February 09, 2008
January 31, 2008
Montel Williams tells the truth about the war on Fox News
...and Fox-owned stations effectively canned him.
Sigh.
January 16, 2008
The Pirates' Dilemma
January 13, 2007
GWB and credibility
This is probably one of the most incisive critiques of the Bush administration I've seen in a long time. Watch it. Share it.
December 18, 2006
Where power was restored in Seattle
Finally, someone in the media has taken notice that the order in which the power was restored to areas of Seattle is totally fishy. As I noted earlier, many parts of Seattle hardest hit happen to be those most racially and economically diverse - and just so happen to suffer without power for DAYS longer than the rest of the city.
I'm sure this could be argued a million ways, but what I find most telling is that Seattle City Light quickly pulled the map they'd posted the day after the outage. Why?
Seattleites have long wanted to believe that, oh no, nothing in their city is ever racist, it's never a problem here, it just happens somewhere else, so how dare you even suggest it?Yet we know racism is as deeply embedded here as anywhere else. Probably the only difference between Seattle and the rest of the country is there's more denial here; what is obvious to everyone else (power companies are slow to turn on power in blacked out poorer and nonwhite neighborhoods as we saw in Queens and St Louis recently) is denied here.
I saw the same map. And had the same reaction. Maybe there's a non-racist explanation, maybe there isn't. But to deny it out of hand is as foolish as accepting it on assumption alone.
Posted by: eugene | December 17, 2006 09:12 PM
My apartment manager just called to say we finally have power. 4 days - almost to the hour - after it went out.
August 12, 2006
Internet cafes raided
This just in from CNN.com:
British police confirmed Saturday that they had raided a series of Internet cafes in their investigation into an alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 trans-Atlantic aircraft.As if that's not enough fear for you, apparently Anderson Cooper is going to highlight the areas in the US that are ripe for a terror attack.There was no confirmation of any arrests in the raids in London, Birmingham and the Thames Valley region, west of the capital.
The raids came as links to suspected terror operatives in Pakistan -- possibly connected to al Qaeda -- were emerging Saturday as key elements of the investigation.
If you're interested, you can read the rest of the article. (I warn you, however, that most of it has nothing to do with the raids, which they sort of gloss over in favor of discussing all of the possible common household ingredients the terrorists might use to blow things up.)
Fear! Terror! The INTERNET!
August 08, 2006
The web + politics
Joe Lieberman's site has been down most of the day. According to a NYT article (registration required), Lieberman's campaign communications have been severely crippled:
The Web site’s malfunction disabled campaign e-mail accounts and hampered communications among field offices and with tens of thousands of supporters, Mr. Lieberman’s advisers said. They said high traffic and connections to the campaign Web server overwhelmed its allocated bandwidth, the advisers said. They could not say how great the bandwidth was.I wonder how long it will be before such DOS attacks are deemed "terrorism" by GWB and company, thus allowing the Feds to send the perpetrators to one the government's secret prisons?Dan Geary, the Internet consultant to the Lieberman campaign, said that the site, Joe2006.com, began coming under attack on Monday morning.
“Midmorning yesterday, a very rapid, instant number of server queries to the site — not just traffic to the site — completely disabled our network,” he said. “It’s like trying to drink from a fire hose.”
The Lamont campaign denied having anything to do with the Web site difficulties and replied to the accusations of blame by offering to send a technician to Lieberman headquarters to help fix the problem.
May 02, 2006
Stephen Colbert rocks the White House
Editor and Publisher just posted a bunch of letters they received from readers responding to Colbert's roast of the Pres (and I do mean roast - YouTube has the videos if you haven't already seen them) at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner.
As one reader appropriately noted, sometimes humor like this just goes too far.
Well, I for one think it's very unkind to make fun of a lunatic, especially if he's president.Stephen Colbert, you're my hero.Richard Bentley
Tucson, Ariz.
September 01, 2005
Hurricanes
Growing up on the Gulf Coast of Florida, hurricanes were a fact of life. Several times during my formative years, there were hurricane warnings and watches; one year, the first day of school was cancelled because of a hurricane. Fortunately, the only hurricane I saw in person was a relatively tame one. Elena hung outside our doors for four days before slamming into Biloxi. I can remember seeing the sickly green sky, the sea roiling, and tree branches breaking in the wind. Still, nothing I experienced can even come close to what's gone down this week.
