Twitter: For The Birds

In the 60s, 70s, 80s, and 1990s twittering and tweeting were sounds made by birds and annoying people. Today, they still are. There's just fewer birds and more annoying people...many of them involved in politics.

I spent a half hour last evening looking at Tweets from various business/political types. Rick Miles, our provincial Minister of the Environment, posted the following Tweets:

"I love chocolate."

"off to see the Mazzuca gang for coffee!"

"caucus meetings in the great city of Miramichi (and i'm not wearing a tie!)"

Wow, Rick, you didn't wear a tie! You're quite the bad boy. Did you drive your tricycle right up to the door of the meeting, or did they offer valet parking? To be fair, our dear Minister did have some Tweets about work. I'll also take this opportunity to praise him for his brazen disrespect for the ubiquitous neck noose.

It does make me wonder to whom he's Tweeting. If it's to the people of New Brunswick, he's not building much confidence. Remember, he's the chocolate loving, coffee drinking man who ensures that our lakes and rivers don't produce three headed fish. Since Tweets are out there for all the public to see, like my blog, you'd better be careful what you say, Rick. I'm not worried about what I say because I'm an unelected unofficial. You don't have that luxury.

Shawn Graham, New Brunswick's Premier, makes me nervous. At least his Tweets are informative and he appears to keep his tie (and gym shorts) on at meetings.

Jody Carr, Conservative MLA for Oromocto is all business. His Tweets, like Shawn Graham's, are all work related and relevant. This builds confidence, which has never been lacking in the case of Jody Carr.

I read a few Tweets from a not-to-be-named New Brunswick dentist who uses Twitter as jet fuel for his ego. It makes for interesting reading, but his sweet and sappy self glorification makes my teeth hurt. You could say it's good for business, but I don't think so.

Rick Mercer's name and likeness appeared on one Twitterer's list of people being followed, so I felt compelled to check it out. Rick Mercer has it made as a political commentator. He can say what he wants without fear. He can talk politics. He can be funny. He can be frivolous....and we love him for it. He's perhaps the greatest politician this country has ever had, Elsie Wayne not withstanding. He is the voice of reason in Canada's political landscape, and based on what I've seen, we need him.

Rick Mercer even addressed the pending sale of NB Power to Hydro Quebec on his hit television show, the Rick Mercer Report. Click here to see what he had to say.

I don't have a Twitter voice because Twitter is based on the fundamental question 'What Are You Doing?' Twitter expects this question to be answered using 140 characters or less. It takes me on average 700 words, that's about 3500 characters, to tell you that I don't know what I'm doing. This is why I blog.