Chihauhua in Tea Cup Tea Party Necklace

It's a pendant picture of one of my dogs, Bill. He's holding an American flag and he's sitting in a tea cup with the words "Tea Party" on it. The picture is laminated for protection. Bill wasn't saying cheese, but he was looking at a piece for the picture. His little paw was Photoshopped with the flag because, although he is patriotic, he can only really clutch a flag in his teeth, and that wouldn't be as cute.

The necklace and frame that this picture is in is of my design and manufactured for me. You cannot get it anywhere else and I do not sell them separately. It measures from the outside edges, 1 ¼ x 1 11/16 “ or 32mm x 40mm. It comes in antiqued silverplate. A NoMonet metal tag is attached to the necklace.

Because I've met so many people with misconceptions about what the tea party movement is-- (most media outlets haven't been very kind or accurate in our protrayal) I'm going to give you a thumbnail definition here:

The tea party movement is not simply about lowering taxes, it's not about changing anyone's lifestyle, no racism, sexism or anything socially negative. (Tea Party has in fact supported a much more racially diverse group of politicians than we are given credit for...more than the Dems.) The Tea Party Movement is about getting the government to be fiscally responsible and to give the American people more freedom. It's all about limiting government's control over our lives, being accountable for the taxes collected and not spent on stupid stuff -- for example: a useless airport in Pennsylvania that cost the taxpayers millions of dollars so John Murtha (now deceased) could fly to Washington more conveniently. We want politicians who pass laws that affect them as well as us, who aren't held to a different standard than we are - for instance Geithner cheating on his taxes and blaming Turbo tax... we could never get away with that, why should he? The amount of corruption in Washington has reached epic levels.

The tea party movement is a grass roots movement. There are several large components of it, but many small groups - I belong to a small local Ventura group myself. Within the movement you have a multitude of social values, from the anti-abortion people to the socially liberal (I consider myself the latter). The thing that holds everyone in the tea party together is the desire to elect politicians that represent our core fiscally conservative values. We want a smaller more efficient government that interferes less in our lives. We want a fiscally responsible government that isn't overspending and increasing our national debt. A government that isn't socializing or nationalizing everything they can get their hands on. A government that encourages the egalitarian entepreneural spirit that America was founded on, not a socialized model that is failing in Europe. We want less governmental controls in our lives, not more.

The Tea Party Patriots are smart enough to know that a third party rarely works in our political system, so we have chosen to rally behind candidates of our choosing in the Republican party who hold Tea Party values. There are more of us than the media likes to admit.