Liveblogging The State Of The Union

10:50PM
Wait! One last thing. Brian Williams just said the president's eyes filled with tears several times tonight. Which address was Williams watching?

10:45PM
That's all for tonight. The next major shpeech for the president will be at the Republican Convention this Shummer, then that should be it. The trucks that are usually tasked with driving through his pregnant pauses will now be deployed elsewhere. Thanks, everyone! Comments will remain open below...

10:36PM
The Romney Unit on CNN with Anderson Cooper. *raise taxes* Talking about illegal immigration. *raise taxes*

10:35PM
Mitch McConnell on FOX News. Has anyone checked to see if McConnell and Steve Forbes are the same person?

10:34PM
Senator Obama with Olbermann: "It was a warmed over past State of the Union speech."

10:28PM
WHAH! On MSNBC, John McCain looks like a Wal-Mart smiley-face sticker tonight. That was shocking.

10:23PM
You know what's awesome about Governor Sebelius? She's a Democratic governor -- from Kansas. AND, you can use her head as a straight-edge.

10:19PM
Governor Kathleen Sebelius making with the Democratic response.

10:12PM
Zoinks! Velma from Scooby-Doo is on MSNBC!

10:08PM
Just flipped over to FOX News. Fred Barnes: This speech "will be forgotten pretty much. Haha!"

10:07PM
There's a gigantic bald man -- or the Cloverfield monster -- talking to the president and asking for an autograph. Seriously, I know the president is short but this bald dude was 12 feet tall.

10:05PM
Olbermann mentioning something similar to my observation below regarding the Iranian nuclear enrichment program.

10:04PM
"Let us set forth to do their business." By "their" he means the telecoms. And... he's done with his last Shtate of the Union shpeech.

10:00PM
I'm staggered by this president's nerve in talking about liberty and "We, the People." He supports an amendment banning gay marriage.

9:59PM
Bob Dooooooolle!

9:56PM
"Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in efforts to defend America." Believed to have assisted?

9:53PM
"Ballishtic mishils."

9:50PM
Dick Lugar has the same skin tone as a Krispy-Kreme.

9:48PM
The Iraqi government passed de-Baathification. No they didn't. That's a lie. Up next, the Iraqi government rides unicorns and poops rainbows!

9:45PM
20,000 troops are coming home. But of course they were supposed to come home because their deployments ended.

9:43PM
The surge is so awesome we couldn't even imagine it. And now he's mixing Bin Laden and Iraq even though Bin Laden's al-Qaeda is totally different. "Some may deny the surge is working." Someone just yelled out "YOU ROCK!" I wonder if that guy was paying attention when the president mentioned Bin Laden -- who STILL HASN'T BEEN CAPTURED.

9:36PM
9/11 mentioned! Rudy's polling numbers in Florida just jumped 10 points. And the president is spreading the hope of freedom someplace. No-one is sure where. Oh, I know. A year from now, Bushie will be free from having to read any more shpeeches.

9:35PM
"Building a prosperous future for our citizen (singular)."

9:33PM
There's an object that looks like a shuttlecock in front of Cheney. Make up your own jokes.

9:30PM
"The Constitution means what it says." Cool. Then he'll reverse the Military Commissions Act and reinstate Article I, Section 9 of the Constitution: "The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it."

9:26PM
"Slow or reverse the growth of greenhouse gasses." Cheney clapped. But he was probably thinking about the baby orangutan he ate for dinner.

9:24PM
Both houses of Congress are asleep. John Dingell is comatose.

9:20PM
Only slightly less ridiculous than mentioning nookular materials is mentioning No Child Left Behind. He should be mentioning the awesomeness of scalp eczema next.

9:18PM
The "epidemic of junk medical lawsuits *weird facial tic*"

9:16PM
He's going to sign an Executive Order that directs federal agencies to reject earmarks that weren't voted on in Congress. I'm noticing that he's jovial tonight. Like a kid on the last day of school. "No more shpeeches after tonight! Yay!"

9:13PM
Boehner looks especially orange tonight. Oh -- here comes Principal Vernon. "Any tax increases reaches my desk I will veto it."

9:09PM
He sounds extra slurred tonight. Mention of A Charge To Keep -- which is a painting about a horse thief.

9:07PM
Senators Obama and Kennedy sitting next to each other.

9:05PM
Here comes the president for the last time.

8:59PM
If something awful happens, we'll have President Dirk Kempthorne. Kempthorne is the Secretary of the Interior and was the cabinet member chosen to stay home tonight. His name is "Dirk Kempthorne" which almost as awesome as his undersecretary "Chest Rockwell."

8:55PM
The president is going to ask Iran to suspend nuclear enrichment even though it's been verified to be for energy and not weapons purposes. You'd think that after the 17 words he'd stay the hell away from bullshitting about nuclear weapons.

