State of the Union 2011

[Mr Bean]

Surprised not to see a topic up about this already

Comments so far
Sputnik!
Republicans accidentally standing up on democratic applause lines ( )
Education must do more! Funding? Nahh!
Support for the Dream act

[Chaotic Neutral]

Infrastructure rebuilding (We'll see how much money it gets)

[Mr Bean]

High speed trains!
No pat-downs!
Hey Mr President why are you allowing TSA to have pat-downs in the first place?

[Chaotic Neutral]

Lower Corporate taxes (Without more deficit, lol)

[Scottish Ninja]

Interesting to see the contrast from previous years (especially during the Bush years) where exactly half of the chamber would give a standing ovation after every line.

[Chaotic Neutral]

Freezing domestic spending for the next 5 years...

[Mr Bean]

To quote KeithOlbermann via twitter

KeithOlbermann Oh, here we go: Cuts for stuff that doesn't blow things up #sotu

[aerius]

Lower Corporate taxes (Without more deficit, lol)

No problem, it means the people (meaning the poor & middle class) will get gangbanged in all holes.

[aerius]

"If a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, I will veto it!"

Bwhahahahahaha!!! Are you fucking shitting me?

[Thanas]

The military brass did not look too happy at the "left Iraq with heads held high" line - they knew they got beaten by strategic facts.

[Mr Bean]

To quote Keith again (Because he's awesome)

KeithOlbermann So with lower corp tax rates, Health Care tort reform, and spending freezes, what is the GOP response? "Didn't like his tie"?

[J]

I can't take it anymore, this roughly sums up how I feel right now

[FaxModem1]

Military recruiters on college campuses, is this really a big thing?

Course no one in that room would trade places, they're the elected officials.

[weemadando]

"If a bill comes to my desk with earmarks inside, I will veto it!"

Bwhahahahahaha!!! Are you fucking shitting me?

If it comes to his desk without earmarks he'll have to veto it too. It's the only way to be sure that he's not playing partisan politics.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Infrastructure rebuilding (We'll see how much money it gets)

It's more bullshit from Obama, he announced a freeze on further government spending. We're doing maintenance right now, we need more funding to improve and rebuild. He's lying through his teeth.

[Thanas]

Moved to OT due to almost no posts worthy of keeping in N&P in here.

[Zaune]

You think maybe that between the death threats and the "not a proper US citizen" bullshit and everything else that's been thrown his way since Day 1, he just doesn't care anymore?

[aerius]

You think maybe that between the death threats and the "not a proper US citizen" bullshit and everything else that's been thrown his way since Day 1, he just doesn't care anymore?

Who knows? Who cares? It's just another Obama Speechtm where he does a pretty talk with big plans and feel good BS and hopes that no one ever asks how it's going to work. Because it won't, because the shit he wants is self-contradictory or way out in la-la land. The SotU might as well be a campaign speech these days, talk a bunch of pretty stuff that everyone knows will never be done, get your hour on TV to look pretty, tell some stories, yeah. Real useful.

[Stravo]

Two things struck me during the speech.

When the topic turned to deficit reduction there was stunning silence in the chamber. You would think at least the Tea Party folks would have been providing some support but no, it seems that everyone wants to talk about the deficit but when things are laid out like Defense spending cuts, freeze on spending for 5 years, reduction in staffing, people aren't too happy.

and

This is our Sputnik moment? Naw. Sorry. It's a great little line but there is nothing going on right now to make me feel like we have a challenge to rise to, maybe if the Chinese send someone to the moon or some other similar nationalistic pride bullshit but honestly no, this is not our sputnik moment and you are not the leader to lead us in a sputnik moment.


I was underwhelmed and skeptical throughout and it also got me thinking that there should be a website that tracks promises made in State of the Unions and provide running tallies as to what has been kept and what was totally abandoned.

The brass were positively shooting daggers at Obama when he mentioned repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. I thought "hey, maybe there is a tradition that the brass doesn't react to things at a State of the Union" but no, they were standing up and applauding at some of the other things he mentioned later so yeah, not happy at all.

And what was with evil eye? They kept focussing on him throughout the speech. If you have a blood shot eye you should just stay home.

[Broomstick]

When the topic turned to deficit reduction there was stunning silence in the chamber. You would think at least the Tea Party folks would have been providing some support but no, it seems that everyone wants to talk about the deficit but when things are laid out like Defense spending cuts, freeze on spending for 5 years, reduction in staffing, people aren't too happy.

Of course not - they rode dissatisfaction into office but they know that doing anything truly effective will piss off their base. Piss off everyone really. Obama had enough spine to lay out some of the pain, but not enough to say "we might have to raise taxes". The closest he came was saying "closing loopholes" and "not make tax cuts permanent".

This is our Sputnik moment? Naw. Sorry. It's a great little line but there is nothing going on right now to make me feel like we have a challenge to rise to, maybe if the Chinese send someone to the moon or some other similar nationalistic pride bullshit but honestly no, this is not our sputnik moment and you are not the leader to lead us in a sputnik moment.

Actually, the challenges facing us are arguably that daunting but we don't have a sputnik to focus on. It's actually a shame we don't, as having something that sharply focusing might actually prompt effective action for once. But instead of a Sinister Red Artificial Moon Beeping Down At Us the threats are more diffuse and harder to fit into a sound bite.

So no, not a sputnik moment and more's the pity it's not.

I was underwhelmed and skeptical throughout and it also got me thinking that there should be a website that tracks promises made in State of the Unions and provide running tallies as to what has been kept and what was totally abandoned.

The SotU is a mandated report to Congress, it's not a campaign speech. It is (in theory) a report on how things are and plans for the future, plans which may need to be changed if conditions change, or if it turns out this or that idea isn't so good after all. Of course, the hoopla of the media age has altered it beyond the original intentions.

The brass were positively shooting daggers at Obama when he mentioned repealing Don't Ask Don't Tell. I thought "hey, maybe there is a tradition that the brass doesn't react to things at a State of the Union" but no, they were standing up and applauding at some of the other things he mentioned later so yeah, not happy at all.

I've been watching SotU since Nixon was in office. It's a long standing tradition to remain seated and glare when some group or other doesn't approve of something, be that group members of Congress, members of the military, members of the SCotUS, the opposing party, whatever. That's what all the post-speech analysis regarding who clapped and who didn't and when is about. A lot of this is public ritual.

[MKSheppard]

Sputnik moment? Jesus christ Obama is so stupid.

If he was serious he would simply go up with two pairs of speeches -- one that says the usual bullshit we expect, and the other speech, the one he actually gives --- is just about two pages where he pledges to send a man to the moon again and from there on to MARS.

[Maj]

Lower Corporate taxes (Without more deficit, lol)

No problem, it means the people (meaning the poor & middle class) will get gangbanged in all holes.

Obama specifically said that what was needed was to close loopholes in the law so some corporations (esp small businesses) didn't end up paying huge quantities of their income while other companies got off scot-free. By ensuring that all companies pay taxes, the overall rate can be lowered.

This is the same logic that's applied to universal healthcare.