Am I the only one who's thinking "BARF" while watching this State of the Union speech? Seriously, we're 2 minutes in and ALREADY I'm ready to turn the channel.

Problem the 1st: President dumbass is reading directly from the Tele-Promp-Ter. I recognize the need to have a prepared speech, but MY GOD, dude, a little spontaneity would be nice. (I do recognize, however, that this poor president isn't to be trusted using words that go directly from his brain to his mouth without benefit of a filter of any kind. But still... Just sayin'...)

Problem the 2nd: I love how Mr. Bush is all, "Let's all just be happy and get along!" now that he has to work with a Democratic majority.

Problem the 3rd: Sure, we cut the deficit in half 3 years ahead of schedule, except for that tiny little problem known as THE WAR in IRAQ, which is increasing our deficit exponentially by the minute. Is there a reconciliation to be had here??

Am I the only one thinking that he said all the "right" stuff without any intention of making good on these "promises." I do have to say I'm glad to hear him talking about making healthcare affordable for everyone. This, I think, is a step in the right direction but the other very real problem is the way the insurance companies work.

If you're a freelancer or independent contractor and/or don't get health insurance through your employer and you're perfectly healthy, getting health coverage is easy. If you have any one of a NUMBER of even minor problems you're shit out of luck. Seriously. Heather and Jon have both written about their experiences trying (and failing) to get health insurance due to very treatable diseases and I had a very similar experience to theirs when I left my job in Boston and tried to buy a plan on my own. This was before I'd been diagnosed with MS and they wouldn't cover me because I'd had Optic Neuritis (frequently the first symptom of MS). The fact that I hadn't shown any other symptoms in 4 years, nor had any lesions in my brain made zero difference to them. (Nevermind the fact that I actually did get MS... my likelihood of getting it at the point I was applying for insurance was about 50%....)

Anyway, my point is, insurance for everyone is a great idea and making it more affordable is a good first step but making everyone insurable seems to be the bigger problem at this point. Plus, (and I'm not entirely sure about this given I don't quite get the particulars upon one hearing) Bush's proposal appears to give people a tax break on the back end, which means they have to pay out a bunch of money before ever realizing the savings. (If I'm mishearing this, please chime in because this is definitely of interest to me!)

So I'm sure there are going to be plenty of digs to make at our president and/or observations to share, but the truth is, I can only stomach watching 20 minutes of this "Leader of the Free World" dancing monkey-moron at a stretch. Plus, I have homework to do. Priorities, right?