For the past few months, media outlets have described Tea Party followers as racist, reactionary, Birthers, and just about every insult one could find in the dictionary. CNN’s Anderson Cooper helped popularize a sexual slur as a description for the group that others in the media continue to use: teabaggers. However, a new poll by the Winston Group of a thousand registered voters returned some surprising results, including the fact that 13% of the Tea Party followers are Democrats:

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Tea Party supporters skew right politically; but demographically, they are generally representative of the public at large. That's the finding of a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted March 26-28, in which 28% of U.S. adults call themselves supporters of the Tea Party movement.

On major issues, 48% of voters say that the average Tea Party member is closer to their views than President Barack Obama. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 44% hold the opposite view and believe the president’s views are closer to their own.

Not surprisingly, Republicans overwhelmingly feel closer to the Tea Party and most Democrats say that their views are more like Obama’s. Among voters not affiliated with either major political party, 50% say they’re closer to the Tea Party while 38% side with the President.

There's a well-worn path of third-party movements in American history, and it leads straight to a dead end. A cause gathers strength, and its message speaks to millions; then, amid the excitement, a new political party is born, only to perform poorly on Election Day and disappear a cycle or two later. In practice, all that's achieved is a fragmenting of the vote, usually to the benefit of whichever major party the movement had set out to oppose.

On Facebook, ElJay, on billboards, welcome signs and city walls (not to mention bumperstickers... no wait, I just did mention bumperstickers), I am constantly having Christian pride thrown in my face. For instance, I wake up at 6 am to make some coffee and check the Facey-book only to get a wall full of family and friends all proudly declaring their Christianity,and boy are they are ever proud, it is almost like they are angry about it.

Well, screw you too, I guess...

Why do Christians have to be so in our face? My own fundamentalist background has me confused on this issue... as any good quasi-Calvinsist knows, being a Christian amounts to being picked and imposed upon. Yet for all the fundie quasi-Calvinist congregations out there, they speak as if their pride is a measure of their choice or ability in "making a stand for Jesus" or some such nonsense. What a bunch of political theater.

Christians, why are you so proud? What are you proud of, anyway? Was it a lot of work getting the Christian badge? Is it like an achievement or something? Are there trials? A gauntlet maybe?

Keep it in your houses and in your own private buildings.

Sheesh.

We probably should treat curling more like Canada does. They take children when they are very young and train them in nothing but curling. These people are considered gods among the average Canadian and given the choicest maple syrup and moose meat. And when they are no longer able to compete in curling, they are shot in the head to make sure they can’t pass on Canadian curling secrets.

A plan to return US astronauts to the moon "is dead," a White House advisor on space issues said Friday, confirming reports that NASA will instead focus on developing commercial space transport.

"Constellation is dead," the advisor told AFP on condition of anonymity, referring to a program that envisioned returning to the moon by 2020 and using Earth's nearest neighbour as a base for manned expeditions to Mars.

The issue is not that he’s cutting this program. The issue is that he’s cutting this program, while flushing trillions down the toilet on programs of far more dubious value.

WASHINGTON - The White House revealed Thursday night it boosted funding for ailing 9/11 responders - pumping more money into the treatment program than ever before.

Team Obama disclosed the cash only after outraging New York lawmakers with the news that the administration won't back a permanent plan to help the dying Ground Zero responders.

The White House confirmed it will more than double the budget for treating ill responders to $150 million in 2011.

The abrupt revelation came after the Daily News reported New York lawmakers were shocked Wednesday when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said the administration does not support mandatory funding for the $11 billion permanent treatment plan.

"I was stunned - and very disappointed," said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

"To say the least, I was flabbergasted," said Staten Island Rep. Mike McMahon.

A senior administration official said no decision has been formalized, but the Justice Department is already considering other venues. Said another official close to the discussions: "New York is out."

The reversal would mark the latest setback for an administration that has been buffeted at every turn as it seeks to close the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Its options for closing the prison had already been dwindling, and without the backdrop of Ground Zero for a trial, the administration would lose some of the rich symbolism associated with its attempt to forge a new approach to handling high-profile al-Qaeda detainees.

