By Rick Stromoski published on 28 January 2011
If you say or write something that is considered to stupid or unimportant, this is called drivel. It often used to insult political speech you don’t agree with.
The media often interviews or hires political or social experts to express their opinions publically on certain subjects, speeches or events. These so-called experts are known as pundits.
Let’s look at some of the vocabulary found in the article titles. If you want to read each article on The Wall Street Journal webpage, click on the each title.
Unaligned Voters Tilt Rightward In Droves
How the Rout Was Won : Careful Plans, Timely Wave
Political cartoon by Henry Payne of The Detroit News in Michigan and published on 30 October 2010.
Today is the day for midterm elections in the United States. Many incumbents across the country will probably be ousted and replaced. An incumbent is anyone who has an official, elected position.
To dunk means to put something into a liquid for a short time before taking it out again. Americans like to dunk their doughnuts in coffee.
In the picture, you see current Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Democrat from Nevada) sitting in the tank. He is expected to lose his reelection bid today. It would be the first time in five decades a Senate Majority leaders loses reelection if he does.
Let’s look at some of the vocabulary found in the article titles. If you want to read each article on The Washington Times webpage, click on the each title.
Political cartoon by Gary Varvel from The Indianapolis Star-News published on 21 October 2010.
Every election is said to be the dirtiest ever and this year’s elections are no different. The attack ads in this political election year are being called the dirtiest. In political lingo, this is called mudslinging.
Mudslinging is the practice of making unscrupulous, malicious attacks against an opponent. The person who is slinging mud is called a mudslinger.
The expressions is derived from the words sling and mud. To sling means to throw something with force and carelessly. Careful! It is an irregular verb with ‘slung’ as both the simple past form and the past participle! Mud is what dirt becomes when wet.
Political cartoon by Nate Beeler of The Washington Examiner published on 12 October 2010.
Americans love to see conspiracies and this political cartoon mocks that fact. There are those on the left side of the political spectrum who believe that President George W. Bush orchestrated the attacks of 11 September 2001. Those who believe he planned and organized the terrorist attacks are called ‘Truthers.’
On the right side of the political spectrum, there are those who believe that Obama wasn’t born on American soil and thus not constitutionally eligible to be President of the United States. They are called ‘Birthers.’ These ‘Birthers’ believe this because Obama’s birth certificate has been publically released.
The latest conspiracy was invented by Obama and others at the White House in an attempt to scare voters away from Republicans in the elections. The Chamber of Commerce has recently come under attack by the White House because they oppose Obama’s political agenda. They have now been accused, without any evidence or proof, of accepting foreign money and using that money to fund political ads for Republican candidates.
The White House has been accused, even by many on the left, of misleading the voters because they completely invented the accusation. If you mislead someone, you make them believe something that is incorrect or not true.
Note: You see two other caricatures next to that of Obama’s. The caricature with “Joe” represents Vice President Joseph Biden and the caricature with “Axe” represents David Axelrod, a top political advisor to President Obama. Both of these men participated in the misleading message.
On 2 November, Americans will vote in national midterm elections to elect the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate. National elections take place every two years in the United States. This year’s elections are called midterm elections because they fall fall in the middle of a president’s 4-year term in office. This Election Day, all 435 seats of the House of Representatives, whose members only have a 2-year term, are up for election. In the Senate, one-third of Senate seats out of 100 are up for election. Members of that body have 6-year terms.
All polls in the US project a Republican sweep in the elections. This means that the party will pick up seats in a very large number retaking control of that chamber. The polls currently predict that the Republicans will win 212 seats with Democrats maintaining 183 seats. Forty seats are considered tossups. If pollsters say a seat is a tossup, they are indicating that they can’t predict which candidate will win because poll numbers are too close. If Republicans are swept into office in November, the current Minority Leader John Boehner will probably become the 61st Speaker of the House. Mr. Boehner represents Ohio’s 8th congressional district. To be a member of the House, the Constitution requires that the representative to be a minimum of 25 years of age when he is sworn into office.
The Vice President of the United States is also the President of the Senate as written in the US Constitution. Vice President Joseph Biden is the current President. Today, modern vice presidents rarely preside over the Senate except for the swearing in of new members, joint sessions of Congress and to cast a tie-breaking (or “casting”) vote if there is a 50/50 vote. Other than this exception, the President of the Senate cannot vote nor participate in debate. In the absence of the vice president, the Senate chooses a president pro tempore to preside who is usually the highest-ranking senator. The President pro tempore is also third in line to the presidency after the Speaker of the House.
If polls hold true, Republicans will also gain seats in the Senate. The current projection is 49 Democrats, 46 Republican and 5 tossups. If the Senate is divided 50/50, then the President of the Senate’s party retains control. In this case, the Democrats would still have control but with neither party having a 60-seat, filibuster-proof majority. According to the Constitution, a senator must be a minimum of 30 years old when he takes office.
