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News & ArtsSaturday, February 6, 2010
Politics Tea Party Crowd Believes That Only Good Spellers Should Vote
Posted by Dan Savage on Sat, Feb 6, 2010 at 9:00 AM
Ahem:
The opening night speaker at the Tea Party convention suggested a return to a "literacy test" to protect America from presidents like Obama—a segregation-era method employed by southern US states to keep blacks from voting. In his speech Thursday to attendees, former Republican congressman Tom Tancredo invoked the loaded pre-civil rights era buzzword, saying that President Barack Obama was elected because "we do not have a civics, literacy test before people can vote in this country." Southern states used literacy tests as part of an effort to deny suffrage to African American voters prior to Johnson-era civil rights laws.
And Tancredo added...
Tancredo.... complained that "people who could not even spell the word 'vote', or say it in English, put a committed socialist ideologue in the White House. His name is Barack Hussein Obama."
Sadly for Tancredo facts can be inconvenient things...
Another group that's key to [Obama's victory], college graduates, represented a majority of the U.S. electorate for the first time this year. Obama carried college-educated voters 53 percent to 45 percent for McCain.
Does the Tea Party crowd really want to deny the vote to people who can't spell?
1
Tancredo is a thorn to the liberal. Type it out, Dan. Growl your calm message. Tribute the namesake for your lucky 13th annual pulpit. It would great if they misspelled it for one night - Neuhomo's.
2
I would like to deny advertising copywriting jobs to people who cannot spell and I am not a Tea Party person, just someone who helps out The Stranger by paying attention to the online ads and patronizing the advertisers. I would like educated people who have integrity and skills to have jobs. Have you compared the quality of government in nations where education is somewhat subsidized by taxes to that of the United States?
Mr. Tancredo's idea of a "civics literacy" test is not a bad one. Immigrants have civics literacy components to their citizenship exams. As an immigrant I've challenged people who say things like "dem durn ferners need to lurn 'bout our real good country" to discuss The Federalist Papers or the responsibilities of the Secretary of the Treasury, only to hear crickets chirping.
I do not believe the Tea Party leaders understand how the civics literacy test can backfire on them.
Mr. Tancredo's idea of a "civics literacy" test is not a bad one. Immigrants have civics literacy components to their citizenship exams. As an immigrant I've challenged people who say things like "dem durn ferners need to lurn 'bout our real good country" to discuss The Federalist Papers or the responsibilities of the Secretary of the Treasury, only to hear crickets chirping.
I do not believe the Tea Party leaders understand how the civics literacy test can backfire on them.
3
The NY Times had an interesting article about some research done by two sociologists about why more college professors are liberal. One reason: typecasting. Meaning, when students are choosing a career, it's one they can see for themselves. (I think the new way to say that is actualizing.) But further down in the article, we find this:
"Other contributors to the book, Matthew Woessner and April Kelly-Woessner, who are husband and wife, also found that conservatives are less interested in pursuing advanced degrees than liberals."
So conservatives are just less interested in advanced (advancing) education, at least for themselves.
"Other contributors to the book, Matthew Woessner and April Kelly-Woessner, who are husband and wife, also found that conservatives are less interested in pursuing advanced degrees than liberals."
So conservatives are just less interested in advanced (advancing) education, at least for themselves.
4
We used to have literacy tests as a requirement to vote, and like Tancredo is suggesting, they were very specific and focused literacy tests! I think we had them up to 1964, even.
5
You missed the best quote, Dan: He railed against the "cult of multiculturalism" to great applause, basically proving that if John McCain won the presidency, none of these douches would be dressing up like Revolutionary War soldiers and complaining about uppity presidents.
It's at least heartening that they're openly going for just the white vote. They'll lose every time.
It's at least heartening that they're openly going for just the white vote. They'll lose every time.
6
Sad that this anti-immigrant feeling wasn't a bit stronger in the early 20th century when all four of Tom Tancredo's grandparents immigrated to the US.
7
You're saying a literacy test would still exclude African-Americans?
That sounds like you're calling blacks stupid!
Hate crime! Hate crime!
You're saying a literacy test would still exclude African-Americans?
That sounds like you're calling blacks stupid!
Hate crime! Hate crime!
