This one goes out to all the readers with attention spans, because what we’ve got here is an informative ten-minute video about public policy. There must be at least three or four humans out there who… like to learn about policies before making up their minds on them?? It’s a gamble. But what a lovely video! Some teabaggers in Minnesota were apparently seeking to “ambush” Al Franken at a Minnesota fair recently, probably assuming he would just shout liberal rape jokes back at them, because HE WAS A COMEDIAN, AND NOW HE’S A SENATOR?? WACKY. But the confrontation goes much differently, and America is saved forever. [Dusty Trice]
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{ 95 comments }
Inside every bellowing wingnut is a Stuart Smalley waiting to emerge!
DIS ES AH REPEET POSTE I SAWZ IT ON DUSTY TROOS.
Al Franken being the most common sense politician on health insurance is the 3rd horseman of the apocalypse
Can we get a bra for the little old lady on the left? There’s no way she’d qualify with those 2 sagging pre-existing conditions.
Is Dusty T. Rice the brother of Nine-Fingers?
he’s good enough, he’s smart enough, and doggone it, people like him.
[re=403035]danadevin85[/re]: I wonder how hard he had to fight saying that when Norm Coledouche finally quit suing to be the unelected senator.
But then, this is the MN state fair. OKC state fair is coming up–I double dare him to try that common sense, reasonable communicating in real words shit down here.
So many people know Al Franken from SNL, they forget that he is Harvard-educated.
You got to love Minnesota.
On the one hand, you’ve got Franken.
On the other, Bachman.
Schizo.
I like how the lady in the teabag tshirt would forget herself and start to agree with him and then suddenly start shaking her head violently…NO NO…How DARE you tempt me with your rational talk of Switzerland and the Mayo Clinic!
I find this deeply disturbing. There was no screaming, nobody was carrying weapons and everyone went home with the same number of digits that they came with.
This is not my America.
What is my mother doing at the Minnesota State Fair. And why didn’t Frankin buy her a funnel cake, dammit? She loves those things.
That Dusty Trice web site is NSFW; there’s a bunch of dicks on a stick for background!
I say the tall guy who asked if there were a lot of immigrants in Texas won the debate hands down. I mean, Zing!
See, this is why we can’t let President Obama indoctrinate our children about socialism. People talking reasonably and having a calm exchange of views is the first step towards taking away our freedoms!
Minnesota is not doing its part to add to teh crazy. Let’s bomb them.
Al is my new hero.
I couldn’t take my eyes off of tea bag lady. She thinks she’s laying the perfect trap for Al with her question about how he’s going to vote, and when he takes a big fat shit in it she doesn’t know what to do. Then, she seems to switch sides –TRAITOR!– when others in the crowd voice support for health care reform. Nod and smile, bitch.
Um, was I just educated? Someone needs to warn me of these things. That felt strangely informative.
Kudos to Franken for setting the tone of the discussion and treating his constituents with respect, even if they are wingnuts, wackjobs and weirdo Minnesotans.
clearly out of his depth. go back to gorilla butt-secks jokes, jokey
[re=403049]ChernobylSoup v2[/re]: That should always be the response to any good argument, “WHAT ABOUT DE IMMIGANTS??!!”
All that fried food has a calming influence.
I am really afraid that if we start letting people talk sense about health care we could wind up with socialized medicine…or communism, or worse. Why doesn’t this guy just stick to the funny stuff. I liked him better a baggage handler # 2. Confusing the peoples with facts is just unamercan.
[re=403032]user-of-owls[/re]: Yes, Dusty Trice is the three-fingered brother of Nine-Fingers.
Franken is way to reasonable and sensible. He should move back to Switzerland where he belongs.
[re=403051]hiphophitler[/re]: Michelle Bachmann will have to out-do herself to counterbalance this appalling outbreak of civility.
Franken graduated cum laude from Harvard with a political science degree. He’s not so much a comedian who got into politics as a politician who got derailed from his intended career by a long stint in show business.
..this is just another spectacle of liberal rationality!
[re=403072]AxmxZ[/re]: Thanks, I like looking at it this way. Tired of assbites calling him a clown. And did he really cum loud?
But lets remember, fellow libtards, if you can’t completely explain the problem AND THE SOLUTION within a two minute soundbite (think Presidential debates) you lose America.
This is a very reasonable discussion of the country’s health care problems, and the teabaggers were glad to hear that Al Franken agreed with them that it is because of the Mexican illegals.
[re=403066]Smoke Filled Roommate[/re]: Dusty Trice is the three-fingered brother of Nine-Fingers
So he’s a tree sloth?