I can't believe that Bush has only "flown over" the area (instead of getting on the ground and making at least an attempt to look like he's actually concerned about this). His speech on the matter made little attempt to offer any sort of comfort to the tens of thousands who have been affected by the storm. Perhaps more unbelievable is the fact that this horrific disaster may have been avoided had Bush not just cut funding for Lake Pontchartrain flood protection by 80%, despite warnings from as long ago as 2001 that a major hurricane could severely flood the city.
In addition, according to a recent Salon.com article, part of the extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina was due to the large amounts of now-developed wetlands in Southeastern Louisiana that no longer form a natural barrier against flood waters.
The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.They're now saying that it could be 6 weeks before the waters are drained, and 12 weeks before residents can return home. And, the city remains in chaos. According to a report in the Telegraph, "One hospital in New Orleans asked for federal troops to take 100 small children to safety after doctors said an armed gang had attempted to storm the building."In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."
The situation at the Convention Center is getting worse by the minute - these people have no food, water, or shelter, and are literally dying in the streets. The only person that's visited so far is Harry Connick, Jr. Why isn't the administration responding?
This is so sad. My heart goes out to all of those affected by this terrible event.
August 08, 2005
Peter Jennings
| I was saddened by the news that Peter Jennings passed away yesterday. He was an amazing journalist, who had a knack for explaining complex international issues in a measured, holistic and fair way. I found his presence on the airwaves a pleasant counterpoint to the ridiculous partisan bickering of shows like Crossfire. Jennings also had an admirable perspective on his role as a journalist: |  |
There are a lot of people who think our job is to reassure the public every night that their home, their community and their nation is safe. I don't subscribe to that at all. I subscribe to leaving people with essentially -- sorry it's a cliche -- a rough draft of history. Some days it's reassuring, some days it's absolutely destructive.
- Wikipedia's Peter Jennings entry
Of course, my admiration of Peter Jennings is almost certainly a product of his indictment as being a rabid member of the so-called "liberal" media. Check out the Media Research Center's perspective on Jennings' coverage of Iraq.
More about Peter Jennings' death can be found at Media Bistro's TVNewser.
April 19, 2005
New Pope
Sigh. I was hoping for a rockstar Pope - but we got Ratzinger. I was hoping the CC would go for a kinder/gentler/inclusive papacy, not appoint a former member of the Nazi youth movement. And, Ratzinger isn't exactly down with social justice, either. As the Washington Post notes, he's pretty much anti- everything:
Ratzinger is a brilliant, tough-minded intellectual who started out as moderately liberal and -- like so many American neoconservatives -- developed a mistrust of the left because of the student revolt of the 1960s. He once said that "the 1968 revolution" turned into "a radical attack on human freedom and dignity, a deep threat to all that is human." The pope knew what he was getting with Ratzinger, and he got what he wanted.Great. More polemic. Just what we need.With Ratzinger playing the tough cop against dissent, John Paul was free to be more expansive. Rocco Buttiglione, a philosopher who was close to the late pope, captured their division of labor perfectly in an interview some years ago. "The pope has more the gift of synthesis, because of his office," Buttiglione said. "Cardinal Ratzinger has more the gift of polemic."
March 30, 2005
As if we needed more proof...
A chilling new report, the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, suggests that human activity is causing irreparable harm to the planet. As a BBC News article notes,
More land was converted to agriculture since 1945 than in the 18th and 19th Centuries combined. More than half of all the synthetic nitrogen fertilisers - first made in 1913 - ever used on the planet were deployed after 1985.Scary stuff. When will we start taking responsibility for the damage we're causing?The MA authors say the pressure for resources has resulted in a substantial and largely irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth, with some 10-30% of the mammal, bird and amphibian species currently threatened with extinction.
February 25, 2005
Historical (In)Accuracy
After reading one of the postings on Alex Halavais's blog, I had to share my own so-called "teachable moment."
Last weekend, I was visiting A in San Antonio. We'd stopped at one of the area's many missions, specifically, Mission San Jose. After cruising around and reading all of the educational signs about the "Mission Indians" and wryly discussing the heavily pro-development, pro-European, pro-essentializing dialogue, I witnessed the following exchange:
Father: You know, the Indians gave the Spanish syphillis which they took back to Europe.Hmm. While some suggest that syphillis was present in the "New World" before Europeans arrived (see Cecil Adams' Straight Dope column on the subject), it is highly debatable. And, the idea that Europeans got smallpox from the native populations in North America is just dead wrong.Daughter: I thought it was small pox!
