It’s like 1984 all over again

MEMORY IS A WONDERFUL/A TERRIBLE THING!

I may not remember where I put my reading glasses five minutes ago, but I have vivid memories of the way in which despotic regimes which I have known in my long lifetime have mobilized and indoctrinated young people in order to ensure docility and complicity by them in the totalitarian oppression of society by their masters.  I remember pictures of the Hitler Youth Corps, Mussolini’s brown-shirted youth parades, the Red Brigade waving their little red books  of Chairman Mao’s sayings, and, more recently, the young people of North Korea in their mass demonstrations of love for their Maximum Leader.

It was therefore with some shock that I heard of the news that Obama is going to invade the classrooms of America next Tuesday and begin the process of creating mass worship of himself as the Anointed One who is their President.

This is unprecedented.  Our schoold children have traditionally been taught to love our Country, to salute our Flag, but the only President they have ever been taught to love and respect is the Founder of our Nation, its First President, George Washington, who was elected President representing no political party.

If I were a parent with a child in public school, I would keep that child home next Tuesday, just as I would if it had been announced that a case of swine flu had been found in his/her school.

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Big Brother Will Educate Your Children Now
by Lamar Alexander and Staff
ThePatriotPost.com
Friday, 04 September 09
It’s like 1984 all over again
Tuesday, Sept. 8, is the first day of classes in many schools across the Fruited Plain — and Barack Hussein Obama will use his presidential bully pulpit to interrupt the very start of classroom studies with an unprecedented nationwide speech to students, from pre-school to K-12. Schools technically have the option to show the broadcast from the White House Web site or on C-SPAN, but then again, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans in public education is at least 3-to-1, making forced viewing more likely.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to school principals, “The President will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning. He will also call for a shared responsibility and commitment on the part of students, parents and educators to ensure that every child in every school receives the best education possible so they can compete in the global economy for good jobs and live rewarding and productive lives as American citizens.”
The truly troubling part of this episode of “Everybody Loves Barack” is that the Department of Education posted “helpful” lesson plans to be used before, during and after Obama’s speech.
One idea included in the initial lesson plan was for students to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.” Uproar ensued, however, and that was changed. Now students can “write letters to themselves about how they can achieve their short-term and long-term education goals.” Slightly altered, but students are still encouraged to discuss what “the president wants us to do.”
We have a different take for teachers. Back in October, when charged that he was a socialist, Obama explained what he meant by “shared responsibility,” saying, “I don’t know what’s next. By the end of the week [John McCain will] be accusing me of being a secret communist because … I shared, I, I, I, I shared my, uhh… I shared my peanut butter and jelly sandwich.” Of course, Obama wasn’t and isn’t proposing to share his sandwich. Instead, he promises to confiscate your sandwich and give it to someone else whom he deems more worthy.
At the same time, Obama said of McCain’s opposition to tax hikes, “You know I, I, I don’t know when, when, uh, when they decided they wanted to make a virtue out of selfishness.” This from the guy who, between 2000 and 2006, gave a whopping two percent of his income for charitable purposes.
So, if teachers break down Obama’s real philosophy, they will have plenty of fodder for truthful discussions of his nefarious plots against all things American, without his propaganda drivel. Then again, on “Obama Cult of Personality Day,” responsible parents may opt out of this “teachable moment” and just call their kids in sick.
This Week’s ‘Alpha Jackass’ Award
“So much of the debate about President Obama has been politicized in an effort by some to delegitimize his presidency. This is clearly much ado about nothing. We’re talking about the president of the United States speaking to school kids. Why wouldn’t schools want this to happen? That’s why our kids are so dumb today, because they don’t want to have basic common sense in the classroom.” –CNBC contributor Keith Boykin, trying to de-link the upcoming Obama Big Brother speech to school children from good ol’ American horse sense

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Pro-Life Youth Groups: Students Should Protest Obama Speech to Schools

by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com Editor, September 4, 2009

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Three pro-life organizations for youth are asking students next week to protest a speech President Barack Obama will give that will be carried in schools across the country. They are asking students to make their peers aware of how Obama has relentlessly promoted abortion since taking over the White House.

