Last night was the State of the Union. I watched and actually took notes on the speech, took a listen at the responses from the nation, our elected leaders and the political pundits, then slept on it to let the mix set it. Now for what I personally got out of the address:
Less taxes to stir up the economy
A lot of the cuts proposed are already scheduled to go on the books from the last great Bush tax cut; scheduled to take affect in a few years from now. George just wants to accelerate the process. Then again, there are a few proposed tweaks to the tax code that I’ve read about already, and those turned my stomach.
His last cut netted me a whole $300 and a renewed national deficit. I was against that cut then, and I’m against this one now.
Medicare and health care reforms
Reform is needed, but G.W.’s plan moves away from a national health plan and will ultimately rely on the private sector to get things to work right. Hey Bush, you know those taxes your cutting? That money could be used to give the country a semblance of a heath care plan, don’t you think? Give me health care for free and you’ll have a friend for life.
A green Bush?
The three words I thought would ever leave G.W.’s lips in succession actually came out last night: “hydrogen powered cars”. He pledges $1.2 billion in research funding towards making it a nation where children born today might never know the feeling of driving in a combustion engine car. It’s a great idea, and something I’ve been behind for years, but I pray those words weren’t just being paid lip service.
By the way, his “Healthy Forests Initiative” is a euphemism for more controlled burns to prevent massive forrest fires. While it sounds like a horrible thing to do, there is some scientific merit to the practice. I’m watching this closely.
Bush pushes his pet projects
G.W once again stumped for funding and support on both the USA Freedom Corps and his Faith Based initiative. Personally I’ve felt like the Freedom Corps is just a redundant organization that is taking away funding from other organizations that could do the same tasks. As for the Faith Based initiative? Well, I still have that whole separation of church and state hang-up to get over. As it stands now, we have our courts trying to strike the words “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. I guess he and I just don’t see eye to eye on this one.
More funding for drug addiction treatment
I’ve always been in favor of treatment programs and schooling kids on the dangers of drugs over the escalation of the drug war via law enforcement. Let the masses make an educated decision and help those already sick with obsession. A helping hand is better than handcuffs in this case.
Reproductive rights
G.W. wants laws on the books to ban partial birth abortions, which drew applause right down party lines. He also wants to outlaw human cloning. I’m pro choice and while I can see a need for heavy, HEAVY regulation for cloning, the outright outlawing will probably damage research that could have produced many wonders of science.
World AIDS relief
New funding to help with the AIDS eppidemic in Africa and the Carribean to the tune of $15 billion, with $10 billion of that in brand new money. Nice to see the country want to help those in more desperate need, but once again I can’t help but feel this is being done to soften world opinion on the war he’s leading up to at the end of this speech. Still, at least it’s getting done.
Terrorisim take center stage
Was it just me, or did Bush seem to take way too much pleasure from making this announcment:
“All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way, they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.”
If this is the kind of blood lust he has in his system, no wonder so many people got the chair in Texas. No way in hell to get a pardon from this man! I know the act was justified (we are at war with terrorists — that much I stand behind from what they did to our country), but cowboy diplomacy isn’t winning us any new allies and making our enemies a whole lot more resolute.
Project Bioshield calls for $6 billion to build up the a reserve of vaccines and treatments against things like anthrax, ebola, and other fun stuff in case we get nailed by that in a terrorist attack.
Bush also announced the formation of the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, where F.B.I., C.I.A., Homeland Security and the Department of Defense will swap info and analyze threats. This is more or less what some were calling for when the announcement of Homeland Security was announced.
Greasing the machinery of war
George saved his best for last, digging into the situation with Iraq sometime around 9:45. He opened this can of worms rather robustly:
“In all of these efforts, however, America’s purpose is more than to follow a process; it is to achieve a result: the end of terrible threats to the civilized world. All free nations have a stake in preventing sudden and catastrophic attacks. And we’re asking them to join us. And many are doing so.
“Yet the course of this nation does not depend on the decisions of others. Whatever action is required, whenever action is necessary, I will defend the freedom and security of the American people.”
