SPEECHLESS

November 17, 2012 6:39 PM

Congress Floor Charts (SLTumblr)
posted by BungaDunga (18 comments total)

These are amazing. I would not have anticipated the number of references to "Wheel of Fortune."
posted by ocherdraco at 6:47 PM on November 17, 2012 [4 favorites]

"House Republicans Official Truth Squad"

Could we try to get ALL republicans to join the official truth squad?
posted by Salvor Hardin at 7:00 PM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Next session - PowerPoint!
posted by Benny Andajetz at 7:10 PM on November 17, 2012

Love him because he means it
posted by louche mustachio at 7:12 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Good Lord. Ted Deutch's seems to have been put together that morning before the school bus arrived, with a pair of scissors, a glue stick, and a few issues of Time.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 7:14 PM on November 17, 2012 [3 favorites]

Eponysterically, this makes me weep for our nation.
posted by graphnerd at 7:30 PM on November 17, 2012 [10 favorites]

If I'd known you could make a career out of having opinions and liking glue sticks--wait, sorry, I was born poor, Hispanic, and female, and probably wouldn't have ended up in Congress anyway.
posted by gracedissolved at 7:47 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

You know you went to a posh summer camp as a kid when you took Arts & Crafts & CSPAN.
posted by ifandonlyif at 7:59 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Just imagine the wretched interns who were yelled at to cobble these together.
posted by mynameisluka at 8:03 PM on November 17, 2012 [5 favorites]

Oh, man, this is the greatest thing.
posted by Apropos of Something at 8:04 PM on November 17, 2012 [1 favorite]

Next session - PowerPoint! Overhead Projectors and poor air-conditioning!
posted by whorl at 8:26 PM on November 17, 2012

I'm currently reading "Master of the Senate" about how LBJ transformed that institution, in large part by removing most of the actual work behind the scenes, which led a lot of people to decry the loss of the traditional debate and discourse function of that august body, blah blah blah. I look at stuff like this, and think "oh, if you only knew what was about to happen".

[...] it was debate--in its highest sense: unhurried, thoughtful discussion to educate first the Senate and then the people, to raise issues and examine them in depth and at length--that had made the Senate a great deliberative body.

As near as I can tell none of that was ever true--Senators have always been senile, windy, racist nutjobs--but now? Not even on the same planet as true. These people with their inept signs and their inept understanding are the enemies of understanding, not the agents of it. I mean, seriously, is there anyone in these photographs you would ask for directions to Second Avenue, let alone advice on how to run the country?
posted by Fnarf at 9:40 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

Lot of out of work designers out there who could give you some bang for your floor chart buck if they get fired up just sayin Congresspeople.
posted by The Whelk at 9:52 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

fnarf, I'd totally ask Keith Ellison
posted by mulligan at 10:14 PM on November 17, 2012 [2 favorites]

mulligan: Wait, who's Keith Ellison? Oh, I see, he's a Congressman who's not a complete idiot. God bless you D-F-L people; one of the guys who comes off in MOTS as a decent man is your Hubert Humphrey, also a D-F-L stalwart. But Humphrey needed his Johnson; who is Ellison's Johnson? Ellison looks like a solid dude, even a Presidential candidate soon (I'm an age bigot, and Ellison will be 53 in '16, which is perfect), but who will push him through? All of my guys (and gals) are too damn old to run and win.

God, a REAL Muslim President, can you even imagine the furor on the right? You know I'm a little hysterical, but not ALL of them are morons. Just most of them. Just the ones who run the show.
posted by Fnarf at 11:09 PM on November 17, 2012

Eeesh. Louie Gohmert - how is it that being a congressman seems to be the one job where you don't have to improve your performance after a thorough peer review?
posted by PuppyCat at 8:16 AM on November 18, 2012

And WTF is up with these charts? Seriously - why can't they just make a .pdf file and project it?
posted by PuppyCat at 8:18 AM on November 18, 2012

The charts are not meant to be seen by or to persuade other congresspeople. The chamber is, as often as not, empty while the congressperson gives his/her speech. The charts are intended for the Great Unwashed if the clip happens to end up on TV at some point. I guess I could say something angry about the evident contempt for the American People evidenced in the addlepatedness of these charts, but then again the American People were the ones who put them there in the first place.
posted by yoink at 8:35 AM on November 18, 2012 [1 favorite]