Anti-Tea party teacher back in class

Americans are going to tea parties again. I'm not sure if much tea is drunk at them. Most of the tea in the United States ended up in Boston Harbor and it's been a suspect drink ever since. Iced tea is OK, so is a pot of Earl Grey for the refined, but your average tea bag gets short shrift.

But now it's all changed. "More tea, Vicar?" isn't exactly what you'll hear (except in select Episcopalian parishes!) - no, it's more like "More tea, Governor Palin?". For it is she who appears to have galvanised these modern day tea party gatherers into something of a political movement.

I get the impression, though, that this is something for the more waspish conservative than the Conservative WASPS! I mean, the very thought of a dainty doily being sullied by the hairy hand of a redneck, well, it's unthinkable.

In Oregon, a teacher behind an effort to embarrass the tea party movement has been allowed back to work. Good news, I say. Conestoga Middle School teacher Jason Levin was put on paid leave for about a week and a half while officials investigated whether he used school time and resources to build his website, Crash the Tea Party.

District officials determined Levin was not a danger to students and did not share his political views with them. The investigation is ongoing. I wonder what they hope to find? When I was last in Oregon there were road signs up (apparently aimed at those venturing in from another state) which said "Do not Californicate Oregon". Now that may have worked, but in the defence of free speech it may not have.

The very fact that some penpusher has thought it fit to "expose" the teacher as a weirdo liberal says something about American politics currently. Free speech is always to be cherished. It's a pity that in the Land of the Free some are not expected to be as free as others.