All you need to see from the #SOTU

BURN!

Full text of 2013 State of the Union Address

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT

IN THE STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS

U.S. Capitol

Washington, D.C.

 

9:15 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens:

Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy declared to this chamber that “the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress.” (Applause.) “It is my task,” he said, “to report the State of the Union -- to improve it is the task of us all.”

Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. (Applause.) After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in 20. (Applause.) Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before. (Applause.)

So, together, we have cleared away the rubble of crisis, and we can say with renewed confidence that the State of our Union is stronger. (Applause.)

But we gather here knowing that there are millions of Americans whose hard work and dedication have not yet been rewarded. Our economy is adding jobs -- but too many people still can’t find full-time employment. Corporate profits have skyrocketed to all-time highs -- but for more than a decade, wages and incomes have barely budged.

It is our generation’s task, then, to reignite the true engine of America’s economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle class. (Applause.)

It is our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country -- the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead, no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, or who you love.

It is our unfinished task to make sure that this government works on behalf of the many, and not just the few; that it encourages free enterprise, rewards individual initiative, and opens the doors of opportunity to every child across this great nation. (Applause.)

The American people don’t expect government to solve every problem. They don’t expect those of us in this chamber to agree on every issue. But they do expect us to put the nation’s interests before party. (Applause.) They do expect us to forge reasonable compromise where we can. For they know that America moves forward only when we do so together, and that the responsibility of improving this union remains the task of us all.

The State of Rubio is Thirsty (Watergate 2.0)

Via http://gif.mocksession.com/2013/02/rubio-is-thirsty/

  

State of the Union Watch Party

Looking for a place to watch tonight's State of the Union Address among like-minded, passionate, Pittsburgh progressives? Here's the party for you:

People for Peduto State of the Union Watch Party
When: Tuesday, February 12, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00 PM for Phone Banking, 8:30 PM for Watch Party
Where: 200 North Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 (map)

And, if your so minded, show up early to phone bank for Peduto for Mayor.

Full Text of President Obama's State of the Union Address

Remarks of President Barack Obama – As Prepared for Delivery
State of the Union Address
“An America Built to Last”
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Washington, DC

As Prepared for Delivery –

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:

Last month, I went to Andrews Air Force Base and welcomed home some of our last troops to serve in Iraq. Together, we offered a final, proud salute to the colors under which more than a million of our fellow citizens fought – and several thousand gave their lives.

We gather tonight knowing that this generation of heroes has made the United States safer and more respected around the world. For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda’s top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban’s momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home.

These achievements are a testament to the courage, selflessness, and teamwork of America’s Armed Forces. At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations. They’re not consumed with personal ambition. They don’t obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together.

Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example. Think about the America within our reach: A country that leads the world in educating its people. An America that attracts a new generation of high-tech manufacturing and high-paying jobs. A future where we’re in control of our own energy, and our security and prosperity aren’t so tied to unstable parts of the world. An economy built to last, where hard work pays off, and responsibility is rewarded.

WTF, Sarah Palin?

It's one thing for bloggers to joke that the acronym for Obama's "Win the Future" is "WTF," it's quite another for a presumed presidential candidate to go on and on with the "WTF" references. But that's exactly what Sarah Palin did in an interview with Greta Van Susteren on Fox News:


She didn't stop there. She also claimed in reference to Obama's calling for a "Sputnik moment" that, "He needs to remember that, uh, what happened back then with the communist U.S.S.R. and their victory in that race to space. Yeah, they won but they also incurred so much debt at the time that it resulted in the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union."

Um, no.

Sputnik did not break the Soviet's back.

Talking Points Memo points out the following:

While the Soviet Union did eventually collapse, that wasn't until 1991 -- a full 22 years after the U.S. put a man on the moon, and the collapse came amid stagnant economic growth after years of unsustainable Soviet defense spending of which its space program was a relatively small part.

I will point out that a big part of that defense spending was their own war in Afghanistan -- a comparison that Palin would never make (even if she knew it).
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Watch the SOTU Address with fellow progressives!

(Click to enlarge)
PA State Senator Jim Ferlo (D-Highland Park) is teaming up with the Pittsburgh Chapters of Veterans for Peace and Code Pink and the Western Pennsylvania Coalition for Single-Payer Healthcare- H.R. 676, to host "Conversation Cafés" during the 2011 State of the Union Address.

