State of the Union Blues
Like Justice Scalia, I am planning to give tonight’s State of the Union Address a pass. I am not quite ready for the 2012 campaign yet, and clearly President Obama is dusting off his clichés and contradictions for a big blow out tonight. “The economy’s in trouble, folks, but we need to spend more on EDUCATION. The United States must be more competitive, but we need to commit ourselves to green (i.e., economically ruinous) technology.” Etc. My personal stash of Dramamine just isn’t large enough. Besides, I think George Will is right: what the State of the Union is all about is the president, regardless of party, endeavoring to “stroke every erogenous zone in the electorate.” It’s a big country and the spectacle is bound to be unseemly.
No, instead of the State of the Union (which I already know to be bad), I might just hole up with Johnny Mercer. Glenn Reynolds has recently made it a habit to flag various links with the phrase: “the country’s in the very best of hands.” I always snickered at that because, well, just look at Washington or your state capital. Pathetic isn’t it?
I am chagrined to admit that it was only this morning that I learned the origin of that delicious phrase “the country’s in the very best of hands.” It’s from the great song writer Johnny Mercer. I should have known this but, hey, I had a provincial upbringing and was deprived of many such cultural benefactions. (Can I apply for a victim grant of some sort?)
I am happy to know the source of the phrase. It says a lot on its own, but really to appreciate it you need some of the surrounding lyrics:
The treasury says the national debt
Is climbing to the sky
And government expenditures
Have never been so high
It makes a fellow get a
Gleam of pride when they decide
To see how our economy expands
The country’s in the very best of hands
Annoying as the stroking is, the general state of American political rhetoric is so dismal that such addresses that listening is scarcely bearable.
I suggest your best hope for victim status is the offensive use of “roger” as a verb.
I’ve been agitating against the abuse of “John” for a number of years. No result so far, but they’re bound to run down the victim list to get to us eventually.
Surely “Eliot” is a more suitable epithet for a patron of prostitutes.
My son, also a John, has protested the use of John for other than first name use. Even his mother is guilty of that so I think he has finally given up. He has now graduated to Big John…..better than Baby John.
We’re with you, Roger. We’ve been reviewing movies for this special occasion. This will be a kick off for two more years of circus acts and media prostitution. As for the rebuttal, we’ll get it on video somewhere. That will be the only ‘news’.
As for me, I’ll be watching the “Planet of the Apes” and “Gorillas in the Mist” on the HD Animal Planet Channel.
Isn’t Michelle in both those movies?
The lies I would stand.
It’s the “holier than thou” (and than God) tone, and the chin up that I don’t wish to watch.
Whom the guy thinks he’s gonna convince anyway ?
We do remember and we will remember until 2012. And the damages are there, visible to everybody. And he will cause more damages.
Let’s work hard for a conservative victory in 2012.
Roger that!
I can’t even stand the hear this man’s voice.
We still have the freedom to turn this stuff off; cherish it.
The only thing anybody can know for sure about the SOTU is that it will be all about deception.
It is beyond amazing that after 230 years as a Republic, we have reached the point where the exclusive purpose of the leader of the country is to fool the people about the efforts of his allies to destroy it.
Don’t be silly. Barry isn’t kicking off the 2012 campaign at the SOTU tonight. The campaign kicked off at the funerally in Tucson a couple of weeks ago. Together we thrive?
“…I am not quite ready for the 2012 campaign yet, and clearly President Obama is dusting off his clichés and contradictions for a big blow out tonight….”
Too late for that, Mr. Kimball, since the 2012 campaign has already started. The Vacationer-in-Chief kicked off his re-election campaign last week in Arizona atop a pile of dead and wounded shooting victims.
I’m going to watch, if only to drink along with martini-boy.
The State of the Union address is an infomercial for things we don’t want, to spend money we don’t have, on policies that weren’t read, to enforce legislation that wasn’t debated, to turn around a deficit we can’t sustain, by keeping programs we can’t afford, so we can feel good about a leadership we won’t follow.
