The State of the Union: Murky

Since I can’t watch The West Wing tonight because every channel feels the need to cover The State of the Union Address, I’ll be blogging my thoughts on some of Pres. Bush’s ‘proposals’ for his second term.

If you remember Bush’s rambling 2004 SoTU, the Republicans gave Bush numerous standing ovations, while the Democratic side of the aisle sat the whole time in protest. I wonder if they’ll do the same this year.

THE STATE OF THE UNION
Yes, they already got it started. I’ll keep track of the lopsided standing ovations as the speech goes on.

Privatizing Social Security: Republican side stands, Democratic side stays seated. Several Democratic legislators can be heard booing loudly at numerous points.

Amendment to ban gay marriage: Republican side stands, Democratic side stays seated. Bush brought up his favorite “activist judges” speech. CNN cuts to a smirking judge in one of the front rows.

Judicial nominating process: Republican side stands, Democratic side stays seated. Bush delivers a direct attack at Democratic filibusters of his right-wing judicial selections. Democrats are not impressed, but the Republican side cheers loudly.

Faith-based and community groups: Three year initiative to keep kids out of gangs. Both sides stand. How can you argue that goal, really?

Expanding the use of DNA evidence to prevent wrongful conviction: Both sides stand.

Keeping on the offensive “until the fight is won” against terrorists: Both sides stand. Bush thanks both houses of Congress for paying to fund the war.

-Bush lists 28 countries helping in Iraq and NATO’s training mission. 60 countries in curbing the proliferation of nuclear weapons. We “will continue to build the coalitions that will defeat the dangers of our time,” he adds.

-“We will stand with the allies of freedom with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”

Bush says we don’t want to impose our will on other countries, we just want to make them have governments answerable to their people, somehow preserving their own cultures at the same time.

And there she is! Tonight’s guest of honor — Homira Nassery: Afghan voter. What a smile! I guess she loves freedom.

Condy Rice is going to talk to the Palestinians about peace to build Bush wants $350 million to help build a Palestinian state. Both sides stand.

Now Bush is talking about countries that help terrorists. There’s Syria and the Syria Accountability Act. He wants them to stop helping terrorists.

Oh, and Iran and their weapons. Give up the nuclear weapons and the terrorism stuff. “As the Iranian people stand up for liberty, America stand for you,” Bush says.

Bush declares, “The Iraqi people value their liberty, as the showed last Sunday.” Both sides stand, but only Republican lawmakers hold up their blue ink-covered index fingers. Apparently they think they voted in Iraq along with the Iraqis.

“The Iraqis were brave and deserve our praise”: Both sides stand. Republicans hold up their blue fingers again.

-Bush brings up Iraqi voter Safia Taleb Al-Suhail, who is seated next to Laura Bush. He tells that she told him that, “Saddam was the real occupation,” and that her uncle was killed by Saddam. So that’s why she gathered her family and they all went to vote. Both sides stand for a long ovation. She flashes Bush the finger (the ink-stained one) and also changes it into a peace sign.

-“Freedom in Iraq will make America safer for generations to come.”

-“An artifical timetable for leaving Iraq would encourage the terrorists to wait us out.”

Janet and William Norwood, whose son was killed in Iraq: “With grateful hearts we honor our military,” Bush says. The grieving parents are grasping the son’s dog tags as they shake hands with Laura Bush and the Iraq voter. They both start crying and sit after a long standing ovation. Bush gets emotional, too.

-Bush talks about “freedom’s challenge to change the world.”

Bush likens fighting terrorism to ending slavery and fighting fascism. Then he asks God to bless America. That’s the end of the speech.

Wolf Blitzer chimes back in to tell us the stats: 53 minutes, 61 clapping interruptions. Oh, and he tells us Bush hugged Sen. Lieberman on his way in. Bush’s approval rating

THE DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE
I guess I’ll comment on the response as well. It should be on in 5 minutes.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) and Sen. Harry Reid (D) offer a response. I’ll paraphrase below…

Reid: Kids like to dream. America should live up to the same priorities as America’s families. Too many of Bush’s economic policies are ruining this country’s prosperity — that’s $36,000 of burden for each new child being born. Let’s end the special tax breaks that promote outsourcing jobs. We can’t sit by and be “played like fools.”

We need to build the next economy and we need to start now. India and China will keep taking our good-paying jobs if we don’t do something now. Democrats believe Americans deserve a proper education and healthcare. We need to make healthcare affordable. Unfortunately, the President didn’t offer many answers.

Today is Groundhog’s Day. Bush’s speech was a little like that — we hear the same thing from him, over and over and over again. Democrats will work with him when he wants to help improve the country.

Bush is really proposing an additional deficit of 2 trillion dollars. Bush isn’t promoting Social Security Reform. It’s more like “Social Security Roulette.” (And that’s coming from a Senator who represents Las Vegas, he adds.)

Pelosi: Let’s leave our children a safer and better country. Recognize the sacrifices of our troops overseas and around the world. She’s seen that sacrifice up close. Our troops not only defend us, but inspire us. Iraq’s election was a step into taking their future into their own hands. We can’t stay in Iraq forever nor slip out the backdoor today. We still haven’t heard a clear plan from Bush about leaving Iraq. And we still didn’t tonight.

1) Transfer security to Iraqis as soon as possible. Train the Iraqi army. Bush’s claim that they’ve been trained hasn’t happened. 2) Iraq’s economic development must be accelerated. We’ve given the money, but Bush isn’t using it for that. 3) Regional diplomacy must be intensified. Cut out the fuel for Anti-Americanism. The next elections in Iraq, scheduled for December will mean more if we get these three steps done.

It’s been three years since 9/11. We still stand with the families of those lost. But the gaps in our security still exist. Little screening of cargo coming into this country. Railroads and power plants unsecured. Bush still hasn’t delivered for first responders. Unguarded nuclear materials. Bush hasn’t taken action to fix these gaps in security.

We must work with Latin American neighbors, stop genocide in the Sudan, work for peace in the Middle East, and help fight disease worldwide. Democrats want to keep the world safe, win the war on terror, to never send soldiers to war without the right equipment, and to ensure diplomacy around the world.

We must defend our nation’s people as well as our nation’s Constitution. We owe our children and grandchildren nothing less.

SUMMING IT UP
Well, that’s it for my coverage tonight. Seems like Bush said a lot he won’t be able to deliver on and brought along two voters to parade around as his great accomplishment. It was smart to purposely recognize the soldiers who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan. His Social Security reform is a failed proposition from the start. And Syria and Iran had better watch out.

Let’s hope we can work together to make our country better through this second administration of Bush.

BLOGGER EXTRA
Andrew Sullivan is on CNN, talking about the partisan judgements of bloggers he has read. Wonkette’s Ann Marie Cox just took a shot at Drudge. Now Sullivan is taking credit for coming up with the ink-stained finger display of solidarity. He says bloggers thought of it before the Republican legislators did. The two of them and Wolf agree that the Iraqi voter and mother of the soldier’s embrace will be the most referenced part of tonight’s speech.

RELATED: Reactions for bloggers on both sides of the aisle…
– Neil Shah’s live SOTU coverage.
– Chris Metcalf’s SOTU TivoBlogging.
– BottleOfBlog’s I’m not even listening to this clown anymore.
– Becky Snow’s State of the Union: A LiveBlog Extravaganza!
– Wonkette’s Liveblogging the State of the Union.