Tweets John McCain, who was photographed playing video poker during the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the proposed military attack on Syria.
Is it okay to play games to deal with tedium when the subject is war? If caught in the act, is it better to apologize and stress the seriousness of the hearing or to crack a joke? Worst of all I lost.... worst of all, you are taking us to war!
To be honest, if I needed to pay attention to John Kerry's talking, it would help to play video solitaire. I wouldn't want to be seen doing it, though, if I were a decisionmaker, but I do understand how this minimal, partial diversion of attention keeps you mind from drifting into thoughts that would interfere with listening.
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McCain's flippant remarks are indicative of "The Problem" in American politics- That there is an elected elite whose primary objective is to secure and maintain political power and social prestige. The people exist to serve them and keep them in power, and their decisions and actions are not to be questioned or mocked. Too bad there isn't a grassroots organization dedicated to deposing these D.C. plutocrats//
I cannot imagine any aid that would help me to channel my mind to listen to John Kerry.
Virtually every utterance and action taken by Obama and Kerry prior to their rise to power, has been antithetical to being spokesmen advocating military intervention.
Obama and Kerry are a perfect storm of incompetence and hypocrisy leading our military.
I would prefer the NYT crossword. I always kept a few in my yellow pad.
"Worst of all--I don't care about my country enough to resign from committees whose demands I no longer have the mental capacity to fulfill!"
All around us, we see snark and flippancy replacing thought. I blame Jon Stewart.
The boredom factor is the reason I knit during meetings. It is much easier to stay engaged in whatever boring talk is going on when my hands are occupied.
However--I'm not a senator, and I'm not deciding whether or not to kill people. McCain's flippant comments about getting caught don't wear well. None of these people are worthy of the office.
I wonder, did he hum, "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran" whilst playing online poker? Perhaps not, that may have distracted him from listening to Kerry drone on.
What, the POW doesn't respect the Winter Soldier? Who knew?
Besides, why should he have to listen? He's already made up his mind to support Obama in this.
If I was caught doing that when I'm in a hearing that decides whether young men and women go to war, I'd resign over the embarrassment. Shameful!!!
"At this point, what difference does it make?"
All the old hand-crafted skills are dying away with these new-fangled electronic devices. What's wrong with good old-fashioned doodling?
Kerry was talking. Probably the only alternative was falling asleep in his chair.
It reminds me of the photo of some Connecticut legislators playing solitaire and poking around Facebook while sitting in a marathon session during a budget crisis in 2009. The incident caused little embarrassment in the state, largely because the legislative majority was so large that the outcome of the vote to raise taxes later that evening was not remotely in doubt. Eventually, the picture was misappropriated to support Internet memes that members of Congress were playing games while debating, well, anything.
To be fair, I don't think anyone actually expects McCain to listen to what other people are saying.
If the whole Syria things goes south, I wonder if this will join Bush's reading of My Pet Goat on 9/11 as the left's favorite image of stupid and/or uncaring Republicans.
I watched Senator Robert Menendez's contribution to that 3-hour hearing.
Thirty seconds into his droning monologue, I wanted to play internet poker on my iPhone.
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