Al Franken
Apr 4, 03:54 PM
ch: Al’s Channel
An Evening with Ann Coulter: Opening Statement
(Editor’s Note: This introduction previously appeared on HuffingtonPost.com)
Last May, as I left the stage after debating Ann Coulter in Hartford, my wife Franni took me aside and whispered: “The poor thing.”
Last Monday, after my debate with Coulter at the Universal Amphitheatre in L.A., there was no sympathy from Franni. Just a strong sense of disgust. Because Coulter had chosen a strange strategy. Offend the audience and then act the victim.
The event was part of a lecture series sponsored by the University of Judaism. The previous debate had featured Newt Gingrich and John Edwards before a crowd of about 5000 subscribers. About 5500 had gathered for me and Ann. The extra five hundred presumably were fans of mine and of Ann’s.
Before the debate, there was a dinner for about 75 sponsors – mainly middle-aged-to- older Jewish couples. Between dinner and dessert Ann and I were to each make three minutes of remarks. I had planned to open with my usual at such Jewish events: “I’m going to start by answering the question I’ve been asked most tonight – Yes, I’ve had enough to eat.”
But Ann went first, and set her tone for the entire evening. “It was fascinating being here for the demonstrations this weekend,” she said with a snotty Darien sneer. “I guess that’s why I didn’t get clean towels in my hotel room this morning.”
There was an audible gasp from the Jews. Ann continued: “I haven’t seen so many agitated Mexicans since the World Cup Soccer Games were in L.A.” As offended as the diners were, the waiters were pissed. Ann was actually dumb enough to drink her coffee afterwards.
I answered by saying that I hadn’t seen so many agitated Mexicans since 1846 when James K. Polk invaded Mexico because he thought Santa Anna had weapons of mass destruction. I wasn’t sure of the year, but I thought the different approaches to our “agitated Mexican” jokes might give everyone an idea of what to expect.
Fortunately, the debate had something of a formal structure to it. I led off with a twenty minute speech in which I eviscerated Ann, followed by her twenty minutes in which she defended herself by saying she was a flawed person and then proceeded to accuse Democrats of being traitors.
Then there was about an hour with the president of the university leading a discussion during which she lost everyone but her most dedicated fans, of which there were maybe fifty by the end of the evening. At one point, when I was talking about making sure our returning veterans got proper medical care, one of her nutcase followers yelled, “Boring!”
Anyway, I’m kind of proud of my opening statement. Here it is:
COULTER DEBATE OPENING STATEMENT – UNIVERSITY OF JUDAISM
Thank you. First of all, I know I join Ann in thanking the University of Judaism for hosting this event. We’ve had an opportunity to spend some time with President Wexler and have dinner with many folks from the University community.
And I’d like to answer the question that I actually get asked the most when I do an event for a Jewish organization. Yes, I had enough to eat.
You know, in these kinds of debate forums, someone has to go first. It’s always preferable to go second, because you can react to what’s been said, giving you something of a tactical advantage. More importantly, it pretty much spares you the chore of writing out pre-prepared remarks.
Both Ann and I said we preferred going second, but I didn’t insist on it, because I understood somebody had to go first. And being a liberal, I just wasn’t tough-minded enough to insist on a coin toss.
So, I’ll try to use my time to define the terms of the debate – if you will. “Whence Judaism?”
No. I think we should talk about the Bush Administration and the Republican Congress and what it has accomplished over the past five years. I’m talking, of course, about well over two trillion dollars added to the national debt, the increase in poverty in our country and the added millions of Americans, including children, without health insurance. I’m talking about the sale of our democracy to corporate interests that pollute our water and our air. I’m talking about the widening gap between the haves and the have nots in this country. And I’m talking about the war in Iraq.
I’m talking about an increasingly corrupt, secretive, and incompetent federal government that rewards cronies, a Republican majority in Congress that’s acted as a rubber stamp, that has performed virtually no oversight and which excludes the minority party from the legislative process in a way unprecedented in our recent history.
I also want to discuss with Ann the coarsening of dialogue in this country. I want to discuss values with Ann. Values like love, of family, of your fellow man, of country. Ann has said repeatedly that liberals hate America. I disagree.
Last year I had the honor of speaking at West Point. It was an audience not so very different from this one. Except that instead of you, the audience was made up of about twelve hundred cadets. Many of whom will be going to Iraq in the next year or so.
The occasion was the Sol Feinstone Lecture on the Meaning of Freedom endowed by philanthropist Sol Feinstone. It’s an annual event and Sol Feinstein’s granddaughter, who is about my age, attended.
After telling a number jokes and getting the cadets on my side. I told them that we had been lied into the war in Iraq. I had just published a book entitled The Truth (with jokes), and I told the cadets that you can’t have freedom without the truth. You can have freedom without jokes, as has been proven by the Dutch and the Swiss.
I proceeded to prove that we had been lied into war, citing example after example of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice, who had been National Security Advisor in the lead-up to the war, telling the public information that they knew not to be true.
At the end of the speech I received a standing ovation from the cadets. Sol Feinstone’s granddaughter told me she had gone to every lecture for the last thirty or so years, and that I received only the second standing ovation. The other was for Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam.
By the way, Ann has written that Max Cleland was lucky to have lost his legs and his arm in Vietnam. I disagree. More importantly, I know Max, and he disagrees.
I believe I received the standing ovation because the cadets knew that I was speaking from the heart, and that the information I had given them was all true. And as I said, you can’t have freedom without the truth.
You can’t have good government without the truth. During the crafting and passage of the Medicare prescription drug bill, the chief actuary of Medicare was told to withhold from Congress the true cost of the bill. He’d be fired if he told the truth.
The bill costs so much, in large part, because the bill prohibits Medicare from negotiating with the pharmaceutical companies on the price of drugs. As a result, seniors now pay on average 44% more than veterans getting the same drugs through the VA which is allowed to use its size to negotiate with the drug companies. To get the bill passed, the vote was held open for three hours. Tom DeLay was later admonished by Republicans on the ethics committee for attempting to bribe, and then extort, Republican Nick Smith of Michigan to get him to change his vote. The chairman of the Commerce Committee Billy Tauzin who ushered the legislation through, soon left Congress for a two million dollar a year job as the chief lobbyist for the pharmaceutical industry. Obviously, a complete coincidence.
During the 2000 campaign George Bush ran for president by saying repeatedly, and I quote, “by far the vast majority of my tax cut goes to those at the bottom.” Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
In fact, the president continues to ask for and sign tax cuts that go primarily to those at the top. By the way, until George W. Bush, our country had never cut taxes during a time of war.
As a result, our deficits grow and the cuts – in Medicaid, Pell Grants, food stamps, low-income housing subsidies, community block grants – are targeted at the poorest in our society.
George W. Bush famously said that Jesus was his favorite political philosopher. Frankly, I don’t get it.
I’m Jewish. Thank you. I’m not an expert on the New Testament. But I know that if you cut out all the passages where Jesus talks about helping the poor, helping the least among us, if you literally took a pair of scissors and cut out all those passages, you’d have the perfect box to smuggle Rush Limbaugh’s drugs in.
I don’t understand when the Christian right says that equal rights in marriage threatens marriage. I’ve been married 30 years, many of them happy. I don’t think that if my wife and I were walking around in Boston, where we met, if we saw two men holding hands with wedding bands… I don’t think I’d say “Hey, that looks good. Y’know, honey, you don’t like watching football on Sundays. Maybe I could marry a guy, watch football with him, and then if I wanted to have sex, I could come over and have sex with you.”
I was just talking to Newt Gingrich the other day. And I said to him, “Don’t you want for a gay couple what you had with your first wife? Don’t you want that bond that comes with the pledge of fidelity that you had with your second wife? Don’t you want what comes with that lifelong bond that you may or may not have with your third wife – I have no idea what’s going on there.”
You know, Bill O’Reilly always talks about his “traditional values” – as opposed to “the far left’s secular humanist values.” I didn’t realize phone sex was a traditional value. I didn’t think the phone had been around long enough. Maybe telegraph sex.
In her book Slander, Ann referred to Democrats and our “Marquis de Sade lifestyle.” I’ve been married for thirty years. Ann, you’re an attractive woman. And I know you support the president’s abstinence-only sex education. I want to congratulate you for saving yourself for your one true love.
When my daughter was six years old, her teacher asked all her students to write about how their parents had met. We told Thomasin that we met at a mixer freshman year of college. I saw Franni across the room, gathering up some friends to leave. I liked the way she was taking control and I thought she was beautiful. So I asked her to dance, and then got her a ginger ale, then escorted her to her dorm and asked for a date.
My daughter wrote, “My dad asked my mom to dance, bought her a drink, and then took her home.” Now all the facts were accurate, but what my daughter wrote was extremely misleading. Now my daughter wasn’t lying. She didn’t realize that what she wrote made her mom seem like a slut.
Ann, however, is not six years old. And she has developed her own techniques for misleading, by leaving out important facts. Let me give you an example of Ann lying by omission.
Also in her book Slander, Ann tells her readers that Al Gore had a leg up on George W. Bush when applying to their respective colleges. Harvard and Yale. Ann writes:
“Oddly, it was Bush who was routinely accused of having sailed through life on his father’s name. But the truth was the reverse. The media was manipulating the fact that – many years later – Bush’s father became president. When Bush was admitted to Yale, his father was a little-known congressman on the verge of losing his first Senate race. His father was a Yale alumnus, but so were a lot of other boys’ parents. It was Gore, not Bush, who had a famous father likely to impress college admissions committees.”
What does Ann omit? Well, that Bush’s grandfather Prescott Bush was also a Yale alum and had been Senator from Connecticut, the home state of Yale University. That Prescott Bush had been a trustee of Yale. That Prescott Bush had been the first chair of Yale’s Development Board – the folks who raise the money. That Prescott Bush sat on the Yale Corporation for twelve years. That Prescott Bush, like George W. Bush’s father, George H. W, Bush, had been a member of Skull and Bones. That the first Bush to go to Yale was Bush’s great great grandfather James Bush, who graduated in 1844. That in addition to his father, grandfather, and greatgreatgrandfather, Bush was the legacy of no less than twenty-seven other relatives who preceded him at Yale, including five great great uncles. Seven great uncles. Five uncles, and a number of first cousins.
Now why did Ann leave out these somewhat relevant facts? Ann grew up in Connecticut. Ann, did you really not know that Prescott Bush had been your senator when you were born?
Ann, is it possible that when Prescott’s son George H. W. Bush became president, it totally escaped your notice that his father had represented your state in the United States Senate? Did neither of your parents mention it in passing at the dinner table? Did no one at home in Darien make any comments about the new president’s lineage?
Understand. This isn’t sloppiness. This is deliberate. For Ann’s purposes – to claim that the media that was manipulating facts here – Ann herself had to manipulate facts – in such a shameless way. This is what she does.
And she does it over and over and over again.
Let me give you another example.
On page 265 of her book Treason, Ann writes of Tom Friedman, the New York Times columnist. “He blamed twenty years of relentless attacks by Muslim extremists on- I quote – ‘religious fundamentalists of any stripe.’”
This didn’t sound like Tom Friedman to me, so I found the one Friedman column that contained that phrase – “religious fundamentalists of any stripe.” It was from a December 26, 2001 column called “Naked Air,” about an airline where everyone would fly naked. “Think about it,” Friedman writes, tongue firmly planted in cheek, “If everybody flew naked, not only would you never have to worry about the passenger next to you carrying box cutters or exploding shoes, but no religious fundamentalists of any stripe would ever be caught dead flying nude.”
Let me repeat. Ann wrote of Tom Friedman, Jewish by the way, that “he blamed twenty years of relentless attacks by Muslim extremists on – I quote – ‘religious fundamentalists of any stripe.’” She bothered to put “I quote” in there for emphasis.
Friedman actually wrote “no religious fundamentalists of any stripe would ever be caught dead flying nude” in service of a conceit that illustrated our dilemma of either becoming less open as a society or learning to live with much higher risks than we’ve ever been used to before.
Friedman was not blaming 9/11 on the Lubavichers, as Ann suggests.
Now this sort of deliberate misrepresentation contributes to a coarsening of our nation’s dialogue. Ann recently told an audience:
“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee,” Coulter said. “That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”
Here’s my question. What’s the joke? Maybe it’s a prejudice from my days as a comedy writer, but I always thought the joke had to have an operative funny idea. I’ll give you an example of a joke.
Like they do every Saturday night, two elderly Jewish couples are going out to dinner. The guys are in front, the girls riding in back. Irv says to Sid, “Where should we go tonight?”
Sid says, “How about that place we went about a month ago. The Italian place with the great lasagna.”
Irv says, “I don’t remember it.”
Sid says, “The place with the great lasagna.”
Irv says, “I don’t remember. What’s the name of the place?”
Sid thinks. But can’t remember. “A flower. Gimme a flower.”
“Tulip?” Irv says.
“No, no. A different flower.”
“Magnolia?”
“No, no. A basic flower.”
“Orchid?”
“No! Basic.”
“Rose?”
That’s it! Sid turns to the back seat. “Rose. What was the name of that restaurant…?”
That’s a joke. What exactly is the joke in “We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee?” Is it the crème brulee? Is that it? Because Stevens is some kind of Francophile or elitist? Is it the rat poison? See, I would have gone with Drano. I’m really trying here, Ann. Please, when you come up, explain the joke about murdering an associate justice of the Supreme Court. One who by the way, was appointed to the Supreme Court by Gerald Ford, and who, also, by the way, won a Bronze Star serving in the Navy in World War II. What is the joke? ‘Cause I don’t get it.
