Truespeak

Where to begin?

Wow, what a speech. Fifty-one minutes; over 5300 words; complete bullshit. I can't recall the last time I saw someone speak for so long and actually say so little.

Do you remember those sixteen famous words from the 2003 SOTU speech?

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.

Well last night, Georgieboy dropped another doozy on us when he was trying to justify his warrantless spying. Peter Wallsten and Maura Reynolds of the LA Times did a great job of covering this one, so I'll let them handle it:

Defending the surveillance program as crucial in a time of war, Bush said that "previous presidents have used the same constitutional authority" that he did. "And," he added, "federal courts have approved the use of that authority."

Bush did not name names, but was apparently reiterating the argument offered earlier this month by Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales, who invoked Presidents Lincoln, Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt for their use of executive authority.

However, warrantless surveillance within the United States for national security purposes was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 — long after Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt stopped issuing orders. That led to the 1978 passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that Bush essentially bypassed in authorizing the program after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Since the surveillance law was enacted, establishing secret courts to approve surveillance, "the Supreme Court has not touched this issue in the area of national security," said William Banks, a national security expert at Syracuse Law School.

"He might be speaking in the broadest possible sense about the president exercising his authority as commander-in-chief to conduct a war, which of course federal courts have upheld since the beginning of the nation," Banks said. "If he was talking more particularly about the use of warrantless surveillance, then he is wrong."

And what about all of that talk concerning oil addiction? Turns out, he was just kidding.

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

Despite never meeting a spending bill he couldn't endorse, George pretended to admonish congress for adding earmarks to the budget. He indicated that this could all be cured if congress would give him the line item veto. Too bad the Supreme Court declared the line item veto unconstitutional back in 1998.

In an attempt to perpetuate the misconception that he knows what he's doing in the area of education, Junior proposed training "70,000 high school teachers to lead advanced-placement courses in math and science, bring 30,000 math and science professionals to teach in classrooms, and give early help to students who struggle with math, so they have a better chance at good, high-wage jobs." All of this sounds great, but does this proposal come with money for the school districts to be able to pay for these teachers? Districts are strapped for cash as it is trying to comply with NCLB, so where are they going to get the money to hire these teachers? Many districts here in West Central Illinois are having to cut faculty and staff while others are having to consolidate just to survive. Sorry George, but adding new math and science teachers just isn't fiscally possible. Unlike you, we can't get China to finance our debt.

And finally, all this talk of a "hopeful nation" has got to stop. When six of the last eight polls taken show Bush's approval rating declining and his highest rating is still under 50 %, the only that can truly be said is that the nation is hopeful that he doesn't fuck things up any worse than he already has.


SIDENOTE - If you haven't seen Olberman rip O'Reilly a new one yet, you need to. It is too damned funny.