Damn, what a long process!

This is too sweet! I can't wait for FOX to start the digs. How many variations will there be?

10, 20, 5?

None of them will bother Al, of course. And that will make it fun to watch.

http://www.startribune.com/politics/state/37047159.html

Stupid, stupid people in Minnesota!

Franken is an ass.

LOL!!!

I would say the same of Coleman.

That's why we vote!

Hey, maybe he will be a good legislator. Never know!

I like Franken anyway. It will be good fun, watching wingnuts stutter over Senator Franken.

There are apparently 228 fewer "stupid people" than "Franken voters" in Minnesota!

Minnesota's recount process has been refreshingly efficient and clean, compared to Florida's. Not quite done yet, but looks like it's almost over, maybe by Tuesday latest. Coleman is sure to sue, though.

Andrew

Count on it.

He will do it, just in an attempt to marginalize Franken, and or just make things ugly because he's no where near acceptance on this stuff, and has trouble to boot!

He's got NO incentive to give it up clean, so he's not going to do that. It's that simple with clowns like that.

And the recount process was very solid and clean. That gives me hope for future elections. Minnesota did a fine job managing this one, and it was a close one, with a lot of attention.

Kudos to them for that.

LOL @ 228 difference in stupid people!

And there was at least one vote for Lizard People too!

Hey, if our bimbo governor here in WA can just keep counting until she gets the results she wants (i.e. count votes twice, count dead people and criminals) then Coleman should sue.

I truly feel sorry for the good people in MN. (The ones that weren’t stupid enough to vote for a comedian (and not even a funny one at that))

Of course not being a MN resident, I really don't care too much! I just hate to see jack asses win at anything!

Democratic voter in 1966:

I truly feel sorry for the good people in CA. (The ones that weren’t stupid enough to vote for an actor (and not even a great one at that!))

Of course, not being a CA resident, I really don't care too much! I just hate to see jackasses win at anything!

Republican voter in 2009:

I truly feel sorry for the good people in MN. (The ones that weren’t stupid enough to vote for a comedian (and not even a funny one at that!))

Of course, not being a MN resident, I really don't care too much! I just hate to see jackasses win at anything!

Good ol' democracy!

Wow.

Comparing a great American and one of the best Presidents we've ever had with Franken is like comparing a Prime Rib Roast (http://www.lobels.com/graphics/meatpicslarge/usda_rib_roasts_bg.jpg) with a White Castle burger (http://www.whitecastle.com/_pages/menu.asp).

And in case anybody was wondering the "Actor" is the prime rib!

I suppose one more ass in Washington won't matter!

Sorry, Reagan was ANYTHING but a "great" American. Reagan's position as top asshole president was clipped only by the rise of one George W. Bush. Even Richard Nixon was less of an asshole than Reagan.

A truly great American would not get a raspberry call from a large percentage of the country.

You are allowed your illusion though.



As for Franken, compared with Bush 2000, he's winning by a landslide.

AlFrankenstien is a terrible monster for sure!!!lets elect more talk hosts to government.Lars first!!!

62, I'm betting even Rush wouldn't have been elected had he ran for senate in Florida. Lars has no chance in Washington.

Folks, we have ignition!

Reagan was smooth enough to convince us that our government couldn't work for us, despite the clear progress and growth of the middle class during the New Deal years.

My own father, who was not all that political, put a picture of Reagan in the toilet, and the phrase, "leave a ronnie" took hold in Molalla Oregon. Bonus points for a whole stream hitting the picture!

Looking back, I understand why that picture was there. At the time, as a kid knowing nothing of the GOP assult on ordinary people to come, I saw it as some lame gesture.

Hmmm... Maybe Dad saw a thing or two in his life that I might have appreciated!

In my own life, I've seen this nation go corporate and fascist (corporate fascist actually) to a degree I didn't think possible, given my primary and secondary school education.

Reagan marks these changes. He got the ball rolling, and of course everybody who buys into that thinks he's great, because he got it done.

Well, now how did that play out for you all?

