Obama, USA: Back to (school) divisions

I doubt we are much more polarized than we have been for the last 20 years. We forget, but the Bush I speech to the students ended up in a House investigation:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated-held-hearings-57694347.html

Rick

Hi kids, I understand that your parents are at home watching this same show because they have lost their jobs. I want you to remember that, in spite of what they tell you, it really is all George Bush's fault.

This is the lesson I want you to learn today, if you are totally inept and incompetent, blame all of your failings on others.

Now let me tell you why poor people, who have never worked a day in their lives, need money from your out-of-work parents to get better health care.........

Obama's speech is the positive message that today's youth needs to receive. Politicizing it shows selfishness on the part of people who feel the need to take any opportunity to grandstand.

RB

These words from a guy who had his grades sealed. What's he hiding?
I would've held my kids home but my wife wants them to go and just not watch it. It'll be a teaching moment.
I told my kids when they ask
"how has obama motivated you" to reply - he's motivated me to always vote republican and buy a gun!
Funny how when Bush did this the democrats called a paid political advertisement, but now that their boy is doing it - it's wonderful and as duncan called it "unprecedented" - I guess arne doesn't know the meaning of the word or just reads what he's told to say - like barry does.

This pretty much sums up the lying sack of crap republicans and their honesty. Jim Greer who wanted to blast Obama goes into schools himself. The right is insane!

This man not only talked to his son about Republican values, he went into public-school classrooms and talked about them as well.

That man is Jim Greer — the same Jim Greer who, as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, just threw a nationwide hissy fit, claiming that the classroom is no place for politics and Barack Obama's "indoctrination."

One Seminole County mother, Barbara Wells, remembers the day Greer spoke to her son's sixth-grade class. "My son said he made some sort of Hillary Clinton joke," she recalled.

What a joke this man and the republican party have become.

Just sit back and relax, folks. Barack Obama is only performing a routine presidential duty that has been performed by presidents for generations. There's nothing to be afraid of. He's not trying to turn your babies into mini Marxists. This isn't the Trotsky For Toddlers program. The president of the United States merely wants to have a heart to heart talk with the children of America about the importance of a good education, that's all. I promise you, we Progressives do not believe in evil, subliminal messages. Chill out!

stneraP ruoY lliK - nerdlihC

Just kidding.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

The Bush&Cheney fringe has tried to stir this nation into a frenzy, only to find out their lies, distortions and goonish poses, inform a great many Americans, what fringe-jobs they are !! Like their Princes, Bush&Cheney, they can't tell the nation the truth, because they know they would be run out of town, on a rail !! How do you overcome that mountain of shortcomings ? You obfuscate, you bully, you mislead, you do whatever it takes to distract our nation, as to the true picture of what their incompetent Princes, left in their wake !! Their claIms, loud and shrill, that their patriotism is intact and true, rings hollow, time after time, lie after lie !! Their ineptitude is on full display every time they open their mouths, or post a screed !! How unfortunate, at a time when America can use all the support she can garner, of the Jack and Jills, of the Republican/Libertarian Party, their pants are on fire and their noses are as long as telephone wires !!
SUPPORT OUR TROOPS, BRING THEM HOME, ALIVE AND WHOLE. NOW.

What the article doesn't say is that early parental concern about the speech centered on the Education Department's suggested discussion points which reflected Obama's penchant for making himself the focus of the speech instead of the kids. In addition, his many speeches that hint at a socialization of America and his criticisms of everything America cause parents - Democrat and Republican - uneasiness over the possibility of his possible influencing of young minds. Fortunately, he removed the offending lines from the final draft released yesterday.

SUGGESTION TO THE RIGHT WING:

Just sit back and relax, folks. Barack Obama is only performing a routine presidential duty that has been performed by presidents for generations. There's nothing to be afraid of. He's not trying to turn your babies into mini Marxists. This isn't the Trotsky For Toddlers program. The president of the United States merely wants to have a heart to heart talk with the children of America about the importance of a good education, that's all. I promise you, we Progressives do not believe in evil, subliminal messages. Chill out!

stneraP ruoY lliK - nerdlihC

Just kidding.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

Hey, i have no problem with the speech as many presidents have done the same, it's the "menu of classroom activities" that had me upset. Everything this president does is political, so what would make this any different?

