Christy Hardin Smith does it to us again. Boos to her for, once again, using “rubber stamp” instead of “rubber-stamp” when referring to politicians in her post: “Progress?”

Oh, the agony!

Kudos and boos to blogger Southern Beale for first correctly referring to a politician as a “rubber-stamp” and then using “rubber stamp” in the very next sentence to describe them in her post: “Watergate Tapes: Thompson Was Nixon’s Mole.” It’s like a roller coaster of emotions. First excitement and then disappointment.

Boos and hisses to Jane Hamsher of firedoglake defames rubber stamps by comparing them to politicians, in the title no less, in her post: “Darcy Burner Makes the GOP Do The Rubber Stamp Shuffle”

Kudos and boos to blogger asiseeitnow for using “rubber-stamps” in the title and closer, but “rubber stampers” in the text when referring to politicians: “Rubber-Stamping Liberal Policies” At least asiseeitnow got it right half the time.

Kudos to blogger Green Baggins for using the hyphenated form so as not to give rubber stamps a bad name: “Notae Ecclesiae”

Christy Hardin Smith of firedoglake pains us by using the non-hyphenated version: “They Were Willing To Throw Away Our Values” Boo, hiss.

The DailyKos does it again. This time, davefromqueens uses the non-hyphenated form to give rubber stamps a bad name: “Foxwoods Casino - Cheating, Corruption, Filth” Boo, hiss, again!

Is there a vast grassroots-blogger conspiracy to give rubber stamps a bad name by comparing them with politicians? Rubber stamps are good! They are fun and can save you both time and money! How many politicians can match that?

Boos and hisses to the following bloggers for using “rubber stamps” to describe politicians instead of “rubber-stamps.”

Howie Klein of firedoglake: “Blue America Is Honored To Welcome Congresswoman Hilda Solis”

VolvoDrivingLiberal of DailyKos: “GA-Sen: Populist Firebrand Orr Mulling Race-Sign The Draft Petition”

This next one has nothing to do with rubber stamps, but is perhaps something more people should be aware of: “Have you heard of Credit Triggers? You should.” Scroll down and you’ll see where one respondent has posted information on how you can opt-out of such sharing.

As any stamper knows, rubber stamps are great fun and, as any office worker knows, they can be a great time saver too.

It is unfortunate that the media (and even politicians themselves) persist in giving rubber stamps a bad name. When was the last time a politician saved you time and money? A rubber stamp can do that for you every day.

At least some media outlets use a hyphen to distinguish between rubber stamps (useful tools) and rubber-stamps (useless fools).

Kudos to the Business Standard of India for using the hyphenated form in this article:
“Devangshu Datta: The scent of presidency”
Business Standard (India), June 23, 2007

Boos and hisses to the Baltimore Messenger for using the non-hyphenated form in this article:
“Blake: Council not a ‘rubber stamp’”
Baltimore Messenger, June 20, 2007

If you catch your local media using the non-hyphenated form, send them a letter encouraging them to stop giving rubber stamps a bad name! If they’re online, send us a link. If you catch them using the hyphenated form, thank them and send us a link too.

Together, we can stamp out politicians (and the media) giving rubber stamps a bad name!