School begins for our nation’s children. What’s the biggest danger they confront: drugs, gangs, flu, cooties, dropping out, crumbling classrooms, bullies, big classes, bad teaching, dorky-looking gym suits?
No.
It is a live video visit from the so-called “President of the United States,” THE OBAMA, apparently some kind of space alien carrying a brain-eating contagion that feeds on the minds of our young.
Federal Education Inculcator Arne Duncan admits that The Obama entity will speak directly to innocent kids on September 8th and “challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”
Real Americans know what that means:
“We’re hearing from parents and grandparents that are not very happy. They really feel like it is political indoctrination.” — Stephanie Klick, Tarrant County (Texas) Republican Party chairwoman.
“[I am] absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama’s socialist ideology.” — Award-winning Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer
“No Comrade Left Behind.” — Alicia M. Cohn, Human Events.
“As far as I am concerned, this is not civics education — it gives the appearance of creating a cult of personality. This is something you’d expect to see in North Korea or in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.” — Oklahoma State Senator Steve Russell.
“Obama’s classroom campaign: No junior lobbyist left behind,” Michelle Malkin, graphic by Leo Alberti.
“It asks children to get on board with his policies and that’s overstepping his bounds. …. We teach our children values, we teach our children philosophy. Not the president.” — Joyce Kaufman, WFTL-AM (850) in South Florida.
“Indoctrination through Education has Begun.” — Lauri Regan, American Thinker
Just because real presidents have addressed students directly over live television (George H.W. Bush in 1991 and Ronald Reagan in 1988), what gives this illegitimate integallactic upstart the gall to spread his video venom to helpless human offspring?
The Columbia, Missouri School District will quarantine the contagion, and will not screen the broadcast. Say, who’s the U.S. President out there these days, anybody know?
UPDATE: Text of the brainwashing education speech and our review.
Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here.Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.
Tags: Barack Obama, C-SPAN, education, fear mongers, hate mongers, Obama, Republicans, schools, television
NotionsCapital 
September 6, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Wow, what a collection of loons quoted there. But I would like to point out the gentleman from Oklahoma’s idiocy in particular.
How can he [OK State Senator Steve Russell] equate a sitting president encouraging kids to set goals and work hard in school to Kim Jong-il who starves his people?
More accurate would be to compare Orwellian indoctrination to Ronald Reagan who, in 1988, lectured public school jr. high students, espousing the ideals of the Republican party. I guess Reagan was pretty effective, seeing how so many lunkheads are spewing this nonsense now.
September 6, 2009 at 1:11 pm
Uli Pele: After the President of the United States speaks to school children about the value of education, Republicans will make opposing comments extolling ignorance.
September 6, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Oh my god! What a joke! I can’t believe there are so many ignorant hate-mongering people in this country.
And how can you even say that Obama is not the president of the United States? If I recall correctly, he won the election by an overwhelming majority. We live in a democracy you know? (At least I hope!)
[Edited for clarity – ml]
September 6, 2009 at 2:06 pm
John Smith wrote: And how can you even say that Obama is not the president of the United States? he won the election by an overwhelming majority
Apparently I lost track of time and Mr. Obama is up for election again. That must be why so many parents and politicos object to a video message encouraging kids to learn something while in school — a blatant case of partisan electioneering.
September 6, 2009 at 2:41 pm
Incredible. Only an ignorant person would come down on a President for trying to motivate students, encouraging them to work hard and stay in school.
…
The Leader of the Free World is sending a positive message to the future of our Nation. You would think that everyone would sit and listen to what this man has to say…instead there are people choosing to make this an issue for political reasons. Those are the ones who should be targeted for their lack of interest in the next generation of Americans.
[Edited for clarity. – ml]
September 6, 2009 at 4:04 pm
Oh boy, a chance to watch the country’s descent into complete stupidity. Obama’s speech is going to be just that, a speech. The leader of our country (like it or not) trying to do his part to help our kids develop a desire to do something other than play the Wii and whack off to Lady Gaga videos on MTV. This isn’t the indoctrination into the cult of evil that everyone is making it out to be.
[Edited for clarity. -ml]
September 6, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Love Pawlenty’s claim, that the President is “uninvited”.
Does the president have to get an invitation, to speak to our kids, in schools that recieve federal funds no less?
Did Reagan and the Bushes [GHW Bush and GW Bush] get an invitation?
This is just going beyond silly, it’s approaching outright sickness.
