Will Sarah Palin run for president?

Will she or won't she? Are the tea bags being ordered for the hoped for White House tea parties? Maybe she will have them on the lawn like the Queen and then disinvite people she doesn't like or want to be there.

In this picture she's pointing both ways which is a telling point indeed. I see a halo coming up the back of her. She's not planning on popping over to Birmingham for a quick beatification, is she?

What did Della wear to the Tea Party?

The conservative Tea Party movement has won several victories over mainstream US Republicans in primary contests ahead of November's mid-term elections. In Delaware Tea Party-backed Christine O'Donnell beat veteran Congressman Mike Castle for the Senate nomination. Ms O'Donnell seems a cheery wonder, all low taxes and little league government. Whether she will make it all the way to the Senate is something else (memories of Eddie Cochran?).

I have my doubts about the Tea Party. Probably in the same way as the British did in Boston all those years ago. They sound patriotic in a kind of airhead way. If ever they are let loose as a governing group in charge of the American way of life then prepare to run for the hills. I don't think they have much of a clue. I'm a conservative, but these people make me look like a pansy liberal. But then I'd say true conservatism was about conserving the best rather than weeding out the roses with ragwort.

Tea Party ideas with their emphasis on tax slashing and federal job cuts sounds neat and dandy until one realises that the entire American edifice is built on a federal empire. Taking a sledgehammer to the foundations won't work. The USA, like Britain and others, has exported jobs. In addition, the US has the dollar as a reserve currency. The Tea Party thinks it is on its way to demolishing the federal empire to put American back into the hands of "We, the People". If they don't step back a bit and think, all they will do is just puncture the balloon that is puffed up by the fractional reserve banking system that gives succour to their perceived enemy.

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.