These 'Republicans' presumably hate the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 4H, Campfire Girls and every other organization that tries to inspire and help kids. On one hand it's laughable, on the other one really does wonder about the background of these 'Republicans'. There's something wrong with them for sure.

When Bush talked in 1991, there was an investigation afterwards, led by Democrats.

[Print] [Email]
When Bush spoke to students, Democrats investigated, held hearings
By: BYRON YORK
Chief Political Correspondent
09/08/09 7:11 AM EDT
The controversy over President Obama's speech to the nation's schoolchildren will likely be over shortly after Obama speaks today at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. But when President George H.W. Bush delivered a similar speech on October 1, 1991, from Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington DC, the controversy was just beginning. Democrats, then the majority party in Congress, not only denounced Bush's speech -- they also ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate its production and later summoned top Bush administration officials to Capitol Hill for an extensive hearing on the issue.
Unlike the Obama speech, in 1991 most of the controversy came after, not before, the president's school appearance. The day after Bush spoke, the Washington Post published a front-page story suggesting the speech was carefully staged for the president's political benefit. "The White House turned a Northwest Washington junior high classroom into a television studio and its students into props," the Post reported.
With the Post article in hand, Democrats pounced. "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students," said Richard Gephardt, then the House Majority Leader. "And the president should be doing more about education than saying, 'Lights, camera, action.'"
Democrats did not stop with words. Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush's appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing devoted to the speech. "The hearing this morning is to really examine the expenditure of $26,750 of the Department of Education funds to produce and televise an appearance by President Bush at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, DC," Ford began. "As the chairman of the committee charged with the authorization and implementation of education programs, I am very much interested in the justification, rationale for giving the White House scarce education funds to produce a media event."
Unfortunately for Ford, the General Accounting Office concluded that the Bush administration had not acted improperly. "The speech itself and the use of the department's funds to support it, including the cost of the production contract, appear to be legal," the GAO wrote in a letter to Chairman Ford. "The speech also does not appear to have violated the restrictions on the use of appropriations for publicity and propaganda."
That didn't stop Democratic allies from taking their own shots at Bush. The National Education Association denounced the speech, saying it "cannot endorse a president who spends $26,000 of taxpayers' money on a staged media event at Alice Deal Junior High School in Washington, D.C. -- while cutting school lunch funds for our neediest youngsters."
Lost in all the denouncing and investigating was the fact that Bush's speech itself, like Obama's today, was entirely unremarkable. "Block out the kids who think it's not cool to be smart," the president told students. "If someone goofs off today, are they cool? Are they still cool years from now, when they're stuck in a dead end job. Don't let peer pressure stand between you and your dreams.

Funny how no one made a big deal of this when Ronald Reagan blatantly asked school children to "help him with his agenda," in a TV broadcast, nor when the first President Bush addressed the nation's students on TV. What it comes down to is racism, pure and simple. And, by the way, I'm a white male.

The President is scheduled to give this speech to Congress on Wednesday. We got the script and filmed our own version. While in Cincinnati at the AFL-CIO Picnic, a White House Staffer dropped a set of working notes for the President's planned speech on the Future of Health Care in America. We recorded some of the introductory statements and then skipped ahead to the important points that were on a sheet with the word VISION underlined at the top of the page. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekDtq60AsLY Hope you like our spoof! Visit www.BeHeardNotHerded.com

the one lady iv seen was so distraught about the prez speaking to the kids you think she just lost her left arm. i thought it was nice when reagen did it . have a nice day

In dealing with them in public forums, like the Swamp front page:
-
Never apologize.
Never admit weakness.
Never concede points.
Never defend.
Always attack.

