Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Gonzo Lawmakers - Day 40 - Part II

A daily recap of the Georgia Public Broadcasting show "Lawmakers". The show airs weekdays at 7:00pm with a replay at 5:30am the following weekday.

* Day 40 - 11:00pm

* Oh lord. I now see this one is actually an hour long. It runs all the way to Sine Die.

* Dave's in studio but Nwandi's down at Hogwarts.

* Budget passed. Details to follow. Bells ringing in the background. I bet the crap's flying!

* They saved some of the stimulating for next year. No teacher furloughs. Medicaid funded.

* They had an hour debate on creating an aviation authority. Why an hour debate? Because everyone still breathing tried to tack on an amendment.

*Tom Crawford is right there with Nwandi.

* SB 200 which reshapes the DOT passed and heads to the Governor but still no funding bills. Here's a hint - there won't be one when this is all over.

* The previous random shots of seats at 7:00 is now revealed. They were trying to show Rep. Heckstall but he wasn't standing.

* Chip Rogers got rather animated after repeated badgering by Nan Orrock about capital gains tax cuts.

* Valarie reports SB 200 passed but there was a threat to Preston Smith! Oooooo I heard about this one. It's the tale of the text messages which Jim Galloway covered. By the way, Sen. Smith's tie is longer than Valarie is tall.

* We're going to random live shots. It must be hell to try to cover this stuff completely on the fly.

* I just realized I think I saw Sen. John Wilkes in the Perimeter Mall area tonight.

* It's now a blur of letters followed by numbers. It would have been fun to do this live but I was otherwise occupied in Dionysian activities in Athens. Now clips of stuff that happened on the earlier show. Stretch, people, stretch!

* Sen. Don Thomas' seatbelt bill was resurrected from the dead again! But there's only 30 minutes left! Oh the drama!

* Guvner in the House! WOOT! He's praising the House on their hard work. That makes me giggle. Doesn't he know the clock is running? God help us if we have another Denmark Groover moment.

* Lawmakers is 39 years old and we're getting a review of it over the years. How cool is that. Okay, maybe not that cool. I think I've jumped in the deep end of political geekdom.

* It was in black and white in 1971! My god! They were always technologically challenged!

* Ray Charles singing Georgia On My Mind on the House floor - now that was a great moment.

* They used to take live calls and some man is mad, I mean MAD at a young Roy Barnes. They should bring this feature back. Oh lord that would be fun.

* An early iteration of Angry Zell Miller.

* There's Gerald Bryant. He's the first anchor I remember.

* The stachey days of Glenn Richardson. Now the stacheless Richardson is talking about listening to all sides. Better get out the smelling salts.

* Young Nwandi! I wonder if she was an intern.

* Dave running down a street in 2005. He's always liked stunts.

* Back to black and white in 1971. 1971! Still in black and white! Goodness gracious.

* Retrospective over. It was a very good segment. Good job writer-producer Matt Reznick.

* Valarie at Hogwarts again. Bells ringing. Crap still flying.

* Repeat of intern appreciation day.

* We're down to the last 10 minutes. Soon paper will fly.

* The countdown begins. It's like a weird New Year's Eve. No one can find the bill to adjourn. Oh lord will it ever end! Denmark Groover is smiling down from heaven.

* Before the inevitable happens, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for reading, emailing, commenting and generally making this a fun experiment. More on that tomorrow.

* Now...

* SINE DIE!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nicely done, Mr. Grift! Enjoyed every day's recap. It was part of my morning activities every day of the session!

Juliana said...

Thank you! Although I got the chance to live the session all 40 days, your recaps were in fact the best part!

Gray said...

Excellent job. I didn't see a single episode, but I read everyone of your recaps. If I can just find a pic of Minoo, then I'll feel like I didn't miss a thing.

Good work.