First, His supporters liked to teach the world to sing — using kids as political pawns. Now this, from the New York Post:
The teachers union has been handing out thousands of Barack Obama campaign buttons to its members, sparking a clampdown by education brass.
The Department of Education – which has a long-standing policy barring teachers from wearing campaign buttons in schools – is set to send out an e-mail this week from Schools Chancellor Joel Klein laying down the law.
“Schools are not a place for politics and not a place for staff to wear political buttons,” said department spokeswoman Ann Forte.
“We don’t want a school or school staff advocating for any political position or candidate to students and we don’t want students feeling intimidated because they might hold a different belief or support a different candidate than their teachers.”
United Federation of Teachers official LeRoy Barr told his members in a recent e-mail that union chief Randi Weingarten is fighting the DOE decision.
Officials of the union – which has endorsed Obama – said they didn’t know of any schools where button-wearing teachers were told to zip it, but they said they were exploring the matter “to ensure members’ rights to free speech and expression.”
While department officials said the courts are on their side in the matter, many city teachers say their right to wear partisan buttons is a matter of free speech.
Several cited a landmark 1969 Supreme Court ruling involving students who planned to wear black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War. It affirmed that constitutional rights don’t get dropped “at the schoolhouse gate.”
“It’s not teaching kids to vote for Obama; rather, it’s showing them the democratic process in action,” said Patrick Compton, a social-studies teacher at Lafayette HS in Brooklyn, who said he has been wearing an Obama button handed out by the union.
“It is shocking to me, truly, that in this day and age, the school system wants to diminish, rather than increase, participation in our democratic system.”
Yes, Mr Compton. Nothing quite says “democratic participation” moreso than union-decreed support for a particular candidate — to include ready-made props — introduced into the school system, wherein most students don’t as of yet have a working knowledge of civics, or how to make informed decisions.
Instead, by Mr Compton’s lights, “participation in our democratic system” is merely about the more superficial aspects of electoral politics, namely, advertising and advocating from a position of power.
He must have learned that last bit from the mainstream press.
Personally, were I to find one of my son’s teachers wearing an Obama button in school — or warbling a cherubic song singing the transcendent change to be brought about by McCain — I’d be quick to confront that teacher and make sure MY “free speech” was addressed, and that MY participation in the “democratic system” was elucidated.
And I’d be sure to do it in front of the school children. Because assholes like Mr Compton and the teacher’s union only worry about “free speech” rights when they are in complete control of what gets said. The rest is conveniently written off as inappropriate or “hate speech,” thus clearing the ground for their speech to be the only acceptable speech.
“As long as you don’t preach to the children about who you should vote for, I don’t see anything wrong with it,” said Ellen Eisenger, a teacher at PS 35 in Queens. “It’s still America.”
Right. It’s not like you are in a position of influence over them, after all.
But then, let’s ask the question. If it’s no big deal, why wear the buttons when the audience for said buttons are your student charges? And why is the “public school system” endorsing a particular candidate, anyway?
Add to this the strategy in several swing states to “educate” idiot voters, and it’s clear to me that this is an election that is being run solely on a coordinated effort of propaganda, beginning with the mainstream media’s attempts to run out the clock on vetting Obama, to the attacks on Palin, to the rewriting of history to protect Democrats from credit crisis fallout.
Colorado’s Face the State (site appears to be down — just a coincidence, or a Drudge hit, is my bet) has been tracking some of the machinations, summarized here by Bridget Johnson in the Rocky Mountain News:
Face the State offers up its third installment in their […] series on confidential 2006 memos from the Colorado Democracy Alliance. In this intriguing memo, 527 operations are assigned to sometimes covert operatives, and the minimum wage campaign, assigned to the AFL-CIO, is focused on “increasing CO union power: ‘Educate the Idiots’ campaign, Target: minorities, GED’s, drop-outs.”
YIKES!!
[…]
Let’s read between the lines of this fair campaign:
* Is it really for the welfare of the worker, as the union elite claim with every campaign, or “increasing CO union power”?
* How powerful is your campaign message if you feel the smart people just won’t vote for you?
