Just Askin' (SOTU Edition)

Despite the President's passionate, heartfelt plea for the line item veto in last night's State of the Union address and no matter how much its enactment would clearly galvanize the population and bring us closer together as a people during these troubled times, I'm afraid it's likely to go the way of last year's call for social security reform and 2004's grand Mission to Mars proposal. As such, I offer a few more prosaic topics for general discussion:

1. Does anyone offer a class in remedial clapping? If so, I hope to god Cheney and Hastert haven't taken it yet because that's some pathetic hand action going on up there.

2. Do Supreme Court justices wash their robes at home or do they send them out to be dry cleaned? Because Thomas and Breyer have some big-time fading going on and the time for Roberts and Alito to get this right, my friends, is right now.

3. Comfy armchair aside, doesn't this kind of thing constitute cruel and unusual punishment?

4. Can anyone tell me why this guy is still smiling?

5. Seriously -- is this really the only shot of Hillary Clinton that Reuters could get?

6. How bad does your workout have to be if watching the State of the Union address actually makes it go by faster?

7. Am I the only one who thought last night's SOTU address would have been the perfect time for President Bush to finally give an adequate answer to the "Brokeback Mountain" question from the other day?