January 2007 Archives

I've had a Sony MP3 player for sometime that I've really enjoyed, but recently, I got gifted an iPod Shuffle, so I'm going to try it out to see how it compares to the Sony.

My needs are a little different from a typical MP3 player user. I mostly use it to listen to audio books while I ride the train back and forth to work. So, shuffle mode is out. Luckily you can use the Shuffle in non-shuffle mode.

Last night in the SOTU, the President said,

We set a goal of cutting the deficit in half by 2009 — and met that goal three years ahead of schedule.

Not really something to celebrate, IMO, since. when he became President, there was a surplus.

We’re now in the 41st month of uninterrupted job growth, a recovery that has created 7.2 million new jobs, so far.

A bit misleading, really, since it doesn't count the number of jobs lost before the recovery. If you factor that in, 3.7 million jobs have been created since Bush took office.

Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid are commitments of conscience, and so it is our duty to keep them permanently sound. Yet we’re failing in that duty.

Total agreement with this point. I hope he finally proposes a real solution. He hasn't yet.

Five years ago, we rose above partisan differences to pass the No Child Left Behind Act preserving local control, raising standards and holding schools accountable for results. And because we acted, students are performing better in reading and math, and minority students are closing the achievement gap.

No Child Left Behind went into effect in 2002, and the last report on it is from 2005. Fourth-grade reading scores haven't improved since the Bush program, and eighth-grade scores are actually down. In math, scores are up among fourth-graders and have increased slightly less among eighth-graders. The achievement gap results are mixed, too.

A future of hope and opportunity requires that all our citizens have affordable and available health care.

I agree, but then he proposed solving the problem by giving a tax cut to some people. Huh? Why not give them health care? You know, do something to solve the problem.

...we cannot fully secure the border unless we take pressure off the border, and that requires a temporary worker program. We should establish a legal and orderly path for foreign workers to enter our country to work on a temporary basis.

I totally agree (take that people that think I'm a Bush hater - when he's got a good idea, I give him credit for it).

Maybe more later.

Congress is finally waking up - Cook: The abandonment of George W. Bush - National Journal - MSNBC.com

Even though one of the main reasons the Democrats took control of the House was because the American people wanted a new approach to Iraq, Bush won't listen. From SFGate.com, Critics Wont Halt Iraq Surge, Bush Says.

So much for working with the Democrats in Congress. So much for being a uniter, not a divider. It's just more of the same from the President - no outside input, no compromises, and no sense.

According the the transcript of President Bush's statement tonight, I'm trying to figure out whether he apologized or not. Here's what he said,

Where mistakes have been made, the responsibility rests with me.

Is that an admission that he's made a mistake? It's the closest he's ever come, and I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt. It would have been much more powerful if he'd said, "Where mistakes have been made, I made them, or they were made by those following my instructions."

Another great quote:

A successful strategy for Iraq goes beyond military operations. Ordinary Iraqi citizens must see that military operations are accompanied by visible improvements in their neighborhoods and communities. So America will hold the Iraqi government to the benchmarks it has announced.

Finally! Spend the money on making their lives better and they Iraqi's will respond. Just like the Marshall plan worked after WWII, unlike the horrid Versailles treaty after WWI, hopefully we'll actually see some positive changes resulting from an understanding the mistakes made in the past.

The rest of the speech was more of the same, but it's nice to see some movement from the Bush administration.