Now in Ann’s defense, she doesn’t always make horribly offensive remarks or knowingly craft lies. Very often Ann is just wrong out of ignorance or pure laziness. Take this from the MSNBC Show – Saturday Final – on August 30, 2003 – MSNBC. She is talking about how well the war in Iraq is going.
COULTER: I think the rebuilding is going extremely well. Douglas MacArthur was in Japan five years after V.J. Day. There were enormous casualties in Germany after World War II. The rebuilding is actually going quite well compared to past efforts. And really, all we’re getting from Democrats is constant carping.
Ann, do you know how many combat fatalities the American military had in Germany after V-E day? Zero. You know how many in Japan after V-J day? Zero.
Ann and I have debated once before. In May of 2004, and Ann still felt the war was going amazingly well. Let me quote her from that debate:
“…. This war is going amazingly well… the casualty rate is incredibly small for the rebuilding. It is going better than can be expected. You cannot read about how well things are going against Al Sadr, where you have Iraqis protesting against Al Sadr; all these stories about how Al Sadr had (this) vast support among the Iraquis… oh no no no. They recently held a protest march saying, ‘Al Sadr, get out.’”
As you know, Ann, Moktadr al Sadr, recently picked the Shiite choice for prime minister for the new government, Mohamed al Jafaari. Sadr has thirty-two seats in the Iraqi assembly compared to Ahmed Chalabi’s zero. And remember, it was Chalabi to whom we were going to turn over the Iraqi government.
Things are not going amazingly well in Iraq. And they haven’t been going amazingly well since we allowed the looting of Baghdad. A week ago, former prime minister Ayad Allawi said that Iraq was already in a civil war. And as George Bush said in September of 2004, we should listen to Allawi because – and I quote – “he understands what’s going on there – after all, he lives there.”
The first thing this Administration needs to do in Iraq is to start acknowledging the truth and level with the American people.
I think the one lesson we can all agree on from Vietnam is that we cannot blame the troops. By and large, the vast, vast majority of our troops have performed heroically. And they deserve our gratitude and support. And that means supporting them after they’ve come home.
Two thirds of the wounded in Iraq now have brain injuries. That’s because so many of the casualties are from IED’s, and the injuries are concussive and not ballistic. Each one of those brain injuries is going to cost a million dollars over the course of that veteran’s life. And we need to fund programs for those who come back with post traumatic stress disorder – a higher percentage than in any previous war.
Now another value I believe in is love of country. For some reason it rankles Ann that I’ve done six USO tours and have had the nerve to talk about it. I do so because I want people to be aware of the work that the USO does. I want anyone here today who is a Hollywood celebrity to think about giving up a couple weeks of your life to entertain our men and women in uniform. I think it rankles Ann that I’ve talked about going on the USO tours because she can’t conceive that anyone would actually do something for anyone else. I didn’t go to Iraq to prove that Democrats are patriotic, Ann. I did my first USO tour in 1999, when Clinton was president. We went to Kosovo, a war that was vehemently and vocally opposed by many Republicans. Even so, we didn’t call them traitors. I was invited by the USO to go to Iraq because they know I do a good job and that it means a lot to the troops when anyone comes over to show them we care.
My daughter is 25. She teaches inner city kids in the Bronx. And that makes me proud. She hates when I say it, and that makes me even more proud.
My son is an engineering student. He wants to build fuel efficient cars. He’s a junior in college and got a job at Ford this summer working on a new manufacturing process for power trans. I don’t know what that means either. But he got there because he works his butt off.
But my son doesn’t feel that he got where he is because he is some kind of rugged individual. That he did it all himself. He knows that he stands on the shoulders of those who stood on the shoulders of those who stood on the shoulders of those who stood on the shoulders of those who stood on the necks of Indians.
My wife and I tried to instill certain values in our kids. But we don’t love them because they’re perfect. We love them because they’re decent, loving kids. Kids who care about others and care, by the way, about the truth.
One last thing. Speaking of the truth. A few months after my last debate with Ann, the following appeared in a New York Observer story about Ann. From the September 13, 2004 issue..
The writer asks Ann in the article:
“She debated Al Franken recently?
“’Yes,’ she said. ‘It’s not an interesting debate, because liberals can’t argue. So it’s never like point-counterpoint; all we do is hear about his fucking U.S.O. tours for three hours. Excuse my French.’”
Ann, let’s see if we can have a point-counterpoint, and an interesting debate. And by the way, Ann, I have here a DVD of that entire three hour debate – And I’ll bet you my speaking fee tonight that I spoke about my USO tours for less than a grand total of three minutes. How about it Ann? My speaking fee against your speaking fee?
I mean we care about the truth, don’t we?
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I’d love to hear the entire 3 hour debate, particularly the 20 minutes Ann spent answering Al’s opening statement.
I know 3 hours can make for a large file, but if we could download an audio file of debates/speeches like this (like Air America Place) I’d bet it wouldn’t be that expensive and would enhance the site.
Just a thought.
— Sir Rhino Apr 4, 07:05 PM #
I would pay to buy the full 3-hour debate on DVD. $20.00 if that was all I got. Maybe $40 or $50 if it included plenty of extras and maybe part of the proceeds when to a chartiy.
— C.S.Strowbridge Apr 4, 07:43 PM #I agree with Sir Rhino – howdy, Sir!
Al, I heard you describe how the debate would be set up and where it was. Never heard anything about it after that though.
To hear it would be good, no GREAT!
— tiptoe Apr 4, 11:40 PM #
It’s a bit of mystery to me why Al or anyone else takes this woman seriously. She’s a little harpy who has figured out that there are about 2-3 million right wing fruit cakes out there and she is making a good living off them. They will suck up any pap she throws out, railing against elitist liberals, Washington insiders, the commie MSM, it’s all grist to her mill. The only way to neutralize her is to demonstrate to her followers that she is a grifter. She probably spends $1000 getting her hair done, and lives in the east seventies or Georgetown. The last place she is going to be seen is in middle America. This is her achilles heal, she is a conwoman feeding the prejudices of a lot of know nothings. Expose her for what she is to these rubes.
— John Apr 5, 01:14 PM #Excellent post, Al! I would also pay for a transcript of Ann’s response to this openning statement. I arrived here from the Huffington post site, and this post should really be there as well.
— Mark Patten Apr 5, 01:29 PM #Hmm.. just happened upon this entry from the Huffington Post. Very cool speech, Al. You rock.
Actually, Ann Coulter lives in Palm Beach, Florida, though she has a vested interest in not allowing the truth to be widely known.
You see, she voted in the wrong district in 2004. In Florida, this is a class three felony.
The MSM that Ann hates and fears has failed to pick this up, however. Only the local papers have bothered with it; the story hasn’t gained much traction.
For more info, check out Michelle Pilecki’s posts at the Huffington Post. Then, if you can stomach it, attend a function with Ms. Coulter and make sure to ask her “excuse me, do you live in Palm Beach?”
— AngryDan Apr 5, 01:34 PM #It was Al, joyfully and skillfully taking on O’Reilly in that wonderful book-fair debate, who woke me up as to how my fellow gullible Americans were being so systematically misled by selfish liars, and showed me the rising power of blogs. Blogs continue to be the only way I can get close to the reality behind human events, especially this totally illegal and immoral slaughter of innocent Iraqis.
It is, IMO, essential that someone take on the likes of Coulter and O”Reilly—first, to increase their stress and help move them along more quickly to their inevitable bodily demise, never letting them relax and get away with their constant and deliberate lying—and second, so that those unfortunates who today still naively take their lies as truths to be exposed, over and over again, to the actuality of their histories. There is no one better than Al at accomplishing this in a civil as well as an irrefutable way.
Thank you Al from the bottom of my heart. You are exemplary as a true patriot who returns the good fortune of his celebrity a thousandfold to his country. I wish I lived in Minnesota (almost—I like living in Honolulu too much!) so I could vote for you as Senator.
— pookapooka Apr 5, 01:37 PM #Oops, my bad: she voted in the wrong precinct, not wrong district. But, it’s still a felony in Florida.
I’d love to see Ann do time. My guess is she’d weigh 300 lbs. once she got out. It’s awfully hard to keep your weight down in prison, what with no crystal meth there and all..
— AngryDan Apr 5, 01:38 PM #Ann is and has been a raving lunatic and racist since the first time I heard her. What she plays to are the racist opportunists that travel this land. Al, great debate and I don’t know why you do it but showing others what Ann is about sure does help
— Ray Apr 5, 01:40 PM #Al, you are awesome. And I am grateful to you for providing a ray of hope amid the insanity. Please, please, publish Ann’s retort—my blood pressue is way too low these days. Thanks.
— Nonni Walters Apr 5, 01:41 PM #Hi Al, Thanks for sharing your experiences with us. I listen to you all of the time on Air America by the internet and I have loved your work for many many years now.
Keep up the truth, and I hope that you’ll run for the Senate.
Terrific speech, Al. Coulter is lower than pond scum. Thanks for all you do!!
— Bob Lord Apr 5, 01:58 PM #Honestly, Mr. Franken, best thing I read all Week. Concise, to the point and Most of all, Truthful.
I Imagine her Ms. Coulter’s response was, to be kind, less to the point.
Thanks you.
— S.D. Apr 5, 02:01 PM #The reason why Al Franken Must take Ms. Coulter’s defamatory nonsense seriously is because she has a forum in the Media to present her views. Regardless of how morally corrupt and conniving, she looks attractive, writes best sellers and is therefore mistaken for someone who Knows Something. The dim-ocrats have still not grasped that they must counter every slander immediately. Kerry lost the election because he didn’t eviscerate the swiftboat fraud immediately. There needs to be a strong, verbal and maybe even humorous rhetoretician countering Every right wing lie. Immediately. Thank you Al Franken.
— David E. Hartman Apr 5, 02:06 PM #I’m very glad to have seen this on Huffpo this morning. I had not stumbled across this blog yet…Al, add me to the chorus that wants to read Ann’s response.
— CameronRex Apr 5, 02:09 PM #Hey Al,
Great statement—way to hold her feet to the fire, but in a civilized way.
I’m looking forward to the chance to vote for you against Norm”emptysuit” Coleman. Welcome home.
Al, I have enjoyed your politics and humor since SNL days. I also credit you with converting Ariana during your ‘strange bedfellow’ spots. I’m glad to see someone challenge Ann Coulter for her lies, deceptions and truth twisting. And also for outing Bush and his gang of liers. Keep up the good work!
— Charles Forbus Apr 5, 02:16 PM #You think you are a progressive but in the end all you are is a mealy mouthed, no principles, middle of the road Democrat. You basically support the war by holding a position that says we can’t withdraw until hell freezes over, all the guys fighting the war(Americans) are good guys and heros even if they torture, shoot innocent human beings and blindly follow orders to kill other humans in an illegal war. You are precisely what is wrong with the Democratic Party and why I stopped listening to Air America which seems to be in a contest as to how insipid it’s possible to be when taking non-right wing political positions.
— alan pezaro, m.u.p., ph.d Apr 5, 02:28 PM #You are not even funny anymore.
What does it feel like to go to Iraq and know that you are perfectly safe because the last thing the enemy wants to do is injure even a not funny liberal that is helping them and not his country’s troops.
Oh Al, you have GOT to make that CD available! To prevent seeming self-serving, why not sell it and donate all the profits to post-traumatic stress disorder research or the VA? I would be willing to bet you could raise MILLIONS!
— Alice Schmid Apr 5, 02:38 PM #The best thing that I can say about Miss Coulter is that a blonde is a terrible thing to waste.
— Lucdavid Hart Apr 5, 02:46 PM #Brilliantly done, Al. I’ll guess Ann did not put her speaking fee up against yours, but if she addressed your challenge at all, attempted to be droll and said, “Well, it SEEMED like three hours.” (Soul of wit that she is.)
I also agree that progressive thinkers need to take on and counter Coulter and any of the other right-wing pundits. It must be done directly, with footnotes and cites fully engaged, and force them to back down. They will never shut up, but they can be pinned down and hemmed in, so their squeals of outrage become more shill, and people see them for what they truly are.
Alan. That’s not what he said. Use your PhD to reread the speech and understand it.
NAF: which is why liberal/left activists in Iraq are perfectly safe. Oh? They’re not. Try again, paste-eater.
—
I wasn’t going to fight trools, but I just read through this before preping my afternoon class, and I have to say: goddamn is this good stuff. I’m not a laugh-out-loud kind of guy normally, but I busted up twice while reading this.
Great and thoughtful post. I don’t know how she was able to go on after that—oh yeah, she has no shame and knows her act is a put-on. That’s probably it.
— Todd and In Charge Apr 5, 02:51 PM #Nice going Al.
Just got done watching the ‘Al and Dave’ show on Dead Ahead. Jerry would be proud of you.
jb
— Judd Brown Apr 5, 02:52 PM #Hi Al:
I’m a big fan of yours, and I was at the debate, along with my wife. She had no idea how bad Ann Coulter is, both as a person and as a public speaker. However, I don’t think even Ann believes anything she says. She is like the small child that says the most provacative thing they can in order to see if they can make your head explode. In this way, the people who truly do believe that liberals hate America can feel validated that someone who “thinks like they do” can attract media attention and get their ideas/emotions into the marketplace. The problem is, she is just taking advantage of the gullible and ill-informed by pandering to them via her outrageous statements.
PS – Al, if you truly want to run for senate, you are going to need to get some lessons from a professional public speaker. Your prepared remarks are wonderful and delivered with great style, but when you are ad libbing during the debate you tend to drone and lose audience interest. I know you can do better, and I’ll be the first to contribute to your senate campaign.
