MTP on "firestorm" over school speech: Brokaw says "completely out of control," Friedman calls "flat-out stupid"
September 06, 2009 11:39 am ET
From the September 6 edition of NBC's Meet the Press:
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When they hear this commentary, which is opinion based upon common sense and rational thought, it clashes with their bizarro world view reinforced by Beck, Savage, Hannity, etc.
Yeah, Rudy, Obama's "different" than Reagan, Bush, Clinton and Bush. He's a "socialist".
And he talks about policy as though he actually has any platform. "I would agree to health care reform if..."
What a crock! The guy holds no public office and, really, no-one cares what he thinks.
well that can only mean you are anti education and an anti intellectual. and your only purpose in life is to perpetuate ignorance.
I don't have Elmer Gantry, but I do have both Inherit The Wind (the fictionalized Scopes "monkey" trial) and NOVA: Judgement Day: Intelligent Design On Trial on DVD.
Yet neither he nor anybody else on the panel satirized it, or even attempted satire or humor, but instead spoke seriously even respectfully about the nonsense, and in addressing this mishegas so seriously, they make it into legitimate political discourse.
Dopes.
Maybe laughter isn't the best medicine (as Reader's Digest used to misinform us), but laugh and laugh out loud is how you treat fools and their foolishness... no one can see this?
No one sees that when you take fools and their foolishness seriously, and address them as though they were sane, then it gives them the appearance (especially to themselves) that they are serious and they are sane...
You disarm idiots and fools and their idiocies and foolishness with laughter and ridicule and satire if you know how... it exposes them to others and to themselves also (and that checks them into a near catatonic stupor, once they are exposed to themselves).
Mishegas.
You don't speak seriously about mishegas, you ridicule it and satirize it and laugh out loud.
Where's Stephen Colbert when you really needs him, he knows about mishegas, and he's not even Jewish!
But I can't believe there is ANYONE left who wants to maintain ANY general, widespread credability to more that the 2% on the farthest right who can look at this anti-school posotiuon that these people have taken and treat it as anything but sheeer batsh!t insanity.
I read recently someone post that, "as a parent I don't feel it's right for him to indoctrinate my childeren into his socialist agenda."
WHAT. THE. FRUCK. ARE. YOU. TALKINGABOUT???!!!
The right have absolutely, utterly lost their minds. One only hopes that they can never again regain their FOOTING until the come back with RATIONAL, WELL-THOUGHT-OUT arguments and solutions for this country.
HIT THEM WHILE THEIR DOWN. This current crop of righties is the worst that's ever been, and no good can come from them. If Obama is a Sacialist, theay are downright NAZI'S. Sounds absurd, but it's predicated on an equally absurd premise. How can they not realize how utterly stupid they sound? How stupid do you have to be to not realize that?
I'm not sure how the rest my argument is 'shallow' though. Pragmatic is the word I'd use. (And I hardly see any respect for the opposition coming from conservatives, so I say your argument is potentially a bit hypocritical there.)
As for the last bit... What are you talking about? Why would I care if a teacher asked her class / my kids how President Bush had inspired them? Aside for the fact that I wouldn't see them getting much of a RESPONSE... unless they're teaching a HC/College class of young republicans... Why on earth would that BOTHER me? After all, I found Reagan to be an inspiring leader when I was a kid. So... what's your point?
I'll say it now. When ANY President of this country wants to talk to school kids about getting a good education, and staying in school, and bringing that message into the classroom, I'm all for it. Regardless of who, or what party that President comes from.
I love how Bluehawk calls me out for making a 'shallow' argmuent and the commits epic fail in his very next sentence.
That's the typical idiocy of the right wing: They assume we are every bit the idiotic bunch of mindless, group-think zombies that they are, just wearing different hats.
They can't think for themselves, so they assume we can't.
I disagreed with almost everything G-Dub did, but I would NEVER assume he is trying to indoctrinate my children into....WHAT? I don't even get your end game from the right wing anymore. What is it that you fear Obama is going to get your children to do? It is beyond sad and pathetic. It has taken partisanship to an unbelievable level, and yet again the right has chosen party over country.
Also, posters have criticized Guilini here, but I think he was agreeing that Obama should get more respect.
As for the point regarding the media, I totally agree. The corporate media has decided that every rumor, lie, crazy person at a town hall meeting is NEWS while ignoring the real news.
finally someone in the mainstream media states the obvious.
the problem has been the commitment to the false presumption of 'balance.' in effect, the presumed obligation to accept every argument as legitimate to at least some degree.
bottom line, 'balance' is unmasked.
we can call it a good day.
