You can read the remarks given by the President this morning to our nation’s school children here.
How dare he encourage our kids to stay in school and be accountable for their own education? What kind of gall does he have to suggest that they may have to work hard in life? It’s just un-American I tell you!
Merely telling kids to stay in school, to be accountable and to work hard obviously are not what got GOP thongs in a wad over Obama speechifying to school children, just like none of those straw men were what made Democrats denounce Bush 41’s similarly unremarkable speech to school children, order the GAO to investigate its production, and hold hearings in 1991.
What got the GOP throngs in a wad is that they are morons.
I really appreciate the way in which David K. confines himself to addressing the issues and arguements at hand and never resorts to infantile personal attacks.
*yawn* whatever gahrie. I’m not going to pussyfoot around this issue pretending that there is some legitimate gripe here. This isn’t a matter of disagreeing over policy issues or significant viewpoints. Its a bunch of idiots throwing a tantrum because the President of the United States dared to speak to their children. Whatever happened to respecting the office even if you disagreed with the office holder that was so highly touted by the right wing when there were actual policy disagreements with George W. Bush being aired by his critics?
These people are acting as if Obama is going to come into their house, take their children and make them watch Farenheit 9/11 until they promise to vote Democrat for the rest of their life. The histerics I saw some parents going into on various news outlets over the idea that the President would be talking to school children was absolutely ludicrous. They’ve bought hook, line, and sinker into the vile and despicable fear mongering being put out there by opportunistic bastards like Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin about how Obama is some sort of secret muslim terrorist hell bent on turning this country in to the next communist paradise.
Those opinions are not only absurd, they are also deserving of no respect whatsoever.
If parents choose to go into hysterics and keep their kids home rather than having them hear from our President about how important it is for them to stay in school and work hard, well thats their choice, but I’m not going to pretend its an intelligent or well reasoned point of view. Its not. Its idiocy. And I would say the same thing of parents who wanted to do the same had George W. Bush decided to address the nation.
For all their bluster about putting America first and wanting to unite the nation, the right wing has demonstrated over and over that what they ACTUALLY mean is putting their party first and stamping out descent. These parents are actually afraid, genuinely afraid that their children might be exposed to an idea that they disagree with. Do you not see how dangerous of a mindset it is? They have no problem of course setting the little ones down to listen to Papa Rush or Bill O’Reilly pontificate on the evils of different beliefs day in and day out, but the mere thought, the mere idea that their children would be exposed to the President of the United States is terrifying for them? You expect me to look that in the face and say “yeah sure they have a legitimate complaint”???
Bullshit.
Its just another stunning example of the lack of intelligence of far too many members of the right wing in this country, their willingness to cede critical thinking and intelligent examination of ideas for fast quick answers offered by blow hard racist, bigotted, fear mongering opportunists who hide behind a viel of patriotism and Christian values, all the while ignoring the obvious lack of both being exhibited by these so called “leaders”. They buy into fear and lies because its easier for them than actually having to THINK. Black and white. Good and evil. Right and wrong. They want their answers simple and short. Its an almost cartoonish view of the world where you have the hero, the villan and there is no middle ground. Its an intellectually and morally bankrupt worldview and does far more harm to this country and Obama could possibly do giving a speech to children in school.
And then when you look at the ACTUAL text of the speech, any rational person should decry the extremist rhetoric as just that. How shold the right wing show true leadership? Easy. Stand up and tell people “Look, we may not agree on every issue, but Barack Obama is the Pesident, and his message to our children is one that we can ALL agree on.”
Instead its politics as usual, to use Sarah Palin’s phrase correctly for once. Blame the opposition, tell everyone to be afraid of your opponent. He’s bad. He’s evil. He’s a terrorist. He’s not American. He will brainwash your children.
It’s bullshit, and the people who buy into it are, plain and simply put, morons.
