Pennsylvania is a state that hates the arts and culture

Because this bill just got passed in the senate.  (the article is from yesterday).  ALL state money that would go to fund the arts - theater, museums, dance, modern art - everything was completely and utterly cut.  I didn't post about it, because of finals, but since I got an e-mail about it while I was taking a study break, I decided I would.

(be forewarned - angry caps outburst)

WHY DON'T PEOPLE UNDERSTAND THAT THE ARTS CREATE JOBS AND ACTUALLY EMPLOY PEOPLE!!!  STOP WITH THIS PSEUDO PURITAN ATTITUDE THAT NO ONE BELIEVES YOU ACTUALLY ADHERE TO, REPUBLICAN JACKASSES!!!!!

god, I hope the arts money gets re-instated.  if it gets cut, in this recession, the chances of me getting ANY paid work in the arts gets reduced to next to nothing.  The recession is bad enough for jobs.  sheesh.

My only problem with this...

...is that it doesn't address the creation of green jobs IN THE USA. Because of the advantage other countries have in developing green technologies, they can produce goods of higher quality for a cheaper price. So ending tarriffs is all well and good, but seriously, reduce the ability of american companies to create jobs in a recession? I may not be an economist, but that just seems ridiculous to me.

Anyways, here's the NYT op-ed that I'm referring to.

Procrastinating

Here's the result of my study break (I am actually graduating from College in May, and have my final exams this week and next) - one amazing article about a woman I may not agree with, but certainly have a HUGE amount of respect for.  Meet Helen Gurley Brown, linchpin and creator of Cosmopolitan Magazine.

Funny side-note to the more important and serious blog post below

I found this while trolling sites researching my arts post.  Its a guy who basically just posts weird twitter things.  Its funny and silly and makes Twitter (which I have a very ambivalent relationship with) worthwhile.

Posts that i like:  

I can't remember if we're still at war with pistachios or not. I have trouble managing my hysteria on the weekend.

There's really no safe way to discuss a woman's recent spray tan. Apparently.

You never really know how your cat is going to react to a new robot. You probably have a pretty good idea. Or you thought you did.

The Arts and Obama

So, as you all know, I'm a big fan of the arts.  And question #2 in my second ever post, asked about Obama's attitude towards the arts and arts policy.  So I researched a little, and here's what I found:

The official White House policy on the Arts:

Arts

Our nation's creativity has filled the world's libraries, museums, recital halls, movie houses, and marketplaces with works of genius. The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition. As the author of two best-selling books —Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope — President Obama uniquely appreciates the role and value of creative expression.

My take?  The White House is underwhelming me.

The only article I've seen that discusses the state of the arts in the US here, via the NYT. Quote #1:

Given the battle in Congress to include money for the arts in the stimulus package, cultural groups say Washington officials still fail to recognize artists as workers. “The third violinist in a chamber orchestra goes out and buys groceries just like everybody else,” said Bill Ivey, a former chairman of the Endowment.

Teresa Eyring, the executive director of the Theater Communications Group, which represents the country’s nonprofit theaters, said: “Local and regional elected officials and community leaders are seeing and talking about the connection between the arts and the overall health of their communities. The same sensibility hasn’t quite landed at the national level.”

So, at the very least there's SOMETHING going on here.  But what really scares me about Obama's attitude towards the arts is this:

The staff member charged with the arts portfolio, Kareem Dale, is relatively young (in his 30s) and potentially overextended (he is already special assistant to the president for disability policy) with little arts experience. And his position has yet to be defined. Mr. Dale is expected to serve temporarily and to be replaced by someone with full-time responsibility for the arts, said a White House official, who asked to remain anonymous because personnel issues had yet to be resolved.

Can anyone say frightening?  Obama is generally someone who goes for well-qualified people in office.  Plus, we still don't have an official director for the National Endowment for the Arts.  Which is a completely different kettle of fish, with its own problems, like the fact that the NEA's budget still doesn't measure up to the levels of funding it had in 1992, over 10 years ago.

OK, fine.  Obama is overextended.  But the arts are a great way of influencing the mind of the populace (see Shepard Fairey's HOPE poster) and to neglect an office with so much cultural power is seriously ill-informed.  Besides - if he could just appoint ONE person to oversee these issues, he wouldn't have to do much else.  Isn't that what you have assistants for?

And Last, but certainly not least, here's a GREAT post that lays out all the reasons to have a powerful arts coordinator in the US - Green discusses all the problems in the arts world that would be alleviated by a central arts policy that at the VERY least updates the NEA.

Why I love freedom of speech

Because this is BRILLIANT.  And yes, there's more if you click on the link.  These are my favorites, though.

"I swear to God, next stupid thing you say, Biden, I'm blowing this right in your ear until you go deaf."

"Thanks to my administration, these two cuddly teddy bears will no longer be waterboarded."

Via Glenn Thrush at Politico, this lovely snippet:

To them the big danger comes not from fuzzy threats by furious progressives, but the reality that they will face a well-funded challenge for the right. And all have been reticent in the past about casting votes that create enemies among their homestate banking and real estate interests or, worse still, energize a national, business-backed fundraising effort to kick them out.

Thus the paradox. As Democrats approach the magic number of 60, each member of their caucus becomes more valuable, more powerful and more apt to buck leadership in the name of self-interest -- and the preservation of the Supermajority.

Another reason why Specter's switch isn't quite as good as people were making it out to be.

Brad DeLong, an economist at the University of California Berkeley, says:

All I can say to Senator Specter is: spend the next year working as hard to court the Democratic base as you have worked to court the Republican wingnut base over the past decade, or I am maxing out for every single challenger you face in the Democratic primary.

Just saying...

I had never realized how much people actually disliked Specter - although I guess he was often overshadowed by larger problems, including Pennsylvania's former senator (Santorum) who was a jackass.  All this is making me wish that Biden could have bit his tongue, allowed some nice Democratic challenger to come along and oust Specter once and for all and courted Olympia Snowe instead.  At least she's not part and parcel of the white men's club, and her re-election is a ways away.