I didn't have anywhere near the joy I should have. Isn't working for me at all.

had a good career in manufacturing going. I can make anything, and I can make it right, and I like doing it! Sadly, these hands make nothing anymore because the same "government can't work" people, some how believe that actually making things is a task that is beneath us! Like we are too good to build our nation, and that we can just somehow let somebody else shower us with trinkets and that it will all be ok.

Where does that entitlement come from? Why do we get to be the ones living on the credit card, while kids slave their innocence away on dangerous machines for nothing?

So that jump was quick. Saw it coming and had to bail on work that actually built wealth. Wealth one could see, feel and use! It is in that area of work that I learned that wealth comes from innovation applied to labor over time.

Somehow the GOP forgot that lesson, and it's costing us, mostly because a lot of us are lazy and would rather harbor the illusion that we are simply strong enough to endure with no real effort.

Fools. The price of Freedom is eternal vigilance. And the latter is in the form of labor to keep us strong, capable and leading the world.

(Yeah, I know, sombody famous said that)

So then I had to move to more virtual work. Services consulting planning and systems engineering and other valuable things that make product design and manufacturing companies go faster.

Perhaps there was an out! Maybe we just needed better tools, and the profits would be good enough to keep the work here and with the work our middle class, our way of life and our strength and leadership.

Nope!

Now it's sales coming on strong. That work is being devalued too. Always a race to the bottom, and the cost is our lives and our ability to be strong, provide for our kids, and build families on one income, maybe with some work on the side.

Yeah, these 30 years have been tough!

Now both parents work, kids are raised on the TV and in places where they are just kept out of trouble, not actually raised, mentored and able to grow like I was able to grow.

As a kid we did stuff! So many kids today, just don't get that, because nobody is around to do it with!

As the value of an hour worth of work continues to fall, slowly reaching parity with those other nations where we can easily say over exploit their people, and that we say are bad, we somehow ignore the reality hitting home, right here, today, right now!

We are happy to let them toil away under oppressive governments with some of the worst rights records there are. We say that's not the American way, but we buy that shit and we crave more and more, and only the best for us! Yes sir!

No ordinary TV works, let's get the biggest ass one we can, with the super sound and how about a coupla cars too!

It's gross!


The GOP was very successful in getting people to vote against their own interests. The pinnacle of that was this last administration, with the worst labor record and lousy human rights records.

You know, we almost look like some of those other nations we let exploit their people, so we can feed our greed.

We came close.

Reagan was not a good American at all. Nor were any of our leaders who continued to push these wacked out economic theories onto us, in the hopes that there will always be some bubble, some out to avoid reality.

OK, there's another raspberry for Reagan folks! Who is next?

My favorite Reagan story was how the low-life anti-labor scabs Reagan hired to replaced the striking air traffic controllers eventually hated working for Reagan so much they formed their own union to keep from being shafted!

I think it's a basic truism that great Americans end up doing things that are generally good for Americans.

The last 30 years of increasingly pro-corporate culture and supply side economic policy have not been generally good for Americans.

Selling our future sucks. Just look around. What's left? And how are we gonna pay for it?

That's right! Either we just sell more of it off, or we knuckle down and work double over time to get it paid down and running good again.

Wouldn't it be nice to do that work, have those income opportunities, like we used to pre-Reagan, to invest, build your family, do stuff, and live a little, instead of treading water, plus enough to not just feel shitty about it?

I sure think so.

Call it's a Double Raspberry with Cheese from KSKD.

I've seen way more than I need to see of this crap.

I've seen way more than I need to see of this crap.

Oh yeah, you've said it. May any Obama-related crap be along the lines of Monica! Please God, please!

Oh, and the kicker to the post above?

Selling. It sucks, but I'm good at it. So, it's a mix. I still every once in a while get to actually make something and that's good. Fairly often I get to help others design things better and that's really good.

What do I sell?

Well, it's software and services. The services I feel good about. I can see the value and so can the clients. Everybody is happy, and that's about as good as it gets.

The software?

