Via Drudge ("SHOCK VIDEO").
IN THE COMMENTS: EDH asks:
Can anyone explain the difference between how are these children are being used to elevate Obama and the Robotic Floor Tiles in the previous post?
UPDATE: More info on the school and the reason for the performance:
[T]he superintendent of Burlington Township schools says [it] was held in February as part of Black History Month "to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country."
But Andrea Ciemnolonski, the parent of another one of the students in the video, said the song was part of a second-grade project on a variety of topics related to the month of February, such as Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day and Presidents Day....
"Alteredbeat," the YouTube user who posted the video on the Internet, told FOXNews.com that the video was first put online by Charisse Carney-Nunes, an activist and author of the children's book "I Am Barack Obama," which her Web site says "allows children to see themselves through the inspirational story of President Obama." Carney-Nunes has been promoting the book during visits to schools on the east coast.It seems that it's easy (and dangerous) to confuse the typical inspirational stories used to celebrate Black History with Obama's present-day political power.
Posts
167 comments:
I think I can detect the vague stirrings of a cult of personality there.
Is this the United States of America?
Just checkin.
Really disturbing.
What are people thinking? I mean, really.
They should probably pair this with Will Ferrell's anti-insurance company celebrity ad for ObamaCare and show it on all the networks. That ought to pretty much kill the national health care initiative for a generation.
Meanwhile over in China, Palin slams Obama:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.5c890613297fae5a68cbf119a882edf8.191&show_article=1
Be scared libs, by VERY scared.
Awww, bless.
C'mon Althouse, you know you were singing "I Like Ike" at school during second grade.
No doubt Beth will pop by to say how wonderful and innocuous it all is.
Some people have no business teaching children.
OMG! This compelled me to go over to Drudge.
The body of a part-time Census field worker and occasional teacher, was found in rural southeast Kentucky. The Census has suspended door-to-door interviews in rural Clay County, where the body was found, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Investigators are still trying to determine whether the death was a killing or a suicide. Investigators would only say they were puzzled why the word "fed" was written backward."
OK, I might have possibly made up that last part.
Did the person making the video get the parents' permission before putting their children's images on youtube?
FLS -- They should file a civil suit. What's the claim exactly? Tortful public display of video footage? And what are the damages?
You let us know.
Can anyone explain the difference between how are these children are being used to elevate Obama and the Robotic Floor Tiles in the previous post?
When some of these kids grow into rebellious adolescents, they'll feel strangely drawn to the Glenn Beck Show. Well, if it's still legal to broadcast Glenn Beck then.
Coyle -- I have been thinking along those lines, too. Obama is going to be really, really uncool to current 12-year-olds in a very short time.
So the point is NOT that this is awful Emperor worship, but that - gasp! - the forms weren't filled out correctly?
Look, shiny!
of course, I know FLS is just being clever. He can't possibly mean that he's focused on that.
Surely someone has figured out the school by now.
Anyway, they warned us this would happen if we let the President speak to the kids.
I bet half those kids don't know what 9x9 is. Yet there's time for leader worship.
If we're supposed to worry about exploiting children for political advantage, it looks like a dead heat to me.
Context has been eliminated from the video -- all we know is there is a group of young children standing kitty-corner to a stage.
Is it a school?
Is it a public school?
If it's a school, were the children students there?
Were the words uttered as part of the pedagogical program?
Was the performance intended to be seen by the public?
For all we know, this was a meeting of the Very Young Democrats at the Unitarian fellowship hall.
What do you want to be that participation in this Obama Youth sing-a-long was mandatory?
It also makes me wonder how many other teachers and/or administrators have their students professing fealty to Obama and singing his praises?
Uh oh. FLS is trotting out the could-have-been theories. And this after suggesting the damages-less, baseless lawsuit.
Desperation.
7 -- do you make your living jumping to conclusions?
And where do you get the idea that schoolchildren have no reasonable expectation of privacy in their schools?
If we're supposed to worry about exploiting children for political advantage, it looks like a dead heat to me.
I give your attempt at spin a 3 out of 10. The attempt to spin revealing the exploitation of children as equivalent TO the exploitation of children deserves several points just for sheer chutzpah, but that's about it.
No, but I will pop by to say how pathetic Alex is. He wants so desperately to be liked by the cool kids at the lunch table.
Former -- I'm just asking what your cause of action is...and still waiting. Even if you have one, I'm waiting for an amount of damages. Just a ballpark will do.
Furthermore, and more generally, I'm making fun of you for defending something that is clearly indefensible.
Speaking as a cook kid at the cool table, I like you, Alex. And you, too, Beth.
Both of you can sit at my table.
The teacher(s) only get a pass if they were working on a song that included the names of all the presidents, with student composers suggesting verses for each.
Oh Millard Fillmore
You're like Happy Gilmore
We all should chill more
Like Millard Fillmore...
kinda like "50 Nifty United States"?
