About that Pres. Obama Speech to Students…

This was what the fuss was all about??? Really? People need to get a life. Who wouldn’t want their president to encourage their children to do well in school?

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Prepared Remarks of President Barack Obama
Back to School Event

Arlington, Virginia
September 8, 2009

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? I’m here with students at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Virginia. And we’ve got students tuning in from all across America, kindergarten through twelfth grade. I’m glad you all could join us today.

I know that for many of you, today is the first day of school. And for those of you in kindergarten, or starting middle or high school, it’s your first day in a new school, so it’s understandable if you’re a little nervous. I imagine there are some seniors out there who are feeling pretty good right now, with just one more year to go. And no matter what grade you’re in, some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning.

I know that feeling. When I was young, my family lived in Indonesia for a few years, and my mother didn’t have the money to send me where all the American kids went to school. So she decided to teach me extra lessons herself, Monday through Friday – at 4:30 in the morning.

Now I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early. A lot of times, I’d fall asleep right there at the kitchen table. But whenever I’d complain, my mother would just give me one of those looks and say, “This is no picnic for me either, buster.”

So I know some of you are still adjusting to being back at school. But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about your education and what’s expected of all of you in this new school year.

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches about education. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility.

I’ve talked about your teachers’ responsibility for inspiring you, and pushing you to learn.

I’ve talked about your parents’ responsibility for making sure you stay on track, and get your homework done, and don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox.

I’ve talked a lot about your government’s responsibility for setting high standards, supporting teachers and principals, and turning around schools that aren’t working where students aren’t getting the opportunities they deserve.

But at the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world – and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities. Unless you show up to those schools; pay attention to those teachers; listen to your parents, grandparents and other adults; and put in the hard work it takes to succeed.

And that’s what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is. That’s the opportunity an education can provide.

Maybe you could be a good writer – maybe even good enough to write a book or articles in a newspaper – but you might not know it until you write a paper for your English class. Maybe you could be an innovator or an inventor – maybe even good enough to come up with the next iPhone or a new medicine or vaccine – but you might not know it until you do a project for your science class. Maybe you could be a mayor or a Senator or a Supreme Court Justice, but you might not know that until you join student government or the debate team.

And no matter what you want to do with your life – I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it. You want to be a doctor, or a teacher, or a police officer? You want to be a nurse or an architect, a lawyer or a member of our military? You’re going to need a good education for every single one of those careers. You can’t drop out of school and just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it.

And this isn’t just important for your own life and your own future. What you make of your education will decide nothing less than the future of this country. What you’re learning in school today will determine whether we as a nation can meet our greatest challenges in the future.

You’ll need the knowledge and problem-solving skills you learn in science and math to cure diseases like cancer and AIDS, and to develop new energy technologies and protect our environment. You’ll need the insights and critical thinking skills you gain in history and social studies to fight poverty and homelessness, crime and discrimination, and make our nation more fair and more free. You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity you develop in all your classes to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy.

We need every single one of you to develop your talents, skills and intellect so you can help solve our most difficult problems. If you don’t do that – if you quit on school – you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country.

Now I know it’s not always easy to do well in school. I know a lot of you have challenges in your lives right now that can make it hard to focus on your schoolwork.

I get it. I know what that’s like. My father left my family when I was two years old, and I was raised by a single mother who struggled at times to pay the bills and wasn’t always able to give us things the other kids had. There were times when I missed having a father in my life. There were times when I was lonely and felt like I didn’t fit in.

So I wasn’t always as focused as I should have been. I did some things I’m not proud of, and got in more trouble than I should have. And my life could have easily taken a turn for the worse.

But I was fortunate. I got a lot of second chances and had the opportunity to go to college, and law school, and follow my dreams. My wife, our First Lady Michelle Obama, has a similar story. Neither of her parents had gone to college, and they didn’t have much. But they worked hard, and she worked hard, so that she could go to the best schools in this country.

