Political cartoon by Rick McKee of The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia published on 13 May 2011.
to do someone a favor (Note: in British English it is spelled ‘favour’) – to do something to help someone else
to hang on to something – to keep something because you think you might need it sometime in the future
VOCABULARY:
to throw one’s hat into the ring: to enter a political race as a candidate; to announce that you intend to compete for something (This expression comes from the early 19th century when boxing was very popular. If anyone wished to challenge a boxer, he would simply throw his hat into the boxing ring.)
to line up: to organize or prepare things for an event or a series of events
to wind up: to end something (Here, Barbour would finish his fly-around the country in Jackson, Mississippi.)
a bash: a party or a celebration
a backer: a supporter (the verb is ‘to back’)
to pull the plug: to stop an activity (It is used especially when money is no longer being provided to allow an activity to continue. A plug is what is connected to the electrical socket in the wall to make our appliances work. If you remove it from the wall, electricity is no longer supplied and the appliance stops working.)
a crucible: an environment that is very dangerous, difficult or exciting
Political cartoon by Chuck Asay of The Colorado Springs Gazette published on 06 November 2010.
In this conservative leaning political cartoon, the cartoonist is critical of the government taking control of the student loan business. It is full of good vocabulary.
You see a caricature of Obama leading a classroom discussing how to make college tuition more affordable. First, what is tuition? This is the money you pay to take a class at a college, university or private school.
The caricature of Obama states that it is skyrocketing and need to be made more affordable. This means that cost of going to school has increased very quickly and become very expensive and so something must be done to lower the price so more people can pay for it. Look at this example of the vocabulary in use: Currently the price of gold is skyrocketing and is become less affordable for those who want to buy gold.
In response to how to make tuition more affordable, one of the students suggests that colleges should compete for students in a free market. He believes there should be more competition. This means that a university should try to attract more students by offering better educational services at lower prices than another university.
Mr. Marx, an illusion of course to Karl Marx, has another idea. He believes that the government (he uses the common term the Feds to refer to people working for the US government) should take over the student loan business because a government is too big to fail (tell that to the Soviet Union!). A loan is the money you request to borrow from a bank for which you pay back over time at interest. If something fails, it is unsuccessful and doesn’t work.
At the end of the cartoon, we see the caricature of Obama asking the class who they think is going to flunk his class. In the case of this class, the first student is going to flunk and Mr. Marx is going to pass. If you flunk a class, you fail the class and do not get a good mark or grade. If you succeed and get the necessary grade or mark to move up to the next class or level, you pass it. Congratulations!
This is a congressional district map of the United States since the 2008 elections. All the districts in blue have a Democratic representative and all those in red have a Republican representative. Before the election Tuesday, there were 255 Democratic seats, 178 Republican seats, and 2 vacant seats.
Here’s the new map for the House of Representatives starting in January 2011 when the new Congress is sworn in.
Here are the results as they stand now. The votes for two Senate seats (Washington and Alaska) are still being counted. There are 10 House seats being recounted because the races are very close.
Prior to Tuesday, there were 59 Democratic seats (including 2 Independent) and 41 Republican seats in the Senate.
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 Dave Granlund of Massachusetts and published on 31 October 2010.
The cartoonist is illustrating how the Republicans, represented by the elephant’s foot, are predicted to crush the Democrats in the midterm elections. The donkey states that the GOP (Grand Old Party, i.e. the Republicans) has a leg up on the midterms. If you have a leg up on somebody, this means that you have the advantage. For an example, if you have more experience than other candidates for a particular job, you probably have a leg up on the other applicants. This expression is American.
Political cartoon by Nate Beeler of The Washington Examiner in Washington, D.C. and published on 27 October 2010.
Sleazy is anything that is dirty, dishonest and very unpleasant. For example, a sleazy politician is one that is dishonest and immoral. If you entered into an unpleasant, dirty area of town which might be high in criminal and/or sexual activity, you might call in a sleazy area of town.
