What’s So Sinister About a Presidential Back-to-School Speech?
America is a free country, my father told me in the ‘50s. In Russia, my grandparents’ homeland, people were arrested for speaking against the government. In America, anyone could stand on a street corner and shout, “Down with the president.”
We happened to live on a corner. So I stood out by the street sign and the fire hydrant and yelled, “Down with President Eisenhower!”
It was the suburbs. No pedestrians. I tried again when a car went by. “Down with President Eisenhower. Down with the government!” No reaction.
I yelled louder for the next car: “Up with Khruschev! Communism is good! America is bad!” Nothing.
President Obama’s Sept. 8 start-of-school speech to students will be shown in schools, the White House hopes. (The speech will be broadcast on www.WhiteHouse.gov and C-SPAN.) The president “will challenge students to work hard, set education goals, and take responsibility for their learning,” says the Education Department.
Ho hum, I’d say.
But others hear the tramp, tramp, tramp of Obama Youth marching for universal health care, higher taxes, gun control, and unflushed toilets. Hark! Listen as they chant the praises of the Dear Leader and yell down those who’d criticize our Leader’s policies.
This won’t be just a “Hey-Kids-Howya-Doin-I’m-Your-New-President-So-Be-Good-In-School-This-Year-Mmmkay? speech,” writes Stephen Green (Vodkapundit), urging parents to keep their kids home from school to avoid indoctrination.
I think it will be a “be-good-in-school” speech. If it echoes his terrific speech to the NAACP in July, black students may be inspired by a black president to try a little harder and aim a little higher. I sure hope so. But many schools won’t take time out for it, especially on a chaotic first day of school. In others, kids will shrug and go back to texting their friends about Tiffany’s new eyebrow stud and who’s the new kid in the back row and …
Why the furor?
“What’s So Sinister About a Presidential Back-to-School Speech?”
Nothing.
The people-haters live in a perennial paranoia.
An enterprising President with lofty goals will teach a Civics lesson to kids.
If Bush wasn’t so lazy and preoccupied with his toy soldiers, he could have done the same.
The future is in our kids. They need all the education they can get.
This event is not about the speech itself, just as a hard-core porn movie is not “about” whatever plot it’s hung on. Of course the speech will be some harmless palaver that kids are accustomed to tuning out. The well-publicized Obama-centric activities, pledges, letters, goals, etc. based on the speech are what it’s about. The hapless DOE published a lesson plan on “helping Obama.” That they changed it to “helping the country” only shows that they realize their propagandizing was a little too obvious — but the leftists who dominate our public education system will still come through like troopers.
I was agnostic on this issue, but I am glad to read that Obama has walked back some of his “suggestions.”
Your article was not unreasonable until you had to – you just HAD to – go into Bush-bashing mode, “The president can’t mobilize the 20-somethings any more, now that President Chimpy Bushhitler is out of office.”
You discredited your entire argument with that line and revealed yourself to be a hypocrite. By referring to President Bush in that idiotic fashion you betray a simple truth: if President Bush had, in the middle of a political controversy, declared he was going to have a speech to “every student” filtered into the public schools, you’d have been out there screaming your head off about how “Imperialist ChimpyBushhitler is out to grab the kids and create a BushYouth.”
You’re just sad, that’s all. A sad perpetual adolescent.
The one argument for sending the kids to school that I’ve heard and agreed with is that if you don’t, the child goes back the next day and listens to the other kids talk about how cool it was to hear President Obama “talk to them”, and the kid ends up more angry at his parents for keeping him home rather than wary of what Obama had to say.
This could even lead to and attitude of “My parents are just afraid of him”, and as the kid grows, he could start parroting stuff Obama says just to make his parents angry, and then later believing them himself.
My daughter came home from her sixth grade class one day talking about how mean and evil President Bush was. I had never talked politics with her, as I felt she was too young. I did ask her, though, what she had heard about him that so convinced her that Bush was such a bad man, and her only answer was that her teacher had said so.
So then I asked her what her teacher had said about President Bush. Nothing else, she said. I then had a talk with her about believing what you hear and discernment.
She is now in eighth grade and has taken my words to heart. When Obama’s campaign heated up, she could understand without my having to tell her that he couldn’t be trusted. I actually asked her why she thought that, and she told me “All he does is talk nice.”
Pretty astute of her, I’d say.
“black students may be inspired by a black president to try a little harder and aim a little higher. I sure hope so. ”
Racist much? Assuming it is valid for Obama to make this speech to kids, why is it that only black kids will be inspired? Why not all kids, if anyone is to inspired?
People are individuals and ought to forget group and race.
“The president can’t mobilize the 20-somethings any more, now that President Chimpy Bushhitler is out of office.”
Interesting article up to that point. What are you, PJM’s token moonbat?
Dear Ms. Jacobs:
Your little slur re Pres. Bush allows me, with an accuracy of 94% +/- 3, to peg your IQ somewhere around your belt size. I congratulate your daughter on having survived your mothering. Next time you feel the urge to shout at passing cars, I suggest standing in the middle of the intersection where you’ll be more easily noticed. This will give the motorists a better aiming point.
It seems to boil down to a matter of trust.
Joanne Jacobs can look at the people Obama surrounds himself with – the likes of Ayers, Wright, ACORN, et al, the creepy Obama campaign commercials, the cult worship videos on YouTube, the messianic iconography, and the disconnect between what he promises and what he does and still trust the man.
Others, like myself, look at that same evidence and simply do not trust the man enough to give him the benefit of the doubt to think that this appearance is actually for the benefit of the children. This appearance is for the benefit of Obama.
Perhaps ‘The Emperor’s New Suit’ Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale would make for an appropriate alternative lesson – or perhaps something about lemmings or anything else that introduces the concept of groupthink and why it is not a good thing.
Assuming this is not satire…
…this is tragic naivete.
How about the drip, drip, drip – like Chinese Water Torture – of the teachers’ prattling…
…not just on the day of the speech, but of all the days to follow, with quotes from Dear Leader tacked up on the wall for reference (…or, would reverence be more fitting?!)
As a teacher wrote elsewhere:
“What I find unsettling in both plans is the creation of visuals that are to be place up on the walls or displayed in other ways in the classrooms.”
“In the younger grades that would reinforce such notions as the president Obama knows what needs to be done and that they should listen to their president and government leaders.”
“In the upper grades, this creates a politically biased classroom that is negative towards students that hold conservative views or do not agree with socialism, even if their class or their teacher has nothing to do with what is on the wall.”
“This speech and lesson plan also has an unintended consequence, though one Obama will enjoy. Liberal teachers will now have a license to express their opinions and support of Obama, liberalism and socialist policies in their classroom through the extended lessons and visuals that otherwise might not be approved of by their administrator.”
Dangerously trusting, Ms. Jacobs. Dangerously foolish.
YEAH!!!
First of all, I have to ask… on what planet is the day after Labor Day still the first day of school? My kids have been back for two weeks, and other people I know of have had their kids back since mid-August.
Second of all… you are absolutley RIGHT. While this is a tad “dear leader-ish” if you kids are able to be “indoctrinated” in one speech, then you aren’t doing your job as a parent. My father-in-law worked for Lockheed, and he watched the news with his family, and talked politics with the kids. Back during the Vietnam War a hippy-dippy teacher gave my (future) wife’s second grade class a talk about “doves” and “hawks”. Then hippy dippy teacher asked all the kids “Are you a Dove, or a Hawk?”. Well all the kids were “Doves”, EXCEPT for my (future) wife who proudly stood up and said “I’M A HAWK”.
So my daughter will be going to first grade in a specially purchased DONT TREAD ON ME T-Shirt. She (unlike a lot of talk radio hosts) is smart enough to know that if something is true and good, it remains true and good if President Obama says it, and if it is false or evil it remains false or evil if President Obama says it. The truth of the statment is not impacted by the person speaking it. So if President Obama asks her to do something good, like study hard, she will say Yes. If President Obama asks her to do something silly, like fight global warming, she will say “that’s silly!”. Either way the two of us are going out for ice cream that afternoon to talk all about it.
He’ll plant the same slogan with the kids he’s using for his 9/11 campaign to have his supporters call Senators to get those Senators back in line. If you haven’t read that,
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/
it’s at the above link, but you have to scroll down past the honor killings information, the revised lesson plan where the teachers will collect the goals children write up when Obama speaks to schools and hold the kids accountable for those goals, past the Czar calling all school children A**holes, and you finally get to what his supporters are supposed to use as their catch phrase. Ten to one he uses the same catch phrase when talking to the children.
I’m sorry I don’t have a link that is more direct. Obama is the typical Marxist who relys on a slogan for each “action plan”, and no matter what they say about talking to children, it’s part of that “action plan”, not part of some lesson plan. Taking up the cards kids are told to write and coached to write during his speech and then at a later time passing them out and holding the kids accountable for the commitment on them is not a lesson plan in the same way as simple discussion is. Watch for there to be something coming out later in the month or the next month telling teachers that it’s time for those 3×5 cards to be pulled out and get the kids to keep those commitments.
Regards
Ed Wallis: thank you for the best comment.
Ms Jacobs is a Lefist wing crackpot as evidenced by her loony “President Cimpy Bushitler” remark. BTW, I’m not a Bush fan.
Those who commented in previous posts about how “reasonable” Ms Jacobs article is are just plain foolish or Obamaites themselves.
Consider this from the DOE:
“•Why is it important that we listen to the President and other elected officials, like the mayor, senators, members of congress, or the governor? Why is what they say important?
•What is the President trying to tell me?
•What is the President asking me to do?
•What new ideas and actions is the President challenging me to think about?”
Why would any parent want their child to listen to some corrupt nitwit politician?
Why would any want their child to get any new ideas from our Marxist black supremacist in the White House?
This man does not belong in our children’s classrooms. His ideas are as worthless as his corrupt values.
Even without the overt call to support the Lefty Agenda, the Obama administration is all about the Cult of the Personality. It is all Obama all the time. In his miraculous “I am here to heal the Middle East” speech to the Muslim world, he did not offer new policies or actions. He offered himself. He is the Healing. At His recent conference with religious leaders he announced that he is a partner with God in matters of life and death, which is actually an improvement in that he promoted God to His equal…at least for that subject.
If students can’t say God in school, then they shouldn’t be forced to watch the Church of Obama, or have the Gospel of Left preached at them all day.
All parents should keep their kids home on the day of the speech.
IF I had an relative I suspected of being a child molester I would not let my kids near him or her if I was not with them.
Obama is trying to subvert my country. I don’t trust him to talk to my kids if I am not present.
Who will be delivering the Republican response? If there is to be no Republican response, why not? Suppose a different President wanted to address school children on the evil of abortion, (‘The Womb: Critical Habitat’, ‘The Womb: Pristine Environment’), would the schools, and the dinosaur media comply? Will, would President Obama scold certain of his fellow Americans for gang violence, drug use and single mom-hood, noting that avoiding pregnancy and staying in school is a premier way to avoid poverty? “He that would be the master of all, let him become the servant of all.” ‘IHS’
Technically, there’s nothing wrong with him talking to kids. It’s just that we don’t trust him. We know what he’s about, where he came from (Chicago and that ilk), what he would really like for America. When you really look at and add all of his radical ties and radical views together, that’s what is disturbing. Whatever he says and does has to be dissected for its true meaning. Although this one speech will just be a ‘feel good’ speech, we have to wonder if it is really just a feel good speech for the long term.
I’m thoroughly flabbergasted at the number of people commenting here who could not recognize the irony inherent in the “President Chimpy Bushhitler”. Perhaps they were simply reading too fast and not very carefully.
I think the real culprit, however, may be simply the number of thoroughly idiotic, downright lunatic statements, made in complete seriousness, by so many, especially those holding upper level degrees in unserious disciplines.
I would direct those obliviots who have commented as such to Ms. Jacob’s Blog.
I agree that this article is naive, but it looks like a sincere attempt to bring balance to the discussion.
I think the comment about Bush has been misunderstood. Look at it again in context:
“Americans distrust politicians, including Barack Obama. Parents won’t let their kids join the Obama Youth. Which, by the way, doesn’t exist. The president can’t mobilize the 20-somethings any more, now that “President Chimpy Bushhitler” is out of office.”
