Tea Party 4-1-1. Or: Wait, do we have to take this sh*t seriously now?!

So, the long march toward November continues, and it's getting closer and closer to voting time. Today, some links on the Tea Party for those of us who are still a little baffled about how a bunch of whiners and/or flag-waving crazies sponsored by corporate Republican interests have become an actual political movement in this country:

CNN.com's "What is the Tea Party?"

Leo Hindry, Jr. of the Huffington Post explains Tea Party Politics & Economics.

And here's NPR's take on how the Tea Party of today and its namesake.

Missed Connections

There was quite a media stir yesterday about a report released by SAMHSA (the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, a federal agency) that found illegal drug use had increased by 60% in 2009.

About 21.8 million Americans, or 8.7 percent of the population age 12 and older, reported using illegal drugs in 2009. That's the highest level since the survey began in 2002. The previous high was just over 20 million in 2006. ... Marijuana use rose by 8 percent and remained the most commonly used drug. ... Other results show a 37 percent increase in ecstasy use and a 60 percent jump in the number of methamphetamine users.

The reports focused in on the marijuana numbers, and all the coverage I heard discussed only one reason for the increase:

"I think all of the attention and the focus of calling marijuana medicine has sent the absolute wrong message to our young people," Kerlikowske [director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy] said in an interview.

Today, another report is circulating the newsrooms. This one, from the Census Bureau reveals (duh) that poverty rose in 2009:

The poverty rate rose to 14.3 percent during 2009 from 13.2 percent the previous year as household income stayed flat and the number of people without health insurance reached its highest level since such data has been collected, the government announced Thursday.

For working age people between 18 and 64, 2009 saw the highest poverty rate -- 12.9 percent -- since 1965.

The overall rate is the highest since 1994. Some poverty watchers had expected the poverty rate to jump as high as 15 percent.

"Today's news is sobering, showing that 2009 was a year with increased poverty and rising numbers of uninsured Americans," said Rebecca Blank, the Commerce Department's undersecretary for economic affairs.

Now, neither of these reports is surprising to me. What IS surprising, or rather, disappointing, is that no one in the mainstream media seems to be drawing ANY connecting lines between these two dots. Does it not seem like maybe, just perhaps, an increased rate of poverty contributed to an increase in illegal drug use (I'm not even going to get into drug policy and the messed-up definitions of "illegal" vs. legal drugs)? Does a possible connection between poverty and despair and millions of uninsured folks and increased self-medication not seem worth investigating or at least pointing out?

It is deeply disappointing that an increase in marijuana use is blamed on the democratic process taking place in the form of discussions of legalization, rather than on the widespread unemployment, hopelessness, and despair of so many in this country.

There was particular concern about marijuana use by young people, and the only young person I heard interviewed was asked about whether he thought the drug is safe, not what leads him or his friends to use it.

This is a classic example of media shaping and spinning two very important issues as completely separate problems to be dealt with by their own agencies, rather than encouraging analysis and thoughtful reflection on society as a whole. At least Obama has approved Elizabeth Warren to play a role in setting up the new Consumer Protection Agency, so someone will be looking out for the poor and middle class!

Stand for justice, stand up to hatred

The talk about the hateful, anti-Muslim, and not-at-all Christian in the sense that Jesus Christ was Christian plan to burn Korans on 9/11/10 has been incensing me all week. I didn't even feel up to writing or talking about it until I read a post on the ACLU's "Blog of Rights" today that included these words of wisdom:

"The Dove World's religiously intolerant book-burning stunt should remind us that constitutional principles protecting their right to protest also protect everyone's right to protest — including the Gainesville community's right to protest Dove World's intolerance.

But defending the right of everyone to advance their point of view by whatever nonviolent methods they choose does not mean we should refrain from condemning the objectives of the protest. Bigotry should be condemned for what it is."

The media has been focusing on the either-or again, trying to convince us that we have a black-and-white choice when responding to this type of situation: we can either embrace free speech OR condemn hate speech. The ACLU has it right: we can do both. But let's not focus on the free speech acts of the bigots, interviewing this pastor, putting his name a profile on every major news source and turning him into a racist celebrity over night. Let's focus on the free speech acts of the champions of love and equality, like the local activist who just emailed me telling of hisdecision to donate three new Korans to the Raleigh mosque and encouraging me to do the same.

Fear has long been a tactic of anti-equality, anti-democratic people and groups. Race and religion are the easiest targets of that fear. Our media and our communities have got to stand up to it, but not just in a reactionary way that calls more attention to the haters than the lovers. We have to stand up not just TO injustice when it happens, but FOR justice all the time. That's when the true intent of the Constitution, that all are created equal AND have freedom of religion AND have freedom of speech, will come out.

ANOTHER Oil Rig Explosion in the Gulf.

As is apparent from the dates on these posts, I've been slacking a little lately (not on following the news, I promise you, but on blogging about it).

But this is enough to pull me back in.

That's right, folks, as of 10 minutes ago there are reports of another oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. Another. Oil. Rig. Explosion.

WFAB.com out of Louisiana is reporting that dozens are injured and rescue helicopters are responding.

I thought that the BP spill disaster would be the catalyst for a whole new era of American energy policy, or at least would change the conversation. From where I'm standing, it has not. How many more dirty-energy related tragedies are we going to have to see, experience, pay for, and debate before we get real?

(I saw this cartoon on Campus Progress awhile back and have been thinking on it since.)