Barack Obama's Education Speech: The Not-At-All Socialist Indoctrination
At this point, most of the noise about Barack Obama wanting to indoctrinate school children in a back-to-school speech has mostly faded from view. Newt Gingrich has repudiated it. Historians (and White House aides) have pointed out that past Republican presidents--George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan--delivered the same sorts of messages. Some of those Republican leaders who made a stink over the President's plan--like Florida GOP chair Jim Greer--are getting a Labor Day grilling from their local press. [UPDATE: Greer now says, "It's a good speech."]
But now that the speech has been released--see the full text here--there is a greater irony at play. Rather than any lefty, neo-socialist, communitarian brainwashing, President Obama's speech to your kids reads like a paean to individual striving and free market capitalism, the sort of thing that Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater might have signed onto. At root, Obama's message is one of individual responsibility, a disquisition on the freedom of American youth to fail or succeed on their own tenacity and merits:
[N]o 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. . . .
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. . . .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.
BECK: It's time for some personal responsibility. It is time for people to take on the responsibility that they have for themselves. Why don't we talk about personal responsibility anymore? Why don't we reach out to the American people and say, "Hey, government is not the answer. Nine out of ten times government's the problem."GOVERNOR PALIN: I know. Let us preach, reaching people when they know there is a candidate willing to talk about this.
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1
You mean those same shamelessly fraudulent, amoral lying teabaggers who brought us death panels, birther wackos, Kenyan muslim birth certificates, Joe the Plumb Bob and "keep your socialist guvmint hands off'n mah Medicare," tried to MISLEAD us on this?
NOOOO!
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1.1
Huh?
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Do you really believe that Mr.Obama said yesterday the same speech he was going to make as of 9/3/09?
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I simply could not believe that somebody capable of reading could be that stupid.
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2
This has truly been one of the most disgusting RW spectacles of lunacy, paranoia and fear-mongering.
How are we supposed to deal with these people like normal, sane human beings?
It has been revolting and the Republicans should be ashamed of themselves but they seem to completely lacking in any sense of shame.
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2.1
kristiia, the monsters who intentionally perpetrate this vile, vicious, outrageous right-wing manure have no conscience. They are amoral. They live only to mindlessly destroy Barack Obama. No low is too low for these cretinous liars
Being amoral and lacking all conscience, these jackals are incapable of ever experiencing shame.
Just ask Family Values-promoting prostitute-monger and GOP Senator David "Diaper Dave" Vitter (R-LA).
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2.2
further to what bentonf said...
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It's not just Obama. Any, ANY, democrat is going to take these kind of shots. Witness John Kerry's "Purple-Heart Band-Aids" of 2004. Totally repugnant. Every serviceman, servicewoman, veteran, and service family member should have voted against the GOP right there and then. Sadly, this wasn't the case and hate wins a 50.1% to 49.9% election.
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Time to get *Fired Up* .
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3
Well, okay. Since signing a petition asking for an investigation into possible connections between the Bush and bin Laden families now disqualifies people from public service, will all Republicans in government who made the lunatic suggestion that the President, elected with vast support from the business community, wanted to indoctrinate our youth into socialism now resign?
Will Joe Klein, who believes that Van Jones should have resigned call on Greer to step out of politics for violating a clear "bright line?"
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4
Well it is a much improved speech to the school children of this Nation. The theme of "what you need to do in school" is so much better than the original version "what you can do for me, for the President of the United States".
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I am truly glad that Barack the narcissist Obama chose this new and improved variation over his other more "personal" message. Perhaps you should also read this version which was released earlier on by the White House, Michael. This is what started the backlash from parents. This article has the link to the "Teacher lesson plan", which starts off with;
Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be President?
To whom do you think the President is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20090903/pl_ynews/ynews_pl888_1
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Perhaps it is what it is, Obama's continued effort at sensationalism. Creating a "crisis" when one doesn't even exist.
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Have you ever seen so much drama in just the first 8 months of a new President's Presidency?