I think Ms. Jacobs is trying to say here that the threat of indoctrination is being overblown. Her argument seems to be that we have too much distrust of politicians to allow them to indoctrinate our children, that there is no Obama Youth movement, and that the 20-somethings who might have made up such a movement were mostly interested in being anti-Bush.
I don’t agree with this argument, but I don’t think Ms. Jacobs was trying to make an anti-Bush statement. (Perhaps she will weigh in.)
While this editorial is weak, Ms. Jacobs’s book, Our School, is terrific. For those who are interested in the charter school movement, back-to-basics education, and how dedicated teachers and administrators can change the lives of kids for the better, I recommend the book.
On the topic of the Obama speech to kids, I think it’s a poor idea. I agree with Josh that it will fuel unnecessary divisions among kids, and I agree with the teacher Ed Wallis quotes that there will be lots of negative unintended consequences.
I have written to the principal of our local school to ask whether we will be participating in this, and if so, whether I may attend. I want to see for myself how it is handled. And I don’t even have kids! But I see this as a significant issue. While they are now rewording the teacher’s guides so that they don’t actually say “how can you help the President,” that sensibility runs all through the guidelines, and there is ample evidence that it reflects the sensibility of the current administration. So it is not logical to believe that the speech will simply say “stay in school and work hard.”
Brendan…
Here in the Commonwealth of Virginia, home to major tourist attraction theme parks such as Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Kings Dominion… we have the “Kings Dominion Law” whereby with the exception of a couple of county school systems who for some byzantine reason don’t have to comply, our public school children do not go back to class until the day after the Labor Day weekend.
Now, that doesn’t stop private schools from going a week or so early. But if you attend public schools in Virginia, please don’t show up until after you have spend a few hundred bucks riding roller coasters and eating mediocre food that is definitely not on the PC side of the menu.
Of course the penalty is that Virginia’s students don’t manage to extract themselves from school until the third week in June. So taking advantage of those lower rental prices at Virginia Beach or the Outer Banks is a tad difficult (but then the Virginia tourism board would rather you stay here instead of lounge on the beach in Duck.
The Mighty Fahvaag
Conservatives these days are like those not-quite friends who seem to be around a lot, but can never be relied on for anything constructive — you know, they are always tied up or recovering from an injury/ailment when moving help is needed; or are always wearing nice clothes that can’t be dirtied when a car needs a push; or never ever have any tools when they ask you to come over to give them a hand assembling something; or are always getting their computers infected; or tend to drink a little too much and talk a little too loudly about things you know they have little real knowledge in; and in general are the people on the sidelines of life whining and complaining.
Well, as suggested, they could read his autobiography and take some lessons from that:
http://hopenchangecartoons.blogspot.com/2009/09/turn-to-page-87.html
Remarkable.
It never ceases to amaze me how willfully naive and obtuse the ditzes in education can be.
If Obama wants to exhort children to work harder in school, he can do commercials and have them air on MTV or somesuch as a public service.
But that is not the intent. The intent is to give Obama supporters and/or activists within the classroom an excuse to wax cultish on Dear Leader in the guise of a ‘discussion’ — as evidenced by the unit prep ‘suggestions’, which are as clear a tell of the intent as anything. In particular, the high school kids, not the younger kids, are the target because it is they who will become eligible to vote in 2012 (or 2010). Lest ye forget, while Obama won the adult vote 50% versus 49% in 2008, those numbers are now strongly reversed, probably permanently. However, he won the election handily because he garnered by huge margins the votes of the text-messaging idiots in the 18-29 demographic (which he’s beginning to lose, as well). He badly needs to shore up this demographic in any way he can.
Also, this is only Speech #1. IF it’s successful and widely broadcast, there will be others, and you can bet your bottom dollar they will be political some way, some how. Dear Leader (and his minions) simply can’t help himself.
And finally, Obama is on record supporting federally mandated mandatory volunteerism, and a domestic security force as large as the military (to keep us safe from other citizens, apparently). Is it really possible for the Community Organizer in Chief NOT to encourage volunteering for ACORN-type organizations?
Certainly Joanne Jacobs would play Obama’s speech, then use it to demonstrate how wonderful the president is, how much we should respect the President (when he’s a Democrat), and by extension how wonderful (sounding) his liberal policies are, which oh by the way happen to coincide with the desires of the teacher’s union in particular and liberal female Democrat educators in general.
Creepy. And I don’t just mean Obama ….
My guess is that the White House/Axlerod know what a sensitive issue this is, and want to throw off the attention to Obamunizm and health care.
Watch what they release at the last minute before closing up shop Friday night.
I have to wonder why this has to be done live?
And isn’t it great that all the major problems are solved that the President has time to educate our nations children.
The quotation marks around the Bush reference clearly indicate that it is intended to refer to what those 20 somethings who were mobilized by Obama and the left called President Bush, not to express the opinion of the author. I think that’s extremely clear and wonder about those who seem to think Jacobs is anything other than an honest commentor in this instance.
Perhaps there are those who have decided to catch more flies with sugar, as they say?
Regards
Joanne Jacobs …you are very naive.
this is playing politics in a most cynical manner. Children are very vunerable to this type of indoctrination. It is the most vulgar thing I can imagine a president to do.
My son is in 5th Grade, and is already aware of the failings of the mighty “o”. He will sit through the bs, he will come home, and we will discuss the speech. If you haven’t already been teaching your kids the truth, and are afraid this speech will pull them to the Dark Side, then you have already failed. If Pres. Bush had tried this , you can be sure all the jharps, vivos and other trolls would be screaming loud and long- typical liberal hypocrisy. And no, I dont think the author was Bush-bashing- didn’t you see the quotes around the chimp statement?
Rashputin (and others)
Allison, PJM editor here. Previously the expression was not in quotation marks – but it was clear to me that Jacobs was being tongue-in-cheek when she used the expression describing the former president. I added the quotation marks when it became apparent to me that some commenters didn’t get this and thought that this was the way SHE actually viewed President Bush. She was referring to the way the 20-somethings active in Obama’s campaign viewed him.
OBI-WANDREAS:
‘flabbergasted ….irony intent….’? I think not. Her brief, sad biography places her along with Cindy Sheehan within the convinced, far left, whacked out coterie. I would hope that the next time she gets the urge to shout out, she choose an interstate highway, preferably one out west where 70 mmph is standard. She’ll make more of an impact there.
First, what is creepy is that this has NEVER been done before. Why is Obama doing this? As others have noted, if it is just about “staying in school, working harder, and the value of education”, that message could have been done via commercials.
Commanding a good portion of a school day for the pre-discussion, getting the kids to the gym for the speech, post-speech talks about
“Why does President Obamaa want to speak with us today” and
“How will HE inspire us”
What is President Obama inspiring you to do”
that will be led by some teacher, whose political leanings I don’t know. How will this teacher add to the indoctrination?
Yes, Obama is the President, but he is also a politician, and this is an overt POLITICAL move into the government monopoly schools by him. It is creepy.
My solution is that my wife and I will allow our kids go to the speech, but we will take the time off of work to ask to be in the classroom during the post-speech teacher led discussion and work. If the school refuses, then we will not allow them to go to the speech, possibly keeping them out of school that day.
If you belong to the Obama Cult, this idea sounds fine.
If you do not, the alarm bells go off.
This piece just must be ironical. Nobody could be this simple-minded. Congratulations on fooling some of the people some of the time, Joanne.
P.S. Confession. I have fallen for articles like this in the past.
September 8, 2009: National Keep Your Child at Home Day
By AmericanElephant on September 1, 2009
http://americanelephant.com/blog/commentary/september-8-2009-national-keep-your-child-at-hom
The man is a politician and merits skepticism. I’ll say the same about all of them. If you haven’t taught your kids to be skeptical of all authority figures, you haven’t done your job.
I wrote skeptical, and I expect to be attacked for my comment, so let me elaborate. I did not write cynical, or reflexively opposed. Everything has a cost. You need to weigh all the costs and all the benefits to know whether some proposal is worthwhile or not. No advocate, authority figure or not, is ever going to give you the arguments against his position.
If your not asking questions and making up your own mind, you are a subject, not a citizen.
I haven’t heard the speech, so I reserve judgement. If it’s a plea for kids to make the most of their education, it’s a good thing. If it’s advocacy for political proposals, it’s wrong.
Can you imagine Pres. Hussein’s shock at all the outrage and opposition to this idea? Can you just hear the consternation from his advisors as they sit arount the table with him, discussing this issue? It says right here in the Kiddie Commie Kraftwerks manual that this is supposed to work because Americans are supposed to trust their leaders (preferably without question)!
Hussein is SO out of touch with America that he honestly does not understand our concern. He expects all of us to blindly march in lockstep with him, like vivo and BC do. I’ll bet if you were to ask him, he would tell you he thinks this whole thing has been stirred up by a few fringe kooks! No way at all this could possibly be the prevailing belief of the majority of parents in the America he knows and loathes!
I could almost feel sorry for the little commie!
Naturally, my son will not be subject to this propaganda.
It’s surprising that such an article would be here on PJM.
The thought of a politician speaking to children on school time, without parents consent or permission, that doesn’t sound alarm bells?
And the thought of THIS particular president doing so doesn’t sound alarm bells?
Again, very odd to see such an article here.
“Why the furor?”
Furor, No, I think you meant Führer.America is a free country, my father told me in the ‘50s. In Russia, my grandparents’ homeland, people were arrested for speaking against the government. In America, anyone could stand on a street corner and shout, “Down with the president.”
Unless they were black. Then they’d be lynched. But moving along about how great our country was for white people in the fifties…
It’s not so much that the President is speaking to school children (I mean, boring, right?) . . . it’s the helpful White House curricula that will accompany this speech that troubles me. That’s where I come down. Obey your elected officials and listen to them? “What does the President want to do and how can you help him do it”? Geez.
What amazes me is how entirely tone-deaf this administration is. How many times now have they put something out there, found the American people rather shocked, and then pulled it back. (I understand the curricula no longer suggests the students talk about how they can help the President, but has been changed to focus more on their own classroom and communities.) The White House (and the chief exec) is constantly speaking without thinking. Or perhaps it’s speaking without properly calibrating. Whatever the case, we get to peek behind the curtain briefly before it gets pulled back in front of the wizard again.
And it must be said that this probably wouldn’t have caused a blink if it was February, but after 8 months of this administration, the distrust has grown so great that even something that might be rather benign is causing stress.
I’m just glad that the health insurance reform stuff didn’t come first on his list, or it would have passed easily. But the stimulus mess woke people up, and after that it was going to be a battle for everything else. They had to know that.
I, too, was initially taken aback by this initiative. Like others, I believe the issue is not the content of the presentation – the President, I truly believe, actually intends to encourage students to ‘be all they can be.’ Like others, here, my consternation is with the ‘recommended’ discussions post-presentation.
The solution is to have some/all/concerned parents there to witness and validate the activities and use of the speech. If it is to inspire education and success, let’s emphasize it; if it is to show the infallibility of “O” then it needs to be nipped in the bud.
Methinks the parents presence would prevent even the most libtard of pedagogues from exposing their bias….
The thought of a politician speaking to children on school time, without parents consent or permission, that doesn’t sound alarm bells?
Some liberal friends keep whining “What’s the big deal? How many presidential speeches did we have to sit through in school when we were kids?” And I can’t think of a single one. Granted, I haven’t been in school since Reagan was Prez, but . . . I don’t ever remember a President doing something like this. My education (a public one) was politics-free. That’s how it should be. (Except I remember making campaign posters for Gerry Ford when I was in fourth grade art class. But that was to counter the Carter-lovin’ kids.)
RETREAT!! If nothing was wrong with Obama wanting to indoctrinate our kids, why is he now rewording the “worksheet” that the teachers will use after viewing Dear Leader’s video?
Even Obama knows he stepped over the line. The downward spiral continues…..
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/white-house-withdraws-students-help-obama/
Re Moho: You’ve gotten your racist weapon out already on this thread? You’re getting quicker on the draw! I’ll save you the trouble. Calling Obama “Dear Leader” means I’m a racist. (yawn)
@ vivo – “‘What’s So Sinister About a Presidential Back-to-School Speech?’
Nothing.”
Well, in and of itself, nothing. Many are concerned, based on public statements of the President’s over the last few years, that he has expressed desire to organize/mobilize America’s youth in “community service.”
what’s wrong with “community service?” Well, again, nothing in particular, but it depends on how one defines “community service.” Obama seems to have defined it in the past as a particular flavor of activism that many Americans find objectionable.