The decision to reconsider the plan for Mohammed's trial comes after a surge of political opposition to holding it in Manhattan, a venue that Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. described in November as the "right place."

Apparently speaking in his second audio broadcast of the month, Bin Laden criticised George W Bush, the former US president, for not signing the Kyoto Protocol on regulating carbon emissions, and spoke out against excessive corporate influence in the United States.

He also presented himself as an opponent of government bail outs to western banks, whose speculation and unfair competition practices, he claimed, were largely to blame for the global financial crisis.

It was one of the al-Qaeda chief's more unusual messages, doubly so as he largely eschewed references to religion and violence.

Demonstrating a surprising concern for the environment, Bin Laden voiced his dismay at recent international efforts to tackle global warming.

"Discussing climate change is not an intellectual luxury, but a reality," he said. "All of the industrialised countries, especially the big ones, bear responsibility for the global warming crisis."

“I’ve called this 568th prime time address of my presidency because I think there are some important things I still need to explain to you, the American people. Job losses continue, and unemployment stays at 10%. Also, it appears that terrorism remains a grave concern. I know all of you want me to focus completely on these issues, but let me be clear: This isn’t about you.

“Who was elected president? That’s right: I was. Me. Me me me me me. Ego — that’s Latin for ‘I’. That’s why we’re focusing on things I care about like big social programs like health care and environmental issues like cap & trade. I tried to tie those into the issues you care about claiming they’ll help the economy and create jobs, but I know none of us really believe that so I’m just going to stop with that. Instead, I’m going to be frank with you and say that I don’t care about the economy and I don’t care about terrorism.

“Terrorism and job losses are hold over from the Bush years. If you have a problem with them, go ask him to solve them… or Cheney — he still seems to care. I don’t. I never did. For one thing, unemployment is carbon neutral; why would I want to harm the environment by seeing people go back to work? And I don’t even believe in terrorism; I think that’s just something Bush, Cheney, and Haliburton made up. This whole ‘Islamic extremism’ thing just doesn’t seem real. Have you even read the Quran? It looks pretty made up. So I don’t know why you expect me to do something about this made up problem. I thought I made it pretty clear I don’t care about it at all when I appointed Janet Napalitano as Secretary of Homeland Security.

“So, in conclusion, shut up shut up shut up. Stop bothering me with your stupid problems. I don’t care. I have my progressive agenda to do, and that’s what I’m doing. And stop making fun of me because I walked into a window the other day. Everyone is saying I don’t know the difference between a door and a window and I’m stupid, but that is false. I just couldn’t see clearly because I had a bucket stuck on my head, so you’re the stupid ones.

“Thank you.”

Let me explain what happened here to President Obama with regard to the Olympic bid.

One has to make a distinction between the people of the world, and the governments of the world. The people of the world generally like the USA/Americans/the concept of America for one or more of the following reasons:

* Because we are free;
* Because we are vulgar;
* Because we are loud;
* And because we visibly do not care if anybody likes that or not.

Meanwhile, most national governments do not like the USA/Americans/the concept of America for one or more of the following reasons:

* Because we are free;
* Because we are vulgar;
* Because we are loud;
* And because we visibly do not care if anybody likes that or not.

So, when the President went to the IOC to get this valuable thing for his home city and country, I’m sure that he thought that he would be able to remedy the situation. But all that he did was make it clear to people who don’t like us very much - mostly for the ‘vulgar’ and ‘loud’ bits - that he and the USA could be quite gratifyingly (to them) snubbed. So they did. And they enjoyed doing it, because they know that there’s damned little that the USA can do to them about it.

Personally, I’m grateful: this is an incredibly cheap lesson in Foreign Relations 120: Why we don’t have better relations with certain countries. It is my sincere hope that the President take the hint, and stop worrying quite so much about our overseas reputation. And by ’stop worrying quite as much’ I mean ‘visibly do not care.’

Moe Lane

PS: There are quite a few governments that do not hate us, of course. Unfortunately, these days one thing that they mostly have in common is in having been snubbed by this administration. It’d be great if that stopped happening.