Solitaire-playing lawmakers defend their “momentary diversion”
Yesterday, I pointed you to the time-wasting politicians in the Connecticut legislature who were caught playing solitaire and watching baseball during debate on the state’s budget.
A Connecticut House Democrat spokesman sent the following statement to Fox News Channel producer Lee Kushnir after she saw my blog post and asked about State Democrats Barbara Lambert and Jack Hennessy’s extra-curricular activities captured in the Hartford Courant newspaper.
Classic CYA:
Our members have discussed and debated the state budget for seven months, culminating in yesterday’s marathon, 13 hour budget session. With little new ground being broken, and the results of the upcoming vote a reasonable certainty, a momentary diversion is understandable. Both representatives insist there was no intent to disrespect the minority leader during his presentation.
Regards,
Doug Whiting
Communications Director
Connecticut House Democrats
I bet Connecticut voters are more than a wee bit curious about how “momentary” those “momentary diversions” really have been.
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I witnessed the same thing during sessions of our Texas state legislature. The gallery is above the legislative assembly, and half a dozen (mostly Democrats, but not all) computers were on a solitaire game. We were there in support of the “ID Voter required” legislation sponsored by the Republicans. The donks stalled until it faltered. [Still galls me!]
If they are simply there to keep the seat warm, who tells them how to vote? Who is their puppet master?
There are federal and state laws against misuse of government resources. Do they only apply to the grunts?
They appear to be great candidates for Federal Office.
Your tax dollars at (not)work.
It is wrong for them to “play” while on the clock. However, I can sympathize. I had a very boring job at one time, with a lot of “down” time. This was before the internet was installed at work, but we did have solitaire. We had permission to play during our “down” time. Solitaire was also used to teach people how to use Windows and that strange thing called a “mouse” when it first came out. Yes, I am THAT old! Anyway, I do understand their side. That still doesn’t make it right, but I, for one, am cutting them a bit of slack because I’ve “been there”.
Off topic alert…Michelle, maybe you can have a column on Obama’s “endorsement” of the muslim “religion”. He not only wished all the muslims a blessed ramadan season, but last night (I think) he addressed a muslim organization and praised them very highly during their “holy” season. Will he do the same for Christians when Christmas rolls around? And what about this whole “separation of church and state” crap the libs have been espousing? Hmmmm??? Something just smells wrong here.
Look out! The Connecticut House Democrats are getting “all wee-weed up” because they got caught.
Were they playing when the majority leader was talking? Do they expect the minority to give their full, undivided attention?
I remember former Texas Governor Ann Richards appointed an animal rights activist to the state department of wildlife. That “animal cracker” would go to sleep during debates about hunting seasons, then defend her disrespect by saying they were lucky she didn’t vomit.
Is there anyway to get a larger blow up of this picture? If so you may be able to see on Jack Hennessy’s screen in the bottom right hand side the amount of time he has been diverted (solatire has a timer there).
Oh, I like it.
hapscrap – Sorry, but I don’t consider it “downtime” when your political opponent is speaking during an important debate, so I will cut them zero slack. However, I do accept that these people are so stupid that they are still learning how to use their computers.
“Their computers.” More like the taxpayers’ computers. Perhaps taxpayers should demand that solitaire and other non-work programs be removed from legislators’ computers and non-work-related websites be blocked.
I guarantee these people habitually behave this way. After all, they are in office not to watch over the affairs of the people. They are there to build their own power base, enhance their careers, and enrich themselves… no wonder they feel justified at ignoring legislative proceedings: it’s so boring!!
Better solitaire than actually doing something-when they do something it is usually not good for us.
For elected officials everywhere:
More solitaire-less doing something.
Electronic Pocket Solitaire $15–send one to you elected official today.
(yes I am a smart alec-family tradition you know)
–
(Bang Bang)And a (Bang Bang)Blessed Ramadan (Bang Bang) to you all (boom).
Hey, if they had been paying attention to their fellow legislators, maybe new ground would’ve been broken. What a concept!
Will I get the same rationalization when I play solitaire and/or watch baseball at my job?
Must be nice to be paid so much. Meanwhile, jerks like me have to work without solitaire or baseball, for a small paycheck, and no second chances.
FIRE THEM ALL!
Recently, I sat in on the Missouri Congress as they debated a bill that would limit backyard ownership of exotic animals. During the presentation of the bill by a congressman, the Speaker Pro Tem interrupted every 2 or 3 minutes by banging his gavel and announcing a particular representative’s name, scolding them for eating ice cream on the House floor. There were no less than 10 people who were called out during the presentation of this important legislative bill.