Well, it's kick ass stuff made by hard working Americans who know their shit. Owned by a German company now. Those nice quarter over quarter profits go to their economy where they have health care that makes sense, and they have good jobs, and they don't have this race to the bottom we do.

This is happening a lot! This is what happens when we sell our future for the quarters now. We sell what we have built up, then we borrow, then we owe.

Sadly, we owe enough that selling the revenue streams to other nations will make it extremely difficult to pay back. In some cases, we are running on the borrowed money, buying their crap, and paying them interest!

That's usury!

And the GOP helped make it happen.

Remember that when compiling the list of good Americans.

(I didn't have the chance to finish up the rant as my daughter needed some help with the dinner!)

I repeat, this IS the state that has already elected a pro wrestler as governor.

My mother's family lives there. They refer to it as the "land of 10,000 programs." Apparently
everyone there is twelve-steppin' something.

What a BOOK!

In my own life, I've seen this nation go corporate and fascist (corporate fascist actually) to a degree I didn't think possible...

Sit tight. You'll be able to add Socialist to your list. Starts 20-JAN-09.

Right on KSKD! Your words are so true.

Yeah, throw out the "S" word Skybill without defining what you mean. Real helpful. Not.

By golly, me thinks somebody else be eatin crow pizza very soon.

Good grief Skybill.

We are SOCIALIST right now. Want to know how it works?

We are corporate socialist. That's right. Socialist.

We privatize the gains and socialize the risk and the losses. How does that impact you and me?

We pay and pay and pay and pay. That's how it works.

Entitled smelly old farts take risks with our future. When they win, they win huge, and a few scraps go our way. Delivering value to the shareholders means a pittance every good quarter or so. What do you get. A buck, five, maybe 10?

They gamble with our pensions, they pay themselves morbidly gross amounts of money for the privilege of doing it too. We give our years working hard, hoping that some of that value will get locked in so that when we are old we might have something more than a trailer somewhere and half the meds we need to live out the remainder.

They are thinking we can work longer now too. That's the next REPUBLICAN solution to Social Security. God forbid the thing actually gets used.

Instead of solving the problem and actually providing people with a bit of dignity for those years, they will just push to bump the age up a bit, hoping the increased risk we bear will pay out in the form of more people just dying before they reach their modest entitlement.

Republicans do that kind of thing. Democrats do it too.

Want to know which kind?

The corporate kind. That's the right kind. You can spot them easily enough. www.opensecrets.org

We bear all the risk, we bear all the costs, we bear all the civil violations of pollution, corruption, facism (in terms of cultural control from our corporate overlords), and that's pure socialism.

We pay taxes, and we pay more taxes for infrastructure that they use, in fact we pay them huge to use, to provide us with the most modest income opportunities possible.

Why?

So they can post up a big profit for "the market".

When the stocks are doing well, that means those entitled, morbidly gross people are meeting whatever insane quota their greed sets for them.

Do you know what an analyist expectation is? It's their judgement of just what the max exploitation is! When they meet expectations, they've managed to squeeze nearly the theoretical max out of us, while doing so at the lowest cost too.

I look around and see easily that means we were screwed very well, with only a bit of lube, and it's looking good for the near future!

We help these big companies build up, and know what they do? They buy and sell one another, highlander style, until there is only one! When there is only one, that's nirvana! They form a fiefdom, where corporate policy dictates our lives through money, not law.

How many stupid things do you do in your life, just to help them make more? It's a lot! Service now means not getting charged for something, and it means spending a ton so that we do it for them ourselves, lowering their cost, so that their exploitation is more complete, without actually delivering any value back to us in return.

Sure, we see cheap goods, but we also have low wages too, so I'm not sure that's a net gain.

Today we have toll roads sold to foreign nations, where they are run for a profit, not to pay for the road and improve the public interest. OUR OWN INFRASTRUCTURE, built with OUR LABOR, and on OUR DIME, during the New Deal build out, is now paying for other people to have good health care, quality social services, and an improved economy and quality of life in general.

Think about that crap!

It's really, really ugly. And it's not over.