It’s like they are selling a vacuum cleaner that locates everything that has been swept under the rug for the past year and then blows all of it in everyone’s faces to prove it.
It comes with trumped up and phony testimonials, some orphans, some puppies and some poor soldier who would rather be surrounded by his buddies drinking a beer than next to plastic smiles amid choreographed one party ovations.
After 45 minutes of that, we switch to a sales pitch for the Pocket Vote Fishermen, equipped with a bunch of shiny lures, hooks and bait.
When it’s done, those who would buy any piece of junk sold, no matter how worthless, as long as it came from their side, will rave about how wonderful the infomercial was.
Those who wouldn’t buy this junk if it came in a 24 carat gold briefcase, will say how idiotic it was.
And those who had the good sense to not watch this nonsense will shake their heads and say: “My free time is precious, it’s the only thing left they haven’t tried to tax. My free will is sacred, it’s the only thing they haven’t seized. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to give either of them away tonight”
This is your best in a while, particularly the first two paragraphs.
i won’t be tuned in either. But that is no different than every other time he speaks. Even when news shows play short excerpts of him speaking, just to set up a discussion of some issue, I fast forward through it just like I do with commercials (thank you DVR).
This talent show will be like an “Antiques Roadshow” with all the items being displayed looking nice, but their values will be declared worthless. And losing value as time goes by.
I am going to watch the USA network on dishtv. They have several original shows….One, White Collar is about a crook who teams up with an FBI agent to ‘fight crime.’ Another one is about a concierge doc on Long Island…that’s not as good. There are other programs…never ending repeats of NCIS and the occasional movie…..any one of which is better than the oratory of o,.
You’ll ALL be watching. Why the relentless deception? I think it’s some genetic predisposition among conservatives. Kind of like Palin and her refudiate “typo” or Meghyn Kellie and her “Fox News people don’t use Nazi rhetoric.”
Anyone care to address this:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/25/jon-stewart-rips-fox-news_1_n_813579.html?ir=Media
Didn’t think so.
Tucson killed the Tea Party. Viva la Arizona!
You’re back.
And Tucson has put you in a REALLY GOOD MOOD!!!!
ps: I never watch or listen to a single word little lenin says. If there is any chance he will come on the tube, I have the clicker at the ready. Most people I know are the same way.
…with you there …I will start referring to barry as Sierra Charley (SC) ..sugundo culo …nacio con uno no quiero segundo.
Sorry, not in the market for red herrings today.
Go peddle your stuff somewhere else. But not on my blog, please.
YOUR blog? How typical. A conservative who thinks they’re in charge of everything. Wrong again, skippy. Kind of like, “I refuse to dignify that with an answer” the way you dodged the blatant deception of one Ms M kelly on Fox per my link. You really must summon a bit more intestinal fortitude. Weakness, contrary to your belief system, is not merely a vice. It’s a sickness. And I have the “remedy.”
Thank you, dimwit, for showing your absolute ignorance.
When I said “my blog,” I was not claiming ownership of the marvelous website here that Mr. Simon and company have made.
Rather I was referring to my own little corner of the blogosphere, which anyone with more than two functioning brain cells can reach by just clicking on my username… which, as a reasonably intelligent monkey could tell you, is blue because it’s a link.
In short, your comment showed far better than I could how you jump to an unfounded conclusion without the slightest bit of research. You might as well go change your name (again) now, this one has been shown to be brain-damaged.
Yeah well…
Physician (sentsy) heal thy self..
(..was that a put down to physicians? ☺)
What remedy is that WHITE BELT? Bring it on LOSER.
Hey WHITE BELT. I won’t be watching the liar / fraud in chief tonight.
My 19 month old has more wisdom that you. Grow up sensei.
Mustn’t feed the troll, aka poor sensei. He’s probably not even a whacko pseudo enlightened fascist. Just another bored person looking for a cheap thrill.
