Yes, but she would still throw an election to the Rethugs like Sandra Day did in 2000.

Al Franken is wicked smart and almost always well informed. If he wasn’t so blindly and reflexively pro Israel, no matter the circumstances, he’d be damn near perfect. Everybody has their flaws though and I’ve never been a single issue voter. If I lived in Minnesota, I’d be proud to have him as my Senator.

PA Governor Ed Rendell has proposed taking a total of $182 million from the states special funds, with the bulk — $132 million — coming from enviromental funding.

Essentially the Governor is proposing to shut down:

Protection for Open Space and Wildlife
Community-Centered Environmental Restoration Projects
Efforts to provide Clean Air and Water
State Money for Community Parks

Looking on the bright side, we still have money for warz.

He is a decent person, in spite of the misfortune of his early “religious” upbringing.

Except for the fact that he embraces pure evil, he’s perfectly all right.

I’m aware and agree. As I said, I’d be proud to have him as my Senator. I couldn’t care less about him being Jewish, though I’d rather he was atheist. It’s his Zionism that I object to.

Well, he does have that kinda funny, nasally voice too. But, I agree, he’s damn near perfect. I especially liked Kagan’s facial reactions to his statements and questions. It’s almost like she’s got a sense of humor and you know how I feel about the need for humor. Ha!

Race, class and culture divisions are themes that some Republican senators turn to again and again

Republican senators and anti-Semites.

People see Al Franken and think Stuart Smalley and SNL. Then he speaks and they are almost always struck by the uncomfortable fact that he is way smarter than they are. If he runs, he’ll win re-election by landslide numbers, now that Minnesotans have a record to look at.

And, bigots.

He’s got a lot going for himself in the plus column. And, he’s not as quirky as Kucinich. He probably would have said, No, I don’t believe in UFO’s.

I never thought he was that funny to be honest but I always felt there was a strong intellect lurking behind the silly facade. Then I heard him on Air America and was instantly hooked. Out of my three Air America favorites, two have made good. I don’t know why people don’t appreciate Sam Seder more.

Big Al is fabulous. When he first ran I didn’t think he’d get anywhere — unlike Jesse the Body, his fan base already votes, so he wasn’t attracting any new voters to boost his totals. But he showed how hard he was willing to work, how smart he was, and how decent a human being he is, and he won. Somewhere, Paul Wellstone is smiling.

Morning BT, Firepups:

So will the wingnuts discount Franken as a mere “comedian” before or after they pull his foot out of their asses? Go Al…

Somewhere, Paul Wellstone is smiling.

No doubt! And rightly so. :-)

Is acting was kind of dopey, but you know, he was one of the writers of the show. Comedy is not easy and those first years were hilarious. Takes big brains for that, I think.
Also, I admire him for not pulling a Gore and caving.

So far, I’d have to say after, since his foot always seems to get the drop on them.

I’ll trade you your Al for either of my California senators. M’kay?
I didn’t think so. Rats.

I love the smile on Kagan’s face when she realizes just where Franken is going with his line of questioning.

Agree on the caving thing. Norm Coleman obviously expected him to be a pushover and the RSCC and RNC thought they would easily be able to bully him. Yep, he was a much better writer than a comedian but I’ve never been able to laugh at Don Knotts either. That kind of humor just isn’t my bag.

Hell, I’d trade Al for both of my Texas ones…

That’s what I was trying to say at #7. But you articulated it much better.

Here’s Fox’s dismissive take on Franken. Doodling, can you imagine? Perhaps someone should remind them that their wet dream Ronald Reagan was well-known for doodling in meetings. (Isn’t there a book or something?) He probably also dozed off a time or two, I’m guessing.

I was thinking of you when I said that. I thought to myself, well Feinstein and Boxer aren’t the best, but poor Margaret should be ahead of me in the line to get Al.

She has to take a drink of water. Very good.

Sen. F. seems to have made good use of his staff, unless he did the research himself.

I hope a couple of other Dems will walk this way. Oh, what was I thinking?

The attacks on Thurgood Marshall really have been despicable.

Somewhere, Abe Lincoln is grimacing.

Mornin’, BT, pups

Soothsayers/mind readers. Never met one who knew what the fuck they were talking about.

