Even an Obama speech to children sets off partisan outrage
So we’ve come to this?
The president of the United States can’t speak to the children of the United States about the importance of staying in school, working hard and getting a degree without inciting political outrage?
Really?
The speech is set for Tuesday, and will be broadcast via the web to schools all around the country.
But as the Christian Science Monitor points out, the right is all aflutter:
“Schools have used students as little lobbyists on everything from illegal immigration to gay marriage to anti-war activism, and most recently, [c]ensus collection,” (Michelle) Malkin wrote. “Will Obama be able to resist issuing a call to youth arms to marshal help in passing his legislative agenda?”
Meanwhile, the conservative radio host Dana Loesch has launched a campaign urging parents to keep their children home on the day of Obama’s speech. In an email urging against the “Socialist Indoctrination of Americas children,” [sic] Loesch explains that Americans must not “mind our Ps and Qs and blindly follow their directives”:
“That’s not the manner of governance upon which this country was founded – it is quite the opposite; even the hobbyist Constitutional aficionado appreciates this. So yes, keep your kids home on September 8th and teach them that the power of America rests in the hands of its people, no one else.”
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party accuses Obama of trying to “indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.” According to Jim Greer:
“The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the president justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other President, is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.”
You know what? If Obama gave a speech anything like Greer describes, the anger he exudes would be entirely justified. It would be absolutely inappropriate, even outrageous, for any president to use a forum of this kind for partisan purposes. It would be wrong to even mention health care or other hot-button issues.
But by all accounts, Obama has no intention of doing so.
According to Education Secretary Arne Duncan, “During this special address, the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”
Is the GOP opposed to that message? If the president of the United States was going in person to their own child’s classroom to tell them to stay in school and study hard, would conservatives keep their kids home to protect them from that vile message? Is the hate that deep, the lack of respect so visceral?
Has it really come to this, people?
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521 comments Add your comment
Captain Underpants
September 3rd, 2009
7:33 am
Hey Jay…your site has viruses. My scanner detects two trojans this a.m.
Captain Underpants
September 3rd, 2009
7:38 am
And still more with each access to your Bookman page.
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
7:47 am
“Has it really come to this, people?”
yes.
this has been another edition of simple answers for simple questions (about the simple minded)
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
7:48 am
“My scanner detects two trojans this a.m”
must not make joke about magnums … must … refrain …
stands for decibels
September 3rd, 2009
7:49 am
Is the hate that deep, the lack of respect so visceral?
Well, yes. but more to the point: I’m pretty it’s directed at how conservatives really don’t want their kids to accept that this is, in fact, the legitimately elected President of the United States of America.
Mac
September 3rd, 2009
7:49 am
The loonies get loonier every day.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
7:50 am
JFK’s Presidents Council for Physical Fitness turned me into
a 200 ton, socialist, commie, facist, baby killing, lib, pinko,
American hating, libtard, with a wretched lonely life, who plays the trumpet! (i just know i left a couple out…..when you are as evil as i am it’s hard to keep track)
Just when you think the rabid, radical right can’t get more ridiculous…..they do!
stands for decibels
September 3rd, 2009
7:50 am
I’m also pretty SURE it’s directed…
argh.
stands for decibels
September 3rd, 2009
7:52 am
KO mentioned last night that Reagan and Bush had both made similarly PSA-style televised messages for school kids, during their terms. I haven’t noodled around to verify and probably won’t be able to this am–anyone got more on that?
Normal
September 3rd, 2009
7:53 am
This is another example of Republican fear. They are losing credibility and they are afraid. I will never understand a political Party that would drag their country down just to see a President fail.
They want to teach the children to fear and hate instead of reason and debate. Sad, so very sad.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
7:53 am
OK, my comment is awaiting moderation.
it was FABULOUS
All I did was proclaim that JFK’s Council on Fitness turned me into
…..and then I listed all the names I have been called over the years
(including my new talent for the trumpet) and I get moderated.
I wonder JAY, why I can get called all those names, but I get moderated when I repeat them?
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
7:55 am
I have been released!!!
Thanks moderation guys n’ gals!