LOL . . . I doubt anyone thought David was “going to pussyfoot around this issue pretending that there is some legitimate gripe here,” but the Obama administration clearly realized their original plan to have school children write letters about how to “help the president” was inappropriate and crossed the line into propaganda because the Dept. of Education revised the lesson plan in response to all the gripes, which they surely wouldn’t have done if such criticism was invalid.
Oh *I* get it, only Republicans are allowed to invoke Patriotism. Sorry I forgot about that rule. I also like how you think the idea that the original plan was the problem even though these sorts of things go through LOTS of drafts, and even after it was changed Joe and Jane Moron were still crying crocodile tears about how little Johnny and Janey were going to be exposed to that evil evil man and his scary ideas about accountability and hard work!
There are issues where there can be legitimate disagreement. This is not one of those issues. If you side with the wing nuts on the right about this one, you are an idiot, plain and simple.
…must…not…get…sucked…into…vortex…of…stupid…
You are already a right winger, so its a little too late.
Although I’d love to hear a principled objection to the idea of the President encouraging children to stay in school and work hard.
Basically there is none. If Bush had done this and liberals had objected they would have been called traitors who hated their country and were disrespecting the office of the President. The right wing is full of hypocrites.
“If Bush had done this and liberals had objected they would have been called traitors who hated their country and were disrespecting the office of the President.”
Uhhmmm… a Bush DID, and the Democrats not only objected, they launched a Congressional investigation!
LOL…C’mon gahrie, who can forget the nonstop calls of “TRAITOR!” and cries of “You hate your country!” leveled against Democrats who held hearings when Bush made virtually the same speech as Obama (sans the objectionable lesson plans) in 1991. Wait, you mean those things didn’t happen? Oh, nevermind.
Although I’d love to hear a principled objection to the idea of the President encouraging children to stay in school and work hard.
Straw man. But just for shits and giggles, how about this:
Or this:
Or this:
Oh wait, you mean those statements were made 18 years ago? It’s amusing to hear cries of hypocrisy in a two-party system when the accusation almost always cuts both ways, as it so clearly does here.
So what you are saying is because Democrats 20 years ago were stupid its ok for Republicans today to be equally stupid? Thats what you are setting your bar at? I mean I knew you would bring it up, but come on, its not an actual defense of what the GOP morons did this time around, its just an attempt to say “we can be stupid cause other people are too!”.
It doesn’t matter who does it, objecting to the President making a speech to children to stay in school and work hard is moronic. It was then, and it is now. So quit with the misdirection and either come up with some actual defense of the criticism this time around (hint: you can’t) or shut up and admit you are wrong (as usual).
Although I’d love to hear a principled objection to the idea of the President encouraging children to stay in school and work hard.
Straw man.
Um, no its really not, because thats EXACTLY what you are defending here. So like I said above, put up or shut up.
Now you’re just repeating yourself. I have no interest in doing the same, so I’ll just refer you to my previous comments.
In other words, you have no excuse, no defense. You are a right wing ideologue who will buy in to whatever the pundits say and no matter what the facts are Obama will always be wrong, period. Glad to see you have such a principled point of view. At least you are consistent and predictable.
^ consistent and predictable.
You are a right wing ideologue who will buy in to whatever the pundits say….
LOL….well then I definitely buy into what this pundit, an Obama supporter, says:
Right, because unreleased material was the problem, not the conservative douchebaggery. And since when is it coercive to ask students how they can help our President or our country? Isn’t that what people like you preached for years during Bush’s time in office? How liberals should shut the hell up and just go along with what Bush said so we could help our country? It was ok then, for President Bush to ask American’s to make sacrifices and to do what they could to help him, but for Obama to consider asking children to come upw ith ideas on how they can help? It would be one thing if ti were say “How can I help the President pass health care reform, or abort babies” or some other such nonesense, but the mere idea of asking children to help our leader and this nation? When did THAT become offensive to Republicans? Or do they only want the country to do well when they are in charge? I think thats likely what you actually want. You want this country to suffer with a Democrat in office so it will validate your world view. You would rather things go poorly for this country than admit you were WRONG.