I just can’t wait until the ‘Obama’s Best Speeches’ DVD comes out. Yes Sir. Best seller. Veritable FDR of the left.
( Obama, the black Jimmah Carter )
But to be fair, I’d be sick right now watching McCain drool though an equally hackneyed SOTU snoozer.
Was Jon Stewart talking with his clown nose on or off? It’s difficult to tell these days.
Tucson killed the Tea Party?
That’s like saying that hurricane Katrina killed the PTA.
One has nothing to do with the other, and attempts to link the two are not only dishonest, but driven by a desire to destroy something good.
This is why I hate the left. It isn’t that they are wrong, anyone can be wrong. It’s that they are evil.
The Tea Party is America.
Another word salad from our favorite non-sensical master of the non-sequitur and serial nihilist, No-Sensey.
Gotta hand it to ya, Nonsense, that’s some pretty fancy stuff coming from a guy whose Mom still cuts his meat for him.
#4 – I agree and #11 I agree – and everyone in between. I cannot watch his lifted chin, his holier than thou attitude, and will switch channels anytime his face appears! He really has a love affair with his image. I understand that taking drugs leaves you with the maturity that you had when you were taking them, is that what’s wrong with him? (I know, I know among other things.) Was he abused by his mentor when he was in Hawaii? The gov (of Hawaii) should be ashamed admitting that he was very good friends with the “o”‘s parents.
SOTU’s have become a pathetic joke.
I stopped watching the nonsense years ago.
Only one thing will change business as usual and that will be if the Republicans just say no to raising the debt ceiling. No deals, no we’ll go along if you promise blah blah. Just no. Period. Since I strongly doubt that will happen business as usual will continue…and the cliff will get closer.
I’ll be watching re-runs of worms. Can’t stand listening to a liar. Makes me sick.
I cannot stomach the bullsh!t that the poser barry spews. why would anyone entertain lies is beyond me ..I’m sure some miracle will occur and Charles Krauthammer will feel the tingles. I used to have a lot of respect for Charles but it is diminishing.
I will watch South Park and wait to see the response from Michele Bachmann and Paul Ryan.
cheers
I’m going to curl up with Rex Stout’s Fer-de-Lance (1934). We need a Nero Wolfe and an Archie Goodwin in the White House. We need to get rid of the venomous snake that inhabits at present.
Agreed; I certainly can’t watch him. He’ll be doing the only thing he knows how to do: manipulate and misinform.
It will be, just as all his rhetoric has been all his life, about the Imaginary World. That’s Obama’s world: virtual, imaginary, filled with empty, ambiguous words – such as ‘hope and change’. Heh – tonight, the second speech of his 2012 campaign (the first was in Tuscon, the ‘Together We Thrive’ speech)..will be all about the same future-oriented emotional vacuity.
He’ll be talking about such apple-pie and universal basics as ‘education’ (who is against education?); health, the economy. He’ll ignore that his actions in the real world, differentiated from his imaginary world – were disastrous.
Did his stimulus provide jobs? Nope; it saved a lot of public unionized employees in the state and municipal offices but provided no industrial or other infrastructure. His health care is not about health but is the insertion of a statist control over free citizens – and at enormous cost.
His foreign policies and behaviour is equally disastrous – everything from his failures in S. Korea, Iran, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America (heh- he supports Zelaya in Honduras!).
So- all that Obama will do, is what he always does: emotional manipulative preacher-style rhetoric.
It’s not worth watching because nothing that he says, ever, can be taken seriously or with any accountability. Obama has only one agenda: to control you – to make you ‘like’ him. Nothing to do with America.
The meat of the matter is with Paul Ryan’s response from the loyal opposition. Bobbi Jihdal flunked last years replies.
Other entertainment on the SOTU is the bouncing up and down, no longer provided by Nancy P. So, the V.P. stands on the cues and the speaker remains seated? There also has to be some mental contortions to ask to “invest more money’ while promising to cut spending. No greater scam artist exists than the junkie begging for one more hit before he quits.
