State of the Union


Mrs. Datanerd spent the evening yelling at the TV. I can't blame her, in fact I appreciate it. She has forbidden me to yell at the TV, because I tend to get more profane and we don't want the neighbors hearing me swearing at that lying so-and-so. Ahem.

I loved this part, cited in the Washington Post: "Democrats surprised Bush by applauding when he observed that 'key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year,' leaving Republicans to applaud alone when Bush called for the act's renewal."

His said his tax cuts have driven the economy forward. Well, yes, but straight off a cliff. I didn't want to go there, I wanted to see economic and employment growth. And he wants his to make his tax cuts permanent, costing the federal government over $1 trillion over ten years. These tax cuts have not brought us anthing but continuing deficits as far as the eye can see, and continuing stagnation in the job market.

Oh, and his guest worker program sounds great. At least to employers, it sounds great. Gives them a pool of cheap workers, who won't fuss because if they get fired, they get deported. It will push down the wages of workers in the same industry, even if they don't hire cheaper labor. See the supermarkets in California as an example of this, where they are cutting wages and benefits because of Wal-Mart's supercenters coming in, with workers who don't have benefits, good wages, and unions. Like Jamie Galbraith said in Salon, it keeps the help from getting uppity.

I'm really surprised he had the gall to mention Iraq, and the weapons "programs" they had, which basically have amounted to a bunch of paperwork. Last year, he laid out a long list of everything that Saddam had. We haven't found any of it. Even the mortars found that we thought had a blister agent turned out to be a false alarm. David Kay, head of the inspection team, is trying to find a way to resign. And let's remember exactly what he said last year:

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them. U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

State of the Union, January 28, 2003

Compare and contrast that with this year's comments.
Some in this chamber and in our country did not support the liberation of Iraq. Objections to war often come from principled motives. But let us be candid about the consequences of leaving Saddam Hussein in power.

We're seeking all the facts. Already, the Kay report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations.

Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day.


State of the Union, January 20, 2004


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