SOTU in 15 Minutes

Thanks to Drudge I got to read the whole state of the union address in about 15 minutes! Arn't you jealous. I can just see you all now, watching the TV for the next 45 minutes or however long this takes, hearing all that talking, waiting through the endless clapping.... I guess I miss who clapped for what. That is always fun.

I just got to skip the BS and find the good stuff. I was surprised to see him go after social security again. I guess he wants to lose this debate two times. At least it can't really hurt his polling numbers this time.

Also, I don't want private health insurance, I want government health insurance. Private insurance sucks, tries to screw you, and is fantastically expensive. Me "shopping" for health care won't drive down prices, and giving millions of people tax-free cash to buy it sure as hell wont make it cheaper.

Good news! He said global warming was real. Good for him. Also vague language about cutting oil usage (20% less gas use 10 years was good) but at least he made NO mention of hydrogen. (Oops ok, I had to go watch this part live. Funny part, Cheney laughing at something at the 20% gas idea and EVERY ONE standing at global warming! It was slow, but the did!). We will see if anything comes of it. With a democratic congress, maybe.

The rest of the speech was terrorist hu-ha. He has no idea who he is fighting any more. Suni, Shia, Syria, Lebanon, Talaban, Al Queda, Iraq, Iran... its just this whole geo-political mix that we are fighting some how. I will let the real blogs tackle this mess. In short, this President has gambled away all of his political capital using American wealth and power. There is nothing he can do to fix it.

One last thing that he got right - however not the way he thinks. He said this:

If American forces step back before Baghdad is secure, the Iraqi government would be overrun by extremists on all sides. We could expect an epic battle between Shia extremists backed by Iran, and Sunni extremists aided by al Qaeda and supporters of the old regime. A contagion of violence could spill out across the country – and in time the entire region could be drawn into the conflict.

This is what critics were saying before we even went to war almost four years ago. Not because we would step back before "Baghdad is secure," (note language, Baghdad is the only problem now) but because we were going to smash a country to bits and hope it came together like we hopped it would. Ug. Now it is happening and I seriously doubt there is anything anyone can do at this point. At least militarily.