8
The fact that college-educated people tend to support the ideology of the Democrats rather than that of the Republicans says a lot about their respective merits. But somewhere along the line, a good education became a bad thing to people like the Teabaggers; it resulted in instant elitism. So...people who can't even SPELL are making a ruckus about how they know better than all those elitist intellectuals. I smell "Idiocracy"!
10
This is the brand new line from conservatives. Despite all evidence to the contrary I've heard a few (and there will more than likely be more) commentators try to sell the idea that people who vote democrat are less educated than conservatives. I think it's this month's version of "there were no terrorist attacks in America under Bush's watch."
12
#8.
That's because college educated people realize that if they had to make in the "Free Market" where people want to spend their money on cars, houses and clothes rather than Offices of Sustainability, there would be no cushy intellectual jobs funded by taxpayer money.
Who was it that said "Genius loves a dictator"...
That's because college educated people realize that if they had to make in the "Free Market" where people want to spend their money on cars, houses and clothes rather than Offices of Sustainability, there would be no cushy intellectual jobs funded by taxpayer money.
Who was it that said "Genius loves a dictator"...
15
Just another reinforcement of the old saying "The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."
16
Liberals are both out-of-touch ivory tower limousine riding history professors and, at the same time, illiterate illegal aliens.
17
What I can't believe is that 45% of college educated people voted for Palin for VP. I wonder what percentage of those was over the age of, say, 50?
18
@16 Demonization works that way
Women are mysterious and delicate beings unless they are bitches.
Gays are sissy girly-men who are also so strong and threatening that military men shake in their combat boots at the thought of being near them.
Poor people are scheming lazy stealers who are somehow industrious enough have several jobs that prevent them from attending school functions.
Women are mysterious and delicate beings unless they are bitches.
Gays are sissy girly-men who are also so strong and threatening that military men shake in their combat boots at the thought of being near them.
Poor people are scheming lazy stealers who are somehow industrious enough have several jobs that prevent them from attending school functions.
21
The last photo is probably at least 10 years old. Jimmy's writers are a little behind TDS's and Colbert's. It is nice to see some of this getting a little play on networks. I mean the network news won't cover stuff like this, but at least the comedy shows will.
22
Dan, if you get all your news and posts from Left Wing advocacy blogs you end up looking and sounding stupid.
"In 1855 Connecticut adopts the nation's first literacy test for voting. Massachusetts follows suit in 1857. The tests were implemented to discriminate against Irish-Catholic immigrants."
Aren't you Irish, Dan?
"In 1855 Connecticut adopts the nation's first literacy test for voting. Massachusetts follows suit in 1857. The tests were implemented to discriminate against Irish-Catholic immigrants."
Aren't you Irish, Dan?
23
3
"why more college professors are liberal."
Those who have the ability to actually do something in this world get out and do it.
Those who can't stick hide out in the sheltered environment of college.
(or maybe get jobs as community organizers...)
"why more college professors are liberal."
Those who have the ability to actually do something in this world get out and do it.
Those who can't stick hide out in the sheltered environment of college.
(or maybe get jobs as community organizers...)
26
I've totally been thinking the same thing the last few days. A literacy test? Sheesh, even a civics test? Yeah, when I think "tea party crowd" I think civil, educated folks who are great with grammar, spelling and have great deal of respect for democracy. I don't really think we should have such tests but I want to say this anyway:
Bring it on you teabagging isolationists
Bring it on you teabagging isolationists
27
@23: "Those who have the ability to actually do something in this world get out and do it."
Without any book-learning, I'll warrant. Who needs perfessers when you got common sense? Am I right?
Without any book-learning, I'll warrant. Who needs perfessers when you got common sense? Am I right?
29
So let me get this straight. The people who voted in a man who literally cannot pronounce the word "nuclear" are questioning the intelligence of the people who voted in a constitutional law professor. That's priceless.
31
@29- FTW! Isn't life with a dem in the white house fun! We get to watch the armed-to-the-teeth crazies scream for 4-8 years. I remember the years of Clintonius well...
"Nuculer", indeed. I will always be thankful we now have a President who speaks the Queen's English and can string together a coherant sentence, teabaggers be damned. But idiots with guns make me nervous.
"Nuculer", indeed. I will always be thankful we now have a President who speaks the Queen's English and can string together a coherant sentence, teabaggers be damned. But idiots with guns make me nervous.
32
This tea party conference cost attendees at least $500. These are not the same people on the streets with the idiot signs. These are people rich enough to know they'd better ride this wave back into power.
