Yesterday was quite a day for news junkies. The stories about the Pope resigning continued to spread, along with speculation as to his real motives. The ex-LAPD cop was reported to be trapped by law enforcement officers in a burning cabin and was presumed at the time to be burning to a crispy piece of char-broiled ex-person. And president Obama rudely cut into the news stations’ mesmerization of mindless America by repetitious reporting of the burning cabin in California, by giving his State of the Union address to a joint session fo the US congress.
Oh, yeah…and there were not just one, but two GOP responses to the State of the Union speech.
One of them was by republican senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a member of the ultra-conservative Tea Party Express. If you missed it (and almost everyone in the world did..after all, the news outlets’ coverage of a burning cabin has a higher ratings factor), you can watch it HERE. Suffice it to say it was typical Rand Paul, who is suspected of really being his own father, Ron Paul of Texas, in a clever disguise .
Obama is a great speaker, and last night’s performance was no exception. He got a lot of applause, some of it actually from republicans. One exception, however, was when he called upon congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act, which would it easier for women to seek redress for unequal pay for equal work. As most of the hundred of people present stood up and applauded, a large number of republican congressmen and women (no less!) sat silently.
How or why would anyone be against equal pay for equal work, regardless of gender??? Go ask the GOP.
Or better yet, go ask Marco Rubio, the republican junior senator from Florida. Rubio is a young and energetic politician whose parents emigrated from Cuba years before the Castro regime took control of that country. He is extremely conservative for his years, a favorite of the Tea Party and a rising star within the GOP, which hopes to win the back the presidency in 2016.
Rubio was tasked with providing the “official” GOP response to the president’s State of the union address. In doing so, he seemed to have a few “physically awkward” moments. One that is being talked about a lot occurred when he stopped his speech momentarily to take a drink from a plastic water bottle. In fairness to Rubio, this should not be a big deal. If anything, the GOP operative who supervised the scene for the TV camera is at fault for not having the bottle very close to Rubio so that he could easily reach it to take a swig. Instead, it was placed on a stool off-camera far enough way from him that he had to make a very noticeable effort to reach the bottle, and again to put it back. Very awkward, but who cares and let’s move on.
What seems far worse was how Rubio kept lifting his hands to scratch parts of his face. It happened at least three times, and looked like he was being bitten by gnats or maybe “noseeums” (pronounced no-see-ums). It was disturbing to watch and it distracted from Rubio’s typical tea party message. That message bashed Obamacare, any tax increase of any amount for any reason, government in general, and government spending in particular. He advocated serious non-specific cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security,
Although Obama mentioned fixing the voting process in the USA that forced some people to wait in line for seven or more hours to vote in the last election, Rubio mentioned nothing about this in his speech. Keep in mind that Rubio is a senator from Florida, the laughing stock of the USA during the November 2012 general election due to the very long (seven-hour-plus) voting lines. Those were caused by conservative GOP governor Rick Scott. With the help of the GOP-controlled state legislature, he reduced early voting days and times in Florida by almost half. Obviously, the good people in the Florida state government missed the limelight they had enjoyed during the 2000 presidential vote debacle in Florida. 
Rubio had a chance to distance himself from this debacle, and he blew it HUGE.
Rubio did something else that should make people sit up and note:
Rubio mentioned God three times in the body of the speech, used the word “blessed” twice, the word “pray” once, and pushed pro-life, while inferring that Obama’s gun proposals are unconstitutional. He promoted burning coal instead of investing in clean energy. And then he mentioned God again…THREE TIMES…in a single final sentence.
The Tea Party and the GOP’s ultra-conservative base must have enjoyed endless multiple orgasms over Rubio’s opening volley of the 2016 GOP primary season!
All everyone else heard was same-old same-old, my way or the highway, & say NO to everything.
So much for the GOP’s “rebirth”.
Yes, the (OMG dare I say it?) Lamestream media were wetting themselves over the top news of the day – the flaming cabin (got a big thumbs up from the UAA – United Arsonists of America) and Marco’s great water break, sponsored by Poland Springs. They missed Ted Nugent, MENSA candidate, free thinker and all around fine fellow, who left his arsenal at home for the opportunity to sit in congress with many of his peers.
Oh, I almost forgot, the State of the Union — which is better but still needing a little help from the people who we hired/elected to do that.
I really have nothing to say about the SOTU rebuttals of last night…except that if they were NASA Satellites put into orbit by GOP Rockets…they’d be so low the luggage rack on top my minivan would scrape when I drove under them! The GOP has really become a pathetic bunch…so I see no reason to question John Boehner’s breaking into tears on occasion!
PS…Was that really Marco Rubio? I turned him off…I thought it was an SNL skit!
Disregarding his thirst, he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
No disrespect, however, same old stuff for the GOP and same old stuff for the Democrats. Where’s the difference????? No one knows the definition of compromise~no one really gets what they want!!!!