I was going to post something last night but in the end decided to skip the SOTU speech for a video game or something. I did end up watching the end of it and was immediately repulsed by the faith-based initiatives that he put forward. There are programs that essentially become proselytization engines rather than simple community outreach. There are a number of other issues with the particular policy proposals. A variety of different analyses can be found around the web. I will be sure to link to the ones I find interesting as I get time.

I do want to point out two things I found interesting while reading the official transcript (again, with Bush’s pauses and gaffs edited out). Voters should be careful about the “If not for me” tone that permeates this speech. It’s worse than normal speeches because the issues surround significant deceptions by this administration. If you read the speech, you would believe that we never fought terrorism before the Bush administration (not true). You might also believe that all schools (outside of Texas) were in trouble before the No Child Left Behind Act. You might believe that nothing is being done to prevent STD transmission among youth if Bush doesn’t get his money for his grassroots abstinence education program (which doesn’t work, but let’s not quibble the details). You might also believe that Saddam would be on the way to a large arsenal of weapons of mass destruction if it wasn’t for the Bush war (I love this bit of English-mangling:Already, the Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities What does that mean? Are we still talking about the scribbles?)

It’s important to be careful about these type of statements from both sides of the upcoming Presidential debate. It’s even more important to be careful about comments like this from the Bush administration which has lied repeatedly about our reasons for going to war in Iraq, our evidence for war, impact of his education legislation, the distribution of benefits from the tax cuts, job creation, and their dishonesty about the energy policy drafted in 2001 and leaks from the White House.

More on this as I get time.