Go ahead, Google Obama Youth. I dare you.
Michael DelGiorno continues his irresponsible broadcasting today on 99.7 WTN, firing up parents of school-aged children by applying historically combustible rhetoric to President Obama, and then sending these highly agitated parents to your kids’ schools.
Next Tuesday, President Barack Obama will deliver a national address to the students of in public schools across the country to encourage the kids, as a letter from Secretary of Education Arne Duncan states on the Ed.gov website, to “challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.”
Age appropriate follow-up discussions and activities have also been set up for kids in grades K-6 and 7- 12.
And away DelGiorno goes. But not before prefacing his fear-not-fact-based harangue against President Obama’s address to classrooms with this:
“By the way, may I say that doing this, in and of itself…there’s nothing wrong with that if the President sticks to the text we are being pre-given. There’s nothing wrong with that. The motive? The real agenda? And oh, by the way, the real curriculum behind it? Might be troubling. Here. Follow the bouncing ball.”
The subtext is, of course, “don’t look at the facts, listen to my insinuations and snide tone and be very afraid because the bogeyman is out to get your children.”
So believing it his purpose in life to drag everything down into the gutter with him, DelGiorno then used a good portion of his 3-hour radio show yesterday to sully President Obama’s address. Sandwiched between words llike “Hitler,” “indoctrinating,” and “scary stuff,” he said the following:
- Barack Obama was going to “seize control of the internet”
- Barack Obama will “keep everybody’s name and archive them who speak ill of his policies”
- “I don’t need the President to raise my kids”
- The first time any president has “spoken in secret on the internet directly to people’s kids”
- “Public education is not about education anymore it’s about indoctrination, and they (the Obama administration/Department of Education) prove it here”
- “Students will accept Barack Obama as their Lord & Saviour”
- “Does the speech make you want to do anything…besides kill yourself…”
- “They’re going to make a whole freakin’ semester out of the President”
As you know from reading about his proclivity to falsely label President Obama the “antichrist,” DelGiorno lies to further his agenda (which, by the way, is to scare the living daylights out of his fellow Americans/Christians). He didn’t disappoint when yesterday he told his listeners that the President’s address will be broadcast to their kids directly to their classrooms – in secret over the internet – so parents won’t be able to watch it. Why not on TV?, he asked. Because, he said answering his own question, they don’t want you to know how they are indoctrinating your kids.
DELGIORNO: How do you feel, in general, about the President of the United States, while you’re at work, through a website and through the teachers, are going to talk to your kids…without you there…about something you don’t know what he’s going to do? About something you don’t know what they’re going to do in classroom? I thought it was interesting. He’s either really web-oriented….why not talk to them over television? Why the internet?
SIDEKICK: Or he views them much like the Muslims do, the Vanguard of the Future. [A nudge nudge wink wink to "socialism" and Hitler youth].
DELGIORNO: Takes a radical broad to say that. You got guts girl.
SIDEKICK: Thank you.
The truth is, the address will be available to anyone to watch on the White House website as well as on *Ta Dah* C-SPAN, which the last time I checked was TV. The address will also be streamed live online at C-SPAN.org, and on C-SPAN Radio (90.1 FM in Washington, D.C., and channel 132 on XM Satellite Radio)
The simple, easily-proven truth is easy to ignore when it can’t be used to further your fear-based conservative talk radio agenda, isn’t it?
Today, DelGiorno didn’t even bother prefacing his comments but he did add what I’m sure he thinks is a grand idea to his bile. An idea he so expertly pretended (like he pretends with all his ideas) to think up all on his own you could almost hear the fake light-bulb go on atop his head.
Instead of keeping your kids at home on Tuesday, he thought “spontaneously,” why not go to school with them? That’ll show ‘em (meaning principals and teachers), he said.
So DelGiorno is firing up parents with insinuations – that the government is trying to indoctrinate their kids into a Socialist Hitler-like Obama Youth (as I heard one parent-caller today describe it), that he is making them pledge their allegiance to the President (instead of the country), and that the government wants to whip up blind allegiance in you kids in the same way terrorists want to whip it up in theirs – and then sending them in that highly agitated state to your kids school.
