Caribou Barbie is scheduled to speak at my daughter's high school...

...this Wednesday. In light of her recent comments on the campaign trail, I'm convinced that they can in no way justify using a publicly funded building as a platform for her divisive message. My mortgage payment consists of three parts: principal, interest, and escrow toward property tax. We're just 10 years into a 30 year note, so at this point, more of that payment goes into escrow than gets applied to principal. And most of those property taxes go to support our schools. I'm livid at the prospect of any of my tax dollar, however indirectly, being used to support that disgraceful woman. Are any of you familiar with city government or school administration? Who would be responsible for allowing something like this to happen and what would be the best avenue for registering my displeasure?

edited out of respect for good witches

at a McCain/Palin rally in our town but had to withdrawal after so many residents voiced opposition.

That's amazing, and such a slap in the face to McPalin.

Wow, that should have made it to CNN...that's quite a story!

Good for your community members for speaking their minds and
protesting this!

I can't imagine what I'd do if Palin came to my child's school! I
think I'd have to pull her out for the day! Palin is so nasty.
I can't imagine that malarkey being disseminated through the public
schools.

I think I'd blow a gasket if she stood in my kid's gymnasium and
said that Obama "pals around with domestic terrorists."

Ugh.

How many names can you collect on a petition today? I would get community support; take a group to the district offices and demand Palin not be allowed to speak at the school.

It would be very hard to successfully prohibit government use of a government building. I would write a letter to the city mayor, your state representatives and the school board. You may even be able to attend a school board meeting to voice your displeasure. Nothing will be done but you can tell them you do not like it.

Obama shirt and when she takes the stage, turn their backs to her.. or walk out.. I don't know how fundie your school district is though?

with her. I don't think you could stop her appearance without tremendous support from the town/city but in no way can they stop you from entering the building with your Obama signs. And feel to scream your displeasure.

event? There is a problem with this.

Her remarks last week were reckless at best and would be considered criminal in a civilized country. To allow her to speak at a publicly funded podium is to grant her our city's tacit support, something I assure you she does not enjoy. The mystery to me is that Dover is a purple city at worst and might even lean a little blue. I don't understand how this could happen. I'm tempted to call the local Obama HQ. Think they would be of any help?

Because our candidates do so all the time. Some school boards have policies against political activity "on-campus" during school hours. Some don't. As long as its applied even-handedly, I have no problem with it. FWIW, during the primaries, Hillary appeared at Dover High School (albeit on a Saturday).

They are yelling fire in a crowded theater. Free speech only goes so far. A civilized society has to draw the line somewhere.

As has been pointed out numerous times on earlier threads, while McCain and Palin should and must be held accountable politically for their rhetoric, there is no way in hell that they have committed anything approaching a criminal offense. And that's a good thing, because if they can be held accountable based on the crazies that listen to them, then we've started down a slippery slope where speech will be significantly chilled.

In the US, the crime of "incitement" to the extent it exists, is very narrow, thanks to some very smart and progressive justices of the Supreme Court, including William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, William Brennan, Hugo Black etc, all of whom participated in the unanimous decision in Brandenburg v. Ohio in 1969, where the conviction of a KKK leader for "advocacy" of violence was overturned. The court made it clear that in order constitute a criminal act, speech must be directed to inciting or producing "imminent" lawless action and must be "likely" to incite or produce such action.

If there is a case for incitement here, and I'm not saying there is, it woudl be against the idiot who yelled "kill him" not against palin or mccain. But, again, tMcCain and Palin should be called out politically, but not legally.

also willingly host Green candidates and Independent candidates etc etc?

She is scared enough to have people praying over her to protect her from witchcraft.

I am a Witch.......Sarah Palin is no Witch.

If she were she would be a better human being then she currently is.

Seriously though.... I would be pissed if she were speaking at my kids school and I would make sure my kids weren't attending. Other then that.... our side speaks in HS gyms and auditoriums also. It's often the biggest space in smaller towns.

but for some reason there are people in this world who I cannot bring myself to refer to by name. It's a problem that sometimes does lead to a poor choice of words. My apologies.

Most folks forget.

:hi:

I didn't think you meant to offend!

So you can't exclude Palin from the same opportunity. However, you can make sure the kids don't have to attend. You can watch how any public dollars are spent supporting the event and make sure they're reimbursed. You can watch who gets front row seats at the event and name names.

Especially if he or she is GOP. Otherwise, it could be the principal. You're in New Hampshire, right? You don't have much time to protest, but what about contacting the school and saying that based upon the racist, hate speech which Sarah Palin has been spouting repeatedly PLUS the fact that she has been found guilty of criminal violation of the Alaska state ethics code, you refuse permission for your child to attend this program.

I would keep my child home from school that day as I would not want them exposed to that kind of hate speech.

Even before her scheduled appearance. Grab the opportunity to be pro-active instead of reactive since you already know what's scheduled. Talk to your daughter's friends and find out how they feel and how their parents feel and if they feel the same way you do organize a demonstration.

Will anyone be able to attend this event? If so it's a great opportunity to do something like have a large group of people stand up and turn their backs to her, or have home made signs regarding a multitude of things related to Palin. She kills wolves, she made rape victims pay for their own rape kit. There's no lack of fodder.

Take that slap in the face you feel you're getting and slap her hard. Give her the hockey game treatment. Force her to walk into the school through a path lined with people who are clearly unhappy with her. This is a great opportunity to show the kids in the school what peaceful protest is, and that it's a right in a true Democracy

Isn't she supposed to be saving the McCain campaign singlehanded?

Just like when McCain held the Sturgis crowd captive. They were waiting to see a concert. Lol.

