They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address may be summed up by comparing the expressions on two faces, above: Vice President Joe Biden and Speaker John “Agent Orange” Boehner (R-OH). Here is the complete video, a link to the transcript, the video of the official Republican Response, and my own editorial commentary.
You can get the transcript here.
I can’t say that I agreed with him across the board. I’m not convinced that he has sufficient protections for US workers built into the free trade agreement. I’m also not sure he has as good a handle on terrorism as he implied, and I think he still looking for a solution to stopping ISIL, the organization created through Republican incompetence. He didn’t even mention domestic terrorism from the Republican base.
However, all things considered, the content was superb, and the delivery, even better. He drew a line in the sand for himself and the entire Democratic party going forward.
The official Republican Response, by Joni “Pig Nuts” Ernst (R-IA) was as bad as Obama’s presentation was good.
Extreme Barf Bag Alert!! 30 Gal. Capacity (or more) Recommended!!
She had nothing to offer, but the same old, tired, debunked, trickle down, promises that were lies thirty years ago, delivered with a glassy-eyed stare and an irritating, nasal whine.
I am not including the “Tea Party” Republican Response or the “Idiot, Son of Idiot, Named after Idiot” Republican Response. A guy can only take so much punishment and survive.
In the aftermath, Republicans are claiming that Obama offered nothing with which they are willing to agree. That is probably true, because he did not offer unconditional surrender. They are also claiming that Obama is proposing to raise YOUR taxes. If that’s is true, would YOU give me a few spare million, please?
In closing, I hope that Republicans are willing to negotiate in good faith on matters that will benefit the American people without exacerbating the inequality they have caused. I am all for it, but to be honest, I just don’t think they have it in them to challenge either their greedy billionaires or their rabid base.
36 Responses to “The State of the Union – 2015”
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Our elected President gave an excellent State Of The Union speech. He was correct on all of his points, but as usual, Boehner and some of his cohorts acted in the usual and predictable unyeilding, jackass manner. Followed by "pig nuts" Ernst and her standard twisted rebuttal.
What really struck me as funny was that Boehner failed to do something that the idiot Teabaggers jumped on Obama about with rants of being "unamerican". Yet not a peep about Boehner doing the same thing.
Any guesses as to what it was?
He wasn't wearing his "patriotic" flag pin.
Well, to be fair, a lot of members don't wear them because they instead choose to wear their round "Member of Congress" lapel pin. It serves as their ID that lets them easily navigate all areas – including the "Members Only" access areas of the Capitol.
They only make 435 of them each year, and the Senate ones are a bit different than the House ones. So it's a bit difficult to wear both pins. You don't HAVE to wear them, it just makes getting through security a lot easier.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2006/04/capitol_police_vs_fashion_police.html
http://www.rollcall.com/features/Welcome-Congress_2005/welcome_congress/-7808-1.html
So they couldn't wear Both the flag & the ID pins…because they clash? 😉
Maybe he traded it foir a jamesons.
I loved his SOTU speech. The only thing I totally disagree with is the TP trade agreement. We will be able to export more but will also have to import more. More jobs will be lost because companies will be abe to relocate yet again, this time to Viet Nam. I agree with Bernie Sanders that we need transparency. The agreement has to be released and made public.
The responses all sucked Koch, big time.
It's possible that it may be OK, but I want to count the beand in the jar.
Whew! Glad you got to watch SOTU. I was worried you might have missed it, what with all the rain and sleet in Portland I thought you might have to go to the grocery store to buy a couple of loaves of Wonder Bread for your feet.
It was clear that Joni was more than a bit confused during her response. The problem is that Pres. Obama, in his stellar speech, threw down several gauntlets. Joni mistook them for galoshes, and was trying to put them on.
Someone was able to sneak into Joni's dressing room during her speech, and grabbed a quick snapshot of the slippers she lounges around in beforehand:
http://i332.photobucket.com/albums/m335/dmhlt48/Republicans%20Humor/Joni-Ernst_Slipper_Loaf-Bread_Baguette_zpsgidrusgv.jpg
Ewwww! What a waste opf bread!
