Like Josh Marshall the opening caught my attention. First an up note:
Tonight, I have a high privilege and distinct honor of my own — as the first President to begin the State of the Union message with these words: Madam Speaker.
Five paragraphs later:
Some in this Chamber are new to the House and Senate — and I congratulate the Democrat majority.
The text, of course, records the correct use of Democratic. Pretty hard to explain. Either he consciously slipped in a little reminder of the contempt in which he holds his political opponents or he lacks the self-discipline to keep it from getting through anyway.
Generally I just used the Pelosi Meter to judge whether this speech will be the last time we ever hear about a given proposal. If Pelosi sat still it will probably disappear into the memory hole. If Pelosi applauded politely then it might appear in some Democratic bill in a form that the president won’t like. If she put some force into it then there’s room for compromise and if Pelosi stood up then there’s a distant chance that everybody but Tom Tancredo will come away satisfied.
It goes without saying that we won’t hear anything about Social Security “reform” until next year’s SOTU, if then. Some variety of immigration reform seems likely and I see an opportunity for alternative energy, although strangely not for ethanol (guess she doesn’t want to be president someday). 80% or more of the president’s healthcare plan looks DOA, which is fine by me. Neither health savings accounts nor the new tax proposals do a blessed thing to fix our mangled system. They’re like some funhouse parody of ideology over practicality.
In foreign policy there just wasn’t much meat on the bone. The president’s own party gave only polite applause to escalation talk. I guess we’ve all heard the rhetoric about how supporting American kids dying in Iraq means supporting George Bush too many times already for it to have much of an impact. Weirdly the president seems to think that we’re fighting every major ethnic group in the mideast, which must have made the Joint Chiefs feel good about escalating our presence there. At least he can now tell Sunni from Shia.
Regarding Iran, what is there to say? If we won’t talk to them and we won’t attack them (or so says the administration, unconvincingly) then it’s hard to see what there is to do. Apparently the president, whose base considers the UN useless, plans to stake the future of the mideast on more sanctions. That should go over well. We could go on attacking Iranian interests in Iraq, even though the Iraqis seem violently opposed to the idea and evidence of actual Iranian meddling appears slim to none. Could be Iran will take the bait and retaliate, though I doubt it.
Bush registered pro forma dissatisfaction with genocide in Darfur and AIDS in Africa without proposing to do anything about it. Sadly that actually counts as an improvement when doing something has meant assuaging the theocratic base by cutting condoms and safe sex counseling out of our aid packages.
In general the speech left me lukewarm, like he’s treading water. He came, he went and my guess is that the event will disappear into the pond of history without leaving many ripples.
***Update***
The New York Times seconds my feeling about Bush’s speech. Also, I forgot to bring up Jim Webb’s reply – it was a great speech. At the time it seemed to me like Webb was basically declaring that the policy apparatus isn’t a one-way street anymore. Meaning, if the president doesn’t soon get America out of this Iraq mess then the Democrats will find a way to do it for him. By itself that’s a pretty ballsy move, on top of which his delivery was pretty good. I would prefer if media outlets had swooned over the substance rather than the delivery, but as long as they’re swooning… It seems likely that Webb’s response will leave ripples.
matt
How was Jim Webb?
Dave
Yeah, Bush suckered me in with the intro. I thought, hey that’s nice, especially as it was pointed out by Gil Gross on ABC radio that it wasn’t in the text. Whether it was an adlib or a “surprise” who knows. I suppose it doesn’t make much difference.
However, when he can’t even bring himself to pronounce the Democratic Party’s name right…all the rest falls flat.
Richard 23
What, Tim? Nothing about Jim Webb? Considering the time he had I think he did pretty well. Just imagine Macacca giving the response!
Richard 23
Oh and that kiss ass bit about Madame Speaker was pretty slick, but not slick enough for the bullshit that followed.
Go Dikembe Mutumbo! (I always hated the Nuggets, though.)
jake
Punchy
Missed the whole thing being at work. Did he really skip over the whole Iran thing? After all those veiled threats a few weeks back? No cheap shots at Amadinalongname?
I’m a bit stunned at this.
demimondian
Punchy — that’s spelled Ahmanwithalongname.
Mike
And no New Orleans references…what a scumbag. And I mean that in the nicest possible way.
tBone
I can never bring myself to watch more than 30 seconds of the Smirker-in-Chief on TV, so I missed the speech. Did he talk about the status of the Iraq Pony? I’d like to know if it:
a) is frolicking in a bucolic meadow in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley
b) was shipped to abu Kanuba and ground into kibble two years ago
c) was kidnapped by Iranian militants, who are using strands from its magical mane to enrich uranium.
demimondian
It’s somewhere north, south, east, or west of Baghdad, in a region called the Burn-Muddah Triange.
Zifnab
Bush says the Iraq pony is still there, but if we leave we’ll just be giving the pony up to terrorists. He pointed out how the terrorists used a pony on 9/11 and we must never forget. Also, something about no one ever voting to invade Iraq so we could give up looking for ponies before the job was done. Then he gave himself a pat on the back for doing such a heckofajob.
TenguPhule
paul
The use of the term “Democrat Party” is being used by the Republicans on all the talk shows since the Dems won the election.
It was not a mistake in the least.
demimondian
To be fair to the President, what he actually says is that if we leave now, there will be an eruption of sectarian violence, which is likely to spread and envelope the whole region. That’s not an unreasonable hypothesis.
