State of the Union 2007

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

9:02: If your lawyer is sleeping, better give ‘im a nudge, everybody look alive ’cause here come the judge(s)!

9:03: Condy Rice looks nice. Hey, you know what this needs? Joan and Melissa Rivers offering fashion commentary on the carpet.

9:06: Red is a power color. Interesting, the women dressed in bright red outfits. They pop out at you in the group shots.

9:07: I think when Bush enters, he should be proceeded by a guy playing “Hail the Chief” on a kazoo. That would entertain me. And when he gets up to the podium, he should just toss aside the prepared text, step forward and shout, “You wanna piece of me?! C’mon!”

9:09: He’s wearing a blue tie. Blue=Democrats. Conciliatory?

9:10: It’d be cool if he kept shaking hands and then kept right on going out the far door, leaving everyone standing there going, “Wait? Huh?”

9:11; Still clapping. I wonder how long the ovation would be if his approval rating weren’t in the low 30s.

9:13: Nice touch, acknowledging “Madame Speaker.”

9:16: “Each of us is guided by his own convictions.” Including the criminal convictionst that plagued the GOP.

9:16: Oh, NOW he wants cross-aisle governing.

9:17: Yes, wages are rising…thanks to the Democrats raising minimum wage. 41 straight months of job increase? Can anyone back that up?

9:19: Yeah. Earmarks. That’s certainly something that presents a major concern to Americans.

9:22: Oh, geez, here we go with school vouchers again.

9:23: The quality of education, and the fiasco that has been “No child left behind,” isn’t exactly something I’d boast about.

9:24 Stony silence for the health care plan.

9:25: Ooooooo, that was embarrassing. Lots of people sitting on their hands for the health tax break plan. Could it be that they perceive it as, ultimately, a means of getting big business off the hook for health benefits while not at all guaranteeing that everyone can get health insurance?

9:26: Okay, good point about malpractice junk law suits. That’s just out of control.

9:29: Yes, we are too dependent on foreign oil. But “clean safe nuclear power” is a bit of an oxymoron.

9:31: And we’re going to reduce gasoline usage in the US how, exactly?

9:32: If we want to decrease gas usage, keeping the price of gas DOWN is the wrong way to go. You want to keep it high so that people will be motivated to use less gas.

9:35: Yes, by taking the war to the enemy, we can win the war on terror, just as we’ve won the war on crime and poverty and drugs and…

9:34: Okay, who had 9:34 in the 9/11 pool?

9:38: Terror terror terror terror

9:39: Who had 9:39 in the Iran pool?

9:40: in the six years since we were attacked? I thought it was five years?

9:41: If a fraction of the money spent on the war had been spent on education, the country would be in a lot better shape.

9:41: Terror terror terror terror terror terror terror

9:42: Was McCain asleep or taking notes?

9:43: Terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror

9:44: Of course, we wouldn’t even have to be thinking about breaking promises and leaveing friends if he hadn’t gotten us into the war in the first place.

9:45: Does he realize there’s a whole bunch of country outside of Baghdad?

9:47: Baghdad is NEVER going to be secure. He msut know that. It almost sounds as if he’s setting up framework for going into Iran.

9:50: No, they didn’t vote for failure, they voted for a military incursion that was intended to findd WMDs, based upon falsified information fed them by Bush.

9:54: Finally moved away from terror.

9:55: interesting that the SC justices don’t stand, not even for combating Malaria.

9:57: Plug a basketball player success story. There’s a slam dunk.

9:58: I think it would be funny if there was an orchestra who played him off if he went on too long.

9:59: The annual parade of people continues.

9:59: Yeah, okay, the subway car guy. That was one dámņëd heroic thing he did.

10:01: The depressing thing is that if this decorated Sergeant were a democrat running for President, there would be a GOP disinformation campaign organized to assert that he didn’t actually earn his medals.

10:02: Jon Stewart called it. He said the country would be blessed by God, and that Bush would say the country was “strong.”

Overall a very low key, sedate, even borderline somnambulant presentation.