In a Tuesday speech, Obama will address America’s returning students in a special address to welcome them back to the classroom and encourage them to excel in their education.

The speech, originally planned to discuss how America’s youth could assist the needs of Obama, was altered today and will instead address personal education goals.

However, because abortion has claimed the lives of 50 million unborn children since 1973, many of whom would be in classrooms next week, three pro-life groups say it is disingenuous.

In an effort to counter the Obama Administration’s pro-abortion agenda, Students for Life of America, Stand True Ministries, and Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust have joined forces and are encouraging high school students to make their voices heard and take action.

They are asking pro-life students to wear plain, white t-shirts with “Abortion Is Not Health Care” written in large letters across the front in an effort to protest Obama’s support for nationalized health care that will include government funded abortions.

Kristan Hawkins, the director of Students for Life of America, told LifeNews.com, “Students for Life acknowledges the very real danger in passing a nationalized health care plan, and we are doing everything we can to raise awareness about the dangers in this bill.”

“On Tuesday, high school students will show that they do not support any health care legislation which proposes government funded abortions,” she said.

Bryan Kemper, the president of Stand True Ministries, said even students need to understand what is at stake in the health care debate.

“By very virtue of Obama addressing our students in the classroom at such a critical time when he is dropping in the polls for his radical healthcare reform policies, it is important that students understand that this will be the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade,’ he told LifeNews.com.

“Students need to wear their homemade shirts and show school administration, staff, and faculty that indoctrination stops with them,” he said.

Jeff White, the co-founder of Survivors, was more direct.

“I saw recently President Obama in a 2nd grade class on a little chair talking with the students. I wonder if he told them that just eight years ago he advocated the right to kill them,” he said.

Parents and educators across the country have spoken out against showing the Obama speech and many school districts have pulled it from the classroom

Related webs sites:
Students for Life of America – http://studentsforlife.org
Stand True Ministries – http://www.StandTrue.org
Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust – http://www.survivors.la

http://www.lifenews.com/nat5427.html

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I'm sending this report out as an urgent alert.  As
many of you probably already know, Barack Obama is staging
a political propaganda event on Tuesday September 8th where
he will address the nation's schoolchildren in a live
speech.  Fox News has the details here:
http://www.foxnews.com/po
litics/2009/09/02/critics-decry-obamas-lesson-plan-students
/
My State Board of Education member Barbara Cargill, R-The
Woodlands, said parents are complaining to her about the
speech taking up valuable and precious instruction time.
Even more Orwellian though are the follow-up activities
that go along with the speech.
Students are encouraged to "write letters to themselves
about what they can do to help the president" and to
consider and ask questions such as "Why does President
Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us?
How will he challenge us?"
Children are young, impressionable, and eager to please.
They should be considered off-limits to a politician
pushing a socialist agenda.
Thankfully, there are things that can be done.
1. Parents can choose keep their kids at home if their
school is going to show the president's propaganda message.
2. Texas parents have the right to opt their kids out of
programs to which they object.
3. Principals and superintendents do NOT have to show this
program in their schools. It is not a mandate from the
federal government (at least not yet) and is optional.
Contact your local school and tell the principal and
superintendent that you do NOT want this shown at school
and taking away from precious instructional time. Remember
it's your tax dollars that are paying to show this program!
Obama isn't paying for this out of his campaign funds.
4. School boards have the authority to implement a Local
Policy that would prevent this from taking place.  They
would have to work quickly to call a Special Meeting (which
requires a 72-hour notice in Texas). This could be done as
late as Friday afternoon to allow for a School Board
Special Meeting on this coming Monday, Labor Day. At that
meeting your school board can implement a revision to one
of their Local Policies, such as Policy EMB (Miscellaneous
Instructional Policies : Teaching About Controversial
Issues), to create a local school district ban on a
category of events such as video presentations by
politicians. Contact your local school board members and
let them know that this is an option that they can
excercise. This is an unusual circumstance and most of them
will not be aware that this is even possible.
It is unfortunate that so many school districts across our
state are treating this as a "news event" and allowing a
political speech to displace classroom time.  Imagine:
millions of our students being propagandized to accept
Obama's socialist rhetoric under the authority of their
classroom teacher.
This is not "news" nor is it "history," it is simply a
political stunt.  It is imperative that action be taken to
prevent impressionable children from being used as
political fodder.  Contact your local school and see if
this propaganda event is being broadcast. Time is of the
essence because if your local school board is going to take
action, then it requires a Special Meeting that takes a
72-hour notice here in Texas. This makes Friday the
absolute last day to call a meeting in time to prevent this
from happening.
PO Box 8742, Lumberton, TX 77657, USA
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CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER SPEAKING ON FOX NEWS' "SPECIAL REPORT" ON FRIDAY, 04 SEPTEMBER 09