Given the political demographics of New Canaan is this parent letter suprising: no; embarassing: yah!
The last few weeks have shown they're all the same, whether they're from New Canaan CT, Red Bank, NJ or some God forsaken small town in rural America.
Everyone seems to be proud to wallow in ignorance.
THANK YOU.
njguy93@yahoo.com
Surely I listen to Republican radio every morning... I'm getting the sense that 1. We hate that we lost the elections, 2. We don't know what to do to win another election, 3. We don't have anyone constructive at the helm driving our discourse (and if someone says Rush Limbaugh or this smug nut Bill Kristol once more I'll smack them down), 4. We are just throwing anything against this guy Obama and hoping one of them sticks to the point of ridicule. And btw I campaigned hard for W in 2000 but got disillusioned in 2003 when we decided with all the hoopla to pay a visit to our friends in Iraq hoping that somehow somewhat some amount of good fortune will come our way from it. Well we are still hoping for that good fortune and it's 6 yrs later. Our problem is not Obama, our problem is our lack of CONSTRUCTIVE DISCOURSE!
well done and well put. all four of your points are correct and true
MARY59 said "Now the right-wingers who post on here might not admit it, but Brokaw and Friedman saying this would prove to them that the press is "liberal." on the presumption that right-wingers would come in here and spew their stupid in some way... like using what Brokaw and Friedman said as proof that the media is 'liberal'...
Considering what this thread is about...
Either the right-wing trolls that lurk among us in here fully agree that their reaction to President Obama speaking to the kids on Tuesday (tomorrow) is fanaticism gone crazy
or
They are simply too afraid to defend their own idiocy and are sucking their thumbs wondering what to do next?
When we ask them to cite any examples, they always change the subject or disappear. So I'm speculating that this MTP segment would be in their minds skewed towards "liberals." They can't reasonably defend this idea, but it's part of their overall prejudice when someone in the press says something that debunks right-wing nonsense.
I'd say that in every case, our children should be able to be addressed by whoever sits in the oval office.
Those making a fuss about this president have other issues that have nothing to do with their children being indoctrinated and everything to do with these parents being indoctrinated by right-wing talking heads on TV and radio.
There is a concerted effort underway to undermine the nation. Some have chosen to let the country fail in order to see this president fail. It could not be any plainer.
You really are a pickle... ain't ya bluhawk7398??
How exactly you read your thought based on what I said in my thread is one of those on going mysteries on just how exactly some people's minds work.
When ... let me repeat that.. WHEN George Bush addressed the kids in school the 2 or 3 times? he did... I had no problem what so ever with him speaking to the kids... even though I could not stand the blithering idiot.
My main reason for not giving a damn that he spoke to my kids was that my kids were able to understand that what was coming out of his mouth was a bunch of crap anyways!
There was nothing he could say that was going to injure or indoctrinate my kids (insult them yes, but not much else)
It never even occurred to me to pull my kids out of school when Bush spoke, no more than when I was a kid and Reagan spoke to me when I was in school my mom did not pull me out of school (and my mom hated Reagan with an absolute passion!!)...
So my question to you is... why do you seem to find it necessary to consider pulling your kids out of class on Tuesday?
The whole thing has been blown out of proportion by the GOP, and it has unintentionally backfired in their face. If you protest the President's call for children to stay in school and work hard for the sake of the country, you appear against education.
My guess is you're against education, C2012.
those you support get called out for their crap and this is the best you have to use?
no alternatives, no sound reasoning, just poke fun.
you could not have proved more blatantly that you will support anything that tries to derail this president, than if you held up a sign saying "i'm doing everything possible to derail this president."
well done dick
The whole concept of this protest was ASININE and as Friedman said, FLAT OUT STUPID. It was based upon false fears ginned up by Beck, Fox and the Lords of Loud on the radio.
BTW, the stupid head of the Florida GOP who started this BS? He admitted today that his children would be listening to the President speech. He got reamed out by Rick Sanchez and Roland Martin the other day . . . he looked FOOLISH and small, just as this debate has been . . . foolish and small.
1st all, nobody is making the viewing of the speech "mandatory".
Why don't conservatives want their kids to hear Obama's words? Well, the reasons I've heard so far, is because he's going to be pushing some sort of indoctrination into the liberal cause, or some sort of socialist agenda (both things have been debunked already). They don't have any other reason that I've heard.