GO GET EM, AL !!!
— Ethan Eller Apr 5, 02:53 PM #So, Al - what is it about this
speech that you’re proud of?
Is it true that Howdy Doody is
really your dad? Is it true that
you masturbate on pics of
Cindy Sheehan? Is it true that
only fags like your “progress
ive” quote unquote ideas?
Al, it is my firm belief that the work you do and the work of others like Jon Stewart, Kieth Olberman, Lou Dobbs and Steven Colbert, are the saving grace for our precious democracy. Truth really is beauty.
— David J. Fahey Apr 5, 02:57 PM #Al,
Please run for president, I’ll vote for you.
We need a decent guy like you to stand up and tell the truth.
Nice work Al!
But unlike the narrow minded righties who stick their fingers in their ears and sing when the opposition speaks, I want to read Ann’s response. (even though I know it will be filled with lies, hatred and racist bile)
— Al in LA Apr 5, 03:01 PM #Ethan Eller, you must not have listened to Norm Coleman lately. The tendency to drone and lose the audience was illustrated by Norm beautifully when Michael “Heckuva Job’ Brownie handed him his ass during the hearings. Great stuff!
Go Al!
— Judd Brown Apr 5, 03:03 PM #I’m here by way of the Huffington Post as well.
Count me as someone who thinks you should definitely keep speaking the truth over and over again even to idiots like Ann Coulter. That was a beautifully written speech, Al,and I only wish I could read her response.
Here in Texas (it’s so brutally red here) I take every opportunity to own the word Liberal. I’m tired of people using it as some sort of epitaph or negative stereotyping. Keep fighting the fight Al and I promise I will too!
Thank you to Al Franken, for agreeing to debate Ann Coulter. I’ve seen her in action and one of her main tactics is to derail any discussion with ‘facts’ that the person she is talking to can’t easily counter. Al Franken, however, has the knowledge, the intelligence and mental nimbleness to skewer her every time, and demonstrate that the ‘facts’ she presents as truth are no more than outright lies, exaggerations and things taken completely out of context.
— LDW Apr 5, 03:13 PM #Hey, if someone at the PAC has a copy of this, I will rip the file into MP3’s and host them.
Let me know, email me and let me know if anyone recorded it.
— Daniel Apr 5, 03:16 PM #Loved the speach…Ann sure has problems with the truth…we’ll see what a 3rd degree felony rap does for her “selective” approach to the facts.
Peace
You certainly are all there. You are very intelligent and tell the truth. You have to feel sorry for Ann Coulter, she is a very, very sick child. I never in all my years of listening to her has she made any sense and displays her hatred for democrats constantly. Real sicko. Keep up your good work and hope we can get this country back to what it is meant to be. The Constitution is not just a damn piece of paper.
— Anthony S Milograno Apr 5, 03:27 PM #Excellent speech. I guess it’s fun to debate with that anorexic skank, but I never pay any attention to anything she says. I hope to see you in the senate soon. Keep up the good work!
— John M Norman Apr 5, 03:32 PM #While reading the comments I had this image of Ann sitting in her chair with a series of expressions on her face along the lines of Bush in the first debate in ‘04 against Kerry. Kinda like her creme’ broulee was backing up on her. From a bigger picture perspective, what is going to happen to her and her ilk (Rush, Bill, Tucker, etc.) when the Dems take the House and maybe the Senate in November? Do they get a higher profile in the minority or do they fade into the mist where they belong? In a more perfect world, the MSM will swing back to a more neutral position and the wildeyed R/W noisemakers will fall off the right side of the earth.
— Jack Straw from Witchita Apr 5, 04:00 PM #You said, “You can’t have good government without the truth”. I think you can compare this (Oh the Nazi comparison again) with the regular quotes from Joseph Goebbels who said you can’t have good government without good propoganda – the Bush administration credo – (gute Regeirung ohne gute Propoganda). If you ever want to see a comparison of the Nazi chronology with the Bush chronology it’s astoundingly similar.
— b. schaeffer Apr 5, 04:06 PM #Al, you funny sumbitch….thanks! Love this PAC, Love my country, Love it, man. Ann’s fans are the type with heads like cement: all mixed up and permanently set. Truth is the million pound shithammer; keep using it with humor. L8R….VTRC
— vermontraccoon Apr 5, 04:28 PM #I’m pretty mad that you liberal dogs lined out Ronnie’s post. :O(
Here it is in the orignal form I dictated to him in.
Ann
So, Al – what is it about this
speech that you’re proud of?
Is it true that Howdy Doody is
really your dad? Is it true that
you masturbate on pics of
Cindy Sheehan? Is it true that
only fags like your “progress
ive� quote unquote ideas?
— Ron Cooney Apr 5, 01:56 PM #
— Ann Coulter Apr 5, 04:30 PM #Ann Coulter? You have to shower after? If stupidity had a face it would be Ann’s.
— mike miller Apr 5, 04:39 PM #Thank you, Al. I have heard you talk about most of this on Air America and have read all your books, but it is good to see that you’re confronting “people” (and I use that word loosely in this context) like Ann Coulter and speaking the truth.
Keep it up; we need your humor and your truth.
— Brooke Apr 5, 04:52 PM #GO AL GO! Please post the entire show—I would so pay to see her face while your talked. I will never forget O’Reilly exploding on CSPAN when you both were on that book tour panel years ago—it was classic!
Thanks for doing what you do. Saw you on your last trip to Tampa Bay . . . I wish Florida was your home state so you could run for office here—lord knows you would have plenty of material to keep your comedy going as well!
— jillabuster Apr 5, 05:05 PM #What Al said to Ann was very important… but, I can’t stand that he debates her, because that gives her some legitimacy, and she also makes money off of hatred and stupidity. I could have gone to the Skirball Center for this event, but there was no way on earth I was going to have my dollar directly contribute to this horrible human being.
— Progressivepam Apr 5, 05:07 PM #Hi Al!
Just wanted to let you know I attended your debate with that evil woman. I didn’t go to the entire series, just the one with you and Ann.
I just wanted to say you were so great! I’m so happy you posted the text of your opening statement because it was so elegant.
You handed that offensive woman very well and never stooped to her level…answered her every lie and slander with grace but with firm and factual rebuttle. It really was a joy to watch.
I have to admit, I actually had to leave the auditorium when it was Ann’s turn for her opening statements. She’s so vile that I just could not stomach listening to her go on without you to counter her so, when she was through, I returned. I’ve seen enough of her on Bill Maher’s show to know she makes my blood boil to a point I can hardly deal with (notice she hasn’t been on his show in a while? I would venture a guess that Bill got too much grief from her appearance).
Once again, thank you for a great evening and keep up the good work!
— rikki Apr 5, 05:19 PM #— Ron Cooney Apr 5, 01:56 PM #
— Ann Coulter Apr 5, 03:30 PM #
Sad little trolls ….. hey, wait a minute, we finally got mAnn to spill her male name. LMAO
shoo fly(s), shoo
Al, thank you for posting this speech. I heard you do a brief synopsis on your show and wanted to hear more. I’m sure someone took notes of Ann’s speech and/or reply to you so could you please post that as well, if only just the highlights. I wish you two could be booked on the same television show so we could watch you crush her in front of millions. Thanks for all you do.
— Amy Apr 5, 05:38 PM #I have read this twice today and was very edified each time. I can’t wait to read the congressional quarterly (?) when Al is in congress.
— zenster666 Apr 5, 05:57 PM #Franken provides a humorous and pointed barb to deflate Coulter’s egomaniacal distortions and “truthiness”. It inspired me to offer up a definition.
“To Coulter” (verb; also nascent social virus):
To vomit up (like a bulimic feline who has swallowed too many hairballs) a bile of baseless, fact-free political rhetoric and hate at everything left of Atilla the Hun or the Grand Inquistor (especially evil Liberals and godless Secularists) for the purpose of inflaming the venom and unbridled vitriol of
Joe Six Packs, Jane Rednecks, George Survivalists and John Unilateralists.
Often accompanied by a sudden loss of gray matter, a corresponding emotional
anorexia and a tendency to contradict reality.
Sometimes thought to be a variation of “Maggie Thatcherism” with legs, though
absent a heart.
May orginate in reptile world; destination unknown; hopefully to be deep-sixed after the next November auctions (formerly known as elections).
— David Macauley Apr 5, 06:06 PM #Hi Al. I loved the speech and wish I’d been there to hear you live. I’m also curious about Ann’s response.
Al, I’ve meant to write you since 2004 to thank you for truly helping me through a hard time. A friend gave me your book, “Lying Liars”, a few weeks after the presidental election. I couldn’t put it down and was in actual pain from laughing. It was the first laughing I’d done for weeks and I credit your humor for helping me get up and moving again. Thanks so much, Al.
I woulld’ve liked to have known Ann as a child.
She can’t always have been filled with such contempt and bitterness.
What was it that turned her so against herself that she has to take it out on the rest of us?
Where is the Ann Coulter, who said on FoxNews that she had been to lots of Grateful Dead shows.
Ann, a DeadHead?
I still can’t make any sense out of that.
Either she’s got multiple personalities, or she just loves efficiency as much as hating.
Read your intro to the debate, by the way saw you in person on the morning show in LA. great
as always, whatever you do. I do not waste my time on AC either by watching her or reading about her. She is a waste of my valuable time. Please keep up the good work. Listen daily, watch when you are on TV shows also. God Bless,
Sally
OC in California
SOS out of smalley. Ann probabley kick his fat ass and was a lot funnier doing it.
— idgaf Apr 5, 06:45 PM #A transcript here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1607703/posts
It has commentary and misses showing EvilAnne’s face, but has her evil words. — Rogas Apr 5, 06:46 PM #Al:
You did us all a favor by eviscerating this foul-mouth harridan. She is an opportunist, preying on the weak minded, right wing and evangelist crowd. They pump money into her bank account and she gives them what they want to hear. Isn’t it strange that this debate saw little press coverage anywhere. If someone can cite a press report on this, I would love to see it. As a Vietnam veteran, I despise all that she stands for. She would change her tune overnight if she had to go to Iraq and shoulder a weapon.
Mr. Franken,
I may have to move to Minnesota. I live in TN and after having Frist for my senator I need all the help I can get. Good luck to you and thank you for taking on this mission.
Thank you very much, Al.
We have to challenge these liars every chance we get. Call them out on their lies.
— Village Crone Apr 5, 07:31 PM #Thanks Al! You so clearly state what many of us think but lack the eloquence to express.
You just made the top of my bookmark list.
— PManglona Apr 5, 08:10 PM #Re:Bush and Yale. Don’t know if true, but I read that Bush was turned down at University of Texas before he was accepted at Yale.
— Ronniedell Apr 5, 08:26 PM #Terrific site! It’s very satisfying-no shouting necessary. Hoist the morons by their own petard, don’t bother screaming at them. The Repubs are dying not with a bang but a whimper.
— kindofblue Apr 5, 08:27 PM #The reason why Al Franken Must take Ms. Coulter’s defamatory nonsense seriously is because she has a forum in the Media to present her views. Regardless of how morally corrupt and conniving, she looks attractive, writes best sellers and is therefore mistaken for someone who Knows Something. The dim-ocrats have still not grasped that they must counter every slander immediately. Kerry lost the election because he didn’t eviscerate the swiftboat fraud immediately. There needs to be a strong, verbal and maybe even humorous rhetoretician countering Every right wing lie. Immediately. Thank you Al Franken.
******************
There are not enough hours in the day to counter every right-wing lie. So everyone who has a forum for their views, and has written best-seller status, and “looks attractive” must be countered immediately? What if the person spreading the slander meets only two of these three criteria?
The Democrats did not lose the election because they didn’t refute the Siwft Boat liars quickly enough; they lost it because they were so bankrupt when presenting ideas that the Swift Boaters had an easy day filling up the vacuum left by the absence of these ideas. Come up with ideas and stand for something first, and in the process, show that your opponents stand for something opposite – something vile. That way, when the right-wing slime machine starts bearing down on you, you’ll be ready to answer it, because you’ve already done your homework. By the way, the Republicans didn’t win because they effectively countered Democrats’ slanders (there were a few); they won because of their (repulsive) and false ideas (i.e. the notion that Bush could keep us safe). If Democrats can change the terms of the debate and come up with ideas of their own, the public will not be waiting with bated breath as much for the slimers to attack – they’ll actually be waiting to hear what the Democrats have to say.
As far as “debating” every right wing slander, that’s ridiculous, because on some level, debating nonsense gives it a status it doesn’t deserve. By debating a Holocaust denier, for example, you give him legitimacy just by providing him a forum to air his views. By debating someone who says the Earth is flat, you do the same thing. Yes, some, many slanders must be answered, but not EVERY right wing idiocy must be attacked and exposed, given politics is a zero sum game of limited resources.
— DLebovic Apr 5, 08:28 PM #Ann Coulter with that very thin frame cannot possibly have “truthful breasts” . They have to be as made up as her facts.
— tom Johnston Apr 5, 08:47 PM #Thanks and kudos. Here’s another vote for access to audio files of this debate and the other speeches and debates referenced therein. Charge a fee, and do with it what you wish. You’re entitled. For the stuff that has both you and Ann on it, maybe she’d agree to direct proceeds to the USO. Maybe not. Anyway, if you ask her, it’s a win/win.
— Leo Marvin Apr 5, 08:53 PM #This goes to show that Al is helping Senator Feingold put the MENSCH back into being a man.