* And — this is as obvious as pie — you’re calling minorities “idiots”?????????? Who, they apparently believe, can be hoodwinked to serve any cause just by appealing to said alleged idiocy????YIKES!
That last bit about “idiots” is especially rich.
— Though they left of the “useful” part — probably out of some nagging recognition that they, too, are being played.
How can anyone — anyone — not be terribly worried at this point? Not to mention, creeped the fuck right out?
You’re a button pusher, too, Mister!
All that’s happened is they let the mask slip.
“It is shocking to me, truly, that in this day and age, the school system wants to diminish, rather than increase, participation in our democratic system.”
Why can’t they just teach? You know, about algebras and amphibians and Pearl Harbor and Christopher Columbus and Buzz Aldrin and stuff.
No, Rob. They’ve let the mask slip because they know it’s okay now to do so.
That’s even more frightening.
This is all so terribly depressing. I need a protein bar and a workout.
I just can’t do this anymore right now.
>>Why can’t they just teach? You know, about algebras and amphibians and Pearl Harbor and Christopher Columbus and Buzz Aldrin and stuff.
You’re assuming that teachers know that stuff, hf.
All I knows is I’ve stopped listening to NPR just like people stopped listening to state radio in Russia or Cuba. If you haven’t heard it lately it’s definitely a sobering experience.
The teachers in question are not as rational as you, hf, and neither are the people who decide that teaching multiculturalism is more important than teaching math and science.
I think Jeff’s right. With nearly all the MSM safely in the tank for Obama, why bother with pretending?
Jeff, you’re right…
There is a concerted effort by the at large left wing intelligentsia, in higher academia, the MSM, and our public school system, to put O! over the top. And although it is a well worn cliche, they are determined to do it, by whatever means necessary. This coordination, along with the effective stifiling of free speech through the trooooof squads, nutroot brownshirts, and the abscence of real MSM vetting of the story of O! is what gives this thing the whole Orwellian feel. It’s like they read LF, and realizing their past shortcoming vowed to get it right this time…
They’ve indoctrinated our public school educated children with the societal miasma of identity politics and multi-culturalism. Many of the public at large, the non-critical thinking ones, who avoided this for whatever reason have been exposed to this ideology through mass marketed entertainment and the supposedly objective, but in reality activist, MSM. Finally, they put up the attractive black man, with apparently no history to use in getting a handle on his core convictions, and instead of wondering what is wrong with this picture, the entire MSM is stuck on celebrating the historic nature of it; and while decrying any criticism of O!, his meager history, or his past associates as distractions from issues-they refuse to actually talk about how his esposed policies will affect our nation at this difficult juncture.
I mean, at this point I would almost fugghedabout his distant past, I’d be happy if the MSM would simply talk honestly about the evolution of his positions, from the far left to the center, since February!!!
A month is a long time. And pride will kill you deader than a bullet. Messier, too.
How can anyone  anyone  not be terribly worried at this point? Not to mention, creeped the fuck right out?
Yesterday Glenn Reynolds led off an Instapudit item like this:
I wonder if the right-wing blogosphere could unite in a campaign to boycott the media arm of Obama’s campaign? Bloggers who elected to participate could stop linking to MSM fronts for Obama like the NYT and LAT, and encourage their readers to cancel subscriptions en masse. If we stop participating in the charade at least we will no longer be lending it legitimacy with our clicks and our subscription dollars.
I realize that many people have done this already on an individual basis, but an organized campaign involving several major blogs like this one will create more exposure to the issue.
I’ll raise my hand as a member of the “creeped right the fuck out” contingency.
I for one welcome my new socialist overlords. Which reminds me, BTW. Where does the bread line start?
Definitely creeped out. And, for the first time ever, I’ve greenlighted the better half to buy guns. I hate the idea of having them in the house with a toddler around and #2 on the way.
But, this is going to get worse before it gets better. (If it gets better.) I plan on protecting me and mine in the meantime.