What is odd and creepy is the conception of government that underlay whoever it was
in the Education Department, 

and it could have been a plural, to have a question, how can you help your president?

That is not innocuous. Look, it is not going to do any real damage.

We're not going to have people chanting poems about their dear leader.

The question is that that kind of thing about a relationship between
the child and the president is extremely odd. 

A child has a relationship with a parent or with a teacher,
later a mentor or a coach, but not a president.

A child swears allegiance to the flag and the republic for
which it stands, 

but not the man who happens to be sitting in the White House. 

That's the difference between a popular democracy — which is really a dictatorship —
and a constitutional democracy. 

And the idea that you would want a child to have any relationship with a
president is odd. 

He shouldn't have any at all. He should have relationships with parents and
teachers and friends, but not the president.

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Why Parents Don’t Trust the Educator-in-Chief and His Comrades
  Friday, September 04, 2009
  By Michelle Malkin 
Listen to Commentary Podcasts 
 They think we’re crazy. “They” are the sneering defenders of Barack Obama who can’t fathom
the backlash
against the president’s nationwide speech to schoolchildren next Tuesday.
“We” are parents with eyes wide open to the potential for politicized abuse in
America’s classrooms.

 Ask moms and dads in Farmington, Utah, who discovered this week that their children sat
through a Hollywood propaganda video promoting the cult of Obama.
In the clip, a parade of entertainers vow to flush their toilets less, buy hybrid vehicles,
end poverty and world hunger, and commit to “service” for “change.”
Actress Demi Moore leads the glitterati in a collective promise “to be a servant
to our president.” Musician Anthony Kiedis pledges “to be of service to Barack Obama.”

 The campaign commercial crescendos with the stars and starlets asking their audience:
“What’s your pledge?”

 This same “Do Something” ethos infected the U.S. Department of Education teachers
guides accompanying the announcement of Obama’s speech—until late Wednesday,
that is, when the White House removed some of the activist language exhorting students
to come up with ways to “help the president.” 

 Education Secretary Arne Duncan had disseminated the material directly to principals across
the country—circumventing elected school board members and superintendents
now facing neighborhood revolts.

 O’s bureaucrats can whitewash offending language from the Sept. 8 speech-related documents,
but they can’t remove the taint of left-wing radicalism that informs Obama
and his education mentors. A spokesman maintained that the speech is “about the value of
education and the importance of staying in school as part of his effort
to dramatically cut the dropout rate.” But the historical subtext is far less innocent.

 Obama served with Weather Underground terrorist and neighbor Bill Ayers on the Chicago Annenberg
Challenge education initiative. Downplaying academic achievement
in favor of left-wing radical activism in the public schools is rooted in Ayers’ pedagogical philosophy. 

 Obama served as the program’s first chairman of the board, while Ayers steered its curricular policy.
The two oversaw grants to welfare rights enterprise ACORN and to avowed communist
Michael Klonsky—a close pal of Ayers and member of the militant Students for a Democratic Society.
SDS served as a precursor to the violent Weather Underground organization.

