Al Franken's Successful Fundraising
Minnesota Senate Race at Stake
Iraq an Issue for Coleman
Al Franken is proving himself a formidable political fundraiser as he revs up his campaign to be the Democrat who faces Neoconservative Senator Norm Coleman in the '08 elections.
It is tiresome that some observers dismissed Mr. Franken because he is a humorist. Lots of comedians have served in the US Congress, though few had been professional humorists before being elected.
Norm Coleman himself has said the most hilarious things. His positions on various issues are listed at this page (scroll down and look on the right). He wants to increase the number of people carrying concealed weapons in Minneapolis (after what happened at Virginia Tech, is that a good idea?), wants to fund the Iraq War indefinitely and no questions asked, opposes auditing contractors with Defense Department contracts in Iraq, and wants to see Roe v. Wade overturned. Like Joe Lieberman, he seems to be preparing his constituencies for a brutal aggressive war on Iran. He's just a barrel of monkeys.
Al is positively sober in comparison. He wrote Norm Coleman asking him to bring the troops home.
Coleman was one of the targets of a Democratic Party ad campaign launched Tuesday:
Coleman's official position on Iraq is at his web page.
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/11/2007 12:15:00 AM
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3 Comments:
"He wants to increase the number of people carrying concealed weapons in Minneapolis (after what happened at Virginia Tech, is that a good idea?),"
Yes, it is. CCW owners are extremely responsible people that take gun ownership seriously, and had there been some on the VTech campus, the tragedy might have been much reduced or even possibly averted.
Otherwise, I am in agreement with you on the rest of your post.
Stove-In Coleman
I am not a fan of Normie's for a variety of reasons. Firstly, is the suspicious circumstance under which he 'won' the Senatorial election in 2002 over Mondale following Wellstone's demise while flying to his campaign stops. This was not anything directly tied to the Senator; rather, it just left a bad feeling about the whole affair. Secondly, when he (was) grilled (by) George Galloway, Coleman was taken to task for having made some interesting comments, assertions, and accusations that have not yet been substantiated.*
Just going by the two items above, without pointing any accusatory fingers at Normie, it might seem all-too-apparent that Coleman is merely another operative of and for the Republicans to achieve various goals in their overall political agendas. Namely, achieving a majority in the Congress was one of them, becoming an effective voter on the issues that serve the Buscist programme.
We don't forget that one of the Buscist initiatives was unqualified support for the Zionist regime occupying Palestine. Galloway, not a friend of Tooney Blair's Labour party, has been an outspoken supporter of the indigenous Palestinians, something for which he was vilified. In fact, back in the 'good ol' dayze,' anyone who objected to the efforts being directed against Iraq was seen as a villain, with their reason, patriotism, and understanding of reality questioned. Galloway, as an opponent of 'Western' values as imposed upon the Arab world, was excluded from most civilised conversations, perhaps denigrated in the most impolite and impolitic of all of them.** This was, of course, Coleman's intention during the Senate investigation he chaired, that of further dragging Galloway into the mud, muck, and cess.
As the Iraq operations issue and its various supporters have been shown to be made up of nothing but mystery metal, Coleman's star has begun to tarnish and perhaps to disintegrate, leaving someone like Al Franken to move into a challenging position. Yet, we have to understand Al as being another potential supporter of policies and politics that are opportunisitic for his generalised group of backers, some of whom may have themselves switched their own allegiances once the Coleman representation was seen to have become a liability. Setting up a comparison between Franken and Galloway on the issues might be instructive. We don't forget that Al was a long-time New Yorker who has returned - conveniently - to Minnesota in order to further the efforts of perhaps politically fluid persons. Al is also known as being able to remain current with prevailing attitudes, constantly changing his schtick to appeal to the most adoring fans.
That Coleman supports 'concealed carry' is not so scary considering who he has to serve in his capacity as a water-carrier for at least the Republicans. The Virginia Tech event has nothing to do with Minnesota or anywhere else given Cho's specifics as not a citizen, his unquestioned mental health that was not monitored adequately, and, ironically, his having been enabled by an effort on the part of the university to DISALLOW concealed weapons on the campus. As the Christian Science Monitor reports a Virginia Assemblyman's statement, "This guy, when he went on campus, certainly must have known he was entering a gun-free zone."***
While I have never had to encounter anything approximating what happened at VT during my collegiate period, the times, they have a-changed. With the United States' attitudes about being the World's refugee centre, there are going to be any number of anomalies when attempting to force foreigners into an American mold. We've even seen a frivolous lawsuit against another Korean couple who operated a dry cleaning business.^ Is there something about badgering the launderers that makes as much sense? Are the cleaning fluids making students and customers loony?
As Juan writes, Normie is 'just a barrel of monkeys.' We have to wonder just how much fun a bunch of primates packed into an enclosed space actually are. Too many issues crammed into too little space is bound to create some confusion, if not downright hostility. This is most likely the result of having to carry too many pails of whatever for the Republicans (and their harpies) without having allowed himself the opportunities for independent thought and action ... assuming he is capable thereof. Like monkeys, issues need space to breath and grow without interfering with or encroaching on others to the detriment of all.
Nevertheless, we need to identify the common threads that make up the whole cloth of Normie, even if it's just a little swatch that is added to the crazy quilt of American politics, the Republicans having been in charge of the 'bee,' creating a VT in Iraq (and elsewhere) many times a day, all the while taking the Americans to the cleaners. And, of course, assigning blame to the proprietor voters, trying to stick them with a reputation and a bill might may be untidy, requiring some real strong cleaning solutions! Normie's barrel has got to be a real mess. We can only wonder about the state of the others'!
* http://tinyurl.com/2e6cuq
** http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_Galloway
*** http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0418/p02s02-ussc.html
^ http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=3352645
I would fervently hope that the people of Minnesota will show more common sense and fundamental decency than to re-elect a destructive fanatic to represent them in the Senate. Otherwise, they must be planning to use those concealed weapons to shoot themselves in the foot. Of course, I misjudged the voters of Connecticut, too. I never thought they would demean themselves so thoroughly by voting for Joe "Benedict Arnold" Lieberman. All that wealth in the State must be causing dementia. I just read where the true estimated deaths of Iraqis is near one million. Those who vote Republican in 2008 are aiding and abetting genocide. Empathy is obviously NOT part of their personality make-up. It is readily apparent to those who actually care, that the suffering of the Iraqi people is horrendous. Thousands are children. For anyone to support a continuation of this debacle says loads about their character, or lack of it. Conservative ideology has never been my cup of tea, obviously, but it is quickly becoming the dogma of the morally bankrupt.
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