Some of you might not have those advantages. Maybe you don’t have adults in your life who give you the support that you need. Maybe someone in your family has lost their job, and there’s not enough money to go around. Maybe you live in a neighborhood where you don’t feel safe, or have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right.

But at the end of the day, the circumstances of your life – what you look like, where you come from, how much money you have, what you’ve got going on at home – that’s no excuse for neglecting your homework or having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back to your teacher, or cutting class, or dropping out of school. That’s no excuse for not trying.

Where you are right now doesn’t have to determine where you’ll end up. No one’s written your destiny for you. Here in America, you write your own destiny. You make your own future.

That’s what young people like you are doing every day, all across America.

Young people like Jazmin Perez, from Roma, Texas. Jazmin didn’t speak English when she first started school. Hardly anyone in her hometown went to college, and neither of her parents had gone either. But she worked hard, earned good grades, got a scholarship to Brown University, and is now in graduate school, studying public health, on her way to being Dr. Jazmin Perez.

I’m thinking about Andoni Schultz, from Los Altos, California, who’s fought brain cancer since he was three. He’s endured all sorts of treatments and surgeries, one of which affected his memory, so it took him much longer – hundreds of extra hours – to do his schoolwork. But he never fell behind, and he’s headed to college this fall.

And then there’s Shantell Steve, from my hometown of Chicago, Illinois. Even when bouncing from foster home to foster home in the toughest neighborhoods, she managed to get a job at a local health center; start a program to keep young people out of gangs; and she’s on track to graduate high school with honors and go on to college.

Jazmin, Andoni and Shantell aren’t any different from any of you. They faced challenges in their lives just like you do. But they refused to give up. They chose to take responsibility for their education and set goals for themselves. And I expect all of you to do the same.

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals for your education – and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your homework, paying attention in class, or spending time each day reading a book. Maybe you’ll decide to get involved in an extracurricular activity, or volunteer in your community. Maybe you’ll decide to stand up for kids who are being teased or bullied because of who they are or how they look, because you believe, like I do, that all kids deserve a safe environment to study and learn. Maybe you’ll decide to take better care of yourself so you can be more ready to learn. And along those lines, I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot, and stay home from school when you don’t feel well, so we can keep people from getting the flu this fall and winter.

Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it. I want you to really work at it.

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work — that your ticket to success is through rapping or basketball or being a reality TV star, when chances are, you’re not going to be any of those things.

But the truth is, being successful is hard. You won’t love every subject you study. You won’t click with every teacher. Not every homework assignment will seem completely relevant to your life right this minute. And you won’t necessarily succeed at everything the first time you try.

That’s OK.  Some of the most successful people in the world are the ones who’ve had the most failures. JK Rowling’s first Harry Potter book was rejected twelve times before it was finally published. Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, and he lost hundreds of games and missed thousands of shots during his career. But he once said, “I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

These people succeeded because they understand that you can’t let your failures define you – you have to let them teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently next time. If you get in trouble, that doesn’t mean you’re a troublemaker, it means you need to try harder to behave. If you get a bad grade, that doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time studying.

No one’s born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You’re not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don’t hit every note the first time you sing a song. You’ve got to practice. It’s the same with your schoolwork. You might have to do a math problem a few times before you get it right, or read something a few times before you understand it, or do a few drafts of a paper before it’s good enough to hand in.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when you need it. I do that every day. Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength. It shows you have the courage to admit when you don’t know something, and to learn something new. So find an adult you trust – a parent, grandparent or teacher; a coach or counselor – and ask them to help you stay on track to meet your goals.

And even when you’re struggling, even when you’re discouraged, and you feel like other people have given up on you – don’t ever give up on yourself. Because when you give up on yourself, you give up on your country.

