Whatever the Tea Party movement's merits, their protest signs don't always present themselves well. To promote clearer political discourse, we've offered some free copyediting.
© UnknownPROBLEM: Homophone confusion, extraneous hyphen. SOLUTION: To communicate first-person plural possession, use the pronoun 'our' instead of the verb 'are.'
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'Excetions' is not a word. SOLUTION: Use actual words. Punctuation can also be helpful in conveying meaning.
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'Hugh' is a rather common first name, thus the meaning of the sign is unclear. SOLUTION: Include a surname, such as 'Grant,' 'Hefner,' or 'Jackman,' so that a reader of the sign will know exactly which Hugh to which you are objecting.
© UnknownPROBLEM: Missing letters in 'extremey' and 'amesty.' 'A' should be 'an.' SOLUTION: Tighter border security could prevent illegal immigrants from stealing American consonants.
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'Feedom' could indeed be a coinage to describe the domain of payments for services, but then of course the proposition 'Feedom isn't free' would be tautological. SOLUTION: To craft a moving rhetorical device, add an 'r' to spell 'freedom.' A helpful hint is located in the root word 'free,' which is located farther down the sign.
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'Your' is a possessive pronoun. A closer examination reveals that someone edited the sign with a pencil, correctly replacing 'your' with the contraction 'you're.' SOLUTION: Carry an orange highlighter with you at all times so that your edits will be more visible.
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'CERTiFieT' is misspelled and contains nonstandard capitalization. The question also lacks a verb, and the interrogative adverb 'where' is misplaced in both instances. SOLUTION: The patriotic attire is a good start, but if you really want to prevent others from doubting your country of origin, try asking, 'Where is Obama's birth certificate?' rather than, 'Birth CERTiFieT where Obama where?'.
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'Competnce.' SOLUTION: If English is not your strong suit, try using smaller words and less grammatically complex sentences. For instance, this sign would have imparted the very same message if it had simply read, 'Obama is bad.'
© UnknownPROBLEM: An examination of the historical record finds that Congress has never been peeled in the first place. SOLUTION: Replacing 'repeel' with 'repeal,' while failing to create a prescription that could be enacted within any existing legal framework, would at least convey something closer to a meaningful concept.
© UnknownPROBLEM: 'Infromed.' SOLUTION: Whatever the merits of Fox News may be, it is no substitute for a dictionary.
Comment: It's extremely hard to take these Tea Party people seriously when their signs reflect so poorly on their basic command of the English language.
The Other 95% showed up at the Washington, D.C. rally with a great sign and with no errors:
© Unknown
The Other 95% had no errors in their facts either, something else the Tea Partiers are woefully guilty of. The Obama stimulus bill provided an $800 family tax credit and
federal income taxes are at historic lows as indicated by this chart:
© cbpp.org
Well, we wouldn't want facts to get in the way of a good rant.
Comment: It's extremely hard to take these Tea Party people seriously when their signs reflect so poorly on their basic command of the English language. The Other 95% showed up at the Washington, D.C. rally with a great sign and with no errors: