The Real State of the Union

“This week the Republican Party hopes to escape its immediate past. . . .They hope that the party's corruption scandal will be forgotten and that the names Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff will become as unmentionable in their world as Lord Voldemort's is in Harry Potter's. . . . The words from last year he [President Bush] wants to wipe out of the political lexicon include ‘Brownie,’ ‘Katrina,’ ‘heck of a job’ and ‘Social Security privatization.
But there is an uncomfortable bit of business left over from the Republican disaster year of 2005 that will test the seriousness of the party's supposed commitment to change. The cut-the-poor, help-the-big-interests federal budget passed last year needs final ratification in the House. The vote could take place as soon as tomorrow.
Let's be clear: Anyone who votes for this fiscal mess will be standing for the bad old ways of doing business in Washington. Those who do so will have no claim to being ‘reformers.’”
Excerpt from Where's the Budget Outrage? Op-Ed In The Washington Post By E. J. Dionne Jr.

Not to be cynical, but I tend to agree with Code Pink’s The People's State of the Union: “This year, both Groundhog Day and the State of the Union Address fell on the same day. As Air America Radio pointed out, 'It is an ironic juxtaposition: one involves a meaningless ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for prognostication, and the other involves a groundhog.'”

See, Don't confuse me with the facts. and

* Four years after 9/11, Osama Bin Laden remains on the loose and Al Qaeda remains a potent force among millions of Muslims
* The threat of terrorism has actually increased, largely as a result of the unnecessary invasion of Iraq
* In the process of our struggle against insurgents and terrorists, we are in danger of losing the very principles we are fighting for as revelations of torture undercut America's moral strength and leadership
* More than 45 million Americans lack access to health insurance
* Despite over thirty years of warning, this nation still has no policy to lead us to energy independence
* The emergence of what appears to be a culture of corruption reaching from lobbyists, through the Republican leadership in Congress, and into the White House itself

The policies followed by your Administration since 9/11 -- the belligerent tone, the unilateralism, and the excessive reliance on military force -- are not making us safer; they are increasing the dangers we face abroad and distracting us from the most important challenges here at home.