State of the Union

[Donkey®]

Not only was it a fun speech, calling the Supreme Court out right in front of their faces on National TV was true baller.

[Salty Dog]

After watching the speech and the even more laughable Republican rebuttle, it should only further show neither party really gives two flying fucks about solving any of these major issues to insure our benefit for the future.



Obamanation swung for the fence, let's see where it lands.

[The Great Catpiss]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

Not only was it a fun speech, calling the Supreme Court out right in front of their faces on National TV was true baller.

That was funny. It looked like 2 of the judges actually were happy to hear it and applauded. The other judges just had a blank stare, like what the fuck...

I got lucky to catch that, as it is difficult to watch anything that has Pelosi on the screen. I was listening to most of it, while eating dinner.

Here is a recap of the rest of his speech:
1. Make an empty promise that you can do anything. Pause and wait for the innocent/ignorant applause.
2. Make a joke about how bad things are and that we should be using common sense. Pause and wait for the laugh.
3. Bring up a fake analogy to win peoples affection. pause and wait for the heartfelt applause
4. Repeat step 1

[The Great Catpiss]

Obama was suggesting a bill that would cap donations, but didn't the judges rule that it was part of free speech? Anything from this point forward would not be constitutional. It seems we would first need to change or get rid of free speech for such a law to be enforcable.

[stolz25]

Aww crap, I missed the state of the union. That makes 28 straight unwatched for me now. I wonder what the record is.

[The Great Catpiss]

YouTube - Pres. Obama's First State of the Union...

Go to about 47:30.

[kinggovernor]

for a constitutional scholar he does not articulate his disagreement with the court's decision well

however, I wish we would ignore the ruling

[kinggovernor]

Chris Matthews is such a racist
RealClearPolitics - Video - MSNBC's Matthews On Obama: "I Forgot He Was Black Tonight"

[kinggovernor]

YouTube - Alito mouths "not true" as Obama...

you can see Alito's visible reaction and they all look uncomfortable

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by The Great Catpiss

That was funny. It looked like 2 of the judges actually were happy to hear it and applauded. The other judges just had a blank stare, like what the fuck...

When I saw it live I missed the people applauding, haven't gone back to rewatch it, but I did notice Alito emotionally/verbally respond. That was out of line. I also noticed a few judges smile real big. The Supreme Court is not supposed to respond to anything. They're supposed to sit there and shutup.

I'm not too sure how I feel about Obama calling them out. I'm glad we have a president who's willing to do it, but once again he didn't reference the law. He just gave his opinion of the negative consequences. The Supreme Court is not supposed to rule based on personal opinion of consequences. They are supposed to rule based on the law.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

Chris Matthews is such a racist
RealClearPolitics - Video - MSNBC's Matthews On Obama: "I Forgot He Was Black Tonight"

The man has reduced himself to Olbermann/O'Rielly status and it's sad because I used to like his show a lot.

[JaJae]

I didn't catch all of the speech, but I saw quite a bit. Obama is always more bipartisan in his speeches than he is when promoting legislation. One thing that caught me off guard a bit though was that when he was repeatedly calling for bipartisan it went down in the following steps:

1. Call for bipartisan
2. Insult Republicans
3. Wait for standing ovation from Democrats
4. Rinse and repeat

I don't know if this was the best method of getting his point across to lawmakers, but it definitely sounded nice to the viewers. Overall though, I thought he gave a great speech. Normally state of the union addresses are quite boring. Obama managed to keep your attention.

I didn't like that they put Biden and Pelosi behind him in the camera view though, it was distracting. I would have preferred a more close up view of Obama. He was turning his head to talk to each teleprompter every 3 seconds. And you could tell Biden/Pelosi were reading along on the teleprompters, but because of their angle they had to look across to the one on an angle from them. If you look closely there were times Biden's body language responded to something just before Obama started saying it.

[JaJae]

Here is a response to Obama's comment to the Supreme Court:

This time, Justice Alito shook his head as if to rebut the president’s characterization of the Citizens United decision, and seemed to mouth the words “not true.” Indeed, Mr. Obama’s description of the holding of the case was imprecise. He said the court had “reversed a century of law.”

The law that Congress enacted in the populist days of the early 20th century prohibited direct corporate contributions to political campaigns. That law was not at issue in the Citizens United case, and is still on the books. Rather, the court struck down a more complicated statute that barred corporations and unions from spending money directly from their treasuries — as opposed to their political action committees — on television advertising to urge a vote for or against a federal candidate in the period immediately before the election. It is true, though, that the majority wrote so broadly about corporate free speech rights as to call into question other limitations as well — although not necessarily the existing ban on direct contributions.