The big difference you are either missing or ignoring David is the eerie cult of personality thing around Pres. Obama that neither Pres. Bush had. We’ve already seen teachers using school time to teach their students songs, chants and dance routines to honor The One.
It is quite easy to see teachers spending classtime to critically analyze a speech by a President Bush….how much time do you think was spent in critical analysis of President Obama’s speech?
You want this country to suffer with a Democrat in office so it will validate your world view. You would rather things go poorly for this country than admit you were WRONG.
ROFLMAO….and then tomorrow sure as shit David will be denouncing those on the Right who question the patriotism of their opponents, who think the Left hates America, etc. This is beyond satire.
Camille Paglia, an Obama supporter who has had the scales fall from her eyes (but who apparently still wants this country to suffer while Obama is in charge!), is correct that soliciting students to write letters on how to “help” the President is coercive because there didn’t appear to be any allowance for students to disagree with what Obama says, question his values, or doubt his intentions. The “imbecilic support materials” she referred to were designed to “teach” the speech in an oddly servile manner. No one thinks children were going to run out afterwards and say that abortion and higher taxes are patriotic or anything like that, but it’s the principle of the thing that matters.
And if the GOP were “morons” for raising such objections, then the Obama administration is doubly moronic for getting rolled by them.
You are full of shit Joe Mama. You are a coward behind an internet pseudonym and right wing talking points. You make claims about these lesson plans that hadn’t even been distributed yet. You might as well be claiming that the first draft of someones thesis is a good reason to deny them their doctorate. Its just more of the same pathetic fear mongering and red herrings trying to distract from the actual issue, that Republican histrionics over a speech that if given by a Republican would have been praised to high heaven is proof, yet again that the GOP is a party of do nothing obstructionists who are not interested in principled opposition or meaningful discourse but rapid attacks on those who they deem a threat to their precious ideological purities. Its a sign of how degenerate the right wing in this country has become that they must rely on fear and lies to try and stop their opponents because really, they have nothing constructive to offer the nation. They have become morally bankrupt, traded in their purported beliefs in ideas like fiscal conservativism and individual rights for egregious violations of both in the name of winning elections and appeasing the base that has been drummed up by faux-Christians like Limbaugh, Hannity, and O’Reilly. It’s pathetic and its harmful to our nation that there is no principled opposition, merely rapid dogs foaming at the mouth ready to tear this nation to shreds in the name of false patriotism. Its disgusting.
David K: Tell the truth…you got a grant from the NEA right?
While loth to wade into the discussion, it does strike me that Joe Mama at 19 makes a pretty good point: it is a bit creepy to ask kids to write ‘How can I help the President?’ as opposed to something like ‘What did I think about the President’s statement, and where will I go from here’.
David argued that it was a first draft, though this is certainly not true: knowing the reaction to GHWB’s similar speech in 1991, its hard to fathom that no-drama Obama floated those materials without vetting them several times behind the scenes.
This is being written by someone who still believes Obama is our first mensch President in a long time, maybe ever, and has very high hopes for the guy. But in principle it strikes me that Americans should hold their leaders’ feet to the fire when they do things that are suspicious. After all, very few if any of us really “know” these people. (“Know” isn’t code for “he’s black”, by the way…just means that Obama is basically a stranger to all of us). David, you rightly criticized Republicans for their utter failure in this regard with Bush 43. But you may be wearing the same blinders with Obama.
When David emotes in one of his signature pointless screeds filled with ad hominems, straw men, non-sequiturs and an elephantine dose of irony, then my work here is finished.
Reality disagrees with you Joe Mama. Reality has shown that the mainstream conservative of today is just like you and sadly just as I have described. The country is the worse off for it, but you will continue to hide behind blind ideology and hypocrisy. Keep up the good work, yer doin a heck of a job.
Yer not.