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I think it would be wise if Obama took a "sabbatical" from the Press, and simply concentrated on the job at hand. You know, the RECESSION, the War on Terror, or perhaps coming up with a more rigid vetting process for appointees?-
4.1
You know, I keep looking at the lesson Plan Rustydog has listed there, and I keep mulling it over and over in my head. What could possibly be there that could be so objectionable? Then it occured to me. Every one of those questions encourages the children to THINK, to use whatever reasoning skills they have to come up with the answer. It's not a digestion of talking points or spouting back of various facts, it asks the kids what they think might happen and what all this is about. If getting a child's brain to reason is now objectionable to right-wing minds, then this country has no future.
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4.2
"The theme of "what you need to do in school" is so much better than the original version "what you can do for me, for the President of the United States".
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Yes, Rusty, much like the comment you wrote here was much better than the original version where you confessed to wearing women's underwear and killing neighborhood cats.
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What's the weather like in your alternate universe?
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5
Guys, let stay on topic here, which is the bald-faced, shameless, despicable right-wing lying about and vile misrepresentation of the President's innocuous "stay in school and learn" speech to American school kids.
The Jones thread is elsewhere.
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6
This Glen Beck obsession of yours is starting to concern me.
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7
Rather than any lefty, neo-socialist, communitarian brainwashing, President Obama's speech to your kids reads like a paean to individual striving and free market capitalism, the sort of thing that Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater might have signed onto.
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Yeah, see, that's why the whole thing was ridiculous from the very beginning. We knew Obama was going to be talking about personal responsibility and the need for education. -
8
Damn,
I so wanted my kids to be indoctrinated into socialism.
Looks like I'll have to do it myself.
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8.1
And I'm going to have to turn mine into a godless heathen all by myself. The speech disappoints on so many levels.
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9
Sartre believed in individual responsibility too, so this could still be some sort of communist plot. I think CNN ought to put all their crack reporters on it for another week or two.
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10
[...] Michael Scherer at Swampland [...]
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11
This is what started the backlash from parents. This article has the link to the "Teacher lesson plan", which starts off with;
Who is the President of the United States?
What do you think it takes to be President?
To whom do you think the President is going to be speaking?
Why do you think he wants to speak to you?
What do you think he will say to you?
Truly, I think this speaks for itself.
There are people who were literally scared that there was an associated lesson plan that asked "Who is the President of the United States?" Think about that. No wonder they love Sarah Palin.
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11.1
Re: "Who is the President of the United States?"
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Y'see, from 2001-2009 we were unsure whether the answer was "George Bush" or "Dick Cheney"...so we're not about to fall for those trick questions again, see? -
11.2
But squarely, this was the lesson plan proposed after the question from Obama's original speech "what you can do for me, Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America".
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Who knows what other propaganda he had proposed until the public out-cry occurred.
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My guess was that the children would have been subjected to more liberal ideals or "Communitarianism". You know Communitarism which is a compacted pile of bull-crap from Communism and Socialism?
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But thankfully, yet again, Conservative Parents demanded to know what the speech was about BEFORE it was given to their children. It wasn't until that pubilc concern was expressed that we now see the improved "Work hard in school" speech.
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Just saying is all.
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12
Fabricating things about health care reform isn't enough? It is disgusting that conservatives are using young students as political pawns and absurd that having the President of the United States address them on the subject of staying in school (reeeeal controversial...) is regarding as "out of bounds."
So because they disagree with Obama the premise is unconscionable, but it was OK to have both Bushes and Reagan address school kids? Sure...
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12.1
Matt, when have you seen wingers fail to use anyone as a political pawn if they think it will help them? Is there any, any, group that is out of bounds for them? If so, I haven't seen it.
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13
[...] original here: Obama’s Speech to School Kids: A Capitalist Homage (Time Magazine) Tags: barack barack-obama from-view mostly-faded noise point school-children [...]
