The Obama adoration choir in the major media have been assigning the "racist" and "extremist" labels to critics of the new president since before he was elected. No matter how controversial, unconstitutional, expensive, or expansive any Obama program proposal may be, you can be sure his supporters (both in and out of the media) will divine a bigoted, malicious motive lurking beneath the surface of even the most reasoned voice of opposition.

Consider the liberal-left choir's response to concerns that President Barack Obama would use his speech to the country's schoolchildren to indoctrinate children in support of his big-government, socialistic agenda. For example, on September 8, the day of the speech, HuffingtonPost.com blogger Mario Almonte wrote in a column entitled, "Republican Critics of Obama's School Speech Stoke the Fires of Bigotry in America":

... within this immense pool of 60 million who voted Republican thrives a disturbing core of religious fundamentalists, ultra conservatives, and all-purpose extremists whose true motivation — when you strip away their often irrational and contradictory rhetoric — is a hatred of everyone and everything that is different from them. They are the true Ugly Americans, who hate the Jews, the Blacks, the Latinos, the homosexuals — and anybody who believes in anything they do not.... These are the same people who Republicans now support when they publicly validate the dubious argument that Obama's true motive, in addressing school children, was to brainwash them into following his "socialist" agenda.

The following day, CNN anchor Campbell Brown intoned: "Can we have a rational conversation on health care, education and the economy?... It's time to get real and get at the facts. I want to take a minute to talk about some of the insanity we have witnessed over the past few days; the ridiculous charge that the president of the United States addressing American children is a dangerous thing.... Can we all take a deep breath and admit this whole episode was just nutty?"

 It doesn't seem to matter that the Obama program thus far has already nationalized the auto industry as well as the banking and financial industry, or that he has appointed upwards of  40 "czars" (by recent count) who are exercising authority over vast swaths of our economy and society — without Senate confirmation, which is to say without any constitutional authority. Nor does it seem to matter that President Obama is pushing relentlessly for nationalized healthcare, a vast National Service program, and a national CO₂ "cap and trade" program that will fasten draconian federal regulatory controls on virtually every human activity. Characterizing these socialistic programs as, well, socialistic, is verboten, according to the liberal-left Big Media thought cartel.

But, let's take CNN's Campbell Brown's advice (even though she didn't, herself) to "get real and get at the facts." The facts are that in advance of the address, Arne Duncan, Secretary of the federal Department of Education sent letters to educators throughout the nation suggesting lesson plans to coincide with Obama's message. Teachers in pre-kindergarten through 6th grade, for example, were encouraged to have their pupils "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." Is it the job of the schools to instruct our children to "help the president" — even if that means helping him institute programs, policies, and legislation of which their parents strongly disapprove or even find morally reprehensible?

The federal Education Dept. guidelines also suggested that teachers tell students to "build background knowledge about the president of the United States by reading books about presidents and Barack Obama." As if our children have not already been saturated with Obamamania. The media adulation saturation for Barack Obama has far exceeded that for any previous President, including media darlings FDR and JFK. The public backlash to the plan caused the Obama Educrats to realize they'd gone too far too fast; they replaced the manipulative "classroom activities" on the Department website with more innocuous fare. Even Salon's very pro-Obama Joan Walsh admitted on MSNBC with Chris Matthews on September 4 that the administration was indeed "overreaching" with this scheme and that "there sometimes is a tin ear in the people around Obama. They do play into this cult of personality." (That did not prevent Walsh, seconds later, from joining Matthews in denouncing parents opposed to Obama's overreaching cult.)

It is this very real and disturbing cult of personality, combined with Obama's militant "change" agenda that understandably has many parents concerned - and rightfully so. The term "cult of personality" is something we associate with totalitarian dictators: Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, Mao, Tito, Fidel Castro, Robert Mugabe, Ayatollah Khomeini, Pol Pot, Kim Il-Sung. Americans, we smugly tell ourselves, would never succumb to such demeaning sycophancy and servitude; we're much too sophisticated and independent for that. However, many parents have viewed some of the videos on the Internet of fresh-faced children and youth singing and chanting their praises to Obama in scenes that look eerily, creepily similar to video clips of children in communist North Korea singing to the "Dear Leader," or to the scene from the movie "Cabaret" where the misguided, idealistic Hitler Youth sing the stirring "Tomorrow Belongs to Me."

The "Sing for Change" campaign video features a roomful of winsome children in UN-powder blue T-shirts emblazoned with "HOPE" earnestly hymning to the new savior: "We're gonna spread happiness, we're gonna spread freedom. Obama's gonna change it, Obama's gonna lead 'em. We're gonna change it, and rearrange it; we're gonna change the world."