The Shadow knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, ‘cept The Shadow was a product of somebody’s imagination.

It’s generally thought scribbling indicates daydreaming, but a study published Friday in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology says doodling may actually decrease those wandering thoughts and help focus the mind.…from this article.

Perhaps someone should remind them that Kyl was passed out during Sotomayor’s confirmation….

The Republicans take this approach because there are plenty of reactionary Americans who support them and encourage them to take this path. Sara Palins of the world would not exits if there were also not people who pay big money to hear them talk! We got a very complicated and huge problem in our hands…

What’s that in reference to? I’m not a mind reader, ya know.

Yep. And throw in Perry too!

You have to be a soothsayer or mind reader…. ;-)

Read the comments again. *g*

There is some study that says doodlers are really smart….looks like maybe we have a split sample. Or maybe RR was smarter before he decided to be an illiterate Repub

That’s the beauty of him: They constantly underestimate him and he kicks their asses. They think they can get away with hackery and it bites them on the butt.

In the post-election litigation phase of the 2008 election, Norm Coleman’s legal team was staffed by and with local Republican functionaries and dingbats, whereas Franken went with a DC firm that specialized in appellate cases, as everyone knew this thing was going to be appealed as far as it could go. The Republicans wasted time and money grandstanding with extremely misleading press conferences outside of the courtroom, whereas Franken’s team didn’t do much in the way of woofing out of court; they saved their verbal broadsides for where it counted, in front of judges.

Gazing into my crystal ball…summoning the spirits. I see myself having a wonderful time for the next three days. I’m picking my daughter up at the airport in five hours. I’m on cloud nine. (Oh, and my house looks Fabulous, Dahling.)

He was practicing the sketch he intended to leave, Zorro-like, on his victims’ foreheads. (The map of the US is still cool, but he likes to mix things up a bit.)

Absolutely Fabulous, Dahling

Fixed it for ya.

Not mind reading but methinks yer gonna have a grand time.

Gotcha. I was wondering how anyone Knows everything that’s going to happen and how certain people will definitely decide, but I kept my big mouth shut on that one. *g* Hey! It happens once in a while.

WooHoo! Enjoy your visit! :-)

I haven’t seen her since last October when she got married. Pins and Needles here.

Starting to get some Alex related rain here. We need it!

Franken did a good job there — I even learned something. Anyone think this exchange will make any MSM proceeding highlights?

Let’s hope so, Dick. One of the double edge swords of confirmation hearings is the sound bites that get put on the news.

Heh The only faces that will appear on the corporate media are those of Sessions, Kyl, Coburn, Hatch and Graham, old fascist fools that they are.

Sprinkled off and on all day yesterday. The overcast sure cooled things down for 2 days, though.

You know, like when she responded to Specter’s frustrations with, Oh bite me, you tight assed little prick.
Oh, she didn’t say that? Sorry. Guess I was fantasizing.

Anyone think this exchange will make any MSM proceeding highlights?

Not I. There was a piece on the front page of msnbc.com last night that said “Republicans again kill jobless benefits”, and I thought “WooHoo! Finally a bit of honesty in the traditional media”. But most people don’t read news at night and this morning that story has been replaced with one headlined with, “Attack of the 50 foot Pelosi”. *sigh*

Sheesh, was that ol’ fuddy duddy in a snit, or what? Sore loser all the way. Good riddance, Snarlin’.

Here too! I’ve been so very grateful from the break in temperatures! I’ll be sorry to see the heat come back and it will be oh so humid then!

The people it affected are payin’ attention. So are their families and friends.

Really surprised Specter is still voting with the Dems after his defeat, even though Orahma tried to fix the election for him.

The one good thing I can say about the heat here is that it is very dry. I shampooed the carpets yesterday and they were dry in about three hours.
I’m glad you and Dragon are getting a little relief. But, soon you’ll be back to nude blogging.

Franken’s explanation of the differences between the currently activist SCOTUS and the kinds of protections against majority abuse that the court took seriously when Marshall was there is a rare bit of goodness. The Rs and Ds that helped to create the Roberts court should be embarrassed to pretend that helping the disadvantaged is worse than helping corporations take advantage, but of course they have no shame. Usually these bits of Senatorial coaxing are painful to watch because they are comprised of unrelated sound bites but Franken did a fine job.