So "We adore the fourty-four, but especially the latest;
Washington, Lincoln, but Obama is the greatest."
WV: hords, as in "hords of English teachers chased me with a dictionary."
yes, I know --
forty-four
sheesh
Seven, you'll have to sit between us. It'll be like one of those GRE "who sits where?" questions.
Beth -- Only if I can have a bite of your moonpie.
Miller -- It's 57. Up your game!
It is creepy, and weird.
I remember little kids from the Gulf singing to Bush at the White House, thanking him and FEMA - yes, FEMA.
We learned cool songs like "Erie Canal" when I was that age.
And you'll always know your neighbor,
You'll always know your pal
If you've ever navigated on the Erie Canal.
The "jazz hands" move they're doing is creepy, too.
Oh no, macho. Up yours!
(sorry - couldn't resist such a great straightline.)
WV: sphinger, as in "And when I put in this sphinger, cough."
I can't make the "fifty-seven, almost heaven Yoo-nited States" song work, though.
Mmmm. Moonpie. And a Barq's rootbeer. Sorry, I'm not sharing. You might as well ask Althouse for some of her Percocet. It ain't happening.
If only I’d been taught to sing an uplifting song about Pres. Nixon when I was their age I might not have turned out to be the godless, commie lib I am today.
Can someone clarify the words for me? A bit cacaphonic for me, though I keep hearing Barack Obama's name in there.
In these parts one can't put a kid's picture in the paper without written release from parental units.
But that's not the real issue, is it?
Bizarre.
You know BHO could stop this in a heart beat.
But he hasn't.
And he won't.
I am so craving delicious southern treats right now.
"Can anyone explain the difference between how are these children are being used to elevate Obama and the Robotic Floor Tiles in the previous post?"
The teacher would object to any comparison because it is not her FOOT that is directing the movement of those little kids, it's her creative mind and that damn finger she keeps waving at them.
Not too hep on moonpie because I don't know what it is.
But Louisiana BBQ? for sure.
I went to the ocean the other day, and the tide definitely wasn't coming in as high. So he's stopped that rising of the waters.
Oh.
Moonpie and an RC Cola.
Maybe some sugar cubes on the side?
http://www.moonpie.com/hist_text.asp
I'd suggest Cheerwine instead of RC, but RC is pretty tasty, too.
Percocet, by the way, makes me itchy.
I leave you to your dreams of moonpies and tasty Southern treats. Sweet dreams.
Never had Cheerwine, but I still remember & miss the taste of RC Cola. I used to buy that all the time when I was a kid.
Cheerwine looks pretty interesting.
We used to get soda from an independent bottling company - can't remember the name, but we got an 18 pack (? I think) of all the odd flavors. Pink, green, orange, purple, brown, pale yellow.
Until I get proof that these are not some Freeper spawn doing a satiric skit, "Public School in the Age of Obama," then I'm going to have to assume that they are plants.
I am told that when I was a kid, and the RC Cola commercials would come on, I would drop everything and stand in front of the television, yelling, "RC Cola's on!"
What kind of plants? Freesias?
WV: braccula, what vampires eat to give them that healthy green glow
Peter: In the words of Otter in Animal House:
"Hey, it's gotta work better than the truth."
This was filmed around June 19, 2009 at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, NJ. "
Should be easy enough to verify.
June 19?? I thought the blogosphere was supposed to be fast.
(That is not intended to suggest that I think the video is faked.)
And for those of you not catching the humor of the earlier comment re. plants: it's a riff off of commenter Quayle's demand for proof that those holding offensive and/or stupid signs at the 9/12 rally were not liberals bent on undermining the protest.
Miller -- That's summertime, right? On its face, that's a little irregular and goes against the dastardly assumptions we are making.
Peter -- I knew you were joking. It was funny.
I don't know what their school year is like.
It could be an innocent afterschool I Love Obama club meeting.
The school is K-Grade 2 only. I couldn't find any info about whether this was a school event or a sponsored event or just a harmless social club meeting.
The reviews on the school show that "everyone likes the principles."
Someone on the youtube thread posted the phone number to a similarly named school in Arkansas. Guess that principal is in for a surprise tomorrow morning, too.
The plot thickens. The wiki page for Burlington, NJ, lists the elementary schools, and Bernice Young is not one of them.
I won't publish the name/address/phone number, because I fear they will be inundated with contacts tomorrow.
But remember, just because this was posted as coming from this school doesn't mean it did occur at this school.
Miller, I don't see it listed here. What have you got, other than the youtube info?
With this much time between the filming and being put up on youtube, and the fact that the only other local video put up by "altered beat" is from Minnesota, I'm guessing that "altered beat" did not actually videotape this.
And in 2010 last day of school for this site is Friday, June 18, 2010.
So Friday, June 19, 2009 is plausible.
It has 1000 kids from Pre-K to Grade 2. Yikes! That's a lot of energy under one roof!