My only question about it is “How will remaining change that?” He hasn’t provided a compelling answer to why his escalation will change that outcome. The numbers aren’t enough to make a difference in the violence, so the only effect that our troops are going to have will be to give all the governments involved an excuse to do nothing about the underlying civil war.
b-psycho
Richard 23: Mutumbo is on the Rockets now. Hasn’t been w/ Denver in years actually.
…and so ends my nitpick.
Richard 23
b-psycho, you can tell how long it’s been since I watched the NBA!
Americablog made a good observation that I had missed:
Apologies to the crazy aunts in the commentariot.
I can tell the speech was a rousing success by the flood of comments since it ended. Either that or y’all took my advice and drank heavily throughout.
Glen
Tim,
I was watching the “Pelosi Meter,” too. Based on her reactions — plus those of the Congress at large — I was calculating, “This is DOA.” “This may be done but in no way George will like.” “This is not just DOA, it’s pre-buried.” Oh, yeah, this is going to be a fun year.
Sherard
Only at this retarded site could find something so ridiculously stupid as this:
I mean, are you serious with that kind of idiocy ? The man has demonstrated over 6 or 7 years that he is not the best speaker, that he mangles words from time to time, and you would actually suggest that there is an ulterior motive behind flubbing “Democratic” into “Democrat”. Nevermind that I have no earthly idea how you conflate that into some kind of insult in any way.
You should be embarassed.
GOP4Me et al
Don’t worry. I think every American alive is pretty embarrassed at this point.
Did anyone understand this part of the speech?
I was at work when I heard this, and to me it sounded like he wanted to expand some sort of mercenary shadow army. Now that I reread it, it sounds less controversial. Then again, I can see why I felt that way about it the first time. Will we be arming these civilians/sending them into combat? Is this just a rehash of FDR’s old CCC? What is this thing? Does anyone have any thoughts?
jake
He mentioned the CRC (or something like it) quite some time ago but I don’t recall any mention of sending them overseas. I also don’t get the use of the word “hire” to refer to a member of a reserve corps. Wouldn’t that be like “hiring” a member of the Army Reserve? They’ve already signed on, all the CRC would have to do is call.
It sounds like he wants people who can do logistical/support work to join up in order to free more members of the military for combat roles. The strange thing is (as I read this) this would mean less money for the contractors.
jake
Query:
Did he mention…what’s that place? Begins with an A? There’s some sort of fighting going on there…
And what about that guy? Damn! What is his name? Osama bin something.
GOP4Me et al
This is partially why I thought he was talking about some kind of mercenary outfit subcontracting.
BTW, I want in on this pie. If Bush will give me $100k per recruit, I’ll happily find him some guy, shave him, give him a gun, and pay him $75k to go fight this war in a “support” role. I’ve always wanted to run a security firm (ever since last night), I have no morals whatsoever, and I sure do like pie!
I’m still confused as Hell, though. I think it can be read multiple ways. Your reading is certainly the sanest; but bear in mind, this is Bush we’re talking about, here.
GOP4Me et al
The Alamo? No, he didn’t mention it. Didn’t need to; we’ll always remember it.
Osaddama bin Hussein? Yeah, I think he mentioned him.
jake
Research Geek Alert:
Here is a bill for a civilian reserve corp that Rangel introduced back in 2005.
But as you said, this is Bush we’re talking about. Fortunately, something like this would take a long time to hammer out. So while I’m sure we’ll still be talking about him (dirty sonuvabitch), and we might even be listening to him (plead the fifth), his ability to further fuck up the country will be gone.
Jonathan
It is a deliberate insult to call someone by a name which they do not like. Passive aggressive abuse.
“Democrat” as an adjective is relatively recent Republican coinage, designed to head off any subconscious inference that the opposition is truly “democratic.”
Even though I’m an atheist, I sometimes do readings as part of a Bible study group. I can read King James Bible passages with which I’m unfamiliar bettter than Bush can read a much coached speech.
Bush sounds like a relative newbie at Toastmasters.
JK
It’s more than just an innocent flub, Sherard.
http://tinyurl.com/zgj62
Pardon my French, but your faux naivete is touching.
Bombadil
Today’s on-line NY Times has an interesting interactive feature here. You can enter in a text string and see how often it comes up in each of Dubya’s SoTU speeches, and by clicking on the word, see the context.
He mentioned bin Laden twice last year, and once this year. Saddam Hussein appeared 19 times in 2003, 4 times in 2004, once in 2005, and has not appeared since.
Afghanistan does a bit better — 13 times in 2002, 3 times in 2003, 5 times in 2004, 3 times in 2005, twice last year and 4 times this year.
Steve
You’re wrong about it being recent. It originated with Joe McCarthy. Resurrected, I believe, by Newt Gingrich and others of that stripe. A little history lesson here.
Huge deal? No. A good signifier of petty partisanship? Absolutely. The fact that Sherard believes this was just some random “flub” demonstrates that he’s not only partisan but just plain dumb.
lard lad
Only from the likes of Sherard could we get an attack as petty as this:
I’ll just mention that Chris Matthews and Joe Scarsborough – hardly bastions of liberalism – agreed while analyzing Bush’s speech on MSNBC that the use of the word “Democrat” in place of “Democratic” was a Republican reflex that had worn out its welcome and then some. Matthews wondered out loud how the GOP would feel if the Democrats started employing the term “Republics.”
I’ll bet Sherard the Shit Slinger is one of those guys who thought the whole George Allen “macaca” imbroglio was just a big mean left-wing media smear…
Paddy O'Shea
Back in the day they knew how to deal with Republicans.
http://www.blueridgecountry.com/elephant/hang.jpg
internet discussion board participant
In fairness, though, even when there was a Republican Congress, you could disregard a good proportion of whatever the president talked about in his SOTU as impractical, too unpopular to pass, or empty words.