The story of America isn’t about people who quit when things got tough. It’s about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It’s the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

Your families, your teachers, and I are doing everything we can to make sure you have the education you need to answer these questions. I’m working hard to fix up your classrooms and get you the books, equipment and computers you need to learn. But you’ve got to do your part too. So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

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SMH

Today’s Bitchassness Award Goes to……Bob Johnson (AGAIN)

The first and only time I issued this award it went to Bob “Tap Dancing Lawn Jockey Coon” Johnson, it was because he co-signed on Geraldine Ferrarro’s racist rants about Barack Obama. Well Johnson’s at again, this time he’s trying to get Miss Hillary to be Obama’s VP. He’s even trying to get the Congressional Black Caucus to pressure Obama to put her on the ticket. Here’s a copy of the letter he wrote to MY state Congressman, James Clyburn:

June 3, 2008

The Honorable James Clyburn
U. S. House of Representatives
H-329, The Capitol
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Jim:

Now that you have endorsed Senator Obama as the Presidential Nominee of the Democratic Party; I, as a long-time supporter of Senator Clinton and of the Democratic Party, urge you to do everything possible to unify this party to win the Presidential election in November. For me and millions of other Democrats, I believe that the most important step that you can take now is to encourage the Congressional Black Caucus to urge Senator Obama to select Senator Hillary Clinton as his Vice Presidential running mate.

As a businessman I understand the vitally important role that a Democratic President can play in establishing programs and policies throughout the government that stimulate and support economic opportunities for African Americans. As African Americans we agree that the stakes in this election are far too high to take any chances that this party will not be unified from the top to the bottom in our effort to gain control of The White House.

You know as well as I the deep affection that millions of African Americans hold for both Senator Clinton and President Clinton. You also know that Hillary Clinton has been a long-term advocate for racial and gender equality, from her early days as a lawyer with the Children Defense Fund to her prominent leadership roles on these issues as First Lady and as Senator from New York. But most important, we need to have the certainty of winning; and, I believe, without question, that Barack Obama as President and Hillary Clinton as Vice President bring that certainty to the ticket.

Jim, as the highest ranking African American in Congress, I encourage you to follow your commitment to build a unified party by helping to make this a historic election of Senators Obama and Clinton who both have demonstrated that they have the courage and the ability to inspire and lead this nation to greatness today and for years in the future.

Warm regards,

Bob Johnson

I hope Congressman Clyburn gave that ridiculous letter the disrespect it deserves and set it on fire. And watch here as “Toby” taps dances for Hillary on CNN. This negro had the nerve to say Obama’s win was “greater than the Emancipation Proclamation”.

As the staff over at Bossip says, “HO SIT DOWN!” You have no credibility Bob, and for continuing to play Miss Hillary’s personal lawn jockey, you get today’s Bitchassness award. As Debarge use to say “You Wear It Well”.

Hillary Puts the Final Nail in the Coffin

Hillary Clinton essentially ended her campaign today and ruined any chance she had of becoming VP by invoking Robert Kennedy’s assassination to defend her decision to stay in the race. Speaking to the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader about calls to drop out of the race, Miss Hillary said:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. You know I just, I don’t understand it.”

Now no one believes Miss Hillary is hoping something bad will happen to Barack Obama (like assassination) so she can win the Democratic nomination, but referring to assassinations with a Black man running for President is in really bad taste. And in light of Ted Kennedy recently being diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor, and June being the 40th anniversary of Robert Kennedy’s assassination, Miss Hillary really put her foot in it.

The so-called apology:

“I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation and in particular the Kennedy family was in any way offensive. I certainly had no intention of that whatsoever.”
What about Barack Obama??? I notice he isn’t mentioned in this non-apology apology. So Miss Hillary didn’t mean to offend the Kennedy family, but Obama on the other hand….

But leave it to MSNBC’s Keith Olberman to put the verbal smackdown on Miss Hillary. His special comment tonight was blistering to say the least.

Today’s Bitchassness Award Goes To……

Bob Johnson

Hillary Clinton’s personal lawn jockey co-signs on Geraldine Ferraro’s ridiculous remark that Barack Obama wouldn’t be a presidential candidate if he were white.

“What I believe Geraldine Ferraro meant is that if you take a freshman senator from Illinois called ‘Jerry Smith’ and he says I’m going to run for president, would he start off with 90 percent of the black vote?” Johnson said. “And the answer is, probably not.”

