Day Eighteen, plus my take on the State of the union

Today is day 18 for me and I am proud to say day 3 for Mike, congrats Honey!



I thought that last night was going to difficult to get through after watching President Obama's speech. I was thinking about it all day, and could not wait to watch it. For those of you who don't know I've been watching the State of the Union every year since my junior year in high school. We had this amazing history/poli sci teacher, Mr. Zdun, who made our assignment Jr. year to watch President Bill Clinton give the state of the union and count how many standing O's he received. Now watching him speak was easy, he was charismatic, believable, and the first president that really cared about me and my family. He wasn't some old man who I couldn't identify with, he was roughly my parents age, and his daughter and I are close in age, so I identified with her and through her him.



I have continued to watch every year, even if I didn't support who was in the office, I felt it was important to know where our elected leader (even if I didn't vote for him) said the direction of the country was going, because it affects us all. So I sat through 8 long years of listening to Bush bully his way through congress and the American people.



There are a few point that I would like to touch on from the President's speech, and a few other things that I noticed. I don't want to argue with anyone, but this is my blog and I can say whatever I want. If your opinions differ and you would like a friendly debate, please comment, but make sure you are respectful, or your comment will get deleted. I don't expect everyone or anyone to agree with me, but you respect me, I'll respect you.



One other quick note, I have voted in every election, general, primary, and special since I turned 18. The first thing I did on the morning of my 18th birthday was register to vote, and I vote democrat! There are three major ideals that I look for in a candidate: 1. Equal rights for EVERYONE including women and homosexuals. 2. Equal rights to healthcare, affordable coverage for lower or no income families, meaning everyone in the country, no matter what have access to healthcare and will not go broke and lose their house if something happens to them. 3. Women’s right to choose, this is SO important to me. Absolutely no one can tell me what to do with my body.



So now my take on the State of the Union.



The first thing I noticed, and haven't heard anyone comment on was all of the color worn on the left side of the house, and how the right looked like a bunch of Mr. Burns' going to a funeral. I even went as far as when the right stood up when the President talked about nuclear power to imagine them all tapping their fingers together saying sinisterly "excellent".



Things the republicans did not stand up for, so I can only assume they hate: Small business, clean air, college education, healthy middle class and poor people, Haiti, fighting AIDS, lowing the number of nuclear weapons, and immigrant, including the legal ones (I would take this to mean they all think they are Native American)



I can't wait until August to be out of Iraq, and for our men and women in the armed forces to finally come home, although I am not naive I do believe that many of them will end up on Afghanistan or Iran (If you watched last night, you would know that Iran is in trouble)



I liked that he took a stand and said if the jobs bill and healthcare do not meet his standards he will veto them. I would like to see him stick to that.

There was a 4 trillion deficit before he walked in the door from the Bush administration not paying for two wars, he's only added 1 trillion and has a plan to pay that back, so stop blaming him for the deficit.



Thank you Mr. President for calling out the Dems for not taking advantage of their majority in both houses, push though the bills that we believe in! Thank you for asking for partnership and for calling out the Republicans for constantly seeking election and not doing their job. Thank you for talking about all of the silly pundents, they are both on the left and right, but mostly right. They are looking for ratings, and the crazier they get, the better the ratings. Please people if you listen to Fox News all day, put on MSNBC for an hour just to hear the other side. I listen to both sides, and can't help but laugh at them all.



Promised again to eliminate don't ask don't tell, it's about damn time! The military leaders don't look happy about that. I don't understand what the problem with this is, what is the difference if a solider is straight or gay, how does that make the person less able to serve their country, especially in a time of war. Someone wants to go out to the desert and fight and defend our freedom, let them. We allow any religion or color, so why not orientation? Will someone please explain this to me!



I was wondering how he would say it, but after all of this I understand, why we may be going through a hard time and recovering from a great loss the state of our union is still good, even though he didn't say it, but I trust its in good hands.



"We don't quit, I DON'T QUIT"



Thank you President Obama for everything that you have done already and will do for the next 3 for sure, but I hope 7 more years. You will always have my support, even if I don't agree with everything (which you have yet given me something to disagree with)