State of the Union Liveblogging

8:45pm--I'll be watching the SOTUA on Fox News. O'Reilly and Tony Snow were chit-chatting about Social Security reform. If I could take just a fraction of my Social Security money and pay that into a 401K, I'd build the statue to Bush with my own hands.

**WARNING: Gratuitious typos ahead, due to fast typing**

8:47pm--I haven't watch O'Reilly in a while, so I don't know if its normal for O'reilly's show, or caused by the SOTUA, but I just saw three political ads in a row. The First was an anti-PETA (!) petition, the second was a "Bush kills babies by wanting tort reform" and, the third was for "torts suits make fat people sue girl scouts for selling cookies". BTW, the petapetition.org sit will lead you to consumerfreedom.com. Apparently, they were wiley enough (and well-connected with Fox News enough?) to sandwich a anti-tort reform suit between two of their ads.

8:56pm--Supposedly, some statesmen have dyed their finger purple to celebrate the Iraqi elections. Next year's big fad?

9:05--Showtime!

9:08--He has a new haircut and a red power tie. Apparently, he means business tonight.

9:12--Maybe its just my new TV, but everything looks really shiny, compared to SOTUAs I've seen. There showing off their fingers!

9:14--As a neat trick, bush looks thinner, with two fat guys sitting behind him. "The US. has added 2.3 million new jobs." take that, Kerry/Pelosi/Kennedy.

9:15--To early to tell, but it looks like this is going to be a common "laundry list" SOTUA. Good, but unimpressive. Not a 2001 SOTU. Whoa, "junk lawsuits"! Thus the commercials earlier.

9:18pm--"Improved information technologies" for health care? (1) Isn't that something the free market can do, and (2) isn't that contradictory with HIPPA?

9:22pm--Fight the tax code through a Congressional Committee? A wishy-washy stand on immigration? Not his strongest points.

9:25pm--Regarding Social Security, no changes for old people, plugging the "obsolescence" theme, bankruptcy of the system by 2040s has some effect with the Congress (hard to tell if positive or negative to Bush).

9;28pm--Sounds like a pretty utilitarian, number-crunching speech. Not famously eloquent, but may have good, subtle long-term effects.


9:32--When Bush started mentioning personal accounts for Social Security, it was as if the two halves of the room were in different states; the right half clearly cheered, the left didn't. Gee, which view do you think is going to go over better with the twenty to thirty something voters, you liberal dumb-fucks.

9:35--Back to the laundry list--stem-cells, judges, faith-based initiatives etc.

9:38--More money wasted on AIDS, an incurable disease, when its almost 10X as funded as heart/cancer research, which are the common cause of death and where real progress is possible. Death row lawyers? WTF!

9:42--Here comes the saber-rattling part of the SOTU, always after the domestic agenda.

9:45--Hmmm? He mentioned Zaqawi, but not Bin Laden. 'Democracy = Peace" echos from his inauguation. A hat tip to Ukraine. Ha! Caught Sen. Biden off guard on an foreign policy applause line (who just accused Rumsfeld of gross incompetence, BTW).

9:50pm--Syria? Will it be the next Iraq. If it were, it'd be a pushover. "Ask Iran"?! We need to stop those animals now!

9:53pm--Props to the Iraqis for voting, with the long applause line it deserves. "Sadaam . . . That was the real occupation." A good line to take away from the SOTUA.

9:59pm--Patriotic bromides toward the war and the troops. I thought he'd allude to Vet benefits, but he didn't. It's touching to watch the Texan and the Iraqi interact.

10:03--Now wrapping it up, in seemingly record time (< 1 hour!).

10:11pm (post-mortem)--The pundits are taking away the message from Social Security on this, i.e. that the President openly admitted that the system was going bankrupt. The Democrats are walking away in outright denial on the issue, not healthy. No blogging on the Dem's response will be forthcoming now. I have neither the interest nor the temper to hear the Reid/pelosi spew crap from their mouths.