Have the Wingnuts Over Played their Hand?
Now I'm talking about President Obama's education speech that seems to be causing such a stir on the right. I'm not going to go into the hypocrisy of their complaint, but rather the fact that they making such a loud noise about it.
I would venture to say that had they just shut up and said nothing half the kids who saw it would have yawned their way through it. No offense to President Obama, but rather just commenting on the attention span of far to many students.
However now that this stink has been raised so has their curiosity. So, I wonder how many kids who don't get to see it the classroom will head to the school's computer, the one at home or some other place just to find out what their parents or school board is forbidding them to see.
I find this analogous to winger trying to ban a book. It usually drives up sales.
I would venture to say that had they just shut up and said nothing half the kids who saw it would have yawned their way through it. No offense to President Obama, but rather just commenting on the attention span of far to many students.
However now that this stink has been raised so has their curiosity. So, I wonder how many kids who don't get to see it the classroom will head to the school's computer, the one at home or some other place just to find out what their parents or school board is forbidding them to see.
I find this analogous to winger trying to ban a book. It usually drives up sales.
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Having listened to these people, a good deal of the problem is their inability to see the difference between the president as a man vs the president as an institution.
This is willful ignorance and they should be called out on it.
Ask them simple questions:
Do you believe we are a nation of law?
How can you tear down the presidency and expect your children to respect the office later on?
What kind of example are you setting for your children?
We need a bit more of this type of push back. We can claim patriotism on our side.
Why not?
We are patriots.
September 4, 2009 7:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
This coming from the left who spent 8 years attacking Bush as the anti-Christ (and are still attacking him). You showed no respect for him or the office from the day he was sworn in to the day he left. And the treatment Reagan received was scarcely any better, nor was Nixon's before him. So now we are supposed to show great reverence for an institution that you have trashed for 20 years, solely because now a democrat holds the office?
September 5, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
You know Bull Dog I do not remember anybody calling Bush the anti-Christ or Hitler. Nor do I remember the left threatening violence. Nor left leaning preachers praying for his death Nor do I remember parents pulling their kids out of school when Bush Sr, or Reagan spoke to them. And Reagen spoke about policy specifically taxes and guns. And Bush Sr, asked how they could help him. Short memories are a bitch.
Complaining about the war, saying it was a mistake yes and it was and is. Dissing the troops? No. (abu ghraib is a different story and so are the idiots from Blackwater) In fact I think the left went out of their way to separate what the administration was doing from the troops. Unlike the 60's where we failed to draw that line.
Here's the problem calling Obama Hitler, thinking a stay in school and work hard speech is some how indoctrination just makes your side look at tad silly, none too bright and afraid of some non-existent bogeyman. And if I hear one more nut job screaming I want my America back . . . Let's not forget it's my America also and the left is no less in love with it than the right.
September 5, 2009 2:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Suddenly with George W. Bush gone criticizing the President and Commander in Chief no longer demoralizes or endangers the troops.
September 4, 2009 8:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Stupid comment. No one said criticising the president was damaging to the troops morale. It was the incessant criticism of the war effort, calling the troops 'murderers', claiming the war was lost, those were the things that were damaging to troop morale. It was your leadership like Reid and Murtha et al that were responsible, and they did it for political gain.
September 5, 2009 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
That didn't happen.
September 5, 2009 2:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a war effort?
September 5, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
None of that was damaging to troop morale. The presence of overpaid contractors was far more damaging to morale. There will always be an anti-war refrain just as there will always be staunch critics of war atrocities. Blind faith in war and the elevation of all personnel into heroes only transforms the dirt of war into the myth of empire.
It's not like you care. Your support of the troops is only as solid as the political oppprtunity the support affords. When I came back from Iraq, it was the conservative bootlickers that pissed me off the most. Why? Because it is the uncritical flag-wavers that do no hesitate to send my brothers and sisters into harm's way. If you really supported me and all those that have gone and continue to go into war, you would turn off the fucking armchair generals and do some fucking critical thinking. Because Limbaugh and Hannity exploit us. They exploit veterans and they exploit combat for money. They are evil and you need to open your mind before reflexively dittoing their homicidal urges.