In this cartoon, the cartoonist shows a voter who is trapped and desperate because he is overwhelmed by sleazy attack ads on television being aired by the various political campaigns.
Want to see some of them? Go HERE!
Political cartoon by Jeff Stahler of the The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio and published on 26 October 2010.
If you say something has a downside, it has a disadvantage or negative aspect.
According to this vampire, the downside of staying alive is having to put up with all the television political advertisements. In other words, she had to tolerate or support them. This is now no longer a problem for her, so there’s an upside to everything!
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 Steve Breen of The San Diego Union-Tribune published on on 21 October 2010.
In next week elections, Californians will be voting on a proposition to legalize marijuana use for recreational purposes in the state. According to recent polls, most voters in California favor the proposition.
The cartoonist is critical of the proposition and mocks the arguments being used to support the proposition. He believes that supporters are simply selling snake oil. The term refers to any product or thing that is questionable, exaggerated, or useless but the salesman is trying to make you believe it is good.
Pot is the slang or street term for marijuana.
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 Rich McKee of the The Augusta Chronicle in Augusta, Georgia published on 14 October 2010.
"Elephant in the room" is an English idiom for an obvious truth that is being ignored or goes unaddressed. The idiomatic expression also applies to an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss.
It is based on the idea that an elephant in a room would be impossible to overlook; thus, people in the room who pretend the elephant is not there have made a choice. They are choosing to concern themselves with tangential or small and irrelevant issues rather than deal with the looming big one. (Wikipedia)
Read more at : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant_in_the_room
This political cartoon concerns the upcoming midterm elections in November in which the Dems (short for Democrats) are in trouble. According to all the polls, the GOP (Grand Old Party..aka the Republicans) will retake control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate. The Republicans are represented in the cartoon by their official symbol, the elephant, thus the “elephant outside the room.” The Dems are represented by theirs, the donkey.
Political cartoon by Chuck Assay of The Colorado Springs Gazette published on 08 October 2010.
Updated: If you place your cursor over some of the words, the French translation will appear in a popup window. Not all the words with a translation are in bold so you’ll have to explore the text.
In this conservative cartoon by Chuck Assay, you see the two major political parties represented by the donkey and the elephant.
The Democratic donkey was first associated with President Andrew Jackson back in 1828 when his opponents called him a jackass. Jackson later decided to officially adopt the image for his presidential campaign because it represented a strong-willed animal. If you are strong-willed, you are determined to do something you want to do, even if others don’t want to do it. The donkey was made famous by political cartoonist Thomas Nast who used the donkey in his cartoons to represent the Democratic Party. If you ask a Democrat today why the donkey is their official symbol, they will say it represents intelligence and bravery.
The Republican elephant was also created by Nash when in one cartoon drawn in 1874, he drew an elephant running away from a donkey dressed in a lion’s skin. On the side of the elephant there was written “The Republican Vote.” Ever since, the elephant has become the symbol of the Republican party. If you ask a Republican today why the elephant is their official symbol, they will say it represents strength and dignity.
The above cartoon was drawn to represent the debate between the two warring parties in this election season. The Democratic donkey candidate states with pride that he voted for Obama-Care and the stimulus bill. The term Obama-Care refers to the healthcare reform that was voted on by the Congress and signed into law by Obama this year. It is very common in American politics to invent new words for the political reforms or agendas of presidents such as in the economic reforms of President Reagan which have ever since been called Reaganomics.
The Democratic donkey calls the Republican elephant a wacko which is what you call someone you think is crazy or very strange. It comes from the adjective wacky which is synonymous for funny or silly. He continues by accusing him of wanting to take away Social Security and Medicare. In the United States, Social Security has nothing to do with healthcare but with retirement and disability. To read more, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_(United_States). Medicare is a social insurance program providing healthcare to people 65 years or older. To read more, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_(United_States).
