75 rounds of applause

[bigdawg2003]

I kid you not people, I counted every single one of them during the address. More amazing when you consider about 1/3rd of the speech (Iraq) had no applause whatsoever.

Uhh, about the speech itself?

Hmmmmm, Saddam is a bad man
Alternative fuel is a good idea
Was Ted Kennedy asleep? (They focused on him at one point in the FOX telecast and he looks fast asleep.)

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

Seemed like a synopsis of all his minor speeches and press releases the past 7 months .Except that I noticed more Saddam Bashing .

[sabotai]

That's why I don't watch these things anymore. One sentance followed by 10 seconds of applause. Repeat for 1 hour.

Got better things to do that watch people clap for an hour.

[Easy Mac]

I didn't really find anything new.

And what the hell is a weapon of mass distruction? Is it like nukes? b/c then Sadaam has none. Or is it like a group of any weapons that could kill an indeterminate amount of people.

I think he should have tried to explain the difference b/t Iraq and NK. I think that would have alleviated some of the outcry over why we're going after Iraq instead of NK (which, if I had to choose, Iraq is the better choice to attack).

Overall a pretty bland speech, I thought his writers sucked this time. He looked almost smug at times and tried to come off as too sincere, but all presidents do that when trying to appeal to the public. Nothing he said really gave reason to support the war, and I don't think he said anything to piss off any other country like the "axis of evil" shit (although I felt he intimated a slight at Europeans when he kind of implied we were the ones who drove out the Nazi's, pretty much alone. If I were British and especially Russian, I'd be kind of pissed).

I'd give the speech a C. Felt like any old state of the union address.

[Raiders Army]

If you think about it, Bush contradicted himself.

Hydrogen powered cars? (and hey, doesn't his family own most of the oil in Texas?)

WMD--Hydrogen bombs? So, let me get this straight: we want to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, yet drive in them when our grandkids are our age!

On a serious note...the schools have gotten better??? I think not, if Texas is any example. The TOS test is one of the most moronic tests ever, since teachers in Texas admit to teaching the test so that students pass and can move on to the next grade. There is no latitude whatsoever to teach anything other than what is on the TOS. And to think, I'm going to give my life for this country so my children's future can go out the window in education...

[sterlingice]

It's the TAAS test, btw. If I remember right, they "recentered" it like the SAT a few of years ago which automatically passed more people.

SI

[Raiders Army]

My bad...I forgot this was the last year.

Oh, by the way, did you know that El Paso's School District Superintendent is getting paid a little over $200,000 per year? And this is below the Texas average. Funny, considering the top teacher salary is a little over $65,000 per year and the average is $35,000 per year. (This is in El Paso, TX, where, oh by the way, my son took Spainish as one of his classes in 1st-3rd grade)

[SackAttack]

I don't know that I'd argue the US drove the Nazi's out of power unilaterally, but it's highly unlikely that Britain could have held out with most of Western Europe under the sway of Hitler, and Russia didn't have much success driving the Germans out of their country until we opened up fronts in Normandy and Italy. Once that happened, the Nazi war machine fell apart fairly quickly.

Did it by ourselves? No, not hardly. But I'd be very skeptical about Russia's and Britain's ability to do it without us.

[McSweeny]

at quick glance i thought the title of this thread was

"75 pounds of applesauce"

[Easy Mac]

Yeah I agree, but it seemed the way Bush said it. It felt like he was saying WE ended Nazi-ism, Communism and Militarism (maybe the last 2). Strangely, my girl asked me if he really just said we alone beat the Nazi's... I think I'm finally getting her out of her highly conservative point of view, and at least nudging her towards the center. :)

[ISiddiqui]

And what the hell is a weapon of mass distruction?

WMDs are Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical weapons (also refered to as NBC weapons, but I'm sure that the National Broadcasting Company doesn't like that name ;)).

Hydrogen powered cars? (and hey, doesn't his family own most of the oil in Texas?)

WMD--Hydrogen bombs? So, let me get this straight: we want to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, yet drive in them when our grandkids are our age!

:confused:

What? How is this contradictory? You can be against nuclear weapons and yet be pro nuclear power you realize?

And I did think it was interesting that he pushed for hydo research, going against the perseption he is 'Big Oil'.

