Harry Reid Draws A Line In The Sand: Defies GOP To Cut Funding For ‘Cowboy Poets’

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by Mark Joyella | 1:46 pm, March 8th, 2011

» 39 comments

What, you want to make sure we save some money amid all the budget cutting to take care of kids in poverty? Yeah, sure, right after Harry Reid makes sure nobody messes with federal funding for the annual “cowboy poetry festival” in his home state of Nevada. Yes. According to Politico, Reid delivered a “tirade” Tuesday against “mean-spirited” Republican efforts to cut the budget, and remarked the GOP’s ideas of cuts would eliminate funding for his beloved cowboy poets. And that, my friends, is a dealbreaker.

The festival, known officially as the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, is described on its website as “a week-long celebration of life in the rural West, featuring the contemporary and traditional arts of western ranching culture,” and apparently draws thousands to Nevada every year. Reid says GOP cuts would pull the plug:

“The mean-spirited bill, H.R. 1 … eliminates the National Endowment of the Humanities, National Endowment of the Arts,” said Reid. “These programs create jobs. The National Endowment of the Humanities is the reason we have in northern Nevada every January a cowboy poetry festival. Had that program not been around, the tens of thousands of people who come there every year would not exist.”

Just to be a Devil’s advocate here, but wouldn’t the sudden death of the Cowboy Poetry Gathering create the kind of misery that inspires great poetry?

Watch it here, from CSPAN:

cowboy poetry festival, Harry Reid, Politico

Semper_Map

W.T.F.?
writer

When they outlaw poets, only outlaws will have poets.
ImNotBlue

And Writer wins the “Comment Of The Day” contest!
perceptorii

“First they came for the cowboy poets,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a cowboy poet…”
Black and Gold Brad

How dare we not fund outlaw poets?!? What next – outlawing legal prostitution in certain counties of Nevada?!?

In completely unrelated news, USA Fed. budget deficit for just February 2011 larger than entire Federal deficit from 2007.
writer

In many Westerns, the cowboys would gather around the campfire and recite poetry. And no, one of them wasn’t ‘There was an old hermit named Dave’.
TeaPartyPatriot

Every time one of the lunatic-left nut-job commentators/reporters/politicians open their mouth I get a thrill up my leg. Their insane remarks discredit and disgrace the entire lunatic-left d-crat socialist extremist ideology better than anyone else or anything else can possible do.

Is there any truth to the rumor that the lunatic-left is hiring charlie sheen to be one of their OFFICIAL SPOKESMEN to assist their main nut-job spokesman, chavez-loving sean penn?
rover37

whats next? are Senators going to be wasting our time complaining N@MBLA’s funds got cut
Yargburger

Why do we need to fund the arts anymore? If the kids like the computer they should just learn that. If the arts die, then less to worry about. Who needs music, painting, poetry, being available to everybody in the country. Who likes going to bluegrass festivals and folk festivals. Those cultures are no longer important in today’s society.
BatBoy

Harry, how about if you charged an admission fee to the people coming to the event.

Then the government would not have to fund it.

I know…that is a far out comment…but hey, if you like cowboy poetry….pay for it.

Think about it Harry, it would mean a little less money the participants would have to spend at the “Mustang Ranch” & other houses you so dispise! We all would win!
Layercake

BROKEBACK MOUNTIAN?
Scott_in_MI

The Dems are a joke. They whine about thee cuts, yet cutting $61 Billion from a $3.6 TRILLION budget is such a small amount. Who couldn’t afford to trim 1.7% from their yearly budget?
writer

Nothing against the arts. Just never considered cowboys doing poetry. Pilgrim.
Call_Me_Ishmael

Yargburger said:
Why do we need to fund the arts anymore? If the kids like the computer they should just learn that. If the arts die, then less to worry about. Who needs music, painting, poetry, being available to everybody in the country. Who likes going to bluegrass festivals and folk festivals. Those cultures are no longer important in today’s society.

In any event, such “artistic” activities like the cowboy “poets” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) are all part of the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.
BadGenome

“Don’tcha take away my fundin’, pard, ar Ah’ll strangle mahself!”
writer

Hangin’s too good fer ‘em. Bring out that poetry book.
Big Eddie

Yes , we should pay for the poetry festival . Otherwise they could never get tourists to visit Nevada .
BadGenome

Big Eddie said:
Yes , we should pay for the poetry festival . Otherwise they could never get tourists to visit Nevada .

If Reid is so concerned about tourism, why does he want to outlaw the only cool thing Nevada has going in legalized prostitution? Hey, think maybe if we made it publicly funded legalized prostitution he’d be cool with it then?
writer

Or have the prostitutes read poetry to their customers.
The Lantern of Truth

Harry wants to close the cathouses and keep the poets .

Lucky Ben Cartwright is not around to see this .
writer

We don’t take kindly…..to dudes who lead blindly.
The Lantern of Truth

Call_Me_Ishmael said:
In any event, such “artistic” activities like the cowboy “poets” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) are all part of the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Hey Robert . What do TRRK , Garth and Glenn Bovine think ?
writer

What do TRRK , Garth and Glenn Bovine think ?

They’re all gone at the same time. What are the odds?
BatBoy

BadGenome said:
If Reid is so concerned about tourism

If Harry wants to increase visitors to Nevada, he needs only to walk over to see that man in the White House, you know the “light-skinned” that does not use a “Negro dialect, and tell him to S.T.F.U.

Before you letys go bazerk, what I said is OK, to quote BHO – “I accepted Harry’s apology without question because I’ve known him for years,”
The Lantern of Truth

writer said:
They’re all gone at the same time. What are the odds?

Gone like the prarie winds
Sweeping o’er the sands
Searchin’ for a waterhole
To wash their grubby hands .