I'm not excusing the song, but the teacher is likely to receive death threats over this, and that's will be over the line.
Again, there is no proof this is from that school, that is was sponsored by the school, or that it occurred on the date mentioned.
There will be a lively switchboard tomorrow.
Here's a school by that name in Burlington NJ: http://www.burltwpsch.org/schools/ys/
The Thursday lunch menu is very telling:
Legalize all the Undocumented Workers Nachos w/Grd. Beef & Cheese, Fluffy Obama Rice, Tender Iranian Mullah Niblets, Carbon Credit Juice, Fresh Fruit Choice (including Public Option), Milk Choice (but you must choose milk and pay for it)
I agree that crazy people with access to phone lines will probably make tomorrow an interesting day. But it took me about 20 seconds to find the information on the school mentioned in this video (I simply cut-n-pasted the YouTube video info, found the first 10 hits, and clicked the links.)
So while I won't publish the information, I'm sure that there are scads of Breitbart wanna-bees who are going to converge on the school electronically.
Peter -- Are you sure there will be death threats? I think your prediction says more about you than about the future.
Miller, I see the problem. There's a Burlington and a Burlington Township in New Jersey. Two different municipalities, and two different school districts. And just to add to the confusion, there's a Burlington County, too, but they don't have a school district.
OK kids, don't panic. This was an event related to the "interactive digibook", I Am Barack Obama , written by one Charisse Carney-Nunes, in which the little shavers were invited to picture themselves as Barack Obama.
Here is a version of the video, posted by the publisher, Brand Nu Words.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayXz-r0lWmQ
Note that the date was indeed June 19, 2009
Seven, read through the youtube comments. Some whackos are going to take this too far.
Remember when electing the first African-American President was thought to be inspirational to youth? That he (or she) may yet grow up to be President?
Well this drudge report spin shows that conservatives seem to be shitting all over that idea.
Well, I won't watch the whole video - either of them. I have a weak stomach and a low tolerance for political treacle.
But I don't remember Father's Day celebrations from school where we sang glory songs about President Eisenhower.
FLS -- What does that change, FLS? I mean, other than the fact that this thing is a planned and possibly ubiquitous leftist phenomenon and not unique to one school?
Glad to see you trawling leftist hothouses for our benefit, though.
How's that lawsuit coming?
Remember when dissent was the highest form of patriotism?
And because the children came to be involved in the book-related event, the original posting of the video was likely authorized by the parents.
Peter -- That's fair. (I won't read through the shit there; I just wanted to see that you had some evidence of something.)
FLS -- We don't sing songs about our elected leaders, even if they happen to be black. It's grossly un-American, not to mention patronizing to everyone involved. We certainly don't foist such singing on kids, in schools where they ought to be learning basic skills.
How's that lawsuit coming?
What does that change
"Kids who have read a book about our President voluntarily going to a meet-the-author event" has nothing in common with "Public school kids indoctrinated to love Obama." Other that "kids."
And I found the video by browsing Youtube.
the original posting of the video was likely authorized by the parents
Let's sue those bastards!
It's still bizarre - why would a school be teaching kids to sing praises to Obama?
Does that not strike you as just politically tone deaf?
Really?
Reverse the election results. Would it be the same to sing Hosannas to Fightin' John McCain, the first real Vietnam War Veteran? Kids could aspire to serve their country by following his example?
No? No problem with that?
It's certainly in bad taste.
However, if it was an afterschool event not sponsored by the school, I have no problem.
If it's part of the paid-by-the-government instructionaries, then I do have a problems. It's the NEA writ small, small enough to fit into the innocent mouth of a child.
By the way, is the entire YouTube comments section filled with crazies, right and left?
I'm a Fightin' John McCainer
A John McCainer, do or die
A senior cit'zen way, way past my prime
Born before there were cars
I've got a hot young wife
She's my John McCainer joy
John McCain went to Saigon
Just to be a pris'ner
I am a John McCainer boy
7M, I love that song!
I'm actually stunned at watching this video. I mean it's children, young children, singing the praises of the great dear leader, Obama. Frankly, I think this is weak, what they should have done is have them videoed jumping out of a sky high window in adulation like Thulsa Doom asked his worshiper(s) to do. Lame, terrestrial praise. What is really needed here is magnanimous aerial praise instead.
I'm not sifting through all 2,900 comments. The majority of the comments I've read are of the anti-Obama persuasion.
By the way, the ominous music seems to have been added to the video. It is not on (what appears to be) the original.
Isn't the reason that this video is such a big deal is that it fits nicely into an evolving narrative about what Obama's supporters believe about Obama?
And isn't that narrative becoming more and more ironic all the time?
We don't sing songs about our elected leaders
While I am not $17 curious enough to find out, the text of the interactive digibook has both rhyme and rhythm. She has a youtube of the president of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation reading part of the book aloud. So I suspect that the singing was a group reading.