Oh, have I mentioned that DelGiorno’s kids go to private school so he won’t have anything to worry about on Tuesday?
More irresponsible broadcasting from Michael DelGiorno and 99.7 WWTN. Listen to the whole clip here:
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UPDATE:
History from Mark Brown of NoChaser and more from Woods at Pith in the Wind and TNDP chair Chip Forrester.
To Sparky and Mary Mancini: Sparky– It’s true, Gwen is a “Lapdog” for Michael DelGiorno (He’s not DELIVERY), but there was a time back when she first joined him (in Nashville)when she wasn’t. He took a day or so off and let Gwen handle the show. She handled it ADMIRABLY. Her questions were right on the point and she was extremely well prepared. I was wishing He would get lost and She would take over. Alas, it was not to be. Now all She does is echo His misguided meanderings. Mary: I remember being in grammer school in the 1950’s (Yup, I’m an old fogey), and singing praises to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. I remember a story about George Washington– Something about a soldier who followed a trail of blood in the snow and came upon George Washington in his bleeding bare feet praying ferverently to God for guidance. The implication was that George was a Saint or, perhaps, an Angel (I wouldn’t be surprized if he WAS). None of us school kids thought we were being BRAINWASHED into worshipping George or Abraham as GODS!! Where does Michael DelGiorno (He’s not DELIVERY) get off thinking the Obama people are out to BRAINWASH our children into worshipping President Obama. Give me a break Michael. chuck
Yeah, you are right. Plus it was a pretty nice speech in that. He did offer a great deal of hope and positive reinforcement. Plus, to reinforce what you said (and your absolutely right by the way) children do learn a great deal from their parents, and in many cases those same parents and teachers can have very biased opinions on certain issues as well. Just wish we could find a way to make the education system broader, more accepting, and more conducive toward achieving healthy debate from all angles while avoiding one sided issues. That is often not the case. (You could also have argued that not allowing your kids to watch the speech because of the presidents view points is in fact doing that. In other words, through preventing them from watching the president, a person is preventing those same kids from formulating their own opinions, therefore restricting their ability to think freely). Lookin at the argument now, I can see that I wasnt lookin at the bigger picture, and I certainly do agree with you. I can see that my argument was kinda full of holes…
But Jim, presidents have differing and, some might say, partisan opinions on how to handle national security issues so even addressing kids in this context could be perceived as “promoting a political agenda,” no? It seems much more benign to address “impressionable youth” on issues of personal responsibility and working hard in school.
And part of President Obama’s message was for kids to think and act indpendently, so your forced idol worship argument falls flat.
Also, if kids have their parents and teachers giving them positive messages on a daily basis then they will have much more of an influence than one 20 minute speech by the President.
Now, if the President addressed the kids every morning during homeroom you would have a point about government intervention or promoting a political agenda or “forced idol worship.”
So it would make since as to why many people were concerned with the president’s speech in schools across the nation. However, in the light of the speech that was given. There was really no intrusion or pervasion of these values. The president was not politically motivated in his speech, but was actually giving decent advice, which was to stay in school and get a good education. Nevertheless, school systems cannot allow for governmental intrusion unless that government is clearly moderate in its proposals and it implications, or else biased information will most certainly be conveyed. It is clear that the current president swings to the left just as it is clear that Bush swung to the right (in some issues at least). In allowing a one sided president, whether it be Bush, Obama, Reagan, or Clinton, to address a national school system, the government runs the risk of imposing its current political agenda upon an impressionable youth, whether by directly presenting it to them or by allowing for the glorification of a certain party through the use of forced idol worship (i.e. forcing children to watch a particular figure deliver a speech). In the end, you can look at two ways, either the president was encouraging students to work hard for their futures, an issue that is very important (and I do hope that he was able to get through to some of the children he spoke to, (but this is an issue that is addressed and stressed by faculty and parents everyday, we’ve all heard people say work hard and stay in school)), or he was further promoting his political agenda through the use of a media source and, in doing so, promoting hero worship by speaking to an impressionable audience (minors). I know every president does this, but still, I don’t believe that it should be allowed for any president or political figure head, whether right or left, to address an impressionable youth on anything unless their safety is directly involved, i.e. terror threats ect.