“No greater scam artist exists than the junkie begging for one more hit before he quits”
That’s the best description of of the “Draft Jeb” movement I’ve ever heard.
Play the SOTU drinking game. Every time the POTUS says “I”, guzzle up. Maybe I will run the “I” meter, no wait, I would have to watch then. Never mind.
Drink with every use of I? You, Sir, are encouraging alcohol poisoning.
Don’t worry he’s going to announce a spending freeze. Of course it will be frozen at it’s all time highest but a freeze none the less. We we all feel it one way or another to our very core.
I am not watching. I hate communists and I don’t care which cloak they are wearing.
So, if none of you ever watch a word Obama says, how do you know what he says?
Did “everyone” on this thread say they didn’t watch “a word Obama says”? Apparently it’s necessary to point out that many could have read the speech before it was given since it was released a short time before 8 PM EST. Moreover, some will react to the comments that others make about a subject: Do you object?
Why watch an affirimative action appointed douche bag read from a teleprompter?
Simple … we get the transcripts, and avoid the fawning-fueled narcissism.
Of course, if You’re Senseless, you might miss that option … and you said Tuscon killed the Tea Party? Phuleeze … more like it killed the credibility of Paul Krugman and others of the Re-, er, Progressive Left.
But at least they had some credibility left to sacrifice on the sacrificial altar of the Re-, er, Progressive faith … in stark contrast to the person who just delivered over an hour of “mere words”, to coin a phrase, tonight.
Most of us can read for comprehension, silly.
Since you’re so simpatico with Obama, why don’t you share your wisdom about why he doesn’t release his college transcripts?
OK, my high school did Li’l Abner, and I was an extra in it, and I never new that song was part of it. I think they edited it out. So, I did have an education that included such cultural benefactions as Johnny Mercer songs … except that it didn’t. I’m feeling a little jipped right now.
“stroke every erogenous zone in the electorate.”
Replace “electorate” with “parasitic classes”?
Well, we know you don’t exist, pseudo-sensei: The null content of your comments prove that they are generated by a very simple software app.
You don’t have to watch. You’ll hear it over and over in sound bites and blogs, on news shows and pundit discussions. You won’t be able to avoid it. And we’ve had two years of this tripe to let us know what the State of the Union is: 9% unemployment, economy constipated, both federal and state government on the verge of bankruptcy . . . in general, crappy, with a President who likes to talk about imagination, but doesn’t have any or trust anyone else to have any.
i tuned in long enough to hear “This isn’t about sitting together tonight…this is about working together tomorrow!” Then i had to rush outside and throw up on the oak tree. After i staggered back in, and wiped my whiskers, i probed forward and lightly switched the thinhg back on. There was Pelosi, telling Greta, “This isn’t about sitting together tonight…this is about working together tomorrow!” Then i had to rush outside and throw up on the oak tree again. They made me call Roy twice tonight and i only heard two sentences.
What little of this I heard sounded like something from an old Firesign Theater routine. Except not funny and nowhere near as clever.
My God, Ward, do you know how long it’s been since I thought of, much less heard Firesign Theater? Brings back memories of high school.
Shoes for industry!
Shoes for the dead!
Makes about as much sense as that exercise in plagiarism and arrant nonsense last night.
He says he can shout, don’t hear you.
“Mere words”.
The entire SOTU in condensed form.
There was NOTHING worthy of listening to! Another contradictory and fluffy “I have a dream too” speech.
Of course that was to be expected as He simply circumvents congress to do what he demands by issuing His own executive, departmental and agency policies.
On the other hand, the GOP is still running on empty with big talk and zero “comprehensive plans” to approach [successful] legislating solutions for the [core] problems facing the nation.
So, with a split congress look for more of the same gridlock and accomplish nothing, for Obama to capitalized on for 2012.
On the other hand, the GOP is still running on empty with big talk and zero “comprehensive plans” to approach [successful] legislating solutions for the [core] problems facing the nation.
