State Of The Union Address

RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
edited January 2011 in Strut Central
Our President is one of the best public speakers of my lifetime.

He said some very important things tonight and pissed off just about everyone in that room at one point or another.

He extended olive branches and called bullshit on a bunch of folks.

He tapdanced through a few topics and dropped bombshells on others.

Overall lofty goals, positive vibes and what a redneck down here might call a "Come to Jesus meeting" for folks to get their shit together.

And there was plenty of partisan shit on the floor....but the one thing they all stood and cheered for was Obama said "We can't continue to spend more than we take in".....hey, all you idiots standing and cheering....YOU'RE THE ONES DOING THE OVERSPENDING!!!

Joe Biden is a character and may have his own sitcom someday.
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  • The_NonThe_Non 5,691 Posts
    I was really impressed with the speech. I'm really glad he went "across the party line" frequently. Nowwwwwwwwwww, people gotta actually do some stuff and get things done.

  • I thought the speech was pretty good, hit on some points I was wondering about, but the main thing I noticed was how many people were asking for his autograph, is this normal for people in the house to be all up on him like groupies???

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    The true prize of the night was Michelle Bachmann's "rebuttal." How is it that someone this outlandishly stupid is a multi-term Congresscritter?

    Obama's speech was fine. It's genuinely important that he be reelected, but it's obvious that not much in the way of big legislation will happen between now and 2012. He's already accomplished quite a bit, anything else in this first term is gravy. People who expected him to work miracles are almost as nuts as people who think he was born in Kenya, even if their hearts were in the right place.

    Best president in my lifetime and it's not even close, all things considered. I'm 49.

  • BobDesperado said:
    The true prize of the night was Michelle Bachmann's "rebuttal." How is it that someone this outlandishly stupid is a multi-term Congresscritter?


  • Rockadelic said:


    "We can't continue to spend more than we take in".....

    I was looking at debt & deficit related stuff this morning for my own country and was doing comparisons with other countries and came up on the US debt clock and was just kind of flabbergasted......yeah, flabbergasted.

    http://www.usdebtclock.org/

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    Here we go....................

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    batmon said:
    Here we go....................

    The one dreadful thought that I had during the SOTU address was that if he pissed off the wrong powerful people his life would be in a greater danger than anything a nutball like Jared Lee Laughner could create.

    Those times when he addressed Oil Companies, Education, etc. and you only saw 5-10 people on the floor stand and applaud it was because the rest of those crooks, R&D alike, were thinking that the Big Oil Lobby and Teacher's Unions they would have to go home and deal with wouldn't be happy......Obama hit many nails on the head.....and today those heads must be hurting.

  • Rockadelic said:
    batmon said:
    Here we go....................

    The one dreadful thought that I had during the SOTU address was that if he pissed off the wrong powerful people his life would be in a greater danger than anything a nutball like Jared Lee Laughner could create.

    Those times when he addressed Oil Companies, Education, etc. and you only saw 5-10 people on the floor stand and applaud it was because the rest of those crooks, R&D alike, were thinking that the Big Oil Lobby and Teacher's Unions they would have to go home and deal with wouldn't be happy......Obama hit many nails on the head.....and today those heads must be hurting.


    Because big oil and the teachers unions have the same kind of pull. Get your head out of that bag of glue.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    funky16corners said:
    Rockadelic said:
    batmon said:
    Here we go....................

    The one dreadful thought that I had during the SOTU address was that if he pissed off the wrong powerful people his life would be in a greater danger than anything a nutball like Jared Lee Laughner could create.

    Those times when he addressed Oil Companies, Education, etc. and you only saw 5-10 people on the floor stand and applaud it was because the rest of those crooks, R&D alike, were thinking that the Big Oil Lobby and Teacher's Unions they would have to go home and deal with wouldn't be happy......Obama hit many nails on the head.....and today those heads must be hurting.


    Because big oil and the teachers unions have the same kind of pull. Get your head out of that bag of glue.

    Dude....who said they were equal....or even compared them??

    No politician wants to go home to angry constituents of any sort....let alone those who have them in their pockets or helped get them elected.

  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts
    Watching this right now, and it feels like I could be watching the Soviet Parliament discussing their next 5 year plan some time around October 1989, while the inevitable unfolds around them.

