Here is the transcript, followed by the video:
Additionally some followup notes from the White House.
HuffPo has a top 10 quotes list from the speech.
Plus a good piece by Gail Collins on the angry speech of the day.
And a decent analysis piece on the speech by E.J. Dionne.
Wow, it has been a bad couple days for book lovers and those who value freedom and integrity.
I read this morning that J.D. Salinger has passed. Here is his obit at The New York Times and over at the BBC, plus a post over at Powell’s Books.
A really odd cat, but definitely one of our more free-spirited Americans.
Of more personal import is the death of Howard Zinn (obits at The New York Times and The Washington Post, plus the Powell’s Books entry).
I’ve enjoyed Zinn’s work on pushing the stories of real Americans to the forefront of our history. More importantly, his work has been critical in making sure we don’t whitewash our history or gloss over the hard parts, or even the bad decisions. If you have only been taught Texas conservative Talibangelical/Luddite BS, you know nothing about the history of this nation, warts and all. It is a damned shame too many of our students and only getting the sanitized version.
He didn’t report it either: he lived it, fighting during World War II (and losing the taste for war) as well as being a force for chance for change during the Civil Rights era). In this age of Tea Baggery and people proud of their stupidity, we need people like Zinn more than ever.
A glimpse of how bad things are in California. Glitzy, wealthy, opulent buildings and a completely broke state government.
In short, there are a lot things that need fixed in the old Bear Republic, but I’m not sure that is an easy fix by anyone’s imagining.
The problem with conservatives is that they often make oaths or promise things and then conveniently forget it when the moment comes to be ethical or just keep their word. Senator Patrick Leahy calls out Samuel Alito for basically lying to Congress during his confirmation hearings.
Why this is relevant today of all days is that Justice Alito went all Joe Wilson last night and broke decorum by editorializing during the State of the Union speech. Check it out:
What a turd. You are supposed to be above party bickering. That said, given said body’s response to weigh in on, much less ever bother to hear, Bush v. Gore pretty much says everything you need to know about the current Supreme Court.
As the lead-in states, getting Haiti’s internet stable seems really low on the priority list when people still can’t get proper food and shelter after the quake.
That said, the nation needs to get it’s infrastructure back up if it wants to get out of the state of emergency. And these seem like the folks who can get it done.
I love that this trend is back.
It’s always fun to get attached to a local brew and then be able to take some home. Growlers are key to this ritual and should I ever live in a place that has good regional microbrews again, I’ll be using this service.
Here is a story from Chicago on the subject.