From the Fact Check Desk: Does Obama Support Kindergarteners Learning About Sex Before Learning How to Read?

And to top it all they are now calling for war with Russia… Iran etc tough luck

Is McCain going for a record for deliberately false attack ads put out?
Where are his honor and integrity or are those just campaign props?

Good work, Jake, this is what journalism is about. Find the truths to combat the lies.
What happened to the McCain we knew?
It’s a sad time for those who truly expected McCain to fight his campaign with honor and dignity.
I think it’s safe to say already that with a McCain administration we will be even worse off than we are with Bush. And who would have thought so indeed, in 2004.
McCain has sunk already into the gutter of the sleaziest GOP tactics of lying to the nation in order to camouflage a disturbing lack of strong ideas, judgements and policies.
That “third term” is not slogan. It could become a bitter, very bitter truth. Bitter above all to those Americans, blue collar workers among them, who need a change in economic policies most.
Let’s hope America will wake up just in time to prevent a national nightmare.

I was completly offended by this ad and the picture it tries to paint of Senator Obama. Now when will this be discussed over and over on the media? Surely this is a much more blunt and obvious FALSE attack on Obama than his comment about a pig in lipstick! PLEASE CALL MCCAIN ON THIS ON NATIONAL TELEVISION.

Jake,
get the actual paper on it and read it.

I think it’s sad the McCain camp has to rely on lying to win this election. First the “tiny country” comment, then the “lipstick pig” comment, and now the “kindergarden” ad. The McCain camp must have seen the Obama lead on the electoral map.

McCain Ad has stooped pretty low this time!! This is the most outrageous ever!!! This ad he put out is about children!! I am familiar with sex education classes at schools. Everyone knows better!!
But lately this is what John McCain is all about. Sarah Palin has joined the game too!! I am a woman – please woman watch Sarah closely.
John McCain does not get my vote.

As an educator who has been involved in programs equipping students with skills to combat abuse and to be safe, I wholeheartedly support Obama’s position both for my students and my daughter.
The strength in open discussion for K-3 children is threefold:
1. it defines appropriate and inappropriate touching
2. it empowers the child to know they can say “no” and that they have done nothing wrong
3. by discussing it with their peers it gives an abused child a sense of security that they have people to turn to and that they will not be judged
At our school, a child who was being abused and was part of this discussion did go to her friends who in turn went with her to their teacher. The child was given support and counselling and a pedophile (who was her uncle) was sent to prison.
In workshops with other educators, I have heard many similiar stories as well as stories of teenagers especially girls who were involved in relationship abuse and those who were able to stand up to peer and media pressure that pushes that all forms of sexual activity is an accepted part of teen relationships.
This is over and above discussions of safe sex to help those who do become sexually involved to protect themselves from AIDS and STDs.
That McCain would be against such programs shows yet again the lack of understanding of the modern world.

These dishonest attack ads by the McCain camp are going to backfire.
And hearing the news that Palin is willing to go to war with Russia is very disturbing. She should never be allowed to be in a position where she could be the Commander-In-Chief. She’s way too radical, in my view.

The truth hurts – the ad is correct. BHO is the most liberal politician there is – why don’t you Obamakins defend him for his words, or are they words, just words!
And Lance D., it is the Obama campaign that is run on internet rumor. They keep putting lies out there about Sarah, which have been debunked by many respectable facts check organizations. Go read up on it!

Thank you, Jake. I mean that seriously. For your fact-checking, thorough and extremely fair reporting. You’re a good guy.

Jake–I think you need to do some more research and read the actual language of what Level 1 involves in regards to teaching those kids at that age level……Jake–you are wrong. P.S. citing the NYT as a factual source does not help your case.

Thank You Thank You-you gave my daughter a voice to truth. My daughter was molested by another student in 4th grade-It is so important we communicate with our children about boundaries with their bodies. I am sickened by McCain’s ad and intention. It was more perverse than the actual bill- It was tough for our school to handle the situation and very difficult for my daughter.- so thank you!

WAR WITH RUSSIA; TELL ME EARLY I WILL GET THE BACKHOE OUT AND START DIGGING FOR A CONCRETE BUNKER—–THESE TWO ARE A LITTLE SCARY—AND MCLIER HAS SOMETHING STUPID TO SAY ABOUT SEX ED.

