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Circular Confirmation On The Right

Conservatives use this technique quite often. Someone pushes an idea, somebody else writes about it, then the original writer cites the derivative work as proof of his original idea. Then they complain that the media is covering up the story. The story they made up.

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328 Responses to “Circular Confirmation On The Right”

  1. Indeed says:

    Indeed:

    “U.S. Says Hussein Intensifies Quest for A-Bomb Parts” blared the lead article of the New York Times on Sunday, September 8, 2002. That fateful article is now a notorious example of the disastrous symbiosis between the White House and corporate media.
    Using White House sources, co-authors Judith Miller and Michael Gordon stated as fact that “Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes, which American officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium” for use in making nuclear bombs. The article warned that American officials are “alarmed” by Iraq’s “quest for nuclear weapons”: “The first sign of a `smoking gun,’ they argue, may be a mushroom cloud.”

    Here was the perfect gift to President Bush’s quest for war: an article parroting the Administration’s own words on the front page of the liberal New York Times, “the newspaper of record.” Timed for the Sunday talk shows and their White House guests, the article was deployed within hours of its publication by Vice-President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, each seizing the opportunity to spread their scary disinformation to TV audiences throughout the country and the world.

    On “Meet the Press” with Tim Russert, Cheney cited the article as evidence for the administration’s case: “There’s a story in the New York Times this morning…I want to attribute the Times. I don’t want to talk about, obviously, specific intelligence sources, but it’s now public that, in fact, [Saddam Hussein] has been seeking to acquire…the kinds of tubes that are necessary to build a centrifuge” as a step toward building a nuclear bomb.

    Just a reminder of the monsters in the previous administration. Never fucking forget.

  2. Susan says:

    Circular cyber-firing squad? Any cyber takers? (Yes, I’m anti-violence unlike many rightists.)

  3. jr says:

    Speak & Spell Bircher edition

  4. rip says:

    I don’t know why they even bother. A quick perusal of wingnut sites like Freerepublic reveal that any bizarre theory about Obama (or Democrats in general) becomes fact within days (with the original post apparently evidence enough), even if it conflicts with earlier bizarre theories.

    One of the more entertaining recent threads was one about Texas secession that devolved into a discussion about whether the U.S. Military would stand by while the Russian and Chinese troops Obama was planning to send in to squash secession were killing Americans. Obama’s plans to use foreign military in such an event went from conjecture to accepted fact in the minds of these people in a matter of minutes.

  5. Dennis says:

    Just a reminder of the monsters in the previous administration. Never fucking forget.
    –Indeed/Mr. ed

    Look over here, Indeed.

    Kids4Change: Singing to Dear Leader

    School kids taught to praise Obama

    Just a reminder of the techniques used by Leftists. Bash conservatives who questioned Obama’s motives in speaking to school children for being dumbasses afraid of the his message to stay in school, as if that’s all it was. Then when confronted with stark and embarrassing video of the cult of Obama indoctrination of our young children in schools, completely ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist.

    MoveOn along. Nothing to see here.

  6. Indeed says:

    More reminder of the right wing’s circular confirmation bamboozlery:

    Flashed on the courtroom computer screens were her notes from 2004 about how Cheney could respond to allegations that the Bush administration had played fast and loose with evidence of Iraq’s nuclear ambitions. Option 1: “MTP-VP,” she wrote, then listed the pros and cons of a vice presidential appearance on the Sunday show. Under “pro,” she wrote: “control message.”

    “I suggested we put the vice president on ‘Meet the Press,’ which was a tactic we often used,” Martin testified. “It’s our best format.”

    It is unclear whether the first week of the trial will help or hurt Libby or the administration. But the trial has already pulled back the curtain on the White House’s PR techniques and confirmed some of the darkest suspicions of the reporters upon whom they are used.

  7. Wilbur says:

    Dennis, I agree, that’s pretty odious. Almost as bad as this.

  8. Dennis says:

    Hey, some common ground besides reciprocating saws, Wilbur.

    So now having established that, of the two, which one is currently president?

  9. Indeed says:

    More right-wing circular confirmation. Spooky.

    (previous post got eated)

  10. Duros62 says:

    That’s known as “Pulling a Dick”, isn’t it?

  11. rip says:

    It’s pretty clear that SaveFarris is ghostwriting Dennis’ posts.

  12. Wilbur says:

    Dennis: Obama, but I don’t recall liberals getting all redfaced about that earlier video. Did you buy one of those saws, helping the American economy as well as your home renovation projects?

  13. Sean D. Martin says:

    For more than a year, conservative journalist Jack Cashill has argued that a textual analysis of “Dreams From My Father” reveals that it was ghostwritten for Barack Obama by former Weatherman Bill Ayers.

    Oh, for Pete’s sake. They’ve gotten it all backwards. The analysis shows the textual similarity because Obama wrote all of Ayers’ stuff!

  14. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Hey, some common ground besides reciprocating saws, Wilbur.

    So now having established that, of the two, which one is currently president?

    So even as you acknowledge there is common ground, you are compelled to claim the other side’s ground is actually worse.

    All pigs are equal, right?

  15. A very clear exposition of an obviously bogus hypothesis (that Ayers ghost wrote Pres Obama).

    But the right does it all the time?

    I don’t see that anywhere.

  16. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: I don’t see that anywhere.

    That’s okay, Frank. You’ve already shown that you can’t see anything other than what you want to see.

  17. That was almost clever, Sean. Vacuous and meaningless, but almost clever. I suppose asking you to provide an example or two of this having happened before would be too much?

  18. MatanteDodo says:

    Dennis’ first post: that was off-topic to epic levels! You should be grateful some liberals accept to play your game, maybe they pity you.

  19. The Dark Avenger says:

    Thanks for bringing up the kids, Dennis:

    Foxnews.com posted an item about the right-wing crusade yesterday to vilify young school children in N.J. who sang the praise of the president Obama during a Black History Month event. In that original report, the Fox update noted [emphasis added]:

    The tension at B. Bernice Young Elementary School escalated to such a degree Thursday that the school was placed temporarily on lockdown after its principal received death threats over a YouTube video that showed nearly 20 children being taught songs lauding the president, though back-to-school night events continuing as planned Thursday night at the school.

    Soon after though, the Fox news report had been scrubbed of any mention of looming violence; it had been scrubbed of any notion that a right-wing crazy apparently called the school and threatening to kill the principal.

    Link

  20. Paul_D says:

    Look over here, Indeed.

    Kids4Change: Singing to Dear Leader

    Must be kinda tough to write this objectively when you have to stay a minimum of a 1000 feet from elementary schools..

  21. Duros62 says:

    maybe they pity you.

    You have no idea.

  22. Dennis says:

    Zero and thirty, Duros.

    World record.

    You own it.

  23. Indeed says:

    The flip side of circular confirmation, circular dis-confirmation (or whatever):

    And The Crazies

    Years ago, before I started blogging but after I started paying attention to politics on the internets, there was some Freeper freakout over something innocuous that happened at a school and they were getting a lot of harassing phone calls. This was in the earlier days of the internet, and I figured that the school officials probably had absolutely no idea where it was coming from. So I emailed and phoned the principal to let them know. They didn’t have any idea.

    Anyway, point is now schools probably know when these freakouts happen because they’re fully mainstreamed.

  24. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: I suppose asking you to provide an example or two of this having happened before would be too much?

    I realize you see requests that someone back up their words with support as out of line. It explains why you rarely do it. But I’d be happy to provide an example or two, but then you’d whine at me about bringing back up stuff you want forgotten and I’ve seen my quota of Frank whines for the week. Ask again on Monday.

  25. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: I suppose asking you to provide an example or two of this having happened before would be too much?

    Oh, what the hell. It’s a slow morning and I don’t have to go to far for examples. Three in a single comment, no less.

    - “my own position, which I have seen reflected in sermons. demonstrations, and speeches for years
    You see what limited views you expose yourself to as reflections of your view, and (with your own personal “circular confirmation” feedback loop) use those to reinforce your own views that the world thinks the same.

    - You insist:
    – nobody ever picks on anyone else,
    – unwed teens are better of becoming single mothers,
    despite numerous daily examples to the contrary from people who’ve examined abuse or have made a choice as a teen mom.

  26. mambochicken23 says:

    School kids taught to praise Obama

    Just a reminder of the techniques used by Leftists. Bash conservatives who questioned Obama’s motives in speaking to school children for being dumbasses afraid of the his message to stay in school, as if that’s all it was. Then when confronted with stark and embarrassing video of the cult of Obama indoctrination of our young children in schools, completely ignore it and pretend it doesn’t exist.

    Hi Dennis. Do you care to let us know how this is Obama’s doing? Did he go to the school board and tell them to “sing his praises”? Oh wait – that never happened? Oh wait – Obama delivered a speech to children that was apolitical in nature, and told them to focus on school and to work hard, and that’s a very bad thing because it directly leads to these schoolchildren being brainwashed into the cult of Obama? Riiiiiiight.

    For the record, I don’t think it’s a bad thing to teach young students about their president, and to highlight positive qualities about him. This is similar to how people teach their children about respect: e.g., “Respect your elders.” Clearly, people who are older than you are not necessarily worthy of your respect (HI FRANK!), but for a young kid it’s a good approximation. Plus, it’s not like they can’t figure things out for themselves later, and realize that Frank is an idiot, or decide that liberals are eeeeevil, or what have you.

    I just don’t necessarily think it’s a positive thing to teach them from a very early age that their political leaders are the enemy, or at the very least, not their ally. I do occasionally tire of this conception of the U.S., where the other side of the aisle is “the enemy.” Ostensibly, we’re all trying to better the country, and want it to thrive and prosper. Of course, that truth gets lost when you have some idiots howling about how their president wants to destroy the country and how one side of the aisle is evil.

  27. Dennis says:

    Hi mambo. First, I don’t think this is Obama’s direct doing. Rereading my statement gives that appearance, but that’s not what I meant. This site has put forth a myriad of ways the conservatives and Republican politicians put forth subtle messages that are not direct statements, so I would think you’d be somewhat well-versed in those tactics they are accused of so much here; dog whistles, smirks, code words, Glenn Beck mind-control, the infamous Lee Atwater quote that Indeed and Mr. ed print here every day. Why would you think Obama or his advisors would be incapable of using anything similar, if not more effective, that wouldn’t be so direct?

    I had no problem with Obama making the speech. The timing was poor in our county as it was the first day back to school, so they didn’t broadcast it. And our school superintendant is an African-American.

    I agree with most of the rest of what you said. My oldest daughter voted for Obama in her first time ever eligible to vote. But I can tell you this as honestly as I can, that I know of many conservatives who also think Obama is a good and decent man and are not embarrassed or afraid to say that around other conservatives, but I’ve spent a lot of time personally and on liberal blogs the last four years, but I’ve rarely heard any liberal say one positive think about Bush.

    If you could search this blog for the rest of the day and find one liberal’s post that was positive about Bush, I would be impressed. And surprised.

  28. Duros62 says:

    Zero and thirty, Duros.

    Fuck you, Dennis.

    How’s that for on-topic?

  29. Duros62 says:

    Schmidt?

  30. Indeed says:

    Concern Troll: so concerned.

  31. Dennis says:

    You’re only zero and five so far on this thread, though.

  32. Duros62 says:

    You could always banish me from the blog, Dennis. Oh, wait, no you can’t.

    I’m not playing dick-swinging with you anymore, Britney, sorry

  33. Dennis says:

    Duros, wait, I’ll apologize if you could just give me a tip on how you keep your glass house clean? Tons of windex? Ammonia? Vinegar? Or do you just hire someone to come in do the whole house a couple times a year? I have a lot of windows and I’d really love to know you manage to do it.

  34. Quaker in a Basement says:

    Cashill quotes Andersen quoting Cashill. A new “known fact” is born.

  35. Indeed says:

    This seems like as good a place as any for Your Weekly Chuck:

    More to the point, the fact that this surprises anyone is sad evidence that we don’t teach history at all well any more. The accelerant of racism was bottled up for use by the rising conservative movement–and by the Republican party, to whom it pledged itself–as far back as 1964, when the party committed itself to the support of the remnants of white-supremacy for reasons of pure political advantage. Since then, it has been poured out when and where necessary. (Although George Wallace also manufactured his own distilled brand in 1968 and in 1972, which the GOP bought out, like Pabst buying out Schlitz.) It was there when Richard Nixon talked about “law and order,” when Lee Atwater dropped Willie Horton on Michael Dukakis’s head, and it was there when kindly old Dutch Reagan kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi, talking about states rights, and when he blathered on about fictitious “welfare queens” and when his administration went to court to defend the tax-exempt status of segregated Southern academies. The difference is that conservatism was usually careful about how it calibrated the amount of accelerant to pour into the conflict. It got so good at measuring the amount that it forgot the simple fact that, sooner or later, the fire can consume the arsonist as well. Now that the national Republican party is solely the province of meathead politicians and radio maniacs, there are “sensible” conservatives who are alarmed by what they see. It should be agreed upon in our politics that these people drift into the wilderness for a while and muse upon where their movement has led them. But the first thing they all should do is apologize to the nation for choosing to take a course 45 years ago in opposition to the transcendant moral issue of America. They prospered through bigotry, and then through a deft ability to package it, and they made the ensuing four decades immeasurably crueler as a result.There’s not enough sackcloth in the world for these clowns.

    Thanks, Chuck. Never fucking forget.

  36. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: But I can tell you this as honestly as I can, that I know of many conservatives who also think Obama is a good and decent man and are not embarrassed or afraid to say that around other conservatives, but I’ve spent a lot of time personally and on liberal blogs the last four years, but I’ve rarely heard any liberal say one positive think about Bush.

    If you could search this blog for the rest of the day and find one liberal’s post that was positive about Bush, I would be impressed. And surprised.

    I’d be hard pressed to find a one liberal’s (or conservative’s for that matter) post that was positive about Hitler, for example. Yeah, I know I’ve just gone Godwin, but I choose the admitedly extreme case to make the point clear. Many on the liberal side do indeed find it difficult to find anything positive to say about Bush becuase they honestly find little that is good that he’s done. And they do cite documented actions, specific policies and actual quotes to show why they believe that.

    May of the folks here on the left side have also criticised Obama for things he has done or failed to do. Continuing warrantless wiretapping or not having as open a gov’t as promised are just two examples. And I could counter your “liberals say nothing positive about Bush” with a “conservatives say nothing negative about Bush”. So in the 2×2 matrix we could draw of whether folks criticise their own side or praise the other liberals and conservatives would both get one Yes and one No.

    But in the final analysis to draw such tidy boxes ignores that it isn’t, nor should it be, a tit-for-tat I’ve-said-good-things-about-your-guy-so-you-should-say-good-about-mine situation. Whichever side they are on, does ______ deserve praise or condemnation based on what they’ve done, not on the (R) or (D) after their name. And on that basis, admitting my left-leaning bias, I can cite more things Bush has done that are bad than are good and, thus far, vice versa for Obama.

  37. Parthenon says:

    I certainly can’t fault President Bush’s increase in aid to Africa, for what it’s worth. Nor food aid to North Korea.

  38. Indeed says:

    Yet more circular confirmation:

    CALLER: Yes, I agree with the Senator on what he says about the climate change. I believe that the world is just changing like it usually does. [...]

    INHOFE: I think he’s right. I think what he’s saying is God’s still up there. We’re going through these cycles. … I really believe that a lot of people are in denial who want to hang their hat on the fact, that they believe is a fact, that man-made gases, anthropogenic gases, are causing global warming. The science really isn’t there.

    I wonder where Senator Inhofe gets his Science. Dude’s a freakin’ Senator! Stand proud, Sooner State.

  39. Indeed says:

    Oh my:

    Singing a song about a sitting president: Stalinist indoctrination.

    Attending a school named after a sitting president: patriotism.

    Stockton school officials said they believe theirs will be the first school in the nation named for the president. The White House did not respond to requests for confirmation.

    To one school board member, Clem Lee, a Republican, the Bush name is an expression of patriotism.

    “It was an expression of the sentiment ‘America Now’ for me,” Lee said. “There’s probably some post-9/11 stuff mixed in there. We have a president who is facing really an unprecedented challenge. So my vote was informed by a culmination of all those things.

    “I am the first person to admit that it might be premature to honor a sitting president,” he said. “But it’s quite defensible.”

    It always is.

    By the way, the Republican-controlled Stockton school board’s decision to brainwash their small children into thinking George W. Bush was a great man name a public school after a sitting president was, according to the WSJ, unprecedented.

    Who could have predicted?

  40. isms says:

    Dennis – “I have a lot of windows … .”

    Dennis’ glass menagerie … as brittle as they come.

  41. Duros62 says:

    Stockton school officials said they believe theirs will be the first school in the nation named for the president.

    Oh good, they found a spot for Bush’s Presidential library.

  42. mambochicken23 says:

    Inhofe is just a horrible excuse for a Senator. The guy is just too stupid for words.

  43. PD100 says:

    Dennis – “I have a lot of windows …

    Pray your healthcare agenda works. God forbid socialized cataract surgery in your neck of the woods.

  44. Zython says:

    A very clear exposition of an obviously bogus hypothesis (that Ayers ghost wrote Pres Obama).

    But the right does it all the time?

    I don’t see that anywhere.

    *cough*

  45. Dennis says:

    More Obama indoctrination.

    Another Obama Song

    3rd Graders Sing Praises to Dear Leader

  46. Wilbur says:

    Cute kids.

  47. Dennis says:

    Teachers, Wilbur.

    Public school teachers.

    Indoctrinating public school kids.

    Cute kids, yes. But innocent. And impressionable.

    Very creepy.

    “mmm, mmmm, mm.”

  48. Dennis says:

    And the same hero worship many here advocate.

  49. canadian bacon says:

    I agree Dennis, it only takes one song for full indoctrination. That Obama sure is evil.

    I actually think adults who watch FOX, which is on 24/7, are more easily indoctrinated then children could ever be. I mean look at all the meat heads out there who get all their “news” from FOX and company. It will be interesting to hear how the fox fuck nuts respond to Obama’s recent comments on Iran and how he was able to form a real coalition of Western powers against a nuclear build up there. Nothing like reality based diplomacy. Nothing like having friends, eh.

  50. Dennis says:

    I agree Dennis, it only takes one song for full indoctrination. That Obama sure is evil.

    My point in bringing this up on a thread about right-wing circular logic in the first place was how just earlier this month you were calling anyone skeptical of Obama’s motives for speaking to young schoolchildren in a nationally broadcast speech to them was pure craziness. Now that you’ve seen a couple videos to add on to the ones we saw earlier this year of indoctrination going on in our public schools, you guys are all either silent or vehemently defensive.

    Isn’t it ironic, canadian bacon, don’t you think?

    A little too ironic….

  51. Dennis says:

    Yeah, I really do think.

  52. The Dark Avenger says:

    Now that you’ve seen a couple videos to add on to the ones we saw earlier this year of indoctrination going on in our public schools, you guys are all either silent or vehemently defensive.

    How many videos were there of “the ones we saw earlier this year”?

    2,3,10,50?

  53. Jaim says:

    Get a blog, little Dennis. Your daughter might hate you a little less.

  54. Wilbur says:

    And the same hero worship many here advocate.

