Althouse: The State of the Union.

January 28, 2014

The State of the Union.

Feel free to talk about it here. I'm probably too tired to write anything until tomorrow, but, frankly, even if I weren't tired, I'd find this tiresome.

97 comments:

Anonymous said...: I'm afraid I thought the three-toed sloth was much more interesting.; 1/28/14, 8:04 PM
traditionalguy said...: It's like attending your own funeral.; 1/28/14, 8:05 PM
Anonymous said...: The only fun part of the state of the union is after someone clips together all the things he has said in other state of the unions that were identical. Funny.; 1/28/14, 8:06 PM
George M. Spencer said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/28/14, 8:08 PM
George M. Spencer said...: The calm. The storm.; 1/28/14, 8:09 PM
Deirdre Mundy said...: Stephen Green is the only SOTU I need!; 1/28/14, 8:09 PM
Hagar said...: Or when they show clips of what he said before he was elected juxtaposed with what he is saying now.; 1/28/14, 8:09 PM
etbass said...: Is there anything on TV tonight?; 1/28/14, 8:10 PM
Joe said...: I refuse to watch any State of the Union addresses. It's boring blabbering with one side applauding everyone few seconds over idiotic zingers and false promises. In the end it isn't a "State of the Union" at all, just a jerk circle with the president and roughly half of congress.; 1/28/14, 8:12 PM
Matt Sablan said...: 15 minutes late to start, not bad!; 1/28/14, 8:16 PM
Sorun said...: And I suppose that grinning buffoon Biden will be sitting right behind him. I wish Olympic curling was on.; 1/28/14, 8:18 PM
Matt Sablan said...: ... But, uh, it wasn't "we" that did that. All those options -- shutdown, threatening credit -- were solely the executive branch pitching a fit.; 1/28/14, 8:20 PM
paminwi said...: Thank goodness for "on demand" TV.; 1/28/14, 8:22 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Matthew Sablan said...
... But, uh, it wasn't "we" that did that. All those options -- shutdown, threatening credit -- were solely the executive branch pitching a fit.

Sure it was, and that's why the American public have such a favorable view of the Republican party.; 1/28/14, 8:30 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats to do a better job handling the economy 44 percent to 37 percent.; 1/28/14, 8:32 PM
Michael said...: I am reminded of Robert Lewis Stevenson's remark that we are all, young and old, on our final voyage.; 1/28/14, 8:37 PM
MadisonMan said...: It's like attending your own funeral.

Doesn't everyone?; 1/28/14, 8:38 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Republican Party Favorability Sinks to Record Low; 1/28/14, 8:39 PM
Bob Ellison said...: I like Olympic curling. Really. It's great fun to watch.; 1/28/14, 8:39 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Oct. 9, 2013, vs. today.

Chronology, how does it work?; 1/28/14, 8:39 PM
Seeing Red said...: Just read Stephen Green.; 1/28/14, 8:40 PM
n.n said...: State of the Onion... Peel away the layers.; 1/28/14, 8:41 PM
Matt Sablan said...: "Everyone should have the opportunities I had." -- Takes away scholarship opportunities to charter schools from poor children in D.C.

It's... awkward to compare what is said to what is done.; 1/28/14, 8:47 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Matthew Sablan said...
Chronology, how does it work?

I thought you would never ask. Lawyers are never good at simple physics.

Repubs threaten to shut down gov then, their approval tanks.

Any more questions?; 1/28/14, 8:47 PM
Paco Wové said...: "Any more questions?"