As such, they feel that any address from Obama to America’s youth could reasonably be expected to include encouragement to be “good citizens” – again, nothing particularly objectionable in that, except that for many Americans, being “good citizens” means fighting Obama’s brand of “good citizenship” tooth and nail.
There is also a wide perception that the Democratic party as a whole has taken to following a policy of “our ends justify our means” – and feel that it is reasonable to expect that he would use the opportunity to “go over the heads” of teapartying parents and try to encourage their children to behave in a way they find ethically, if not morally, objectionable.
We’ll see…there’s no sense pretending we know exactly what he’s going to say. All we can do is make guesses based on past behavior. Something tells me, however, that once the address airs, those with grave concerns will find themselves vindicated and those who tried to defend Obama before the fact will find themselves trying to downplay or excuse parts of his message.
Simple solution to the controversy. Post a transcript of the speech on the internet this weekend for parents to review to alieviate their fears of any nefarious motives on Obama’s part to indoctrinate their children. Then they can make an informed decision wether or not to keep their children at home. Remember that speech Gore gave to students in Washington? That fat commie idiot told them that their parents that didn’t believe his greenhouse gas scam were the same as people that opposed civil rights in the sixties.
MOHO:
It’s a shame they missed you. Perhaps you can rectify that by joining Joanne on the interstate, one finger up your nose, as usual, hurling witty bon mots at the passing semis. Who knows, one may get lucky.
My education (a public one) was politics-free.
You’re a complete fool if you actually believe that. Every society indoctrinates its youth during primary school. Are you saying that your public school encouraged you to question history, the political and economic order of the country, gender, sexuality, race issues? You people aren’t qualified to comment on anything more complex than comic books.
If Sir Teleprompter wishes to motivate elementary school children, he needn’t go any further than 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue’s backyard.. the D.C. schools.
Their (D.C.) atrocious test scores this past school year, not to mention the lowly numbers of those attending college this coming Fall speak volumes of the parents and school’s failures.
He can further go into detail why he’s ending the D.C. school voucher program. The program being 86′d with the help of his Chicago stooge, Dick Durbin (The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was slated to end next year because of a provision slipped into Congress’ $410 billion omnibus spending bill by Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., whose children attend private school) .
A man who’d benefited from affirmative action is telling other people’s children to work hard this school year? Preach on, hypocrite.
Thinkingperson…you’re already weeping about being called a racist and no one’s even called you a racist. I wish you’d people would toughen up a little, you remind me of an insecure sixteen year old girl getting dressed for the prom.
He will sit through the bs, he will come home, and we will discuss the speech.
Your kid probably thought GI Joe was a tour de force. Here’s a suggestion–stop letting your kid make the political decisions in your family. In order to do so, you’ll probably have to get a bit ahead of him/her in the reasoning and information department. I suggest you start by reading a newspaper regularly.
Once more Obama is bringing the long arm of the Federal government where it does not belong.
Education is a State and local responsibility. This is not North Korea. This is a clear indication of how little this Hawaii-born, madrassa educated gentleman understands this country.
I’m pleased to read the comments by those who will discuss the President’s speech with their children. The creepiness in the President’s speech idea is that he made it all about him instead of what you can do for your country. Now if he didn’t have this habit of selling himself via the cult of personality, if he didn’t surround himself with communists or anarchists czars, if he had not belonged to the Rev Wright Hate America Church for 20 years, if he hadn’t shown himself to be a serial liar, if he didn’t repeatedly tell us his bills have to be passed without being read or understood by anyone immediately or great disaster would happen, if I thought the public school teachers weren’t mostly dedicated to Obama, if the schools actually educated the children with the basics instead of pedaling liberal ideology my alarm bells probably wouldn’t be clanging. But,alas they are. He is capable of giving a speech that is inspiring to all not just blacks, and I’d love for him to do it as long as it isn’t about his political agenda and recruiting for his cult of personality.
Reminds me of Chairman Mao and his Cult of Personality.
Once more Obama is bringing the long arm of the Federal government where it does not belong.
Is this the emergence of yet another buried fantasy among the little minority of Rush worshiping girl-men? Fantasizing about Obama bending you over is not enough, now you bring fisting into it. It certainly is strange times when people like this are actually affecting the national discourse.
The speech will be innocuous, but the event provides teachers with a pretext to mobilize their students on behalf of Obama, and to marginalize kids who are conservative (or whose parents are). You could say conservative teachers have the same opportunity, but not only are they a small minority in most places but, more importantly, they would be going against the grain of the event and would stand out as churlish–the leftist teachers could easily lead students in “follow-up” discussions of how important the President’s message was, how much he needs our support, etc.
As others here have said, if Obama wants to launch some kind of “pro-education” campaign, there are much better ways to do it.
The simplest response of all is, why waste school time on such fluff?
I hope the author used the Bush/Hitler comment as a slam against those who use it. As someone who has had the honor of meeting a Holocaust survivor, I know I immediately discount a person’s political opinions if they bring up Hitler in reference to anyone that isn’t systemically killing people in mass quantities. Kim Jong-il/Mugabe/Hitler – apt comparisons perhaps, Bush or Obama/Hitler – time to calm down. It’s disrespectful to the 6 million that died.
I agree with Brendan, the best thing you can do is let your child be exposed to the propaganda and teach them how to see through it. It will be an important life skill for them to have since the vast majority of politicians lie and most reporters can no longer distinguish between fact and opinion.
We really need to not over-react to this situation. If Obama does make this speech overtly political it would be yet another tone-deaf mistake on his part and a turn-off to even more independents and continued inspiration to the conservatives. The fact that he is surrounded by fans and worshippers will probably continue to encourage him to make these kinds of missteps, the folks that wrote the study guide are obviously His Biggest Fans, but this means he isn’t getting feedback that could actually make him a more effective leader of the entire country vs. just his little group of syncophants.
The best thing we can do is keep up the heat on the big issues (healthcare, cap and trade, trillions of debt) and force Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Dean and the other to keep talking. The more they try to convince everyone to support these endeavors, the more chances they slip up and tell the truth, obviously dodge answering questions creating distrust, show downright contempt for the voters, or just plain annoy people with their constant yapping. Let Obama give his gazillionth prime time address about health care. After his string of speeches last year, if you went out to the fansites of the various TV programs that were preempted you’d see tons of comments along the lines of “I voted for Obama, but can he shut up already. How dare he make me miss fill-in-the-blank show.” So let’s keep up the phone calls, emails, letters, tea parties etc. and make them talk, talk, talk.
You could say conservative teachers have the same opportunity, but not only are they a small minority in most places but, more importantly, they would be going against the grain of the event and would stand out as churlish
There’s two factors here worth noting. Indeed, teachers are less conservative, because studies show a one for one relationship of political views with education. The more educated people are, generally, the less conservative they tend to be, because conservatism relies on base logic tricks that only uneducated fools tend to fall for. And, yes, they are indeed considered churlish, through sheer dint of their stubborn ignorance.
#49
“You’re a complete fool if you actually believe that.”
One wonders, Mr jharp, why you keep changing screen names all the time. I suppose the purpose is to try making it look like there are more crazies out there than we thought.
Moho… LOL! You now use the racism crap so much you even forget when you do it.
“Unless they were black. Then they’d be lynched. But moving along about how great our country was for white people in the fifties…” ~Re Moho (the racially challenged liberal) #41
Why is it that EVERY argument made about Obama evolves down to being black with you? Why can you NOT see past his skin color? Is that the only argument you have left my little simpleminded friend?
Move past skin color Moho. MLK had a dream remember? Why not be part of the solution instead of furthering the problem?
moho:if money is tight for you right now,the professionals that can assist you with your compulsion charge on a sliding scale.
bitter and resentful is no way to go through life.
If politicians don’t listen to us, we shouldn’t have to listen to them.
If they can take God out of school, we can take the propaganda out, too. We are tired of the statists preaching to our children and turning them against the concept of freedom and what made this country great, rewriting history books and scaring our children with the environmental religion. A psychologist friend has treated youth that are afraid the earth is going to be underwater soon.
You don’t expect anything good to come out of a radical leftists mouth, so you don’t trust anything he says or plans. Christians have endured persecution for thousands of years, so pardon us if we are a little proactive. We have people still alive that witnessed how Hitler captured the minds of youth over a period of time. Obama seems to be on a much more instant timetable. He is hiring a contractor to capture all the information from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace so he can control all the communication that passes through them.
Learn your history and you won’t be so complacent about defending your freedom.
Snarky. You’re perfectly willing to believe whatever you want about my identity. It doesn’t change the fact, unfortunately for you, that you’re as dim as a bag of door handles.
53. Harry: “Once more Obama is bringing the long arm of the Federal government where it does not belong.”
56. Moho: “Fantasizing about Obama bending you over is not enough, now you bring fisting into it.”
Comic genius.
I think the government is sometimes good with public service announcements or ad campaigns like “Please, please don’t be a litter bug,” or “Only you can prevent forest fires,” but a President directly addressing kids? Sorry first instinct is ‘creepy’ and next instinct is, “He doesn’t think parents are doing a good enought job so must intercede between the parents and teachers.” or “The teachers don’t think the parents are doing a good enough jog so asked the president to intecede”.
or..well enough, but I think it is kind of creepy like Al Gore when he went after the kids. I mean didn’t he say he didn’t want his girls punished with a child before they were ready instead of he didn’t want his girls having sex before they were ready. Didn’t he also call new life some weird un-human name in a senate bill?
I think he should stick to talking to the age group that voted for him and if they decide it’s a good message they might pass it along to the kids. Or not.
P.S. I wish they would bring the don’t be a litter bug back.
In Article I, section 8, there are enumerated the seventeen legislative duties of our Congress. President Obama is charged with the enforcement of laws in these areas. Since I can’t find anything about education in there, Mr. Obama has no reason to need to speak directly to my children. That makes this a campaign speech. The fact that attendance is not voluntary makes it political indoctrination. Further, I fail to see why listening to the President rattle on in passive indirect voice, most likely about health care, is of benefit to my children. Most likely some teacher will follow up with: ‘Know that our President loves us all, children. And he’d never do anything to harm anyone. But there are millions of suffering children out there who need your help. etc. Let’s all support his efforts. Anyone who doesn’t support him in this just doesn’t know the facts, or is unbelievably callous. (That would be you)”
Will this be more beneficial than, say, studying the quadratic equation for an hour and learning how to complete a square? Who should decide that?
How about this. Keep your kids home and watch the video together. This is a teaching opportunity and should not be wasted. This will also give you the opportunity to control the discussion and teach your kids about what is being said instead of some liberal teacher. And if the president does turn this into something political you can counter-act it or discuss how you feel about it and give them your opinion on whats being discussed.
“59. Moho:
You could say conservative teachers have the same opportunity, but not only are they a small minority in most places but, more importantly, they would be going against the grain of the event and would stand out as churlish
There’s two factors here worth noting. Indeed, teachers are less conservative, because studies show a one for one relationship of political views with education. The more educated people are, generally, the less conservative they tend to be, because conservatism relies on base logic tricks that only uneducated fools tend to fall for. And, yes, they are indeed considered churlish, through sheer dint of their stubborn ignorance.”
This makes my point very well, as it illustrates the contempt leftists have for any who disagree with them, and their complete lack of inhibition regarding indoctrinating those in their charge. Any events that will not only reinforce that lack of inhibition, but provide further encouragement to indoctrinate, should therefore be resisted.
In this case, those, resisted through mockery and kids’ generally less then reverential feelings toward authority, though-tens of millions of schoolchildren will certainly consider him as ridiculous as their lecturing and moralizing principals and other parent-surrogates and will be shooting spitballs and making various unsanctioned sounds during the President’s droning–an attitude that is generally harmless when limited, but devastating to an administration as cultish as this one.
Hey, he IS the President! It’s not like it’s George Bush doing this.
MOHO the JEW HATIING antisemitic Mohammedan ARAB I want to construct a Church in Saudi Arabia and import lots of Bibles to teach the people all about the wonders of Christianity . CAN I?????? Am waiting anxiously for your answer.
This makes my point very well, as it illustrates the contempt leftists have for any who disagree with them, and their complete lack of inhibition regarding indoctrinating those in their charge.
