State of the Union Address

[crazytimes]

Who watched? Thoughts?

Overall I thought it was a good speech. Didn't like the parts about the Patriot Act or marriage, but liked most of what was said.

My ears perked when I hear "more Pell grants." Let's just say that put a big smile on my face!

Anyways what did everyone else think?

[Jwelch111]

What happened to Mars' Missions??

I did not watch the SOTU Address: and this was the first one I have missed since the Clinton Adminstration.

I DID read re-caps of the Address: no mention of Mars: Off The Table??

[pandybat]

I was dissappointed that there was no mention of Osama Bin Laden and how all that was going. He kept talking about how safe we were but I just don't think we are as safe as we could be without Osama being captured. He's the one that started all this war on terrorism mess, remember?

[bwsmom]

Loved the comment about the Patriot Act, and the fact that he gave the clods a chance to applaud when he said it was expiring... then popped up with "the terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule" and paused for the thunderous applause that followed.

Loved even more "The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States -- and war is what they got." But I REALLY loved the list: "Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq."

The whipped cream and cherry on top was getting to watch Nancy Pelosi fumble through her pre-written script talking about how we were going it alone in Iraq, when GWB had just run off the above list several minutes earlier!!! Loads of fun! Great speech! (I have the full text if anyone wants it!) A truly enjoyable evening all the way around!

[crazytimes]

Originally Posted by bwsmom

even more "The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States -- and war is what they got." But I REALLY loved the list: "Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq."

The whipped cream and cherry on top was getting to watch Nancy Pelosi fumble through her pre-written script talking about how we were going it alone in Iraq, when GWB had just run off the above list several minutes earlier!!!

Oh I enjoyed this just as much as you! I loved it when he listed off all those countries! I just felt like saying "boo-yah" heh.

[Jwelch111]

Actually the applause that greeted the first part of Bush's Patriot Act announcement was NOT a setup by the speechmaker (or reader) MO.

In fact, as I have READ (did not actually see the speech: I doos like my restful sleep, and who knows what new bogeyman Bush could find for Americans to fear!

Anyway (REPORTEDLY) Bush registered a bit of chagrine (or annoyance?) when he received applause for the announcement of the Patriot's Act ending...

NOT planned, imo...

[bwsmom]

Originally Posted by Jwelch111

Anyway (REPORTEDLY) Bush registered a bit of chagrine (or annoyance?) when he received applause for the announcement of the Patriot's Act ending...

No doubt.... but he went from "chagrine" to "big grin" because he knew what was coming next and the impact it would have. Made those applauding the expiration of the Patriot Act look ridiculous, especially with the amount of applause the second part of the statement received!

[Jwelch111]

bwsmom: It seems (imo) that the "thunderous" applause was directed at the continuation of the terrorism threat.

How has The Homeland Security Dept. (a BIG boondoggle, IMO) made US safer?

[bwsmom]

Originally Posted by Jwelch111

bwsmom: It seems (imo) that the "thunderous" applause was directed at the continuation of the terrorism threat.

How has The Homeland Security Dept. (a BIG boondoggle, IMO) made US safer?

Considering that you didn't watch, how could you possibly know? The thunderous applause was because GWB was telling it like it is.... the terrorists aren't going to look at their watches, realize the Patriot Act has expired and put down their guns and go home. GWB put it to the people responsible for extending or terminating the Patriot Act that the decision was in their hands, and they could be assured that the threat won't stop just because the Act does. Quite frankly, it was refreshing to see him put those clods in their place.... I wish he'd be more direct and aggressive with them more often.

Having said that, I'm at work at the moment and can't continue, but I do promise to respond to the second part of your post this evening.

[Taxman]

Originally Posted by pandybat

I was dissappointed that there was no mention of Osama Bin Laden and how all that was going. He kept talking about how safe we were but I just don't think we are as safe as we could be without Osama being captured. He's the one that started all this war on terrorism mess, remember?

I don't know if I'd say that. In my mind, the war started way back when Americans were taken hostage in Iran, continued through Beirut, The first WTC bombing, the USS Cole, and 9/11. Bin Laden is a bad guy, but without the network that he had before he's not the same threat as he was 3 years ago.

[pandybat]

Originally Posted by Taxman

I don't know if I'd say that. In my mind, the war started way back when Americans were taken hostage in Iran, continued through Beirut, The first WTC bombing, the USS Cole, and 9/11. Bin Laden is a bad guy, but without the network that he had before he's not the same threat as he was 3 years ago.

True, but the aggresiveness wasn't there at the time to do anything about the War on Terrorism. It gained tremendous momentum after the attacks on the World Trade Center.

[bwsmom]

Originally Posted by pandybat

True, but the aggresiveness wasn't there at the time to do anything about the War on Terrorism. It gained tremendous momentum after the attacks on the World Trade Center.

I must be misreading you..... I'm trying to figure out why you would make such a statement. It seems pretty obvious that the momentum would rocket up after 9/11. I'd say it was gaining momentum before that, albeit somewhat quietly, since all but one of the events listed by Taxman occurred in countries other than our own. But, after 9/11, there were a great many people who wanted to see something done once and for all, instead of just sitting on our hands (or extending them and a peace pipe to Saddam and Osama). I think 9/11 was a huge wake-up call to the country and definitely got large numbers of folks (not everyone!) fired up about doing something (i.e., the War on Terror)...

[pandybat]

Before 9/11, there was no where near the drive to rid the world of evil, you have to admit that. After 9/11 things went crazy. I was there too, I was all for it. I wanted to see Osama pay for doing this. The reason my eyes weren't opened as wide before was because no one else was making as big a deal about The USS Cole, Iran, etc as they did until we were hit on American soil. Only THEN did we start a march to rid the evil in this world.
I wanted to see the US kicks Osamas butt. I really did. But then when the focus became set on Saddam, I was confused. My first thought was, how are we going to fight against Saddam AND Osama at the same time? What happened to the big deal of bringing Osama down? As you can tell, Osama is not making as big a news stink as he should be right now. It's all about Iraq. Iraq and their threat to the US with their WMDs. Only time will tell how big a threat Saddam was or wasn't. But I still consider Osama a bigger threat because he is still out there somewhere.
Of course, there's always been a quiet thing going about getting revenge on the people that are responsible for all those other attacks Taxman mentioned. But until it actually happened on our soil, the drive wasn't there in an intensity as it is now.

[bwsmom]

Exactly. And getting back to your earlier point about the first WTC attack, the bombing of the Cole, etc, and how there wasn't as much aggressiveness at the time... well, I guess that just feeds into what I've been saying all along about how Clinton didn't take the action he should have - our people were getting murdered and he did nothing. 9/11 happened on GWB's watch, and he's kicking butt and taking names. Would you rather have someone who did nothing, or someone who got out there and said "enough is enough....you're not doing this to us anymore!"?

P.S.: Love your Psychic Amnesiac sig line! Isn't the fly one courtesy of Steven Wright? He's too funny!

[pandybat]

Good grief...JUST Clinton??? It's also every President before him that happened to be in office when our soldiers were killed or held hostage somewhere in another country.
Besides, who knows what would have happened if 9/11 would have happened on any Presidents watch. I think the anger and sorrow of the American people and all over the world put pressure on Bush to do something. But it could have been any President that responded. It's not like we would have let Bush get away with doing nothing with the impact 9/11 had on everyone. I just wish he had kept up the search for Osama before starting in on Iraq.

Hi Angus!