***stardust

So, again, I'm putting off homework...but I'm too excited right now!

I'm hoping we're not the only ones who watched the State of the Union address tonight - it was great. ^_^

WE'RE GOING TO HELP AFRICA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*huge grin*

*dances about the room happily*

YAY!!!!!!!!! ...*hehe* They *finally* listened to my Bono. ^_^

So, yeah. Lessee...there was a lotta stuff on health care, education, stuff like that...which I haven't really been following, so I can't say much...but he talked about this plan to set up mentors for troubled jr. high kids, and children whose parents are in prison..which we thought was kinda nice. Talked about tax cuts..right, I'm not holding my breath - every year Dad gets hit harder and fucking harder with taxes, he works just a bit harder and has a good year and then winds up a bracket higher, and gest fucking nailed. blah. And Bush talked about eliminating all unneccesary gov't spending..which..*could* be good, but I know they'll cut foreign aid before they cut anything away from their own wallets. meh.
But that was about all that was bad. He surprised us a bit..and spoke out against partial-birth abortion (YAY! a step in the right direction, at last!), and also asked for legislation again human cloning. PERIOD.
Thank God.
Talked about the situation in Korea and stuff..said they've gotta stop this nuclear shite, period. And I agree, but...oof. That's still touchy there..
And then, the highlight of the evening - highlight of my week -- almost my *year* so far!
He started talking about Africa.
And about how horrible the situation there is...people dying from AIDS, the impossibly huge numbers...and he was spouting off the same numbers I've heard from Bono's sweet lips so many, many times...
But here it is for *EVERYONE* to hear, at long last. The millions dying and infected...millions of *children* infected...and out of all of these million, *maybe* 50,000 can get any medication. Out of like, 7 million or more, I think, something like that. That's *so* wrong.
He said the cost for a year's worth of care for an AIDS patient has, in the last few years, gone down from $1200 to $300.
And we - this country - have an amazing opportunity to do incredible amounts of good here. We have it within our grasp to save these people - this whole continent.

And he pledged a *lot* of money to that end. (I don't know the exact amount, but I ignore the huge numbers cos they're all just unreal..who *has* $5 billion dollars? I mean really. There's never really that much actual cash or anything changing hands. But I digress.)

...my eyes honestly did start misting up, I nearly cried...I was so happy. Finally, people know about this...and finally, it looks like something's going to be done.
^_________________^

After that, he got into the Iraq-thing...well, actually, he talked about Iran, too, which was interesting. ...and he told of some of the tortures these countries use.....and it's horrifying...and all I could do was nod sadly - I've heard all this before, for years, from Amnesty. *sighs*

There was something else I was *really*, really excited about, though. He talked about looking for alternative sources of energy - like hydrogen-powered cars. Dude, have you any idea how impossibly fucking *AWESOME* that'd be???? It'd solve SO many of our problems!!!!! Pollution, damned Iraq, all sorts of stuff. ^_^ Gah. I'm so psyched. Can't wait for the future, baby. ~_^
Dream up the world you want to live in, and dream out loud, at full fucking volume. ^_^

But yeah. So, Iraq. He didn't come straight out and say we're off to war..but he came about as close as I think he could. (And Britty and I were sitting there, just yelling "C'MON! JUST SAY WE'RE GONNA GO KICK HIS ASS!!!!!!!!") But he went into, like, just how many weapons and all Saddam's got. Holy shit. It's *bad*...we've *known* for certain he had enough to kill millions, and there's no evidence he got rid of any of this stuff. People have been bribed to pose as the scientists in charge, and lie to the UN inspectors...and..damn. Seriously, though, the man's got a shitload of weaponry there. And he was trying to get uranium from Africa - there's, uh, not a whole lot of things you can use that stuff for...
(Bush asked, rhetorically, what Saddam could be stockpiling all this for? "Whaddya *THINK* he's gonna use it for??? You don't like, sleep with a nuclear bomb under your pillow, in case a robber breaks in!!!" "Fido! Go fetch the nuclear bomb!")
There's to be a UN meeting on Feb.5, which I'll have to remember to watch for - Colin Powell's gonna bring a lot of the info we've gotten on Iraq to the UN, and I guess try to get something going here...
..but getting the UN to agree to war isn't gonna be easy.
Not that it'll stop us - that was another thing Bush'd said, was that we can stand on our own, we're not gonna wait on the rest of the world.

We're such stubborn sons-of-bitches here, we really are. You don't mess with us. We're really, really, evil motherfuckers if you mess with us. And we're damned stubborn, we won't give in.
Yay for being American! *laughs*

*Ananda Daydream * 10:59 PM * *

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