State of the Union

If you didn't see it, check out www.whitehouse.gov (the official whitehouse website). It has a (no longer) live podcast of Bush's State of the Union address.

Bush talked a lot, but I'm waiting to see him take some action. His ideas about guest workers is interesting, but I believe that he must supply some easier method for citizenship.
Bush also mentioned Darfur, yet even as he talked about the genocide, he tactfully avoided referring for it as such. He also talked about combating HIV and malaria in Africa, which I fully support. I just wish he would take money from the military and give it to education (science/math especially) and NASA. It worked in the past to fuel government-funded technology, ending up with inventions such as, perhaps most importantly, the modern computer.

The President also talked about common heroes, talking about the American character, saying that we can never give up or stand down when faced with a challenge. Which, of course, was all pointed towards saying that we cannot pull out of Iraq. There's a difference between strong character and an unwillingness to face the truth of the matter: we have no reason to be in Iraq right now.

Bush also sneaked (snuck? the auto-correct doesn't like that :P ) in a bit about global warming. He had a plan to cut American oil consumption by 20 % over 10 years, limiting our need for foreign oil and helping to fight global warming. This just-proposed plan has showed up after years of criticism from Americans and foreign His plan came after his first mention of our "addiction to oil", which caused him to give 10 billion over a period of time (I can't remember how many years right now) to help lower the use of oil in cars and homes, the two primary sources of oil use.

In the end, his entire speech was geared towards getting support for his increase of soldiers in Iraq , since Congress is held by the generally Iraq-war-opposed Dems. His common heroes, global warming, disease fighting, and more all were angled towards his desire to increase troops in Iraq.