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14
OMG!!!! it is a speech about staying in school. giving back to this great country of ours. no different than a thousands points of light, not leaving a child behind, not asking what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. they are all great thoughts and ideas. you who are so far right, you cant see somewhere in the middle. the middle ground is what has made this counrty great, not the left not the right, but the middle when both sides have given a little in what they want. something we seem to have lost sight of over the last 20yrs or so. I am blaming both side. they have forgoten what has made this country great, when we gave up a little to get something else. for those who are of the religious right remember that the bible talks about giving to those less fortunate than yourself. to help someone stand on there own. its sad to see such BS over a speech telling kids to stay in school, to learn, to be the best that they can be. to give back to our country. whats wrong telling kids that what they do now will effect themselves for the rest of their lives as well as the rest of us in the future. heck i have talks with my daughters friends about what are they going to do for their future plans. (schools, careers,) i hope i challage them to be better. I do this so they wont end up like me without an college education. in a job that has no future for me. yes i could have gone back to school, yes i chose not to for personal reason that have taken place in my life. i let things pull me in the wrong direction. now i live to make sure my daughter dosent have to face those choices in her life. I expect great things from her.
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14.1
I definitely agree on how you're perceiving this speech. Many individuals are ignorant enough to judge on true moralistic ideas. In this case the president is addressing not only the children/students of the country, but America as a whole. And by doing so, the president is able to inspire many students to fulfill their educational needs by putting in toil and uttermost determination; and of course eventually that hard work will pay off. But unfortunately many of these people only lie within the surface of this speech and are not truly capable of giving note to the underlying essence of it.
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15
Michael Scherer:
Rather than any lefty, neo-socialist, communitarian brainwashing, President Obama's speech to your kids reads like a paean to individual striving and free market capitalism, the sort of thing that Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater might have signed onto.
You do understand that liberalism is about those things, too, right?
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You are aware that liberalism is about using the power of government to level the playing field for individual entrepreneurs and small businesses who are up against vast corporations and entrenched interests, I hope? Are you cognizant of the fierce defense of the Bill of Rights and individual liberties represented by organizations such as the ACLU? You do know we're in favor of freedom and private property, correct?
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Not quite Vladamir Lenin.
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No, not quite. We're not actually socialists, we're liberals, Michael Scherer. Only the rightists think that "lefty" means "neo-socialist" (whatever that is these days). We're the folks who think it should be legal to break copy protection on your dvd's, and that the government has no business spying on Americans. We're for privacy, free speech, individual rights.
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We're "communitarian" alright, if by "communitarian" you mean "unwilling to see our fellow Americans die pointlessly overseas, or suffer in order to prop up the stock prices of giant insurers, or drown in the flooded streets of New Orleans".
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We just don't think that the guy who owns the farm upstream gets to build a dam on the river and perpetually thereafter charge the people downstream to drink. We don't believe that actually constitutes a "free market" in practice. We just don't like monopolies and trusts, and want the government to step in when things are out of balance...and when Americans are enduring systemic tragedy through no fault of their own.
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...And when it comes to "the freedom of each American youth to fail or succeed on their own tenacity and merits", we'd just like to see that principle applied as much to the beneficiaries of legacy admissions programs at Ivy League universities as to kids who grow up in the projects. We look at our local and national political systems, our financial system, our corporate boards of directors, and especially our press corps, and we hardly see a system of meritocracy at work these days. Can you?
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I know that you're writing this piece in sarcasm, but it has a really odd inflection about it, as if you don't really personally know these things about us.
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Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater don't really represent individual striving and free markets, they represent justified monopolies and legitimized cartels. They represent private police brigades physically forcing individuals back into the mines. They represent the freedom afforded those considered to be citizens in an Apartheid system, while we represent the values of judging each American as an individual.
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Unlike Rand and Goldwater, we don't believe markets are truly free when the state is powerless to force some people to accept other people's money at lunch counters, or that individual striving is meaningful in a system with fixed outcomes for elites. They are for freedom in theory, we are for freedom in practice.
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You know these things about us, right, Michael Scherer?
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It's just an odd, habitual inflection of yours I'm reading?-
15.1
Awesome summary of modern liberalism, Stuart.
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Now, toss in a grammatical correction in Michael's post, and you might actually get him to read it... -
15.2
Every defense of liberalism comes back to the race card. The Civil Rights bill was passed over 40 years ago. Now the push by liberals is to create new victim groups. The goal now, and expressed by Obama, is not equal opportunity but equal outcome.
