Message for George W. Bush: I will be one of many forming the "Boot of Democracy" to kick your ass out of office come next election.

Most accidentally memorable moment of the speech: While insisting Congress renew the Patriot Act, he made the statement "Next year, key provisions of the act are set to expire." He was promptly interrupted with a good bit of applause (and reacted with a "Duh, what?" face) coming from about 1/3 of the gallery.

Accidentally funny camera shot: Rep. from New York, asleep during the speech.

Least suprising bit caught on camera: Ted Kennedy, shaking his head and clapping at nothing.

All right, the serious stuff:
"No child left behind." OK, good idea. Lousy implementation. But the "free up money for Pell grants for hard working students" - this is good. Depending on how it's implemented.

"I will not support amnesty" (for illegal workers) - Good. I do agree - they came here illegally, they shouldn't be rewarded for it. Not sure about the "temporary worker" passes, though - after all, there are plenty of unemployed Americans still. And how about boosts for keeping high tech jobs, from programming to manufacturing, here instead of letting businesses ship the jobs to India (et al)?

Fund schools to teach abstinance - Um... ok. AS LONG AS the rest of the "facts of life" aren't left out. And yes, I do mean (a) STDs, (b) contraception, and (c) alternative lifestyles... which brings me to

Codifying the definition of marriage - Keep the government OUT of relationships. What damn bit of business is it of theirs if a couple consists of a man and woman, or two men, or two women, as long as they're both happy? What's next, forbidding all but governmentally approved sexual positions? Sex quotas? THIS IS NONE OF THE GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS. This coming from a straight, married man.

Internationalization of Iraq: OK, he got a good slap in on that, listing.. eh, I stopped counting. A good number of countries in Iraq along with us. Good speech writer.

Faith based charities - SHOULD NOT BE funded by the government, UNLESS they plan on following the SAME rules for hiring, non-discrimination, etc. And include ALL religions. Yes, George, including Wicca. And Buddhism, and anything else you don't believe in.

Medicare - OK, where are the loopholes. What are you paying back to the drug companies?

Social security - Let me guess, the "nest egg" you're mentioning wouldn't happen to be, oh, the Stock market again, would it? Details are needed.

SO he had one or two good points... and a lot of bad. Enough that I will definately be voting to get him out of office.

Yeah, it's been a while (again.) Oh well.

This next check is going to suck. Between holidays (3 days, no pay, on new years,) weather (1 day that same week, and 3 days the next!!) I'm getting paid for... 3 days out of 10.

Rgh.

I'm SO glad I'm staying with friends at the moment. I'd hate to get kicked out of an apartment because of ice and snow....