We don't do group readings about our elected leaders.
Seven, the reason that this video is such a big deal is that it fits nicely into an evolving narrative about what Obama's detractors believe Obama's supporters believe about Obama.
Yeah, some of Obama's supporters are huffing the kool-ade powder, but not all of them are.
Isn't the reason that this video is such a big deal...
is because it reflects what the teapartiers believe about Obama -- that he is some dread totalitarian of some sinister ideology. Obama -- our Kim Jong-Il, inspiring the Hitlerjugend to greater efforts for the USSR.
Perhaps if the Obama administration's NEA didn't enlist artists to aid Obama, and if there weren't Youtube videos of adults leading children in high praise of Obama, the right would have a harder time this narrative.
In fact, I don't think the right is doing much to create the narrative. I think the narrative is creating itself.
The narrative may or may not be a proper illustration of reality. But that doesn't much matter. For example, George W. Bush isn't really a slobbering moron.
We don't do group readings about our elected leaders.
If children can read a biography of Jennifer Aniston (Did you know she was a proud Greek-American? Whose dad was for years a soap opera star?), they can read about Barack Obama.
But the book is not about Barack Obama -- it is about the little kid reader accomplishing what Barack Obama did.
Were the children also reading about Jennifer Aniston? Or are you merely pulling that out of your ass?
A set of biographies marketed to children's libraries includes Jennifer Aniston.
So there's a book in a library about Jennifer Aniston?
What's your point? Do you have a point?
Most Americans will agree with me that this is, at best, creepy. You are dumb to defend it.
Schools in the northeast go into June. I always took my Regents exams in mid - late June. We started after Labor Day.
Even if this is an after school activity -- if it is part of the after school babysitting programs that are run it is inappropriate. If it is summer day care it is inappropriate.
7, what should children be taught about President Obama? Should they be trained to ignore him for the next seven years? Or, as a fellow coffee drinker does, should he be dismissed as "that coon in the White House"?
Creepy is subjecting public school students to singing about our President. Students voluntarily participating in a "Meet-the-Author" event covering "I Am Barack Obama" is not creepy.
Creepy is subjecting public school students to singing about our President.
Yes.
If your version of the facts is correct, however, it's still creepy, in the same way that seeing kids off at some religious camp sing songs about God is creepy.
Should they be trained to ignore him for the next seven years?
FLS bitterly anticipates a second term for Obama.
FLS sets up a straw man, "trained to ignore".
Actually, FLS, when I was in grade school, that seemed to be standard practice, to stay away from current events. I mean, we did "current events" projects, but our textbooks all ended before anything controversial came up.
A few months back I got done teaching American History to my son. I made sure we were very careful from Reagan onward, and stopped at Clinton.
With all the stuff there is to learn about, and which has more than fleeting value for those trying to educate rather than indoctrinate, it's not hard to avoid contentious ground.
Or, as a fellow coffee drinker does, should he be dismissed as "that coon in the White House"?
Does using quotes exempt you from the summary judgment that using that particular word makes you racist?
fls, when you imagine those kids "voluntarily" going to this event, are you picturing them hopping into their Priuses and driving themselves?
What is creepy about this -- and it's even creepier that you so thoroughly fail to see it -- is that these kids are not there voluntarily and cannot be. They are LITTLE KIDS. Somebody drove them there. Somebody bought them the book. Somebody taught them the words. Somebody told them to sing them. It is creepy to use children that way -- exactly as it is creepy to take them to anti-war marches or tea parties or anti-abortion demonstrations or any other such thing and stuff signs into their hands.
Further, the personality-cult aspect of this particular manipulation of children is really disgusting. Can you really tell us, FLS, that your head would not explode if you were looking at a video shot in 2003 of little Republican kids being carefully taught to sing "George will make me strong!" after reading a "digibook" about how they, too, could aspire to be like Bush?
Sick.
Distorted.
Repellent.
Cult of Celebrity generation of teachers running the system.
Respect for the office of the president is different from personality worship.
BTW, do these kids say the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States?
Are kids taught American history and the Constitution?
I find myself disappointed by this video as none of the children are wearing uniforms.
wv = hanoto. One of the Science Patrol dudes from the kids TV show "Ultraman."
The first song has them chanting "Barack Hussein Obama"
Including his middle name? Damn Wingnuts!
He said we must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay
Um, Um, Um, Barack Hussein Obama
The defense of the indefensible has been markedly weak.
This is a betrayal of American ideals in favor of leftist authoritariansim, and ought to be condemned.
There is from here only one step to "Obama Youth" blue-shirts, and everything that entails.
I have surgeries just for the drugs. (Kidding.) I had a Demerol self-pump back in June. Demerol is a lot more fun when you're not in pain. (I had it pre-surgery when a chunk of my leg was cut out. I had it post surgery this time.)
