Well, last night's "State of the Union" address fell pretty flat on a public that strongly disapproves of this President and the direction in which he is taking the country. However, I will say that the Democrat response was LAME!!!Here are a few points from the speech that I had a problem with:
-He wants to lead the world in science research yet he opposes stem cell research and this idea of human-animal hybrids? How the HELL do you jump from human stem cell research to human-hybrids??
-Bush called for civility but turned around and punched the Democrats in the stomach by saying that opposition to his foreign policy is "defeatism" and acknowlegement of "failure."
-Again he talked about fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them here which is very narrow-minded. It is a black and white view which doesn't take into account the nuanced reality that terrorists can still hit us here whether we fight them "over there" or not.
-He compares himself to Lincoln and MLK Jr. -- not even close dubya.
-Even Bay Buchanan (a big conservative) said he failed in his address.
-He wants permanent tax cuts for his wealthy friends (By the way, when did you last get a decent tax cut? My wife and I are poor as church mise and we only got a $300 check which was years ago and haven't seen anything since. Wooohooo).
-There wasn't (yet again) a clear plan for victory in Iraq. Although he said we would eventually draw down troops he simply restated that he will leave it up to the commanders on the ground.
These are the same commanders (by the way) who are saying constantly that the Iraqi soldiers are still not ready to fight on their own for the most part. So, it looks like we are in for many more years to come of occupation. As an aside, the John Murtha plan needs to be debated on capital hill.
-Hearing that we have an "abuse of oil" from an oil man is an insult to the intelligence of the average American. It was also insulting given it came within a day of Exxon-Mobil posted record profits.
-"One out of every five factory jobs in America is related to global trade, and we want people everywhere to buy American. With open markets and a level playing field, no one can out-produce or out-compete the American worker." Um, what about job exportation George?
-None of his suggestions for cutting back on illegal immigration addressed going after employers who hire illegals.
-He said one short sentence about the culture of corruption surrounding the federal government which is dominated by Republicans.
-He ends with (as do most Presidents) "Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless America."
I don't mind God blessing you, me and America but why don't these Presidents also and and God bless the world?
---End of Transmission---
4 comments:
terrorists can still hit us here whether we fight them "over there" or not
This is a great point! Indeed, they are more motivated to hit us here if we are 'over there' hitting them.
I saw Murtha on Hardball being very effective in cutting the ground from under Bush's address.
Indeed, we are riling up a vast generation of America-hater by having our country be conspicuous in the Middle East with our wealth and our occupation and our dominance.
And as Murtha pointed out, we've been in Iraq longer than the duration of WWI or WWII or Korea. Yet, we still don't know what we're doing and have no exit strategy. The Kurds are focused on setting up their own country when the coast is clear. The Shiites are pretty sure to follow with their own country. Chaos may reign, but at this point there is nothing constructive America can do, perhaps, than bring our soldiers home soon while they are still alive and well, instead of waiting till many more are horribly injured or dead.
yeah the whole thing about the human/animal hybrids was all sci-fi and really kind of freaked me out. talk about creating new enemies. sheesh.
oh and i had to laugh when i read the part about doing things according to the recommendations of the generals in the field, not politicians at home. which is exactly what he didn't do in the beginning, sending in fewer forces because he figured the "shock and awe" strategy would be enough.
oh and then there was the whole stinking bag of bs linking wiretapping with how 9/11 caught us by surprise. it didn't catch our intelligence folks by surprise - they had all the warning in world and passed it along, which is exactly what they're supposed to do. and for whatever reasons (don't get me started), shrubco didn't take the hint.
i have to admit i didn't watch it - read the transcript the next day instead and felt nauseated and tearful enough as it was. the fact that cindy sheehan was arrested minutes before the speech, and that no Democrats walked out on the shitbag that is the president of the united states, and that said shitbag opened his speech with a reference to coretta scott king (bluuurgh - how dare you!!!!) forcibly reminds me of 1984, which i couldn't finish reading six months ago because it was too close to the way things are now.
in the words of stevie ray vaughn (taken completely out of context), "closer and closer, baby..."
I must have missed your reaction to the SOTU yesterday - yesterday I posted a bunch of links to everyone’s thoughts on it, and just added your today now that I’ve read it.
Honestly – the whole point about our students failing in the scientific realm was more hypocritical to me than almost anything else he said. How this president, who was cast a war against science throughout his administration could ever talk about picking up that slack is insulting, and totally annoying.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to get into the topic, or just go to
this web site as well, a great resource.
Tom: Yeah, Murtha was excellent on Harball and I only wish that he was selected to give the rebuttal.
I agree with you and Murtha on Iraq. We are now in the middle of a three-way (at least) civil war and that is what got us in trouble in vietnam.
I especially like Murtha's plan to pull out of Iraq but not totally out of the region to keep Iran in check. Such as keeping troops in Kuwait ready to strike if need be.
Andi: Yeah talk about "flip-flop" regarding the not listening to the generals in the beginning. And I too was sickened by the arrest of Chindy Sheehan. We are watching freedom of speech slip away right in front of our eyes.
Jeremy: Thanks for the link. Yeah the scientific bs was a HUGE slap in the face to academia and any thinking person.
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