Franken/Keillor ’12!!
MINNESOTA NICE
[re=403079]RoscoePColtraine[/re]: If you can’t state the problem and define the solution in ten seconds, using 2nd grade vocabulary, forget it.
That was like a Jedi mind trick.
Albi-Jew Kenobi.
Oh, and the first question is CLASSIC! He should have just said, “I AM voting like the people who elected me want me to vote”. I guess she forgot she voted for the other guy…you know, the one who lost.
Monsieur Grumpe hitches his thumbs under his suspenders, puts a big grin on his mug and says “I voted for that guy!”
I can’t imagine Norm taking the time like Al is doing.
Has Victoria Jackson been contacted for an insane, retarded comment yet? I understand that her malevolent life-force is so powerful she was able to rise from the dead and try to swift-boat Franken last year, and that since then she has been roaming the earth in search of healthcare-reformer flesh to devour. (And by the looks of her, she must have consumed a few tons of it.)
We shud all learn Swiss and move to Swissland or else learn English and move to Mayo, Minnesota, where mayo is healthy
I don’t get it, I thought too much mayo was bad for your heart? Totally confusing, that’s why I only listed to randomly selected 10 second bits.
Well God damn. Senator Al restores my faith. Someone carve that man’s bust in butter!
[re=403107]Egregious[/re]: HAHAHA. Funny
Hilarious! Best SNL skit ever!
All our senators should henceforth be recruited from the ranks of comedians. That way, they’ll have had to face some really tough crowds in stand-up.
[re=403072]AxmxZ[/re]: Not summa–not even magna? What a moran.
How do this, for another person okay, work…for George W. Bush… HE WAS A COMEDIAN, AND NOW HE’S A SENATOR?? WACKY. No GW was never a senator. HE WAS A SENATOR, AND NOW HE’S A COMEDIAN ?? WACKY…No, same argument and although he is comical, he was never a comedian. George W. is a complete failure ex-president, former addict and alcoholic and all hat with no cattle. Hey, that sums it fairly well. Al Franken, we’ll see, and really, a sense of humor with a fair amount of intellect could be productive.
I just looked up Senator Al’s life story on Wikipedia, and I’m mighty impressed.
I thought he was just another Hollywood queer. Maybe there is something to this healthcare reform business after all.
[re=403118]Uncle Bubba[/re]: (cricket)
How nice of Hank Hill to show up. He’s taller than I’d imagined.
Dear dog, I was at the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. All I can say is that, after you gag down a couple of corn dogs, some deep fried Twinkies, fried pickles and a couple of Summit Pale Ales, your only response to just about anything is, like, “uh huh.”
Example. Q: Would you like to have a couple of rabid weasels crammed up your rectum in the horse barn? A: Uh huh.
Franken is my new favorite senator.
Franken/Frank 2012!
Going to the State Fair tomorrow. Hopefully Bachmann will be around to suck my chocolate-covered bacon on a stick.
I love how he played it to the home-crowd at the end: If we All did it like Minnesotans, everybody would be fine!
I got my last haircut in the US Senate Barber Shop on Capitol Hill, the day after the Inauguration on the first full day that Obama was President.
Because where else on Earth, outside of the West Village and Hollywood, are you going to find a group of 90+ men so obsessed with their hair?
It’s the Holy of Holies.
The Barber Chair that I was seated in getting trimmed was directly underneath the spot on the wall where United States Senator Al Franken’s Official Senate Photo was supposed to be.
So, out of protest, I decided not to get it cut again until United States Senator Al Franken was duly Sworn In and rightfully seated.
Which he did, but since it became such a long, drag out process I decided to go a full year, which has not only given me longer hair than I ever had as a teenager, but has made me look like a damned dirty hippie.
Which wouldn’t be such a bad thing, ‘cept for me moving to Germany to flee the emerging American Nazi Party a little over a month after I got that haircut.
If this Health Care Reform Bill thing passes on account of this I may just go ahead and finally go back to looking like a regular human again.
Oh, and BTW, where is the damned Drudge Siren that an earth shaking event like this demands?
[re=403123]WendyK[/re]: You are right, b’god! About the Franken bio, that is. I mean yes on bio, no on queer. Whatever.
Ten Minute Video! You lost me at civil discussion. I kid.
Privatejoker: Amen
I enjoyed the soundtrack.