T.T. First, you have to clearly delineate the fundamental principles that form the foundation of a detailed plan. Without that foundation, any detailed plan is as useless — and as threatening to our ability to pursue happiness — as the “mere words” of the SOTU speech last nigh.
Mr. Ryan was laying that foundation last night … and he already has published his roadmap, that would be a great starting point for a serious debate on the details.
But understand this … the plan we need will not be as “detailed” or as “comprehensive” as some of us might be used to seeing from the government … because, as Mr. Ryan said, what we need is limited governance that’s focused on solving ITS problems, instead of trying to solve all our problems FOR us.
Got to confess I, like Roger, didn’t listen to the speech either, or have a single drink. Fact is, last time I had three scotches straight up I found myself lying in a prone position in a very unladylike position. My date was somewhere in the picture, and, I wasn’t tasting scotch.
One position I’m proud of, though, hasn’t changed; the one on Obama, the pathological liar and card carrying communist.
Relax PC’ers. I know there are those who prefer the PC word, liberal, but if you ever wondered what I’d be like having Nikita Krushchev as President of the United States giving the State of the Union Address, tonight’s ObamaSpeech puts you firmly in the zip code.
Domestically, Obama’s a train wreck; having virtually bankrupted our economy. If he were part of a typical American household, he’d have racked up about an 80 thou debt on MasterCard alone. And would busily be making phone calls to have all his credit cards raised to a new limit.
On foreign policy issues, Obama has poured gasoline all over the nation and set it on fire.
His rules of engagement are getting Marines killed left and right in Afghanistan. His slobbering love affair with labor unions are robbing our taxpayers. ObamaCare is the ultimate ObamaGouging of the American people. By the way, all the big labor unions are exempt from ObamaCare. ObamaHatred of all who disagree with him (“Fox is no news station”)threatens to rob us of our first amendment rights. His deep-sixing of U.S. missile defense while making it relatively easy for the Russians to steal it, puts our children’s lives at risk. His fear of Iran puts all Israeli lives at risk. His hatred of England has broken a century old tradition of two country’s having each others’backs. And the next two years gives us more ObamaSchemes to look forward to.
Obama’s general disgust for long held American ideals, principles and values has bought this country a one way ticket to hell. His depraved, perverted administration has corrupted government, and attempted to destroy the Constitution. He adroitly used the Tucson massacre to gin up his approval rating by 15 points. Ask yourself. Why did Obama in that Wednesday Tucson speech talk so much about civility? It had nothing to do with the shooting. He did it because a crooked cop, Paul Krugman and the main stream media rushed to judgment that incivility was the cause of a mad man gone wild. ObamaFriends carried the despicable narrative to gullible American people, and in his Tuscon speech, like a relay runner, Obama picked up the blame baton and ran with it.
It’s criminal that Obama continues to be President; that the next election is so far away, and that, in the meantime, the damage to our nation that this criminal President thinks he can get away with is so great.
To make matters worse, Hannity and O’reilly, like hungry fish, have swallowed the incivility narrative, and wonder like naive schoolboys why the leftists ignore it. When I used the phrase, “gullible American”, I was speaking more to Hannity and O’reilly than any of my neighbors.
America, we’ve hit a low point. Do we sit here and do nothing and see our nation reduced to dust before our eyes, or do we start digging and get out of this hole we find ourselves in? The a-hole we have as President.
Folks, if you ever wondered what it felt like on March 5, 1836, inside the Alamo, January 25,2011 gives you a pretty good idea.
You remind me of some one I went to school with. She became a nun. None of this; None of that, etc.
Besides Al Cap’s Lil Abner, You might have listened to Ira Gershwins “Of Thee I Sing, Irving Berlin’s “Call me Madam”and Cole Porter’s musical version of “Ninochka”, which featured “I got the “Red Blues” and the “Ritz Rock and Role”.
For Roger and you others, who wisely chose to tune out from last night’s great oration, let me fill you in, by way of an analogy, on what our President really meant by his 63 minutes in front of Congress.
