Matt Barber Brings The Full Scale Insanity.

Crazy Matt Barber of the Liberty Council is at it again! Somehow the Dog wound up on Mr. Barbers radar and is now subjected to weekly spamming. Since Mr. Barber e-mails these to the Dog, there is no question of being able to reproduce the whole thing and then show exactly how bat-shit crazy Mr. Barbers points of view are. As a glimpse into the deranged mind of the deranged Right, serves two purposes; first to know what our opponents are saying to each other and second it gives the Dog a chance to mercilessly mock this mouth-breathing race and sexuality baiting asshat.

“Originally posted at Squarestate.net“

To start with you should know who our crazed with hate friend Matt Barber is. He is a graduate of Colorado Christian University and the Regent University School of Law. That is right this massive fool has had the best Christian education money can buy! If the name Regent School of Law sounds familiar, it is because it brought us such partisans and clueless legal minds as Monica Goodling, the DOJ career path lawyer who used loyalty to the Bush criminal organization as a test for DOJ employment. Also among Mr. Barbers CV is previously being a board member of the Anti-Gay organization Americans for the Truth about Homosexuality.

Today Mr. Barber has his panties in a bunch about that newest of wingnut canards, the Presidents address to school kids. Here, in it’s entirety is the odious Mr. Barber’s press release.

DATE: September 4, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Law-Breaker-in-Chief:

Obama Violates Federal Law to Indoctrinate Your Children

Washington, DC – In what many analysts believe is both an unprecedented and wildly inappropriate partisan move, President Obama has announced that on Tuesday, September 8, he will do an end run around parents and directly target children in what is widely perceived as an effort to implement his extreme leftist political agenda. As millions of parents across the country learn more about his scheme, they have become justifiably outraged. The backlash has been tremendous.

But Obama’s extreme overreach goes well beyond political tastelessness. It’s actually a violation of federal law.  

U.S. Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently sent a letter to school principals encouraging them to cease academic instruction and have classes tune in to a live speech Obama will give to children during school hours on Tuesday at noon. The DOE even provided lesson plans, sample activities and questions that teachers can use to promote the event. The letter encourages teachers to “build background knowledge about the president by reading books about Barack Obama.”

Secretary Duncan is a left-wing Chicagoland politician who chose Kevin Jennings as Assistant Deputy Secretary of the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. Jennings is founder of GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network), an extremist group that promotes forced acceptance of homosexuality and transexuality in schools to children as young as five.

Although, due to the backlash, some of the most offensive language has been softened, students as young as kindergarten will, nonetheless, be asked: “Why is it important that we listen to the president? What is the president asking me to do? What specific job is he asking me to do?” Children’s writings would later be used “to make students accountable to their goals.”

However, Federal law specifically forbids Obama, Duncan or any officer from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system.” 20 U.S.C. § 3403.

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action, has notified his children’s school to either opt them out of the President’s illegal indoctrination activities on Tuesday, or they will be homeschooled for the day and “taught a lesson in the Bill of Rights.”  

Said Barber: “Not only is this a violation of federal law, it’s just plain creepy. It’s surreal. Obama’s actions here are right out of the playbooks of Saul Alinsky and Chairman Mao. Soviet Russia? Sure. America? No way. I’m furious. Hands of my children, Mr. President!

“We are a nation of laws,” continued Barber, “not a federal cult of personality. Obama and the DOE had better pull the plug on this or outraged parents across the country may just insist that members of Congress dust of their ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ cheat sheets from the 1990s.”  

Liberty Counsel is urging parents to “demand that schools not participate. If the school allows Obama and the DOE to indoctrinate school children, parents ought to opt their children out of this illegal program.”

Now, let’s deconstruct this a little bit, shall we?

It starts out with this paragraph:

Washington, DC – In what many analysts believe is both an unprecedented and wildly inappropriate partisan move, President Obama has announced that on Tuesday, September 8, he will do an end run around parents and directly target children in what is widely perceived as an effort to implement his extreme leftist political agenda. As millions of parents across the country learn more about his scheme, they have become justifiably outraged. The backlash has been tremendous.

Mr. Barber, seems to have missed a lot of history in his Christian education, since it has been rather common place for Presidents to address school kids during the school day. Both President’s Regan and Bush 41 addressed classrooms by video in the past. So we can be safe in saying it is not unprecedented or wildly inappropriate.