Good work, sir. What did Ann say after you sat on her with your prodigious buttocks? :-)
— Paul in LA Apr 5, 09:08 PM #“Twiggy with Tourette’s” gets her bony ass handed to her. Bravo, Al!
— John Musser Apr 5, 09:16 PM #What we are seeing here is one of the most brilliant minds in the country spending his time working for social justice. True to himself, true to his country and true to his faith. I applaud him and honor him. I think Al should run for senator from Minnesota, so that he has a voice in our nations lawmaking, and a forum for his opinions about events of the day. I can’t adequately express how much I admire his honesty and intellectual integrity. I have been listening to him on Air America since he began with them, and he always has his facts well in hand, is brilliant in using his knowledge to explain an issue, and never demagogues an issue, or even takes a cheap shot when arguing with the likes of Coulter or O’Reilly. He is the un-limbaugh. He is the exemplar of what Harry Truman meant when he said of his political opponents “I don’t give them hell, I just give them the facts and they think it’s hell”. Loosely quoted by me, but right on point. I can’t imagine Al has time to read this, so what I’m writing might embarrass him, but after reading this speech above I just want to let the readers know what a wonderful fellow we have in our midst, a thought I’ve had many times and now I’ve gone and said it! I love Al, and if there is any justice in the world, it’ll be Senator Franken one of these days. John Fullerton
— John Fullerton Apr 5, 09:25 PM #Al,
You are the real deal. A good man (with jokes. Very funny jokes). Thanks for every bit of light and heart you inject into our dark, cynical political quagmire.
— Douglas Rankin Apr 5, 09:39 PM #Excellent opening statement, Al!
Pretty sad that the right has such unscrupulous pundits to express their ideals.
I think that there might be honest Republicans somewhere, but I suspect they have all hidden from the light of day with all of the dishonorable things being done these days in the name of the GOP.
On the telegraph sex… that was a lot better than the telegram sex… It just didn’t catch on – you know… “Kiss me. STOP. Hold me. STOP. Hug me. STOP”
— chuck Apr 5, 10:24 PM #Absolutely fantastic. I would give that speech to every liberal, every Democrat and say, “This is how you take on a conservative. This is someone who cares.”
Thanks, Al. Keep up the good work.
— jaywillie Apr 5, 10:40 PM #you should be ashamed, taking advantage of a poor, stupid woman, did you notice she can’t spell very well and often uses poor grammar?
— ultimus q gimp (the terror of the cosmos) Apr 5, 10:49 PM #you ought to do a riff on what the thugs would(bsu, cheney, rummy, delay), etc. if they had to go to iraq and serve on the front lines. i’ll be the war would be over very fast
— ultimus q gimp (the terror of the cosmos) Apr 5, 10:56 PM #Great Opening Statement Al. My respect for you continues to grow. The DVD sounds like a great idea to make a few bucks, but I can’t imagine that BITCH would have anything to say that I’d want to hear. And as for Al, I know he can take care of himself.
— John Garza Apr 5, 11:01 PM #I just read the description of this on the FR website, followed by the comments of FR readers. Sickening. Only someone with Al’s courage and humor could endure such an experience. DLebovic may have a point. I’m not sure there’s any point in confronting such a strange, twisted person as Ann Coulter in this way—especially when it’s not getting any press coverage.
— bragova Apr 5, 11:20 PM #Using their own words against them. Now if only others would do so. Coulter was just outclassed. Way to go Al.
Peace.
HI Al, Nice to see your posts here and at Huffington’s. I think you are just what the democrats need, an intelligent, rational, not overly emotional person who stands up and has the guts to say what he thinks but without getting crazy like so many.. well ,, like me lol.. I can’t help it. i’m continually enraged by these reich wing shitcases.. (see , told ya )
Will check in often to read your rants.. I also wish I coulda been there to hear you speak.. and I would have brought a pie for Ann :)
— BJ Apr 6, 12:26 AM #Al,
Thanks so much for standing up against the tide of insanity.
Jeff
— Jeff Joseph Apr 6, 12:52 AM #Once again Al, thanks for making me laugh. I owe you many times over.
— Fred X. Quimby Apr 6, 12:53 AM #I wonder what “special ingredients” might have found their way into her coffee that night…...
— garryowen Apr 6, 01:03 AM #Al, you’ve got an ego as big as Dallas and as a recent “hate mail” writer pointed out it does get in the way occasionally, but you are an honest man and you know your stuff and you’re fighting the good fight and I can’t think of anyone who could have settled Ann’s hash better than you did.
— Toyo Apr 6, 01:12 AM #Great Speech. Very funny and yet makes the point u re trying to make.
I loved it.
One thing though. Iraq’s PM is IBRAHIM AL-JAFAARI not Mohammad.
Ann Coulter is a despicable human being. And I say that not because I’m some invective-tossing liberal. I say that because, well, she’s a despicable human being. Franken gave some great examples of the putrid mound of lies and distortions she produces, and there are hundreds more where those came from. I’d feel sorry for the dupes who buy into her breathtakingly dishonest schtick, but they deserve her. Her crap is so easily exposed, the only audience for it are those who seek to be deceived.
— minnie mouse Apr 6, 01:50 AM #Because someone needs to speak out against this rubbish. Al Franken isn’t going to change the tide of American thinking alone, but as a bulwark against this particular BS spewer, he’s more than capable.
I’ve not agreed with everything he’s ever said, but thank God he’s pushing his talents and abilities for the good of other people.
Great speech, Mister Franken. And after a speech like that, you deserve to be called Mister Franken. Please keep up the good words. You articulate for a great many people, right and left.
— Frank Apr 6, 02:18 AM #If everyone ignored her, do you suppose she’d go away? Why not try it; if it doesn’t work you can always find new ways to humiliate her with the truth.
— Overt Acts Apr 6, 03:00 AM #On the telegraph sex… that was a lot better than the telegram sex… It just didn’t catch on – you know… “Kiss me. STOP. Hold me. STOP. Hug me. STOPâ€?
— chuck Apr 5, 09:24 PM #
You da man Chuck! Stop. That made me silence my chortling whilst everyone’s asleep!!! Stop.
— dd Apr 6, 03:19 AM #heck if anyone at the PAC could get me a DVD copy of this (if one was recorded) and the mentioned prior DVD i’d convert it to a compressed video format for iPod and general consumption. :-) if not that i’d suggest the PAC does it and posts it on the iTunes music store. they could do it for free or have a fee to help raise money for the PAC. :-D
— Todd Apr 6, 04:07 AM #“You are not even funny anymore.
What does it feel like to go to Iraq and know that you are perfectly safe because the last thing the enemy wants to do is injure even a not funny liberal that is helping them and not his country’s troops.
— not al franken”
Yup, I can just picture the insurgents sitting in their bombed-out homes in Baghdad, watching DVD’s of Al Franken (during the few hours they have electricity, that is), saying, “Ahmet, have you seen this Stewart Smalley bit?”
I’m curious, what flavor of Republican Kool-Aid is your favorite?
— Cranky Media Guy Apr 6, 04:44 AM #What’s amusing about the posts is that most of you have already condemned Ann’s reply before you read it. I guess preconcieved notions are OK as long as you are on the right side? Just a thought.
— jpbreon Apr 6, 04:58 AM #What side does one have to be on to recognize Ann Coulter’s style and bile – and expect nothing less than the norm from her?
Political ideology and ‘side’ doesn’t enter into it. She makes a living off of being as shrill as is possible, and distorting the truth at every available opportunity.
Yes, the “she has a penis” jokes get old – but I hardly think dismissing her before she opens her mouth reflects a ‘side’...other than ‘not braindead’.
— joe Apr 6, 05:35 AM #Holy Toledo, Al sure ripped her a new one! Just wish I was there to see that vile bag of wind and diarhea try to slither her way into the corner. Is she still getting banged by that idiot Mike….or Mat Drudge? If not, I have an extremely eligible Cocker Spaniel just waiting to find the perfect mate.
— Carlo Apr 6, 06:08 AM #Thank you Al!
Al, you’ve done plenty at the current level. Do us all a favor a lift your aim a bit. Get away from Coulter and her type, and start aiming 2 levels higher. Get the attention of the power brokers, stop going shoulder to shoulder with the pundits. You are so much better than that.
It’s time to reclassify who you are, what you can become, in the eyes of a grateful public.
— Chance Apr 6, 06:40 AM #~also via Huffpo –
She drank her coffee? oh,dear.Clearly- Ann has never been a waitress.
— elion Apr 6, 07:31 AM #For those who ask “Why validate Ann’s existence by debating her?” I would just like to point out that one person, constantly pusing one-sided lies and propaganda, unanswered, is far more dangerous than one who does so and is then exposed for the lies she told.
If no one stands up and points out her bullshit, it tends to stick to the wall, rather than slide off.
Al is doing a public service by dissecting Ann’s lies and revealing the truth behind it, so the next time one of her devotees hears her talk, he can take it with a slightly larger grain of salt.
Unanswered, let alone to do her dirty work, Ann is like a cancer cell. Without treatment, it would spread far faster and wider than with treatment.
Al is the treatment.
Yeah, we all know Ann is lying, and we can prove it. Anyone with a TIVO or a VCR can simply back it up and note that her lips are moving, and ergo, she’s lying.
Marlowe
— Marlowe Apr 6, 09:21 AM #What I cannot fathom is why anyone would want to debate Coulter. You only give more exposure to the likes of one who will slander and degrade anyone with a shred of integrity and honesty.
— Robert FC Apr 6, 09:30 AM #Al, the only reason I don’t want you to run for president is that the right wing nut cases would have you assassinated, probably on orders of the White House.
— Nofoolhere Apr 6, 09:37 AM #Absolutely terrific statement Al!
And good for you for taking on the challenge – one could say debating an unmedicated schizophrenic isn’t quite fair, but its important for someone to point out Ann’s condition.
That was excellent. Add my voice to those clamoring for audio or video of the entire debate.
— Kate Black Apr 6, 10:06 AM #Do we really give a darn what Al has to say? He is about as truthful as Dan Blather. If anyone looks to this guy for the truth heaven help us.
— Tony Apr 6, 10:08 AM #Slink on back on your Freeperville Trolley, Tony, none of us are buying your bs here.
— darylj Apr 6, 10:19 AM #I agree with BLebovic on the importance of taking Coulter seriously. Ignoring them has been a detriment – they’ve grown in audience and range. This speech is PERFECT. I, too, would pay to own the DVD of the previous debate, as well as this one if possible. Reading these words from Al has given me hope and inspiration. I mean it.
— muse Apr 6, 10:25 AM #A breath of fresh air in the stale confines of the repulsican culture of corruption. Thank you for speaking the truth out loud and for making people like Ann Coulter sit and listen to it! As my 23 year old daughter would say, You rock!
— Gloria Apr 6, 10:33 AM #More liberal drool from an admitted left wing extremist. The reason Ann’s response is not posted is because she probably handed Al and old fashioned smackdown! Al’s monologue is so typical it’s getting tedious and boring. Ann on the other hand takes a different approach than most conservatives and it’s highly effective at exposing the flaws in the liberal arguments. That’s why she’s so vilified.
— Geo Apr 6, 10:39 AM #Mr. Franken,
Thank you for a very enjoyable read. I too would love to see video of the whole event, her face must have contorted into quite a few interesting grimaces.
I knew Ann at college. She was a Delta Gamma and I was a Phi Delt at Cornell. I still can’t figure out how a Grateful Dead listenin’ party girl like skinny Annie (her nickname at my frat) became one of the key faces of the radical, i.e. fascist, right.
Actually I did figure it out, money. Hopefully her thirty pieces of silver will assuage her conscience.
Poor Annie, woke up to find out she was the eyes of the world…..and went back to sleep.
— Dude Apr 6, 10:44 AM #Geo,
If you’re an Ann Coulter fan, perhaps you can explain what is funny about feeding rat poison to Justice Stevens.
Can you actually give an example of Ann being “highly effective at exposing the flaws in the liberal arguments”?
— Daryl McCullough Apr 6, 10:46 AM #alan pezaro, ph.d, Apr 5, 01:28 PM
I have worked with dozens of real PhDs, and NONE of them ever use PhD after their name, except on their c.v., or on their peer-review publications.
The fact that you (might) have a PhD (in anything) brings nothing to this argument. Plenty of idiots have PhDs. And you (apparently) are one of them.
Coulter is either an amoral mercenary, or seriously crazy. Either way s/he is bad news.
— Fluffy the Wonder Rabbit Apr 6, 10:47 AM #Add me to the list who would pay for the video of the entire event.Carlo,if I hear that Coulter gets anywhere near your Cocker Spaniel,I’m on the phone to the ASPCA,PETA,and the Humane Society.Although it does explain her centerfold in Dog Fancy magazine.
— rs Apr 6, 10:48 AM #I’d give a lot (if I had it) to read the rest of this debate! Al, a MAGNIFICENT opening statement. If only all of the NeoCon propaganda could be answered so well, publicly and quickly!
For you who keep asking why bother to debate such a foul mouthed liar, remember what Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Ian MacLeod
Veteran
Disabled
Oregon
FYI, people, The email address for “Geo” “More liberal drool from an admitted left wing extremist.” etc – is a fake.
A paid ringer? Probably.
Ian
— Ian MacLeod Apr 6, 12:11 PM #I am A combat Nam Vet 69-70. 4th Inf Div… (a real one “11B40’’ not a John Kerry one).
God Bless Ann Coulter & fuck you Franken.
— Al Hoffman Apr 6, 12:44 PM #So typical of Al Franken.
Devoid of content.
Devoid of meaning.
Devoid of morals.
Devoid of humor.
