An Important Message from Al Franken

By Wednesday January 12, 2011

You can sign up here. I did.

Found by Cinàedh.



59 Comments
  1. Awake says:
    1/12/2011 at 2:27 pm

    #17

    Just my Tea Party member impersonation in #3.

    =======================

    Fight the Corporate Oligarchy (Corporatocracy)!!

    Corporate oligarchy is a form of power, governmental or operational, where such power effectively rests with a small, elite group of inside individuals, sometimes from a small group of educational institutions, or influential economic entities or devices, such as banks, commercial entities that act in complicity with, or at the whim of the oligarchy, often with little or no regard for constitutionally protected prerogative. Monopolies are sometimes granted to state-controlled entities, such as the Royal Charter granted to the East India Company, or privileged bargaining rights to unions (labor monopolies) with very partisan political interests. (WikiPedia)

    Reply
  2. David says:
    1/12/2011 at 2:32 pm

    Much ado about nothing. Comcast isn’t the only game in town, and if they try to pull anything, customers will switch to another provider en masse. Franken’s constituents would be better served if he could find something more important to take a stand against, war and poverty being just one of many suggestions.

    Reply
  3. mal says:
    1/12/2011 at 2:34 pm

    really i don’t care what you idiots are up to, do sick stuff to eachother as much as you want, just stay on that side of the pond okay?

    Reply
  4. RicRevolution says:
    1/12/2011 at 2:40 pm

    “Unregulated Capitalism is Fascism.”

    Statist Capitalism is Fascism.

    Statless Capitalism is freedom.

    Capitalism being defined as: Voluntary exchange between individuals, without threat from an outside 3rd party, i.e. from state control.

    Regulated Capitalism is Fascism because the regulators rely on their enforcers to threaten the lives of those who do not comply. If people here haven’t noticed, NBC and ComCast have relied on the government to get to where they are: IP laws, regulations to keep competitors at a disadvantage, corporate personhood laws, etc. NBC’s parent company, GM, even makes weaponry for the state.

    “Didn’t there used to be laws against monopolies?”

    That statement self-destructs when one realizes that the government is a territorial MONOPOLIST of law, order, and ultimate decision making.

    Reply
  5. El Polo Loco says:
    1/12/2011 at 2:56 pm

    RicRevolution – AMEN!

    Obama himself said, “You are privatizing something that is what essentially sets a nation-state apart, which is the monopoly on violence.”

    There is no free market in the US. There is only corporatism, or crony capitalism. Without government influence, and the common knowledge of what FREEDOM and LIBERTY are, individuals would be free to transact with one another to mutual benefit.

    Reading some of the posts on this blog really convinces me of the substandard education people are getting from government run schools…

    Reply
  6. Snyde the Remarkable says:
    1/12/2011 at 2:58 pm

    A lot of people seem to assume Corporations are regulated by governments when in fact, Corporations regulate governments and they have always done so.

    Reply
  7. tcc3 says:
    1/12/2011 at 3:07 pm

    @David-#22

    On the contrary, in many places Comcast *is* the only game in town.

    Reply
  8. uh yeah says:
    1/12/2011 at 3:43 pm

    #15 There is always satellite TV. And wireless internet is getting better and better. I am in a rural area so I bet I have fewer options than you. 4 years ago I had 0 broadband options. Now I have 2 internet providers available neither of them are very good.

    Reply
  9. deowll says:
    1/12/2011 at 3:45 pm

    #4 In practice fascism is rather like socialism. The methods and verbiage (mostly the verbiage) employed by the people running things may appear superficially different but the end result is still to concentrate all power into the hands of an elite that can and will do as it pleases.

    Somebody must have forgotten to pay Franken off. If he keeps this up the party machine may try to run a Dem against him in the primary.

    The party machine people among the repubs might try to do the same thing if a repub tried to do something like this against a major contributor but they’ve already learned they _can’t_ control the voters any more.

    The people who decide who wins most elections have absolutely no party loyalty in most cases at the present.

    Reply
  10. chris says:
    1/12/2011 at 4:07 pm

    #24, #25

    You are ignoring the fact we live in the real world.

    In our world “Unregulated Capitalism is Fascism” is absolutely true.(good one Snyde!)

    When unions were a big part of Italy during the fascist period. Think of Tony Soprano as a pillar of society. Fascism means UNITY of all the big powerful types. They unite to screw the population for personal gain.

    Unions aren’t really much of a factor today. They don’t cover nearly as much of the working population as they did in those days in Italy. A lot of the privatization efforts of the mid-70′s onwards have been about killing off the power of unions.

