Kirstiecat | Blog

Note: I write this on Sunday 12/11/5 after having seen Al Franken on Friday 12/9 but I won’t be able to post it until after Christmas as a signed copy of Al’s newest book The Truth is being given to my dad by my mom as a surprise.

Well, Friday came around and I found myself sitting downtown at Borders bookstore at 4pm, three hours early, waiting in an ever growing line for Al to speak (“Kirstie?” You ask, “Is Al Franken in a band now?” No…but it’s not a completely bad idea, either) The wait was worth it even though Cinchel was sick so I was down there alone reading Al’s book and watching as the very first person in line took pictures of everything including the bookshelves that had yet to be moved for Al to speak (and people think I’m wierd…a little perspective hmmmm?). I swear that man took at least 12 flash photos of the empty podium alone before Al even arrived. But hey, what’s so wrong about an adoring democrat anyways?

On to Al, let me say that he did not disappoint me. He was candid, honest, down to Earth and yet clever all at once. He told political jokes and did an apt impression of Cheney. He related personal stories as well as political ones from his new novel. He made the audience laugh several times. He was exactly what I would expect after hearing him on Air America and reading The Truth, which outlines in detail the campaign strategy of the Bush administration during the last election and talks about several key issues.

To read a long detailed account of seeing Al continue

Al started off by talking about doing the USO tours and how his wife was upset that he was going to Iraq again. He related how his wife pointed out how Bill O’Reilly never goes to Iraq. Al said, “Yeah but let’s be fair. He’s not really talented.” He then told us a story about going to a party after the Oscars and having Sylveser Stalone approach him: “Hey Al,” which he said was weird because he didn’t really know him on first name basis. Sylvester approached him because he wanted to know about these USO tours and asked about the danger involved. Al told him there was a very slim chance of anything happening there; that possibly you might be in an aircraft that is shot down but it wasn’t very lucky. Sylvester replied “Yeah, that’s why I didn’t go.” Al turned to us and said he was like, “Weren’t you f#$%^@g rambo?” Never accuse Al of being too high brow with his humor. He can reach the common man and woman.

There were also many serious moments, as when Al was discussing his book and talking about how we were lied into this war and how scared even he was when he heard what Saddam supposedly had. When it became clear that there weren’t massive capabilities for destruction, the new rhetoric of course became one of the idea of bringing the Iraqis freedom. Al said, “The Dutch and Swiss have proven you can have freedom without jokes but you can’t have freedom without the truth.”

Al then talked a bit about the idea of fear as a campaign stategy. There’s a great part in his book where he is accounting the story of when he was a young comedian in LA surrounded by a tough gang of dogs. Al writes (pp.24-25):

The fear saturated every cell of my body. My heart pounded. My lungs heaved. Even now, as I write, my eyebrows are twitching and my sweat glands are unleashing rivulets of liquid terror. At that moment, I was a Bush voter. As I remember back, I would have given anything for this fear to lift. If only the fear could be vanquished, I would have gladly voted against my own economic interests. To relieve the crushing fear, I would have voted to do away with my own reproductive right. To escape the fear, I would have ignored not only my own health care needs, but those of my parents and my children. And their children. If only I could get past those dogs!

Al discusses how even Tom Ridge came out publicly recently and said there were times when he was asked to raise the terror level with little justification (this after in August 2004 he said that raising it wasn’t just a political strategy).

Discussing a bit about NOLA, Al went into the cronyism embedded in our government offices and how it usually has to do with funneling contracts to different insider politicians vs. someone’s actual qualifications. When asked how much money was put aside to increase communication between first responders, Brownie responded first saying he didn’t know and then: “Boatloads.” Al quipped, “Boatloads which evidently is a new unit in terms of responding to federal disaster.” He talked a bit about Halliburton and what a mess this administration has made by not actually employing Iraqis or helping rebuild their economy. He brought out a great quote from Harry Truman: “Harry Truman called war profiteering treason and it is.”

On social issues, I admire Al possibly the most. Unlike Kerry or Obama, for instance, Al uses the word marriage when discussing the rights that couples who are gay should have. Now, I understand that in many ways, the term “civil unions” can be thought of as a more moderatre stepping stone to get us to a more free thinking and empathetic society but it’s always refreshing to me when I hear someone, who like me, isn’t afraid to say he believes that any two people who love eachother should be able to commit in a marriage. He also said something I’ve long since believed, which is that this is somewhat analogous to the time in US history when interracial couples could not get married. Al stated, “Forty years from now, I think people will be embarassed that gay people weren’t allowed to marry.” Al went on to say how this is going to essentially be a non-issue in the future as young people in this country by and large don’t understand why it is even a problem for some that two men or two women get married.

Next, Al went on to talk about issues related to SS. Al’s opinion, “They just wanted to unravel FDR’s achievements.” He discussed how grossly innacurate the predictions about when SS was going to run out were. He talked to economic analysts that expressed there would be more of a financial burden on the Federal government if we were just to follow Bush’s plan. He debunked some of the statements of that time as well.

As in his book, Al also addressed Terri Schiavo and Frist’s faulty statement as well as the overall federal response, which was and still is seen by and large as an infringement on a personal family issue and simply put a politically calculated move in terms of this administration’s reaction to show face to their pro life base.

Before reading a section of his book, Al talked about a common vision for the democrat party, which he truly believes is Universal Health Care. He feels it is only a matter of time before businesses and corporations realize they shouldn’t be paying for this and that, as in other industrialized countries, the government should. Al stated, “We’ve got to win on values because I believe that’s where we do win.” Al elaborated how we have the right ethical ideas when it comes to poverty, the environment, and family values.

Prior to taking questions, Al read incidentally my favorite chapter from his new book entitled “Al Franken Talks About God,” and stated how he was so sick of how religion has been hijacked. Here’s how the chapter starts in hilarious Franken fashion before moving to the more touching accounts of his father and how the Rabbi came to visit his father on his deathbed. (p.134)

I’m Jewish so I suppose I’m not really in much of a position to argue that conservatives have hijacked Christianity. And I haven’t read the New Testament from cover to cover. But from what I understand, if you cut out all of the passages in the Bible where Jesus talks about the poor, about helping out the least among us-if you cut out every one of those passages, you’d have the perfect container to smuggle Rush Limbaugh’s drugs in.”

There were many questions asked-some of them rather self serving like “Will you hire me for a job?” but some of them came with thought provoking answers. One such question was when someone asked why the democrats have such a hard time finding effective leaders for such common sense ideas. Al talked about how the democrats don’t have control of any of the branches of government or the media but that we have to win this on values. Al again talked about how the democrats are the ones really addressing poverty, environment, and family values.

Finally, I would recommend seeing AL and reading his book but I wanted to say that, although I didn’t ask any questions myself, if I had, I may have asked about why the underlying premise of the book is that Bush did technically win the last election after stealing the first. When the head of Diebold comes out before the election and specifically and publically states that he is going to guarantee a GOP win….when there are significant differences between the exit polls and the voting results…when there are reports of major county errors in favor of Bush in the key battleground state of Ohio….when Ohio and Florida officials consistently block attempts for doing a complete analysis of the voting irregularities and when hard copy voting records are lost. Well, I just don’t think we will be ever living in a true democracy until we change the voting procedures once and for all.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 4th, 2006 at 10:28 am and is filed under politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.