Don’t you nancy boys ever run out of kleenex? Quit crying about how people hate you and talk about the issues. As if there’s not two truckloads of baseless contempt in these comments sections going the other way. Apparently, the conservative way is to cry whenever someone says a cross word at you and demand that they take it back. No wonder you’re not attracting any new converts to your cause.
By the way, kids can be smarter than you think. Any parent who asks their kid, “Where did you here that swear word?”, understands this. Kids pick up on things they here more than we realize. I’ve heard that kids learn most of the information they need to survive between ages 5 and 12 and that this is where they are most impressionable. Anyone who thinks that a political speech will not get picked up by young children I think doesn’t understand them.
It’s much more than just a speech – there was a formal follow-up lesson plan and student exercises built around it – complements of the Department of Education.
Young Pioneers version 2.0!
Now that Obama has been busted on it, he’s starting to back off. It’s becoming an established pattern.
I don’t believe liberal or conservative views hold the ultimate answers for mankind, and neither view is right all the time. Views, takes from both sides of the aisle are essential indefinitely.
Moho, why the need to pepper almost every comment with misogynist and homophobic language? If this is an attempt to demonstrate the moral superiority of liberals, you’re failing miserably.
Similarly, the statement of a son of recent immigrants to his child about free speech in America vs Russia has zero to do with racial politics in the 50s. One can make a free speech comparison while still believing the situation vis a vis race was atrocious. That should not be a tricky concept for someone past kindergarten. If your goal is to point fingers, don’t twist yourself up like a pretzel to do it, or that will betray your intent.
@Moho:
“There’s two factors here worth noting. Indeed, teachers are less conservative, because studies show a one for one relationship of political views with education. The more educated people are, generally, the less conservative they tend to be…”
You’re assuming people who are “educated” are actually getting an “education”. Many universities no longer engage in education. They engage in supporting entrenched, tenured professors who live to have their ridiculous opinions parroted back to them in some grand ego circle-jerk.
“…because conservatism relies on base logic tricks that only uneducated fools tend to fall for.”
Quite the contrary. Modern liberalism falters under the weight of logic and critical thinking. It thrives on the false hope that utopia can be achieved through central planning, and it ropes in the suckers by appealing to guilt and base emotions.
“And, yes, they are indeed considered churlish, through sheer dint of their stubborn ignorance.”
For some reason I just thought of the snobbish, be-ponytailed Harvard student in “Good Will Hunting” that tried to parrot something he read in order to simultaneously impress a girl and humiliate a blue-collar guy hitting on her.
“72. Moho:
This makes my point very well, as it illustrates the contempt leftists have for any who disagree with them, and their complete lack of inhibition regarding indoctrinating those in their charge.
Don’t you nancy boys ever run out of kleenex? Quit crying about how people hate you and talk about the issues. As if there’s not two truckloads of baseless contempt in these comments sections going the other way. Apparently, the conservative way is to cry whenever someone says a cross word at you and demand that they take it back. No wonder you’re not attracting any new converts to your cause.”
The issue, as far as I’m concerned, is Leftists in power. They are unfit to exercise it, in schools or in government, because they can only view opposition as hatred and stupidity. That’s why it takes about half a year for Obama’s approval ratings to dive 20 points. The proper role for the Left is as a permanent, embittered minority–they can do little damage that way, and might actually point out something worth noting on occasion.
I’ll also point out that this faux-machismo adopted by so many Leftists in these forums is an interesting study in ideological reaction formation–the Leftists came to understand that their reputation for being soft on our enemies and soft on criminals was losing them votes. So, they started telling each other that “we have to look tough.” How do they do so? Not by calling for harshness towards criminals or those who consider us evil infidels, but by heaping incoherent abuse on conservatives in the media. It’s starting to hurt them now that major figures like Reid and Pelosi are exhibiting this weird “toughness” in bizarre phrases like “evil mongers,” but they probably couldn’t stop themselves if they wanted to. They are too used to speaking amongst themselves, and now all of America is getting to see what that looks like.
Moho is a useful idiot who thinks that by trolling he is useful. Do not feed trolls.
A troll who calls commenters here bigots, poor-white-trash, idiots/morons/stupid [often with grammatical errors in the same paragraph of his/her rant] and seems to enjoy publicly discussing (with himself) the comparative sizes of men’s penises as an ‘insult’ is extolling the virtues of ‘education’?
Well, color me unimpressed.
I don’t need obama peddling his tax-payed programs or fairy-tales about the need for a “green” economy to my child. (The Green Economy headed by his Communist and overtly racist appointment, Van Jones.)
I don’t need obama telling my child about ‘work ethic.’ I’ll raise my children. Beyond basic education, the government should stay the hell away from my children.
#38
“Can you imagine Pres. Hussein’s shock at all the outrage and opposition to this idea? Can you just hear the consternation from his advisors as they sit arount the table with him, discussing this issue?”
I respectfully don’t see it that way at all. Obambi simply does not care what people think. He is a narcissist to the core and a man without empathy. Remember what he said in response to the Tea parties? The man has trampled on all his campaign promises, he lies without remorse and harbors deeply rooted disdain for corporate (white) amercia. the man is dangerous.
My 3 teenagers are wise enough to discern Obambi’s subliminal message but so many of our children are not and that disturbs me. He’s appealing to the weak and the ignorant. Unfortunately, that amkes up a huge percentage of our youth. This is too easy for him to pass up. I’m keeping my focus on 2010.
The concept is, in and of itself symptomatic of regimes far different from the ideal of the United States of America. That so many “reasonable” people here do not see it as such is a cause in itself for alarm. It’s indicative of how far down the road to serfdom the poster of this article has gone that she sees nothing particularly wrong with the idea of a public servant parading as some kind of maximum leader whose tentacles must extend into every corner of our lives in front of our children. Be good! Do well in school! The Dear Leader is blessing your efforts!
The overreach of the President’s handlers and the cult of personality with which they’ve insulated him from reality has betrayed him to his own political destruction. Not surprising, since character is destiny. This witless tyro ran as a “rock star” rather than as an inheritor of the legacy of Washington. Now, as all talentless performers discover only the great ones actually survive the crucible of fame. BHO is the Brittany Spears of American politics. He’s just sooooooo five minutes ago.
But his hubris won’t stop him from overreaching. It’s going to get more and more laughable as his little legend continues to shrink.
My son has a pocket recorder, not for the speech (that will be almost unavoidablely present all over the media), but for the discussion before and after. He is certain that his teachers will have a “Left of Marx” position and wants to preserve it for later use.
One question regarding the pre-propaganda speech classroom activities; Why are only Obama quotes to be presented in the class? Why not some of Reagan’s or Teddy Roosevelt’s or Washington’s or Lincoln’s pithy observations or well turned phrases?
I have read both of Obama’s (ghostwritten I am sure) books and seen and read almost all of his speeches over the last two years and none of them are quote-worthy. His speeches are well-delivered, but well-deliver manure is just that; manure.
Hope and Change is chant, not a philosophy or an exemplar of cognitive thought.
“Chimpy Bushhitler” was sarcasm. I thought it was obvious, but I guess not.
I think the abuse heaped on President Bush has normalized a very nasty, paranoid style of political discourse. We need to relearn how to disagree with political opponents without demonizing them.
About 15 years ago, I wrote an op-ed column calling for a ban on “Hitler,” “Nazi” and “fascist” unless referring to Hitler, Nazis and fascists. It’s gotten so much worse.
#20, I was not reading too fast; I read Jacob’s remark about Bush twice because I wanted to be sure of her meaning. Then I CUT AND PASTED her remark into my comment (#3) exactly as it showed. I put quotation marks around Jacob’s line, but as you can see, she had not – at that point – put quotation marks around “President Chimpy Bushhitler.”
If her intent was to be ironic she did a woeful job of it.
“84. anton:
My son has a pocket recorder, not for the speech (that will be almost unavoidablely present all over the media), but for the discussion before and after. He is certain that his teachers will have a “Left of Marx” position and wants to preserve it for later use.
One question regarding the pre-propaganda speech classroom activities; Why are only Obama quotes to be presented in the class? Why not some of Reagan’s or Teddy Roosevelt’s or Washington’s or Lincoln’s pithy observations or well turned phrases?
I have read both of Obama’s (ghostwritten I am sure) books and seen and read almost all of his speeches over the last two years and none of them are quote-worthy. His speeches are well-delivered, but well-deliver manure is just that; manure.
Hope and Change is chant, not a philosophy or an exemplar of cognitive thought.”
This is completely true. Obama is a cliche machine, nothing more. Which further suggests that what independent schools, teachers and, if necessary, students, might insist upon doing is a serious logical and rhetorical analysis of this and other speeches of Obama. This, at least would be very instructive, as they’re all filled with lots of “fallacies”: straw men, false oppositions, non-sequiturs, etc.
Doesn’t this have a whiff of coercive indoctrination? he’s just training kids to listen to governmental authority figures. Trotting out all the little children to obiently listen to bromides from our deal leader is creepy, plain and simple.
Cults boil the frog in the same way. They are built around a charasmatic individual. They first ask potential recruits to perform simple tasks, slowly escalating to more extreme ones, ultimately demanding sacrifice for the greater good, i.e., the leader.
My kids go o private school. One of the reasons I pay the truition is to protect them from this kind of sinister indoctrination.
The author says there is no Obama Youth. There was no Hitler Youth at first anyway. Refer to the youtube documentary by a Swedish documentary team about an incident in an American School in Ashville, NC before the election.
Ask yourself whether this classroom environment seems neutral. Will the Sept 8. address be just a neutral pep talk?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSwgerG34s0&feature=related
FDR has proven that you can be president for life.
Chavez like Obama was elected to the presidency, Chavez has no intention of relinquishing that power now that he has declared himself President for Life and neither does Obama. If the goons and thugs of Acorn and SEIU can manipulate the election of 2012; by the time 2016 rolls around many of these school children will have been indoctrinated enough to be the Lemming and Useful Idiots of the future. This is the Totalitarian dream of the Progressive Marxist in the White House. Control the youth and you control the future. Does any non-Marxist care to trust their kids to the indoctrination of the Ayers inspired teachers’ union and Fearless Reader as well. If you don’t care about your children, think of the future of the country, stand up to tyranny and oppression. Stop the indoctrination of your children to Marxist dreams of Utopia, don’t let Obama turn your children into his Useful Idiots.
Marxism is nothing more than Affirmative Action for the masses. Have no fear you will have the same success as everyone else, just keep me and my teleprompter in office.
#89
Re video. Ouch.
Calm down, I think he will be speaking to these kids…not yours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtGrp5MbzAI&feature=related
Yikes.
I guess the big question about the Obama address to schoolchildren is “Why?”
How does the White House or Dept of Ed answer that question? After all, it’s brand new, never been done. Unprecedented.
If he has a harmless platitudinous message, as promised, then why should it come from him rather than parents or teachers or someone the kids actually know?
He is everywhere, all the time, talking and talking and being the deliverer of all messages (CBS headline today: “Obama: Sneeze Into Your Sleeve, Not Your Hands.”) This is not normal for the U.S. It’s normal for dictatorships.
This Obama message to kids has engaged American citizens to arguing amongst ourselves, for and against, but we should be asking the President and DOE to justify themselves.
And this part: “What do you think the President wants us to do? Does the speech make you want to do anything? Are we able to do what President Obama is asking of us?”
It’s exactly backwards. He and other elected officials REPRESENT us and should be doing what we ask of them. The power flows up from us, not down from them. This talking head of state telling us what to do, and asking us to do stuff FOR HIM, may come to seem normal to the kids.
It’s creepy. I want him to get out of my face, frankly.
“And there’s nothing wrong with telling students to study hard and be good citizens.”
That’s not the president’s job. Looks to me like they’re spending a fair amount of taxpayer money to perform a task (propagndizing kids) that is really none of the federal government’s business.
Joanne Jacobs – (85)
Another PJM contributor recently said we need exactly that same sort of ban. Unfortunately, given that authors leanings, his article was nothing but BS since he sat through the past eight years of that and much worse without pleading for anyone to end the hateful speech of the left. It’s a funny thing, but the leftists are always in favor of civility until they want to unleash it. They see it as something they can monopolize and thereby redefine their opponents so often that people will subconsciously associate the worst evils with their opponents. The reason they so hate the use of the same tactics by their opponents is that it broadens those names and terms to the point that their preferred associations falter.
