HELP! MOM! THERE ARE LIBERALS UNDER MY BED hits bookstores on Tuesday, Sept 20, but it's already a lightning rod for controversy. Alan Colmes calls it "brainwashing" and other prominent liberals liken it to Nazi propaganda. The book's conservative author (a mother of three) laughs off the allegations.
Liberals all over the country are up in arms over a new children's book that portrays cartoon versions of left-wing icons Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy taxing and regulating a lemonade stand.
HELP! MOM! THERE ARE LIBERALS UNDER MY BED hits bookstore shelves Tuesday, September 20, but author Katharine DeBrecht has already found herself under fire from liberals. MSNBC host Ron Reagan was incensed over the book and scolded DeBrecht on his cable television show. Fox News host Alan Colmes claimed the book exists for the purpose of "brainwashing." Democratic Underground, a popular liberal Web site, named DeBrecht to its "Top 10 Conservative Idiots" list. And Daily Kos, the most trafficked left-wing blog, likened the book to Nazi propaganda.
In spite of the unflattering comparisons to Hitler, LIBERALS UNDER MY BED author DeBrecht is nonplussed by the allegations.
"What else would you expect from librals?" shrugs DeBrect, a mother of three and co-captain of Security Moms for Bush. "Liberals have been foisting their ideological agenda on our kids for years, and now they're beside themselves that someone would stand up to them. Evidently books about socialist fish and gay kings are OK, but a story about hard work and self-reliance is too extreme."
DeBrecht asserts that no liberals have protested the presence of books such as Rainbow Fish (where a fish is hectored into giving away his beautiful scales so that all the fish look the same) and King & King (where two princes marry each other and adopt a little girl) in classrooms. She also points to the prohibition on prayer in school, attacks on the Boy Scouts, oppositio n to school choice, and the recent court ruling banning the Pledge of Allegiance because it contained the phrase "under God" as evidence of a liberal agenda targeting kids.
"Evidently liberals oppose parents who believe in traditional values having a book that will help them teach those values to their children," says DeBrecht. "But, then again, liberals oppose anything that supports religion, traditional families, and the free market. Those institutions are obstacles to their goals of eliminating personal responsibility and establishing a welfare state."
HELP! MOM! THERE ARE LIBERALS UNDER MY BED - which features full-color illustrations by award winning artist Jim Hummel - tells of two brothers who open a lemonade stand. Their plans to save up their hard earned profits to buy a swing set go awry when a Ted Kennedy character taxes away their profits and a pants-suit clad Hillary Clinton look-alike outlaws sugary drinks.
About Katharine DeBrecht:
Kat harine DeBrecht is a mother of three. A freelance newspaper reporter who previously worked in Washington, D.C., she is a member of the South Carolina Federation of Republican Women and served as that state's co-captain of "Security Moms for Bush." Ms. DeBrecht graduated cum laude from Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, where she studied political science and history. She currently resides with her husband and children in South Carolina.
Suggested Questions:
1. Don't you think that parents shouldn't force their political beliefs on their children?
2. Are you trying to teach children to hate Democrats?
3. Why did you choose the title Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed for your book?
4. Hillary Clinton and Ted Kennedy are shown on the front cover trying to steal a piggy bank. Is that intended to turn children against these Democratic leaders?
5. Do you think your book should be made available in classrooms and libraries? Wouldn't that be too political?
6. Alan Colmes, the co-host of the top-rated Fox show "Hannity & Colmes," has called your book "brainwashing." Do you think that's fair?
7. What has the general media reaction been to your book?
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SATURDAY ESSAY: "LIBERALAND" LESSONS
Saturday, September 3, 2005
Katharine DeBrecht's characters Tommy and Lou want a swing set -- stirred to this desire because other kids have swing sets. But Mom will make them work for their pleasures. Tommy and Lou require economic man's hardest and best lesson: Wealth is not created spontaneously.
"Help! Mom! There are Liberals Under My Bed!" is an illustrated children's story that's a dandy Christmas present for young and inquiring minds.
What does occur to Tommy and Lou -- quite spontaneously -- is that they can harvest lemons from the tree in their yard and sell lemonade.
Their plan set, they go to bed, only to have the same dream. They begin their business in Liberaland and do quite famously. They even set aside some of their money for charity.
Profits accumulate, and all is well until a variety of characters comes along to spoil their dream.
Mayor Leach arrives to tax them at 50 percent and a cast of liberals meddles and hectors until a law makes the lemonade stand state property -- and a failure.
Tommy and Lou awake from the dream, undeterred, as childhood is full of hope.
The book appears to have a happy ending, but, in truth, none of us has escaped Liberaland. None has escaped the rent-seekers -- rich and poor -- and their political cronies.
For work is hard and risky; the takers will use the law to live off others' success.
And their goal? The greatest good for the elitist few.
-- Gery Steighner
To schedule an interview with KATHARINE DEBRECHT, call: 630-848-0750 or fill out the <http://www.specialguests.com/form.php>Do-It-Yourself Booking Form.