Jim, Are you saying there should have been someone there to speak after the president spoke to tell kids to stop trying and drop out of school?
An educational system should be responsible for providing its students with an unbiased representation of facts, allowing them to draw their own conclusions through research and debate. Therefore, subjecting an audience consisting of students expecting to learn to a one sided argument is morally and ethically wrong. This is precisely what happens when a political system leaning one way or another imposes itself on an education system. However, if the message given is moderate in orientation or represents both sides to the issue, then the education system has done its duty. This then allows for students to think for themselves, which in turn allows for growth and the acquisition of knowledge. The president’s speech was one sided in its implications, so it is not fair to say that it is beneficial for the students that it was meant to address. And to bring it home and show you how hypocritical this entire argument is, this is the exact same as forcing Christian teachings of creationism in our school systems. You are doing that which you so strongly seem to oppose, and that is forcing your own ideals and values into someone else’s kid’s heads without any attempt to differentiate between one side of the argument or the other. This in turn will not lead to education and free thinking, but instead replace it with extreme uniformity, lack of originality, and the inability to formulate reasoned and knowledgeable opinion. That is not education. That is, by definition, brainwashing.
Abby, do you not even have enough respect for yourself to capitalize your own name? Just wondering..
I love how the DelGiorno’s sidekick, Gwen, is defended because she is a “beautiful woman”. Kind of funny because she works in RADIO, and it’s 2009! I guess that’s a typical quality Conservative Men look for first in their female Republican leaders or giggling sidekicks. It certainly isn’t brains…
I’m not sure how a speech encouraging students to stay in school is any different from Sex Ed, MADD presentations, or any other guest speaker that all schools present on a regular basis.
Glad someone is reporting on DelGiorno! Keep it up.
BWLIB, your name is Mary, BWLIB is only your nickname.. can you talk to me, please?!
Will someone please tell Ryan that I’m not talking to him until he addresses me by name? Oh, and tell him that there’s a big difference between calling someone a sidekick and calling them “brain-washed.” Just ask Robin, Tonto, or Cowboy Troy.
[...] Talker Michael DelGiorno Sending Highly Agitated Parents to Your Kids’ Schools on Tuesday [...]
BWLIB, would you rather me call you sidekick?
Your bias is showing as well, without anything to back it up.
You still haven’t addressed my point..
Ryan, You’re not a very nice guest and your bias is showing. My name is Mary. Thanks.
BWLIB, you have missed my entire point, yet again…
It’s not that I have a problem with President Obama telling children to stay in school, and to work hard. You, obviously only read what you want to read.
My problem is the children need to be spending every ounce of their energy listening to their teachers, and learning. They don’t need to be watching TV for 30 minutes out of their day because the President wants to address them.
Do you not remember when President Clinton addressed middle and high schoolers? I remember it, I was in high school. He was telling us the importance of Hillary Care.. and I knew then, as I know now.. social medicine won’t work.
If there are so many problems with schools not getting textbooks, BWLIB, don’t you think PresBO needs to be addressing this issue?
I thought President Obama’s speech was going to be given to us in advance.. I can’t find it, anywhere.
I hope PresBO takes questions like Reagan did… but somehow I doubt that is going to happen.
And Ryan, send me the article about Bill Clinton addressing public school kids. While you’re looking, here’s one about President Reagan doing it…
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200909030020
“On November 14, 1988, Reagan addressed and took questions from students from four area middle schools in the Old Executive Office Building. According to press secretary Marlin Fitzwater, the speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program “t o schools nationwide on three different days.†Much of Reagan’s speech that day covered the American “vision of self-government†and the need “to keep faith with the unfinished vision of the greatness and wonder of America†but in the middle of the speech, the president went off on a tangent about the importance of low taxes…”
Ryan,
Leaving aside for a minute that the President’s intended message is “work hard and stay in school†and not “follow me unconditionally,†(now THAT would be indoctrination), I truly believe that we need not be afraid of ideas that differ from our own. Are you trying to tell me that your kids aren’t exposed to different ideas and thoughts on a daily basis when you’re not around? And are you also trying to tell me that at night, at home, when you are sitting around your dinner table you don’t discuss these different ideas and thoughts and guide your children through them using your values? If not, you should be. And if so, what are you afraid of? Shouldn’t you want to discuss ideas openly and honestly with your children when they come back home to you every night?