33
Obama is a socialist ideologue? Well, he's on the left side of the spectrum. I guess.
But a socialist? I think, to the Tea Baggers, all of these words—socialist, fascist, redistributionist, communist, Marxist—are euphemisms for "black." That's still his biggest failing.
But a socialist? I think, to the Tea Baggers, all of these words—socialist, fascist, redistributionist, communist, Marxist—are euphemisms for "black." That's still his biggest failing.
34
@12: Do you think that cars, houses, and clothes were designed by people who didn't devote a good few years to the arts and sciences? If you think that college-educated intellectuals are superfluous and unnecessary, try sitting down with your cousin Bubba and developing a new chemotherapy agent, or assemble a low-pass circuit, or design a two-flat, or even just build an umbrella from scratch (no internet allowed!).
@23: I am in college, and I can tell you that at any good university, there is no such sheltered environment. College professors perform two incredibly important functions: research into new technologies and ways of thinking/looking at data, and even more vital, passing on information so that what we have discovered and developed does not die out with the generation of its discoverer.
I get the sense you are bitter from having been rejected from community college. MIRITE?
@28: Running the world? You've been watching "Idiocracy" too much. If you look at the rulers and legislators of 1st- and 2nd-world countries, you'll see that the vast majority of them have advanced degrees (i.e., Masters, Ph.D., etc.).
@31: No, if he spoke the Queen's English he'd have an English accent. Or as they across the Pond would have it, no accent at all, as that's how English is meant to be spoken.
@23: I am in college, and I can tell you that at any good university, there is no such sheltered environment. College professors perform two incredibly important functions: research into new technologies and ways of thinking/looking at data, and even more vital, passing on information so that what we have discovered and developed does not die out with the generation of its discoverer.
I get the sense you are bitter from having been rejected from community college. MIRITE?
@28: Running the world? You've been watching "Idiocracy" too much. If you look at the rulers and legislators of 1st- and 2nd-world countries, you'll see that the vast majority of them have advanced degrees (i.e., Masters, Ph.D., etc.).
@31: No, if he spoke the Queen's English he'd have an English accent. Or as they across the Pond would have it, no accent at all, as that's how English is meant to be spoken.
35
Let them do it!
Then no matter how the rest of Obama's term goes, we'll be sure to have another dem. President after him. Or better yet, an independent!
After all, it is a well known fact that in this country, the more educated someone is, the more likely they are to be a liberal and the less educated you are, the more likely they'll be republicans. The only way to convince people that raising their taxes while cutting the richest people's taxes is a good idea (among many other republican "good ideas") is to make sure the people you're trying to convince are as dumb as it gets.
Reinstate the literacy test and we can all be sure the future will look bright blue!
Btw, I'm against censorship of all kind, and believe everyone must have the right to vote, but since the republicans are the ones who came up with it, let them have it! It's only gonna hurt them!
Then no matter how the rest of Obama's term goes, we'll be sure to have another dem. President after him. Or better yet, an independent!
After all, it is a well known fact that in this country, the more educated someone is, the more likely they are to be a liberal and the less educated you are, the more likely they'll be republicans. The only way to convince people that raising their taxes while cutting the richest people's taxes is a good idea (among many other republican "good ideas") is to make sure the people you're trying to convince are as dumb as it gets.
Reinstate the literacy test and we can all be sure the future will look bright blue!
Btw, I'm against censorship of all kind, and believe everyone must have the right to vote, but since the republicans are the ones who came up with it, let them have it! It's only gonna hurt them!
36
Oh, another fun fact!
If a civics/literacy test was required for the candidates themselves, guess who would have passed with an A+? Obama.
Bush would probably be more of a D- student...
If a civics/literacy test was required for the candidates themselves, guess who would have passed with an A+? Obama.
Bush would probably be more of a D- student...
38
34
Running the World?
Not college professors, venom, which is what the post was addressing.
Prof Obama is an excellent example of how a smart articulate Constitutional Law professor type doesn't have jack-squat experience/ability to actually run a government.
Just ask 8,400,000 families that have lost their job since he got his a year ago.
and, yeah, college boy-
you've got it tough....
the whole world admires your
Strength and Courage.
Running the World?
Not college professors, venom, which is what the post was addressing.
