So.

Great, six years of Franken throwing those fuckers over the bumpers of their their criminally financed Porsches and rhetorically shredding their assholes should be entertaining. Every day, Senator Franken introducing legislation to have CheneyCo and BushCo shipped the fuck off to The Hague. Do it, Al, shake the fucking gallows rope in their fucking faces, all day, every day.

So, that makes November 4 – January 4: A solid two months in which everybody here ignored Al. I don’t know why I’m not interested in him, but I’m planning to be highly amused by whatever stunt Coleman pulls next.

Well I guess this comes under “Get of my lawn” grumpy old fart type of thing…

But I cheered when the Unicorn told the US American youff to pull up their pants.

Some recognition of society and social responsibility much missed under the various “Fuck you, you’re own your own” governments around the world.

@nojo: Good call. It was in all the MSM rags and Coleman could have won the recount. Good time now to consider how Al could be used to piss hearty on the face of tyranny. RNC, CheneyCo are all still at large and all still very much malevolently motivated – and America still at risk from their treacheries.

@FlyingChainSaw: Actually, the fun begins Tuesday, when the Senate decides to “provisionally” seat Al, since Coleman could keep the formalities tied up in court for months. Could be the first Repug filibuster of the new season, and nobody will notice Burris sneaking into the chamber and claiming a desk.

Hey, Ya’ll, I think tomorrow is a big day. The Holidays are over. The US car makers have been stabilized and hopefully the public will regain some confidence. Its only 2 weeks till the day we have all been waiting for. My sense is Obama intends to be bold and hit the ground running.

This is a pivot point in the zeitgeist. A huge one. A multiple tipping point, possibly, a tipping point in public acceptance of free markert unfettered greed-driven capitalism and consumerism. A tipping point in race relations. I truly believe these are historic times, the end of the republican deregulation, privatiization, anti-social welfare program, militaristic era, to put it in shorthand, the end of Reaganism, the dominant political theology of the last 30 years.

I think this week, and the next two, three months, will be a critical time in the history of the world. The question is whether this will all produce a real change in the public mind, the zeitgeist. I’m not getting all twisted about Franken, because, it just doesn’t matter. If the big changes I am hoping will happen do happen, Franken will not matter, and whether he is or is not seated will not help or hinder it in happening.

You see, I am hoping for, well, here it is, HOPE. If the public can just find some cause to hope, from this change, hope that this change will be for the better, than we could see some almost immediate change in the dismal economic situation. We are not going to see a return to the frenetic consumerism and finance driven economy, but we could find people ready and able to accept a transition to a slower, but more sustainable, and more fair, economy. And if people are just reassured enough at having competent leadership to see that it will be okay, even if its not like it was before, the uncertainty will go away, and the economy will at least satbilize, we so need it to at least stabilize, people have to be at least hopeful that its not all going to hell.

So thats why I really have no angst at all about Franken. There are way bigger things afoot. Big social-political-economic swings are occurring and where these end is the big story of the next few months.

@Promnight: Which makes now a good moment to dial expectations wayyyyy down. The team’s in place (whoops! lost the right tackle!), but they’re not even taking the field for a couple of weeks, and I’d like to see a couple of scrimmages before painting my face.

Meanwhile, I think Harry’s going to be taken for many, many rides by the Rumps in the Senate, starting with the Franken Kerfluffle. We still have, as a practical matter, divided government, and I suspect we’ll be reminded of it frequently.

On the other hand, Jon & Stephen & Keith & Rachel are all back in the saddle Monday night, so at least halftimes will be interesting.

Yay! 2012! Yay.

@nojo: Oh, yeah, no doubt the GOP suicide bombers will be on hand to attack Franken and anything else that might advance a non-fascist agenda. It’s going to be twisted.

@nojo: In the end, they vote what their constituents want. The state of mind of the constituents, the broad range of debate, is at a tipping point, and if the big public mindset situation changes, the politics will change too.

Its gonna come down to hope, in the end. Because the republican message that has been dominant lately is a message of hopelessness. Government can’t do anything good, they just steal your money and give it to freeloaders, better to just grab all you can, fuck the hindmost. Their message is one of fear and hopelessness, fear of terrorists and intellectuals and atheists and homosexuals because if they prevail, the end of the world is at hand. Its a beleaguered, beseiged, fearful mindset.

And now, we have someone at least, in modified fashion, speaking in terms of hope, that there is something that government can do, we will change the broken system, and we have this happening during an economic crisis, one of such fearful possible consequences, that it has altered all the old rules of the game.

File under “Oh HAY-ELLL NO”

@SanFranLefty: I thought Barbara was the one to make that decision.

al franken/barb bush story from one of his books:

he was seated across the aisle from her in the first class section on a flight. he chatted her up and when she relaxed a little, he boldly asked her if she was proud of her children. she got huffy, and retorted, “yes, i am proud of all my children!” franken: “even neil?”
he was promptly ecsorted to coach by secret service.
the senate is about to get really funny.

Not sure where I’m going with this, or even whether the metaphor will prove useful in figuring out what to do about the Rump Republicans, but it occurred to me last night that Republicans, especially the crazies in the House and the Senate, act just like far-gone addicts/alcoholics. The election was a massive first intervention administered to them by the voting public. Now, how to get them into rehab? drag them kicking and screaming? or cajole them? (although come to think of it, they don’t seem even slightly susceptible to cajoling, straightjackets are probably necessary).

@lynnlightfoot: Let ’em die out in the fucking streets frozen on skid row, at home alone of liver disease or fires caused by cigarettes dropped while passed out, choking on their own vomit or in single car motor vehicle accidents.

lynnlightfoot: The Senate Republicans are (relatively) fine. Hell, even Lindsey Graham has moments of ludicity. (Note: I said “moments.”)

But the House? That is where crazy goes to party. Michelle Bachmann is not only tolerated in the House, but she can be something of a Queen Bee. (Flip the script: the same can be said for the dearly missed Cynthia “2PAC 4EVA” McKinney.)

This is by design — saucer, teacup, etc.

The Republican House crazies can be seen in this video, the Simpsons faux-Schoolhouse Rock “I’m an Amendment to Be.”
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/48876/detail/

I think the Repub woofing about Franken is what a buddy of mine calls a “dick waver,” wherein the Repubs mean to show Obama how manly they are.