Alkasquawlik, is your school going to show this?

[Hallen]

My God. Hit the nail on the head.

Just today, I passed a semi. On the back, someone had written in black magic marker:

"Obama should spend more time praying to God and less time acting like God".

Fear and paranoia are the stock in trade of the Republicans these days. Just read anything written by John Boehner (my rep). Where was the righteous outrage when the "No Child Left Behind" act was being crafted? Ask a teacher if "teaching to the test" makes for better kids. All it does is make sure the materials the government wants taught get taught! How about Federally funded "Abstinence Only" education? Total political pandering to the so-called "religious right". Where were the seven page threads calling Bush a social engineer then? Was it because the administration cloaked their engineering in the "fear of god"?

Puhleeze! Turn Rush off for a day and think with your own damned minds! If you're doing a good job at home with your kids, whatever Obama says will matter very little anyway. My kids have certainly had enough cloaked Republican rhetoric in their school in the last eight years and they haven't started believing Rush is great or Palin is any less an idiot!

Funny how good parenting makes tempests in a teapot like Obama's address a complete non-issue....

Throw out the first bit and the last couple of paragraphs, and you had a good argument going there. But, there it is again, you make the assumption that all who disagree with you are brainwashed by Rush (and other conservative pundits). That pretty much destroys your logic right there.

So it's OK to have federally funded contraceptive programs, but not OK to have abstinence programs? BTW, you imply that it's a religious thing... which it isn't. It may be backed by religious people, but abstinence is non-secular. It probably won't work, but there's nothing wrong with it. It is a good message and it is the right message. I don't know any 13 year olds who are ready for sex.

The no child left behind crap was basically drafted by Ted Kennedy and was passed with wide support from both Republicans and Democrats (unlike anything Obama has pushed through). It is up to the states and the schools to 1) Decide to use them and 2) Decide how to implement them, what the tests are, and how they are taught if they do decide to use the Act. (personally, I would rather have the feds AND the state government the hell out of schools. It should be a local thing controlled by local people like, oh I don't know... school boards maybe??)

So, there goes the rest of your argument, which btw, is yet again trying to divert the argument away from Obama and onto Bush.

What is good is that there was an uproar about Obama's speech to kids and I guarantee you he modified his speech based on that. His speech turned out fine. He said the right things. I have no problem with that. However, there is one big issue with it; he was lying. He doesn't believe half of the things he was telling those kids to do. But that last part is just my opinion.

[iX-treame]

They showed it at my school.

[Alkasquawlik]

They showed it at my school.

What'd you think about it?

I gotta talk to my brother about it when he gets home from work.

[Smatt90IS]

i had to watch this bs today what a waste of our education time lol

[Red88]

I saw it, I didn't feel like it said much to me.

[Ral]

I read the transcript. I gotta say, I was ecstatic. I thought it absolutely hit the nail on the head, and is a message that should have been given more weight, and given more often.

I am utterly disappointed in fellow conservatives that continue to think that the message is bad because of the messenger. My opinions about recent bills coming from house Democrats and Presidential speechwriters haven't changed, and there's many, many things wrong with the attempts to "reform" health care, the environment, etc. So, Conservatives, let's focus on the big picture here. Obama did a national service by giving this speech. Let's move on, and focus on stopping and correcting ill-conceived, badly executed, and poorly thought out bills with their roots firmly in the coastal Northeast and San Francisco Bay areas that do not reflect the overarching views of the rest of the country. To allow every small anecdote Glenn Beck picks up to derail national debate about the future of the country is a shame nearly as disgusting as the utter grab for power currently underway.

The President is a great communicator, and I think his speech did worlds of good. Read it, you will agree. Let's let this, Van Jones' history (The guy worked for an advisor to an advisor to an advisor- there's bigger fish to go after), and the myriad other nit-picky talking points go so we can focus on stopping the onslaught of Federal power-grabbing.

[kronus]

^^^
Damn well said.

[Aptyp]

I miss H0Lmes... Threads suddenly became very reasonable from both sides. WTF happened to you people?

I thought the speech was great... And I agree with Ral, that when I began watching it, it wasn't the message that I rolled by eyes to. It's difficult listening to a well-thought-out plea to students from the person I dislike. Regardless, the read was great. He didn't say anything that wasn't already common sense. So, I agree with Ral, yet again: reduntant speech to take some focus off other important issues.