Perhaps a real "journalist" might ponder the propaganda inherent in the following:

"The “corrected” lesson plans the U.S. Department of Education is suggesting that schools around the country use to turn President Obama’s speech to students today into a “teachable moment” still call for teachers to read books about Obama and to post quotations from Obama in large print on classroom walls.

The Department of Education created two “menus of classroom activities” for use with the president’s speech. One is designed to guide Pre-K through 6th grade teachers, and the other is designed to guide 7th through 12th grade teachers.

The “menus” caused some controversy last week because the original version for Pre-K through 6th grade suggested that students, “Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” In the corrected version, the guide now calls for students to: “Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.”

However, the corrected Pre-K through 6th grade “menu” currently posted on the Department of Education Web site and linked from the White House Web site suggests that teachers of Pre-K through 6th grade classes read books about Barack Obama in order to “build background knowledge” for instructing students about the president and his speech.

The first point on Pre-K through 6th grade lesson plan says: “Teachers can build background knowledge about the President of the United States and his speech by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.”

The “menu” for 7th through 12th grade suggests that teachers post “large print” quotations from Obama’s speeches about education on their classroom walls.

“Teachers may post in large print around the classroom notable quotes excerpted from President Obama’s speeches on education,” says the lesson plan.

The lesson plans do not suggest posting on classroom walls quotations from any other American president, living or dead." (from cns)

Or perhaps a true "journalist" might note that in his speech Obama refers to himself 55 times, but only 3 times to the country.

A man whose life story and accomplishments are testaments to education and self improvement.

Not only should Obama's speech be heard in every schoolroom; his books should be required reading.

I have no problem what-so-ever with the president addressing the nations public school's and his message of "stay in school". The youth squad emails and text messages to his faithfull followers continue on a weekly basis, yet the approval ratings for our president continue to flounder. People are waking up, voting age adult's that is! School children cannot vote so who cares. It will be in one ear and out the other as those children with parents that care have already heard the speech and those with non-existant parents or parents that don't care will laugh it off!

Mr. Silva continues his typical style of reporting. Half truth's never support a loser Mr. Silva! regarding Mr. Jones resignation? The dust-up? remarks about Republicans? what were they that any other staunch Democrat hasn't made?

Please! the man made too many racist statements regarding "white polluter's corrupting black neighborhood's" and let's not forget the fact that he claimed himself to be a "communist".

No wonder the Obama Czar's are not vetted by the US Senate. No accountability at all other than keeping lock-step with the Obama doctrine.

Transparency? Change we can Belive in? Laughable!

Hey, let's bring those troops home SAFE - NOW! opp's not gonna happen.

Very inspirational speech I loved how he aimed for our kids of today to plan for tomorrow, its not giving them political empowerment or guiding them in the wrong direction as the media portrayed but its giving them hope that through all the struggles and storms you may cross you will come out the hero In the end way to go Mr. President.

I see the the new tact is to compare Bush 1's speech since it seems republicans have acted like aholes to borrow Van Jones words. Most of these people posting were probably 10 when Bush made the speech and really don't remember it. I was 43 and remember no flap over it. Especially from parents. There were no whacko's crying over it I can tell you. The second thing is that the end of the speech, Bush asked exactly the same thing these pussywillows objected to.....write a letter how to help the president. Wow...how terrible. Keep defending your lack of respect of the Office of the president, it is UnAmerican, traitorist, and typically mental. The leader of this whole stink led by Greer himself is a hypocrite and you all should be ashamed of yourselves but I know you can't argue with mental.

Cannot beleive the media fell for the antics of the Right and joined in calling this a “controversy.” Its Notre Dame all over again…

http://www.political-buzz.com/

I think it is a good speech. I really don't know what the big fuss it about

"I told my kids when they ask
"how has obama motivated you" to reply - he's motivated me to always vote republican and buy a gun"

Wow, what a great parent you are! Encouraging political violence in your kids. I'm sure your little ones will make great terrorists some day. You sure have set them non the right track to be the next Timothy McVeigh's. I'm sure you'll be proud when they kill a bunch of their fellow citizens.