BTW, talking about being creeped out, has anyone seen the reporting on O!s campaign taking truckloads of drunk homeless guys to vote in Ohio? I mean, having the insta-registration and subsequently bus them to the polls thing going on there was bad enough…
Remonds me of the NY politics of the early 1800, where they would go down to the Bowery and get all the Ho’s, thugs, brigands, and drunken louts to get behind some crooked figurehead stiff(kinda like O!) by essentially partying it up with them. Afterwards, as a bonus, they would have the thugs and brigands go to opposition gatherings and essentially start riots and generally beat the snot out of them-to avoid their votes being registered…
You know, kind of like the Democratic primary caucuses, where O!s revolutionary guards shouted down all opponents…
Maybe it is time to stock up on ammo and canned food…
>>truckloads of drunk homeless guys
Future O! shocktroopas
>>Maybe it is time to stock up on ammo and canned food…
I just wanna knife-fight Wall St. guys over rusty tins of cat food in the smoldering atomic ruins of NYC
Palin was a mistake because she has cost us the middle, and many of the dissaffected Hillary voters.
The middle would have dropped Obama like a hot prickly rock if they had felt there was a reasonable alternative. McCain was not hated – a moderate VP would have undercut the radical candidate.
Yeah, I’m pumped about Fallout 3 as well.
Oh, they are a referee alright. Kind of like the NBA refs that hand out phantom whistles for the stars, and bet on the games that they are calling.
Jeff’s comment about what he would do to protect his son from indoctrination is surely the right path.
Union executives are essentially thugs–they use money and power to manipulate. But they’re also pussies. So are most school administrators. Teachers have a job to do. They don’t want parents in their faces. They don’t want or need the hassle. Administrators are also politicians. They’ll kiss the ass of those who scream the loudest. (Pardon my gross generalizations. There are many excellent people working in education, but this is my experience.)
The button issue is so transparently bogus, that no union official or administrator would go to the mat for it. If enough parents scream, they’ll crawl back into thir holes, buttons and all.
These fuck-bubbles had best get on their knees every night and fervently pray that Atlas doesn’t shrug!
My wife is a school teacher and is forced to join the union due to the cover provided in case she gets sued because she didn’t give Johnny the extra two points he hadn’t earned.
Lot’s of Obama stickers in the Staff parking spots at my son’s middle school. I think I’ll be asking him a few questions on way home after I pick him up today. If he mentions any stickers in classrooms – although all the stickers I’ve seen are attached to Prius’, which might make it a tough fit in his science class – I’ll be meeting with the principal about equal freedom of speech, so to speak.
I used to think it might be interesting to live through the onset of a new ice age.
Between that and the advent of a post-republic America, I’m still leaning ice age. I’d rather worry about sabertooth cats than whether my neighbors are reporting on me to the political commissariat.
HOARDER!!!
NPR always was garbage. They do government interviews and ruin careers if you don’t go along with dems.
In the school district where I live and that my kids attend (youngest graduates in four years, yea!!) the students have a dress code because the wearing of certain clothes indicates gang affilation. How about if campaign buttons be included in the items not compatible with the school dress code (for teachers as well as students)?
I think there is some overextension going on here. It is the teachers’ union, not the “public school system,” that is pushing this button issue. The Department of Education, the presumptive face of public education, wants to enforce its policy against politicking in schools.
I would also find it objectionable if any advocacy were going on in my daughter’s school, whether subtle or outright. Having mock debates and other excercises are fine; authority figures pressing their views? No way.
This is over at the Pub, and I think might actually be a good way to fight back. There’s a lot of links I didn’t follow, but I actually talked to a few PBS bots…
As long as you don’t preach to the children….
Interesting verb choice.
Home instruction also works.
nnivea, maybe she should drop the union, and with her savings in dues purchase her own professional liability coverage.
that is bad.
what is worse is my son’s textbook in his AP comparitive politics class.
It argues that Iran’s attempt to acquire nuclear weapons is for defensive purposes and that its government is seeking only to have influence in countries that have a large shia community.
they dont much define “influence,” by the way.
my property-tax dollars at work.
Palin was a mistake because she has cost us the middle, and many of the dissaffected Hillary voters.
The middle would have dropped Obama like a hot prickly rock if they had felt there was a reasonable alternative. McCain was not hated – a moderate VP would have undercut the radical candidate.
