Holiday Weekend Blogging, Barbecues and Tea Bagging

Image from source, East Valley Tribune

As is usual with most holiday weekends, the news sort of dries up. It's like the whole media takes a break, and why not? And what better time of year to do it? Here in Las Vegas, it's a little bit warmer than in most places, but it's been beautiful, and the weather last night was perfect for 4th of July.

I didn't do much for the holiday, just holed up and did the hermit thing. And again, what better time? There's nothing of note going on, I had no obligations, so total sloth was just the medicine I needed, I think. Today, I'm going to some good friends' house for a barbecue and beer and splashing around in the pool. It's sunny and gorgeous, and while I'll have to get out my SPF 5000 sunblock, it's going to be a hoot.

Of course there are other sorts of parties going on this weekend. Bizarre, disjointed, unfocused political gatherings known as tea parties. Now, these gatherings have an interesting genesis. They seem to have been dreamt up by Ron Paul supporters. These folks are Libertarians, independents and disenfranchised Republicans. But their movement got hijacked by the 25%-ers, those hard-core Republicans who adore Sarah Palin and think George W. Bush did a heck of a job. FOX "News" picked up their banner, promoting the events as though they were an official sponsor. Some of the more cartoonish Republican leaders trumpeted their support as well, turning what was being touted as a "grass roots" uprising into a "AstroTurf" movement. Fake, in other words.

Oh, sure, some of the people attending these events are genuine in their outrage. It's just a rather vague anger. The issue of taxation seems to be an excuse to a) attack President Obama, b) make it look as though conservatism is still relevant and c) look and act like total boobs, while pointing at the rest of us. But the target of all their ire is much more diffused than that. Basically, they hate everything about government as it currently exists, apparently. I actually don't think that Janeane Garofalo was very far off when she said these events are disguised racism, straight up.

The funniest part about the whole thing (aside from their blindness to the fact that to most of us, they look ridiculous) is of course the colloquial name for these people, tea baggers. They'd like for us to think that eeeevil libruls invented that term as a way to denigrate them. Not so! "Tea bag Obama" was one of many "humorous" slogans that came from their camp as a way to protest and simultaneously insult the President. Well, heh, heh, the joke was on them.

Instead of being insulted, the left deftly (for once) turned the double-entendre back onto the tea baggers, and made it one of the biggest "point and laugh" moments of recent politics. Even national news figures got in on the tea bagging humor train. I still find it funny. I mean, if they were protesting other things with slogans that sound like sexual innuendo, that would be funny too. I'm hoping they go for "rusty trombone," "reach around", "happy ending" or "Cleveland steamer."

Anyway, here's a link to a recent news story on these silly folks, just so I can get away with using the funny picture above. I hope you all have either had a party to go to, or still have one in what's left of the holiday weekend. And I hope you have fun rather than just an axe to grind. Or a tea bag to dip.

TEA Party planned for July 4