Texas Eagle Forum’s Cathie Adams shows once again how extreme and unhinged the far right has become. In an e-mail to far-right activists sent out late Saturday night, Ms. Adams — who is also a Republican National Committeewoman and has endorsed Gov. Rick Perry for re-election next year — compares President Obama to Adolf Hitler and twists the purpose of his planned speech to students about the importance of staying in school and getting a good education:
“(The president) has NO AUTHORITY to intrude into our children’s classrooms and simultaneously address every child in every state.
If parents want their children to view the president, then they have ample opportunities at home without taking time away from their studies. This is eerily like Hitler’s youth movement. . . .
IF your child’s school is allowing this intrusion, then you can either ask that your child be sent to study hall during the showing AND that NO study guide be used to ask your child to “serve the president.” Or you can ask that your child be granted an excused absence from school. . . . “
That’s just shameful. One need not be a supporter of President Obama to agree that comparing our country’s duly elected leader to one of history’s most evil men — someone who ruthlessly presided over the murder of millions of people — is vile. Moreover, no suggested study guide asks students to “serve the president.” Ms. Adams’ claim is simply untrue. And the president has not asserted that he has the authority to demand that school officials have students listen to his speech. The administration has simply invited students and educators to do so. Ms. Adams is dishonestly and cynically trying to stir up anger and hostility toward a president who won an election despite her militant opposition.
Having students listen to a president speak about an important civic issue shouldn’t be so venomously controversial. In fact, both President Reagan and the first President Bush directly addressed students across the country. But extremists like Ms. Adams seem determined to politicize and poison nearly every aspect of our nation’s civic life.
Promoting the importance of education for our children isn’t just a Democratic or Republican value. It’s a mainstream value shared by all families, regardless of their politics. And claiming that a president promoting that value is acting like Adolf Hitler should disgust all citizens, regardless of their political party. Shame on Cathie Adams.
You can send an e-mail to Ms. Adams at [email protected] and ask her to treat the president with the respect that his office deserves and that most Americans expect. (But if you do, please show the civility and restraint that Ms. Adams has not.)
Her e-mail follows after the jump.
Friends,
Texas State Board of Education member Cynthia Dunbar searched for federal authority that would allow President Obama to address all school children. As you see below, he has NO AUTHORITY to intrude into our children’s classrooms and simultaneously address every child in every state.
If parents want their children to view the president, then they have ample opportunities at home without taking time away from their studies. This is eerily like Hitler’s youth movement.
I oppose federal intervention in public schools and support former President Reagan’s campaign promise to abolish the federal Department of Education. Its creation was a payback by former President Carter to the teachers’ unions and has abused public schools of state and local controls since its beginning. The Bush-Kennedy “No Child Left Behind” was no exception.
IF your child’s school is allowing this intrusion, then you can either ask that your child be sent to study hall during the showing AND that NO study guide be used to ask your child to “serve the president.” Or you can ask that your child be granted an excused absence from school on Tuesday, September 8th, the day of the nationwide address.
Cathie Adams
The rest of the e-mail reproduces part of U.S. law dealing with education.
I guess we all just need to understand that the far right political machine has gone light years beyond the civil concept of simple disagreement with what the British call the “loyal opposition.” As I have told you before, Alexander Hamilton was in disagreement with the opponents of his federalism, but he simultaneoulsy recognized that they were men off good intentions who were loyal to the United States and simply wanted the best outcomes for the good of all citizens. They simply had some differing ideas about how to get there, and Hamilton was even sometimes willing to let them “give it the old college try” once around, even when he knew ahead of time that it would probably not work.
My perception of our politics was about the same in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. As many of the old folks would tell me (the kid), “there’s not 2 cents worth of difference between the Republicans and Democrats.” In that time, they somehow drew comfort from that perspective—or so it seemed. It gave people a sense of choice, but it also game them a sense that a steady, constant, and sensible hand was on the wheel of the ship of state–no matter which party was in power.