Do you remember when parents used to motivate their kids to do well in school by telling them that in America anything is possible and that even they could grow up and be anything they wanted – even President?!
Well now we have a President that embodies just that and he wants to talk to the kids about the importance of staying in school. And it is being wrongly politicized by the Right.
Not every kid is lucky enough to go to public school in Williamson County. Some go where they can’t even get text books until the court orders it. They need a little extra motivation from someone who struggled like perhaps they are struggling.
BWLIB, can you ever just engage in a conversation? I told you what was wrong with the speech, and you didn’t respond. The children need to be in class, learning. If it was the day after 9/11 or a really important day in history, I could understand. Do you know the last time a President addressed school children? Clinton did it when he was trying to pass Hillary-Care. (Didn’t work that time, either)..
Jim, I’m sorry that you think I’m brainless. I would let you know what my IQ is, but you probably don’t understand that system, as you don’t understand most other systems. You see, I’m not brainwashed. I think for myself. It may be in line with some of my right-wing pals, but there is nothing hate filled about it. (It’s ironic that you can call me full of hate, then go into how you dislike/pity me) Hmm..
Chris, PresBO doesn’t care for the constitution.. he believe it doesn’t apply to him, or the administration. This is why he should be impeached. He knows the constitution, he took an oath to uphold it, and he disregards it on a daily basis. He (and the liberals here) will tell you.. “oh we are in a time of emergency, something has to be done, blah, blah, blah.” The truth is, the constitution is all that can save us. It’s what made our country great, and what will keep it great.
Sparky, I’m glad you think one man should be able to control congress (who’s job is to speak for the people). I hope someday he takes something away that is very precious to you. That’s what it will take for you to wake up. I mean, really, you think President Bush was not a smart man? I can’t name one President, ever, that didn’t have at least a little bit of sense (even Carter). You think very highly of your country, obviously. Just because President Obama says he is trying to make a bi-partisan effort, that doesn’t mean it is true. You see.. he doesn’t always tell the truth. Sorry to burst your bubble.
C’est, thanks for the profanity. Maybe one day you will have a vocabulary that works. A demagogue is a leader who obtains power by means of impassioned appeals to the emotions and prejudices of the populace. Does that sound familiar?
Sparky:
Under Obama, the use of unmanned drones to kill selected targets within Pakistan continues. A summary killing of an individual without trial is a violation of the Geneva conventions, as is the violation of Pakistan’s national sovereignty. Let alone the wedding parties, the homes with innocent women and children. And you can look me in the eye and call this man reasonable?
Now we are setting up to, once again, grab some low-level “bad apples” while John Yoo teaches. Remember John Yoo, who wrote a memo finding justification to torture a child, if it would get an intelligence target to talk? What about Bush and Cheney? Kuchinich brought forth Articles of Impeachment against both of them, contained within no small number of arrestable offenses.
No, now its time for you to turn a blind eye to the suffering of people at our hands. Now the blood of all those tortured and wrongly prosecuted is on your hands, nothing new, but now you’ve quit trying to wash it off.
Excuse me while I continue to try to get it off mine…
[...] the right-wing demagogues and their glassy-eyed followers are freakin’ the fuck out! [...]
[...] posted yesterday about Michael DelGiorno, the embodiment of irresponsible talk radio broadcasting, agitating parents with propaganda and sending them to your kids’ schools, I’ve heard from several conservative friends and acquaintances. They tell me they [...]
Yeah, but the difference in Obama and Bush with access to these powers is that he’s a reasonable, intelligent man. Not to MENTION the fact that the Republicans have been out to take down his presidency from day one. So, when we DO have a foreign policy emergency, I’m GLAD he has the right to circumvent Congress, since they have ONLY their own best interest at heart. I don’t believe for a minute he would use that power unless he absolutely had to. He’s proven time and time again (to a FAULT, in my opinion), that he will first TRY to be reasonable and non-partisan before resorting to extreme measures.
