I believe there to be a grass-roots element to the tea-party movement however I also believe it to have been hi-jacked by the usual, ultra-right-wing lobbyists who are deliberately muddying the waters with their rhetoric & double-speak. There is NOTHING in the American constitutuion that connects it with religion for example.
Of course there are intelligent, politically aware journalists, commentators & campaigners in America however the impression I get is that they are even more marginalised & their views, when broadcast to give the illusion of real political debate, even more diluted than in this pitiful European outcrop.
Sarah Palin has been shown to be a grinning, imbicile with little or no knowledge of economics or politics in general. Quite how someone of this nature can be taken seriously in the political arena is beyond me & is frankly depressing.
The tea party appear to me like a bunch of Turkeys voting for Christmas!

This is playback, listen to the mans voice, there is two voices

best case of total ignorancee I've ever seen

The comments section of this website is pretty much 80% trolling.

Wondered why everyone on here was so anti but then I realised this is on the New Statesman's pages.
That said I am concerned, as I'm sure are many Americans, by some of the use of language which is inflamatory and dangerous. Palin's too simplistic and that is a bit scary.
However, wit just a minute. I know little about the Tea Party but I do think in essence it is a grass roots movement primarily consisting of people who are just generally disaffected with the polarized state of American politics, and who can blame them. It is in part at least exactly the sort of grass roots change that Americas needs. The question therefore is not what sort of people inhabit its broad church but the character and aims of 'some' of those people.
Or they could just continue with the same old political stitch up. Republicans cut taxes and leave huge deficits, Democrats come in and fail to deal with said deficits. Thus far they have done some good things but have been strong on rhetoric with fairly poor results. Unemployment is almost 10% and debt is enormous.
Meanwhile China, having financed its own expansion and who owns much of US and UK debt, must be laughing its socks off, waiting for its chance to clean up.

Paln bashers are really hate mongers. This is how they get their jollies. Unfortunately. Never mention your opponents name, unless you want to keep them in the lime light.They get free advertising,while you in return get to show your evil side. when you resort to personal attacks and call them names , it proves that you really don,t have any substance to attack Palin with.,and are afraid of her. Thanks for keeping her from fadeing away .Your day of reconing lies ahead . Have a great day being miserable and not really enjoying life.

Just roll out the 'Daisy Girl' television political slot used just once by Lyndon B Johnson in 1964.

It proved to be a reality check for the U S electorate. They had seen the monster ICBMs trundling through Red Square and remembered the 60 megaton H-Bomb exploded by the Soviets.
Barry Goldwater's quip 'Let's lob one into the men's room at the Kremlin!" was not the policy anybody wanted to hear.
The female is more dangerous than the male - in this case only too true. Let's not he shamed into a fight.

Duck and Dive

Buckskins

You are a fine one to tell posters on here that we have a preoccupation with American Politics when you come on here preaching your "special bigoted claptrap rubbish" on every item of British interest.

I think just about everybody who reads these pages know that there is no "Special Relationship" between our countries and 99% wouldn't want one with lunatics like you, Palin and the Tea Party. It's only our sad politcal class that wants anything to do with your country.

It's only prats like you who think we cling to apron strings and we have no wish to follow the "American Dream". Get back to your reloading your guns you sad piece of work!

To Ehtch Tee & other NS bods -

My sincere apologies. I fear I may have let my anger get the better of me, resulting in me coming across as some kind of homosexual atheist.

Buckskins:
I and, I would imagine most people on this site, hate the British Imperialistic past and the atrocities committed in its name, as much as we hate present American Imperialism. What could possibly make you think otherwise?
We, in Europe, are able to see what is wrong with our countries, as opposed to you guys, who seem unable to take any criticisms and unable to see what is wrong in America. If some one points at a problem, he is immediately labelled "anti-American". You suffer from blind, extreme and moronic nationalism which you call "patriotism". I call it "fascism".
But I am glad you think Palin is unelectable. That's a big worry off our mind.

Thank God for good ol' fashioned hillbilly bigotry that partly rhymes, doesn't scan and makes us all laugh on a dull day.

Yee haw, throw another pig on the fire, Vigil!

Buckskins

Glasgow actually.

Mi dispiace parle solo un po di spagnolo.

The Canuck,

The reason Buckskins keeps comparing the The US with the British Empire is because he's jealous of us, can't understand why the world hates his country and not ours.

It's a fine thing that a person from a slaving State which had to be defeated by the Unionist North to free the slaves talks about British Slavery, abolished long before their Civil War.

I'm just wondering here do the USA teach in their schools about their ethnic cleaning of the Native Americans or how they managed to reduce the population of the Philppines from 9,000,000 to 8,000,000, whilst denying that country independence? Or Agent Orange and My Lai in Vietnam, their troops being given the order to take no prisoners on D-Day, the Abu Ghrabit guards and their movies or their glorious 7th Cavalry Regiments slaughter of 400 South Korean refugees at No Gun Ri.

Now that Jamie Oliver has taught their schoolchildren how to eat with cutlery rather than their fingers, perhaps we should send some of our teachers over to help them out.

Buckskins,

OK Hopalong clearly you can't tell the difference between Scottish and English haute cuisine - but we'll forgive you - we don't normally associate cowpokes with good taste. You still didn't explain the pipe band - are you gittin' fergitful as well as disoriented with all that Texan sun on your noddle? Or is it food poisoning? Too many half baked rattlesnakes? Get well soon and have a nice day!

Majority of respondents on this site are ugly beasts, mostly pathetic little monkeys, savagely attacking a beautiful human being, Sarah Palin. Had they only known how repulsive and disgusting those creatures are.

"As opposed to the brutal reality of the crimes against humanity that was The British Empire"

=============================

Precisely

I was educated in Scotland however even here, the grim reality of Britain's imperilist past & direct links to slavery & oppression of it's immigrant communities (of which I am a member) is not portaryed properly in all it's vile brutality.

I had to learn history for myself.
Even in Catholic school, teachers gradually eased off with the religious dogma as you gradually got older (I more or less stopped believing in God around the same time as i stopped believing in Santa Clause) however it seems that these creationist crackpots would like to replace science with the absolute drivel that is the book of Genesis!
I would have to seriously call into question the intelligence & sanity of anyone who still believes this nonsense past the age of 7! And some people want this lunatic to be president??

It frankly beggars belief!

Then start teaching the disgrace of The British Empire to your school kids. The Germans teach their kids their past crimes.
===============================

That Buckskins is actually a good point.

I'm sure therefore you'll join me in calling for schools in America to stop teaching children Creationism as it's based in pure fantasy?

Your beloved Sarah Palin may differ with us though.

Mulligrubs,

I was going to reply to that old cowpoker Buckskins Billy no mates incresingly wild rants then I saw you had already, cheers.

Palin's influence is collapsing faster by the day on this side of the pond. She so botched her responce to the recent shootings in Arizona that even GOP members ,normally fearful of her base, are criticising her. Palin is fallinging to dust. Only in Britain does Palin have a future. She a useful focus for those daily two-minuet Hates you guys enjoy so much.