Towards the end of the 1970s, all of that began to change. American politics had seen a lot of rancor in the 1800s to be sure, particularly in the campaign just preceding Andrew Jackson’s first term. However, something particularly deliberate and nasty started happening to our politics in the late 20th century. Someone (not sure who) decided to start painting the Democratic Party and everyone associated with it or sympathetic to its ideas as the spawn of Satan, the harbinger of wrong, and the full visitation of purified evil upon the Earth. Basically, it started out as a matter of simple advertising, public relations, and mass communications with a premeditated and strategic purpose. Apparently, the early pilot work turned out well beyond someone’s wildest dreams and a war of rarified hatred and slander began in earnest. That hatred snowballed over the years, adhered many innocent bystanders to it along its path, and now has taken on a life of its own, which brings us to today. When I was a child, teachers, parents, and even the rats in the sewers would have gushed and fallen over each other with delight if President Kennedy or President Nixon wanted to address our school children. I know because I lived through those times and knew how people thought back then. Now, vast numbers of Americans view our President of the United States and the prospect of his speech to our school children as a message from Hell being delivered by Satan’s No. 1 appointed representative on Earth. This is not only preposterous but just plain bizarre, and I think this rampant falsehood poses a grave threat to the national security of this country—namely the building elements of a shooting Civil War.
On conservative websites of late, I have seen a number of articles where the authors are complaining about being automatically labeled as racists simply because they criticize President Obama. I am sure there are many fine, sensible conservatives who are not racists and do not deserve to be labeled that way any more than Mr. Obama deserves to be labeled as a Satanic ambassador. However, the fact of the matter is that racism in all of its stripes is alive and well in America, even in my own family, and I firmly believe that those who cry loudest and with enebriated passion against Mr. Obama and his policies are driven by an inner assurance that they are simultaneously battling Satan on the one hand and what they perceive as that “cursed nigger” on the other hand. While I am sure that many people in the Republican Party, Libertarian Party, Constitution Party, and other conservative parties are not overt racists, they have nonetheless included most of our racist citizens and other assorted far right wing nutcases under their tents. They have provided them with shelter, passive encouragement, and a half-hearted, “…Yeah, uh-huh…” to get their votes. Similarly, not to be outdone, the Democratic Party has—in the very same way—included assorted far left wing nut cases under its tent just to get their votes. The problem in both parties is that these crazy minority elements shout so loud and exert so much public relations pressure that the voices of the sensible people on both sides are drown out. These extremist nuts are the ones leading us all straight down the path to some national nightmare. My profound wish would be for the leadership of all these national political parties to turn to these loudmouthed crazies and simply say, and really mean, “You are no longer welcome in this party. Get out now. We do not want your votes. They mean nothing to us anymore. Get out now!!! Stay out!!! Never come back!!!”
There are some nazi party type things going on, but not like she’s stating. We have a depressed economy, a bunch of conservative, nationalist, and – for a large part of them – racist people who are largely in the positions of power in the state such as the board of education, who are definitely not going to do anything to help this President pull the country back around. We have people screaming about secession and shouting at town hall meetings about issues hardly any of us really understand, and we have a big chunk of the population that is disenfranchised here listening to all this going on. Then there is the Texas Pledge they have most of our kids saying every day in public schools all of the sudden, which is kind of creepy and clearly penned by someone suffering from dyslexia. These are the conditions and mental-sets that were at play in Germany in the mid-30s. Getting spanked as hard as the right did in the elections is pretty much creating the same feeling conservatives over there felt about the treaty of versailles which ultimately led to a mass of people following the extremism of the nazis.
Scary as hell to have kids in public school here right now.
In this country every American is given the right to express their opinion on any topic no matter how racist that opinion may or may not be. I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend your right to say it. If you choose to make a fool out of yourself then so be it.
It is wonderful that President Obama wants to encourage our children to stay in school and get an education. His own personal life story is very inspirational and demonstrates to our children that anything can be achieved through education, hard work and determination. It is a story that should be told to encourage others reach high and work for that dream.
I don’t agree with his proposed method of communicating this message to our children. Why is it necessary for any government official at any level to communicate directly to school children on any issue? Historically this method of communication has been used by socialist and communist governments to circumvent parental authority and indoctrinate unsuspecting youth. No matter how innocent President Obama’s motives are it is a dangerous precedence to begin.
There are many other methods of communicating this message via public service announcements , magazine articles, books, TV Movie or a Public Forum in which he can address both parents and their children.
“it is a dangerous precedence to begin”
Donna, you didn’t read the post very closely, did you? Here’s a hint: Look above for “Reagan” and “Bush.” Were they socialist or communist?
I would also add something about my days in school long ago. Every year that came and went had numerous people who would show up at our school to speak to a school-wide assembly of students. They were police officers, preachers, politicians, clowns, magicians, jugglers, doctors with gonads on their minds, and so forth. Our current President is Ivory Soap and vanilla extract compared to many of the characters we had to listen to back then (no choice, no opt out).