In case you missed it – just remember that when Ernst is trying to pluck your heartstrings with bread bags for her feet story, she failed to mention that her immediate family has gotten almost a HALF MILLION DOLLARS in Federal subsidies.
Pretty sure that $500,000.00 would buy a HELL of a lot of Wonder Bread.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/01/sen-joni-ernsts-family-actually-received-more-than-460000-in-federal-subsidies/#.VMChywrqqWU.facebook
Corporate Welfare… sigh
Isn't it interesting that Pig Nuts parents and grandparents survived with 'the sweat on their brows' and the 'dirt on their hands' as she tells it! Oh, but wait, she forgot to mention the sudsidies they received . . . the $500,000 in government aid, that had they been operating today, would be zip, nada, zilch under the Republicanus/Teabaggers because they are common folk. Geeze, she is delusional!
Pig Nuts is all for welfare for the rich!
I saw the STOU and I thought it was one of the frist STOU where there was no talk about getting into or trying to start another war.(after all if standing up there (when your biggest plantform to the world) and say Issis is bigger than or we need to be more afraid and we have can't get some kind of control of is like saying we as Americans enjoy war. Is just plain nuts. We have to start trying to fine the hidden "pea" to the road of "Peace". Or we will always sort to "War" and nothing more. Obama came into office and the world back in 2004 as the keynote address speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. In 2008 he was trying to show in order to serve the American people we can do a better job if we just work together. But as we all know once you get elected there is more to gain if you keep the "divided government" going with greed,lies and the like. And thr American people become pawns. Trying something different like respect,honesty and doing right for the American people is hard. So Obama may have talked about about what he wanted for the American people and who he is but sometimes I think we forget and the republian/tea party would not unterstand and will never try. So the 2014 elections was a wake up call for alot of us and Obama.( the party had the best chance it had had in yrs to show what we stood for. But we all know how that turn out.
Joni Ernst talk about her how she coverd her shoes with pactic bags when it rained and how the keystone pipline is money in there pockets and how once again how they can trick the American people.
I just hope he backs it up.
I don't think I'm a cynic – a skeptic, yes, but not a cynic – but I do think some parts of the speech were pure fantasy. Of course what the Republicans said was all fantasy. And I do worry about us when our leaders live in a fantasy world.
Late breaking from email:
John Boehner's official Youtube channel just posted a video of President Obama's 2015 State of the Union address with key facts about climate change edited out.
You heard us right. The video, which contains official Republican rebuttals to President Obama's oratory, has been doctored to make the President seem less credible. Gone are Obama's statements on NASA and NOAA research that has found that climate change will cause "rising oceans, longer, hotter heat waves [and] dangerous droughts and floods". Also deleted? Obama's important statements saying he opposes torture and Anti-Semitism.
http://act.watchdog.net/petitions/4956?ls=LJAaxkOAjrs
Joanne, I am not surprised, are you?
Republican SOP.
The TTP/TTIP is a disaster for all workers and small companies – it means that everyone in the world will work for the lowest rate in the world regardless of cost of living where they live, health and safety considerations will go out of the window, the planet can be poisoned by companies with impunity, and companies can sue nations that have the nerve to try and protect their citizens from what a company wanted to do – they can sue them for loss of projected earnings and they are starting to do so in Egypt, in Canada and various places around the world.
I'm sorry TC, but there is no way President Obama has put in safeguards to protect people from that – the whole point of the multinationals promoting and pressuring for the TTP/TTIP to go ahead is to crush these safeguards that our nations have over the years developed to protect their citizens – no more minimum wage, no more health and safety to protect workers from unsafe practices…
It also means that our elected representatives will have been like turkeys voting for Christmas as they will have no power left at all – except possibly re the election of the local dog catcher.
For further details see the net – and this site is very good
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/dangerous-delusions
halfway down the page is a section entitled 'Everyone wins under free trade' and it shows what some countries have done in recent decades – some signed 'free trade agreements' like the USA with NAFTA – which lost a million jobs, and some were told that they couldn't exist without those agreements and flourished despite ignoring that advice….