I would urge that everyone read and contemplate this article.
http://www.campaignforliberty.com/article.php?view=192
The worst of Bush’s policies which undermined the very foundation of a free society, Obama has continued. In the worst ways, this is truly Bush’s third term.
Remember Bush’s signing statements? Lets look at one of Obama’s:
“[P]rovisions of this bill within sections 1110 to 1112 of title XI, and sections 1403 and 1404 of title XIV, would interfere with my constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations by directing the Executive to take certain positions in negotiations or discussions with international organizations and foreign governments, or by requiring consultation with the congress prior to such negotiations or discussions. I will not treat these provisions as limiting my ability to engage in foreign diplomacy or negotiations.â€
He doesn’t get to pick and choose parts of bills, he gets to pass or veto them. Eh, but what do you expect from a president who fights the courts concerning respecting the writ of heabus corpus…
That’s is an out and out disregard for the constitution and the rule of law. As congress is our most immediate and direct voice in government, that is an out and out disregard for the collective will of the people. That is criminal, as it was criminal for Bush. There is a difference between respecting the president and neglecting our individual responsibilities in keeping our democracy.
Now we have lesson plans asking students to write about on how they can “Help the President†or have them “contemplate†excerpts from his speeches. You may call me paranoid, but its a fact that Mao did that too. There’s are big differences between this event and previous events, previous events didn’t have a prepared lesson plan distributed centrally from the president, and we had not experienced the deep and lingering evisceration of our rights experienced through the Bush years.
Of course I’ve somehow stumbled into the twilight zone, as ever increasingly I find progressives becoming Bush apologists.. go figure.
Sumner has sent this home to the parents http://www.sumnerschools.org/images/stories/BoardOfEd/obamaspeechrelease.pdf with the clear intent to chill those who would listen to the speech by placing an affirmative burden on parents to opt IN to hear the event. Funny, I don’t recall a chance to opt my child OUT when a teacher showed “obsession” in class, or when the Crisis Pregnancy Center was invited to teach “abstinence only.”
I could go on but you get the idea.
Ryan, Ah yes, showing your true colors again, aren’t you? I have a task for you, try describing what it is about the President’s address that bothers you so much without using the words “indoctrinate,” “socialism,” or “Obama Youth.”
[...] » Talker Michael DelGiorno Sending Highly Agitated Parents to Your Kids’ Schools on TuesdayPosted 97 minutes [...]
Hey Ryan –
It’s rich irony that you would accuse someone of being brainwashed when you and your right wing pals are the epitome of brainless zombies, mindlessly parroting the lies and hate filled rhetoric that you’re spoon fed on a daily basis. I am inclined to dislike you but pity seems more appropriate.
MY kids will see the address – one way or another. I’ll keep them home that day if I have to or go into the schools and demand the space to watch it with my kids. Unbelievable stuff, here.
Gwen is a lapdog – plain and simple, and gives women everywhere a bad name. She is there simply to rubber stamp him and can’t get a word in edgewise.
Mary, me again.. you know, the one you won’t engage in a real debate with…
Michael’s sidekick’s name is Gwen, I’m sure it’s hard for you to address her by her name since she is a beautiful, well accomplished, woman. So, from now on, I will call you BWLIB. This stands for brain-washed liberal.
So, BWLIB, is it really a good idea for the President of the United States of America to waste time that children should be learning to tell them something that is so important that it couldn’t wait until they got home to watch with their parents?
BWLIB, Williamson County schools aren’t showing the address, period. So it has nothing to do with DelGiornio’s children going to private schools, but I know, that does make them evil. If they went to public schools here in our great county, they still wouldn’t be involved. Obviously they still have some common sense, and know children need to spend their time learning from their teachers (you know, their job), and PresBO needs to do his job. This does not include indoctrinating our children.
Ta da – CSPAN!
Keep up the good work guys!
J
Mary – It’s even worse than you/we thought. Please see the attached memo from one of my three childrens’ principals. THEY ARE NOT GOING TO SHOW IT AT ALL!!!
Subject: RE: Inquiry about Obama’s speech to students next week
Hi,
I don’t know of any plans by any of our teachers to view the speech with their students.
Principal
____________ Middle Magnet School