The Union of the Snake is on the climb

The Snake of the Union gives his State of the Union

To the surprise of nobody, Dubya's final state of the union address held no real surprises. Really just the same crap from a lame duck president trying to cover his incompetent ass by offering "help" for the American people and economy which leaves people wondering where the hell he's been the last 7 years.

Oh, that's right... he was using all that time to screw things up in the first place, thus requiring his "ideas" of how to fix things.

Well, I wouldn't exactly say "fix" unless you consider a temporary band-aid on the economy and more tax cuts for the wealthy a "fix".

Like the "surge" in Iraq, I think it's safe to say that Georgie is doing all he can to try to duct-tape his teetering mess in the hope that he'll have safely shuffled out the door chuckling before it all comes tumbling down upon his successor, who will have to deal with a record deficit and trying to escape the quagmire of Iraq.

Bush's final State of the Union address seems to mainly underscore what, to me, makes him such a failure. He seems to live in a world of his own. He can't be bothered to research information or to accept other people's ideas or thoughts. To him, the concept of "bi-partisanship" means the other side sees things his way. He has a tunnel vision view of the world that refuses to let in anything that he doesn't want to see. And he would rather take the country down with him in flames than to ever admit he made a mistake. If he was supposed to walk into a red room - but accidently walked into a blue one - instead of backing out and finding the red room, he would order his aides to get brushes and rollers and paint the blue room red to avoid having to admit he goofed. Iraq was a blue room he said was red with WMD's and al-Queda. When that didn't pan out, out came the brushes and rollers.

And his speech made it clear - he is going to stick with his vision, his strategy and his decisions on Iraq – no matter what the world, the American voters, the new Democratic Congress, the ’08 presidential contenders or even his fellow Republicans want. King George shares the crown with no one.

Here's a few observations on his address:

He talked about trusting and empowering people. Hard to believe he trusts those he wire taps and restricts civil liberties to.

Him saying he's committed to scientists and trusts their research rings hollow when all he has done is pooh-pooh their findings on global climate change and water down or veto any legislation that would address it should it prove inconvenient to corporate profits.

He still continues to bang the drum on the "No Child Left Behind" act, not wanting to hear how the Feds not funding it as they said they would has caused states to scramble to pay for it by cutting out arts and music and afterschool programs. It's meant big profits to the special interests who put together the testing criteria and supplies.

Bush likes to point out how the surge has slowed down troop deaths and pushed back the "enemy", but he never brings up what happens beyond that. When we stop throwing billions and billions into Iraq, don't the insurgents just come right back? Is the reason he refuses to give a timetable to withdraw because he knows he's screwed that country up so bad that our troops may be a permanent band-aid that can't be pulled off without blood once again rushing out? And he would then have to admit the obvious which is we NEVER should have opened that Pandora'sBox and invaded in the first place.

He says our goal in Iraq is to "remove conditions that inspire hatred" there, which comes across with more than an ounce of irony considering that our invasion and presence there has caused a very large portion of it.

He wants to make his "tax cuts" permanent, regardless of our huge deficit, thinking that it can all be made up by simply cutting out governmental programs. Of course, not surprisingly, those programs are usually the ones that hit the poor and middle class hardest, preferring to leave in place all the corporate welfare for his business cronies.

As George W. Bush prepares to leave office, he obviously is scrambling in the 11th hour to try to leave behind some kind of legacy. Sadly for him (and our nation), despite his spin doctors, his legacy will be that a needless war brought forth by an administration rife with war-profiteers and imperialists has left our country deep in debt and regarded in much of the world as almost as great a threat to peace as the “evil” people we have been fighting for six years.

And it sucks that his "surge" in Iraq and temporary economic "stimulus" proposal will do just what he wants it to do... stall the collapse of his house of cards until he has exited the stage in order to put the blame on the next administration. Sort of like leaving behind a roadside bomb.

As Steve would say - Bastard!