I was shocked at the juvenile way in which this group of “professional” adults were conducting the business of the state.
After about 20 minutes, someone who had been chastised stood up and pointed out that the SPT was also eating ice cream. Guffaws of laughter swept the room.
I guess I thought that conducting the business of our government demands respect and serious thoughtfulness. Shame on me.
Ding, Ding, Ding, we have a winner.
I’m shocked! shocked i tell ya!
Shocked they aren’t playing with dolls instead…….
It’s Connecticut…all they need to do is raise taxes and deny White firefighters a job. Who needs to pay attention for that?
Point taken…and you are right, of course!
I wish play cards on a computer was all they did.
Hell let’s em playstations
Yes, at first blush, it looked like we had junior high schoolers “working” there. Now I believe it is more like grade school.
I hear that these two are first in line when the the post of “Waste of Taxpayer Money Czar” is open.
Well when you have that large of a majority, nothing the minority says matters anyway.
Kinda like the dems in Washington DC.
More than a little similarity between the “jobs” clowns like these “legislators” have and the “no-show” “jobs” organized crime has been described as creating.
Reality is that there is no debate taking place.
If you have already decided your position before discussion begins, and are unwilling to consider opposed arguments, you are not debating. You may as well take a nap until the vote.
Excellent point!! That is why Congress needn’t even bother to return from recess. They can just vote on the health”care” bill from home and save the taxpayers’ funded airfare. I really don’t want them back in DC. Stay home, morons.
Our government is made up of attorneys. Attorneys steal money and do little work. These state reps have adopted the lawyerly work ethic. Yesterday I pointed out to an attorney about their habits of charging a client a whole hours worth of work for what would amount to minutes of “actual work”. He stated that I must be jealous. They don’t even try to hide it, I can hear Reps Lambert and Hennessy now, gee MM, are you jealous?
Some state legislatures are mirrors of Washington, DC. The majority Dems tell the “Freshmen” Congress how to vote. I’ll bet the vast majority, particularly new reps, never read any of the bills they sign. They are NOT patriots, just mostly lawyers looking for personal financial gain. I just pray in 2010, these bozos will be voted out and can be at home playing all the solitaire they want.
***
Playing solitaire in the legislature or Congress doesn’t bother me. Or sleeping through the day there either.
***
I feel a lot better when our “Representatives” and Senators are on vacation–or asleep–or wasting time on the computers. At least they are not SC***ING US OVER at those times. Permanent vacations for them would be better than having them “help us out” with their wild spending at our expense.
***
John Bibb
***
Politicians are so frickin’ stupid. Just say “sorry, won’t happen again” – even if you’re not and it will.
Who’da thunk Bill Gates’s Windows Solitaire could be a defender of the Constitution.
You pointed out nothing because you know nothing. If you had any idea what you were talking about, you would know that the vast majority of attorneys don’t bill by the hour. The vast majority of them bill by 15, 10 or 6 minute intervals.
Scurry along now.
I live in Connecticut – it wouldn’t make a difference if they were paying attention.
I’ve had to use 2 attorneys, both charged me the same way mechanics do, no matter how much work was done, you paid for the hour of service. One was actually pretty good and got the results I had hoped for, so I did not mind too much. The other was not very good and when I complained, professionally I might add, he yelled at me like I was some child who should be grateful that he decided to help me. You remind me of the second one, no actually you remind me of my little sister when I was 15. I guess I’ll “scurry along now”, LOL.
Amen brother, they’re so far disconnected from reality it isn’t funny. The Wall Street Journal pointed out two things that should have been a wake up call for our legislature a days ago… But nope, they didn’t even bat an eyelash:
1) Since the income tax became law, Connecticut has experienced a long, slow exodus of jobs and people. The Yankee Institute notes the astounding fact that since 1992, the year the income tax went into effect, businesses in Connecticut have hired a grand total of zero net new workers.
2) As the tax burden has surged, the state lost population to other states (a net 113,000) in every year but one over the last decade.
It’s amazing when you think about it… Connecticut was able to balanced its budget without an income tax for 200 years. And in 18 short these idiots have turned the state into an Economic basket case.
Why didn’t they call it multi-tasking?
Then you are an idiot, but we already knew that, who should shop around a bit more. They probably knew they had an easy mark.
I’ll pretty much guarantee I cost more than you could afford.