Yes. Did you intentionally misread M.S.'s comment, or was it accidental?; 1/28/14, 8:51 PM
Seeing Red said...: Pffft he's got the pen; 1/28/14, 8:51 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Will Obama give the women on his staff a raise to equalize their payment? It's questions like these that would help me understand what he means by "give America a raise."; 1/28/14, 8:52 PM
rhhardin said...: The dumbest sacks of crap in the world gathered in one place, John and Ken commentary.; 1/28/14, 8:52 PM
Matt Sablan said...: ... How would you protect people from housing costs plummeting? Realistically, how?; 1/28/14, 8:53 PM
Matt said...: Hey, ARM, all Obama had to do to avoid the shutdown was agree to postpone the individual mandate by a year. Considering what a clusterfuck Obamacare has been, why didn't he take the offer? He could have appeared bipartisan and compromising! He could have avoided the website failure and all of the people losing their insurance. Sure, the insurance companies could have said, "It's too late for us to switch things now!" and Obama could have said, "Well, if only the republicans hadn't forced me to compromise..."

Cruz gave Obama the ultimate out from Obama's own failure. And he rejected it. Why? He had no clue his signature policy was going to flop? He so hates Republicans he can't even compromise when it is in his own best interest? Both? In either case, it reflects really poorly on the President's competence and character.; 1/28/14, 8:54 PM
roger said...: I thought we were still talking about sloth shit..........; 1/28/14, 8:55 PM
Seeing Red said...: And we're fu ked.; 1/28/14, 8:55 PM
Matt said...: Paco Wové said...
"Any more questions?"

Yes. Did you intentionally misread M.S.'s comment, or was it accidental?

1/28/14, 8:51 PM

He's being an ingaramous.; 1/28/14, 8:57 PM
Seeing Red said...: He's coming after our IRAs.; 1/28/14, 8:57 PM
Matt Sablan said...: So, wait -- now we're NOT supposed to change laws that we disagree with?; 1/28/14, 8:57 PM
Matt Sablan said...: For, not what we're against -- Obama's team failed him if he is completely unaware of the multiple Republican plans put forward. His entire research team needs to be fired, because he looks like an idiot for saying that.; 1/28/14, 8:58 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Matt said...
all Obama had to do to avoid the shutdown was agree to postpone the individual mandate by a year. Considering what a clusterfuck Obamacare has been, why didn't he take the offer?

Shame how that Obamacare is failing meme didn't wok out for you guys. Now the Repubs are talking about improving, modifying, adopting, ... just giving up on the whole repeal thing.; 1/28/14, 9:00 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Not the size of our bank accounts is really hypocritical from the guy who decided that we would no longer use public campaign financing.; 1/28/14, 9:00 PM
Unknown said...: As a contrast to the vaporings of Emperor Ai Won, here is a paragraph from Thomas Jefferson's first message:

"Among those who are dependent on Executive discretion I have begun the reduction of what was deemed unnecessary. The expenses of diplomatic agency have been considerably diminished. The inspectors of internal revenue who were found to obstruct the accountability of the institution have been discontinued. Several agencies created by Executive authorities, on salaries fixed by that also, have been suppressed, and should suggest the expediency of regulating that power by law, so as to subject its exercises to legislative inspection and sanction."

Read the rest of it here.

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29443

Mull over what we've lost.; 1/28/14, 9:01 PM
Curious George said...: Fucking grifter.; 1/28/14, 9:01 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Paco Wové said...
Did you intentionally misread M.S.'s comment

It was a stupid comment. But I'm here to help sophistic lawyers in their struggles with causality. All in a spirit of bi-partisanship.; 1/28/14, 9:03 PM
Seeing Red said...: I wonder if they'll mandate purchasing treasuries?; 1/28/14, 9:03 PM
Seeing Red said...: Turn most into renters?; 1/28/14, 9:03 PM
Paco Wové said...: So you were just being an asshole, then. Just wanted to keep that straight.; 1/28/14, 9:04 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Matthew Sablan said...
Not the size of our bank accounts is really hypocritical from the guy who decided that we would no longer use public campaign financing.

Warning Warning *** Non Sequitur Alert *** Warning Warning; 1/28/14, 9:04 PM
Matt said...: ARM, what "you guys" group are you lumping me in with? I treat you as an individual, you should do likewise.