Old-n-Slow (and some others): I think you still don't understand that there plenty of intellectual individuals on both sides. People who judge republicans by Rush, FOX and Evangelicals are very much like people who compare Obama to Hitler. That's right, narrow minded people are also on both sides. I don't watch FOX (except for their biased sport coverage), because people on that channel are irrational. At the same time, I can't stand other channels, because by them, Obama can do no wrong. They've become FOX of the last 8 years. I haven't sat through any Rush program, and the only time I have heard him, was when he opened his mouth about Donovan McNabb. Neither am I evangelical christian. Talk about narrow minded children, that raise closet fags and sluts, while blaming everything on television, abortions and condoms.

... BUT I AM STILL A REPUBLICAN. I believe in the second amendment. I believe in smaller conservative government. I believe in "penny saved is a penny earned." I believe that our foreign policy should be "Fuck'em." Bush fucked a lot of it up for republicans (all of it, really), but ideology hasn't changed. I cannot be a democrat, because of one person. And through all that, I believe that Bush did everything he could. His war on Iraq was mighty popular, until so many easily influenced weak minded liberals felt they were being lied to. Bush wasn't qualified for the office, but that was no reason for me to vote of an unqualified person from the opposite party.

Just saying, a lot of republicans feel the same way I do (at least the ones that know how use a computer and don't express their opinions 2-word poster form). There are fundamental issues that make us republicans outside of religion, fox, and Rush, that you continuously hang on.

[Alkasquawlik]

Ral: I had no problem with Obama giving the speech, I was a little irked by him having a curriculum behind it though, and once that was taken away, I was fine.

[mrsleeve]

Ral: I had no problem with Obama giving the speech, I was a little irked by him having a curriculum behind it though, and once that was taken away, I was fine.

that

[kishg]

that was such a fucking socialist, communist, marxist speech!! i can't believe he was allowed to say that to kids OMG!!

[kishg]

Ral: I had no problem with Obama giving the speech, I was a little irked by him having a curriculum behind it though, and once that was taken away, I was fine.

yeah right..

[Alkasquawlik]

yeah right..

like ive said in that post, and numerous times in this thread, i dont have a problem with him speaking to kids as long as there isnt a political agenda behind it.
he is a good orator, and his ability to speak well translates into a good speech on the basics of education that kids can listen to, which like ive said, i have no problem with. i had a problem with the curriculum he was trying to put into effect and once that was taken away, i had no problems,

[blunttech]

more bullshit from a hypocritical liar. he preaches self reliance and personal responsibility to kids when not one of his policies stands for this. i cant believe how stupid people are

[Old'n'Slow]

more bullshit from a hypocritical liar. he preaches self reliance and personal responsibility to kids when not one of his policies stands for this. i cant believe how stupid people are

Seems to me he's on the right track. The bailout that began while Bush was in office was all about saving the asses of a lot of big, largely unaccountable businesses all the way down to upside-down mortage defaulters. Don't blame Obama for the bailout. I hated like hell he continued it, but it was just business left over from the last bunch of idiots. My rep, Boehner is now screaming about the big, evil Obama bailout. I wrote him when the initial bailout legislation was in Congress and begged him not to support. Ol' John is pro-biz-at-all-costs to the end though, and in his letter in return stated he felt like "we've got to do something or something worse will happen". I disagreed then, and I disagree now.

By preaching accountability and self-reliance to the young, perhaps he hopes the headoff the financial collapse of 2035. :-)

Let's pause for a little political reality check.

If today, the Obama administration released a statement saying:

"For your own protection we will now monitor religious groups without their knowledge. We will toss the Sixth Amendment out as well-we will determine if you can have counsel. And we reserve the right to detain you for as long as we see fit. Your speedy trial may not be in America's best interests! The Fourth Amendment is gone too. If we decide we need to examine your person, papers or property, we will do so without needing to establish probable cause. You never know where terrorism lurks. Freedom of speech? In addition to monitoring your religious activities, we can now subpoena your library records and prosecute librarians who do not willingly cooperate. All this, remember, is for your own good."

(For those who don't know, these are but a few of the Constitutional provisions that are trampled into dust by "Patriot Act".)

....I can well imagine the screaming grand-mal-foaming-at-the-mouth seizure that would issue from the so-called Conservatives on this board.

If you weren't critical of the politics of terrorism and all the folks who got and are getting stinking rich off taxpayer's squandered money in the so-called War on Terror, (maybe you are, but I don't recall any thtreads about it) then I don't see how you can get your panties in a wad at a relatively benign school speech.....

Maybe I'm just not paranoid enough.