Friday, October 16, 2009

Turn Your TV Off is next week

And I want to see everyone participating. As you are all very much aware, television programing sucks donkey balls, and we'd all be much better off spending the time reading a book, interacting with the family, or downloading porn. So, I declare next week (starting Monday the 17) TURN YOUR TV OFF WEEK.

Ironically, it coincides with Dear Leader's "organically" created iParticpate programing.

Oh well.

Srsly, this is important.

The NEA and White House conference calls and *The Corporation’s new iParticipate effort all drive traffic to Serve.gov – a website that provides the infrastructure and mechanism for growth of volunteerism that looks a lot like what Wicks was advocating on the campaign trail. And Wicks, a political activist with a history of organizing people to take political action, is working with The Corporation on this effort.

By itself though, there is nothing nefarious about pushing volunteerism. However, there have been many warning signs that the White House is attempting to politicize national service.

The August 10th conference call is an obvious example. The call was partisan in nature, it led to policy advocacy, the Communications Director of the NEA resigned, the NEA issued a statement acknowledging inappropriate language, and the White House issued conduct guidelines to address the partisan “appearance” issues. The cover-ups and historical revisionism displayed by the White House, The Corporation, the NEA, and the moderator were troubling indicators of the calls intentions. Another example is the May 12th White House briefing, which also led to extreme policy advocating – but that meeting has yet to be fully vetted.

These partisan volunteer efforts along with the expansion of The Corporation are alarming signs. Through expanding the size and power of The Corporation, the Administration is in essence organizing and increasing the pool of resources that helped it acquire power.


*The Corporation for National and Community Service

Honestly, Turn it OFF. List of participating programs found here.