What good would insisting on repeal be? Obama isn't going to sign it and they can't override a veto. They are trying to help as much they can within the limitations the President has imposed.

Now, why don't you respond to what I actually wrote before instead of trying to veer the conversation in another direction? Or is your ignoring the substance I wrote tacit acknowledgement that I hit the nail on the head? If you are so reasonable, then be reasonable.; 1/28/14, 9:06 PM
Matt Sablan said...: How so? It follows. The president says that we should be wary of those who would try and buy office.

The president did not act on that stated belief.

Therefore, why are his actions not congruent with his stated beliefs?

It's a perfectly logical thing.; 1/28/14, 9:08 PM
AReasonableMan said...: Paco Wové said...
So you were just being an asshole, then. Just wanted to keep that straight.

Calling someone an asshole on the internet seems kind of an asshole thing to do. I come in peace. Doing my best to help the logic and time line challenged lawyer community.; 1/28/14, 9:08 PM
RecChief said...: blahblah blah...with or without Congress...blah blah blah.....inequality.....blah blah blah...; 1/28/14, 9:15 PM
Seeing Red said...: The world is turning to the Chicoms, not us.; 1/28/14, 9:15 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: He's going to close Gitmo and pivot to jobs! Egads! The man is a visionary! What an utter clown.; 1/28/14, 9:21 PM
David said...: I did not watch.

Did the trained seals in the audience bark and clap as ordered?

This is your congresscritter's brain!

This is your congress critter's brain ON TELEVISION!

Bark! Clap. (Barf!); 1/28/14, 9:21 PM
RecChief said...: "everyone should have the opportunities I had"

So my kids can register at college as foreign students for the financial aid? hahaha

I'm sure it is a photoshop but there is a "picture" of Obama's Columbia student ID that is hilarious; 1/28/14, 9:22 PM
alan markus said...: ARetardedMan link dated 10/9/13 "Republican Favorability Sinks to New Low"

Today's polls: 2014 Generic Congressional Vote - Republicans Up

Gee, which is closer to November 2014? October 2013 or January 2014?; 1/28/14, 9:26 PM
Seeing Red said...: To be raised outside of America or be raised by white grandparents?; 1/28/14, 9:32 PM
Titus said...: The token pube women is going to be nursing her kid during her rebuttal to the commie president.

The war on women will be put to rest after America sees the pube woman milking.

And Matthew Sabian your face is smug and butt ugly....get rid of the pic fatty.

tits with major milk saks.; 1/28/14, 9:32 PM
Seeing Red said...: To go to exclusive schools?; 1/28/14, 9:33 PM
Titus said...: Cathy McMorris has huge milky tits.

Those things were totally leaking during her speech.

I got hungry watching her speak....milky milky tits.

And.

We all want to fuck her right?; 1/28/14, 9:34 PM
Seeing Red said...: I c a war on wimmin in your post Titus.; 1/28/14, 9:35 PM
SteveR said...: Comment on Stephen Greens blog:

Praising the First Lady...wake me up if starts talking about the blond from the funeral selfie.; 1/28/14, 9:39 PM
Anonymous said...: Great job Mrs.Rogers, stark contrast to that dumbbell Palin and that loon Bachman. Nice voice, pleasant appearance, sounds sincere.; 1/28/14, 9:42 PM
Kelly said...: There was one part where it sounded like he said we need term limits on the use of drones. I thought that makes no sense, so I rewound it twice and now I think he said 'prune limits' on the use of drones. Which still makes no sense. I need to look at the transcript because his teleprompter must have stuttered through that line.; 1/28/14, 9:44 PM
Seeing Red said...: Wait he actually said work hard and take responsibility? The guy who knows what's going on cos he finds out from the news?; 1/28/14, 9:44 PM
RecChief said...: Congress applauds Obama's vow to bypass congress; 1/28/14, 9:45 PM
Meade said...: Three more long years. We now have a lame turducken president.; 1/28/14, 9:46 PM
Titus said...: Cathy Roger loves God big time. It's all about God, he will lead. She kept her tard kid which is major orgasm material for male pubes.