Barack Obama puts his pants on in the morning just like everyone else. He’s a regular American just like you and me, and just in case no one noticed, a clear and wide majority of the American people freely, of their own will (and knowing exactly what they were doing at the time) elected him President of the United States. Some of you people out there act as if Obama stepped out of the shadows in some dark alley, stuck a switchblade in your back, and said, “Gimme that President’s job or I’m gonna cutcho white *ss.” We gave him the job. We wanted him to have the job. We liked him. Many of us still like him. Ask Wolf Blitzer. He was there when we gave it to him. The numbers are all well known. It is recorded on video.
I know. I know. He was secretly born into this world in Kenya with a rural witch doctor presiding over his birth. The witch doctor imbued him with great supernatural powers—one of which was the power of mass deception. Therefore, we only thought that a majority of Americans elected him President because “juju” dust had been blown into our eyes. Newt Gingrich is the real elected President, but a group women from Haiti secretly sneaked into Georgia and confined him to his house with voodoo dolls, strings, and pins so Obama could move into the White House. “Marie. Marie. Mahoodoo Oh!!!!”
Now look, I can almost guarantee you that I could arrange to give a talk to some school assembly tomorrow if I wanted to do so. Subject: The Great Mysteries of American Archaeology. If they would take me, why on planet Earth would they not take the President of the United States. Some of you folks out there in “La La Land” need to get a life.
It doesn’t matter to me what politician “George Washington,” “Abraham Lincoln,” “Ronald Reagan” , “John F. Kennedy”, “George W. Bush” , etc.. cares to address our children in school. Party or politics has nothing to do with the issue at hand.
NO politician should use the school system as a medium to communicate directly to children because it CAN and HAS been used by politicians (in other countries ) to circumvent parental authority and indoctrinate youth. It is a historical fact that cannot/should not be ignored.
There are so many other mediums to use that are much more appropriate.
Donna,
To carry your logic a bit further, youth organizations and government schools have been used by dictators in other countries to “indoctrinate” youth. Should we ban the Boy Scouts (which, after all, get plenty of government support) and eliminate public education in the United States? Of course not. That would be absurd. In any case, previous presidents have addressed our nation’s youth without turning them into partisan drones. If a president uses such an address in a clearly inappropriate way — such as promoting a particular partisan agenda — then most Americans will rightly protest. But presidents have an important role in promoting civic values we all share, especially the importance of staying in school and getting a good education. Unfortunately, the far right is feeding unfounded paranoia and undermining such a noble goal for truly ignoble reasons.
Considering the current dropout rates, it should be obvious that a large part of the current crop of parents are doing a poor job of encouraging their children to study hard and stay in school. So much for the efficacy of the “parental authority” that Donna worships. I think it would be wonderful for the children all over this country to hear a 15-20 minute inspirational speech on studying hard and staying in school by someone who has such an inspirational story to tell. I also think these folks that have raised such a ruckus have guaranteed that every child that doesn’t see President Obama’s talk at school will rush home and watch it on YouTube.
Well said, TFN. I would add this…
It appears that Obama intends to speaks to the kids about the value of education–in a nonpartisan manner. Donna, if you have even the tiniest scrap of evidence indicating that Obama is going to attempt to “indoctrinate” the kids, please share the evidence. Otherwise, you’re simply ranting.
TFN said in response to Donna:
“If a president uses such an address in a clearly inappropriate way — such as promoting a particular partisan agenda — then most Americans will rightly protest.”
I think folks like Donna are so scared because they have experienced a sociocultural transfiguration in their own minds, mostly without sensing that it has actually occurred. This is the transfiguration of the famous “One Drop Rule” from crank racial biology to a strictly cultural plane in our own time. You remember the “One Drop Rule” don’t you Donna? Let’s review at this URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule
So, if a person who looks completely white (like Donna) has just one microscopic drop of negro blood anywhere inside her, she is automatically 100 percent negro forever—no exceptions—go to the back of the bus.
The cultural transfiguration? The far right is concerned that just one brief exposure of our school children to a speech from President Obama carries such active, potent, and virulent contamination (Like—oooh—yuck!!! Negro blood!!!) that just ONE DROP will instantly and thoroughly convert their lily white WASP children into 100 percent, stark-raving-mad Negro socialist running dog lackies. It’s the One Drop Rule converted to and operating as a sociocultural and political metaphor in our times.
Going back to what TFN said above, “…a president uses such an address in a clearly inappropriate way — such as promoting a particular partisan agenda — then most Americans will rightly protest.” But you see, that ONE DROP is too powerful to even risk that, and a protest afterwards would be too late. Just ONE DROP will totally consume anything it touches, no matter how briefly. Therefore, the only way to protect our lily white WASP children from this virulent ONE DROP is to spirit our children away from any spot where they would be within eyeshot or earshot of President Obama.