He moved onward and touched upon Iran’s situation, giving a pat on the back to Iranian dissidents for speaking out for their rights. That seemed to be thrown in simple to make sure he got the third member of his “Axis of Evil” from last year’s speech on the table.
North Korea took center stage with talk about their renewed nuclear weapons program, how they must turn away from nuclear ambitions and over their former “negotiated framework” (i.e. trade) of oil for nuclear weapons plan, claiming they developed weapons all along and failign to mention how two seperate aministrations backed away from our end of things. He wrapped it up by claiming America and the world will not be blackmailed. Read between the lines I swear I can almost here “Don’t mess with texas!” in there. More cowboy diplomacy.
Finally, Iraq revisited the center stage, where G.W. gave the American public a recap of gulf war and how the 108 U.N Inspectors were looking in a country the size of California for weapons and unaccounted materials. Some of the shopping list shown included the following:
- 25,000 liters of anthrax
- Materials sufficient to produce 38,000 liters plus of botulinum toxin
- Materials to produce 500 tons plus of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent
- 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents, of which inspectors have only found 16
- Several mobile biological weapons labs
- Significant quantities of uranium recently purchased from Africa
Bush then connects the dots and explains Sadam’s reasons why he’s doing all of this: to dominate, intimidate or attack. He then throws more wood onto the fire. The first log is hoe Sadam aids and protects terrorists, including terrorist from Al Qaeda. Next one to burn is stories of Iraqi torture techniques, with Bush proclaiming “if this is not evil, then evil haas no meaning”. He even addresses the Iraqi citizens themselves, stating that the enemy is not surrounding their country but is ruling it.
February 5th Secretary of State Powell will present this case to the U.N. Security Council, so the administration is still trying to do things through channels, but then Bush threw in this little disclaimer:
“We will consult, but let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.”
Finally things were at an end, and Bush went into the political version of the big 70′s rock finish, throwing around God’s name and saying of how proud we are of our military. Big round of applause and it was done.
Now time to soak in the reactions.
Washington Governor Gary Locke gave the Democratic response to the speech, which was written prior to the State of the Union. Basically it boiled down to “we’re stronger standing with other nations than alone”, busting on his tax relier plans to stimulate the economy, how conservation should be a bigger part of the equation, bashing alaskan oil drilling and how we should promote new technologies…like hydrogen cars maybe? Gee, I guess it’s a good thing this was written before hand….
Flipping around the news channels afterwards, the responses from the Representatives and Senators quickly fell to pushing the party agenda. I got nauseous of how many times the word “compassionate” was used by the Republicans.
Word from the Pentagon said that it could take our Mid-East invasion force until mid to late March before critical mass is reached and action could be taken. Iraq could twist that if the inspectors don’t find anything in those 60 plus extra days.
So the long and the short of it is, after all was said and done, we’re still at the same point we were yesterday, but now we at least have an idea of where the driver is trying to take us. Over the next year we’ll find out how well that trip goes.
Tags: Politics
he’s an idiot. anything positive is spin and anything negative is just the tip of the iceberg.
And you know something about icebergs? You only see 10% of them above the surface, 90% is actually below the surface. That’s what one source told me. Don’t ask me how I know, it’s a painful story.
A couple of my own observations….
It freaks me out that the man with his finger over the button, ready to detonate nukes at our enemies at a moments notice cannot ever pronounce the word correctly. I can say nucLEAR. Can you?
GW is a good smirker, especially when talking about all the “evidence” and “people who we’ve caught/tortured/killed” like I-know-more-than-you-do or just flat out lies…
I also liked his made it words – terra, horra, Hitlerism (and all sorts of isms)
Surprisingly, “evil” was only mentioned 4 times throughout the speech. Osama was never mentioned. Bush has gotten the American public to displace their hatred for Bin Laden on Saddam Hussein.
and didn’t Rummy and Cheney look funny sweating profusely, they looked like they were gonna fall over from getting up and down to ovate.
I couldn’t watch more than 10 minutes of that crap though. Cartoons are much better.
