Dubya’s state of the union address this year was pretty much as expected and enough to make most of us roll our eyes skyward at least once…
His description of a country that “is being held hostage by a small elite that is isolating and repressing it’s people” seemed at last like an admission of the failings of his administration…until we realised he was talking about Iran. I’m no advocate of Iran as a nuclear power, but after the whole Iraq fiasco, it must be clear to the governments of other middle eastern countries that the best way to avoid a US-led invasion is to point a couple of warheads down the most likely invasion route!
Can’t blame em for thinking like that…
Then came a gobsmacker; America, ‘W’ said, had to break it’s “addiction” on imported oil “through technology”! It seemed rather like a crack dealer telling his customers that they had become addicted to his product and should admit themselves to rehab as soon as possible.
He went on to say that he would seek a 22% increase in funding for nuclear and renewable energy. Given his current record, this is of course likely to translate into a massive increase in nuclear power stations (no doubt with the Bush/Bin Laden family-led Carlyle group and Haliburton as major stakeholders) and a single windmill somewhere in Alaska (probably used at a drilling site).
In a week where his buddy ex-Enron CEO Kenneth Lay is on trial as a key defendent in the most massive fraud in American history, the speech contained little in the way of references to key domestic issues such as rising inflation and unemployment, a colossal trade deficit and the sorry state of all US public services.
Iraq of course was still on the agenda, although Ol’ George has obviously taken a bit of advice from Don and Dick this year and played down the whole mess (especially how much it’s costing the US taxpayer).
All in all it was the usual scenario; a (mostly) predictable monologue, stumbled through by a semi-literate who has to run his finger along the lines as he speaks, to avoid losing his place.
Roll on 2008!
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