Al Franken: Not Funny About the 4th Amendment, Either**

As Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) continues to fight a one-man battle against reauthorizing an unamended PATRIOT Act (live on CSPAN2!), you may ask yourself, where is Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.)? Answer: Voting, once again, to ram the PATRIOT back through.

Was it really just 18 months ago when Sen. Funnypants was theatrically reading the 4th Amendment to a PATRIOT-supporting Justice Department official?

Yes it really was, though in fairness he began walking that back within a month.

Since we just today received our advance copies of The Declaration of Independents: How Libertarian Politics Can Fix What's Wrong with America, the best Gillespie/Welch mashup since the John Birks Society, allow me to quote a relevant passage from Page xiv:

This book intends, in part, to document the fact that the two major parties are not what they say and that you are right to be angry with their false claims about core beliefs. It is a shock to tender ears, we realize, but by any meaningful yardstick, Democrats do not care about free speech, and Republicans do not care about free enterprise. They are much more concerned with convincing you that the other guy is a Nazi than they are about relaxing government's control over activities it has no business meddling in.

As we watch a Democratic administration use the exact same fearmongering bullshit deployed so effectively by the Republican administration it claimed to repudiate, let's stand back and remember this truism: Politicians from these two parties lie like rugs, hew to no recognizable principle except for the extension of their own power, and become red-faced with indignance when not treated with sufficient respect by the people whose money they misspend. With vanishingly rare exceptions, they are worthy of our mockery and contempt.

** UPDATE: Franken was one of 23 senators to vote against the final underlying reauthorization. He also voted to table both of Sen. Paul's amendments, and joined the 74-8 cloture vote earlier this week that smoothed the way for final passage.

Comments

[Fist of Etiquette]

They are much more concerned with convincing you that the other guy is a Nazi than they are about relaxing government's control over activities it has no business meddling in.

I like this line, but this is the first I'm hearing about any book.

[Hobie Hanson]

Matt Welch has only read up to page xiv of his own book? That's pathetic. How much does he pay ghostwriters to write this subversive paranoid gargle?

[FlyoverCountry]

OT - but does anyone else have the ad right below the article saying "Stand With Al Franken and support Elizabeth Warren"?

Seems like their ad dollars might be better spent elsewhere... Though I am going to click the ad about 100 times.

[capitol l]

I like this line, but this is the first I'm hearing about any book.

You may remember the book by its original, and I'd say more catching title: Freedom! Bitches.

[SugarFree]

Franken makes me sick to my ass.

[Libertymike]

He could not carry Rush Limbaugh's prescription pain killer bottle.

[joshua corning]

Could Rush carry Franken's coke stash?

[Rush]

Normally I would, but my back's all messed up...

[Restoras]

I am so going to use this.

[ola]

While listening to Saxby debate Paul's amendments, he claimed the Patriot Act gave necessary tools to continue to combat money laundering, drug smugglers, and oh by the way, terrorist organizations. Wait, what?

I thought the Patriot Act which became law as a result of 9-11, was to help LE engage the enemy, namely terrorists who want to come here to kill us. I don't remember when it originally became law it was a tool in the drug war, or the war on money laundering. Oh well.

[steve]

They would certainly argue that the former supports the latter.

[Tulpa]

Much of the Patriot Act was written by the Clinton DOJ back in the late 90s to gain more power to conduct money laundering and other criminal investigations totally unrelated to terrorism. The GOP, in particular then-Senator John Ashcroft, managed to keep it from passing then.

The Patriot Act was just a copy-paste of every DOJ fantasy from the prior decade that they knew would never pass except in the aftermath of a crisis.

[Bee Tagger]

I first learned this joke on these very Reason boards.

------------------
I remember when I was a kid - my dad sat me down and he said, "Jeff, some things in life just aren't funny. And one of those things is Al Franken."

- Jeff Ross

[P Brooks]

by any meaningful yardstick, Democrats do not care about free speech, and Republicans do not care about free enterprise.

Wait, whut?

[joshua corning]

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #5,979 in Books

Shit! You guys are going in the wrong direction. Last I checked it was 4000somthing.

I think the pre-orders market has been saturated.

I know I won't buy the book until I can actually hold it in my hands.

[joshua corning]

They are much more concerned with convincing you that the other guy is a Nazi than they are about relaxing government's control over activities it has no business meddling in.

As the sole member of the Hobbesian libertarian wing i kind of want convince everyone that both parties are Nazis...

But yeah ending government control over shit is more important.

[Libertymike]

Quick. Which of the following WWII combatants did not have a colonial empire at the time of the war?

France
England
United Socialist States of Amerika
Russia
Germany

[joshua corning]

You know who else didn't have a colonial empire....oh wait.

But it would depend at what time during the war.

Obviously Germany held Poland pretty early in the war....in fact i think the start of the war could be defined as when Germany started to invade poor Poland.

Weather or not you would consider Poland a colony I guess would be up for debate.

[joshua corning]

Also US colonial assets were pretty thin in 1939....same with Russia's

[Restoras]

Philippines?

[sevo]

Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, pretty sure still Cuba, probably some others.

[Tulpa]

Cuba was never a US possession.

[Libertymike]

Tell that to meyer lansky.

[Mr Whipple]

Tell that to meyer lansky.

+1

[Libertymike]

"pretty thin"?

Phillipines and other Pacific possessions, Puerto Rico, Cuba, a good part of Central America, Hawaii, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, much of California and Colorado.