Palin is the middle, there is nothing extreme about her except the bias in the coverage. She has repeatedly stated that her religious views do not influence her politics, her history shows this, yet she is widely viewed as a religious extremist by most Americans. I don’t see any way around the situation as it is, it doesn’t matter who you nominate if the other side gets to define them.
Just draw a crucifix on all of the Obama buttons. The Jesus allergy overwhelms, you know?
For all practical purposes, the teachers’ unions are the public school system. The DoE has very, very little influence compared to them.
Sure. And right after November 4 you can bet they’ll figure out a way to sidestep all these appeals.
Sarah has a bit of nishi disease.
B’moe, I’m aware of Palin’s various merits, and the unfairness and “rip her to shreds” nature of dealing with the threat of those merits. But you all know she holds some views that pushed away support than could have been got. It’s the middle that was needed, not a revved up base.
It’s the pro-life business more than anything, no use being coy. I know she didn’t bend the law to her beliefs in Alaska. But unless she can do a creditable job making it plain she will NEVER do as president, nor make it her aim to undercut existing law, we lose. She really isn’t the middle in her beliefs on that subject. And whether she is middle-brow is up for debate, I think she is intelligent, and proven a capable leader. I’m not alarmed by her election. But I’m not the vote that was needed.
I still don’t think Baracky will win. There are a lot of people that still love this country I think. The House isn’t gonna pass that bailout thinger though is my guess. Nancy is intoxicated with all the collapseyness of captalism talk I think.
I told you the Obama-bot zombies were out. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!
Palin was a mistake because she has cost us the middle…
Nonsense. The only votes Mccain has ‘lost’ are votes he never ever had in the first place. Go ask Kathleen Parker if her article means that she’s voting for Obama? No, thought not.
Then why write it? Oh well, that’s called trying to be a thought leader. Only Parker isn’t actually leading by doing any serious thinking or arguing, she’s merely hoping to stay ahead of future events and thereby sound like she’s a leader.
People who are actually accustomed to being out on the front lines where things get done are well versed in the actions of those who like to issue the super-extra-early after action reports.
Hey, a girl can get depressed, too.
Uh, there’s nothing a President can do about the issue, directly. Even indirectly, it’s just the ability to appoint people who would kick the issue back to the states.
Thomas, not true. Obama would have been rejected by plenty of moderates if they did not feel they had to vote against an extreme candidate. Resorting to anecdote isn’t really good enough, I guess, but I do know women who were quite ready to vote for McCain, and I know what issue flipped them.
Where does Kathleen Parker live? What is her social circle? I suspect her article was inspired more by the people she associates with than any career impetus.
For some people Palin is simply “not our class, dear”, and they’ve decided that means she’s inferior.
*capitalism* … oh. For real I think in the end Governor Palin is a net plus. People don’t vote on VP and she drew a lot of fire like a damn good soldier I think. I’m planning on skipping the debate thinger though cause I’m just not really in the debate zone today.
But unless she can do a creditable job making it plain she will NEVER do as president..
Oh please. Now it’s beholden upon a Vice-Presidential candidate to make arguments that the opposing Presidential candidate would never be called upon to make?
And your attempts to pain Palin as ‘extreme’ only lead me to conclude that your notion of ‘the middle’ is rather narrow.
also I don’t want to listen to Joe Biden today. He’s the tiresomest one.
hf, “Abortion is key.” You hit it already this a.m., it seems.
I have only this hope – that the realities of both an Obama and Palin-potential presidency are revealed. I hope Palin does a very creditable job tonight, and that she can reel moderate votes instead of push them away.
I feel like all shades of “right” were going to vote against Obama. I know I was, I felt nose-held votes, but votes, for McCain were guaranteed because of his Opponent. Do you think that part of my looking at things is wrong?
Happyfeet, I hope you are right. I hope America is loved, and Mr. Baracky is still dropped like a hot prickly rock.