    Who here has advocated hero worship?

    As I said, Dennis, I’m not particularly down with the idea of teachers having students engage in encomia for sitting politicians, but nor do I see a scattered incident here and there cause for much concern – either now or when it happened under Bush. On top of that it’s far from clear to me what the context of your first video is – were they preparing for a visit by the president? Was it an official school activity or an after-school club of some sort? The second video was taken right after the election, when an overwhelming majority of the country was at least a bit happy about the results – if not because they voted for Obama then because of the precedent his election set in the history of race relations. And the content of that video was not so much “all hail Lord and Master Obama” but “you inspire me to think that someday I may reach great heights if I apply myself like you did.” It’s pretty small-minded and ungenerous of you to equate that to some sort of Hitlerjugend spiel.

    What you’re providing here, Dennis, is a perfect example of the unscrupulous willingness on the right to inflate, exaggerate and inflame the most inocuous little thing into a huge bruhaha. You embarrass yourself.

  55. The Dark Avenger says:

    Wilbur, I believe that the ‘term of art’ in the case of Dennis that you’re describing is WATB.

  56. Dennis says:

    What you’re providing here, Dennis, is a perfect example of the unscrupulous willingness on the right to inflate, exaggerate and inflame the most inocuous little thing into a huge bruhaha.
    –Wilbur

    Now, Wilbur. It’s been a while so your memory might be a little clouded, but think back a long time ago to that thread on Sen. Roy Blunt and his story on the golf course in India and the monkeys who threw golf balls back on the course that he had told many times before, even back in 2006. Do you remember that one, by chance? Remember how even the liberals came on there to say calling that racism was very likely erroneous? Yet you persisting in saying it was, even claiming you had proof because of a smirk. THAT, my friend, was the perfect example of unscrupulous willingness to inflate and inflame the most innocuous little think into a huge brouhaha, and you did embarrass yourself.

    You guys do it every time there’s something on race. You do it every time there’s something on violence you can tie to conservatism or the Republican party.

    Every time.

    Look in the mirror, Wilbur. You may not like what you see, but it’s a good exercise nonetheless.

  57. The Dark Avenger says:

    You guys do it every time there’s something on race. You do it every time there’s something on violence you can tie to conservatism or the Republican party.

    So, it was a liberal who phoned in a threat to the school, Dennis?

  58. I might add that Glen Beck was called a killer, because a Census Bureau was found hanged (or maybe not) with a “fed” scrawled on his chest (or maybe not).

    Is it unrealistic to suggest that Pres Obama, having made a speech directly aimed at schoolchildren, did not expect it to be discussed in class?

    And would it be unreasonable to assume that given the support he received from the Teachers’ Unions, that he would (and we should) expect that his speech would be viewed favorably, when discussed?

    And for MY gratuitous, off-topic insult: Anyone with real reasoning abilities (not you, of course, Mambo) would have to agree that these questions should be answered in the affirmative.

    Children’s minds are fertile grounds for authoritative implantation. They have not yet acquired the sorry state of a closed mind due to limited, linear, “scientific method” type thinking (HI, MAMBO).

  59. BTW, Dark Avenger, it is not the number of videos that really matters, but the number of views.

  60. Dennis says:

    Even worse than that, Frank, they mocked anyone who held those reservations about Obama’s speech to schoolchildren, as if something like this could and would never happen.

    Circular logic of the Leftists.

  61. mambochicken23 says:

    Dennis, for fuck’s sake….

    you were calling anyone skeptical of Obama’s motives for speaking to young schoolchildren in a nationally broadcast speech to them was pure craziness. Now that you’ve seen a couple videos to add on to the ones we saw earlier this year of indoctrination going on in our public schools, you guys are all either silent or vehemently defensive.

    Obama’s “motives”? What the fuck? I thought that we agreed that this has nothing to do with, and in no way can be be blamed, on Obama himself. He delivered an apolitical speech telling students to work hard and study. He has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with these videos of “schoolchildren singing his praises.” If you don’t like these videos, if you think that “indoctrination” is occurring, throw the blame where it belongs. This isn’t Obama’s fault. Goddamn.

    His motives… seriously?…

  62. mambochicken23 says:

    When I was in the third grade, I got an academic award, endorsed by the then-president George H.W. Bush. I forget exactly what it was called – something like “The Presidential Academic Excellence Award” or something like that. Was Bush I overstepping his bounds? Was it not a good idea for him to support academic achievement in schoolchildren? Did he need any “motives” greater than wanting the future generation of working Americans to succeed?

    You guys are ridiculous.

  63. fafaroo says:

    Children’s minds are fertile grounds for authoritative implantation.

    Frank, the word your feeble mush brain was desperately searching for here was “authoritarian.”

    Clearly, the minds of adult conservatives, on the other hand, are entirely resistant to authoritative information.

  64. mambochicken23 says:

    Is it unrealistic to suggest that Pres Obama, having made a speech directly aimed at schoolchildren, did not expect it to be discussed in class?

    I’m sure that anyone would expect it to be discussed in class. So what?

    And would it be unreasonable to assume that given the support he received from the Teachers’ Unions, that he would (and we should) expect that his speech would be viewed favorably, when discussed?

    I don’t know if the support he had from teacher’s unions means anything. Your presumption has little backing. I think that it’s reasonable that his speech would be viewed favorably because he was telling kids to work hard and study and make the most of their fucking education, Frank! What the fuck do you have against this message? Holy fucking shit.

    Children’s minds are fertile grounds for authoritative implantation. They have not yet acquired the sorry state of a closed mind due to limited, linear, “scientific method” type thinking (HI, MAMBO).

    Hi Frank. You’re the biggest idiot on this blog, by far. You’re the one with the closed mind, Frank. You refuse to believe anything that doesn’t fit into your already-decided worldview. Presented with counter-evidence, you just hold onto your beliefs tighter. Scientific thinking, skepticism – this is the way to keep your mind open to new possibilities while also being appropriately wary of new information. If the evidence is there that I was wrong, I will change my fucking mind. You, on the other hand, will not. Who’s the fucking closed-minded one here, Frank?

    Example: Like a lot of people, I used to think that playing small ball helped teams win games. Move the runner over, bunt, hit-and-run, steal bases… these were important aspects of the game of baseball in my eyes. Teams that did these things well, the “fundamentals”, won. Turns out, statistics have demonstrated that it false – the most efficient and successful way to build an offensive attack is to get your lineup loaded with guys that walk a lot, and guys that hit homeruns. Bunting is usually a horrible idea. Given that information, I’ve changed my views on the “correct” way to play baseball.

    And you still think the mound should be 50 feet away from the plate and the ball delivered underhand.

    You fucking idiot.

  65. Dennis says:

    mambo,

    Again, my whole point is that this site mocked mercilessly all conservatives who had any reservations about the speech, and for the most part are silent now.

    I’ve said before and here on this thread that I had no problem with the speech. My wife works for a school that is about 100% minorities teaching kids with learning difficulties. I thought the speech would’ve been nice, but as I said before, it was a very bad time being the very first day of school, so they didn’t broadcast it in our county. In late August when Obama was vacationing in Martha’s Vineyard, one of my wife’s co-workers that also teaches ED at her school happened to be up there too seeing her sister and somehow met I think Michelle’s sister, and was asked to drive one of the cars for them when they went somewhere in the motorcade. Pres Obama heard about her working with kids with learning disablilities and told her to please tell every one back at her school how much he values and appreciates what they do and that he was committed to do everything he could to help these kids. There were 5 teachers at the school doing that, and they were all pretty impressed to get that message. So yeah, I had no problem with the speech, but I did with the way liberals and liberal bloggers mocked people who did have reservations with the speech. Especially given how everything Bush ever did was mocked. Even the time he stopped by on a trip to congratulate the autistic kid who drained 7 three point shots in a high school basket ball game one time that made national news. Liberals even mocked him for that. The comments are down from that thread, but I remember it well, and they were ugly. Typically ugly.

  66. mambochicken23 says:

    Dennis, okay, but you’re not expressing yourself well. You make it sound at a couple locations like Obama should be blamed for this kind of activity that’s happening on these tapes (i.e., kids singing about him). Now I realize that you might have been talking about conservatives being concerned about what Obama would say in that speech.

    In which case, then, all those conservatives that worried about the speech, in particular, were completely and utterly wrong anyway and deserve to still be mocked about this. The issue, if there is one, has to do with how a few teachers (and a principal, I think) have handled their classrooms. I don’t remember any conservatives being worried about THAT. All I remember is them freaking out about Obama’s mind-control abilities on their children. Which is complete bullshit.

    So, okay, you can perhaps say that conservatives were correct to be concerned, but they were totally wrong in what they ought to have been concerned about.

  67. Dennis says:

    Taking everything isolated, maybe you’re right, mambo. But you can’t argue that Obama’s mind-control abilities on children is bullshit while at the same time everyone on here yammers on about Glenn Beck’s mind-control abilities on potential murderers.

  68. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: And would it be unreasonable to assume that given the support he received from the Teachers’ Unions, that he would (and we should) expect that his speech would be viewed favorably, when discussed?

    I would expect, given that his speech was about working hard and staying in school, that he would expect his speech to be viwed favorably by teachers when discussed.

    But don’t let that stop you from seeing an ominous conspiracy in everything.

    And for MY gratuitous, off-topic insult:

    You’re classy as always, Frank.

    …Anyone with real reasoning abilities … would have to agree that these questions should be answered in the affirmative.

    Anyone with real reasoning abilities would have to agree that you’re so unreasoningly opposed to Obama that you cook up conspiracies and see nefarious plans where none exist.

  69. mambochicken23 says:

    I still cannot get over what an idiot you are, Frank. I mean, goddamn, it’s incredible. I can hardly believe you live on the same planet as me. I do not understand how you’ve managed to live to be 152 years old. Can’t you fall down a long flight of stairs or something? Make the world a better place, Frank. Kill yourself.

  70. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: BTW, Dark Avenger, it is not the number of videos that really matters, but the number of views.

    Yeah. Something has to happen just once for it to be a vast left-wing conspiracy.

  71. mambochicken23 says:

    But you can’t argue that Obama’s mind-control abilities on children is bullshit while at the same time everyone on here yammers on about Glenn Beck’s mind-control abilities on potential murderers.

    I’ve never said anything about Beck’s “mind control” abilities. I do think that he’s an idiot, and a liar, and a hypocrite, and a douchebag. I do think that he is irresponsible with his media platform, and I think that already-unhinged people may latch onto his words and do awful things. Which is not to say that Beck is “to blame” for it.

  72. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: They have not yet acquired the sorry state of a closed mind due to limited, linear, “scientific method” type thinking

    Demonstrating with the consistency he’s become famous for that Frank doesn’t know what the hell he’s talking about. That his beliefs and views have absolutely NOTHING to do with reality.

    The “scientific method” type of thinking is anything BUT closed minded, Frank. Science, true Science (as opposed to that Creationist/ID crap) constantly and repeatedly puts itself up for examination. It stands up and says “Here’s what I think. Now take your best shot on proving me wrong. Make me defend myself. Make me prove that what I say is true with hard evidence and verifiable, repeatable facts. Bring me some new piece of evidence and I will show how it fits in with my belief or, if it does not, I will adjust to incorporate the new facts.”

    It’s conservative, wingnut, fundamentalist type “thinking” that says “Don’t question. Accept what I say just because I say it. Show me something that contradicts what I say and I’ll reject it out of hand. Keep your mind firmly closed to other possibilities.”

  73. Dennis says:

    I worded that so that I wasn’t accusing you of making those idiotic, irresponsible and completely fabricated charges against Glenn Beck like Indeed and many other Eliminationists goofballs do here.

  74. fafaroo says:

    Again, my whole point is that this site mocked mercilessly all conservatives who had any reservations about the speech, and for the most part are silent now.

    The people who were screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.

    Kids being orchestrated to sing songs about Obama is a little creepy to me, but it doesn’t change the fact that Obama is not trying to indoctrinate the children of America to become fascist socialist muslims and his speech to school children was nothing of the sort. Those who feared it would be, again, deserved to be mocked then and the deserve to be mocked now.

    And Dennis, if you’re to link to a liberal mocking Bush for visiting with Jason McElwain, you’re going to have to do better than this from Crooks and Liars:

    Some people are saying it’s a photo-op for Bush because his poll numbers are so low, (he couldn’t remember where he saw the clip) but I’m really proud of Jason and this had to make him feel special. It might raise public awareness on autism in general.

    Whatever the comments in the thread were, C&L is clearly not mocking Bush. Indeed, they are defending Bush against critics of the visit.

  75. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Again, my whole point is that this site mocked mercilessly all conservatives who had any reservations about the speech, and for the most part are silent now.

    Your claim that folks are silent on it now doesn’t hold up. Scrolling back over the numerous comments folks have made to you in just this thread shows that.

    Why is it folks on the right keep declaring as fact things that are so easily shown to be wrong?

    And, please, show what part of the messages in Obama’s speech, specifically, do you object to? That kids should stay in school? That they should work hard? That they should set goals and work toward them?

    Yes, we mock the conservatives who had reservations about the speech because they are idiots. If you want to comment on what individual teachers have done that have crossed a line public teachers shouldn’t cross in terms of what they are having their students do, fine. But don’t claim that’s something Obama did in his speech. And don’t ignore the examples of conservative teachers doing similar things as if it was solely a liberal failing.

  76. fafaroo says:

    But you can’t argue that Obama’s mind-control abilities on children is bullshit while at the same time everyone on here yammers on about Glenn Beck’s mind-control abilities on potential murderers.

    Dennis, it isn’t the influence that’s really at issue. It’s the message.

    Telling children to stay in school and study hard is not the same thing as telling mush brained adults that Obama is the single greatest threat to America’s survival EVER.

  77. Dennis says:

    The people who were screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.

    That’s not what they were screeching about, fafaroo, and you’re a dishonest poster for saying that.

    And C&L no longer keeps comments on threads from that long ago, but I fought with several people there then for mocking Bush for what he did. I remember it very well. I don’t expect you to believe me, such is your nature, but I’m not lying. And while I believe the blog owner there was sincere in what he posted, he also knows full well that when he starts it with “Some people are saying it’s a photo-op for Bush because his poll numbers are so low”…, he was well aware that the commenters would likely focus on that, and they did.

  78. mambochicken23 says:

    The “scientific method” type of thinking is anything BUT closed minded, Frank. Science, true Science (as opposed to that Creationist/ID crap) constantly and repeatedly puts itself up for examination. It stands up and says “Here’s what I think. Now take your best shot on proving me wrong. Make me defend myself. Make me prove that what I say is true with hard evidence and verifiable, repeatable facts. Bring me some new piece of evidence and I will show how it fits in with my belief or, if it does not, I will adjust to incorporate the new facts.”

    Or, you could just believe what is written in a really old, old storybook. That sounds easier.

  79. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: So yeah, I had no problem with the speech, but I did with the way liberals and liberal bloggers mocked people who did have reservations with the speech.

    But what was there in the speech for them to have reservations about?

    They were/are mocked because they were ridiculous in their reservations. “Obama’s going to indoctrinate our kids into socialism and Islam with a single speech urging them to work hard in school!” They deserve to be mocked.

    Somebody does something demonstrably stupid. Someone else points it out. And your only reaction is to complain that it was pointed out.

  80. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: But you can’t argue that Obama’s mind-control abilities on children is bullshit while at the same time everyone on here yammers on about Glenn Beck’s mind-control abilities on potential murderers.

    Obama: Work hard, stay in school, play well with others.
    Beck: They’re out to get you and your kids. We have to take this country back from “them”.

    Yeah, if either of those folks is actually able to influence others, it’s pretty clear to me which message I’d like getting thru.

  81. Dennis says:

    Sean, we could play that game all day long. It’s a double standard you guys employ and you can equivocate about it all you want, but that’s exactly what it is.

  82. fafaroo says:

    That’s not what they were screeching about, fafaroo, and you’re a dishonest poster for saying that.

    Uh, yes Dennis they were. When Obama first announced the speech and its topic he said this:

    “I’m going to be making a big speech to young people all across the country about the importance of education; about the importance of staying in school; how we want to improve our education system and why it’s so important for the country. So I hope everybody tunes in.”

    He said that in August to 11-year-old student reporter Damon Weaver.

    So right from the beginning Obama said he was going to talk about staying in school and getting a good education.

    The typical conservative response is noted here:

    President Barack Obama has announced that on September 8, he’ll give a speech during the school day, intended for students, on the importance of education. The Department of Education will provide schools with study materials and lesson plans to use if their students watch.

    Sounds innocent enough.

    But to the Republican Party of Florida, that means Obama intends to “use … taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.”

    Rather than just giving a speech on education, which schools can show students if they want, Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    “School children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt,” said state party Chairman Jim Greer in a news release. He said children will be forced “to agree with our President’s initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates.”

    http://www.tboblogs.com/index.php/news/story/obama-speech-indoctrinating-children/

    So, Dennis, the importance of getting a good education had been announced as the subject of the speech and conservatives STILL flipped the fuck out about indoctrinating kids to be socialists.

    You’re a moron.

  83. Dennis says:

    Some people are saying it’s a photo-op for Bush because his poll numbers are so low, (he couldn’t remember where he saw the clip) but I’m really proud of Jason and this had to make him feel special. It might raise public awareness on autism in general.

    Whatever the comments in the thread were, C&L is clearly not mocking Bush. Indeed, they are defending Bush against critics of the visit.
    –fafaroo

    Also, fafaroo, in the same vein, that’s almost identical to what some of the skepticism for Obama’s speech at the time, since he too had just come off a very bad month (now two in a row) and his poll numbers were tanking. Did you hear much screeching after the speech, btw?

    Neither did I.

  84. Dennis says:

    Rather than just giving a speech on education, which schools can show students if they want, Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    Looks from those videos that indoctrination wariness was justified, fafaroo.

    Moron.

    Like I told Sean D. Martin, fafaroo, we can do this all day long, but there’s no doubt this is just another of your double standards in a very long list of liberal double standards.

  85. fafaroo says:

    Did you hear much screeching after the speech, btw?

    Uh, Dennis, that’s because the speech proved to be utterly innocuous making conservatives look like the wild-eyed lunatics they are.

  86. fafaroo says:

    Looks from those videos that indoctrination wariness was justified, fafaroo.

    Dennis, within a matter a few posts you’ve managed to argue both that conservatives did not complain that Oabam’s speech about education amounted to socialist indoctrination and that conservatives were justified in complaining that that Oabam’s speech about education amounted to socialist indoctrination.

    Nice work.

  87. fafaroo says:

    Like I told Sean D. Martin, fafaroo, we can do this all day long, but there’s no doubt this is just another of your double standards in a very long list of liberal double standards.

    Complaining about double standards when you’ve just argued in favor of two completely opposite positions?

    Yes, Dennis, I have no doubt that with such internal consistency you could indeed go on and on all day.

  88. Dennis says:

    fafaroo, you’ve just done what you mock Save Farris for; you posted a link to a story that confirmed my point and impugned yours.

    I call those ‘fafaroos’ from now on.

    Moron.