Re the video, I'm glad you haven't detected our evil English plot to brainwash Americans to secretly sing "God Save The Queen." LOL
WV tipporo
the generous tip I always leave those poor, illiterate Mexican young men who work at the authentic Mexican restaurant--they know if they make my margarita strong, I can't do math any more and prefer to overtip than undertip. :-)
Creepy.
Equal work for equal pay seems like a weird thing to be included in that.
I yearn for the good old days when school children sang homage to Oscar Mayer.
Barack Hussein Obama
He said Red, Yellow, Black or White
All are equal in his sight
Mmm, mmm, mm!
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
FLS: Very Young Democrats - heh.
Oh, and in the Jesus version, the children are "precious" rather than "equal". Interesting switch, that.
I thought it interesting that the song at the end was a riff on the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Very few of these children will remember what they did at the end of 2nd grade by the time they get to middle school. On the whole, I'd say the film is a little creepy -- I'd rather have them praising Millicent Fenwick.
Listening to 2nd grade kids sing/perform at school events is the worst. Well, until 6th-grade band comes along.
..and why is this video a SHOCK video? (Did Drudge mispell schlock?)
Questionable taste? Foolish? Weird? Yes. What's shocking about that?
I still find shocking anything that resembles communist cult leader worship, as if people learned nothing by the death of 100 million people.
Well, I'm of the opinion that this kind of thing (singing about the President) has always happened in the US -- it's just that YouTube is a recent phenomenon.
Seven,
Really, I don't care what you and Beth do, or what euphemisms you use to describe it--but could you just keep it private, ok???
Beth,
"remember little kids from the Gulf singing to Bush at the White House, thanking him and FEMA - yes, FEMA."
Well, that does sound kind of creepy but I'd like to see the text before I decide for sure. (And probably this should pass w/o a note that never before the Katrina aftermath was there ever an expectation that FEMA would replace local and state responders...)
miller,
"However, if it was an afterschool event not sponsored by the school, I have no problem."
Well I still do--it's still a terrible thing to have kids do, even if not quasi-compulsory. And I see mrs. whatsit said it even better than I was trying to...
I have never witnessed anything like this in my life.
It may have happened for Woodrow Wilson, FDR, and JFK, but I really doubt you'd find this sort of smarmy sycophantic schlock anywhere about Reagan, Nixon, Bush, or Eisenhower.
Guess the Party.
But if there was a teacher-led show of praise for Almighty Ron or What a Friend We Have in Nixon, that, too was wrong and dangerous.
What a Friend We Have in Nixon
Hee!!!
I definately don't remember any odes to Reagan from elementary school.
When I was in 2nd grade, I don't recall singing the praises of Richard Milhouse Nixon. Or of James Earl Carter in High School.
"Equal work for equal pay seems like a weird thing to be included in that."
Especially when one considers that wasn't the case for Obama's campaign employees.
"as if people learned nothing by the death of 100 million people."
People keep quoting this statistic as though it was a bug in the program. It's a feature. Just ask the President's friend, Bill Ayers. Who also happens to be an education professor. They complained that no one connected the dots before 9/11/01. I've been connecting dots for some time now, and the picture that's emerging is disturbing, to say the least.
My daughter's kindergarten class did sing the list of Presidents ending ♫...and now Bill Clinton, tooooo ♫. That was it.
I myself never sang Onward Lyndon Soldiers but I vaguely recall being forced to warble:
A mighty Nixon is our Prez,
A Milhous never failing;
Our leader He did bomb the gooks
with napalm and much strafing. .
Sumpin' like 'at.
What accomplishments? I'm not even being partisan here... what has this man done since he became president?
jonshore: I hear he gave a great speech at the UN.
It is no longer shocking, it's expected. The Germans have a term for this subtle propaganda which makes more sense when you consider what is currently going on within the NEA (arts).
Gleichschaltung – meaning “coordination", "making the same", "bringing into line", is a Nazi term for the process by which the Nazi regime successively established a system of totalitarian control over the individual, and tight coordination over all aspects of society and commerce. One goal of this policy was to eliminate individualism by forcing everybody to adhere to a specific doctrine and way of thinking and to control as many aspects of life as possible using an invasive force”
When I was in 2nd grade, I don't recall singing the praises of Richard Milhouse Nixon
You don't remember
Richard Nixon
He's our man
Hero of our nation
For his adventures just be sure
Oh, I'm sorry, that was Roger Ramjet
these kids are not there voluntarily and cannot be. They are LITTLE KIDS. Somebody drove them there. Somebody bought them the book. Somebody taught them the words. Somebody told them to sing them.
Yes, and I'm fairly certain that somebody was their moms and dads. In my day, little kids had many similar involuntary experiences: church, music lessons, choir practice, etc. etc. Parents I know report their kids resist going to Chinese school on Saturday morning.
Can parents indoctrinate their kids? Personally I would draw the line before the Gaede sisters "Prussian Blue."
From Fox News
The video identifies the kids as students at the B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington, N.J., with taping taking place last June.