    Today all you need is an abdication by government to create a fascist-lite deal.

    Snyde’s definition is so good, because it assumes you know one central fact: a dirty reinforcing loop exists between business and government in America today.

    There is both sleaze from gov’t and corps. Blatant hookups for connected people piss away tax revenues and unregulated money in politics stops sensible policy.

    You’re working very hard Snyde, very hard indeed!

    Reply
  11. spsffan says:
    1/12/2011 at 4:17 pm

    It would be better to get rid of the cable companies’ local monopolies*. Not that it worries me, I refuse to pay for television or radio, for that matter. Apparently, unlike most of America, I actually have a life away from the boob tube.

    *I note though that these days, TimeWarner, AT&T and Verizon, both offer television, internet and phone service to my location…all for the same outrageous prices!

    Reply
  12. RicRevolution says:
    1/12/2011 at 4:39 pm

    #26
    “A lot of people seem to assume Corporations are regulated by governments when in fact, Corporations regulate governments and they have always done so.”

    I recognize this partially. See the post #24

    #30
    “Today all you need is an abdication by government to create a fascist-lite deal.”

    The so-called government IS “Tony Soprano” by its own definition. It relies on enforcers to extract money, i.e. taxation, from people within its territory. It then pays its enforcers, i.e. buys them off, with some of the extortion money. This is compulsory; there is no choice.

    “There is both sleaze from gov’t and corps. Blatant hookups for connected people piss away tax revenues and unregulated money in politics stops sensible policy.”

    Tax revenues is doublespeak. Unregulated money is quasi-doublespeak. The government is imposing a monopoly on currency; competing currencies are not allowed. The government controls the rate of interest. Currency and the rate of interest are fundamental to capitalism, yet they are controlled by the government. This control is also one of the 10 planks of communism. This is also what is called REGULATED capitalism.

    Snyde’s definition is not so good because it is evidently disproven and self-contradictory.

    Reply
  13. CrankyGeeksFan says:
    1/12/2011 at 5:27 pm

    In response to Se. Franken’s video:

    What about when Time Warner owned Time Warner Cable along with premium TV networks HBO and Cinemax?

    Reply
  14. Alfred Persson says:
    1/12/2011 at 5:59 pm

    Another progressive attempt to subvert free speech:

    # 8) So that the Commission and the public can ensure that ComcastINBCU is abiding by its commitments to increase the amount of local programming, ComcastINBCU should publicly [b]disclose on a regular basis the amount of local news and public affairs programming aired[/b] on each of the owned and operated broadcast stations. As part of this regular disclosure ComcastINBCU should also [b]identify the amount of independently-produced programming aired on each of its owned and operated broadcast stations,[/b] as well as on each cable channel controlled by ComcastINBCU post-merger.

    Those are code for Government control of the news.

    Progressives are a clear and present danger to our liberty.

    Reply
  15. thatswhatshe says:
    1/12/2011 at 6:07 pm

    Waiting in anticipation to hear Franken do some stand-up comedy again after deciding to quit the Senate. Fun!

    Reply
  16. el polo loco says:
    1/12/2011 at 6:16 pm

    If government weren’t around, the corporations would have no institution with a monopoly on force to corrupt.

    If you stop paying your comcast bill, your cable is shut off. If you stop paying taxes, you’ll be arrested.

    Reply
  17. Floyd says:
    1/12/2011 at 6:29 pm

    Alfie: If anyone wants to subvert free speech it’s Comcast, Jones Intercable, and so forth. If they can, they’d be likely to get rid of (note this, Alfie) the church channels and the community service channels so they can replace them with more of the very profitable home shopping channels.

    Reply
  18. admfubar says:
    1/12/2011 at 6:44 pm

    ‘Unregulated Capitalism is Fascism.’
    Unregulated Capitalism is Terrorism

    If you wanna see why there needs to be more regulation of business fine the book titled “Big Blue” it is written by a former attorney general from late 70′s early 80′s about the government’s attempted break up of ibm, while a bit boring in the meat of this for most, there moments if insight into how large corporations work that truly frightening.

    Reply
  19. Animby says:
    1/12/2011 at 6:59 pm

    I was with him, right up to the point where he said I would be on his side.

    Reply
  20. Alfred Persson says:
    1/12/2011 at 7:10 pm

    #37 It was Axelrod who said Fox wasn’t a real news channel…

    The devil is in the definitions…

    I don’t trust progressives at all…they proved themselves enemies of free speech, liberty…every chance they get.

    Reply

« Older Comments
Newer Comments »

Leave a Response


Bad Behavior has blocked 26058 access attempts in the last 7 days.