Foodforthought: what the heck have you been eating?
You might want to work on your reading comprehension skills. It doesn’t say a class in comprehensive sex education must be offered. It does say “All course material and instruction shall be age and developmentally appropriate.”
It’s not that hard to understand.

EWWW – ANOTHER CROWD FULL OF OBAMA SUPPORTERS ON THIS BLOG. YOU FIT IN WELL AT ABC, DON’T YOU? ABC=AMERICAN BARACK COMPANY……

McCain is a dishonorable man. If he had any sense of honor, he would have come out and said this ad is inappropriate and he doesn’t approve. Instead he approved it. No honor.

McLiar has clearly proven that he is a dishonest and dishonorable man.
And has drunk the republican Kool-Aid by adopting their standard old game plan:
So MANY lies to to tell … so LITTLE time!

Besides setting the record straight, an excellent, well-researched report. Finally , someone in the MSM who’s doing his job.

COMPARED TO MCCAIN OBAMA IS SQUEEKY CLEAN –HOW DESPERATE IS HE —JUST ANOTHER ATTEMPT TO DEGRADE OBAMA WITH LIES—NOT THE OTHER GENIUS WANTS TO THREATHEN RUSSIA—-VERY SCARY INDEED.-

Where do I buy stock in nuclear fallout bunker manufacturers?

I thought the Bush campaign against McCain in South Carolina in 2000 was pretty much the epitome of shamelessness. McCain’s now managed to outdo them…which I guess shouldn’t be surprising since he’s hired the same Bush/Rove people who did it to him to do it to Obama. Does this man have any core principles?

Thank you, Jake!
“I suppose one could twist this stuff any way you want if your only point is to make an inflammatory charge. And win an election.”
McCain is telling lies and throwing catchy slogans at his lemmins just as he did when he said “I’d rather lose an election” blah blah blah. The real McCain has stood up and shown that he’d rather win than fight the good fight.
“One could say that if McCain opposes this bill he supports students in kindergarten making unwanted sexual advances towards each other, that he opposes ensuring that 5-year-old girls aren’t vulnerable to sexual violence. It wouldn’t be true, but Obama could say that — if his only point was to throw a rhetorical Molotov cocktail at McCain.”
When you fight the fight to win the election to the detriment of young girls and boys that might learn to identify pedofiles, you can’t say McCain doesn’t support pedophilia. Ask the Catholic popes!
Obama may not say such a tasteless thing, but I will. McCain is egotistical, wants to “out-do” his father’s accomplishments and McCain supports pedophilia if it will help him win this election. He’s a pig without the lipstick! His policies suck, his veep is being used in a sexist (show your tits to the dim-wits) way AND his veep loves pork!
Obama/Biden for the people, our future, our safety AND our children in 08!

Woops!
Factcheck.org, the non-partisan resource for the public, has an article on how McCain/Palin has lied on them, too.
stopthesmears.com
Obama/Biden 08!

This is not wholly persuasive, Tapper.
First, why was the Illinois law not passed if it made such eminent good sense? 2003 was the first time in 26 years that Democrats controlled the Illinois state government. On a party-line vote they should have got this.
Second, the changes the bill was seeking to make in the Illinois School Code can be seen at the Full Text section of your link. They show that the bill was seeking to add kindergartners to a code section written with pubescent or post-pubescent young people in mind. It was envisioned for kids in grades 6 through 12, which is not only explicit in the original text but quite evident in its focus on the prevention of STDs and unwanted pregnancies. Throughout it’s written with potentially sexually active kids in mind.
Obama’s explanation to Keyes — that his support for the inclusion of kindergartners was only about the prevention of child sexual abuse — just shows he didn’t read the Illinois State School Code. That matter is already covered in Sec. 27-13.2 of the Code. Any reforms he wished to make on that subject should have been made there, not to Sec. 27-9.1 and 27-9.2 which is devoted to sex education of pubescent kids in grades 6 through 12, a whole other kettle of fish.
You need to go back to the starting point of your analysis, Jake, and ask yourself why this bill never became law if it was so great and well-conceived.

