Sotu '06

[scaeagles]

A lot of no wins situations for Bush critic. If he doesn't acknowledge the death of Coretta Scott King, then the rhetoric is that he doesn't care. He does, so it's contrived.

Mentioning 9/11 doesn't bother me a bit. Part of his focus domestically and internationally, and a lot of his rhetoric with dems, is (claiming) that dems want to live in a pre 9/11 world.

I could go into what i liked about the speech, but instead I will talk about the two things I really didn't like.

First, he doesn't get the border issue. He doesn't get the illegal immigrant issue (in fact, at one point in the speech, he said that there are some who thinks immigration is harmful to the economy. I don't know many who say that, but I know a whole bunch who say illegal immgration is.). He doesn't get border security. I wish he did, but he doesn't.

Secondly, while I do appreciate the comments on being addicted to foreign oil, I think he missed an opportunity (I am pretty sure I am the only one here that wants this to happen). Alternative fuels and evergy sources are important. But right now they don't cut it. We need oil. With unrest in Iran, we have to get back to offshore drilling, ANWR, and develop a cost efficient way to extract the LIMITLESS supply of shale oil in the Rocky Mountain region. He missed that as well.

So - those were the things I didn't like.

[mousepod]

Yeah. I watched it. Twice. I'm at work now, so I don't have time to really get into my thoughts, except to say that I've never been a huge fan of GWB (actually, I love the George Washington Bridge - I don't like George Bush) and the SOTU didn't help. I disagree with so many parts of his agenda that I just sat there and waited for the code words that make his supporters happy. And then I cried.

Here's one funny part:

Yet many Americans, especially parents, still have deep concerns about the direction of our culture, and the health of our most basic institutions. They're concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage. They worry about children in our society who need direction and love, and about fellow citizens still displaced by natural disaster, and about suffering caused by treatable diseases.

Gay marriage, hurricanes, polio...

[Stan4dSteph]

I can't stand to watch because of all the gratuitous clapping. I'll check out the transcript today.

Oh and scaeagles, drill in ANWR? Stupid idea. I would vote against someone based on this one decision alone.

[scaeagles]

Originally Posted by Stan4dSteph

Oh and scaeagles, drill in ANWR? Stupid idea. I would vote against someone based on this one decision alone.

I don't understand why. There is a wide disparity of opinion as to how much oil is there. Some artificially low, some artificially high.

When the Alaskan oil pipeline was built, there were environmental outcries about risks, damage, etc. None of that has developed. In fact, the warmth generated by the pipeline has led to dramatic increases in caribou populations.

600 acres of development in a 2 million acre preserve. Not unreasonable.

[Ghoulish Delight]

They're concerned about unethical conduct by public officials, and discouraged by activist courts that try to redefine marriage.

Ack? Did our President just equate supporting people's right to express their love to bilking Indians out of billions of dollars in an effort to undermine our political structure?

Yikes.

Personally, I'm discourage by activist courts that feel the need to define marriage at all.

[scaeagles]

I have never understood why marriage is an issue of the state at all.....OK, I do. Taxes. The marriage tax penalty. I believe we would all be better of if the government was out of the marriage business all together and implented a tax structure in line with that.

[mousepod]

The President of the United States of America, September 12 1962:

But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun--almost as hot as it is here today--and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out--then we must be bold.

The President of the United States of America, January 31, 1962:

Breakthroughs on this and other new technologies will help us reach another great goal: to replace more than 75 percent of our oil imports from the Middle East by 2025. By applying the talent and technology of America, this country can dramatically improve our environment, move beyond a petroleum-based economy, and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past.

What a friggin visionary.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by mousepod

What a friggin visionary.

Eh, the moon landing was fake anyway.

[scaeagles]

Eh....historical perspective. In 1962, Sputnik and the cold war and the space race WERE the issues of the day related to international relations.

Today, unrest in the middle east and the flow of oil and a huge risk in Iran and Venezuela (as far as losing oil flow) are major international issues.

I would also say that Kennedy had no real domestic opposition in that goal. Getting off of foreign oil by developing our own sources of alternative energy or producing more of our own has many, many domestic opponents (or 100 senators with vastly differing ideas and opinions).

[Gemini Cricket]

I forgot to mention my favorite quote of the night:

Tonight I ask you to pass legislation to prohibit the most egregious abuses of medical research -- human cloning in all its forms -- creating or implanting embryos for experiments, creating human-animal hybrids and buying, selling, or patenting human embryos.

What the...? What's he talking about? Five-assed monkeys from 'South Park'?