Blithering idiot report, forecast for '06 based on the SOTU
posted by
Wally
11:37 AM
I didn't want to do it, but like a wicked car wreck or a really bad toupee, I just couldn't look away. So I plopped the cooler of beer next to the recliner, got out the pen and scorecard (to keep track of how many times he said "terror" "freedom" "spreading democracy" "noookyoooler" etc), and the squeaky dog toys to throw at the TV (they're soft so they won't break the screen, and the dog brings them back to me, which is an added bonus). The scorecard lasted less than 14 minutes before I threw down the pen and stopped counting in disgust. I left the scoresheet at home, so I don't have the official count on hand, but I remember there were about 11 "terrors" at least one 9/11, a handful of Iraqs, and a metric shitload of "fearmongering" and blatant lies in that first 14 minutes.
No surprise there.
Overall, it was a pretty lame speech. Nothing earthshattering, and nothing that resembled a new idea. Just a bunch of rehashed meaningless, toothless rhetoric that is sure to be long-forgotten when it comes time to back up the words with action or funding.
But there were a couple things I found notable. At least in part, we now know the new republican strategerization.
First, anyone who is against the war will be labelled an "Isolationist" - mark my words. That's the new catchphrase they'll try to use against us, so get used to it. You'll be hearing it a lot over the next several months. Never mind that we've been pushing him to get involved in Darfur, Niger, Sri Lanka, etc to stop "ongoing" genocide and violence (as opposed to Saddam's crimes that happened in 1991). Never mind that we've been pushing to have him take action against places that encourage the use of slave labor (Malaysia, Indonesia, Marianas Islands, etc). That's different situations, since those aren't "his" war, and there's no oil there. So that's one... we are now "Isolationists."
Two, he kept talking about mutual respect and bipartisanship and working together. His (fake) conciliatory tone was notably different than what we've seen before. He's way more comfortable being a bully, so it was kind of fun to watch him squirming through those parts of the speech, trying to act sincere. Here's my take. The repubs know that people are fed up with the partisan b.s. and exclusionary tactics they've been pulling. They also saw the actions taken over alito, and the response that the party had to the activism (there is no way that they were expecting 25 dems to vote for the filibuster). They realize that the base is fired up, and that the leadership has finally taken note and is starting to get mouthy and fight back (all of the dem leadership voted to filibuster - Hillary, Reid, Biden, Obama, Feingold, Shumer, Leahy, Kerry, Kennedy, Boxer, etc. All the big players). That's big. That has the repubs worried. We're finally going to hit back and not just stand there and take it anymore. Like playground bullies, they don't like that.
They also have the huge corruption thing going on, and they know that no matter how hard they try to spin it, the American public sees it as a overwhelmingly GOP thing. They also know that, with the dems fighting back, if they don't change their tactics, they will get nothing passed in Congress the next 8 months, and anything they do will be partyline stuff that the dems will use against them (like the Medicare fiasco, for example).
With all those things combined, they're looking to get their asses handed to them in the election. They think that if they "play nice" now (or at least talk about it) they can change people's perceptions of the party, maybe get some legislation through that they can brag about, and be buddy buddy with the dems to make the corruption scandal look like more of a bipartisan thing.
They also are setting it up so that, when the dems do fight back, the repubs can say "see, we were trying to play nice and they're being mean to us" and hope it sticks. It will work with some people, but those are the same morons who could watch george and dick eating live babies in the Rose Garden and the only thing they'd have to say is what nice table manners they have, and maybe exchange recipes.
My prediction is that most Americans will see the ploy for the transparent sham that it is. The repubs will try to be "respectable", and try to ignore and distract from Jack-off singing like a canary, tom delay donning a nice orange jumpsuit, "doctor" frist being dragged in front of the SEC, investigations into illegal spying, kenny-boy lay doing the perp-walk, Exxon making record profits while the rest of us bundle up because we can't afford to turn on the heat, Fitz doing his magic, Alito taking away our rights, etc etc etc. Like a train wreck in slow motion, the American people won't be able to look away from the carnage, no matter how hard Rove tries to distract us.
All in all, Alito aside, 2006 might be a very very good year.
Anyway... that's what I took from the speech. That and the fact that Governor Kaine needs to do something about those two ferrets dancing around on his forehead.
Wally
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