    It does seem like we are back to talking about maybe starting work on that project called "bridge to the 21st century". Hopefully we can build it before 2100. Coz by that time we are going to need a hell of a lot more bridges, especially in low lying areas.

  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    Wait, wait, wait. This could be really funny. Are you under the impression that somehow the oil lobby is more powerful or influential than the teacher's unions? Cause that's what it sounds like?

  • batmonbatmon 27,574 Posts
    And away we go.........

  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts
    "special interest groups" LOL

  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    From the Washington Examiner (I know it's no Huffington Post or Talking Points Memo, but....)


    Beltway bandits, defense contractors, influential industries???most of them pale in their influence efforts compared to the teachers unions, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
    Take defense contractors. Lockheed Martin, the top recipient of military contracts most years, spent more on politics than any other defense firm in the 2008 elections. They still spent less than the American Federation of Teachers, which shelled out $2.8 million in the last cycle???with nearly every AFT dime going to Democrats.
    The top two teachers unions???AFT and the National Education Association???spent more combined, $5.27 million, than the top two defense contractors.
    The top five lobbying firms, combined, didn???t equal the AFT and the NEA in federal contributions in the 2008 cycle. Both of the teachers unions gave more than any oil company, and the NEA and AFT combined gave more than the top four oil companies combined.
    These contributions give the unions clout, and federal lobbying records show they use this clout. Again, on closer inspection, the teachers unions look an awful lot like those corporate special interests Democrats supposedly oppose.

    And that's just money. The oil companies don't bus thousands of their employees to rallies for republican candidates, or get out the vote drives, or to canvas neigborhoods.

  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts

  • Options
    Those fuckin' teachers... sneakin' around teachin' kids shit and stuff. Pushin' the guvmint to overthrow Iranian guvmints and stuff. They really run everythin' behind the scenes, those libral bastids.

  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,169 Posts
    Saba -

    You were talking about power and influence, and busing people to rallies, and when you contextualize the place of unions and defense contractors in the modern day U.S., the fact that teachers unions are exerting more to lobby and influence politics could just reflect the fact that the Republicans seem to have major contempt for unions and protecting worker's rights. So maybe the teacher's unions just REALLY need to work hard to get the only party who still might care to listen to them. In other words, maybe it just reflects the fact that corporate interests don't have to beg so hard to get attention in the U.S.

    I'm not saying I'm right - and I definitely don't think that unions are without their own faults - but I don't totally buy your argument with those examples.

  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts
    Come on Ketan, stop acting like a big wuss.


  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    SportCasual said:

    From your same mystery source

    Top 10 Heavy Hitters:

    ActBlue $47,896,163
    AT&T Inc $46,024,320
    American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees $43,295,361
    National Assn of Realtors $38,628,241
    Goldman Sachs $33,264,702
    American Assn for Justice $32,939,279
    Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $32,927,766
    National Education Assn $31,832,740
    Laborers Union $30,061,550
    Service Employees International Union $29,114,982

  • ketanketan Warmly booming riffs 3,169 Posts
    Also, this:
    BobDesperado said:
    Those fuckin' teachers... sneakin' around teachin' kids shit and stuff. Pushin' the guvmint to overthrow Iranian guvmints and stuff. They really run everythin' behind the scenes, those libral bastids.

  • PATXPATX 2,820 Posts
    The National Association of Realtors! Those guys actually lobbied to get a double dip housing collapse?

    Anyway, we are getting off topic.... SOTU: how fucked are we?

  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    ketan said:
    Saba -

    You were talking about power and influence, and busing people to rallies, and when you contextualize the place of unions and defense contractors in the modern day U.S., the fact that teachers unions are exerting more to lobby and influence politics could just reflect the fact that the Republicans seem to have major contempt for unions and protecting worker's rights. So maybe the teacher's unions just REALLY need to work hard to get the only party who still might care to listen to them. In other words, maybe it just reflects the fact that corporate interests don't have to beg so hard to get attention in the U.S.

    I'm not saying I'm right - and I definitely don't think that unions are without their own faults - but I don't totally buy your argument with those examples.