Al Franken is the unfunniest comedian ever to appear on the worlds stage. The fact that he espouses a vitriolic from of anti americanism just makes it worse.
— Jayhawk Apr 6, 12:51 PM #I would love to see Ann do some genuine comedy. Like, say, Tom Davis’ impression of someone plunging 8-inch-long knitting needles into their eyes. Now that would be funny!
— melior Apr 6, 01:09 PM #Actually, there could be no debate. Coulter would not know how to handle one. She can only spit out garbage and make ridculous attempts to belittle and demean her cause of the day. You Al, on the other hand have the facts to support your words. Pravo and I say fuck you to the idiot from the 4th Inf Div. He still must have a concussion from a long ago battle. Do you have purple hearts and ribbons from saving fellow soldiers like Kerry? I doubt it.
— bill Apr 6, 01:19 PM #Coulter’s sole originality consists of the high opinion she has of herself.
— robert Apr 6, 01:28 PM #Honor and decency and true family values—and humor for dessert. The Midwest trumverate will restore and refine the SENATE—FEINGOLD, WISCONSIN, OBAMA, ILLINOIS and FRANKEN, MINNESOTA. Circle the wagons— the calvary is coming!
— Davina Hammel Apr 6, 01:35 PM #Ah, Mr. Hoffman, you are a disgrace to your past uniform. And the rest of you trolls are fitting drones of the screeching harpy.
You are all just more proof that Republicans have destroyed our education system. How sad for all of us.
— Zimmerman Apr 6, 01:47 PM #Bill & the other idiot,
I don’t need to defend my service to my Country. Yes, I have medals & they are framed & hanging on my office wall. I didn’t throw mine away! As for Mr. Kerry’s 3 Purple Hearts, I NEVER met one service man or woman who was awarded 3 Purple Hearts and wasn’t missing a limb, had visible scars or didn’t walk with a limp! If I am a disgrace to the uniform, so be it. God, you liberals just don’t get it…..the Republicans are not the enemy….we have REAL enemies who wish to destroy us. Wake the fuck up!
Oh, Al Franken..fuck you!
Mr. Hoffman – you could also use some of that medical counseling that was proposed. it’s never too late to get ahold of that anger. We’ll pray for Ann – she has Marfan and that’s genetic and usually fatal.
— Copper Penny Apr 6, 02:23 PM #I would also enjoy hearing the entire debate. Can an audio file be posted?
Were there any ground rules to this debate? Mr. Franken’s opening statement was incisive. Invariably I find Ann Coulter shrill and tendentious. Her writing might provoke some back-slapping exchanges between right wingers, but intellectually it is pablum.
The remarks by Mr. Franken about Coulter’s duplicity in ignoring the Bush family’s influence at Yale were laser-guided. Did Coulter even attempt to respond?
— Sam Meyerson Apr 6, 02:30 PM #If liberals were really traitors and hated America like Ann Coulter says,
we would do what all traitors fo who hate America and everything it stands for:
We would all vote for George Bush.
— Dan Goodman Apr 6, 02:51 PM #Al Hoffman, Welcome home buddy!! Job well done! I too have a framed hand-full of medals on the wall from the SE Asian War. I know, as you know, that, concidering the sacrafices of all who served there, we really didn’t deserve them all. I’m sure that, as you so well pointed out, that Mr. Kerry didn’t deserve all of his either, compaired to the sacrifices of others. However, you and I and Mr. Kerry did earn all those medals by the criteria that was the standard for that conflict because the standard was lowered in hopes of improving morale of the troops as it wained. I, as do you I’m sure, remember guys who got purple hearts for a non-life threatening injuries, never missed a patrol or day of duty. That’s just the way it was then, you know it and I know it and so does anyonee who served there. So let’s just stop the name calling over those medals, in the long run it demeans them all and that isn’t what we, you and I, want.
And again, Welcome home and thanks for your service to this country.
— Tim Apr 6, 03:01 PM #FANTASTIC SPEECH AL!
I AM SO PROUD YOU ARE ONE OF US. God Bless you,
xo,
Lydia
Keep bringin’ it, Al. Ann Coulter needs a hot beef injection.
Best idea: make a DVD of Al’s speech and Ann’s response and use it in fundraising for Al’s Senatorial campaign. I’d like a chance to vote for him, so here’s hoping Al runs for President one day.
— BlueStater Apr 6, 03:10 PM #You sure she’s from Darien? I always heard she came from New Canaan (next town over). As a Darien-ite of roughly the same age as Coulter, I have the feeling I would have known of her. Darien has much to answer for, but does Ann have to be added to the list?
— DrBB Apr 6, 03:32 PM #Hey Al-
Even without the visuals I can imagine that big toothy grin of yours as you deliver the smack-down! Yeah, Baby!
— Satiric Phenomenologist Apr 6, 03:50 PM #Awww, look at the itty bitty trolls! So cute! All you have to do is speak a little truth about their lazy, foul-mouthed pin-up girl and they show up and get outraged on command. I think they all believe that she is their girlfriend and they have to defend her (nonexistant) honor. Sad that.
I would like to thank Ann Coulter for doing humankind a tremendous favor—thank you for never having children, Ann. We really appreciate it.
Go (future Senator) Al Franken! Keep it up!
— zoe kentucky Apr 6, 04:13 PM #Hey Al,
According to your example of humor, (By the way, the joke example you give is hilarious.) It would not be funny if someone put poison in Ann Coulter’s creme brulee. However it would be ironic and if you cannot have everything in life, you should at least be able to have irony.
Cheers,
Timothy Johnston
— Timothy Johnston Apr 6, 04:18 PM #Mr. Franken –
I am extremely impressed with your even handed way of handling her shrill shilling.
I am afraid for the future of the country, in large part because of the lying of our government, and the contemptuous attitudes of conservative commentators like Coulter. Reading your opening remarks above give me hope for the country. I wish you great success in your senate campaign. If you decide to run, i will contribute to your campaign.
— Dr. P Apr 6, 04:29 PM #Great post! I kept thinking “God it would be great for the rightwing fanatics that I know (most of which I’m forced to work with) to read this. But then I had the realization that they would see Al Franken’s name, or maybe read the first sentance and stop because it is ‘anti-Bush’ ”. “We’re living in a dictatorship….if only people would listen”
I saw a bumper sticker a few days ago that says it all “is it 2008 yet?” Keep the fires burning Al! — Scott Apr 6, 05:19 PM #I’m not sure what I think of debating Ann Coulter. She certainly deserves the beatdown, but as my boss likes to say, when you wrestle with a pig, you get dirty, and the pig likes it. Maybe she should just be ignored.
— gus Apr 6, 05:39 PM #ONly Ann can get away with what she says in America and she does very well doing it.. her income is certainly more than mine and many others combined.. she does use the constitution to her benefit and contradicting it in the same breath…
What a wicked woman
Wow?
I am surprised that Al did not post Ann’s response. Actually I’m not. This fact renders Franken’s whole intro meaningless. All you leftists should go listen to Al’s radio show.
— jim Apr 6, 05:46 PM #Ann is the screaming mimi that re neocons give.
I heard that she was the kid in grade school who would pick her nose and eat her boogers, just to get attention.
hey Al, don’t quit your day job. You’ll never get elected in Minnesota.
— anniebird Apr 6, 07:16 PM #ptaylor, bet she still gets a good dose of them thar boogers with them restaurant meals along with that phallic spoon stirring ye ole coffee or teee heee !!!
— flibbertygibbet Apr 6, 07:23 PM #I’m from australia so i am not totally wired to the day to day struggle in america, but i read somewhere that Ann Coulter actually started life as a guy and had a sex change. is this true?
Al Franken’s remarks are excellent.
— mike davis Apr 6, 08:43 PM #Great stuff, Al, as usual.
Over on The WELL, we refer to Coulter as “The Thin White Puke.”
— David Gans Apr 6, 09:43 PM #Ann didn’t post anything about it at all on her sight. Does that render Ann meaningless?
Why, yes, I believe it does!
— Tim O. Apr 6, 10:34 PM #Gee, Ron, do you think the guys at Downs Rachlin Martin PLLC will be happy to know you spend their time trolling on blogs?
— FOM Apr 6, 11:09 PM #I am English and fond of America and Americans, who are overwhelmingly a friendly and tolerant people.
So, I am alarmed by the aggressive and abusive style of what passes for “debate” in the US. It has become rabid in the extreme.
But does this reflect a major change in America, or is it just about a small vociferous minority?
Pandering to 2 to 3 million extremists is lucrative. Winning points will make no impact on them or their prejudices. Just don’t let them get beyond their core audience. This means not debating with them it means discrediting them. Calmly, exposing lies as quick as possible discredits them in general. it makes their next lie much less credible in the eyes of all but the most closed minded.
So, Al’s humour is good, but please think whether resorting to insults doesn’t discredit you too in the eyes of the less committed. You don’t have to get angry to get even.
Richard
— Richard Bennett Apr 7, 12:52 AM #I wonder why everyone who tries to say that Bush and Co. misled the American public about the war in Iraq fails to mention that Clinton was saying the same thing for 8 years and who came very close to invading Iraq himself and who also invaded a country and deposed a leader without world approval as well…people always like to point out the supposed lies on the opposite political side, but they always seem to forget when their own side does it…oh by the way, the leader Clinton deposed without UN approval was Slobodan Milosevic
— Thoreau Dogood Apr 7, 01:25 AM #Al, I saw your band jam in Rochester NY over 20 years ago. It was fun and good. Your sincere approach to everything you put your mind to is now magnitudes greater with your ethical and intellectual defense of the good people of the United States of America. Thank you so much for being on the front lines against a most evil and corrupt power worshipping class made up of the greedy and the manipulated-ignorant. Thanks, and God help us all.
— John Gregory Apr 7, 01:53 AM #al- i think you are like, so in trouble! sean and i just finished our weekly game of ‘friars, frocks, and fannies.’ i got him to promise to make colmes put rat poison in your lox and onion bagel. amazing what a man lacking a spine and brain stem will do when tied to a neon-lit ‘family values’ crucifix! regards, ann
ps- loved your tie at the debate!
If Ann Coulter looked like Hanan Ashrawi she would have to get a real job. The fact is that there are probably not 5 women in their entire party that look like that. Trading on her venomous tongue and physical appearance is almost as bad as using a tragedy to promote a radical right wing agenda that the public never wanted.
Republicans are bad
— Republicans R Bad Apr 7, 02:34 AM #Please, enough of Ann – give the guy credit for developing a drag queen act that gives uptight spunk monkies on the Right hope. Hate and lies are true Republican values . . . “Party Above Trurth, Lies become truth if repeated often enough”
— Jess_Wonderin Apr 7, 03:29 AM #What’s amusing about the posts is that most of you have already condemned Ann’s reply before you read it. I guess preconcieved notions are OK as long as you are on the right side? Just a thought.
— jpbreon Apr 6, 03:58 AM #
————————————————————-
What makes you think we haven’t read Ann’s reply, or at least an unabashedly sympathetic synopsis of it? Repeating a link from above:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1607703/posts
There’s no transcript, but there are summaries, quotes and paraphrases of the debate, including several from an assertively partisan right wing perspective. And if you slog through the comments, you’ll note the frustrated assessment of some righty attendees that Ms. Coulter got her butt kicked.
So, to the posters who so assuredly accuse Al of suppressing the full content in order to misrepresent the substance of the exchange, consider doing a little less hating and a little more homework.
— Leo Marvin Apr 7, 03:54 AM #Thanks for all you do Al.
We ignore their lies at our peril. That’s a lesson Al Gore and John Kerry learned too late… Sometimes you have to get down and dirty at ground level, and that’s where the action is. You help give us all the courage to keep up the good fight.
The problem that we have is that the lies & distortions of the truth that people like Ann screach are remembered because they are sensational. The truth & explanations don’t have the same “pop”.
I swear that I heard it from a person who really went to grade school with Ann that she picked her nose.(and ate the boogers just to get attention)
Come on, funny is funny.
Great speach, Al!!! Now this is the way to talk to right wingnutts…if you must. A lot of truth to counter their lies. Ann “Let’s convert all Muslims to Christianity” Coulter will burn in hell for an eternity for all of her lies. Hey, at least she’s got that going for her…which is nice.
— George Apr 7, 04:45 PM #To paraphrase Mary McCarthy—-Every word out of Ann Coulter’s mouth is a lie, including “and” and “the.”
She isn’t fit to smell where I pee. And those are her good points.
I was trolling the freeper’s website. Here is a conservative take on the Coulter-Franken debate:
The show was put on by the University of Judaism and thinking to myself that the crowd would be mostly conservative Jews, I was ready for a good night. I was wrong; the mostly Jewish audience was comprised of leftwing appeasers hoping for a Christian bloodbath (Ann is Christian, Al is Jewish). They were wrong. The 20-minute opening speeches were ideological blather from Franken, spewing superficial talking points and Ann forcing facts down the throats of the 85% liberal audience that for the most part seemed to be in shock.
Amazing, isn’t it?
— LT Apr 7, 05:00 PM #PEOPLE LISTEN…. ANN COULTER DOES NOT KNOW JACK FROM SHIT AND SHE JUST WANTS ATTENTION SO SHE CAN GET PAID, IGNORE HER AND SHE WILL GO AWAY. AFTER ALL SHE HAS NEVER SAID ANYTHING WORTH LISTENING TO.
— jeff gannon/jim guckert Apr 7, 06:45 PM #Thank you for speaking the truth.
She is a very sick, angry,
skinny, unloveable, (sex to be determined) person.
Ann is one of those people mommy forgot to cut loose from the damned umbilical cord around her neck.
