An offshoot of the Democratic National Committee holds a State of the Union “Watch Party” tonight at a pizza parlor in the People's Republic of Irvine.
Meanwhile, local Republicans are viewing President Barack Hussein Obama's speech before both houses of Congress at their neighborhood country club–with the volume turned down.
Sarah Palin-fueled Teabaggers are watching from the gun range up yonder.
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Volunteers with Organizing for America (OFA) gather at Gina's Pizza & Pasteria, 4533 Campus Dr., Irvine, at 5:30 p.m. to get their orders in before the scheduled 6 p.m. speech from D.C.
Among several similar events across the state and country, it will allow OFA supporters “to have a broad discussion on the president's agenda to strengthen the middle class, continue the economic recovery and improve the tone of civil discourse,” reads a statement from the group.
“Volunteers will also discuss and plan ways they can continue supporting the president's agenda and protecting the progress the country has made the past two years.”
So, this would be the pizza-parlor-beer-mug-half-full viewing party.
As for the spirit of brother-/sisterhood that will have partisan Congress folk crossing the aisle in the wake of the Tucson massacre, the “grassroots project” of the DNC adds, “OFA volunteers have been active in 2011, holding Republicans accountable for their attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act because of the harm it would do to American families and the national deficit.”
So much for unity, eh?
When it comes to closest-we-can-get-to-local spins on the State of the Union speech, KCET/Channel 28's SoCal Connected follows the 90 minutes of addresses by Obama and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) with Los Angeles Times columnist and KPCC Patt Morrison Show host Patt Morrison (representing the establishment Left) and 790-KABC The Larry Elder Show host Larry Elder (repping the fringy Right).
SoCal Connected anchor Val Zavala moderates, and correspondent Brian Rooney corresponds.
Watch the live streaming broadcast, if you prefer, at www.kcet.org/socalconnected.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.