Extremely serious observations on the 'State of the Union' address

[outmywindow]

You all may feel free to use this thread to hold critical discussions of the political, social, economic, and international impact of President Bush's speech this evening, but I'm going to pass on all that grown-up stuff and just make fun of shit.

1.) Nancy Pelosi is reading a book while she's sitting behind Bush. It looks like it's probably a copy of the speech, but I'm going to pretend it's actually a copy of some godawful Nascar romance novel (yes, those exist).

2.) I love watching the representatives of the opposite party respond -- or stare blankly in disgust -- at the statements which make the president's party applaud violently. This goes for any president, any party, any speech. It's like high school all over again, watching Hillary Clinton sneer at Bush's take on healthcare as if he were the weird kid in their 11th grade English class doing his required rhetoric speech on his iguana farm. Why'd he have to bring those slimy looking things? Eew, and they smell funny too...

3.) What's this September 11th thing he's talking about? How come I've never heard about it before? Bush really should have let us know about this sooner.

[fripping]

godawful Nascar romance novel
i didn't watch it. but this phrase, it intrigues me. maybe i'll have to find one and conduct a reading for my friends.

[outmywindow]

4.) There's some stupid guy who keeps starting to clap enthusiastically, apparently expecting the rest of the room to do the same, but no one joins him so he peters out after five or six increasingly weak claps. I'll bet he does the same thing at the symphony and applauds lamely in between movements. Also, when he gets home tonight I'm 97% certain that he'll call his mom and say "Hey, did you hear me on TV tonight?"

[V Profane]

when he gets home tonight I'm 97% certain that he'll call his mom and say "Hey, did you hear me on TV tonight?"

Even though she died 15 years ago.

[Bradtv]

Blow more smoke out your ass?

All he's doing is asking for more money - and people are applauding it.

Lets cut back a few billion on the aggressive foreign policy on a war that has no direct enemy and build up the economy so we can be better suited to help others.

[Meliora]

I listened to most of it on the radio, and kept hearing everything in the context of that "Waving goodbye to Hegemony" article I linked to in another thread. The speech was basically "Hey there Congress, I want even more money for a buncha shit, but I'm not really gonna say why beyond vague declarations about defending our nation or promoting liberty."

(And got dang it Bush, the word is Ameeerica, not Amuuurica!)

[Kanamori]

Making joke videos of the speeches are fun... I had to do that for a class in high school and someone told me I was a sick anti-american while they were watching me work on it.:theclap:

[amazingkae]

I watch the faces of the others while he's talking. The democratic response after (kansas lady just finished) was interesting "please" to him. I think she spoke slow so people could follow her... it was good at the start, but she lulled me back to INTPc.


PS... did anybody else notice the young military guys eyes darting back and forth real fast while they sat stone faced and were watching the crowd response? Obama next to Ted? Hil looking crushed? Condie botoxed in the forehead? Important political matters, certainly.

[Sojourner]

I listened to most of it on the radio, and kept hearing everything in the context of that "Waving goodbye to Hegemony" article I linked to in another thread. The speech was basically "Hey there Congress, I want even more money for a buncha shit, but I'm not really gonna say why beyond vague declarations about defending our nation or promoting liberty."
To be fair, there are two extremes in a speech. You can go all vague, as you have accused Bush of doing (I haven't heard the speech, so I can't say anything about its vagueness), or you can go into such excruciating detail that your listeners shut off.

[C.J.Woolf]

You all have stronger stomachs than me. The only time I could bring myself to listen to Bush speak was to watch him get pwned by Kerry in the 2004 debates.

[Bwian]

I skipped watching the SOTU address, electing instead to watch Bill Maher on my DVR.

Clearly, I'll be making fun of him anyway.

Did anyone happen to count how many times he said Terrrrrists and Nuke-u-lar?

Plus, I'm kind of peeved that it pre-empted the Terminator show.

[NoahFence]

Blow more smoke out your ass?

All he's doing is asking for more money - and people are applauding it.

Lets cut back a few billion on the aggressive foreign policy on a war that has no direct enemy and build up the economy so we can be better suited to help others.

But if we cut back on the war dollars, we'll have more money for schools, and then some childs might get ahead!!! What kind of monster are you!!!

[Bwian]

But if we cut back on the war dollars, we'll have more money for schools, and then some childs might get ahead!!! What kind of monster are you!!!

But if someone gets ahead, doesn't that mean we're leaving a child, or lots of children, behind? Surely we don't want anyone to do well! So we have to spend money on war so no one gets ahead! :banghead:

[CheeZ]

The two posts above made me think of Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron (http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html)".

[Bwian]

The two posts above made me think of Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron (http://instruct.westvalley.edu/lafave/hb.html)".

Thanks for the excellent read. Very appropriate. :)

[Dax]

Did anyone else notice that CNN's coverage featured at least three people sleeping in the audience?

I was barely able to get through it - that man's voice is like nails on chalkboard.

I approve of his new, albeit VERY late, stance on ear-marks, but escalating our military involvement in the M.E. while making his "temporary" tax-cuts on the wealthiest Americans permanent is ridiculous.

I did like the crack about the White House taking checks and money orders, though. :stupid:

[NoahFence]

I did like the crack about the White House taking checks and money orders, though. :stupid:

Note that he did not say "Accepting".

[C.J.Woolf]

I approve of his new, albeit VERY late, stance on ear-marks...
Completely cynical. He wasn't against earmarks when the Republican-controlled Congress passed them.

[Dax]

Completely cynical. He wasn't against earmarks when the Republican-controlled Congress passed them.

Oh, of course not. I'm just glad that there will be a few crumbs of decent policy within the next few months, rather than none. I'm in a silver-lining mood. ;)

[Bwian]

Note that he did not say "Accepting".

They're not worth anything anyway. No money in the banks!