Father: Oh yeah, that too.
As Jared Diamond writes in Guns, Germs, and Steel, a significant reason for the conquest of Native populations had to do with the germs they carried:
As for the most advanced native societies of North America...their destruction was accomplished largely by germs alone, introduced by early European explorers and advancing ahead of them. As Europeans spread throughout the Americas, many other native societies, such as the Mandans of the Great Plains and the Sadlermiut Eskimos of the Arctic, were also wiped out by disease, without need for military action (374).So, how did I respond to this clearly inaccurate statement? I fumed privately to A, which did nothing but make me more frustrated. I mean, this is exactly why I try not to eavesdrop - it just makes it too easy to hear something that's misguided, ethnocentric (or worse) or just plain wrong. And it's not like I can just march up to this person and explain that they're being a jerky ignoramus. (At the time, I did secretly wish I had access to a park ranger uniform so I could legitimately correct his mistake without looking like an ass myself.)
November 03, 2004
Cold comfort
I suppose the only "good" thing to come out of this election is that we might have four more years of The Daily Show.
November 02, 2004
I'm on pins and needles
Please, please, please let the insanity of the last four years come to an end. I've been obsessively reading various news sites for ANY information about the race, despite the fact that polls on the East coast will still be open for another three or four hours.
BTW, if you're interested in detailed reports about potential voters being turned away - Indy Media's US site has lots of good, um, scary information.
October 28, 2004
Vote!
Ok, I'm sure you're probably already planning to vote, but here are a couple things you should check out before the election:
- Eminem has released a Web-only video for his song Mosh that's AMAZING.
- In case you're not in the US, you can participate in the election anyway at globalvote2004.org.
- Along those lines, there's an interesting article in today's BBC News Technology section about how international citizens are using the Web to disseminate their own opinions about the US elections.
- There's a fascinating article in the American Conservative that argues no conservative should be voting for GWB. The last paragraph notes:
George W. Bush has come to embody a politics that is antithetical to almost any kind of thoughtful conservatism. His international policies have been based on the hopelessly nave belief that foreign peoples are eager to be liberated by American armiesa notion more grounded in Leon Trotskys concept of global revolution than any sort of conservative statecraft. His immigration policiestemporarily put on hold while he runs for re-electionare just as extreme. A re-elected President Bush would be committed to bringing in millions of low-wage immigrants to do jobs Americans wont do. This election is all about George W. Bush, and those issues are enough to render him unworthy of any conservative support.
October 03, 2004
More debate analysis
Once again, PopMatters features a thoroughly engaging piece of political analysis that is littered with references to pop culture. This time, it's an in-depth analysis of George W. Bush's debating style and features such pithy brilliance as follows:
But with a twang and a wink, and Jesus popping up in every sentence where any sane person would use a comma, Bush Wonder Twin powers himself into the underdog cowboy while Cheney forms into a bucket of ice water. Bush is the reversal of all of our favorite good movie lessons, having every single life failure and character flaw met with more opportunity, having been coddled to the point where his ignorance is riveted static by his karma-violating privilege. Bush is the quitter's winner.Interestingly enough, the comparison of Bush to a really awful middle manager in a large company reminds me of David Brent from the BBC series The Office (which, amazingly, I just saw for the first time this weekend.) If you've ever worked in an office, or thought about working in an office, or delivered snacks to an office, or even heard that there are such things as "offices" out there, you must rent this series. Yes, it's that good.
...
Everything in his body language reeks of some middle management desk wrangler's dream about his own masculinity. Look at the way he holds the podium, with one arm gripping the corner like he's the Fonz giving it doggie to Pinky Tuscadero; the way he leans forward and flashes his hands, the sort of testosterone tic most women recognize as the prelude to a bad line. His head does a macho bobble doll roll, he pushes a contemptuous laugh through his nostrils and then he lets the left hand corner of his mouth do a Salvador Dali drip to the floor as if he's doing a lead-lined wad of Skoal. It's the pose he holds throughout much of the debate, a cunning affect to project, an image that attempts to frame the dialogue in terms of a choice between an action-ready Sheriff Lobo torn away from fighting evil to explain hisself to some equivocating pansy.