This ad literally made my stomach turn in a non-pleasant way, it made me sick. The photo they used of Obama beside this inaccurate and gross attempt at maligning him is in my opinion an almost racial intent to make Obama look like a pervy black pedophile and scary to white voters — it reminds me of slavery and pre-civil rights era day insinuations. It’s flat out reprehensible. And that whole “Wrong for your families” statement is just playing with fear and fire.
This is the father of two young girls. I think this goes far beyond a political attack — it’s personal, it’s racial, it’s so far out of bounds that it makes the politics of far less developed countries look admirable by contrast.
I’d agree with the one poster who recommended that the video of the ad be taken down. This grossly inaccurate “ad” is not fit for viewing, much less for publicly broadcasted television.

I read the html on-line version of what they proposed teaching as part of SB99 to children and was shocked. 5 to 8 year olds were not just taught how to respect the integrity of their bodies (against predators) – they were also to be instructed, at the tender age of FIVE, about sexual intercourse, same sex attraction, masturbation, and the dangers of HIV. So, I am not sure McCain’s ad was completely off the wall. I would be appalled to have any school teach all this stuff to my five year old daughter. I am to be the judge of what is age appropriate for her…and this is not. She is too young to play with barbie for cryin’ out loud!

McCain has now won the honor of having his picture posted on Post Office walls as wanted by the FBI — oops, that would be Palin! I would love for McCain to get some free media coverage on “to catch a predator”. He’d could be seen serving right along with his military friends.

“Each class or course in comprehensive sex education offered in any of grades K through 12 shall include instruction on the prevention of sexually transmitted infections, including the prevention, transmission and spread of HIV”
Do I think Obama want children to learn about STD’s in kindergarten? No. Is that what the legislation blatantly says? Yes. Do I think the Constitutional Law Professor doesn’t bother reading or attempting to correct legislation he votes for? Oh yeah.

Thank you Jake, it’s about time more reporters point out all the LIES and SMEARS McCain and his Rove campaign have spewed.
We the American people deserve more….we got the LIES, SMEARS and SWIFTBOATING in the last 2 elections and look what we got stuck with, the worst president in HISTORY
We can’t make the mistake again, we NEED reporters to call out the lies and make sure this campaign is on issues…..the Media OWES it to use the American people

Vote McCain for a Presidency from the gutter.

To back up its claim, the McCain campaign points to Illinois state senate bill 99, which never became law and which Obama didn’t author — though he did vote for it in the state senate education committee on March 6, 2003, on what was a strictly party-line vote.
—
Zero-bama voted for it, so he supported it.
Zero-bama did not author any legislation; would it be too much to ask of his Nothingness?
Of course Zero-bama will vote strictly party lines; since when has he acrossed the party lines and collaborated with his republican colleagues, excuse me, enemies? It’s even more scary to expect from his Nothingness.

Common Sense,
Actually, I didn’t use the term “racist” and I won’t. I used the term “racial.” I won’t presume to know a person’s private ideology enough to categorize them in any way, but I have absolutely no hesitation in saying this ad systematically and deliberately plays on racial fears and has racial implications.
The brief fleeting photo of a young kindergarten age class, of mostly white children, plays on fears that these (white) kids of ours are under threat of their purity and chastity being perverted. And by what inethical demon? Cue picture of a bashfully smiling (black) Barack Obama. Whatever the innocent reason for that pose (certainly not his best photo-op), it sure is distorted into giving off a wrong impression. With words saying that Obama supports comprehensive sex education for kindergarteners and is wrong (read/hear: dangerous!) for our families.
But to use that whole history of implication and social psych fear on the visibly devoted father of two young girls — and I use that qualification before any political or national standing or achievement, candidate for POTUS or otherwise — is reprehensible and morally repugnant.
The honorable John McCain needs to apologize for this ad. Besides being factually inaccurate and misleading, the extent of the “ad”‘s offensiveness is very severe.

McCain isn’t getting to the white house by taking the low road, he’s trying to get there through the sewer. John McCain and his running mate will say and do anything for power. They are so dishonest I wouldn’t vote for them for street sweeper.

d0
Authored 800 bills in state legislature
Authored roughly 160 bills in U.S. Senate (The average for a Freshman Senator) Get your facts straight.

c.blake
Republicans and Democrats vote present in the Illinois Senate. In fact Obama voted the average. So before you spew talking points actually look up actually how the Illinois legislation works. The truth is that McCain is trying to smear Obama and has abandon what made many people like him 2000.

