Speech

As most of you know, the State of the Union address was tonight on pretty much every channel. It lasted about forty minutes and was discussed by pundits and political analysts for about four hundred minutes. Anyway, the speech was pretty good. He spoke well and reached out to Democrats many times. Although the best part had to be when President Bush was caught off guard by the Democrats. After chastising Congress for not approving his plan to reform Social Security, the Democrats rose out of the seats and applauded themselves for blocking his proposal. It was priceless regardless of what position you take on the topic. Moving on, I thought that I would reflect on a few of the topics.

President Bush started off the speech by recognizing Coretta Scott King and applauding her efforts in the Civil Rights struggle. I'm sorry but Republicans, especially neo-conservatives applauding people who fight for civil liberties is a bit too much for me to handle. Its like LBGT praising the work of Rick Santorum.

Next, the President discussed the need for civil debates in the world of politics. He asked both parties to come together, to basically stop name-calling and yelling (Yes you Bill O'Reilly) and debate in a civil manner that is respectable and honest. I whole heartedly agree but excuse me if this is a bit hypocritical. The President and Vice President are known for only speaking at conservative venues with attendees throughly sifted to remove people who oppose their viewpoints.

He talked at length about the war in Iraq. He strengthened his position to remain in Iraq until the Generals wished to leave and refused to give a time table. He also glossed over the details that led us to war. Primarily he barely recognized the growing viewpoint that America had been lied to going into the war and that intelligence was either bad or forged. Then he went on to say that "hindsight is not wisdom," in order to defend the reason for staying in Iraq. Now while I agree that we need to remain in Iraq until the country is stable, hindsight does give us insight and wisdom. With hindsight, we able to see what went right and what went wrong and with this information we gain wisdom on what decisions we'll make in the future.

Then the President moved onto the topic of Iran. He stated that Iran was "held hostage by a small clerical league" and that it "must come to an end," but Bush failed to address how he might achieve this goal. He also addressed his stance on Iran's nuclear policy making it clear that "America will continue to rally the world" to stop their nuclear ambitions. Then he addressed the people of Iran (as if they were watching) and told them that they respected Iran and looked forward to a day when Iran had a democracy. Once again, how are proposing to promote democracy within Iran and how are you going to "rally" the world. I like both ideas but I'd like to know what the plans are to achieve this.

Ah and then he discussed the latest scandal of wiretapping. He talked about 9/11 and how "our government failed to connect the dots" because they had not been able to listen in on phone calls from terrorists within the US borders back to Al Qaeda. He outlined how his "Terrorist Surveillance Program" has been defended and supported by Federal courts. He ended the segment strongly stating that "we will not sit back and wait to be attacked again." My position of this wiretapping has been mixed. My previous blog entry pretty much summed up my apathy to this topic because we already have ECHELON. Bush explained how the plan directly targeted known terrorists and that the lists and resulting intelligence has been continually under the review of a select group of Congressmen. I like that there is oversight but what congressmen and is it bi-partisan? I'd prefer to know who had the oversight, because without that knowledge my theories of cronyism and bubble effect run wild.

According to Bush, America has created 4.6 million new jobs and that this number is higher than the European Union and Japan together. Sounds great but what kind of jobs? Are they good paying jobs or just more jobs at the local Walmart and McDonalds that just moved into every city? Jobs at Walmart paying $5.15 an hour, sometimes off the clock, are not good jobs. He then went on to defend his policy of not allowing protectionism. My view was that this was directed at the automotive industry. I took it as saying no to tariffs that the industry has been demanding, in order to compete with the foreign manufacturers. The foreign manufacturers have a tremendous economic advantage because of foreign exchange rates. Bush expressed that to engage in protectionism, it would be a form of economic defeat and that he believed in a free economy and that the American worker will continue to be competitive in this new global market. He said "no one can out compete or out produce the American worker."

Next, he talked about tax cuts. Blah, blah, blah. He thinks he can cut the deficit in half by 2009, blah blah blah. Every policy says this and I never believe it because it never happens.

He talked at length of social security and how by 2030, social security and medicaid (or medicare... not sure) would comprise 60% of the budget, creating an immense deficit. Sounds a little inflated to me but I agree the problem is significant. He outlined his plans to have a commission to study the baby boomer effect. Um... is it just me or does no one ever read these things or do anything they suggest? Most of the key parts of the 9/11 Commission were never enacted. Sounds like something that makes people clap at a speech but never does anything.

He took an odd stance on immigration. Earlier in the speech he mentioned how immigrants were vital to our economy and that it could not function without them. But later he talked about the need for enhanced border protection. I'm not sure if he was talking about Mexicans or Terrorists. Oh well.

He spoke at length about health insurance. For the most part it was the expected rhetoric but one thing stood out. He outlined his desire to have "Portable Health Insurance" that could move from employer to employer. Is this going to be like a 401(k) that I could "roll over" from one job to the next? Thats an interesting option. Would this reduce the load that corporations engage in with health care? Would this take corporations out of the equation? I'd like some more details, but I'm interested. Then he talked about the need to pass the medical liability reform and the camera cut to Senator Frist smiling. Blah.

One of the most important topics for me was his segment on oil. Like every previous year, he outlined the need for alternatives and that we were on the threshold of new advances. I'm sorry, but hydrogen has been on the threshold for about 15 to 20 years. Is it every going to come around? I'm doubtful. He described the need for more "zero-emission" coal plants (zero-emission? uh huh... sure) clean nuclear energy and the expansion of wind and solar energy generation. I like the idea and want to know more about the implementation. I strongly believe in the increase of nuclear power. Its the one of the fews that the French and I agree on. As for cars, he described the need for more research on batteries for hybrid cars (nice buzzword... always generates applause easily) and the generation of ethanol from corn, switchgrass (what is switchgrass), and wood chips. This I agree with. Ethanol is something that would dramatically decrease our need for foreign oil and is much more environmentally friendly. Its reproducible and has less emissions. Then of course, he rededicated more interest in hydrogen... ugh. I want to believe in hydrogen but its just so hard. Now as much as he is truly in bed with the oil companies, I was surprised to hear him say that we need to move beyond a petroleum economy. I hope he meant what he said.

He talked about other topics like education, science research, HIV, and embryonic research but they all pretty much bored me and he didn't bring anything new to the discussion, but he did say that "human life is a gift from out creator" and "should never be put up for sale." Dammit. I really wanted a pet T100 to be my bodyguard. Oh well.

Then after the speech, the Democrats had their response. I can sum up the entire thing in two statements. (1) Blah blah blah bi-partisanship is needed, and (2) Democrats can do better but we have no ideas.

Ok. I'm going to bed now.