The State of the Onion

While I'm not going to use this space to expound upon the unwisdom of Social Security privatization, I must say that the bit in the State of the Union address about expanding funding for DNA testing in capital cases was a kind of brilliant stroke of PR. Who the hell could disagree with that?

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Nev), however, began his rebuttal statement with this Garrison Keillor-esque bit of prose:

I was born and raised in the high desert of Nevada in a tiny town called Searchlight. My dad was a hard-rock miner. My mom took in wash. I grew up around people of strong values -- even if they rarely talked about them.

Can you believe that? Someone's speechwriter is a frustrated novelist.