EDIT: Perhaps I should go back to school. That was sentence was worded horribly. :P

see more protesting.

with you when you protest:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/10/12/111241/17/214/628294

when germans who lived through Nazi Germany are saying Palin.McCain remind them of the early years of Hilter's rise, AMERICA needs to wake up.

NO, we do not need our children exposed to lies and hate.

YES, we need to stand up firmly against this.

there is a difference between free speech and inciting hatred. If you don't know the difference, there is something wrong with you.

This is not civilized.

I support your decision to protest this outrage.

While I'm sure if this were at my local high school, I'd have similar feelings as you and others here do, but putting restrictions on where a candidate can campaign is a slippery slope. We sure wouldn't want our candidates turned away in a similar fashion.

Make the most of the moment...see those teevee trucks? They're sure to be looking for creative signs and getting responses from locals about what is going on. Who knows, you could become a teevee star!

Truth be known, nothing warms my heart more than seeing a good protest...like what we saw in Philly over the weekend or what the Democrats in Alaska have been doing. Make her visit to your town one she'll long remember.

Cheers...

Use ordinances. but since it is a holiday today and every town office is closed, it is difficult to verify this today since the ordinance online specifically mentions the use of our town hall but doesn't specifically mention schools. It might be a separate ordinance dealing with School Board policies, but their website isn't working and the office is closed today - again, can't verify.....

I intend to start screaming about this because at the VERY LEAST if they are allowing Batshit Crazy Palin to speak on MY property tax dime, they are damn well going to give equal time to an Obama rep.

No matter the outcome, I will be protesting Failin' with my kids on Wednesday morning...................

I am heading this minute to the Obama office in Dover to try and get info and see if I can get someone to pick up this cause in case I get sidetracked - my wife is right now having contractions!

yaaaaay US!

or after school? are students going to be required to attend or do they have a choice?

if it's during school hours with mandatory student attendance, and with your daughter's agreement - contact the school, tell them your daughter won't be attending school on wednesday as you don't want her exposed to hate speech.

contact other parents who feel the same to make similar calls

but I believe the audience will be the usual hand-picked bunch you'd expect at a shrub event. I have to wonder if this is all so sudden in order to preclude any organized reaction.

would tell the school she will be staying home because you are afraid of any violence that may occur given Palin's hate rhetoric and the anger she encourages from the crowds, you don't feel your daughter would be safe under these circumstances

Make sure someone, maybe even you takes video of the demonstration and post it on YouTube and here. This is a golden opportunity to reach Americans. You don't have to be in the rally itself to force her to walk into it by having to go past the protesters.

rally. I was told they are limiting the number of tickets to children and non-voters - they are going after undecided voters in this area......... there are still quite a few in this area based on the canvassing lists I saw yesterday.

If so, I would complain about the fact that they are taking away from the time and energy that needs to be spent on EDUCATING our youth.
Are your schools publicly funded through local taxes? I am not sure how other states do it but in Ohio schools rely on local taxes for their funding. School Boards around here are very jumpy when it comes to upsetting ANYONE that may not vote for a future levy.

Do you think there will be protestors?

they probably won't rot enough to be stinky before wednesday, maybe you could find a rotten tomato or two to send along with her? :D

As much as it would be fun to see Palin with pieces of tomato on her face and in her hair, it isn't a good idea to call for this kind of action. It'll just get the wrong people arrested and give her rabid followers an excuse to step up their hatred from words to violence.

I wasn't serious of course. However "The Pooter" may be fun to have in such a circumstance, nothing like fart noises to bring the crowd to tears...:rofl:

http://thepooterpooter.wordpress.com/

and crawls back into her hole.. never to darken our doorstep again.

Many schools have them, speeches by candidates from both parties. Yes, it is Palin, but I can see why the school did it. The school isn't out of line for doing it, nor are you tax dollars being misused.

However that also means that you are free to organize a protest, as is your daughter. However inside the gymn while Palin is speaking is considered academically inappropriate. Outside is the right place to be, though this doesn't prevent your daughter or other students from wearing Obama shirts, buttons, etc.

If she's using a venue and opening it for local supporters to come watch her speak, I have no problem with that. As long as no children are forced to go see her talk - parents have the right to pull their kids out.

Schools make good venues for politicians to speak because most have an Auditorium or outdoor sports venue that can hold a crowd. And Obama has been using schools for venues too.

What burns me is when people are FORCED to watch her speak, like the fans of the Philadelphia Flyers. Those 20k fans came to see hockey NOT a political prop by the owner - and the fans showed their displeasure by booing Palin when she came out.

So I'm sorry to disagree with you on the Palin thing but just make sure you have the right to keep your kids out of there (or better yet, insist that if they go you want to go too - best way of teaching your kids to do well in school so you don't end up looking like a lamebrain like her).

the election in 1980. I recall a lot of outcry from the parents, but we kids wanted to go & see what was up. We'd been covering the election in our civics classes anyway, so this was just the part of what we were learning. Many of my classmates had also gone to a school-sponsored trip to a Kennedy rally earlier that year, so it was no big deal to us that a Republican was dropping by. Seemed fair enough to us. But the parents were still having cows.

In May, we had a mayoral election & many of us were 18 & registered to vote by that time. We invited all 3 candidates to a debate moderated by our class parliamentarian. Again, there was a lot of commotion from the parents, but we were very interested in the election & wanted to hear what the candidates had to say. The losing candidate in the debate retaliated against the school district & led a successful campaign to ban all school-sponsored political debates & trips to rallies. Asshat.

Because of these events, most of my classmates have been active in politics since the age of 18, voting in all elections. So I don't have a problem with rallies held at schools during class, so long as other candidates from other parties running also have access AND the students are not forced to attend.

dg