“Geraldine Ferraro said it right,” Johnson added. “The problem is, Geraldine Ferraro is white. This campaign has such a hair-trigger on anything racial it is almost impossible for anybody to say anything. (source)

Really, Bob…’a hair trigger on anything racial’? Sen. Obama never made a race an issue in this campaign until your girl and her Bubba started playing it up during the SC primary. Additionally Ms. Ferraro’s comments questioned Sen. Obama’s experience saying “I’m not saying he isn’t qualified, never did I say that. He is very smart. He has experience issues, but if George Bush can learn to run the country, so can this guy.”

Who says George Bush has yet learned to run the country??? And unlike Bush, Obama is actually intelligent, he READS, he has more knowledge on foreign affairs than Bush has NOW! And really, since when did being first lady and a senator immediately means someone is more qualified to be president. Bob, stick to buying crappy basketball teams and producing coontastic movies like “Who’s Your Caddy”. We know how much you love uplifting your people.

Here’s your award. You got some Bitchassness in you.

From ‘Elitist’ to ‘Boy’

While the mainstream media continues to focus on Barack Obama’s so-called offensive “bitter” remarks, almost no one is talking about a really offensive remark made about Sen. Obama by a Kentucky congressman.

While speaking to donors at a fundraiser in Kentucky, Rep. Geoff Davis said about Obama, “That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button.”(source)

Did he really just call Barack Obama a BOY? I mean really, REALLY! It’s 2008. Does this Geoff Davis guy still think its 1948? Davis has since apologized and written a letter asking for Sen. Obama’s forgiveness (read it here).

And while every so-called political pundit from Lou Dobbs to Pat Buchanan makes mountains out of molehills over “BITTER-GATE”, not one has expressed outrage over this truly offensive comment.

Who Are You Calling ‘Elitist’?

“People who live in glass houses, shouldn’t throw stones” — unknown

So now Miss Hillary is trying to tag Obama as an elitist after a statement he made regarding his troubles winning over white working-class voters at a fundraiser in San Fransisco last Sunday. A statement he made privately and OFF THE RECORD! I might add. In explaining his lack of support from that group of voters, apparently Obama said….

“It’s not surprising, then, they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

The Clinton campaign is focusing on the word “bitter”. Apparently, ‘bitter’ is a the new ‘nigger’ for the white working-class. Clinton and co. have even been passing out “I’m not bitter” buttons to supporters at campaign stops. In fact, the next time you get in an argument with a white working-class person, call them ‘bitter’ and see if it starts a fight.

First of all that comment is taken so out of context, its ridiculous. In fact, go here to read the entire transcript of his comments.

Secondly, I don’t even get how that statement is even offensive? Let see, the economy sucks and because of NAFTA (which was Miss Hillary’s husband’s baby) many of those jobs held by the working-class have gone overseas. People are losing their homes because of predatory lending, gas is at all time high and then there’s Iraq. Hmmmm…….I would imagine there would be some bitter folks out there. And now Hillary with her degrees from Wellesley and Yale is accusing Obama, who has degrees from Columbia and Harvard as elitist.

I think Miss “I dodged sniper fire in Bosnia” might want to back-up from the name-calling. After all Sen. Obama could call her a ‘liar’ and technically he wouldn’t be wrong. What ticks me off about this so-called scandal is how Clinton and some in the mainstream press continue to focus on the word ‘bitter’ without talking about the entire context of the comment. And now Obama is apologizing or trying to explain something that needs no explanation and is a big NON ISSUE. I guess for the Clinton klan, its —if you can’t beat him (in the delegates), lets try to create drama so the superdelegates will go my way.

Is America Ready…. for a Smart President?

This hilarious video was posted over at Jack and Jill Politics.

After 8 years with a proud ‘C’ student, I think America is ready for someone who can read above a 2nd grade level.

The ‘Simple’ President on Barack Obama

From a Fox News interview with Chris Wallace, President Bush on Barack Obama:

WALLACE: Do you think there’s a rush to judgment about Barack Obama. Do you think voters know enough about him?