Date and Time:
Tuesday, January 25, 2010
Conversation begins at 8:00 pm, State of the Union Address begins at 9:00 pm

Locations:
- Enrico's Tazza D'Oro, 1125 N. Highland Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15206 (Highland Park)
- Tin Front Café, 216 East 8th Street, Homestead, PA 15120
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The Trib Lies - About Lying

From today's Op-Ed page:

The first casualty of political rhetoric always is the truth.

Witness President Barack Obama's contention in last week's State of the Union Address that the recent Supreme Court ruling on campaign finance -- allowing corporations and unions to underwrite political ads -- "reversed a century of law."

And that it "opened the floodgates ... (for) foreign companies to spend without limit in our elections."

But the ruling did no such thing. And, worse, the error was so blatant that it cannot be dismissed as some kind of "inadvertent mischaracterization" spoken off the cuff; it was part of the president's prepared text. [emphasis in original]

Two things to note here. The first is the use of quotation marks and second is the italicized text.

Let's start with the quoted material (that's the stuff in the quotation marks). Is that actually from the President's prepared text?

Um, not quite. Here's the section from the State of the Union addresss:

With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests –- including foreign corporations –- to spend without limit in our elections. (Applause.) I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities. (Applause.) They should be decided by the American people. And I'd urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to correct some of these problems.

I note two changes here from the original to the braintrusts' criticisms. First is the verb tense. It's shifted from the future "will open" to the past "opened."

But that's not what the Trib went with. By shifting it to the past tense they change what the President said. That, in turn, changes the entire meaning of the criticism - and it also points to The Trib's Big Lie. The President is obviously making a prediction here and was not describing what's already happened (he even attached an "I believe" to the "will").

The second thing is that what they said was in the president's text wasn't in the president's text.

By putting words into the President's mouth, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review was lying.

So where did this all come from?

They were quoting this blog post by Shannen Coffin which then leads to this post by Bradley Smith (who also gets the verb tense wrong):

Tonight the president engaged in demogoguery of the worst kind, when he claimed that last week's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United v. FEC, "open[ed] the floodgates for special interests — including foreign corporations — to spend without limit in our elections. Well I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests, or worse, by foreign entities."

It's interesting to note, of course, that while Obama was talking about "special interests" and placing "foreign governments" within that larger group, the reaction has been only about "foreign governments."

Presumably that means the NRO bloggers and the Trib editorial writers are OK with special interests buying our elections.

Interesting way to hide that, huh?

One thing Richard Mellon Scaife's braintrust did get right - the first sentence of the editorial:

The first casualty of political rhetoric always is the truth.

Though I don't think they know that they mean themselves.

Email from White House Media Affairs Office (Updated 1x - FULL TEXT)

UPDATE: OK, their later email with the full text was fine. You can view it here.

________________________________________________________________

I got home to find an email from the White House Media Affairs Office that was supposed to contain "EXCERPTS OF THE PRESIDENT’S STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS" but instead has lines and lines of meaningless (to me) code.

HuffPo seems to have received a good copy (see here).
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SOTU: Some Reactions

I'll first start locally, with my member of Congress, Mike Doyle (PA-14):

In my view, the most significant feature of the President’s State of the Union speech tonight is that it was the last one of his Presidency. President Bush’s two terms have not been good for our country in many ways, and the fact that this address signals the one year countdown to the end of his term is more important than anything the President said in his speech tonight.

And from Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid:

We agree with the President that we must work together to make progress on our most pressing challenges. Yet, tonight, the President offered little more than the status quo. At a time when our economy is on shaky ground and our leadership around the world is eroding, the status quo won’t do.

The President repeatedly asked Congress tonight to trust the American people to create their own opportunities. But just as we must trust the American people, they must be able to share the same confidence in their leaders – and only bold action will re-establish Americans’ faith in their government. They must be able to trust that their President will work to change course in Iraq so we can more effectively fight terrorism around the world and rebuild our mighty military.

They must be able to trust that their leaders will govern with ideas rather than ideology so that every American has the opportunity to pursue a sound education, earn a fair wage, and afford a decent home. And they must be able to trust that we will lead the way for change by reducing our dependence on oil and the rising costs of health care.

We hope that the bipartisanship on the economic stimulus package that has marked the start of this new year is a sign of things to come. But the President must do much more than simply give speeches that promise progress and commit to cooperation – he must work with Congress to make it happen.

If the President holds fast to the commitment he made to bipartisanship tonight, we can make great progress for the American people this year.