  89. Dennis says:

    Dennis, within a matter a few posts you’ve managed to argue both that conservatives did not complain that Oabam’s speech about education amounted to socialist indoctrination and that conservatives were justified in complaining that that Oabam’s speech about education amounted to socialist indoctrination.

    I don’t think that was what the majority of skeptics had issues with, fafaroo, not that someone didn’t complain about that. Again, you are a dishonest poster, fafaroo.

    Increasingly dishonest. When I first started posting here you weren’t that way. You seemed to me one of the more honest brokers. You’re not anymore.

    You’ve done a Benjamin Button.

  90. fafaroo says:

    fafaroo, you’ve just done what you mock Save Farris for; you posted a link to a story that confirmed my point and impugned yours.

    Would you care to actually provide evidence of this, Dennis?

  91. fafaroo says:

    I don’t think that was what the majority of skeptics had issues with, fafaroo, …

    What? Really? If they weren’t skeptical that Obama was going to use his education speech to indoctrinate children to be good little socialists, what, exactly, were the skeptical of?

  92. mambochicken23 says:

    I don’t think that was what the majority of skeptics had issues with

    Actually Dennis, that’s exactly what I remember the majority of the “skeptics” having an issue with.

    And please don’t use that term (”skeptics”) to describe those people who thought that the speech was going to be akin to indoctrination. Skepticism is based in logic and reason. The people in question would be more aptly described as nutjobs.

  93. Dennis says:

    Me:fafaroo, you’ve just done what you mock Save Farris for; you posted a link to a story that confirmed my point and impugned yours.

    Would you care to actually provide evidence of this, Dennis?

    Already did, fafaroo.

    Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    Parents angry over Obama song at NJ elementary school

    Scrutiny rises over NJ kids singing Obama song

    You mock what you don’t understand. And contrary to the impression you have of yourself, there’s quite a bit you don’t.

  94. Dennis says:

    Actually Dennis, that’s exactly what I remember the majority of the “skeptics” having an issue with.

    mambo,

    By then, unlike February, there was broader mistrust of Obama, particularly over his health insurance overhaul plans. Concerns that he would use his speech to students as a political tool grew partly because the White House initially released a lesson plan encouraging students to “help the president.”

    The plan was revised and the message to students was not overtly political.

    Also for fafaroo. Again, there’s that change by a Democrat of language that only the lying and nutjob conservatives had an issue with, so why the change?

    Sarah Palin didn’t complain about this on her Facebook page, did she?

    Of course Obama changed it.

    Of course he did.

    fafaroo, again, you FAIL.

  95. fafaroo says:

    You mock what you don’t understand.

    Dennis, you accused me of posting a link that actually contradicted what I said but then you haven’t actually said which link (i’ve posted two) and where the contradiction lies.

    Then you post two more random links to complaints about songs when we’ve been talking about the conservative reception to Obama’s school speech.

    So, yeah, Dennis, at this point it’s safe to say I have no idea what you’re talking about.

    But neither, I think, do you.

  96. fafaroo says:

    Sarah Palin didn’t complain about this on her Facebook page, did she?

    Ah yes, the old Dennis logic: If a lie succeeds, that means it must be true!

  97. Dennis says:

    fafaroo,

    Your link had this statement.

    Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    Those were a couple of the issues parents had with Obama’s speech in September. Now after video comes out at a school in NJ showing school teachers doing exactly that, parents are upset about it. That confirms that that kind of thing is going on in our schools. So parents were justified somewhat in being uneasy about what Obama would be saying in his speech and just exactly what his motivations were. Yet you mocked them, and continue to do so. And for the most part, liberal blogs are silent on the creepy aspect of this.

  98. Dennis says:

    Ah yes, the old Dennis logic: If a lie succeeds, that means it must be true!

    Why do Democrats change things they claim are Republican lies with so much regularity, fafaroo?

    Can you please explain this to me, only this time with some honesty?

    It’s not just simple weakness on your party’s part. It’s just that they must’ve been caught at something they tried to slip through the cracks. So the Alinsky tactic is to mock the other side, then quietly make the change, and do it on a Friday night or Saturday.

  99. mambochicken23 says:

    Dennis,

    Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    Except, of course, he didn’t.

    White House initially released a lesson plan encouraging students to “help the president.”

    I’d like to read what the language actually was in this lesson plan. Because what you provide isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Help the President do what? Improve the country? Lead the world in innovation, technology, science? Make the world a better place? What exactly were the students supposed to “help” Obama do?

    Oh, BTW, it doesn’t necessarily mean anything that they then took the language out. They might have just realized that lunatics would misunderstand or misrepresent their message and decided to not give them the chance.

    So parents were justified somewhat in being uneasy about what Obama would be saying in his speech and just exactly what his motivations were.

    No, no, no, no, no! No they weren’t! The parents were NOT justified. They were being really fucking stupid.

    They were concerned that Event A would happen. It didn’t. But an unforeseen Event B happened, which they didn’t like either. Therefore, they were right to be worried about Event A? No, they were not. They were fucking stupid.

    That’s like saying…

    1) I am worried about getting into an airplane crash, so I don’t ever fly.
    2) Since I don’t fly, I drive everywhere. I get into a car crash.
    3) My initial fears about air travel were justified by the car accident.

    You see why that doesn’t work, Dennis?

  100. Food for thought ( for those who might actually be capable of thought, and capable of digesting it ):

    Marjorie Grene: “… Darwinism … is a religion of science that Darwinism chiefly holds, and holds men’s minds” Encounter, Nov 1959

    John Eccles : “Now many biologists are realizing that a kind of pseudo – religion, Darwinism, is being foisted on us.” Facing Reality 1970

    Alfred North Whitehead : “Apart from God, there would be no actual world.” *

    Some people think , and some people think they think.

    and this :

    A nonequivalent control group design was employed to test the effectiveness of an interdisciplinary course on the scientific method in increasing students’ skepticism toward the paranormal. The course explored legitimate methods of scientific inquiry and compared them to faulty, and often fraudulent, methods of pseudosciences. Topics included elementary logic, logical fallacies, statistics, probability, the scientific method, characteristics of pseudosciences, and the prevalence and persistence of pseudoscientific theories and beliefs. Students enrolled in a psychology and law class served as a control group for the “Science and Pseudoscience” class (the treatment group). At the start of the term, students in both groups completed the Belief in the Paranormal Scale (Jones, Russell, and Nickel, 1977) and a measure of beliefs in their own psychic powers. At the end of the semester, students completed these same measures. Results demonstrated that while there were no initial differences between the control and treatment groups in their belief in the paranormal, students in the “Science and Pseudoscience” class demonstrated substantially reduced belief in the paranormal relative to the control class. There were no changes in students’ beliefs in their own paranormal powers. Implications for science education and research on teaching thinking are discussed.

    * Cites are from Evolution and Other Fairy Tales by Professor Emeritus Larry Azar, a philosopher who undertook an in – depth analysis of Darwinism as a philosophy as opposed to a science.

  101. mambochicken23 says:

    Marjorie Grene: “… Darwinism … is a religion of science that Darwinism chiefly holds, and holds men’s minds” Encounter, Nov 1959

    John Eccles : “Now many biologists are realizing that a kind of pseudo – religion, Darwinism, is being foisted on us.” Facing Reality 1970

    Alfred North Whitehead : “Apart from God, there would be no actual world.” *

    Now tell me, Frank, why I should give a shit about any of these quotes? Quotes aren’t “evidence”, Frank. And Mr. Whitehead’s quote is remarkably stupid.

    First off, I reject the use of the term “Darwinism.” That makes it sound like a belief structure, like any other unsupported “ism” out there. It’s not. The theory of evolution by natural selection is supported by mountains of evidence, you ignorant fuck.

    And I don’t know what the hell you’re trying to convey with your pasting of that abstract, Frank. I’d really like to know how this supports you or refutes me in any way.

    Did you start drinking again? Put the bottle down, man, it’s not worth it.

  102. fafaroo says:

    Those were a couple of the issues parents had with Obama’s speech in September.

    Right. Issues entirely unfounded and unhinged at the time which are no less unfounded and unhinged.

    Obama isn’t doing anything to America’s school children, Dennis. Why do you keep insisting that he is?

  103. Quotes aren’t evidence

    So I guess words in print aren’t evidence.

    So I guess until I have seen the videotape of a creature evolving (forget about actually witnessing it), I can call you a superstitious believer in fairy tales, as well.

    And “your” book is not nearly as old as “my” book.

    “Put that the bottle down”

    Unoriginal, insensitive, indelicate and based on a false assumption. Not very scientific of you, Mr.Science Man! Your limbic brain is showing…

    You reject the term “Darwinis”? Why, because you can’t face the FACT that belief in evolution requires faith? Without successfully defining the term, “species”, and without being able to untie the Gordian Knot which passes for taxonomy, you claim to know their origin?

    You’re the one believing the fairy tale called science.

  104. fafaroo says:

    You’re the one believing the fairy tale called science.

    Now here’s a quote that’s evidence of something.

    You’re an idiot, Frank.

  105. mambochicken23 says:

    So I guess words in print aren’t evidence.

    Dumbass. Quotes from random people who state their idiotic view of evolutionary theory aren’t evidence. Sorry, I forgot that I had to spell it out for you to this degree. Quotes from scientific literature, citing facts and data… yeah, those are still good evidence.

    So I guess until I have seen the videotape of a creature evolving (forget about actually witnessing it), I can call you a superstitious believer in fairy tales, as well.

    You’re funny, Frank. Like Bozo was funny. I laughed at him too.

    Show me strong scientific evidence that evolutionary theory is fundamentally wrong, and I am open to changing my mind. Do it, Frank, and you win. (But you can’t do it, can you? Because at this point in time it’s not fucking possible to scientifically refute evolutionary theory.)

    And “your” book is not nearly as old as “my” book.

    You say this like it’s supporting your view. It’s not. It’s actually an indication that you’re a fucking moron, Frank. Believing in a storybook, written thousands of years ago by stupid sand people is not better than believing in a modern theory of biodiversity that has mountains of corroborating evidence to support it. Or do you think that believing in alchemy is better than chemistry, you stupid drunk?

    Why, because you can’t face the FACT that belief in evolution requires faith?

    Except it doesn’t. It really doesn’t. You’re a fucking moron. Acceptance of evolution is supported by the fossil record and by DNA evidence, Frank. If you want to call that “believing in fairy tales,” okay. It just indicates that you have no fucking idea what you’re talking about, when scientific theory is somehow fictional while the Bible is the factual word of God.

    Without successfully defining the term, “species”, and without being able to untie the Gordian Knot which passes for taxonomy, you claim to know their origin?

    Um… who cannot successfully define the term “species”? What? I’m pretty sure I can. Can you, Frank? And yes, it is possible to trace back the evolutionary linkages to discover when species emerged, and from what common ancestors, etc. So yes, the origin of species is potentially knowable. It’s not hard to learn about this stuff, Frank.

    You’re the one believing the fairy tale called science.

    One of the dumbest things written about anything in the history of the universe. Congratulations.

    Put the bottle down and kill yourself already.

  106. The Dark Avenger says:

    yammers on about Glenn Beck’s mind-control abilities on potential murderers.

    Yes, just because Beck has made jokes about poisoning Nanci Pelosi, we shouldn’t be concerned that anyone would take that raving as seriously as his other ignorant rants on a variety of subjects…………..

    Dennis, AO, or Frank haven’t responded to my comment about the death threat made to the school, why is that?

    Is that because even in their wacky world, they can’t blame it on a Leftist or a liberal or even an Obamabot?

  107. Zython says:

    I might add that Glen Beck was called a killer, because a Census Bureau was found hanged (or maybe not) with a “fed” scrawled on his chest (or maybe not).

    It’s a bit worse than you think.

    Children’s minds are fertile grounds for authoritative implantation. They have not yet acquired the sorry state of a closed mind due to limited, linear, “scientific method” type thinking

    Once again, the conservative meme of “children are stupid” comes to light. Frank, there are MANY adults that are stupider than children.

    Quotes aren’t evidence

    Not scientific evidence, no.

    And “your” book is not nearly as old as “my” book.

    Who cares how old your book is? Hinduism is older than Christianity. By your logic, Hinduism must be the true religion.

    You’re the one believing the fairy tale called science.

    So, gravity, electricity, and germ theory (for starters) are myths?

    Frank, watch this video, it might help you understand evolution.

  108. Wilbur says:

    How in the Sam Hill did we get onto evolution again?

    Dennis, I stand by what I said about congressman Blunt and about Beck, but for the purposes of argument, let’s posit that I was hasty in my allegations.

    a) Does that legitimize your hasty allegations?

    b) Let’s examine the cases side by side: in the case of Blunt, we were dealing with a prominent national representative of a party whose history of race-baiting is unquestionable. In the case of Beck we have a history of inflammatory and fabricated OLIGARHY rhetoric by a major national media figure who is documented as having inspired the twisted passions of at least two crazed killers. In other words, there is a history. There is a context (that word again!). There is a documented track rhetoric of deliberate, provocative and divisive agitation.

    And on your side you have… two videos, one seven months old the other over ten months old – both long before Obama’s mind-control broadcast – one in the immediate aftermath of the election, celebrating the rising of a self-made member of a long-downtrodden minority to the presidency, the other in the context (!) of Black History Month celebrating the most admired living African-American at the time.

    Neither video has anything to do with a program of indoctrination, and you know it. Neither represents an unprecedented amount of hero worship of a sitting president, and you know it. And nobody would have thought twice about either – indeed nobody did think twice about either in the several months that passed after each incident until the feverish right wing found in them a opening in their desperate campaign to fling any piece of poo at the president that they can.

    There’s no campaign of indoctrination, no hero worship. The only damage that will be suffered by the children in those videos will be as a result of the hailstorm of media attention caused by rabid right-wing flame-fanners. It’s really contemptible.

    Honestly, Dennis, I don’t know why I bother. For some reason I keep thinking that maybe somewhere beneath that steaming pile of sophistic rhetoric, and that repulsive willingness to hawk any bullshit line of argument that you think will do damage to the opposition, there’s at least a miniscule shred of decency in you. Perhaps I’m wrong.

  109. Southern Quaker says:

    So parents were justified somewhat in being uneasy about what Obama would be saying in his speech and just exactly what his motivations were.

    Dennis, you cited the actions of school teachers in New Jersey that upset some parents as an example of why they had reason to be afraid of Obama’s motivations and actions?

    Doesn’t that seem just a bit illogical?

  110. Indeed says:

    Missed this one the first time around.

    Blackwashing.

    Colbert is spot on here. Watch the whole thing. The “Dissent = Racism” bullshitters ought to take notice.

  111. Indeed says:

    Via.

    Also good.

    At both the national and local levels, and among left-leaning bloggers, even, we’re seeing an awful lot of denial. In the Tampa area, for example, we have Creative Loafing blogger Catherine positing that that Not everyone who disagrees with President Obama is “racist”.

    Now, on its face, this statement is true. In fact, you could expand that to an even broader observation: Not everyone who disagrees with Person X (where X=”whichever sex, color, faith, or sexual orientation is pertinent to the discussion”) is prejudiced against X. For example, I disagree with my own husband on a number of issues, but the last thing of which anyone could or would accuse me is being anti-Italian (and regular readers know this to be true, ahem).

    But Catherine’s next point–in the form of a question–indicates that she, like so many on the left (including President Clinton), is leaving the all-important issue of historical context out of the equation. Catherine writes:

    What if white, country-boy Kanye West had interrupted African-American, R&B singer Taylor Swift? Would this switcheroo have changed public sentiment after their now-infamous interaction at the VMAs?

    Switching the race of the interruptor and interruptee–without also noting the very different histories of the behavior of each race toward the other–renders this point kind of, well, pointless. For the sake of argument, let’s simplify the comparison thus: as it actually transpired, a member of a historically oppressed class interrupted, and thus upstaged, a member of the oppressor class. If the scenario had instead involved a member of the oppressor class interrupting, and thus upstaging, a member of the oppressed class, could it have been interpreted as a racially-motivated act?

    And the answer to that question is, yes. And it would be a justifiable yes. Not because of any knee-jerk reaction by people who, as Catherine puts it, “…cry racism, anti-Semitism, or some other form of hate-ism, take our ball, and go home”, but rather, because it is impossible to disentangle hundreds of years of oppression from the equation, simply because we’re all so damned open-minded and egalitarian these days, we white folks.

    Listen, I disagree–vigorously–with President Obama about several policy matters, including his ongoing stance on upholding telecom immunity, for one thing. About not going after the war criminals responsible for, firstly, lying the nation into a war of choice and secondly, engaging in violation after violation of international law, particularly those conventions governing the treatment of prisoners of war. But I am not a racist by dint of my disagreeing with him, even if, given the chance, I would politely express my sentiments to the President himself (although I’d never, ever–not in a million years!–shout them out while he was speaking, much less while he was addressing a joint session of Congress in front of the world’s cameras, for Heaven’s sake, which restraint and good manners are all part of growing up and being British, and, as I’ve witnessed, generally considered part of being a good American citizen, too.)

    But so much of the vitriol aimed at President Obama is laced through and through with the toxic sap of racism. And saying we “have come a long way” is little more than patting ourselves on the back. Because we haven’t. Not really.

    Not when a Congressman shouts You lie…! (with the unspoken suffix “…boy” implied; otherwise, he’d have simply said “You’re lying” or “That’s a lie”), and that Congressman happens to be a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a group which, in the last decade, has been led by radical neo-Confederate secessionists who defend slavery as “a benign institution”; and further, when that Congressman happens to have been one of only seven Republicans to go against his own party and vote to keep the Dixie Rebel flag flying over the South Carolina capitol.

    Not when a conservative activist–someone who of course disagrees with President Obama, but is also a Florida neurosurgeon serving as a member of the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates; an energetic opponent of health-care reform; and the founder of the anti-reform group Doctors For Patient Freedom–sends out an e-mail, to an entire mailing list, which contains a photoshopped picture of the President as a tribal witch doctor (complete with horns through the nostrils), along with the comment “Funny stuff”.

    And no, we haven’t actually come very far at all in this whole getting-beyond-racism effort when a Republican mayor in California created, this spring, a similarly widely-disseminated e-mail in which there is a picture of the White House lawn covered with watermelons and vines and bearing the legend “No Easter egg hunt this year.”

    History–ancient and recent alike. Context. They matter.

    Indeed. History and context matter. The Colbet video is way funnier though.

  112. Jaim says:

    “the fairy tale called science”

    Man, as much as the dancing wing-nuts here provide me with endless amusement, I do have moments where I suspect they’re this close to swallowing a shotgun barrel or going postal. Just fucking insanity. It’s funny, I’ll admit, but it’s not always pretty.

  113. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Sean, we could play that game all day long.

    I’m not playing a game, Dennis. But I do notice the one you’re playing.

    As soon as someone posts a reasoned reply that makes a point you just don’t want to have to deal with, you start accusing folks of “playing games”.

  114. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Like I told Sean D. Martin, fafaroo, we can do this all day long,

    Yep, we can. We’ll keep posting facts and links to places that show we’re right when we say the had baseless freakouts about Obama’s speech, and you’ll keep saying “Did not, did not, did not. nyah nyah.”

  115. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: Quotes aren’t evidence

    So I guess words in print aren’t evidence.

