Snopes is your friend...

http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/solitaire.asp

It's a real image, but it's showing the Connecticut state legislature, which the email conflates with the federal legislature.

Rep. Hennessy has since issued an apology for the incident.

The photo was also apparently taken during the final session related to the state budget in August 2009.

By the way, it was reported in December that the new House was planning to allow the use of electronic devices on the House floor for the first time in its history, though my understanding is it would be limited to phones and reader/tablet devices, not that such devices don't allow you to check Facebook, scores, or play Solitare.

" I am the Senate!!!!!!!"

Thank you for that Papa Palpatine.

I gotta go back and watch those Robot Chickens again!

"That thing wasn't even fully paid off yet! Do you have-do you have any idea what this is going to do to my credit?!"

What a lot of people do not understand is that during actual "legislation" whether it be in the federal or state level, there actually does not need to be attention paid by all members. Generally, legislators have made up their mind about a bill as it circulated through their ranks before the actual bill is being discussed. Moreover, the American people are more to blame! The American people, as ignorant and malleable as they can be, ignored the prudent advice of our first president and not only have divided into parties, but have divided so strongly that we will vote ENTIRELY down party lines. This fact undermines the very few virtues of the single district plurality system that our nation uses for voting in representatives. This is to say, party members are rewarded by their constituents when they vote along party lines for issues. So why should a representative be encouraged to bother listening to the opposing party ramble on about their bill if they already know how they need to vote? (and anyway, most bills are hundreds of pages long and filled with technical details and formalities that are not essential to the understanding of the law, but must be there for administrative purpose). So, even if a representative was truly interested and considering what he/she should vote (which, remember, is almost always decided outside the chambers), the vast majority of the bill that is being read is inapplicable to most people. So in summation, people complaining about this have absolutely no idea what it takes to be a representative, and I guarantee that almost every person would find something to busy themselves during a legislative session. I really can't believe that anyone is making any kind of deal about this...

Wait...so you've been an elected state or federal representative? or been a page for one? or a file clerk? or at least went to the capitol building and observed the state legislature in session? If you have, then great, and you should know exactly how arduous and tedious every word that is written in those bills are. Just like nobody reads the "Terms of Service" rules on the internet, when they sign up for something, most congressman don't need to listen during the reading or discussion of a bill. They already know what it says and where they stand on it. Each congressman/woman has a staff of young clerks and pages that reads through the bills and finds what is relevant for the specific congressman (if there is indeed anything). Representatives are not valued for their policy expertise. There are just about zero political scientists, economic analysts, or technical specialists that are elected to congress. We elect lawyers, people that are good at convincing other people, and that is about it. Representatives are good at convincing their constituents to elect them and cutting deals with other congressmen to bring home more wasted money to each one's district. They are nothing but argumentative figureheads that cannot be expected to listen attentively. Furthermore WE have mandated that they cast their votes easily! Too too often do people just support people because they are a Democrat or a Republican, and do not bother to even consider that there could be other alternatives to the Republican and Democratic platform. The media chooses the agenda for political discourse, by focusing on "the issues" and we follow them to a t. The news will bring up an "important" point like "abortion" "homosexual marriage" "gun control", and we polarize either Democrat or Republican according to these few items. When we really think about it, "the issues" (most of which are social issues) will have so little affect on the governance of our country, and definitely cannot get us out of any scrape that we are in. Anyway, representatives are not elected by if they do not follow either the Democratic or Republican platforms. Anyone who has the capacity or will to think for themselves and to really exhibit some problem solving skills is not elected, because he/she cannot be content with lumping the heart of his or her ideals into such a broad category labeled "Party". Suffice to say, the American people enable the congress to be complacent and uncaring. If a Democratic representative starts thinking too much about a bill and decides to vote the "Republican" way, he is punished for it by the party. And, more importantly, his opponents in the next election will use it as ammunition against him saying "So-and-so voted no to this bill which enshrines the Democratic ideal blah blah blah" and all the sudden, he's lost his constituency because he started thinking for himself. Ultimately, I do not believe in, support, or condone democracy or representative government as we know it. It is the allegorical equivalent of if your car breaks down, you can either call a whole mess of people who know nothing about cars, but have seen all of "The Fast and the Furious" movies and can talk a real jive about them, or you can call a mechanic. Any person with any kind of intelligence will call the mechanic who specializes in cars. Representative democracy is equivalent to the group of unknowing mechanic wannabes. Except in Democracy, there are more than just one thing that they need to specialize in..there are thousands of topics: crime, education, economy, finance, foreign affairs, sewage, military, health, and any number of other distributional or regulatory thing that has to be governed in the country! Moreover, they can't devote all of their time to learning how to be proficient in these things, because every couple of years, once they start getting comfortable, it is time for re-election! This isn't SO bad for positions that have unlimited terms..but for instance the presidency, one of the most important seats in our country as of late, has limited terms. Therefore, with the ever growing complexity of our government, there really isnt enough time in 8 years to learn all you need to run a country. Anyway, these lawyers, arguers, who have no idea about the topics that they are meant to govern do their best, but ultimately fail and bungle just about everything they try. The real question is..who is the allegorical equivalent to the mechanic?

