The Last Yawn (Mary Lyon)

by Mary Lyon, From The Left -- World News Trust

-- What was the best part of the 2008 State of the Union speech by George W. Bush? Two things: It is, thankfully, his last such speech. And it, too, is now finished, just as he himself is for all intents and purposes. And whatever you might think of the pluses or minuses of the event, those two items are indeed good things.

I've never been impressed with much of what Young George has ever had to say -- about this, or anything else. His words and messages and priorities leave me cold. His final State of the Union speech was just as lackluster. Throughout, I got the distinct feeling that he was merely going through the motions, half-heartedly, almost bored with it, apathetic, uninspired, as eager for it to be over as I was (well how 'bout that? The little cowboy and I actually may agree on something!). Up in the rafters, both his daughters looked bored and applauded accordingly. At one point, a roving camera cut to some fellow in the audience who contributed a large, long, and cavernous yawn. It took until 35 minutes after the hour for Bush even to broach the touchy subject of Iraq and 52 minutes into the hour before he arrived at his favorite malapropism: nu-cu-lar. Three times for that one. The usual cheap applause line came somewhere in between -- about our troops enjoying the gratitude of a whole nation. That was one of a glaringly few moments in which everyone in the house rose to their feet. Not surprisingly, slightly less than half the house was enthusiastic enough to offer many standing ovations. Those came only from the Toady Society on the GOP side of the aisle. The Democrats for the most part stayed in their seats. Shrewdly, Dubya snuck in a plug for his onetime memoir "A Charge to Keep" by adding that very slogan to his speech fairly close to the top. Clever move! Perhaps he's thinking ahead to money-making strategies after his final departure from Washington. It's a nice buzz phrase to throw in, I suppose, especially since he didn't have many more, and that one is hardly memorable.

Some random observations:

Nancy Pelosi wore a light shade of purple -- perhaps trying to offer an outward sign about bipartisanship between the blue team and the red team. She didn't blink nearly as frequently. Cheney on the other hand sat there stonefaced, and inert, like a fat toad waiting for the right bug to fly by. Or like Jabba the Hutt. Whichever applies.

Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush both wore vivid, look-at-me red suits. Laura evidently took a page from Nancy Reagan not only in staging but in making sure her wardrobe selection made her stand out from a relatively drab human tableau around her. She presumably also learned from that Oscar de la Renta wardrobe malfunction in which a handful of elegant female supporters arrived at a White House gala wearing "her" same fancy red gown. Barack Obama and Ted Kennedy, whose announced campaign alliance earlier in the day bigfooted even this annual extravaganza, sat side by side, wearing frowns throughout the ordeal.

Contradicta appeared in an almost virginal white outfit. She sat in front, on the aisle, easy to see, but appeared to exercise some serious caution at the end when it clearly appeared as though she was trying to delay her exit. Always a good idea to drag it out discreetly to maintain a safe, gossip-proof distance from her president as he slowly headed toward the back door, signing autographs along the way. People do talk, after all. That's probably why the shamelessly slobbering Minnesota floozy-congresswoman Michele Bachmann didn't have such a great seat this year. This rendered her unable to drape herself around Junior's neck perhaps in hopes of being dragged across town to some private discussion in the Situation Room with her hero. And for the first time, I noticed that, aside from the fans along the aisle, the room behind Dubya had emptied startlingly quickly. I wouldn't have wanted to stick around, either.

We learned that Iran is still pursuing nu-cu-lar weapons (even though George's own National Intelligence Estimate very recently debunked all such claims). We learned that terrorists still hate us for our freedoms. We learned about a fabled "Anbar Awakening" campaign among the Iraqi people, "American and Iraqi surges" (I didn't realize there was more than one), and a "protective overwatch mission" that our troops in Iraq may someday pursue, as soon as pigs fly and Barbara Bush donates her triple-strand pearls to a fundraiser for the American Civil Liberties Union. So little meat in this buffet that it almost made me miss the dreaded "weapons of mass destruction-related program activities" canard of yesteryear.

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http://www.worldnewstrust.com/commentary/the-last-yawn-mary-lyon.html

ever-lovin' face off. I think I might even have walked out if I'd been in there. I was gratified to see how few standing ovations or acknowledgments our people offered. At LEAST they did that much. I would have liked to have seen more defiant gestures. We should certainly match gentility and civility when it comes our way, but sometimes a punch in the nose and a kick in the groin would be a more appropriate response. Like whenever the bad guys act like ASSHOLES. Which, unfortunately, is most of the time.

It's how most of the World see him, between fits of sheer terror over his warmongering, anyway. Maybe he'd get a clue from it. :shrug:

Of course, he won't. Yawning at him is the best - or at least most polite - reaction most of us have, I think. As for me, I've got a few flying fingers for him instead.

But wasn't it the crappiest, most half-assed SOTU speech in memory? Unfortunately for us, it's something we can count on receiving from this jerk.

He's outta here.

Nice piece!

Not the way I would have liked, evidently, but rid of him is still rid of him. Couldn't happen quickly enough for me.

Thanks, bleev! :hi:

:hi:

!

...and all that.

:toast:

A lot of great (and funny) observations. Being from Minnesota, my favorite was this:

"...the shamelessly slobbering Minnesota floozy-congresswoman Michele Bachmann didn't have such a great seat this year. This rendered her unable to drape herself around Junior's neck perhaps in hopes of being dragged across town to some private discussion in the Situation Room with her hero."