September 30, 2004
The debates
God, Kerry is so smart. I loved watching GWB sweat during the entire debate as Kerry mentioned people in Bush's own administration that supported Kerry's position.
Also, I loved GWB's use of "vociferous" to describe fighting in Iraq. Um, yeah, it's pretty loud over there.
Kerry has a plan. Bush has...well...more hard work? Accusations? Who knows?
September 03, 2004
Where is my mind?
Something's up. I'm not sure what it is, yet, but I have the distinct impression that my brain is in the process of being rewired by an as-yet-unknown force that has left me with little will and even less impetus to blog. It may have a little (ok, a lot) to do with my exams and dissertation which keep peeking their heads around the corners of my mind and often descend upon me late at night, shaking me awake from my normally sound slumber with whispers about a future that is both exciting and terrifying. It may also have something to do with the fact that GWB is almost certainly going to win the election - thus proving, once again, that Americans ingest jingoist propaganda with the same voraciousness that they eat Big Macs. Or, it may have something to do with my temporary change in venue and the extreme contentedness I'm feeling (thanks, A), which has left me wondering if my will to write is inversely related to my happiness - a scary proposition that I refuse to contemplate when in my right mind. (The tortured artist thing is so played out.)
Those are all excuses, however, which mask a much larger question - if I love writing so damn much, why is it so hard to do? Why do I struggle with the structure and cadence of each sentence as though each might be my last, as if someone at my funeral might actually say, "Well, she was a good writer some of the time, but did you see the split infinitive and comma splice in her last blog posting?" And then, of course, the over-analytical, slightly OC part of me kicks in and wonders if all of these questions are a veiled (and narcissistic) attempt to procrastinate.
Some stuff that I didn't write but found interesting (and especially good if you're wanting to procrastinate):
- Lossless, pleather, DSL, and dream catcher are now official entries in the 11th edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary.
- Craftster, the hipsters' crafting Web site, finally has its own blog. Recent postings include patterns for iPod cozies and a listing of sources for button making.
- Adbusters has created an anti-brand - Blackspot Anticorporation - to market their anti-sweatshop, Chucks-inspired sneaker. Naomi Klein is mad.
- I stumbled upon the blog of death and thought of the famous Emily Dickinson poem.
- Edward Tufte, he of information design genius, has made one of his newest book chapters available online. Mmm...arrows!
June 16, 2004
You mean we're not liberators?
As if this should come as a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention:
A recent poll suggests that very few Iraqis (2%) see the occupying American and British forces as liberators. Here's more from a recent story in The Independent -
The poll results are devastating for both President George Bush and Tony Blair, who are fond of saying that future generations of Iraqis will thank them for liberating their country. Tony Blair has consistently said that history will prove him right for engineering the downfall of a cruel tyrant, even if weapons of mass destruction were not found.Really. Why shouldn't the Iraqis see us as liberators? I mean, we've tourtured their fellow citizens, failed to restore basic utilities to their cities, and revamped their flag without even asking - seems like we should win some sort of award for the amount of "liberating" we're doing.President Bush, giving a pep-talk to American soldiers in Florida yesterday, said: "We have come not to conquer, but to liberate people and we will stand with them until their freedom is secure."
....
The White House spokesman, Scott McClelland, put on a brave face when reacting to the survey: "The President has previously said no one wants to be occupied. And we don't want to be occupiers," he said
But a coalition official in Baghdad interviewed by the Associated Press news agency, which obtained the survey, was despondent. "If you are sitting here as part of the coalition, it [the poll] is pretty grim," said Donald Hamilton, a career diplomat who helps oversee the CPA's polling of Iraqis.
In Washington, Congressman Ike Skelton, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he found the poll "disturbing. ... It demonstrates quite jarringly that we are not winning the hearts and minds" of Iraqis.
June 03, 2004
Tenet is out...and sarcasm is in
CIA Director George Tenet has resigned for "personal reasons." Yeah, right.
GWB was, once again, stunningly articulate in his assessment of Tenet's contribution to the Bush Administration (from today's article in the NYT):
"He's strong. He's resolute. He's served his nation as the director for seven years. He has been a strong and able leader at the agency. He's been a, he's been a strong leader in the war on terror, and I will miss him."Um, hedge much?