House Minority Leader John Boehner:

Tonight, the President called on Congress to act quickly on a number of key priorities, and Republicans stand ready to work together with the Majority when it’s in the best interest of the country. In fact, we can start tomorrow by permanently closing the terrorist loophole in our nation’s surveillance laws and passing an economic growth plan without tax hikes and unrelated spending increases. And in the months to come, we also should work together to craft a long-term economic growth package, pass critical trade agreements, and support our troops as they continue to achieve remarkable progress in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

House Republicans support the pledge President Bush made tonight to veto bills that do not significantly slash earmarks and provide appropriate transparency in spending. In fact, we believe that we should go even further, which is why we wrote to House Democrats last Friday and asked them to join us in supporting an immediate moratorium on all earmarks.

Washington is broken, and until we tackle wasteful earmarks, it will never be fixed. A moratorium would help restore trust between the American people and their leaders in Washington. The ball is now squarely in the Majority’s court. I hope to hear from the Speaker soon, so we can take an important first step toward reforming the way Washington spends taxpayer money.

Now, on those earmarks. Here's Senator Robert Byrd:

President Bush today said that earmarks have tripled in number over the last decade, but he forgot to tell the public that he signed those earmarks into law. President Bush also neglected to mention that the tripling in earmarks occurred under a Republican Congress.

Is this true? Turns out the answer is yes. And you know who said so? Senator John McCain!From the Washington Post:

McCain also said that "if we don't stop the earmarking, we're not going to stop the abuses of power here in Washington." He suggested that his own party was largely responsible.

"In 1994, when the Congress was taken over by Republicans, there were 4,000 earmarks on appropriations bills," he told the committee. "Last year there were 15,000. It's disgraceful, this process."

McCain said he was especially bothered that at the end of the last congressional session, various extraneous appropriations were "larded onto the money that was supposed to be devoted to the men and women in the military and their ability to conduct the war on terror."

And it turns out that this Congress (y'know - the one run by the Democrats) has actually cut the value of earmarks from the last Congress (that one was run by the Republicans). From the New York Times:

As promised when they took control of Congress in January, House Democratic leaders cut in half from last year the value of earmarks in the bill, as they did in the other 11 agency spending measures.

Of course there are still earmarks in the process (from John Murtha and Jerry Lewis, for example) but this year it's less than last year.

So tell me again about what dubya said about earmarks?

SOTU Part III: Live Blogging

OK, kids. I'm going to try this but I may get disgusted very quickly and need to stop. KEEP REFRESHING!

9:05: GOP Groupies trying to get their grope on

9:11 PM: Bush: Can't we all just get along?

9:13: Short Translation: Fuck those on welfare and the unemployed.

9:15: Class warfare

9:16: Yes, yes, it's the earmarks that cause all the problems, not the ginormous budget-busting War on Iraq.

9:20: Oh there they go again: we don't want your medical decisions made in the halls of Congress. Like insurance companies aren't the ones making life and death decisions.

9;21: Another shot of Kennedy and Obama.

9:23: TRADE: We're working towards the bottom. Our workers can compete with anyone (and we have the decling real wages to prove it).

9:25: Hesitant Rethug applause on new energy.

9:27: Did you ever think a Rethuglican Prez would talk Global Climate Change? It must really burn the flatearthers.

9:30: Brave stance coming out against cloning people. I bet he's against Soylent green too.

9:32: Throws New Orleans a bone. Doesn't dare say the K word.

9:35: Here we go: TERRA!

9:36: Whoever guessed 9:36 for the 1st mention of 9/11 wins the pool.

9:39: Iraq is just like Candy Land or was that Afghanistan?

9:42: "Iraqi Surges" Is this an ew mene new meme? Did I miss something?

9:43: Mentioned Bin Laden

9:44 "Al Qaeda is on the run in Iraq and this enemy will be defeated." There's that pesky question though of the CIVIL WAR there that has nothing to do with Al Qaeda.

9:47: 20,000 troops coming home, but any more withdrawls will be based on mitlitary...blah, blah, blah. OK, people. Listen up: We always knew that we'd have to withdrawl some troops in the Spring becuase we ain't got the friggin' manpower.

9:50: "We will not rest until the enemy has been defeated." Again, most of the "enemy" in Iraq is Iraqis.

9:52: Yes, George. If anyone can solve the Middle East it's you.

9:54 Jesus Christ! he mentions the LA terror plot AGAIN? he tried this one last time and it was universally DEBUNKED

9:59: Like anyone should believe anything Bush has to say on veterans

10:02: "Articles of Confederation"..."Gov. Morris"...'until they added "we the people"'..."trusting the people"...Good Lord! There has never been an Administration who has trusted the American people LESS.