Lee
Why is it Bush loves to claim that 9-11 changed everything, but it took 5.25 years for him to get around to asking the American people (who have now would not cross the street if he asked them to) to make any meaningful changes like.
1. Lower fuel consumption.
2. Increase the armed forces.
Would there have been ANY opposition to either of these requests the last quarter of 2001?
Many of the neoncon supporters love to talk about the great leadership Bush displayed after 9-11. No he did not. A great leader convinces people to do things they normally would not do (charge a beach into enemy fire). Bush asked us to fucking SHOP.
Yeah, the more I think about it the angrier I get so I’ll stop now.
Paddy O'Shea
Lee: You’re asking logical and well thought out questions.
Obviously you’ve missed the point.
RandyH
One thing I noticed the second time I listened to the speech was that he did not mention the “state of the union” – you know “strong” at the beginning of the speech and allow for applause, as is usually done. Instead, he snuck those words in at the very end of the speech without a pause between it and the next thought. See:
Jim Webb’s response was the best I’ve heard in my time.
Oh, and the Republic Party will get a warm reception in St. Paul when they show up for the Republic Party convention next year. Expect big banners and signs welcoming the Republic Party to town. It won’t be “Welcome, Republicans!” but rather “Welcome Republic Party!” Seriously, there is an (unofficial) move underway to do this. I think it’s only appropriate, considering the way they treat the word Democratic.
Krista
Anybody know where I can find a transcript of Webb’s response? I’d love to read it…
Zifnab
Or it could be that he’s trying to install contractors into the army as a permenant fixture. Effectively, set aside $X billion a year for the defense department to fill this roll with Halliburton employees.
It’s stealth privitization of the military.
Zifnab
I don’t know how you feel about DKos, but they’ve got a full transcript of the speech up.
Lee
RandyH,
That sounds hilarious.
If that idea needs any support from out-of-towners, post up some links. I’ll donate some cash.
jenniebee
Yeah, see the thing is, it’s not really a slur, it’s more like bait. It’s like when you’re in an argument and you start to think “if I push this guy a little, he’ll just fucking lose it and nobody’s going to listen to him after that,” so you start mispronouncing his name or addressing him as “Friend” or using a nickname (my fave: Sparky. Works every time.) Next thing you know, he’s split his focus and starts arguing about what you should call him and not the real issue, which is exactly when he’s lost the fight.
That’s probably not exactly what George “Nuk-u-lar” Bush was doing when he started mispronouncing it, but that’s the way it works.
Punchy
Good comedy.
spoosmith
Wasn’t anyone else completely creeped out when he kept mentioning Iran/Syria, then talked about increasing the size of the military and strategic reserve? Given that it looks like they are going into Iran (whether it is warranted or not), and that Iran can bottle up the Persian Gulf and virtually stop all oil shipments from the Middle East, I think the strategic reserve increase is in anticipation of that.
I didn’t sleep well last night (thoughts of armageddon in my head).
demimondian
I don’t think it should be “Republic” party, though. I’ve always preferred taking the first two letters off: the “Publican Party”. The party of merchants, bar owners, and drunkards.
Punchy
I just don’t understand this decision to put the Republic Party Convention in Minny ha-ha. This is a HUGELY blue city. It’s metro and jam-packed with small, very liberal colleges.
To say there’ll be protests and general anti-Republic fevor is putting it incredibly mildly…
Jackmormon
Mutombo, Wesley Autry, and the Baby Einstein lady prove that the state of our union is strong.
Oh, Jesus, help us.
RandyH
demimondian-
Publican Party sounds good too. Either way we save ourselves the trouble of pronouncing an extra syllable. It’s really just an efficiency measure, right? Who’d be offended? Publicans are all about efficiencey. Don’t they claim to be the party of big business?
If we all just change the way we say or write these things and stick to it, they will just become second nature. For example, during the revelation of Abu Ghraib, I noticed a few people calling the author of the “torture” memos (who is now attorney general) “Abu Gonzales” and I started using that nickname for him exclusively. Now, it just comes naturally and sometimes people’s heads turn when I talk about Abu Gonzales and his advocacy of other illegal activities. You can see in their eyes that they know I’ve said something incorrectly. And then it clicks. And they nod.
Fe E
I’ve taken to just calling them the Republan party. If they can’t keep track of the “ic” well, neither can I.
The Other Steve
Sherard seems to be lately setting himself up for the bomb a lot.
The Other Steve
Why not Publicants?
Or Replicants? With a nod towards Bladerunner.
RandyH
I love it! And it sort of has a subliminal thing about it. When I read that the first time, I read it as it “Republican”. Only after realizing something’s missing did I re-read it.
The Other Steve
I am going to leave town.
I hope they remember to put up the signs that say “GUNS ARE BANNED FROM THESE PREMISES”. Or will they? It was the publicants who pushed for the concealed carry law, so they should support everybody’s right to strap on at the GOP convention, right?
Jake
There was a movement earlier last year to create a civilian contractor corps so the contracting process would be more “efficient.” (Translation: Give everything to my pals without that pesky bidding process). So I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what he wants. But as the song says…
Fe E
Are you crazy? You’re going to miss all the fun. There are gonna be a lot of people I’ve been meaning to insult face-to-face–but just haven’t gotten around to handling that yet–and here they come, all convenient like.
Hi Republans!