Sorry – I don't know how that link got mangled like that – it should be this
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/dangerous-delusions
Thanks Pat. If it's is being nrgotiateed in secret, how does the site know what's in it?
A few brave and concerned people leak details…. God bless them all!
And there is this page too about TTIP
http://www.globaljustice.org.uk/10-reasons-why-you-should-be-worried-about-ttip
Get rid of the parties, Join No Label, maybe then we can actually get America headed in the right direction.
Sorry, No Labels does NOT impress me.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2010/12/read_the_label.html
"The new political group No Labels shows why labels exist."
I have no party affiliation after the last election although, I like "The Rent is Too Damn High Party". /s
Welcome Patti. 🙂
The Democrats tend to be DINOS. The Republicans tend to be Extreme. Joni Ernst feels right at home there.
So many great comments. I also have reservations re: TPP and ISIL TC.
Good! 😀
I very much enjoyed his SOTU speech, but know that very little of what he proposed will get passed. I wish he had acted this way sooner. McTurtle and Boehner will be on CBS Sunday night, saw a brief commercial in which the told Scott Pelley that we "can't afford free tuition". We can, however, afford war after war after war.
I think his intent was to draw a l;ine in the sand.
I wish he had drawn it sooner!
Obama gave an excellent SOTU speech last night. The split screen was awesome, giving more information with graphs, charts, photos and words. Taking out terrorists was one time Boehner stood up and clapped. Maybe he did not realize that he is part of the "terrorists" group (GOP/TP) sitting in Congress during the SOTU speech. lol. Obama is, without a doubt, a superior speaker than the last POTUS (Bush). Obama has a great sense of humor. lol.
I still have very strong doubts about TPP and really need to look at who is drafting this proposal trade agreement. It is not the people but the big corporations, ISIL and other groups like them have yet to be resolved. Congress is a bit "slow" or is the word "low intelligence?".
The low information voters have no idea just how bad the GOP/TP really are. No idea at all. Maybe it is because of low intelligence, low learning curve.
( read Gene's comment above )
John Boehner just sat there looking bored, maybe drunk. lol. Boehner will certainly go down in history as the worst Speaker of the House.
Barf Bag Alert:
Does Joni actually believe the drivel she espouses? Joni is parroting the same lines, lies which the GOP/TP people have been saying for years. She went on and on about her personal life all the while offering nothing new. Yep, yep, Joni is a bought and paid for by the Koch Bros. a pet bitch. lol.
Cruz, Paul deleted their rebuttals. Rubio in spanish? Clawson as a Tea Party Express was a waste of time, puffy.
The GOP/TP will spin stories and lies as to why Obama did not do what they wanted him to do for the next two years.
The "troll" is here, once again, spouting the usual drivel. Certainly not worthy of reading and wasting my time. Maybe troll is in the same class and vein ass class of Bachmann, Palinsane and now, Joni Pignuts. lol.
LOow information voters is why the GOP exixts.
I watched the address Tuesday night and it was powerful. Equally as powerful was Boehner's apparent disdain for the whole thing. And of course you could tell where the Republicanus/Teabaggers were sitting . . . they were like stone statues, cold, dour and unmoving. I suppose that is to be expected, but I wish that I had been surprised.
Bernie Sanders was having a fine time.
As to Pig Nuts . . . oh crap! I just lost supper!
I just love how she, and Boehner too since, have vocalised their commitment to the American people . . . the American people who elected them. Not the ones that actually were conned into ticking their ballot beside a Republicanus/Teabagger name, and not the ones who didn't vote at all, but the purse strings like the Kochroaches and the Sheldon Adelsons. I also found that she told some outright lies about the failed ACA being a failure and the cancelled healthcare policies. Strange that she forgot to mention the millions that now have affordable healthcare that had none before because it was out of reach. I noticed that she didn't mention social security, especially since the Republicanus/Teabaggers are committed to destroying it.
I think what really bothers me is that she called on POTUS to start playing ball with them. And how would she describe the past 6 years of Republican obstruction?
I hope your barf was adaquately bagged.