2012 State of the Union Address

I wish they would institute those debate rules Newt is all up in arms about and have all these yahoos sit down and shut the fuck up so this doesn't take too long.

Is it just me or the inside of the House look really small this year?

"Some even said we should let it die." COUGHMITTCOUGH

Unionized plant?  A decent job is a decent job.  Ask those automakers and their employees that didn't need to bailed out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cylon Baby 

My question: whose Tie is flashier: Biden's or Boehner's? WHO WILL WIN THE TIE WAR?!

Didn't pay attention til you mentioned.  Now my epilepsy is acting up.  Thanks, Joe!

That woman is embarrassed as all hell to be on national TV.

The nuclear plant near me is building two new reactors.  They are doing that exact partnership right now with the tech college I teach at to train the 80% of their 2000+ new jobs that will need 2 year degrees.

Yes, let's dump more money into the hands of teachers unions and then fire the ones who don't do their jobs.  Who is he kidding?

I can't believe he is getting such stuttering stop and start applause.  That just seems weird.

Oh, I'm here. Listening. Waiting. Waiting for the moment for the Canadians to seize control.

Pandering to unions?  Check.  Youth vote?  Check.  Hispanics?  Check.

I'm laughing at them cutting to McCain just as refuses to take part in a standing ovation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLassiter 

I'm laughing at them cutting to McCain just as refuses to take part in a standing ovation.

I completely expected him to do this:

Stumbled over his own "luxury yacht" talking point?  Sounds like the room is sucking the life out of him too.

Let's double down on Solyndra. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cylon Baby 

All Obama's "special guests" look like someone is holding a gun to their backs.

Seriously.  I have never seen the guests look so uncomfortable to be there.

Energy incentives to upgrade their buildings?  Didn't he tell the coal industry "I don't care how clean you make it, I will bankrupt you"?

Quote:

Originally Posted by TzuDohNihm 

Negative talking point knee jerk reaction. 

Sigh. Tzu, this is starting to feel like the Ron Paul thread. I'm getting ready for you to link to YouTube videos to answer every goddamned thing Obama says.

Zing at Bush, followed by terrifying closeup of Lieberman.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TzuDohNihm 

Yes, let's dump more money into the hands of teachers unions and then fire the ones who don't do their jobs.  Who is he kidding?

Are you even listening? He never mentioned unions and he specifically spoke to getting rid of poor, unqualified teachers, which pretty much directly flies in the face of the union. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cylon Baby 

This is a much more balanced speech than I anticipated. He's being true to form: Talking about reforming regulations to get rid of bullshit regs yet making sure people have some basic protections from fraud and bad faith practices.

It is much less than the campaign stump speech that the media has ginned up over the past few days.  I can give him that.  It feels like a decent policy proposal and not a reelect me screed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker 

Sigh. Tzu, this is starting to feel like the Ron Paul thread. I'm getting ready for you to link to YouTube videos to answer every goddamned thing Obama says.

Maybe Tzu got kicked off the Free Republic forums right before the speech and this forum was his fallback for all the verbal 'zingers' he has been thinking up all day....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parker 

Are you even listening? He never mentioned unions and he specifically spoke to getting rid of poor, unqualified teachers, which pretty much directly flies in the face of the union. 

If you feel that he wasn't speaking to the teachers unions right there then I refuse to converse further with you.  Once that money begins to flow into the school districts and shore up teachers jobs as a bone to his union votes getting rid of poor teachers will be even harder than it is now.  Want to save money on education and give it to teachers?  Then eliminate the nearly 1:2 ratio of administrators to teachers and get more teachers and less suits at the top draining needed funds.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TzuDohNihm 

If you feel that he wasn't speaking to the teachers unions right there then I refuse to converse further with you.  Once that money begins to flow into the school districts and shore up teachers jobs as a bone to his union votes getting rid of poor teachers will be even harder than it is now.  Want to save money on education and give it to teachers?  Then eliminate the nearly 1:2 ratio of administrators to teachers and get more teachers and less suits at the top draining needed funds.

First, agree with you about the suits. Superintendents make a ridiculous amount of money and do next to nothing in a lot of cases. But I think you're naive if you think that's the only problem with education.

He was talking about education reform, wasn't he? Reform. Reform. I'm pretty confident that you know what that word means. I'm not saying he's out there saying "unions got to go," but if you think unions are part of the problem while he's specifically talking about focusing on resources to ensure good teachers keep their jobs while bad ones get the boot, clearly reform has to be about reforming the union to a certain extent, no? There are plenty of educational advancements theories about this out there. I'm not saying they're what I want to happen (god forbid teachers are protected) and naturally, they're unpopular with the union, but they're gaining momentum. 

I just feel like this is the worst, laziest kind of argument. "Education sucks because of the unions --- BUT DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT DOING ANYTHING ABOUT IT." Just shut the fuck up already if that's your stance. I refuse to converse with you if your answer on something as important as education reform doesn't include any reform. 

Ginsburg looked like the Chamberlain right there.

The 1:2 ratio is bullshit, Young Republican nonsense math.

Boehner is worried about his Tar Sands investments.

Tzu's "1:2 administrator/teacher" ratio, took a bit longer to post up then I expected.

*That number is arrived at by classifying all non-teaching positions (janitors, guidance counselors, etc.) as 'administrative'.

Damn, girl.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zhukov 

The 1:2 ratio is bullshit

Probably, but school district administrators make a ridiculous amount of money and then use their bloated budgets to hire assistants to do what little work they have for them. It's a problem. In New York, the Governor put a cap on Superintendent salaries, so the one from my home town's school district created a new position for himself, gave himself a raise and then hired one of his buddies to take his Superintendent position. It might not be 1:2, but that's a problem no matter how you color it.

No doubt Superintendents are paid too much, but this is the Administration that has gotten exactly no credit for its Race to the Top program, which is as least a realistic attempt to solve some of these education issues, instead of slapping a bullshit curriculum across the country and calling it 'No Child Left Behind.'