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For all the debate over President Obama's speech to schools tomorrow, the speech itself - at least in its current form - is a pretty straight-forward pep talk. Based on an advanced copy of the speech released to the media, it seems more like the standard "Stay in School" speech, underscoring students' responsibilities and, as written, could easily have come out of the mouth of any number of Presidents regardless of political party affiliation.
And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself. Every single one of you has something you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That's the opportunity an education can provide.Maybe you could be a good writer - maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper - but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor - maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine - but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.
And no matter what you want to do with your life - I guarantee that you'll need an education to do it.
Obama even mentions Google, Twitter, and Facebook as a way to connect with the kids these days. Of course, who knows how many rewrites the thing has gone through, but if this is the finished product, it seems that all that hand-wringing was for naught.
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I have another paragraph from the speech.
"But hey kids, if you drop out of school and sit on your ass all day, I will provide free health care, unemployment checks, public housing, and all the other amenities everyone else has because you still deserve it. And those people who do take my advice? I'll be sure to tax away your money so other people can enjoy what you've worked hard for."
Hey, at least Obama got us out of Iraq. Oh wait...
social spending did not begin with obama nor will it end with obama. unemployment checks are issued by the state out of the unemployment insurance pool that businesses contribute to -- obama has nothing to do with that; public housing is difficult to obtain and not just anyone can walk into a department and walk out with a set of house keys as you seem to believe; and other social spending or "other amenities" as you put it like mental health clinics, fire departments, police departments, etc. are important features of the first-world. without social spending or safety nets or if we lived in a country in which your ilk proposes, we'd live in a free-market and government-free banana republic where the wealthy live in armed and gated communities while the rest of us live in crime-filled slums without any political or economic power other than "vote with your dollar." your laissez-faire wetdream is just as much as a nightmare as a communist dictatorship.
dont like taxes? too bad -- that's the admission cost of living in a civilized, mixed-market third-way first world nation. dont like that kinda place? you're free to leave.
LUCKY DUCKY!
Hilarious,
Sears Tower, the only honest citizen who works hard. I like how you don't even try to gloss over your disgusting, racist 'the lazy black man's coming to take mine' rhetoric.
For all the debate over President Obama's speech to schools tomorrow, the speech itself - at least in its current form - is a pretty straight-forward pep talk.
Of course it is!!! This has been the most absurd, insulting "controversy" I've ever seen in my life. The freely elected leader of this country is being treated like a child molester. It's pathetic.
I have no problem with Obama giving this speech. And I am a Republican.
I've disagreed with you a lot, ward, but i'm glad to hear you say that. No matter what I thought of Bush, I wouldn't have been this vehemently opposed to him speaking to school children. He was, after all, the president.
Yeah, right. Its easy to talk about how fair and moderate you are about a situation that never happened. If Bush had given a speech, you and your fellow liberals would have been screaming from the mountaintops. Do you honestly believe you would have been a calm voice of reason amidst the the liberal complaints and would have told everyone that he should speak because he is our PResident?
Be honest with yourself at least.
Wasn't Bush speaking to children while 9/11 was happening? Remember 'my pet goat' held upside down..lol.
I'd like to see how much they watered this down from the original version.
I don't think Obama realizes that he's not as popular as he was after he won the election. People aren't fainting at his very presence anymore.
I take it you've never written a paper or given a speech or anything like that, because editing and making many revisions is pretty standard.
I'm pretty sure the speech didn't start out as a tutorial on how to make malotov cocktails and how to start a socialist regime and then get' watered down' to stay in school and work har'.
"I'd like to see how much they watered this down from the original version."
You're delusional and reactionary and transparent. Besides xenophobia, lies, and fear mongering, what else does the right have going for them?
Honestly, what do you believe was in the speech before it was "watered down"? Do tell us. Did Obama quote Che? Did he command the school children of this nation to engage in jihad against the Zionist Israel? I'd like to hear about this indoctrination and brain-washing your people keep crying about...
