Day: January 31, 2006

I was generally happy with the speech tonight. Bush definitely had his moments. Here’s a few of my favorites.

By allowing radical Islam to work its will – by leaving an assaulted world to fend for itself – we would signal to all that we no longer believe in our own ideals, or even in our own courage. But our enemies and our friends can be certain: The United States will not retreat from the world, and we will never surrender to evil.

Hard not to stand up and clap for that one. Delivered powerfully, Bush clearly excels as a wartime president, and when he utters a line like that last one, he’s completely credible.

The road of victory is the road that will take our troops home. As we make progress on the ground, and Iraqi forces increasingly take the lead, we should be able to further decrease our troop levels – but those decisions will be made by our military commanders, not by politicians in Washington, D.C.

A real dig at the ‘cut and run’ Democrats. Sweet.

Members of Congress: however we feel about the decisions and debates of the past, our Nation has only one option: We must keep our word, defeat our enemies, and stand behind the American military in its vital mission.

Another kick delivered to all Democrats who contradict themselves by propagating the lie that they can be against the war but still support the troops.

I have authorized a terrorist surveillance program to aggressively pursue the international communications of suspected al-Qaida operatives and affiliates to and from America. Previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority I have – and Federal courts have approved the use of that authority. Appropriate Members of Congress have been kept informed. This terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America. If there are people inside our country who are talking with al-Qaida, we want to know about it – because we will not sit back and wait to be hit again.

Delivered with a bit of cowboy-ish folksy emphasis; this was vintage Bush.

I am pleased that Members of Congress are working on earmark reform – because the Federal budget has too many special interest projects. And we can tackle this problem together, if you pass the line-item veto.

Not really a favorite of mine, but it did give me a chuckle. Just how many State of the Union addresses by Republican Presidents have included this line? Too funny.

There were a lot of other good moments, but these are the ones that stuck in my mind the most. Regarding the new policy proposals, etc., it’s always difficult to get excited about these. So many factors can contribute to a president’s initiatives succeeding or failing. We’ll just have to see which ones stick and which ones will have to wait for another day.

All-in-all, a good speech and a good night for George W. Bush.

“Uh, I’m ready for an interview. Ahem. AAAAAA-HEMMMM!! Right over here, former candidate for president, that’s me. I’ll be right here, go ahead and form a line. Uh, whenever you’re ready.”

Unpublished until now, Al-Jazeera reports that Al-Qaeda’s number two man Ayman al-Zawahiri has called upon President Bush to convert to Islam.

“If you obey, you will be a brother in religion and God will pardon the past,” she cited Zawahiri as saying in the tape broadcast on Monday.

Al-Jazeera did not broadcast excerpts of this passage from the tape, but said the full recording would be made available on its website.

I think it’s time the US Army drop Bibles from helicopters over the hills of Pakistan.

According to reports about a report on CNN, Cindy Sheehan will be in the gallery tonight during Bush’s State of the Union speech. She’ll supposedly be the guess of Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA). I’m doubtful of the truthfulness of this report. Wouldn’t she be considered a security risk? She’s been cavorting with enemies of the United States. I think the Secret Service would have a serious problem with the idea of Mother Sheehan sitting in the crowd. I mean really…does anyone think she’d simply sit and listen to the president? I can’t imagine that’d be remotely possible for Cindy.

If she is let in, I predict she’ll be carried out within the first 15 minutes of the speech.

UPDATE: It’s not a rumor.

UPDATE II: Heh, she was arrested before it even started.

Oops!

While many politicians attempt to rewrite history in the speeches they make from the halls of Congress and on the Sunday TV talk shows, some have taken a different approach.

The State of the Union address will be delivered by President George W. Bush tonight at 9 PM EST. I’ll be away from a television during the speech so I won’t be live blogging. You can always go to Technorati to find out who’ll be providing the minute by minute commentary during the address. I’ll be watching a stream of the speech later in the evening and will provide my thoughts shortly after.

Here’s what I hope to hear tonight:

1. Iran – Bush needs to warn Americans about the threat posed by the current regime and not sugar coat the possible result should the Iranians fail to comply with world demands to curtail their nuclear ambitions.

2. Social Security – Get back on the bus with this topic and put it back on the agenda for the mid-term elections. Democrats think they won the argument last time, but they didn’t. If Bush brings it back, Democrats will be forced to talk about their alternative solutions. They have none.

3. The Borders – It’s time for a fence. A majority of Americans want one.

Bush is coming into the speech tonight riding on the success of a’strengthening economy,’today’s’confirmation’of Justice’Samuel Alito, and’the’democratic’elections in Iraq. Yet, he still faces challenges regarding the leadership transition in the House, the Abramoff matter and’his terrorist surveillance program.’I don’t expect to hear anything about the first two issues, but’I’m betting he’mentions something about the importance of the surveillance program’when he’discusses the’status of the war on terror.

I’m looking forward to an exceptional speech tonight.

UPDATE: Here’s a speech preview.

UPDATE II: My reaction to the speech.

The Senate voted 58 to 42 to confirm Samuel Alito as the 110th Supreme Court justice.

All but one of the Senate’s majority Republicans voted for his confirmation, while all but four of the Democrats voted against Alito.

That is the smallest number of senators in the president’s opposing party to support a Supreme Court justice in modern history. Chief Justice John Roberts got 22 Democratic votes last year, and Justice Clarence Thomas, who was confirmed in 1991 on a 52-48 vote, got 11 Democratic votes.

Alito watched the final vote from the White House’s Roosevelt Room with his family. He was to be sworn in by Roberts at the Supreme Court in a private ceremony later in the day, in plenty of time for him to appear with President Bush at the State of the Union speech Tuesday evening.

Alito will be ceremonially sworn in a second time at a White House East Room appearance on Wednesday.

Alito’s confirmation sets a new benchmark for the entire process. Expect future confirmations to be even more nasty than this one was. For now though, we can appreciate this victory, for George W. Bush, and for America.

UPDATE: Alito sworn in.