February 1, 2006
Morning Roundup: State of the Union Edition
So, The United States is preparing to develop methods for generating fuel from switch grass. I don't know what switch grass is, but my gut tells me it's a lot like brush, and Bush stands to make a killing off this whole arrangement.
There is a Better Way: So, Washington was host once more to the State of the Union. We continue to marvel at the fact that once a year, at a predictable time and place, everyone in our government except the head of the VA gathers in one spot to hear a speech that is, for all intents and purposes, irrelevant (we're going to Mars on rockets powered by switch grass!). It is, however, one of the bigger events to take place in the D.C., and our local pride was further caressed by the decision to have Virginia Governor Tim Kaine deliver the Democratic rebuttal, a task he handled well, considering the green-ness of his horns. Guv'nor had his eyebrow in check, and, aside from the Shatner pauses in his cadence, he came across as remarkably normal and compelling for an elected official.
Hindsight Alone is not Wisdom. And Second-guessing is not a Strategy: Yesterday, it became clear that the stadium lease, as agreed upon by MLB and city officials, didn't strike D.C. CFO Natwar Gandhi as conducive to efforts to get the city investment-grade bonds for construction financing. After hearing this criticism, officials returned to the negotiation table and reinserted language deemed necessary for the appeasement of Wall Street. All may be for nought, however, as the Post reveals that the council still might not have the votes to approve the revised lease.
Let us Never Forget the Sacrifices of America's Military Families: Cindy Sheehan managed to upstage the President's grand entrance last night, as news organizations reported that she had been detained in the gallery of the House of Representatives. Sheehan, who had been invited to the ceremony by California Rep. Lynn Woolsey, pulled open her robe after taking her seat to reveal a t-shirt displaying the number of dead in Iraq. It seems this is against House etiquette, and she was quickly removed.
Briefly Noted: Maryland Delegate, crusading against gay marriage, almost accidentally outlaws divorce (APPLAUSE)...Virginia Senator hopes to begin a conversation about castration (APPLAUSE)...Metro voice contest winner announced today (APPLAUSE)...UDC getting more expensive (APPLAUSE).
Picture taken by birdcage.
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A nice response sheet on the State of the Union:
http://www.accuracy.org/s2006.pdf
Prints nice and clean, something to share 'round the office. Some coherent and historically informed critics better than what most Dems can squeak out or editors will let into a sound-bite.
While I thought Kaine did fine, considering that the response to the SOTU is pretty hopeless anyway -- even Obama would look inferior when compared with the President of the United States standing in front of all of Congress -- I do have to wonder what you think his eyebrow would have been like if it were out of check. It was definitely distracting enough that Matthew Yglesias (who was at the event I was at) and his friends seemed to be making fun of the eyebrow more than listening to the content. We'll see what he has to write about it.
I must confess that I'm a Kaine fan and actually canvassed for the man in Northern VA, but there is no way he came across as normal. His monosyablic speach appears to be a reincarnation of Al Gore, while his eyebrows were reminisent of the W Bush during the debates when he thought he said something clever. I've met him in person several times and he was not nearly as stiff. The DNC totally fucked up again, nobody wants to see him. We want Obama.
Really? I thought he seemed a little nervous, but once he got talking, he sounded more like a normal person than Gore or Kerry (except for the Shatner pauses). There is. A Better. Way.
At least they didn't put Reid out there. But I don't know why Obama doesn't speak for the Democrats every time they ever have to say anything.
You spelled Gandhi wrong.
Um, you mentioned that the winner would be announced today and then linked to an external article that said the winner would be announced today.
Maybe this is a story for later.
Um, you mentioned that the Metro winner would be announced today and then linked to an external article ...that said the winner would be announced today.
Maybe this is a story for later, when they have a name...
HA! Nice work, Ryan, with the State of the Union theme.
NO-OP:
accuracy.org?
i believed everything they said until the end of the first 5 lines when they said Bush should of been arrested instead of Cindy, a women who thinks dictators like chavez are awesome, a women who is a discrase to democracy and the democratic party.
asking for no new money in the Febuary budget? that means the statement is a lie?
the only thing this article should be shared with in the office in a shredder
You might want to be accurate yourself and attribute to who said that -- that was Mark Raskin, an accomplished, respected constitutional lawyer.
Re: if you say you're meeting a responsibility, and yet missions of departments can't be fulfilled whether because of budget "slashes" or "no new money" compounding other problems I'm sure exist -- then, asserting you're meeting the responsibility would be considered a lie, sure. The assertion is that the responsibility the President admits he has is not being met even though he says it is. That's the "lie."
Politicians lie all the time. I wouldn't leap to defend that one too quickly on your part...
...and all of the organizations would be happy to back their claims openly, I'm sure. Take it up with them.
Erp -- Turn "mark raskin" into "Michael Ratner" and then that attribution become more accurate, including accurately representing my opinion of his stature and accomplishments and knowledge.
It's not always the head of the VA--it rotates which cabinet member is in a secure location during the State of the Union. I think it was Gail Norton (Interior) last year.
I think that response sheet is pretty limited in value. It gathers the opinions of partisan people and presents them as definitive statesments, then concludes from the fact that these statements don't jive with Bush's statements that he lied.
I don't care how prestigious the constitutional lawyer is, it doesn't prevent them from issuing hyperbole (in fact I find that it often causes them to speak in hyperbole). For every lawyer they can find to say this, you can find another equally respected lawyer to say the opposite. So what? The point is that merely highlighting disagreement does not prove that one argument is correct, and it certainly doesn't prove that one side is lying.
ehhhhh, I hate when DCist gets into national politics.
(Also, although I think she's batty, and that she is being manipulated by dictators and wild-eyed activists, I certainly don't think Cindy Sheehan is a "discrase", or a disgrace, to our democracy. You can argue that she's not doing her party or even her country any good, but I fail to see how she's a disgrace.)
But Bush SHOULD have been arrested instead of Cindy, for abusing the powers of office (a la Nixon), for crimes against Iraqi humanity, and 2300 US soldiers dead - and for exactly what??
Apparently, shirts with words on them are not allowed at the SOTU, but why was Sheehan *arrested* and *jailed* while another t-shirt wearer was merely escorted out?
Did anyone happen to notice how Bush started his speech by recognizing the death of Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife that happened "today" (Tuesday), when it was in fact Monday? What an ass.
Actually Jeremy, in your rush to condemn Bush you didn't realize that as of the speech, there was not a firm consensus whether she died before or after midnight. News reports have gone both ways.
I'm sure you'll find other reasons to be smug, but this is not one of them.
no-op:
nuff-said
http://www.msnbc.
msn.com/id/11145948/