He then accuses of him liking polluters and greedy businessmen. If you are greedy, you want more money, things, or power for yourself.
After that he calls him a heartless, skirt-chasing, money-grubbing warmonger who will do great harm to the planet. Someone is heartless, they don’t feel or show sympathy or kindness. In politics you have a lot of famous skirt-chasing politicians such as Bill Clinton. You’ll also find a lot of money-grubbing politicians who constantly want money and try to get as much as possible. President Bush was accused of being a warmonger which is a name given to someone who encourages or advocates aggression or warfare towards other nations. Whenever you cause injury, damage or other problems to something or someone, we say that you do them harm.
In the end, the moderator ask the Republican for his response who simply says, “I’m not him.” The Republican is then carried away in great support by the voters. This political cartoon describes the current political mood in the United States where Republicans are expected to retake control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate when Americans vote in national elections on 2 November. It’s not very popular to be a Democrat right now.
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 Randy Bish from The Tribune-Review from Pittsburg, Pennsylvania published on 24 July 2010
If you are under a lot of heavy pressure, you are feeling the heat. Here are some examples:
“Law makers in Congress are feeling the heat from constituents on border security.”
“My boss is expecting my report on his desk tomorrow morning and I have barely started it. I’m really feeling the heat.”
“Due to very low public opinion polls, Democrats are feeling the heat going into elections.”
“President Obama is feeling the heat from Afghanistan.”
“Antarctica is feeling the heat of climate change.”
Background of the cartoon : This cartoon is about Congressman Charles Rangel, a Democrat member of the House of Representatives from New York and the chairman of the very powerful House Ways and Means Committee. He was just charged with multiple ethic violations by the House Ethics Committee and will soon face a formal hearing to decide his fate. He could be prosecuted and face justice. Mr. Rangel is currently running for reelection which means he is really feeling the heat!
By Jeff Koterba of Omaha World Herald in Omaha, Nebraska published on 23 July 2010
In this cartoon, we see US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack throwing egg on his face. In English, to have egg on egg on your face means to be embarrassed or seem stupid by something you’ve done. Look at a few example sentences:
‘I was completely wrong, and now I have egg on my face.’
‘You'll be the one who has egg on your face if it goes wrong.’
‘If the computer problems continue, then the software giant will have egg on its face.’
Background of the cartoon : Several days ago a video was released on the internet of Ms. Shirley Sherrod, an official at the Agricultural Department, telling a meeting of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) how she withheld support from a white farmer. The Department of Agriculture quickly fired her for her ‘racist’ remarks. However, not the entire video was originally released. She was in fact telling a story from 24 years ago and she ended up becoming close to this white farmer and learned to see beyond her racism. The US Secretary of Agriculture was forced to admit that they jumped to conclusions and made a mistake in the treatment of Ms. Sherrod and offered her job back. President Obama even called her to apologize for how the government treated her.
This story has become national news because race relations has become a huge issue in the United States after it was discovered the Justice Department refused to prosecute members of the Black Panthers, a black revolutionary party, for intimidating white voters from voting at a polling station in the 2008 elections. A former member of the Justice Department came out and testified that these members weren’t prosecuted because they were black.
By Frederick Deligne of Nice-Matin in Nice, France published 01 July 2010
If you can afford something, this means that you have enough money to pay for it. However, the meaning is not limited to money. Take a look at these examples:
I’m so busy, I can rarely afford the luxury of a restful weekend.
Politicians today can’t afford to ignore the power of the internet in our modern society.
As you can see, if you can afford something, you can do it without causing you problems or worry.
As an adjective, fine also has the meaning of being of very good quality. Like most people, I like to eat in fine food in fine restaurants while wearing very fine clothes. It’s even better served with fine wine while listening to someone with a fine singing voice. As you can see, I like restaurants with only the finest service. Ok, I think you get the picture now…LOL!