The left has long depended on the civility of those it wants to overpower and in fact cannot continue the gains they’ve made without a monopoly on anger and confrontational approach they regularly and deliberately foster. Unless they are confronted in kind, they will simply retreat a bit, generate even more hate and anger among their brainwashed followers, and come back later. Only when confronted in kind do any among their brainwashed crowd realize that they may not be as righteous as they’ve been told. When people shy away from them in the interest of being civil, though, they see it as the unrighteous melting before them. Obama is without a doubt following in the footsteps of Hitler, up to and including having studied what worked for the National Socialists when they were taking over. Comparisons of his manipulations, slogans, and programs, to those of the National Socialists are not only appropriate; they’re actually accurate for the first time in our history.
Regards
59. Moho:
There’s two factors here worth noting. Indeed, teachers are less conservative, because studies show a one for one relationship of political views with education. The more educated people are, generally, the less conservative they tend to be, because conservatism relies on base logic tricks that only uneducated fools tend to fall for. And, yes, they are indeed considered churlish, through sheer dint of their stubborn ignorance.
I beg to differ on this one. First, how many UAW and SEIU members have degrees? Second, I’d rather argue that the longer one spends in the sheltered world of academia the more subject to Marxist indoctrination one is and the more they come to believe in the superiority of their own opinions over that of the “unwashed masses”. Also there are the factors of tenure, that truly horrible combination of being both a union member and government employee that then continue to shelter them from reality.
In addition can you please explain why all the “high minded” liberal ideologies always fail when implemented? How about explaining why with a Liberal dominated education system full of these “highly educated” individuals (teachers must get their Masters within 2 years of going to work in the public schools)combined with our education expenditure being more than any other country, why aren’t our public schools the top rated schools in the world? Care to also explain why our Universities are in decline under the guidance of these Liberal elite educators as well?
85. Joanne Jacobs: “I think the abuse heaped on President Bush has normalized a very nasty, paranoid style of political discourse. We need to relearn how to disagree with political opponents without demonizing them.”
Oh, I see, so it’s liberals’ fault that right-wingers are resorting to Nazi iconography to attack the president. Yeah, it’s the liberals who are responsible for the dragging down of the discourse and for the hyper-partisanship.
No, let’s not remember the words of Karl Rove, that “Liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers. Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 and the attacks and prepared for war.”
Let’s not remember that the Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan said there was no reason for Rove to apologize for those remarks because he was “simply pointing out the different philosophies when it comes to winning the war on terrorism.”
And let’s surely not remember that the entirety of the GOP’s 2008 presiential campaign amounted to nothing more than a series of rumor and innuendo spread through the bible belt that President Obama is a black supremacist Muslim terrorist.
“About 15 years ago, I wrote an op-ed column calling for a ban on “Hitler,” “Nazi” and “fascist” unless referring to Hitler, Nazis and fascists. It’s gotten so much worse.”
And let’s see now, who would have been president during this time when you wrote that op-ed column calling for a ban on ban on “Hitler,” “Nazi” and “fascist”?
Clinton.
Do you see a pattern emerging here?
30. Rick:
“If Pres. Bush had tried this , you can be sure all the jharps, vivos and other trolls would be screaming loud and long”
Wrong.
You didn’t read my comments at #1.
38. bubblehead:
“Naturally, my son will not be subject to this propaganda.”
A lesson in American civics is propaganda?
46. Sarsfield:
@ vivo – “‘What’s So Sinister About a Presidential Back-to-School Speech?’
Nothing.”
You seem to have a good sense of perspective, but for crying out loud, the people in this blog are acting like they heard the Martians are coming!
Paranoia is not healthy.
53. Harry:
“Education is a State and local responsibility.”
Uhh?
Did your excellent schooling teach you Civics anytime?
71. Pragmatist:
“(Hate words) . . . I want to construct a Church in Saudi Arabia and import lots of Bibles to teach the people all about the wonders of Christianity . CAN I?????? Am waiting anxiously for your answer.”
Are you saying an American President is talking to a bunch of fanatic religious children?
You never had a Civics class in your life, didn’t you? Listening only to Fox News and Limbo causes brain atrophy.
DALE:
Rove was correct then, and Cheney is correct now. The vitriol really started in earnest with the Bjork character assassination.(especially by the revered Ted Kennedy) It continued with Clarence Thomas. It’s always the same with the Left. Slash and burn. Oh my, though, but you really squeal when you taste some of your own bile. It’s just hunky-dory when the Rev Jesse takes to the streets with his mob, or the Gay/Lesbian/Transneuter/Undecided decided to mass on the streets, but ohmygosh, look at the group of well dressed middle age folks contesting government policy and there are Brown Shirts marching in the streets. Not to worry, we’ll play by your rules if necessar.
From MoHo….”Indeed, teachers are less conservative, because studies show a one for one relationship of political views with education. The more educated people are, generally, the less conservative they tend to be, because conservatism relies on base logic tricks that only uneducated fools tend to fall for”
Or, they didn’t have the grades to get into the business, engineering, or hard science schools and didn’t want to fall back into the liberal domain of the soft sciences where they would all be unemployed along with most of the other Democratic intellectual “elite”.
Unfortunately, the school system is as poor as it is because of the fact that it does not provide incentives for those who are generally more productive in society (ie, conservatives)to occupy these positions. As soon as there is a functional reason for the non-entitlement crew to become teachers (ie, an actual meritocracy not governed by a lazy and incompetent union base) our education will continue to be marginalized. My wife teaches and I am appalled by the incompetence around here, primarily all liberals with little work ethic, little regard for the responsibilities of the job, and zero ability to drive intellectual thought.
Thank you vivo for the enlightening post! I had no idea that liberals have now quit using the term indoctrination in favor of the much more milquetoast yet ever palatable “civics class”.
Who knew it was the President’s job to educate our children? His video will come complete with a follow-up questionaire about what the wee little kiddies learned from his indoctrination, er, I mean civics lesson. Very thorough Dear Leader. Very thorough.
“I could be wrong: President Obama could use his “bully pulpit” to exhort kids to demand their parents support universal health care because it’s important to listen to our elected officials. That would be politically stupid — as well as just plain stupid. I’ll believe it when I hear it — and not before.”
Just plain stupid as in Stimulus, Cap and Tax and Obamacare. With Obama, stupid isn’t just a bug. It is a feature.
Any guesses as to why Obama’s video to our wide-eyed youth will be about how better to serve Obama and Obama’s ideals and NOT ONE IOTA about the Constitution or the Bill of Rights or any other subject that vivo just informed us falls under that “civics class” banner?
Yes, Dear Leader. We hear you Dear Leader. We will pick up trash and serve ACORN Dear Leader. Please organize us before we have time to think for ourselves Dear Leader. What more can I do in service of you Dear Leader?
Doesn’t Pres. Obama have more important things to tend to than teach a “civics” lesson to school kids – like all of those shovel ready jobs that were supposed to be created, pushing his health care “reform”, running GM, running the banks and apologizing to other nations?
Besides, for anyone else to be able to teach anything – anything to kids, it has to be voted on by the respective school boards and go through a lot of vetting…no one has seen this speech and have no idea what it says. I don’t care if it’s the President or one of his czars, it’s just inappropriate.
Interesting discussion ….
Concerned parents asking why this is happening and saying that they have concerns and questions.
Vivo, moho and the other Obama supporters not giving answers just calling names.
The author saying ‘I really didn’t mean it when I said when I called the former president names’ and can’t we all just get along and sing kumbya.
Still the key point remains — an avowed socialist, best friends with domestic marxists & foreign marxist dictators, whose gov’t stops the trials of thugs who terrorized voters on camera, who has threatened action against anyone who questions him, who has pledged to form a gang as strong as the military, has prevented access to any of his academic or medical records while wanting to make yours accessible to any gov’t worker ….
just happens to want to force our children into an indoctrination session like his best buds in Venezuela & Cuba do.
And we are supposed to just STFU about it and hail the great leader.
As weak as this article may be,
why, oh why, I wonder, does anyone of any mental acuity STILL respond to troll “vivo.”
STOP FEEDING THE TROLLS.
Let then get their attention elsewhere.
President Obama is absuing his status as POTUS to have the Teacher’s Unions through the Department of Education to have children to be part of an unwilling polls so Obama can shape his agenda to get these children to be HIS in 2010 & 2012; this is just the first step. How? For example, for the grades 7-12, one question is asked in the following: Pick the 3 most important words from Obama’s speech.
Given the backfire on Porkulus, & the blow back on Obamacare, President Obama is desperate. Don’t let the American wannabe dictator near your children unless you are present. The government schools are not to be trusted.
You can find similar deeds in third world dictatorships such as Cuba, North Korea, & the former Soviet Union of Russia.
@ Vivo:
Your class obviously never taught you anything about either Government or History, you fail miserably at both. Most children up until the 1930s went to small one room school houses that were provided by the town & county governments.
Also there is no mention of a Federal Department of Education, and the current SNAFU was signed into law by Carter. The first DoE was created in 1867 for the gathering of statistical data, and today’s bureaucratic clusterf**k bears little resemblance to the initial Department of Education.
In 108 I meant to say “Also there is no mention of a Federal Department of Education in the Constitution….”
Obama is becoming an easy target for mockery. Progressive conservatives should use this – lets turn his speechifying into a teaching moment about rebellion.
http://hyphenatedamericans.blogspot.com/2009/09/obama-is-becoming-easy-target-for.html
#97 Dale:
“And let’s surely not remember that the entirety of the GOP’s 2008 presiential campaign amounted to nothing more than a series of rumor and innuendo spread through the bible belt that President Obama is a black supremacist Muslim terrorist.”
Well according to your statement they were 50% right, see Gates-gate, the refusal to prosecute the NBP, and allowing Eric Holder’s Justice Department to go ahead with plans to hire more than 50 new civil rights lawyers to ferret out racism in American society.
The Muslim terrorist thing…the jury is still out on those things. Perhaps we’ll find out for sure if he’d follow through with his promise to be “transparent” and release his personal info like past presidents have. No I don’t think he was born in Kenya, but anyone who spends that kind of money on lawyers to keep his records private is hiding something. We knew Bush was a C student, why don’t we know how Barry did in Harvard?
“First of all, I have to ask… on what planet is the day after Labor Day still the first day of school? My kids have been back for two weeks, and other people I know of have had their kids back since mid-August”
Here on the Los Angeles Unified School District Planet (also known as The Second-Largest School District in the Country Planet), the first day of school is September /9th/.
btw, did a lot of people on your planet vote for McGovern, too?
Do us all a favor: go back to that street corner and stand there alternately shouting “Obama is a Communist” and “The GOP is fascist.” Let us know when you get out of the emergency room, and who it was who sent you there.
“But moving along about how great our country was for white people in the fifties…”
An attempt at a snippy comment referencing half-a-century-old attitudes. Your snark-fu is weak, grasshopper.
Obama won’t be stupid enough to use the speech as a political pulpit. And there’s nothing wrong with telling students to study hard and be good citizens.
Obama’s playing ‘plausible deniability’ here. Of course he won’t use the speech as political pulpit – that’s for his henchmen at White House Teaching Fellows, in combination with his NEA cronies in the schools. Obama will make with the glib platitudes, and the henchmen and cronies will use their daily access to the kids to drip-drip-drip the correct conclusions to take away.
Why else would the kids be asked to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the President. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make the students accountable to their goals.
Isn’t that a coerced-commitment scheme like various fundamentalist cults use, to prevent backsliding after the first rah-rah stampede wears off and sober reflection sets in?
Help the President, hey? What about helping the COUNTRY? If this isn’t indoctrination in support of a Great Leader, please explain why it isn’t.
Obama won’t be stupid enough to use the speech as a political pulpit. And there’s nothing wrong with telling students to study hard and be good citizens.
Obama’s playing ‘plausible deniability’ here. Of course he won’t use the speech as political pulpit – that’s for his henchmen at White House Teaching Fellows, in combination with his NEA cronies in the schools. Obama will make with the glib platitudes, and the henchmen and cronies will use their daily access to the kids to drip-drip-drip the correct conclusions to take away.
Why else would the kids be asked to write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the President. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make the students accountable to their goals.