 As investigative journalist Stanley Kurtz reported, Klonsky and Ayers teamed up on the so-called
“small schools movement” to steer schoolchildren
away from core academics to left-wing politicking on issues of “inequity, war and violence.”

 A cadre of like-minded educators and national service administrators across the country
share the same core commitment to transforming themselves
from imparters of knowledge to transformers of society. The “change” agenda trains students
to think only about what they should do for Obama—and rarely
to contemplate how his powers and ambitions should be limited and restrained.

 Ayers preached his education-as-“social justice” agenda to his “comrades” at the
World Education Forum in Caracas, Venezuela, three years ago:

 “This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of my comrade and friend
Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice.
Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound
educational reforms underway here in Venezuela
under the leadership of President (Hugo) Chavez. We share the belief that education is
the motor-force of revolution, and I’ve come to appreciate
Luis as a major asset in both the Venezuelan and the international struggle—I look forward
to seeing how he and all of you continue to overcome the
failings of capitalist education as you seek to create something truly new and deeply humane.”

 Ayers continued: “I walked out of jail and into my first teaching position—and from
that day until this I’ve thought of myself as a teacher,
but I’ve also understood teaching as a project intimately connected with social justice.
After all, the fundamental message of the teacher is this:
You can change your life—whoever you are, wherever you’ve been, whatever you’ve done,
another world is possible. As students and teachers begin
to see themselves as linked to one another, as tied to history and capable of collective action,
the fundamental message of teaching shifts slightly,
and becomes broader, more generous: We must change ourselves as we come together to change the world.
Teaching invites transformations, it urges revolutions small and large.
La educacion es revolucion!”

This is why informed parents do not trust the Educator-in-Chief and his “comrades.”
You can take Obama from the radicals in Chicago.
But you can’t take the Chicago radicalism out of Obama.

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On Friday, I had the rare honor 
of appearing in the pages of The New York Times, 
apropos President Obama's plans to beam himself 
into every schoolhouse in the land 
in the peculiar belief that Generation iPod 
will find this an enthralling technical novelty. 
As Times reporters James C McKinley Jr. 
and Sam Dillon wrote:
"Mark Steyn, a Canadian author and political commentator, 
speaking on theRush Limbaugh show on Wednesday, 
accused Mr. Obama of trying to create 
a cult of personality, comparing him to 
Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-il, the North Korean leader."