Prof Obama is an excellent example of how a smart articulate Constitutional Law professor type doesn't have jack-squat experience/ability to actually run a government.
Just ask 8,400,000 families that have lost their job since he got his a year ago.
and, yeah, college boy-
you've got it tough....
the whole world admires your
Strength and Courage.
40
@38: Explain to me again how exactly it is that highly educated persons are not the ones in power. They are legislators, judges, heads of state, corporate executives (as much as we'd like to disavow any connection to THEM), generals (even if it's not a liberal arts education), and just about every position of power. Because let's face it; a smart, educated person can do a hell of a lot more than your cousin Bubba who doesn't have two working brain cells to rub together.
I have to say, it tickles me pink (NOT GAY) to hear you guys railing against the "Obama Recession". Do you realize what a shitstorm he walked into?
A shitstorm left by...BUSH.
And if you think college is so easy, I'd like to see you sit through my O-Chem class for just one day and explain what the professor was talking about. Step inside, bitch.
I have to say, it tickles me pink (NOT GAY) to hear you guys railing against the "Obama Recession". Do you realize what a shitstorm he walked into?
A shitstorm left by...BUSH.
And if you think college is so easy, I'd like to see you sit through my O-Chem class for just one day and explain what the professor was talking about. Step inside, bitch.
41
40
That IS the beauty of it.
Obama walks into the shitstorm.
GOP comes to the rescue in 2012.
Ask Carter how well it works....
That IS the beauty of it.
Obama walks into the shitstorm.
GOP comes to the rescue in 2012.
Ask Carter how well it works....
44
@41: So...you're saying that it's all right that Bush fucked up the economy because the Repuglicans are going to clean up their own mess in 2012. Just like you've always cleaned up your messes. If it weren't for the "BLEEV IN JEEBUS" factor, nobody would trust you guys.
I'm sorry, I think I'll let Obama keep working at it. Unlike Bush, he has so far had a POSITIVE impact on the country.
I see you have no comeback to my challenge to you about college. That ain't Falco. Bring it or get your bitch-ass self the fuck out of here.
@42: Cry, baby, cry.
I'm sorry, I think I'll let Obama keep working at it. Unlike Bush, he has so far had a POSITIVE impact on the country.
I see you have no comeback to my challenge to you about college. That ain't Falco. Bring it or get your bitch-ass self the fuck out of here.
@42: Cry, baby, cry.
45
44
positive impact?
you mean, like 8,400,000 people losing their jobs?
like $3.4 Trillion more in national debt in 13 months?
here's a homework assignment, college boy (we'll even give you some hints):
a) What was the total addition to the national debt during the 8 years of W Bush?
b) How much of that happened in the two years after the Democraps took Congress? (hint, about 2/3 of it)
c) How much has Obama added to the national debt in 13 months? (hint, about 3X "a").
extra credit- How many % points has national unemployment increased in the 3 years since the Democraps took over Congress? (hint- you'll need the fingers from two hands...)
one more hint-
when you brag about how smart you are and how great your education is you look really silly. just show us. or not. one of your mommas should have taught you that...
positive impact?
you mean, like 8,400,000 people losing their jobs?
like $3.4 Trillion more in national debt in 13 months?
here's a homework assignment, college boy (we'll even give you some hints):
a) What was the total addition to the national debt during the 8 years of W Bush?
b) How much of that happened in the two years after the Democraps took Congress? (hint, about 2/3 of it)
c) How much has Obama added to the national debt in 13 months? (hint, about 3X "a").
extra credit- How many % points has national unemployment increased in the 3 years since the Democraps took over Congress? (hint- you'll need the fingers from two hands...)
one more hint-
when you brag about how smart you are and how great your education is you look really silly. just show us. or not. one of your mommas should have taught you that...
46
In 2008 the national debt was $9.9 Trillion.
In January 2009 Obama became President.
On December 24, 2009, the US debt ceiling was raised to $12.3 trillion dollars.
The debt limit was most recently raised to $14.3 trillion on January 28, 2010.
12 months.
$4.4 Trillion in additional debt.
dizzying.
It gets better-
Obama projects the debt will be $ 18.5 Trillion in 4 years.
bad bad Bush!!
by then the national debt will cost a Trillion dollars every year JUST IN INTEREST.
(at today's artificially low interest rates. When (not 'if') interest rates rise that figure will double...)
In January 2009 Obama became President.
