Call me a sucker, but somebody has to live-blog the abomination, and with Blogger down (again), it falls to the likes of Captain Ed, Mary Katharine Ham, Erick at RedState and me. They’ll probably do a better job than me, but let’s roll with it anyway.
7:58 (all times will be Central; deal with it) – Plastic Pelosi is looking pleased she won this war.
8:01 – The First and Second Ladies have arrived, and the intros have started.
8:06 – Couldn’t we go back to messages transmitted by paper? This intro is worse than a prize fight.
8:09 – Here comes the Pres, and the first person who got his hand shook is Dennis the Menace. NOT a good sign. In better news, Mary Katharine Ham is serving Cheetos on her live thread (link is now above).
8:13 – Bush too pleased with his intro as the first “fe”male Speaker. I have to keep reminding myself, “Justices Roberts and Alito”. “Justices Roberts and Alito”. Class move noting the 2 members who are out with health reasons.
8:17 – Oxymoron alert – how can the ‘Rats keep true to their faith and honor the troops and respect the citizenry? Oh, that’s right, it’s Bush that’s signaling retreat and defeat.
8:18 – Charlie Rangel got up too early. He cheered the kill-the-deficit line, then Bush dropped the “no new taxes” line on them. Pres pointing out he halved the deficit 3 years early, then wants it eliminated in 5. Onto earmarks, noting they’re snuck in “when even C-Span isn’t watching”. Time to end the process, but issues a tepid halve-them challenge.
8:21 – Onto entitlements. 3 bad choices if they’re not fixed; tax increases, end to programs, benefit cuts. Doesn’t mention any fixes, but wants one from the ‘Rats. Nice try, but the presstitutes won’t let the blame be pinned on them. Now to education. Something for everyone (to hate) – choice and mo’ money.
8:23 – Tax shift time – health insurance “reform”. Stage 1, make health insurance a standard deduction of $7,500 for singles and $15,000 for families instead of an unlimited untaxed benefit available only to corporations. Stage 2, mo’ money to the states. Hey Jefe, if the fed taxes weren’t so damn high, we wouldn’t have to have the feds do subsidizing.
Now something for conservatives – more health savings accounts, medical liability reform (which draws the first boos of the evening). I can’t believe this line drew ‘Rat support – the best health care decisions are made by patients and their doctors.
8:27 – Border (in)security – “Guest worker” program. Say, would that have stopped the Mexican Army’s repeated incursions? Now lying about amnesty; not throwing the illegals out and granting them a special means of “legalization” is the very definition of amnesty.
8:29 – Energy – Complaining about dependence on foreign oil. Talks about clean coal, solar and wind, nuclear for electricity, NO mention of increased drilling. The ethanol mention wasn’t as bad as I thought; not talking inefficient corn-a-hole.
Spoke too soon – triple the corn-a-hole usage. Er, if we’re using corn-a-hole, we’re not saving anything. Shrink the cars again.
Ah, here’s the drilling. Double the Strategic Oil Reserve.
8:33 – Where’s High Priestess Heidi Cullen? Sounds like the Prez abandoned us on Global Warning.
8:34 – Second round of boos – ‘Rats won’t let you have votes on your judges.
Onto the Global War on Terror. Still no mention that the terrorists are Islamokazis (or “radical” Islamists). Plastic must’ve been watching Hiliary for approval to applaud the take-the-fight-to-the-enemy line; her applause was delayed.
Success stories time. First time I heard the Al Qaeda anthrax plot (still no official word on who sent the anthrax back in 2001).
8:37 – Did I hear right; the Pres actually called Al Qaeda Sunnis. I didn’t hear Muslims though.
8:40 – Positively Wilsonian call for making the world Safe for Democracy. Bush has the right idea, but the wrong reason why it works; the more people that have a voice, the less likely their leaders will act like Hitler or Stalin because of the instinct for self-preservation, not because of a non-existant sense of goodness.
8:43 – Tossing out Shi’a now. Still no mention that they’re Muslims. It might not be like Pubbies to abandon friends and break our word, but it’s been the ‘Rat motto since 1968.
8:46 – Line of the night – “We didn’t drive Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan only to have them set up in a free Iraq.” There are benchmarks agreed to by Iraq (but because we don’t want the Islamokazis to bust them, we won’t make them public).
Most Pubbies might understand the costs of failure in Iraq, but other than Lieberman, the ‘Rats either don’t know or don’t give a damn. If I were Pres, I would point out that the costs of failure were proven once before; when S(l)ick Willie Clinton bailed out of Somalia. Predictably, the ‘Rats sat on their hands (which got crushed by their fat asses).
8:51 – Good luck in getting the ‘Rats behind you, even with this new “bi-partisan” commission you’re doing. Time to increase the authorized strength of the Army and Marines and establish a civilian reserve corps.
8:54 – All the plastic in the world couldn’t hide Pelosi’s disgust at the revelation that Cuba is still not free. Darfur got a special mention (though once again, left unmentioned is the fact that Islamokazis are doing the killing). Is Bono in the house?
8:56 – Gallery time. Dikembe Mutombo first up, and he turned his unplanned NBA career into a partial realization of his original doctor dream, building a hospital back in the Congo. ‘Rats conflicted on whether to cheer the founder of Baby Einstein because she’s a woman that did it for the chilrun or vilify her for daring to become very successful out of nothing. Wesley Autrey IS a hero, as much a hero as the troops overseas he says are the real heroes – someone who will leap into the path of an oncoming subway train to save somebody who fell onto the tracks is one. One of those is next – Sgt. Rieman, who did much the same with enemy fire pouring in.
9:02 – “God bless,” and we’re out.
You can look elsewhere for the canned ‘Rat response.