Punchy
Wait…Liz Cheney’s going to be there?
ThymeZone
Jesus, my yard man, has heard your prayer.
But we have to warn you, he doesn’t do Utah.
Jesus no likey Utah.
Steve
Every big city is blue, unless you want them to hold their convention in Oklahoma City or something. The Upper Midwest is one of the few swing regions out there, so if it’s a choice between Minneapolis, Racine, and Davenport, well…
Jonathan
I knew about McCarthy but had forgotten. I guess I’m old enought to think of Newt as “recent” though.
ChristieS
Krista, here’s the YouTube of Webb’s Democratic response to the SOTU.
GotWolfy
Jim Webb response was really good especially the
“We will show him the way” at the end that was classic
dreggas
They’re already doing this what else could explain calling people who were in the military, but are now out and are civilians, back into duty. The Marines just sent out a letter to over 100k ex-Marines asking them if they would pretty please with sugar on top come back.
dreggas
Re: Webb’s response
The man was cool and calm on the exterior but you could see in his tone and his eyes that he was on the verge of tears when speaking of his proud heritage (and not all would have been tears of joy when it came to the fact his son is still in Iraq). It was also hard to not see the burning anger laying just below the surface as he spoke. I am sure inside he was shouting at the top of his lungs and would probably have punched the president square in the face for that speech.
You could almost hear him saying “You have the audacity to stand there and talk about tax cuts and NCLB and blah blah blah when you have sent our young men and women into a foreign country to die for your own arrogance.”
Cyrus
It’s hard to run against dirty hippies and defeatocrats when Hillary Clinton keeping on trying to be more hawkish than Bush, Obama is more publically religious than anyone since Carter, and Webb is the best-known Congressman with a child serving overseas right now (if not the only one). They desperately need photos of long-haired people in black t-shirts and brawling twentysomethings with cameras (“The Democrat started that fight, pleeease believe us!”) to maintain some faint semblance of the idea among the ignorant and/or diehard faithful base that the current Publican leadership is preferable to
everyoneanyone else.Shortening “Republican” at the end, by the way, doesn’t work very well because it’s not obvious you’re talking about people, unlike shortening “Democrat.” Which leaves us with either Publican, or some completely made-up word, or taking the high road and being the less immature, disrespectful party. Which actually is a tough choice, as you can see by my previous paragraph, but I don’t plan to make a habit of it, and hey, we have a looong way to go before we catch up…
Zifnab
It received a few polite claps from Nancy, so I’m sure he’ll get a bill on his desk that’s nothing what he wants but has the name CRC on it if he gets anything at all.
Those Publicans think they’re just so smart. “We won’t raise taxes, we’ll just tax your medical insurance. People will be too goss darn stupid to figure it out.” “We’ll increase the military by rerouting all the money to civilian contractors. Tehe. No one will suspect a thing so long as we keep chanting ‘Four legs good, two legs better’.”
This is going to be a fun year.
RandyH
dreggas-
That letter, begging former military folks to please come back is also the same letter that they mistakenly sent to the war dead and blamed on a “computer glitch.” Competence at the Pentagon…
dreggas
More of that Military Intelligence…
Punchy
Let’s do a combo of shortening and letter omissions. Best of both worlds.
I propose chopping off the “an” and omitting the “l”. That leaves us with:
Repubics. Choke on that for awhile.
ThymeZone
They got away with this shit because they had the noise machine, they had a lock on the proceedings on the Hill, and they had their demagoguery over the war and “values” acting as a jackalope parade. That’s how they got the “banking reforms” done while nobody was looking. That’s how they planned to get rid of Social Security while nobody was looking.
Now, people are looking, their noise machine has thrown a rod end bearing, they don’t have the Hill, and the people have seen behind their curtains and no likey what they see.
Game over.
demimondian
Personally, I wonder if the CRC is a way to dodge don’t ask, don’t tell, too. People who “can’t wear the uniform” means what, after all? Three things: too old, too sick, or too queer.
Andrew
Can I just say again how much “Baby Einstein” creeps me the fuck out?
dreggas
Making childrens videos in your basement…mmmk.
norbizness
Fewer words, more YouTube.
(now I have to reset the count on my “it’s been (x) days since my last site-pimp” recovery plan)
Bombadil
Have all presidents stopped to give autographs on their way out of the House chamber, or is this something new?
And this was just, um, weird.
KCinDC
At the SOTU watch party I was at, we speculated that people were going to be putting the autographs on eBay. It’s not easy living on a congressional salary, as Santorum used to remind us.
ThymeZone
I’ve seen it before. Members will ask for them for their kids and spouses and such. When the real powerful people are around, members of congress are basically like twittering highschool girls.
dreggas
I half wished someone had been smart enough to slip in a liner or something for him to sign and the liner turned out to be his resignation. He wasn’t paying much attention anyway.
Andrew
Little does Bush know, but he just signed legislation mandating recreational abortions for Christians and replacing elementary school history classes with gay orgies.
Paddy O'Shea
Best commentary so far. From Robt Scheer, of course.
Stop Him Before He Kills Again
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/5003
Zifnab
Mr. President, meet your base. Base, try to down a few more valium before you head out next year.
ThymeZone
Amen, Paddy.
luckily ….
I predicted that Bush’s administration was over the day he announced the “surge.” I hope I was right. So far the indicators seem to be moving in that direction …
ThymeZone
Ouch ….
Tsulagi
Nah, given the underlying proclivities of Bill Bennett’s Republican manly men (See Foley, Haggard, Gannon, et al), I think it’s the hot babe effect. A hot babe strolls by guys turn stupid. Bush is their hot babe.
