Cry Havoc, and Let Slip the L.A. Street Dogs of War!!
I ended up listening to the first half-hour or so three times, nitpicking new items each time, so other sections will not be as long as this one. The North Korea stuff at the bottom holds up pretty well, in my own opinion.
Key issue of ideology here, and the reason Democrats keep losing post 9/11 elections.
First of all, I grew up in New York in the 1970's and '80s, with subway rats the size of housecats. So I bought Franken's story of LA street dogs at first. Stray German sheperds, throw in some Rottweiler breeding, a pit bull-Great Dane mix a generation or two back, and the kind of neighborhood where an aspiring out-of-work actor/comedian with Al Franken's looks would have lived, and I'd buy packs of wild dogs in L.A. as very possible. He says that on his way home, late at night, he was blocked by a pack of snarling street dogs who could easily outrun him and outfight him. He was afraid, Bush voter afraid. Franken's dogs parallel the wolves of the final-stages Bush campaign ads.
I heard that bit, and perked up, wondering the outcome. My interest returned each time Franken's narrative returned to the dogs and that long ago 1974 night. How did Franken get past them? Or did he slowly retreat? Or was he rescued by armed law enforcement? By the biker gang who turned out to own the dogs? I was expecting some insight into how Franken believed that threats should be dealt with.
Eventually, Franken moved on to other subjects and dropped the street dogs. It became clear that he made the dogs up. There never were any dogs, they were just something scary that Franken imagined and made us (me) believe. The implication is that Bush made up the terrorism threat--that the threat was not only imaginary, but intentionally created by Bush to accomplish his goals, just like Franken made up the dogs.
What is revealed is that Franken doesn't take the terrorism threat seriously. He believes that it's made up by Republicans to keep themselves in power. As long as major sections of the Democratic party believe that the threats to our national security and our civilization are imaginary, then they will not and should not be trusted with power.
I ended up listening to the first half-hour or so three times, nitpicking new items each time, so other sections will not be as long as this one. The North Korea stuff at the bottom holds up pretty well, in my own opinion.
Key issue of ideology here, and the reason Democrats keep losing post 9/11 elections.
First of all, I grew up in New York in the 1970's and '80s, with subway rats the size of housecats. So I bought Franken's story of LA street dogs at first. Stray German sheperds, throw in some Rottweiler breeding, a pit bull-Great Dane mix a generation or two back, and the kind of neighborhood where an aspiring out-of-work actor/comedian with Al Franken's looks would have lived, and I'd buy packs of wild dogs in L.A. as very possible. He says that on his way home, late at night, he was blocked by a pack of snarling street dogs who could easily outrun him and outfight him. He was afraid, Bush voter afraid. Franken's dogs parallel the wolves of the final-stages Bush campaign ads.
I heard that bit, and perked up, wondering the outcome. My interest returned each time Franken's narrative returned to the dogs and that long ago 1974 night. How did Franken get past them? Or did he slowly retreat? Or was he rescued by armed law enforcement? By the biker gang who turned out to own the dogs? I was expecting some insight into how Franken believed that threats should be dealt with.
Eventually, Franken moved on to other subjects and dropped the street dogs. It became clear that he made the dogs up. There never were any dogs, they were just something scary that Franken imagined and made us (me) believe. The implication is that Bush made up the terrorism threat--that the threat was not only imaginary, but intentionally created by Bush to accomplish his goals, just like Franken made up the dogs.
What is revealed is that Franken doesn't take the terrorism threat seriously. He believes that it's made up by Republicans to keep themselves in power. As long as major sections of the Democratic party believe that the threats to our national security and our civilization are imaginary, then they will not and should not be trusted with power.
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