    And, as regular as clockwork, Frank shows that he doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about and is incapable of anything resembling rational thought.

    He equates quotes, opinions people say, with things like peer reviewed articles which contain copious amounts of duplicatable evidence to back up their conclusions.

    In Frank’s world view, someone writing “The world was made by God because the Bible says so.” has as much scientific validity as someone publishing a detailed description of their experiments and explaining their conclusions. And if you’re going to discount the first then you have to totally discount the second.

    In Frank’s world view, if you’re going to claim a book of the Norse legends of Thor is just untrue myths, then all books on weather are just untrue myths, too.

  116. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: fafaroo, you’ve just done what you mock Save Farris for; you posted a link to a story that confirmed my point and impugned yours.

    fafaroo: Would you care to actually provide evidence of this, Dennis?

    Dennis: fafaroo, Your link had this statement.

    Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    Oh, Dennis. You are either and idiot and don’t understand what you read, or you are intentionally deceitful AND an idiot for thinking we won’t notice when you take a snippet out of context and claim it means something it absolutely doesn’t.

    Let’s look at the surrounding text from the article fafaroo linked to in his comment at 3:41 pm:

    But to the Republican Party of Florida, that means Obama intends to “use … taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.”

    Rather than just giving a speech on education, which schools can show students if they want, Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    “School children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt,” said state party Chairman Jim Greer in a news release.

    That’s right. The article did NOT say “Obama will be doing indoctrinating kids.” which is what you claim. It says, quite clearly, that Republican’s are claiming that’s what Obama will do.

    And if you go on to actually, y’know, read the entire article rather than just scanning for phrases you can take out of context, it continues by pointing out what the speech will actually do (”challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning”) and explain where the Repubs got their bizarre notion.

    Here’s a short sentence, Dennis. Go ahead and quote from it out of context: You are one of the most amazing posters here because you are so blatant in showing off your stupidity.

    Yes, I said “You are one of the most amazing posters here”. Clearly I think you’re a great guy, right?

  117. Dennis says:

    Man, as much as the dancing wing-nuts here provide me with endless amusement, I do have moments where I suspect they’re this close to swallowing a shotgun barrel or going postal. Just fucking insanity. It’s funny, I’ll admit, but it’s not always pretty.
    –Jaim Galt

    This from the guy who couldn’t find a job as a teacher and sold his old Civic and left the country; vowing not to return until ‘things get better back here’.

    Talk about funny and endlessly amusing wingnut insanity, Jaims. That one is Pure Comedy Gold.

  118. Dennis says:

    Oh, Dennis. You are either and idiot and don’t understand what you read, or you are intentionally deceitful AND an idiot for thinking we won’t notice when you take a snippet out of context and claim it means something it absolutely doesn’t.
    –Sean D. Martin

    No, Sean, you just came late to the party and you didn’t take the time to go back and read what the discussion was about. You started at the tail end and then drew conclusions; conclusions drawn on the biases you had when you walked in.

    The contention was that fafaroo was being dishonest and or disingenuous when he argued on this premise:

    <blockquote"The people who were screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.

    If that was what some parents argued, then that isolated contention is idiotic, but that’s not what the overwhelming uneasiness with the speech by most people was, as fafaroo depicts, dishonestly.

    I can provide you links if you prefer of the teacher in Asheville browbeating a kid because he liked John McCain and she was praising Barack Obama in front of her school kids. Or the Demi Moore/ Ashton Kutcher “I Pledge” video that was shown in public schools. Or the fact that many of Obama’s radical friends are in the education field, like William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Or again the videos I’ve shown with parent’s unease about the lengths some teachers are going to hero-worship Barack Obama without those parent’s consent or knowledge. So the quote I took from fafaroo’s link was not taken out of context, and it did bolster my response to fafaroo, that the main objections to Obama’s speech were not his message of staying in school and working hard. That was ridiculous of fafaroo. It very much was that parent’s rights were being usurped and that there is a definite pattern of Obama indoctrination going on.

    No problem coming late to a meeting, Sean. But you’d do well to try to get caught up before you start blabbering away all half-cocked.

    And why don’t you start telling fafaroo to put away the bottle too, Sean. If you’re going to be an asshole, why not be an equal-opportunity asshole?

  119. Indeed says:

    “I took an oath to The President”

    Never fucking forget.

    Jesus Camp. Also.

  120. Parthenon says:

    Sometimes, teachers bring politics into classrooms with students too young to be discerning. This is neither news, conservative, liberal, or a grand conspiracy involving “the president’s radical friends in the education field.”

    I grew up in a small more-or-less town where my teachers threw out cracks about Clinton all the time, and the sky didn’t fall down. The amount of pearl-clutching going on here is bewildering.

    parent’s unease about the lengths some teachers are going to hero-worship Barack Obama without those parent’s consent or knowledge.

    I’m curious how they felt about George W. Bush Middle School.

  121. Parthenon says:

    “more-or-less” = “more-or-less conservative”

  122. Indeed says:

    The amount of pearl-clutching going on here is bewildering standard operating procedure for Team Wingnut.

  123. Dennis says:

    Parthenon-

    Again, the point was that fafaroo’s statement was erroneous and dishonest on his part.

    As to how people felt about the school being named after Bush, I don’t know. It was hard to discern from all the other screaming liberals were doing every day about anything and everything they could think of.

    An elemtary school in New York named their school after Barack Obama before he was even elected.

    New York Elementary School Renamed After Barack Obama

    And here’s List of places named after Barack Obama

    And I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that wacky libs in San Francisco (ordinary citizens to the people living there) wanted to name a sewage plant after George Bush.

    I’m sure Sean D. Martin will square that circle of liberal logic by once again comparing Bush to Hitler and Obama to the wonderful man that he is, but surely you get the idea of where the indoctrination charges come from.

  124. Dennis says:

    The amount of pearl-clutching going on here is bewildering standard operating procedure for Team Wingnut.
    –Indeed/ Mr. ed

    Yes, ed, the pearl-clutching, it burns.

    See, Blunt, Roy; ‘False Accusations of Racism at Far left-wing Oliverwillis.com’.

    Also, see:

    Beck, Glenn; ‘Leftist liberal bloggers do touchdown dance over the death of a census worker in Kentucky, Accuse Beck of mutliple murders’.

  125. Indeed says:

    Jesus Camp.

    More from before:

    “I took an oath the president, and I take that oath very seriously,” Sara Taylor said in answer to a question early in the hearing.

    And right after a break, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) asked her if she was sure about that. “Did you mean, perhaps, you took an oath to the Constitution?” Leahy asked. It was a telling exchange.

    “I know that the president refers to the government being his government — it’s not,” Leahy reminded her.

    Also, more reminder:

    Sara Marie Taylor (born September 15, 1974 in Dubuque, Iowa) is a public relations consultant who was formerly a Republican campaign strategist, field operator, pollster, and Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs at the White House. She was one of George W. Bush’s top political aides until her resignation in 2007. During that period, she reported directly to Karl Rove.

    Also.

    But seriously: Jesus Camp, dude. Jesus Camp.

  126. Dennis says:

    Right, Indeed, Jesus Camp. You guys went ballistic. Still are going ballistic.

    Obama indoctrination, creepy hero-worship, likening Obama to Jesus and a Messiah figure…not so much.

    My whole point here of Left-wing circular logic and double standards.

    Like fafaroo, you prove my point.

    Go ahead, Indeed. Square up nutroots pearl-clutching over Jesus Camps with your total obliviousness to example after example of nearly identical behavior with Obama hero-worship.

    Did conservative blogs picture Bush as a Superman? Or run videos of a hundred pictures of him smiling? Or repeatedly picture him with the caption ‘ChillthefuckoutIgotthis’ like you sycophants here love to see?

    I don’t think so, dude.

    You guys are getting batty.

  127. Indeed says:

    Jesus Camp.

  128. Dennis says:

    Also, more reminder:

    “I Will Follow Him”: Obama As My Personal Jesus

    Also:


    Obama Army? Obama Youth Junior Fraternity Regiment Video

    Creepiness.

    OW.com/Indeed-led liberals: “MoveOn along. Nothing to see here. Revert to Jesus Camps links to distract.”

  129. Dennis says:

    O-bot Indeed cannot defend his hero-worship.

    “I will follow him. Barack Obama is my own personal Jesus.”

    –Indeed/ Mr. ed

  130. Bruce Henry says:

    No, Dennis, conservative blogs pictured Bush in full flight suit and codpiece, squinting victoriously in his manly way with a bajillion American flags proudly waving behind him. And repeatedly ran essays speculating on how he must have been chosen by God to lead this country through 9/11’s aftermath. And circulated emails about what a great American he was because he prayed with some dude who visited the White House or some such shit. Not batty at all.

  131. Dennis says:

    I think both are batty, Bruce. Been my point this whole thread.

    Crickets from the hero-worshipping O-bots on the latest revelations, though. Their only defense, like Indeed here keeps repeating:

    “but, but, but, but, but, ….Jesus Camps. What about Jesus Camps? Waah, waah.”

  132. Wilbur says:

    Or the Demi Moore/ Ashton Kutcher “I Pledge” video that was shown in public schools.

    See, here’s a perfect example of the right-wing Circular Confimation freakshow. One teacher in Utah shows an eight-month old video to students (and then apologizes when some parents object). Screamers like Malkin and newsbusters pick up on it and do what they do: scream. It propagates throughout the diseased nether reaches of the wingnut blogosphere and quickly morphs into a video that was “shown in public schools” (your words, Dennis), as if on a regular and widespread basis. Add a ten-month-old video of kids celebrating Obama’s election, add a seven-month-old video kids celebrating a successful African-American during Black History month, add the obligatory Bill Ayers innuendo, and suddenly you’ve got a self-confirming story about an insidious Obama-jugend campaign that, supposedly, is more of a threat to the body politic than lingering racism and the Beck-Limbaugh axis giving daily high-exposure validation and encouragement to yahoos who bring assault rifles to political meetings and who talk smack about revolution (to say nothing of psycho killers).

    Spectacular, Dennis. Don’t think twice about the feelings of those kids who you and your wingnut pals are trying to make into a media sensation in a decidedly not-good way. Holy wars always have some unfortunate innocent casualties.

    You’re fooling nobody with what you’re doing in your most recent posts here: you can’t defend yourself on the major issue so you’re trying to make the conversation about what you perceive as fafaroo’s unfair characterization of the opposition to Obama’s speech. Sorry, it isn’t.

    And as a side-note, if you’re going to get all hot and bothered about fafaroo’s rhetorical excesses, you might think about policing your own language a bit. “liberals push Obama worship”, “liberals accuse Beck of multiple murders”, etc. are equally invidious distortions.

  133. Dennis says:

    Wilbur, check Oliver’s headline on the census worker and tell me if ‘Another Beck Murder?’ is not calling him a murderer as the premise, and is this simply another one.

    How is that not an accusation of multiple murders on his part, or at least one before that and questioning if this wasn’t another one.

    That’s not rhetorical excess on my part, my friend.

  134. Indeed says:

    “I took an oath the president, and I take that oath very seriously,”

    –one of George W. Bush’s top political aides until her resignation in 2007. During that period, she reported directly to Karl Rove.

    False equivalence, dude. False equivalence.

    Never fucking forget.

    Oh, and Jesus Camp. Also.

  135. Jaim says:

    Dennis, if the shotgun is in your mouth right now, don’t do it.

    You’re an unemployed loser and a waste on many levels, but don’t do it.

    Please. You’re a failure at life, but don’t end it this way. I look forward to you starting your own blog.

  136. Wilbur says:

    Wilbur, check Oliver’s headline on the census worker and tell me if ‘Another Beck Murder?’ is not calling him a murderer as the premise, and is this simply another one.

    Classic Dennis: when you’re losing…

    a) ignore the main point
    b) pick one point, however miniscule, where you think you can get a rhetorical foothold.
    c) pretend that is what the argument is about.

    rinse and repeat.

    Sorry, Dennis, not biting.

  137. Dennis says:

    Dennis, if the shotgun is in your mouth right now, don’t do it.
    –Jaim Galt

    Don’t worry, Jaims. Step one would likely entail unemployment. Step two would be leaving the country. Step three would be blogging back in the United States with the same “I hate liberals. Ha Ha, you liberals suck.” meme like you do here every day. Maybe Step 4 would be the shotgun, but even then, I doubt it. It’s not as easy for me as it is for you. I have family who needs me.

    Is this a cry for help from you or something? A piece to a puzzle that after you’ve done it, we can go back and put it together and say “yes, he was trying to tell us something.”, like a CSI episode?

  138. Dennis says:

    Classic Dennis: when you’re losing…
    –Wilbur

    I’m not losing, Wilbur. You’re the one who keeps asking himself why he bothers with me.

    And yet again, here you are.

    Ask yourself why.

    Then you can rinse and repeat.

  139. fafaroo says:

    It very much was that parent’s rights were being usurped and that there is a definite pattern of Obama indoctrination going on.

    Dennis, you’re a moron. Obama announced he was going to talk to kids about education and the right started screaming indocrination. The quote you pulled was from the link was a quote from the Republican Party of Florida, you moron. Not some parents group and they didn’t just say what you quoted. They also said:
    Obama intends to “use … taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate America’s children to his socialist agenda.”

    Rather than just giving a speech on education, which schools can show students if they want, Obama will be “usurping the rights of parents” and “indoctrinating American’s youngest children.”

    “School children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt,” said state party Chairman Jim Greer in a news release. He said children will be forced “to agree with our President’s initiatives or be ostracized by their teachers and classmates.” his socialist agenda.”

    The article I linked to concluded:

    She didn’t explain why Greer thinks schools will be forced to broadcast the speech or use the lesson plans, or that the speech will concern health care or the economy.

    In other words, conservatives were making claims and freaking out about shit that was entirely unfounded and untrue.

    The Obama administration is not orchestrating a campaign to indocrinate school children. Only a crazy fucking nutjob would think this was true and only a complete fucking moron would sit here trying to defend that position.

  140. fafaroo says:

    Revert to Jesus Camps links to distract.”

    As in: What you would like to paint as some vast Obama orchestrated campaign to create a youth corps of indoctrinated socialist/fascist(!) robots is, no matter how creepy it is, nothing we haven’t seen countless times before on the conservative/republican side and no one on your side of the debate said shit. So pack it in, Dennis. You’re a hack.

  141. Wilbur says:

    Ask yourself why.

    I did, and came up with a tentative answer, which I stated above: For some reason I keep thinking that maybe somewhere beneath that steaming pile of sophistic rhetoric, and that repulsive willingness to hawk any bullshit line of argument that you think will do damage to the opposition, there’s at least a miniscule shred of decency in you. Perhaps I’m wrong.

  142. fafaroo says:

    Oh, and Dennis, none of this:

    I can provide you links if you prefer of the teacher in Asheville browbeating a kid because he liked John McCain and she was praising Barack Obama in front of her school kids. Or the Demi Moore/ Ashton Kutcher “I Pledge” video that was shown in public schools. Or the fact that many of Obama’s radical friends are in the education field, like William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn. Or again the videos I’ve shown with parent’s unease about the lengths some teachers are going to hero-worship Barack Obama without those parent’s consent or knowledge.

    Is evidence of the Obama administration doing anything to indoctrinate school children. (But but but HE KNOWS BILL AYERS!!!!)

    If you think it is, please tells what you would call this:

    At the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, children from the stricken Gulf Coast region serenaded First Lady Laura Bush with a song praising the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency.

    To the tune of Hey Look Me Over, about 100 young children from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama sang:
    [Easter White House]

    Our country’s stood beside us
    People have sent us aid.
    Katrina could not stop us, our hopes will never fade.
    Congress, Bush and FEMA
    People across our land
    Together have come to rebuild us and we join them hand-in-hand!

    After the song, Mrs. Bush posed for photos with the kids, many of whom were wearing Katrina Kids T-shirts, despite the chilly rain. [Jesus, they put these kids in propaganda t-shirts despite the cold and rain!]

    Earlier, the First Lady read Will You Be My Friend: A Bunny and Bird Story by Nancy Tafuri. According to a White House pool report, the children sat on the grass as Mrs. Bush read; she sat in a white wrought iron chair, freshly toweled by two Park Service employees.

    After the reading, Mr. Bush asked, Did you like this book? Does it tell you about what people can do to help other people, what bird did to help bunny? Be kind to him and give him shelter.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2006/04/17/out-of-the-mouths-of-babes/

    You’re a moron, Dennis.

  143. Dennis says:

    fafaroo,

    It’s you who’s the moron. You’re a liar and a distorter and a dishonest debater. You started it off by fabricating why there was skepticism of Obama’s speech by saying people ‘were screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.’

    I showed you how and why that was a dishonest statement and a gross distortion of what the skepticism was. So all you basically do to counter that is make up more stuff about what my original point was and call me a moron three times, like you’re in competition with Jaim or something.

    Critics Decry Obama’s ‘Indoctrination’ Plan for Students

    You never mentioned the lesson plan that Obama changed, or why. You’re too dishonest to do that.

    But in advance of the address, the Department of Education has offered educators “classroom activities” to coincide with Obama’s message.

    Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.”

    Teachers are also given guidance to tell students to “build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.”

    During the speech, “teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful.”

    For grades 7-12, the Department of Education suggests teachers prepare by excerpting quotes from Obama’s speeches on education for their students to contemplate — and ask as questions such as “Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us?”

    Activities suggested for after the speech include asking students “what resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrase do you remember?”

    —”In general, I don’t think there’s a problem if the president uses the bully pulpit to tell kids to work hard, study hard and things like that. But there are some troubling hints in this, both educationally and politically,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

    Among the concerns, McCluskey said, is the notion that students who do not support Obama or his educational policies will begin the school year “behind the eight ball,” or somehow academically trailing their peers.

    “It essentially tries to force kids to say the president and the presidency is inspiring, and that’s very problematic,” McCluskey said. “It’s very concerning that you would do that.”

    Parents of public school students would also have to pay for that “indoctrination,” regardless of their political background, he said.

    “That’s the fundamental problem. They could easily be funding the indoctrination of their children.”
    —-

    These are all legitimate concerns, fafaroo, and you’re too much of a dishonest asshole to debate this issue on honest terms. Instead you argue from the standpoint that if anyone has questions about Obama’s motives and those of his advisors, then they are all morons. It’s how you think, and it’s how you debate.

    Instead, you phrase it as “Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America,…“, and that’s not at all what people had their issues with. Now when videos come out showing indoctrination by teachers, not only do liberal blogs say next to nothing, they defend it by saying “Well, Jesus Camps”, or “Well, what about that one school they named after Bush”. It’s bullshit and you know it. You screech about Bush for eight years and then when your Dear Leader does the same things or worse, you justify it by saying Obama really has nothing to do with it. Did Bush orchestrate the Jesus Camps, fafaroo? Please answer that if nothing else.

  144. mambochicken23 says:

    But in advance of the address, the Department of Education has offered educators “classroom activities” to coincide with Obama’s message.

    Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president. These would be collected and redistributed at an appropriate later date by the teacher to make students accountable to their goals.”

    Teachers are also given guidance to tell students to “build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.”

    During the speech, “teachers can ask students to write down key ideas or phrases that are important or personally meaningful.”