Let’s say you’ve scrimped, saved and sacrificed to send your oldest boy off to college. Long ago you promised that if he could get the grades, you would pay his way through four years of “higher” education. So, each month you send him a check to pay for his “fixed” costs such as rent, basic meals, a clothing allowance and tuition. You figure that, because he’s your son, he’s “entitled” to these costs.
But since man cannot live on bread alone, you give him your credit card for “discretionary” spending. You know, an occasional night out with his girl, maybe a rare upgrade in his wardrobe, that sort of thing.
But then the credit card bills start coming in and you find that your son is having a great ol’ time in college and is running up the credit costs by about $3,000 a month. That’s $3,000 more than you can afford. So you send for your son to come home so you can set him straight. You explain to him that his profligate spending has forced you to borrow from your retirement fund and you’ve had to take out a second mortgage on the house.
What’s worse, his spending means you won’t be able to send his younger brothers and sisters to college when their time comes. In fact, they’re going to have to forego a higher education and take menial jobs just so they can help the family keep the house.
Your son grudgingly agrees that your concern MIGHT have a little merit. So he says, “Dad, here’s what I’m willing to do. I’m willing to FREEZE my – I mean your – credit card spending at its current level. And I’m willing to do that for the next five years! What do you think about that?”
He stops you from answering him by adding, “Of course Dad, before I can freeze my spending, I’ve got to take care of a few items for my frat brothers. Since I’m the only one with a credit card, they’ve come to depend upon me for some really essential things like, weekly frat parties, the booze we need for those parties and, don’t forget the cost for live bands. I mean, anything short of live music is soo 20th century. I figure these costs won’t be THAT MUCH. Say, $50,000 a year. Hey, you’re good for it. You and the family will find a way to pay for. I got faith in you. The simple fact is that I can’t let my buddies down; they’re always there when I need them. It is only right.”
Then; as your jaw falls open, he concludes by saying, “See Dad. Aren’t I being responsible with your money?”
If Obama was the iceberg, he just yelled at the disappearing stern of the Titanic, “Don’t worry, I won’t hit you again!”
America, you want our jobs back? The Free Trade arguments are answered convincingly in Ian Fletcher’s “Free Trade Doesn’t Work.” Our trade policies have also been a major culprit, and Fletcher does an excellent job both exposing the fallacious arguments for free trade and detailing the damage the free trade ideology has inflicted on our economy. The historical record is ably summarized in Alfred Eckes’ “Opening America’s Market” and in Pat Buchanan’s “The Great Betrayal.” (Eckes is a historian at Ohio University and also served on the International Trade Commission under Reagan). As Fletcher, Eckes, and Buchanan all make clear, protectionism was indeed instrumental in securing American prosperity.
I have only seen one comment from any politician or public figure that hits nail on the head to solve this problem. It was a few days ago with an interview with Donald Trump. That’s right, The Donald. He said he has Chinese friends that tell him that “the Chinese can’t believe how stupid our leaders are? He said they are laughing behind our backs, why? There is no free trade? There is one way to solve the problem not matter what these idiot politicians tell you. If China puts a 25% tariff on our goods, we need to put a 25% tariff on their goods. Not 2%, which is happening now?” If they don’t like it, good, we will build new factories here.
Wake up America, the globalist’s are cutting our throats while they lie to us.
Call me Roy. Would you recommend the Smoot-Hawley Tariff? American dollars for American jobs! Hmm… When you restrict trade the prices of goods go up. Supply and demand. There you have the first cost.Less competition the quality goes down. Second cost. Ahh but it keeps the money here? Now I am going to explain this so read it three times before you answer. When you buy a car made in Japan the Japanese do not accept payment in dollars. Your dollars are traded for yen. Some yen owners want those dollars to return to our economy. Voila the money is not lost. Read it again and think. Please. I don’t want to here this again. By the way there are economies that do not allow foreign trade- Republic of the Union of Myanmar.