MM
thats not accurate as usual

This is exactly the reason we need to make sure McPalin does not get in office. The net is great to get the word out but we need to get out and register voters.Every Saturday I put on my Obama gear, take a couple of friends, 50 registration forms that I downloaded from the net, a clip board and a pen and stand in front of the grocery store, or liquor store and ask people if they are registered. It is amazing how many people aren’t but are so excited about Obama and want to vote for him. Some haven’t taken the time, are young voters, moved and haven’t re-registered and there are a lot of ex-felons who don’t think they can ever vote (disenfranchisement). Check your state law on that subject.

I wish to amend an intemperate and highly unfair comment I made earlier about Barack Obama being a “loser.” This was a serious distortion of his record, and I beg his forgiveness in all sincerity-he is much beloved and respected by those who know him best. My chief complaint concerns the great pretenders in the Nightly News business that purport to be ultra-objective when in fact all their news rooms are being run by smug news editors moonlighting as political operatives for the Democrat Party. For me, a Jake Tapper should be viewed with the same jaundiced eye as a Bill O’Reilly or Keith Olbermann. The only difference is that these two are more honest with their viewers. O’Reilly’s pontifications all carry a tagline: “remember who is saying this.” Charles Gibson’s sincere closing smile says: “you know I wouldn’t do anything to deceive you,” when he knows that his program is a highly artful and deceptive rendition of DNC talking points. In contrast, Fox News is so “in your face” that there’s no question about their objectives, which are, of course, to fill the void left by my original culprits: ABC, NBC,CBS, and their dishonorable counterparts in the Print Media.

Don,
I do believe that there have been many “party line” votes made by Republicans who are unwilling to negotiate or compromise (it goes both ways you know). One may vote “party line” because one believes that the party has the correct point of view. “Party line” is not necessarily a negative, but it can be.
c. blake,
In education we usually talk in terms of the whole curriculum that needs to be covered. Concepts are introduced at each grade level in an “age appropriate” manner. Math is taught in Kindergarten in terms of learning numbers, counting, manipulating objects, adding them and subtracting them—-even the concept of square (multiplication) numbers can be taught using songs like “The Ants Go Marching One by One”—just not doing it the way it’s done in third grade. (The difference between the Math curriculum and sex ed curriculum is that parents can choose to have their children excluded from the sex ed, but not the Math.) George in Texas

I read the bill in it’s entirety. It was poorly worded and certainly not legislation that was telling kids to avoid predators. The intentions of Obama’s supporters from Chicago seem to be good. However thank God it didn’t pass. I would not want my 5 year old to learn sex ed under the terms and conditions of the bill written and taught by the group of bozos that are trying to explain it.
I’m sure that Obama never even read the bill and his intentions were good. However the attempts he has made and the lies he has told about both the IL and US Senate partial birth abortion bills are not so commendable. But I’m sure that his vote was calculated to get NARAL and women’s groups to support him. One of the rare stands Obama has made anywhere and it appears to have been pandering otherwise he would not lie so often and publicly about it.
Just one more story that will not be told in forums like this.

Thank you Jake! It is so important that the media stand up to the LIES and gutterball garbage dished up daily by the McSame campaign. It is SO important that the media do their jobs and call lies for what they are! Imagine if the media had done their job and called Bush on his version of Republican LIES when he was getting us into the useless Iraq war. The media doing their job then could have saved over 4,000 American lives and $1 trillion. Well better late than never…

SYD WROTE:
This ad literally made my stomach turn in a non-pleasant way, it made me sick. The photo they used of Obama beside this inaccurate and gross attempt at maligning him It’s flat out reprehensible. And that whole “Wrong for your families” statement is just playing with fear and fire.
This is the father of two young girls. I think this goes far beyond a political attack — it’s personal, it’s racial, it’s so far out of bounds that it makes the politics of far less developed countries look admirable by contrast.
I’d agree with the one poster who recommended that the video of the ad be taken down. This grossly inaccurate “ad” is not fit for viewing, much less for publicly broadcasted television.
——-
Well said. I hadn’t taken into consideration the racial component. It’s just sick.