114 comments on “State of the Union 2007”

  6. Personally, I think the whole thing would be a helluva lot more bearable if the Sergeant of Arms or the Speaker would just make an opening announcement for everyone to hold their applause to the end. I think we could get through the dámņ thing in about 20 minutes then,

  10. FACT — BUSH’S TAX CUTS THE LARGEST CONTRIBUTOR TO BUDGET DEFICITS: Tax cuts “have been the single largest contributor to the reemergence of substantial budget deficits.” “Between 2001 and 2006, the passage of the Bush tax cuts without the offsetting savings have cost $1.2 trillion in lost revenues, or more than 80 percent of the cumulative deficit during this period.” [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 10/12/06; Center for American Progress analysis, 1/22/07]

    FACT — DEFICITS HAVE MUSROOMED UNDER BUSH: Bush has “never proposed a balanced budget since it went into deficit, never vetoed a spending bill when Republicans controlled Congress and offered little sustained objection to earmarks until the issue gained political traction last year.” “The budget outlook for the period 2002 to 2011 deteriorated by $8.5 trillion from 2001 to 2006 and for 2006, it decreased by $753 billion.” [Washington Post, 1/4/07; Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/13/06; Center for American Progress analysis, 1/22/07]

    FACT — ECONOMIC GROWTH HAS BEEN RELATIVELY SLOW UNDER BUSH: Economic growth fell to 2 percent in the third quarter of last year, following 2.6 percent growth in the second quarter and a surprisingly strong first quarter growth of 5.6 percent. “This was the first time in more than three years that the economy registered two consecutive quarters of growth below three percent.” [CBS News, 12/21/06; Center for Amercan Progress analysis, 12/21/06]

    (via http://thinkprogress.org/2007/01/23/sotu-bush-has-overseen-skyrocketing-deficits-slow-economic-growth/)

  11. I can’t believe he talked about “saving” Social Security this time around. Give it up, man.

  15. We do need malpractice reform but we also need caps on prescription drug costs – guess it’s an uphill battle against the drug lobby.

  16. Peter David: 9:22: Oh, geez, here we go with school vouchers again.
    Luigi Novi: Are you irritated by the issue coming up, or just Bush’s position on it? And just out of curiosity, Peter, what’s your feeling about them?

    Peter David: 9:26: Okay, good point about malpractice junk law suits. That’s just out of control.
    Luigi Novi: More like lawsuits period.

  21. “9:32: If we want to decrease gas usage, keeping the price of gas DOWN is the wrong way to go. You want to keep it high so that people will be motivated to use less gas.”

    That won’t work. The people who waste the most gas are the ones spending $100,000+ on big, gas guzzling SUVs. Triple gas prices and they’ll be spending another $4000 a year on gas. They’ll barely notice that.

    To raise prices enough so that expensive SUV owners start caring about gas consumption, you have to completely screw everyone else.

  25. OK, here’s what I don’t get.

    If what he’s saying is true about all these plots to attack the U.S. that were stopped lately, doesn’t that contradict his mantra of “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here”? Isn’t he admitting that they ARE over here?

  27. “9:32: If we want to decrease gas usage, keeping the price of gas DOWN is the wrong way to go. You want to keep it high so that people will be motivated to use less gas.”

    “That won’t work. The people who waste the most gas are the ones spending $100,000+ on big, gas guzzling SUVs. Triple gas prices and they’ll be spending another $4000 a year on gas. They’ll barely notice that.”

    Sounds like a deficit cruncher to me.

  35. 9:09: He’s wearing a blue tie. Blue=Democrats. Conciliatory?
    Amusing side note: I happened to be at a Colbert taping right after the Nov 4th elections, where he was wearing a blue tie. Someone in the audience asked this very question (alas, the response was not terribly funny or memorable).

    Just amuses me that everyone sees a tie choice as a political commentary.

  36. Medical lawsuits aren’t out of control. Medical malpractice is out of control. I speak from local experience. We have a doctor who cut off the wrong foot–despite the patient marking it with a Sharpie “not this foot!” (or something similar).

    I find it funny that so many working class people join the rich’s tirade against lawsuits. Why is it okay for the rich to sue the poor, but not the poor suing the rich?

    For the first time in human history, the man at the bottom can hold accountable the man at the top. Sure, the lawyers get a big bite, but then they do all the heavy work. Justice isn’t cheap in America.

  37. in the six years since we were attacked? I thought it was five years?

    There’s that “gentleman’s C” in action again.

    9:43: Terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror terror

    Just doesn’t have the same ring as “Spam Spam Spam … ” does

    He msut know that. It almost sounds as if he’s setting up framework for going into Iran.

    Almost? He’s been working on that since the “axis of evil” speech.

