Franken Studied Economics with Obama

…and apparently failed out as well.

Ten Democrats, including our own embarrassment, Al Franken, are flirting with the idea of turning a near global economic collapse into a full economic collapse. In the name of what? An ever-evolving political land-grab called Global Warming Cooling Climate Change.

The Chinese have already grown in both their skepticism of our solvency as well as their ability to wreak havoc on a US economy that has only recently been moved from the ICU.

Ten Senate Democrats whose votes are pivotal to the success of climate legislation urged the Obama administration on Thursday to support levying tariffs on goods from countries that don’t limit their greenhouse-gas emissions.

…Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, Carl Levin of Michigan, Evan Bayh of Indiana, Robert Casey of Pennsylvania, Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia and Al Franken of Minnesota.

From a friend, mentor and founder of a successful money management firm, Peter R.:

“Let’s collect a carbon tariff on imports so we don’ t offshore our carbon production. I’m sure that a trade war with China won’t affect their desire to finance our deficits.”

Those deficits being the bi-products of the failed Bush/Obama “Stimulus” packages and the recently resuscitated CARS fiasco, among a myriad of other unfunded, wasteful and ineffective government expenditures.

The wars of the future may be fought on the internet and in the currency markets. We have allowed the Chinese to gain the upper hand via decades of arrant government fiscal policies. We have found ourselves in the unenviable position of relying on their goodwill.

This is no time to hug a tree.

46 thoughts on “Franken Studied Economics with Obama

  1. I am reminded of: “I keep cutting pieces off of it and it’s still TOO SHORT!” When you think of that mentality, what they do seems to make ‘sense”. Otherwise, they have to be deliberately trying to bring the country down. I don’t see any other possibilites. Stupidity or deliberate action.

  2. Terry Says:

    August 7th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
    Franken? Isn’t he the holder of New York State’s 3rd Senate seat?

    Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY, and who was a democrat for awhile?

  3. Norm Coleman served Minnesotans for fourteen Years as Mayor of St. Paul and as Senator. He brought us one of America’s most successful professional hockey teams. He probably saved downtown St. Paul. He has lived here since 1976.

    Franken was also born in New York. Al Franken’s pre-Senate service to Minnesotans is…uh…

  4. I don’t think anyone mistook Coleman for a conservative DG.

    Franken met the residency requirement and thats about all, he moved back in order to run for office. Coleman has lived in MN quite awhile.

  5. Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY, and who was a democrat for awhile?

    Coleman moved to Minnesota right after law school. He’s been a Minnesotan ever since.

    And while he was a Democrat, he was far enough to the right that the DFL basically hounded him out of the party.

  6. John,

    The Wild are one of the league’s greatest embarrasments. They have the highest gate receipts, and put a sub-standard product on the ice. The X did NOT result in a sustained revitalization of downtown St. Paul, and if you want to talk about fiscal flops, there are few larger than Norm’s administration of St. Paul. Between the Lawson give-away and the X – St. Paul now has the equivilant of a junk bond rating for municipalities.

    Also, John, seriously, the Chinese were propped up by our INVESTMENTS IN INFRASTRUCTURE, which they used to build roads, damns, everything necessary to allow their teeming masses to work for what we would pay – slave wages in equivilancy here – allowing them to become the productivity capital of the world (in manufacturing) – our fiscal policy had NOTHING at all to do with that. They then turned that around and bought out debt, to be sure, but that was debt created by one GWBush, for a stupid war and even more stupid military expenditures/profiteering. Look in a mirror if you want to see the blame for this.

  7. Mitch,

    With respect, that’s BS, no one hounded Coleman out of the party. He saw an opportunity, and he took it. He could EASILY have run for state office in the Democratic Party. He certainly was no more conservative (while a Dem) than Klobuchar. Past that the DFL doesn’t require jack-booted adherence to the far left line (or leave) the way you all treated the ‘override 6’. It’s one of the things you routinely mock the DFL for.

  8. Pen,

    And with all due respect in return, the Saint Paul DFL *hated* Norm when he was mayor. They basically made his life as a Democrat untenable.

    And when he was mayor of S.t Paul – where he most certainly was a DFLer – he governed far to the right of whereever A-Klo is. He didn’t raise taxes, for starters, which infuriated the DFL and is utterly unlike A-Klo.

  9. This is just a variation on ‘he’s not american enough’, or ‘he’s not really american’; in this case you’re playing ‘he’s not really minnesotan’ or ‘he’s not really minnesotan enough’.

