Forgive me, internet, for I have blogged all over you.

H. L. Mencken once said something both witty and prophetic, if perhaps a little sardonic. He insisted that "As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

Yeah -- you can see where I'm going with this one.

The State of the Union was tonight. Now, I'll admit, I walked into it a few minutes late. That's what I get for taking a late-night class.

Nonetheless, I watched the livefeed on whitehouse.gov.

Am I the only one that sat in front of my computer flailing my hands and forearms and pounding my fists on the desk in complete frustration?


Did the bit about Americans being able to afford Health Insurance sound at all familiar to anyone else? 'Cause, I mean, we have some problems with Medicare and Medicaid, most of which involve a complete inability to fund them properly, so... why not just hand out tax cuts so people can afford private insurance!

Isn't this essentially how he proposed the government "fix" Social Security? Except, instead of life savings for retirement, it's now money for health care. It's the exact same thing.

Please tell me you see it too. Please.


And what's this crap about the No Child Left Behind Act not being a dismal failure? Most schools throughout the country classify as "failing". And that acheivement gap the president insists is closing? It really isn't. Most research says it's actually widening.

But wait! It gets better.

He goes on to list the core principles of No Child Left Behind, and, uh, this was one of them, incidentally:

We must provide timely information and real options – including intensive tutoring and choice for children in consistently underperforming schools – for all parents with children in failing schools so they can make the best decisions for their children.

Does anyone else see the reference to school vouchers? I mean, I dunno, maybe I've just heard the 'He wants to shut down the public school system' line one too many times, but nonetheless.


And could someone please explain this Ethanol thing to me? I mean, okay, yes, I understand that we shouldn't be dependent on the Middle East for oil -- if for no other reason than the fact that it looks bad when we fail at telling them what to do.

The point is, though, from an environmental standpoint anyway, if you have to burn something, you should burn the oil. Ethanol burns hotter and gives off more gases. We'll fuck up the atmosphere a lot faster with ethanol than we ever did with fossil fuels.


And I like the fact that Congress seemed to be seated along party lines, and you could tell. The right side of the room -- or, well, the side of the room on the right side of the screen -- was a lot quicker to give the President a standing ovation.

And then, when the President was shaking hands with the Vice President and the Speaker of the House? Did anyone else notice how he went to put his hand on the Speaker's arm, and she kinda snubbed him, and pulled away?

Now I'm curious as to what what said between them. I mean, that conversation was probably a lot more entertaining than the speech.