Print Story Well, that was a complete and utter waste of my time
Diary
By lm (Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 10:23:45 AM EST) (all tags)
If I were a member of the US Congress, I think I would sue. 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 ... Aye, Bush the Apostate's last State of the Union Address was void of content even when compared to my faint expectations of him.

If it were me up there. I'd lay a bit of smack down. And this is one out of many reasons why I will never be elected president.



The first thing to go would be the clapping. At the first round of applause, I would wait for it to die down and then say, ``Would you kindly shut the fuck up? I'm trying to give a speech here. If you want to applaud, wait until the end when you aren't wasting my time and the time from every commercial network carrying this speech.

The next thing is that I'd present facts and figures and paint a picture of the country as it is. If I had taken the country to war and had publicly declared benchmarks on how to gauge victory, I'd compare current progress against those benchmarks. I'd give an overview of actions the federal government has taken in key areas and give summaries of the results of those actions. Then based on this, I'd give suggestions for the best way to move forward.

The other thing I'd do is hold up a copy of a recent bill that had been passed that I'd yet to either sign or veto and I'd ask every member of congress to who'd voted either yea or nay on the bill to stand. Then I'd ask those who'd read the bill in its entirety to remain standing and for the punters who didn't bother to read the legislation they voted on to sit. At that point, I'd extol the virtues of anyone remaining standing and castigate everyone sitting as being one of the reasons that the US of A is so fucked up in this or that fashion. Then I'd call for Congress to keep bills focused and on target and if they want to bargain and negotiate `I'll vote for this if you vote for that'', that's fine but they need to keep it in separate bills so that every bill is narrow, focused, comprehensible and written in plain English.

And what's up with the milk toast Democratic `rebuttal'? Bush the Apostate deserves to be verbally burned at the stake. Probably the present best common ground to build the future of the nation is the vilification of Bush the Apostate.

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Well, that was a complete and utter waste of my time | 19 comments (19 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback
My grandfather had an apostate problem. by Christopher Robin was Murdered (4.00 / 2) #1 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 10:40:14 AM EST
They gave him medicine for it and he got better. Until he died. But that wasn't from the apostate thing.



Oh come on. by nightflameblue (4.00 / 1) #2 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 10:46:40 AM EST
Don't tell me you've never bullshitted your way through a business meeting.

I liked how Bush's entrance was like the entrance of a star football player into a frat house, complete with rubbing the bald guy's head and talking like this: "Hey buddy, how's it goin'!"

Gotta say, his "no child left behind is working" bullshit about unnerved me. Lowering the bar and then proclaiming success when our kids still look pretty stupid in comparison with any other developed nation? Yeah, good idea.

And we all know why he didn't give a blow-by-blow account of where we are in Iraq. Nobody's going to carry their failures on a banner. Not even our moronic president.



No Child... by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #3 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 10:57:10 AM EST
Commentary from The Atlantic.

Earth First!
(We can strip mine the rest later.)

[ Parent ]

What, you expect me to read? by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #4 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:04:13 AM EST
I've been frustrated with the educational system since I was participating in it. People who genuinely want to learn are discouraged because they'll bury their peers, and people who don't give a crap about learning are the ones setting the pace. The very title "No Child Left Behind" reinforces that image and then they bring it home by coming right out and saying that we're getting better test scores. Let's try to ignore that we did that by changing the meter, not by increasing actual educational value.

[ Parent ]

I was lucky, I went to public schools by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #7 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:11:22 AM EST
Fairfax County Public Schools. Better than most private schools. All the parents are well educated, involved, and rich. Middle-class, anyway. So lots of money, and lots of motivation. Also very multi-cultural, especially these days, so none of that creationism BS.

Even back in the early 80's, when I was there, you could take enough AP courses to test out of your first year of college. I know a guy who tested out of his freshman year at Chicago.

Earth First!
(We can strip mine the rest later.)