She is so very angry, but makes good money being a professional angry person.
Hey Al,
I’ve been a big fan since 1975, the SNL days! You, like fine wine, get better with age—Funnier too!!!
I’d sure like to have seen Ann’s comeback to your lambasting of her. . . It’s very profound how the truth, especially quoting one’s own words, hurts eternally!
Please run for President! I’ll be your Texas campaign manager—We’ve got to get a smart, intelligent, savvy and articulate motivator in high office before these goof-balls in Washington destroy everything beyond redemption!
Please write if you can—Your friend, Jim Slater
What is source of “Two thirds of the wounded in “Iraq now have brain injuries. Tha’t because so many of the casualties are from IED’s, and the injuuries are consussive and not ballistic. Each one of those brain injuries is going to cost a million dollars over the course of that veteran’s life.
— Tom Greening Apr 8, 01:50 AM #Regarding crass Coulter, I believe she hails from New Canaan, not Darien. Someone ought to tell cranky Coulter to lay off the crank and eat a ham sandwich for Christ’s sake!
— Laura from Darien Apr 8, 05:59 AM #Psychologists have estimated that 15% of the population is not capable of rationale thought. I don’t know if this is owing to tempermental or environmental factors or both, but it would be interesting if Coulter had been included in the study to see the results.
— alan Apr 8, 10:47 AM #Thoroughly enjoyed your comments Al. I tend to think that Coulter’s biggest problem is her general lack of facts in any discussion or debate she involves herself in. I live in Canada and still remember the first time I watched her on CBC, what a joke! I searched around and was able to find part of the transcript for that interview.
This is an exchange between Ann Coulter and CBC news host Bob McKeown:
Coulter: “Canada used to be one of our most loyal friends and vice-versa. I mean Canada sent troops to Vietnam – was Vietnam less containable and more of a threat than Saddam Hussein?”
McKeown interrupts: “Canada didn’t send troops to Vietnam.”
Coulter: “I don’t think that’s right.”
McKeown: “Canada did not send troops to Vietnam.”
Coulter (looking desperate): “Indochina?”
McKeown: “Uh no. Canada …second World War of course. Korea. Yes. Vietnam No.”
Coulter: “I think you’re wrong.”
McKeown: “No, took a pass on Vietnam.”
Coulter: “I think you’re wrong.”
McKeown: “No, Australia was there, not Canada.”
Coulter: “I think Canada sent troops.”
McKeown: “No.”
Coulter: “Well. I’ll get back to you on that.”
McKeown tags out in script:
“Coulter never got back to us—but for the record, like Iraq, Canada sent no troops to Vietnam.”
— Allan Mckee Apr 8, 11:00 AM #Great research, Al! Know you don’t remember meeting me in K.C. just after going on SNL—- that’s fine with me.
But I’m a REAL VietNam veteran, served with Zumwalt, Kerry & Cary in the Delta. Porker from that IvyLeague 4th Div barks at the moon.
Keep up the good work & maintain the pressure on O’Reilly, Coulter, Limbaugh & their ILK.
Thanks also from me Al…now if only we could get someone like you or Carville to sign up opposite that dirt bag Hannity….Alan is such a gutless wonder boy…Coulter is the epitomy of right wing scum….I also would love you to post an mp3 or podcast of all your future entanglements with these idiots…
— The Beatkat Apr 8, 07:20 PM #Thank you Al for being a voice of reason in this chaotic time. I’d vote for you! I love your speech and I love your books! Your radio show rocks too!
— Al Lover Apr 8, 07:57 PM #Al, glad to see this mentioned on the HuffPo which led me here. Must have been a personally satisfying night to have put Ms Coulter in her place.
I’m a Vietnam vet and had six strokes in 2001. The VA is very good to me and the meds don’t cost. Part of the payback from Uncle Sam for doing my four-year stint in the Navy.
35 years ago this month I was on Yankee Station aboard the carrier USS Constellation. It’s a time that will live in my memory forever.
Therefore, I have the highest interest in veterans benefits issues that you share also. Go get ‘em! -G
— Mr Goodhelp Apr 8, 08:12 PM #Al, thanks for everything you do. It’s amazing how easy it is to expose the right wing’s lies and propaganda. Why are you the only one who seems to be able to call them on it? Keep up the great work!
— Sonny Apr 9, 04:36 AM #Thanks for the speech on truth to West Point. The cadets showed they are smart enough to know that truth-tellers are to be honored, and them to as they dedicate their lives to defending that freedom. I can always get a daily dose of facts from you on your Air America program. Your efforts are much appreciated.
— LanceThruster Apr 9, 08:54 AM #A special thanks to Ms Coulter and her lemmings. She’s going to help Al get elected.
— ThatsMissMoonbatTooYou Apr 9, 12:36 PM #WELL PLAAAAYED, WELL PLAAAAYED.
Al, I agree with so many of the responses. I would most certainly pay for either debate, the full thing. It would be more gratifying that there are words to describe. I can’t believe she didn’t just give up. Love you, Al. I will vote for you also.
“I would love to see Ann do some genuine comedy. Like, say, Tom Davis’ impression of someone plunging 8-inch-long knitting needles into their eyes. Now that would be funny!”
That wasn’t Tom Davis, it was Michael O’Donoghue.
— CL Apr 9, 05:42 PM #— Ron Cooney Apr 5, 01:56 PM #
Ron Cooney, and Ann Coulter separated at birth.
— oncall Apr 9, 07:46 PM #The only thing Ann Coulter should be separated from is the media – and her Adam’s Apple.
— abqjohn Apr 9, 07:56 PM #My grandparents both knew Prescott Bush …my grandfather was mayor of our town in CT and they worked together on several government projects.
My grandmother has only good things to say about Prescott Bush, however when it comes to current Bush, it’s another story…she constantly questions his honesty. You’d think with that much reputation backing you up from earlier days it would carry over…I wonder why it hasn’t…
— Ryan Apr 10, 12:35 AM #Just came across this. I would not like to have Al Franken really mad at me!
— Dr. Bradley Gaynes Apr 10, 05:05 PM #Looks to me like the makin’s of a helluva stump speech Al. I might move from the dairy state just so I can vote for you.
— Richard Apr 12, 02:36 PM #I’m sure there’s a reason that Mr. Franken didn’t reprint even a little bit of Ms. Coulter’s rebuttal. Shame on you, Al!
— Dan Apr 12, 04:38 PM #Very nice work, Mr. Frankin. However, I am a bit conflicted and I was hopeing you could help. You see, I find Ms Coulter quite attractive and would genuinely like to do the Humpty Dance with her on the White House lawn, (back yard of course). But at the same time I fear that I would also have to listen to what she had to say in those tender moments, pre-consumation, and I’m afraid that it would ‘spoil the moment’ for me.
Any advice?
By the way, I believe that history will record you as a great American. Thank you for giving a shit.
Lou
— Big Lou Apr 13, 09:24 AM #Ann is the ONLY person, that after hearing her only speak a few phrases, I had to turn her off, or risk feeling nauseous.
Wow, am I impressed with Al Franken
— me Apr 15, 04:08 AM #Those of you who want a recording of this debate can order one from KPCC 89.3 FM, an NPR station which broadcast the event:
CD Request
CD copies of the program are available. Mail a $15 check or money order to:
KPCC
1570 E. Colorado Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91106
Please include the program, date and your telephone number, should we have any questions regarding your order.
Al Franken & Ann Coulter
March 27, 2006 7:30pm
(http://www.scpr.org/events/uofjudaism.html),
— cipheroid Apr 15, 10:14 AM #Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Al Franken. Every time I stumble across one of Coulter’s articles (they make it into Yahoo’s Most-Viewed every few months) I become incoherent with rage. I know this is presicely the effect she’s after, which pisses me off all the more. I always picture myself trying to debate her and ending up, red-faced, sputtering, and screaming obscenities. God bless Al Franken (even though I’m an athiest) for having the wit, courage, and cool intelligence to expose and skewer this toxic bitch.
— Kenneth Gutierrez Apr 15, 11:55 AM #” I always picture myself trying to debate her and ending up, red-faced, sputtering, and screaming obscenities.”
Because you know she’s right, for example:
“If you can somehow force a liberal into a point-counterpoint argument, his retorts will bear no relation to what you’ve said—unless you were in fact talking about your looks, your age, your weight, your personal obsessions, or whether you are a fascist. In the famous liberal two-step, they leap from one idiotic point to the next, so you can never nail them. It’s like arguing with someone with Attention Deficit Disorder.”
Jeremy,
I get angry, not because I “know she’s right,” but because I have difficulty accepting that a fellow human being can be so perfectly evil—can say such barbaric, distorted, destructive things out of blatant self-interest. As to specifically rebutting the idea of her being “right,” I’ll leave that to Al Franken. Did you even read the above?
I derive my values from people like, Christ, Buddha, Tolstoy, and Gandhi. Coulter’s role models seem to be Joe McCarthy, Ayn Rand, Jerry Falwell, and Rupert Murdoch. I have little to fear from her arguments but my own overpowering revulsion.
— Kenneth Gutierrez Apr 16, 12:04 AM #Since flat-assed Annie and the wingnuts are so fond of ad hominem arguments, try this one:
I’m retired and can’t afford Lexus/Nexus, but if you can afford it you can find the tv interview in which flat-ass identifies herself as a Log Cabin Republican and New Age Christian.
Not that I object—I, too like muff diving—but its another hallmark in her hypocritite’s resume.
She should be tried for treason against the Constitution and deported to a budding dictatorship in Eastern Europe or Latin America.
Folks:
We are living in very dangerous times.
Al, you deserve the highest praise for speaking up so eloquently. We MUST respond to those people, events, and statements with which we disagree. Staying silent can be fatal.
Our world is in danger.
Our freedoms are eroding.
Our leadership is out of touch.
Our military is being abused.
Our media is distracted.
The Democratic party is in shambles.
This is how terrible times begin.
Only through vigilance like that demonstrated by Al’s statement can we hope to keep the menace in check.
I firmly believe that most people like Ann have no consciousness of what we perceive. They feel they are right. They don’t realize what is actually happening. They aren’t evil, they are just ignorant.
I know someone like Ann. He believes that whatever ideas come into his head are true and valid, and worth sharing. Such people have no concept of what we consider reality.
I know another person who is a very intelligent and eloquent doctor. He is a huge Bush fan. He has a complete major blind spot that obscures what some of us see so clearly.
These are not bad people, but they are dangerous.
We can only hope that enough people wake up soon enough to help prevent the menace from growing too far.
The danger is imminent. Another terrorist attack and we could have martial law.
The fact that many people listen to her and Bush, and believe them and agree with them is the most worrisome. Those are the same conditions that enable tyrants to grab power.
We must all prepare. Think about what you could do. Prepare for it now.
We must all stay alert and vigilant, and we must prepare.
God bless us all and thank you Al for being a voice of reason.
— Daniel Apr 17, 12:56 AM #Good job Al, you presented your viewpoint without any arguement. Too bad nobody gets to hear what Ann says…and none of these people ever will, because they’re a bunch of liberals. That’s fine with me. We need liberals to question our lives. We need that dark voice from the closet asking if we’re gay yet. We need the dark voice asking if we think it would be better if we all got the same paycheck and no one wanted to work hard. We all need to wonder if we should just give all we have to the minorities—for the shear fact that they are minorities. We all need to hear the that small voice, which tells us to give up. Sure we lose some along the way. Sure a few of us fall to the dark side. They listen to Al’s half-ass jokes. They prefer the funny over the real. It lets us know that we’re all still corruptable. We’re all still human. That’s something Jesus taught us, Al. That’s something Jesus taught the Jews. You’re still human. You may be standing on the shoulders of shoulders and preaching whatever you want, but if someone came to take your house—saying that it belongs to the Indians—you’d want to fight for it. (Note, I didn’t say that you actually would fight for it, Al. I don’t know if you’re man enough. But you’d want to.) I wish that would happen someday Al. I wish you could sit in my shoes, while the blacks, gays and people like you try to tell me I don’t deserve them.
I know you won’t win, Al. You won’t live long enough. But trust, your forces will win. The forces of corrosion and parasitism will win this society, as they have won every society. I just hope a few more of you burn in the fires at the end—the fires which you all fed.
— Midwesterner Apr 18, 01:12 AM #Midwesterner do you really believe the bs your saying, your a neocon arsewipe.
— southernguy Apr 18, 04:35 PM #Wow!! midwestern guy, you need to see your shrink and have your meds adjusted!!!!
I don’t remember which, but a philosopher(maybe Aristotle?) said ” the true measure of a society is the way they treat the least among them”(gays, minorities, poor people etc.) I think Jesus would have agreed.
Why did Ann agree to debate Al? She had to know that he would expose her lies. Isn’t she afraid that her supporters will recognize the truth when they see it?...I just answered my own question.
— Harry Gregory Apr 20, 08:20 PM #I usually try to limit my pundit intake. Especially anything to do with the overly self indulgent, self infatuated, idiot Ann Coulter. However, I would say… put this video online. Even if only in audio, this is one debate I’d love to hear. So, please, create an audio podcast and put this stuff in it so I can subscribe. Video too. I feel I can speak on behalf of blip.tv, ourmedia.org… and archive.org, when I say this is why free hosting exists. So people can here the media straight from the horses mouth.
Thanks.
— Michael Meiser Apr 20, 10:42 PM #I have puzzled over & over about Coulter & all I can actually come up with is—-she’s an attractive attack dog. But then (maybe it’s me) if you study her image she ddoes seem a little wacked out. And there are women, no names, who will, 1) do anything for money or 2) do anything for attention.
