The rest of the NFZ is planning on providing an analysis of tonight's State of the Union address. In fact, even as we speak most of the Zoners are huddled together in an IRC channel, clutching bottles of virtual alcohol and placing bets about who'll drop at which repetition of the word "freedom" or "democracy."
Everybody except me, that is. I trust the other Zoners can handle the meat of Bush's speech and what it means - or if it means anything - in terms of the 2004 elections, Bush's chances of staying out of prison, etc. We'll know his policies for the year, sort of, by what he mentions and doesn't mention in his speech. But there are things that Bush would never mention, because to do so would sink him utterly, and that's where we'll go tonight.
(A word of warning, I started this just before the speech began, and and flying essentially blind except for commentary in the afformentioned IRC channel. So I'll probably get some things wrong. Selah.)
Ready? Strap yourself in, because it's bumpy down there in the dark where the swine go to die....
First of all, the ultimate question: Where's Osama? It's been two years now, we bombed Afghanistan into and out of the Stone Age, crushed a truly repressive regime and stomped most of al-Quaeda's centralized organization flat, but the man himself, the Don of Dons, we ain't found him. We haven't found him alive, nor have we got any conclusive evidence that he's dead. Expect lots of talk about how we're winning the War on Terra, but don't expect him to say the dreaded name of Osama bin Laden: Somebody might notice the great failure.
Speaking of great failures, Bush will make a lot of noise about Iraq, but if he's smart he'll never let on that his puppet menagerie has decided to abandon secular law for the harsh rule of Shari'a. You know, the stuff that hardline Taliban types used to make Afghanistan a living hell for women? The laws that made "religious police" in Saudi Arabia back in 2002 block rescue support to a burning girl's school because it would've been indecent? Yeah, those guys. You'll hear a lot about new-found freedom in Iraq, but you won't hear about that. You sure as hell won't hear about the efforts of the Iraqi Communist Party to bring secular democracy to Iraq, either.
Bush will make a big todo about how things are "getting better" and we're nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, all thanks to his brilliant leadership and deft tax cuts, of course. Meanwhile, indicators show that the country's economy is hanging by a very thin thread between recovery and unimaginable disaster. Unemployment is incredibly high, with the only drop in the numbers coming from people who've gone off unemployment insurance and thus no longer "count" on the official tally. Sure, the stock market may be cresting 10,000 for the first time in two years, but that doesn't help the people without stock options, who were laid off because the CEO robbed the piggybank blind, or the Board of Directors decided that it would be easier to outsource their jobs to Third World nations that don't worry about such piddling things as "living wages" or "health insurance."
He sure as hell won't mention that the tax cuts don't benefit the middle class nearly as much as they do the top 5% of the country.
He won't mention his support for such charming places as Uzbekistan, our ally in the War on Terra, where the local strongman has a penchant for torturing people who defy his will. He won't mention that the British are starting to doubt his plan to caucus and abandon Iraq. He won't mention his gutting of NASA to fuel a poorly-conceived space program.
Most of all, he won't mention that Karl Rove, his political fixer-in-chief, makes all of his decisions in order to steal the thunder of anybody else who might share the political spotlight. Because if he did mention it, then he'd have to mention that despite all his fundraising, all his grandstanding and all the media support he currently has, he's down to 50% in the opinion polls and not rising even a fraction of an inch.
And that just would not do.
Posted by the Fourth Man at January 20, 2004 06:26 PM