What does the right have going for them? The fact that an increasing number of people are starting to realize that Obama is not the moderate he claimed he was in the campaign. The fact that people can see through his bullshit promises of transparency and banning lobbyists. The fact that people recognize his agenda of an ever-expanding state, which he is implementing through a number of bills that have to be passed immediately! People realize he tries to shove these bills through Congress before anyone realizes what is in them.
If a slobbering media weren't still propping him up, his popularity would be in the low 40s. HOpefully, it will get there eventually the next time he tries to cram a bill through Congress, probably cap-n-trade.
Yeah, I love Fox talking points too...
The fact that an increasing number of people are starting to realize that Obama is not the moderate he claimed he was in the campaign.
No, sadly, he's even more to the right. McCain would have dumped Don't Ask Don't Tell by now. And invaded Canada, but hey, trade-offs.
The fact that people can see through his bullshit promises of transparency and banning lobbyists.
A politician went back on his promises! NO! NO! Clearly, we are doomed.
In reality, Obama has opened up considerably over the last administration. Is it perfect? Nope. Has he fulfilled all his promises. Nope. But we strive to better our lot, not perfect it.
The fact that people recognize his agenda of an ever-expanding state, which he is implementing through a number of bills that have to be passed immediately!
You mean like "Cash for Clunkers" which put thousands of American Autoworkers back to work and saved many car dealerships? Or the bailout which has already returned billions in PROFIT from the banks? Horror!
People realize he tries to shove these bills through Congress before anyone realizes what is in them.
Not like the Patriot act. Or the Iraq War. Stopping to consider those bills was TREASON. Stopping economic recovery is PATRIOTISM.
Yes, because fox news, the wall street journal, the economist, national review, Talk Radio and thousands of conservative bloggers are just not enough. The big three network news is a half hour a night of about 30% actual news, CNN gave Glenn Beck his first show and outside of Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann MSNBC might get better ratings with test patterns.
Now whine about the big bad media some more. What, is Louis Lapham coming for your lunch money?
his popularity would be in the low 40s.
Still double Bush's numbers.
HOpefully, it will get there eventually the next time he tries to cram a bill through Congress, probably cap-n-trade.
Which is watered down environmental reform turned scare tactic by the fringe right.
The reality-based community welcomes your continued attempts to convince us of the merits of panic and fear.
I find it entertaining that you have been reduced to saying "oh yeah, well at least Obama is better than Bush!" This was the man who was going to change everything. He was different. He was for hope. He was for change. He was not about politics. He was going to reach across the aisle. He was going to be transparent, was going to lower sea levels, was going to get us off of foreign oil, provide health care and feed the starving masses, all in his first term. What a difference reality makes. Now, he is just better than Bush.
It is truly a sign of you desperation that you are clinging to Cash for Clunkers as a success. We basically borrowed from the Chinese to fund purchases of vehicles from foreign car companies. Many consumers went into debt to purchase these cars and it took sales away from other facets of the economy, as was evidenced by a reduction in retail sales for the month. Also, the government was slow as molasses in getting the rebates out, leaving dealerships without access to the cash they were expecting. Yeah, what a success!
Bush's popularity sank to historic lows because actual conservatives like me winced at his spending and growth of government. Obama's approval will never get that low no matter what he does because his base is full of mind-numbed robots who think he can do no wrong. In a poll taken on Election Day, 60% of Obama voters couldn't identify who controlled COngress.
Omigod.
He hasn't even been in office for a year and you're talking about him like he's a has been!
He has changed things. He is trying like crazy to get health care for everyone in this country who doesn't have it. Did Bush care about that? He has brought the issue further than anyone before him. Not an easy job when you're fighting ignorance, misinformation and the fearmongering that goes on 24/7.
He bent over backwards, from DAY ONE, to reach across the aisle, but the partisanship of the republican party is blocking every single move on Obama's part.
You are clearly either blind or insane...you're as bad as Palin who is STILL saying that the death panels are legitimate. There is no such thing as death panels. This is clear, and yet she's still going off about it.
