SERIOUSLY. You have GOT to be kidding me. "Brainwash our kids!" About WHAT exactly? About how it's so imperative to STAY IN SCHOOL and get an EDUCATION. Wow, smite me now for suggesting such a satanic thought.
How exactly are the students being "ostracized from teachers?" And how is this "glorifying the President?" Are. You. SERIOUS.
Why is everyone jumping the I-Hate-Obama band-wagon? Now, for all you Republicans, I understand that you did not want him to be President, and I respect that. However, you cannot possibly be arguing this ludicrous notion that he is trying to glorify himself and brainwash students into his plans. Recently, everyone has been trying to find many stupid reasons for hating on Obama. And he hasn't even completed a YEAR, yet. This ain't no Metropolis where Superman saves the day after ten pages in the comic book.
The YOUTH has been such a huge backer to the Obama campaign that this is a GREAT time and opportunity for someone whom the YOUTH has been behind to advocate for education.
Most of you come from good schools with over 90% graduation rates. Well, wake up. There are a sheer NUMBER of schools that don't have such great rates and education. So yeah, this is a pretty good way to start getting kids to think seriously about this (at least the ones who are actually considering dropping out).
And by the way - as for the "guided discussions," those are an EXCELLENT idea. Instead of just hearing the speech and moving on, students and kids will actually get a chance to discuss what they thought and really THINK about what is being said. As poster Willbw put it, "I'm not sure why everyone is so scared that we'll all be brainwashed by the President."
It seems as though we have reached the time when the adolescents' realize bullshit faster than adults.
love it. totally agree with u =)
ReplyDeleteHere's the thing: crazy stupid bullshit is what works in politics. We've had nothing but death panels, birther conspiracies, and socialism accusations for much of Obama's term, and look at the result: Obama's gone down from 70+% approval ratings down to below 50%. Is it stupid? Yes. Is it irrational? Yes. But does it work? Fuck yes.
ReplyDeletePolitics is the game of hyperbolic accusation and inane bullshit; get used to it. (And don't give me any 'but dems don't do it!' bs on this---the birthers are the new truthers, the death panels are the new blood for oil, etc.)
I do agree with you to an extent on that one, mostly because the majority of Americans aren't as well-educated and aren't able to discern things beyond a superficial level.
ReplyDeleteI honestly believe that people are expecting the President (no matter who was elected) to fix the economy super fast, but that ain't how the economy works, sorry folks. One of my friends was trying to argue that his approval rating is legitimate and I just don't agree.
Politics is a lot of conspiracy and accusations, and what not. You are totally right. I just had to spread my thoughts on it because I hate when people jump the conspiracy theory band-wagon.
OK, so to respond to your FB comments.
ReplyDeleteAs far as he can’t sift through everything that's made about him. I understand that, I was going to mention that originally. This isn't some small thing though. It's endorsed by a significant number of celebrities, it has gotten widespread viewing, but most importantly it's caused a huge commotion in Utah already for being shown to an elementary school. Of course I don't expect him to really publicly denounce it, I can say I would as president because I'm not the president. It's just so shocking that people would even say the message that that video says, I don't understand it. I had only recently heard about it when I wrote my comments yesterday and the idea of it was still settling in.
I think there is a good amount of Americans who do expect a Superman result and because they're not seeing it, they're upset. However, Obama does have some um... interesting ideas and his actions, for those who do know, do give a lot of people reason to disagree.
The Stimulus Bill for one. Half of the people you ask will say there has been improvement from it and more jobs have been created, the other half will say it has had no impact at all yet and probably wont in the future. The people who say there are more job cannot give you proof. I’ve never heard/read anyone say where or what kind of jobs. The people who say it hasn't done anything at all don't have much to back themselves up, either. I know such a bill takes time, but one would expect to see SOMETHING by now. Who knows if we have...
But what really matters is the contents of the bill and te allocation of money, which in my opinion wasn’t very effective. I have my own stimulus bill in mind that I think would make much more sense.