Now watch Donna go into denial.
Here’s the copy of the Obama speech to school children. I have not read it yet. Let’s all read it and see if our children will become instant, metaphorical, ONE DROP negroes:
OBAMA: Hello, everyone — how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through 12th grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.
I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.
I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday — at 4:30 in the morning.
Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”
So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.
Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.
I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.
I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.
I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.
But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.
And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.
Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.
Maybe you could be a good writer — maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper — but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor — maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine — but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a senator or a Supreme Court justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life — I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.
And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.
You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.
We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that — if you quit on school — you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.
Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.
I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.
So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.
But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our first lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.
Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.
But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life — what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home — that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.
Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.
That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.
Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.
I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer — hundreds of extra hours — to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.
And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.
Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same. That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education — and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.
Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.
I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.
But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.
That’s OK. Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you — you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.
No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust — a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor — and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.
And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you — don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.
The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best. It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.
So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?
Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down — don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.
Well, I see several openings for the Religious Right. You can bet they are pouring over it with a microscope to “…find whatever we can to lynch Obama.” I think they might seize on this paragraph:
“You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.”
I just don’t understand why people with cancer and AIDS will not quit bothering other people to find them a cure. If they had any sense of personal responsibility, they would be working away out in their garages trying desperately to find their own cures for their disease and hoping they do it in time. We don’t need any new energy technologies!!! We need to use the ones we have and drill for more oil so I can ride around in my oversized Cadillac on Sunday afternoon and look like a BIG MAN in front of all of my neighbors. Protect the environment!!! There is plenty of environment left. I saw some yesterday on my way down to the convenience store for another six-pack. Why would you want to do a danged fool thing like that??!! Fight poverty and homelessness!!!! They do not need a fight. We could end every bit of poverty and homelessness in this country tomorrow morning if all these lazy bums out here would just get a job. Crime!!! I got five assault rifles at my house and that is all me or anyone else needs to fight crime. Discrimination!!! This is just another example of how our property rights as Americans have been violated. This is my business. I own it and control it. If do not want to hire negroes, Mexicans, or Chinaman, that should be one of my basic rights as an American. No one should be able to tell me what to do with something that is mine. More fair and more free!!! That don’t take no school kids!!! If someone wants to be fair and make me more free this afternnon, all they gotta do is give me back my rights to blow smoke in my favorite restaurant, my right to leave my seatbelt unbuckled, and my right to keep every penny I earn all to myself so I can buy that new bass boat I’ve had my eye on for a couple of months now.
You see. This is just another example of that doggone overcooked President trying to indoctrinate our school children with liberal lies.
Unprecedented? I remember when I was a kid a certain president used his education stunt to find a teacher to shoot up into space on the space shuttle. We all know how that ended. The lesson I learned as a kid? Politicians like to use education to fluff their credentials. I’m sure Obama’s fluff won’t include a NASA Fubar.
People (including someone I know) are still clamoring about Obama’s speech. From a stubborn right-winger: “To prove that he is not going to be politically biased he offers excerpts from his speech with socialist themes.”
Let’s review these socialist themes in Obama’s speech:
– being responsible for your own education
– becoming a writer, inventor, or senator
– curing diseases
– developing energy technology (his brother would be a socialist then!)
– combating homelessness, crime, and discrimination
– learning ESL, fighting brain cancer or living in multiple foster homes and still going on to college
– paying attention in class
– community volunteering
– standing up to bullies
– WASHING YOUR HANDS!!!
– Harry Potter
– Michael Jordan
– The American Revolution
– The Great Depression
– World War II
– the 1960s Civil Rights Movement
– space exploration
– Google, Twitter, and Facebook
During all this dust up over the President’s speech, one explanation made very clear to me that in our form of government, the president wears two hats: That of a politician and that as a head of State. In England, for instance, two different people wear those hats. The politician makes political speeches. The Head of State speaks for the country and it’s common good. It is the Head of State who will be speaking to our children! It is ludacris to compare the “sins” of other countries to what is happening here. Those protesting this need to get a life, or as one talking head said Sunday, “That’s just plain stupid”.
Yeah, capitalist men all have dirty hands from counting their lucre.
Let’s talk about this so-called “bringing politics into the classroom.” When I was in 4th grade, we kids were all herded into the school gym to watch on TV Soviet Premier Nikita S. Khruschev speak to the General Assembly of the United Nations. Though, Premier Khruschev was the world’s leading communist at the time, my REPUBLICAN parents said not one word of protest about their kids being “forced” to listen to the leader of Communist U.S.S.R. Rather, my Republican parents wanted their kids to be educated about the world and what was going on in it. But back then – back in the Dark Ages – people wanted their kids educated.