Typical nutter. Poor Obama is like Sisyphus...only his eternal task is fighting ignorant wing nuts.
Oh...and Bush sunk to historic lows because he was a sociopathic moron with a cabinet full of greedy, bloated psychopaths.
Uh, you didn't answer his question..........again.
"For all the debate over President Obama's speech to schools tomorrow..."
Right-wing morons spreading another round of lies while the papers treat the stupidity like news isn't "debate."
It becomes much more debatable when school districts are caving to that vocal minority and telling teachers not to show the speech or even requiring students to have permission slips signed to view it.
Ward: agreed.
MM: "I'd like to see how much they watered this down from the original version"
Still waiting on the link for the original version. Do you have that?
It seems what is behind all of this "controversy" is bigotry. Other past "white" presidents have spoken to students. But all of the sudden a President of "color" wants to do the same, there's a big ruckus. And most of this ruckus seems to becoming from mainly "white" people/parents. The same "white" people you see in the news hollering and yelling during the health care discussions. They've called Obama a socialist, and one even compared him to Hitler. I feel many "white" Americans either hate/regret that a person of color became President and/or they're afraid of what "they" think Obama might do since he is a person of color in power. Either way, it's a sad commentary on how far we've come as nation.
Oh, of course. I was wondering how long it would be before there were charges of racism, the old standby for liberals. Have you seen a lot of signs and comments about his race? Probably not. The issue is not race for most people, its his extreme leftism, which he tries to hide and attempts to package himself as a moderate.
It is amazing that the Democrat party can still claim to be the party who stands for the progression of minorities. Democrats have presided over the destruction of the inner cities all over America. Each of the 10 cities with the highest poverty rates and worst public schools are run by Democrats. Republican leadership, who are basically inept and scared of being called racist, refuse to raise this as an issue.
The issue is not race for most people, its his extreme leftism, which he tries to hide and attempts to package himself as a moderate.
Oh, you're so cute.
Barack Obama is a moderate Democrat. He doesn't support any cuts to military spending, gay marriage, drug decriminalization, corporate privatization (actually, many republicans support that, see the initial bailouts where the US essentially bought companies but gained no stake in them) and he supports the death penalty, CIA/NSA wiretaps and the continued misuse of FISA.
Now tell me how terrifyingly left wing he is again. It's the day after a holiday and I could alway use a giggle.
It is amazing that the Democrat party
Listen, I know you get your wit from some witless wonders in the right wing media, but it's the DEMOCRATIC party. You don't sound clever or funny doing that, you sound stupid.
can still claim to be the party who stands for the progression of minorities.
Well, the Republican party does have a wonderful recent track record of using minorities (Gays in 2004, Latinos in 2006, Gays again in 2008, Blacks...always) to whip their base into a fear frenzy. Not to mention the ridiculous spectacle of several republicans on the judiciary committee accusing a noted Latina justice of being a racist.
Again, I could use the laugh.
Democrats have presided over the destruction of the inner cities all over America.
Well, when Nixon cut federal recovery efforts after the riots of the 1960s, a policy Ford continued that certainly did not help. Reagan destroyed social welfare with the racist nonsense about "welfare queens driving Cadillacs" which Bush continued. Not to mention, federal welfare reforms under Reagan incentivizing single parent homes, the war on drug which created a generation of felons for petty drug offenses...yes, but it's all the democrats fault.
Each of the 10 cities with the highest poverty rates and worst public schools are run by Democrats.
Care to offer any actual fact, you have a track record here of lying.
Republican leadership, who are basically inept and scared of being called racist, refuse to raise this as an issue.
I agree (!) they are inept. And they are scared of being called racists. In the same way the heavy girl in the bathing suit is afraid of being called fat.
"Each of the 10 cities with the highest poverty rates and worst public schools are run by Democrats."
Assuming this is true (I'm not interested enough to look it up), then you confuse cause and effect. Inner cities tend to have high poverty rates and bad public schools thanks to the phenomenon of white flight, which takes the bulk of resources to the suburbs. Of course those who are left behind are more likely to vote Democratic, as they see the Republican party has nothing to offer them.
