Hominid Views

Article II Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution says:

State of the Union, Convening Congress

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient….

After listening to six of these damn things from George W. Bush, I am stunned by how mechanical, how soulless, how devoid of real content these addresses are. The Bush Administration has mastered the production of propaganda. What I heard last night was fifty-some minutes of unmitigated cant.

I am not going to do a detailed analysis; I couldn’t stomach revisiting the entire speech. Instead, I’ll string together a few miscellaneous comments.

I watched the Address in a bar/restaurant full of liberals…at Drinking Liberally. The Seattle PI showed up to cover our get-together. (Carl Ballard had a few words about the article.)

Interesting, this is the second week in a row that a newspaper article has covered our Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally. Cool. A public radio station showed up, too, but I didn’t hear any reports from DL on the news this morning.

Unlike last year, this year we did not hear about a Mission to Mars. But, Bush’s speechwriters provided evidence that they, once again, were holed up in a Whitehouse closet dropping acid when they added a new War on Human-Animal Hybrids to the speech! What the fuck????? Daniel at On The Road to 2008 explains the dangers further.

Cindy Sheehan was arrested in the House chamber. Apparently she wore a T-shirt with the number 2245 on it. Hmmm…2245 dead soldiers adds up to about 11,200 gallons of blood spilt just from Dead American Soldiers—there has been many times more blood spilt altogether.

Cindy was handled roughly and arrested. But, later today, after reviewing the incident the Capitol Police apologized

The U.S. Capitol Police dropped charges against activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for arresting her in the House of Representatives chamber shortly before President Bush’s State of the Union address.

Sheehan, who became a central figure in the U.S. anti-war movement after her son Casey was killed in the Iraq war, was taken from the Capitol in handcuffs and charged with unlawful conduct after refusing to cover an anti-war slogan on her T-shirt.

The Capitol Police said in a statement that it had reviewed the incident and determined the arrest was unwarranted.

“While officers acted in a manner consistent with the rules of decorum enforced by the department in the House Gallery for years, neither Mrs. Sheehan’s manner of dress or initial conduct warranted law enforcement intervention,” the statement said.

Ok…so, I’m down on Bush. I will say something positive. Bush actually came off as articulate this time. He delivered his speech with some animation (even if his message was largely content-less). I mean, until this last summer, Bush increasingly came across during his speeches as if he didn’t give a damn. Perhaps the pinnacle of this trend occurred during the first 2004 Presidential debate.

But, Bush has been under almost constant fire from all directions since last summer. It seems he has put more effort into delivery. Even if he is only shoveling shit.