But this was a populist night and the target was irresistible. There are a variety of specific proposals floating around to address the Citizens United decision. The president offered no specifics and did not endorse any of them. Just as the decision doesn’t lend itself to a sound bite, neither do the fixes.

Justice Alito’s Reaction - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

[JaJae]

And the AP fact check of the speech:
FACT CHECK: Obama and a toothless commission
By CALVIN WOODWARD
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Updated: 2:21 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, 2010
Published: 8:36 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010
President Barack Obama told Americans the bipartisan deficit commission he will appoint won't just be "one of those Washington gimmicks." Left unspoken in that assurance was the fact that the commission won't have any teeth.

Obama confronted some tough realities in his State of the Union speech Wednesday night, chief among them that Americans are continuing to lose their health insurance as Congress struggles to pass an overhaul.

Yet some of his ideas for moving ahead skirted the complex political circumstances standing in his way.

A look at some of Obama's claims and how they compare with the facts:

___

OBAMA: "Starting in 2011, we are prepared to freeze government spending for three years. Spending related to our national security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will not be affected. But all other discretionary government programs will. Like any cash-strapped family, we will work within a budget to invest in what we need and sacrifice what we don't."

THE FACTS: The anticipated savings from this proposal would amount to less than 1 percent of the deficit — and that's if the president can persuade Congress to go along.

Obama is a convert to the cause of broad spending freezes. In the presidential campaign, he criticized Republican opponent John McCain for suggesting one. "The problem with a spending freeze is you're using a hatchet where you need a scalpel," he said a month before the election. Now, Obama wants domestic spending held steady in most areas where the government can control year-to-year costs. The proposal is similar to McCain's.

___

OBAMA: "I've called for a bipartisan fiscal commission, modeled on a proposal by Republican Judd Gregg and Democrat Kent Conrad. This can't be one of those Washington gimmicks that lets us pretend we solved a problem. The commission will have to provide a specific set of solutions by a certain deadline. Yesterday, the Senate blocked a bill that would have created this commission. So I will issue an executive order that will allow us to go forward, because I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans."

THE FACTS: Any commission that Obama creates would be a weak substitute for what he really wanted — a commission created by Congress that could force lawmakers to consider unpopular remedies to reduce the debt, including curbing politically sensitive entitlements like Social Security and Medicare. That idea crashed in the Senate this week, defeated by equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. Any commission set up by Obama alone would lack authority to force its recommendations before Congress, and would stand almost no chance of success.

___

OBAMA: Discussing his health care initiative, he said, "Our approach would preserve the right of Americans who have insurance to keep their doctor and their plan."

THE FACTS: The Democratic legislation now hanging in limbo on Capitol Hill aims to keep people with employer-sponsored coverage — the majority of Americans under age 65 — in the plans they already have. But Obama can't guarantee people won't see higher rates or fewer benefits in their existing plans. Because of elements such as new taxes on insurance companies, insurers could change what they offer or how much it costs. Moreover, Democrats have proposed a series of changes to the Medicare program for people 65 and older that would certainly pinch benefits enjoyed by some seniors. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted cuts for those enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans.

___

OBAMA: The president issued a populist broadside against lobbyists, saying they have "outsized influence" over the government. He said his administration has "excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs." He also said it's time to "require lobbyists to disclose each contact they make on behalf of a client with my administration or Congress" and "to put strict limits on the contributions that lobbyists give to candidates for federal office."

THE FACTS: Obama has limited the hiring of lobbyists for administration jobs, but the ban isn't absolute; seven waivers from the ban have been granted to White House officials alone. Getting lobbyists to report every contact they make with the federal government would be difficult at best; Congress would have to change the law, and that's unlikely to happen. And lobbyists already are subject to strict limits on political giving. Just like every other American, they're limited to giving $2,400 per election to federal candidates, with an overall ceiling of $115,500 every two years.

___

OBAMA: "Because of the steps we took, there are about 2 million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed. ... And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year."

THE FACTS: The success of the Obama-pushed economic stimulus that Congress approved early last year has been an ongoing point of contention. In December, the administration reported that recipients of direct assistance from the government created or saved about 650,000 jobs. The number was based on self-reporting by recipients and some of the calculations were shown to be in error.

The Congressional Budget Office has been much more guarded than Obama in characterizing the success of the stimulus plan. In November, it reported that the stimulus increased the number of people employed by between 600,000 and 1.6 million "compared with what those values would have been otherwise." It said the ranges "reflect the uncertainty of such estimates." And it added, "It is impossible to determine how many of the reported jobs would have existed in the absence of the stimulus package."

