Sign the Petition to Pressure Obama to Create a Secretary for the Arts

Brilliant idea.

Click here and sign. I am number 13869.

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Want Some Obama Drama?

No, no, I don't mean Bill Richardson, who will now set sartorial hearts aflutter by growing back his beard.

No, I mean this show:

CREATIVE DESTRUCTION
in association with The Tank
Presents

OBAMA DRAMA: A Political Theatrical Spectacular!
The Inauguration Celebration!
Inspired by the Man, the Myth(s) and the Michelle of Barack Obama

January 15-17, 2009 - 8PM
The 45th Street Theatre

Celebrate Barack Obama's historic inauguration with Creative Destruction as they remount their hit show OBAMA DRAMA: A POLITICAL THEATRICAL SPECATACULAR! with a special Inauguration Celebration production, presented in association with The Tank, January 15-17 at 8PM at The 45th Street Theatre. Originally commissioned and performed in October 2008, OBAMA DRAMA is a weekend of world-premiere short plays inspired by the man, the myth(s) and the Michelle of the 44th President of the United States.

As the 2008 election heated up, Creative Destruction asked seven playwrights to dramatize what most intrigued them about Barack Obama. The result was an immediate, powerful look at the man who embodied the hopes and dreams of a nation ready for change. For three nights, a cast of 18 actors played to sold-out houses and standing ovations as a community came together in the hopes of change. Twelve days later, on November 4, 2008, Obama was elected and history was made.

Grab front row seats to history January 15-17 to celebrate Obama's historic victory, Inauguration, and Presidency. OBAMA DRAMA: The Inauguration Celebration will feature plays written by Nastaran Ahmadi, Zakiyyah Alexander, Sarita Covington, Marcus Gardley, Kimberly Megna, Harrison David Rivers, Matt Schatz, and Tiffany Rachelle Stewart. The artists of Creative Destruction will host a "Barack the Inauguration" Party following the show on Friday, January 16th. Join them in celebrating Change coming to Washington.

CREATIVE DESTRUCTION is a theatrical collective dedicated to creating new works of drama through multi-disciplinary collaboration and artistic risk. We value diversity, generosity of spirit and innovation. Creative Destruction is named after the economic idea that out of destruction a new creativity arises. We're committed to challenging the status quo of mainstream theatre by commissioning new works, encouraging cross-disciplinary collaboration, supporting emerging artists and infusing our work with the joy of creation. Creative Destruction was founded by Artistic Directors Nelson T. Eusebio III and Kelly L. Miller in New York City in 2008.

OBAMA DRAMA runs January 15-17, 2009 at 8PM at The 45th Street Theater in Manhattan (354 W. 45th Street). Tickets for all shows are $15.00 and can be purchased through The Tank's website: www.tanknyc.org. For more information about the show, please go to www.CreativeD.org.

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My Name is Mitch McConnell. I'm a Senator from Kentucky. And I Enjoy Torturing the American People.

This kind of stuff just makes me angry. Today the Washington Post reports that even before Obama's inauguration, the Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell, is pledging to be a total obstructionist regarding the new president's huge stimulus package.

Like many Republicans, McConnell is content -- even happy -- to see the American people suffer. Let them starve, let them hurt, let them be jobless, let them be hopeless. Oh, but please volunteer for the armed services so we can send you to a war fought on false, misleading pretenses.

Here are the first few graphs of the story:

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) voiced skepticism today about the emerging economic stimulus plan, applying a brake to Democratic plans to quickly pass up to $850 billion in spending and tax cuts soon after President-elect Barack Obama's Jan. 20 inauguration.

"As of right now, Americans are left with more questions than answers about this unprecedented government spending, and I believe the taxpayers deserve to know a lot more about where it will be spent before we consider passing it," McConnell said in a statement, which will be publicly issued later today.