Yes, there is still the remnants of racism in this country. It doesn't come in scale to any where near the proportions that the left suggests. One portion the left fails to address is that one of the growth industries inside liberalism is the promotion of race. Also the liberals cannot explain how blacks immigrate to this country, sometimes with little but the clothes on their backs and successfully manage to gain an education, become successful in business and in general live the American dream while American born blacks claim that racism holds them from achieving those goals. Meritocracy may not be perfect but it certainly outperforms we have seen that has provided by any liberal ideal.
Also before you genuflect before the ACLU, you might look honestly at the cases they are quick to jump on which have an overwhelming tendency to be left-wing causes. Or maybe you can explain why liberals and the ACLU allow speech codes to reside at college campuses. Why is sensitivity training a college course for incoming freshman. If they protect the right of free speech, why do liberals believe that also means the right not to be offended? Or their collectivist attitude toward the 2nd amendment or their push to restrict private religious speech.
And your market analogy of the farmer selling water runs a bit cold as well. A farmer can't stop the river flow upstream to profit by selling water to downstream residents (As it should be.) But the liberals have no conscience about land being confiscated or water diverted so crops die and drinking water disappears because the EPA has determined that the wing toed humped back buzzard fly might be endangered. Horror strikes liberals only at someone making a profit.
As always the idealism of liberals never truly matches the reality of their actions.
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15.3
SZ, thanks so much for that.
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And freeinpa...in response to this:
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Yes, there is still the remnants of racism in this country. It doesn't come in scale to any where near the proportions that the left suggests.
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As a white male who was born in the South and has lived here almost all of my life, I must say that you are sadly and horribly mistaken. Maybe it's different in Pennsylvania. (Which, last I heard, was a blue state.) -
15.4
Another response to freeinpa:
Also before you genuflect before the ACLU, you might look honestly at the cases they are quick to jump on which have an overwhelming tendency to be left-wing causes
Oh please, you're talking about the same group that defended the freedom of speech of the homophobic Westboro Baptist Church. Not exactly a left-wing position.
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15.5
Ayn Rand and Barry Goldwater don't really represent individual striving and free markets, they represent justified monopolies and legitimized cartels. They represent private police brigades physically forcing individuals back into the mines. They represent the freedom afforded those considered to be citizens in an Apartheid system, while we represent the values of judging each American as an individual.
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Unlike Rand and Goldwater, we don't believe markets are truly free when the state is powerless to force some people to accept other people's money at lunch counters, or that individual striving is meaningful in a system with fixed outcomes for elites. They are for freedom in theory, we are for freedom in practice.This has to be the most incompetent straw-man against Ayn Rand's view of politics I've ever encountered. So, you believe that using violence to impose your whims on innocent people - that's real freedom, and banning the use of violence against innocent people altogether is somehow just freedom "in theory"? That's the Cirque du Soleil of mental gymnastics.
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Goldwater was into the "states rights" race-baiting stuff whereby the tea baggers of the 1960 formed a collectivist-socialist group based on denying the ability of the non-whiteindividual to buy a home where he wanted, sit in any bus seat he wanted, and drink out of any water fountain he wanted. This "states-rights" facade, based on the bleatings of reknown GOP Communist Lee Atwater, also sought to deny the non-white individual any ability to "succed by their own tenacity or merits".
He also ran a program called "Operation Eagle Eye" that was formed to deny the non-white individual the ability to cast a ballot in a Socialistic attempt to keep whitey on top and everyone else clinging on to whitey's bootstaps and licking his boots. -
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[...] like the commentary at Time Magazine’s political blog Swampland: Rather than any lefty, neo-socialist, communitarian brainwashing, President Obama’s speech [...]
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18
I, for one, was COMPLETELY freaked out that any teacher would ask a student who the President is. That's just scary.
It's almost like them asking students if they know that we have three branches of government....
No wonder over half of Americans don't actually understand how our government works or what's in the Constitution.