___

OBAMA: He called for action by the White House and Congress "to do our work openly, and to give our people the government they deserve."

THE FACTS: Obama skipped past a broken promise from his campaign — to have the negotiations for health care legislation broadcast on C-SPAN "so that people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents, and who are making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." Instead, Democrats in the White House and Congress have conducted the usual private negotiations, making multibillion-dollar deals with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and other stakeholders behind closed doors. Nor has Obama lived up consistently to his pledge to ensure that legislation is posted online for five days before it's acted upon.

___

OBAMA: "The United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades."

THE FACTS: Despite insisting early last year that they would complete the negotiations in time to avoid expiration of the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in early December, the U.S. and Russia failed to do so. And while officials say they think a deal on a new treaty is within reach, there has been no breakthrough. A new round of talks is set to start Monday. One important sticking point: disagreement over including missile defense issues in a new accord. If completed, the new deal may arguably be the farthest-reaching arms control treaty since the original 1991 agreement. An interim deal reached in 2002 did not include its own rules on verifying nuclear reductions.

___

OBAMA: Drawing on classified information, he claimed more success than his predecessor at killing terrorists: "And in the last year, hundreds of al-Qaida's fighters and affiliates, including many senior leaders, have been captured or killed — far more than in 2008."

THE FACTS: It is an impossible claim to verify. Neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has published enemy body counts, particularly those targeted by armed drones in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region. The pace of drone attacks has increased dramatically in the last 18 months, according to congressional officials briefed on the secret program.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn, Jim Drinkard, Erica Werner, Robert Burns and Pamela Hess contributed to this report.

___

[kinggovernor]

The Associated Press is just full of hateful haters

[The Esteemed Gentleman]

Originally Posted by JaJae

Here is a response to Obama's comment to the Supreme Court:

Justice Alito’s Reaction - Opinionator Blog - NYTimes.com

god forbid Obama get his facts right. Or, more importantly, the law right, for the that matter.


SIDE NOTE: It is interesting in his dissent how Justice Stevens seems to lament how this decision will give unfettered rights to foreign controlled corporations to voice their opinions on political matters during elections in this country, but has no issues giving terrorists caught overseas the criminal protections provided for in Constitutional law. I suppose the opposite argument could be made regarding the conservative wing of the court, but in reality the arguments are not the same. Not giving terrorists caught overseas fighting Americans American rights does not effect ordinary American criminal defendants, whereas giving American businesses and unions more political speech rights has as a byproduct of that freedom that foreign companies also have those speech rights. Just my take.

EDIT: I misstated an above contention, that being that foreign companies may now have the right to unduly influence US elections via spending (which is one of the arguments Obama has against the decision). Turns out I (and Obama) are wrong. Justice Kennedy specifically states that the decision does not effect foreign coroporations, only American ones. Thanks to the NYTimes of all places for the heads-up.

"But in his majority opinion in the case, Citizens United vs. the Federal Election Commission, Justice Anthony Kennedy specifically wrote that the opinion did not address the question of foreign companies. “We need not reach the question of whether the government has a compelling interesting in preventing foreign individuals or associations from influencing our Nation’s political process,” he wrote. The court held that the First Amendment protected the right of American corporations to spend money on independent political commercials for or against candidates."

[Donkey®]

As far as the Supreme Court thing goes...

Before sleeping on it, I thought it might be a little out of line for him to call them out. But, he called out Congress. He called out the Supreme Court. It's a founding principle of our government and way of life...separation of powers and the right to free speech. As I stated in the ruling thread about that court case, it was a pointless statute to have in the first place as corporations do whatever they want anyway. I don't care if it's on the books or not. If Obama wants to call them out for it, fine, but get Congress to write something different in it's place.

[Donkey®]

Originally Posted by kinggovernor

The Associated Press is just full of hateful haters

They use the word "if" a lot to try and substantiate their claims. I think if that's all they can come up with then what he said was pretty accurate.

[The Esteemed Gentleman]

Originally Posted by Donkey®

As far as the Supreme Court thing goes...

Before sleeping on it, I thought it might be a little out of line for him to call them out. But, he called out Congress. He called out the Supreme Court.

Well, fair enough. I wouldn't want to leave anyone out either I suppose lol.

[The Esteemed Gentleman]

SCOTUSblog has a pretty good write up about the decision, the hubub over Obama's criticism of the Court (it almost never happens), and similar decisions of this Court which have actually benefited left-wing groups or causes (ie, Emily's List).

I can't imagine why the president didn't criticize that decision, though.



(Note: I posted this in the thread about the case as well.)