Many of our largest corporations operate multi-nationally. They just keep the value in some other economy to AVOID PAYING US BACK for the profit they EARNED ON OUR BACKS and WITH OUR INFRASTRUCTURE and under OUR PROTECTION.

Frankly, I want people to make money. I want them to make a lot of it, for us to be strong, free and our lives robust.

This can't happen unless we take it back, and force corporations to step up and do their part to maintain the American social contract.

Go look at our national stats. We lead in basically nothing, but for finanical exploitation, and we export that like no other, because other wealth entitled people want their fiefdoms too.

Nobody powerful likes a free society. Nobody powerful looks at a middle class and thinks that's ok. They want the power and the control, because deep down they think they deserve it because of their bank accounts and their entitlements.

They see that as waste, excessive cost. When we actually earn enough to get it done, we then are political. We vote, we govern, and we make sure they deliver value to society, like everybody should, or we regulate them into doing so.

When we are weak, poor, living high risk lives, then we don't do those things and they then are free to build their fiefdoms and maintain their security ON OUR BACKS and they could care less.

Truth is the New Deal was fucking great! Everybody did well, we watched the news, had national debates on things, made decisions and our society was strong, just and worth living in.

They tell us that was a bad time some how. We almost got our health care back then too. That was the hat trick that was supposed to keep risk for us low, and personal opportunity high.

Didn't come to pass.

We have social security so that we are not burdened with caring for our parents, like people did in the 20's. We have infrastructure that empowered commerce. We have (well had) strong financial regulations so that usury wouldn't happen to us again, like it did in the 20's, so that people could actually make enough to be secure, in control of their lives and retire with enough to put kids through school and such.

Those kids, by the way, along with the first generation of GI bill reciepents, kicked a lot of ass! They brought us everything! We simply ruled.

What happened?

It all got bought up and exploited to the max by the same entitled people who see all of that as waste, a resource to be exploited for their personal gain and security, and here we are today.

Every last bit of it that matters is being done for the lowest amount possible, leaving us almost nothing for our efforts to build it up in the first place.

I know what my best interests are, and they are not with a bull stock market where the sell off and over exploitation of the American people is reaching new highs every quarter.

WE WERE THE LAST BUBBLE TO POP.

The party is over. Risk is here and it's coming home to roost like it always does, like it did in the 20's, and will again, right now because we just didn't learn the first time.

Know the crazy thing?

I had risk come home and it was costly. So I paid it down, surrendered all that I had built and am living damn small right now to avoid risk and build slowly.

Guess what?

I've actually been told that I'm not doing the right things. I need to spend, to help the economy, I need to carry debt because that's good for the economy and supposedly good for me too.

This is NUTS.

What I need to do is live small, keep risk low, save, and get political so that I can actually be a part of these decisions and vote MY interest, not THE CORPORATE interest.

Here's the little secret not being reported on or present in most all media.

When we do well, business also does well. When we are over exploited, business does really well, but only for a time, then we crash.

The kicker: They don't care!

A build up for the public good is just something to be sold, not something that actually helps us live better lives.

Know what we have all this stuff for?

To live better lives. If we have all this stuff, and we are not living better lives, then we are wasting our time.

Why?

Because we can't take it with us, that's why.

Dollars then, do not trump being able to spend time with your kids, love your wife, experience your older years, and do all the simple things that people want to do.

So we are socalist big time. We socalise companies and powerful people, so they can continue to be corporations and powerful people, in the hopes that they will treat us right.

Fuck that.

Oh, and that great tenat of capitalism? How it's supposed to govern us? You know, greed is good.

Risk is supposed to be a part of that equation people. Risk is there to check greed and keep things sane.

Think for a moment if risk is pushed off onto us, and profit isn't!

That's right, things go nuts, we lose.

And here we are today. Living high risk lives, suffering from the impact of UNCHECKED GREED.

Socialist indeed! It's been here for 30 years.

Time to close that book, and return to the best economic time we've ever had, and the best quality of life, and the strongest national time we've ever had.

