An eighteen-year-old Kansas high school student, Emma Sullivan went on a field trip to Topeka, where she got to enjoy a speech from Kansas governor and laughable 2008 presidential candidate Sam Brownback. The speech–probably as electrifying the stirring oratory that vaulted Brownback to almost seventh place in Iowa’s caucus in 2008–was so moving that Emma couldn’t wait to tweet about it. “OMG Sam Brownback is awesome! A dreamboat!” she tweeted enthusiastically.
Hahaha, just kidding. No one says “dreamboat” any more–and certainly not about Brownback, the poor man’s Rick Santorum. Emma Sullivan tweeted: “just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.”
The next day, Brownback spokeswoman Sherriene Jones-Sontag complained to Emma’s principal. Brownback’s scheduling secretary Niomi Burget emailed a screenshot of the offending tweet to the teachers who had led the field trip. The principal freaked out, according to Emma, and told her to write an apology to Santorum Brownback, whose delicate feelings have apparently never recovered from coming in behind “Uncommitted” in Iowa in 2008.
So, let that sink in. Kansans, your taxes pay for some state official to monitor the tweeters and the facebooks for mean things about your governor. And if you say something mean, they will try to get you in trouble. Not one, but two Brownback employees complained to authority figures about Emma Sullivan’s tweet. They didn’t complain to Emma, who, by the way, is eighteen, and an actual registered voter. Think about that.
The real victim in this, though, is clearly delicate porcelain cherub Sam Brownback, who is no doubt weeping inconsolably on his fainting couch in the governor’s mansion. The governor’s webpage is down, but you can console him on facebook where many well-wishers are, well, telling him he sucks.
Photo from msnbc