"Let us set forth to do their business"

And that would be? Here's a handy list:

the emergence of the use of torture

secret prisons

indefinite detention

the denial of habeas corpus

warrantless eavesdropping

illegal domestic spying

the politicization of the administration of criminal justice and of civil rights

the claimed unilateral nullification of enacted legislation

the claim that the failure by the president to comply with Executive Orders amounts to a secret and unwritten revocation or revision of such orders

dictation of the terms of legislation by the president to Congress

dictation of the terms of appropriations bills (heretofore known as the "power of the purse" by the president to Congress

the declaration that federal judges are incompetent to rule on questions touching on "national security"

the refusal of the "unitary executive" to permit the other branches to test its claims of "executive privilege"

the refusal of the Justice Department to prosecute contempt of Congress charges against executive branch officials

the staggering increase in the frequency of use of the "state secrets" privilege to block access to the courts

the systematic suppression of scientific evidence regarding "administration" policies through the manipulation of administrative procedure

UPDATE: More on trusting the American people from Hunter at Daily Kos:

Over 60% of Americans want all troops out of Iraq withdrawn within one year.

68% of Americans think the nation is on the wrong track.

41% of Americans think that President Bush is "definitely worst than most" past presidents.

69% of Americans think waterboarding is torture and at least 58% think it should not be allowed.

57% of Americans believe that abortion should be legal in all or most cases.

At least 54% of Americans support civil unions for gay couples.

A majority of Americans want the government to fund stem cell research.

57% of Americans oppose telecom immunity.

SOTU Part II

SOTU

Holy illegal invasion, Batman!

Did you know there's a State of the Union Address tonight?

For those who don't know, there's a Constitutional reference to the State of the Union address. It's at the end of Article II and it goes like this:

He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary Occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in Case of Disagreement between them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers; he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the Officers of the United States.

Perhaps someone should remind dubya about the phrase "take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed" at some point. Those signing statements of his obviously run counter to the spirit of that section. Which, by the way, is followed immediately by this part:

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

Something else the Congress seems to have forgotten. But I digress a little.

The AP has put together a chart showing the dubya's approval ratings around the time of his SOTU addresses. Take a look:

February 2001: 62 percent approval.
January 2002: 84 percent.
January 2003: 60 percent.
January 2004: 53 percent.
February 2005: 51 percent.
January 2006: 43 percent.
January 2007: 36 percent.
January 2008: 32 percent.

32% is a little low, isn't it? And has anyone noticed that he's lost 62% of his approval numbers since January, 2002? Six out of ten Americans used to approve.

And now they don't.

It's hardly surprising to me that the Congressional approval numbers are also in the toilet (pre-flush). Every step of the way, it seems, the Democratically controlled Congress gives Mr 32% exactly what he wants. What's the point of checks and balances?

But I digress a little. Back to the SOTU.

Here's the AP's take:

It's about the economy, and the war in Iraq, and other unresolved matters that have kept the nation on edge. But President Bush's State of the Union address on Monday is something else, too: probably his last chance to seize the public's attention and put it to use.

And:

The final State of the Union of the Bush presidency will be roughly split between domestic and foreign matters. Expect few surprises and no big initiatives.

To the degree the speech favors the pragmatic over the bold, the White House offers a two-word explanation: Blame Congress.

And the New York Times:

For years, President Bush and his advisers expressed frustration that the White House received little credit for the nation's strong economic performance because of public discontent about the Iraq war. Today, the president is getting little credit for improved security in Iraq, as the public increasingly focuses on a struggling U.S. economy.

That is the problem Bush faces as he prepares to deliver his seventh and probably final State of the Union address tonight. For the first time in four years, he will come before Congress able to report some progress in tamping down violence in Iraq.Yet the public appears to have moved on from the war -- and possibly from Bush himself.

The economy has supplanted Iraq as the top public concern, and with voters shifting their focus toward the presidential primaries, Bush faces a steep challenge in persuading Americans to heed his words on the war, economic policy or any other issue, according to administration officials, lawmakers and outside observers.

"His seventh and probably final"address tonight?? Is there another planned for next week? Next month? As a Summer fill-in if the Hollywood writers' strike continues? Or is dubya planning on extending his awful administration past January, 2009?

Too awful to contemplate.

CNN says:

With fear of an impending recession, President Bush on Monday night will use his last State of the Union address to revisit unfinished business and press for quick action to keep the economy afloat, administration officials say.

Whew! Last State of the Union address.

We're just all happy that the Bush presidency is coming to an end.