    For grades 7-12, the Department of Education suggests teachers prepare by excerpting quotes from Obama’s speeches on education for their students to contemplate — and ask as questions such as “Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us?”

    Activities suggested for after the speech include asking students “what resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrase do you remember?”

    —”In general, I don’t think there’s a problem if the president uses the bully pulpit to tell kids to work hard, study hard and things like that. But there are some troubling hints in this, both educationally and politically,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

    Among the concerns, McCluskey said, is the notion that students who do not support Obama or his educational policies will begin the school year “behind the eight ball,” or somehow academically trailing their peers.

    “It essentially tries to force kids to say the president and the presidency is inspiring, and that’s very problematic,” McCluskey said. “It’s very concerning that you would do that.”

    For the record, Dennis, I don’t see any problem with anything in this whole section you copied and pasted. And it’s not only because I am liberal and support Obama. It’s that everything you cite here is completely innocuous. And McCluskey reads like he’s very paranoid or intellectually dishonest.

  145. mambochicken23 says:

    I am not trying to be difficult, Dennis, but I would really like to know what you think is in there that is so horrible or concerning. Don’t you think that students should know about their president? What sorts of “help” do you think they were going to be encouraged to give? Is it bad that Obama is “challenging” schoolchildren, or trying to inspire them? Is it wrong to ask high schoolers what they remembered from the speech, or if anything Obama said resonated with them?

    But there are some troubling hints in this, both educationally and politically,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

    “Troubling hints”, huh? Oooooh scary! In other words, the denotation of the language was completely innocuous, but the invisible undercurrent was clearly malicious and ill-motivated. Yes, McCluskey is a fucking paranoid delusional.

  146. Wilbur says:

    “build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama.”

    Ack! Hero worship! We should never ask students to learn about presidents! Particularly current presidents! Particularly current presidents I don’t agree with!!

    Students in grades pre-K-6, for example, are encouraged to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.

    Asking 4-11 year olds to think about how they could help the president of the United States! Horrible! Unpatriotic!

    “Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us?”

    Asking students to analyze how a speech designed to inspire and challenge them to do well in school actually inspires and challenges them! Brainwashing! Indoctrination!

    “what resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrase do you remember?”

    Asking students to write down the main points of the speech they hear! Unheard of! Mind control!!!!

    But there are some troubling hints in this, both educationally and politically,” said Neal McCluskey, associate director of Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom.

    Someone from a right-wing think tank, who was silent about similar issues for the eight years of the Bush presidency, says now that this is something to be concerned about! Whoda thunkit?? Blow me down!!

    The adjective “screaming” is a good description of all of this, and it’s a wonderful example of right-wing circular fever-mongering. fafaroo may not have been literally precise about what the fearmongerers were complaining about, but in essence his point stands: they’re trying to turn something beneficial and inocuous into a cog in a nefarious indoctrination campaign.

    Now this is the point where Dennis will say “but they changed the lesson plan!!!” as if that change were a tacit agreement that there was some ulterior plan afoot. All it is, though, is a desire (futile, misdirected desire in my opinion) to keep what was supposed to be something good for all students from becoming a pissing match with crazed wingnuts.

    Keep posting, Dennis, while the rest of the world grapples with issues that are really important. With every word you make yourself appear more and more unhinged.

  147. canadian bacon says:

    The imagery in this song by the Violent Femmes is what comes to mind when I read so many of the conservative posts –

    “I had me a wife, I had me some daughters.
    I tried so hard, I never knew still waters.
    Nothing to eat and nothing to drink.
    Nothing for a man to do but sit around and think.
    Nothing for a man to do but sit around and think.

    Well, Im a thinkin and thinkin, till theres nothin I aint thunk.
    Breathing in the stink, till finally I stunk.
    It was at that time, I swear I lost my mind.
    I started making plans to kill my own kind.
    I started making plans to kill my own kind.”

  148. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Again, the point was that fafaroo’s statement was erroneous and dishonest on his part.

    fafaroo’s statement, as you’ve quoted it, being:

    The people who were screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.

    Sraightforward enough that even you should be able to understand it, Dennis. Those who thought Obama was trying to indoctinate kids are mock-worthy idiots.

    And, apparently, you DID understand that. You even agreed with it: “If that was what some parents argued, then that isolated contention is idiotic…“.

    But then you go on to twist it, to complain that there were others who did not have mock-worth concerns about the speech. And you’ve yet to clarify just what those supposedly “valid” criticism were beyond the White House provided a supporting teaching aids that asked kids to (horrors!) “help the President”.

  149. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I can provide you links if you prefer of the teacher in Asheville… [et al]

    And of all those things you mention exactly none have anything to do with Obama pushing politics int the classroom or using his speech to do so. Just a bunch of “Look, Over there! And only at Democrats!”

  150. Fafaroo says:

    Did Bush orchestrate the Jesus Camps, fafaroo? Please answer that if nothing else.

    No. He didn’t. Now maybe you can tell us whether the Bush admin organized 100 children to sing the praises of FEMA to the First Lady on the White House lawn.

    The Obama admin hasn’t organized any of the videos of children singing that you keep linking too.

  151. Indeed says:

    Mission Accomplished, dude. Mission Accomplished.

    Nothing is scarier than Jesus Camp, however. Sure, there were White House advisers who pledged allegiance to George Bush, Jr. instead of Teh Constitution, and The Mission Accomplished Situation, and Clear Channel actually posting eerily 1984esque billboards (”Our Leader”–{shudder}). All of this is frightening enough, but nothing will ever top Jesus Camp.

  152. Parthenon says:

    Nothing is scarier than Jesus Camp, however.

    For real. That scene where the leader points out the birth rate in Muslim nations as a signal that ‘our side’ needs to make more babies still gives me chills.

  153. Fafaroo says:

    Oh BTW, for anyone who I’m making exaggerated rhetorical claims, I’m really not. I simply don’t see any difference between “obama’s speech is indoctrination” (which clearly was a central assertion by the right) and “obama’s speech is designed/intended to open the doors to indocrination.” Dennis seems to think there’s a fundamental, functional difference between the two. There isn’t. They’re both paranoid, conspiritorial nonsense.

    And when the Bush admin itsel actually had children sing Bush’s praises on the White House lawn, The same screeching morons didn’t say shit. So let’s quit pretending your complaints have anything to do with honesty or principles, Dennis.

  154. Parthenon says:

    We’ve really reached the point where it’s controversial to ask children to listen to, respect the words of and perhaps also ponder how they can help the president improve the country. Logical extension of thermonuclear ‘radicalcommiefascistsocialistjerkass’ rhetoric, I guess.

  155. Parthenon says:

    And I’m sure you haven’t forgotten that wacky libs in San Francisco (ordinary citizens to the people living there) wanted to name a sewage plant after George Bush.

    I’d never known about that. Really nothing should be named for anybody until they’ve been out of office at least 25 years. Maybe 50. Presidential HoF, so to speak.

  156. Indeed says:

    Indeed:

    Without a doubt the silliest “scandal” raised by right-wingers in many weeks has been the foofara over the supposed video showing schoolkids being “indoctrinated” with pro-Obama “propaganda” — which is, of course, actually an innocuous video of a class of schoolkids singing as part of a Black History Month program.

    The silliness would be funny, in fact, if the right-wing media’s (particularly Fox’s) coverage hadn’t inspired death threats, whose existence were quickly airbrushed out of Fox News accounts.

    But evidently these people weren’t around during the Reagan or Bush years, when such encomia to the sitting president were fairly common. Indeed, as Blue Texan pointed out, they even named schools after Bush when he was president.

    And you want to talk about indoctrination? How about the Texas schoolchildren whose curricula have now been revised to be explicitly creationist and anti-evolutionist?

    Mike Stark brought this up on MSNBC Thursday, debating the issue with Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner, who was more interested in playing “gotcha” with Stark than actually, you know, discussing the issue. Like all good Republicans. This, of course, was because he really didn’t have a good answer.

    Video and links there are worthwhile too.

  157. Southern Quaker says:

    You never mentioned the lesson plan that Obama changed

    The President writes lesson plans? Really? Since when?

    And Dennis, those plans read as pretty standard academic fair, addressing the appropriate learning goals and standards at each grade level. For example, a quick search found the following lesson plans for Partners of the Heart, a documentary about the partnership between Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blaylock, two early pioneers of open heart surgery:

    -What is the primary message of the video?
    -How did the video impact your feelings regarding segregation?
    -What did you learn from the video?
    -How did each main character show examples of philanthropy?
    -In what ways were Blalock and Thomas heroes.
    -Have students write interview questions for Thomas and Blalock.

    Now how is this lesson plan substantively different in any way from the one that was distributed before Obama’s speech?

  158. mambochicken23 says:

    We’ve really reached the point where it’s controversial to ask children to listen to, respect the words of and perhaps also ponder how they can help the president improve the country.

    Pretty sick, huh Parthy? Just gross.

  159. Jaim says:

    Dennis thinks he knows something about education. How adorable.

  160. Simply imagine that this very same speech, with accompanying lesson plans, and outlines for school use , had been given by Pres Bush in Sep of 2008, and then try to fool yourselves (lefties) that you would view the speech, as impartial and innocuous.

    If hypocrisy were nickels, liberal Democrats would be millionaires.

  161. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: Simply imagine that this very same speech, with accompanying lesson plans, and outlines for school use , had been given by Pres Bush in Sep of 2008, and then try to fool yourselves (lefties) that you would view the speech, as impartial and innocuous.

    Translation: I’ve go no legitimate response to the valid criticism that right-wingnuts were idiots about Obama’s speech so, like the kindergartner I am, I’ll just claim arbitrarily that liberals would have done the same. So nyah!

  162. Zython says:

    Translation: I’ve go no legitimate response to the valid criticism that right-wingnuts were idiots about Obama’s speech so, like the kindergartner I am, I’ll just claim arbitrarily that liberals would have done the same. So nyah!

    Translation addendum: After being so throughly beaten on the evolution issue, I wish to pretend it never happened, rather than acknowledge my error.

  163. fafaroo says:

    Simply imagine that the Bush administration had children from the Gulf Coast sing the praises of the President, Congress and FEMA in a song performed on the White House lawn in front of the First Lady…

    Oh wait, we don’t have to imagine it. That actually happened. What we have to imagine is the right wing outrage over “indoctrination” of children to support one of Bush’s failed policies. Because no one on the right said shit about it at the time.

    You’re an idiot Frank.

  164. fafaroo: Perhaps you find it difficult to see a difference between one group of children singing to the President ( and excuse me if I do not believe they were singing a song of praise to FEMA ), and the President’s addressing ALL the nation’s school children.

    That is not my problem.

    Martin: That is not like anything like what I intended to convey. Perhaps your inability to use simple English prevents you from understanding it.
    What that comment was meant to convey was that what the President originally intended to do – include in the speech the idea that all the schoolchildren in America should study and do their homework, so they can help the President put forth his agenda* – was changed , and removed. To say, NOW, that the speech was harmless, is disingenuous , even hypocritical.

    My point was that you lefties would have been outraged by a speech given by Pres Bush to “the schoolchildren of America” suggesting that they do well in school so they can help the President reduce taxes, or privatize social security, or in the war on terror.

    * And I do not wish to argue whether his original did indeed contain that message. It was believed that it did contain such a message, and it was modified so that people were persuaded that it no longer contained that message.

  165. fafaroo says:

    …( and excuse me if I do not believe they were singing a song of praise to FEMA ) …

    Uh, Frank, check the link above to the WSJ post including the lyrics of the song.

    Your problem is that you’re an idiot. When Bush was having kids sing the praises of his failed response to Katrina, no one on the right said shit.

    If two teachers working at two separate schools months apart entirely independent of the Obama administration, have their kids sing songs about Obama, the right shits itself with rage.

    As to this:

    * And I do not wish to argue whether his original did indeed contain that message. It was believed that it did contain such a message, and it was modified so that people were persuaded that it no longer contained that message.

    oh man, Frank. You just blew Dennis’ ridiculous dodge out of the water. You’re all a bunch of paranoid morons.

  166. fafaroo says:

    fafaroo: Perhaps you find it difficult to see a difference between one group of children singing to the President ( and excuse me if I do not believe they were singing a song of praise to FEMA ), and the President’s addressing ALL the nation’s school children.

    Hey Frank, word of advice. Maybe you should try to email Dennis offline, as it were, and get you’re talking points straight.

    Because apparently to Dennis, conservatives didn’t care about the speech, but children singing about a sitting president (as long its a black democrat) is like worse than Stalin and Hitler combined.

    The point being, I do see the difference between the two, Frank, but you have no idea what you’re talking about.

  167. fafaroo, why don’t you try to say something, instead of telling me to compare notes with Dennis, who has his own keyboard (and unlike you lefties who have been assimilated into to the MSNBC Borg) , and his own mind.

    I am getting a little sick of you jerkoffs tossing around insults as if they arguments, when you haven’t got a goddamed thing to say.

  168. Jaim says:

    “I am getting a little sick of you jerkoffs tossing around insults as if they arguments, when you haven’t got a goddamed thing to say.”

    I’m sorry we say such mean things to you on your personal website, Frank.

  169. Dennis says:

    Dennis thinks he knows something about education. How adorable.
    –Jaim Galt

    MO, Jaim, you’re the expert. Or former expert, I guess. Sidwell friends, UVA….still can’t find a job teaching, leave the country, bitch about half of all Americans. What a great example you set for not only children, but you’re the poster boy for liberal blog posters here.

  170. Dennis says:

    You never mentioned the lesson plan that Obama changed

    The President writes lesson plans? Really? Since when?

    And Dennis, those plans read as pretty standard academic fair, addressing the appropriate learning goals and standards at each grade level. For example, a quick search found the following lesson plans for Partners of the Heart, a documentary about the partnership between Vivien Thomas and Alfred Blaylock, two early pioneers of open heart surgery:…

    …Now how is this lesson plan substantively different in any way from the one that was distributed before Obama’s speech?

    Valid points for discussion, Southern Quaker. The point I was making was that fafaroo was too dishonest to even bring it up or mention them when he described all opposition to Obama’s speech as

    “screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.”

    If he was an honest broker, he’d have mentioned this, stated that he felt this was an invalid complaint, and then argued my prior point. That’s not what he did, SQ. He’s lying.

  171. Jaim, you can say whatever you want, and I can say that it continually provides me with evidence that you have no original thought.

  172. Dennis says:

    Mike Stark brought this up on MSNBC Thursday, debating the issue with Tim Carney of the Washington Examiner, who was more interested in playing “gotcha” with Stark than actually, you know, discussing the issue.
    –Quoted from Indeed/ Mr. ed

    So, again, Indeed goes to his Eliminationists hero, who praises, of all people, Infamous Stalker Mike Stark, the idiot loon who camped out on Bill O’Reilly’s front yard to stalk him when he came out to get the paper in the morning, and left flyers in his neighborhood. Even Keith Olbermann mocked chastised him for that…. WPitW.

    The blog’s opinion where Indeed’s hero blogs? “Well, you win some, you lose some. Our buddy, Mike Stark was featured in Countdown’s WPitW segment, although you could see that it pained Keith Olbermann to include him–and to defend Bill O’Reilly.”

  173. Parthenon says:

    I agree with KO. You should never act like Bill O’Reilly, even if you’re doing it against Bill O’Reilly.

  174. Dennis says:

    For the record, Dennis, I don’t see any problem with anything in this whole section you copied and pasted. And it’s not only because I am liberal and support Obama. It’s that everything you cite here is completely innocuous. And McCluskey reads like he’s very paranoid or intellectually dishonest.
    –mambochicken

    If you go back and check prior posts, I said I didn’t have a problem with the speech; but I did with how liberals argued it, and their subsequent relative silence on the videos of teachers clearly participating in Obama indoctrination and hero worship, mambo. And I included that link and those concerns because fafaroo was not honest enough to say that those were what the concerns were. I’ve stated this point several times, mambo.

    (1) Liberals mocked conservatives by breaking it down dishonestly, and

    (2) fafaroo was dishonest when he said conservatives screeched about Obama telling kids to work hard and stay in school.

    So when Parthy does the same thing and says

    “We’ve really reached the point where it’s controversial to ask children to listen to, respect the words of and perhaps also ponder how they can help the president improve the country.

    And you reply:

    Pretty sick, huh Parthy? Just gross.

    That’s not at all what I was arguing, nor was it what the majority of conservatives on the whole had concerns with, and it’s a dishonest premise.

  175. Dennis says:

    “Troubling hints”, huh? Oooooh scary! In other words, the denotation of the language was completely innocuous, but the invisible undercurrent was clearly malicious and ill-motivated. Yes, McCluskey is a fucking paranoid delusional.
    –mambochicken

    That’s the other point I made above, mambochicken. That there are more than a few idiots here who make the EXACT same reasoning to accuse Glenn Beck of multiple murders.

    This whole thread is a veritable Petri dish of liberal double standards and hypocrisy, isn’t it?

  176. Dennis says:

    I agree with KO. You should never act like Bill O’Reilly, even if you’re doing it against Bill O’Reilly.

    And so do I, in that case, Parthy. And I congratulate you for saying that. But that wasn’t the opinion of the blogger that I linked to where Indeed’s hero blogs, nor was it the opinion of the overwhelming majority of posters on that comment thread. More liberal hypocrisy/double standards.

  177. OT: Pres Obama finally does something I agree with, and Oliver doesn’t write it up…

    I would like to see teachers teach one 10 one month blocks a year, and the parents and children can pick which two months to take off. That makes more sense than sending every child in America from June to September.

  178. Parthenon says:

    That’s not at all what I was arguing, nor was it what the majority of conservatives on the whole had concerns with, and it’s a dishonest premise.

    Hang on a second. Ever conservative blogger took issue with the ‘how can I help the president’ phrase. How is that dishonest to then say we’ve reached the point where it’s controversial?

  179. Dennis says:

    Parthy,

    From the link I provided way above:

    For grades 7-12, the Department of Education suggests teachers prepare by excerpting quotes from Obama’s speeches on education for their students to contemplate — and ask as questions such as “Why does President Obama want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us?”

    Activities suggested for after the speech include asking students “what resonated with you from President Obama’s speech? What lines/phrase do you remember?”

    Suppose you had a kid in high school and you knew his teacher was a stark-raving mad lunatic Bush follower and Bush announced he was going to make a speech to schoolchildren with that lesson plan and subsequent assignment by that teacher. Let’s say you disagreed with Bush’s politics, and so does your child. Let’s say that teacher knows that about your child already. Let’s say your kid was honest about what he wrote as part of the assignment the teacher gave out as he was instructed to do by Bush in his original intentions.

    Would you as a parent feel comfortable with that?

    Do you think you’d believe your kid was going to get a fair evaluation from that teacher the rest of the school year?

  180. Southern Quaker says:

    Valid points for discussion, Southern Quaker.

    And yet you avoid discussing them entirely.

    The controversy started when it was learned that Obama was to give a speech to the nation’s school children.

    The reaction from the right was, “He’s trying to convince our children to support his socialist health care plan!”

    To which most sane folks responded, “Uh, what? No, he’s going to tell them to work hard and stay in school.”

    “But, but … look at the lesson plans! Teachers might read a book about the President before hand! And students are going to be asked to write letters to the President. That’s indoctrination!”

