St@te o' the Union, Part I

Tonight is the night when political nerds all over the country come together for what is generally the most scrutinized speech the President will make all year. It's essentially the Super Bowl of political speeches in that even people who don't usually follow politics will have at least heard about it. Plus, it helps that every broadcast and cable news network preempts its programming, so there are at least slightly fewer options on television.

People in D.C. (I say that because it doesn't seem to me that anyone else really cares…) seem to get giddy with anticipation in speculating what the President will say, or what he should say, or how he should say it, blah blah blah. It's all pretty pointless, really, because the President is going to say what he wants and how he wants, and he's certainly not going to be taking suggestions from the media.

All that said, there are a few things I'd like to hear addressed in the speech before he starts droning on about Brussel sprout farming initiatives in Idaho and most people either nod off or switch over to ESPN.

First of all, soci@l security. Whatever happened to that? Democr@ts were crowing that they were able to defeat the President's campaign to reform the system. Ok, great. You won. Congratulations. But uh…the system is still broken, it's still hemorrhaging cash, and I'm still putting money into it that I'm never going to see. I'd like a little update on that.

Other than that, I'm not concerned with much else — tax cuts, healthcare plans, the aforementioned Brussel sprout farming initiatives in Idaho — that's really not all that important right now.

The main thing ruffling my feathers right now is energy independence. What's the deal? I'm not an environmentalist by any means (that isn't to say I'm hostile to the environment, I just don't think its worth sacrificing major economic progress over) but I'm an ardent advocate of weaning ourselves off the massive oil teat.

So many of the world's problems have their root in oil. Most recently, in the conflict with Ir@n. The Iranians are holding a massive bargaining chip in the form of oil. If they were to cease exports, global oil prices would spike, and that would have a devastating effect on the global economy. If we didn't need their oil, there'd be no question as far as whether they should be dealt with.

Aside from that, our dependence on oil has led us to ignore some pretty atrocious things. For the better part of the last century, we've largely turned a blind eye to egregious human rights abuses in the Middle East and other places like Venezuela and Russia. Specifically in the Middle East, we were willing to ignore their appalling treatment of women and minorities, their virulent anti-Americanism, their burning hatred of Israel and the contemptible propagandizing of their youth so long as the pipeline was flowing, the price was reasonable and they left Israel alone.

This is no longer acceptable. For one thing, oil is a finite resource. It's not going to last forever. The sooner we can kick the habit, the better of we'll see. Not to mention it'll likely do wonders to civil advancement in places like Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well as have a nice byproduct in the form of a cleaner environment.
I'm sure I'll have more to say on the St@te o' the Union after it actually takes place, but I just thought I'd throw that out there ahead of time.