16 thoughts on “State of the Union open thread

  1. I wish the cowardly and grumpy old man, Boehner, would have been excused.

    Obviously, he was constipated or suffering greatly for an hour or so from withdrawal due to his addiction to tobacco and alcohol..

    He is a disgrace to the office he holds, Speaker of the House. He should retire and seek treatment.

    No political surprises from the Prez. I admired his upbeat and optimistic tone. I give him a “good” grade.

  2. I enjoyed parts of the speech, but mostly the rhetoric. I found much of the actual policy to be vaguely concerning. Loved the fact that he stated climate change was a fact. Wish the words “man made” had been clearer. Wish there had been a serious policy proposal as well instead of praising the fraking industry. Loved the fact that he spoke about expanding quality pre-K education. Wish it hadn’t been linked to Race to the Top and school privatization schemes. Very surprised when he mentioned Sandy Hook, sad that no mention of policy proposals was included to address Sandy Hook and related incidents. The speech was very consistent with the Obama presidency. Vague hints of progressive ideas and generally center right policy. I understand the Congress he faces but I hate the fact that a man who invokes Reagan as a hero (twice in this speech)and moves forward with center right policy time and time again gets lauded as a progressive when it really is not warranted.

  3. Klugman says the federal deficit has dropped “like a rock” in the last couple of years, the President says the deficit has fallen, yet the Republican mayor of Oklahoma City says that’s not true…that the deficit is still growing. So here we go again.

    When are the facts going to be defended by the press? This is an issue over and over. Even when the facts are clear that the Democrats have a real solution to an issue, and Republicans are simply being disruptive, the take from the press is back to “neither side can get along,” putting blame on both parties when clearly only the Republicans are at fault. This sh*t simply galls me into indigestion and despair.

    1. You need to understand that there are only six major networks controlling the message, and as I continue to try to emphasis, both major national parties with the exception of 6 or fewer individuals in congress, are working for the rich. Not left vs right, but haves vs have nots. I don’t lie, Democratic leadership is not your friend, any more than are the Republicans in general.

      1. NQ,

        You don’t lie, eh? That notion has yet to be verified. Give us your bigot-speak definition of “lie” so we can all evaluate it properly. You don’t “lie,” but you’re not honest either.

        As to your question regarding federally contracted employees – I’m sure once you figure out the number of employees involved in contracts that haven’t even been negotiated yet from here in ad infinitum you’ll have no problem calculating the percentage you seek.

        Better yet, take the initiative to ask the President’s cabinet yourself. Go directly to the source. You had the opportunity to do so last night following the SOTU address. You have the opportunity all day today as well via Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, and Google+ Hangout. Carpe Diem, little carper.

        1. My apologies to other readers for taking time to defend myself, apparently personal attacks on other commenters are allowed.

          “You don’t lie, eh? That notion has yet to be verified.” and aside from injecting your slanderous denouncements, you have NOT offered one slice of evidence to support your vicious assertions. And then you call on me to research the data needed to better understand what the poser-in-chief claims is a such a big populist deal.

          Simply, if I was making the executive order on the wage policy, I’d have had the information readily at hand prior to introducing the action. Unfortunately, I personally don’t have several departments and unlimited staff at my disposal to have the figures.

          Your assumptions about what I have time to do are about as valuable as the spew you brought to the discussion, which is utterly and completely negative, off topic, abusive and worthless.

        2. My apologies to other readers for taking time to defend myself, apparently continued personal attacks are not immediately disallowed, and for initially mistyping my email which may cause this comment to appear twice……

          “You don’t lie, eh? That notion has yet to be verified.” and aside from injecting your slanderous denouncements, you have NOT offered one slice of evidence to support your vicious assertions. And then you call on me to research the data needed to better understand what the poser-in-chief claims is a such a big populist deal.

          Simply, if I was making the executive order on the wage policy, I’d have had the information readily at hand prior to introducing the action. Unfortunately, I personally don’t have several departments and unlimited staff at my disposal to have the figures.

          Your assumptions about what I have time to do are about as valuable as the spew you brought to the discussion, which is utterly and completely negative, off topic, abusive and worthless.

          1. Nonq, your down-with-the Dem’s/Obama posts are LOL funny these days. It’s wrong of PJ to question your truthfulness but it’s A-Ok for you to refer to the “Propaganda United PAC” and label them a “totally bogus group”? I think your question is what is the percentage of federal contract workers covered by the wage increase. Shouldn’t it really be, when is Congress sending legislation to the President increasing the federal minimum wage? Or how about, when is the Wisconsin legislature sending legislation to the Governor increasing the state minimum wage? You seem to want it all your way this very instant and rant and rave when the universe fails to deliver. Did your Mommy and Daddy spoil you rotten as a child or something? Me, I think the SOTU has limited scope to affect change but it can be used to set priorities. Any Democrat not running on economic inequality among other things is missing their best opportunity to win. Any Democrat in any say, a governor’s race, in maybe Wisconsin, who doesn’t campaign hard on this issue is missing their best (maybe only) opportunity to win.