Not sure that Palin’s lost more votes than she’s won. There were an awful lot of conservatives who were NOT voting for McCain but rather staying home in their jammies. Or waiting ’till the last minute and then perhaps getting liquored up enough to pull the lever. Some of us among them. Palin DID energize the base, which is what’s going to keep them from staying home. Whether she brought anyone in from the middle, I can’t say. But if O! wins, it won’t be by a landslide, and I think Palin can take some of the credit for that. (Though O! has certainly done his part…)
Wait, what about a potential Biden Presidency? Why nothing on that? Isn’t that something that deserves, maybe, a little exploration? Oh, nothing like crawling up Palin’s vajayjay, but maybe a question or twenty…
Thomas, if that was overstatement, forgive me. I do think she will have to get across the non-interference point in some convincing measure.
“waiting ’till the last minute and then perhaps getting liquored up enough to pull the lever”
See, I truly do think O was inspiration enough for that.
That would not have been the case with a Hillary or other more benign Democrat.
I am the base. It’s only because of the Palin pick that I’m supporting this ticket. No presidential candidate can win without solid support from the base — especially not in these reputedly divided times.
Just ask Bob Dole.
Hard to say – with the impaling of Sarah Palin, we got to see a lot more of Obama than we might have otherwise…
Panther, he did show more of his uglies. That’s true.
We can’t vote for Baracky b/c it would make the happyfeets cry. For reals this time.
McGehee,
Tell me I’m wrong, that the possibility of Obama as prez wouldn’t be sufficient fire enough for you to throw a wet-blanket base vote onto him.
I have the idea that O was especially worth some git up and votiness.
My anecdotes are slightly different from some others. One side of my family is steel mill blue state. It was all Hilary until Obama won, then things weren’t quite so clear, but likely to default with whoever the Union said to vote for. Palin changed everything. The only Obama supporters I know are hard core progressives who would never vote for the Republican nominee, even if it was Bill Clinton in disguise.
ThomasD –
Well, that’s encouraging. I like those anecdotes better than mine.
A Baracky Chavez presidency would validate that everything I know to be right is now wrong. You can’t passionately revile the freedom of the Iraqi people like he has and then pretend to magnanimity here at home. That’s not hopey at all. It will immeasurably strengthen the hand of tyranny for generations. They will have a template what they didn’t have before, and everyone will know their part.
Of course, the people I know who are hard core conservative do think that John McCain is Bill Clinton in disguise…
Thomas, are you in a state where electors are up for grabs, though? My home state is Virginia (with a huge swath of swing-voters) and is a toss-up state this cycle.
A good friend of mine — a lifelong Democrat (because her family was) turned Republican (because she started to actually think) — says that many of her elderly family members are not voting in this elections. They’re Democrats, but they refuse to pull the lever for a black man.
I live in Western Pennsylvania, so it may actually benefit the Republican ticket.
I mean, I’m no fan of racism, and that’s not how I want to win this election. But since Obama’s minions at ACORN are clearly doing everything they can to round up as many votes (legitimate or not) for their man as possible, and to hell with the law…. well, let’s just say I won’t lose too much sleep over it.
Notably, I’ve yet to hear a diehard Republican say he could never vote for a black man.
OT
If CasSarahW is SarahW I have to say I liked your use of “Chicagobagmanchurian” for Obama the other night.
You’re kidding, right? How long have you been around here again? Have you really not seen all my reiterations of “I’m going to vote for every other office on my ballot, but not president”..? Did you see them, but think I was lying?
Even now, I’m not planning to vote for president — only vice-president.
The fact Cranky Old Guy still gets the benefit of that vote is no fault of mine.
>>Notably, I’ve yet to hear a diehard Republican say he could never vote for a black man.
Blacks were some of the earliest Republicans. They’ve been hoodwinked since. Culturally, many are still conservative/independent in outlook.
In the Reconstruction-era South, a Republican winning an election often meant a black winning an election. Such occurrences were frequently followed by expressions of anger from the Democrats militant wing, known popularly as the Klan.
Seconded. I am voting for Sarah. I only donated to the campaign (first time ever donating to any political campaign) for Sarah. I was going to vote for all other offices, but not president. Maybe I would’ve changed my mind by November, maybe not. Now we don’t have to find out.
I’m planning on skipping the debate thinger though cause I’m just not really in the debate zone today.
