Watching the President’s State of the Union Address is good fun even if the subject matter is predictable. When a person as strongly polarizing as President Bush gives a speech to a split audience, watching the audience reactions is always entertaining. The atmosphere feels like a college basketball rivarly game where one side claps loudly after every pause while the other side sits quietly with arms folded wearing an expression of distaste.

Here’s a bullet list of the topics President Bush touched on:

• Submitted bill to Congress to give tax-rebate checks up to $600 for individuals and $1,200 for couples
• Make tax relief permanent
• Terminated or reduced 151 programs in next year’s budget
• Wants Congress to stop attaching special interest programs onto a bill that has already passed the Congress vote
• Allow state housing agencies to issue tax-free bonds to help homeowners refinance
• Make medical insurance affordable by removing tax code bias for people using personal medical insurance
• Submit a $300 million program to support private schools in inner cities
• Supporting free trade agreements with Columbia, Panama, and South Korea
• Find alternatives to oil for energy
• Strive to get an international agreement to slow, stop and reverse greenhouse gasses
• Double support for physical science research
• Ban cloning of human life
• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid is almost dead
• Secure the American borders from illegal immigrants
• Fund troops to continue fight against terrorism abroad
• Achieve a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine
• America donates…a lot

Most of the points he spoke about in his address was pretty tame and expected. The only surprise was his reference to finding alternative forms of energy to reduce America’s dependance on oil and to reverse greenhouse gasses. I don’t remember him talking about environmental issues in a positive light throughout his entire term.