Governor Brownback and Twitter

[mikoyan29]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...llowing-soars/

So lets see, someone says a mean thing about a Governor on Twitter. His aids get their panties in a twist and complain to the school. School tells the girl to apologize. She refuses.....Good for her.

[AdminAssistant]

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2011/no...tudents-tweet/

He has since apologized for 'overreacting'. As one of my friends said, "So, we have to cut the Arts Commission and social services, but we can pay someone to monitor social media?" The whole thing is indicative of the incompetence of Brownback's administration. Seriously, I can't wait to get out of this hellhole of a state, before it gets any worse....

[mikoyan29]

Why does this somehow remind me of a service I heard advertised where someone will look for mentions of you in Facebook or whatever so that they can scrub bad mentions? I didn't say it in my post, but I think a Governor has better things do with his resources than monitor what may or may not be said about him on Twitter or Facebook or whatever. I would seriously hope that is not being funded by the Kansan taxpayers because if it were, I would hope they complain about the misuse of funds and the abuse of power.

[AdminAssistant]

It seems that his 'spokeswoman' Sherriene Jones-Sontang, or perhaps a flunky working for her, is the one who found it. Jones-Sontag's husband, oddly enough, is the director of the Kansas chapter of American's for Prosperity...the Koch Brother's PAC.

Just reading the comments in the local paper, there are actually a lot of people who think the girl was 'disrespectful' for having her phone out during the field trip and that Gov. Brownback 'stands up for conservative ideals.' Things like forcing through a voter ID law to 'prevent illegal immigrants from voting.' Except that Kansas doesn't have a lot of illegal immigrants and the law is designed to make it difficult/impossible for college students to vote. He wanted to close a number of SRS (Social & Rehabilitation Services) offices...and Lawrence was on the list. A town of ~90,000. Punishment for daring to be liberally-minded. The city had to agree to pay the rent for the building in order to keep it open. He has eliminated the Kansas Arts Commission, making us the first and only state without a state-supported arts agency. He 'saved' the state $600,000, but caused us to become ineligible for over $1 million in federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. It's ridiculous.

But there's too many idjits and old folks in this state that think he's just doing a stand up job. That's why I want to get the hell out and go back to the relative sanity of Arkansas.

[Rageaholic]

This comment

“It’s troubling that Brownback’s staff is so thin skinned that they felt the need to call down the government’s wrath on a high school student who had the audacity to criticize the governor,”

describes the whole thing perfectly.

Where's the facepalm smiley?

[tropicsgoddess]

Last I checked this is the United States of America and that we have what's called the Freedom of Speech in our constitution. That Governor is just wasting time and resources on trifling matters when he could be tending to much more pressing matters in his state. And to think I thought Jeb Bush and his brother G.W. Bush were morons...Governor Brownback takes the cake, IMO.

[MadMike]

Where's the facepalm smiley?

Should be right here:

I can't believe this (supposed) grown man went crying to the girl's principal because she said mean things about him. You have to have a thick skin if you want to be a politician or any kind of public official, because no matter how good a job you do, there's always going to be someone out there who doesn't like you.

And the fact that this overgrown child threw a tantrum about that, I'd say the insults were justified.

[mikoyan29]

Should be right here:

I can't believe this (supposed) grown man went crying to the girl's principal because she said mean things about him. You have to have a thick skin if you want to be a politician or any kind of public official, because no matter how good a job you do, there's always going to be someone out there who doesn't like you.

And the fact that this overgrown child threw a tantrum about that, I'd say the insults were justified.

I wonder what he would do if people used about half the tweets directed at Obama (or Bush)? He'd probably curl over a die...or something.

[Rageaholic]

Here's an article that made me facepalm.

Particularly the following quote.

The parental role is to inculcate values of respect for authority — even those you disagree with — and the importance of civil discourse. It’s not to stand up for your little darling no matter how much she mouths off.

Because we all know authority can never do anything wrong.

EDIT: this is a rare case where the comments are win.

[smileyeagle1021]

Rage, not only that, but while she makes a good point about the importance of civil discourse, I wonder where she was for the last 10 years while everyone on every side of the aisle become vulgar.

[mikoyan29]

I have no problem with someone standing up for Civil discourse but that's doesn't include using the Governor's office to browbeat an apology.

[Evandril]

I'm in favor of civil discorse...but I'm *more* in favor of freedom of speech. If one of my kids had posted that...I'd have chewed them out for the nature of the post, and then encouraged 'em to keep it up, along with an apology of the crude nature of the post, but not retracting any of the sentiment.

[guywithashovel]

It's interesting how conservatives accuse liberals of being too thin-skinned and emotional, and then they pull stuff like this.

Granted, liberals can be pretty emotionally charged, but apparently the other side isn't much better.

Can you imagine if Obama did this to some kid who posted something like this about him on Facebook or Twitter?

[Rageaholic]

It's interesting how conservatives accuse liberals of being too thin-skinned and emotional, and then they pull stuff like this.

Yup. They can dish it out, calls liberals wusses, and come up with any strawman, if someone dares criticize them (especially if it's religion related), they act like you just stomped on their puppies in front of their eyes.