September 5, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
THANK YOU, ZIPPERUPUS!!!
Can we get a blog about those contractors. I feel very ignorant of who they are and what they do sometimes. Xe seems to be the only one of which we hear, and Halliburton/KBR.
September 8, 2009 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Andrea Mitchell on NBC Nightly News did a terrific report tonight tying together various aspects of the anti-Obama refrain from the last six months. If someone has a link, I'd like to recommend it and see it again myself. I'm too tired to fetch it.
September 4, 2009 8:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here ya' go, Ripper: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/ns/nightly_news_with_brian_williams#32697509
One of my kids watched it with me just now and was glad to see Reagan have to answer the woman President question (she's hoping to be the 2nd or 3rd female Prez). But, she just doesn't get the hatred (more on that later) from so many opposed to Obama. (She was indignant about Beck's comment; el es un perdidor.)
September 5, 2009 1:06 AM | Reply | Permalink
Quite disturbing, this alchemy of anger, racism, xenophobia, ignorance and gun love, that preached patriotism and respect for the Presidency when the least legitimate President in American History was shredding the constitution, but exudes nothing but intolerance and disrespect when one of the most open-minded, intelligent and inspiring Presidents since JFK wants to give a non-partisan speech to their children about the importance of education. Quite disturbing.
September 5, 2009 1:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
My sister was told yesterday that her classroom would no longer be showing the speech (after previously scheduling it).
She complained, and received a call from the Super'. She told him she had several Af-Am. students who might be particularly interested. The answer was still NO.
September 5, 2009 2:47 AM | Reply | Permalink
What state is your sister's classroom in? (Please don't respond "clean and tidy".)
September 5, 2009 3:12 AM | Reply | Permalink
What State?
That's quite simple to deduce.
The State of Self-Delusion . . .
~OGD~
September 5, 2009 4:55 AM | Reply | Permalink
That was great!
September 5, 2009 3:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
10 minutes after Obama says he's leaving to take a shit the right wing noise machine, abetted by the MSM, will be babbling how Obama is clogging up the sewer lines.
Wolf Blitzer; 'Senator McConnell says the President goes too often and is causing back-ups, what do you say to that Senator Dodd?'
September 5, 2009 10:01 AM | Reply | Permalink
The fact the have succeeded in encouraging, at least some schools, to decide not to show the speech indicates that they have not overplayed their hand. The are getting results.
Previous foolish, unfounded, and vile claims have made significant headway in both framing the "debate" and in fostering opposition to (and fear of) Barack Obama and Liberals. And stoking that fear is their only real intention. And even if rational people challenge these assertions for the despicable nonsense that it is, the subsequent refutations and continued conversations build a narrative such that the original claim actually had merit. Or hopefully, it turns into a he said she said and even those offended are nonplussed enough to become apathetic.
This is now the modus operandi for repugs (and I'm not the one just realizing this - many have pointed this out). It is their M.O. because it works. The obligation to decency and commitment, to their own professed set of morals, is easily subjugated for the greater good, which is removing liberals and reinstalling conservatives asap. The thought process need go no deeper than that. Hypocrisy and dishonesty in the service of defeating "evil" are not vices but virtues. Such grace.
September 5, 2009 10:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
An hour after my sister received an email about her high school kids being able to watch the speech, she received another that an "alternative educational opportunity" would be offered to those students "uncomfortable" with hearing the President speak.
I asked her what the alternative opportunity was and she responded (joking), "a KKK rally."
You are right that by making such a big deal out of this, they have only peaked interest. She said her daughters feel that anyone going to the "alternative opportunity" will feel like a freak.
This, by the way, is a Republican stronghold in a wealthy PA town.
September 5, 2009 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Have the Wingnuts Over Played their Hand?
Good God in Heaven: I really really hope so.
I also tend to think that they have, in spite of all the media attention this has received. I think most people are going to scratch their heads and say "What the hell?"
Plus, this is another episode of wingnut freakoutery, and at some point, won't people just yawn and say "Yeah, well, they're upset over everything"?
September 5, 2009 2:57 PM | Reply | Permalink