Yesterday I listened to most of the House session. To be honest, I have become somewhat addicted to listening to our elected officials pretend to conduct the business of the citizens of this state. When they get rolling they are more hysterical than any slap stick comedy routine. I mean you absolutely would not believe some of the things they say and do with the mic on. I know it is an expensive form of entertainment...but really it can't be beat.
Most of yesterday was pretty dull though. Sadist Rep. Mike Hubbard decided to have all the bills read at length as a stalling measure because he was mad that he had been clotured in recent days. Don't you just love it?! Because of Rep. Hubbard's wittle hurt feewings he held up the business of the citizens of this state for hours and hours on one of the very last days of the session. Bump cloturing him....he needs CLOUTING upside the head. I'm talking straight-arm him. Must be nice to have that kind of power. (NOTE: I am not picking on Rep. Hubbard because he is a Republican. Democrats often do the exact same thing.)
I started listening at 1:00 when the House came to order. When I left at 4:30 to pick my husband up from work things had started to move a little bit. When I got home about 5:15 I was stunned to hear Rep. John Rogers discussing HB12 a bill that would repeal the ban on the sale of sex toys in Alabama.
Yesterday morning, as I was contacting many legislators on various bills, I decided to drop Rep. Rogers a note and ask him if that bill was going to be put on the calendar. I also told him that, while I was glad it passed the house judiciary committee unanimously, I was very disappointed that no debate was allowed in committee. I told him I had been waiting for months to witness him discussing that bill. I have no idea if my email had anything to do with his decision to bring it up out of order yesterday or not. Could be just a coincidence.
Anyway, I recorded the session and I have compiled this clip of the sex toy discussion for your viewing/listening pleasure. Please excuse the background noise including a number of occasions where I tell members of my family what bill is being discussed. I haven't mastered the subtleties of Audacity yet.
Long Live Rep. John Rogers!! The legislature would be a much duller and less colorful place without him.
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5 comments:
Brilliant.
Listening to the live audio is somewhere between frustrating as hell and morbidly entertaining.
A few weeks ago (and unfortunately before I started recording the sessions)I listened to the Senate one day.
Of course they were all hung up on the gambling bill. During filibusters you know they can just talk about anything. It doesn't have to have anything to do with a bill.
Sen. Jabo Wagoner was talking about traveling to Smith Lake every weekend and seeing a gambling hall/strip club called "The Boobie Trap". He adamantly claimed he had never darkened the door.
Another Senator whose name I did not catch got up and asked Wagoner, "Is you sho you ain't never stop in? I mean if I drove by something that say "The Boobie Trap" my curiosity would get the best of me and I'd have to check it out. Maybe I have that dyslexic and thank it said "The Bobbie Trap". You sho you ain't nevuh had the dyslexic an thank it say "Bobbie" instead of "Boobie"?"
It was crazy funny! I just kind of sat here with my mouth open. After that I started recording the sessions. I'm even thinking of doing a new blog next session called "Legislative Outtakes" which will feature audio of the the things they say and do. Citizens just really have no idea.
How much and how quickly do you think things would change if citizens listened to the shenanigans that are happening on their dime? Part of the problem is that while the computer literate among us know about ALISON and how to use it most people don't. Another part of the problem is that no one wants to spend hours and hours listening to legislative sessions. They don't have that kind of time. Even if they did they wouldn't want to spend it doing that.
There needs to be a website devoted to preserving the audio of the sessions so that it can be broken down into a much shorter form that will draw folks in and perhaps get them interested in the political process.
Then again...perhaps I am only dreaming....but I am going to do that blog next year.
Wow! I've often wondered how law makers in places like Texas (where I live) and Alabama could think that it is still a good idea to outlaw sex toys. They are just pieces of plastic, rubber, silcone, etc. Now I have a better idea of how things work.
Did I hear that part toward the end correctly? Somebody was asked not to say the word "vibrator" because children were present in the legislative session?
How can anything constructive happen with regard to state bans on sex toys if legislators can only refer to them as "electric toothbrushes"?
Hi Brent,
Yes...I am afraid that is exactly what you heard...."anything that buzzes" was used in place of the word 'vibrator'.
Hey, who better to make that website than you?
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