    Don’t pretend that wasn’t the argument, because it was. Now, I ask you again, what in those lesson plans is so atypical
    that it justifies the hysterical fear mongering from the right? Or can you admit, just this once, that the “controversy” was conveniently manufactured to support the right’s agenda against so-called “socialized” medicine? If not, why not?

  181. The original speech included elements that suggested that with hard work and study, young heads full of mush would instead be filled with ideas to help the President with his “plans” .

    That part, the part that supposedly was inoffensive , was removed .

  182. Southern Quaker says:

    “Why does President Obama Bush want to speak with us today? How will he inspire us? How will he challenge us?”

    “what resonated with you from President Obama’s Bush’s speech? What lines/phrase do you remember?”

    If Bush gave the same speech Obama did I wouldn’t have any problem with it. My eldest is well aware of our opinions of Bush, but I would expect him to listen respectfully to the President of the United States. And I would have no problem with him answering the questions as posed, assuming Bush’s speech were about the value of education and hard work.

  183. Southern Quaker says:

    arrgh. There’s supposed to be a slash through Obama’s name. Why doesn’t work?

  184. Dennis says:

    Southern Quaker, it’s not that I’m avoiding anything, it’s that you misconstrued what my point was to fafaroo in the very beginning. He didn’t depict the concerns as being anything remotely like the way you described. He described it as the right screeching because Obama wanted to tell them to work hard and stay in school, and my point was that was bullshit.

    And I think I gave an example to Parthenon of just why any discerning parent might have a problem with the lesson plan as originally presented.

    You’re a teacher and I think a parent too. How would you have felt if Bush was going to be making a speech to school kids right before the vote to go to war with Iraq, and you and your high school age (hypothetically) child were against going to war in a big way. Let’s say the teacher was a huge Bush fan, thought the war was vital to our long-term security and that Saddam Hussein was a threat to our security. How do you think you’d feel if you knew your kid was going to disagree with Bush on that, was going to disagree with just about everything he might’ve said in the speech. Do you think you’d feel comfortable with that scenario, and trusted that any teacher at the public high school where your kid attended would get a fair shake the rest of the way?

    I think the parents in that school in New Jersey might feel a little differently than you if you did.

  185. southern Quaker it’s and then

  186. dang I can’t show it to you , just use strike instead of “i” or “b”

  187. Dennis says:

    If Bush gave the same speech Obama did I wouldn’t have any problem with it. My eldest is well aware of our opinions of Bush, but I would expect him to listen respectfully to the President of the United States. And I would have no problem with him answering the questions as posed, assuming Bush’s speech were about the value of education and hard work.

    I was typing while you were posting the above post and I didn’t see it. You may feel comfortable with your child, and the teacher, but there are a lot of liberals who wouldn’t have been in that scenario.

    I just went to my daughter’s ‘back to school night’ at her high school. Her AP World History teacher had about a hundred magazine covers of world leaders and popular politicians from world events up tacked up on the walls. I started glancing at them all and how they were arranged. There were over 90% of them from Democrats; both Clintons, all kinds of Obama’s pictures, Kerry, Gore. The only Republicans were a couple of Bush and Rumsfeld and Rice, all of them in negative lights.

    I’d be comforatble with my kid writing about Obama too, because I don’t talk negatively about him around her, but I wouldn’t be comfortable with that teacher if someone’s kid did write something negatively about Obama,and I wouldn’t fault them if they were concerned. Certainly I wouldn’t think they were moron parents screeching about nothing, like fafaroo depicted them. And I wouldn’t think liberals were screeching about nothing if they expressed concerns about the scenario I depicted above about Bush.

  188. Indeed says:

    Er, I meant here for the extra KKKlassy edition.

  189. Dennis says:

    Excellent, Indeed. You do exactly what you guys cluck about gleefully that you claim Save Farris does; you link to an article that damages your case.

    Here we have the dishonest blogger Steve Benen partaking in the same precise lie that fafaroo told:

    Or the outrage that President Obama encouraged children to do well in school?

    Except that’s not what the outrage was, was it, as everyone here seems to be in agreement about.

    Liberals can’t seem to make a point without having to be dishonest. There’s a distinct pattern here. Indeed was kind enough to verify it, too.

    Thank you, Indeed.

  190. Dennis says:

    Another hilarious aspect to that link to the bullshit Benen article, Indeed, is that your Eliminationists hero already does monitor Glenn Beck….daily….. and look where his book sales are….your hero’s, not Beck’s. Come to think of it, maybe you should look at where Beck’s book sales are. And his cover on Time Mag-Mag. And his interview with Katie Couric. Benen sounds like he’s whining about the injustice of it all.

    Foser reminds us, “These efforts to bend over backwards to appease the Right — people who will never be appeased — no matter how ridiculous their complaints, in which newspapers like the Times fret over the suspicion of bias regardless of the merits of the complaint, are exactly how the paper ends up handing a presidential election to George W. Bush — and then handing him his Iraq war on a platter.”

    “Foser reminds us”, the pure lol comedy of that 3-word phrase makes my ribs hurt.

  191. Indeed says:

    From the extra KKKlassy link, your modern Party of Lincoln:

    Group marches for ‘white civil rights’ after Limbaugh hyped bus beating a hate crime against whites.

    Hate radio host Rush Limbaugh recently cast a fight between three Belleville, IL schoolchildren — the two attackers were black and the victim was white — as what happens to “white kids” in “Obama’s America.” Even though police said the bus fight was not racially motivated, Limbaugh insisted, “We need segregated buses.” On Saturday, members of white supremacist groups marched in Belleville holding signs echoing Limbaugh’s rhetoric that said, “It was a hate crime“:

    While a police sniper watched from the roof of the police station, 22 members of white supremacist groups, shouted obscenities and made obscene hand gestures. One man, who had a crew cut and wore a black uniform, told the crowd of onlookers, “Wake up white America!”

    “We were out there to denounce the violence,” said Belleville resident Jason Bonn, who is a corporal with the National Socialist Movement, a group with a name similar to the Nazi Party of Germany during World War II. Bonn’s group is “fighting for white civil rights.”

    Several spectators “booed the white supremacist rally and shouted ‘Go home.’”

    Who could have predicted this?

  192. Dennis says:

    Group marches for ‘white civil rights’ after Limbaugh hyped bus beating a hate crime against whites.

    Funny, and you recently posted a link to your hero (again) of a white guy yelling at a black person who he said had represented themselves as ACORN advocates carrying signs, at which your hero headlined the post saying ACORN is a handy substitute for the ‘n word’. Only curiously, no one ever used the ‘n word’ in that video, nor do we have video of anyone using that word.

    Why does your hero hype this as a hate crime, but faults Limbaugh for exactly the same thing. Only in the case of Limbaugh, we actually do have a white guy getting the shit beat out of him, and the rest of the predominately black passengers are all cheering it on.

    More delicious examples of liberal double standards and liberal hypocrisy.

    Again, Indeed, thank you.

  193. Dennis says:

    It appears is if Indeed/Mr. ed has been caught red-handed in his own circular confirmation.

  194. Southern Quaker says:

    I wouldn’t be comfortable with that teacher if someone’s kid did write something negatively about Obama,and I wouldn’t fault them if they were concerned.

    Which has everything to do with that teacher, and nothing to do with Obama or the speech he gave. (Or the curriculum suggested by the DOE, for that matter.)

  195. Southern Quaker says:

    How do you think you’d feel if you knew your kid was going to disagree with Bush on that, was going to disagree with just about everything he might’ve said in the speech.

    I’d object to a blatantly political speech. Which is not what Obama gave. Nor was there ever any evidence that the speech he intended to give was anything but a “stay in school, kids” speech.

  196. Indeed says:

    Your modern GOP: The Mensa Party.

    Videos revealing some typical shit from Team Wingnut. Klassy as ever.

  197. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: Perhaps you find it difficult to see a difference between one group of children singing to the President ( and excuse me if I do not believe they were singing a song of praise to FEMA ), and the President’s addressing ALL the nation’s school children.

    That is not my problem.

    Google “children sing to praise FEMA” and you’ll find plenty of evidence that it did happen, Frank. But, I know, that doesn’t mesh with your world view so you’ll just follow your typical route and choose to “not believe” that it happened.

    That is you problem, Frank.

    But most telling of all is this:

    Frank DiSalle: Perhaps your inability to use simple English prevents you from understanding it. What that comment was meant to convey was that what the President originally intended to do – include in the speech the idea that all the schoolchildren in America should study and do their homework, so they can help the President put forth his agenda* – was changed , and removed.

    * And I do not wish to argue whether his original did indeed contain that message. It was believed that it did contain such a message,

    I’m going to let pass for the moment your already discredited claim that Obama’s motivation for getting students to study and do thier homework was so that they could then push his political agenda. Putting aside that blatant lie (which you essentially acknowledge as a lie in your * footnote) what you are saying is that it didn’t matter what Obama actually was going to do but rather what people believed he was going to do. That Obama is responsible for the mis-conceptions people dream up.

    That’s like saying you’re responsible for my supposed “inability to use simple English” which prevents me from understanding your comments.

  198. Dennis says:

    Which has everything to do with that teacher, and nothing to do with Obama or the speech he gave. (Or the curriculum suggested by the DOE, for that matter.)

    Hence, the lesson plan was not the greatest of ideas and the questions were legitimate ones to ask. And shelving it was the right thing to do.

    I’d object to a blatantly political speech. Which is not what Obama gave. Nor was there ever any evidence that the speech he intended to give was anything but a “stay in school, kids” speech.

    And again, I agree with that. That’s not what fafaroo argued or how he stated what the controversy was all about, though. Nor, as you can see from the Benen article that Indeed so graciously provided to back me up, do the majority of liberals when they describe this whole affair, which has been my point all along, SQ.

    And as I stated previously, the complaints about the speech died down after he gave it and people knew it was just a ’stay in school’ speech.

  199. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: I am getting a little sick of you jerkoffs tossing around insults as if they arguments, when you haven’t got a goddamed thing to say.

    The irony, hypocrisy and complete lack of self-awareness in that comment is what we’ve come to expect from Frank.

  200. Quaker in a Basement says:

    Dennis, you’re not defending the white supremacists here, are you?

  201. Dennis says:

    Videos revealing some typical shit from Team Wingnut. Klassy as ever.

    30 people showed up to protest Beck’s Seattle speech attended by 7000 people, and your hero was one of the 30, Indeed. Not to mention that he blogs about him every single day.

    Dude needs to get a life, wouldn’t you say? I know you’re fond of stalking and such, but creepy doesn’t even begin to describe it.

  202. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: So, again, Indeed goes to his Eliminationists hero, who praises, of all people, Infamous Stalker Mike Stark, the idiot loon who camped out on Bill O’Reilly’s front yard to stalk him when he came out to get the paper in the morning, and left flyers in his neighborhood.

    IOW, did exactly to O’Reilly what O’Reilly has done to numerous other folks. Which O’Reilly, and folks like you, complain was mean and unfair. Which was exactly the point Stark was making.

  203. Dennis says:

    Dennis, you’re not defending the white supremacists here, are you?

    Who are these white supremacists of which you speak, Quibner?

  204. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: (2) fafaroo was dishonest when he said conservatives screeched about Obama telling kids to work hard and stay in school.

    And you keep missing the point. It wasn’t that wingnuts screeched about Obama telling kids to work hard and stay in school. Of course nodby is going to stand up and say “He’s telling kids to work hard. And that’s wrong!!”

    But they didn’t object to what Obama was actually going to say. They made up shit. They said he’s going to make it a political speech and convince kids to push his socialist/Marxist/voodoo political agenda. And it is that bullshit that is mocked.

    Conservative wingnuts DID screech about Obama telling kids to support his political agenda.

  205. Dennis says:

    Which was exactly the point Stark was making.

    Stark is a stalker. Indeed’s hero blogs at a blog that hates stalking, yet condoned Stark’s stalking. Go figure, Sean.

    It would be like saying you’d like to see Dick Cheney waterboarded to get him to tell the truth about what he knew about the decision to go to war and who he told to waterboard terrorists they had in custody.

    Oh wait…..they did that too.

  206. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: I would like to see teachers teach one 10 one month blocks a year, and the parents and children can pick which two months to take off. That makes more sense than sending every child in America from June to September.

    I agree the school year should be longer. But even where we agree on something Frank comes up with an unnessecarily complicated and entirely unworkable way to do it.

    Everyone gets to pick which two months they get off? Great! I’ll take January and August. And my neighbors will take March-April while the family down the street takes October and February.

    And explain to me how the teacher manages to make any progress in class, what with a significant chunk of the students out the month that fractions are taught. Going to make her re-teach that unit the following month when the vacationing kids return?

  207. Dennis says:

    And you keep missing the point. It wasn’t that wingnuts screeched about Obama telling kids to work hard and stay in school. Of course nodby is going to stand up and say “He’s telling kids to work hard. And that’s wrong!!”

    I don’t miss that point at all, Sean it’s just not what fafaroo said, and that was never the point I made, either. And you can see from the Benen article that that is still how liberals depict the controversy. If you read his article, here’s what he said:

    Or the outrage that President Obama encouraged children to do well in school?

    Benen was being dishonestt, fafaroo was being and is dishonest, and now you are pretending that liberals didn’t depict it that way, when they did, and apparently still do.

  208. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Suppose you had a kid in high school and you knew his teacher was a stark-raving mad lunatic Bush follower and Bush announced he was going to make a speech to schoolchildren with that lesson plan and subsequent assignment by that teacher. Let’s say you disagreed with Bush’s politics, and so does your child. Let’s say that teacher knows that about your child already. Let’s say your kid was honest about what he wrote as part of the assignment the teacher gave out as he was instructed to do by Bush in his original intentions.

    Would you as a parent feel comfortable with that?

    Absolutely.

    Do you think you’d believe your kid was going to get a fair evaluation from that teacher the rest of the school year?

    Ah, but that’s a different thing.

    Yes, I’d have objections if the “stark-raving mad lunatic Bush follower” brought their politics into the classroom and made their instruction partisan. Or grading student’s work based on political beliefs.

    But I would not have any problem with them listening to speech by Bush in which he urged students to work hard in school and then discussing it/writing about it afterward.

  209. Sean D. Martin says:

    Frank DiSalle: The original speech included elements that suggested that with hard work and study, young heads full of mush would instead be filled with ideas to help the President with his “plans” .

    I call bullshit. You are again making things up. Show us a copy of the original speech where that or anything like it was said.

  210. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I just went to my daughter’s ‘back to school night’ at her high school. Her AP World History teacher had about a hundred magazine covers of world leaders and popular politicians from world events up tacked up on the walls. I started glancing at them all and how they were arranged. There were over 90% of them from Democrats; both Clintons, all kinds of Obama’s pictures, Kerry, Gore. The only Republicans were a couple of Bush and Rumsfeld and Rice, all of them in negative lights.

    And what did you do when you saw this? Did you talk with the teacher about your concerns? Bring the issue up with the Principal? Get involved in your child’s education?

    Or just make a note of it so you had something to complain about?

  211. Indeed says:

    The only Republicans were a couple of Bush and Rumsfeld and Rice, all of them in negative lights.

    Noted without comment.

  212. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Dude needs to get a life, wouldn’t you say?

    Says the guy who has posted to this thread 15 times in the past 4 1/2 hours. Not to mention 32 times over the weekend.

  213. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: It would be like saying you’d like to see Dick Cheney waterboarded to get him to tell the truth about what he knew about the decision to go to war and who he told to waterboard terrorists they had in custody.

    I actually find I wouldn’t have a problem with that. After all, waterboarding isn’t torture, right?

  214. Dennis says:

    Why do you ask me so many questions, then, Sean? I’ve got three computers at my desk with two proprietary systems and six monitors following my markets, and about fifteen screens up at any one time. It’s not that difficult when things slow down for me to check here and quickly type something. It doesn’t mean I’m staring at this screen all weekend and all day. And you’d have a valid point if I posted about one guy every single day and then went to his speech with a video camera to interview people who went there to see him. To each his own, I guess.

  215. Dennis says:

    I actually find I wouldn’t have a problem with that. After all, waterboarding isn’t torture, right?

    You tell me, is it?

    The people who were calling for it to be done to him think it is, that is for sure.

  216. Quaker in a Basement says:

    Who are these white supremacists of which you speak, Quibner?

    The ones marching for “white civil rights,” clueless.

  217. Dennis says:

    I actually find I wouldn’t have a problem with that. After all, waterboarding isn’t torture, right?
    –Sean D. Martin

    Sean, you are in favor of waterboarding Dick Cheney, but not Khalid Sheik Mohammed?

    Even in a ticking time bomb scenario?

  218. Southern Quaker says:

    Hence, the lesson plan was not the greatest of ideas and the questions were legitimate ones to ask.

    No, no, a thousand times NO! IF a teacher is bringing his or her political beliefs into the classroom in an inappropriate manner, then that is a matter for the parents to raise with the teacher, the principal and/or local school board. It is no more Obama or the DOEs fault than if a local teacher in my kids’ school system started teaching ID along with evolution. Or holocaust denialism during a lesson on WWII.

    The original lesson plan developed by the DOE included very TYPICAL questions that one might ask after watching a video presentation on civics, history, or any number of subjects. Please refer, once again, to the lesson plan developed for the documentary Partners of the Heart and tell me how those questions differed, in any substantial way, from the questions the DOE suggested might be discussed after Obama’s speech.

  219. Dennis says:

    SQ, the lesson plan was against federal statute.

    White House Withdraws Call for Students to ‘Help’ Obama

    Christina Erland Culver, former deputy assistant secretary for education, said presidents have traditionally addressed classrooms on the first day of school, but the problem with the event was the accompanying materials from the Department of Education.

    “That’s where they kind of got into a slippery spot. Federal statute denies any authority to the Department of Education to provide any kind of curriculum or anything that can be passed down to the state, and that’s part of the statute forming the Department of Education. So they kinda got themselves into this mess because they didn’t really understand some of the key legal roles or the dos and don’ts at the federal Department of Ed,” she said.

    Also,

    In fact, had the White House skipped the study guide and simply released the speech from the beginning, it seems unlikely that this would have created much controversy at all. Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush both gave similar speeches in similar circumstances to students without creating a lot of hard feelings. That isn’t to say that their political opponents all yawned:…

    ….I think the White House and Obama fouled this up from the beginning, making it look much more political than necessary, and gave their critics a boatload of ammunition with which to attack them. The speech, included in its entirety below, turned out to be entirely innocuous. But by asking teachers to impress upon children the need to “help President Obama,” they made it look blatantly political. They seem to have forgotten that they’re the public servants, and that the people do not live to serve political masters. As Frank Wilson puts it in another context, Americans see themselves as citizens, not subjects, with the President only of a higher rank for the temporary period of time that we put him there. This has been incompetently handled from beginning to end, including the highly embarrassing scheduling that inadvertently excluded millions of students from the speech.

    There were reasonable gripes, Southern Quaker. Not all people who had them were morons, either. But that’s not how fafaroo and Steve Benen describe them, is it?

  220. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Sean, you are in favor of waterboarding Dick Cheney, but not Khalid Sheik Mohammed?