    Not a good game to play, not a valid criticism of either Coleman or Franken.

    Don’t like his politics – go for it. Identity politics is not something which advances politics at all; just demeans all of us.

  10. Funny how crazy you wingnuts get over Franken, the New York Democrat, taking the seat away from Coleman, the New Yorker and former Democrat. If I were you, I wouldn’t consider electing somebody who lacked the good sense to leave Minnesota for someplace more competitive, like New York, California or Chicago.

    The reality, of course, is you wingnuts know you couldn’t be successful in a real city. And you want a senator who’ll pander to your sad little prejudices.

  11. The reality, of course, is you wingnuts know you couldn’t be successful in a real city. And you want a senator who’ll pander to your sad little prejudices.

    Leave it to an arrogant New Yorker to to define success for us. Ask any headhunter about Minnesota. They will tell you that its hard to get people to move here but once they do they never leave. If they do, they often come back.

    I would try to explain to you why that is but you just wouldn’t understand. The vast majority of people that visit New York say it is a great place to visit, but I would never want to live there. Sort of like a toilet.

    You amuse me.

    You belittle Minnesotans and at the same time spend half your workday commenting on a Minnesota Blog.

  12. I love visiting NYC; I have had a great time there. People were warm, and nice and kind, and friendly… and really funny. It seems having a good sense of humor is perhaps a necessity for coping with that many people in close proximity. It was nothing like ‘a toilet’.

    It would be foolish to pretend that Minnesota is as competitive or equal as a center for the entertainment industry, in which Franken worked. Franken grew up here, left, and came back. Coleman grew up there, came here and stayed here; SO WHAT? People can move here from another state or another country, and still care just as much as anyone born and raised here.

    We can choose to be exclusionary, or inclusive. Parochial attitudes about people from somewhere else, anywhere else, lead too easily to justification for treating people badly because they are not like us, they are not from here, they are different. It is not a fair, legitimate, or objective basis for criticism.

    It is a bad tactic, and we should all oppose it, every side of the political spectrum.

  13. Roosh said: “They will tell you that its hard to get people to move here but once they do they never leave.”

    Minnesota’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose.

  14. Angryclown said…nothing, as usual.

    Al Franken is a carpetbagger. When Alan Keyes tried to pull the same shit in Illinois he failed, because he ran against a Democrat. When Hillary! did it in New York it worked, because she was a Democrat.
    This simply proves that Democrats are a bunch of sheep with zero integrity.

  15. DG sez: “Not a good game to play,”
    Mon says:
    “Then why did you play it? ”

    I didn’t MoN; I did not at any point suggest that either man was less a Minnesotan, or in any way less legitimate as a senator.

    I pointed out that they both had ties in their background to NY, and then I clarified that it should not, in either case, make any difference to how we viewed them in political office.

    What I would consider a more legitimate cause for concern and criticism is the taking of money from interests outside of the state to pay for political campaigns. That was the case with both Franken and Coleman, and has been true of numerous other politicians – on both sides of the proverbial aisle.

    I would love to see non-partisan legislation that limited money for political ads, etc. from outside the state, for all offices other than president and vice president. That, imho, would be more significant as regards politics and state loyalty / representation.

  16. “I did not at any point suggest that either man was less a Minnesotan, ”

    Yes you did, you said

    “Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY, and who was a democrat for awhile? ”

    You drew a distinction between Al Franken and Norm Coleman based on where they were born. You are not only a bore and a hypocrite, you are a liar.

  17. MoN wrote:
    “Master of None Says:

    August 8th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
    “I did not at any point suggest that either man was less a Minnesotan, ”

    Yes you did, you said

    “Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY, and who was a democrat for awhile? ”

    You drew a distinction between Al Franken and Norm Coleman based on where they were born. You are not only a bore and a hypocrite, you are a liar. ”

    Sigh.

    MoN, you DO realize, that both Franken and Coleman were born in New York, don’t you, not just Coleman?

    So….how was I making a distinction between where they were born?

    I was pointing out the similarities between them, like where they both were born, and both having been democrats; NOT a distinction or difference.

    Which I then followed by clarifying it didn’t matter to their being Minnesota senators if they came here from somewhere else, another state OR another country.

    That is NOT suggesting either man is less a Minnesotan. Back off the accusations about being a liar, etc.. If you don’t like what I write, don’t read it; a suggestions I make not to offend you but to stop offending you.

    Although no doubt you will try to twist that as well.