Oh, dear! "A Canadian author": Talk about damning with faint credentialization. I don't know what's crueler, the "Canadian" or the indefinite article. As to the rest of it, well, that's one way of putting it. Here's what I said on Wednesday re dear old Saddam and Kim:
"Obviously we're not talking about the cult of personality on the Saddam Hussein/Kim Jong-Il scale."
Close enough for Times work.
But, if the Times wants to play this game, bring it on. The Omnipresent Leader has traditionally been a characteristic feature of Third World basket-case dumps: the conflation of the man and the state is explicit, and ubiquitous. In 2003, motoring around western Iraq a few weeks after the regime's fall, when the schoolhouses were hastily taking down the huge portraits of Saddam that had hung on every classroom wall, I visited an elementary-school principal with a huge stack of suddenly empty picture frames piled up on his desk, and nothing to put in them. The education system's standard first-grade reader featured a couple of kids called Hassan and Amal – a kind of Iraqi Dick and Jane – proudly holding up their portraits of the great man and explaining the benefits of an Iraqi education:
"O come, Hassan," says Amal. "Let us chant for the homeland and use our pens to write, 'Our beloved Saddam.'"
"I come, Amal," says Hassan. "I come in a hurry to chant, 'O, Saddam, our courageous president, we are all soldiers defending the borders for you, carrying weapons and marching to success.'"
Pathetic, right?
On Friday, Aug. 28, the principal of Eagle Bay Elementary School in Farmington, Utah – in the name of "education" – showed her young charges the "Obama Pledge" video released at the time of the inauguration, in which Ashton Kutcher and various other big-time celebrities, two or three of whom you might even recognize, "pledge to be a servant to our president and to all mankind because together we can, together we are, and together we will be the change that we seek."
Altogether now! Let us chant for mankind and use our pens to write, "O beloved Obama, our courageous president, we are all servants defending the hope for you and marching to change."
And, unlike Saddam's Iraq, we don't have the mitigating condition of being a one-man psycho state invented by the British Colonial Office after lunch on a wet afternoon in 1922.
Any self-respecting schoolkid, enjoined by his principal to be a "servant" to the head of state, would reply, "Get lost, creep." And, if they still taught history in American schools, he'd add, "Oh, and by the way, that question was settled in 1776."
To accompany President Obama's classroom speech this week, the White House and America's "educators" drafted some accompanying study materials. Children would be invited to write letters to themselves saying what they could do to "help the president."
My suggestion: "Not tell people what I really think about his lousy health care plan."
Well, after the unwelcome media attention, that exercise was hastily dropped.
For the rest of us, the president does not yet require a written test from grown-ups after his speeches, but it's surely only a matter of time. The New York Times managed to miss my point: Far from "accusing" the president of "trying to create a cult of personality," I spent much of my airtime on Rush's show last week "accusing" the president of doing an amazing job of finishing off his own cult of personality in record time. Obama's given 111 speeches, interviews and press conferences in which he's talked about health care, and the more he opens his mouth the more the American people recoil from his "reforms." Now he's giving a 112th – to a joint session of Congress – and this one, we're assured, will finally do the trick. That brand new Chevy may be rusting and up on bricks by the time he seals the deal but America's Auto Salesman-in-Chief will get you to sign in the end.
The president has made the mistake of believing his own publicity – or, at any rate, his own mainstream media coverage, which is pretty much the same thing. They told him he was the greatest orator since Socrates, but, alas, even Socrates would have difficulty playing six sets a night every Open Mike Night at the Soaring Rhetoric Lounge out on Route 127. Even Ashton Kutcher's charms would wane by the 112th speech.
"Mr Obama," wrote Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, "has grown boring." Amazing, but true. He's a crashing bore, and he's become one in nothing flat. His approval ratings have slumped – not just among Republicans, not just among independents, not just among seniors, who are after all first in line for the death panels. But they've fallen among young people – the starry-eyed members of the Hopeychangey Generation who stared into the mesmerizing giant "O" of his logo and saw the new Otopia. According to the latest Zogby poll, Obama's hold on the young is a wash: 41 per cent approve, 41 per cent disapprove. Zogby defines "young" as under 30, so maybe the kindergartners corralled into his audience this week will still be on side, but I wouldn't bet on it.
The President's strategy on Jan. 20 was to hurl all the vast transformative spaghetti at the wall – stimulus, auto nationalization, cap'n'trade, health care – and make it stick through the sheer charisma of his personality. Unfortunately, the American people aren't finding it quite so charismatic, and they're beginning to spot the yawning gulf between the post-partisan hopeychangey rhetoric and the budget-busting, prosperity-throttling, future-beggaring big government policies.
No wonder the poor chap's running out of material. At the time of writing, one of his exercises for America's schoolchildren is to suggest what you'd like him to do in his next speech. Here's mine: Call in sick, sir. You'll be doing your presidency a favor.
The president is not our ruler but our representative, a citizen-executive drawn from the people. It is unbecoming to a self-governing republic to require schoolchildren to (to cite another test question) select the three most important words in the president's speech.
But, if we have to trudge down this grim road, go on, kid, I dare you: "That's all, folks!"
Oh, wait. You have to rank the three most important words in order:
1) Try
2) Something
3) Else
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PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO OUR BELOVED OBAMA
The starry-eyed Hopeychangey Generation growing bored
with Obama.  Now he is targeting the kindergarten.
By Mark Steyn
Syndicated Columnist
Friday, September 4, 2009

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