Your Thoughts on State of Union Address

[gwyyn]

Ok know you guys are dying to rally to his side or tear his speech apart.  Let's get it going

 

I thought his speech was very good. Hardly any stuttering.

 

I thought he made several good points and intitivites on health care, economy and environmental issues.

 

I also think his helping Africa with thier AIDS problem is a good idea.

gwyyn

 

[two feathers]

Originally posted by gwyyn
Hardly any stuttering.

 

[strathyboy]

I thought it was pretty good, although by about halfway through I wanted to shoot the gallery for constantly interrupting and making the darn thing last so long.
I'm interested to see if cutting taxes and making all those new spending initiatives will actually result in a lower national debt. A few of the statements regarding terrorism and Iraq seemed a bit short-sighted and hypocritical, but I expected nothing different. I'm glad he recognized the problem of AIDS in Africa as well.
So, in conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised.

 

[Dewjunkie]

I'm a bit skeptical on the tax issues, but on the whole I was very pleased with his address. He did a good job addressing our presence in other nations, and I truly hope the AIDS policies make a difference in Africa and at home. I also hope his commitment to finding more home based energy sources comes through. Over all, he did a good job, spoke well, and got his points accross clearly.

On a childish sidenote, John McCain should have walked across the aisle and smacked Joseph Leiberman awake.

 

[coastie]

I really liked his environmental portion of the address... and I shamelessly enjoyed the last few lines.

 

[stray bullet]

I liked everything but his statement on wanting to ban ALL human cloning, clearly, he has caved into the drug companies.

 

[gwyyn]

hehee i thought Ted Kennedy should have been slapped a couple times, but atleast Hilary refrained from her eyerolling this year

gwyyn

 

[N2God]

I think he did a wonderful job!!  

 

[datan]

Originally posted by strathyboy
I thought it was pretty good, although by about halfway through I wanted to shoot the gallery for constantly interrupting and making the darn thing last so long.

I'm the cynic, and I believe that the speech was structured around 'sound-bytes' so that congress could interrupt with their 'standing ovations'. Notice his pauses, as if waiting for the applause...also, some people were more eager than others to stand...

Compare this to some of the great speeches addressed to the US Congress: FDR's declaration of war ("a date which will live in infamy"), General MacArthur's farewell speech to Congress ("old soldiers never die; they just fade away")...they just sound more "real", less "theatrical".

Yes. Forgive me if I offend many, but somehow I got the impression that the whole thing was one big theatre production, carefully stage-managed.

I didn't really like the way he played up the terrorist card against Saddam. I also didn't like how he tried to portray certain issues (forest management, elimination of taxation, "if war is forced upon us") as so black-and-white (obviously choicing the 'white')/outright twisting the issues.

But yes, I liked his proposals on AIDS & clean fuel. Also, I'm not sure that his ban on cloning is necessarily due to drug companies; I think he is merely translating his own moral and personal views into his decisions--nothing wrong with that necessarily.

 

[stray bullet]

Originally posted by datan
Also, I'm not sure that his ban on cloning is necessarily due to drug companies; I think he is merely translating his own moral and personal views into his decisions--nothing wrong with that necessarily.

He gets a lot of money from those companies.

There is not reason to ban "all" of cloning except to make drug companies richer,

 

[chickenman]

the scientists who are interested in stem cell research will just move out of america if bush doesn't wise up

I know one of my professors here in australia is doing stem cell research in singapore because of the moratorium on research here

 

[Extirpated Wildlife]

I thought it was pretty good.

But as far as the enviromental side, I am still not sure he said enough on how to protect the enviroment. I would like to see a more Al Gore approach to the enviroment.

 

[lithium.]

I didn't watch because if you seen one you have seen them all.

And I don't like that every 30 seconds after the president gets done talking they clap. It's crazy why don't they just wait til the whole thing is done?

 

[lithium.]

Originally posted by chickenman
the scientists who are interested in stem cell research will just move out of america if bush doesn't wise up

I know one of my professors here in australia is doing stem cell research in singapore because of the moratorium on research here

Your correct they will just leave and continue there work where they don't have to worry about crazy laws.

 

[Extirpated Wildlife]

Fine, let the scientist move to Iraq.

 

[gwyyn]

Stem-cell research is a sticky area. I don't mind research being done on what sources we've already got. In fact I was wanting to have the cord blood taken when I had my son however where I had my son, the practice isn't done. I checked out info online and found out I could of ordered a 'kit' for my doctor to do it with, but it was expensive.

However human cloning to me can become a dangerous situation. I mean sheesh would hate to think how much Hitler would have enjoyed the possiblility of human cloning.

As for the issue on Medicare and a prescription program I agree we need to have a change there. My parents had to file bankrupcy after my grandmother's death because of all the bills they took upon themselves to pay so my grandmother could get treatment. My grandmother had cancer and as we all know Medicare doesn't cover medications. Medicaid (our state insurance) only payed for 2 prescriptions a month, however this was also tricky because they do not cover anything considered 'expirimental'. And I'm some of you know someone who has or has had cancer and know how many medications they take and how expensive they are. I am totaly against the idea of seniors going to HMO"S to get prescription coverage too. I think as Americans we work and pay into the system for this health coverage for when we are seniors and that prescription coverage should be just added benifit to the program.

Ugh sorry to ramble

gwyyn

 

[datan]

Originally posted by seesaw
I didn't watch because if you seen one you have seen them all.

And I don't like that every 30 seconds after the president gets done talking they clap. It's crazy why don't they just wait til the whole thing is done?

it's politics. They're on national TV, and have to look 'patriotic'.

Seriously, I wonder where he's going to find all the money to overhaul the health care system, spend $ on Aids, environment AND go to war AND cut taxes AND have a balanced budget.

 

[ieatlunch]

so how many speech writers generaly come up with everything george says in public? i dont even think he knows what hes saying as hes saying it. george has had everything in his life handed to him-never had to work for anything. hes like a spoiled little kid. no wonder people around the world dont like the united states. now were about to go to war so george can get his hands on iraqs oil. all the people who are gonna get killed in the name of peace (oil)??? please explain that one .i cant believe people arent more outraged by this. since when do we attack a country because we think they might attack us in the future? iraq will never be in a position to do the us any harm. george has been handed companies to control and driven them into the ground. now hes been made president by the supreme court and hes driving our country to the ground. i wasnt a big bill clinton fan but at least during his presidency we had peace and prosperity.
the other day i heard george say that iraq has defied the un...which is exactly what hes doing. whats the point of even having the un when its most powerful member ignores what the un members say??its just a disgrace.

sorry this rant is so all over the place. im just venting a little.....


have a nice day.

 

[Evangelion]

It was a fine show. Bush performed well. His handlers put him through his tricks without a single hiccup.

I like a bit of old-fashioned entertainment - and the US presidents never let me down.

 

[Texas Lynn]

I missed the first part; the war/foreign policy part was good.

The bones he threw to the Religious Right were unfortunate; a ban on late-term abortion that does not include an exception for the life and health of the woman would probably be unconstitutional; the whole thing is simply a method to reframe the issue using 1% of all abortions to describe the other 99%. the cloning ban is stupid. Sure, the Raellians are a deceptive cult, but someone, somewhere will clone humans. a ban only puts this country out of the loop. The genie is out of the bottle and won't be stuffed back in it.