State of the Union Speech Expectations

Last Wednesday I was driving home from work and I turned on the radio to catch the evening news in 30 second sound bites. The reporter says that in his next State of the Union George Bush will focus on the economy especially making tax cuts for the rich permanent and privatizing Social Security.

And I’m thinking, here’s a guy who out right lied to America about the imminent threat Iraq posed to our safety and security so of course he’s not going to focus on the reality of failure in Iraq but does he really think he can fool the people all of the time. Perhaps that’s a new role of the Fourth Estate, to convince the people once again to follow someone on a fool’s errand. Who knows?

Two days later the stock market drops by 200 plus, a barrel of oil approaches the 70 dollar mark, the auto industry is expected to announce huge lay offs on Monday, the Bush Medicare plan remains a mess, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg rising before this ships obscurant captain.

Not to worry – Bush’s brain is back in action to add that special spin to the fantasy that we’re not broke because we’re financing an illegal war abroad by cutting social programs and taxes for the rich at home.

After all we are at war, a war against terrorism, a perpetual war that requires fear in order to be waged. To that end the State of the Union address will no doubt mention Iran’s nuclear capacity and by implication it’s threat to “our way of life” repeating the rhetoric of freedom to conceal that in reality “our way of life” is one of gas guzzling and excessive oil product consuming.

In the area of foreign policy the press has already prepped the public by demonizing Iran and recently trumping it with reporting that Israel will not accept a nuclear Iran. No one should be surprised by the death and destruction that will soon be visited upon Iran nor should anyone be surprised by the violent response that will follow.

Should anyone dare ask why is it that the United States and Israel among a few other nations can possess nuclear weapons while others cannot George Bush will mention god a few times in his speech and conclude with “god bless America” just to let us know that the answer is because god is on our side.

The Republicans on both sides of the aisle will robotically stand and enthusiastically applaud on cue while those in the appeasement party will not. The talking heads will tell you what you heard but not one will dare speak truth to power because “our way of life” now considers dissent to be treason.

These are my expectations of the next State of the Union speech to be made by a President who should be impeached for his abuse of power to date, his disregard for the rule of law, his contempt for democracy, and his gross negligence and incompetence as both President and Commander-in-Chief.