The day the circus came to town

Fasten your seatbelts, batten your hatches, and hide the whiskey, Nashville...the Tea Party convention is paying a visit to your city! You lucky devils!

Maybe that's a poor choice of words.

Yes, the first somewhat-organized Tea Party convention is taking place in Nashville today through Saturday. I'm sure most of you have read about the problems they've been having. It seems that there is a lot of infighting among the various groups, there is paranoia about a takeover by the "mainstream" RNC, there are questions about who will profit from this, there is irritation at the price of admission ($549...a little out of reach for your average Joe the Plumber kind of douchebag, and why didn't they just round it up to $550?), and there were enough concerns from the Ethics Committee that Representatives Michelle Bachmann and Marsha Blackburn pulled out. A frustrated Tea Party convention had no comment. I never tire of that joke!

Oddly enough, despite being known for her extreme quittitude, Governor Sarah Palin is sticking with them. Yeah, she screwed Alaska over by quitting a year and a half before her term was up so that she could cash in, but by golly, she's sticking with those fine patriots at the Tea Party convention! What loyalty! What fortitude! What complete and utter bobbleheaded cluelessness!

Ahh, you know, I guess I can't really fault her. She's getting $100,000+ for her speaking fee, although she says she won't profit from it, and instead will funnel it back into other fellow patriots' campaigns...or her PAC, whichever comes first. Hey, people, there are plenty of copies of Going Rouge Rogue left that SarahPAC needs to snatch up. Those things don't come free, you know!

I can't say that I'm surprised at the lack of cohesion that we're seeing with this convention. The whole thing strikes me as angry people who aren't quite sure what they're angry about. (Not all...I've read stuff from some who lay out quite clearly what they're angry about. Some of the information is probably legitimate, but the majority I've seen is simply not true or highly misinterpreted and misrepresented.) Whenever I see these teabaggers interviewed, most can't quite seem to articulate what exactly it is that has them so pissed off. They talk about their Constitutional freedoms being violated (yet they thought the Patriot Act was just fine and dandy), they talk about their guns being taken away (despite the fact that President Obama recently got an F from the Brady Commission when it comes to his efforts at gun control), and they talk about how they "want their country back." I'm not sure from whom...the government? The godless commies? The people who look...different? The people who worship different? The people who don't worship at all and believe that religion has no place whatsoever in our political landscape? The Canadians streaming across our border? (Okay, I just made up that last one. That's not really happening. Maybe we should ask ourselves why.)

Who knows? I just know that I'm looking forward to some fun with this convention. I'm sure there will be plenty of amazing and amusing revelations. I'm sorry that Bachmann won't be there...that's always some great theater there. Theater of the absurd.

Speaking of absurd, I've recently mentioned Jackie Walorski (the renowned fashion maven—lookin’ good, Jackie!), who is running against my Congressman Joe Donnelly in the 2010 election. I've made no bones about the fact that I find the woman repugnant. (She wanted to shut down all Planned Parenthood clinics in the state of Indiana because of ethics violations at one clinic. The woman is a menace to my state.) Well, my friend Dan (this would be Milwaukee Dan #1, who I met in college) had joined her Facebook page in order to read and comment on her stuff and on the posts from her followers. He found out today that he had been "defriended" from the page, because of his dissenting voice.

Now, I've known Dan (AKA Guido!) for going on 30 years, and I can guarantee you that he was not antagonistic—that’s just not his style. In fact, he wrote, "And for the record, my comments were almost always civil and respectful and usually cast as questions. How harsh could I be while asking a question? I do think some of the regulars at her site considered my comments often to be a buzz kill on their Ra-Ra love fest." I know that he was merely asking legitimate questions, raising concerns, and offering a differing opinion, and I'm sure he backed most of them up with facts. He's a journalist, after all.

I find this very telling. I believe that there is no reasonable discourse to be had with teabaggers. They don't want to listen. They're just pissed off. They believe they're Taxed Enough Already (And cleverly incorporated that acronym into their name...get it? TEA party. Oh, that is good!), and don't want one red cent of their money going towards anyone else's health care, or programs for underprivileged kids, or for food stamps that will help put food on the table for people who have lost their jobs. They see taxation as "spreading the wealth around," which they then equate with socialism. Open your eyes, people. The roads you drive on, the library from which you borrow your books, your Social Security, your Medicare, your military, the aid you get from Washington when your town is hit by a devastating tornado, the funds you get when you've lost your job and can't find another one...these are all government programs that keep our country running. We all pay taxes as part of the greater good. Are there problems and abuses? Of course. There will always be those who find a way to scam the system. That doesn't mean that we should discontinue them. We can look for inefficiencies and try to limit them, but as citizens, we pay taxes in order to keep our country operating.

But I find it interesting that the teabaggers will gladly accept all of these government programs and more, only to draw the line at "others" getting a piece of the action. When the teabaggers get it, they've earned it; when we try to help others who are less fortunate, they see it as "entitlement." They will be the first to complain about all the money that we're spending on social programs or foreign aid. I highly recommend you take a look at this fascinating graphic from the New York Times concerning the proposed budget, which shows what we spend our money on. It might surprise you.

I have more to say (imagine that!), but it's getting late and this is long enough. I get very discouraged at times, I really do. This seems like a good time to repost this video.

I always wanted to be…a lumberjack!

My worries the other night about Ken cutting off his leg with the chainsaw or the tree falling and bashing my brains in were all for naught!

The power company was right on time, and came out to where Ken was with the ladder to assess the situation. When the company told me on the phone that they would "drop the line," I thought it just meant that they'd cut power. No, they actually disconnect the line and lay it down on the ground while the tree cutting takes place. However, this is up to the discretion of the crew, and they said it would be easier for them to take care of the trimming, rather than drop the line, go do something else, then come back to reconnect. How cool of them, and what a couple of nice guys! (I'm sure it didn't hurt that Ken works for the same company, and they were able to talk a little business and mutual acquaintances...but they really seemed to be just nice guys, willing to help out and take care of it.) They got their trimmer, along with one of those nifty chainsaws-on-a-stick (I foresee a purchase in our future), and Kengineer helped them find the best spot and angle to cut. They didn't have to cut the power, and after they trimmed the branches on the line, they cut the limb of the living tree that was holding up the dead one, and bada-bing, bada-boom, the tree was down.

Thanks, guys, nice job, and I was really impressed!

I had a dentist appointment, so had to run out for that (turns out Cousin Shane was there one patient before me!), and when I got back, Ken had revved up the chainsaw and pulled up the tractor and cart. I didn't get to do any actual lumberjacking, just picked up the logs and loaded them into the cart as he cut them. (Beth + Chainsaw = Very Bad Idea.) We had two loads of wood, and he drove around to the woodpile in back (sure wish we had a fireplace!) and we unloaded. It was a solid couple of hours of work, and we've both taken some preemptive Advil. We were completely done by noon! Nice to get that taken care of and to not have to worry about that particular "falling sword." It was also fun to be out there working together, and it was a nice reminder of what people can accomplish together when they put their minds to it. We didn't move mountains, but we moved a big tree! (Are you listening, Washington? You can accomplish more if you work together.)

Happily, there were no injuries, although the jury is out on poison ivy exposure. The downed tree had a big vine of ivy running up it, but I think we were able to deal with it without getting it on us. Ken is a lot more susceptible to it than I am, but we both showered promptly after we came in.

Off to do some reading, both book and blogs. Coming soon...some thoughts on the disruption of town hall meetings. And yes, Lucy, I promise to tell it like it is...at least the way I see it!

In honor of our morning's work, here's one of my favorites from Monty Python.