— der_Alte Apr 23, 06:30 PM #Al,
Cudos on your debate with coulter. Im an Active Duty Army Soldier who has been to Iraq and I know first hand that the majority of us in the trenches voted for Kerry and I personally want you to run for senate in MN. Hey can I get you autograph on “the Truth”.
— bndtbygd Apr 25, 03:21 PM #Al,
Cudos on your debate with coulter. Im an Active Duty Army Soldier who has been to Iraq and I know first hand that the majority of us in the trenches voted for Kerry and I personally want you to run for senate in MN. Hey can I get you to autograph on “the Truth”.
— bndtbygd Apr 25, 03:22 PM #Ann coulter is the beach blanket bimbo of the conservative movement.
She thinks chappaquiddick and being pro-choice is enough to make the Liberal movement lose credibility. She was one of the first to jump on the jingoistic patriotic bandwagon with her book title “Treason” ...Pul-eeze. She is treasonous against all real sanity and reason.
I am starting to get sick and tired of her. I must admit, I was a fan of hers. However, each and every time I have seen her on TV recently,she has been the hostile and basher/character crusher. The same thing she accuses DEM/LIB being. I am starting to see the double standard that Mr.Colmes and Mr Franken talk about….its there if you really take a look over the last few months
— David Apr 29, 09:01 AM #I really like how many people who have responded to this article first talk about how narrow minded the right is…and then go on to lump into the same bunch of ‘liars’ and ‘right winged filth’.
Seems contradictory to me.
Good debate, Al. I enjoyed your speech here, and I’ve read some quotes from Ann as well. A bit of a slug-fest, I must say, but I’m sure the speaking fee was worth it for both of you.
— Patrick May 1, 12:11 AM #I found my way here via “Sweet Jesus, I Hate Bill O’Reilly.com,” another wizard at avoiding facts—O’Reilley, not Jesus! It’s a strange commentary on today’s media that the Edward R. Murrows of our day are alive and well speaking truth to power on alternative networks (like Air America—thanks, Mr. Franken!) or on comedy cable shows (Jon Steward; Steven Colbert). I’m tired of being called terrorist, unpatriotic, traitor, relativist, anti-God and/or religion, secular [humanist, I don’t mind], destined for the fires of hell, corrupter of young minds, etc., because I don’t agree with the likes of Ms Coulter and the politicized religious right. Thanks for your courageous public commitment to truth, Mr. Franken!
— Kate May 2, 11:24 AM #Al’s new book is FANTASTIC! Even better than “Lies,” which was also very good and holds a place of honor in my library next to “Dude, Where’s My Country” by Michael Moore. Incidentally, my guess is that Moore is the anonymous writer of the introduction to “TRUTH.”
Al – thanks for all you do. It’s refreshing to have honest voices like yours and Michael’s out there keeping our leadership in check. I’ll vote for you when you run for president.
How about ‘08????
— Bill Ingram May 2, 12:52 PM #The Time magazine article about her had so many words I’ve never heard before, I just couldn’t go on reading it. Thanks for keeping it simple, Al. You Harvard guys are the salt of the earth.
— Eric May 2, 02:26 PM #You said (so brilliantly), what I have been trying to say in an e-mail to Coulter for a long time. However, if you really search the Internet, even Ann C’s website(s), you’ll see that there’s no way to send her an e-mail. She’s too fearful. And rightly so. She needs her own “Secret Service.” Where can we read what Ann C. said in response to your magnificant opening?
— S.J. May 2, 02:36 PM #Mr. Franken,
What I love about what you do (one of the things) is how you know what your opponents have said so they can’t argue. You always have the quotes the time the date… this is THEEEE BEST way to “counter the coultersâ€? out there. The right just gets a deer in the headlights look when you can do this.
I would love to see more blogs doing this. Then when those of us have to argue with lets say FAMILY!!! we can do it effectively. This gives us “the people� ammunition.
I find all I can say is well I read this I saw that, but usually can’t remember who or what. It is so effective and your humor goes without saying…. the best, gotta luv it!
Thank you
Bams
Let’s see… Rush Limbaugh lives in Florida… And here we find that Ann Coulter lives in Florida. Both seem to have some definite problems with rationality, and at least one is known to have problems with drugs. I know nothing about Ann’s marriages, if any, but Rush seems to have at least three. You don’t think that Ann and Rush… (Really bad visual imagery at this point) Hmmmm.
— d. g. bieri May 2, 04:09 PM #“I’m tired of being called terrorist, unpatriotic, traitor, relativist, anti-God and/or religion, secular [humanist, I don’t mind], destined for the fires of hell, corrupter of young minds, etc.,” kate.
kate… the only group destined for the fires of hell is this administration.
Now there is special wing in hell for those who lie in the name of God. And the cell right next to bin Laden is for the Bushman. Afterall he’s responsible for the deaths of almost as many Americans as bin Laden
bin Laden 3,000
bush 2,400
As far as the catastrophic injuries bush leads by a mile!
— bams May 2, 04:17 PM #Great debate Al. It’s a civilized, humorous and above all Honest look at the issues, which are elements that make the ultra-conservatives nervous for obvious reasons. I love the examples you give of Coulter’s “cherry pickingâ€? the facts to further her hateful agenda.
The conservative press is to the media what the WWF is to sports. It may get good ratings but it’s sleazy and dishonest.
— paul May 2, 04:38 PM #Just read Al’s opening speech and all the comments posted so far (the overwhelming majority of which I agree with). Al, you were waaaaayyyyy too kind to Coulter. I’d love to have a CD or DVD of the entire debate. I’d pay any amount of money to watch you stomp the shit out of her! Maybe Rush “Let’s send all drug users—except myself—to prison” Limbaugh will actually develop some stones and agree to debate you one-on-one. (Then again, why would he ever agree to have his lies and distortions exposed in front of an audience so that he can be seen for the fraud that he really is?)
As for you, Midwesterner, you seem to be so worried about someone coming to take your house. I wonder who took your brain? Saying—or even implying—that liberals don’t want people to work hard or that liberals don’t work hard themselves is BULLSHIT!
I’m a liberal, and I ain’t ashamed to admit it. I also worked two jobs while I was in college just so I could afford my first car. No one ever handed me anything, pal, and I don’t ask for handouts myself. What ptaylor said was right on the money. (And watch what you say about Indians—I’m part American Indian myself!)
As for Franken not posting Coulter’s response on this site, you honestly don’t believe she would’ve posted his speech on her website, do you? Coulter, O’Reilly, Limbaugh and company have been allowed to use their First Amendment right to spew their lies, half-truths and distortions unchallenged for several years, but when someone like Al Franken (who actually researches subjects and, for the most part, gets his facts straight) calls them out, they have a hissy fit. But, Midwesterner, in your fantasy world, where, apparently, only white, conservative, heterosexual males actually work hard, and Blacks and other minorities—and even gays and lesbians—are some kind of threat to you, Coulter, O’Reilly and Limbaugh must seem like the “Holy Trinity” to you, and every word they utter must be treated as gospel.
Listening to Ann Coulter and others like her, I am struck by the realization that there is nothing of greater importance than creating a world where all children are raised by loving, gentle, fulfilled parents who hold their offspring close, kissing the top of their head and telling them that everything will be all right, and then working to make it so. She, in particular, seems to have missed that part of growing up.
Love, truly, is nothing more than understanding. Fear, anger, and hate are signs of not understanding another human being or the reasons for their situation and behavior.
“Evil” seems to be an epithet used to maintain a distance between people, often because the speaker is unwilling to challenge themselves to overcome their fear and try to understand the position of the other. Yes, there are angry people out in the world who do very hurtful things, but the point of living is to create heaven rather than perpetuating hell.
“What of Adolf Hitler?” you ask.
“The one who was never confronted by the persons closest to him about his behavior?” I reply, “That if someone close to him were able to help him confront his irrational fear of Jews and other minorities, he might have learned compassion and changed the course of history?”
Our leaders (whether German, American, Iraqi, or Venezualan) are humans who have chosen a path and place of great responsibility – helping them recognize their own fears and human failings is paramount. What greater influence than their parents? Conversely are those in the lowest echelons of society who find no other option but crime and violence – a parent whose life is in balance (time enough for work, family, and SELF) is in a much better position to nuture any child, whether future leader, political pundit, or simply a member of society, and stands to make and enjoy a better world for that nurturing.
Solutions? Do everything we can to support a balanced life and the continued education involved in parenting. Ending wage disparity (and thus the poverty of money and personal time) between the CEO and the janitor who cleans her toilet is one way to do that. Yes, the basic principles of economics indicate that the wealth of the poor is not improved by taking away from the wealthier, but with greater power comes greater responsibility to ensure that ALL parts of the corpus receive a balanced share. I picture a cow whose brain receives 1000 times more nutrition than the rest of the body (say, a CEO who earns $10 million per year versus the floor mopper who earns $10, 000). Yes, the cow may live, but how truly enjoyable and fulfilling can it be for the brain to see the poverty of the body? “Okay,” you argue, “But different parts of the body require different kinds and levels of nutrition.” Sure. I would agree, and when I see both white collar and violent crime disappear from impoverished neighborhoods and Wall Street because each parent is receiving an adequate supply of personal time, parental education, and financial independence, I would say that we have acheived that balance. Any CEO has greater duties and responsibility and thereby should earn more, but not at the cost of creating poverty for the bottom end – with the greater power comes the greater responsibility. Pay parents enough in wage and benenfits that they might live a balanced life and have time to nurture themselves and their children, and educate themselves about being involved in raising loving, compassionate, empathetic children.
Will there still be people who do hurtful things in this world? Sure, but now each of us is in a better position to help that person grow. Will we still have the Richard Allen Davises in the world? The Hitlers, Jeffrey Dalmers, and Rush Limbaughs? One choice is to keep calling people “evil” and then attacking or killing them, throwing our hands up in the air at our helplessness. I prefer taking responsibility for myself and the world around me, including the health and well-being of all living things around me, human or not. It is somewhat selfish, actually, as I am the one who benefits the most (to me, anyway!)
I do not know Ann Coulter’s parents, nor am I aware of her circumstances growing up. I am looking at symptoms and making observations based on what I know of human behavior. Their education as parents, however, seems to have lacked the knowledge of how to bring a compassionate, loving, nurturing spirit into this world. We have enough awareness at this point of our evolution and abilities to be able to communicate that knowledge to one another, and I am comforted by the fact that it is simply a matter of time before the waves make the rock malleable once again.
— thomas May 3, 06:27 AM #Oh wait! I see Rush and Ann’s point now! It’s much more fun to stir up shit and watch people react than to have a sane and rational postion. Ahhhh…this is fun! And here I was taking you seriously. Sadly enough, I have to…
— thomas May 3, 06:42 AM #There is no point in belittling or even engaging people who post something negative about Al Franken.
You can’t correct them.
You can’t dispute them.
You can’t call them names without making yourself look bad.
The reason?
Framing.
I highly recommend George Lakoff’s new book: “Don’t Think About An Elephant.” It explains why public educators would vote for a President who is decidedly against public education. It explains why people who believe in true family values would vote for a President who has no concept of what true family values are. Best of all, it explains why people who call themselves Christians would vote for a President who claims to be Christian but does not demonstrate even the most fundamental characteristics of a Christian.
It’s all in the framing.
Bush uses a bill called “The Clear Skies Act” to remove all governmental EPA restriction from oil refineries – the worst offenders when it comes to clean air. But people vote for it without actually reading the bill based on the title alone.
People who are for Bush – now some 31% of America – are people who don’t read, don’t pay attention, and only care about two issues: abortion and gay rights – neither of which has anything to do with running the country.
Pity them, but don’t waste your breath arguing with them. The TRUTH is that they are really liberals, too. They just don’t know it yet.
I have a very good friend who claims to be conservative, but he is only conservative because of the way Rove has framed issues for Bush. I gave him a copy of the aforementioned “elephant” book and he is suddenly realizing that he is NOT conservative.
We must wake up our Republican brethren, not ridicule them.
— Bill Ingram May 3, 01:48 PM #I loved your book “LIES” Al and would reccommend it to anyone with an open mind. The only thing that I didn’t find worthwhile on this blog list was how one woman supporter signed her name ”-Jew” on the end of her comment. Now don’t get me wrong, i love Jews, i have many Jewish friends. As my mothers Jewish boyfriend has told me, many disagree on whether Judaism is an ethnicity (as many believe) or is a religion only. Well if it is a ethnicity, signing ”-Jew” seems to be an exclusionary and strange comment to put at the end of a message about media reform in this age of political correctness. On top of that it just creates another Jingoistic rallying call that isn’t based on some all-inclusive proto-culture that we need to create. thanks for the post.
-White Anglo-Saxon Protestant-(see? it just isn’t necessary or helpful. poeple like Ann Coultier could feed on that for weeks and “Slander” us all)
— Dan Pinzke -WASP May 4, 05:55 PM #Looking forward to calling you Senator Franken. God bless and may rational people like you restore our wonderful country America!
— Brian J Handel May 6, 01:41 AM #Al:
As my father use to say to Harry Truman. “Give ‘em Hell”. Continue to speak the truth. You are a great American!
Best to you and your family,
Tom Jones
— Tom Jones May 11, 10:06 AM #Hi Al – just finished your “Truth (and jokes)” book this afternoon and am so depressed to learn of the depths of lying and outright corruption associated with the last two elections. How do we defeat these bastards and return our country’s credibility? Your book and Moore’s “Dude, Where’s My Counrty” should be required reading for all voters! And puleeeeeeze get those thick-headed democratic bigwigs to wake up and smell November!!!
