Ummm...yeah, because there are so many white guys in this country that have never seen an African-American. I get what you are saying about his name sounding different. Do you really think the far right would react any differently to him if his name were Bill Jones? Any derision of Colin Powell from Cheney and Rush has a lot more to do with Powell publicly endorsing Obama on "Meet the Press" in October 2008 than it does with his race.
After re-reading your post, I would like to retract this part of my previous post. I would, but do not have the edit function.
My fault; I wasn't clear. I was talking about two different forces: the religious right and the secular liars. On the one hand you have Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, on the other you have Atwater (who repented on his deathbed, btw) and Karl Rove. Together they formed a successful coalition of the assy that I believe made it impossible for reasonable people to take that party seriously even if they remained committed to rational conservative principles. But I certainly wasn't saying Atwater was a fundie; he was from the lying cynic side of the group. To be clear, there are ********ing liars and jerks in both parties. The difference is that the ones from the GOP are in charge. The ones from the Dem party are largely relegated to the fringe.
I mostly agree but I think he's vindicated himself to some extent. He obviously regards that to have been a dark chapter in his career and I try to forgive it somewhat on the grounds that he was being a 'good soldier' as he'd presumably tried to be all his professional life. Life in the WH is, I think, similar; the job is to support the POTUS no matter what. Even so, he seems rightly ashamed of that damning and damnable speech and that makes it possible for me to give him back some small measure of respect.
Also: Kelly, please post more. It's nice to have another informed poster here; especially one that writes so well.
So, some of you know that I'm a musician. I play sax and flute at a conservative Southern Baptist church with a weekly attendance of around 650-750. I got up and walked out during the sermon today. Other churches I've played at have the band off to the side or lets the band exit the stage when the music is over. Not here. I sit on the stage the entire time, directly behind the pastor. So when I got up and left, you can be sure everybody saw me do it. The pastor's sermon was on Obama speaking to kids on Tueday. He said that people were asking his opinion so he decided to give this sermon. He started by reading 1 Peter 2:13-17 which talks about submitting to the government. He somehow twists it suggesting that it says there's a line between what we should submit to and what we shouldn't. So he begins talking about Obama speaking to students and says that "on the surface" there's nothing wrong with that. But if you have a "suspicious mind" (which he encouraged), you can find things to be afraid of. He quoted the lesson plans saying that they suggested that socialism was going to be injected into the speech. At this point, I'm thinking about walking out but decide against it. I've seen a handful of people already leave which is more than what I expected from a conservative church. A couple of weeks ago, I told myself that if this pastor preached on health care reform, I was going to walk. He doesn't preach on politics all that often but I knew a sermon like this was coming. It just happened to be on Obama's speech and not health care. During the election, he gave a sermon on the economy that was so far to the right, it pissed me off so much that I donated my check that week to the Obama campaign. Of course, he ended that sermon by saying "now I'm no economist" as if to qualify the statements he'd been making for the past 40 minutes as having no real authority because he really didn't know what he was talking about. Likewise today, he said he threw this sermon together quickly because church members were asking him his opinion and he didn't really know much if anything about it. So anyway, at this point in the sermon he's reached a certain level of rhetoric and I told myself that if he stayed at this level I wouldn't leave but if he escalated it, I'd be gone. It was about that point when he started talking about how Obama was a socialist and how socialists and communists indoctrinate children at a young to push their propaganda (remember, we're in church ) and I packed up my flute, put my sax on a chair, packed up my stand, stood up and walked right passed the pastor, put my sax in its case and left. I've e-mailed the music minister explaining my reasons for walking out. I may lose my gig but I don't think that's a certainty. I'd be willing to go back because he doesn't preach on politics often. If he sticks to Jesus, like he should, then I'm good.
I am a teacher and my class is planning to watch the speech. I sent home a notice to parents with an option to have an alternative activity planned for students that will not be able to watch. Regardless of the politics involved, the majority of my students view Obama as a role model. They don't understand liberal vs. conservative, but they admire Obama for various reasons. I see no problem with students, especially from impoverished backgrounds, listening to a president they think is "cool." But at least I gave parents a choice.
what kind of parent would't want their kids to have a rare opputrunity to be addressed and inspired by the POTUS?
Here is my take:....I am open to Obama speaking to my children about their education, but the language as communicated was a problem... As one of the preparatory materials for teachers provided by the Department of Education, students had been asked to, "Write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. “ Now, don't take offense when so-called "assholes" as referred to by the advisor to Obama don't really care about having their children help this Obama... The language smacks of indoctrination... Thankfully there is change, real change in wording to state: "Write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short‐term and long‐term education goals.” but this change happened due to backlash, and came at a price...Thankfully. http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalp...ssage----scribbled-with-some-controversy.html
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/YqwfAjrgcn4&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/YqwfAjrgcn4&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> the republicans could have at least sent out someone who can at least hold an argument. this was an embarrassment.
Good for you. Nothing defines irony like conservative nutjobs b****ing about "indoctinration" Screaming about indoctrination while you brainwash an entire congregation that is looking for spiritual guidance and instead gets a politically motivated attack job. Sounds like something Jesus would be pretty pissed off at.
i don't even like discussing politics, and it wasn't even about cooper and roland teaming together. the point was how he danced around the question: "if republicans did the same thing, would he object?" and it's seriously saddening to see how some republicans can react like this: <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rd3HITB2B-Y&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rd3HITB2B-Y&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object> i mean, seriously? again, i don't care if you're republicans or democrats. if the president wants to speak about education and push students to work and study hard, graduate, and reach their potential, it should be a great thing. it's ridiculous and sad that there's a hoopla about this. "brainwash?" i've heard it all guys from politicians.
^ to add, if they think 18 minutes of exposure to obama will "brainwash" these kids to be the next obamanians, then i guess the parents of those kids are failures. the education system in America could be better. nationally, i think only around 70% of students graduate high school (and that does not indicate every student will go to college either). in some cities, that number is even below 50%. so if any public figure who wants to preach about working hard, going to college, and finding good jobs, then i'm all for it.
Kelly, let me echo Batman and encourage you to visit D&D more often. I agree with the post. G.H.W. Bush allowed some god-awful tactics in his two campaigns, and Lee Atwater was brilliant and ruthless, but neither one was joined at the hip to the Religious Right and the people running today's GOP.
the leader of a group of people who are based on FAITH telling them to have a "suspicious mind"? lmao.
When the president is speaking about education, what's wrong with students writing letters about what they can do to help the President? Writing a letter about helping the president with education is bad thing?