Read the bill. It changed the mandate for STD education from grades 6-12 to grades K-12, among other things.
It’s clear that Obama supports STD transmission and prevention education in kindergarten. The ad is not misleading; it’s accurate.

Senator Obama’s argument is ‘I am hip and cool. John McCain is old. Vote for me.” That was working until he Senator Biden who has been in the Senate for 10 years longer than McCain. He chickened out in the biggest decision of his life, just like he chickened out in standing up to Rev. Wright, Tony Rezko, Chicago corrupt politics, etc….

STD information for kindergartners is disgusting. McCain’s ad is right on. The bill included 6-12 and the 6 was crossed out and K was inserted. Give me a break. He owns this just as he owns voting against the Infant Alive Protection Act. If they want to keep calling McCain and Palin liars, let them. It will ensure a McCain win.

imo the debate over the ad misses the point. dollars to donuts, the majority of American parents don’t want their kids getting ANY sex education in kindergarten, whether it’s been deemed age-appropriate or not. since the bill didn’t pass it’s obvious there were enough leaders in the Illinois state with more common sense than Obama who got the bill shot down.

News for KJL – If you had a kindergartener, you would know that they ask about this stuff, and that you need to respond in an appropriate way. If you are too squeamish to deal with it yourself, you should be in favor of having qualified professionals do it in your school.

news for TomF…I’ve had two kindergarteners (all grown up now). I’m very aware kids ask these sort of questions–I’ve answered them. But I wouldn’t have wanted them to receive any sex education in kindergarten and feel the same way now. And I’d be willing to bet that if we polled American parents today, the overwhelming number of them would feel exactly the way I do. I don’t want Barack Obama or any other legislator making decisions about what’s age appropriate sex education for kindergarteners, which is entirely in line with what the Illinois state senate ultimately decided.

McCain gets my vote.
I don’t need Liberal Democrats educating my young grandkids about sex – their parents can do that ‘when’ the time is right.
Where are the good reporters?

Even the McCain supporters are a bunch of liars…
The bill says it will all be age appropriate. There is no intent to teach about intercourse and HIV to kindergarteners, nor to teach high-schoolers about inappropiate touching. AND it is all optional. Parents can say no way… Man, the hate from the right is blinding… Well, maybe it is not hate, maybe it is lack of reading comprehension???
14 and whenever such
15 courses of instruction are provided in any of grades K 6
16 through 12, then such courses also shall include age
17 appropriate instruction on the prevention of sexually
18 transmitted infections, including the prevention,
19 transmission and spread of HIV AIDS. However, no pupil shall
20 be required to take or participate in any family life class
21 or course on HIV AIDS instruction if his parent or guardian
22 submits written objection thereto, and refusal to take or
23 participate in such course or program shall not be reason for
24 suspension or expulsion of such pupil.

Besides, dollar to donuts, this bill was shot down because it removed language about abstinence, and the specification of heterosexual sex, as well as, pushing just premarital sex. it made the curriculum non-specific, and just about sex (regardless of the particulars of a persons life-style).
That is why is was shot down, not because of the fear that Obama is trying to show kids dirty pictures… I have 3 kids, and I have no problem with the language in the amendment. But whatever.

How many of you parents can honestly say that you provide all the sex education your children need?

Santoro, you need to read both the amended bill and the original Illinois School Code. SB99 is a poorly conceived amendment that routinely belies everything you say, since it is taking a Code section written for pubescent children and hamhandedly altering all the 6-12 language into K-12 without intelligent consideration of the surrounding language.
For example, one part reads: “All public elementary, junior high and senior high school classes that … discuss sexual activity or behavior shall emphasize hat abstinence is an effective method of preventing unintended pregnancy, STDs and HIV when transmitted sexually.” Want to warn kindergartners about inappropriate sexual touching? By this stupid bill, you’re mandated to also tell them about sex and its preventable physical dangers.
The Illinois School Code already has a section about talking to very young children about abuse and inappropriate touching. It’s Sec. 27.13-2. Its drafters sensibly separated the younguns from their older, potentially sexual active counterparts — two different groups with utterly different needs. Obama, appallingly, seems unaware of this, unless he’s just lying to try to put a rose on a manure pile. By the by, contrary to what you think high schoolers are intended to be warned about inappropriate touching as well — the amended bill lawyers up and wants them to be read the text of the 1961 Criminal Code!