The Other Steve
BTW, anybody catch how George Bush is going to raise your taxes?
He wants to make health insurance taxable income, then give you back a tax credit.
Ok, that’s fine, except by making it taxable income it’s now subject to FICA taxes… i.e. social security and medicare.
PeterJ
That’s a great way for Bush to make his plan to make Americans cut down their usage of gas a success, since if you don’t have any gas, then you can’t use it. Brilliant :)
Jake
Maybe she was sent by Chancellor Merkel. “Show that schwien how much fun it is being groped!”
demimondian
And there’s another nice touch to the new health insurance tax: it’s incredibly regressive. A significant fraction of the middle class’s income is hidden in the health benefits that we get; by making that taxable, it raises the net tax rate on the middle class without affecting the wealthy much at all.
ThymeZone
Jesus (my yard man) weeps.
That is pretty sad, isn’t it?
Minor Ripper
Jim Webb would kick George W. Bush’s ass in a big way. And you know he fantasizes about that…
http://www.minor-ripper.blogspot.com
Pb
So what’s the deal with the obstructionist Senate Republicans filibustering the Minimum Wage Bill and not allowing an upperdown(TM) vote? I say, let them launch a real filibuster, and expose them to the American people once more for the callous slimeballs they are.
Bombadil
Maybe they’re afraid the Dems will launch the Nucular Option.
TenguPhule
So how’s your Pubician Party, Sherad? Molested any more little boys yet?
dreggas
From Hagel’s speech today (highlighted by me) where were Republicans like this in ’03?
TenguPhule
So instead of young tight underage ass, they fantasize about old wrinkled flabby ass.
But hey, at least now he’s legal!
The Other Steve
And by bringing in more social security revenue, we can balance the budget by 2010 as promised!
If you already make over I think it’s $85,000… you odn’t pay the social security tax, but you do get hit up with medicare, but it’s only like 3% so no big deal.
dreggas
OH SNAP!!!
ThymeZone
Oh absolutely, and it’s a scheme that takes dollars out of your wallet and my wallet and puts them directly into the wallets of the BigHMO fat cats. AKA, Bush’s second tier of supporters (after the oil interests).
Brilliant, diabolical …. Republican. Genius!
Dave
I wasn’t able to watch it just listen on the radio, has anyone found a clip of McCain sleeping yet? I’d love to see that.
The Other Steve
The minimum wage deserves an upperdown vote!
upperdown! upperdown!
The Other Steve
I have to admit. The whole thing was rather boring. It would have put me to sleep to.
Except I flipped to a Law & Order SVU rerun.
ThymeZone
If that man is not the biggest lying cocksucker on the planet, I don’t know who is.
Zifnab
Talk about robbing Peter to pay Paul. “We’ll tax your insurance money to pay for the cost of your insurance. Notice this has absolutely NO effect on insurance premiums, copays, or other out-of-pocket expenses.”
Also that $4500 for a family making $60000 a year number is total bullshit. Guess how much money you’ll get from this deduction if you are a single person making less than $8450 with no other income adjustments? If you guessed $0, you’d be absolutely right. And even if you do find yourself making an extra $7500 a year, you’re still dragging in a measly $750 because you’re still in the 10% tax bracket. Of course, the guys dragging in the big bucks – $100,000+ a year – make a killing as they keep 33% of their tax deduction.
Why not just offer a flat $X tax credit for people enrolled in health insurance plans? You could mock it up like the EIC credit. Maximize the benefit to certain segments of the population. But, of course, that wouldn’t give rich people money. :-p So that would be silly.
Bombadil
Re: “OH SNAP!”
Yeah, Cheney’s a lying cocksucker, but it’s kind of refreshing to see the questions being asked, isn’t it?
He’s going to have to go on Fox Nothing and talk to Brit Hume at least four times to counteract that one.
Tsulagi
I took his ‘plan’ more as wanting to move people away from employer paid health insurance. Employers are bitching, with justification, about the high cost of heath insurance. Solution: Move the cost to the employee while telling them they’re getting an offsetting tax deduction. Think it through and you can see it could easily result in a lot more uninsured. But those aren’t the people who write the big campaign checks.
Hey, how about in solidarity with this plan, Bush, Republican congressmen and senators set an example. Forgo their government paid health insurance and purchase their own for themselves and their families. Be part of the solution, not the problem. Yeah, right.
Perry Como
Moonbat Sen. Hagel (al Qaeda – NE) on the blame America first crowd.
Jake
Is it me or did Wolf slap on some spurs and ride Dick around the studio?
I bet Dick goes crying to his best friend Rush.
dreggas
Yes but it’s like a breath of fresh air after being in a vacuum for 5+ years. A little late.
What would have been refreshing (besides seeing Cheney snarl when exposed to the light of day) would have been seeing this interview being done with Cheney and Cheney subjected to an electric shock to his nether region for every perceived non-answer.
dreggas
I took it for what it was a smokescreen tax increase ala his fathers no new taxes bs.
dreggas
Perhaps but he still needs to be cornholed by the Speaker Of the House with a strapon before I am fully satisfied. That MoFo is more of a threat to this country than Bin Laden could hope to be.
I mean here’s a man who goes hunting (albeit in cozy preserves where the game is released from cages most likely) saying we can’t track and hunt bin laden. Give me a freaking break he’s laughing his ass off in Pakistan as we speak.