[Edited for brevity. – ml]
September 6, 2009 at 7:17 pm
Isn’t interesting that the Dems were okay with these complaints about the 1st Bush [televised school speech] but when conservatives complain about Obama, all Hell breaks loose.
In fact, the House Majority leader at the time, Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.), said “The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students.”
[Edited for clarity. – ml]
September 6, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Absolutely ridiculous! My 1st grader is going to miss out on the speech and a great class discussion. Because of a couple “nuts”. Would this happen if there was no Fox News?
September 6, 2009 at 9:55 pm
OvertaxedEagle wrote: Isn’t interesting that the Dems were okay with these complaints about the [GHW] Bush [televised school speech] but when conservatives complain about Obama, all Hell breaks loose.
You see why it’s important to study hard, boys and girls? Don’t cite History if you don’t understand it. President GHW Bush made his school TV broadcast on the eve of the 1992 presidential campaign, so Mr. Gephardt’s complaint, though weak, is understandable.
Pop quiz: Is 2009 a presidential election year?
If you said no, you’re right. Please tell OvertaxedEagle and those parents waving torches and pitchforks at school district office doors.
September 6, 2009 at 10:35 pm
OvertaxedEagle — totally different. The opposing party complaining about money being spent is TOTALLY different than the mass hysteria that is now causing mothers to dissolve into a pool of tears b/c Obama’s speech.
One of the things people are snarking about is the optional curriculum, and in particular suggestion that kids to write President Obama and say how they could help him.
“‘Let me know how you’re doing. Write me a letter. I’m serious about this one. Write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals”
Who do you think said that? I’m sure given all the screeching in right-wing arenas most of us would think it was attributable to Obama. You’d be wrong. It was GHWBush. http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=20047&st=&st1=
I assure you, as someone who was nearly 30 in 1991, that nobody said Bush was trying to start a Hitler-style youth army b/c he asked kids to write him a freakin’ letter stating how they might help him, the president, help our educational system.
September 7, 2009 at 9:05 am
I suspect if we map out the school districts refusing to air the speech, we’ll note that they also tend to be the districts where education isn’t a priority.
An example is Somersworth NH:
In 1999, after numerous fire code violations were identified with the Hilltop School by the New Hampshire State Fire Marshal, the City of Somersworth was granted waivers for a period of three years to address the state’s concerns. Despite the failure of the school district to address the numerous code violations during the probation period, the waivers continued to be extended past their originally intended three year period. In August 2007, the upper floors of the school were closed by the New Hampshire State Fire Marshall after the city neglected to fix code violations they were warned about in November 2006.
Somersworth parents had no problem sending their kids to a fire trap each day FOR EIGHT FRIGGIN’ YEARS. Yet for the sake of the children they must keep out a presidential speech that might make a debil indoctrinate on dey li’l heads.
September 7, 2009 at 10:31 am
let the children watch our President, enjoy our freedom the great men and women gave their lives for us. This is one super world.
September 7, 2009 at 10:45 am
Imagine a world without Fox News. …..
September 7, 2009 at 11:46 am
This comes down to 2 things — kneejerk opposition and fear. First, right now a certain percentage of people (about 20%) will automatically oppose anything Obama does. If he says the sun rises in the east, they’ll scream “Only the fascist one does — the real American sun rises in the west!” Second, some people have invested so much in hating Obama as a person that the thought that their kids might see him as a nice guy and maybe an inspiring story scares the hell out of them. Therefore, they can’t allow the kiddies to be exposed to him when they can’t counter it with their own hate spin.
September 7, 2009 at 4:27 pm
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September 7, 2009 at 4:41 pm
[To commenter “Mike”] There is a world without FOX News. The world the rest of us live in. You know, the real world.
September 7, 2009 at 11:38 pm
@Scott P:
…Second, some people have invested so much in hating Obama as a person that the thought that their kids might see him as a nice guy and maybe an inspiring story scares the hell out of them. Therefore, they can’t allow the kiddies to be exposed to him when they can’t counter it with their own hate spin.
What you said, but more like:
Therefore, they can’t allow the kiddies to be exposed to him because their parents may be revealed to them for the cowardy, ignorant scum they are.
September 8, 2009 at 5:52 am
The Republicans are right:
If all the kids stay at school, hit the books, work very hard, don’t drop …
where will they find the morons to vote for them?
where will they find the desperate to clean their toilets?
where will they find the imbeciles to believe their hate speech?
where will they find the morons to watch Fox News every day?
The Republicans see the danger:
If all the kids stay at school, work hard, …. their children will have to work harder ( getting some As instead of Cs like Bush)!