Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for April 30, 2010

A loss for words!

I would say that Sarah Bailin’ is George Wallace with a vagina, but that would be unfair–to Governor Wallace, who eventually repented of his demagogy and rabble-rousing.

She’s so cute, but she needs to work on her delivery.

Then there’s this to account for: http://articles.latimes.com/2008/sep/19/nation/na-bridge19

Dang, liberals really ARE scared crapless of Palin. I haven’t seen this much angst against a conservative on this strip since Bush won in ‘04.

Wonder what it is that frightens them so? I always thought she was cute but a little on the lightweight side for the VP nomination.

What with the unending false ethics charges back home, which she keeps winning, and all the angst from Rosie, Margie Cho, and the liberal parts of the media you’d think she was the next Republican nominee for president. The DNC must have her on their “enemies” list. I doubt she’s going to be seriously considered for nomination, so stop wasting print space attacking her.

Frightened? FRIGHTENED?

Ahahahahahaha!!!!!!

HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

You think this is “angst?” You can’t tell fear from simply pointing and laughing?

Not exactly fear - just long memories. Remembering who votes and who –too often – does not.

A feeling of impending doom, I guess.

Lines like that gave Saturday Night Live (and Tina Fey) a ratings boost! Thank You Sarah for being so “funny”. Haven’t laughed so much in years. So it’s only “FAIR” that the TEA Party Republicans take U on the road in their Dog & Pony Show!

hawgowar, scared really is not the word. Appalled, perhaps, that such a moron can have such a following. Appalled at the thought that someone like her could even be taken seriously. Embarrassed – that’s a good word, too – that this is what many in this country look up to. But scared? Only if this country were stupid enough to elect her.

We’re terrified of Garfield too.

I’m glad to see the DNC waste time and money on Sarah and Rush. Hope they have some ammo let for the real battles. Like’ If Bush spent all the money, how are you running a much bigger deficit? Guantanamo was going to close when? If the Patriot Act was such a threat to our freedom, why can’t a Dem congress and President end it? Hey, good to see you racing ahead on that immigration policy. Why do the numbers keep changing on the cost of universal insurance? Glad to see such positive things happening on the economy. Great, please tell me again how we are going to tax ourselves into recovery. How is taking money from Medicare going to help senior citizens again? Do you find it embarrassing that a western state has to pass laws that the Executive Branch of the Federal government is sworn to uphold? Inquiring minds want to know..

Look down at your hand, Mrs. Palin; it should be there.

The Bridge to Nowhere - the then-governor’s daughter owned most of the land on the island. Without the bridge it was worthless; WITH the bridge, however….

For what it’s worth:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/20/opinion/20lende.html

Sweet Sarah also quit the governorship of Alaska as well. That was very cute.

Speaking of t-baggers (OR BAGGIES), where was their fake outrage when the Cheney Administration was wasting billions on Iraq, among other porks programs? I heard that Ron Paul is the original t-bagger, but for lack of hottie factor, he is mostly shunned by the t-baggers, right?

THanks, but I’ll take the Keasey Kool-Aid, s’il vous plais.

Palin is the best thing to happen to the Democratic Party since FDR.

Sarah and the Teabaggers (hey, wouldn’t that be a great name for a rock band?) are simply more grist for the entertainment industry. Fox News gains viewers and makes money by pretending to support them; Comedy Central gains viewers and makes money by pretending to bash them; and everybody wins except those who think politics actually matters for anything in the Corporate States of America.

portziebe, that’s an easy one…. …….if the black guy wasn’t in the white house, there would be no teabagger demonstrations…. still, while all this ignorance and palin adulation makes me nervous and embarrassed …the number of cameras and media that show up at these events seem to outnumber the participants……they are a very very small fraction of the right …and indeed , of the electorate

Palin, however cute, is a religious nut and a lightweight who has no business aspiring to national office, and this from someone whom the Left would consider an extreme right-winger. The Tea Partyers would do well to distance themselves from her, and this from someone who agrees with the fundamental Partyer concerns about limited government, reduced taxes, and freedom.

BTW, take notice, commentors and SITE EDITOR, that the OTHER terminology for Tea Partyers is an obscenity and that I flag every post that uses it.

Article in today’s Washington Post. In Utah, the ultraconservatives as eviscerating the REPUBLICANS for not representing them, too. Sent up choruses of “Bye Bye Bennett.” Tune was “Bye Bye Birdie” which you would think Mormons would revile, but then again, it is a ‘60’s play and movie. The fever is against incumbents of any party! Bennett will have a hard time even getting his party’s nomination. This is hilarious. They started an avalanche of support against themselves! I suspect Keith is sending thank you cards to Rupert even as I type this.

Fear is this hungry monster that eats perspective and eventually, the fear monger.

I would agree too that the liberals need to back off Palin, neato voodoo doll that she is. She’s becoming the Hilary of the right, this icon to be attacked instead of someone who can raise legitimate concerns that need to be addressed. Focus on her too long, and your enemy will slip up behind you, the way Obama did on the left.