Well it’s nice to know that the dems see it s justifiable that they use the taxpayers computers to play games on while in the middle of budget debates. This would not fly in the private sector during a major meeting. It shouldn’t be OK for a law maker do it while in session and people are speaking.
LOL, this is too funny. How do you know when people are irked? They have been told the truth. When someone tells or says something that has no truth to it, people ignore it. When you call someone out, watch out, they get angry and will call you names, like stupid or your not intelligent, we all know those types and they are usually liberals. Anyone here ever call a lazy person lazy? Watch out, they will hit the roof. Call someone who is not lazy, lazy, and they may get annoyed, but will not over react, you know what I mean. Anyone here ever meet someone who over inflates their worth by telling you their personal market value? Yeah, people not worth knowing most of the time.
So when I called you an idiot, and you replied to that comment here:
What does that say? Most people are at least self aware enough not to fall into a trap that they themselves set. But something tells me you are not self aware enough to tie your own shoes.
BTW, I am super sorry you had a bad experience with a lawyer. You should have been smart enough to know ahead of time what his billing policy was and to ask for a detailed itemization of the bill.
And I am especially sorry the second one did not get the result you desired. But really, there is only so much a lawyer with a University of Phoenix JD that he printed off his home computer can do about an incest charge. Those laws are pretty clear cut and strict, as you do doubt discovered.
Your snobbery knows no bounds does it? You put down people who go to a school like University of Phoenix. So many men and women chose to start their families young and were not able to go back to school until later in life. UoP offer people the opportunity to go to school while still working, so many of them can’t go to school unless they can keep their job. You find them in contempt, like you do soldiers or any other “blue collar” person. You are the perfect example of a liberal. A true limousine liberal. The poor need to be helped with welfare, but keep them away from me, I’m too good for that. You think that a person who decides to go to school later in life is not worth as much. You are a piece of work.
Oh poor poor deluded frontierguy. I truly hope that whatever path you have chosen in life, you have more ability in than you have shown here in the fields of psychoanalysis and fortune telling.
You call me a “limousine liberal”? Hah. I didn’t even have a limo for my own wedding. I grew up working on a family owned dairy farm in one of the poorest areas of the country, shoveling sh1t that was not nearly as offensive as you and throwing bales of hay that had more intellectual heft than you could ever hope to achieve. And worked for a full scholarship to a very good college and worked part time during college because my folks could not afford to put one red cent toward my education. And took out massive loans to put myself through the best law school I could get into. Which happens to be one of the best in the country. But of course, I had help. When my mother was divorced and we were poor, I went to Head Start, which fostered my intellect and creativity. I am sure we also got some sort of WIC or food stamps or something. I also was the beneficiary of government subsidized student loans for law school. All so I could actually afford to become a really good lawyer.
I AM the American dream, you tool. It is just so incredibly shocking that you can’t imagine that anyone who comes from a humble background could actually disagree with your particular brand of pseudo-”blue collar” politics. THAT is true snobbery. And pitiful. But we already knew that about you, didn’t we?
BTW, that last post sounded a bit angry. I didn’t see a single LOL! Maybe if you threw in a few
we could really see how cool and collected you are! Watch yourself lest you become that which you condemn.
But make no mistake. I am not angry at you. I find your diatribes perversely amusing. For me to be angry at that would be like Stephen Hawking getting angry at the imbecilic ramblings of a 13 year old who thinks that knowing all of the planets of the solar system makes him an astrophysicist.
Oh, no mr. chap, I was condemning people who call others stupid, of low intelligence, can’t tie their shoes. I do not believe you are stupid, misguided and character flawed, yes, have an agenda contrary to the welfare of most people, yes, but stupid, no. I also am pretty sure that I would bet on you being able to tie your shoes. I call you out on character flaws, yes, but have I ever called you stupid? I might have a long time ago, but I do not do playground tactics anymore. I live in a Blue State, it does not work.
You pulled yourself out of poverty, that is fantastic and whether you like it or not, a very conservative value. You should champion others to do the same, no matter what higher educational institute they attend. Get over yourself and the school you attended. You are a snob, it is a very unappealing character trait.
You have never made me angry. I live in a Blue State. I would walk around in a constant state of madness if I let the liberals here get to me. I know that the majority of liberals are just very misguided, more concerned with the “change” rather than substance of the “change”. They only want to know where American Idol auditions are or who is dancing with a star this week. It is why California is bankrupt, liberal policies are failures.