"It's a gigantic amount of fiscal stimulus and anyone who tells you it has had no impact you should be skeptikcal of," said Philip Swagel, assistant treasury secretary in the Bush Adinistration. Thanks, want to be more specific there?
Jack Cafferty (a very liberal man, might I add) says
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/17/cafferty.stimulus/index.html
The Health Care reform bill is also causing a lot of people to question Obama. Personally I can spend hours listing everything that is wrong with it, but I wont here. Health Care does need some work, sure, but this bill is not quite the best way, I wouldn’t think, and it definitely doesn’t resonate well with a lot of Americans. I have my own health care reform in mind also; I think I should email it to Congress.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a cute little quote going around:
“Obama's health care plan will be written by a committee whose head says he doesn't understand it, passed by a Congress that hasn't read it and whose members will be exempt from it, signed by a president who smokes, funded by a treasury chief who did not pay his taxes, overseen by a surgeon general who is obese, and financed by a country that is broke.
What could possibly go wrong?”
It’s satire, but it has a point…
I actually downloaded the 1000-something page pdf for both the stimulus and health care bills. Good bedtime reading.
Anywho, when Clinton came into office there was economic problems as well. Whether you blame it on Bush or on economic cycles doesn’t matter. Whether you say the economy got better because of Clinton or economic cycles doesn’t matter. Whatever he did when he came into office surely didn’t have that Superman effect and cure everything in one day, but his approval ratings didn’t drop nearly as much as Obama’s have. He didn’t have the government in quite the obvious mess Obama has it in now, either.
And we can’t forget how much people hated Bush. You would think they would be lenient toward Obama because they got rid of Bush, the fact that so many people are questioning him is probably because of his policies, not because nothing is fixed yet. And as for Bush, since I brought it up I’d just like to throw it out there that the UN was in and out of Iraq throughout the 90s and if you read their reports (which were up for the public a few years ago, I don’t know about now) they were pretty sure Hussein has WMDs, not one hundred percent, but pretty sure. Bush gave Hussein warning that the US was coming, which gave him ample time to get rid of those weapons and whatever else he had. If you had a meth lab in your home and you knew the cops were coming in a few weeks, wouldn’t you get rid of the meth? So saying Bush lied about WMDs is complete nonsense, anyone who has kept up with the UN would agree. Maybe the war wasn’t right, or not done correctly, or whatever. But people need to stop saying he lied to the American public when the evidence is right in front of your faces. Sorry, I make that little rant every time, I can’t help myself. Anyway, since the whole country is convinced he lied and they hate the war and they blame him for the debt and they know how much Bush screwed us up, you would think they would trust Obama more or at least give him a chance to fix the huge mess. If he looked like he was going in the right direction, I think people would be patient, but he doesn’t look like that at all. He also clearly doesn’t understand economics. I’m not saying I’m an expert (but I did get a 5… hahahaha), but there’s simple trend we learned in econ that all economists agree with and he just keeps going against them expecting things to work out, I’m not sure how.
Sorry for the essay, I just started rambling, I don't even know what I wrote. I should have probably reread it before i posted.. hmmm..
ReplyDeletealso, your blog annoys me. every time i come to the page or try to comment it has this stupid popup asking for a password from twitter?
"A username and password are being requested by http://twitter.com. The site says: "Twitter API""
it's the same window that comes up for people who have private blogs, i can just click cancel and it goes away, but it still annoys me. does that happen for anyone else who tries to see your page? you should look into that...
Also: I don't think Obama is really THAT bad of a president. First, it is too early to tell, and second, well, he's not Hilary Clinton so how bad could he be? :)
ReplyDeleteBut really, I think there are far better ways to do what he's trying to do, but as of right now, he's not the worst president in the world.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"A sore point for critics of the speech is a suggested lesson plan that accompanied a letter sent to principals by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Included was an idea to have students write letters to themselves after the speech about how they can help the President. That part of the lesson plan – and other contested parts – have been changed. Students are now encouraged to write letters about their short-term and long-term education goals."
ReplyDeleteIf they bothered to change things, then those things must have been controversial enough.