BUSH: I certainly don’t know what he believes in. The only foreign policy thing I remember he said was he’s going to attack Pakistan and embrace Ahmadinejad. I think (INAUDIBLE) that in a press conference.

WALLACE: I hope not. But so you don’t think that we know enough about him or what he stands…

BUSH: It doesn’t seem like it to me, but this campaign is plenty of time for candidates to get defined. He has yet (ph) his party’s nominee.

WALLACE: So why do you think he’s gotten this far if people don’t know what he stands for?

BUSH: You’re the pundit. I’m just a simple president.

Bush is referring to a speech Obama made regarding foreign policy last August. What Obama advocates is going after Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan (remember him Mr. Bush?) and talking to our enemies like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran (because its not like we need or can afford another war). I’m sorry, but President Bush has no room to talk about anyone’s foreign policy. But Obama’s people put Bush in check:

“Of course President Bush would attack the one candidate in this race who opposed his disastrous war in Iraq from the start. But Barack Obama doesn’t need any foreign policy advice from the architect of the worst foreign policy decision in a generation.” — Obama Spokesman Bill Burton.

President Bush got one thing right, he is “simple”.

Click here to read the full transcript:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,330234,00.html

Rakim Should Smack You With His Mic

In the spring of 1994, I picked up a cassette of a promising new rapper. He was being labled as, “The next Rakim”. I was living in College Park, Maryland finishing up my first year in graduate school at the University of Maryland. It was Illmatic by Nas. It received 5 mics from the Source when that magazine was still relavent. Radio was blasting “It Ain’t Hard to Tell”. But my jam was “The World Is Yours”. I was 24 living more than an hour away from home for the first time in the “big city” (technically Washington, DC was 15 miles down the road), but this song made me feel powerful! I felt as there was so much promise for me living in the DC area. And Illmatic was my soundtrack. For the rest of 1994, I wore out that tape. I immediately became a huge fan. I loved his vivid lyricism and what I thought was intelligence. Nas talked about the gritty, harsh, streets of Queensbridge but he never glorified it. Along with Biggie Smalls, and the Wu Tang Clan, Nas brought hip-hop back to the East. I bought Nas next album It Was Written I loved “If I Ruled the World” and “Street Dreams”. However, later albums would not get my attention or my money. Nas became Nas Escobar and fell into that whole pimp thing. I was too through with “Oochie Wally”. I couldn’t believe this was the same dude who everyone was toting as the second coming of Rakim. He’s had sparks since then, “One Mic”, “I Can”, “Ether”, but for me nothing has captured my mind or ears like Illmatic.

Now comes this Nigger mess. This clown had the nerve to show up to the Grammy’s with a shirt on advertising it like its something to be proud of. And he brought a crew of folks (not all black) who were wearing the same shirt. I’m sorry, we have a man who has a real possibility of become the first black president of the united states and you are running around with Nigger on your shirt acting like you are making an important statement???? Nigga please! You are trying to sell records, not make a statement. Now I’m not gonna sit here and act all holier than thou when it comes to that word. I have used when I’m at home and amongst my people. And if a white person asks me if I have a problem with them using it, I’m gonna say hell yeah. I have a double standard when it comes to that word. Black people can use it, white folks can’t. I am too through with Nas. He was barely coherent when he was talking to CNN at the Grammy’s. He could not even justify his reason for naming his album that. I’d respect him more if he’d say, “I’m trying to sell records, its getting people talking and hopefully, I will sell over 500,000 my first week.” That I could respect, I wouldn’t like it, but I could respect it. But here he is on TV sounding like a complete idiot. Randall Kennedy and Dick Gregory have already written books using that title, the late, great Ol’ Dirty Bastard had an album called Nigga Please. You are not saying nothing new Nas, nor are you adding to the dissussion about the use of the word. And to quote Chris Rock “I love black people, but I hate Niggas”. And Nas, guess which one you are.

http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/x4c7hw
by Bounce2dis