The song quotes directly from the spiritual "Jesus Loves the Little Children," though Jesus' name is replaced with Obama's: "He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama."
Sure, parents "indoctrinate" their kids. That's what parents do.
It's offensive when the schools do it because they are not the parents who can decide what values to instill.
And it's offensive that taxpayers are paying for this incultation. Stick to the facts. See Dick. See Jane. 1 plus 1 = 2. And so on.
Emperor worship is wrong in the public school. If parents want to (a) Pay for and (b) host such a thing after school hours for kids who are opted-in by the parents then I don't have a problem with that per se. But the school should not be allowing this during any school time. It's sick and wrong.
O-bama, Hey-bama, 'bama, 'bama O
'bama Hey, 'bama O! Superstar!...
Barak Hussein! O-bama! Who are you, what are you waiting for?
The youth singing praises to Dear Leader and the cult of personality surrounding BO is revoltingly totalitarian in feel.
I'm not sure the country can tolerate 4 years of Hussein.
What race is the teacher? She's never shown.
Reason did a funny mashup of this type of thing a while back: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2naSzb1psU
Emperor worship is wrong in the public school. If parents want to (a) Pay for and (b) host such a thing after school hours for kids who are opted-in by the parents then I don't have a problem with that per se. But the school should not be allowing this during any school time.
I really don't think the assembly took place on school time.
This year at least, the last day of school, as well as high school graduation, occur on the third Thursday of June, according to the Burlington Township School District calendar. The Friday is a staff day. I suspect the same held true last year, and the assembly took place the day after school let out. The BTSD high school graduation did take place on June 18, the day before the video was shot.
What race is the teacher? She's never shown
What teacher?
Whether it was a school-led event or a some sort of weird junior bookclub singalong, it's still creepy.
Especially odd was that bit at the very end set to the tune of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic". Or maybe they were thinking of "John Brown's Body", which invokes even more disturbing layers of meaning.
WV: "Uncommi". With real lemon and lime flavors, it's the light, refreshing alternative to Comminism.
Supposedly, the following was put up on the school district's website today. I can't verify this myself as I can't access the site.
Dear Burlington Township Families:
Today we became aware of a video that was placed on the internet which has been reported in the media. The video is of a class of students singing a song about President Obama. The activity took place during Black History Month in 2009, which is recognized each February to honor the contributions of African Americans to our country. Our curriculum studies, honors and recognizes those who serve our country. The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized.
If you have any further questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact me or Dr. King, Principal of B. Bernice Young School, directly.
Sincerely,
Dr. Christopher M. Manno,
Superintendent of Schools
It looks to me like the video was taken on Monday, March 23, not in June.
I base this on two things. First, this Salem, NJ article says the author went to a school in Salem NJ on the 24th, and mentions that she was in Burlington the day before.
Second, look at the children's clothes. No way that the overwhelming majority would be wearing long sleaves in June.
Well, I'll await further developments, but if this was a school-sponsored and --paid-for event, then this is completely wrong and outrageous.
Paeans to Dear Leader and paid for by taxpayers. Such a deal!
Actually I think the song leader missed the best adaptation given portrayals of President Obama by the MSM and the left.. for instance: From Jesus Christ Superstar "Hosanna" an adaptation.
Hey 'bama, Obama, 'bama, 'bama O
'bama hey bama O Superstar
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwbI_mZaCoM&fmt=18&annotation_id=annotation_869452&feature=iv
It looks to me like the video was taken on Monday, March 23, not in June.
I base this on two things. First, this Salem, NJ article says the author went to a school in Salem NJ on the 24th, and mentions that she was in Burlington the day before.
Interesting that the author would find it necessary to fake the date of the video, even referencing Father's Day.
Reminds me of the Obama birth announcements planted in the Honolulu paper, knowing that his natural-born status would be questioned decades in the future, when the infant would be a Presidential candidate.
But the long sleeves are conclusive. My wife wears long sleeves to work in the summer, but then again, her workplace is air-conditioned... now wait a minute. Could Burlington Township, a place where school operates well into June, have air-conditioned schools? And why would anyone go to Burlington, other than to make a presentation in a school?
Your version of the facts turned out to be bullshit, FLS, as demonstrated by the letter from the principal. Nice try, though.
DJ GJ With My Favorite Obama Kids Sing For Change Remix - Pyongyang For Change.
Kids for change: The Pyongyang Remix
fls said...
My wife wears long sleeves to work in the summer, but then again, her workplace is air-conditioned...
Doesn't your wife get hot while she is running around on the playground during recess?
fls said...
Interesting that the author would find it necessary to fake the date of the video, even referencing Father's Day.
Which author, and where did they state the date? ( I'm not doubting you, I'm just curious what you're referencing. )
I see where it says the book's author created the video as a father's day tribute to Obama. However, it does not say that the childern were video-taped on or around father's day.
as demonstrated by the letter from the principal.