No fucking policy content.

The new Sarah Palin.

Good luck with that.

huge milky roger tits feeding tard.; 1/28/14, 9:46 PM
traditionalguy said...: Lots of smoke and mirrors about Presidential Orders fixing everything, but that will only work on the EPA orders about CO2 Pollutant gas.

That is the last element needed to destroy the USA.; 1/28/14, 9:47 PM
David said...: Ok, so I read the speech.

It's Seinfeld.

A speech about nothing.; 1/28/14, 9:47 PM
AReasonableMan said...: traditionalguy said...
That is the last element needed to destroy the USA.

At last Boris, our evil plan has reached fruition.; 1/28/14, 9:56 PM
Dr Weevil said...: "We now have a lame turducken president." (Meade) I would like to agree, but where's the "ucken"?; 1/28/14, 10:00 PM
Seeing Red said...: I thought SS was guaranteed retirement income? But they spent that....; 1/28/14, 10:01 PM
traditionalguy said...: Jake Tapper on CNN interviewed Ted Cruz and let Cruz present a near perfect GOP response for 10 minutes without a serious filibuster. Tapper is in real trouble.

Cruz is brilliant.

And Inga has a valid point about style being substance on TV. She is very intelligent too.; 1/28/14, 10:04 PM
30yearProf said...: "The president, on these matters, cannot bypass Congress. Nor is legislative inaction due to different views in the House and Senate a bug – it is a feature designed to promote deliberation and limit government action."

Basic Con Law course, first week.; 1/28/14, 10:06 PM
RecChief said...: "Basic Con Law course, first week."

Actually, I remember when that was a High School Junior year Government and Civics lesson. First Week.; 1/28/14, 10:11 PM
Sorun said...: "We now have a lame turducken president."

A chicken stuffed into a duck stuffed into a turkey. My confidence in President NumbNuts has not increased this evening.; 1/28/14, 10:11 PM
Cliff said...: The republican response was good. Sincere and goven very well. I see a future for her in republican leadership. The heavy christian rhetoric in the official GOP response probably won't attact any new supporters but it will energize the base of the party.; 1/28/14, 10:29 PM
glenn said...: I'd rather watch a good movie so I did.; 1/28/14, 11:44 PM
a psychiatrist who learned from veterans said...: I missed it, didn't want to hurt my hands clapping.; 1/29/14, 12:01 AM
Mike Hunt said...: John Boner looked like a cartoon.; 1/29/14, 12:02 AM
Cliff said...: After reading various responses and media "analysis" I think I underestimated the Christian angle in the midterm gop election strategy. An interesting political calculation; like taking your goalie out.; 1/29/14, 12:29 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: "With or without congress, I am prepared to carry out a set of modest initiatives that even Canadians would support!"
Okay, I am paraphrasing.; 1/29/14, 12:49 AM
Anonymous said...: i'm watching Season 2 of 'Justified' on Netflix, but thanks for asking.; 1/29/14, 2:04 AM
Renee said...: The recent article from Jezebel, puts Titus' behavior in different view. Being gay doesn't give you a pass on your misogynistic rants as a man.; 1/29/14, 2:05 AM
Renee said...: "Perhaps that single fact is why so many gay men act out–and against women in many cases–is because they can get away with it. Mainstream culture has sanctioned gay misogyny against women as winky, as part of the package of characteristics that "gay people just have." For the uncreative amongst us, misogyny may be a desperate way of reasserting those elusive advantages of manhood."

http://jezebel.com/the-myth-of-the-fag-hag-and-dirty-secrets-of-the-gay-ma-1506868402; 1/29/14, 2:15 AM
C_Oliver said...: Thomas Jefferson is missed indeed.