I will respond to these in the order that I saw them. P.S. comments have a limit? Didn't know that...
ReplyDeleteAnywho:
Regarding the video: people are freaking crazy. They get crazier by the year. Us smarties need to inbreed so as to prevent this.
Yes, Obama definitely has some "interesting" ideas, but this is going away from the original topic. In response to that on a separate note, yes, I do have concerns over that. I still havn't figured out my thoughs on the HealthCare stuff just because it is SUCH a complex topic.
Actually, no. I do have a solution. Med Schools should accept more applicants :D Win-win situation, problem solved :) And I am almost serious about that, too...
I know that people want to see results NOW like magic, but things as bad as this really take time. At least we aren't as down as we were before, right? (I've lost track, to tell you the truth...it's a constant migraine). Tell me your stimulus bill, and then we'll get talking. Hell, maybe we can get Andrew Desser to advocate for it in his run for governor.
In regards to Clinton: He was the shit. I would re-elect him ANY day. Monica who?
"We can't forget how much people hated Bush." LOL I think a majority of people who are questioning Obama are those "uneducated" people per se. I wish we could just get a tally/statistic from people who actually know/understand what is going on beyond that superficial level, but that apparently only happens in a Noush-tatorship....
As for the UN, you and me BOTH know that the UN creates the illusion of productivity just for appearance's sake. They are a very flawed organization with good intentions and little projection. I think saying that "Bush lied about WMDs is complete nonsense" is way too much of a overstatement. There are arguments for, there are arguments against, but I don't think it's "complete nonsense." I think Bush had other motives for getting into Iraq, and not the whole "oil" conspiracy. I will never forget his inauguration address about how he "WILL spread freedom to every corner." That came off to me as very power hungry. I understand that we all want freedom, but to assert your own power and beliefs (yes, beliefs) is the wrong means to achieve the ends with. But, back to what I was originally saying - it is NOT nonsense to think that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Bush didn't have legitimate proof in that statement IMO, and you already heard about my schpeel for the UN, which you must do the conference with me btw.
I just read your part about the evidence. What evidence? There was no evidence. Yes, there were WMDs in the 90's, but there was no REAL PROOF in this case. He argued that they couldn't negotiate through peaceful measures. Again, his means wasn't the right way to achieve the ends. He DID lie to the American public, and to say otherwise is what the nonsense is. If you show me proof that there were WMDs in Iraq, then by all means, I'll retract my statement. Hell, if he actually found WMDs, then I might have even been for the war. But he didn't.
As for the Twitter thing, it does the same to me...it's just so you can read my twitter, cuz I just realized at this moment as I'm typing this that my Twitter is private.
I also completely agree with what you say. It's too early to tell if Obama is a good president or not. WAY too early. Hate on Hillary all you like, I still like Bill.
I'm curious as to what you deleted.
And, as Armand said it, everything is controversial, so I expect the lesson plan to have changed. Hell, I was expecting it to get cut. I very much like them writing letters about their short-term and long-term goals. I think a guided discussion is good, but I also think that an Education Secretary (that sounds nice, not sure what it is, but if it's what I think it is, then that's what I'm going with) overlooking the discussion guide and making the appropriate decisions is good because she's the expert on education.
Yes, the comment limit is 4,096 characters apparently.
ReplyDeleteMaria says everyone gets into med school… just not always one you would want to go to. :)
Hahahaha… Andrew Desser.. I hope to see that kid in the White House one day. I think. At least in Congress maybe.
As for WMDs. No, I can’t say it’s “complete nonsense”, that was just me rambling. However, from what I read, I was pretty convinced. Yes, the UN is unorganized and not very effective, but they did have officials in Iraq and those officials did see things and write things and those things were pretty convincing. And they were there off and on until the 2000s too. I’m not saying they found something in 1990 and that can be used to justify an invasion over ten years later. Whether or not Bush had other motives, one can guess, but we don’t know, we’re not him. What we know and what most of the world believes about him lying about WMDs is what the *media* tells us. The media hated Bush and the war. The media didn’t have access to the information Bush and his advisers did. The media doesn’t know and neither do we, all we know is that whatever may have been there, if it was there at all, was gone. That does not mean Bush lied about them being there in the first place. Like I said, I was pretty convinced. But I guess the evidence isn’t right in front of our faces. You have to read through reports and dig around and stuff (heaven forbid anyone should think there was any merit to Iraq) and well… it’s summer, I’m not going to read through all of that and find it. There’s no point now, what’s done is done.