    ——

    Why is he still talking about 9/11

    Of course. It was the only high point of his reign.

    If what he’s saying is true about all these plots to attack the U.S. that were stopped lately, doesn’t that contradict his mantra of “we’re fighting them over there so we don’t have to fight them over here”? Isn’t he admitting that they ARE over here?

    Excellent point.

  38. He mentioned fighting AIDS in Africa.

    I forget where I heard this and I’d be grateful if somebody could provide a source, but IIRC the programs and things Bush has supported for fighitng AIDS have not given out condoms or condoned their use, because, y’know, they’re supposedly BAD.

    Can anybody confirm or deny this?

  40. interesting that the SC justices don’t stand, not even for combating Malaria.

    If any group of people what to appear utterly nonpartisan . . .

    What I find interesting is that although Bush cheerfully names Iran as a funder of radical Shia, he makes absolutely no reference of what nation is the primary funder of radicial Sunni.

  41. 9:19: Yeah. Earmarks. That’s certainly something that presents a major concern to Americans.

    And only became a presidential concern after his party lost control of Congress.

  42. Okay, good point about malpractice junk law suits. That’s just out of control.

    IIRC, “malpractice junk law suits” is among the least important factors contributing to soaring health costs. Can someone confirm?

  43. I rent a room from two catholic lesbians, one of whom donated $2500 to the Dems to get a pic taken at a dinner with Hillary. Beth liked it when I called it the Snake of the Union Address.

  44. Got to give Jim Webb credit – he kicked ášš!

    Even-measured tones, no histrionics, no nastiness, just plain direct speaking about the situation confronting the nation. The Democrats may have a future star on their hands.

  46. but IIRC the programs and things Bush has supported for fighitng AIDS have not given out condoms or condoned their use, because, y’know, they’re supposedly BAD.

    Can anybody confirm or deny this?
    Kind of. It’s actually related to abortions, and the Mexico City Policy, originally enacted by Reagan. Basically, any organization receiving international family planning funds are not allowed to even mention abortions. Practically speaking, this has shut down numerous clinics worldwide.

    Now you might think: well, just don’t mention abortions and get the money for condoms. Thing is, it often affects organizations that help others – for example, USAID no longer donates condoms to Planned Parenthood Federation, because donated supplies are considered a form of funding. For what’s hopefully obvious reasons, Planned Parenthood Federation isn’t about to sign a pledge to no longer provide, support, or council about abortions.

    Unfortunately, the Bush Administration policies about condoms and comprehensive sex education have affected the entire world – including our own country. F’rinstance, a couple of years back, the CDC bowed to political pressure and removed their condom fact sheet from the website, and when it was republished, it was full of huge numbers of scientific errors.

    If you search on “global gag policy” or “Mexico City Policy”, you’ll find lots of information. (I say this, rather than provide links, as I acknowledge that most of my at-hand links are very biased, anti-Bush policy, and I’d rather you do your own research and form your own opinions, rather than take mine!)

    IIRC, “malpractice junk law suits” is among the least important factors contributing to soaring health costs. Can someone confirm?
    Well, this depends on what you mean by important factor, and medical health costs. It’s financially breaking a lot of physicians, who opt to close shop rather than make increasingly high and impossible payments. The rise in costs to doctors of malpractice insurance does lead to an increase in price passed on to health insurance companies, which in turn is passed down to the business buying the company, which of course passes it down to the employee.

    SFGate did a great, five-part series during the last presidential election that looks at the rising cost of health care and why – it’s good reading. And for a “wtf?”, some physicians just charge patients the cost of the malpractice insurance directly.

    I’m not sure that I would categorize the rise in malpractice premiums as the LEADING cause in rise of cost, but it’s up there.

    And as disclaimer: I am affiliated with the Alden March Bioethics Institute, who publishes the American Journal of Bioethics and the editors blog that I linked to. I’m also their blog web elf. All opinions stated herein are my own, etc and so forth. I think that concludes all necessary dissociations, disclaimers, and affiliation acknowledgments!

  47. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I kind of got stuck on jay’s post.

    I mean, the whole “I rent a room from two catholic lesbians” just makes me forget about all that SotU nonsense. 🙂

  49. Jim Webb really nailed it. And that last remark, how did it go. If you bring an end to this war we will support you, if you do not we will lead you. I wish I had scribbled it down, because that was the gist and not the words, but MAN, it was a great end to a great throwing down of the guantlet.

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