Hey Harry ! Where do I sign up ?
Religion of Peace

writer said:
What do TRRK , Garth and Glenn Bovine think ?

They’re all gone at the same time. What are the odds?

One is Mark Schultz and the other 2 are Robert Stephenson.
AninTx

Yargburger said:
Why do we need to fund the arts anymore? If the kids like the computer they should just learn that. If the arts die, then less to worry about. Who needs music, painting, poetry, being available to everybody in the country. Who likes going to bluegrass festivals and folk festivals. Those cultures are no longer important in today’s society.

Yes, and the arts didn’t even exist before tax payers began subsidizing it. There was no music, painting of any quality, acting, etc.

Let us all remember that if it wasn’t for govt funded art programs, we would never have had fine works of art like a jar full of piss with a crucifix.

http://www.whalecrow.co.uk/whalec/2008/01/28/serrano-piss-christ/
RichS

Yargburger said:
Why do we need to fund the arts anymore? If the kids like the computer they should just learn that. If the arts die, then less to worry about. Who needs music, painting, poetry, being available to everybody in the country. Who likes going to bluegrass festivals and folk festivals. Those cultures are no longer important in today’s society.

Did you know that you can fund things with private funds! What a concept! Instead of sucking at the government teat the artists find patrons. Vincent Van Gogh didn’t get any government funding. But the guy who put a crucifix in a jar of piss did get government funding. Hmmm, which one do you think had more artistic ability and which had more government connections.
RichS

Religion of Peace said:
One is Mark Schultz and the other 2 are Robert Stephenson.

Who is Robert Stephenson?
Oregon Conservative

Well not all Senators are worthless as dinghy Harry. Sens. DeMint, Coburn, and Paul have introduced a National Right to Work Act. This law would not add one cent to the debt, in fact would take out parts of the NLRA that permit the firing of employees who wish to NOT pay dues to a union. Currently 22 states have this common sense law, they also tend to enjoy lower unemployment rates in their private sector workforces.

This law is long, long overdue. Thank you DeMint, Coburn and Paul. True Patriots all.
AninTx

Here’s another example of your tax dollars at work:

On March 6, 1997, Congressman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), Chairman of the Education and Workforce Subcommittee that has oversight over the NEA, complained about books published by an NEA-funded press called “Fiction Collective 2,” which he described as an “offense to the senses.” Hoekstra cited four Fiction Collective 2 books and noted that the publisher’s parent organization had received an additional $45,000 grant to establish a World Wide Web site. According to The Washington Times, the NEA granted $25,000 to Fiction Collective 2, which featured works containing sexual torture, incest, child sex, sadomasochism, and child sex; the “excerpts depict a scene in which a brother-sister team rape their younger sister, the torture of a Mexican male prostitute and oral sex between two women.”
RichS

AninTx said:
Yes, and the arts didn’t even exist before tax payers began subsidizing it. There was no music, painting of any quality, acting, etc. Let us all remember that if it wasn’t for govt funded art programs, we would never have had fine works of art like a jar full of piss with a crucifix. http://www.whalecrow.co.uk/whalec/2008/01/28/serrano-piss-christ/

Which government entity funded the paleolithic cave drawings in France?
BadGenome

RichS said:
Which government entity funded the paleolithic cave drawings in France?

THE FRANCE GOVERMENT DUH! U STUPID TEABAGGER!
josecuervoisgood

You know – the guy in the picture looks like Phil Donohue.
The Donger

And you wonder why Sarah Palin is more popular than this clown.

http://www.quinnipiac.edu/x1295.xml?ReleaseID=1564
Chuck from Tacoma

I am going to really miss cowboy poetry. Really will. I heard a cowboy poet in the 1960′s
grooving to cowboy poetry. It was far out man. Being a student of Dr Timothy Leary made
it totally psychedelic.
It will be sad to miss the Nevada Cowboy Poet Love-in, but what the heck, do we really need to borrow money from China to fund it?
notsofast

POS like Reid are why the country is bankrupt.
ProObamaAgenda

now the wingnut republicans in the senate dont want to vote on the CR passed in the house…..harry reid says OH YES YOU WILL…..see the senate republicans dont want to even vote on the looney ass bill they advocated for….Reid says youre gonna have to put up or shut up and the vote WILL BE HAD….joe manchin the republican dressed in democrats clothing is having a shit fit and blaming Obama…..he knows he has to do a ben nelson and vote with the republicans and hes avoiding it like the plague….i suppose he’ll have a family emergency just so he can miss the vote…..HEY REPUBLICANS MEDIAITE WONT TALK ABOUT WISCONSIN TODAY…..SO I’LL TELL YOU WINGNUTS……ITS ALL BUT OVER….THE DEMOCRATS HAVE BROKEN SCOTT WALKER DOWN LIKE A SHOTGUN AND ARE ABOUT TO STICK IT IN HIM…..COLLECTIVE BARGINING RIGHTS WILL BE RETAINED…..NOW GO SIT IN THE CORNER AND CRY…….AND NEVER EVER TRY THIS BULLSHIT AGAIN DUMBASSES
X-3

Dingy Harry Reid, promoting taxpayer dollars to fund the Cowboy Poetry Festival (and other of our elected servants promoting funding for programs equally as stupid), at a time when our economy is in the tank (though most people are either in denial of the fact or too ignorant to figure it out) is the epitome of a comedic tragedy.

I’m normally not a violent man but when I hear such tripe as this, it makes me want to beat the crap out of the persons who make such astoundingly stupid utterances. I would love to pound some sense into his skull.

Now, as for the rest of you folk, if you have not already written a strongly worded letter of vehement protest to your elected servants DEMANDING an end to such stupidity, then you are no more than a part of the problem. Your silence implies consent.