Isn’t that a coerced-commitment scheme like various fundamentalist cults use, to prevent backsliding after the first rah-rah stampede wears off and sober reflection sets in?
Help the President, hey? What about helping the COUNTRY? If this isn’t indoctrination in support of a Great Leader, please explain why it isn’t.
If I were a teacher, I would have my class watch it. We would record it. And watch it again. Maybe spend all day on it, going through it line by line, point by point, and noting each time Obama made a statement that was demonstrably untrue. Most nationally promenant cRats are very astute liars, and Obama is one of the best, able to condense whole volumes of propaganda points into only a few words. I think it could be a very useful learning tool.
99. genghis: “Rove was correct then, and Cheney is correct now. The vitriol really started in earnest with the Bjork character assassination.(especially by the revered Ted Kennedy) It continued with Clarence Thomas.”
1. Rove was not correct. He was a disgrace. His job was to create permanent majorities for the Republican party and he failed miserably. Then Bush fired him after it became clear that he was behind the outing of Valerie Plame. The man has no credibility and no soul.
2. Bjork is a Scandanavian folk singer. Did you mean Robert Bork?
3. The hyper-partisanship started with McCarthy’s witch hunts and continued with Nixon’s enemies lists and his bitter hatred for the Democrats after his humiliating defeat by JFK. You want to pinpoint the era when the political discourse really went sour? Look no futher than tricky Dick.
President Obama’s Sept. 8 start-of-school speech to students will be shown in schools, the White House hopes. (The speech will be broadcast on http://www.WhiteHouse.gov and C-SPAN.) The president “will challenge students to work hard, set education goals, and take responsibility for their learning,” says the Education Department.
Ho hum, I’d say.
Ms. Jacobs, I’d be inclined to agree with your ho hum, except for one $160,000,000 item to the contrary.
President-to-be Obama was emplaced in 1995 by one Bill Ayers (yes, the violent terrorist) as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked together as a team to advance the CAC agenda. Walter Annenberg had intended that those funds be spent to improve the education of Chicago schoolchildren.
Obama and Ayers instead proceeded to fund radical leftist groups such as ACORN with those lavish millions, for the purpose of indoctrinating Chicago schoolchildren as ‘activists’. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down.
When the CAC evaluated the effect of those lavish millions on improvement in education, it found no change – the money was simply squandered to benefit political activists.
Please inform us, Ms. Jacobs, how you can ignore this sordid track record – Obama’s only experience as an executive before 2009 – and assure us that Obama has merely the children’s best interest in mind?
And why, oh why, will this month’s children be writing letters to themselves about what they can do to help OBAMA? Isn’t this setting up a shiny new Cult of Personality?
It seems all the poor little trolls can do today is call names and insults.What will they do when the mighty “o”‘s house of cards finally falls down? I almost pity them in their blind ignorance. . . almost,but nah, I don’t. Let their gender confused squeals continue. . .
Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!
Uh, no, this one is a separate thought. Apologies for the duplicate above.
President Obama’s Sept. 8 start-of-school speech to students will be shown in schools, the White House hopes. (The speech will be broadcast on http://www.WhiteHouse.gov and C-SPAN.) The president “will challenge students to work hard, set education goals, and take responsibility for their learning,” says the Education Department.
Ho hum, I’d say.
Ms. Jacobs, I’d be inclined to agree with your ho hum, except for one $160,000,000 item to the contrary.
President-to-be Obama was emplaced in 1995 by one Bill Ayers (yes, the violent terrorist) as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Mr. Obama and Mr. Ayers worked together as a team to advance the CAC agenda. Walter Annenberg had intended that those funds be spent to improve the education of Chicago schoolchildren.
Obama and Ayers instead proceeded to fund radical leftist groups such as ACORN with those lavish millions, for the purpose of indoctrinating Chicago schoolchildren as ‘activists’. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down.
When the CAC evaluated the effect of those lavish millions on improvement in education, it found no change – the money was simply squandered to benefit political activists.
Please inform us, Ms. Jacobs, how you can ignore this sordid track record – Obama’s only experience as an executive before 2009 – and assure us that Obama has merely the children’s best interest in mind?
And why, oh why, will this month’s children be writing letters to themselves about what they can do to help OBAMA? Isn’t this setting up a shiny new Cult of Personality?
Obviously the author of this piece knows NOTHING about totalitarian regimes. Adolph Hitlers first propaganda leader Ernst Roehm advocated indoctrinating German youth thru Hitler speeches directly at grammar school aged children. Vladmir Lenins first NKVD cheif iron Feliks Dzerhinsky did the exact same thing. So did Mao Tse tung and more recently Fidel Castro. Obviously the author hasnt read any books by the scumbag filth Bill Ayers or any of his fellow travelers from the weather underground. Tell me maam, you sound just like the Fox News channel idiot Alan Colmes, almost word for word. Are you some kind of left wing plant or what?
DALE:
I stand corrected. It is Bork, not Bjork. Bravo. And that’s about all that requires correction. By the way, McCarthy, despite his intemperate flamboyance, was essentially correct. Hiss was a traitor. The Rosenbergs betrayed this county. The State department and the Treasury Department were compromised by Communists (I refer you to a recent publication entitled ‘Spies..,the fall of the KGB). And, by the way, JFK, so revered and idolized by the Liberal left, bought the presidency, and was a failure (except with respect to his libido). It is good that you revile Nixon. Easy target. but your demigod, JFK was a failure as Prez, a failure as husband, and, in the tradition of Bobby and Teddy, a failure as a human being and, as we say out here a WPOS. You figure it out.
We recently listened to the “Ipledge” by a number of “celebrities”.
It was pretty okay… until a member of the r.c.p.,said “I pledge to be of service to Barack Obama”…and the my two least favoirte people, Ashton and Demi came out wit…..”I pledge to be a servant to our president”…and all mankind…I pledge to be a servant to our president. not..as my friend says about this stuff….PUKE
I do not pledge to be a servant to anyone..much less someone like the present president. Plus I will not have my children repeating this bs…actually it all made a lot of sense before the a$$ came on with their comments. It is what you would expect to be said about the “beloved leader”, not the president of the USA!! Pledge to be his servant…?? Not in this lifetime..
I think this is a very political ad.
#72 adam – Interesting take on the subject.
A “civics lesson?” From the person who wrote words to the effect that “inalienable rights” are those the government can’t take away without a good reason? You MUST be kidding. My children are grown – but from what I’ve seen of the public schools, their teachers and their unions here in the heart-of-the-beast (Pelosiville)I would home-school at the drop of a hat. Maybe I’ll have a chance when the grandchildren arrive….
JOANNE:
I guess your sarcasm escaped me. But after eight years of vitriolic Bush bashing by the rabid Left, I have little, nay, no tolerance to the language you felt necessary to include in your piece. None. The Left declared war on Bush from day one. Hateful. Extravagant. Unrelenting. And, that convinced me that any concept of civilized dialogue was an illusion. It became clear that this country is deeply divided and there is little room for compromise. It was, apparently OK to write a book fantasizing about the assassination of W. Not a peep from the MSM. And from Hollywood more of the same.. Amazingly, Bush never uttered a word in protest. Well, many of us aren’t willing to accept that. Obama-san is a convinced radical leftist. That is obvious. If the game is on, well, then the game is on.
You might be right that it’s innocuous. Can you link to an advance copy of the speech so we can see?
The fact that known racists like vivo and moho are pushing it, though, makes it suspect.
Well, many of us aren’t willing to accept that. Obama-san is a convinced radical leftist. That is obvious.
Well, that fact has escaped the majority of radical leftists who consider him no better than Bush. You can hate him for being black, er I mean, socialist. But get your facts together and learn something about the world you live in; he’s no more radical than Kerry.
Ms. Jacobs-
Check out this link – then revisit your thesis:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/03/white-house-withdraws-students-help-obama/
The speech was orginally intended to turn children into pro-Obama advocates.
This administration has a totatalitarian mind set.
The hyper-partisanship started with McCarthy’s witch hunts and continued with Nixon’s enemies lists and his bitter hatred for the Democrats after his humiliating defeat by JFK.
This actually made me laugh. I think it was supposed to be a history lesson.
Hyper-partisanship has been around since before the founding of the Republic, and Nixon didn’t need to lose the election in 1960 to have a problem with Democrats.
Geez. Some people just aren’t intelligent enough to do anything but apply Democrat v Republican to everything under the sun. They seem to think DvR is some mystical, magical short cut to having a clue, thereby obviating the need to read something meaningful or think something valid.
Who needs to spend a lifetime learning how the world works when you can just apply DvR to EVERYTHING? Yeah!
“Work your butts off kids – I am hocking this country to the Chinese so I can dispense political pork to my cronies. We will need everything you can earn and more to keep the Chinese from foreclosing!”
I’m not sure if anyone pointed out that during the worst economic crisis known to us, during an intense and horrific war still going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, during a time when the WH is trying to railroad in a very lengthy and probably very wrong health care bill, during unprecentended gov. takeovers, federal deficits, union specific agreements, not to mention the regular duties required of the POTUS, doesn’t it seem just a tad bit suspect that the POTUS has all this free time to devote to preparing a speech for and talking to our children? I mean, he could do this in 6 months when things are calmer. Seems like a big problem with setting priorities to me.
I pledge allegiance to the Flag, not Barrack Obama fools! Makes me want to puke to see this in America. I bet the CFR, State Department, and George Soros is behind it.
What makes it sinister is not what he will say, but who we know him to be: a hellbent for socialism anti-American with a whole lot of authority, who has publicly stated his frustration with the Constitution of the United States of America.
…or are you saying that if a recently paroled murderer wanted to hand out treats at your kids’ school on Halloween that would be ok, since “he’s just handing out treats on the same night everyone else is, for cryin’ out loud….”?
It DOES matter WHO someone is. Unfortunately, this teachable moment (among so many) about how MUCH it matters is being brought to us courtesy of the obama voters of 2008.
I’m really looking forward to Professor Obama’s lecture. Sure hope he can help the kiddies understand how a $1.3 trillion “inherited” Bush deficit = bad, but $9 trillion Obama deficit = good.
Hopefully, he’ll help the bewildered children understand how 50 million new people can be added to and existing system and the costs are going to go down and the quality is going to go up!
Maybe he can help the children understand that although some of his good friends call the kiddies mommy’s and daddies’ Nazis, Racists, Un-American, and A$$holes if they happen to have voted for someone other than him or disagree with him in any manner. He is their friend and has their best interest in mind. Never mind that he’s likely saddled them with a debt they’ll not be able to pay in two lifetimes.
He could mention that he himself has suggested that anyone that doesn’t agree with him ought to shut-up, but that was just grown people talking and little wee kiddies ought to all get along and never say bad things.
All in all should be yet another “teachable moment.” Hope he records it – ya know the Queens birthday is going to roll around again – she needs something new for the Ipod.
133. Wondering…
Seems like a big problem with setting priorities to me.
That depends on whose priorities you are talking about.
Getting to the children has always been a very high priority for the Left. A very high priority.
I guess you didnt get the original Dept of Ed memo: ““Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.””
Mt Cult-of-Personality Disorder can’t help making this about HIM.
Will the instructions to the kids telling them to ponder what they can do help the President happen before or after we “pledge allegiance to the Earth…” …
http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2009/09/twisting-good-things-in-new-things.html
This is an awful lot of responses for an empty and shallow article.
So Ms. Jacobs, what do you think of the White House Teaching Ambassador Fellows? Are they just a good citizens group that somehow, randomly, innocently got a hold of a copy of the presdient’s speech so they could make a teacher’s guide? Or do you think maybe, just maybe, the teacher’s guide that you blame for peoples’ uneasy response is an integral part of the plan behind the speech?
Really, this was a stupid, shallow article that doesn’t merit the enthusiasm of the feedback it’s getting.
115. Anonymous:
Obama’s playing ‘plausible deniability’ here.
You hit the nail on the head. They have a slogan all cooked up for their push to counteract the “rightwing terrorists” that are against the nationalization of healthcare, it’s ““Because it’s American to take care of our own.”. Having changed the “lesson plan” and having run in to resistance I’m sure they didn’t expect, it may not appear in his little chat with the kids, but even after all that I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it. It’s an old trick of trying to shape the debate by making something that agrees with them become the accepted way of phrasing it. Just like “pro choice” for infanticide, and the euphisims they inserted in their health package to disguise their wanting to just coach the elderly into suicide.
