Their Language and Concepts Were So Foreign to Our Way of Thinking...

Aliens (Not The Good Kind) Descend Upon Washington DC, 
Their Language and Concepts Were So Foreign to Our Way of Thinking We Dare Not Attempt to Translate.


That is what the headline should have read for the Washington Post's coverage of the DC Tea Party.

The WaPo seemed at a such a complete loss of understanding of what was happening and how these people could think this way that it seemed as if it was as foreign to them as, well, as MEAN HATEFUL scary aliens (NTGK - not the good kind) who had landed right there on the Mall!  Ideas so foreign to them that they dare not interpret choosing rather to just listed the thoughts for all to see.

Wonder how that compares to other recent protest marches?

So did I so I checked back to see how they covered the anti war protest of 2002 and 2005.  Here is what I found (all emphasis mine).

Headlines:

Tea Party

Lashing Out at the Capitol
Tens of Thousands Protest Obama Initiatives and Government Spending

2005

Antiwar Fervor Fills the Streets
Demonstration Is Largest in Capital Since U.S. Military Invaded Iraq

2002

100,000 Rally, March Against War in Iraq

The scary aliens (NTGK) lashed out and protested OBAMA while the others let their fervor fill the street, they didn't protest Bush mind you, no...

First paragraph:

Tea Party

Tens of thousands of conservative protesters, many complaining that the nation is racing toward socialism, massed outside the U.S. Capitol on Saturday, angrily denouncing President Obama's health-care plan and other initiatives as threats to the Constitution.

2005

Tens of thousands of people packed downtown Washington yesterday and marched past the White House in the largest show of antiwar sentiment in the nation's capital since the conflict in Iraq began.

2002

Tens of thousands of people marched in peaceful protest of any military strike against Iraq yesterday afternoon, in an antiwar demonstration that organizers and police suggested was likely Washington's largest since the Vietnam era.

Hmm, strange that isn't it -- scary aliens (NTGK) were angry and they were protesters who massed in the city center!  Run, see if you can get out of the city before they attack!  There were threats, or they saw threats or something like that.  Pray all we get some of the peaceful people to help save us!  But remember they were complaining, they complained for God's sake.

Second Paragraph:

Tea Party

The crowd -- loud, animated and sprawling -- gathered at the West Front of the Capitol after a march along Pennsylvania Avenue NW from Freedom Plaza. Invocations of God and former president Ronald Reagan by an array of speakers drew loud cheers that echoed across the Mall. On a windy, overcast afternoon, hundreds of yellow "Don't Tread on Me" flags flapped in the breeze.

2005

The demonstration drew grandmothers in wheelchairs and babies in strollers, military veterans in fatigues and protest veterans in tie-dye. It was the first time in a decade that protest groups had a permit to march in front of the executive mansion, and, even though President Bush was not there, the setting seemed to electrify the crowd. 

2002

Organizers with International ANSWER, a coalition of antiwar groups that coordinated the demonstration, had hoped for a turnout rivaling that of its pro-Palestine rally in April that officials estimated at about 75,000. Organizers said they easily eclipsed that figure yesterday, assessing attendance at well more than 100,000. D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey also said he figured yesterday's rally turnout exceeded that in April, but he didn't provide a specific number.

You've got to be kidding me, right? -- Grandmothers, wheelchairs, and everything  -- the scary aliens (NTGK) are loud and animated are clearly threatening grandmothers with vaporization from a primitive leader and their GOD  (if Obama doesn't get them first).   If only an electrified crowd could channel that power and save the babies!

Third Paragraph

Tea Party

"Hell hath no fury like a taxpayer ignored," declared Andrew Moylan, head of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union, urging protesters to call their representatives. The demonstrators roared their approval. 

