Politicos

The word "politics" comes from the Greek word "Πολιτικά" (politika), modeled on Aristotle's "affairs of the city", the name of his book on governing and governments, which was rendered in English mid-15 century as Latinized "Polettiques".^[4] Thus it became "politics" in Middle English c. 1520s (see the Concise Oxford Dictionary). The singular "politic" first attested in English 1430 and comes from Middle French "politique", in turn from Latin "politicus",^[5] which is the romanization of the Greek "πολιτικός" (politikos), meaning amongst others "of, for, or relating to citizens", "civil", "civic", "belonging to the state",^[6] in turn from "πολίτης" (polites), "citizen"^[7] and that from "πόλις" (polis), "city".^[8] via Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics

As for the title of this blog entry, "politicos" is a word commonly used to describe those who are involved in politics (see above) and in modern Greek it is literally translated as anybody involved in politics, e.g. "a politician".

I posted the following to my Facebook this morning:
OK, I voted this morning -- can we now please stop all the disgusting political advertisements?
Enough is enough I say -- don't these folks have anything better to spend their money on, than slinging mud at each other?

For those of you who live in the U.S., I think you know where I am coming from.
Every time there is an election approaching, the advertisements begin to flood the airwaves and they are decidedly not pretty to watch and/or hear.
Each year it seems these advertisements get worse, as the advertisers strive to attain new levels of shock value -- of course repeated exposure to these advertisements causes sheer disgust in the public, however why should the politicos care about the public - right?

"I just need your vote," the politicos seem to be saying to the public -- "after that, you can leave me alone."

I am also astounded by the economic aspect of the pre-election advertisements.
One estimate I heard calculated that the political advertisements will amount to approximately $3 billion this year!
That's a major "cash burn" and what makes it even more eye-opening is that this kind of money is being spent while we are trying to pull ourselves out of the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression.
Most politicos like to talk about how they will be better stewards of the public's money than their predecessors, however I don't see them taking aim at this most egregious spending of cash.

Enough of my rant however, Election Day is here, I have cast my vote and I declare to all the politicos out there:
Take your mud and leave me alone ... at least until the 2012 Presidential election approaches, when I expect you will start this all over again with renewed fervor.