Summary
"America is addicted to oil," the former oilman announced. "Duh," replied everyone in the viewing audience. Luckily, [George W. Bush] has the cure: investing in "pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen" and "cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol." It's not that these aren't great ideas. They're just not new ideas. Every American president since Richard Nixon has called for energy independence and, after more than 30 years of promises and bold initiatives, the U.S. now imports more of its oil than ever. In 2005, Bush said basically the same thing - he vowed to fund green projects "from hydrogen-fueled cars to renewable sources such as ethanol." Meanwhile, ExxonMobil reported record profits for its last quarter.
Dubya continued to have difficulty with his math throughout the address - in addition, of course, to his usual problem pronouncing the world "nuclear." The president had what sounded like good news with regard to the nation's out-of-control budget deficit. "We will save $14 billion" in the budget recently proposed, he announced, putting him on track to cut "the deficit in half by 2009." The only problem: According to his own 2005 budget, the deficit is $521 billion. At a rate of $14 billion annually, it would take nearly 19 years, not three, to lop it in half. But who's counting? Certainly none of the news commentators I watched that night.The fibbing, however, was far from over. A central theme in this year's State of the Union speech was that Americans should be afraid. Very afraid. Though he didn't mention him by name, Bush twice evoked the specter of Osama bin Laden. He actually referred to world tyrants seeking weapons of mass destruction. Doesn't he remember what happened the last time we did that? In addition, he made sure we know we're supposed to fear the threat posed by radical Islam ("a perversion of a noble faith by a few"); that no good can come from Iran "defying the world with its nuclear ambitions"; and that the terrorists will have won if the Patriot Act is not reauthorized. ("We don't want to get caught by surprise again.")See the full content of this document
Extract
Curious George
If it had been Wednesday instead of Tuesday night, I might have thought I'd tuned into an episode of "Lost." Has a State of the Union broadcast ever been quite so surreal and bewildering as the one delivered last week by George W. Bush? These things are supposed to give Americans a sense of wellbeing. I don't know about you, but after glimpsing the inner workings of this guy's min...
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