--

I liked the speech. I though increases in spending for hydogen research, and AIDS relief in Africa were great proposals. I also thought we should make the tax cuts permanent. I like how he said that people should decide what to do with their Social Security money as well.

[TredWel]

Originally posted by McSweeny
at quick glance i thought the title of this thread was

"75 pounds of applesauce"

Power of suggestion in action, folks.

I backed out of this thread to the main forum, and lo and behold, some joker really did start a "75 pounds of applesauce" thread.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I was just reading "75 rounds of applause" again.

[bbor]

MMMMMMMMMmmmm.....Applesauce

[gespacho]

If the U.S. doesn't go after Saddam, who will?

Seems like a pretty strong argument to me. I can't imagine anyone seriously making a case that if we left Saddam alone than he would leave the U.S. alone.

God, I love being able to post :)

[Kam]

The Washington Post has a transcript of the speech with all of the applause (not applesauce, that was detailed in the food section) included.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/onpolitics/transcripts/bushtext_012803.html

[Raiders Army]

WMD--Hydrogen bombs? So, let me get this straight: we want to get rid of weapons of mass destruction, yet drive in them when our grandkids are our age!

What? How is this contradictory? You can be against nuclear weapons and yet be pro nuclear power you realize?

ISiddiqui,

Realize I was just trying to make a joke...albeit a bad one. :)

[Bee]

I think the official count was 77.

[scooper]

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[Easy Mac]

Originally posted by gespacho
If the U.S. doesn't go after Saddam, who will?

Seems like a pretty strong argument to me. I can't imagine anyone seriously making a case that if we left Saddam alone than he would leave the U.S. alone.

God, I love being able to post :)

No one messed with Sadaam til '90, he didn't come after the US.

No one has messed with him since (besides sanctions), he didn't come after the US...

See a pattern. Sadaam isn't as big a threat to us as he is our alles such as Israel. It just helps to rally with battle cries of protecting the US instead of foreign countries. Makes perfect sense.

It's fun to twist words so lets do this:

If Sadaam doesn't go after the US, who will?
Seems like a pretty strong argument to me. I can't imagine anyone seriously making a case that if he left the US alone than we would leave Sadaam alone.

I'm not saying Sadaam is all peaches and cream, but Bush needs to do something for more support from the public, b/c once that first casaualty happens, people are really going to want to know why.

[cincyreds]

Yeah. Way to many applauses!!

Why can't they just tell everyone to hold their applause until it is over?

[Dutch]

It's fun to twist words so lets do this:

I'm not saying Sadaam is all peaches and cream, but Bush needs to do something for more support from the public, b/c once that first casaualty happens, people are really going to want to know why.

Fair enough, Easy Mac. I have one question out of curiosity. What do you do if you were President (with regards to UN Sanctions, Iraq disobeying resolutions, questions about WMD, Links to Al Qaeda?). I'm curious.

[Easy Mac]

Originally posted by Dutch
Fair enough, Easy Mac. I have one question out of curiosity. What do you do if you were President (with regards to UN Sanctions, Iraq disobeying resolutions, questions about WMD, Links to Al Qaeda?). I'm curious.

Focus on the one thing that should have been concluded long ago. Bin Laden. Within a month Bush had moved on to Iraq, without even addressing the Bin Laden situation.

[Bonegavel]

Bush is playing this perfectly. The Dems are crying for UN support and they are trying to paint Bush as a lone cowboy who doesn't want to listen to the UN. The Dems are crying "give them more time!"

Well, as it turns out, Bush is completely complying with the UN. Sadaam is not complying with THEIR resolutions. If the UN wants to make themselves relevant at all, they need to set deadlines and then keep them. If Sadaam is given a deadline, then he breaks it, and nothing is done about it, what motivation does he have to comply?

The Gulf War ended because Sadaam agreed to abide by UN resolutions that stated he must destroy his WMD (among other things). He hasn't. The onus is on Sadaam to show that he has done what he was supposed to do. He hasn't.

Personally, I hope the liberals continue their tirades against all of this because they are wrong. Even Hans "can't find a WMD to save my life" Blix isn't suggesting the inspectors get more time. He is being spurned at every turn.

Iraq is not complying. This isn't a trivial issue like he cheated at tiddly winks and must apologize. This man has weapons that will melt your face off like the end scene in Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark.

One of the government's constitutional duties is to protect us from foreign harm. I think this falls under this category.