The most disgusting thing about this Health Care debate is clowns such as "Hussein" and others who claim that Reform is meant to protect poor people. Guess what you dolts, poor people are already qualified for Medicare. Reform is for those who can't find coverage because of pre-existing exclusions or work for employers who don't offer coverage. You people are disgusting idiots!

Perhaps it would have made PERFECT sense to have the children "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help President Calvin Coolidge, or President Robert Taft, or President McKinley. God forbid we have children write letters grounded in current events instead of fiction based time travel Presidential advisement scenarios. Barack Obama is the the President of the United States of America....TODAY!!!! You Republicans can't accept it, so you hate and you spew anger and vitriol.

little bill - Congressman Greer has made the very opposite statements since the Obama administration changed the "side notes" accompanying the speech as directed to public school teachers. Take a minute from your hatered of all things not Obama to read a bit more of Congressman Greer's comments about the speech. He liked it! he didn't like the original intent to direct teacher's comments and classroom antics regarding an Obama lovefest of sorts.

As usual, mental midget and little bill are one in the same. Rant your little rant and then forget to correct yourself as you've been proven wrong time and again.

Bring them home SAFE - NOW right Don? What's the murder - death - kill count in Afghanistan and Pakistan today Don? Isn't president Obama increasing the US troop count instead of bringing them home? Change you can believe in if you wear blinders like an old draft horse.

I hope all of the illiterate mouth-breathing Republicans kept their kids home from school today, it will keep us hard working tax payers from wasting more time and money on the offspring of the mental midgets who make up what's left of todays Republican party.

Take a minute from your hatered of all things not Obama to read a bit more of Congressman Greer's comments about the speech.
Posted by: springfieldSpringfield | September 8, 2009 2:53 PM

Take a moment out from your hate all thing Obama and read:

"Republicans get up and go to work," he would tell his son. "Democrats get up and go down to the mailbox to get their checks."

This man not only talked to his son about Republican values, he went into public-school classrooms and talked about them as well.

That man is Jim Greer — the same Jim Greer who, as chairman of the Republican Party of Florida, just threw a nationwide hissy fit, claiming that the classroom is no place for politics and Barack Obama's "indoctrination."

Now how you can say he has a leg to stand on is beyond me. This is exactly what he was complaining about...EXACTLY! Not only that but he threw in a few Hillary jokes in school too...if you'ld like I'll post proof!

So this is the latest apocalypse from what's left of todays Republican party? They will all take a break from shouting down terminally ill people at town halls, and from wondering whether our president has a circumcised penis, and whether that would imply deficient citizenship on his part, if the answer was the wrong one. They will pause, momentarily, in their efforts to declare that preventing sick people from going bankrupt and sending themselves and their families into lifelong poverty is, in fact, a slippery slope to communism, and from writing signs warning against the dangers of Facism and Marxism, whatever those are.

This is the latest "battleground" for what's left of todays Republican party, because America, its discourse and its governance has, to put it as tersely as possible, become all but enslaved to the stupidest, most uneducated, trashiest, most fanatic, most incompetent, most mentally unbalanced, most flat out freaking dumb set of people/Republicans to ever manage to walk upright. After a millennium of being led around by great leaders and not so great leaders, of great debates and petty ones, of steady marches towards freer and richer and more enlightened societies, Republicans have apparently decided to chuck it all, because any pulsing mound of meat Wingnut with the ability to work a magic marker will now be seen as a god to them.

Sarah Palin is, for a large part of the Republican Party, the closest thing to an intellectual voice that their version of know-nothing populism will allow, and that is very nearly the scariest thought to set itself down in the political landscape for a great many years.