Obama's advisers and congressional Democrats have been huddling in the Capitol trying to craft a massive stimulus plan that could cost anywhere from $675 billion to $850 billion, while some economists are pushing for a total package worth more than $1 trillion.

McConnell -- the most powerful Republican in Washington, based on the filibuster-proof level of 41 GOP Senate seats -- called for many congressional hearings on the stimulus plan and some undetermined safeguards to assure the money is being spent wisely.

Clearly what McConnell is doing is sending a warning shot across Obama's bow -- to make sure the new president understands that he must negotiate with the other side. But I think there are far more constructive ways to make his point known.

I also find these comments on Politico.com, in response to this story, very interesting. You can read the comments here.

Bottom line: It was 25 years of Republican dominance that fiscally decimated my nation. People like McConnell should be taken out in the back somewhere and given a shot of real patriotism. The new president is trying to save the nation. Doesn't anyone realize that? It's that serious, people.

And if you don't believe me, let's talk about something truly apocalyptic: a Russian professor, according to the Wall Street Journal, who is considered neither a wacko nor a fatalist, is openly predicting the end of the USA in 2010. It's such a bizarre story. Here are the first few graphs of that piece:

MOSCOW -- For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. For most of that time, he admits, few took his argument -- that an economic and moral collapse will trigger a civil war and the eventual breakup of the U.S. -- very seriously. Now he's found an eager audience: Russian state media.

In recent weeks, he's been interviewed as much as twice a day about his predictions. "It's a record," says Prof. Panarin. "But I think the attention is going to grow even stronger."

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry's academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

But it's his bleak forecast for the U.S. that is music to the ears of the Kremlin, which in recent years has blamed Washington for everything from instability in the Middle East to the global financial crisis. Mr. Panarin's views also fit neatly with the Kremlin's narrative that Russia is returning to its rightful place on the world stage after the weakness of the 1990s, when many feared that the country would go economically and politically bankrupt and break into separate territories.

Of course this fellow has his own agenda, and no, I don't believe it. But the stakes are terribly high, aren't they? And all McConnell knows how to do is to play politics with the nation -- with the lives of the American people.

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Will Obama Ditch Rick Warren? Here's an Action Item That Might Generate Results

I have to hand it to my good friend George Demas. He doesn't play games when he believes in something. For example, he was a major supporter of Ron Paul, and while I thought the Texas representative was amusing and curious, with no hope whatsoever of becoming the Repuglican nominee or actually being elected president, George donated money and worked for the cause. He's no Repuglican, my George, but he is a man of tremendous convictions and I do respect him mightily for that.

Now George is taking action against President-Elect Obama's selection of Pastor Rick Warren for offering the invocation at the January 20 inaugural. While Warren is being portrayed in the media as a more "moderate" evangelical, the truth is that his anti-gay, anti-gay-marrage stance is just another form of ultra-right-wing hatred. I'm as shocked as anyone that Obama is aligning himself with the forces of hatred and so George is taking part in a letter-writing campaign being sent directly to the Obama team.

With George's permission, I am below reprinting the email address of the LGBT point person for the Obama team and the text of George's letter. He tells me that you can use this as a template if you like. Who will join me in this crusade?

And by the way, everyone should also read this terrific piece in the Washington Post totally lambasting Obama's choice of Warren.

I mean, this is another case in which getting up and DOING something is essential, is it not?
And thank you, George, for kindly letting me put the word out.

Here goes:

From: George Demas
Date: December 20, 2008 1:27:12 AM EST
To: parag.mehta@ptt.gov
Subject: Rick Warren

Dear Mr. Mehta:

I wish to express my deep concern as a straight, Independent voter about the participation of Rick Warren in the Inaugural ceremonies. The Obama team's stance that somehow the choice of Mr. Warren reflects a "big tent" approach is ludicrous, given that there is no way to categorize his hideous bigotry toward gays and lesbians as a rational point-of-view amongst peers. It is hate jingoism, pure and simple. Also, this is the latest in a long string of Democratic party betrayals of gays--starting with Clinton's "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. We were told "change has come" by President-elect Obama, and I find it so sad that the very first moments of Mr. Obama's Presidency will be sending a message to the world that it hasn't. And as a Christian, I find it insulting that luddites like Rick Warren are considered to have a monopoly on God, or that somehow in order to please Christians it is necessary to wheel in a megachurch bigot.