Oh, by the way, this will likely split the party and end up a win for the dems who will have seniority in Wash. which is everything in committees.

@nighthawks The teabaggers have it right in concept but eerily wrong in execution. I think a large portion of the electorate recognizes that the plutocratic oligarchy that our country has become, regardless of which political party is holding the reins, is not serving the citizenry. I’d join them myself if there weren’t so many loons riding the train. I would love to see a rational, centrist popular movement that could foment significant change, but I’m not hopeful.

I just love the hypocrisy. “tax dollars goin’ to help people that aren’t us”

If you want to help people, use your own money. Feeling charitable by demanding the government pay for programs is a cheap cop-out.

Yeah, Liberals are scared of Palin. Because they know what it means to have someone who took six years and five schools to complete a four-year journalism degree sitting in the oval office waiting to declare war on Iran.

Here in California, the right said that liberals were scared of Ahnuld the Barbarian, and two terms later, both Republican candidates - Steve Poisoner and Meg (w)Hitman are accusing the other of BEING the next Ahnuld. What is so hard to see about the consequences of having unqualified people in important offices?

An outstanding set of comments today.

Lewreader: We would usually agree on very little, but your remarks are well-taken. We should hold everyone’s feet to the fire, including (especially!) those whom we favor. No one in public service should get an unquestioned free ride.

pschearer: Thank you for the reminder about the offensive term “teabagger”; it’s unspeakably vulgar and out of place in civilized conversation. But I’m afraid it may be too late. Show people one Tea Party advocate with a tea bag (the Lipton variety, please) hanging from his hat, and you’ve got an Internet meme that just won’t go away…. The only consolation is that most people using the slang expression probably have no idea what it originally meant, (I like to think) would never use it if they did, and now no longer care, having imposed a new meaning on it. Sad.

President Johnson changed the Democratic party. After the voter rights act, the segregationists bolted the party. This was back in the mid 60’s. Kind of ancient history, since this is now 2010. Wallace ran as an independent for president in 1968.

@fbjsr: I don’t know where you are from but I strongly suspect it is not the Old South. You mention that Wallace was a Democrat but there is a lot of history behind that. It was the Republican party of Lincoln that forced a punitive period of “Reconstruction” on the south. As a result, those who opposed it were naturally enough Democrats.

I think it may have been John Connally in Texas who finally came clean and switched to the Republican party. Now most of the old “Texas Democrats” are finally showing their true colors as Republicans. Much of the south has not reached that point yet. Many politicians in the south who have more in common with the Republicans continue to run as Democrats, more out of habit than ideology.

So your point that Wallace was a Democrat is actually pointless. Anyone who wanted to win an election in the South in Wallace’s day had better be a Democrat because a Republican had no chance.

Nothing like living in the present… Now that we have rehashed the history of the Democrats and Republicans in the United States, perhaps we can move on to the time in which we live. It seems a bit irrelevant to focus on the Civil War and things like that since as a Democrat in this era I would certainly have voted for Lincoln. I also would have voted for a few other Republicans in this century. In the last decade, I think the arena of GOP I would vote for is very slim, as someone who lives in the midwest in 2010. The moderate Republicans are an endangered species.

Scatty beat me to it. The term in use for the pseudo political party was very common at first. It took several months before the sexual connotation became common knowledge to the general population, including the group themselves. Now habits are hard to break, and besides, why not call them something offensive as they still use the term “Obamacare” instead of “Health Care Legislation.”

liberals aren’t scared of Palin. We are scared that the IMBECILES on the right put her in a position of power, and we might have to deal with this moron trashing the Country worse the W did. To have that dimwit wanting to “attack Iran” in anyway, shape or form in the Oval Office is frightening.

What is it about Righties that after failing at everything, The economy, protecting America, helping the citizens etc… They think they have a monopoly on whats best For the country? Delusional racist morons.

“SnowJob SquareGlasses whose financial credentials include running Wasilla into debt, listing (but not selling) a plane on EBay and flip-flopping on a bridge to wherever.” -Charles M. Blow -NYT

No Sarah! Please! I can’t stand it. Your sly and silly repetitious lies are turning my brain into jelly! I’m… I’m… I’m … Beginning ……… To….. To…. BELIEVE!!! AHHHHHHHH!!

Go Sarah! Go! The earth is a jelly doughnut.

Two words that scare liberals; President Palin. Two words that scare 6.5 billion people; Commander-in-Chief Palin.

I am sorry to strongly disagree with some of you, but…

I have never found fingernails-on-a-chalkboard to be “cute.”

Although they’re not even mentioned, here’s the impact that Palin and the tea-partiers are having on the national conciousness:

http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/04/30/should-massachusetts-reduce-its-sales-tax/?test=latestnews

It’s not about what office she runs or doesn’t run for… it’s the message. People are waking up. When will you? :-)

Scatty, that may be true re: terms, but does that make it right? We could use the “f” word for homosexuals, or the “n” word for African Americans… and it may even be that they use those words among themselves… but it means something very different when used as deliberate obscenities coming from those outside the group.

