Blogging the State of the Union

My first State of the Union speech. Lets see what happens.

After a 10 minute party of clapping and superficial greetings the President took the podium. Good speech so far. It's a shame our "commitment to democracy and freedom" is limited to small countries that we can bully. You wanna set lofty goals to spread democracy? How about China and Russia?! :-) Of course, they have nuclear weapons and are otherwise economically strong so we can't really tell them what to do. But sure, we will go and undermine Burma's regime in order to install democracy. Don't get me wrong - I applaud the thought and effort. It's a good cause. Thanks to that good cause we have changed numerous regimes over the years, many times bringing to power the irresponsible, the destructive and certainly anything but democratic governments the world over. Let freedom ring! Across America at least.

6:25pm - Do not question me! Or my wars. This particular marine did not and he died. You wanna die? Follow me! Let freedom ring as we march from nation to nation ensuring America-friendly regimes are left behind.

The Bush administration enthusiasm for democracy reminds me a lot of Brandon Fraser's character in "The Quiet American". He plays the enthusiastic CIA agent supplying weapons to a rebel army in hopes of speeding up regime change. This is all done in the name of spreading democracy (even as the resulting bombings kill many innocents). As he explains this to his friend, an older British journalist (brilliantly played by Michael Caine), he receives a poignant rhetorical question in return: "It's not that simple. So, you give them democracy. And what happens when they elect the communists?" Exactly.

I can't wait to see whether he will talk about Palestine. That is exactly what happened there.

6:32pm - Iran responds: "Dear American president, go fuck yourself. We overthrew your puppet government 26 years ago"

6:35pm - Aha... here we go. Domestic spying. I like how he stressed "international". *lol* And they focus the camera on Hillary Clinton as the entire room applauds - she shakes her head with a smirk. I'd vote for her just for that. Who are all these people clapping? Do all of them support the Patriot Act and domestic spying of American citizens? How about you stand up one by one and tell us why. And then we won't vote for you this Fall.

6:37pm - Freedom is on the march? Aha. See above.

6:39pm - Way to bring down protectionism!! My hat off for that.

6:41pm - Will he call for more tax cuts? Yup, calls for tax cuts to stay. And half of the room stands up in ovation! :)

6:42pm - I'd love to see him list some of those 140 programs he is going to cut. But that wouldn't be pretty. Heh, 14 billion. What huge savings!

6:44pm - Go Democrats!!! That was really cute. They all stood up when Bush said Congress killed his reform of Social Security.

6:45pm - Putting aside partisan politics? Now that is disguisting coming from a man whose adminstration has done nothing but aggressively kill bipartisanship by screwing all the people who were open to it.

6:47pm - Affordable healthcare? No such thing in a country that provides the best healthcare in the world, to those who can afford it. You can either have the best healthcare (for some) or good healthcare for all.

6:49pm - Oil. Here we go. "Advanced Energy Initiative"? Hmmm... nothing new really here. We'll build more coal and nuclear power plants and some solar. Pffttt.. whatever. That ain't gonna help. Ethanol? Whatever. Replacing 75% of our oil consumption from Middle East by 2025? How? Some fancy words, but no plan.

How about you call for some sacrifice? How about you increase the tax on gas? How about you implement an SUV tax? And fuel consumption tax for all cars running on less than 30mpg.

6:51pm - "American Competitiveness Initiative"? Strenthen education? OK. That's cool. R&D deduction? That's good. Canada does that.

How about you strengthen the import of great people from all over the world? Import the best. A lot of American innovation has come from the US harvesting the cream of the crop from around the world. Why pick from a pool of 300 milion when you can pick from a pool of 6 billion!

6:56pm - The American Empire will reign says Bush.

6:58pm - Indeed. Both O'Connor and Rehnquist.

Standing ovations seem to be pretty popular. The whole speech seems like a series of workouts Denis Leary style: "The Chairmaster. I sit down. I get up. I sit down. I get up." It's the new gov't recommended workout initiative to curb obesity.

7:00pm - OK, I totally want to see Hillary Clinton introduce our new first lady Bill Clinton during her State of the Union speech! :-))

7:05pm - It's over. Nothing too crazy.