Why don't conservatives want their kids to hear Obama speak on how important education is, or that staying in school is a good thing? Is it because you fear and loathe an educated populace that think for themselves? I don't know really.
The conservative reaction to this whole thing would be hysterical, if it weren't so sad and pathetic.
If I had a kid, and if that kid was going to see a speech by GHW Bush, or GW Bush, or Reagan, or any other conservative you'd like to throw out there on how education was important, why would I, or anyone else have an issue with that? I wouldn't.
Even during that 2004 presidential campaign I wanted to go and see Bush speak when he came to Raleigh, NC a couple of times when I was living there, but alas, they wouldn't let me into the "show". Why? First, because I wouldn't sign a "loyalty" oath to the President, and second, because I was a registered democrat. But, and even though I didn't think I was going to vote for W, I still wanted to see what he had to say for myself, and see if he could sway me into his camp.
You guys have gone around the crazy bend about this speech, and after all is said and done, you're (meaning conservatives in general) going to look even more stupid than you did before. Heck, I even heard a woman interviewed on the radio the other day saying that she wasn't going to let HER kids hear what Obama had to say, even if it was a good speech about staying in school and working hard. Why? Because he's a socialist who is going to slip in subliminal language into the speech to apparently turn her kids into walking and talking liberals.
Amazing the level of ignorance we have today.
Opinion: New Canaan is perhaps the Whitest and most conservative town here in Connecticut. Neighboring Darien might be a close runner up.
Request: Get rid of that un American school board that would even consider censoring "our" president!
Laura, I sure feel sorry for the reichwing firestorm about to be unleashed against you.
Then again, I never viewed Laura as reactionary really in any way, shape, or form. She seems to be pretty reasonable, and sharp. And yes, of course she defended her husband over the years, she is married to the guy, it's part of the job description.
i can't wait for the next time sarah palin cries about being attacked or her kids being attacked.
every neo con in this country just used every child of school age in the country for political purposes.
im waiting for cheney 2012, fairliberal or any neo con support to try and say something about this.
I do like how the panel ignored the very brief and only partial mention by Gregory of what was originally intended in the "curriculum" the administration was to have laid out. If nothing was wrong with the lesson plan in its original incarnation, then why did they alter it (and very quickly I might add)?
Do you think perhaps it was because the agenda was exposed for being less than just the "Go get 'em boys and girls" speech Brokaw is framing it as? How has the president inspired you? What can you do to help the president? Can someone show me a remote equivalent of such a slant in favor of the speaker in any of Bush's addresses to children?
I admit I never saw any of Bush's speeches or the accompanying lesson plans, but I am going to go out on a limb and say such controversial, and yes, propagandist, elements did not exist. If they had, I am certain I would have heard about it for three weeks straight and some seven-year-old would have received the Nobel Prize in Literature for having penned "President Bush Inspired Me To Seek Citizenship In France."
So, is anyone here going to actually discuss the original intent of the administration with their speech, or are you going to continue to ignore it just like the panel did? As a quick related aside, for those of you who haven't seen the story Van Jones resigned.
And please don't try any tired old labels on me. My politics span the entire spectrum, and I would venture to say my ideology is far more "diverse" than the bulk of the posters here. Obama is so far toward the end of the left spectrum that he almost daily invites this type of criticism. And the "shocked" reactions we routinely get from this administration speak volumes as to how out of touch with the average American these leftist politicians are.
If America was a patient, it would be in the ICU. Start doing some homework on the clowns this president has surrounded himself with (start with Holdren, Koh, Sunstein, and Browner to get a taste) and then get back to me as to what is really on the agenda here. And try to do it before the America I grew up in and hope my son inherits draws its last breath.
Nuclear-powered zombie robots from space, led by dictator overlord Barack HUSSEIN Obama will proceed with operation child-mind-control today!
Be prepared to take action to remove you child's eyes and ears, so they don't see or hear this invasion of socialistic doctrine!
In related news, the Constitution will be burned after the indoctrination speech, just to eliminate any political opposition!
Dreaded invasion of the demonic socialistic robots from space did not happen! This only means that FOX News' satellite dishes, cleverly concealing "fair and balanced" death rays, kept the invaders in check!
Obama had no choice but to give his "plan b" speech!
Thank god we have FOX News and Glenn Beck to save the world!
It was a close call! Disaster averted!