I doubt he’ll use it now, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that slogan come up in classes or comments about the speech.
Regards
The bit about writing letters to themselves and then following up on them later smacks of something I’ve heard before…
Saul Alinsky, Rules for Radicals:
The intent of this is seriously demented and intended to damage the young ones’ self-esteem, long-term, should they, after discussing what they write with their parents, decide that they wrote in haste. I think this is monstrous!
MOHO
‘you can hate h;im for being black..er socialist..,.’
Whatshisname had it right. You are both a putz and a schmuck. B ack under the rock a-hole.
MoHO:
Here’s a big wet kiss from Margo.
How would liberals have received the news that President George W. Bush was to address the nation’s students? We know how they would react. It is foolish to expect that conservatives would welcome the same kind of speech from Obama. Conservatives are properly suspicious of the radical in the White House. On top of everything else that he has done to raise our ire, now we hear about a man named Van Jones whom he named a czar of something or another and who works out of the White House. Thanks to Glenn Beck who was the first to out this other Yale Law School radical. Out of the White House with this idiot!
Obama does not care about the education of the children, if he did he would not be in favor of the elimination of the D.C. vouchers program. Read below the beginning of the editorial page of the Washington Post:
“Friday, August 28, 2009
PRESIDENT OBAMA reportedly has a hefty reading list while vacationing this week, but we would like to offer two additions, both hot off the presses. One is an article by the education expert who studied the D.C. voucher program; the second is a study on school safety in the city’s public and private schools. Read together, they might cause the president to rethink his administration’s wrong-headed decision to shut down the voucher program to new students.”
So what is the reason for addressing a captive audience of kids? His cult of personality? Narcissism? Hidden agenda? I don’t know but looking at the nut cases that surround and theoretically advice him, I would not dismiss ANYTHING without further evaluation. I am sorry for those that see the cheese and do not see the trap.
I have lived the culture of envy; those that espouse it are very dangerous individuals.
128. malclave:
“You might be right that it’s innocuous. Can you link to an advance copy of the speech so we can see?”
Here is an advance from the Department of American Slavery and Republican Domination:
1. Your president owns the country
2. You shall pay taxes
3. Work your ass off
4. Always vote Democrat
5. Republicans are mean
6. Do as I say
7. Tell your parents to vote Democrat
8. Only watch MSNBC
9. Pay more taxes
10. Work harder
11. Don’t get sick
12. Wash your hands
13. Eat your broccoli
14. Did I say Republicans are mean?
May God, Allah, Brahma, Kukulcan, Shiva, Elohim bless America!
#121 Thank you for that post.
What’s so sinister? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Scratch that. Fear and cowardice, that’s sinister.
“Give us the child for 8 years and it will be a Bolshevik forever.”
~ Vladimir Lenin
Without organization Lenin realized that socialism would fail in any country. Education would be used to enlighten workers about the benefits that Marxism would bring to their lives through a representative, socialist government. His goal was to educate Russian citizens and Marxists to prevent cooperation with imperialists and capitalists.
- Education of the masses, What is to be done? [Что делать?] V. Lenin 1901.
Does anyone want a man who surrounds himself with criminals and racists speaking to their children? Even if he is president the answer is NO!
So there’s no Obama Youth Corps.
Remember the civilian security force, to be as large and well-funded as the military?
They’re not going to have a junior auxiliary?
No?
Then what the hell is the civilian security force to be as large and well-funded (that O told us about) going to be?
Was he lying?
Has he given up?
If not and not, will there be a junior auxiliary?
Richard Aubrey @ #151:
It’s called HR675.
Here’s a link: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=14160
@146
Link to that, vivo?
moho:”You can hate him for being black”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unperson#Unperson
“effectively erased from existence. Such a person would be written out of existing books, photographs, and articles so that no trace of their existence could be found in the historical record. The idea is that such a person would, according to the principles of doublethink, be forgotten completely”
whadda say?trolls can be useful and entertaining,but ths one-trick pony is BORING the hell out of me.
151 Ricahrd Aubrey
Yes, there will be a Junior Auxillary, or JA as we call them. Coincidence that JA is the Rasta name for God? I think not. And they’re going to come to your house and TP you trees, soap your windows, and knock down your lawn jockey. Yes, afraid! The Goonies are coming! The Goonies are coming! Geez, what a bunch of pantywaists.
Obama’s Sinister Level: Zero
Bush’s Sinister Level: 9
Cheney’s Sinister Level: A solid Spinal Tap 11
The Right Wing’s Annoying Dumbf*ckery Level: A solid double Spinal Tap 11 -> 22
# 9 Ed Wallis:
I agree with Chris from Toronto: best post.
The speech on Tuesday may be a pep talk. my guess is that it will be positive and hopefully inspiring to young people. I think what bothers me is the President’s insatiable appetite to persuade. We can all agree he is confident and many argue he is arrogant. We all have our Obama Transforming America Sensors on. Is this another part of his agenda? Is it another power grab? Probably just harmless banter to be ingnored by youth. Reagan and H Bush made similar speaches. I think the timing of the speech may create a problem with the looming threat of rogue leader Van Jones and his imminant departure. If there is an agenda to the speech, it may focus on the green movement. Pledging to be Green may corelate to pledging to Jones…exciting.
Moe the Ho’ or Homo or whatever trollboi’s name is is one particularly nasty little piece of work. All his homophobic comments are probably a reflection of his own deep seated insecurities. He alleged that there is a direct relationship between education and liberalism. That is probably sadly true. The hallowed halls of academe are full of dim witted tenured 60′s radicals like Ward “the cigar store Indian” Churchill and the Keystone Commies, Ayers and Dohrn and the real commie from the hood, Angela Davis. Unfortunately colleges turn into re-education camps where young naive students buy the Marxist bulldung spoonfed them by the gray pony-tailed veterans of the Movement.And so a new cadre for the revolution are spawned.Most of the students eventually marry and get jobs and find religious conversion or serve in the military and grow disdainful of Professor Peewee Stalin and his asinine views. The ones that don’t become liberal trolls on sites like this; the butt of sane folks laughter and scorn.
My parents, fervent Stevenson liberals, would have bitten their tongues off rather than let me or my sister think there ought to be anything but respect for the presidency, no matter who held the office. IMO, the only likely effect of any protest against Obama’s speech is likely to be a continuance of that steady chipping away of the necessary respect for our institutions that true conservatism has always championed. In brief: it is a short-sighted temper tantrum by ideologues who are as bereft of commonsense as their counterparts on the left. The sad thing is that these neo-Birchers imagine themselves as patriots. Somewhere, Bill Buckley, Bob Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan are writhing in shame for their self-proclaimed descendants.
Chris. Yeah. I am familiar with the bill. When I was in, 69-71, what with the riots and so forth, playing it really, really careful with the Posse Comitatus act was always on our minds.
That is why, for Canadians and others, it’s the National Guard that turns out for riots. The Guard is a state army, owned by the governor and may be deployed for domestic purposes without either running afoul of Posse Comitatus which refers to federal troops, or needing a declaration of martial law.
FWIW, in the Reserve component, the reserves are federal troops and are comprised of support, combat service support, and various other kinds of–here is the important part–non-combat units.
In the Reserve component, which is comprised of the Guard and the Reserves, it’s the Guard with the heavy combat formations, not the Reserves.
Something to think about.
Well, I wasn’t thinking about the JAs coming to my house. But the question was about an Obama Youth Corps. If we do have what the bill refers to, and we have a long way to go from that to “as large and as well-funded”, the question is whether they’ll have a JA.
what happened to permission slips what are you thinking not letting parents know what their kids are going to be subjected to!!!!
my child is special needs is he suppose to understand and comply? why wasnt i notified? or asked permission for my child to b subjected to this
HMI,neo-Birchers? C’mon dude, you’re betraying your true convictions. the John Birch society is about as relevant today as the Klan and the German American Bund .If you’re
going to drop names use something up to date like wingnuts or teabaggers. I think what you inherited from your parents was sanctimonious self righteous rectitude which was personified in the aforementioned Mr. Stevenson, Hubert Humphrey, George Mcgovern and more recently by Al Gore.
Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but the name calling and ridicule aimed at all those who are concerned about this has sure quieted my fears.
With such kind and considerate supporters who are honestly trying to pursuade others with the force of their arguments and their display of obvious deep, loving, concern for their fellow citizens, I don’t see how I could have ever worried about this little speech by Obama.
Regards
153. malclave:
“@146 Link to that, vivo?”
Are you serious???
LOL
Bet u believe in Martians, Elvis alive, Michael Jackson alive, birthers, Palin panels, Fox, and the Red Scare.
#161 richard:
I appreciate all you’ve said. Thank you.
Do you think the left thinks about Posse Comitatus? I don’t. At least while they’re in charge… it’s a different story when the right is in charge, of course, because of their embrace of the deadly double standard. The deadly double standard is the reason why, for instance, a Bush administration can be trusted with the Patriot Act whereas an Obama administration cannot. The right can be trusted to not abuse the arguably rights-infringing aspects of this legislation while the left cannot: the right believes in the inalienable rights of an individual whereas the left believes that rights are granted by the majority and can just as readily be revoked at the whim of those in power. The problem with this, of course, is that the pendulum swings and legislation enacted by those you can trust will be inherited by those you may not be able to trust. But I digress (and I’m tired).
I brought up HR675 because it’s the unpublicized sleeper of early 2009 and I hoped to bring it to everyone’s attention (not just yours, specifically) for I recalled reading about it some time ago. It’s getting very little play in the media, mainstream or otherwise, and it scares the bejeesus out of me. The whole lot of them, down there in Washington, scare me. And I know I’m Canadian–one step removed from it–but America is the world’s last bastion of freedom and if America goes, all will be lost. Liberty will be a memory. And I don’t want that. I don’t want it for you and I don’t want the ideal to die for the rest of the world.
92. Lynn:
Calm down, I think he will be speaking to these kids…not yours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtGrp5MbzAI&feature=related
Yikes.
~~~~
Change the words and you’d think it was a religous setting where children were singing to their god. That is beyond creepy.
#129 Moho
The President is not Black!! You may recall his mother is white as Wonder Bread. I find both halves unacceptable.
HMI – my folks taught me that one had to respect the presidency, but not necessarily the president. In fact I’d say a lesson they passed on was that being willing to constructively criticize whoever held the office was an essential part of respecting the office itself. But I guess I’m showing my age, having grown up in an era when people thought governments were the property of the people, and not the other way round.
Note to moho – re. folks having higher educations being more liberal – once you get into college I think you’ll see the same thing I did – that, except in the very rare cases where people are truly passionate about a subject, or want training in a specific field, the length of time a student spends in school is more indicative a need to avoid the tumult and self-responsibility of independent life than anything else. Teachers (especially those teaching at younger levels) are among the most egregious examples of this.
Modern liberalism is all about offering to lift the burden of self-reliance from the individual in exchange for power, which is why it appeals so strongly to folks who tend to stay in school beyond their due date (and wind up learning how to serve fries with that $80K education). But that desire to be self-reliant that once characterized the American people is also the trait that made the country the driving force over the last two and a half centuries for individual liberty, and it was that sense of liberty and individual independence that made it prosperous beyond any other prior nation. It was, at one time, a nation where a guy with roughly 6 months of education could become one of the world’s greatest inventors (Thomas Edison), and another with maybe two years of schooling could become one of its greatest leaders (Abraham Lincoln). we are unlikely to see this type around for awhile, until we can learn to judge a man by the content of his character, and not the piece of paper on the wall.
124. Sallie:
We recently listened to the “Ipledge” by a number of “celebrities”.
I think this is a very political ad.
~~~~
I had opportunity to hear it today as well. It struck me as possessing a GREAT DEAL in common with cult brainwashing techniques designed to suck people in. . . .
In brief: it is a short-sighted temper tantrum by ideologues who are as bereft of commonsense as their counterparts on the left. The sad thing is that these neo-Birchers imagine themselves as patriots. Somewhere, Bill Buckley, Bob Taft, Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan are writhing in shame for their self-proclaimed descendants.
Well said. Just don’t let anyone convince you to put a small plant-like pod next to your bed tonight.