Now today’s GOP is verbally assassinating the president for encouraging kids to study, stay in school, be responsible, etc. etc. Apparently, today’s REPUBLICAN parents don’t want their kids to be educated about the world or to be encouraged to stay in school, etc etc.
And if staying in school and studying hard is a “socialist” message, am I to gather then that NOT working hard and dropping out of school is the counterpart capitalist message? Well, from what we’ve seen from today’s right-wingnuts, I’d say their message is getting through loud and clear.
And I submit to you that it is the Republican TX SBOE who want to bring politics into the classroom.
And I wish these jerks would make up their minds: Is Obama a Nazi or a Marxist? When he first appeared on the political scene, he was a marxist. Now, apparently, he’s a nazi. Or he’s both?? Fascinating that one can be both at the same time.
Projection, it’s called projection. The wingnuts are projecting their own partisanship and lack of ethics onto the President. They can’t see how he can make a speech without spewing vile hatred as they would, given the chance.
Donna, now that the speech has been made and the reactionary hubbub was clearly unwarranted, are you willing to admit that you were needlessly fearful and accusatory?
I enjoyed watching that jerk who started all of this, the head of the Florida Republican Party, squirm when the news media gave him the 3rd degree bout why none of his “dangerous stuff” was in the speech. At one point, I honestly think his skin color change to be as white as a bed sheet.
It’s too bad that all the health care lies and their creators cannot be brought to the same fate.
Donna complained about the president – any president – speaking directly to students and how offensive that is to her. Well, advertizers have been addressing kids directly over the airwaves for decades. “Hey kids, you need to buy this, because it’s cool.”
I guess when the broadcast message is capitalist (i.e. buy this, buy that), that makes the direct contact with kids OK.
Charles, the health care lies will never see the light of day as long as corporate interests and their lobbyists are in control.
Bush as Hitler, Swastika-Mania: A Retrospective
http://www.zombietime.com/zomblog/?p=612
The media are currently apoplectic about the Obama-as-Hitler references at town hall meetings across the country.
As we have reported again and again, they are often incorrectly ascribing these references to talk radio host Rush Limbaugh and conservatives – as it is lunatic fringe Leftist Lyndon LaRouche that is making these Obama-as-Hitler posters and comparisons.
But this collective media conniption at references to the President as Der Fuhrer is a new development. Back in the George W. Bush days, the Jurrasic Press was far less reviled by the often made Bush-as-Hitler comparisons, and indeed some saw similarites.
As you can see in the video at right. Anyone remember CNN’s Susan Roesgen? She is the recently ex-CNN reporter who made a name for herself by assaulting on-air April 15 TEA Party protesters this past Tax Day.
But this clip is from January 13, 2006, with Ms. Roesgen reporting from New Orleans on Hurricane Katrina. During which she says, in reference to a man in a giant Bush head with a Hitler mustache (and devil horns):
“City officials aren’t the only ones wondering when federal money will materialize. Catholic school girls marched on Jackson Square. They and their teachers say more money is needed to fix the levees, and they hoped the President would stop by after his meeting with business leaders. But while a look-alike showed up with a wad of cash, Mr. Bush did not.”
“Look-alike?” Where’s the outrage? Where’s the indignation?
Like LaRouche today, these were Leftists making the comparison. And the media didn’t seem to mind.
What has changed between then and now? Oh yes, the Party of the occupant of the Oval Office.
Some Presidents, it seems, are more equal than others.
—Seton Motley is Director of Communications for the Media Research Center and Contributing Editor for NewsBusters.org.
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2009/08/13/cnn-video-2006-bush-hitler-mustache-no-outrage-called-look-alike
Do as I say writes:
So Ben Stein and Glenn Beck are LaRouchites when they compared President Obama to Hitler and Mussolini?
http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=40816
http://mediamattersaction.org/smears/200909170014
http://gawker.com/5347396/glenn-becks-hysteria-reaches-new-heights-with-obama-saddam-comparison
And Rush Limbaugh is a LaRouchite, too?
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908060021
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8w-Ll0JXSU
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200908100022
http://mediamatters.org/research/200908070023
Wow. Who knew?
The truth is that the kooky fringe right — which includes people like Beck, Limbaugh, Stein and Cathie Adams — frequently compare President Obama and his actions to Hitler, Mussolini, the Nazis and the fascists. And yet, the Republican Party of Texas has now named one of those fringe right-wingers — Adams — as their leader.