On December 24, 2009, the US debt ceiling was raised to $12.3 trillion dollars.
The debt limit was most recently raised to $14.3 trillion on January 28, 2010.
12 months.
$4.4 Trillion in additional debt.
dizzying.
It gets better-
Obama projects the debt will be $ 18.5 Trillion in 4 years.
bad bad Bush!!
by then the national debt will cost a Trillion dollars every year JUST IN INTEREST.
(at today's artificially low interest rates. When (not 'if') interest rates rise that figure will double...)
47
@Alleged: So, because things are bad, Obama must have caused the decline. Child, please. What you utterly fail to realize is that without his semi-timely actions (and that of Congress) THINGS WOULD MOST LIKELY BE FAR WORSE. But if you want to ignore logic and instead brainlessly yammer the same set of statistics (which you never seem to cite), go right ahead; we don't care because YOU don't run this country. Hell, I'd be surprised if you've ever been elected or appointed to any sort of public office.
I'm not saying anything about my intelligence or the quality of my education. I'm just telling you to try it (seriously, give it your very best shot at the nearest institution to you) before you say it's at all easy or worthless.
Kiss the baby.
I'm not saying anything about my intelligence or the quality of my education. I'm just telling you to try it (seriously, give it your very best shot at the nearest institution to you) before you say it's at all easy or worthless.
Kiss the baby.
49
@48: ...so, you hold a deep grudge against visually challenged members of Peromyscus sp.? I guess that "you are so precious...." is code for "I don't really have a counter-argument, so I'm just going to say something inane and condescending to try and make myself sound smart".
MIRITE?
4 SRS, MIRITE?
MIRITE?
4 SRS, MIRITE?
50
At the founding of this country seven major dictionaries with vastly different spelling conventions, littered the 13 colonies. There was no widely accepted "one way" to spell or speak until Noah Webster some 30 years after the Declaration of Independence was he able to offer a comprehensive spelling book that championed a "dialect-free Federal English".
So these Tea Party afficianados, if they are so keen to live as if history provides a viable road map for racist classist spelling fascists, should turn off their spell check and wing it like arch-conservative born again Vice President Dan Quayle did when he chastised a kid for spelling "potato" incorrectly.
Even though the kid spelled it right, Dan, in his infinite WASPY noblesse oblige wisdom, insisted that the kid place an "e" on the end. Dan Quayle, should be the Tea Party Poster Child with a picture of him and a caption, "Mr Potatoe Head, He English Only".
The USA does not even acknowledge English as its official language, so how can we have official spelling?
Leave Obama alone. In a few months time, it will come out that the US military, in cohoots with the military-oil-industrial complex, was planning to go to Iraq and Afghanistan for the entire first quarter of the 21st century as early as 1998!!! This wasn't a contingency plan, this was the plan. My uncle, who has since retired spilled the beans to me in a drunken foray a few weeks ago. He spends his retirement drunk because he realizes that he did not serve his country, he served multinational cartels. Under his tuteluge and command, 27 US soldiers died that he knew personally, even their kids. I'd drink too.
While the Brits are hanging Tony Blair out to dry over war crimes that caused less than 200 British soldiers to die, I find it incredulous that these Tea Party blow horns aren't more concerned about USA independence and democracy taking a back seat to Bush's war crimes (in cohoots with the British of all people) where over 4000 US troops have died.
Tell me, why did we bring freedom to Iraq and spend a trillion dollars of our tax money to turn 90% of the oil fields over to British Petroleum (owned by the British government!) and Royal Dutch Shell Oil (how many Dutch boys died in Iraq? TWO! and the Dutch pulled out in 2005!)?
The least we could have done is give the fields to the Bush cartel or even the bastard child of Rockefeller's Standard Oil (Chevron).
The thing is the Brits and US wanted to keep the US Dollar the premier currency in the world so in trade, the US gave the Brits the Iraqi oil to keep petroleum trading in US dollars. If it wasn't for a million Iraqi deaths and the re-colonization of Iraq by the British (with the help of US mercenary companies like Blackwater and Halliburton), oil would now be trading in Euros- just what Saddam started to do before we hanged him good.
You can blame not just oil, but the need to prop up the US dollar and keep it the NWO's currency of choice. Good thing too, I suppose. This country would be in a real tailspin if the Chinese unloaded 3 trillion dollars and redeemed them for Euros. The US would have looked like Thailand during the Asian currency crisis in 1998 and Argentina's in 2001.
