.Editorial State of the Union address confusing Just when you think you know what George Hush is all about, ho turns around and dons something that i nti lies everyone by surprise Alter liis 1'l‘tl budget was unveiled Mondav. Hush's State of the Union address Wednesday night was generally v iewed as anti -r Iimat it Leaks from the White House said the president would disc uss edm .i lion goals lor the year 2000. and do a general overview ol Ins domestic agenda A nic:e. typical State of the Union speec h Unexc iting and boring with few spec it ic s full of rhetoric Hut Hush had other ideas, and announced bigger troop c uts in luirope and a new call lor .1 1 011ve11li01t.il .11 ms control agreement Instead of c larifying his viewpoint. Wednesday's speech lost made Hush more confusing than ever It s hard to toll just wlml he believes in lbs vagueness is now more difficult to interpret than it ever was before lor instance his proposal to withdraw an addi tioital all.tint) combat troops Iroin Uenlral Kurope 1 ame as a pleasant surprise. Last June lie proposed to w ith draw only at).U00 t S troops from Western Kurope With the removal ol these troops, all of whom are sla tinned in West Germany, the I oiled States would have IP').UOO troops in Geutral Kurope. Up until his speec h. Hush had said he would not support deepen cuts in NATO troops. Key Democratic ollic ials pushed him to make bigger cone essions. but In' refused, t 'util Wednesday night It is good to see that despite rumors ol a shake up in the Kremlin, Hush is still mm ing however slowly, toward 1 unturned de tense 1 ills Hut uliili' hr mane concessions in troop levels Ins su i .11 led "peace dividend" budget failed tu live up tu his oratory With onlv a 2 percent cut in the overall de lense budget. Hush seems to he sending mixed mes i sages to both Ins allies and the Sov let bloc In the past. Hush has been .n 1 used ol dragging his leet in foreign poliev decisions, seeminglv content to let (mrbaihev set the arms control negotiation sched ule. W hile Ivastern luirope crumbled. Hush had a wait and-see attitude; satistied with staving on the sidelines while others made decisions. Comedians moc ked his "prudent'' image Instead of setting a com rete. coherent foreign poll - i v Hush has stalled until events run ahead of him. and lie is forced to leapfrog forward with startling propos als The troop cut plan is a prime* example. As lor his domestic agenda. Hush reiterated his stance drugs bad. education good Hut while In* budg eted billions to fight the drug war. the self-stvled "ed ucation president" has continued to let higher ed as well .is the public education system full apart. He lias slashed Cell (hunt appropriations and lot the education budge! stagnate Hush said Wednesday he wants to make America a leader in math and science' bv the year 2000, but be isn't willing to pul up the money to finance it So Hush's State of the Union address, seen in hind sight, seems to consist of a thin layer of political elo quence bac ked up with large amounts of vague, mud dled proposals. While past presidents have always re lied 011 the art ol the amorphous polic v. Hush takes it to the extreme. W bile one 1 ail applaud the new troop cut proposal Hush's State of the Union address was typically un satisfying It will he difficult to support any of Hush’s polic ies until there are real proposals on the table to hack up his verbal commitments. And that doesn't look to happen anytime in the' near future. Commentary Policy The Oregon Daily Emerald welcomes commentaries from the public concerning topics of interest to the University community. Commentaries should be between 7fi0 and 1,000 words, legible and signed, and the identification of the writer must be verified upon submission. The Em erald res -ves the right to edit for grammar, style and length ii necessary Commentaries will be published as space and time permit because ot these limitations, the Emer ald’s commentary' space cannot be used as a forum tor debate and response between individuals or for mat ters that are better dealt with in the letters section Writers may only submit one commentary a month. xjn <****«.{ I " PLASTIC SURGERY a LIPOSUCTION SPECIALIST r I'D LIKE TO IMPROVE MV IMAGE... HOW ABOUT A NOSE JOB? Letters Too many I,links like tnil main. letters 111 ausxxer Inn- for lull' ill a ai xxord i'ss.ii hull' let mr cross as many nl tin' complaints to 111\ |an ~11 lettel as possilili x\ till a leu ilul11 i‘i t statements I nst when a prison t houses to engage ill sev tile female has no absolute gum.inter that she \x ill not hei nine pregnant 1 heietore sun e sex is not at all a necessity, one .should always hi' prepared lot a piegnant x be hue engaging Is that too lough toi any ot \ on inlelln tuals to follow ’ fix prepaied I dou t mean have the number of an abut Intrust handy It is a fact tliat if any procedure is exei nted xxlui h destioys xxdial if instead i arrd toi would have bn mill' a human being xx e have an ai I ol inuidel I bis is not some open ended statement folks A lot ot people xx ho would have been my f i lends simply are not here That s \y hat it s ,dl about life is not i heap IVrhaps many of you think it is because the relationships you have are so shallow you really might not miss a particular friend if they lust weren't here any mole I hope tills lias made some of you think I guess some think that maybe I gist xvrile to ever i ise my "logit xy hip or to in lunidate or antagonize As I have said before I really xxisli to leason xxilll people personal lx but it seems very fex\ think it xxorthxx Idle May Ire they are really gist afraid to be responsi bit* tor their (relicts at a person al level' Hull Weigel l.uh tei h Pay attention W hen tin' I niri'ilii editorial i/i'il |.111 !1 against thr Mush budget |imp(isal tm .ill tin' faults i't tin' IjihJ• ;i ' lIn", |n i:11 ril mil. thes torgot that the ! ill rr.tld is a school ness spaper ami lias some responsibility to pas attention to edui -at tonal .it lairs I hr proposed budget in cludes i lilting of Pell Grants and a level o! growth in the ed uialion budget t.u heloss the tali' nt inflation ( )ik r an,nit. edui alum is gel ling the short eml of the stii k trollt the eiI nt at inn president ” and the Inwr.ihl forgot to men lion this \\ hen tills Inidgel is re worked the senators who will he representing ns are the same senators who went belly lip at hreaklast with President Hush and supported the exportation nl students to a (ountrs where then lives are at risk flood ul Huh and Mark I he Ijinr.iltl needs to pa\ a little mi ire attention to what is going on that affei ts students. he< ause w e i an t hold our hreatli waiting for the /register (In,mi in our senators to tiring it up Ivan t i ishherg A SI CC Hard work I Would like In take this op portiimtv to congratulate some individuals tm their hard work and commitment to the student bod\ here at the l 'uiversitv \nd\ (dark was instrumental m getting |)i Harry Kdw.uds to visit our lainpus and speak on the sad state of sports and mi noi ities m Amei n a As an t at wards desi nhed 'pathologii al liberal. I found his present.! turn a pelted follow up to Do thr Right riung and much more enlightening than the host quarteibai k ’ controversy i urrently raging on these pages M\ only regret was that mure athletes amt Alhletii Depart ment olfii ia!s did not attend, hut I guess that was part of !\d wards' point Regardless, his ver\ pieseiu.e signified to me that student government will no longer he ininpletelv sub missive to the A I) and pel haps even ipiestion their "di vine1 so\ereignt\ Karen Itubb, Kris Petersen, 'hella stir hel and \\ ill White ha\e hied themselves and their lesuunes dry m order to make 1 eking MM the sura ess it has he. n It uas mv distini t privi lege to vvati.h then efforts pay off into this worthy endeavor, and anyone uho attended any ot the month s events knows what I mean [ know il has not been tin' l\mrr