    I'm sorry. Is this supposed to make any kind of sense? Is there an argument for either for or against the proposition that the teachers' unions have the same/less/more influence as oil companies hidden somewhere in that mess?

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    Lobbying should be illegal in all forms.

    It's nothing else than buying legislation and it's overall effect is to give money and advantage to groups that already have more than their share.

  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    SportCasual said:
    The National Association of Realtors! Those guys actually lobbied to get a double dip housing collapse?

    Anyway, we are getting off topic.... SOTU: how fucked are we?

    Its hard to tell if you're just trying to be sarcastic, or if you're just stupid.

    The housing bubble was a product of public policy, and that public policy was driven by an influential alliance of real-estate brokers and developers who helped inflate housing prices, and real-estate agents??? commissions, to nosebleed levels. But the real-estate lobby isn???t limited to the brick-and-shingle pushers and the guys in the gold blazers. Local governments are deeply reliant on property-tax revenue, especially for schools, while market-distorting tax breaks directed at rewarding homeownership are sacrosanct to the American middle class ??? and to tax-battling conservatives, too. The real-estate lobby???s immediate agenda: Reinflate the housing bubble.

  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    Horseleech said:
    Lobbying should be illegal in all forms.

    It's nothing else than buying legislation and it's overall effect is to give money and advantage to groups that already have more than their share.

    It's everyone's right as an American citizen to have access to their representative to make their voice heard. And free speech includes campaign contributions. Are you saying gay people shouldn't be able to lobby for gay rights? Or people with Aids or cancer for research money? Or people with neurological diseases for stemcell research? Why shouldn't a corporation have that same right. Corporations employee people and create wealth for sharehodlers and employees. Corporations pay taxes and regulatory fees that provide services. Why shouldn't they have a voice in the legislative process.

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    sabadabada said:
    Corporations pay taxes

    Most of them don't. The vast majority, in fact.

  • sabadabadasabadabada 5,966 Posts
    BobDesperado said:
    sabadabada said:
    Corporations pay taxes

    Most of them don't. The vast majority, in fact.

    Yeah. Well, you gotta turn a profit to pay taxes on it. And I would say, they pay taxes, they just don't pay them here - so you may be right about that. And thats a whole different problem.

  • RockadelicRockadelic Out Digging 13,993 Posts
    BobDesperado said:
    Those fuckin' teachers... sneakin' around teachin' kids shit and stuff. Pushin' the guvmint to overthrow Iranian guvmints and stuff. They really run everythin' behind the scenes, those libral bastids.

    Since I brought up Teacher's Unions I'll assume this was aimed at me.

    President Obama specifically targeted "bad" teachers and said we need to stop protecting them.....he obviously thinks this is a problem and I agree with him.

    So who on earth would protect the careers of "bad" teachers??

    Who were his comments directed towards if not the Teacher's Union(s)??

  • Options
    sabadabada said:
    BobDesperado said:
    sabadabada said:
    Corporations pay taxes

    Most of them don't. The vast majority, in fact.

    Yeah. Well, you gotta turn a profit to pay taxes on it. And I would say, they pay taxes, they just don't pay them here - so you may be right about that. And thats a whole different problem.

    There's also the question about what "turning a profit" means.

    But the fact remains that when you said "corporations pay taxes' you weren't accurate. As usual.

  • HorseleechHorseleech 3,830 Posts
    sabadabada said:
    Horseleech said:
    Lobbying should be illegal in all forms.

    It's nothing else than buying legislation and it's overall effect is to give money and advantage to groups that already have more than their share.

    It's everyone's right as an American citizen to have access to their representative to make their voice heard. And free speech includes campaign contributions. Are you saying gay people shouldn't be able to lobby for gay rights? Or people with Aids or cancer for research money? Or people with neurological diseases for stemcell research? Why shouldn't a corporation have that same right. Corporations employee people and create wealth for sharehodlers and employees. Corporations pay taxes and regulatory fees that provide services. Why shouldn't they have a voice in the legislative process.

    They already have a way to make their voices heard - it's called a vote.

    Our government already provides other avenues for peoples voices to be heard, and there are other ways to communicate with politicians other than throwing money at them and gaining access most citizens don't have.

    The net result is legislation (and politicians) for sale - do you really think that isn't the case?
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