Barack Obama is going to send away her momma…

MoonHowler

Somehow the entire question seems to look different when it is attached to a darling little face.

As the presidents addressed those in the rose garden, the 2 first ladies went to a nearby school to talk to school children.  One little girl asked the show-stoppers of all show-stoppers.  Hats off to Mrs. Obama for thinking fast on her feet.  And good for the little girl…she was NOT going to let the first lady off the hook. 


 

The text, from the Huffington Post:

While the two Presidents spoke about the need for immigration reformand about concerns over Arizona’s harsh new law — without saying anything new or different — down the road in Silver Spring, Maryland, First Lady Michele Obama and Mexico’s First Lady Margarita Zavala visited an elementary school to speak with a class of second graders. 

ABC News’ Karen Travers reports what happened when a young girl spoke up:

The student shyly raised her hand and said, “My mom … she says that Barack Obama is taking everybody away that doesn’t have papers.”Mrs. Obama replied: “Yeah, well that’s something that we have to work on, right? To make sure that people can be here with the right kind of papers, right? That’s exactly right.”

The girl then said quietly, “But my mom doesn’t have any …” and trailed off.

Mrs. Obama replied: “Well, we have to work on that. We have to fix that, and everybody’s got to work together in Congress to make sure that happens. That’s right.”

Abstinence-Only Cash Cow

MoonHowler

Abstinence only seems to be both a cash cow and a political hotcake. And it got lots of headlines this week.

First off, Bristol Palin will be paid  up to $30,000 per gig for her abstinence only promos. What kind of message does this send to the very audience the message is intended for? Don’t have sex before marriage. However, if you do and if you have a baby, you can make 30 grand talking about it and telling others to do as you say, not as you do? That’s a hideous message.

According to SeattlePI.com:

Opportunity knocks when you are America’s best-known teenage mom, and Bristol Palin has signed on with Single Source Speakers to give lectures at $15,000 to $30,000 a pop, more lucrative than her current job at an Anchorage doctor’s office.

The second outrage is Mark Souder and the ‘other woman’ who just happened to be his staffer, ‘starring’ in an ‘abstinence only’ video. From Politico:

Rep. Mark Souder (R-Ind.), who will resign from Congress as a result of an affair with a female staffer, filmed a video interview about abstinence only education with that same staffer.

In a statement announcing his resignation, Souder admitted the affair took place with a “part-time member of my staff.” GOP sources identified the woman that Souder had the affair with as Tracy Meadows Jackson. Jackson has been a part-time employee on Souder’s staff since Dec. 2004, according to House financial disbursement records. Jackson could not be reached for comment Tuesday morning

Such hypocrisy. In fact, the fact that non-abstinence people are pushing abstinence is pure hypocrisy. The fact that abstinence is being pushed at all is hypocrisy. Modern life is overloaded with sexual messages from everywhere. Kids get bombarded with these messages from the time they are old enough to be aware  from various multiple sources: on the news, radio, Internet, films, advertising, magazines, music, TV, politics, Madison Avenue, the clothing industry…. There is no escaping it. Kids cannot be protected but so much from sexual messages. The taboos that were in place when I was growing up are simply not there now. They won’t come back. The times they are NOT a’changing. They have changed and they will stay changed.

Young people need to be encouraged to make responsbile choices. Parents should be setting goals and behavioral expections for their children. Kids need to be know that sex has consequences and very often these consequences are life altering. Kids need to know about contraception, disease prevention and other vital information in the event that they do become sexually active.

‘Don’t do it’ only works so well. A good dose of  practicality needs to be thrown in with the don’t do it.  Ms. Palin is just capitalizing on glam.  Souder is  beneath contempt. How dare he.  Maybe his wife will take him to the cleaners.