TIME Cover: Debt Crisis Pummels America. (Tea Party Still at Large.)

Ha! This cracks me up the way the illustration incorporates not just the anchor text for the lead story (THE GREAT AMERICAN DOWNGRADE) but also the text for a, yes, “supposedly” separate story (HOW THE TEA PARTY HIJACKED AMERICA). Because both headlines are contained in the oval of the dollar bill, however, the graphic inference (“graphic” as in: the gestalt of the illustration, and “graphic” as in: violent) is that both relate to the same visual.

The at least equally-logical conclusion, then?

It might be that the debt crisis has bruised George Washington and the U.S. economy. Just as well, however, it could be that the Tea Party (having done in the British) beat the crap out of Washington.