Ultimately, i'm sure in the military you had experiences where you thought "gee, that congress sure seems like it has no idea what it is doing". The answer to that is.."yes..they have no idea, and it is partially our fault and partially the founding fathers'" See they created a country with all the information that they had. They were all renaissance men, each with knowledge in military tactics, philosophy, economics, science, mathematics, and diplomacy. There are not a lot of men around like them anymore, and our system never expected that our leaders would grow in ignorance, rather than wisdom. Moreover, the leaders of our early country could never in their wildest dreams thought of how massively expansive our government and country has gotten! Our system wasn't cut out for it, and it takes a different caliber of man to be a representative than the ones that we have. George Washington warned his fellow politicians of the day to not form factions (political parties), that it would ruin the system that they created. I believe he was absolutely right.

Yeah I am by no means ever going to try to defend the system, and I wouldn't post anything without any hope of constructive discourse. I too have never voted, for many reasons. I have invested thousands of dollars and four years of my life in learning the ins and outs of the American Political system, as a Political Science major. However I can hardly support anything but an objective criticism of the system. Any subjective criticism or analysis of the system would have to be deeply rooted in fundamental subjective values, not superficial. Ultimately my objective here, and my life objective actually, is to get people to take a look at the problems that our system has objectively, without prejudice or frustration, as those are the forbears of imprudence. This is to say, we can look at our representatives and feel like they are doing a really bang up job, wasting time and money, lying, dealing, arguing, while everything still falls apart. But people need to realize that our elected officials are nothing but pit-bulls in the dog-eat-dog arena that "We, the People" have created. They are just trying to keep a job, just like anyone else, but keeping their job involves all the lying, dealing, and arguing that the American people always moan about. They want to stay elected by their folks back home, and to do that, they just follow party platform, and bring home as much bacon as is humanly possible. Constituents want projects, big money projects, for their area. A congressman that can rope in a huge project that will create jobs for a certain area, regardless of the project's necessity or efficiency, will be a shoo-in for the next election. My goal is to get people to question the broken system that we have, not in the spirit of childish rebellion, but of prudent and judicious perception. So I really can't blame these guys for playing solitaire during session, cause they have nothing else to do, with their votes already decided. Moreover, I think the important thing to be concerned about, and moreover talking about, is the FUNDAMENTAL structure that the people of our nation are governed by. I think, that if, by some stroke of luck or the divine graces, enough people stopped and thought about what is going on here, between the ineptitudes of our governance, the giant juggling act/ponzi-scheme known as our economy, and the evils that our brand of consumption-lusting capitalism creates, we might realize that we need a REAL change in things, and not the kind that just getting a fresh new president can provide.

Thank you for the welcome. :) I'm guessing our fundamental disagreement (and there is a fundamental, dichotomous "yea or nay" disagreement to every argument) is whether the actual legislative session is effectual or merely formality. I suppose not much more needs to be said than that. Just out of curiosity, I might ask what they should be doing?