  18. Man you’re dumb, Mastur of Bation. Dog Bone is the least open to criticism on any of those counts. She actually treats you wingnuts as if you were intelligent beings. Hopefully your post will help cure her of that delusion.

    And Kerm, we don’t care where you’re from. New York is full of people who moved here because they wanted to play in the big leagues. The mayor’s from Boston. Hillary’s from Illinois. RFK was from Massachusetts. We assume people move here because they’re the best. You seem to believe people move to Minnesota cause it’s easier to succeed there than here. Maybe it’s true. In any case, good luck with that inferiority complex!

  19. Johnny Roosh Says:

    August 8th, 2009 at 10:02 am
    DG – you should be a speechwriter.

    …for the teletubbies.”

    Part of your regular viewing Roosh? That explains a lot…

  20. I now have an image in my head of Roosh watching the teletubbies while wearing his leather chaps, an image I find disturbing and funny by turns.

    an image I offer lightheartedly; I have a whimsical imagination. Yes Roosh, I know the chaps are serious protection against road rash; and I wouldn’t have dared to mention this if I weren’t convinced you were confident and secure enough to laugh rather than be embarrassed. Please take this in the spirit intended.

  21. angryclown Says:

    August 8th, 2009 at 8:55 pm
    Man you’re dumb, Mastur of Bation. Dog Bone is the least open to criticism on any of those counts. She actually treats you wingnuts as if you were intelligent beings. Hopefully your post will help cure her of that delusion.”

    Thank you a c for coming to my defense. MoN clearly lacked a key piece of information and lept to the wrong conclusion. It would be nice if people were a little slower and more careful before they throw around accusations like ‘liar’; we will have to wait and see if MoN has the grace to apologize….or not… for his mistake. I’m not going to hold my breath, but I may still be pleasantly surprised.

  22. I used to see Jerry Garcia jogging around Waimea once in a while. Kamuela, the new New York!

  23. Funny how it is ok apparently to object to people coming from other places, and question their loyalty and priorities to this state…but not apparently to discuss people taking money from outside the state and what that suggests about their loyalty.

    I bet even the teletubbies could figure out that money might represent an objective measure of division of loyalties….

  24. No question, Terry, lots of successful people vacation in Hawaii. But they don’t stay. You know, like the president.

  25. If I might share.. last night for a change of pace, I decided to read poetry. Language skills are like muscles, use them or lose them; so I selected Baudelaire’s ‘fleur de mal’. Switching from 19th century soaring language about the passionate possesiveness of desire “Comme un animal fort qui surveille une proie, Apres l’avoir d’abord marquee avec les dents.” which translates roughly “as a strong animal watches prey, which it has already marked with it’s teeth.”

    and, next flipping over to sitd, Roosh has put up the teletubbies.

    As an inadvertant study in stark contrasts, it was hilarious. J’espere que ca t’amuse aussi.

  26. Clownie offered: “Want me to say hi to Johan Santana for you, Roosh? ”
    And when you do, ask him why the Mets are 11 games back. Good thing they have the Nationals as a footstool.

  27. If I might share.. last night for a change of pace, I decided to read poetry. Language skills are like muscles, use them or lose them; so I selected Baudelaire’s ‘fleur de mal’. Switching from 19th century soaring language about the passionate possesiveness of desire “Comme un animal fort qui surveille une proie, Apres l’avoir d’abord marquee avec les dents.” which translates roughly “as a strong animal watches prey, which it has already marked with it’s teeth.”and, next flipping over to sitd, Roosh has put up the teletubbies.

    As an inadvertant study in stark contrasts, it was hilarious. J’espere que ca t’amuse aussi.

    As I read this, I couldn’t help but picture you as Shelley Long’s character Diane Chambers on Cheers, reading her highbrow poetry, repleat with passages in French, to patrons of Cheers, all eyes rolling in derision.

    Now that’s hilarious.

  28. As I read this, I couldn’t help but picture you as Shelley Long’s character Diane Chambers on Cheers, reading her highbrow poetry, repleat with passages in French, to patrons of Cheers, all eyes rolling in derision.”

    And you Roosh would be the perfect Cliff the postman.

  29. Sorry for the late response. I was in the “wilderness” of Montana and was not able to get internet access until I returned to a high tax state.

    No DG I will not apologize. Although I incorrectly identified how your statement
    “Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY, and who was a democrat for awhile? ” differentiated Coleman and Franklin, (yes they were both born in NY), it still nevertheless made the claim that Coleman grew up in NY where as Franklin grew up in Minnesota. So yes, you did “play that game”, and you are still a liar.