Mr. Warren has equated homosexuality with marrying your dog, and in doing so, strips the humanity from that type of love and those that practice it. One need only a quick glance at history to see the horrors caused by fractionalizing the humanity of our fellow man: three fifths of a human being in the American slave, the hierarchical humanity in the caste system in India, the non-humanity of the Jew at Auchwitz, the non-humanity of the fetus (abortion is where I agree with Mr. Warren.) The moment people start appraising just how human someone else is, murder follows close behind. Warren's "views" on gays and lesbians are truly toxic and antithetical to the American idea that, "all men are created equal." Perhaps Rick Warren could preside over the inauguration of a leader somewhere else, but given our form of government and principles on which it was founded, his presence at the Presidential Inauguration makes no sense.

Respectfully,
George Demas
New York City

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President-Elect Obama and the Arts

Courtesy of an email blast today from the nonprofit Alliance for the Arts, here is a summary of President-Elect (WOW!) Obama's position on the arts.

In response to the Candidate's Survey on National Arts Policy issued by the Alliance in February 2008, then-candidate Barack Obama's campaign indicated that he would support increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the National Endowment for the Humanities, as well as promote cultural diplomacy and reinvest in arts education. Below are excerpts from his campaign's statement.

Obama on NEA Funding
Barack Obama would look at a variety of funding mechanisms to support increased funding for the NEA, the support of which enriches schools and neighborhoods all across the nation and helps to promote the economic development of countless communities.

Obama on Cultural Exchange
American artists, performers and thinkers – representing our values and ideals – can inspire people both at home and all over the world. Through efforts like that of the United States Information Agency, America’s cultural leaders were deployed around the world during the Cold War as artistic ambassadors and helped win the war of ideas by demonstrating to the world the promise of America. Artists can be utilized again to help us win the war of ideas against Islamic extremism. Unfortunately, our resources for cultural diplomacy are at their lowest level in a decade. Barack Obama will work to reverse this trend and improve and expand public-private partnerships to expand cultural and arts exchanges throughout the world.

Obama on Arts Education
To remain competitive in the global economy, America needs to reinvigorate the kind of creativity and innovation that has made this country great. To do so, we must nourish our children’s creative skills. In addition to giving our children the science and math skills they need to compete in the new global context, we should also encourage the ability to think creatively that comes from a meaningful arts education.

To support greater arts education, Barack Obama will expand public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations and increase resources for the U.S. Department of Education’s Arts Education Model Development and Dissemination Grants, which develop public/private partnerships between schools and arts organizations. Obama will also engage the foundation and corporate community to increase support for public/private partnerships. Barack Obama supports the creation of an “Artists Corps” of young artists trained to work in low-income schools and their communities... As president, Barack Obama will use the bully pulpit and the example he will set in the White House to promote the importance of arts and arts education in America.

Obama on Foreign Arts
Opening America’s doors to students and professional artists provides the kind of two-way cultural understanding that can break down the barriers that feed hatred and fear. As America tightened visa restrictions after 9/11, the world’s most talented students and artists, who used to come here, went elsewhere. Barack Obama will streamline the visa process to return America to its rightful place as the world’s top destination for artists and art students.

To read the president-elect's official platform on arts policy, click here.

ArtsVote, a national initiative run by Americans for the Arts was developed to encourage new support for the arts and arts education during the 2008 presidential campaign. Click here to read additional policy position statements from Mr. Obama's campaign on the ArtsVote Web site.

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The Next First Family of the United States

Courtesy of Mario Ortiz for sending this to me.

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