At the outset of WWII, how much of the earth's land mass was under the control of the US and Great Britian? Many multiples of that which was under Germany's control.

[Tulpa]

???
Most of the areas you list were independent countries or US states in 1939. The only significant external US possessions at the time were Hawaii, the Phillippines, the Canal Zone, and Alaska.

[joshua corning]

and Alaska and Hawaii were territories so their residents were citizens of the US.

The same could not be said for residents of India or Vietnam.

[sevo]

"At the outset of WWII, how much of the earth's land mass was under the control of the US and Great Britian? Many multiples of that which was under Germany's control."

Which, according to Mein Kampf, was exactly what Hitler was attempting to rectify. That and killing the jooz.

[Restoras]

Not to quibble with your observation but what possessions/colonies Germany did have were redistributed to the the "winners" of WWI.

[uuuh]

THE FUCKING ANSCHLUSS FOR GOD FUCKIN SAKE 1938 JESUS

[Restoras]

Poland was a colony of Germany beginning on September 1, 1939, until it becam a colony of the Soviets sometime in spring 1945.

[Tulpa]

I don't think wartime Poland really qualifies as a colony. The western half was absorbed into Nazi Germany, while the eastern half was absorbed into the USSR (and remained so after the war ended -- it is now split between Russia and Belarus).

[Libertymike]

As Buchannan has noted, Great Britian declared war on Germany notwithstanding the fact that Germany did not attack Great Britian and did not want to make war on the brits. It was Churchill's desire to plunge England into war upon the pretext of defending poland that eventually KO'd the British empire.

Yes. I know that the english and the poles had a mutual defense pact. So what. It didn't mean squat as Churchill did not do a damn thing to the russians for their genocidal actions in Poland.

[joshua corning]

By the way libertymike as much as i love to talk about WW2 what has any of this to do with my original statment:

As the sole member of the Hobbesian libertarian wing i kind of want convince everyone that both parties are Nazis...

But yeah ending government control over shit is more important.

To suddenly talk about colonial powers after what I wrote seems like a non-sequencer.

Not that there is anything wrong with that...only wondering what brought the whole change in subject.

[Libertymike]

The immediate casue would be a piece I had read this morning by Eric Margolis regarding the subject. His writing appears on LewRockwell.com.

More generally, the cause of liberty should never be confused with love of america. american libertarians need to be reminded of such. Things such as the million or more german POWs who perished in american concentration camps in 1945-46,

[sevo]

"Things such as the million or more german POWs who perished in american concentration camps in 1945-46,"
Cite?

[joshua corning]

More generally, the cause of liberty should never be confused with love of america.

I want to call both major American political parties Nazis....

Still not seeing why you posted your comment in reply to mine.

[uuuh]

Say what you want about C. Hitchens, but he pretty thoroughly tears that Buchanan piece of revisionism apart.

[Tulpa]

Wait, now you're an apologist for Nazi Germany? I knew you were sympathetic to the Confederacy, but didn't know you'd follow the pattern for later wars.

What's next, a spirited defense of Austro-Hungary and the Ottomans?

[Libertymike]

Tulpa, how are you construing my point as a Nazi apology? Rmember what jesse jackson said, "text, without context, is pretext".

I keep reminding you that the vagabond from vienna truly admired your boy Lincoln.

[Bill Dalasio]

Actually, a much better case can be made to defend the Hapsburgs (Austro-Hungary) than Nazi Germany.

[Tulpa]

I noticed you don't mention Nazi allies Italy and Japan, both of which had external possessions in 1939.

[Libertymike]

They were naughty too, no question about it.

[sevo]

Libertymike|5.26.11 @ 5:44PM|#
"They were naughty too, no question about it."

Sleazy 'moral equivalence'. No more, no less.

[Tulpa]

I would buoy the book, but I know you guys will give it away during the next pledge drive.

[Restoras]

"With vanishingly rare exceptions, they are worthy ONLY of our mockery and contempt."

FTFY, Mr. Welch.

[James Ard]

The last paragraph of this post may be strong enough to get me to buy the book before the pledge drive.

[RebeccaH]

"With vanishingly rare exceptions, they are worthy of our mockery and contempt."

And Al Franken more than most.

[Joe M]

Why the hell did he vote to expedite things only to vote against? He should've been up there making a ruckus like Paul.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Awww... What happened to the diaper pic?

[Joe M]

Franken didn't think it was funny.

[Pro Libertate]

USA PATRIOT ACT.

[Joshua corning]

this:

** UPDATE: Franken was one of 23 senators to vote against the final underlying reauthorization.

[John Kerry]

He voted for it before he voted against it...

[beleca]

exiled online does not like your book. their headline announcing its release: "Have you ever wondered what it's like to be a free-thinking independent voter who licks the toes of oligarchs? Well, look no further than Nick Gillespie and Matt Welch, two Reasontards who literally wrote the book on libertardtory politics!" please please educate these illiterate hobos

[ramon h leigh]

When will it dawn on everyone that we do not have a democracy and therefore have to go thru all this BS trying to elect representatives and then trying to make sure they vote they way we want, etc. Let's create a real democracy and eliminate the power now held by representatives. Representative govt is obsolete and simply doesn't work very well. I think everyone would agree with me on that.

[The Derider]

Will there be institutional checks on the direct democracy? Can 51% enslave the 49% minority?

[The Derider]

This is a pretty epic fail of a reason article.

Voting to RAM THE PATRIOT ACT THROUGH (by voting against the patriot act).

Lol.