Admit it hf, you’re skipping it because you have nothing to wear.
You’re wrong. I won’t vote for Obama. Right after Governor Palin was selected to be Senator McCain’s running mate, I actually considered voting for McCain.
I’m not sure that I will actually do it. There’s a lot of shit in the McCain shit sandwich and not so much bread. If it was a Palin/McCain ticket, they’d have my vote in a heartbeat.
Blame LBJ for losing the black vote. As he famously said to an acquaintance, “If we pass this (the Great Society legislation), we’ll have the nigger vore for 40 years.” He apparently underestimated the staying power of those who demand to be bought off.
Impossible, ginsocal. LBJ was a Democrat. There is no way in hell he could be so craven and racist.
*snort*
Gaacckkk! “vote”
[…] step in and set Ms Herbert straight. After all, one cannot press for free speech and simultaneously complain when teachers use their free speech rights to indoctrinate students in a way that is demonstrably […]
I’m now living in NE TN – not exactly a swing state. I work in east KY and SW VA though – with VA being very swing state.
Coal country being heavily democrat, Obama support is big – you even see Obama signs in front of a lot of churches. Even with Biden’s ‘no clean coal here in America gaffe’ they still believe Obama when he says he supports coal mining and coal fired power plants. When you try to explain to them that sure he’ll gladly voice support for clean coal – all while simultaneously passing laws that allow environmentalists and NIMBYs to tie the projects up in the courts until forever they don’t seem to make the connection. Somehow it’s those big business Republicans who are the ones opposed to coal. The degree of cognitive dissonance is often enough to induce tooth pain.
The fact is, Woodie Guthrie type marxism and Steve Earl brand populism runs very deep here along with the UMW and IWW roots. Alot of people here are resigned to a life of just scraping by so they figure redistribution is the only way.
Surprisingly race is not a big issue here. Historically the region did not have a large slave population (not being suitable for plantation type agriculture) and never had the type of industrialization that attracted large amounts of blacks like the northeastern cities. In fact NE TN was a hotbed of the abolitionist movement prior to the Civil War. So color is a relative non-issue compared to socio-economic factors. Conversely, when Hilary was still in the race sexism was a major factor. Early support went to Edwards, with is faux populism and southern boy act, over the northerner Obama.
I like this quote from old Otto von Bismarck:
God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America.
And there is this:
A journalist is a person who has mistaken their calling.
Geoffb – that’s me. I was feeling Cassandra-ish.
Flacy, you seem like tougher nut to crack. Barack isn’t bad enough for you to vote AGAINST him?
“It’s the pro-life business more than anything, no use being coy. ”
If that’s the hidden agenda from the Palin-hating womyn, by all means, bring it out into the open.
Pro-partial-birth-abortion and pro-taxpayer-money-for-abortions Barry is an extremist on this issue.
Governor Sarah Palin has walked the pro-life walk by giving birth to a special needs kid that some women would slice and dice at 20 weeks gestation. Sarah Palin happens to know that life begins at conception and has a grounded moral belief about the matter. Obama thinks the protection of human life is above his pay grade (well, so is the white house above his pay grade then).
If ther are people in this so-called ‘middle’ of yours attracted to:
– Obama’s refusal to give legal protection to born alive victims of abortion,
– his insistence on taking away (in Federal law) the right of states to democratically determine restrictions on abortions,
– and his appointment of liberal activist extremists (like Ruth Bader Ginsburg) who will gut the Constitution in order to mis-interpret the right to abortion-on-demand,
well … shoot … that’s a “middle” that is way, way, way extreme on the whole fetus-killing business.
Let the pro-abort extremist feminists stick with Obama’s taxpayer-funded-pro-abortion-on-demand extremism.
The REAL middle, the decent people that understand the humanity of the unborn and the moral problem with killing the unborn for convenience, will give prolife Sarah Palin and John McCain an honest look.
jessum, what a bunch of losers and whiners.
And you are in the first rank, data dave.
If I did what the Government employees did, I would be in trouble. They should be in trouble as well due to the Hatch act.
[…] THE MESSIAH COMES! “Teach your children (and your low-intelligence voters) well…. First, His supporters […]
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