Republicans had their shot. We handed them the keys, listened to the pitch, bought in and got just hosed huge.

Republicans lost. It doesn't work. It's obvious, and any discussion otherwise is just a few die-hards, who didn't get all that screwed, trying to live the dream that someday they too will be one of those powerful people, if they play ball and help dismantle this nation for profit.

Won't happen. Look around at all the people. What are the chances you actually get wealthy in this environment.

Almost nothing, and if you do, you will have had to screw over a lot of people to get there.

BTW: That's a core tenant of the Harvard MBA. Brutal, effective, facist, and socialist. The trifecta of all that is anti-American.

(if you actually paid any attention in primary school that is)

....Coleman is sure to sue, though.....

And if it was the other way round, Franken would do the same........

That's what we have become. No gracious losers.

When it's that close, SOMEBODY STOLE IT......

Same way in the Wash Goobernatorial race.... DEFINITELY NO MANDATE and what ever way they vote half the population won't be happy.

I don't think you can say that.

The Franken legal team has simply made sure all the votes were counted.

If that tally had resulted in Franken losing, then he would have lost.

Only the Republican, Coleman has cherry picked both elements of the process and votes to be counted.

When it's that close, we've got more civics work to do. The better decisions should be more clear

As for the mandate bit. Non issue. He will be the Senator, and as such, will be working for the people he was duly elected to represent.

The vote being close, is no indication of how happy the people will be.

Skybill, I'd like to nominate you for 2009's most Blindly Partisan Person of the Year (BPPOY). It's early in the year, but I think you're sure to win.

Andrew

Andrew that's because Herb has taken a leave.

Andrew, Thank You.

I'll take that honor for the Republicans and any one of about 2 dozen folks on the board can take that honor for the Democrats. It would be tough to choose just one.

Stupid, stupid people in Minnesota!

Franken is an ass.

You know him personally? WOW!


I'd rather nominate Skybill for the Herb award..... It goes to the person who knows NOTHING about the person who is running but because they are politically different thinking then them they hate them. IGNORANCE ABOUND!

Never said anything about hating him. I did say he was an ass though.

The rest I won't even dignify with a comment.

First off, fascism is from Italian, Mussolini came up with the term. It is the combining of corporate structure and secular government into one entity. So, corporate fascism is a double positive... if there is such a thing. Corporations are inherently dictatorial. They are set up, in for-profit structures, like a kingdom. No votes. No say. Their rules or your out on the street. Don't like it? Tough. That's the attitude.

Franken is no worse a Senator-elect than any other person. The guy clearly is pretty smart (unlike what I've heard of Coleman). He knows quite a bit about issues. Can he legislate? Dunno. He's gunna have to learn the ropes. First thing he'll need to learn is that he needs to raise $15,000 per day for five full years to get the money he needs to get re-elected. (Campaign finance reform maaaaaaybe?) On that note, the city of Portland has run-off elections now I think that's a really good idea and public financing which is also a step in the right direction. Anyway, it may be disputed but from everything I've read on Minnesota's recount effort it was if nothing else above the board.

Hey, I just wanted to make sure and nail it, unless there were any nagging questions!

Know what's really cool about Franken?

He graduated to a public office, all the while proclaiming his sensible political positions (I can forgive him on the election reform thing), and advocating his love of progressive politics.

Not ONE of the rightie blow hards has even come close. Snow got in, but only because they needed a more effective mouthpiece.

They took it in the sack, twice, and now this and Obama to boot!

The winds have changed. The only question now is whether Reid and Pelosi see that. Will they wimp out, or step up?

I suspect Franken is going to have something to do with that. His presence there will have a major impact.

Plus, he got elected after publishing "Liars".

It's just way too sweet!

Paul Wellstone is smiling down on Minnesota right now, big time.

Let's keep Stewart Smiley out of smaller airplanes for a while. Just in case!

The rest I won't even dignify with a comment.

EXCELLENT! Didn't want one....

Stuart Smalley is good enough, smart enough, and doggone it people like him.