ConservativelyLiberal
That was one of the oddest SOTU’s I have seen so far. The Decider in Chief was more subdued, his fan club was much quieter, his pointing out a lady and explaining that she makes videos of children in her basement (that had us laughing our asses off here at home, no matter how you say that it just sounds wrong), and overall it was a sad spectacle to see. No bones tossed to the extreme right of the party, ‘win’ strangely absent from every sentence he spoke, it was just a sad performance from someone who is supposed to be the leader of the free world.
Of course, the Redstaters are high fiving each other and saying that he finally sold the war (again). Their pompous, self inflated diatribe is pretty twisted to read (nothing new about that).
Webb stole the show though, geez! What a solid performance. The little slip of a grin that cracked through towards the end of his speech was just right. It was like saying, ‘Hey Prez! You forgot your clothes again!’. You could see that he was rightfully proud of pointing out that when it comes to the military, his family (like many others) walk the walk, leaving unsaid that the Prez and his cronies only talk the talk.
When they flashed a pic of the prez from 2000 and then flashed to today, you can see that the office is weighing heavily on him, like it did his father.
You can see that Cheney did not train his chimp very well though. When Cheney took a drink of water, so did the chimp. It is kind of hard to convince people what a great ventriloquist you are when your dummy drinks too.
What I want to know is how Cheney was able to operate his dummy from where he was. It had to be very difficult to have your hand up the ass of the dummy from that far away. Maybe he ordered Hadley to crouch behind the dummy and operate so it would not look like Cheney was operating the chimp.
One other thing I noticed is that
CheneySatan had his chimp at his left hand again. Nothing like order in the alternate dimension of Hell…dreggas
The Decider has a small apparatus on under his suit (much like during the debates) which allowed Cheney to manipulate him by remote control which was not visible.
Jake
Do want to stop the screaming of the lambs, Clarice?
Steve
Cheney:
Seriously, you can’t make this stuff up. What’s truly remarkable about the Cheney interview is that I don’t think he said one word that hasn’t been uttered by Darrell at some point in time. The man does have a fan club.
dreggas
Oh man I am just…sooo many possibilities…must resist…can’t
“RIDE THE LITTLE PONY”
dreggas
Fan club…I do believe they are called “Cults” in most parts of the world.
ThymeZone
A disturbing, but somehow satisfying, word picture ….
Sherard
Hell yeah. Quite a swoon:
Go to the MSNBC article Tim links and scroll to the bottom. The above quote comes directly from the “swooning” article.
How fucking bad is that ? Even in an article that “swoons” over the “Democrat Response” is acknowledgement of the truth that the Democrats don’t actually have any plans. Awesome.
dreggas
Shorter Sherard:
I knew there was a pony in there somewhere.
Steve
I see Sherard still isn’t man enough to admit he was an idiot for claiming “Democrat majority” was a random slip of the tongue by our President. Nope, right on to the next rant, like always.
SeesThroughIt
You know what’s really funny/sad? You can pretty much bank on the fact that wingnuts will see that Cheney interview and crow, “Cheney put that jerk Blitzer and his radical liberal media bias in his place! He totally smacked down all those defeat-o-crat questions! Yeah! You get ‘im, Dick!”
Sherard
As to the content of Webb’s rebuttal ? Since the biggest issue is obviously Iraq, looking to Korea seems like a poor idea to me. Is that what you moonbats want ? The US military patrolling the Iraq / Iran border for the next 50 years while the side we oppose grows in power until they acquire and test WMD ? Wow, what a brilliant alternative strategy.
That outcome may have been inevitable given the proxy war between 2 superpowers that was Korea. But there is no reason on earth to think that the outcome can be nothing but a stalemate border patrol for half a century. But, hey, it’s not was Bush proposed, so it MUST be good. LOL!
Sherard
To the contrary. The fact you retards are in such an uproar over something so innocuous just shows how batshit crazy your conspiratorial thinking has become. That fact you even need to point it out is pathetic.
ThymeZone
What we want is shut of this goddammed useless administration.
Pb
Sherard,
Ok, genius, what’s your brilliant prediction for the future of Iraq. Let’s say we give Bush free reign to do whatever he wants there (much as the Republicans did for the past four years of the war, which worked out so well) — how long do you think we’ll be in Iraq, and what do you think will be left of it–and of its neighbors–when we’re done with it? Will an air war with Iran turn Iraq into an island paradise, chock full of candy and flowers? How about a nuclear war? Inquiring minds want to know.
Steve
That’s right, when Newt Gingrich spends years urging every Republican to use the term, and Frank Luntz writes a book about it, it’s obviously “conspiratorial thinking” to note that virtually every elected Republican now says “Democrat Party” as a matter of course.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present Sherard, your prototypical Republican. Once he had no credibility, now he has less. What a fine, fine specimen.
Zifnab
It’s very hard to hear the Democratic plan when you stick your fingers in your ears and shout, “Surge! Surge! Surge!”
Don’t worry, Democrats don’t have a plan. So when they don’t propose minimum wage increase legislation, you can not filibuster it. Then, when they don’t propose killing earmarks and restricting lobbyist gifts, you can not try to sabatoge it with “line-item veto” amendments. Better not get your angry protest on when the Dems don’t cut student loan interests. You won’t have to throw hissy-fits on the House Floor when Democrats don’t revoke subsidies to oil companies.
And that was all the plans they didn’t impliment in the first 42 hours. I hear next they’re going on to not tackle global warming and not investigate massive government waste in no-bid contracts.
Seriously, Sherad, what are you complaining about? The Dems aren’t even doing anything?