Cue the teabaggers claiming that the folks here are FAKE teabaggers sent by the Obamacrats to make Franken look good in 3…2…1…
No matter how smart and capable Al is, it has been preordained that every conservative blog will respond with some variation of:
WHAT A CLOWN!!!!!! COLEMAN WUZ ROBBED!!!! HE’S ANOTHER HOLLYWEIRD LIBRUL!!!!! ACORN!!!!
And the wheels keep on spinning.
Caption Should be Teabaggers Served Frankenballs
Healthfinger
My favorite part was the slow guy in the back who wanted to blame McAllen’s higher costs on “the Messkins.” You can tell Franken was thinking – “keep up with the class, donkey-boy, remember when I told you El Paso does it for less with the same demographics.”
Al, You keep spinnin’ their heads around like that their necks are gonna snap. Minnesota will be packed with contards who can only back up, and how in the hell are they gonna pull the lever for President Michele if the only part of their anatomy they can clearly see is their immense ass?
[re=403200]Cicada[/re]: Yep. And no matter how smart and capable Obama is, he’ll still be a black man. *sigh*
Wait till you hear Will Ferrell on energy policy.
[re=403135]gurukalehuru[/re]: OOOooooo. I like that. Franken/Frank 2012! My brain is abuzz with slogans, logos, and bumperstickers. And outside of the humor factor, it is actually a good, no great, idea.
In honor of Al, I have carved a backwards “A” in my cheek.
[re=403240]DemmeFatale[/re]: You have got to change your avatar. Whenever I see it I am reminded of my high school prom, or, worse, Sanctorectum.
I completely forgive him for those incessant phone calls/emails I was getting a while back.
[re=403251]geminisunmars[/re]: Blasphemy!
[re=403240]DemmeFatale[/re]: Never change the avatar. It makes me smile every time I see it.
[re=403306]AnnieGetYourFun[/re]: All right. I’m convinced. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0
[re=403251]geminisunmars[/re]: What?! No! Never Forget!!
Al is the quintessential Minnesotan…smart, reasonable, confident, friendly, empathic–and no bullshit. Michele Bachmann notwithstanding…she represents a lunatic fringe that unfortunately, despite spraying, Minnesota has been unable to eradicate…
Rest assured Wonketeers, the congressional machine will stomp the sensibility, logic, and restraint out of him soon enough.
WTF IS GOING ON HERE?!?!!!?!
HOW CAN THERE BE A HEALTH CARE DISCUSSION WITHOUT BLOOD AND RACISM?!?!?!!?!?
Stuart Smalley surrounded by angry realtives at the big family reunion. Will he survive?
TEAP?
Nice job Al!
[re=403394]facehead[/re]: Yeah, if this “civil debate” crap continues, we might as well hand the contry over to the blacks, jues, and messicans.
Interesting how he’s sort of disassociating himself from Obama.
[re=403135]gurukalehuru[/re]: Franken/Beans 2012!!!
I love that you can read one New Yorker article (about the provision of Medicare services in McAllen, Texas v. the Mayo Clinic) and suddenly you are a health care public policy expert.
Fuck this shit! Death Panels for all!!
But does he take Tom Davis’ phone calls?
[re=403030]FunkyPalmettoBug[/re]: +1
[re=403435]pinko-commie[/re]: That article may have provided his examples but I’d guess that AF actually does have some serious expertise in health care public policy. He tends to be very well informed about the issues he takes up. He’s a total policy wonk.
[re=403147]JadedDIssonance[/re]: That was part of the genius of how he handled them: he draws them in through their shared pride in being Minnesotans. Making those shared connections allows him to diffuse their anger. He also addresses their questions in a way that makes them feel they are being listened to and taken seriously. He is always framing their concerns in ways that show how they agree with each other. He creates this little space of respectfulness that allows him to give a public policy lesson; it is kind of amazing how they are listening to him so attentively.
It is really incredibly impressive.
My ears are bleeding, that was so boring.
We have no right to call ourselves Wonk-anything, in the face of Albert’s wonkness. That was a crushing blow of wonk.
Clearly a big win for Mayonnaise
I wonder of Josh Goldberg was nearby? His resume says he’s a carnie shit shoveler going back to 1982.
He’s using the Jewdoo.
[re=403039]hockeymom[/re]: Michele represents one district famous for extremely high lead contamination. Franken senators the whole state.
It’s not that difficult, people.
[re=403435]pinko-commie[/re]: If you’ve read that New Yorker article you already know more about the the health insurance crisis in America than 99% of Americans and 1/2 the senate.
So yeah, he is an expert.
test – test – test… want to check my avatar
It seems to me that if the protesters are teabaggers, then that must make AlF the teabaggee….
Open wide, ALF.
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