The one and only State of the Union thread

[Guest bob_barron]

Tonight President Bush gives his State of the Union address. Post anything related to it here.

[Guest Kingpk]

Time to play America's favorite party game:

 

 

 

COUNT THE STANDING OVATIONS!!!

[Guest bob_barron]

::gives Kingpk a standing ovation for that post:

[Guest MillenniumMan831]

Geez, they're palms must get sore after a while. They're hotter than a RAW crowd.

[Guest RenegadeX28]

Seems he is lowering taxes, improve medicare, put 1.2 blillion towards research for hydrogen powered cars, etc.

[Guest NoCalMike]

I am listening to it at work over the net. I turned it on right about the part where Bush was talking about AIDS in Africa.....so far just general stuff...as we speak he is going back to Al Qaeda.....thoughts to come later. *hope the net doesn't screw up*

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

has Bush been mangling "peninsula" all night here?

 

I just tuned in

[Guest hardyz1]

Late, but still fun: The State of the Union Drinking Game

 

Make your own George Bush speech

 

That second one is giving me problems now, but it's fun when it works.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Bush is now explaing why Saddam is stocking up on weapons. Intimidation, and to attack....hmmm, since Bush has already made threats of nuclear war towards Iraq it seems kind of funny.

[Guest EI Cubano]

I'm waiting for the Democrats to start chanting "assssssssssshollllleeeeee....asshollllllllllllle".

 

GW went broadway, 59:45, Damn time limit draw.

[Guest Kingpk]

Hoo boy, Ashcroft was the one that wasn't present in the chamber tonight. Imagine if the unthinkable happened and HE became President?

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Democratic response:

 

"Ya know, we agree with you on that foreign policy thing"

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

Gary Locke's voice is sorta smoothing.. he's much more interesting than Dick Gephardt.

 

My Bush Speech (assembled on that site)

 

Freedom on a massive scale.. so that mad destroyed.

 

And it appears that the War on Iraq will be put off until after March Madness and the NCAA tourny

[Guest HartFan86]

That speech was alright. I just find it funny he's giving all this money for taking care of AIDS overseas when the economy is down AND the fact there is a lot more problems in America than AIDS.

 

Ah well, at least I know when I see all the homeless people when I walk the streets of Boston, MA....I'll know those Africans are alright.

 

And 1.2 billion for finding a solution to car pollution? Um, ok. Why isn't Bush talking about education? His supposely main goal going into office in 2001 or did I just miss that part?

 

Is it just me, or is it hypocritical he's giving all this money out when the economy is supposely in the shitter? I just don't understand it...and how is solving a pollution problem going to help the economy? And once again, how is saving AIDS over in Africa going to help the economy? I don't get it....maybe I'm too young at the age of 16 to understand it. Oh well, I'm probably the only 16 year old Male in my school to watch the speech....considering my school is full of druggies and thugs and elitists and preps and....

 

*Smacks head*

 

....

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

I hear the stock in hydrogen fuels is going up.. I should find out if I can get a share in the rocket of presidentially-endorsed wonder!

[Guest EricMM]

Funny how he's all about sending medication to Africa, but is against the UN teaching Africans how to use a freaking condom.

 

Sigh.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

My fav. part was, on Fox news, when Bush talked about lawyers ruining health care via lawsuits, the camera panned to President-hopeful Sen. Edwards, a former trial lawyer himself. I laughed...

[Guest bob_barron]

On CNN at one point they panned to Hillary and Joe Liebs who were talking in the middle of a standing 'O'. I bet that made them look good

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

I saw a few Hillary/Joe shots on FNC -- they looked less than thrilled at clapping...

[Guest Vern Gagne]

has Bush been mangling "peninsula" all night here?

 

I just tuned in

Bush has never been able to say peninsula.

 

I liked when he mentioned tax cuts and all the Republicans stood up, and only one person on the Democratic side stood up.

 

Bush looked tired tonight. He seemed to deliver the domestic part of the speech very mondane. He showed more life when talking about Iraq.

 

It will be intersting what Colin Powell says next week. I still think they'll be a broad coalition before Iraq is attacked.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

I tried to watch, I really tried.

 

"Good things are good"

*round of applause, 30 seconds*

 

"Great things are GREAT!"

*standing ovation, 11 minutes*

 

I understand he's the president and all, but damn, you don't need to kiss his ass over every sentence...don't you think he could make more points if 1/3 of the speach wasn't him waiting for the clapping to stop.

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

YnA: are you saying that great things aren't great?

 

Why do you hate America so much?!?!

[Guest JMA]

I can never listen to a Bush speech. I wonder if Hannity will give Bush a verbal blow-job on his show.

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

His speech tonight was actually great in terms of delivery--well-spoken throughout, and actually looked like a leader.