Good article refuting all Bush’s statements on foreign policy HERE
Less Taxes:
I agreed with the Bush tax cut, I netted $300 like most single people. I turned around and put it right back in the economy like I was supposed to. That was the whole idea. For those of you who didn’t agree with the cut, did you send it back?
Free Medicare: Are you freaking nuts. Have you ever looked at englands medicare? They have “free” medicare, all it is, is long waits to see a doctor, and less money for doctors. What doctor would practice in a country where they make $40,000 a year when the can work in another for $120,000 a year. So the quality of doctors goes down. As for it being free, it’s not. You pay for it in taxes. Ask someone with an HMO how free doctors visits go, you won’t get a pleasant responce.
Green Bush:
I am looking forward to hydrogen cars, not much to comment on there. I think the controlled burns are a good idea. But let’s take it one step further, let’s get the dead trees out of the forest. There are companies that can go in and remove those trees, and leave the healthy ones behind.
Reproductive Rights:
I am against partial birth abortions 100%. I’m on the fence about cloning, I’m not really that informened on what it is all about.
Machinery of War:
I don’t like the idea of going to war, but if we have to, we have to. Does anyone remember the end of the gulf war when Saddam signed a treaty declaring to get rid of all of his weapons of mass distruction? How about 4 years ago when he kicked inspectors out? How about a couple of days ago with Hans Blix report stating that Saddam is in Material Breach. How about the Kurds that he killed without blinking an eye? He is a dangerous man and needs to be remove from office. I would prefer that one of his neighbors does it on their own, but that is unlikely. I would prefer the U.N. to join us, but the U.N. is afraid. So if we have to go it alone or with G.B., so be it. If that is the case I say, on our way to Iraq lets hit the germans and french first.
Spoo! I fucked up that link…Common Dreams article
By the way “parial-birth abortions” is a made up term by the pro-lifers to make it sound completely disgusting and unconceivable how any “monster” would do such a thing. The procedure is called DxM, and why would anyone be offended at that? In 2000, they accounted for 0.17 percent of abortions, mostly in cases where the mother or child’s life (genetic defects) was in danger. So where is it stated it is such a huge problem in society? I hate the right-wing knee jerk Christian assholes that run this country. I don’t want my body controlled by them.
I am personally against any form of abortion. While I understand that it would be foolish to make it illegal, I still don’t like it. I think partial birth abortions should be illegal. Just because a child is in the womb doesn’t mean it is no yet a person. I can feel my little baby girl kicking and punching in my wife’s stomach. How anyone can decide to kill that child is beyond me. If there is a problem with the child during or before birth, let nature take its course. If the child dies, at least it had a fighting chance. If you kill it before you give birth, what chance does that child have? If the mother is having problems with the the baby, it can be born via C-section. Even if it is before 9 month, it has a good chance to live on its own. At 6 months a baby has a 70% chance to survive. Why not give that baby a chance.
It was a little more then 1 percent last year alone. Around 3000-4000 procedures done. I dont see how a breech birth, inserting a vaccuum and sucking out a fetus’s brain can be misconstrued any other way or made to be any more barbaric then it already is.
Does the doctor have the right to kill that fetus if persay somehow the fetus is born accidentally? Such as if they flipped the baby around for a breech birth and before the doctor can pierce the fetus’s head with the object, the fetus is born. At that point would it be alright for the doctor to kill the newly born child?
I believe in abortion as long as it isnt used as a consistent birth control device, but D&X needs to be stopped on a national level instead of the states trying to handle it.
Ok, here is how it is. Abortion should be legal, but not as a form of birth control. It should be alowed in cases of rape, incest or catastrophic medical problems. What should be legal for the slackers of our society is the morning after pill. That way when you wake up and go “Geez, I was really wasted. I should have not slept with those guys last night!” you can do something about it. Even with this, there should be some sort of limit so bimbos and fluzies are not runnin around bangin whomever they please because they will just pop a pill in the morning. Further more I believe all big descisions that need to be made in this country should be run by me if not decided by me.