2005

Signs, T-shirts, slogans and speeches outlined the cost of the Iraq conflict in human as well as economic terms. They memorialized dead U.S. troops and Iraqis, and contrasted the price of war with the price of recovery for areas battered by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Riffs on Vietnam-era protests were plentiful, with messages declaring, "Make Levees, Not War," "I never thought I'd miss Nixon" and "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam." Many in the crowd had protested in the 1960s; others weren't even born during those tumultuous years.

2002

"We think this was just extremely, extremely successful," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a D.C. organizer with International ANSWER, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism. "It absolutely shows that when George Bush says America speaks with one voice, and it's his voice, he's wrong."

Mommy, the scary aliens (NTGK) roared, they roared I tell you!  Antiwar protests were nothing but impressive!  Hey, wait, they mentioned they were against Bush, huh!

You get the point.

A few more statistics:

Number of signs quoted:    
Tea party -- 9              
2005  --  0 (mentions of Bush signs and one sign with the picture of a mothers son who was in Iraq)

Chanting/shouting:
Tea Party  -- "We Own the Dome!"
2005  --  "Shame on you, Shame on you!" (a counter protester shouted)

"Peaceful"
Tea Party --0 (none)
2005 -- 1

"Angrily" or Angry
Tea Party -- 1
2005 -- 0

"Grandmother" and"Babies"
Tea Party -- 0
2005  -- One of each


Crowd estimate:
Tea Party -- No "official" estimate given
2005 -- 300,000 the organizers claim

Reason for protest:
Tea Party --

The demonstrators are part of a loose-knit movement that is galvanizing anti-Obama sentiment across the country, stoking a populist dimension to the Republican Party, which has struggled to find its voice since the 2008 elections.

2005 --

(T)he events were sponsored by groups including the ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice and focused on a succinct theme: "End the War in Iraq and Bring the Troops Home Now."

Interesting:

Tea Party -- "(H)e watches Fox News host Glenn Beck "all the time" and wanted to be part of an event that he thinks will be historic. Beck had drummed up support for the march."

2005 -- "The protest groups helped organize caravans and carpools, and many participants began arriving early in the morning after bumpy, all-night bus rides."

BEEEECCCCCKKKKK!

Yea, I'm a bit over critical perhaps, but 8 years of coded Bush hate in the press and 2 years of blatant Obama love in the same press will do that.

Hey WaPo, how are that Acorn and vetting of the Czars story going?
DKK

Please forgive the grammar and if this reads choppy -- my meds have failed in clearing the cognitive issues lately.

Tony Snow Dies At Age 53

Tony Snow, the former White House press secretary and conservative pundit who bedeviled the press corps and charmed millions as a FOX News television and radio host, has died after a long bout with cancer. He was 53.
A syndicated columnist, editor, TV anchor, radio show host and musician, Snow worked in nearly every medium in a career that spanned more than 30 years.
"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the death of our dear friend, Tony Snow," President Bush said in a statement. "The Snow family has lost a beloved husband and father. And America has lost a devoted public servant and a man of character."

DKK 
Fox News

A Question Of Rights And Responsibilities

Is the fundamental reason liberals overwhelmingly oppose and conservatives overwhelmingly support the second amendment as an individual right based on the fact that it gives us not just the right, but the responsibility to protect ourselves?
DKK

Why Are Conservatives Nicer More Generous?

Don't listen to the liberals - Right-wingers really are nicer people, latest research shows

George Orwell once wrote that politics was closely related to social identity. 'One sometimes gets the impression,' he wrote in The Road To Wigan Pier, 'that the mere words socialism and communism draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, nature-cure quack, pacifist and feminist in England'.

Orwell was making an observation. But today a whole body of academic research shows he was correct: your politics influence the manner in which you live your life. And the news is not so good for those on the political Left.

There is plenty of data that shows that Right-wingers are happier, more generous to charities, less likely to commit suicide - and even hug their children more than those on the Left.

(...)

The culprit here is not those on the Left who embrace progressive ideas but the ideas themselves.

As John Maynard Keynes reminds us: 'The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and wrong, are more powerful than commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else.' Or, as the American theorist Richard Weaver once declared: 'Ideas have consequences.'

