Wingnuts: Word Count Edition

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Yesterday, John Cole asked:

Who do you all think will be the first wingnut to find a hidden coded message in the text of the speech? The odds on favorite for that kind of lunacy would be Glenn Beck, but then again the one lunatic who pushed the “Republican car dealers is being punished!” nonsense would be a good bet, too, as would that clown who freaked out over dijon mustard. There is just so much quality amateur wingnuttery going on these days that there really is no safe bet anymore.

DougJ: Heaven knows I’m miserable now

After following JK’s link to Ed Morrisey’s silliness about Obama’s speech:

I’ve run the speech through a word frequency counter and found the following results:

* 56 iterations of “I”

* 19 iterations of “school”

* 10 iterations of “education”

* 8 iterations of “responsibility”

* 7 iterations of “country”

* 5 iterations each of “parents”, “teachers”

* 3 iterations of “nation”

In other words, Barack Obama referenced himself more than school, education, responsibility, country/nation, parents, and teachers combined. And to think that people accused Obama of self-promotion!

It’s not the secret-message-finding John predicted, but it’s close.

Meanwhile, Sully’s manservant Conor Friedersdorf takes a break from discussing “The Game” to do his best TNR-style “I’m not a winger but there are legitimate issues blah blah blah” imitation.

Wingers say batshit crazy thing. Halperin/Politico tout said batshit crazy thing. Conor Friedersdorf/Charles Lane/Marc Ambinder/Ross Douthat say the crazy thing is going too far but that there’s grain of truth to it and that the whole controversy is ultimately Democrats’ fault.

Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

Update. Cleek finds that Saint Ronnie liked the first person singular too:

just for reference, here is Reagan on:

i: 17

i’m: 3

i’ve: 3

i’d: 1

i’ll: 1

school: 1

education: 0

responsibility: 0

country: 7

nation: 4

parents: 0

teacher/teachers : 0

dday: Read Every Third Word and Rearrange The Letters And You'll See It, Man

Here's the text of the big speech that will indoctrinate our kids and turn them into a socialist Army of children crusaders. Sure, the message to the kids appears to be to stay in school and work hard and reach their potential. But everyone knows that it's not the text, it's the subtext. For example, I heard that the camera was going to show Obama from the waist down, and his smooth pelvic thrusts and hip twists would turn the kids into violent, sex-starved maniacs. I think he learned it all from this book.



Sadly, America's great hero in fighting back against messages to children about the value of hard work, Florida GOP chair Jim Greer, is now cravenly capitulating by approving of the Obama speech. How could he? Doesn't he know that Obama's eyes have the power to hypnotize the pre-teen set into becoming unthinking, rabid, spittle-flecked followers of the grisly philosophy of moderate technocratic fixes that fall short of sweeping changes and keep in place the dominant corporate power structure? Now is not the time to give up! Just because we got rid of one communist (green jobs? Try red jobs!) doesn't mean that others aren't lurking.

Yours in the resistance,

A crazy person

Josh Marshall: Post Wingnut Ergo Propter Wingnut

Florida GOP Chairman Jim Greer, who played a key role mobilizing hysteria about the president's first day of school speech, explains why the advance-release text of the president's actual speech turns out to be so mainstream and unexceptional: Obama scrapped the indoctrination speech after Greer and Co. raised the alarm.

Let's go to the tape . . .
Smooth Like Remy: More Of This Please

Say what you want about David Sirota, the guy doesn't take an shit from wingnuts. And right now with the way the winguts are trying to foment fear against our President and our Democratic led Congress we need more, not less, of people like Sirota on TV pressing liberal and progressive ideas and fighting back against the right wing bullshit.

Posted by sgwhiteinfla

Elliott (TPM): Texan Critic Of Obama's 'Indoctrination' Speech Backs Actual Indoctrination In Textbooks

Conservatives have spent the last week whipping themselves into a frenzy over President Obama's speech tomorrow in which he will indoctrinate the nation's schoolchildren using the instruments of mass media.

As it turns out, Obama's speech will be pretty anodyne. But one vocal critic of Obama's plans, has long been involved in an effort to actually indoctrinate students -- through the state-sanctioned textbooks they study all year.

Meet David Bradley, Republican member of the Texas State Board of Education from Beaumont.

Bradley is "one of the ring leaders" of the GOP-controlled board's large and activist social conservative bloc, says Dan Quinn of the Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself as committed to fighting the religious right. And Bradley will undoubtedly vote for the skewed history textbook standards we told you about last week that focus on Reaganomics, Newt Gingrich, and Phyllis Schlafly, Quinn says.

In one infamous episode in the late 1990s, Bradley physically ripped apart an Algebra textbook because he was unhappy with pictures, recipes, references to women's suffrage, and other subjects incorporated into the text.

In 2003, he voted with a minority of board members against new biology textbooks because they didn't address "weaknesses" in evolution, according to a Texas Freedom Network report (.pdf).

And in a story on the Gingrich-based textbook standards, Bradley is described as "one of the conservative leaders" and "figures the current draft will pass a preliminary vote along party lines 'once the napalm and smoke clear the room.'"

Bradley didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

He clearly couldn't resist jumping in the fray over Obama's speech. To USA Today last week as the controversy was bubbling up, Bradley offered this advice to parents: "If you're concerned, keep your kids home for the day."

As David Carr points out, quoting Bradley in the New York Times, the keep-the-kids-home mantra was repeated ad nauseum on Fox News and elsewhere.

Bradley had this to say when asked by the Houston Chronicle about Obama's speech:

"Under Texas statute, parents have the right to review all instructional materials. They also have the right to opt out their kids from any program they might object to," he said, citing sex education as an example.

In any case, we look forward to Bradley speaking out clearly against partisanship in the classroom when the history standards come up for discussion next week.

digby: Try This At Home

I have a feeling Saxby Chambliss would leave off everything north of the Mason Dixon line.

When I tried it, the US strangely came out looking like France.

Sully: Why I Call Them Christianists

Because this has nothing to do with Christianity:

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Think Progress: Kingston Claims Health System Worked ‘Very Well’ For Bankrupt Cancer Survivor Without Insurance

At a recent town hall held by Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA), an elderly gentleman named Jim Parker stood up and told the congressman that he was recently treated for colon cancer. “I did not have insurance,” he said, because “things didn’t quite work out” after he started his own business. Parker informed Kingston that “a friend of mine was in the same position, and we buried him last January.”

Kingston responded by telling the man that “you did do very well” because he was able to get treated when he arrived at the hospital. Parker responded, “I am functionally bankrupt!” Kingston cut him off and reiterated his point:

But you did get coverage. You didn’t get the insurance, but they won’t turn you down at the door. And we do need to focus on people like you. However, here’s the problem: among other things, in countries that have socialized medicine, you have longer waiting lines, you have bureaucracy…it does lead to rationing.

Watch it:

Kingston’s argument is a familiar conservative trope. In July 2007, President Bush claimed that “people have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

Of course, just going “to an emergency room” is what drives up health care costs for all Americans. “Access to emergency room care is not the same as access to comprehensive, coordinated, and timely health care services—the kind of care that coverage facilitates.” And as the town hall attendee noted, without insurance, a hospital visit commonly leaves Americans bankrupt.

Kingston has been telling the media that the August town halls have helped to defeat Obama’s health care plan. And he recently told Politico that the GOP is “going to keep the nightmare going through the fall.” A nightmare all too real for people like Jim Parker.