Al Franken?

CRAP
Total votes: 5 (24%)
NOT CRAP
Total votes: 16 (76%)
Total votes: 21

Writer: Al Franken

42
Oy, so many points in this 15-month-old thread to be debated! How do you debate a 15-month-old point? Maybe we have to leave it in the past.

Anyway, Not Crap at all. Maybe he says something that's not funny once in a while, but they can't all be gems. No waffle factor!
Why do you make it so scary to post here.

Writer: Al Franken

43
I like "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" a lot. Great book. Lots of pranks, calling Rush's man-secretary and razzing him, but the guy never knew it!

I listen to Franken's radio show often. It's funny. Need more "oy oy oy" show, though.

My only beef with the man is that he supports the Democrats. I used to dislike Michael Moore, but I recently rented The Awful Truth, and I really discovered a whole new perspective. He hates the Democrats just as much as I do. I never found this in his other works...

I am sickened to hear so many people saying how much better Clinton was than GW. Clinton cut welfare, gave tax breaks to the rich, and engaged in military conflict. The 90's Gulf War never really ended, and Clinton (along with the British) continued bombing the Iraqi's into the stone age. The news simply got bored of reporting this... The "prosperity" that Clinton created had nothing to do with him. The economic downturn that came with GW's administration had nothing to do with him. It's business cycles...

There is no real difference between the parties. Democrats have been talking about national health care since the 60's, and have had (at times) power of all branches of the government, and have never done anything. There are plenty of Democrats who are against reproductive rights, progressive economics, etc. Clinton closed a few military bases, but went on to increase spending into the military industrial complex. Dixiecrats, anyone? Why are all these presidents from the South? The South did win the Civil War... (That is a really good segment on the Awful Truth)

These people are all wealthy elites from the South, and their only goal is to ensure that the rich get richer, and the poor are put into prisons, and elite WASPs continue to get into the best schools and get the best positions in society despite their talent.

So, Franken is funny, but he needs to look at what these Democrats DO, and not what they SAY. They SAY what they want you to hear, so you will vote for them and feel all "uppity" about how much better they are. Once in office, they DO as their interest groups SAY. The people who gave them all the money so they could effectively LIE to you.

A lot of people just don't want to believe politics are like this, most likely because their political education was a high school civics class. That's how government works in theory... In college, people learn about the iron triangle, interchangeable elites, and the way things really are.

I don't know if Gore or Kerry would have started this war or not. If not this one, they would have done some other military action, or starved Iraqi civilians with sanctions that target the innocent.

Anyway, who gives a fuck... The best thing I can do is move to Sweden, if I can find a decent job there. Still trying... This country is hopeless. Until then, the best thing I can do is live in a city that is no where near the South.

Writer: Al Franken

44
matthewbarnhart wrote:Internet flame war! Whee!!!!!!!!

angry planet wrote:Haha... I would never ever defend Ann Coulter. She is truly a lunatic. But do enjoy how the right dismissively rolls its eyes at their raving lunatic liar, and the left embraces theirs (Michael Moore).


Hmmm... Rush Limbaugh loves Ann Coulter... In fact, I've never heard more partisan cronyism than when I listen to Rush. That blank look in GW's eyes is not him rolling his eyes -- it comes from years of cocaine abuse cutting off circulation to parts of his brain, rendering him semi-retarded (which is all it takes for a Bush to get into Yale).

I used to think Moore was a liar and a polemical. But the more I've seen Moore, the more I realize that this is the same stuff you learn in college poli sci. The funny thing is that they teach this in college, not to be critical of the system, but to provide the knowledge that future career politicians will need to succeed. When I learned this stuff in college, it was not with disdain for the system, but a neutral sort of "this is how it works", and "so you want to be a lobbyist? It is a good career... This is how it works".

In college, I took a class from an ex-CIA guy who was an advisor to a cabinet official. He wasn't an operative, but a geek that provided analysis, etc. Anyway, he said that all of those conspiracy theories you hear about the CIA are true, and there's much worse... He wasn't joking. He had no sense of humor.

But you do any digging, you can find all sorts of evidence and you realize the "conspiracies" are not even that covered up. The liberal media is owned by the corporations. They have no interest in reporting on things that interest no one. If they reported on the secret war against Cuba, most people would think it's a good idea anyway.

Especially in light of the recent scandals in DC, I think you have to be a real yankee-doodle-dumbass to not believe these "left wing liars". They're telling the truth, but it's a truth no one wants to accept. After all, I have my condo, car and six figure salary. Why would I want to change anything?!?