Equally, if not more disturbing, is the "Obama Youth — Junior Fraternity Regiment" video of the black male teens, dressed in military camouflage fatigues, who march into a Kansas City, Missouri, classroom and chant their support for Obama and his healthcare plan.

Here's another example from a school in Burlington, New Jersey:

This is indoctrination, not education. Ditto for the Fayetteville, North Carolina, teacher Diatha Harris, who asks her young students whether they're "pulling for" Obama or McCain and then browbeats to tears a young girl (whose father is a soldier in Iraq) for saying she supports McCain. This cruel child abuse and unethical exploitation of classroom authority was caught on video by a Swedish documentary crew (and then went viral over the Internet).

Parents know that these are not isolated incidents. They know the national teacher unions (the 3.2 million-member NEA and the 856,000-member AFT) comprise many of Team Obama's staunchest "change" cadres and provided the Obama campaign with some of its largest campaign contributions. Many of these teachers-cum-propagandists need no prodding from FedEd Secretary Duncan to turn every "teachable moment" into a programmatic push for every Big Government proposal imaginable, from Obamacare to Law of the Sea Treaty to Cap and Trade to National Service.

Many critics of Obama's education program are also aware that the President's speech to the schools was not happening in a vacuum, but was (and is) part of a concerted effort by the Obama administration, along with its Hollywood allies and billionaire politco-philanthropists to further nationalize and centralize American education. On the same day that his speech was broadcast to the nation's schools, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Viacom, the mega-media giant, launched their five-year "Get Schooled" National Education Initiative at the Paramount Pictures studio lot.

Serving as a launch pad for the venture is a "Get Schooled" video featuring President Obama with American Idol pop diva Kelley Clarkson and NBA superstar Lebron James that aired on the same day as the president's school speech over Viacom's massive network, which includes MTV, BET, CMT, COMEDY CENTRAL, Nickelodeon, Nick @ Nite, Spike TV, and VH1 (to name but a few channels). These Viacom "entertainment" vehicles have been some of the top villains in the ongoing corporate media culture war aimed at dumbing down, bumming down, and scumming down our society. Viacom has also distinguished itself by unfailingly pushing a leftward political agenda, from enlisting youth in Al Gore's battle to save the universe from the global warming non-crisis, to a global "Safe Sex" campaign that prescribes condom use ("Rubber Rocks!" is the MTV slogan) while engaging in the promiscuous sex promoted by the Viacom's lewd, crude, raunchy programming.

Of course, there is also the incredible pro-Obama "I Pledge" video produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions, in which sundry self-important Hollywood narcissists pledge their fealty to Barack Obama. A slew of shallow celebrities, including Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Eva Mendez, Cameron Diaz, and P Diddy, tell viewers: "I pledge to reduce my use of plastic ... to sell my obnoxious car and buy a hybrid ... to be more green ... to turn the lights off ... to flush only after a deuce, never a single ... to go to USAService.org ... to be of service to Barack Obama ... to be the change ... to be a servant to our president."

This "serve Obama" propaganda video also has been shown to captive school audiences.

In our 24/7 pop culture of celebrity idolatry, Barack Obama is constantly presented to young people as the epitome of cool, hip, smart, and sexy — and he is all but worshipped by Hollywood demigods whom our youth are taught to idolize. This engenders a mindset that is conducive to tyrants and fatal to freedom, limited government and our constitutional safeguards. The charges of Fidel Castro and his like-minded comrades in the Big Media punditocracy notwithstanding, parents are not "racist" or "insane" for suspecting that President Obama and/or his fanatical followers would exploit his speech to the schools to further his Big Government political agenda.

Thumbnail Photo: AP Images
 

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fedup said:

... The NEA needs to change its name to the Federal Union of Communist Teachers. As the name change spreads across the nation, district parents can be informed that they have been FUCT. Union bylaws will be called Union Protocols (FUCT-UP). Card carrying members will be called Specialized, Highly Indoctrinated Teachers Having Extremely Advanced Diplomas. Students will be Scholastically Corrupted by Receiving Exceedingly Weird Educational Doctrines. Parents will be Parents Incensed by Spendthrift Socialist Educational Doctrine.