    Even in a ticking time bomb scenario?

    Yes, not only does the right have no sense of irony or shame, but no sense of sarcasm either.

  221. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Even in a ticking time bomb scenario?

    And there is never any such thing in the real world. It exists only in the fantasies of 24 viewers.

  222. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: In fact, had the White House skipped the study guide and simply released the speech from the beginning, it seems unlikely that this would have created much controversy at all.

    Given the kinds of things folks have reacted to and complained about, I find that very difficult to believe.

  223. Dennis says:

    Of course you find it difficult to believe, Sean. So much easier to believe they freaked out because Obama only wanted to tell them they should stay in school and study hard, isn’t it?

    It is for fafaroo, obviously, but you too?

    You’re for waterboarding Dick Cheney but not Khalid Sheik Mohammed, but you want to lecture me on irrational thought coming from the right?

    That is so you.

  224. fafaroo says:

    So much easier to believe they freaked out because Obama only wanted to tell them they should stay in school and study hard, isn’t it?

    Dennis, just stop it. Obama announced he was going to give a speech on education and the immediate, typical right wing reaction was similar to this, from the Hot Air link you supplied:

    Drudge featured the breaking news story that Barack Obama would hold a nationwide speech for elementary-school children a week from today, touching off a flurry of e-mails wondering what Obama had in mind. Will this be just an opportunity to learn more about government? Or will Obama try pitching ObamaCare to the Sesame Street set?

    The teaching guidelines don’t really give much of a hint:

    See, Dennis, this moron is specifically paranoid about the speech itself, noting that lesson plans don’t give any indication to set his paranoid mind at ease about the actual speech.

    And here’s Malkin on the subject:

    Will Obama be able to resist issuing a call to youth arms to marshal help in passing his legislative agenda?

    The thing is: He won’t need to make the call explicit.

    Obama zealot teachers like this one across the country will do all the extra-curricular bullying and haranguing for him.

    So Malkin is specifically freaking out about the content of the speech, not the lesson plan. Then she turns around and says that the content of the speech doesn’t even matter because simply the fact that Obama is speaking to school kids (OH MY GOD!!!) will open the floodgates of indoctrination.

    There is no point in making any distinction between what these people were screeching about for days on end when they were clearly freaking out about the simple fact that Obama had dared to speak to kids about anything!

    Now Dennis, you have yet to respond to the fact that the Bush administration had orchestrated a children’s choir to sing the praises of the president and FEMA on the White House lawn in front of the First Lady.

    There is absolutely no link between the Obama administration and the few incidents of kids singing songs about Obama in school– except, of course, in the fevered brain of morons such as yourself and Michelle Malkin.

    But the Bush administration played a definite and active role in orchestrating such an event in praise of Bush on the White House lawn.

    Would you care to characterize that event in any way? I highly doubt you will.

  225. fafaroo says:

    Not all people who had them were morons, either.

    Dennis, Ed Morrissey is a moron.

  226. Dennis says:

    fafaroo, ’tis you that’s the moron, my friend.

    Again, you’re being dishonest. How does your rant just now and the quotes you highlighted of HA and MM square with your statement that they freaked out over Obama telling them to stay in school and study hard, because you don’t mention it, and nor do they say that, do they? But that’s how you depicted them earlier.

    A little inconvenient truth about how you debate.

    Douche.

  227. fafaroo says:

    But that’s how you depicted them earlier.

    Dennis, for goddsakes, Obama announced he was giving a speech on education and staying in school and the right freaked out. This is undeniable, Dennis, and that’s what I said and that’s what I meant.

    And once again, no comment from you about the pro-Bush children’s choir organized by the Bush administration itself. As expected.

  228. Dennis says:

    THIS is what you said, fafaroo

    The people who were screeching that Obama was trying to “indoctrinate” school children by telling them that they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America, deserved to be mocked. They were/are idiots.

    Just who was it that screeched that telling them they should study hard, stay in school and that anyone could succeed in America was how Obama was trying to indoctrinate them?

    Obama announced he was giving a speech on education and staying in school and the right freaked out.

    Beacause one followed the other does not mean one caused the other for the reasons you stated, fafaroo.

    Dishonest douche.

  229. Dennis says:

    But the Bush administration played a definite and active role in orchestrating such an event in praise of Bush on the White House lawn.

    Would you care to characterize that event in any way? I highly doubt you will.
    –Dishonest fafaroo

    According to Think Progress, which does neither, and Zsa Zsa’s Huff Po, it’s not known who wrote the song, it was to 100 kids, and Bush wasn’t there when they sang it. Other than that, gosh fafaroo, I guess it is the same thing as speaking to the whole nation’s school children and having them do write-ups to hand in to their teachers about how they can help Obama.

    Now, if you would, kindly take the time to read the comments at TP and tell me what the typical liberal reaction was to this small gathering of people.

    Was it, ‘Ah, no big deal. What he’s saying is a good thing’?

    Was it “Hey, we’d be morons to screech about this.”?

    And please tell me just why it is I’m supposed to be railing against it, or I guess, why I should have been doing that 3 years ago for some kids in front of Laura Bush, and just how it’s comparable to Barack Obama speaking to all the kids in school all across America and having them do a lesson plan on how they can help him.

  230. Dennis says:

    Just a heads up, fafaroo, that’s why you should never rely on Indeed/ Mr ed’s links. They seldom do what he intends them to do, and they are never vetted.

    Do your own research.

    Like Obama should’ve done on his speech, when a significant portion of schools were not even in session at that point.

  231. Wilbur says:

    235 posts?! Holy shit, that has to be a record.

  232. mambochicken23 says:

    having them do a lesson plan on how they can help him.

    Help him DO WHAT, Dennis? An important fucking detail. All those parents who were worried about Obama delivering a partisan political speech to their 9-year-olds are fucking retarded. End of story. I don’t know how much clearer it needs to be. The tapes that have surfaced recently have nothing to do with this. Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada.

    This is idiotic.

  233. Indeed says:

    More circular confirmation:
    Vetted (per usual)

  234. fafaroo says:

    According to Think Progress, which does neither, and Zsa Zsa’s Huff Po, it’s not known who wrote the song, it was to 100 kids, and Bush wasn’t there when they sang it.

    This is so awesome, Dennis. Really, just so awesome.

    The song was sung on the White House lawn as part of an official White House event in front of the First Lady.

    So the question we now have before us is: Are you actually going to retract all of your bullshit complaints about Obama songs (which were also, not written by Bush or performed in front of the president by much, much less than 100 children) or are you completely okay with being a hypocritical moron?

    Unless you want to now argue that the Bush administration and the First Lady were really surprised when a 100 kids showed up at the White House to sing the praises of FEMA unannounced.

    That would be just the kind of insane turn I would expect you to take now. But don’t do it, Dennis!

    I’m sure even you would regret squandering the last smidgen of dignity you have left on such a desperate gambit.

  235. Dennis says:

    More of the same.

    The hits just keep on coming, and libs just keep on denying, even when its right there in front of them.

    Liberal Indoctrination Camp

    Wow. Just wow.

    Nothing to see here. Move along. No cause and effect. No sirree.

    Fafaroo, what is this, like, about eight such videos of weird, creepy kids paying homage to Obama? This is just the shit that’s on tape.

    At a freaking PTA meeting, no less.

  236. mambochicken23 says:

    And how do you want to blame this on Obama, Dennis? Whose fault is this?

  237. fafaroo says:

    Fafaroo, what is this, like, about eight such videos of weird, creepy kids paying homage to Obama? This is just the shit that’s on tape.

    Dennis, could you please stop pretending you really care about this as you clearly have no problem whatsoever with children singing the praises of Bush and FEMA on the White House lawn as part of an official White House event before the First Lady.

  238. Indeed says:

    Jesus Camp, people.

  239. fafaroo says:

    At a freaking PTA meeting, no less.

    Dennis, you do know that the PTA is not a government organization, right?

    The person that titled that video “Welcome to Government School” clearly seems to be confused on that point.

  240. Dennis says:

    And how do you want to blame this on Obama, Dennis? Whose fault is this?

    I guess if I really wanted to I’d just follow you guys’ gameplan for how you accuse Glenn Beck of multiple murders, mambo. But I’m not doing that. I’m just saying there is a correlation between why people had issues with Obama’s speech to school kids as originally announced and these vidoes, and that fafaroo is too dishonest to describe why people had issues with any sense of accuracy.

    That’s been my thesis from the very beginning, mambo.

  241. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Of course you find it difficult to believe, Sean. So much easier to believe they freaked out because Obama only wanted to tell them they should stay in school and study hard, isn’t it?

    Wow. Dennis. Just wow. You keep harping that fafaroo was mis-representing things and then you insist on repeatedly saying exactly what you’re bitching he’s wrong about.

    It’a an almost Frank-level of hypocrisy.

    Yes, they freaked out because Obama wanted to talk to school kids. No, they didn’t say “Arggh! He want’s to tell them to study hard!” Never said the content of his speech is what they freaked out about. They quickly claimed he’d be saying things that he never planned to say and then freaked out over those things they made up.

    So, yes, I find it easy to believe that, given it was fantasy that they were freaking out over, that they wuld have found something to be raving against no matter what Obama had said and no matter what materials were or were not provided.

    You’re for waterboarding Dick Cheney but not Khalid Sheik Mohammed,

    Show me where I gave any opinion on Mohammed. Can’t, right? So stop claiming I’ve said something just so you can object to it. You’re the Obama-speech-freakers in miniature. Making shit up so that you can rant about something that never existed.

  242. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: How does your rant just now and the quotes you highlighted of HA and MM square with your statement that they freaked out over Obama telling them to stay in school and study hard, because you don’t mention it, and nor do they say that, do they? But that’s how you depicted them earlier

    Wilbur: Classic Dennis: when you’re losing…

    a) ignore the main point
    b) pick one point, however miniscule, where you think you can get a rhetorical foothold.
    c) pretend that is what the argument is about.

    rinse and repeat.

    Amen.

  243. Sean D. Martin says:

    Indeed: Oh my:

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-28-2009/america–target-america

    Yes, lyrics were cleared with the parents ahead of time. Clearly those parents are unfit and should be locked up. Right, Dennis?

  244. Dennis says:

    Show me where I gave any opinion on Mohammed. Can’t, right? So stop claiming I’ve said something just so you can object to it.

    Here, Sean
    —-

    Dennis: Sean, you are in favor of waterboarding Dick Cheney, but not Khalid Sheik Mohammed?

    Even in a ticking time bomb scenario?

    Yes, not only does the right have no sense of irony or shame, but no sense of sarcasm either.

    Maybe east is east and west is west and I’m interpreting you wrong, but when I asked the question and you answered yes, silly me, but I assumed ‘yes’ meant ‘yes’.

  245. Dennis says:

    Yes, lyrics were cleared with the parents ahead of time. Clearly those parents are unfit and should be locked up. Right, Dennis?

    I tend to shy away from watching videos here. Summarize for me what’s on there and I’ll try to respond to your question. As it is, I have no idea what you’re asking.

  246. Dennis says:

    Amen.

    –SDM

    Sorry, Sean, but as I’ve said a few times here already, what I wrote has been my contention all along, and what fafaroo and I have been arguing about, and now it’s a 250+ comment thread. But just because you came along and decided to take issue with ancillary points and I didn’t address them to your liking, doesn’t mean I’m doing what Wilbur claimed. There must be something I’m doing right to capture your fascination because you seem to have joined the Jason Brigade here of those who keep coming back.

  247. Indeed says:

    Indeed: Oh my:

    http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-september-28-2009/america–target-america

    Yes, lyrics were cleared with the parents ahead of time. Clearly those parents are unfit and should be locked up. Right, Dennis?

    As with Facts, Funny has a well-known Liberal Bias. But put the two together, as J-Stew does on a regular basis, and, well, now you’re talkin’. Good times. Stewart/Colbert ‘12.

  248. fafaroo says:

    I’m just saying there is a correlation between why people had issues with Obama’s speech to school kids as originally announced and these vidoes, and that fafaroo is too dishonest to describe why people had issues with any sense of accuracy.

    Dennis. I’m the moron right went bat shit crazy over Obama giving a speech on education to school children.

    You’re telling me I’ma liar because you think they had a reason to go bat shit crazy over Obama giving a speech on education to school children.

    Yeah, well, Dennis, they didn’t. They’re morons. Same as you.

    And nice dodge with the “Wha, uh? I have no idea what you’re talking about Sean when you say the parents of the children in that video approved of the song and their children’s participation in it. Why on earth would that mean anything to me?”

    Such a moron.

  249. Dennis says:

    It’a an almost Frank-level of hypocrisy.
    –Sean D. Martin

    And Sean, your continued obsession and stalking of Frank is weird in its own right, but please don’t try to substitute it with me and think you’ve made gains in trying to cure yourself, much like fafaroo has substituted one indulgence for another.

    That’s just kicking the can down the road.

  250. fafaroo says:

    That’s just kicking the can down the road.

    You’re too much, Dennis. Just too much freaking mush headed hilarity.

  251. Dennis says:


    And nice dodge with the “Wha, uh? I have no idea what you’re talking about Sean when you say the parents of the children in that video approved of the song and their children’s participation in it. Why on earth would that mean anything to me?”

    You missed a word or two or something in your first sentence and I have no idea what your point was. I’d try to piece it together into what I think you said, but you’d probably take issue with my interpretation and call me a moron for the tenth time now on this thread alone.

    And I haven’t seen the Jon Stewart video that my other stalker Indeed linked to and I won’t open it up here. It’s not a dodge, fafaroo, it’s more of an FU. If you need Jon Stewart to do your bidding, you’re in sad shape. When Indeed links there, I picture him in the audience with his coat over his lap wanking and cheering every time Stewart tells a joke.

  252. Dennis says:

    You’re too much, Dennis. Just too much freaking mush headed hilarity.

    fafaroo,

    You said you were leaving and you gave it a good effort, though you still lurked. Three weeks went by. That was good.

    But you failed.

    You can’t quit me.

    If I’m keeping you from going back to your former bad habits, then I’m fine with that. But if I’m driving you back to them, I really don’t want to be a part of it.

    Please let me know where I stand. Am I helping or hurting you?

  253. fafaroo says:

    Dennis, why don’t you try to address the fact that the parents in one of the videos you’ve been screeching about approved the song, approved their kids participation in it and, oh yeah, was not at all planned or orchestrated by Obama?

    Can you do that? Is your sense of self so fragile that so desperately fear stepping outside your Fox inflated bubble?

    Desperate Dennis. The name fits.

  254. Jaim says:

    Little bitch, I mean little Dennis, why don’t you start your own blog? Really, why not?

    You do realize you’re trolling a librul blog four hours a day, correct? And you think having an E*trade account is the same as a career?

    Hmm. Punk bitch whose daughters hate him. I wonder.

    Off to scratch my chin.

  255. Dennis says:

    Little bitch, I mean little Dennis, why don’t you start your own blog? Really, why not?

    Hey, here’s Flip, from Whiteboyz!

    Wazzz-uppppp, dawg?
    ——-

    What do you do if you’re a white guy in a white town who happens to love impressing black bloggers? Flip (Danny Hoch) is a middle-class kid from Northern Virginia prep schools, but he doesn’t think of himself as just another guy from the ‘burbs. Flip loves hip-hop, and he longs to be respected as a hard-core rapper. But a white guy from Sidwell Friends who drops mad rhymes looks weird.

  256. Indeed says:

    <a href="Uh oh, more circular confirmation:

    Conservatives were quick to insist that the near-riot — the first of many town-hall mobs that would dominate the headlines in August — was completely spontaneous. The protesters didn’t show up “because of some organized group,” Rick Scott, the head of Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, told reporters. “They’re mad about the stimulus bill, the bailout, the economy. Now they see that their health care is about to be taken over by the government.”

    In fact, Scott’s own group had played an integral role in mobilizing the protesters. According to internal documents obtained by Rolling Stone, Conservatives for Patients’ Rights had been working closely for weeks as a “coalition partner” with three other right-wing groups in a plot to unleash irate mobs at town-hall meetings just like Doggett’s. Far from representing a spontaneous upwelling of populist rage, the protests were tightly orchestrated from the top down by corporate-funded front groups as well as top lobbyists for the health care industry. Call it the return of the Karl Rove playbook: The effort to mobilize the angriest fringe of the Republican base was guided by a conservative dream team that included the same GOP henchmen who Swift-boated John Kerry in 2004, smeared John McCain in 2000, wrote the script for Republican obstructionism on global warming, and harpooned the health care reform effort led by Hillary Clinton in 1993.

    “The insurance industry is up to the same dirty tricks, using the same devious PR practices it has used for many years, to kill reform,” says Wendell Potter, who stepped down last year as chief of corporate communications for health insurance giant CIGNA. “I’m certain that people showing up at these town halls feel that they’re there on their own — but they don’t realize they’re being incited, ultimately, by the insurance industry and the other special interests.”

  257. Dennis says:

    Jaim-dawg, ‘just chillaxin’ wit’ ma hommies’.

  258. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Maybe east is east and west is west and I’m interpreting you wrong, but when I asked the question and you answered yes, silly me, but I assumed ‘yes’ meant ‘yes’.

    Yes, Dennis, East is East. And West is west. And you are interpreting me wrong.

    My “Yes” in the comment you quoted clearly was me saying “Yes, the right has no sense of sarcasm”.

    Nice try. Thanks for playing. But you won’t be around for our Final round.

  259. Dennis says:

    Which is it, then, Sean. Were you also being sarcastic when you said you would support the waterboarding of Dick Cheney?

    Here, I’ll make this easy, this time from the top, no sarcasm:

    Dick Cheney waterboarded. For, or again’ it?

    Khalid Sheik Mohammed. For, or again’ it?

  260. fafaroo says:

    Here, I’ll make this easy, this time from the top, no sarcasm:

    Here’s a better question Dennis: Why do you support torture?

  261. Dennis says:

    I support having waterboarded KSM to save untold American lives, fafaroo, maybe yours, maybe mine, maybe my family’s, but definitely other Americans and their family’s lives.

    I’m funny that way.

    I still don’t know if Sean agrees with that, or not. Or if he would like to see Dick Cheney waterboarded or not, either.

  262. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I tend to shy away from watching videos here. Summarize for me what’s on there and I’ll try to respond to your question.

    No, Dennis. I won’t do your work for you.

  263. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: your continued obsession and stalking of Frank

    Oh, please. He comments here, I reply to his comments. As I do to those of many others. And this is stalking?

    Or is it your definition of stalking is “pointing out when someone is being a hypocrite”. In which case, yeah, guilty as charged.

  264. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Dick Cheney waterboarded. For, or again’ it?

    That I have been clear on before, Dennis. “I actually find I wouldn’t have a problem with that. After all, waterboarding isn’t torture, right?”

    Short declarative sentences a problem for you?

  265. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I support having waterboarded KSM to save untold American lives, fafaroo, maybe yours, maybe mine, maybe my family’s, but definitely other Americans and their family’s lives.

    And if it didn’t? Still support it?

    Do you support the torturing of those who were not KSM?

    Do you actually believe the “ticking bomb scenario” exists?

    (If you answer yes to that last one, it pretty much shows your lack of understanding of the realities of the situation and invalidates any answers you might give to the earlier ones.)