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
7:55 am
seriously, Jay – these are the same people who got their underoos in a twist because he ordered grey poupon.
these are the same people who shouted for Michelle’s head for touching the Queen.
these are the same people who retired to their fainting couches over the fact that John Phillips Sousa is no longer the only hold music option for the Capitol (seriously.)
and, of course, these are the same people who have clutched their pearls and put the back of their hand to their weary brow over Obama’s call for a National Day of Service on 9/11 (despite the fact that’s what the families of those who died that day have said they would prefer)
I would list more, but my eyeballs have rolled so far back in my head, I can see my own spleen.
Normal
September 3rd, 2009
7:56 am
USinUK, I brought this up from downstairs in case you don’t go back down. This is really cool…
Normal
September 3rd, 2009
7:47 am
UsinUK, The interview was really cool. They took the reporter to an English Oak that was 400 years old and as described, it sounded like a tree out of Harry Potter. They also said the oldest tree on record, was an Yew. The stuff of long bows! My Gawd, what history! Now there are a couple of trees I’d like to hug!
jt
September 3rd, 2009
7:57 am
The only way this would be appropriate is if Ron Paul was given equal time directly after President Obama.
I wonder if President Obama will encourage “fishy” snitching?
Angry Black Man
September 3rd, 2009
7:58 am
Mrs. G
You can’t post stuff like that. I’m sitting here at work crying from laughing so hard. You’re gonna get me in trouble. I had a response to your warm honey post the other day that got eaten alive. May try to repost it later. Gotta get back to work now.
@@
September 3rd, 2009
7:59 am
There’s a little more to it than what you’re telling us, jay.
“Menu of Classroom Activities”
When I first heard about it, I thought….I wonder how often North Korea’s Dear Leader interjects himself into the classroom?
We know Hugo does.
THE first time Hugo Chávez made a serious attempt to reshape the Venezuelan education system, the resulting political battle contributed to the coup that in 2002 briefly ousted him from the presidency.
This is something even YOU should be concerned about. I’m wondering why you’re not. When it comes to our children, it’s better to be safe than sorry.
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
8:00 am
Normal –
I’m going to have to dig around for that story … We have a few old oaks in our neighborhood, but I doubt they’re 400y.o. …
sadly, though, there are also dingy-ball trees everywhere, too – and those are the UGLIEST things when the leaves turn in the fall … they just get all blotchy and brown like they’re diseased …
mike
September 3rd, 2009
8:01 am
Jay complaining about petty partisan outrage?
Sorry to tell you this Jay, but your entire career is dedicated to petty partisan outrage. Maybe if you didn’t practice it so much, you would not look like such an absurd hypocrite when you whine about it.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
8:02 am
Seems the President listens…..even to the whackadoodles.
“The Department of Education has now changed their supplementary materials on President Obama’s upcoming address to schoolchildren on the importance of education — eliminating a phrase that some conservatives, such as the Florida GOP, happened to have been bashing as evidence of socialist indoctrination in our schools.”
here:
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/09/department-of-education-edits-out-help-the-president-from-classroom-materials-on-upcoming-speech.php?ref=fpa
See? Political Correctness for Righties is OK too!
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator (-: You Whine )-:
September 3rd, 2009
8:03 am
The Khmer Rouge wanted to eradicate anyone suspected of “involvement in free-market activities” including professionals, almost everyone with an education and who had connections to government and those who lived in the cities. The regime did not want the risk of anybody having the consciousness to rebel against their movement. The country was predominantly Buddhist and its monks were disrobed, half of them were killed and the rest forced to work in the harsh agricultural labor camps and Christianity was also abolished. They also believed that parents were corrupted by capitalism and felt that children should be separated from their families in order to ensure that they were swathed in socialist ideology.
You are crossing the line.
Leave our children alone.
Cherokee
September 3rd, 2009
8:03 am
@@, were you nervous when Bush talked to the kids?
And now you’re afraid that they might listen to someone who tells them to stay in school and work hard?
Amazing….
@@
September 3rd, 2009
8:03 am
Now THIS, in my opinion, is a far more interesting topic for discussion.
We got into a staredown with the Russian bear and we blinked.
I predicted long ago, that it would be so.
Putin is an accomplished “chess” player while Obama struggles with “checkers”.
I’m off.
Taxpayer
September 3rd, 2009
8:04 am
Well! This is an outrage. I will not stand for this. I’m keeping my child out of school on September 7 and I beseech other parents to do the same.
mike
September 3rd, 2009
8:04 am
Normal –
“They want to teach the children to fear and hate instead of reason and debate.”