What’s up with MUN? I applied for the November? conference at the end of the year, but obviously didn’t get anything. But don’t they have another round of applications at the beginning of the year for the people who weren’t in it last year? What else can I be? What were you when you dressed up as the military person? Can I be that?
As for Obama, I feel like more people would like him if he just calmed down. The man is president for four years, not four weeks. He pushed the Stimulus Bill through Congress in record time full with hidden agendas that a lot of people don’t like. He wanted health care to be voted on before Congress’ summer recess, giving them no time to read it. Of course not everyone in Congress reads every bill, but usually some people read some of them. According to statements by members themselves, *no one* would have read any of the health care bill if it had been voted on before the recess. It is again, 1000+ pdf pages. Not to mention the health care bill has a lot of hidden what’s that word I want? I can’t think of it so I’ll say laws, close enough, that most people probably wouldn’t like. Most bills do have hidden.. um.. stuff.. and pork and all of that nonsense, but they also aren’t pressured to fly through Congress. Yes, the war went through Congress pretty quickly, but everyone knew more or less what they were getting into with that. It makes Obama seem either incompetent or slightly fishy when he puts so much pressure to have a bill passed too quickly.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there’s the people he surrounds himself with. His “czars” for one need to all be fired. A lot of them don’t seem to be that smart, he could surround himself with better people. Van Jones (green jobs adviser) has already resigned because of “smears” against him. Yeah, I’ll admit news stations were playing clips of absurd statements he said, but if you’re doing your job well, then “smears” shouldn’t matter. Unless, of course, you were asked to resign because there’s more to it than just “smears”. And why the need for so many czars that allow mr. president to bypass congress anyway? He claimed Bush was giving too much power to the executive, but he is doing the same. Obama also needs to remind Nancy Pelosi that he is the president, not her.
Then there’s all the people who think Obama is continuing to allow torture and torture cover-up and such. I don’t agree, I have my won views on all of that, but significant amounts of people think he is, when he promised he wouldn’t do that.
No one is perfect and no one will be the perfect president; everyone makes mistakes. I'm just giving you more reasons why people are starting to question Obama. I don't even agree with al of these reasons, but they are legitimate and it really isn't *just* nitpicking.
The comment I deleted was the same comment that’s right below it, except I had a typo in the last sentence. I think if I delete something that means I don’t want it there, so why it mentions that I deleted something is rather odd.
The guide-sheets have been posted on the Department of Education website. They might seem harmless, but I can see how some people can read into them. It all depends on what his speech says. An outline should be up on Monday of the full speech.
And I think we should turn what we have going here into a talk show. Like Hannity and Colmes, but we’ll be less annoying than them.
does this work?
aha! it does
ReplyDeletealso... another thing. because i'm bored and i can. :)
ReplyDeleteno matter what was written originally in the school speech, because of all of the "indoctrination" cries, i am convinced the speech will be nothing but neutral and will be nothing more than "stay in school, work hard."
it'll be perfect. there's a possibility that speech WOULD have been controversial, but we'll never know. and, of course, maybe it was always neutral. but now, now he can make an amazing speech and all of the "crazy" indoctrination people will look just that: craaaaaazzzyyyyyyyy.
it'll give them less credibility. so the next time they speak out against obama, right or wrong, the less educated folk who believe what they hear wont believe it at all.
if people had concerns, but never voiced them. and IF the speech was controversial, it would have never been changed and then the world would have proof that obama wants to indoctrinate our kids. because who doesn't? and if it was always neutral, then they would have saved their breath and not looked crazy. now they're crazy either way. darn.
(please not the attempted humorous, not serious, undertones of that... )