Is he “voting” with the Dims? I’ll be surprised if he votes to confirm Kagan. He’s got nothing to lose now. I’ll not be surprised if the Rethugs filibuster, just out of spite.

Whadda ya mean “back to?”

Oh la la. Nice image, hon. :)

PS, hoping you don’t have a tiger in your lap.

Off to swim in the great capitalist cesspool.

US KIA Irak: 4,409

US KIA Afghanistan: 1,149

Iraki and Afghan casualties: estimates vary to over 1.5M

US MBS 2010: 22,444 and counting

Solidarity Forever

Be good to yourselves, and all other living things.

Namaste

The explanation required listening to almost the entire thing in order to understand the argument. In the era of 10 second sound bites and 15 second summations this could only end up on some part of a PBS special.

Hey! This is a nice family blog! *g*

Good morning all and thanks for the post BT.

Justice Marshall’s big flaw seems to have been that he had compassion for the “small prople”. Apparently the Amerikan Way is to bash the less fortunate and take what few rights they had and give them to the wealthy and corporations. I had difficulty watching this hate fest.

He’s been voting with them on economic issues at least. I doubt he’ll vote for Kagan though.

Kagan’s no slouch either. Jeez! Franken threw some red meat and she tore right into it.
gotta say, I heart smart wimmin and truthfully, it doesn’t look like Kagan has put a foot wrong during this whole process. She’s avoided “wise latina” remarks and looks like a choir-girl with those BIG eyes. Almost cuddly.

What she does on the bench….who knows? But she’s quite a package, that’s for sure.

Actually I have denim shorts on and Feurae just got down.

For the third time in as many weeks, Senate Republicans yesterday “successfully filibustered a bill to continue providing unemployment checks to millions of people who have been collecting benefits for more than six months.” While two Republicans voting for the measure, Democrats were one vote short of the 60 needed to end the filibuster. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) was the lone Democrat to vote against the bill.

Read that and tell me what’s wrong with it. That’s right, Ben Nelson didn’t vote against the bill, he voted to support a Republican filibuster! Even ThinkProgress has begun the slow slide into traditional media mediocrity.

I have to wonder why Nelson hasn’t switched sides. I don’t think his constituents would give a shit.

Hubba hubba, mister scooter.

“Attack of the 50 foot Pelosi”

LOL! I can’t stop trying to picture it.

Whew!

Here ya go.

I don’t think he’d give a sh*t no matter what his constituents thought about it.

You’re prolly right. Just like the rest of those self-centered bastards.

Yep. President Brown, President Snowe, President Nelson, President Collins, President Lieberman, President McCain…..everyone but President Obama.

sorry, I read this:

“. . .The Rs and Ds that helped to create the Robots court”

There’s more money from lobbyists when you sell stuff from the majority side. Being a centrist is where the money changes hands. Maybe he’ll make the switch in the next Congress.

I’m right there with you. I’d trade Shameless and Isuckson from Georgia for Al any day. But if the comedian-turned-politician thing catches on here, Georgia is looking forward to Senator Jeff Foxworthy.

Well, Franken is right in that there’s a lot of people in this country who actually do believe that the country would have been better off without the Marshall court – that is, that it would have been better off as a beacon of white supremacy, a la South Africa. Remember that the vocal opponents of the court like Pat Buchanan were, at the time, writing editorials in support of apartheid.

It’s that sector of the American population that keeps King, Kyl, etc. in interns and dollars. They know which side the bread is buttered on, and they know that if they can’t halt an appointment, they can at least get some good ol’ white pride cred in front of their constituents.

How to read her comments at the very end – discussing the ‘disfavored’, she narrowed that to the archetypal example of race, then says, “it is not only appropriate but obligatory on the courts to enforce that prohibition on discrimination on the basis of race.”

I have to assume this was deliberate, and a steering away from tipping her hand on teh gay – but that could be taken in either direction…

I’d support segregation…

If we make Republicans,people who think a bag of tea is an appropriate article of clothing,and people who call themselves “conservatives”, “deficit hawks”, and the “religious right” second class citizens and get to limit their rights and access to the corridors of power.

That’s some segregation I could get behind!

Oh…I guess the kind they want is the KKK put doze blackz in their place! type…too bad really.