May 04, 2004
The Jesus Factor
If you didn't catch it last week, Frontline's most recent report, an engaging profile of GWB's faith, is available online. This, plus a few selections from Marvin Olasky's book (with its conservative evangelical rhetoric), has given me a whole new perspective on how easily Bush (and those of his ilk) links his faith to his politics. It's truly frightening - and we should not underestimate how easily GWB's language resonates with many Americans.
Something else that's scary? Read The World's cover story to find out the Christian Right's take on the recent "March for Women's Lives." As a result, I'm donating to NARAL right now.
April 27, 2004
The conversation
...must have gone something like this:
FIRST BUSH OFFICIAL: "Hey, you know, we really need to do something to ensure that folks know we're handing over control of Iraq's government to the Iraqis on June 30th."
SECOND BUSH OFFICIAL: "Yeah, people seem to be getting pretty restless over here. Oh, and I guess people over there are concerned, too."
FBO: "I know! Let's announce what's going to happen after we're done occupying Iraq. You know, how we are ensuring the Iraqis have the proper tools for self-governance, how and when our forces will return home, that kind of stuff."
SBO: "Hmm... that sounds like a decent idea, but it would require us to actually forumulate a plan for getting out of Iraq. That's a lot of work."
FBO: "Shoot. Yeah, you're right. Hmm. Okay, how about this? Let's just announce who we're handing Iraq over to on June 30th. That way, whoever we place in power can figure out all of the messy stuff we don't want to deal with."
SBO: "Yeah! That's a great idea - except we have no idea who's actually going to govern once we leave."
FBO: "Oh, yeah. Bummer."
SBO: "Yeah.... Wait a minute!"
FBO: "What?"
SBO: "Let's try thinking outside of the box. I mean, that's what we Americans are known for - thinking out of the box, right?"
FBO: "Yeah, you're right. Hmm. Maybe we can do something totally superficial that signals our occupation is actually legitimate."
SBO: "Okay, but what would that be?"
FBO: "Let's do something really dramatic - something that no one, least of all the Iraqi people, would expect. I've got it! What if the Iraqis were to wake up this morning and find out that their flag looks totally different? I'm thinking blue. I'm thinking yellow. I'm thinking crescent."
SBO: "That is THE BEST IDEA! Just think how happy everyone in Iraq will be when we, once again, prove that we know nothing about their culture or heritage! We rock!"
...and so, the idiocy of this war continues ever onward.
April 13, 2004
9/11 Hearings
Ashcroft suggested during his testimony before the 9-11 Commission that the Clinton administration should be held accountable for the September 11th attacks. From a rhetorical standpoint, Ashcroft's complete statement is fascinating. He notes,
But the simple fact of Sept. 11 is this: we did not know an attack was coming because for nearly a decade our government had blinded itself to its enemies. Our agents were isolated by government-imposed walls, handcuffed by government-imposed restrictions and starved for basic information technology. The old national intelligence system in place on Sept. 11 was destined to fail.Ashcroft suggests throughout his comments that outdated technology and outmoded ways of dealing with terrorist threats were also to blame for the entire tragedy.
After I became attorney general in February 2001, it soon became clear that the FBI's computer technology and information management was in terrible shape. The bureau essentially had 42 separate information systems, none of which were connected. Agents lacked even the most basic Internet technology.Throughout his statement, Ashcroft invokes the words "truth" (as applied to the Commission's fact finding mission), and "evil" (as applied to the terrorists, and specifically, Osama bin Laden) - and not surprisingly, various other tropes are invoked by both Ashcroft and the Commission. I hope the rhetoricians out there are taking notes.These problems did not just hamper interagency communication; they hindered information sharing with the Justice Department, the intelligence community and state and local law enforcement. It is no wonder, given the state of its technology, that the Phoenix memo warning that terrorists may be training in commercial aviation was lost in the antique computers at Washington headquarters.
Yet for year after year, the FBI was denied the funds requested for its information technology. Over eight years, the bureau was denied nearly $800 million of its information technology funding requests. To put this $800 million shortfall in perspective, the trilogy program, which is now revolutionizing computer, data and information sharing at the bureau, has cost $580 million.
More information (along with PDFs of witness testimony) can be found on the Commission's Web site.