Thomas Jefferson -- "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." -- would treat you clowns with the contempt you deserve.; 1/29/14, 4:42 AM
Rusty said...: Blogger Renee said...
"Perhaps that single fact is why so many gay men act out–and against women in many cases–is because they can get away with it

They're getting back at their controlling, bitchy mothers.; 1/29/14, 5:16 AM
Humperdink said...: It used to be "a rising tide lifts all boats" (from an economic standpoint). Last night it was "let's sink the large boats, and the sinking ballast will lift the row boats".

Well, the large boats will take their resources and flee.; 1/29/14, 5:30 AM
Rusty said...: From the Nation.
I had to laugh.

The annual State of the Union pageant is a hideous, dispiriting, ugly, monotonous, un-American, un-republican, anti-democratic, dreary, backward, monarchical, retch-inducing, depressing, shameful, crypto-imperial display of official self-aggrandizement and piteous toadying, a black Mass during which every unholy order of teacup totalitarian and cringing courtier gathers under the towering dome of a faux-Roman temple to listen to a speech with no content given by a man with no content, to rise and to be seated as is called for by the order of worship — it is a wonder they have not started genuflecting — with one wretched representative of their number squirreled away in some well-upholstered Washington hidey-hole in order to preserve the illusion that those gathered constitute a special class of humanity without whom we could not live.; 1/29/14, 5:45 AM
Mark said...: Love how Rep. Grimm lived up to his name.

Once again, a bully Republican. Of course Nice watching your tone.

Sorta like the tweet about 'waiting for the commandant in chief' from a Texas Republican pre speech.

I guess having a woman pray on TV I supposed to make us all forget that.; 1/29/14, 6:37 AM
Renee said...: @Rusty

I know gay men, that do not act this way. But then again we do not have a hag-f-g relationship or maybe it is because it was a family or professional setting. I don't talk in a dehumanizing way when I'm just with my female friends or in mixed company.

Maybe gay men should step up and demand to stop being the "pretty plays one", and if we are truly to have acceptance gay men and straight men can find more common ground, preferably not misogynistic in any manner.; 1/29/14, 6:54 AM
JoyD said...: Did you hear his cadences?? His pauses didn't match up with his SCRIPT. He was on autopilot...he was getting this over with, and it showed. It also showed his contempt for Congress and his detachment from the people.

I voted for him - something brave to admit in this forum, right? I believe the world is changing fast, and we had better get out ahead of some of the coming potential problems - and I thought he was the one (vs McCain) who understood that.

I wanted to hear him say more about health care, but I may have dozed at that part. ..
If he didn't show up, why did I?; 1/29/14, 7:01 AM
Crimso said...: "Doesn't everyone?"

No:

"The church bell chimed 'til it rang 29 times for each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald"; 1/29/14, 7:03 AM
Paul said...: I cannot bear to listen to the man's voice or look at his stupid face so there's no way I'd watch the SOTU, but I just saw a headline on Drudge, "Obama Calls on Federal Government to 'Give America a Raise'".

Unbelievable.; 1/29/14, 7:18 AM
Humperdink said...: Mark said: "Love how Rep. Grimm lived up to his name.

Once again, a bully Republican. Of course Nice watching your tone."

Check out some of Rep Moran's (D-Lifetime Bully) threatening behavior.

Shallow comment.; 1/29/14, 7:22 AM
Stick said...: "My RA?" The takeover of private investments starts.; 1/29/14, 8:03 AM
MadisonMan said...: I voted for him

Same, the first time.

I wasn't fooled twice, although I was tricked into giving them my email when he came to Madison (the first time).

I always hope for the best when I vote. I'm usually disappointed.; 1/29/14, 9:44 AM
Known Unknown said...: John Boner looked like a cartoon.

John Boner is a cartoon. An crying, orange cartoon.; 1/29/14, 9:05 PM