I see. Funny how you liberals have such different standards depending on party affiliation. Whenever a Democrat is running a city/state/federal government, nothing is their fault but everything wonderful that happens is a product of their brilliance. HOwever, a Republican is faulted for collapsing bridges in Minnesota and pretty much everything that goes wrong. Funny how that works.
Democrats are only judged on their intentions.
Yes,
Here's a link to endless pages of images of racist signs, buttons, shirts etc. from your bigoted birther/tea party friends.
http://images.google.com/images?sourceid=navclient&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-20,GGLG:en&q=obama%20racist%20signs&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wi
Hey, you still haven't answered a number of questions people asked you last time you visited. Hard to do when you've got no legitimate answers I suppose.
What questions are you talking about? I can only log on every few hours.
Did you liberals know that when George HW Bush gave a similar speech in 1991, the Democrats complained about it and even held hearings about it? Here is a quote from Dick Gephardt: "The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,"
Oh wait......that was...you know, different. This is Obama - Grand Ruler of All!
Then they were wrong to do that.
And NOW, the details of Bush's speech that MM cleverly left out....
Bush speech vs. Obama speech
-"In that third year of the Kennedy presidency," Manchester wrote, "a kind of fever lay over Dallas country. Mad things happened. Huge billboards screamed, 'Impeach Earl Warren,' Jewish stores were smeared with crude swastikas...
Radical Right polemics were distributed in public schools; Kenndy's name was booed in classrooms; corporate junior executives were required to attend radical seminars."
A retired major general ran the American flag upside down, deriding it as "the Democrat flag,"
A wanted poster with J.F.K.'s face on it was circulated, announcing "this man is Wanted" for-among other things-"turning the sovereignty of the US over to the Communist controlled United Nations" and appointing "anti-Christians...aliens and known Communists" to federal offices.
And a full page advertisement had appeared the day of the assassination in The Dallas Morning News accusing Kennedy of making a secret deal with the Communist Party;
When it was shown to the president, he was appalled. He turned to Jacqueline, who was visibly upset, and said, "Oh, you know, we're heading into nut country today."
Manchester discovered that in a wealthy Dallas suburb, when told that President Kennedy had been murdered in their city, the students in a fourth grade class burst into applause
-excerpt from this month's Vanity Fair.
The wing nuts have not changed much have they? This could almost be written today with a few name changes.
Seems like they had the science of distributing material and brainwashing young school children honed way back then. And their fascination with communism is...fascinating. It never ends with 'nut country'...it's like the Neverending Story, except we're not in Fantastika...we're stuck here being bogged down by this negativity.
Yes, and who assassinated JFK? A right-winger? No. It was a leftist. Just like a leftist assassinated his brother. I love how you left that out.
You're really good at missing the point, aren't you?
best t-shirt ever:
http://www.printfection.com/Adam/Cant-Be-All-Four-T-Shirt/_p_4266473
It seems that the GOP playbook thus far has been to make accusations that cannot possibly be debunked, the more ridiculous the better.
The statement "Obama was not born, but rather created by asexual budding...prove me wrong!" illustrates the point. It really can't be proven either true or false...but since you can't prove it false, the speaker is free to declare himself right.
It seems the liberal playbook is to hire Czars to run parts of the government, pay them an average of $172k per year and give them a full staff. Czars are nice because the administration can bypass Congressional confirmation. That way Obama is able to hire his 9/11 Truther friends like Van Jones. Unfortunately for them, some people are actually taking notice of some of the comments these people have made.
Any president of the United States should be able to adress the schools. It should be one of the presidents responsibilites as long as we stay away from politics the speech should be embraced. It is disturbing that the Dems held Congressional hearings when Bush adressed the kids and it is disturbing how the GOP or at least some of them have reacted to Obamas speech. It would be encouraging if we could find some common ground on just a few issues.