What? So you are saying that because I disagree with your narrow views, I want to teach my children to “fear and hate”?
Sounds like you are the one who is filled with fear and hate for anyone who dares not share your views.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
8:05 am
Maybe President Obama ought to just sit in some classroom somewhere and read My Pet Goat….
ByteMe
September 3rd, 2009
8:05 am
@@ has gone off the deep end so early in the morning. Please don’t drown in your own bile, dear.
I wonder if making fun of these wingnut clowns is enough, though. No one is attacking back to make it clear that these idiots are nuts. There is no push-back other than “well, they’re nuts”. That’s not enough. We already know at least 30% of the population believe both the birther and deather lies, so that means that a solid minority are susceptible to being lied to if the lies go unchallenged for long.
Start attacking the disease.
Paul
September 3rd, 2009
8:05 am
When I heard the first reports of this I thought “oh, brother. It’s about staying in school and what people (like him) from difficult backgrounds can achieve.” Then I heard allegations, supported by quotes, of how kids would be used to advance the President’s agenda, with references such as “What does the President want us to do?” and “make posters of your goals.” So it appeared to be a case of bureaucrats run amok.
Not so. This link is the DOE suggestion to preK-6. At the right of the page is the suggestion for 7-12.
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/10582301/President-Obama%E2%80%99s-Address-to-Students-Across-America-September-8-2009
Questions like what’s he talking about, who’s he talking to, does it apply to you and what can you do to show support, like staying in school and doing your assignments!!!
Sounds like things I’d want my kid to think about. Or any kid, for that matter.
The Right loses credibility over these ideological launches (but, amazingly, some people buy it without question). But… the Left loses credibility over ideological hypocrisy (conducting war, tax evasion by elected officials, pocket-lining deals with corporate interests) and their base pretends like nothing’s happened.
So yin and yang are in balance.
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
8:07 am
Oh NOES!
Missle defense system boondoogle prevented!
No blinking…..eyes wide open.
Normal
September 3rd, 2009
8:09 am
Susan Atkins denied parole…Looks like she’ll die in jail of her brain tumor.
———–
Mike: You are the exception to the rule. everyone here can see that your response is well thought, and ready for honest debate and not full of attemped put downs. Go back to your astro turf gang and sux on a lemon, it may make you feel better
mike
September 3rd, 2009
8:09 am
I agree that the outrage over this is silly, but do have any doubt that Jay and the rest of the partisan left would have been equally up in arms if the White House implored school children to “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president” while Bush was selling the Iraq War.
Please show some intellectualy honesty folks. Partisans get wound up over the same petty minutia, the only difference is whether they are in “support” or “opposition” mode.
BTW: Jay ever going to acknowledge the Charlie Rangell story? I mean, it is not as fund as reporting on the legal infidelities of GOP governors, but it is a much more consequential story.
Taxpayer
September 3rd, 2009
8:09 am
As for you right wing nutter butters, gather your children together and pray to your almighty GOP for your salvation.
F. Sinkwich
September 3rd, 2009
8:10 am
Jay, did you bother to read the lesson plan the administration asked schools to use following Chairman O’s speech?
You know, the one where it was suggested for prekindergarten to sixth-grade students that they “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”
Didn’t think so.
Doggone/GA
September 3rd, 2009
8:10 am
I’ve been WAITING for this one to turn up!
Road Scholar
September 3rd, 2009
8:11 am
So the conservatives and the repubs are against our socialist public school system. They are against children learning, listening and formulating their own ideas and values. You know…thinking for themselves…w/o following blindly the fringe. Is it time for the conserves to have a time out? How about a loooooooong time out? The most scary thing about this is that there are adults (alledgedly) out there that agree with this conservative drivel.
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
8:13 am
“What? So you are saying that because I disagree with your narrow views, I want to teach my children to “fear and hate”?”
ahem. see whiner’s post at 8:03. when your side compares an adress about staying in school to genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge, the answer is a resounding YES, you’re teaching fear and hate.
Turd Ferguson
September 3rd, 2009
8:13 am
Obobo just wants to brainwash these kids. One article stated the agenda was to have students write a paper about how they could help the President.
So Obobo needs help from the smallest of the small? This makes no sense. Just more socialistic indoctrination by Obobo and the Dems.
