The State of the Union Address by our illustrious President Bush has just ended, and I’m TiVoing the democratic response for later. Here are a few of my mostly cynical thoughts while watching the President’s speech.
My Favorite Part
If these methods are good for hunting criminals, they are even more important for hunting terrorists. Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year.
It's good to see that some of our elected officials are as appalled at the State of the Union as I am.
**200 > 10,000** _Last August 11th brought the capture of the terrorist Hambali, who was a key player in the attack in Indonesia that killed over 200 people._
So why aren't we hunting for the people responsible for the 10,000 Iraqis whose lives have been lost since the beginning of our invasion? Oh wait, they're us? Nevermind, then.
**Hypocrisy at it's Finest**
_\[W\]e are also confronting the regimes that harbor and support terrorists, and could supply them with nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons. The United States and our allies are determined: We refuse to live in the shadow of this ultimate danger._
Yet we expect those very same nations to live under the shadow cast by those weapons we and our allies possess.
**Land of the Free**
_\[T\]he Iraqi people will live in freedom._
While the American citizens live in fear of their own government under the PATRIOT Act; While American citizens are kept in state of legal limbo in Cuba, with no access to their lawyers, by the government that passed this law to protect those very freedoms.
**The Word of America**
_For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible and no one can now doubt the word of America._
That's right -- Everybody believes we'll keep our word now. Except when we talk about evidence for the existence of weapons of mass destruction and terrorist support by foreign, sovereign nations and our reasons for war.
**34 > 193**
_Some critics have said our duties in Iraq must be internationalized. This particular criticism is hard to explain to our partners in Britain, Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Thailand, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, El Salvador, and the 17 other countries that have committed troops to Iraq._
Once again, President Bush fails to understand simple mathematics. He would have us believe that we have a full measure of international support, when in fact we don't even have 1/5 of the [world's nations](http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/countries_of_the_world.htm) behind us. Perhaps Mr. Bush's sudden concern for education is because he was one of the "children left behind?"
I'm not even halfway through this thing, but I can't stand it anymore. If you choose, feel free to check out this interesting link on [The Real State of the Union](http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0120-01.htm). Thank you, and goodnight.