            1. Items #2 and #3

              http://bloggingblue.com/blogging-blue-comment-policy/

              I was perfectly clear that no simple statement of the number of federal workers that would actually be affected by an executive order raising their minimum wage was offered, and that it should have been.

              If you cannot distinguish the difference between a slanderous, unsubstantiated attack on an individual’s character or integrity, from a personal opinion mocking an organization which is making bogus claims about the president in order to solicit money from politically ignorant donors, it is not my responsibility to explain it to you, nor is it my problem. That would seem to be your personal problem. Deal with it.

              (OT) Are you familiar with the concept of the paragraph?

              1. Actually I’m familiar with the concept of smartphones. Commas are dead, paragraphs not far behind! I don’t see much point in arguing whether opinion equals fact but I sure hope working families in Wisconsin see a minimum wage increase soon. Somehow I don’t think it’s POTUS’ fault if they don’t.

    2. CK: “…neither side can get along.”

      I too lament the way equality of wrongdoing is falsely conveyed, especially on social issues, with such expressions. Yeah, just like Jesus and the Devil were always at odds in scripture.

      For example, this morning, Paul Ryan in a TV interview expressed his total and absolute objection to the Prez’s increase of the minimum wage to $10.00. Worse, this catholic (small c no typo) from Janesville also nixed a indexing of the minimumn wage to keep up with inflation.

      Hey, Pope Francis, is Ryan one of those enabling “unfettered capitalism” and their “tyranny” over the poor and middle class or is it just another “neither side can get along”?

  4. From my inbox at precisely 9:11 pm Tuesday, it didn’t take very long for (now I’m sure this is a totally bogus group) Cole Leystra at Propaganda Unlimited PAC, to come out begging for money for helping Mr SOTU, to continue along on his new found, “progressive,” agenda.

    Will someone please explain what percentage of Federal employees in what positions will actually be receiving a pay raise? I’ll hold my applause until the figures are out. IOW, which employees of Federal government contracted carpet cleaners, yard maintenance people, cafeteria workers, etc, were not already being paid above the newly ordered baseline?

    Smoke and mirrors I’d say, as we need to look to world markets and strengthen our ties, economically and militarily with Asia, (TPP) doncha know, he can’t actually speak the acronym in public.

    1. No one expects anything from you except, Blow Back and shirking duty criticism, Windmill. So don’t bother holding anything.

      1. Extremely sorry I missed your reply yesterday.

        The SOTU could have more easily “sold,” the federal worker wage increase idea to the public, had a claim been made about the actual number of federal employees that it would immediately help. What the WH did was fail to communicate.

        I could have been clearer in describing smoke and mirrors as it pertained to the FTA, NAFTA on steroids, the TPP and TAFTA, which the WH again promoted (SOTU) as the big boon for US exports and “job creation,” yet deliberately obfuscated what they were explaining by choosing not to publicly mention that this is the policies that 150 or more Democratic Reps and Senators have urged the WH to NOT PURSUE. Failure to communicate and now deliberate with-holding of the truth behind a public push for acceptance of a proposal.

        Based on the enormous devastation to US manufacturing and former middle-class family supporting labor lost here, over the 20 years of NAFTA, not to mention the flooding of US agricultural commodities into Mexico and beyond into Latin America, impoverishiing millions of indigenous farmers and driving them off their traditions lands and life-styles into the US seeking any work they could find, these 150 legislators are aware the WH giveaway to the multi-national corporations of wealth and US law being subjugated completely to a corporate appointed tribunal.

        “Shirking duty criticism,” is that what you call shirking duty criticism, patriotically explaining how damaging a proposed policy, gleefully being promoted at every opportunity, by Obomba for the benefit of his corporate financiers, which eliminates once and for all the last shreds of our constitution which still remain? Then mocking PU for their repetition of the same public WH lies to attempt to get public donations for their organization, on what they apparently considered was a prime opportunity to milk the less discerning contributors who might have been fooled by the WH speech brings some kind of misdirected personal scorn from you? Thanks for “caring,” and urging me to not stop blowing away idiotic beliefs, held by some in the face of the facts.

  5. Then we all agree SOTU did not satisfy our priority list?

    I was hoping for more immediate and expansive “Executive” actions.

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