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
8:14 am
oh, and thanks, whiner, for illustrating the point so succinctly.
Doggone/GA
September 3rd, 2009
8:16 am
“Start attacking the disease.”
It’s hard though…when they stick their fingers in their ears and start chanting “USA USA USA USA” (LA LA LA is out of their vocabulary)
mike
September 3rd, 2009
8:16 am
Normal:
“Mike: You are the exception to the rule. everyone here can see that your response is well thought, and ready for honest debate and not full of attemped put downs. Go back to your astro turf gang and sux on a lemon, it may make you feel better ”
A few things:
1) Actually, it is the mindless partisan crew that is the exception to the rule, both on the left and the right.
2) Do you think that your own comments are those of one who is “ready for honest debate and not full of attemped put downs.”? What about the rest of the angry liberal posters here (i.e. Taxpayer)?
3) Do you also think that uncivil liberals also teach their children to “hate and fear”, or is only the case with people who don’t happen to share your views?
Taxpayer
September 3rd, 2009
8:16 am
Be afeared, right wing nutter butters! The children are in the corn fields and they’re becoming one with the corn and it’s Roundup Ready.
Turd Ferguson
September 3rd, 2009
8:17 am
Normal
September 3rd, 2009
8:09 am
Wow…cant imagine someone spending their entire adult life in jail but no sympathy here.
Dont do the crime if ya cant do the time.
USinUK
September 3rd, 2009
8:19 am
fercryingoutloud, TF (et al) –
when the subject is staying in school, doing your homework, taking responsibility for your role in your education, NO, I would not get all aflutter about writing a letter on how the kid can “help the president”
talk about LOOKING for something to get in a twist about. sheesh.
mike
September 3rd, 2009
8:20 am
USinUK –
“ahem. see whiner’s post at 8:03. when your side compares an adress about staying in school to genocide committed by the Khmer Rouge, the answer is a resounding YES, you’re teaching fear and hate.”
LOL. So because one partisan fool makes a comment, I am now responsible for that?
So I guess you are responsible for Ward Churchill calling the 9/11 victims “Little Eichmans”? You are responsible for every comment made by every liberal on this blog, no matter how stupid or unrelated to your own personal views.
Please. There are mindless partisan fools on both sides. Maybe for once, you can judge people for their own comments instead of judging them by the most extreme comments you can find from somebody else who dares not share your narrow views.
jasper
September 3rd, 2009
8:20 am
lighten up libbies, if this were Bush TV, you’d have Janine Giraffelo, levitating with hate spew on david letterman, not that anybody would be watching it. Then there would be the usuual diatribes by Hufflepuff,Oberfuhrer, Chris Shortfuse, not to mention the scowls and dark tones used by the state run mainstream media talking heads.
You libbies are so transparent when you feign sensitivity. Those who complain about O in the governement school are getting what they deserve for putting their kids in them in the first place. Chaulk up public school as another prime example of how our goverment fails us. But there’s no way they can mess up health care, that’s different.
Yes there are Obama haters, and they are stupid just like the Bush haters, and just like the premise of this blog.
Mort Merkel
September 3rd, 2009
8:20 am
The Republicans have become dangerous to society. It’s time to put them in internment camps.
Just kidding. That sounds like something the wacky right could come up with.
Joey
September 3rd, 2009
8:21 am
Jay;
I think your outrage meter needs adjusting.
Or is your outrage over the comments just faux effect?
Mrs. Godzilla
September 3rd, 2009
8:21 am
….but nobody “hates” Obama……
too damn funny
Sadie Mae Glutz
September 3rd, 2009
8:21 am
Look at all of ya sitting there smirking and me on my death bed. Where is the sympathy, Huh? If and when I get out just be prepared cuz Im comin to visit YOU! BOO!!!
mike
September 3rd, 2009
8:24 am
Road Scholar –
“So the conservatives and the repubs are against our socialist public school system. They are against children learning, listening and formulating their own ideas and values.”
This is what is called a silly straw man, ladies and gentlemen. Road Scholar is incapable of making an argument against what people actually said, so he just makes something up and argues against that.
This is akin to claiming that anyone who was opposed to the Iraq War doesn’t care about national security, conflating a policy with the goal of the policy and stating that opposition to a policy is the same as being opposed to a the goal. This is the lamest and most cowardly of debating techniques.