was instrumental in the alleged future corruption of a Chicago 2016 winning bid.  Jarrett is also a common jumping point for conservatives into mentioning corrupt Chicago politics, Willaim Ayers and The Weather Underground.  It is only a matter of time before Glenn Beck's chalkboard references Jarrett's birth in Iran, linking Obama to Ahmadinejad.

Courrielche continues to discuss the intentions of the administration, which leads into the bigger conspiracy component, introducing the super corrupt union, the SEIU, to the table.  He claims that in an earlier meeting, held back in May, the White House held a meeting promoting partisan politics, in which Courrielche quotes the White House for thanking the participants in the meeting "for their roles in amplifying the administration’s messages in their communities."  I can see where Courrielche gets confused... consider his previous interpretation of the Serve America Act, where the use of art to promote "greater community unity" in public domain settings.  The quote above, looking at his use of bold words, Courrielche failed to look at the entire sentence, and looking at them in conservative colored glasses, one would obviously be confused.  The purpose is to use "music and arts education and engagement" through work in "low-income communities, and education, health care, and therapeutic settings."  The sentence was not reversed, stating the purpose was to use health care and education to promote art for the administration.  This would be like saying street performers, like the many you see in city subways, promote public transportation agenda because they choose to play their instead of a concert halls...

The meeting  was called to bring together "community cultural development practitioners and thinkers to talk about how the remarkable mobilizing power of community arts can be used by the Obama administration as a tool and a pathway for national recovery."  Apparently, in this meeting, which Courrielche calls a "pro-Obama arts group", groups were brought together to tackle issues using art, of course these would be Democratic issues.  This is not where the real politicization occurs...  in another segment of the meeting, the SEIU gets involved, where "small strategy session teams" were formed, with one such team being headed by Michelle Miller of the Service Employee International Union.  According to the blog, the SEIU group wanted to "create a counter narrative to the Luntz memo/Republican talking points designed to destroy health care reform" and use the arts to push the health care agenda, which Courrielche posts an associated video featuring Hip-Hop for Health Care Reform, where he finds especially alarming in the first couple minutes of the video where Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr. discusses Jim Crow... this sounds like the right's Van Jones smear all over again. 

Courrielche goes on to mention that the administration quickly tried to cover up this scandal, with Michael Skolnik sending a message moments after Courrielche's original article was published, in which he refutes details in the article.  This just adds to the conspiracy.  Courrielche wrote that Skolnik's statement "directly contradicted his statement in the conference call, a fact that was made clear in the release of the transcripts. By having a 'third party' be the initiator of the call, the government has plausible deniability to any of the results or intentions of the meeting. But once it is shown that all federal employees played a part in planning the meeting, plausible deniability evaporates."  If you recall earlier, I had mentioned that Courrielche hypothesized about the White House's involvement based on theorized connections through meetings that may or may not have occurred.  The only facts presented are the phone call recorded by Courrielche, a couple memos, and a YouTube video.

It should have been instantly realized that Courrielche would become a reoccurring guest on Beck's manic conspiracy theorist show from his first appearance, with Beck grasping at straws to take down the administration.  It is obvious that Courrielche, who tries to pass himself off as an artist, but is really an opportunist trying to make a name for himself, much like the ACORN poster children O'Keefe and Giles.

What is more interesting is that there is no pleasing Courrielche.  The White House issued new guidelines for what some groups have called "disturbing".  Courrielche added this link on a tweet he made back on September 22nd, where he wrote "the White House responds to my NEA inquiry. Seems to agree that the call was inappropriate."  Obviously that is not enough for him, considering his newest report discusses a matter that occurred before his secret tape was made and before his inquirey.  This is like a child getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar, only to later be scolded because they had taken another cookie before the last.  Obviously Courrielche has some beef with the administration or this matter would have been dropped when the White House supposedly corrected, or "covered up", any inapropriate actions.