If this blog entry were a reply intead of an article, I would just consider the writer another troll or a sock puppet, depending. As it is, it is just a poorly written troll-bait article, not worth the time it took to read.
moho
it’s time for you to get back to the circus. the freak show is about to begin, and after all, you are the star. This is your chance to get out from under that rock. and it is ok to keep the finger up your nose…it is your one endearing trait.
160. HMI:
My parents, fervent Stevenson liberals, would have bitten their tongues off rather than let me or my sister think there ought to be anything but respect for the presidency, no matter who held the office.
The Founding Fathers surely would have scoffed at your fealty – Jefferson in particular.
160. HMI:
My parents, fervent Stevenson liberals, would have bitten their tongues off rather than let me or my sister think there ought to be anything but respect for the presidency, no matter who held the office.
The Founding Fathers surely would have scoffed at your fealty – Jefferson in particular.
As far as Im concerned we don’t need Obama telling our children to stay in school.
If Obama wants to preach that message he ought to be doing it in black schools where kids get pregnant at 13 and where 50% of them are too lazy to finish school anyway.
We do just fine, instilling in our children a sense of responsibility and a work ethic.
We don’t rely on the government for handouts.
Our kids don’t get preferential treatment
There are no quotas for our kids.
Obama should save his “stay in school speeches” for his own people.
They’re the ones who really need to hear that message
1. Obama’s constituency consists of the ignorant and the naive.
2. Obama’s life’s goal is the same as most abandoned children – achieve control and campaign to be loved.
3. Many of the naive who voted for him are now abandoning him. He must seek access to more naive folks – in this case the children.
What could go wrong?
Allison, PJM editor, it was not all clear to me that Ms. Jacobs was speaking tongue-in-cheek when she used the expression describing the former president. Your editing, by inserting quotation marks, was inappropriate.
This is a good one…catchy and a celebration cause he’s gonna take us to the promise land…what can you do to help him…write yourself a letter…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5HWtYUs7iQ&feature=related
He’s taking us to the promise land, you just can’t build a house there. Keep your bags packed.
By coming into the classroom, Obama is implying there are no–or should be no–intervening institutions between the kids and him.
Seem like a problem to anybody?
trangbang68: I used the term Bircher precisely and deliberately. Any sanctimony is purely my own, or ought I attribute your own to your parents? I see you are one of many here who cannot imagine that there is any way but their way, and so anyone who thinks unlike yourself must be something other than a conservative. You are, as in so many ways, mistaken.
Anonymous/Re: If Jefferson were the single authority on the presidency, I daresay we wouldn’t even be playing Hail to the Chief or saying “Mr. President.” He isn’t, and we do.
Halifax CB: I generally agree. But what is an appropriate stance for us adults isn’t necessarily what is the best example to children. Conservatives generally lament a falling off of respect for institutions. In front of the kids, the best way to begin countering that is by clearly demonstrating that respect. You can’t entirely separate the office and the man, so that means that sometimes you endow the man with the respect you feel only for the office. And a president addressing the schoolchildren of our nation would be a good moment to show that.
The point is many adults do not want their children to have any contact with this man, president or not.
I’m not worried about the content of Obama’s speech, but if I still had kids in school, I would keep them home and take them to the zoo, or some other educational activity.
I have two reasons for this view. One: Of course Obama isn’t going to alarm anyone with any kind of propaganda. This address is the “foot in the door” gambit, the one where he establishes a relationship with our kids for the future. This is how Socialist systems start establishing their groupthink into kids early in their lives. That’s the reason for the “teaching package” that went out to the schools for the follow-up.
The other would be more direct. I’d want to teach the schools a lesson that anything similar to this in the future is going to cost them Federal dollars. I regard this as a line in the sand, a time when American parents say in one loud voice “Keep your grubby, collectivist hands off my kids!”
I’m gonna sit right down and write myself a letter, and make believe it came from me.
Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama, Obama.
Hey they started it. I do not and did not like the hypnotic tone.
Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country is much much different than what you can do for your president.
Perhaps President Kennedy or his writers were wise enough to know that he was a temporary tenant in the House, and after he was gone, would come the next President of the United States. President Not Obama.
Obama is a socialist low-life. Obama is the kind of socialist creep we were told, as children in grade school, to beware of.
Let’s not allow Obama to molest our children.
U.S. citizens would typically approve of the president making a speech to schoolchildren. But I think the reason folks are objecting to the Obama speech is that he has broken faith with the American people many times.
1. He broke faith when he questioned the seriousness of the Tea Party movement.
2. He broke faith when he suggested that the concerns of american people, over health care reform were due to misinformation, and lack of a clear briefing on his plan.
3. He broke faith when he asked U.S. citizens to inform on each other at flag@whitehouse.gov
4. He broke faith when he repeatedly, falsely claimed the AARP supported his healtcare reform.
After these and other transgressions, the U.S. citizens do not have confidence in their president. They are concerned that he will, in his speech to the children, break faith.
As infighting within the democrat collective increases and as the minions on the left realize that inaction will be the hallmark of this congress, there will be a push by the Obama administration to fuel the cult of personality that propelled him into the White House. Start with the children.
Will Rogers, the 1920’s – 30’s humorist once said, “I am not a member of any organized political party. I am a Democrat.” The sissy party is incapable of delivery unless . . . a headman can rise above the throng like a phoenix from the ashes as a god. Obama’s only hope for his agenda is to achieve godhead status.
Expect more.
Rogers also said “Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don’t have for something they don’t need.”
Expect the hard sell.
Some suggestions.
Let the kids stay home but allow them to watch the speech. Banning the speech will only pique their curiosity.
Then let them watch a movie which might help explain some of the concerns which you may have as a parent. Two movies that I have in mind are:
Swing Kids (Suitable for grade levels 5 and up(?) This is about a group of teenaged friends growing up in Nazi Germany. One by one they are recruited by the Hitler Youth with the exception of the crippled boy.)
The Killing Fields (CAUTION–VIOLENCE. NOT SUITABLE FOR VIEWERS YOUNGER THAN 10th GRADE (In my opinion). This story shows the brutal takeover of the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. The government steps between the parents and children in a not-so-subtle way.)
I’m interested in hearing any other movie suggestions you may have. Thanks.
“Children, before I begin, let’s all stand and face your President for the pledge of allegiance…..
We pledge allegiance to “The One”
for the deconstruction of America,
and to the Republic we hope to change:
one Nation under debt,
Islamicized,
with dependency and bankruptcy for all.”
As voters realize the emperor has no clothes, Obama’s poll numbers are plummeting, and he realizes his fawning, adoring base is falling apart. He needs to find new bodies to repopulate his personality cult.
Thus, like Michael Jackson, he turns to those who can be manipulated the easiest, children, to feed his fragile, narcicisstic ego.
This is just creepy.
~ The Infidel Alliance
P.S. – What do you want to bet part of his speech includes a reference to tolerance of and the great contributions of Islam in America?
130, aclay: thanks for the link–fascinating to learn that the guide is actually illegal!!!
I hope someone will do a good follow-up on what the heck is up at the Department of Education.
139, tim: It’s not necessarily the article–people want to discuss the topic. I came back to see what people have been saying since yesterday, even though I didn’t much like the article.
While I was writing that, I received a reply to my email to our local principal. Here’s what she said:
“I am sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to your inquiry. I wanted to make sure that I was providing you with accurate information and it took some time to speak with the middle school teachers. As a middle school, we are not viewing the president’s speech on September 8 and there are no middle school teachers who are having their individual classes view the speech live.”
Glad to hear it. And I think this is quite interesting, because my town is not very conservative–Democrats are in the majority.
If you keep the kids home, you send a fairly straightforward signal that our president is not worthy of respect, that simply listening to our president speaking is dangerous, that when your party loses you take your toys and go home, that even before hearing someone speak you know whether or not he has anything of worth to say. Good lessons for the kids—teach them to respect our political system (so long as the people you like are in charge). As I said earlier: these are the knee-jerk actions of immature ideologues and have nothing in common with rational conservatism.
All kids may be inspired by such a speech, but black kids more than any other group need such encouragement.
“All kids may be inspired by such a speech, but black kids more than any other group need such encouragement.”
Then black kids need to listen to Bill Cosby, not A Pimp Named Obama.
As they sang in the song:
HEY, OBAMA, LEAVE THE KIDS ALONE!
moho:”You can hate him for being black”
That doesn’t make any sense.
I couldn’t care less if he was purple polka dots.
He’s half white. So here’s a thought: if it helps you to think that we “hate him for being black” (once again the left introduces the race thing)…just keep in mind, we hate the white half, too.
We detest his lack of character, his incompetence, his destructive policies and his dislike of America. Personally, I think that’s a pretty incredible basis for reasonable dislike of the POTUS.
I will follow Michelle’s lead here. I am sure she would have let her two girls listen to pres bush without her consent. NOT
I’m making it a four day weekend.
Tuesday, I’m taking my youngest son — tenth grade — fishing, then we’re heading to the range to move up from a .38 to a .45 (third lesson; we started with a .22)
After that, a cook out and another lesson in family history; reminder how we (that would be our family) got run out France for being Protestants, were indentured servants, fought in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, WWI and WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and the first Gulf War.
Then a lesson on the limits of government and the right to dissent.
Banned by huff–>fishing, then we’re heading to the range to move up from a .38 to a .45 (third lesson; we started with a .22)
I think the more time you spend with loaded fire arms around your family, the better off the rest of the world is. Why don’t you take him to a gun fair and have someone show him how to use an automatic weapon?
We detest his lack of character, his incompetence, his destructive policies and his dislike of America. Personally, I think that’s a pretty incredible basis for reasonable dislike of the POTUS.
Certainly, for eight years it was enough for me. But unfortunately, you can’t prove any of this today about Obama. Remember, when 9/11 happened? You people said that Bush escaped responsibility because he hadn’t been in office long enough to do anything about it. But get a white guy in there who looks black–well, you people hate black people so much, you even hate them when they’re actually white–and you’ll blame him for the last eight years of incompetence even as you voted for every single a-hole who helped bring it. Dumb doesn’t explain it. Dumb and racist does a better job.
182. oldguy:
“The point is many adults do not want their children to have any contact with this man, president or not.”
That’s exactly the point. Many Americans can’t stand the idea that they have a black president. Had any other white politician done this, no problem. People will not tell you that because they want to remain politically correct. I’d rather face a truthful racist than a hypocrite.
But people are shortsighted and unrealistic. The future calls for more ‘minority’ presidential candidates. Racism in this country and the rest of the world will never disappear. Respect for others will prevail, but not genetically ingrained racism.
183. Nancy:
“This is how Socialist systems start establishing their groupthink into kids early in their lives.”
Helloooo?
Don’t schools establish their groupthink into kids early in their lives?
Now you’re going to get your kids out of school. Yeah, they’ll grow to be astronauts.
188. Kevin OK:
“Let the kids stay home but allow them to watch the speech. Banning the speech will only pique their curiosity.”
This speech has now the allure of an X-rated movie. Kids will be talking about it for days, they already are. The ignorant parents will embarrass them when they compare notes with their free friends.
191. HMI: well put!
195. Meryl:
“I couldn’t care less if he was purple polka dots.”
You have shown your dislike of other ethnic groups all along. U think u r being PC.
199. Moho:
“Dumb and racist does a better job.”
Many are not dumb, many show their inner racist colors, but ignorance is the rule.
Ignorance is bliss?
accusations of racism.
The old, worn-out Swiss Army knife of liberal argument.
When you haul that out, sport, it’s clear you have nothing and, more to the point, know you have nothing.
If someone is always playing the race card as a last resort when they have nothing else to contribute, does that make them a racist?
Yes
The backlash against this move by the most incompetent, racist president ever, speaks volumes on the disapproval of him and his ideas.
If only the polls would speak the truth.
“I added the quotation marks when it became apparent to me that some commenters didn’t get this and thought that this was the way SHE actually viewed President Bush. She was referring to the way the 20-somethings active in Obama’s campaign viewed him.”
I too was flablergasted at how many stupid commentators didn’t see the irony. Lots of stupid conservatives out reading these blogs!!! And no, in this instance I’m NOT being ironic.
Markus you stupid commentator and stupid conservative, speak for yourself. By the way, the word is “flabbergasted”.
#198&198MOJON: The more time you spend next to a functioning toilet, the more likely,you’ll jump in to be with your fellow mojones.Obama’s a failure,and it’s driving you to the edge of the bowl!