Jimmy Mack
Yup, if Bush stopped calling you the “Democrat party” all of our country’s problems would go away. We’d have peace in the Middle East, a revitalized manufacturing base, you name it. It would all be peaches and cream.
Dave
Ah, I dig the whole pomp and circumstance of the whole thing. Honestly Bush could get up there and make fart noises and I’d still watch. As it stands I usually end up yelling at the TV.
I especially love the punditry afterwards. I watch all of MSNBCs coverage, then moved over to CNN for it’s repeat. All the while playing Warcraft. Yeah, I’m a geek.
Dave
You’re an idiot.
ThymeZone
That’s what you meant, right?
The Other Steve
Yeah, but wasn’t it a joy watching Sherard defend it by claiming Bush is a moron and can’t speak English? All in the same paragraph he attacked us moonbats for not getting it.
The Other Steve
You had me at hello.
ThymeZone
Snort.
dreggas
The saddest part of this is that the Sherards, Darrell’s and the rest probably really believed bush last night when he said that with regards to iraq we are “not in a fight we chose to be in”.
I heard that last night and had all I could do to not break my promise to my wife with regard to offering my own commentary.
I guess Hagel is a liar too :
Click here
Or maybe it’s not a fight we chose because the decider wanted it to be the entire region.
ThymeZone
My version. Heh.
dreggas
There was no sense in ruining a perfectly good television when the end result would not have been the satisfying feeling of teeth being broken and lips being split open.
Cyrus
Sherard sees this: …
at the end of an otherwise glowing article, and he makes it sound like it’s exactly the same as this:
Is this because Sherard is totally bonkers, or just throwing anything he can at Democrats in a fit of unprincipled partisanship to see what sticks? I report, you
decidepoint and laugh at him.dreggas
Both…
Tsulagi
Well, Sherard, you can sleep easy. The closest comparison of Bush to another Republican wartime president would be Nixon. I know that’s not fair to Nixon, but after he ended that war there haven’t been any U.S. soldiers patrolling borders in Vietnam. Besides, you’ve already given most of Iraq to Iran so you’d have to find a different border.
I think what the junior senator from Virginia was too polite to add was NO WAY YOU CAN TRUST THIS FUCKING RETARD WITH GUNS. But in the spirit of bipartisanship, he left the obvious unsaid.
Andrew
Can someone order some Baby Einstein tapes for Sherard? I hear they’re really good for that sort of thing.
ThymeZone
Indeed. It was a brilliant performance. The story of his family’s service in wartime was just a little bit of a contrast to Bush’s. Bush’s father went to war and served with great honor. Bush’s father then arranged for his son to hide out in Alabama during war, and probably helped cover up for the fact that the little prick was too drunk to fly enough to meet his requirements.
But as Georgie said, he was honorably discharged. That’s what counts, right?
Mind you, I myself was 4F, so I didn’t go, but I don’t go around talking about what a wannabee fucking hero I was, either.
tBone
Whoever is writing Sherard, just knock it off. A spoof should have at least some entertainment value mixed in with the crazy or it’s just not worth my time.
ThymeZone
I think it’s Darrell.
Andrei
That may be true, but it was the GOP and President Bush who still have to account for the whole Terri Schiavo fisasco.
I’ll take raving moonbats freaking out about being called names over righteous zealots waging boisterious protests to the degree that they get the President to fly back to Washington in the middle of the night to sign a bill for a woman who had long been dead.
Something about glass houses and stones comes to mind.
tBone
They target an audience that drools on itself, so he would fit the demographic.
Zifnab
I always thought Sherad was a girl.
At least, whenever I pictured Sherad, I always conjured up an image of Jean Schmitt.
ConservativelyLiberal
I have to say that Chuck Hagel flat out slammed the Iraq war supporters, the way he wove ‘Damn’ into his statement about the members being ready to look their constituents in the eye before sending more troops into the mess there was one of the best things I have heard a repub say in a LONG time.
Well said.
Jake
Is that a Speaker’s Gavel in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
dreggas
That’s assuming he has reached the intelligence level required to drool on himself…Of course according to Dr. Frist, after watching brief video, he is but the real jury is out.
dreggas
Cheney: Is that a Speaker’s Gavel in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Pelosi: Bend Over and I’ll show you.
Cheney: Huh?
Pelosi: four words…”Who’s the bitch now?”
Jake
Or:
This one’s for Leahy!
Paddy O'Shea
The Ancient McCain taking a pappy nap during the Decider’s riveting speechifying last evening.
http://www.hoflink.com/~dbaer/sleepmccain.jpg
Not going to help him with that age issue thing. Nope, not one bit.
dreggas
Fucker…I mean Tucker had it right last night with regards to McCain snoozing:
“If you are John McCain and you will be turning 70 years old when running for president you want to appear to be alert when the president is talking about Iraq, you do not want to be on TV and appear to be snoozing, that is exactly what John McCain did”.
Rome Again
LMAO, that’s too funny, wish it had happened.
Are you aware that when Bush signs his name it looks like it says “Azazel”?
I even checked the signatures he was making last night, they match, from the direction I could see (he signed a few towards the camera at the end, the signature was not right up to the lens, but still pretty clear.
Check this out:
GW Bush signature
Jake
A question: If Iran is the enemy du jour and another country gives Iran S-2-A missles, what does that make the second country?
George? Care to take that one? Hello?
dreggas
Someone should ask Laura if George is smoothe or hairy
dreggas
well considering that We are supporting a regime within Iraq that has ties to people who have tried to kill us vis-a-vis Al Sadr I guess we call them allies?
