State of the State of the Union

February 3, 2005 4:47 PM

The State of the Union Parsing Toolis an interactive transcript and visualization of the last five State of the Union addresses, and a special address given to Congress on Sept. 20, 2001. Noteworthy features are a great interface and the ability to highlight the use of arbitrary and specific phrases. For instance: Iraq vs. Afghanistan, liberty vs. freedom, health care vs. social security, and the lone appearance of 'axis of evil.'
posted by fatllama (10 comments total)

I like the interface, very nice design.
posted by odinsdream at 5:12 PM on February 3, 2005

I liked the debate parser better but this is still pretty interesting stuff. He didn't mention the tsunami at all.
posted by fenriq at 5:17 PM on February 3, 2005

I tried out the tool using the Daily Show's suggestion of 'freedom' and 'liberty', the results are very telling. Great application, this would be useful for importing corporate memos and looking for bullshit.
posted by Vaska at 5:18 PM on February 3, 2005

Here's the number one terrorist
posted by Balisong at 5:30 PM on February 3, 2005

Balisong: Even more interesting: osama vs saddam
posted by knave at 5:34 PM on February 3, 2005

Very nice tool... I just did a little experiment with a google search of " axis of evil" & "january 30, 2002" to see how many times this little phrase turned up the next day in various places. 1040 hits, ...those sound bytes work pretty well !
posted by lobstah at 5:39 PM on February 3, 2005

Stats from this year's SOTU:

Free' or 'Freedom': 28
'Terror' or 'terrorist' or 'terrorists': 28
'Iraq' or 'Iraqis': 28!

'Liberty': 8

'Afghanistan': 3
'Iran' or 'Iranian': 3

'Bin Laden': 0
posted by tapeguy at 5:55 PM on February 3, 2005

Nice interface. And I particularly like the option of showing the text of the sentence when you roll over it; makes for, let's say, interesting reading.
posted by Len at 6:39 PM on February 3, 2005

disappointed that there is no mention of either monkeys or giraffes in any of the speeches. not even in passing e.g. "make a monkey out of me" or "really tease their giraffe" etc.
posted by mokey at 2:31 AM on February 4, 2005

Very well done. This is a powerful tool.
posted by fluffycreature at 7:07 AM on February 4, 2005