A SOU Free Evening

So, I was at a meeting late last and didn't get home till 8:00. My kids appealed to my sense of guilt for being away all evening and asked if they could stay up till 9:00 and watch TV with me. What to do? Do I subject them to the spectacle of watching the speech reader for the soulless republican party recite the usual list of lies? Is it right to take the chance of having them see Cheney or Hastert die on camera of a heart attack as they try to heave their massive bulks out of their chairs a dozen times to applaud? Oh, look kids, there's a Dirty Jobs special on the Discovery Channel. I'm sure we enjoyed ourselves more (and learned more) than the poor people who subjected themselves to watching the so-called State of the Union. It's so much easier to watch or read the analysis after the litany of lies is broadcast. I'll ignore the first half of the speech that rehashed the same old lies about Iraq. And don't get me started on the hypocrisy of the Abramhoff party talking about the need to tighten ethical standards in politics! When the history of state of the union speeches is written years from now and they are rated from high to low, it will be noted that the blatant lies told in 2003 to justify an unjust war was the worst example of any use of this platform for setting policy. Close behind this will be the speech in 2006 that attempted to justify illegal spying on American citizens. So, what did we find out? We're addicted to oil! How insightful, coming from the spokesman for the pushers! Big Oil has run this administration's energy policy even since Cheney held his secret meeting with Ken Lay and all the Big Oil execs in the first weeks after their "win" in 2000. And what was their response this past year as we were suffering from massive increases in gasoline and natural gas prices? Why, a massive transfer of billions of our tax money to Big Oil under the guise of "encouraging exploration for new supplies". Gee, I'm not the smartest guy around but I think if I was running a large oil company and prices are at an all time high, I would probably want to make sure that the company is spending a few of the record billions of bucks in profits to ensure that I have a ready supply to sell. But that's just me, maybe if you're from Texas, you don't stick a shovel in the ground without a massive tax break. Glad I didn't waste my time watching last night's speech or any of Bush's readings of other people's words and ideas. Gee, by missing last year's speech I didn't hear about all the wonderful things that we're going to be done to reform Social Security this year. I'm sure anything Bush read last night will look just as irrelevant a year from now as Social Security reform looks today.