8:47PM
I was thinking about the president's final year and this being his last State of the Union (we hope). Remember how previous presidents used to do prime time press conferences? President Bush hasn't done any of those. Meanwhile, on MSNBC, Mary Katharine Ham is the worst person in the world for not remembering that 24-hour news networks existed in 1998, and therefore President Clinton got a pass during the Lewinsky insanity. Seriously, Ham?

8:39PM
CNN showing a cavalcade of old white men entering the senate chamber while on MSNBC Olbermann notes that there is yet to be an arrest in the anthrax attacks. You remember those -- they were one of the terrorist attacks on American soil that happened since 9/11 on the president's watch.

8:23PM
It sounds like the president is going to crack down on congressional earmarks tonight. According to the OMB website, in 2005: "there were 13,492 earmarks totaling $18,938,657,000." That was a Republican Congress and the president signed everything that was dumped on his desk. If Hastert dropped a Polish sausage on the White House lawn, the president signed it.

8:19PM
I'm skimming through the policy initiatives here and I've determined that tonight's shpeech is going to be really damn boring. But who knows. Maybe he'll surprise us all and throw in something about human-animal hybrids.

7:59PM
President Bush makes with the mumbling, shpeech-making one hour from now. I'm wondering if we're going to see the pissy high school principal Bush that scolds the Democrats and hands out Breakfast Club detentions while flashing that Longhorns finger gesture.

Bob Cesca's Goddamn Awesome Blog! GO!

Comments

[LibbyBuck]

Did anyone else freak out when he said he was going to have a summit in NEW ORLEANS with Mexico and Canada? A conspiracy theory is still a theory:

I have always thought that when George Bush would say the word, "Merica" that it was an unfortunate incident in Texas dialect. During the SOTU by the POTUS, I heard a message in the speech. It came to me when he said, "We will have a summit with Mexico and Canada in New Orleans" and it all clicked in my head. The new New World Order country will be called: MERICA (Me)xico Amer(RI), (CA)nada or the working title: American Union or AU " (pronounced like a cowboy lasooing a calf) AAAAUUUUU! Texas strikes again.

I"m starting to have delusions that "Dubya" (pronounced DUH " BYA) is not only never leaving office but that we wont even have a country next year. I learned immediately that he"s probably not as stupid as he looks, walks or talks, but one thing is for sure, the guy is a sneaky evil liar and that"s just his personality. The guy"s stupid voice and stupid comments were out there for everyone to see, he"s been sending us this information for 7 years and we didn"t hear it because, again, he sounds so stupid and evil. He didn"t even explain what the summit was for, and the fact that it is going to be in New Orleans gives me the bends.

NEW FREAKIN" ORLEANS? Are you kidding me? Is that why you let the levees fail? Is that why you"ve been taking all those people"s homes? Are you going to open the NAFTA highway starting at New Orleans? What are you going to change New Orleans too? The national port? Are you going to sell that one to DUBAI also? Are you selling our country out from underneath us with your wars and collapsing our economy because it"s not going to matter in 6 months? Hold on, take a deep breathe, this might hurt a little.

God Bless Merica
Good Night (wink, sneer, heh heh)

[Silknspark]

As I recently cautioned a youngster throwing his hat into the political fray, "there's a pervasive, ugly anger out there. People are so filled with blind hatred they can't, and do not offer any solutions."
If you paid me a billion bucks I wouldn't run for an elected office.
On many articles, I've blogged the qualities a candidate would have to have to make me want to hire them.
To reiterate:
Stop LOST.
Stop illegal immigration.
Set up immediate Citizen Transition cards for those illegals here already, that would include a "responsible party," be it their employeer, counsulate, country...
Stop government welfare to any NGO including the Nature Conservancy.
Impeccably shun any hint of socialism.
Honor our Constitution.
Honor private property and states rights.
Stop occupation of America by the European Union.
Recharge as many acres of American soil, back into agricultural/resource production. The starving child will not have the energy or means to travel to a "wildland". We must feed the poor and hungry FIRST, then worry about wildlife corridors and such.
Bring home as many soldiers as is reasonable, to shore up our American borders.
Enforce FAIR trade!
Transition out income tax and gently replace with an equitable form of consumption/fair tax.
I will vote for any candidate, regardless their politcal party, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, who will embrace... and "work on" with vigor...this areas.

[HST]

SOTU = STFU

FirstShirt & hjf64 -why do you hate America?

[Scomp10]

I have a question -- who is doing the loud cheering in the hall? Always sounds exactly the same for every speech - the pages, perhaps?
Thanks!

[deminmo]

Bush did appear somewhat giddy. The speech was
not all that different than ones before it. He
never says how the American people will pay for
all his pet projects. I was angry that the
Telecoms "allegedly" helped, since the reason
many are being sued is because they did help,
and before they were asked to. Bush still thinks
the economy is basically ok. Yea, right. And
he will fund private education but not kid's
healthcare?
Lastly, Iran & Iraq. One we might wipe off the
map and one we might not ever leave. Ten more
months seems way too long!

