My Political Post of the Year

I don’t watch the State of the Union address. Why would I waste an hour (or more) of my time watching it when I can just go online the next day and read the transcript in about 10 minutes? Granted, I miss the mispronunciations and the awful Texan accent that undoubtedly plagues the presentation of the speech, but I consider that to be a benefit. I also get to miss all the unnecessary clapping and shouts of (dis)approval.

So anyway, that’s what I did this morning. I’m generally a non-political person. I don’t really care enough to make a big deal out of most things. I only vote in presidential elections (with an exception made for the recent one that had the “gay marriage” referendum.) That said, here are my impressions:

There were some things that made me roll my eyes. There were others that made me wonder if Dubya has taken up the weed again. Overall, it wasn’t as preposterous as some of his others have been, but I was generally unimpressed.

I was slightly surprised that there was no mention of Saddam at all. I would think he’d want to use that as an example of his success. Maybe I’m wrong.

I was miffed by how he said he wants to balance the budget and eliminate the deficit and then he launched into numerous things he wants to increase spending on. Where are the cuts going to be made in order for this screwball plan to work since heaven forbid he raise taxes? I can guarantee you it won’t be on defense.

I was intrigued by his proposal for a new tax deduction for people with health insurance. Although I thought he was for simplifying the tax code, apparently it’s ok to make it more convoluted if it makes you look good?

I was generally uninterested in most of the rest of the speech. Energy, terrorism, war, it’s always the same thing year after year. Although I did laugh when he mentioned that he wanted Congress to approve a massive increase in the number of people in the Army and Marines. Aren’t they already having problems meeting their enlistment goals? What difference will it make if Congress allows more if they can’t get people to agree to enlist? Will they resort to bringing back the draft? *shudder*

Anyway, thus ends my one political post for the year. Although with all the presidential hoopla going on I might have to make an exception about that later on.