Spiiderweb™: State of the Union address

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

State of the Union address

Many have and will comment more knowlegably and eloquently than I on this speech, but I will tackle a few things I've not seen covered.

In this decisive year, you and I will make choices that determine both the future and the character of our country.

Well, not really shrub. The character of our country has been determined and written down in the Constitution and Bill of Rights. You swore an oath to defend both and you aren't doing it.

And we do not forget the other half -- in places like Syria and Burma, Zimbabwe, North Korea and Iran -- because the demands of justice and the peace of this world require their freedom as well.

To me this is shrub speak for, "Here is my short list of future invasions".

And, as we honor our brave troops, let us never forget the sacrifices of America's military families.

Unless your name is, oh I don't know, Cindy Sheehan?

Yet our greatness is not measured in power or luxuries, but by who we are and how we treat one another.

Unless your name is, oh, I think I have to go with Cindy Sheehan again on this one?

And now the leaders of Hamas must recognize Israel, disarm, reject terrorism and work for lasting peace.

BTW, while he's at it, he throws in a couple direct orders to Hamas. Guess ruling one country isn't enough. It is also a not too veiled threat as you will see shortly

The same is true of Iran, a nation now held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people. The regime in that country sponsors terrorists in the Palestinian territories and in Lebanon, and that must come to an end.

Damn! Shrub, you forgot to include Palestine and Lebanon on your short list earlier. Nice save.

In a dynamic world economy, we are seeing new competitors like China and India. And this creates uncertainty, which makes it easier to feed people's fears.

And you can bet the ranch shrub and other Republicans will feed you all the fears you can eat without vomiting. You just might want to stockpile beer for those feasts.

In the last five years, the tax relief you passed has left $880 billion in the hands of American workers, investors, small businesses and families.

Oh yes. Americans are fat and happy alright. Don't remember what I did with my share, but probably spent it on a bucket of KFC.

"By any way you measure it, Americans are poor savers," says Don Blandin, president of the Washington, D.C.-based American Savings Education Council. "More households are saying they're planning for retirement, but I have an uneasy feeling they're not saving enough.

[snip]

You're on the right road if you're contributing whatever you can to a retirement plan.

"That's good for those who can afford it," says Blandin. "But we need to look at the many Americans who are struggling paycheck to paycheck and need incentives to put something aside."

Hmmm, "paycheck to paycheck". Guess $880 billion just doesn't go as far as it used to. Americans don't save enough because they are struggling to stay housed, fed and warm.

I am pleased that the members of Congress are working on earmark reform, because the federal budget has too many special interest projects.

Now how in the hell did we end up with too many special interest projects? The K street Republican lobbiest couldn't be involved, right?

And we can tackle this problem together, if you pass the line-item veto.

Good thing someone wrote this down for him. He probably forgot, what with all the power grabbing that he'd overlooked the line-item veto. Nice tool to add to his collection. You just never know when some uppity Democrat is going to try to pass a little legislation by tacking it onto some important bill. That is, an important bill we all know shrub won't veto.