Al Franken beats up heckler at Dean Rally!

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-01-27 12:49pm

Don't fuck with Stewart Smally, be-otch!

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 12:50pm

Looks like Dean Madness is a contagius.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-27 12:51pm

*Sigh* FINE, I'll say it.

He was good enough, he was Smart enough, and doggonnit, people like him (MORE NOW!!

)

Bodyslammed. Gotta love it.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2004-01-27 12:56pm

All I have to say is...pwned. But isn't heckling legal?

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 12:57pm

Xenophobe3691 wrote:All I have to say is...pwned. But isn't heckling legal?

Yup.

Suddenly Bush's free speech zone don't seem so bad compared to beatings a Dean rallies.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-27 01:05pm

Shaidar Haran wrote:Suddenly Bush's free speech zone don't seem so bad compared to beatings a Dean rallies.

I look at it as sort of a variant on the whole "Your free to swing your arm back and forth all day, but your freedom ends where my nose begins." Type thing. If Al couldn't hear Howie, I think he was absolutely justified in telling the guy to STFU, and, failing that, shutting him up. Kudos to Al.

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 01:06pm

Chardok wrote:
Shaidar Haran wrote:Suddenly Bush's free speech zone don't seem so bad compared to beatings a Dean rallies.
I look at it as sort of a variant on the whole "Your free to swing your arm back and forth all day, but your freedom ends where my nose begins." Type thing. If Al couldn't hear Howie, I think he was absolutely justified in telling the guy to STFU, and, failing that, shutting him up. Kudos to Al.

Heckling a speaker doesn't give you the justification to beat the crap out of a guy.

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-27 01:10pm

It does when you can't hear the guy and you are trying to. Al has just as much right to hear Dean as Howard and the Heckler have to speak. For all we know, the heckler was asked to hush or move several times before franken slammed him. honestly, do you think that Al just Decided "Hey, I don't like this guy heckling" on the fly and spontaneously decided to body slam him? Probably not.

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 01:13pm

Chardok wrote:It does when you can't hear the guy and you are trying to. Al has just as much right to hear Dean as Howard and the Heckler have to speak. For all we know, the heckler was asked to hush or move several times before franken slammed him. honestly, do you think that Al just Decided "Hey, I don't like this guy heckling" on the fly and spontaneously decided to body slam him? Probably not.

Probably not, but that doesn't give him the right to beat the shit out of him. If he was really that upset he ought to have security deal with the heckler, not start a brawl over it.

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2004-01-27 01:24pm

Supporters of Lyndon Larouche? We still have some of them?

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-01-27 01:32pm

Chardok wrote:It does when you can't hear the guy and you are trying to. Al has just as much right to hear Dean as Howard and the Heckler have to speak. For all we know, the heckler was asked to hush or move several times before franken slammed him. honestly, do you think that Al just Decided "Hey, I don't like this guy heckling" on the fly and spontaneously decided to body slam him? Probably not.

Not being able to hear the candidate (and that's assuming facts not in evidence) does not give someone the right to inflict serious bodily harm on someone. A bodyslam for fuck's sake? What would happen if Rush Limbau gave a flying body slam on some liberal portester who was heckling Bush?

It's not right no matter how you spin it.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-01-27 01:32pm

It doesn't matter, legally, if you can hear the speaker or not. In fact, a "heckler's veto" REQUIRES that the speaker stop talking. Thus, Dean was in the wrong if his entire audience literally could not hear what he was saying.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-01-27 01:34pm

I wonder if Al would have body slammed anyone heckling Bush? He claimed afterwards he was defending the ideals of free speech.

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 01:40pm

Stravo wrote:I wonder if Al would have body slammed anyone heckling Bush? He claimed afterwards he was defending the ideals of free speech.

I highly doubt it.

Iceberg · Post by **Iceberg** » 2004-01-27 01:40pm

Now that's what I call a frank(en) exchange of opinions.

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 01:41pm

Iceberg wrote:Now that's what I call a frank(en) exchange of opinions.

Funny, most people would call it assualt.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-01-27 01:43pm

Shaidar Haran wrote:
Iceberg wrote:Now that's what I call a frank(en) exchange of opinions.
Funny, most people would call it assualt.

OUCH!

Actually misdomeanor battery

Chardok · Post by **Chardok** » 2004-01-27 01:45pm

Shaidar Haran wrote:
Iceberg wrote:Now that's what I call a frank(en) exchange of opinions.
Funny, most people would call it assualt.

Note the smiley denoting an implied *just kidding* who rammed a spiky dildo in your ass?

Caption: "Ooh! He said something which could be construed by a moron to be mildly inflammatory!!"

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2004-01-27 01:52pm

Stravo wrote:I wonder if Al would have body slammed anyone heckling Bush? He claimed afterwards he was defending the ideals of free speech.

Actually, he was directly attacking the ideals of free speech. The heckler, according to prior Supreme Court rulings, has the right to talk during a rally, even if he drowns out the candidate. It's called a "heckler's veto," and it's completely legal.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2004-01-27 01:55pm

Inappropriate, but I'm sorta disgusted that some of the posters are blaming Dean for this.

Shaidar Haran · Post by **Shaidar Haran** » 2004-01-27 02:03pm

Howedar wrote:Inappropriate, but I'm sorta disgusted that some of the posters are blaming Dean for this.

I don't think any one is blaming Dean. Just noting the irony of a heckler being beaten at one of his rallies by one of his supporters.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-01-27 02:09pm

Howedar wrote:Inappropriate, but I'm sorta disgusted that some of the posters are blaming Dean for this.

it isn't Howard Dean's fault that Al Franken is an obnoxious asshole. I mean Dean is an obnoxious asshole, but its not like Howie used osmosis or some shit to make him that way. It's a natural phenomenon..... which, in turn, explains why ther are so many assholes in the world to begin with.

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2004-01-27 03:00pm

Shaidar Haran wrote:
Xenophobe3691 wrote:All I have to say is...pwned. But isn't heckling legal?
Yup.

Suddenly Bush's free speech zone don't seem so bad compared to beatings a Dean rallies. :lol:

The difference is that Bush (ab)used his authority as President to enforce the "free speech zones," while Al was just acting as an independant private citizen when he beat the crap out of the protestor.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2004-01-27 03:45pm

Shit, I'd love to get Al Franken to knock me down in that kind of situation. By the time the lawyers got through, half his book royalties for the next 10 years would be mine.

Of course, this is assuming that I just didn't start slamming his head into the sidewalk.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2004-01-27 03:48pm

Is anyone else reporting it? Because that sounds too surreal to be real. Any other confirmations that this happened, as the New York Post isn't precisely known for it's journalism.