The funny thing about interest groups and lobbying, is that they are inherently un-democratic. Large member groups such as the Sierra Club, are not effective. Even the NRA are not that effective. The most effective groups are the small, organized, and well funded interest groups that are interested in one or two issues, not a panoply of legislation like environmentalists... The Isreali foreign lobby is the most effective, and countless interest groups have copied their structure and tactics. In a nation with quite a bit of anti-semitism, they manage to get billions of dollars in foreign aid to Israel. If we put it to a vote, people would not vote to give billions of dollars to Israel. It's not up to us, though. In high school civics, you learn about how we vote for our representatives. In college, you learn that they don't represent you, but their loyalties are to the people who fund them... After all, all you did was cast a vote. You never gave them any money. With money, you can afford to lie to people, and they will vote for you -- for the most part, they really are that dumb.

I don't know if Moore is associated with Noam Chomsky, but both are featured on a documentary called "The Corporation". This is very good, and very true, and underscores how capitalism has changed in a destruktiw way that will polarize society. The rich will get even richer, and ship all of the jobs off to wherever they can pay people the least and ruin their environment. They have to do this to be accountable to the shareholders.

Moore may have some inaccuracies, and I'll take Chomsky over Moore any day. But I've done a 180 on my opinion of Moore. His disdain for Democrats is right on the money.

Writer: Al Franken

45
yut wrote:Anyway, who gives a fuck... The best thing I can do is move to Sweden, if I can find a decent job there. Still trying... This country is hopeless.

Man, I hope they dont have the same internet in Sweden that we do here.
"You get a kink in your neck looking up at people or down at people. But when you look straight across, there's no kinks."
--Mike Watt

Writer: Al Franken

46
I hope it's a different internet. Then I won't be exposed to the new Mike Watt jam band sound (uh, Banyan).

Being a fan of the punk jazz of the Minutemen and the first few fIREHOSE albums, I decided to check out Banyan... Mike Watt and Nels Cline? Who can argue with that.

Oh... Shoulda listened to them before I shelled out the $20 or so to see this "supergroup".

First off, Nels is off the hook. He didn't play with them when I saw them. Nels Cline Singers are amazing!

But Mike Watt and the rest were horrible. Like some hippy jam band. They were like String Cheese or Phish. It wasn't good jazz, but really really trite crap.

But I guess you're brave enough to strut around with a Mike Watt quote, which is probably indicative of why he's not doing anything that great these days...

You shouldn't look up to other musicians or composers? What's wrong with respecting and looking up to Bach, Brahms, Stravinksy, Bartok, or Cage? What's wrong with looking up to Coltrane?

If Mike Watt lives by his quote, it is perhaps why I have no interest in any of his music anymore.

I've heard far better music produced by artists who worship Bach or Coltrane (Tony Banks and Christian Vander, respektiwly), than Watt has ever or will ever produce.

That said, I like his older material... But that Banyan hippy jam band crap is really bad improvisation -- the kind were everyone plays in very trite jazz conceptions, making it really easy to spew out some sort of conventional jazz schtick that I've heard over and over. This is like something you'd hear David Sandborne do. Heck, I'd take that guy over Banyan.

Yeah, nice Mike Watt quote. I hope Sweden is on another internet, but having gone to the first university that was on the internet, I can tell you, it's all the same one. I remember seeing firehose play there for free... Really great... 15 years ago...

Writer: Al Franken

47
Oh and... when I saw fIREHOSE 15 years ago, Watt was saying what a great bass player Percy Jones is... Sounds like he looked up to that guy. Watt definately couldn't look at Jones on the same level. Jones makes Watt look like a monkey.

If you don't know, Percy Jones was in a band with Phil Collins called Brand-X. Jones is now in a very cool fusion band called Tunnels, that I saw 2 years ago. They have this midi-marimba player (Marc Wagnon), who has mastered that instrument. He can even play with 2 mallets in each hand. I love Tortoise, but someone like Wagnon really has mastery of the midi-marimba. Tortoise are talented as far as indie stuff goes... I guess fusion stuff like Tunnels is unpalettable for many, but way more tasteful than Banyan. Such utter crap!

Writer: Al Franken

48
yut wrote:Anyway, who gives a fuck... The best thing I can do is move to Sweden, if I can find a decent job there. Still trying... This country is hopeless.

endofanera wrote:[Man, I hope they dont have the same internet in Sweden that we do here.

On this thread, and most others he has posted on, Yut is simply expressing his opinions about music, politics, etc. like everybody else.

He hasn't engaged in personal attacks on people who post on these boards, unless provoked.

I think he referred to me as "Anus Bung" recently, which was immensely clever. So that hardly counts.

I personally do not see any reason to wish Yut on to a different Internet.

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