That's because Al Franken sees himself as Big Brother, and trust him, he's got our interests at heart.

This is a variation of Kip's Law:

“Every advocate of central planning always — always — envisions himself as the central planner.”

Every advocate of central planning always — always — envisions himself as the central planner.

I'm sure neither Trotsky nor Robespierre ever envisioned that they would one day be lined up against the wall by their own revolutions.

Having watched SNL during Franken's days as head writer, I'm not anyone would really want to listen in on his phone calls.

...that he had no knowledge of the NSA's Prism program until, like President Obama and the IRS scandal, he read about it in the funny papers....

Does anyone in this freakin' government know what the hell this government is doing?

Every single implicated says they found out about the situation from the news broadcasts.

You'd think at least the Justice Department would have known beforehand from bugging so many reporters.

This iswhat you get when you elect a joke.

to really explode their brains, all you have to say is: "You know, eventually there will be a republican administration using your calls and data against you, right?"

You can almost hear the gasket blow...

of course Al thinks it's OK now, it's to his advantage.

Liberals do not see the danger in a powerful liberal government.

They know that the unlikely event of a Republican administration would be relentlessly restrained by a free press.

"Having watched SNL during Franken's days as head writer, I'm not anyone would really want to listen in on his phone calls.

...that he had no knowledge of the NSA's Prism program until, like President Obama and the IRS scandal, he read about it in the funny papers....
Does anyone in this freakin' government know what the hell this government is doing?"

Reread the article your (mis)quote is as bad as Reason's photoshop. Worse.

Welcome to the New Order, comrades. It is here.

Reread the article your (mis)quote is as bad as Reason's photoshop. Worse.

You're pulling two separate topics together and claiming I misquoted Franken.

Read it again, jerry.

The first part was my disregard of Franken's skill as a funnyman.

The second section was a rant about yet another person in the US government claiming he didn't know the government was doing something until he read it in the papers.

Although, to be fair to Ellison, even Franken says Ellison didn't know anything about it.

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

Franken's condescending "There are certain things that are appropriate for me to know that [are] not appropriate for the bad guys to know" is typical of liberal paternalism. "We'll protect you. Don't worry your pretty little head about it."

Franken was against metadata trolling when he wasn't being read into it. Now that he's being read into the situation, it's okay - 'cause he's pure of heart and has only our best interests in mind.

And it's okay with him that other Senators aren't being read into it ... 'cause Al likes being in the secret club; it's like being back at Harvard and laughing at the losers at BU.

GOP's Weeping Orange Boner declares the whistleblower a traitor.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/06/11/boehner-snowden-is-a-traitor/

Conan, if you weren't implying that Franken made that quote, then you certainly have my apologies, but I think it reads as if you thought Franken made that quote.

I just think, as I am sure you agree, that people should be roasted on the stuff they did say.

But thank you for the clarification.

"Reread the article your (mis)quote is as bad as Reason's photoshop. Worse."

First off, it wasn't a photoshop picture. It was a still shot of one of Franken's skits on SNL.

Secondly, the quote came from Representative Ellison, from Minnesota also. He did read about it in the papers.

You know, you would think after the Jesse Ventura debacle, Minnesota would learn something.

(Yeah, I grew up there, left in '85 for a military career. Never went back. For obvious reasons.)

"Every advocate of central planning always — always — envisions himself as the central planner."

Cousin Dave's Electric Shaver: Never ascribe to stupidity that which is adequately explained by narcissism. I find that keeping this in mind helps me make sense of a lot of life's situations these days.