  266. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I still don’t know if Sean agrees with that, or not. Or if he would like to see Dick Cheney waterboarded or not, either.

    “I actually find I wouldn’t have a problem with that.”

    Can’t be much more simply stated. Of course, if you make note of what has actually been said to you then you can’t continue to complain about it, and that would just kill 90% of what you comments are, wouldn’t it?

  267. Dennis says:

    No, Dennis. I won’t do your work for you.

    Then don’t taunt me for not having a reply because I’m not going to watch that video here at work with all his little sycophants in the audience squeeling with glee at every deadpan facial expression he makes. Sorry.

    Or taunt me if you want, I don’t really care, just don’t expect a reply on a Jon Stewart video from me.

    Unless he’s roasting ACORN. ;)

  268. Dennis says:

    Oh, please. He comments here, I reply to his comments. As I do to those of many others. And this is stalking?

    Let’s just say it’s getting past the point of just simple back and forth and a little veering toward the weird side, Sean. Not becoming of you. You’re one of the few guys here that every once in a while makes some sense.

  269. Dennis says:

    Do you actually believe the “ticking bomb scenario” exists?</blockquote

    I believe it existed on the morning of September 11 in the year 2001, yes, Sean.

  270. Indeed says:

    Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside U.S.

  271. Dennis says:

    Oh, please. He comments here, I reply to his comments. As I do to those of many others. And this is stalking?

    In all honesty, the above comment to this one here is a much better example of stalking, Sean.

    Guy’s a psycho.

    Certifiable.

  272. fafaroo says:

    I’m funny that way.

    Funny in the way that you can’t answer a simple question.

    Why do you support torture?

  273. Parthenon says:

    I believe it existed on the morning of September 11 in the year 2001, yes, Sean.

    We had somebody in custody on Sept. 10 with knowledge of an impending attack, and we were aware of their knowledge?

    Or is the ticking time bomb still just fodder for freshmen ethics?

  274. Dennis says:

    First, fafaroo, I’d like to know why you don’t badger Sean the way you did over his stance on the despicable acts of Professor Gates for his condoning the possibility of waterboarding Dick Cheney.

    Then you and I can go at it on the subject.

  275. fafaroo says:

    Or taunt me if you want, I don’t really care, just don’t expect a reply on a Jon Stewart video from me.

    Well, in that case, I’m going to taunt you. Dennis, the John Stewart Show found out what none of the screeching right-wing morons, including yourself, bothered to: They asked the parents and teachers about the song and who approved it. Guess what? The parents knew about the lyrics and approved their children’s participation before hand.

    This is what Tucker Carlson, as seen in the video, referred to as “Khmer Rouge” tactics.

    I’d say you should be embarrassed for yourself but you’ve clearly long since passed the possibility for that.

    When it was pointed out to you that the Bush administration arranged for a children’s choir to sing the praises of Bush and FEMA on the white house lawn you dodged that.

    When it was pointed out to you that the PTA/O has absolutely nothing to do with the government as an independent non-profit advocacy group you ignored that.

    Now, you’re even refusing to educate yourself with basic facts when given the opportunity.

    Dennis, if Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh et al don’t tell you what to think, how on earth do you get through the day?

  276. fafaroo says:

    Then you and I can go at it on the subject.

    Or you could just answer the question straight.

  277. Indeed says:

    Well, in that case, I’m going to taunt you.

    Dude, he already watched the video. Prolly multiple times. No feedie trollie.

  278. Dennis says:

    We had somebody in custody on Sept. 10 with knowledge of an impending attack, and we were aware of their knowledge?

    Prior to 9/11 earlier in that year we had Moussaoui, Parthy. It’s very possible we could’ve had the ticking time bomb scenario, yes. What is your point? Sean asked me if it was possible the scenario could exist. I believe there was a ticking time bomb scenario and if we had had someone in custody then with knowledge of 9/11 and we thought we had reasonable intelligence that something was about to go down, I wouldn’t lose sleep if someone waterboarded him to get him to talk and save 3,000 American lives.

  279. Dennis says:

    No feedie trollie.

    Ha ha ha, Indeed, you so funny. You stalk me obsessively and then tell someone else not to feed me.

    Douche. A funny douche, but a douche nonetheless.

  280. Dennis says:

    Dennis, if Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh et al don’t tell you what to think, how on earth do you get through the day?

    fafaroo, look how freaking many posts I have responded to over the past three days. Go back and look. Don’t whine like a little baby if I don’t respond to every one; you’re just being a hypocrite too, because you don’t respond to every one of mine. No one here does. I asked you to tell me why there were over 100 posts on the Think Progress blog post of the Easter Egg roll where the singing to Laura Bush took place that were doing the same kind of bitching about that as conservatives are now that you call morons.

    Were those people morons?

  281. Dennis says:

    Had Oliver posted about the story here, what do you suppose the typical response would’ve been from the peanut gallery if OW had called it indoctrination like Think Progress and their peanut gallery did?

  282. Dennis says:

    Dennis, if Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh et al don’t tell you what to think, how on earth do you get through the day?

    And let me get back to you on that once I get my faxes in.

  283. fafaroo says:

    Were those people morons?

    I haven’t read any of the comments but I’m going to say no. They were not.

    The reason being is that it is entirely different for the administration of a sitting president to organize a children’s choir to sing it’s own praises than it is for random teachers and parent-teacher advocacy groups to act independently to celebrate whatever the fuck they want in whatever way they see fit.

    You clearly do not see the difference which is why you’re a moron.

    The fact that you have not vigorously condemned the Bush administration for doing what it did with these children, in the same manner with which you’ve attacked Obama for doing nothing of the sort, is all the evidence anyone needs of your utterly bankrupt hackery.

    Oh, plus you support torture. Which speaks more to the emptiness of your soul.

  284. fafaroo says:

    Had Oliver posted about the story here, what do you suppose the typical response would’ve been from the peanut gallery if OW had called it indoctrination like Think Progress and their peanut gallery did?

    It’s fun to live i hypothetical fantasy land, isn’t it Dennis? It’s a lot like getting all your news from Fox, I’ll bet.

  285. Indeed says:

    More confirmation:

    Rep. Trent Franks Declares President Obama An “Enemy of Humanity”
    By Nicole Belle Tuesday Sep 29, 2009 1:00pm

    h/t Right Wing Watch.

    Not to put too fine a point on it, but Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) is not exactly known as a towering intellect, although he’s a panderer to wingnuts par excellence. Just days *after* he assured an FDL crew that he knew that Obama was born in Hawaii, he told a town hall audience that he wanted to file a lawsuit demanding that Obama produce his long-form birth certificate. It would appear Franks has calculated that there are votes in them thar wingnuts, because his statement at the Take Back America conference over the weekend is clearly tapping into that angry, violent undercurrent:

    Obama’s first act as president of any consequence, in the middle of a financial meltdown, was to send taxpayers’ money overseas to pay for the killing of unborn children in other countries…there’s almost nothing that you should be surprised at after that. We shouldn’t be shocked that he does all these other insane things. A president that has lost his way that badly, that has no ability to see the image of God in these little fellow human beings, if he can’t do that right, then he has no place in any station of government and we need to realize that he is an enemy of humanity.

    You stay classy there, Trent. Remember when the GOP lost their minds because one of the Dixie Chicks said only that she was ashamed of being from the same state as the president? How in the world can they justify such over-the-top nastiness now? If the majority party wasn’t so gutless, I’d think a formal censure in the House would be considered.

    John Amato:

    Calling Obama an enemy of the people puts a big fat target on his back. These elected officials are acting like militia members who fly to DC in black helicopters and are helping to plan a violent act against him. It’s dangerous and disrespectful and he should be called out publicly for his behavior.

    I heard from a very reliable source that David Weigel is overweight and has poor complexion.

  286. Dennis says:

    It’s a lot like getting all your news from Fox, I’ll bet.

    You’re still devolving, fafaroo.

    How many links have I posted here and how many of them were from Fox? How many links from Dims posted from the usual liberal sources here have I read and commented on? By the time I get home and dinner and working out and then sit down to watch, most of what they’re saying is just a rehash of what’s been on the blogs during the day. And I can’t stand commercials, either, so I’m constantly going back and forth between Fox, MSNBC and occasionally CNN, even though that station bores the bejeesus out of me.

  287. Duros62 says:

    We had somebody in custody on Sept. 10 with knowledge of an impending attack, and we were aware of their knowledge?

    Well, yeah, except for that part, it’s just like that.

  288. Dennis says:

    I heard from a very reliable source that…

    Why, thank you, Indeed. You can be reliable too when you want to be. Just not when you’re getting your info from Fair.org and Snopes.

    Oh, and Excitable Andy, too. Best to stay away from him until being a conservative is back in vogue.

    And Indeed, since you’re obviously posting from that same blog for my benefit and to save you the time and effort that you could better spend on more important things like the health care bill and Iranian nukes and losing in Afghanistan, I will have always been there and read it well before you get it on here.

  289. fafaroo says:

    You’re still devolving, fafaroo.

    And you’re getting really defensive. Giving us your daily schedule, Dennis? Me thinks you protest too much.

  290. Dennis says:

    Well, yeah, except for that part, it’s just like that.

    I have a challenge for you Duros. Try to come up with something more boring than that.

    Just a dare. C’mon, it’ll be fun. Give it a go.

  291. Dennis says:

    Me thinks you protest too much.

    It’s just a stupid assertion that everyone whoever posts on a liberal blog always says. “Ha. I bet you get all your information from Fox!”

    I expect that from Duros and Zython, not you, fafaroo.

    At least I didn’t used to.

  292. Dennis says:

    Which speaks more to the emptiness of your soul.

    I’m not sure I know what a soul is, fafaroo. I’m pretty sure Khalid Sheik Mohammed doesn’t have one, nor did the other 19 hijackers, nor does Osama bin Ladin. They want to kill me and my kids and they want to kill you and your kids someday if you have them. I don’t give a shit about them. I do give a shit about Americans, including you and yours. Again, I’m funny that way.

  293. Duros62 says:

    I believe there was a ticking time bomb scenario and if we had had someone in custody then with knowledge of 9/11 and we thought we had reasonable intelligence that something was about to go down, I wouldn’t lose sleep if someone waterboarded him to get him to talk and save 3,000 American lives.

    We did and we did. Then we let him go. See, real life ain’t like “24.”

  294. Indeed says:

    You know what’s funny? David Weigel! He’s overweight and has poor complexion!! Get it? That’s why his reporting is so totally false!! Get it?

  295. Duros62 says:

    I have a challenge for you Duros. Try to come up with something more boring than that.

    Fuck you, Dennis. How’s that?

  296. Indeed says:

    Uh oh, more confirmation:

    One of the lower-key workshops at the How to Take Back America conference was “How to Deal With Vote Fraud, the Census, and ACORN,” where Republican pols Kris Kobach and Ed Martin talked about the threat groups like ACORN posed to elections. (Kobach is running for Secretary of State in Kansas; Martin is running for Congress in Missouri.)

    A key exchange came near the end, when Dave Johnson, an Alabama activist, asked what worried conservatives could do about the “invasive” questions in the decennial survey.

    Spooky video at the link.

    But maybe we should question the source, you know, because he has poor complexion and could stand to lose a few pounds.

  297. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Or taunt me if you want, I don’t really care, just don’t expect a reply on a Jon Stewart video from me.

    Unless he’s roasting ACORN.

    Translation: I only look at things that support my view and will refuse to look at things that don’t.

    Gosh, you’re becoming more Frank-like by the hour.

  298. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I believe it existed on the morning of September 11 in the year 2001, yes, Sean.

    No, it did not. You’re typically narrowing things done to a very small aspect in order to see things as you want to see them rather than as they are.

    To be clear, the “ticking time bomb” scenario doesn’t just mean an attack is imminent. As it has always been presented it means:
    – an attack is imminent
    AND
    – the authorities KNOW a an attack is imminent
    – the authorities have a person who has knowledge of that attack in custody
    – the authorities KNOW that the person in custody has the key info
    – the bad guys don’t know their key person is in custody so no changes to plans or contingencies are used.

    In other words, that the cops know nearly all specific information about the event except the where. And that dramatic need for information so that an attack can be prevented at the last moment, while a staple of 24, espionage novels and James Bond movies, just doesn’t happen in real life.

  299. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: I have a challenge for you Duros. Try to come up with something more boring than that.

    Sorry reality and facts bore you, Dennis.

  300. fafaroo says:

    Again, I’m funny that way.

    I wonder why you can’t just come out and say it Dennis. You support torture so just type it, Dennis. Type the words “I support torture.”

    Then tell us how that makes you feel.

  301. Dennis says:

    Sorry reality and facts bore you, Dennis.

    I’ll accept that for boring, Sean. Not as boring as Duros’ comment, but a worthy showing.

  302. Dennis says:

    Translation: I only look at things that support my view and will refuse to look at things that don’t.

    Gosh, you’re becoming more Frank-like by the hour.

    Oh, Good Lord, Sean, lighten up, willya. I put a smiley face thingy on at the end of that but it didn’t take.

    And seriously, work on that obsession thing you got going for Frank. It’s disturbing and creepy.

  303. Dennis says:

    Think about it, Sean. Would I be here jerking your chain if I didn’t give a shit about other viewpoints. Would you guys be here feeding me the mostly bullshit that you do if you didn’t think some of it would sink in? Why else do you do it, if not? Bravado to the other few Dim posters who might venture down to this five day old thread? Delusions that you might somehow get a chink in my armor?

  304. Indeed says:

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909290042

    More confirmation:

    From John L. Perry’s September 29 Newsmax column:

    There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America’s military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the “Obama problem.” Don’t dismiss it as unrealistic.

    America isn’t the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn’t mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it.

    [...]

    Will the day come when patriotic general and flag officers sit down with the president, or with those who control him, and work out the national equivalent of a “family intervention,” with some form of limited, shared responsibility?

    Imagine a bloodless coup to restore and defend the Constitution through an interim administration that would do the serious business of governing and defending the nation. Skilled, military-trained, nation-builders would replace accountability-challenged, radical-left commissars. Having bonded with his twin teleprompters, the president would be detailed for ceremonial speech-making.

    Military intervention is what Obama’s exponentially accelerating agenda for “fundamental change” toward a Marxist state is inviting upon America. A coup is not an ideal option, but Obama’s radical ideal is not acceptable or reversible.

    Unthinkable? Then think up an alternative, non-violent solution to the Obama problem. Just don’t shrug and say, “We can always worry about that later.”

    In the 2008 election, that was the wistful, self-indulgent, indifferent reliance on abnegation of personal responsibility that has sunk the nation into this morass.

    I wonder if I should remark on Mr. Perry’s weight or appearance.

  305. Indeed says:

    Ruh-roh:

    One wonders if the traditional media will ask Republicans what they think of the Obama-Hitler-Nazi comparisons that are becoming so popular at GOP gatherings:

    At the How To Take Back America Conference last weekend, conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann led a workshop called “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists …”

    During her session, Werthmann went through a litany of examples of how President Obama is like Adolf Hitler. She noted that Hitler, who acted “like an American politician,” was “elected in a 100% Christian nation.” Although she failed to once mention Antisemitism or militarism, Werthmann explained how universal healthcare, an Equal Rights Amendment, and increased taxes were telltale signs of Nazism. Werthmann also warned the audience:

    If we had our guns, we would have fought a bloody battle. So, keep your guns, and buy more guns, and buy ammunition. [...] Take back America. Don’t let them take the country into Socialism. And I refer again, Hitler’s party was National Socialism. [...] And that’s what we are having here right now, which is bordering on Marxism.

    … because there were quite a number of elected Republican officials who attended the conference who could be questioned about it — as long as the media is careful not to imply that racism might be a factor, of course.

    I wonder if the person who wrote that is not as attractive as, say, a Fox News talking head.

  306. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Think about it, Sean. Would I be here jerking your chain if I didn’t give a shit about other viewpoints.

    Yes.

  307. Dennis says:

    Well, you’re wrong. And if you remember, I emailed you one time to tell you I appreciated your take on things here, well before you surprised me with your views on Professor Gates.

    That was then.

  308. Indeed says:

    Dennis: Think about it, Sean. Would I be here jerking your chain if I didn’t give a shit about other viewpoints.

    Yes.

    Are the questions gonna get harder? Do weight and appearance count?

  309. Duros62 says:

    Dennis: Think about it, Sean. Would I be here jerking your chain if I didn’t give a shit about other viewpoints?

    But for the most part, you don’t. You belittle, disparage and marginalize.

  310. Dennis says:

    You belittle, disparage and marginalize.

    Return fire, Duros. And a quick look in the mirror along with a bit of soul searching wouldn’t hurt you one bit, either.

  311. Indeed says:

    You belittle, disparage and marginalize.

    Weigel needs to hit the gym and do the Belly-Off Diet, along with an appointment with his dermatologist. Talk about a doughy pantload.

  312. Indeed says:

    And a quick look in the mirror along with a bit of soul searching wouldn’t hurt you one bit, either.

    Projectomundo. Indeed.

  313. Dennis says:

    Again, Indeed, return fire. I’m not the one complaining. You are.

    Like Oliver said, you don’t want it, don’t give it. Or words to that effect. I think in general he’s not a fan of stalking, either, but you might want to email him for clarification on that.

  314. Indeed says:

    Again, Indeed, return fire. I’m not the one complaining. You are.

    Noted without comment.

  315. Dennis says:

    Noted without comment.

    Your comment is also noted without comment.

  316. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: Like Oliver said, you don’t want it, don’t give it.

    No, what Oliver said, and pretty clearly, was simply don’t give it. He didn’t say it was okay as long as the other guy did it first.

  317. Dennis says:

    My point to Duros still applies regardless, Sean. Duros gives it, then tries to play the guilt game on me because I give it back.

    Wanna have some fun, Sean. Hit Control F or whatever method you use to find a word on a page and search for the word ‘Fuck’. Twice Duros said FU to me on just this thread alone. But count how many times someone used that word on me. Don’t care, doesn’t bother me, but it’s interesting to note in that Duros seems to thing there’s only one culprit here.

  318. fafaroo says:

    My point to Duros still applies regardless, Sean.

    Classic.

  319. Indeed says:

    My point to Duros still applies regardless, Sean.

    Classic.

    Wow. In the past two days we’ve seen a textbook “Michael Moore is fat” defense and now a perfectly executed “Jonah Goldberg.” Although I’m not sure if Goldberg gets royalties for using his patented, pathetic defense. Someone should look into that.

  320. Sean D. Martin says:

    Dennis: My point to Duros still applies regardless, Sean. Duros gives it, then tries to play the guilt game on me because I give it back.

    Trying to refrain from ad hominems, given Oliver’s recent request/demand, but you’re talking about what people have or haven’t done so addressing what you do seems fair. And I have never seen anyone so insistent that others are wrong for doing exactly what they are doing themselves while refusing to apply the same standard to themselves.

    I could continue, but you’ve made it painfully clear, despite any claims you make to the contrary, that you in fact do not “give a shit about other viewpoints”.

    327 comments so far. Must be a record. Certainly is more than enough. And I’ve grown tired of the game. I leave it to Dennis to claim he’s accomplished or won something.