Reason #1,500,944 Why I Hate Politics

Bear with me for a moment. This may be my longest post yet, at least in regards to the number of lines. First off, I want to share a list of U.S. Representatives. I'll explain why after I finish listing these 246 individuals:

Neil Abercrombie
Gary Ackerman
Thomas Allen
Jason Altmire
Robert Andrews
Michael Arcuri
Joe Baca
Tammy Baldwin
John Barrow
Melissa Bean
Xavier Becerra
Shelley Berkley
Howard Berman
Marion Berry
Sanford Bishop
Timothy Bishop
Earl Blumenauer
Dan Boren
Leonard Boswell
Rick Boucher
Allen Boyd
Nancy Boyda
Robert Brady
Bruce Braley
Corrine Brown
G.K. Butterfield
Lois Capps
Michael Capuano
Dennis Cardoza
Russ Carnahan
Christopher Carney
Julia Carson
Michael Castle
Kathy Castor
Ben Chandler
Yvette Clarke
William Clay
Emanuel Cleaver
James Clyburn
Howard Coble
Steve Cohen
John Conyers
Jim Cooper
Jim Costa
Jerry Costello
Joe Courtney
Bud Cramer
Joseph Crowley
Henry Cuellar
Elijah Cummings
Artur Davis
Danny Davis
Lincoln Davis
Susan Davis
Tom Davis
Peter DeFazio
Diana DeGette
Rosa DeLauro
William Delahunt
Norman Dicks
John Dingell
Lloyd Doggett
Joe Donnelly
Michael Doyle
John 'Jimmy' Duncan
Chet Edwards
Keith Ellison
Brad Ellsworth
Rahm Emanuel
Eliot Engel
Philip English
Anna Eshoo
Bob Etheridge
Sam Farr
Chaka Fattah
Bob Filner
Barney Frank
Gabrielle Giffords
Wayne Gilchrest
Kirsten Gillibrand
Charles Gonzalez
Bart Gordon
Al Green
Gene Green
Raúl Grijalva
Luis Gutiérrez
John Hall
Phil Hare
Jane Harman
Alcee Hastings
Stephanie Herseth
Brian Higgins
Baron Hill
Maurice Hinchey
Rubén Hinojosa
Mazie Hirono
Paul Hodes
Tim Holden
Chris Van Hollen
Rush Holt
Mike Honda
Darlene Hooley
Steny Hoyer
Bob Inglis
Jay Inslee
Steve Israel
Jesse Jackson
Sheila Jackson-Lee
William Jefferson
Eddie Johnson
Henry Johnson Jr.
Tim Johnson
Stephanie Jones
Walter Jones
Steve Kagen
Paul Kanjorski
Marcy Kaptur
Ric Keller
Patrick Kennedy
Dale Kildee
Carolyn Kilpatrick
Ron Kind
Mark Kirk
Ron Klein
Dennis Kucinich
Nicholas Lampson
James Langevin
Tom Lantos
Rick Larsen
John Larson
Steven LaTourette
Barbara Lee
Sander Levin
John Lewis
Daniel Lipinski
David Loebsack
Zoe Lofgren
Nita Lowey
Stephen Lynch
Tim Mahoney
Carolyn Maloney
Edward Markey
Jim Matheson
Doris Matsui
Carolyn McCarthy
Betty McCollum
Jim McDermott
James McGovern
Mike McIntyre
Jerry McNerney
Michael McNulty
Martin Meehan
Kendrick Meek
Gregory Meeks
Charles Melancon
Michael Michaud
Juanita Millender-McDonald
Brad Miller
George Miller
Harry Mitchell
Alan Mollohan
Gwen Moore
Dennis Moore
James Moran
Christopher Murphy
Patrick Murphy
John Murtha
Grace Napolitano
Richard Neal
James Oberstar
David Obey
John Olver
Solomon Ortiz
Frank Pallone
Bill Pascrell
Ed Pastor
Ron Paul
Donald Payne
Nancy Pelosi
Ed Perlmutter
Collin Peterson
Thomas Petri
Earl Pomeroy
David Price
Nick Rahall
Jim Ramstad
Charles Rangel
Silvestre Reyes
Ciro Rodriguez
Mike Ross
Steven Rothman
Lucille Roybal-Allard
Dutch Ruppersberger
Bobby Rush
Tim Ryan
John Salazar
Loretta Sanchez
John Sarbanes
Jan Schakowsky
Adam Schiff
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
Allyson Schwartz
David Scott
Robert Scott
José Serrano
Joe Sestak
Carol Shea-Porter
Brad Sherman
Heath Shuler
Albio Sires
Ike Skelton
Louise Slaughter
Adam Smith
Vic Snyder
Hilda Solis
Zachary Space
John Spratt
Pete Stark
Bart Stupak
Betty Sutton
Linda Sánchez
John Tanner
Ellen Tauscher
Mike Thompson
Bennie Thompson
John Tierney
Edolphus Towns
Mark Udall
Tom Udall
Fred Upton
Nydia Velázquez
Peter Visclosky
James Walsh
Timothy Walz
Maxine Waters
Diane Watson
Melvin Watt
Henry Waxman
Anthony Weiner
Peter Welch
Robert Wexler
Charles Wilson
Lynn Woolsey
David Wu
Al Wynn
John Yarmuth

So besides being U.S. Representatives, what do these people have in common? They all voted for a nonbinding resolution this afternoon:

This measure expresses the House's disagreement with President Bush's planned troop buildup in Iraq. The nonbinding resolution pledges support for U.S. personnel serving “bravely and honorably in Iraq”' but says Congress “disapproves”' of the president’s plan to add more than 20,000 combat troops.

While the 95-word resolution has no legal weight to force the president to change his course in Iraq, it marks a first key showdown between the White House and the new Congress controlled by Democrats.

I'm definitely no political expert. It may be common for Congress to pass such nonbinding resolutions before voting on actual binding legislation. But what it tells me is that these 246 people are candidates for spine transplants.

I actually read an article that claimed that debate over funding of the war "would have been unthinkable even six months ago." Really? Six months ago puts us back in the middle of August of last year, as campaigns for the mid-term elections were heating up. I remember being repeatedly told that those elections would be a "referendum on the war." It took me all of five seconds to find this article from August 8 that used that exact phrase.

After the elections were over, I was told that "the people had spoken." They were against the war. Our troops would be coming home soon. So 3 months after the elections, and a month after Democrats took control of Congress, we get this? Whatever happened to standing up for your convictions? Um, never mind. I forgot for a moment that I was writing about politicians. It will be interesting to see if any of these jellyfish vote to cut funding and actually end the war, as they promised in their campaigns, or if this is just more political posturing so they can say, "We're against the war," while still bashing the President as the war continues.