Welcome to the "Hall of Shame."

I really try to avoid political discourse in this Blog. Oil-Electric is a railroad Blog. While my passion is railroading, here you will find a plethora of subjects I feel passionate about.

One of my passions is my disgust for the rudeness, crudeness and disrespect for civility exhibited almost daily by politicians. Civility passed with Robert Byrd.

And so when I witnessed the egregious personal attack yesterday by Congressman Randy Neugebauer (R) Texas, on a young female Park Ranger, at the World War II Memorial, I went ballistic! Not only did Neugebauer display contempt for government employees in general, but worse, a young woman  doing her job, without pay!

In a lame attempt to wriggle out of his public relations debacle, he told KCBD-TV Lubbock, "My beef was not with the Parks Ranger. My beef is with the Parks Department and this president, that they would deny these American heroes access to the World War II memorial."

Really? Play the tape again...

Treating her with derision, he told the young Ranger, "You should be ashamed of yourself." Sounds to me like he was referring to her, not the Parks Department. This is how a voice in his District, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal interprets this bully.

• Dallas (Texas) Observer 
 
• Austin Chronicle

What did Randy think he was voting for when he shut the government down?  Scary to learn he serves on three committees; Financial Services, Agriculture, and Science, Space, & Technology!

Is this the image of a Texas politician Texans want us to walk away with?

Compare and contrast Neugebauer to another Texan, Charles Goodnight, an important icon of Texas, and resident of the same region.

Goodnight was key in establishing the cattle trade in and beyond Texas. He is remembered for his kindness and generosity, as portrayed by James Gammon in "The Streets of Laredo." Note similarities ...

James Gammon

Neugebauer (R) is a representative of the 19 District, Texas, smack dab in the middle of  Texas cotton country.

Texas ranks first in cotton production in the U.S. Cotton is the leading cash crop in the state, and is grown on 5 million acres. This crop generates $1.6 billion in cash for farmers and has a total economic impact of $5.2 billion for the state.

Texas accounts for approximately one-half of the cotton acres and roughly 40% of the total production in the U.S. the cotton industry will take a direct hit in the form of no government loan programs under the shut down!

And when I went to the USDA site to learn more about cotton production, I got this splash screen.

See also:  Follow-Up.