The ORIGINAL Tea Party was all about isolationism and anti-imperialism. It's a great concept if applied correctly. Typically though, no one is interested in true reform or re-structuring when they can get so much mileage out of spelling bees and those stoopid niggards who shoodn't be loud to vote.
Thousands have died so that the USA mercenary army could win a war for two big foreign oil companies. Any way you spell it, all of us are stoopid for not doing more bout it. That we have to commit genocide and subjegate whole regions to prop up the mighty dollar is cold-hearted and brutally shocking.
Being poor and not having a Blackberry to spell check one's grocery list should not prohibit any one from voting. Nearly 40% of voters for George Washington as President were functionally illiterate. Even rich white slave owners couldn't spell for shitt.
9/11 conveniently played into the Neocons plans if they didn't downright plan it all in unison. It really is irrelevant who caused 9/11, what's so much more important is- who benefited most from this horrendous crime?
The truth is Obama is a figurehead, and as good as he is, he is not in charge, no more than Tony Blair and George "W".
But if anyone has the tenacity and intelligence to unravel, or at least slow down, the dark masters of corporatism and colonial exploitation of Mideast resources- oil is the glaring example- Obama is our man. Be patient with him and tell the Tea Party to start a meaningful rebellion against multinationals or jump in the harbor themselves.
Besides, do we have any confirmation that the Tee Pardy Kween herself, Miss Sarra Pallin be a good schpeller?
More...
So these Tea Party afficianados, if they are so keen to live as if history provides a viable road map for racist classist spelling fascists, should turn off their spell check and wing it like arch-conservative born again Vice President Dan Quayle did when he chastised a kid for spelling "potato" incorrectly.
Even though the kid spelled it right, Dan, in his infinite WASPY noblesse oblige wisdom, insisted that the kid place an "e" on the end. Dan Quayle, should be the Tea Party Poster Child with a picture of him and a caption, "Mr Potatoe Head, He English Only".
The USA does not even acknowledge English as its official language, so how can we have official spelling?
Leave Obama alone. In a few months time, it will come out that the US military, in cohoots with the military-oil-industrial complex, was planning to go to Iraq and Afghanistan for the entire first quarter of the 21st century as early as 1998!!! This wasn't a contingency plan, this was the plan. My uncle, who has since retired spilled the beans to me in a drunken foray a few weeks ago. He spends his retirement drunk because he realizes that he did not serve his country, he served multinational cartels. Under his tuteluge and command, 27 US soldiers died that he knew personally, even their kids. I'd drink too.
While the Brits are hanging Tony Blair out to dry over war crimes that caused less than 200 British soldiers to die, I find it incredulous that these Tea Party blow horns aren't more concerned about USA independence and democracy taking a back seat to Bush's war crimes (in cohoots with the British of all people) where over 4000 US troops have died.
Tell me, why did we bring freedom to Iraq and spend a trillion dollars of our tax money to turn 90% of the oil fields over to British Petroleum (owned by the British government!) and Royal Dutch Shell Oil (how many Dutch boys died in Iraq? TWO! and the Dutch pulled out in 2005!)?
The least we could have done is give the fields to the Bush cartel or even the bastard child of Rockefeller's Standard Oil (Chevron).
The thing is the Brits and US wanted to keep the US Dollar the premier currency in the world so in trade, the US gave the Brits the Iraqi oil to keep petroleum trading in US dollars. If it wasn't for a million Iraqi deaths and the re-colonization of Iraq by the British (with the help of US mercenary companies like Blackwater and Halliburton), oil would now be trading in Euros- just what Saddam started to do before we hanged him good.
You can blame not just oil, but the need to prop up the US dollar and keep it the NWO's currency of choice. Good thing too, I suppose. This country would be in a real tailspin if the Chinese unloaded 3 trillion dollars and redeemed them for Euros. The US would have looked like Thailand during the Asian currency crisis in 1998 and Argentina's in 2001.
The ORIGINAL Tea Party was all about isolationism and anti-imperialism. It's a great concept if applied correctly. Typically though, no one is interested in true reform or re-structuring when they can get so much mileage out of spelling bees and those stoopid niggards who shoodn't be loud to vote.
