Worldwide Pablo hasn’t been able to stop puking since the Corporate Goodie Festival aired last night on television. GWB assured the nation that he’s made the world safer through the war in Iraq and against terror, and that he has improved the economy with tax cuts. Well, yes, the national is “confident and strong,” but WWP thinks that is no thanks to the trumped-up, unilateral war for petroleum we find ourselves engaged (some would say, mired) in. And don’t get WWP started on the tax cuts… And what’s up with the speechifying about steroids in sports?
If WWP heard it right, the president’s agenda is permanent war, continued diminution of basic freedoms and even more tax cuts for campaign contributors. What’s absent is a vision for the future of the nation, which probably explains why the speech left WWP and so many others feeling so numb. As MoveOn.org asked today:
Where are we going as a nation? What’s the plan for fixing health care? What’s the plan for getting out of Iraq? What’s the plan for staunching the hemorrhage of high quality manufacturing jobs, and now even service and professional positions? What’s the plan for stopping the flood of red ink from irresponsible tax cuts?
[By the way, there’s a terrific summary of the SOU at the Philadelphia Daily News. Be sure to check it out. Or read the speech for yourself here.]
WWP thinks the New York Times has it right:
The president's domestic policy comes down to one disastrous fact: his insistence on huge tax cuts for the wealthy has robbed the country of the money it needs to address its problems and has threatened its long-term economic security. Everything else is beside the point.
As predicted, the president used the bully platform to, well, bully, this time the target of contempt being the gays and lesbians who dare to think they might enjoy equality under a Bush administration. As WWP predicted yesterday, the president threw some red meat to the far right by appearing to endorse a federal marriage amendment. When the GOP side of aisle burst in gleeful applause, the television cameras switched to Sen. Rick “Sanctimonious” Santorum (R-Pa.), the righteous Christian moralist who routinely demonizes gays and lesbians by comparing homosexuality to bestiality, or worse, using language so vivid it makes WWP's ears ring. [Talk about the yech factor.] Endorsing FMA may be a politically astute move (appearing to appease the political base by supporting something that probably won’t ever occur), but it has the effect of polarizing the nation, something GWB promised four years ago he wouldn’t do. In fact, WWP can't think of even one thing in the speech (save the community college job-training proposal) that reaches out to the other side of the aisle. So much for being a “uniter, not a divider.” [By the way, did you know that in the American Heritage Dictionary the following three words appearing one after the other: sanatorium, sanctify, and sanctimony? Well, sanatorium and sanctify are separated by San Bernardino, a city in Los Angeles County, but you get the idea.]
One highlight of note: Attempting to make a case for extending the so-called Patriot Act, GWB declared that “key parts of the act are set to expire next year…” – at which point the Democrats cut him off and burst into wild applause and cheers. The president seemed temporarily confused, and unamused.
More humor about SOU comes courtesy of Portland’s own One True b!X, who says the president’s new plan for the nation's school children can be reduced to a simple directive: “Pee in this cup and hand over your condoms.” Check it out here.
By the way, while preparing this post, WWP ran across this interesting dissection of gay marriage – the arguments against it, the real reasons people oppose it, and why gay marriage is a civil rights issue. Blogger Scott Bildstrup, who blogs at Letters From Exile, is the mastermind behind this pretty clever and thorough essay on the subject.
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