 

But the big thing that bothers me is this maintenance of the notion that (and I paraphrase) "America's interests will not be determined by the rest of the world." Asserting nationalism is fantastic, but considering how shitty we look to the international committee, I feel much more comfortable with Gary Cole's focus on building trust and unity between the whole world.

 

Though the Democrats are shit out of power at this point, it was really great to see the response actually take an oppositional stance to some of the Republican policies and craft out specific plans. Enough of this ass-kissing; two strong parties competing are the only thing that's going to kick-start somebody into getting us back into a boom era.

[Guest Tim]

I tried to watch, I really tried.

 

"Good things are good"

*round of applause, 30 seconds*

 

"Great things are GREAT!"

*standing ovation, 11 minutes*

 

I understand he's the president and all, but damn, you don't need to kiss his ass over every sentence...don't you think he could make more points if 1/3 of the speach wasn't him waiting for the clapping to stop.

Stalin had signs in the audience when he made speeches to tell people when to stop applauding, because everyone was too scared to stop first. I'm not comparing Bush to Stalin, but maybe that's one Stalinist idea that would come in handy.

[Guest Olympic Slam]

That speech was alright. I just find it funny he's giving all this money for taking care of AIDS overseas when the economy is down AND the fact there is a lot more problems in America than AIDS.

 

Ah well, at least I know when I see all the homeless people when I walk the streets of Boston, MA....I'll know those Africans are alright.

 

And 1.2 billion for finding a solution to car pollution? Um, ok. Why isn't Bush talking about education? His supposely main goal going into office in 2001 or did I just miss that part?

 

Is it just me, or is it hypocritical he's giving all this money out when the economy is supposely in the shitter? I just don't understand it...and how is solving a pollution problem going to help the economy? And once again, how is saving AIDS over in Africa going to help the economy? I don't get it....maybe I'm too young at the age of 16 to understand it. Oh well, I'm probably the only 16 year old Male in my school to watch the speech....considering my school is full of druggies and thugs and elitists and preps and....

 

*Smacks head*

 

....

Quick lesson to ease the confusion:

The economy and the money being spent to fund programs like the AIDS thing, war, education, ect are two completely different things. This is a HUGE misunderstanding that doesn't surprise me seeing as how our nation has gravitated towards the notion of government dependence Our government spending is more dependent on our economy rather than our economy being dependent on government spending.

 

The economy (free market) is currently poor because people are holding onto their money more and as a result, some businesses are doing poorly or in the case of the high tech industry and the dotcoms; they're going out of business. When businesses go out of business, people lose their jobs. To correct the economic problems is to get people to spend more money or give people more money in the form of tax cuts. It's you the people who dictate the economy's ups and downs, not Bush or Clinton.

 

Your right in that AIDS programs and solututions to car pollution wont help the economy because those things don't help businesses or re-distribute money back to the consumer. If people want the economy back in order they need spend more money. The government doesn't directly influence the ups and downs of the economy, its the consumer (i.e you, me and everyone else) that decides which businesses make money and which do not.

 

EDIT: I also thought the speech tonight was good. He got me back on his side with the whole Iraq war.

[Guest NoCalMike]

I will never believe another Democrat or Republican when they talk about finding a solution for car pollution/safety. The information is ALREADY OUT THERE, and they are BOTH lying through their teeth if they say otherwise. The automobile lobby is a big one and pays big bucks for SAFETY regulations to be put off or to let them get by by claiming this or that about their new hot car/suv.....

[Guest EricMM]

NoCalMike: I think the point is that even if drastically changing the way cars are made and powered were easy to do, it'd shake the American economy up something fierce. A lot A LOT of people don't want to risk that. Clearly combustion engines are working for us now, lets let them work for us forever.

 

Not that I agree with this. But I mean, it's unlikely that any car maker would make any money selling a renewably fueled car now, the technology is too expensive. With the govt. subsidies, yes, it could become profitable, but our money isn't really going into these things is it?

[Guest DrTom]

Good speech, probably the best I've seen Bush make. Even my roommate, who is as apolitical as they come, sat down and watched it, and said it was the best speech he'd ever seen. I'm not going to agree with it all (I think the AIDS problem in Africa, while tragic, is not our problem to solve), but Bush definitely dropped some good ideas out there for the Congress to consider. What they do with them at this point will determine how ultimately successful the speech was.

 

Transcripts are available on CNN and other national news sites, for those who missed it.

[Guest Brian]

I don't know if Hydrogen cars will work. The energy needed to create that kind of reaction is rather high. The ptoential is there, and it's a good idea in theory, but the energy cost seems far too high at this stage. But then again, it almost seems like he's trying to push foreign cars out of the market since they're really pushing hybrids strong.