Posted on 11/18/2006 10:34:12 AM PST by calcowgirl
You have probably never thought of Congress as fun.
Feckless maybe. Foolish, feeble, flatulent, festering, maybe even felonious. But not fun.
Fortunately, this gap in your thinking on the federal legislative branch can now be bridged through the wonky inventiveness of some students at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.
The bridge is called Fantasy Congress, and it can be found at www.fantasycongress.us. The site does not involve fantasies wherein all congressional members are competent. Nor does it involve images of, say, Doris Matsui in a bikini.
Instead, it's akin to those fantasy sports leagues, where otherwise sensible people form leagues, "draft" pro athletes for a mythical team and then accumulate points for various statistical accomplishments of their draftees. Usually there are pooled monetary prizes involved for the teams that do the best.
Fantasy Congress works much the same way, only instead of quarterbacks or shortstops, you draft a team of four senators and 12 representatives. You have to draft from across the power spectrum: two senior senators, two junior senators, four senior representatives, four midrange reps and two rookies.
Points are then awarded for the team members' success at introducing bills and pushing them through the labyrinthine lawmaking process.
(snip)
Fantasy Congress is the brainchild of a Denver-bred kid named Andrew Lee. He got the idea after observing a friend going crazy about a fantasy football league. Since Lee had always been something of a politics junkie, and since politics is something of a spectator sport, he decided to try to join the two.
This summer, he teamed with three computer-savvy classmates, and the Web site went up in September. Since then, the number of registered users has reportedly climbed to more than 15,000.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
Of course the game is somewhat lacking in realism, since no points are awarded for some of the most prevalent elements of being in Congress, such as special-interest fundraising, going on pointless taxpayer-financed junkets and putting one's relatives on the payroll.
This game can be played in reverse: picking the most feckless, foolish, feeble, flatulent, festering "team," and trying to come in with the lowest score, sort of like golf....On second thought, that would be too easy.
Talk about useless...I think they ought to have bonus points for appearing on Drudge every time they get caught doing something.
No, your getting it confused with Grand Theft Auto: Congressional Edition.
When to we get *our* fantasy TV show to tide us over, like the left got with their fake TV Presidents?
Appears to be a MONUMENTAL WASTE OF TIME that SHOULD be invested in ridding that former mosquito infested tidal swamp called known to those of us who watch their shenanigans as Malfunction Junction of the real-life morons who are selling us and our progeny down the river to K Street for a "mess of pottage."
Thank but no thanks.
Actually the rep with the fewest bills passed might be the best one...
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