[Ravenlea]

The depth of my anger is so intense as I see this smarmy little man smugly lie on and on in between saying nonsensical and irrational things while Congress applauds and media "pundits," opine about trivial crap even on PBS which I used to feel at least tried to add some subastance to conversations.

I have nothing in particular against Clinton or Obama, but I am angry that they and this little toad of a criminal who stole two presidencies are allowed to drone on with pap, half truths and lies, while a great and honest man like Dennis Kucinich couldn't get ten minutes of air time to speak truth and offer good ideas that could actually change the lives of us so-called "ordinary Americans."

I can't stand to see this criminal applauded when he should be on trial with his buddy Cheney and then in prison for many, many years.

I don't drink much any more, but I wish I'd had a bottle of Wild Turkey last night. I'm angry for my country and I'm angry AT my country that we are not rising up as one to impeach this.... I can't think of anything bad enough to call him... AGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!

I guess this has been around for a while, but if you haven't seen HACKING DEMOCRACY, I recommend it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzPXer7946E and here's a much shorter piece on the New Hampshire primaries... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKQEQ7qHvgM

I want my country back. Thanks Mr. Cesca, as always, for your column.

[liaisonsus]

Did not want to watch because I did not want to get sick to my stomac!
Will be glad to get rid of that "Idiot King!"and once out of office, he and his cronies should be prosecuted for war crimes and ruining our good reputation with the rest of the World.

[Wulfstan]

Ah well, he'll be gone soon, replaced by yet another figurehead of the international banks and multinational corporations. Someone affiliated with Bilderberg/Trilateral Commission/Council on Foreign Relations/Skull and Bones. Got to make sure they're on the same page as the captains of industry, after all.

[Wulfstan]

It's quite incredible, really. The day Jeb stole the election for him, intelligent people around the world knew he would be an unmitigated disaster, and, my god, did he prove us right. And here we are, 7 years later, he's still talking gibberish. It must be heart breaking for those Americans, whose neck isn't the color of a baboon's ass, to have had a leader so dumb, so bloodthirsty, so contemptuous of the Constitution and other peoples rights, in control. And that is the saddest part. After 8 years, his only legacies will be destroying America's reputation around the world, killing hundreds of thousands of people, and destroying the world's largest economy. Quite a roll call of shame. Good riddance,

[Stoney41]

Real good SOTU response...

http://tshirtinsurgency.com/insurgency-responds-bushs-state-union-address

[CatfishJohn]

...excellent piece Bob- theathre of the comically bizarre indesd it was ...if it wasnt such a tragedy...my favorite moment illustrating the total sociopathic disconnect of this man from normal human emotion was his brekaing into a broad smile ( like the kind of smile one has when one sees a cute baby or hears his kid got a good report card) immediately AFTER he stated the gravitas-laden line" the United states opposes genocide in Africa"....a beatific smile, utterly out of context of what he was referring to...and then he proceeded of course to pronounce Zimbabwe "Zimbaway"....

[LoveOverGold]

"Protect our interests in the mid-east".
A guy at work mentioned this line from the shpeechifyin' last night, and he was taken back by it. "I thought we were fighting to free the middle-east" said he. He voted for bushie twice, but I think a light went on for him. A dim light, but there may be hope!

[NickOhio]

Ruh-ro...

Dubya has given another speech. How many words did he slur or mis-pronounce this time?

How did he get his daughters to attend? And, why did they miss the other SOTU speeches he gave?

By next year at this time, hopefully we'll be celebrating a progressive's place on the podium, taking the oath of office. I cannot wait for intelligent language and coherent speaking from the next President. Maybe, we'll also get a chance to erase and correct the damage done to the country and world.

[Jacee]

Yeah...that troubled me into the night. More non existent misty tears. Damn Brian Williams. I missed them with Hillary, I missed them last night. I just can not detect the misty tear phenom.

For the love of God, I hope Bush's fake non existent misty tears that are only seen by tools in the media do not spur a comeback for Bush. Let's let sleeping dogs snooze through the rest of the year.

An observation: What was with Pelosi and Cheney...she was dressed for the Easter Parade and he came as the best dressed egg ever.

OK...the speech was so boring, or we have all move on and so the old stuff that was outrageous is now just dribble. I poured a drink to get through it, but nothing. Didn't ake a sip. Just really bad reality TV.

[cobraxus]

Senators Obama and Kennedy sitting next to each other...and were seen holding hands and nuzzling.
does anyone remember the 1980 Democratic Convention when congressional democrats backed Ted Kennedy over Jimmy Carter?They didn't just break with the party,they broke it...then blamed Carter for losing to Ronald Reagan.we're headed for the same fiasco in november.