In these elections, Americans are not only voting for Congress, they are also going to the polls to vote for over a million different offices at the state and local level including governors, lieutenant governors, members of state assemblies, local and state judges, local education boards, sheriffs, etc…. Most states will also have referendums and state constitutional amendments on the ballot. Republicans are expected to hold the majority of governorships. Of the 50 states, polls predict 14 Democrat governors, 26 Republican and 10 seats are still a tossup.
This election has been described as an anti-incumbent election because many Americans are tired of the same old politics by what has come to be called the political establishment or the ruling class. This negative term is used to describe that elite group of politicians that have power or authority. In many cases, they have held elected position for a long time. An incumbent is the term used for any outgoing politician who is running for reelection. The anti-incumbent movement has not only targeted Democrats but has also targeted establishment Republicans, many of whom lost in state primaries to a more conservative Republican. If an incumbent is not running for reelection, then the candidates are running for an open seat.
For further election news and to track election poll numbers as they change, go to http://www.realclearpolitics.com/
Political cartoon by Henry Payne of The Detroit News in Michigan published on 17 September 2010.
Tea Party – The Tea Party, named after the famous Boston Tea Party of 1773, is a conservative grassroots movement that has become a major force in the current, political landscape in the United States. A grassroots movement is best described as movement by common, ordinary people who become politically involved at a local level in order to support a political idea or a politician. Usually, such a movement does not have a national political structure or leader. In this case, the Tea Party is a coalition of local and state Tea Parties united around a common cause: limited federal government. These activists believe that the federal government is violating the limits of its power and size as defined by the US Constitution. They are protesting out-of-control spending, high taxes and healthcare reform. They want a return to the founding principals as defined by the Founding Fathers.
Tea Party anger is not only aimed at President Obama and the Democrats in Congress, but it is also aimed at RINOs, also referred to as establishment Republicans because they have become part of the “ruling class.” In the primaries leading up to the national elections in November, many RINOs are loosing to more conservative Republicans who are endorsed by Tea Party activists.
An example of this can be found in Delaware, where in last week’s primary, Tea Party candidate Christine O’Donnell beat RINO Mike Castle to be her state's Republican nominee for Senate in November’s national elections. Ms. O’Donnell is the woman represented in the above cartoon.
By Rick McKee from the Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia on 02 July 2010.
It is a sheer pleasure teaching English to someone who really wants to learn it! This adjective is used to give emphasis to a noun to give it a greater amount of degree. It has the meaning of ‘extreme.’
Later on, the caricature of Kagan asks Larry King, the interviewer, to grant her a point of personal privilege. If you grant something, like a request, you accord or allow them something.
‘A point of personal privilege’ is a very formal, parliamentary expression usually asked for when a member what to speak out to defend his personal rights, reputation or conduct.
Political cartoon by Jeff Darcy of The Cleveland Plain-Dealer published on 15 March 2010.
The cartoonist blames the deaths of US soldiers on cherry-picked WMD intel that turned out to be bogus. WMD is simply the acronym for weapons of mass destruction and intel is the commonly shortened term for intelligence. If you say that something is bogus, it isn’t real even though it pretends to be real. For example, a lot of pills on the market make the bogus claim that they can help you lose weight.
The Rove character in the cartoon makes the statement that he should have done a better spin job. This is when you try to make a situation appear better or worse than what it really is. In other words, according to the cartoon character, he should have spinned the information differently to make it more believable or appear different than in reality. The so-called experts at spin jobs; such as journalists, spokespeople, politicians and political strategists; are called spin doctors.
“My bad” is an idiomatic, American expression for admitting that you have done something wrong and you are at fault.
The main headline tells the story of fire that started in a work shed partially attached to a home. The fire spread and scorched the home. If something is scorched by fire, it isn’t completely destroyed; it is burned enough to change the color and damage the surface. Full story >>
In another article, the state of Hawaii isn’t satisfied with a federal law that was designed to protect the state’s endangered species stating that the penalties aren’t serious enough. Hawaii’s state senate passed a bill that would make the intentional killing of a Hawaiian monk seal a felony with a penalty of 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $50,000. Under federal law, it is only a misdemeanor with a one-year prison term and a fine of up to $2,500. Under English common law on which the American legal system is based, a felony is a serious crime such as a murder or robbery, a misdemeanor is simply a less serious crime. Full story >>
Members of the Democratic Party on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i caucused to choose delegates that would represent them in state and county conventions in April. “To caucus” is a political term simply meaning to meet in group to discuss plans. For example, in the US Senate, the two main political parties are Democrats and Republicans but there is one senator who is socialist and another who is independent. Because these two senators’ political beliefs lean to the left and they often vote with the Democrats, they caucus with the Democrats which gives the left control of 59 seats out of 100 in the Senate. The noun is the same as the verb. A caucus is a closed meeting of a group of persons from the same political party or faction that is designed to either select candidates or to decide policy. Full story >>