Given his failure to note this, it is likely that there are not millions of parents who are upset that the President of the United States is going to make such a partisan message as “work hard, stay in school, have a future”. Still those who live in the fact free bubble of people like Mr. Barber may feel that way.

Mr. Barber then has to set the stage for his fear based audience by telling us chain of “Leftwingers” who have hatched this nefarious scheme. He points out that Under Secretary of Education Duncan not only writes letters suggesting how the Presidents address might be used to help boost student performance, Under Secretary Duncan has also hired a person who founded GLSEN (Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network). This organization’s primary sin in the fetid, fevered mind of Mr. Barber is they advocate the teaching of tolerance for all sexualities! It is the end of civilization as we know it! Tolerance education! Oh Noes! (end snark).

What this has to do with Mr. Barbers totally false thesis that it is illegal for the President to address school kids the Dog can not imagine. But it is a common tactic of the insane Right to conflate different hate issues, so this probably where the detour comes from.

Then Mr. Barber gets to the heart of his spurious case for illegality of this action. He states:

However, Federal law specifically forbids Obama, Duncan or any officer from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational institution, school, or school system.” 20 U.S.C. § 3403.

The Dog is going to admit that Mr. Barber is right in one thing, U.S.C 3403 does state what he quotes, as far as it goes. Here is what the whole subsection says:

Curriculum, administration, and personnel; library resources

     No provision of a program administered by the Secretary or by any

   other officer of the Department shall be construed to authorize the

   Secretary or any such officer to exercise any direction,

   supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of

   instruction, administration, or personnel of any educational

   institution, school, or school system, over any accrediting agency

   or association, or over the selection or content of library

   resources, textbooks, or other instructional materials by any

   educational institution or school system, except to the extent

   authorized by law.

Note, ends with “except to the extent authorized by law” .  You can read the whole thing here, if you like. In the original sent to the Dog, the link went to a PDF prepared by Mr. Barber, which also did not have the full text.  

What Mr. Barber has done here is what might commonly be call misrepresentation of the law, and it is a violation of the Canon’s of Ethics for Attorney’s. Maybe someone should contact his local Bar association? You can find the Canon here.The section is DR 1-102 Misconduct, Section A, subsection 4.

The reality of this statute is it provides for the Department of Education to have only the ability granted it by Congress to influence the curriculum of schools. It is part and parcel of the way we try to improve education in this nation, and Mr. Barber should know better. The Dog suspects he does know better and is just trying to whip up more insanity from the Right.

Next Mr. Barber commits a sin of writing press releases that always makes the Dog laugh when he sees it. He quotes himself as an expert in his own press release! It is so endearingly stupid the Dog can’t help but chuckle at this chuckle headed relentless self promotion the Dog just can’t help it! Check it out for yourself:

Matt Barber, Director of Cultural Affairs with both Liberty Counsel and Liberty Alliance Action, has notified his children’s school to either opt them out of the President’s illegal indoctrination activities on Tuesday, or they will be homeschooled for the day and “taught a lesson in the Bill of Rights.”  

Said Barber: “Not only is this a violation of federal law, it’s just plain creepy. It’s surreal. Obama’s actions here are right out of the playbooks of Saul Alinsky and Chairman Mao. Soviet Russia? Sure. America? No way. I’m furious. Hands of my children, Mr. President!

“We are a nation of laws,” continued Barber, “not a federal cult of personality. Obama and the DOE had better pull the plug on this or outraged parents across the country may just insist that members of Congress dust of their ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ cheat sheets from the 1990s.”  

Liberty Counsel is urging parents to “demand that schools not participate. If the school allows Obama and the DOE to indoctrinate school children, parents ought to opt their children out of this illegal program.”

This part is basically Mr. Barber saying “I am important! You should listen to me and keep your kids out of school!” What is really sad about this is the kids of people like Mr. Barber need more exposure to real education. They are already at a huge disadvantage having parents who are so uninformed, so bat shit crazy as to think the President addressing kids and then the school using that to try to boost performance is illegal and a bad thing. The Dog frankly weeps from Mr. Barbers children, what will become of them getting such a fact and reality free view of the world at home.

That concludes this look at the flat-out nut baggery of Mr. Barber for this installment. The Dog is 100% sure this will not be the last one, as he has written Mr. Barber, called him out on his views and asked him to stop spamming him with this bullpucky. Mr. Barbers only response was to nit pick the Dog’s grammar. So, as long as this odious fool sends this crap, the Dog is going call him out on it loudly, completely and publicly.

The floor is yours