state of the union reaction...

bless andrew sullivan and his unrelenting "pass.the.damn.bill." series. hopefully people start to listen. if we don't get health reform now, we won't likely get it at all...

re: the creep, i sent that comment out to a couple dozen friends and they all were unanimously freaked out by it. to the point that even the next day i had girlfriends e-mailing to be like, "i'm still thinking about how creepy that is." so WAY TO GO! random guy who was so delusional to think that i even noticed him, much less would welcome such a comment.

SOTU: it was laid back and funny at moments, some ad-libbing peppered in, which isn't something i remember being much a part of any SOTUs in recent memory. that's obama for you, i suppose. his comfort at the podium is unmatched. i think as far as substance, he hit the points he needed to. pelosi's blinking still makes me batty.

i wish he'd been more specific that the house pass the senate bill. because it's the quickest way to the best plan. this is a no brainer. srsly. it's interesting to see where he appeals to people. "america doesn't come in second place" is the macho competitive line. but he needs "the woman, who wants to be her own boss" to be able to achieve success as a small business.

he, rightly, pointed out that the US is failing as far as clean energy and transportation goes. and that, you know, if we invested money where we see the highest prospect for growth, that it's a win-win situation. i'm glad he talked about hating the bailout because i think people still believe it's something he wanted to do. it sucked but it DID need to be done. i've read volumes on this shit, people. TRUST. putting jobs front and center was right and necessary.

i cringed when obama said, "just stating the facts" after reminding people that bush fucked a lot of things up. i was waiting for a "you lie!" but i guess the GOPers aren't dumb enough to let that happen again? i sympathized with the section about bipartisanship, about disagreeing to disagree, about the media's "win the day" and i admire that he's still trying this, has stood by this attempt to change the way things work in DC. fantastic of him to point out that, NO, you don't actually need 60 votes to pass a bill and YES the dems DO have a majority. SHOCKING. get some fucking shit done please!

blah blah non-defense discretionary spending: key words for the ages. freeze, fine, if you must. i'm not that offended. it's a small carrot at the end of a stick. he, unfortunately announced the freeze as an independent action instead of using it for leverage. politically, that's a failure.

HALLELUJAH on the DADT section. i think he should have started in on that while talking about national security, not equal rights. the argument is stronger when you talk about how fucking expensive it is to both fire and then replace teh gays. in all, this is but a minor quibble. i also did think the same thing (as did everyone else, by the look of twitter): In 2011, gays also get to openly be denied PTSD benefits after killing people for wars started on false pretenses.

the ending killed. so emo. so touchy feely. it's his sweet spot and he knows it.

i thought he hit every topic he needed to, said almost the perfect amount on each, said it reasonably. really, totally great speech (not perfect), delivered beautifully.

GOP response was lame but didn't suck! surprisingly! live audiences make a difference. as does not having a guy who sounds like kenny the paige. that being said, obama took the wind out of the sails on almost every talking point from the repubs that are going out now.

cute bit from ben smith. embargoes! hahaha

people are making lots of funny jokes on twitter re: the strategically placed minorities behind mcdonell. because it's true, there probably aren't any republican minorities in VA. or if there are, he found every single one of them to stand back there. of course, they might be democrats but oh! they weren't invited. (but then were invited once people pointed out that they hadn't been invited, a whole 2 hours before the actual speech was to begin.)

dceiver, as always, was an amazing liveblogger. i don't follow anyone else on twitter so consistently clever and quick. his american idol recaps are brilliant.

texted kate to see how her dr appt went today. she was in the hospital, on steroids (which will make the baby grow, fast, so helps lung development, etc.) because her cervix is 90% thin and she'll likely be delivering within the next week or so. she's at 29 weeks, so she's early. the baby will probably have to live at the hospital for a month, but she's (most importantly) probably going to be perfectly healthy. cross your fingers or pray for her, if that's your sort of thing. i'll probably have to get the fuck outta dodge the minute she checks herself in, seeing as she wants me in the room with her as she delivers? yikes.

unpromted product recommendation: crest is making a 3D whitestrip and they are awesome. they stay put and don't get slimy. oh, is this where i need the "i got this free" disclosure? for real, i get a lot of things for free because i know a hell of a lot of people in PR. i write about what i want to write about. the end. and nobody gives me things because i'll write about them. my friends give all their friends free things because they actually LIKE the product and are happy selling it. imagine...