Tsulagi
It would make them the same as us. Well, not really. One is definitely stupid.
As it neared retirement, and even more so now that it is, we’ve been selling surplus F-14 parts at auction. Which is really smart as Iran is now the only country still flying the Tomcat fighter and would likely be a principal buyer through middlemen. Remember, 9/11 changed everything.
Ted
Last I heard, every last Tomcat they have is useless without the replacement parts. But this will certainly make them delighted to hear.
TenguPhule
Shorter Jimmy Mack: I need a cough drop, Bush’s pony keeps coughing down my throat.
Pooh
Did I ever tell you about the time I almost died?
(vastly underrated movie, in my book.)
TenguPhule
Shorter Sherad: My bullshit enema is leaking again.
TenguPhule
Congratulate Sherad for earning his very own Irony of the Day(tm)!
Rome Again
Pooh, did you have that link sitting on your computer or did you go looking for it? LMAO, I’m just amazed with some of the links people save, don’t ask me why.
That was, uh, STRANGE, yeah, that’s it! Ummm thanks?
Bruce Moomaw
Djerejian at Belgravia Dispatch noticed another intriguing little detail during the speech: “Cheney even mischievously winked to the gallery during one of the reduction-in-energy-usage parts.”
As Webb’s speech: my, are the GOP terrified of him now. Even Brit Hume and Fred Barnes at Fox liked it — and read Mark Kleiman’s blog to find out how frantically the GOP now has oppo researchers trying to dig up some dirt in Webb’s background, beyond the fact that he used Dirty Words in some of his novels. (It also turns out, by the way, that he threw away the speech the DNC had written for him and entirely wrote his own speech.)
Tsulagi
Actually, I shouldn’t have used the word “likely” in my comment. They’ve been buying. I especially liked this paragraph in the article I linked to…
Yep, vote Republican for national security.
Pooh
IMDB.com is my friend. And whatever is the equivalent of a photographic memory for movie quotes and the like, I pretty much have that. I could easily communicate in nothing but movie/TV quotes, song lyrics and advertising slogans…
Rome Again
I noticed that too, it was hard to miss if were watching MSNBC and kept your eye on the tube. It wasn’t subtle, at all.
McCain was full of winks too, in between naps, I think.
Rome Again
::slinks away:: “Damn, another person with culture!”
Ted
I’d have to say the best part is this:
jake
I bet “Look what the Americans sold me!” is a popular game in other countries. I would have paid dearly to be there when the DoD read this report. SURPRISE MUTHAFUGGA!
This is nuts. Even if these weapons were only sold to Americans and never left the country, who likes the idea of John Q. Whackjob running around with a rocket launcher?
Pb
Dear Republicans,
Have you signed your loyalty oath today?
Treasonously Yours,
Pb
Perry Como
Best. Comment. Ever.
Zifnab
What’s that you say? Encouraging Republicans not to give money to Republican candidates, you say? Popular support to undermine the RSCC and defund an organization that has already been cash-strapped since the debacle of the ’06 election, you say? I’ll support that!
Three cheers for Glenn Reynolds and the punditocracy! Screwing over the Senate far better than Liddy Dole ever could!
dreggas
The rather amusing bit is that the mouth breathers used real names and their home towns. It wouldn’t take a genius to find their addresses and spam them with junk mail or sell their phone numbers to telemarketers.
demimondian
I was wondering if anyone except me was thinking that the phrase “Cutting off your nose to spite your face” was particularly apposite. Guess not.
blackfrancis
off topic
CLEVELAND — Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio’s most populous county.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4496735.html
Tsulagi
Not necessarily. If you take a look on “The Pledge” site, among the patriot warriors taking the pledge you see a few names that stand out a little bit. If you were thinking.
Like Huckleberry Buttsizer. Click on Huckleberry’s name and you go to porn. If you want to see what Jomamma Sofugly has on her site, you’d find a game to throw Bush around.
Of course RedState is proud to take The Pledge. And link to that site. Guess they can multitask there. Definitively show what true patriots they are PLUS get in a little porn and play with Bush. Retardocons never fail in their comedy value.
dreggas
Perhaps not all but there are enough who are just dumb enough to sign with their real identities and not be signing it just for the purposes of good snark. I would sign for George Custer (after all he would support a surge) if I had a spoof email to use and not my real one but it’s just not worth it to make one for this purpose.
ConservativelyLiberal
I signed it as ‘I pledge allegiance to the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, with my zip as ‘Not to the Chimp in Chief’.
Number 10,014… Lets see how long that one lasts…
Pledging allegiance to a party, jeez! This is how the Nazis took over Germany, right? Sorry for the reference, but History channel has been running WWI/Hitler stuff all AM…lol
Parallels with late ’20’s & early ’30’s Germany do not seem too out of line when you contrast that history and now. As they said this morning on one of the shows, ‘The takeover of Germany by Hitler was surprisingly easy. It almost seemed that the people wanted it.’, or something very close to that. Far too many Repubs are more than willing to give up our freedoms for a false sense of security. This only opens the system up to abuses, as history has repeatedly shown.
Absolute power corrupts absolutely…
Remember, every single great nation in the history of man has fallen by the wayside as they became corrupt and rotted from the inside out. Every single one. We are not any different if we do not heed this historical fact.
We are our own worst enemy…
John S.
From looking at their list, it appears as if quite a few of the signatories are fake. I mnean it is possible that Hay Stack (#6579) and Jack Hoff (#8128) are actual Republicans.
Jack Buttram (#7851) is.