  30. Much better to be 11 games back and in the Big Apple than 6 games back in the Mini Apple.

  31. Oops. Spoke too soon. Ten games back. Santana beat the Pods 5-1. Also got an RBI and scored a run. Tied for the NL lead with 13 wins. 🙂

  32. Three comments in a row…

    AC you realize this is the equivalent of talking to yourself, right?

    Nurse, time to up his meds.

    PS on Cheers you’d be Paul.

    …or Carla.

  33. It’s OK, Roosh. Clownie just proved that you can be a bigger loser in NYC than Minnesota. Kinda like how two of their football teams are really New Jeresy teams. Apparently the only place you can have a viable NFL franchise in New York is Buffalo.

  34. Dog Gone said:

    “We can choose to be exclusionary, or inclusive. Parochial attitudes about people from somewhere else, anywhere else, lead too easily to justification for treating people badly because they are not like us, they are not from here, they are different. It is not a fair, legitimate, or objective basis for criticism.”

    “Treating people badly” is not the same as “not choosing them to represent our state in the Senate”. Either you are a lot more partisan than you’ll admit, or your standards are too low.

  35. MoN wrote:
    No DG I will not apologize. Although I incorrectly identified how your statement
    “Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY, and who was a democrat for awhile? ” differentiated Coleman and Franklin, (yes they were both born in NY), it still nevertheless made the claim that Coleman grew up in NY where as Franklin grew up in Minnesota. So yes, you did “play that game”, and you are still a liar. ”

    If you are going to quote me MoN, quote me completely. Don’t cheat by leaving out the important parts that totally contradict your assertion.

    What I wrote was this: “Franken grew up here, left, and came back. Coleman grew up there, came here and stayed here; SO WHAT? People can move here from another state or another country, and still care just as much as anyone born and raised here. ”

    You have to be standing on your head squinting funny to try to distort any of that into an assertion that I think EITHER Coleman OR Franken is “more Minnesotan”.

    It does NOT matter AT ALL when they moved here, at what age they moved here, or how long they have spent here. That they have significant similarities in their backgrounds, with roots in both Minnesota AND New York, was the point made to support that contention. The argument that they have connections to New York and therefore cannot be serious about their inolvement in Minnesota is specious, but if you make it about one, it can fairly be made about BOTH.

    Funny though that no one seems to be willing to address the much less specious assertion that taking MONEY from people outside the state obligates BOTH Coleman and Franken to interests other than Minnesota, something true about more Minnesota politicians than just Coleman and Franken.

    But thank you MoN for admitting you were wrong, even if you don’t have the strength of character to apologize when you misunderstand someone. It was more than I expected. And – you still are wrong about what I wrote, and you are likely to stay that way. I have pretty reasonable expectations, LOL.

    Troy says:
    ““Treating people badly” is not the same as “not choosing them to represent our state in the Senate”. Either you are a lot more partisan than you’ll admit, or your standards are too low. ”

    What age someone was when they first came to Minnesota is a specious and unfair basis for criticism Troy. It is a foolish basis for preferring EITHER candidate. I don’t think that makes me partisan to point that out.

    “They’re not like us so they are unamerican, not patriotic, fill in the blank” is a nasty political tactic. Not recognizing it in its various incarnations is naive. It was used against BOTH sides BY both sides this past senatorial election.

    I object to it being used by EITHER side. So with respect, I don’t think that is an example of low standards.

    In Roosh’s little game of “if this were Cheers” btw, I think I’m much more like the grimly serious character of Lillith Sternin-Crane than the sugary Diane Chambers, but Mitch can speak to that perhaps better than I can.

  36. “Unlike Norm Coleman who was born and grew up in NY,…”

    Time out, kids. Obviously a misunderstanding and you should BOTH apologize. Don’t make me pull this reply comment over!

    DG, for starting what you said with “Unlike” and having both “was born” and “grew up in NY” in the same sentence. Unlike would actually pertain to grew up but not to was born.

    MON, you should say sorry for not being super nice to DG and you should also thank her for putting up with guys like us that don’t sugar coat the issues and continually take liberals to task.

    Troy, DG is a lot more partisan than, well, not quite as bad as peev.

    “if this were cheers” hmmmm I can see why Roosh said Diane in this case, but I agree in general you would make a good Lillith, especially when it comes to castration. 😉
    I’m not sure who I would be…. hmmmmmm

  37. I’m thinking KR’s more like Norm, more one of the central figures than Frasier.

    MoN, my apologies for being unclear.

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