[ Parent ]

I was both lucky and unlucky. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:15:54 AM EST
I went to the highest rated school system in my state. While that meant we got some damn good funding, it also meant the touchy-feelies were in charge much of the time. People who failed weren't seen as people who failed, but as pet projects for educators, while people who were frustrated with the slow pace were told to slow the fuck down and stop making everybody else feel bad about how stupid they were.

We're now stuck in a permanent rut of allowing the touchy-feelies to make important education decisions. Cut those bastards out of the decision making process and let them do what they do best, coddle the people who can't cut it. Some people are gonna suck at school. You don't need to lower the bar to make them feel better, you need to accept that it's gonna happen and that life blows. Otherwise we're gonna be a nation of morons created by our need to make everybody shiny-happy feel good.

[ Parent ]

See, that's why I'm unelectable by lm (2.00 / 0) #5 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:06:12 AM EST
I have no problem saying `It's my fault. I screwed the pooch.''

There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic
[ Parent ]

Yep. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #6 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:11:01 AM EST
Also why we have no accountability in any level of public office. Because if you ever say, "oops, my fault," nobody says, "hey, that was big of him," and everybody says, "HOLY SHIT! HE MADE A MISTAKE! BURN THE HEATHEN!"

[ Parent ]

otoh by Merekat (2.00 / 0) #11 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:38:05 AM EST
There is such a thing as too much forgiveness of 'error' in public office which leads to the same lack of accountability.

[ Parent ]

But only on unimportant matters like tax dollars by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #12 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:39:30 AM EST
spent and the like. Important stuff, like who's sleeping with who and how often? That shit is NEVER forgiven.

[ Parent ]

I dunno, Marion Barry got re-elected. by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #13 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 12:21:25 PM EST


Earth First!
(We can strip mine the rest later.)

[ Parent ]

Wasn't that just drug related though? by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #14 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 12:32:58 PM EST
I mean, who among his constituents would honestly be able to say they weren't going down that path?

[ Parent ]

Sadly by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #9 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:26:42 AM EST
That is tantamount to saying "I hereby retire from politics".
----
ウセーバラケダ
[ Parent ]

From memory of how Carter looked by wumpus (2.00 / 0) #16 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 06:51:57 PM EST
before and after the presidency, I think his announcement of retiring (called "the malaise speech" by the ignorant) was a good thing.

Too good a man for the oval office.

Wumpus

[ Parent ]

No one would be standing. by ucblockhead (2.00 / 0) #10 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:32:07 AM EST
Not a one.
----
ウセーバラケダ


Haven't you learned your lesson by fluffy (4.00 / 4) #15 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 01:29:41 PM EST
about posting completely hypothetical conjecture about what you'd do in the general vicinity of heads of state?
busy bees buzz | sockpuppet revolution


For your edification: by ammoniacal (2.00 / 0) #17 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 07:14:35 PM EST
and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient

He met the minimum standard, so just let it go, man.

General rules are: All skirts no lower then [sic] two inches below the knee (unless it's for Church) --Travis Frey


parsing English by lm (2.00 / 0) #18 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 09:23:59 PM EST
as he shall ... appears to modify such Measures not Information of the State of the Union.

But that's besides the point. I'm fairly certain I don't have standing to sue.


There is no more degenerate kind of state than that in which the richest are supposed to be the best.
Cicero, The Republic
[ Parent ]

The only people who really want to know by riceowlguy (2.00 / 0) #19 Mon Feb 04, 2008 at 08:59:05 AM EST
the actual state of the union already know.  To paraphrase Lewis Black..."WE'RE FUCKED!  WE'RE FUCKED!  WE'RE FUUUUUUUUUUUCKED!"  Everybody else prefers to bury their heads in the sand.  I can't blame them, really.  It's hard to focus on your job when you're worried about peak oil, global warming, our trade imbalance and the coming health care crisis.



Well, that was a complete and utter waste of my time | 19 comments (19 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback