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Sputnick, salmon, high speed rail

Okay, I lied. I did watch Obama’s State of the Union speech. In fact, I’ve watched it over and over and over tonight.

See, I was going to make you a nice little YouTube highlight reel, but I just couldn’t grab a clean copy. Sometimes I managed to download video but no audio. And sometimes I got video but it juddered horribly. And sometimes…oh, fuck it. You get the idea. I gave up in the end. Clearly I have some things to work out, videographically.

So what did I think of the speech? Honestly? I didn’t think it was as bad as people are saying.

I mean, it was a mess philosophically. The Sputnik metaphor doesn’t work at all, and — oh, dear god! — high speed rail?! Really? That one’s older than I am. It was a muddle, but it was a low-key muddle.

He didn’t flip anybody off. He managed to look reasonably gracious congratulating Boehner. He didn’t come across as too stuck up or madder’n hell. He didn’t look like he was sucking a lemon.

I was terribly disappointed.

Comments


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: January 27, 2011, 12:28 am

The High Speed Rail crap is basically about maintainting payouts to Amtrak union employees, while paying lip service to the calls to defund Amtrak and make them support themselves for a change.


Comment from Hiyu
Time: January 27, 2011, 12:55 am

He always seemed to be a decent guy, he just doesn’t always tell people what he’s doing, or just how hard his job was. Even Bush was better at telling people what he was doing (although whether it was him doing any of it is still debatable).
By the way, my Steam’s hiyougami if you want some chitchat and gaming goodness. You don’t have to, of course ^^


Comment from Elphaba
Time: January 27, 2011, 1:32 am

Um, nice, polite bit of spam that got through! WTH, Akismet?!

I still cannot make myself watch the SOTU. The O’s mannerisms make me twitch.


Comment from Can’t hark my cry
Time: January 27, 2011, 1:48 am

Elphaba–I dunno. Call me naive, but that sounded like a real person to me. And the link (yup, I followed it, after taking a look at the actual link text) leads you to what looks like a real person, who is not offering pharmaceuticals, female companionship, or the internet equivalent of STDs. I think he’s for real. Hiya, Hiyu! Welcome to minionhood!


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: January 27, 2011, 2:10 am

Oh, did you all catch Dingy harry Reid telling Obama to keep his fraking nose out of the Senate’s earmarks process?

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/26/5925377-reid-to-obama-on-earmarks-back-off

It was even better than all the handwringing in the Celeb blogs about the Unbearable whiteness of the Oscars….

Yep, not a SINGLE person of Color nominated for ANTHING this year….

http://blog.moviefone.com/2011/01/26/black-oscar-nominees-2011/


Comment from MCPO Airdale
Time: January 27, 2011, 2:59 am

Meh. Teh iWon’s head was on a swivel keeping his eyes on the teleprompter. “Investments” = more borrowing. Freezing spending? Please! Look at federal spending growth since 2006. We should be back at 1998 levels.


Comment from Mono The Elder
Time: January 27, 2011, 3:36 am

I plan to ignore his speech. It’s more of a state of being than anything else…..


Comment from SCOTTtheBADGER
Time: January 27, 2011, 3:48 am

I like your drawing of an EMD E-Unit.


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: January 27, 2011, 3:53 am

Yes, Barry. Lets FREEZE spending at it’s highest levels EVER…

GREAT freakin plan….


Comment from Skandi Recluse
Time: January 27, 2011, 3:58 am

MS Weasel, when a known confidence man starts sounding reasonable to you, cover your ears and run like hell as far away as you can get.


Comment from JeffS
Time: January 27, 2011, 4:10 am

I hate watching Obama because he’s the most transparent liar EVAH.

It’s easy to tell when he’s lying: his lips are moving.


Comment from Deborah
Time: January 27, 2011, 6:54 am

I have read transcripts of Obama speeches and press conferences, but I have never deliberately listened to any of his speeches. It’s easier on my digestion if I don’t hear his voice.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 27, 2011, 10:46 am

I generally find watching Obama speak really annoying. He’s got that smarty-pants ‘sibilant S’ thing (I have a dreadful feeling I used to read aloud with a whistling S back in high school).

Somehow, he wasn’t as irritating this time. I even had to go back and check to make sure the teleprompters were there, because he didn’t ping-pong as badly as usual.

Maybe being knocked down a peg or two has made him less insufferable, but I wouldn’t have thought he had the personal resilience.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 27, 2011, 10:52 am

Oh, I’m sure hiyougami is real. The gaming platform Steam has this little dialogue box thingie so you can chat with your friends while you play; that’s what he’s referring to. I’ve never used it, because a) I don’t know anyone else on Steam and b) how’n the heck do you chat while mutant alien zombies try to rip your head off?

I generally stay away from Steam’s multiplayer games. I’m a fifty year old woman. I am no match for 14-year-old-boy reflexes. I materialize, I die. I materialize, I die. I materialize, I die.

Sometimes, I can find a quiet corner and a rocket launcher, but this practice is known as “camping” and is much frowned upon in 14-year-old-boy circles.


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: January 27, 2011, 11:50 am

You could ALWAYS pretend you’re a 14-year-old girl. That DOES tend to distract 14-year-old boys…

On the Internet, NOBODY knows you are REALLY Moochelle Obama…
}:-]


Comment from Dick Bacon
Time: January 27, 2011, 2:58 pm

I hate Obama as much as the next patriot, and I agree– the speech was kind of listenable. I listened to the whole things, including that one good joke he made there. I disagreed with every policy he mentioned, but the speech on the whole was positive and nonpartisan.


Comment from steve
Time: January 27, 2011, 6:16 pm

Welcome to minionhood!

For whatever demented reason….flashes of Fred Rogers are rattling around in my head, now….

It’s a beautiful day in the minionhood
A beautiful day for a minion…..

(Thanks a great big buttload Can’t Hark….I’m gonna have that stupid, twisted earworm for a long while, I fear)


Comment from Can’t hark my cry
Time: January 27, 2011, 7:11 pm

steve–well, you just returned the favor. . .


Comment from Scubafreak
Time: January 27, 2011, 8:33 pm

Steve, If I’m gonna be a Minion, I want some cool denim overalls, and a set of those steel and coke-bottle goggles……

AND unlimited Cinna-minions at IHOP….


Comment from Sockless Joe
Time: January 27, 2011, 10:40 pm

The thing I haven’t figured out yet about the Sputnik thing –> What thing or event represents the “Sputnik” in this metaphor?

“This is our Sputnik moment.” -What “this”?


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: January 27, 2011, 11:36 pm

Near as I can puzzle it out, the financial crisis is our Sputnik — something that scares the hell out of us and spurs us to greatness.

But that implies China is our Russia. So are supposed to be scared and paranoid about them? They have an awful lot of our IOU’s for us to be tugging their chain.


Comment from Frit
Time: January 28, 2011, 12:26 am

I’m not sure what the reference to Sputnik was for in the speech, but when I was a Dial-A-Geek, (tech support for an ISP back in the old USofA,) my co-workers and I often wished we could apply what we called the “Sputnik Solution” to some of the more clueless or troublesome callers. I.E.; Wrap about 3′ of det cord around their necks and launch their brainboxes into low orbit. Problem solved.
😉

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