— Sean May 11, 05:26 PM #Hi Al, If you added the IQ of Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Oliver North, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and G. Gordon Liddy the total would be about 5. If you took these same people and totaled their TQ (truth quotient) the total would be about 700 below zero.
bigtommy
— bigtommy May 15, 02:09 PM #I’ve read “Lies” and have “The Truth” ordered and on its way. Thanks, Al, for all your great work! Your detailed research and hard work are very much appreciated.
I swear, the Republicans are like all the bullies and jerks from the movies collected into one party: Rommel from “Better Off Dead”, Anthony Michael Hall’s character from “Edward Scissorhands”, even Judge Smails from “Caddyshack”—all the prideful, annoying, condescending assholes you can think of… and they’re running the country! God help us all.
— John Clavis May 23, 12:12 PM #AL, Is the rumor going around true?? O’Reilly would like to have phone sex with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.
bigtommy
— bigtommy May 23, 01:03 PM #great work Al,thanks for taking the time to speak and research the truth,when most of us cant find it with all the lies that surround us,also remember alot of us from the south dont follow this clown.
— michael steed Jun 3, 02:23 PM #Thank you, Al…carry on Wellstone’s legacy when you take your place in the Senate. I came here from HuffPo’s piece on Ann Coulter characterization of the widows of 9/11 taking the Bush administration to task to find the truth about why their loved ones perished: “I Have Never Seen People Enjoying Their Husband’s [sic] Death So Much”...the following was my reaction:
I have come to the conclusion that Coulter is a hypocrite who throws bombshells cynically calculated to shore up her claim to being a “polemicist”, keep herself in the limelight, and prop up the going price for her public appearances.
She is too intelligent not to realize how ludicrous and hyperbolic the many pronouncements like this one she makes are. The fact that she keeps on making carefully calibrated statements designed to outrage while steering clear of cyanide pills that would decidedly kill her career like “the Holocaust never happened” tells me she is simply milking notoriety for all it is worth.
No other educated society would countenance this kind of speech in the context of legitimate political commentary (sections of Austria/Haider and France/LePen excepted).
The real culprits are the whorish corporate media, who keep inviting her to their allegedly ‘serious’ forums with the equally cynical expectation of raising ratings through inciting controversy: this is exactly the kind of nonsense that Jon Stewart skewered by refusing to be the Tucker Carlson’s monkey on Crossfire.
But the rest of us buy this Barnum and Bailey circus, and line up for tickets to see the bearded woman.
— SlithyTove Jun 6, 09:21 PM #You’re all a bunch of blithering idiots-please try to get a life.Other than your pathetic ,blogging life,that is. When you finally open your eyes to the fact that the political agenda of either party will always be self-serving,you just might come to realize,as I have,that it does’nt matter who is in power. Rep. or Dem. They all have their lovely little power broker/puppeters pulling their strings. Your much glorified Al will as well, if he is elected.Wake up,and smell the politics,people.It’s a brave new world out there.And the same old stuff. Just a different cast of characters every election.Enjoy!.
— moderate Jun 7, 10:18 PM #I too would love to hear the whole debate. I saw you on Letterman last night. Keep up the good work.
— jane Jun 8, 03:58 PM #I just read Coulter’s new book (MY EYES! THEY’RE BURNING! AAAH!) and I have to say that she’s done me a great service. As a teacher, I usually have to spend endless, unpaid hours to find diverse examples of poor evidence and shoddy documentation of “facts” in published writing, to show my students what not to do. Thanks to Ann the Media Whore, my research is done! And the best part? Because of fair use laws, I can copy precious selections of her crap for classroom use without forcing my students to buy her book! There’s more misinformation on any given page of that Godless book than an entire class of students could deal with in a single semester. Al, you were dead on about her in “Lies”. She is indeed a nutcase.
PS: I don’t have access to Lexis on summer vacation, so I can’t locate Ann’s version of “facts” about it, but I bet a search would reveal that Ann “provably” (one of her favorite words) has been fisted by George W. Bush and Condi Rice while a group of kindergarteners were forced to watch.
PPS: Al, congrats on being one of the first people to uncover the Jack Abramoff dirt in “The Truth”. We absolutely need someone like you in the Senate.
— Hazelnut Jun 9, 10:19 AM #Hazelnut, thank you for illustrating my point from my previous writing. It makes me ill to think that some-one who could say the things you said above(the reference to G.W.B & C.Rice& kindergarteners)is teaching our children. But it does tend to explain the level of discourse I have read above from your like-minded,fellow Al Franken acolytes. Yes, all of you do make it sound as if he were your high priest. And why is it that you all expend so much energy on some-one who by your own assessment is so obviously beneath your contempt? I’m referring to Ann Coulter. I would expect some-one who rants about some-one’s lies to at least print some of those lies.What were the mis-begotten facts in her book? Please let us know . I’m truly curious to know what exactly your students will be learning next semester,besides the assinine diatribes they will be hearing from their lovely teacher who has written such intellectually stimulating words above. In the event that you truly are as moronic as you make your-self out to be in your writing, the intellectually stimulating reference was purely sarcastic. And just to qualm any ranting at me, I am neither an Al nor Ann toady. I think for myself. I imagine that that is somewhat of a strange concept for you and your ilk. Still, I do believe it might come as a pleasant surprise to all of you ,just how gratifying it is to think for ones-self . And don’t worry, Al will still be there,if you should falter in your quest for thoughts that are your very own.I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to tell you what to think again. Best of luck, Hazel the nut!
— moderate Jun 9, 05:40 PM #addendum to posting above: I should have written quell instead of qualm. My bad.
— moderate Jun 10, 02:20 AM #Hi.
I just realized that I have been negligent. It bothers me that we in Canada have laws against certain types of speech, but I think that I am motivated enough to use them. I am going to file hate-speech complaints with Attorneys General in BC, Ontario, and Quebec against Ms. Calder, and request that she not be allowed to enter Canada. Would somebody either like to dare me or help me?
— Bob B. Jun 12, 08:43 PM #To Bob B.: Is this typical of the mind-set in Canada? If the laws that govern speech bother you so much,why would you then use them? Say it with me now,children-Hy-poc-ri-sy.Sure,I knew you could.
— moderate Jun 13, 12:22 AM #Dear moderate (a misnomer, apparently).
The hate speech laws in Canada bother me because in the main they have been narrowly used to supress certain overall views – that is, it is a crime to be incorrect about history.
Ann Coulter has used countless, intentional lies to offend and incite hatred against individuals and identifiable groups. From from hypocrisy, I suggest we Canadians use our hate speech laws against an appropriate target, Ann Coulter being a fine example.
Just because of you, moderate, I’m now motivated to launch an official complaint. Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know how things go.
— Bob B. Jun 18, 02:17 PM #Great stuff, but Ann Coulter is such a raving bitch that she’s way too easy a target.
By the way, the 2/3 of injuries in iraq with brain injuries is a typical internet “statistic”. According to the NJM: “Among surviving soldiers wounded in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, TBI appears to account for a larger proportion of casualties than it has in other recent U.S. wars. According to the Joint Theater Trauma Registry, compiled by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research, 22 percent of the wounded soldiers from these conflicts who have passed through the military’s Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany had injuries to the head, face, or neck.”. So 1/5 have had injuries to the head, neck, and throat, and of course not all of them are brain injuries. Further, many of those injuries are relatively mild, and will certainly not cost a million dollars. OK, a quibble, but I hate bullshit internet statistics repeated ad nauseum…
a quote from http://www.war-veterans.org/Events.htm:
“Two thirds of the wounded in Iraq now have brain injuries. That’s because so many of the casualties are from IED’s, andthe injuries are concussive. Each brain injury will cost a million dollars over the course of that veteran’s life.”
Franken:
Two thirds of the wounded in Iraq now have brain injuries. That’s because so many of the casualties are from IED’s, and the injuries are concussive and not ballistic. Each one of those brain injuries is going to cost a million dollars over the course of that veteran’s life.�
Al, You are the best of the best. Read Ann’s new book and try to find one word of truth in it. Not one word is there unless you consider that maybe her name is really Ann Coulter!!!! Why would people buy anything authored by a mind that is obviously drug altered. It is apparent that Rush, Sean, and Ann are all addicted to Oxycontin. But when one suffers from diarrhea of the mouth you must take something to shut it off.
Keep up your March Of The Truth!!!!
Warmest regards,
Bigtommy
Al Frankin JULY 12th 2006
The comment above reminds me and about 90% of AMERICA where/why we continue to know ole Alfred.
Yes, he made a joke on SNL, and today,
He STILL IS A JOKE!!
Re: Grateful Dead holloween hosting, When it comes to knowing polItics, Al is brain DEAD and has a face only radio and holloween could love. It’s all appropriate. Lets just say we are all GRATEFUL he is in radio.
So, We are GRATEFUL Al is DEAD on…..on being OFF when it comes to mainstreem thinking.
THANKS DEAD AL !!
Oh Yeah, ..... keep talking serious, you just crack me up.
WRONG ON BABY !!
p.s. GET WISE, READ ANN COULTER, BOW TO HER, AND VOTE RED WITH THE MAJORITY OF HANNITIZED AMERICA !!!
— Scott Jul 12, 08:30 AM #At least she’s beyond the age of breeding! Imagine the “legacy” . . . Imagine the “Horror” . . . .
— Shigenari Jul 22, 11:56 PM #Ann Coutler is the new Hitler.
She spews lie, after lie without even thinking twice.
I applaud you Mr. Franken for your work to expose the evil that is the right wing.
but hey, at least we can rest assure knowing that George W and Ann will enjoy their time together in hell with Ann’s role model Hitler.
Bravo!
— Anthony Jul 25, 02:38 PM #I’m in the middle of reading,”The Truth.” You have, my dear, restored my faith in “certain humans.” The current administraton’s success in scamming its citizens, put simply- blows my mind!
— waterfires1 Aug 7, 11:33 PM #Lordy, how some can support this woman…the caliber of their commentary helps explain it…they are obviously all brain dead…too many paint chips or something…several of their comments just targeted Al’s geneology…yeah thats a real good arguement…
— Lord Talbot Aug 8, 07:36 PM #Doesn’t Ann Coulter look like the girl who played “Nancy Olsen” the mean, bratty and much hated adopted child of the Olsens on “Little House on the Prarie”? Either that or she is Ken Melman in DRAG!!!!!
— Sondra Sep 2, 08:41 AM #Al I’m still thinking of writing that book titled “How To Speak To Ann Coulter” Only now I have three words in it so far. “Bite me BITCH!!!”
— Sondra Sep 2, 12:55 PM #As a 75 yr old..I worry that I may be too set in my ways and try to see the other side…I am so embarrased that I purchased the Ann Coulter book…I was born in and lived the aftermath of the “right” before unions, anti-trust,mill-worker houses,pollution (Ohio Valley) ...etc…
— Plainruthy Sep 5, 09:54 AM #its a shame we have no one in britain quite like you with your profile. It would be nice to silence the idiot columnists in the sun and the daily mail for a couple of days.
Its depressing that our most read newspaper the sun has a reading age of around seven, with columnists of about the same mind frame.
add that to the rising support for the british National party and the fact the tories are likely to win the next election its a sad time for the left.
— JC Sep 17, 06:45 AM #Just want to add my support. Al, thank you for voicing the frustrations so many of us have had for the last six years! Where do I sign up to volunteer for Midwest Values?
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— Jonkdu Sep 30, 07:04 AM #You can’t use Canada’s anti-defamation laws against Ann Coulter – The Courts would only find that she was delusional and mentally incompetent.
In any event, she should be viewed as beneath contempt and so move on
I just finished reading “Lies..” and have come to the conclusion that that joke of a President and his henchmen should be tried as criminals for the crime of Murder
Ann Coulter is a cunt. As a Marine, I would like her to know that I am embarassed people like her support me.
— jarhead Jan 3, 11:03 AM #Al,
Recently I have been rapidly feeding my brain a couple of your books, “Why Not Me?” and “Lies…”, both great works of political satire. I can’t get enough of your work quick enough! Also, I started looking some of the information you use up for myself and have realized that my republican 2nd-amendment-loving good ole’ southern republican has no idea, like coulter and o’reilly, what the definition of LIE and CONTRADICTION are.
FRANKEN, CLINTON ‘08
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So the points of these posts are that all Republicans are liars. Thus prejudice is okay as long as we do it. Democrats never lie so should always trust them. Al Franken is in this for the people not to make money or to get in Congress. Boy, you guys really need to learn to be critical of everyone or one day someone like Kerry will go before Congress and lie about a war he was involved, help to cause US POW’s to be tortured, cause the U.S. to leave Vietnam leading to 3 million Vietnamese deaths, be elected to Congress for being a leader, then admit he “embellished” when describing the situation in Vietnam way afterwards so no one would pay attention. But you should believe him because he is on your side.
— Thoreau Dogood Feb 6, 01:48 AM #You sir are an American hero. And you remind us ozzers that America is one of the great nations of the world which is temporarially out of order while Bush is in charge. Good luck for 2008
— Mikey Feb 16, 08:57 AM #Well said Mikey, but if you are critical of GWB again I will call “anti-American” on you as a means of shutting you up.
Still got my copy of Lying Liars, and the Rush Limbaugh chapters are gold.
Is he worse than Coulter?
Just wanted to note on the internet, once again, that I love Al Franken. I struggle with chronic morbid depression, and a lot of the time it helps just to pull down my copy of “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” or “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them” and read a few chapters. I really do feel that in a fair fight, truth will win out over lies. God bless you, Al.
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