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September 27, 2009
Votes: +6

Flu-Bird said:

	Brainwashing This sounds to me like BRAINWASHING by the left-wing NEA theres no dobt that the NEA see OBAMA as the NEW JOE STALIN so kids will sing songs of praise and soon statues and idols of OBAMA will appear all over so his worshippers will bow down and make offerings to
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September 27, 2009
Votes: +5

thetimeswelivein said:

	Thank you for a great article Wow. Very powerful article. This has to be the scariest time in American history. We are watching a dictator come to power. Then on top of that there's the "The story of stuff" video that bashes capitalism and promotes socialism being spread around in schools as well. [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...LBE5QAYXp8 Our children don't have a chance.
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September 28, 2009
Votes: +5

David P said:

very short-sighted article "No matter how controversial, unconstitutional, expensive, or expansive any Obama program proposal may be, you can be sure his supporters (both in and out of the media) will divine a bigoted, malicious motive lurking beneath the surface of even the most reasoned voice of opposition." This is fairly ridiculous. There have been unjustified cries of "racism!"--no doubt. But to deny that plenty of people oppose Obama on racist grounds is absurd. Take Sociology 101 and find that racism is very REAL and persists strongly in America today, and this can be supported by innumerable studies (that is--you know--with facts). Also I think most of the points in this article desperately need an alternative perspective. For example, black teens marching in a military style supporting Obama is described as particularly "disturbing". While I certainly agree that the classroom isn't the best place for politics, I am barely surprised that after 230 years of white presidents, a black president would be such an inspiration to young blacks that they would support and admire him so supremely. To black youths, Obama obviously epitomizes the American dream and shows that this dream is achievable to them as well (in a way unthinkable until recently). I live in a country where people of my skin color are a miniscule minority, and there is an instant connection when I see a similar-looking person. Of course people identify in these ways... duh?

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September 28, 2009
Votes: -5

bg said:

	A Quote from the Past.... "It is hard to unsell a public that has been purposely duped by experts." Hilaire du Berrier - October 1967 We are seeing a metamorphosis within our country. I fear for our future.
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September 28, 2009
Votes: +8

noyoudidnt said:

connection with similar looks-?? My family is proudly mexican and I can also say that Sotomayor stokes no feelings of pride or hope in me. Excellent article, it doesn't matter what color your skin or where you are from- this article points out that this has happened all over the world at different times and it is the same outcome. Quit being so myopic and LOOK at the actual issues - not the superficial ones.

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September 28, 2009
Votes: +4

Bonnie said:

To David P Judging by the way you perceive racism, you have just self-identified yourself as a racist. Disagreeing with someone of a different skin color is NOT racist. Feeling more comfortable with some one with whom you can identify and less comfortable with those you can't identify is NOT racist. An example: a group of deaf people consisting of a white, an asian, two blacks, and an American Indian will be more comfortable interacting together then with hearing people. Nothing racist about it. Are you suggesting that a majority white population which elected a black person to the presidency has somehow turned racist within an eight month period? Are you blind to the constant charges of racism being thrown about by the media and liberal left? I'm sorry, David P, but what you are saying is much more than "fairly ridiculous". Becky Akers said, "Freeing the world from racism means freeing it from politicians". Historically, a significant share of racist policy has been politically motivated. Your Sociology 101 class was probably taught by a leftist professor using a textbook written by a socialist think tank. I've taken sociology, psychology, ethics, political science, etc., and I have to say that much of what I was "taught" in those classes flies in the face of reason and common sense.

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September 28, 2009
Votes: +3

Lee Gonzales said:

David P, would you oppose a Conservative black American president based on principle or looks? I didn't like Bill Clinton , George H.W. Bush and George W Bush not because of their looks or skin color, but because of their philosophical tone and hue which colors their thinking with the darkness socialism represents. Socialism is a philosophy that is totally opposite of nature in which men are born -that nature is freedom. It's the "economy stupid," or in this case it's the "socialism stupid" because so many people can see Obomba's socialism sticking out like a sore thumb, not the pigment. I overheard a fellow at a Tea Party march telling a person that "he liked the fact that Americans had elected a black president, but the unfortunate part is that America elected a socialist and therefore he had to stand on priciple and oppose his policies. Now let me ask you a question {David P}: Let us assume we had elected Walter Willimas, Thomas Sowell or Judge Clarence Thomas, or for that matter any other person who is black, but this black American president held the philosphy that government must be small, so small that the Homeland Security department, Agriculture, CIA,FBI and all the spy agencies and Education agencies were terminated because they do in fact violate the Constitution? Would you be so supportive of this conservative /constitutionalist black president ?

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September 28, 2009
Votes: +2

Lee Gonzales said:

	"Hey fool!' was a funny line used by comedian Flip Wilson. Public school teachers who compose songs and who pretend to be fair minded are acting "the fools." Istead of teaching they are indoctrinating and intimidating the children under their care.
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September 28, 2009
Votes: +2

Fred said:

	... That Ashville NC school schoolteacher b*tch should pick on someone her own size... lock her ass up and keep her away from children!
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September 30, 2009
Votes: +2