What letter from what principal?
The Burlington Twp. SD website has been unreachable since morning.
I'm going to flip-flop and say that Ignorance Is Bliss is correct.
According to the BTSD room booking website, Monday, March 23, from 7pm to 8pm, the Bernice Young School gym was booked for A Night with the Author. Later that week the Spring Book Fair began.
http://ems.burltwpsch.org/BookingDetails.aspx?data=YmFRo0EfjAgHou6TIcGiQuUZ9bpXWcUGIG%2fVzhsIiIw%3d
Given the lateness of the hour, I must believe that the parents permitted the kids to participate.
fls said...
Given the lateness of the hour, I must believe that the parents permitted the kids to participate.
Probably correct. While my kids have had required events in the evening at that age, they've also had meet-the-author type events that were optional.
However, it certainly appears that this was not the kid's first time through those songs. I'd be willing to bet they practiced these songs during school.
Sure looks like there is sunlight streaming in from the right side of the frame, so that would put this during the school day, not in the evening.
In my experience it is the unusual gym/auditorium that has windows. I suspect the lights in front of the stage were turned off so that the audience could see the projected images, while lights to the right of the stage were kept on. To me, nothing about the light says "sunlight" in particular.
About that Jennifer Anniston book: school libraries and public libraries have books about all kinds of celebrities, particularly biographies of movie stars and sport figures.
Nothing wrong with that. Kids like them. No one is forcing them to read them; they do so voluntarily.
Both my elementary and high school auditoriums had a wall of windows. Same for the gym at my kids school.
Still looks like sunlight to me.
The passing chimes that start 10 seconds into the clip and the fact that one kid states the lines before the rest of the group starts singing/chanting both support my theory that this was a rehearsal and not an evening performance.
my theory that this was a rehearsal and not an evening performance.
I don't understand how this theory fits into a one-hour meet-the-author event. In my experience, you show up, the author discusses his book, there is time for questions, you buy one, and he autographs it. The author performs, and the audience doesn't. Other signs that this was the meet-the-author event were the book cover poster foam board, its supporting easel, and slides in some format -- I doubt the school had their own set.
But unlike a group of adults at the local Barnes and Noble, here, the kids will be easily bored. So the author will likely try to engage them in various ways instead of merely lecturing them. Especially because the author is peddling an interactive digibook, audience participation would be appropriate.
I suspect the author taught them the chant, then asked whoever wanted to participate to come up to the front of the room. That's why it sounds rough -- it was never meant to be polished.
Being well-behaved, I never had to stay after school, so I don't know if the bells ring outside the school day. However, the chimes might merely indicate the hour was up or nearly up, even at 8pm.
In any event, the gym was unscheduled for the rest of the day. So I don't know when this rehearsal would have taken place.
peter hoh said...
Still looks like sunlight to me.
I agree. If you look at the last 10 seconds, the boy all the way to the right is standing so that the sunlight is hitting him partway up the legs.
FLS, you've done the research to find that there was an evening "meet the author" at the school. Fine. I'm not arguing that point.
I'm saying that several factors suggest to me that this clip takes place during the school day. Most notably, the sunlight streaming from the right side of the frame.
One possibility is that the students were rehearsing this in order to perform at the evening event.
1. While the first kid in red is rehearsing the words by himself in the beginning, a school buzzer / bell goes off.
At what? 7 p.m. at night??
2. School Book Fairs are that -- SCHOOL Book Fairs. They are done under the auspices of the school. In this part of the country the Scholastic Magazine Book Club plays a big part in them.
3. I was transcribing tohe words, I got hung up on some garbled parts and went to Fox. Words are here.
They are appalling.
4. Note in the front of stage when camera pans, a poster on an easle which say "I am Barack Obama."
5. The letter to the Brunswick parents is convincing to me, though without the website up, not definite. The giveaway on its genuiness is the complete unapologetic tone and the blame shift made with "The recording and distribution of the class activity were unauthorized." Nothing about whether the "class activity" was inappropriate.
The superintendent's letter is also interesting because Black History Month is February, he alleges that this "class activity" was done for that and all the dates skittering around in the comments are March to June. All of which raises the question about whether there is ANOTHER tape out there maybe?
I am curious, looking at the actual lyrics why they doesn't bother FLS.
First chant:
He said we must .... to make this country strong again.
(In BHO's history book we have NEVER been strong or good.)
"mm-mm-mm"
"Barack Hussein Obama!"
?????? IF I were DBQ I would insert the favorite profanity here.
He said we [all] must be fair today
Equal work means equal pay.
Oh he does, does he? Even Jimmy Carter got this one right. He said (only thing I remember that he said) "Life isn't fair."
And if it is equal pay for equal work, it sure isn't BHO's invention.
(How much did Michelle get paid for ......?"
