Cuppacafe

Forget Comedy Central, for some good-hearted fun, we want to watch C-Span. Doubt us? Well in a fun bit of entertaining drama on the Senate floor yesterday, Sen. Al Franken (D, Mn), cut off Sen. Joe Lieberman (I, CT) during a speech, angering Lieberman's good friend Sen. John McCain (Who cares).

Here's what happened; Lieberman was giving a ten-minute speech on health care reform. Franken, who was presiding over the Senate, cut him off when his ten minutes were up. When Lieberman requested unanimous consent for an extra few minutes to finish his speech, Franken, in his capacity as a senator from Minnesota, objected. And, in his capacity as presiding officer, Franken honored the objection.

Now that’s entertainment!

The Perfessor

At last, a blog site that we hear at CuppaCafe can stand behind (way behind):

Check out their blog, see which (republican) Senators currently serving in office support gang rape, learn why these 30 Republican Senators support gang rape.

Yeah yeah, it all has to do with that liberal, Democrat Senator, Al Franken and his 2010 Franken Senate Defense Appropriations Amendment that overreaches into the business of private enterprise. Defense contractors are a part of the functioning free market; not the Federal Government. A handful of isolated assaults is no reason to summon the interference of the Federal Government and Congress. This amendment interferes with the privacy of companies and the ability of our defense contractors to effectively conduct the business of protecting America from terrorism.

The Perfessor

They say “Laugh and eh whole world laughs with you...” Well, it was anything but a laughing matter when former stand-up comic and Saturday Night Live Writer Al Franken Joined the Senate committee hearings into the Halliburton/KKR inquiry where the company had taken the position that it’s “binding arbitration” contract with employees was done for the good of the employees. Halliburton/KKR maintained that the clause was to provide employees with an expedited means of addressing their grievances, and further suggested that employees who were raped did better with private arbitration than they would in court.

Though not a lawyer, Senator Franken has the opportunity to examine witnesses at the hearing, and he makes surprisingly good use of his authority

No, Al wasn't very funny. But then, the gang rape of Jamie Leigh Jones wasn't very funny either. Nor was her being held captive in a shipping container under armed guard. Nor is her 4 years of fighting Halliburton's refusal to face the consequences in court. There just isn't much funny about any of this. In fact, the whole thing is pretty sick.

For the rest of that story, go here, or just watch him bitch-slap the Halliburton/KKR lawyer:

Don’t you just love it when Senators work for the common good for a change?

The Perfessor