What many of you need to realize is that, as John stated, the Illinois School Code already had a section about talking to very young children about abuse and inappropriate touching – Sec. 27.13-2. The bill Obama supported did not cover any new ground as far as that purpose was concerned.
What WAS new in the bill was the mandate for STD education in grades K-5 IN ADDITION TO the STD education that was already mandated for grades 6-12.

Thank you, Gabriel K., for realizing that Secs. 27.9-1 and 27.9-2 are absolutely irrelevant for kindergartners — they were written for pubescent/post-pubescent children and the problems they face. That’s why it’s astounding that party-line Democrats including Obama would seek to change the wording to include kindergartners — there’s no reason to unless you do envision comprehensive sex education classes for kindergartners. The original drafters never did, since they arranged to have the sex dilemmas kindergartners might face dealt with in another section of the Illinois School Code. As it is, the amended bill was so poorly written that it would have mandated additional instruction in STDs and unplanned pregnancy if you even brought up the topic of abusive sexual activity. You know this bill was bad if it couldn’t attain passage in the first year since the Ford administration that Democrats controlled all the Illinois State Government.
Anyway, Obama wasn’t being candid with Keyes in that 2004 debate. He claimed he supported it because he wanted children to be warned about inappropriate touching, but that’s a red herring since the subject’s already dealt with in another part of the School Code and if Obama had any particular reforms in mind the changes needed to be made in the appropriate section. He spoke more forthrightly in 2007 when he told Planned Parenthood that Kindergarten Sex-Ed was “the right thing to do,” and when asked for specifics he offered that “providing information that the fact is that it’s not a stork [that babies come from] is probably not an unhealthy thing.” In other words, teaching about sexual intercourse and reproduction. “Learning about sex before learning to read?” as the McCain ad put it. That’s certainly what Obama envisioned, and it’s dishonest to claim otherwise.

I watched Planned Parenthood’s ad. It will be extremely easy to prove that it’s premise is false. Maybe someone should warn them.

Comprehensive refers to a curriculum that spans grade-level ranges, such as K through 12 – a fact that the NYT pointed out in their Check Point coverage of the Sex Ed ad issue on Sept. 10th, 2008.
The fact is that the language in the bill changed the specific mandate for STD transmission and prevention education from grades 6 through 12 to grades K through 12.
If there was no intention of providing STD education in kindergarten, it would not be necessary to deliberately change the language in the bill to include kindergarten in the STD education mandate.
The bill leaves intact language which mandates that alcohol and drug use and abuse education be included in grades 5 through 12, but deliberately changes the language that mandates STD education in grades 6 through 12 to grades K through 12. The intent is clear. There would be no reason to change the grade level requirements unless kindergarten were to be included in the mandate for STD education.

Obama is relying on everyone being so repulsed by the Sex Ed charges against him that no reasonable person could possibly believe it to be true.
Fact: The legislation Obama supported was not for the purpose of teaching young children about inappropriate touching and predators. That purpose already existed in the Illinois School Code in Section 27-13.2 many years before SB0099 was introduced.
Fact: The language in the bill changed the specific mandate for STD transmission and prevention education from grades 6 through 12 to grades K through 12.
If there was no intention of providing STD education in kindergarten, it would not be necessary to deliberately change the language in the bill to include kindergarten in the STD education mandate.
The bill leaves intact language which mandates that alcohol and drug use and abuse education be included in grades 5 through 12, but deliberately changes the language that mandates STD education in grades 6 through 12 to grades K through 12. The intent is clear. There would be no reason to change the grade level requirements unless kindergarten were to be included in the mandate for STD education.
Fact: There was so much objection to mandating STD education, among other Sex Ed topics, for kindergarteners and early elementary students – even among Democrat legislators – that an amendment had to be added to the bill changing the bill’s originally proposed language of ‘grades K through 12′ in the STD education mandate passage back to the Illinois School Code’s existing language of ‘grades 6 through 12′ (line 3 of the amendment – the amendment then goes on to change the bill’s proposed requirements of ‘grades K through 12′ in several passages back to the School Code’s existing ‘grades 6 through 12′).
Fact: Obama voted for the originally presented bill, before the amendment.
Fact: McCain’s ad is true.