I see absolutely no problem at all with this. The songs seem to be cheering the actual president into doing things right.

What's wrong with that? I wish someone showed some respect for the presidential figure in my country.

Quote: Original post by nobodynews
Apparently a similar incident happened with George W. Bush for... well read for yourself here. Determine the similarities and differences between the two events yourselves.

edit: I missed that this was linked already. My bad.

Unfortunately, that's not at all comparable to what happened here. The Katrina incident was a group of kids from different states singing to Laura Bush at an event.

Quote: Original post by trzy
Unfortunately, that's not at all comparable to what happened here. The Katrina incident was a group of kids from different states singing to Laura Bush at an event.

The video of the kids singing the Obama songs were part of a February school program celebrateing black history month.

Both that and the Katrina kids incident are quite harmless. Comparable directly by the reaction to them. In BOTH cases the critics of the president are trying to make mountains out of mole hills, crying that the incident is political indoctrination and all the other garbage they wish to entangle these kids with.

Silly people are silly.

Quote: Original post by MSW
Both that and the Katrina kids incident are quite harmless. Comparable directly by the reaction to them.

The main difference I see is that the katrina singing by itself is harmless but still amounts to throwing salt in a already gaping wound. So can we at lest agree they might not have chosen the best time to be patting them selfs on the back.

Quote: Original post by trzy

Quote: Original post by nobodynews
Apparently a similar incident happened with George W. Bush for... well read for yourself here. Determine the similarities and differences between the two events yourselves.

edit: I missed that this was linked already. My bad.

Unfortunately, that's not at all comparable to what happened here. The Katrina incident was a group of kids from different states singing to Laura Bush at an event.

Different states? You make it sound like kids from Hawaii, Nevada and Vermont took part. The kids were from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- states hit by Katrina -- and they were singing a song praising the Federal Government for a heckuva job. Ten days after this serenade the Senate released an 800 page report that faulted the Bush administration for "bungling the storm response". New Orleans was still full of debris. Authorities there were still counting bodies. Election day for mayor was a month away (Katrina Timeline). That mayoral campaign was in the national spotlight and FEMA et al. were prime targets for criticism. Perhaps the idea for the serenade came spontaneously from the children, although the notion that they were familiar with the tune "Hey Look Me Over" and thought it would make a good vehicle for the lyrics is a huge stretch. It's far more likely that the idea for the serenade sprang from the mind of Karl Rove who thought images of children singing praises to FEMA to the most popular Republican celebrity in the country at the time would distract attention away from the political storm destroying his bosses popularity, dragging down the GOP and wrecking his dream of a "one party" America. I want to say that you're right, the two events are not comparable, the serenade at the White House Easter Egg Roll was worse.

Years later it turns out that children displaced by Katrina are still suffering: Katrina Kids: Sickest Ever.

I think Malkin, Savage and Fox News are projecting their intentions onto the kids in New Jersey. They think the event is nefarious because if they did it, they know it would be nefarious, so if it's nefarious when "good Americans" do it, then it must be doubly nefarious when "bad Americans" do it. In the end, we learn more about Malkin, Savage and Fox News than we do about an obscure elementary school in New Jersey.

Quote: Original post by LessBread

Quote: Original post by trzy

Quote: Original post by nobodynews
Apparently a similar incident happened with George W. Bush for... well read for yourself here. Determine the similarities and differences between the two events yourselves.

edit: I missed that this was linked already. My bad.

Unfortunately, that's not at all comparable to what happened here. The Katrina incident was a group of kids from different states singing to Laura Bush at an event.

Different states? You make it sound like kids from Hawaii, Nevada and Vermont took part. The kids were from Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama -- states hit by Katrina -- and they were singing a song praising the Federal Government for a heckuva job. Ten days after this serenade the Senate released an 800 page report that faulted the Bush administration for "bungling the storm response". New Orleans was still full of debris. Authorities there were still counting bodies. Election day for mayor was a month away (Katrina Timeline). That mayoral campaign was in the national spotlight and FEMA et al. were prime targets for criticism. Perhaps the idea for the serenade came spontaneously from the children, although the notion that they were familiar with the tune "Hey Look Me Over" and thought it would make a good vehicle for the lyrics is a huge stretch. It's far more likely that the idea for the serenade sprang from the mind of Karl Rove who thought images of children singing praises to FEMA to the most popular Republican celebrity in the country at the time would distract attention away from the political storm destroying his bosses popularity, dragging down the GOP and wrecking his dream of a "one party" America. I want to say that you're right, the two events are not comparable, the serenade at the White House Easter Egg Roll was worse.

Years later it turns out that children displaced by Katrina are still suffering: Katrina Kids: Sickest Ever.

I think Malkin, Savage and Fox News are projecting their intentions onto the kids in New Jersey. They think the event is nefarious because if they did it, they know it would be nefarious, so if it's nefarious when "good Americans" do it, then it must be doubly nefarious when "bad Americans" do it. In the end, we learn more about Malkin, Savage and Fox News than we do about an obscure elementary school in New Jersey.

Who organized the kids in the Katrina incident? Where did they come from? Were they instructed by teachers who included other Obama-oriented activities in the classroom (as I heard reported on TV news)?

The point about the government's mismanagement of Katrina is completely tangential to this discussion because what's at issue here is not the policies or competence of the Presidents in question, but the appropriateness of having young children in public classrooms praising those policies and Presidents. The Katrina song incident is comparable to this one, which is not at all controversial.

Quote: Original post by Kaze
So can we at lest agree they might not have chosen the best time to be patting them selfs on the back.

Patting themselves on the back is only valid if there is evidence the Bush administration wrote the song and directed the kids to perfom it.

Else its just kids who were invited to an annual White House event and performed a silly little song in honour of the occassion. Not the first or last time this has ever happened.

And sadly its not the first or last time somebody with an agenda to push doesn't put thier own political spin on on such harmless events.


The political left and right are two sides of the same coin, each capable of the worst actions of the other.

Quote: Original post by trzy
but the appropriateness of having young children in public classrooms praising those policies and Presidents.

See Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Reagan, Clinton, etc, etc.

As someone who was there, there were lots of praising of Reagan's policies in the classroom back in the day. We wrote letters to him wishing him well in his recovery from the Hinkly assasination attempt. Cheered him on when he faced Gorbachev. Cried with him over the loss of the space shuttle. Current events have long been a part of public classrooms. We even marveled at Mondales selection of Farrero as his running mate during the 1984 election, even did a month long study of the history of women in US politics to celebrate the occassion.

So, why should the election of the first black president not be met with the attention it deserves during Black History month?

Quote:
Do the people upset with this video get upset when they see parents using their kids to push politics at tea party protests?

Yes.

Mixing children and politics is stupid and dangerous. I don't care if the particular propaganda supports this or that, it still is. Leftists can be demagoges too. Children have no business 'praising the president' because he's not a historical figure, like Washington, who has passed to history and is seen today as 'father of a nation', but just a currently active politician. I'm a socialist, but I am totally against this(not that Obama is a socialist). If I would see, in my own country, children singing songs about the party I support, I would be sickened. I would feel the same if those children praised Bush. In all cases, they are being used.

Quote: Original post by mikeman

Children have no business 'praising the president' because he's not a historical figure,

Bullsh*t! Obama is 44th person to hold the office of president, that alone makes him a historical figure.