Republican leaders have taken intelligence to the guillotine, and lopped its head clean off: from now on "the opposition is plotting to kill your grandmother" will have far more sway to the average Republican idiot, than any actual realities of a healthcare system clearly and blatantly gone wrong. They boo those with medical conditions. They deny outright that the first non-white President of the United States is even a citizen of his own country, much less leader of it. They still insist that an administration (Bush, Cheney) breaking the law is less divisive and controversial than daring to investigate it. They put brick-stupid or malevolently selfish people on television, and feign outrage at anyone who points out their stupidity or selfishness. And they actually believe that the President speaking to their children is the onset of "communism", although perhaps barely a tenth of the Republican minions who utter it have any actual notion of what "communism" might actually be.

Honestly, at this point I wonder if we do not deserve every bit of what we get as a country. Republicans have worked very hard to erode the public-mindedness of our government, press and citizenry enough to get to this point. Perhaps we should count ourselves lucky if future generations of Republicans can write their own names.

American kids need to know their president, whether they support his policy agenda or not

Guess what you dolts, poor people are already qualified for Medicare. Reform is for those who can't find coverage because of pre-existing exclusions or work for employers who don't offer coverage. You people are disgusting idiots!

Posted by: simply the truth | September 8, 2009 2:07 PM

A guy who thinks "Medicare" covers the poor is calling others "dolts'? I may be a "disgusting idiot", but at least I know that "Medicaid" is the federa' program that provides health care for the poor, but that even Medicaid does not cover tadults without children (except for the disabled).

I find the speech really inspiring not only for the children but for the adults as well. I think there's nothing wrong to what he advice the kids, that is, to work hard in school and pursue for better grades. I hope that the parents will reinforce the messages that their kids heard.

Hey, John D don't forget the day Bush left his vacation to go play air guitar at a Republican fundraiser while a major American city is devastated. Ignoring a major American tragedy is hard work when you are Presdient of the United States, you certainly wouldn't want to call laughing and joking while people drown a vacation, would you?

What the Hey! Somebody needs to talk to and inspire our youth. Obama is just that man! The right is outraged, wow! Maybe they need to take their leaders and inspire the youth of America! Who would they start with? Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Bush 41, Hannity, Larry Craig, the Evangelist, Ted Haggard, Tom DeLay, Dick Cheney, etc. etc.. The Republicans really don't have anyone I would want talking to my child! They spew hatred and fear, they had better step back and take a good look! Maybe greed gets in the way! whiteagle38

" bill r": "I was 43 and remember no flap over it". Really, Because you don't remember the flap does not mean it didn't exist. The Democrats got the GAO to investigate how much was spent on the speech and the House held hearings on the propriety and cost of the speech. I would say that was a flap.

Rick

I would say that was a flap.

Rick

Posted by: Rick Caird | September 9, 2009 2:30 PM

and would you say there were women crying in 1991 that the evil president of the United States was going to turn their kids into zombies? Did we have a channel devoted to passing along the fear. Like I said before......I remember 1991......and there was absolutely no where near the hysteria from the opposition like the whackos over today's speech. Very little "public" reaction. We always expect it from politicians.

All of this chaos over nothing. Parents are so called "worried about what Obama is telling their children". What do you think he's telling them? TO STAY IN SCHOOL!! let's just stops the games, this has nothing to do with politics, brainwashing, or any other stupid lies and excuses people are making up in order to disrespect the president. he's not just a president, HE'S A BLACK PRESIDENT. I'm not suprised that this happened. This country is so fake its unbelievable. We hide behind our so called constitution, and our money says "IN GOD WE TRUST". Tell me how can you proclaim to be a christian nation and have real values, when we cant even RESPECT the person we appointed as our leader? This a prime example of why MANY other nations don't respect our country. He's our president, and HE'S BLACK. GET OVER IT!!!

My paraphrased version of an old Chinese proverb: "Give a man a fish to eat. And, he'll come back to ask for more. Teach a man how to fish and he will catch his own fish to eat.

Education is the cure to ignorance but it is not the cure for evil.

Rodney King,

Too bad the gov't run school system doesn't have any fishing poles.