Stuart Saves His Family Theatrical Trailer

Panel to declare Franken winner of Senate race

All you have to do is keep counting and recounting until you have the lead, and be sure to count the votes twice!

Paul Wellstone is smiling down on Minnesota right now, big time.

Amen.

"All you have to do is keep counting and recounting until you have the lead, and be sure to count the votes twice!"

Nope, all you have to do is count the votes. I'll trust a recount any day over the general count.

All you have to do is keep counting and recounting until you have the lead ascertain the will of the people, and be sure to count the votes twice accurately!

Vern,
You're a sore loser.

I voted Republican. Just so i can say i voted!

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=12977

Lets hope he does a better job at this then he did on the radio.

Either way I dont care, those people elected a WWF wrestler so they cant be all that smart to begin with.

You know, I never really kept up with how Ventura did as a Governor. Now that there has been a little bit of time, how is his, uh, legacy?

And isn't Ted Nugent from around there? He's probably on deck by now, eh?

Ted is from Michigan.

Maybe he should run for office there!

He, I would guess, at least be smart enough to not text his mistress with sexual messages!!!

"The Motor City Madman" currently is a resident of Crawford, Texas.

Have you noticed that when Coleman was in the lead he said Al Franken should concede to save the State of Minnesota the cost of recounting? Now that he has lost the race he is suing. Isn't thee Republicans who rail against frivolous law suits?

.

But a frivolous lawsuit is any lawsuit brought against you.

It's just more of "Do as I say, not as I do."

Keep recounting(with random errors in the figures!!be sure to count the dead and other invalid ballots!!! until you get the result you want!Sound Familiar?

That's how DUHbya got SELECTED.

No way! Fact is they didn't hand recount all of the ballots in Florida as the Florida Supreme Court had ordered. Before that could happen, Bush got SCOTUS involved.

Later update: Gore would have won had they hand recounted the entire state - by a couple of hundred votes.
.

SELECTED DRIBBLE=A BORE FROM A GORE!!??COUNT THE RECOUNT!!COUNT ALL CHADS,HANGING OR NOT!!!STAND IN LINE FOR 12 HOURS. OR YOU SHOULD NOT VOTE!!!!VOTE FOR THE BUTTERFLY ON THE BALLOT,IF IT'S A BUTTERFLY BALLOT!!MAKE THE EXIT POLE THE OFFICIAL COUNT???GO TH THE NORTH POLE OR THE SOUTH POLE FOR BEST RESULTS!!OR WATCH SEE B. S. NEWS!!

And your point is...?

Lets not pretend that all you libs here would be calling for lawsuits if Franken was down 228 votes.

Funny how you suddenly want an end to it when your guy is on top of the recount.

Actually we wouldn't.

Franken said nothing but to follow the process in the law. He did that, and would abide by the result. His supporters would then have no reason to do anything other than abide by the result.

Franken demonstrated the kind of leadership in this we need to see more often.

Coleman is on record with contradictory statements that favor whatever it takes to get him the win.

He did not demonstrate the kind of leadership Franken did.

His supporters then would follow the example of poor leadership and support any thing to win.

Pretty easy for them to think everybody thinks that way. Why wouldn't they? Look at the leaders they look up to!

Agreed, all Al Franken did was to insist the rules be followed. Coleman is a whiner when he doesn't get his way.

This is a big part of why I'm going to be watching how Al does in the Senate.

We've got a growing pool of pretty stand up Senators now. Perhaps that will rub off some.

Coleman is a sore loser. He should accept the recount and move on.

Coleman said right after the election before the recount that Franken should step down and save the taxpayers of Minnesota a lot of money for the recount. Why can't Coleman now step down and save the people of Minnesota the anguish of a lengthy court challenge that denies them one US Senator?

Andrew

Funny how you suddenly want an end to it when your guy is on top of the recount.

You wanted an end and got it when DUHbya was selected Prez in 2000 and they didn't even finish the count!!!!!!!!

Al Franken outsmarts Ann Coulter

Toaster outsmarts Ann Coulter

LOL. That's a good one Amus.