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18.1
As a high-school teacher myself, I was glad to see the questions. Never underestimate the ignorance of students. I don't mean stupidity--they aren't stupid--but ignorance, as in lack of knowledge. I bet if I asked a hundred random adults how many branches of government we have in the U.S., I'd get an error rate in the double-digits.
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19
I get the feeling that Mikey is still not quite ready to embrace the reality-based community.
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20
Normally, interviews are supposed to consist of one person asking the other party questions in order to glean information about the person and/or subject being discussed. What Glenn Blech had with SP was a masturbial [is that a word?] love-fest, not an interview.
It takes harsher pushback from those who are *educated* to tell people that what they see and hear from (many on) the right is misleading and/or flat-out lies. I disagree with so-called objective journalists that allow stuff to be thrown out unchallenged.
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Obama school speech: worst fears realized. Brainwashing, Bolshevism and blasphemy. Protect your children!
See:
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2009/09/07/obama-brainwashing-obama-brainwashing/
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[...] [...]
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It is a sad commentary on the Press and American Public when the President addressing school children becomes a full blown political hot button.
I am quite frankly disgusted that it took a release of the text to quiet down the manically repartee which engulfed the media and assaulted our ears and eyes day after day.I do not believe any of these people who feigned alarm truly believed Obama was going to make a PUBLIC speech with a view to indoctrinating anybody. Such things happen in small Banana Republics which do not have Robust and thriving democracies.
That anyone would raise a concern about the Obama speech-- and express their feigned concerns with a straight face is stunning.
Little surprise that online criminals can do what they do and get away with assaulting and brutally violating law abiding folk for years.
Why? The obvious appears murky to so many, how much more criminals like Eve Sharon Moore aka Shay Riley of the “Black Female InterracialMarriage blog” and her accomplices.. felons schooled in the art of criminal stealth, illegal phonetaps, armed robbery, criminal stalking and malevolent assaults, deceit, misrepresentations, lies and unrelenting viciousness against me and other unwitting law abiding Americans.As for the Obama speech, I am glad we have finally put to rest another "great big" far Right fear mongering and wolf crying scream.
Now we wait with baited breath for the next cry.
The way I see it, Beck has been so successful in the Jones matter he might get the permanent position of the "Chief Rightwing screaming Misinformer." -
24
It is a sad commentary on the Press and American Public when the President addressing school children becomes a full blown political hot button.
I am quite frankly disgusted that it took a release of the text to quiet down the almsot maniacal repartee which engulfed the media and assaulted our ears and eyes day after day.I do not believe any of these people who feigned alarm truly believed Obama was going to make a PUBLIC speech with a view to indoctrinating anybody. Such things happen in small Banana Republics which do not have Robust and thriving democracies.
That anyone would raise a concern about the Obama speech-- and express their feigned concerns with a straight face is stunning.
Little surprise that online criminals can do what they do and get away with assaulting and brutally violating law abiding folk for years.
Why? The obvious appears murky to so many, how much more criminals like Eve Sharon Moore aka Shay Riley of the “Black Female InterracialMarriage blog” and her accomplices.. felons schooled in the art of criminal stealth, illegal phonetaps, armed robbery, criminal stalking and malevolent assaults, deceit, misrepresentations, lies and unrelenting viciousness against me and other unwitting law abiding Americans.As for the Obama speech, I am glad we have finally put to rest another "great big" far Right fear mongering and wolf crying scream.
Now we wait with baited breath for the next cry.
The way I see it, Beck has been so successful in the Jones matter he might get the permanent position of the "Chief Rightwing screaming Misinformer." -
25
ML, I'm sure, was being facetious....
Greer's now saying that, after viewing the speech text, that he will allow his kids to watch the speech after all. Methinks this will somehow get lost in the drive-by aftermath.
- michaelscherer @alangrayson TIME told your story (http://bit.ly/cdG9qb), tho not how you would have told it, here: http://bit.ly/YSRHh - 8 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @PElliottAP: Obama makes surprise visit to White House briefing room. Tune in. - 11 hours ago
- michaelscherer RT @ryssiebee: 92 magazine covers, 10 years, 2 minutes. http://bit.ly/5d7oCo - 14 hours ago
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