Oh yeah don't forget: the
"mm-mm-mm"
"Barack Hussein Obama"
snap snap snap
He says we all must take a stand
To make sure everyone gets a chance
"mm-mm-mm"
"Barack Hussein Obama"
Doncha' like the HE says, and the ALL MUSTs?
He said 'red, yellow. black or white
All are equal in his sight.'
Right.
The words are copped from a kids' Christian song (music George Frederick Root) by Clare Herbert Woolston, (late 19th century).
It's "Jesus," and it's "precious in His sight."
But hey -- Christians don't slit people's throats and cut off heads, so you can just take Barack Hussein Obama and put him in there.
"mm-mm-mm"
"Barack Hussein Obama"
"Yes!"
What I picked out of the Battle Hymn of the Republic (John Brown's body....) song varies slightly from FOX but essentially the same.
Hello, Mr. President we honor you today!
For all your great accomplishments, we all doth/do say "hooray!"
Oh gaaaahhhh.
For all his great accomplishments???
Hooray, Mr. President! You're number one!
Number WON!!
The first black American to lead this great nation!
(So you deserve to have us children sing you a laudatory song.)
Hooray, Mr. President we honor your great plans
Great plans???
What kid knows how to "honor" what great plans? (Kim Il Jong springs to mind, unbidden.)
To make this country's economy number one again!
It has come to my attention that BHO is NOT interested in making this country's economy number one. He repeatedly voices a commitment to "fairness" [his definition, probably not in George's dictionary] and redistribution of the wealth, which historically reduces countries to double digit standings.
So, no, it's no more number uno for the USA. Sorry kiddos. Someone fed you a bum steer. (Mixed metaphor?)
Hooray Mr. President, we're really proud of you!
And we stand for all Americans under the great Red, White, and Blue!
Not for me you don't. And no, I'm not. Presumptuous song writer.
Mr. President we know you'll do the trick
So here's a hearty hip-hooray ----
Yeah that's the word -- trick.
Brings to my mind, unbidden, a ho and a pimp in a chinchilla coat ....
We are the mark.
wv statin
I'm statin the obvious.
This is something he needs to address, instead of pretending he doesn't know about ACORN (but he DOES know about Cambridge cops and Kenywe West's bad stage manners.) You know. The important things.
But since he uses "I" "my" and "me" in public more than any president in the history of the United States, (even Bill Clinton!) I doubt an inappropriate use of children is going to bother him once single iota.
Obama's just preparing the battlespace before he sends these youthful activists over to ACORN to, ahem, help with the "fundraising".
Apparently this is not the first time this school district has pissed off conservatives.
Hmm, IiB, that makes it more plausible then that this was a school-sponsored event to praise the Mighty One.
I guess separation of church and state only applies to those nasty Christians, but when it's Emperor worship it's just fine and dandy.
I made the (to me) quite reasonable assumption that the superintendant would be the last person to know what was going on in one of his schools. Pressed for a response, he just winged something.
It would be like asking John-Paul II about some altar boy who a priest groped in Dubuque.
I was transcribing tohe words
Why, for the love of all that's holy?
I'd drop $17 on the book before I tried to make out the lyrics of a song about Barack Obama.
Isn't that the problem FLS? You don't care to look at content. You just comment about the chant and the song without knowing what was actually being said.
I am not about to run off and drop $17 on a book I have absolutely no interest in reading. Not to mention it is a more than 20 mile drive one way to a place that might have a book --- written apparently, by a Harvard law classmate of BHO's if I have my other stories straight.
I am interested in the personality cult that Barack Obama has created. It is actually quite disturbing. We used to laugh at the silly examples of children chanting and singing songs about their great leaders. This is sickening.
The fact that you have no cogent response to children in a public school being taught a song to praise a man, "honor" him for his "accomplishments," promote him as a demagogue, instead attempting to distract. (Oh, the parents might sue becasue their kid is on youtube without their permission!)
Like anyone on Team Onama gives a flippin frog about that.
former law student said...
We don't do group readings about our elected leaders.
If children can read a biography of Jennifer Aniston (Did you know she was a proud Greek-American? Whose dad was for years a soap opera star?), they can read about Barack Obama.
Yup, her dad played Victor Kiriakis. I watched the soap regularly in late high-school and college. I thought it had the hottest women on it, but I really started to get into it. I've fallen out of soap operas for a long time now, but it was a cheap indulgence. I was a big fan of John Aniston. A totally underrated actor in my opinion.
Though I would have preferred that my predictions were wrong, there have been death threats.
. . . 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 . . . .
peter hoh - that's horrible and despicable that someone would make death threats to the school superintendent! Let's make THAT the #1 news story!
As I watched them pour their tiny hearts into their "mmm, mmm, mmm's" , my eyes teared up. I love watching children praise their leaders. Who can forget the cute little Baby-Bush-Jesus-Children?
http://limittedliabilityco.blogspot.com/
What are people thinking? I mean, really. Jersey bola
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