RPOF defends the crazy

So here it is, like one day after I first broke the little tidbit about the crazy-ass press release Florida GOP honcho Jim Greer sent accusing Obama of some sort of grand communist conspiracy for, you know, telling kids to stay in school. It's gotten a lot of play these last 24 hours, and here we have party flack Nicole Katie Gordon defending Greer's absolute stupidity to TPM.

Gordon directed me to the official teaching materials that the Department of Education has posted. Gordon especially took exception to this part of the materials: "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." I pointed out that this item came from a list of bullet points headed "Extension of the Speech," which clearly means it's in the context of the speech on personal responsibility and academic goals.

But Gordon begged to differ. "Why are you willing to accept that in good faith, the Obama administration is asking them to write a letter in the context of the speech," said Gordon, "but you're not willing to accept in our release, where we're saying there's no guidelines that it has to be in the context of the speech?"

snip

"Our point is that there are some questions about this address that need to be answered, and parents need to be given the option to choose whether or not their children who are students are going to be expected to watch this propaganda in a public school," Gordon later explained. "Students can't pray in school, but they can discuss new ideas and actions that the President is challenging them to think about. Well, I know that a lot of the President's ideas don't reflect my values and don't reflect the values that I would be teaching my children. And to be quite honest, there are a lot of the President's ideas that I wouldn't want my children discussing in a public school. It's not appropriate, the place for that is in the home."

Note to Republicans: When in a hole, stop digging. And whatever you do, DO NOT declare victory. Except, you know, that's what Greer did. Hey, what do you know, another press release!

Greer Leads the Charge – White House Backs Down

Department of Education Revises Biased Teaching Materials

Tallahassee–Yesterday, Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer released a statement condemning the Obama Administration’s attempt to indoctrinate American children to his liberal ideology through the use of biased teaching materials surrounding the President’s address to school children scheduled for early next week. Today, the White House told the Associated Press that Chairman Greer had nothing to worry about, but Chairman Greer kept the heat on, and late tonight the Obama Administration backed down, withdrawing a controversial portion of the teaching plan and issuing revised materials via the Department of Education.

He's a brave, brave man, standing in the gap.

Serious question: Why does anyone take this dipshit seriously?

Posted by Billman on 9/2/2009 10:32:31 PM Permalink | Comments: 6

Comments on this story:

Anonymous said:
All hail Obama! Praise be to our dear leader Obama! Long live Obama! Praise him forever! Praise be to Obama! Praise be to Obama! Praise be to Obama!
posted on: 9/3/2009 9:12:42 PM

Anonymous said:
All American children must sing for their dear leader before the nationwide "address" and write an essay on how to help his holiness! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2naSzb1psU
posted on: 9/3/2009 9:21:51 PM

Lamar said:
Jim Greer is an embarrassment to conservatism, the GOP and the state of Florida. Some conservatives will, no doubt, respond to criticism of Greer by mocking Obama, Maxine Waters and Barney Frank. Why address the issue if you can just repeat yourself ad nauseam? But let's be honest: Jim Greer is hurting the GOP with his idiotic statements. But what do you expect? Jim Greer is an idiot. Garbage in, garbage out.
posted on: 9/4/2009 1:15:57 PM

Anonymous said:
Kumbaya our Lord---Obama....Kumbaya our Lord---Obama...We praise you---Obama...we worship you---Obama
posted on: 9/4/2009 2:44:20 PM

Anonymous said:
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...Now’s the moment, lift each voice to sing - Sing with all your heart! For our children, for our families, nations all joined as one....Sing for joy and sing abundant peace, courage, justice, hope! Sing together, hold each precious hand, lifting each other up; Sing for vision, sing for unity, Lifting our hearts to Sing! Yes we can...lift each other up..In peace, in love, in hope Change! Change!
posted on: 9/4/2009 7:24:43 PM

Anonymous said:
Not that this needs to be said, but Greer and Ms. Gordon are out of touch with reality. Ms. Gordon thinks "students can't pray in school," although the truth is that students CAN pray, just teachers can't lead prayer. Mr. Greer complains about "Holiday" parties, so I can only assume he thinks Jesus is the Reason for the Season. No, actually the SUN is the reason for the season. Christians (as well as many other groups) picked the Winter Solstice for their holiday because there were celebrations on those dates for centuries. An out-of-touch Republican. Can I be more redundant? The GOP is also the party of people who want Creationism taught in school. So when it comes to education, republicans are not what I would call a source of authority. These kinds of parents should just send their kids to school with tin foil hats. Once you believe in a virgin birth, an invisible man and his magician son (who are ACTUALLY the same person,) conspiracy theories are not a big stretch. P.S. Fix the "crazy-ass press release link." It has "http://" twice.
posted on: 9/5/2009 5:28:28 PM