Waugh. My head hurts. According to the vitriol being spewed over the summer that’s enough reason for a Death Panel to pass judgement on me. HA! I’m 9 years past the “Logan’s Run” age limit to get to Carousel!
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WUUnc1M0TA[/youtube]
Anyhow, this post isn’t about that. This post is about how my head hurts because of the behavior of politicians these days. I describe myself as politically agnostic, not really caring one way or the other what party or political philosophy that one follows. Over the past year we’ve seen both sides behave rather boorishly, begging the question: Is this how we want our children to behave?!

While I was growing up I always thought that politicians, especially Congressmen and the President, set an example of how we were supposed to behave as adults. I thought they were at the upper echelons of society, representative of how civilized people speak with one another in order to do the work of the people. If anyone was a role model then it would be these people who were elected by their constituents who believed in them. THIS, I thought, is what we should aspire to be.

Then I grew older.

The reality of politics is that it can get ugly. Last night’s outburst by Joe Wilson was yet another example of what is wrong today. People lead by example. All the fruit cakes that are yelling and screaming at town hall debates are only having their behavior reinforced by the poor decorum shown by this representative. What’s worse is that this type of stupidity and rudeness undermines what parents teach their children – behave, be courteous to others and be civil.

Love him or hate him, Obama is the President of the United States and his office deserves the all the respect that one should give to, oh, I dunno…A WORLD LEADER.

It’s just frustrating feeling that certain portions of our country have devolved into a bunch of rude, loud mouthed caricatures of the Ugly American. And Joe Wilson, during the address to both houses of Congress, justified it. Way to go.

Now, the second part of my rant is something that’s been eating away at my head for a while and it has only gotten my attention again by the policies of the NFL. Recently, the NFL has passed rules/guidelines forbidding players to use sites like Twitter during a game. How about this: DO THE SAME THING FOR CONGRESS. When our politicians are sitting either in conference then I would expect them to keep their mind on the business at hand in order to do the will of the people, not to be given their personal thoughts at that moment.

Hey, motherf’ers – get off the Web 2.0 bandwagon and concentrate on fixing our nation. You dumb asses need to be taught what is appropriate use of the tool and what types of information should be shared. Remember the congressman who used Twitter to announce that he was on an unannounced, secret visit to Iraq?

In fact, ban these people from using services like Twitter or Facebook at all. That’s why they have aides and staff people. The most egregious offender of this technology is Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Chuck Grassley. This man, this 69 year old man, uses Twitter like he’s an 11 year old girl. I mean, really – http://twitter.com/chuckgrassley

WTF IS HE? AN LOLCAT?!?!

You, sir, are a representative of the people of Iowa. If I was to use your Twitter account as a means to measure the intelligence of the people you represent then I would say that all Iowans are incompetent and ignorant, uneducated rubes. Surely, Iowans aren’t but, again, you lead by example. Is this what you want children to learn? Bad spelling, atrocious grammar and how to be a curmudgeon?!

Waugh. I don’t know why I expect so much from our elected officials. People fail me.