Maybe I will say that I saw about 20 to 30 minutes of the event over the NYTimes.com.
I was sober then. I found myself reacting angrily. I wasn't even sure why.. maybe because the rhetoric is / seems a wash of verbiage all designed to take special note of how fabulous this President and his programs, particularly The Recovery Act, performed in the past year. I wonder how This State of the Union address arrived at this stage of stagecraft. When did these punchlines become the standard form of address, as with a grand declaratory vocal utterance everyone rises to their feet? Have we always been subject to such shallow and humility absent presentations? I don't remember, I think they have reached the pinnacle. Frankly it made me sick, and I wonder how it is to invite your 5Th or 6Th grade child to sit down and watch our President, pump his chest over how excellent a job he is doing, you see children this is how you Govern : Talk a lot, continue to tell people how great a job you are doing, present some cool new items with declamatory flourishes .. \I think we need a brass band or some orchestral soundtrack, and now Dear Americans behind this curtain we Will Bring You!! Ooohhhh... And then Dear Americans we will ooohhhh and reduce the budget and double exports in 5 years Ooohh...
Sorry going on about this, I am utterly lost from our present form of government. A THIRD PARTY must emerge ( about the caps, an accident that I leave).
How would I suggest a State of the Union be run? Serious as if one is genuinely assessing the State of our Union as opposed to being a Campaign Speech. How many operating Steel Mills exist in our Country? H0w many people earn their living in textiles? Compared to 10 years ago? How many people who work can't afford a home? How many people have no work? How many farms did we lose last year? How many acres of God's green Earth got paved over last year?
What is the deficit? What is the debt? These should be absolutes every President should speak on this. How has the population changed? That's the basics it goes on it should be short enough not to bore us but should show some real attention of whoever is in charge actually cares or even knows. If a President has a vision for the Nation then he should use the opportunity to share it with the people and so to inspire us through the coming year.
I'll plow through some of my notes from the event.
You remember when he was talking about some new banking bill something about and 'if the bill isn't good enough then I'll send it back til' they get it right.' With a flourish and a standing ovation by Democrats. My thoughts go to the ill thought out and hopefully ill fated Health Care Bill when back in August he was doing his best to push through the bill before our Senate and House members took their summer vacations. Just remembering what a rush he was in then, it seemed he would have declared with all his Stateliness as the bill cleared passage we have a 'Good' bill as if he knew or cared what was in the Bill, just get me my Bill. It didn't happen and we are temporarily spared another Trillion Dollars of debt over 10 years (maybe it was 8hundred something billion - one Trillion in 10 years probably pretty safe bet.)
How is it that 'optimistic assumptions' are OK for the future of coming generations. The President claim's to be a pragmatist but not a pragmatist when it comes to the debt on the future of our children. Pie in the Sky Dreamer, 'rosy predictions', as long as you don't look past appearances, as long as you don't care to look, as long as it will help get him elected again.. He is a pragmatist. This year is the year of the Populist Obama, watch him get angry at banks.
'A new generation of safe clean nuclear power plants is to be built...' standing ovation. 50 thousand years is a lot of future generations who will be praying that all the concrete canisters of Nuclear Waste that we created in the 21st Century don't fail sometime, somewhere, somehow. All for what... and yes I heard that the Nuclear Power Industry was the biggest contributor to the Presidents's past Illinois Senate campaign. All for what? So we can continue to have the great growth that we had during the 80's and 90's ... we don't need 'that great growth' ever again. This country has been and continues to be looted. Our assets are being dissolved as 'the money class' plays games with money to create money while in actuality destroying our connections to Life and Independence. Is that too big a mouthful?
I'll go on.. 're-think off-shore oil drilling' Standing Ovation. 'A Planet in Peril' he would state over and over again as he ran for the job of President. That's all he had to say. We got it, he knows what's going on. Now... It's all right, those Republicans must know something, Sarah Palin and all those angry Tea Party people kicked our ass in Massachusetts let's do it, I'm a pragmatist.
The thing is that the alternative is a Revolution in the way we live. A great Revolution, the revolution our spirits have been longing for. Forget your pitchforks and torches, there need not be any bloodshed. It's an energy Revolution and for their to be an Energy Revolution there will need to be a political Revolution. Revolution is an inflammatory word but 'rapid change' is absolutely in order and if it takes 30 years that will be plenty rapid. There is a direct connection between the Politics and the Energy as we demand, stand up, for greater Liberty, Independence and find a way to become a force. We are talking about accountability. What if every home in America was producing it's own energy? Not only producing it but selling it back to the grid. Every homeowner in America might be getting a paycheck for bringing energy to all he people. The days of big centralized providers of energy needs to end. That's how there world works, they separate you from your money, they provide your energy, they do not care about your community, they do not care about.... Sorry I am going on.
'we will double our exports in the next 5 years.' Standing Ovation. Sounds good. It's good to make money as long as you aren't hurting anyone with your success. We can't be hurting farmers around the world with our government subsidized cheap exports. That ends up destabilizing the world. Every Nation on the Earth should be encouraged to be sustainable unto themselves.
One more and there is plenty more. 'Seek new markets aggressively' I guess you better because this old market of ours, the US once a middle class nation is sputtering, are we a renter class and the people battling their excessive mortgage payments frequently dealing with
substandard aka 'Crap' developments that they bought into, renting from the banks. Where is the excess money to spend, well someone has some and I don't need to make it more grim than it is. I am an optimist in the long run. Obama is an agent of change as was George Bush Jr., it's just not a good place where they have been taking us.
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