:rofl:

My condolences to the people of your state - who have to endure the likes of her. Holy COW that was a ridiculous display last year. Why didn't she just give him a Monica in front of everybody? It's probably what she secretly WANTED to do. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, she should be ashamed of herself!

Of course, we here in California "proudly" brought you such human dumpsters as duke cunningham, duncan hunter, dana rohrabacher, and the lovely and talented "B-One Bob" - the ridiculous bob dornan - who mercifully was put out to pasture awhile ago by voters in Orange County who finally came to their senses. GEEEEZ he was a piece of work... So let me just say WE CALIFORNIANS SURE KNOW TALENT around here!!! (After all, WE brought you nixon and reagan, too, didn't we?!) And the folks in the Inland Empire used to have to suffer under the vomitous carlos moorehead, mercifully retired years ago. Dear God he stunk. I met him once. Arrogant bloviating putz. We had a close friend in his district in Glendale - boy did she despise him! Used to complain about him all the time.

So don't feel bad. There are germs everywhere, it seems.


BTW - thanks again!

She is absolutely barking mad. There's a whole blog about her antics: http://dumpbachmann.blogspot.com/

so I didn't have to watch. Glad the Dems didn't applaud a lot. I would have given him a Bronx cheer.

That would have been sweet indeed. Certainly well-deserved. And about seven years late. Bastard shouldn't even be up there to begin with!

I enjoyed it. The "so little meat in this buffet" caught my eye...well put!

It was such a poor performance even he probably didn't like it much.

But then again, this SOB has probably hated most of his time there - the last thing he ever wanted to do was anything remotely resembling work.

How does it feel, george, to know how many people wish you were gone already?

Hey, Mary, loved your descriptive commentary of Bush's last verbal stand at the not-so-okay corral. I have never watched one of these speeches since I have had Bush* on Ignore for the last seven years. He's banned from my household, as is Fox News. So your piece was especially meaningful to me, convincing me I have missed exactly nothing during the Long Ignore. I look forward to coming back later for a second read and perhaps some more meaningful commentary.

In the meantime, thank you so much for your contribution of wit in words on this site. Boy, we really needed that.

Sam

Talk at you later, and it's so nice to see you posting here.

The Long Ignore. Fitting. He's certainly returned the favor to you - and all the rest of us who oppose him. What a miserable seven-and-some years this has been. I'm 54, so I've seen enough already, but I've NEVER seen it quite this bad. EVER.

Hugs to ya! :yourock:

"Did you catch Mary Lyon's "The Last Yawn" on GD-P?


If you just couldn't bring yourself to watch or listen to the State of the Union address, read the words of a great DU'er who managed to suffer through it with at least one eye open. Catch her verbal comments here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... "

to invite more traffic to see it. There are many DU'ers who need a smile during this tough primary season. And this thread will enable them to take a bite out of Bush instead of their fellow DU'ers!

Sam

And I like your point - let's take a bite out of bush instead of each other! That's what we should be doing ANYWAY. Because WE are not the enemy. dubya is. dubya and his flying monkey brigades. Brigand brigades.

his or her reaction known over here.

It's so demoralizing to put so much time and effort into a thought-provoking thread only to see it sink faster and lower than the dollar in the imbalanced trade toilet. So I try to flush these out as often as I can, kicking them back into the DU public eye ....

Sam

K&R

Gratitude-R-Us!

It's the ONLY reason * face is EVER on my telly screen!

Thanks for the great recap, Mary! :woohoo::hi:

announce an old movie that was playing on the then-Late Show, tell everybody to turn the sound down, and turn OUR sound up on the campus radio station. We called it "Foon's Revenge." Imagine what the Credibility Gap or Firesign Theater could have done with this one, 'eh? Hell, we in college radio could have done enough of a number on it, and we were rank amateurs.

That ought to be the next game played at the next speech or press conference. And a lot less fattening than the usual drinking games that often accompany these things. Turn the sound down and YOU fill in the blanks! I guarantee you even your worst moments would have been FAR more entertaining than anything he said last night. Including that stupid joke about the IRS. Oh, God, you're SO funny and adorable, george. NOT!!!

unfortunate thing that flew by. Could not get that image out of my mind. Especially since he sits there and doesn't blink. Just spooky! He's probably the scariest guy on the planet. REALLY evil and unnerving. And it's probably because we all know pretty well what is very likely going on BEHIND that evil and unnerving facial expression - what that evil mind is fixating on now. :scared:

We'll probably be too busy this evening - with the guilty pleasure of watching rudy giuliani melting! He's MELTING!!! AAAAHHHhhhhhhhh!!!! Whotta world! Whotta world...

Sorry, but that putz DESERVES it. After tonight, the only significant number won't be 9/11, but rather 86.

But Jon Stuart did such a funny show about the State of the Union speech on Tuesday night 1/29 that my sides hurt from laughing so much!!!!!!

Unless I get my "funny bone" hit from Keith Olbermann at 5 PM PT and/or Jon Stewart at 11 PM PT, I am not a happy camper. You just have to be able to maintain a sense of humor and a sense of proportion in these challenging but interesting times.

Best to you, your hubby and family,

Radio Lady Ellen

I, too, need my daily dose of Olbermann and Stewart, otherwise I start feeling constipated!