And it seems that today modern progressive ideas can often bring out the worst in people.

Read all the studies and examples.

DKK

The Mail Online

Is Conservatism The Doctrine of Human Exceptionalism Of Of Least Expectations?

Human Exceptionalism refers to a belief that human beings have special status in nature based on their unique capacities. This special status conveys special rights, such as the right to life, and also unique responsibilities, such as stewardship of the environment.

Some believers in human exceptionalism base the concept in Abrahamic religions, such as the verse in Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Others take a secular approach, such as pointing to evidence of unusual rapid evolution of the brain and the emergence of "exceptional" aptitudes. As one commentator put it, "Over the course of human history, we have been successful in cultivating our faculties, shaping our development, and impacting upon the wider world in a deliberate fashion, quite distinct from evolutionary processes.^[1]

^Wikipedia

I always thought it was, but JR Dunn at The American Thinker starts his post today this way:

Conservatism is the doctrine of least expectations. Conservatives tend to view the world from the bleakest of perspectives. Man is a fallen creature, a rickety bridge between the beasts and the angels, driven by appetites and urges perhaps best not examined too closely. Mankind takes two steps (and sometimes two hundred) backward for each step forward, and often enough, those forward steps are in the wrong direction. Humans are steeped in error, and any change holds within it the danger of catastrophe.

This is the tragic vision of life, a philosophy of limitations. As such it is not unimpressive, and may well be close to the truth. (I find it a pretty apt description of the human universe as I've experienced it.) But it's not much of a formula for practical application, particularly when it comes to politics.

This is so foreign a concept and belief system to me that I had to reply saying this:

Wow, that introduction was so wrong, so far off the mark that I had a hard time finishing what ended up being a good piece on Obama.

In my experience Conservatism is the expectation of greatness in each of us, understanding and working with human nature, rugged individualism, an optimistic belief that achievement takes hard work and struggle.
---------------
Okay, I just reread what you wrote and it is so foreign, to everything I know and believe, so negative, that it actually made me feel bad for the author personally.

I have been typing and deleting my words for 15 minutes because I just can't describe how wrong I believe this to be -- I have forgotten everything I read beyond this introduction.

How this conservative could believe that man's progress has been negative (hundreds of steps backward) is beyond me;

Conservatism is not the doctrine of least expectations, if anything it is the doctrine of Human Exceptionalism.

Wow -- just -- Wow.

His piece is a good one on how Barack is not inevitable, but Wow!
DKK

Is McCain The Answer for Republicans

John McCain, for all his faults, is the one Republican candidate who can lead us through our wilderness. Mr. McCain is not running on a messianic platform or as a great healer of dysfunctional Republicans who refuse to help themselves. His humility is one of his great strengths. In his heart, he’s a soldier who sees one more hill to charge, one more mission to complete.

DKK
Hot Air -- Coburn to GOP: Stop Start acting like Republicans, and follow … McCain?

We're All Conservatives Now!

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 62% of voters would prefer fewer government services with lower taxes. Nearly a third (29%) disagrees and would rather have a bigger government with higher taxes. Ten percent (10%) are not sure.

We're all conservatives now, well except for our politicians that is.
DKK
Don Surber -- Conservatism ain't dead

What Is A Conservative?

To be a conservative is, in my definition, is somebody that believes in the power of the individual, somebody that believes, please let me make my decisions, that I have a right to succeed and not be penalized for it. I have a right to fail and have no one run to me if I don't want them to run to me. A conservative believes I have a right to manage my family, I have a right to discipline my family in the way I see fit, as long as it is not criminal. A conservative believes I have the right to worship God, I have a right to worship the God of my understanding, and I do not have the right to jam my version of God down anybody else's throat or my version of no God down anybody's throat. A conservative believes live and let live. That's what a conservative believes. A conservative believes in the smallest amount of government, the smallest government you can get without anarchy. That's what a conservative believes.

DKK
Glen Beck