I believe that you are smart, and therefore dangerous. I have never read a post where you admit liberal policy dangers, only ones where you defend them. The fact that you are smart means that you have an agenda. Such as the health care bill, to say that Tort Reform is a small percentage and should not be considered, really? That is just one example of quite a few. I get over many Californians, they really do not know anything. You have an agenda, as evidenced when I say that attorneys are a big reason the economy is in shambles and the country is in trouble, you really hate it when I say that. You attack me along with what I said. I think you can’t help yourself, this forum is much more friendly to my values than yours and you are not going to convince the majority of posters here that the government and trial attorneys do not have a huge, scratch my back, i’ll scratch yours thing going on. You do try though, but like me going to an organic food shop here and arguing with a liberal buying overpriced apples that global warming is a hoax, it ain’t going nowhere.
I debate very hard with you, because I believe you are dangerous. You are the liberal whose compromises always end up in much more of your favor. This country cannot afford more bankrupted states. With people like you in charge, there will be many more. It must be stopped.
No. You only called me a soldier killer. So forgive me if I have low esteem for your level of intelligence.
I generally hate when people say things that are patently absurd. Medical malpractice is not even close to being the primary reason health care is in danger. Take a look at Texas where they instituted caps on med mal in 2003. And then ask yourself why, in 2008, Texas had the 10th worst paycheck-to-premium increase. Tort reform is a canard. I’d throw it in to real health care reform just to shut people like you up.
That’s right! frontier…guy. I am dangerous.
Huh? How can this be?
“I love how the medical malpractice reform has stopped attorneys from taking cases because they can’t get the high dollar value ‘pain and suffering’ bs that pays out way too much. I have pain and suffering everytime I read Chap’s agenda driven drivel. Where is my check?”
Oh, this is why Texas has that paycheck to premium thing you lamented. Forget about these people, Chap?
And despite all those new doctors apparently pouring in because of cheaper malpractice premiums, health care costs are still rising as much or more than the rest of the country. Do you get it now? TORT REFORM WILL NOT LOWER HEALTH CARE COSTS. IT HAS BENN SHOWN MANY TIMES TO BE ALMOST WORTHLESS. There area lot of other independent studies out there saying the same thing. I wouldn’t expect you to have the intellectual integrity to actually read them.
And seeing as I am not a med mal attorney, I don’t see how this is really “agenda driven”.
Why do you insist on proving my point? If this is the cost driver, how will tort reform help?
They are being allowed through the ports. This is true, my best friend is a paramedic and has confirmed that this is happening. A few years ago a nurse here complained that a Mexican ambulance with outdated equipment was let in and an American paramedic rode in their ambulance with their equipment to our hospital. After that, the ports started moving Mexican patients from their ambulance to an American one, just like the article stated.
I am not proving your point, what I am saying is that medical malpractice reform and caps is not showing its potential because of the driving costs of medicine for illegals and the new programs of allowing people across the border to get treatment on taxpayer’s dime. The addition of extra doctors could only end up driving costs down, if the market is left alone and the benefits of only getting compensated for what you truly deserve in cases of malpractice and not millions of dollars for “pain and suffering” will definitely help.
I know you want attorneys to still get pain and suffering payments, I get it. That does nothing to help anyone and hinders any true reform. The Health Care Reform Bill as is is a sham, 52% of Americans know this now.
There is no true potential. You think Texas is the only example? Study after study has all said the same thing. Here is a nice summary:
You are wrong about the effectiveness of tort reform and trying to deflect your wrongness by making this about me wanting to line the pockets of attorneys I don’t know or care about.
And if you don’t think that pain and suffering is not a legitimate component of damages, that is fine. But know you are in the radical minority (but we already knew that, didn’t we) and flying in the face of hundreds of years of English and American jurisprudence. And you clearly know nothing about the positive deterrent effects of the tort system. You basically want to allow bad doctors to go unpunished and injured people go uncompensated out of a childish spite you have for attorneys.
Guess you missed that. I looked up Texas, all of the studies saying that the malpractice cap was a failure was done by attorney and law groups. I am all for measured litigation, I am not for outrageous judgements. I remember some years back how rabidly Sen Edwards was against tort reform, can you guess why?
No. You just have very out of the mainstream views on what people deserve. Just give em a band aid and a lollipop to stick in their mouth so they will shut the hell up about the surgical sponge left in their gut.
Ah. The old “consider the source” argument. The last refuge of a flailing argument. Ummm….care to find one saying that it has effectively brought health care costs down? Its pretty hard to manipulate raw data like that. If you think the statistics are wrong. Please provide some alternate ones.