Thousands have died so that the USA mercenary army could win a war for two big foreign oil companies. Any way you spell it, all of us are stoopid for not doing more bout it. That we have to commit genocide and subjegate whole regions to prop up the mighty dollar is cold-hearted and brutally shocking.
Being poor and not having a Blackberry to spell check one's grocery list should not prohibit any one from voting. Nearly 40% of voters for George Washington as President were functionally illiterate. Even rich white slave owners couldn't spell for shitt.
9/11 conveniently played into the Neocons plans if they didn't downright plan it all in unison. It really is irrelevant who caused 9/11, what's so much more important is- who benefited most from this horrendous crime?
The truth is Obama is a figurehead, and as good as he is, he is not in charge, no more than Tony Blair and George "W".
But if anyone has the tenacity and intelligence to unravel, or at least slow down, the dark masters of corporatism and colonial exploitation of Mideast resources- oil is the glaring example- Obama is our man. Be patient with him and tell the Tea Party to start a meaningful rebellion against multinationals or jump in the harbor themselves.
Besides, do we have any confirmation that the Tee Pardy Kween herself, Miss Sarra Pallin be a good schpeller?
51
Just to be super pedantic, "the Queen's English" does not equal "the accent English people have," it's the very class-specific accent - sometimes almost a dialect it's so distinct - now only spoken by members of the aristocracy. Even the BBC did away with requiring its reporters to speak the Queen's English a couple of decades ago, because it was elitist and narrowed its potential pool to a little puddle.
53
49
ok venom, if you wish-
(although feeding the trolls makes the slog tedius...)
"without his semi-timely actions (and that of Congress) THINGS WOULD MOST LIKELY BE FAR WORSE. "
oh my....
but actually, not.
by the Administrations own inflated reconing the stimulus "saved" a million jobs.
at a cost of $800,000 per "saved" job.
most of the money went to Wall Street.
bet you never figured Obama would shill for the big business fatcats- money does strange things to people.
even community organizers.
Obama instead could have given $80,000 to each and every one of the 8.4 million who have lost a job.
let them spend it.
that would have done some good....
as it is that $800 Billion was borrowed, and the dificit has become a bigger problem than unemployment.
soon China will start demanding more interest before it will loan us money.
under Carter interest rates got to 21%.
you don't remember Carter, do you college boy...
when you say THINGS WOULD MOST LIKELY BE FAR WORSE you have no idea what "far worse" can look like.
but you'll find out.
do you know how hard it is to start a business or buy a house when the bank wants 21%?
how much longer will you be in school?
keep an eye on interest rates....
ok venom, if you wish-
(although feeding the trolls makes the slog tedius...)
"without his semi-timely actions (and that of Congress) THINGS WOULD MOST LIKELY BE FAR WORSE. "
oh my....
but actually, not.
by the Administrations own inflated reconing the stimulus "saved" a million jobs.
at a cost of $800,000 per "saved" job.
most of the money went to Wall Street.
bet you never figured Obama would shill for the big business fatcats- money does strange things to people.
even community organizers.
Obama instead could have given $80,000 to each and every one of the 8.4 million who have lost a job.
let them spend it.
that would have done some good....
as it is that $800 Billion was borrowed, and the dificit has become a bigger problem than unemployment.
soon China will start demanding more interest before it will loan us money.
under Carter interest rates got to 21%.
you don't remember Carter, do you college boy...
when you say THINGS WOULD MOST LIKELY BE FAR WORSE you have no idea what "far worse" can look like.
but you'll find out.
do you know how hard it is to start a business or buy a house when the bank wants 21%?
how much longer will you be in school?
keep an eye on interest rates....
55
Oh, please, please, please institute a civics test requirement to be allowed to vote or run for office. The very same one that naturalized citizens have to pass in order to become citizens. Oh yes, please. I think about 80% of the population would be disenfranchised overnight, and Tommy T., honey, do you really think you'd be in the 20%? Do you REALLY?
56
Although I hate the Tea Party, I like the way it is forcing the GOP back to the fiscal restraint party. G.W. Bush era Republicans were lock step with the Dems on spending. The only difference is the Dems fund through taxes and the Bush GOP funded through Debt.
57
@23- Oh yes, college professorships are very easy to get and require no work at all. Also the sun rises in the West.
58
To anyone saying "bring it on", here is a link covering how literacy tests worked in real life: http://www.crmvet.org/info/lithome.htm
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