The State Of The Union

Tonight an important part of the federal government will take place - the State of the Union address by the President of the United States. The President is required by the Constitution to provide a status report to Congress:

The President shall from time to time give to Congress information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient." (Article II, Section 3)

When George Washington gave his SOU address he received a reply from Congress, presented in person by a group of congressmen that included a restatement of his message and a pledge of cooperation. My, how Congress has changed - especially with the opposition side. Unlike the era of our first President our current media megatropolis is given the speech ahead of time, as are members of Congress. This allows everyone to get their usual pro or anti rhetoric in place, ready to spew out before the President even steps away from the podium.

Some, like CAIR, even try to influence the words that the President will say. In an email I received yesterday from CAIR was this (in part):

(WASHINGTON, D.C., 1/30/2006) - The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today urged President Bush to avoid using "loaded and imprecise terminology" relating to Islam in Tuesday night's State of the Union address.

In a letter to President Bush, CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed wrote:

"While you prepare for tomorrow's State of the Union address, I would like to offer a suggestion that could serve to strengthen America's image and interests worldwide, particularly in the Islamic world.

"You have stated repeatedly that the war on terror is not a war on Islam. Unfortunately, the use of loaded and imprecise terminology by our nation's representatives has often served to promote that negative perception.

"When you describe America's efforts to fight terrorism and spread democracy worldwide in Tuesday's address, I think it would be best to avoid the use of hot-button terms such as 'Islamo-fascism,' 'militant jihadism,' 'Islamic radicalism,' or 'totalitarian Islamic empire.'

Yep - the largest and most organized totalitarian-hopeful Islamic empire does not want those that would watch or listen to the speech tonight to associate all the evil that Islamics are doing in the world - with Islam. Gee, think they know something they don't want you to know? Had Kerry been President he would have conformed to CAIR.

I'm sure that our new Justice S. Alito will be present as well. I did notice during the confirmation vote that Senator Kennedy was man enough to vote no, yet Senator Kerry, true to his cowardly form, declined to vote at all (I guess he was going to vote no - until he changed his mind not to vote at all). To think he wanted to be the one giving the State of the Union address - we are so fortunate the majority of the population, including Democrats, saw through his facade.