Final notes:

• Listening to his platitudes and the fact that offers an open hand to the right wingers who want him to fail, and the back of hand to the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, I just don’t enjoy listening to him.
• He made a call for the expansion of the H2b and L1 visas:  Others come here from abroad to study in our colleges and universities. But as soon as they obtain advanced degrees, we send them back home to compete against us.”
• The problem is that this has the effect of lowering wages in technical fields, which sends more mathematicians, physicists, and engineers to careers in finance , where they are more valued (or better paid, it’s the same thing, just ask an economist).  
• I take it personally, because as an engineer, I have a target on my back from these programs.
• Oh, God the pundits on MSNBC are yammering on about the F%$#ing seating arrangements, again, I’m taking his advice and turning off the damn TV.

10:10 pm: More Allen brothers roofing stories. *rolleyes*

10:08 pm: A shout out for the “end” of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”, and then draws a parallel about how colleges are not nice to the ROTC. Not necessary, but he needed to call out those “East Coast Liberal Elites.”

10:06 pm: “This July, we will begin to bring our troops home.” Good, but I expect it to be a token withdrawal, probably less than 3 battalions.

10:02 pm:  Talking defense now, “Thanks to our heroic troops and civilians, fewer Afghans are under the control of the insurgency. … In Pakistan, al Qaeda’s leadership is under more pressure than at any point since 2001. Their leaders and operatives are being removed from the battlefield. Their safe-havens are shrinking. ”  More light at the end of the tunnel crap, though. We are losing.

9:57 pm: A shout out to Muslim Americans, this is good, but how about stopping the FBI from infiltrating mosques with informers on the basis of their religion?

9:56 pm: That whole salmon regulation study story is another Republican meme he is reinforcement.

9:55 pm: That last bit about “Current retirees, the disabled, etc.” is a statement that he wants to means test Social Security to “strengthen” it.

9:53 pm: “To put us on solid ground, we should also find a bipartisan solution to strengthen Social Security for future generations. And we must do it without putting at risk current retirees, the most vulnerable, or people with disabilities; without slashing benefits for future generations; and without subjecting Americans’ guaranteed retirement income to the whims of the stock market.”  So he won’t call for Social Security tonight, but he’s calling for Social Security cuts tomorrow, because the Republicans want to kill Social Security, and if your goal is bipartisanship, then they will demand poison pills.

9:51 pm: He just capitulating on malpractice suits, again, giving in before negotiations start, even though “tort reform” has been repeatedly shown not to save money.

9:47 pm:  He’s talking about the fixing the $600 1099 requirement.  Probably a good thing, but will cost money, and he is talking about the deficit.  And for Pete’s sake, he’s talking about how in the middle of a recession he wants to freeze domestic spending for the next 5 years.

9:45 pm: More endorsements of the crappy trade deals, and he buys into the myth of all the extraneous regulations that don’t protect us from Salmonella or from the banks.  Feh.

9:41 pm: He’s calling for tax reform, with a simplification and reduction of loopholes and lower the max rate.  He says “It can be done”, but it won’t.  It’s tax cuts for the wealthy all over again.  Obama will cave when push comes to shove.

9:39 pm:  Atrios will be happy at his shoutout for high speed rail.

9:36 pm:  He’s giving a shout out to the DREAM act and immigration reform.  I don’t see it happening.  The Teabagger infused Republican Party has written off Hispanics for the next election cycle.

9:33 pm:  Yep, it’s bad teachers.  Not pervasive poverty, and a society that sucks brains out of useful pursuits and puts them into finance.  But our country needs teachers, so while Obama is attacking the teacher’s unions, wages, benefits, and job security, he wants people to become teachers.

9:32 pm: He’s now touting his open mouth kiss to the for-profit education profiteers, AKA the “Race to the top.”

9:30 pm: He’s saying that success is a function of hard work.  Not this generation.  American social mobility and entrepreneurship has fallen behind the rest of the industrialized world.  It’s now who your parents are, and addressing inequalities to fix this.

9:28 pm:  His invocation of “innovations” is a buy into corporatism.  He’s also invoking education, as well as telling people to turn off the TV.  I’m really tempted to turn him off.

9:27 pm:  He’s talking about killing the tax breaks and subsidies for big oil.  It would be nice.  It’s a no brainer, which means that the Republicans won’t let it come to a vote in the House, and filibuster it in the Senate.

9:26 pm:  The Allen brothers going from shingles to photovoltaics is his “Joe the Plumber” this speech.

9:22 pm:  Wants to make America the “Best place in the world to do business”.  We’ve been sucking corporate dick for 35 years, and it’s f%$#ed the average American.  I don’t care how many iPhones we get.

9:19 pm: OMFG!  He’s saying that the lost jobs are just productivity improvement, but the Internet economy will fix everything!

9:16 pm: Some breast beating about the stock market, where and he’d touting the tax cuts, big surprise.

9:12 pm:  He leads with a reference to Giffords.  How could he not?

9:11 pm:  He’s started.  BTW, what the hell is up with Boehner’s pink/purple tie?

9:10 pm: The pundits are going on, and on about seating, etc.  BTW, Chief Justice John Roberts felt compelled to show up, even though he did not want to, because the rest of the right wing justices refused to, and if only the 4 honest justices showed, it would look bad.

9:08 pm:  Oh for f%$#’s sake, he is touting “clean coal” in the speech, as well as nuclear.  The first is a fraud, the 2^nd has been a disaster, because they cannot get financing, because of the record of delays and cost overruns.  I’ll stop reading now.

9:06 pm:  He is in and shaking hands. Still reading speech.

9:04 pm: I really hope that it plays better than it reads. But it is demoralizing to anyone who is the least bit liberal.  He touts caving on tax cuts for the rich. Lame invocation of Sputnik.

9:02 pm: Huh.  The speech was leaked on the net a couple of hours ago to the National Journal.  Reading now.

9:01 pm:  Show up already.  I hate listening to the pundits.

8:59 pm:  The pundits, who have advance copies of the speech, say that Barack Obama will call for lower tax rates.  F%$#ing typical.  Sucking up to the rich at the expense of the tax payer, because Obama needs his billion dollars for the 2012 campaign.

8:58 pm:  Turning on MSNBC.  I miss Keith.