April 02, 2004
Air America
Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo and Chuck D are among the new hosts on a liberal talk radio network, Air America. Apparently, during the first day of broadcast, Ralph Nader hung up on host Randi Rhodes after she suggested that the Left cannot afford to have Nader running in the next election. Right on, Randi!
March 20, 2004
Frontline...journalism...art
I love Frontline on PBS, but I often miss it. Fortunately, I've just discovered that a bunch of episodes are available online, including some of my personal favorites - Merchants of Cool and Dot Con.
In other news, I'm reading Eric Schlosser's Reefer Madness, which is finally out in paperback. It's a great piece of journalism, and it makes me want to write stuff like it...or just write, period.
Oh, speaking of journalism, there was also an interesting interview in this week's The Stranger with Jayson Blair and Stephen Glass. I still haven't seen Shattered Glass, but it's on my list.
And here's a random link that's too good not to share - a bunch of Flash art pieces (I especially like the black ribbon one) by Yugo Nakamura.
February 22, 2004
Ralph Nader...no!
Despite the work of grassroots organizations like Ralph Don't Run, Ralph Nader has announced his intentions to run for the presidency citing the increasingly corporative nature of Washington.
There's too much power and wealth in too few hands.... Washington is now corporate occupied territory. There is now a for-sale sign on most agencies and departments.... Basically, it's question of both parties flunking.I implore you, Ralph, please reconsider your decision. If you are truly concerned about large corporate interests directing the future of this country, then you need to be doing anything you can to get GWB out of office...even if it means supporting the Democratic nominee. Now is not the time to create a larger schism in the already beleaguered Left in this country.
(Oh, and I don't buy your letter to "Anybody but Bush" Democrats.)
January 20, 2004
Oh my...I'm beginning to show my party affiliation
I can't believe that GWB spent time discussing the "sancity of marriage" in his State of the Union address. Why, oh why, is this even an issue? You'd think that the GOP would love the fact that homosexuals want to get married, since they're usually going on and on about the importance of family values. But, Bush decided to rail against it in his speech:
A strong America must also value the institution of marriage....Activist judges, however, have begun redefining marriage by court order, without regard for the will of the people and their elected representatives. On an issue of such great consequence, the people's voice must be heard. If judges insist on forcing their arbitrary will upon the people, the only alternative left to the people would be the constitutional process. Our Nation must defend the sanctity of marriage.He also called for more funding for abstinence programs. Shouldn't we be spending money on things that actually take into account the fact that according to a 2001 survey conducted by the CDC, over 45% of teenagers reported having had sexual intercourse and 33% admitted to being sexually active currently? (At least, those are the ones who actually admit to having had sex in the last few months, and it's interesting to note that this number varies dramatically depending on the race and ethnicity of the individuals surveyed. Also, I'm guessing that a lot of teens are engaging in other risky sexual behavior besides intercourse - something else to which we seem to be turning a blind eye.) Shouldn't we give them the information they need to protect themselves and their partners from STDs and pregnancies? Again, you'd think GOP would be all over this since it would likely mean fewer abortions, but...I guess not.
Also, his reference to a child's letter he had received recently was ridiculously trite:
Last month a girl in Lincoln, Rhode Island, sent me a letter. It began, "Dear George W. Bush." "If there is anything you know, I Ashley Pearson age 10 can do to help anyone, please send me a letter and tell me what I can do to save our country." She added this P.S.: "If you can send a letter to the troops ... please put, 'Ashley Pearson believes in you.'" Tonight, Ashley, your message to our troops has just been conveyed. And yes, you have some duties yourself. Study hard in school, listen to your mom and dad, help someone in need, and when you and your friends see a man or woman in uniform, say "thank you." And while you do your part, all of us here in this great chamber will do our best to keep you and the rest of America safe and free.(I did sort of enjoy how he accidentally referred to Ashley as being 2 rather than 10 years old - that would be one precocious two-year-old. I also loved how Peter Jennings characterized GWB as being a much better speaker than he was three years ago. Of course, in the pre-show coverage Jennings kept referring to John Kerry as Secretary John Kerry...guess you can't win 'em all.)
I'll be curious to hear how the Democrats respond to Bush's speech.
Update: Tom Brokaw apparently talked to Jon Stewart (The Daily Show) after the Address to get his response, but I only caught the last 10 seconds of the interview - did anyone else see it? What happened?