- Working together - The political in fighting between parties has to end. Success will only be realized if both parties work together. That includes us as citizens on the ground making shit happen.
- Do we want to send our jobs to China or keep them at home. If we want jobs here we need to be willing to really compete for them. Union wages are simply not competitive in todays world. We need to have the guts to change the way we think about manufacturing jobs and wages to compete in todays competitive market.
- The President mentioned our lack of math and science education. In a world full of Math and Science why in hell are we not focused on them? It is unacceptable for us to be so far behind the curve on these subjects. We need to kick ass and put these subjects where they belong! Science should be taught in the classroom every day from kindergarten on!
- Of everything the President spoke about I believe that clean energy is the most important piece of the pie as far as the economy goes. The fact that we are still head locked by the oil producing nations pisses me off. We can create so many jobs by investing in clean energy! Creating an industry that will free us as a nation, clean up the world, and provide jobs for our kids in the future is something we cannot afford to hand to China! We need to spend the money on this right now so that we don't get behind the curve...we need to win this one or we are screwed!
- I agree with the President that it is high time we stopped subsidizing the oil industry in any way. They have record profits every year! Why in hell are we doing anything to subsidize them! I believe they should be regulated much the same way we regulate our utilities. Making record profits at the expense of us trying to heat our homes is bullshit!
- I love the President's quote about kids winning the science fair! Hell yes! Science is where our future lies and where our kids focus should be. Not to mention science is just plain fun!
- Teachers - The President made reference that our teacher need to be nation builders! It is my opinion that we need to fire every shitty teacher out there and pay wages worthy of such an important position. In a country where ambulance chasers get paid millions a year, I think it is high time we reward the people who teach our youth with a heft pay hike for improved performance!
- Illegal immigration. We need to embrace the diversity that we have in this country. It is going to cost us more to deport illegals than it is to make them citizens and put them to work! We need to continue our tradition as a nation of immigrants. Fresh blood brings new ideas, varied work force, and will continue to keep us great!
- The fact that the Chinese have the fastest train in the world pisses me off! Why the hell does a country who can't even build a goddmaned drill that doesn't burn out after 5 uses build the fastest train in the world while we sit on our asses. We need to win these "battles".
- Cut the waste in spending accross the board! Kick ass and take names! A study should be done on how the Marine Corps can survive on such a limited budget and still be the finest, most prepared fighting force in military history. Follow their model on spending!
- I like the fact that the President emphasized the fact that we live in the greatest country on earth. Remind your kids as often as you can about how and why we're great. It is our duty as citizens of this country to show our kids what it takes to be the best. We need to show the world that we aren't screwing around anymore and we are here to kick ass and take names as an economic and military power!
Wacky Dad
Excellent summation and you are on point. Especially having a kid that's going to be a part of the future generation. I want this country to be the best it can be.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed! The longer we mess around the harder it will be to stay on top! Thanks for the comments - they are my favorite part of this blog!
ReplyDeleteWhat I got to see or hear of it sounded like a high school pep rally.
ReplyDeleteA huge standing ovation from both sides when he mentioned how much we appreciate the sacrifice of our military forces; I'll bet there aren't a dozen sons or daughters of any of those hypocrites who are, or have had military service.
What they appreciate is that their kids don't have to do the country's dirty work.
Even the supreme court doesn't want to attend this fiasco any more.
It's about boosting his poll ratings and nothing more.
Eric, a few of my comments to your points and a summation (needs to be a couple of posts due to size):
ReplyDeleteFirst my general thoughts: becoming more and more cynical the older I get, feel that special interests have and always will “run” things because we are too damn lazy to get involved (including myself in this) - when was the last time “you” went to a town\city council meeting, school committee meeting, general assembly session? Until we wake-up and realize that WE have to participate, we will continue down the same path.
Also, this speech seemed to be more of a campaign speech than a State of the Union. Yes, we need to eliminate our use of fossil fuels and yes we need to become more competitive in the every shrinking global economy, but what the hell is he doing talking about 2090?
• Working together – completely agree that the in fighting has to stop; however we (supposedly) put people in office because of their philosophies\ideological ideas match ours. Until we citizens can agree on how the country to be run, I cannot see the elected fools (excuse me – officials) accomplishing much
• We absolutely need to keep jobs here: are Americans willing to change their lifestyles? We need to work to drive costs of goods down so that we can afford to buy American products. How do we do that? Be willing to get paid less and decrease taxes and other financial burdens. The president talked about changing the tax structure, making it easier to file taxes. Want to make it really easy – go to a personal flat tax. Everyone pays 5% (or whatever is appropriate) of the income, eliminating all deductions. Why this won’t happen: virtually eliminate 90 % of the IRS jobs and also have a major impact on the accounting community.
• It is shameful that in grade school my kids were REQUIRED to use calculators. Math and science are critical for growth as you mention, we should not be getting our asses kicked in these areas.
ReplyDelete• Why on earth do we not harness wind power, wave power and solar power more than we do now? Wind turbines are “too ugly”, yet we have no problem poisoning the earth will airborne and ground contaminants. We need to figure this out, like yesterday!
• We need to stop subsidizing ALL industries: you want money to grow your business, get a loan like everyone else.
• AMEN
• Teachers: in any profession if you do a bad job, you should lose your job (when it is within your control). A good argument can be made that we are not funding schools properly which hinders teachers from being successful. Also there is the lazy or poor student: how do we address that? Not always the teachers fault, but the administrators need to be able to track and trend to determine who is succeeding and who isn’t.
• Illegal immigration: yes too costly too to kick the people who are here out, but we need to make penalties for people who hire illegals and we need to toughen our border policies to stop the influx of illegals coming in. I am all for immigrants who come here LEGALLY and contribute to the system. It is the people who come illegally, don’t pay taxes and drain our services that I have an issue with.
• We do need to win the science and technology battles to succeed, but we in no way need to have the fastest trains in the world. Amtrak has been hemorrhaging for years and we continue to bail them out: we are not a country where mass transit will work and we should not be compared to Europe: each country there is the size of RI or Delaware of goodness sake!
ReplyDelete• If the government was a business, they would go bankrupt or be shut down for the way money is wasted. Too many government contractors are marking items up 100-300 percent because it is the government and getting away with it. Case in point: I had to provide a hard quote to the DOD to come out to perform a service. We were told that the proposal would take up to 3 months to approve and that when approved, it would be paid for the EXACT dollar amount on the proposal. I had to quote the most expensive airfare, hotel and car costs because we didn’t want to lose money on incurred expenses. Our costs came in significantly lower but we got paid full amount. How many other times does this occur? Simple solution to this: require that all expenses get billed at actual and set rules to types of flights that can be taken, hotels that can be stayed at and cars that can be rented.
• We do live in the greatest country in the world: where else can you live the kind of life we live, travel freely without question and be able to openly question the government? Not to mention being able to make your own way with business endeavors and all the other rights and privileges we enjoy.
Great comments Steve! You need a blog!
ReplyDelete