Obama vs Jindal

President Obama addressed congress the other day in a pseudo state of the Union speech. Boy howdy can this guy give a speech. I had to laugh at the momentum killing Speaker of the House who kept jumping to her feet at the end of nearly every sentence Obama uttered. She would clap enthusiastically and more closely resembled a star struck cheer leader than a house speaker. Vice president Biden seemed to be texting on his blackberry through much of the speech and appeared to tire of the repeated need to stand and applaud every time Pulosi leaped to her feet.

The speech was a masterfully delivered bunch of platitudes, generalities, and morale boosting stories to help ease the pain of all the deficit spending that is about to take place. . While I agree with the direction he says he wants to take the country, I have massive doubts as to how it's going to be achieved. It's nice to once again hear a president speak of the importance of education, alternative energy, and health care. It was also interesting that he not only spoke of the government's responsibility but, let the country know that government can not provide solutions to all our problems. The president spoke of individual responsibility and specifically called out parents to help with education. However, the cost of bailing out banks, auto manufactures, and home owners has only begun. We've merely scratched the surface of the deficit spending hole we're digging in order to successfully re-invest in this country. I'm not sure that we have enough printing presses or enough ink in the world needed to fix what's broken? At least in his proposed budget for this coming fiscal year he is being honest and will include the cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan occupations. You may recall that the previous administration conveniently left out the spending costs for those military activities.

Rather than trying to spend our way out of this, why don't we begin to make some inteligent choices, cuts, and sacrifices? Number one cut on my list would be the waste of billions and billions on the occupation of Iraq and the military surge we're going to do in Afghanistan. Boy is this a sore point for me. Part of the reason I voted for Obama was his commitment to get us out of Iraq. He has just recently extended his time line for that and added that only a large percentage of troops would be taken out. Boo! Hiss! Why he feels that a surge of troops in Afghanistan is going to do anything but increase the debt and kill more Americans and Afghanis. What does he think he'll accomplish? Getting Bin Laden? Use a special ops task force to get Bin Laden. Bring the troops home! Damn it! This really concerns me. Mr. President, I doubt that you would have motivated so many to vote for you had you let it be known that you were going to increase our presence in Afghanistan.

One more gripe about President Obama's speech. Mr. President, as I am sure you are aware . . .there is no such thing as "Clean Coal technology" It does not exist! You know it I know it. It is a myth perpetuated by those whose wealth is tied up in the mining and refining of fossil fuels. . . specifically the coal industry. Coal pollutes absolutely! The Coal lobbyist spend 60 million a year trying to convince legislators that clean coal technology not only exists but, is a viable renewable source of energy. It's a lie! In the early morning hours of December 22, 2008, the earthen wall of a containment pond at Tennessee’s Kingston Fossil Plant gave way. The breach released 1.3 million cubic meters (1.7 million cubic yards) of fly ash—a coal-combustion waste product captured and stored in wet form. As fly ash dries, it is typically moved to new containment areas to continue drying, and it was one of these areas, housing dredge cells that facilitate further drying, where the containment wall broke. Some of the sludge traveled north through a valley, and some flowed to the east, where it damaged dozens of homes. The spill infiltrated the Emory River, buried some 120 hectares (300 acres) in sludge, and even knocked a nearby home completely off its foundation. A report released by the Tennessee Valley Authority stated that the plant’s byproducts included arsenic, lead, chromium, manganese, and barium, although tests of drinking water upstream from the plant indicated that the water there was safe to drink. I'm more interested in the tests conducted using the water downstream from the spill. Estimates of the time required to clean up the spill ranged from weeks to years. Oh yeah and did I mention that some of the elements in the ash are radio active? Here's a site that gives some interesting facts regarding the clean coal myth.

http://www.thisisreality.org/#/?p=canary

Now let's look at the Republican response to the speech. Ladies and gentlemen I give you the GOP's much ballyhooed great ethnic hope for 2012 . . .Piyush "Bobby" Jindal. Oh boy, where do I begin? When previous political party responses have been aired after the state of the union speech,: We'll see a representative seated or standing in front of the camera ready to give their parties take on the speech. This was a little different . . . this was a little staged for dramatic effect . . . (Oh the theatre of politics) The scene opens from a dimly lit room of the governors mansion in Louisiana. Entering stage left we see a well dressed, slim ethnic man in his mid thirties approach the center of the camera's view. Why it's govenor "Bobby"! Dressed in a nice suit with a red candy striped tie. When he first began talking I was taken aback. It seemed as if he was speaking to a 2nd grade elementary class. His delivery and intonation reminded me of the narrator in one of those industrial films that explained how the food we see on the supermarket shelves got there. " First the farmer plants the seed, the crops grow, then they are harvested, processed and delivered to your local store by very very big trucks. See, there's Mr. Grocer waving good bye to one of the truck drivers." The following is some excerpts from the Republican response:

Bobby: "As I grew up, my mom and dad taught me the values that attracted them to this country - and they instilled in me an immigrant's wonder at the greatness of America. As a child, I remember going to the grocery store with my dad. Growing up in India, he had seen extreme poverty. And as we walked through the aisles, looking at the endless variety on the shelves, he would tell me: 'Bobby, Americans can do anything.' I still believe that to this day. (First of all , I betcha the Governor's dad called him Piyush and not "Bobby". Second of all, Daddy Jindal should have told his son, "See how lucky Americans are by virtue of geography? ")

He went on pretty much saying that the Democrats and Obama need to listen to the Republican's ideas, then listed the ideas that were nearly verbatim what Obama said in his speech.

Jindal: "That is why Republicans put forward plans to create jobs by lowering income tax rates for working families, cutting taxes for small businesses, strengthening incentives for businesses to invest in new equipment and hire new workers, and stabilizing home values by creating a new tax credit for home-buyers. These plans would cost less and create more jobs. But Democratic leaders in Congress (Excuse Me? All those things are in the stimulus bill. He needs to go on line and read the thing.) -- they rejected this approach. (No, Mr. Jindal. They did not.) Instead of trusting us to make wise decisions with our own money, they passed the largest government spending bill in history, with a price tag of more than $1 trillion with interest. While some of the projects in the bill make sense, their legislation is loaded with wasteful spending. It includes $300 million to buy new cars for the government, (Um, Mr. Jindal, I believe these are more fuel efficient vehicles and will help keep jobs in American owned auto companies) $8 billion for high-speed rail projects, such as a "magnetic levitation" line from Las Vegas to Disneyland, (Okay Bobby. If you read the bill you'd know that there is no such provision. Although there should be. "magnetic levitation" is a wonderful advancement in mass transit and has been put to use most effectively in other countries like France, Germany, and Sweden. Not to mention the jobs that would be created, idiot. ) and $140 million for something called "volcano monitoring." (Yeah, keeping tabs on volcanic activity inside active volcanoes so that people living near them could be warned of an impending eruption, and be able to evacute before being covered in lava or lethal ash, seems like a real waste of money. Unless of course you happen to live in California, Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon, Wyoming or Washington. ) Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C. "

So, in a nut shell the republican response to Obama's speech was to remind us that Americans not the government can fix our problems. Just like Obama said and Jindal ignored. The republican response consisted of doing pretty much everything Obama recommended, except improve health care, education, and squelch Union participation. The republicans seem to be the party of spoiled children who just want to say "No!" Then restate the very ideas they said no to as if it was their idea. And oh yeah, don't forget their propensity for just out and out lying about what is in the stimulus bill. From a mouse in Pulosi's district to the bullet train from Vegas to Disneyland. Interesting to note that all of the special provisions (pork) that was added to the original bill were written in by the republicans in both houses.

DaG Out