- Good-hearted Simon: well, he's down with the dharma, but... uhh...
- Flashdance Kristin and her camera-trasking friend: denial springs eternal
- Peyton ("Over The Rainbow"): Why do people feel compelled to mangle old standbys?
- Speaking of which: Aladdin is spinning! (And that Donald Duck rendition of "A Whole New World" is my trick! :-D)
- Lauren Enswiler (minister's daughter): weeeeelll, nice... but nyeh, Yowie's better. :o)
- Terrance Gains (the happy-happy big-grinning soldier who just got back from Iraq): now, see, Martha should have come in like this! Earnest and eager, but no pretense. Two of three (Simon surprised him!)
- Fantasia: lively! She rocks.
- Heather (blonde Kim Caldwell clone who sang "Black Velvet"): good song, but Simon's right - "affected".
Next up: Guy divas from Houston. Yoikes. As
ldymlissa remarked: "Haven't they watched the show before? Don't they know what to expect?" They are like the trasked recruits from Special Forces tryouts, crying about not knowing what they were in for...Hey, that wasn't so bad.
And both Clay Aiken and Ryan Seacrest are from there!
Woot! (I was born there but only lived there to the age of 2. I've been back just once, in 1996.)
Edit, 21:30 CST:
anglachel1 was right, sometimes it's better to read a transcript than to watch the live version of the President's State of the Union address. "The killers will fail!" Such high rhetoric. Nukular, nukular, nukular.Sex and drugs
I remember watching two or three of Clinton's SOTU addresses, and there were enough pong3 chang3 (cheerleading) rising/standing ovations, but honestly, the accompanying cheers seemed just a little more sycophantic tonight. All I can say is, it is good that the worst of the fighting in Iraq is over, but the war
anglachel1 called "venial" isn't over. May the day come soon, for all that we do not expect it to. (If I may, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank mirabehn and mostlyacat for their efforts and good wishes on behalf of servicepeople and noncombatants alike.)God has created in every human heart the desire to live in freedom. And even when that desire is crushed by tyranny for decades, it will continue to rise again. Now, why does that get less of a testosterone-charged cheer than the killers will fail, I ask you? Ah, well. One hopes there is more than one speechwriter to credit.
I am slightly annozzled that the economic report in the SOTU was nearly relegated to this economy is strong, and growing stronger. Tufte and
stat_geeks might have a few things to say about the string of demographics President Bush then rattled off. Can someone tell me more about Bush's initiatives to counteract the marriage penalty and estate taxes? I hear these lauded by fiscal conservatives, but I am not yet clear on the rationale.I suppose I should be impressed that Bush pronounced "biotechnology" correctly, but still, the remarks on continuing education and IT struck me as unusually cliche. Disclaimer: I have read but little on the "No Child Left Behind" (policy, initiative, and programs) and the new "Jobs for the 21st Century" initiative.
International trade: That was... quick.
Social Security and IRAs for yuppies: Was it just me, or was that something of a non-sequitur?
Opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants: Hrm, boy, he made that sound good, but I'm going to have to say no. Heavy on the conservativism and light on the compassion here, as I see it.
Cutting the deficit: I'd like to read statistics on what SOTU addresses in recent history have not mentioned this.
Prison reforms: Lukewarm, IMHO.
The rest of the SOTU address went back and revisited rhetoric on the momentum of freedom, etc.
For all that Bush turned a surely well-meaning letter from a little girl (Ashley Pearson) into a propaganda piece, I think it is important for us Americans to thank our servicepeople. Yes, they are just doing their jobs, but more is asked of them in the daily run of their jobs.
As the commentators remarked, this address was unadorned by earth-shattering initiatives or particularly memorable rhetoric.
This time, I remembered to watch the rebuttal by the opposition leaders - House Minority Leader, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D) and the Senate Minority Leader, Sen. Tom Daschle (D). I'll write more about these later. What did you think of these?
The board is set. The pieces are moving...
--
Banazîr
