Inventory of word used in the State of the Union Speeches since 2001

This inventory was published by the NYT. You can see what the Bush Administration wants us to think about (and what not to think about) by reference to this graph.  Also, check the President’s plummeting approval ratings at the bottom of the chart.

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Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth is an attorney focusing on civil rights (including First Amendment), consumer law litigation and appellate practice. At this website often writes about censorship, corporate news media corruption and cognitive science. He is also a working musician, artist and a writer, having founded Dangerous Intersection in 2006. Erich lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his two daughters.

This Post Has 6 Comments

  1. Avatar of Dan Klarmann
    Dan Klarmann January 29, 2008 Reply

    I watched most of Potus' spin session last night. Is it just me after 5 days of fever, or did he begin by reciting planks of the Democrat platform (health care, support science, balanced budget) and then propose tax cuts, new expenditures, earmarks for churches and religious schools, and proposed laws to further restrict science and technology?

  2. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim January 29, 2008 Reply

    I didn't listen to Bush's speech…the blather that comes from him is too much for me to bear…but I did hear a sound bite in which he declared that the troop surge was working because al Qaida attacks have dropped way off. Conveniently missing from his remark was the fact that al Qaida did not exist in Iraq until after his invasion; thus making his "success" merely the (partial) reduction of a problem of his own making.

  3. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim January 30, 2008 Reply

    Dan mentioned Bush's comment about earmarks. I understand Bush now wants earmarks to be open to debate and voting, in sharp contrast to the blind eye he gave his fellow Republicans when they were gorging themselves on surreptitious earmarks.

  4. Avatar of Vicki Baker
    Vicki Baker January 31, 2008 Reply

    I also caught the soundbite about "Al Qaida" attacks having dropped off. To me it's just a continuation of the big lie about the Al Qaida/Iraq connection.

    How much do we know about the group that calls itself "Al Qaida in Iraq"? Is there any real connection between this group and Osama bin Ladin, other than one of inspiration and rhetoric? How many attacks on Americans are carried out by this specific group? Is any calling Bush on this?

  5. Avatar of grumpypilgrim
    grumpypilgrim January 31, 2008 Reply

    Further to Vicki's comment, "al Qaida" appears to be a generic term the Bush Administration uses whenever a suicide bomber strikes anywhere in the world, or when someone kills an American anywhere in the world, or when a bomb explodes anywhere in Iraq, etc. It's part of the well-orchestrated, and well-executed, Republican fear campaign for political power. Perhaps we shouldn't blame them entirely for telling so many lies…they only do it because it works so well, and it's really not *their* fault that it does.

  6. Avatar of Erich Vieth
    Erich Vieth February 3, 2008 Reply

    Richard Clarke, on the State of the Union:

    Richard A. Clarke is former head of counterterrorism at the National Security Council

    When I left the Bush administration in 2003, it was clear to me that its strategy for defeating terrorism was leaving our nation more vulnerable and our people in a perilous place. Not only did its policies misappropriate resources, weaken the moral standing of America, and threaten long-standing legal and constitutional provisions, but the president also employed misleading and reckless rhetoric to perpetuate his agenda.

    This week's State of the Union proved nothing has changed.

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