Obama's Big Speech: I'm Not Afraid Anymore!

Even though Politico is busting out the knee pads to go to town on the prez, that clip from Donnie Darko pretty much summarizes the naivete of it all. Our national debt is approaching the stratosphere due to wasteful government spending combined with an over eagerness for tax cuts. The President adequately addressed this problem at the beginning of his speech, but thinks he can get us out of the mess by providing more loans, debt, and tax cuts! I know I'm not some Nobel economist, but I don't get it. If the people loaning us money (China, Saudi Sheikhs, etc.) acted like a regular repo service, the White House furniture would've been confiscated years ago and every president since Kennedy would've had their knee caps busted. Our country is living way beyond our means in material consumption and the sooner we realize that, the sooner we can achieve a more frugal and responsible society. Trying to counteract market forces of slowing down excessive credit and weeding out shitty banks with the help of federal government just means people with lobbyists get to play by their own rules and continue the Ponzi economy. Sucks for the rest of us.

I also enjoyed the President's swat at "no-bid" contracts in Iraq. That would've been swell to say in like 2003, but the era of big reconstruction projects in Messopotamia is over, which the Ambassador made very clear back in 2008. Seems like Bush-era campaign rhetoric, which is pretty lame considering he's the Commander-in-Chief and could've used this speech to show some real leadership on foreign policy. The specifics of where he is going to cut the DoD budget will be of interest, and it seems rather risky in a time of war. I was generally supportive of most of the O's foreign policy so far, but I'm not so sure anymore.

As for Jindal, the consesus is he pretty much sucked (and that's from the big conservative blogs!). What was that shit about the Bullet Train to Vegas? Why does the GOP hate mass transit so much? The road between Southern California and Vegas (made famous by the late, great Hunter S. Thompson) is a well known death trap, constantly snarled with traffic, and in dire need of an alternative. That shit would pay for itself in a heartbeat. Oh well.

Next time, they should let Joe Biden just talk. Reason compiled a funny vid of his gaffes. I love that guy.