Toad stool, you’re back to your bigotry again… you sound desprately frustrated :-) The right hasn’t been this organized since Richard Nixon’s time, and it’s all thanks to the current administration’s abuse of power in their first 2 years. Are you sad that the house of cards is coming down around you?

She’s even boring in comic form. Well, at least you can’t hear her grating voice. Could imagine listening to that for 4 years.

Nemesys, I was not defending use of the word “teabagger” – only deploring the likelihood that we’ll keep hearing it. And the ones most likely to use the phrase are the ones least likely to keep its offensiveness from stopping them.

For the record: it’s SCAATY, not SCATTY – as in “Still Crazy After All These Years”, right? :) Actually, my wife might say that either works for me…!

I’m thinkin’ with all this Progressive stalking of Sarah Palin, that they secretly want Sarah to take down their pants and paddle them severely for being bad little boys.

At the same time, the Progressive Feminists see her as a danger to taking “their men”; an active, fertile, attractive woman that takes charge.

Otherwise, why the fuss? Ignore her and she’s gone, but the LSM just keeps on shouting out. Perhaps Chris Matthews is no longer satisfied with just a tingle up his leg; maybe we really wants a good spankin’. GT also?

While I understand the the underlying meaning of the insulting “bagger” obscenity might not be known to some people, it has been understood on the Left from the beginnings of its use, often with knowing giggles. Note that most people using it here have long histories of pro-Leftist comments.

I don’t see evidence yet that the SITE EDITORS agree, but I’ll keep flagging comments using that term anyway. I will point out that I’ll never flag based on honestly and politely stated opinions, no matter how abhorrent.

pschearer, call me naive, but I did not know that term other than in reference to the Tea Party. Had to look it up and was rather surprised. So I plead guilty to having used it but without awareness of the cruder meaning.

As of now, I will no longer use that term despite my progressive leanings.

@ pschearer,

I am also flagging any post that contains that obscenity… and I don’t care about the TEA Party one way or the other.

I would like to add that I was introduced to the term and its meaning in 1999… and there have been enough posts, over a long enough period of time, here on the comments section, explaining it to those who had not known, that ignorance is no longer an acceptable excuse.

As for comparing an obscenity to the term “Obamacare” - the two are not in the same class of insult… the latter being considerably more mild.

“Shrub in drag.”

LOL!! Love it, Clark

All we need now is for Boopsie (wondering about the noise) to poke her head in and see what’s going on…

Then the real political party would begin…

bagger bagger bagger

fbjsr, George Wallace was elected governor as a Democrat; however, he is the godfather of today’s Republican Party, at least in the South.

The Wallace campaign for president in 1968 was a protest vehicle, arising largely in response to President Johnson’s persuading Congress to enact the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and open housing legislation in 1968. The Wallace campaign gave ancestral Democrats (and a number of urban whites in other regions) a way station on the way to aligning with the Republican Party in 1972 and thereafter.

The so-called “Southern Strategy” employed by President Nixon at the urging of Lee Atwater and others was naked pandering to the Wallace voters.

Sarah Bailin’ and George Wallace (before his repentence) share a rank opportunism, a genius for self-promotion, and a total lack of shame about appealing to the lower angels of human nature. The most pronounced differences between the two are that Governor Wallace eventually renounced his demogoguery and actually completed several terms as governor.

pschearer:

I’m a lefty who had to look it up!

Those who know its sexual connotations would do well to stop using it. Those connotations do nothing to express the disdain that we lefties have for the Tea Party.

To suggest that those on the left are nothing but “knowing gigglers” is ridiculous.

We think the Tea Party people are ignorant fools because they ARE ignorant fools, just as you know we are misinformed ranting egoists with no conscience.

Can’t we just get along?

I just love the fake outrage over calling the tea baggers “tea baggers.”

They started calling themselves that first before they knew about the offensive meaning, and therefore deserve such mockery.

I just wish they would quit defaming my favorite beverage by association with their lunatic fringe movement.

I agree with Robert Peters, stop defaming the beverage Tea. The Boston Tea Party was about taxation without representation, these people (for the most part) are wack jobs We should refer to them as RWLF (right wing lunatic fringe) Baggers

“pschearer Genius_badge said, 4 days ago

Good. I hate Baby Jesus.”

This makes you what, exactly?

pschearer,

On (im)proper definitions:

Tea-bagger is a noun,

tea-bagging is a verb.

One is for naming,

the other is for fun.

I am enjoying this latest session .. but needs a good deep INHALE to really understand some of it .. smoke screen flash back ..

Some memories are longer than others.

What’s with this bridge to no where fascination?

That was a bad piece of pork, but pales in comparison when compared with the pork items most democrats stuck in various bills.

Good God, do you think congress will ever pass a bill that contains no pork (or is that an oxymoron?).

Yes, or no, depending on the definition.

Sometimes “Tea bagger” seems appropriate since they are so often trying to be “in our face.”