Taxes:
The biggest trick that’s ever been played on our society at large is that we’ve been fooled into thinking we should give the government money out of our paychecks each week for some strange reason. The idea to tax all Americans was actually proposed by Mr. Hamilton in the wee hours of the Republic (circa 1791) and its purpose was designed to pay off all of our debts from the Revolutionary War, a noble cause indeed that would have spewed forth more patriotism than ever before seen. Raise your hands if you think we’ve paid off the debts from the Revolutionary War by now … (Ian raises his hand)
Health Care Reform:
“Oh Canada, my home and native land …” Modern medicine is fueled by pharm companies and dopey advertising corporations. Anyone who believes their trite bullshit deserves to be shot at the crack of dawn every day for a year. I think we need Patient/Medicinal Reform of some kind.
Wind Up Cars:
I was gonna let Don answer this one, but I’ll chime in. Should it not be the choice of those buying the cars themselves to decide which shitbox clunker has the best gas mileage? Are we moving into an era of socialized motor vehicles? Are yuppies in SUV’s really the cause of environmental strife throughout the land? Another mindless ad on TV these days … “your SUV supports terrorism” – swift observation, that one – thanks for pointing it out.
Abortion for you, Abortion for me:
Since my estrogen levels aren’t all that high to begin with, (and this a procedure I don’t think I’ll ever go through) my verdict resides towards indifference. As for “Christian assholes that run the country,” that has to be the most misguided statement in history. As you can see, Christian agendas have had success with flying colors in overturning Roe v Wade, keeping the words “under God” in our heads, and turning the United States into a “Christian only” nation, haven’t they? If the separation of church and state truly offends so many, I suggest you cease using all forms of currency in your daily lives.
AIDS Funding:
The commonest cause of T-cell immunodeficiency worldwode is — (drum roll) — protein calorie malnutrition. But it is much easier, I must admit, to SELL toxic drugs to starving people with depleted immune systems than to GIVE them what they really need … which is food.
War Pigs:
The last time Iraq used “weapons of mass destruction” was during the Iranian War (1981-1988) and not only was this done with the permission of the West, BUT OUR TAX MONEY HELPED FRIGGIN PAY FOR IT! The United States has had a history of getting into bed with some nasty folk simply for the reason that they’ll side with us. (as was the case here) so I do find it ironic that we’re in such a self righteous position to call on Saddam to disarm.
More Irony on your table — Big, bad oppressive Saddam is actually ENCOURAGING his people to go out and take up arms in case of a US invasion. Yet the “freest country in the world” has more infinitely vacant politicians passing (and being proud of) more gun control laws.
A Side dish of irony — Saddam has denied having weapons. Has let inspectors in to prove it. Yet we’re going to war because we know he’s lying.
Yet, North Korea has ADMITTED having weapons. And won’t let inspectors in because, well … because they’re North Korea. And yet we’re still opting for diplomatic solutions with them.
hmmmmmmm …. I’ll bet if N. Korea had all these lavish oil fields, we’d be rowing our boats westward from California, salivating at the thought overtaking the rice industry as well.
Exercise your second ammendment rights people, because we are going to war … it’s just not the kind of war where you should depend on Washington DC to defend you.
FYI This is mostly aimed to Ian but, it applies to all fischler.org reades an posters. I have previously and vehemently stated my position on burning fossil fuels and the related joys and pitfalls. This and this alone is the reason I did not feel a need to speak up at this point in time. If anyone is unsure of my stance on this or is interested debating this topic feel free to lay down a post.
Well, that gets my nomination for “Cryptic Statement of the Year”.
I just can’t figure out if this is an analogy or if you’re saying that rebellion against tyrants is the equivalence to obedience to God (or whatever spiritual being you hold as your idea of perfection). Being that you capitalized “God” I’m assuming you meant the Yahwey/Allah/Eloim version.
Please clarify.
Sorry Ian, you won’t get any useful feedback from that poster. That is what is known as blog spam and I’m working on installing a way to keep it from popping up again (and again). For now I’m just going to remove said post and any others I find like it.
Cryptic indeed.
OK, Andy ….. Round 2!