-What will the State of the Union be this year? Good? Strong? Special?
-Ooh, so Bush will be the awkward one this year as he banters with Pelosi.
-Pelosi may not be strong enough for that gavel. Now Hastert, he could swing a gavel.
-Bush is sucking up to Pelosi.
-Which is funnier? Bush pronouncing Thomas D'Alesandro or Rostrum? I call it a wash.
-Bush congratulates the Democratic majority of evil.
-Seems to be preaching responsibility.
-Lots of togetherness at the start. Wait for Iraq.
-Hey, it turns out the economy is good. And in recovery.
-Balance the budget? What? We're not even in the laundry list of good things yet (switch grass and whatnot).
-Bush will eliminate the deficit in the next five years. The painful part will be in years three through five.
-Bush is now anti-earmark too. It's almost sounding like he's an actual conservative. Maybe he'll turn out to be in favor of keeping the government out of our lives.
-Obligatory camera shot of McCain . . . no Feingold . . .
-Ted Kennedy is either asleep or hungover. Someone elbow him, quick!
-Social security, education. Lifting acheivement higher(?).
-Laura Bush looking like a robot. Clearly, she's been throught too many of these.
-Pelosi is over thinking whether she should applaud.
-Applaud? No . . . wait . . . yes. Stand? Oh, what the hell.
-While Bush goes on about his health care plan that will never be passed, I'm going to make the observation that now that Hastert isn't up there any more, Cheney looks amazingly frumpy.
-Lots of give aways that will never happen. Expanding health savings accounts (doable, but no fix). Price transparency.
-And no more medical malpractice. Now he's sounding like the Bush I know.
-Holy crap, John Kerry! Switch to camera 6. Stat!
-Border patrol. No illegal immigrants. Guest worker program, and what not.
-Somehow this will give the border patrol agents who have been chasing down migrant farmworkers time to go after terrorists?
-And we're on to energy issues. Turns out we're too dependent on oil.
-Solar, wind, and I'll make no joke about nucular.
-Hey Ethanol. Won't hear that again until next November/December.
-Wood chips, just grass in general this year. Switch grass was so last year.
-20% less gasoline usage, that's something.
-And Chuck Grasserly (R-Iowa) things that idea is just swell.
-Need more drilling . . .
-Somehow drilling more oil will help us combat global climate change. Oh well, at least he mentioned it. I suspect there was no applause from Inhoufe (R-OK).
-Bush breaks out the up/down vote on judicial nominees while Pelosi plays with her hair.
-First 9/11 reference.
-To win the war on terror, we must take the fight to the enemy. Somewhere there's a "stay the course" coming.
-Bush brings up several terrorist attacks that didn't happen.
-Starts up a sentence with "British intelligence" without mentioning Nigeria. That's an improvement.
-Sunni extremists. The Shia may not be as bad? No wait, we haven't gotten to Iran yet.
-Bush quotes Zarqawi. And then Bin Laden. Do I hear a Walt Whitman coming?
-Oh, there's the Shia reference.
-Hillary Clinton is sitting behind Barack Obama. Hope he's wearing kevlar.
-Veiled reference to protecting us via warrantless wiretaps and detention. Lots of standing ovation.
-John Warner (R-VA) appears bemused.
-Condi Rice appears . . . well angry. There's really no other option.
-Bring up Lebanon. That may not be the best thing to discuss at the moment.
-Cedar revolution
-Mention of Iraqi election, but no blue thumbs this year.
-Now we're bringing all of this back around to why we're still in Iraq (Hint: It's not because of too many flowers being thrown at us).
-And here's the quiet part of the speech. 20,000 more troops sent to Iraq to finish building the nation.
-Making promises on behalf of the Iraqi government. I suspect they are as accurate as promises on health insurance reforms.
-Consequences of failure . . .
-Turns out Iraq would become violent . . .
-Biden really does look like he's sleeping. I bet he's dreaming of a world in which he's president. If you don't know who Joe Biden is, don't worry. He's not going to be president.
-Next September 11th reference.
-Bush is asking for support in Iraq. Turns out he's a little short on political capital.
-That blue tie isn't great . . .
-Expanding the military. Ninety-two thousand more soldiers. Isn't that exactly opposite of what Rumsfeld worked against for six years?
-Bush wants to create a reserve corp? Don't we have this already? Or is this a reserve for our over-extended reserve?
-Brief mention of an effort to bring piece between Palestinians and Israel.
-Hey, he mentioned Darfur. Treasure that, folks. That's the last time you'll hear that from the president anytime in the near future.
-Fight AIDS in Africa. That's needed. Money for fighting malaria. I'm with you on that.
-Oh, wait. I missed that were entering into the lightning round. Everyone gets an empty promise here.
-Nope, not the lightning round. We're in the real people/inspiring celebrities segment.
-Dikembe Mutumbo? Really? I guess they can't bring Sosa up there anymore.
-Baby Einstein? Julie who? I don't get this at all. But John Walsh is involved somehow.
-Introducing Wesley Autrey, the guy who saved the man who fell on the subway.
-Tommy Reimann (sp?), silver star winner.
-"We've been through a lot together"
-The state of the union is strong, as it turns out.
-That seemed a little light on the crazy stuff. No manephants this year (check the archives).

-Bush is leaving. Really, this year was nowhere nearly as entertaining as last year.
-Why are the Supreme Court justices wearing their robes. You don't see Motombo wearing his jersey . . .
-The sideline reporter is saying things I'm not hearing.
-The president signs some autographs. There's a smaller crowd this year. Is that Jesse Jackson Jr., asking for an autograph?
-Oh well, back in a minute with Jim "I'll totally kick your ass" Webb.