(Untitled)

[kateorman]

I'm dubious about opinion pieces which paint an entire part of the political spectrum with one brush, which The Republican Party Is Turning Into A Cult, over at the Huffington Post, arguably does. But it's worth skipping over those exasperated opening paragraphs to the meat of the matter:"The US is the only major industrialized country that does

Comments

[kateorman]

the Democrats are incredibly adept at shooting themselves in the nuts

My mind (being the jumble of junk that it is) immediately recalled the Bloom County about hunting the elusive Liberal:



and even amongst some of the Blue Dogs like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who's the target of both sides now -- the teabaggers are riding her like a prize pony here in Tucson

I have to confess to you that I found that completely incomprehensible!

[kelemvor]

IIRC from "The West Wing", a blue dog is a Democrat who generally votes Republican to stay in power.

[brewsternorth]

Yup. (Seems to be quite a common term in the US political blogiverse.)

"Teabaggers" are the conservative anti-tax (at the fringe: most are anti-tax-hike) activists who want to re-enact the "Boston Tea Party" by sending teabags to their elected representatives. They're tagging along with the "deathers" (those convinced that Obama's healthcare proposal will lead to "healthcare rationing" and "death panels") because they see the public option as another excuse for the administration to take away more of their hard-earned money and use it for the benefit of society's "trash" (poor white, black, immigrant).

[browneyedgirl65]

The best part of that is they called *themselves* teabaggers b/c part of their protest involved mailing out teabags in protest etc. Never mind the slang meaning of the term (you can, erm, look it up), even AFTER being told what it meant o.O

Political theater. You just can't make this shit up.

[kateorman]

o.O

Hey, we didn't need a diagram! XD

[kelemvor]

Thank you.

I must admit, most of what I know of US politics and government comes from "The West Wing", so I have a fairly slanted view!

That said, any administration which gives a tax break to the highest earners has got something very wrong. (I currently work a little over one day out of five for the UK government, and would love to work my way up to the next tax bracket, which would take it closer to two days in five!)

[kateorman]

... what's their position on "Children of Earth"?

[alryssa]

A 'Blue Dog' is generally a Southern Democrat, who tends to straddle the fence on a lot of issues and leans heavily on the ideas of fiscal conservatism. Ironically, the last 8 years of absolute fiscal irreponsibility was totally acceptable to the GOP and said Blue Dogs until all of a sudden power changed hands in November.

The Republican stance on government is generally, "Government can't do anything competently! Just elect us, and we'll show you exactly why!" :P

I have a huge freaking Teabagger rally happening in my county on September 5th. I understand about 10,000 people are expected to be in attendance. Meanwhile, my little group of Democrats will be holding a press conference across the road from their rally point and trying to counter the stupidmisinformation with doctors and other speakers for the local press.

Wish us luck. I think we're going to need it.

[kateorman]

GIVE 'EM HELL

[alryssa]

Well, we're kind of hoping *not* to have hell. Hell would be bad, given what some of the rather less desirable elements have been up to lately. :P