Salon.com > Al Franken

GOP actually bullies an anti-bullying bill

Mon, 20 May 2013 14:52:00 +0000

Congratulations, Minnesota. Nearly three years after Anoka High School student Justin Aaberg hanged himself after allegedly being subjected to anti-gay harassment, state Republicans seem to have decided that bullying is no longer a problem. The Pioneer-Press reports Monday that an anti-bullying bill has been withdrawn "after Republicans said they planned 10 hours of debate on the issue."

Using mean, aggressive measures to get your way over a bullying bill? Anyone else feel an Alanis Morissette verse coming on?

After Aaberg's death -- just one of many high-profile 2010 LGBT suicides that made bullying a national issue -- Sen. Al Franken made a strong push for tougher, clearer legislation to protect students. "No student should have to dread going to school because they fear being bullied," he said. "It’s clear that we need to do more to ensure schools are a safe environment for all students. Ending this bullying and harassment in schools will be a priority for education reform in the next Congress."

Conan hosting fundraiser for Al Franken

Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:31:00 +0000

Sen. Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat and former comedian and "Saturday Night Live" cast member, is facing a potentially tough reelection fight in 2014. So his old friends in the comedy world are coming together to help him raise some cash.

CNN reports:

Conan O'Brien, who worked with Franken as a writer on Saturday Night Live in the early 1980s and 90s, is raffling tickets to brunch at his home in April, with the contributions going to Franken's re-election effort.

"I'm having my friend Al - and some of his best supporters - over for brunch on Sunday, April 7. And I've got room for you and a friend," O'Brien, who hosts a show on CNN's sister network TBS, wrote in an email to a list of Franken's supporters. "Al's a funny guy, a good friend, and a great Senator who always stands up for Minnesota.

"If you've always wanted to eat eggs with me, well, that's kind of a weird lifelong dream. But this could be your chance to make it come true," Conan added. "I hope to see you and a friend at my place on April 7. Please don't steal any silverware."

President Obama needs a new joke writer

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:57:00 +0000

President Obama appeared as the entertainment at last night’s Gridiron Dinner. The roaster-in-chief walks a fine line at these drunken Beltway confabs. Too often jokes in Washington are too inside baseball or not inside enough, viz. this groaner he launched from the podium:

As you know, I last attended the Gridiron dinner two years ago. Back then, I addressed a number of topics — a dysfunctional Congress, a looming budget crisis, complaints that I don’t spend enough time with the press. It’s funny, it seems like it was just yesterday. (Laughter.)

The transcript, when read sober, was hardly more inspiring. Parentheticals asserting laughter and applause appeared on the official White House transcript and could not be independently verified:

Can Victoria Jackson return from the fringe?

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 11:00:00 +0000

Victoria Jackson's career was nonexistent. So when the daffy blonde comedian who sang and strummed her ukulele through six silly seasons on "Saturday Night Live" decided to embrace her religious roots and become one of the zaniest and most incendiary Tea Party celebrities, well, she didn't have a lot of other opportunities.

"I didn't have anything to lose," she says, from her home in the Miami area.

On "SNL" from 1986-92, Jackson starred with Jon Lovitz, Al Franken, Chris Rock, Nora Dunn, Phil Hartman and Julia Sweeney, and was a quirky yet beloved member of one of the 38-year-old show's most enduring casts. But recently she's had more in common with Dennis Miller: In 2007, Jackson had a political awakening and "realized" then–presidential candidate Barack Obama was a communist. Radical Islam, she came to believe, was infiltrating and infecting America.

Suddenly the sketch comic best known for turning cartwheels on the Weekend Update desk was making headlines of her own by blasting gay marriage, Muslims and Occupy Wall Street on conservative talk-radio shows and creating goofy sound bites and song parodies that found a home on Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and, yes, Miller's shows.

Why you can’t stop perusing your Facebook profile

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 20:35:00 +0000

How often do you check out your Facebook profile? If considering that question makes you blush—or raises the uncomfortable notion that you’re a narcissist—relax: You’re acting on an impulse that is as basic as it is benign.

New research suggests that all that rereading, revising, and updating satisfies the fundamental human need to feel good about yourself, and your place in society. This reassurance and sense of security is a vital psychological resource, and Facebook may be the easiest, most convenient way to provide it yet been devised.

No wonder the social network has accumulated over one billion members over nine years.

“We do not claim this explains all of Facebook’s popularity,” said University of Wisconsin scholar Catalina Toma, who conducted the research with Cornell University psychologist Jeffrey Hancock. “But we are showing that people turn to Facebook to meet a psychological need, and that it works.

What did senators give each other at Al Franken’s Secret Santa?

Thu, 13 Dec 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., organized a Secret Santa gift exchange again this year, and in a rare display of bipartisanship, the senators all apparently agreed to give each other weird stuff. Among the gifts: A mahnomin porridge kit, a book "1,001 Gardens you Should See Before You Die," and peanuts.

To be fair, there was a $10 spending limit.

NBC News reports that the senators exchanged gifts on the Senate floor Tuesday. From NBC, here are some of the highlights.

Privacy concerns grow over FBI data gathering

Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:30:00 +0000

In July, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., opened a Senate hearing on the privacy and civil liberties implications of facial-recognition technology by affirming some incontrovertible facts. “You can change your password. You can get a new credit card. But you can’t change your fingerprint, and you can’t change your face,” Franken said. “Unless, I guess, you go to a great, you know, deal of trouble.”

Franken was expressing concerns about the Next Generation Identification system, a database the FBI has been steadily building over the past several years that harnesses the data-gathering power of an emerging slew of forensic technologies. When fully deployed, NGI will allow the bureau to integrate a vast array of forensic data culled from local and state law enforcement agencies, including fingerprints, palm prints, scar and tattoo records, and facial photos. Multiple reports peg the cost of the facial-recognition software upgrade alone at $1 billion.

Franken’s torture smackdown

Wed, 18 Jul 2012 15:21:00 +0000

In late February, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Due Process Act, a bill introduced in 2011 by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., that would have explicitly prohibited indefinite detentions without trial of U.S. citizens detained on terrorism charges within the U.S (the bill has gone nowhere). At the hearing, Minnesota’s Al Franken had harsh words for one of the witnesses, Steven Bradbury. While serving in the Bush administration as legal counsel, Bradbury authored three memos declaring the CIA’s use of torture to be legal.

“It’s very difficult for me, frankly, to rely on your legal opinion today. If the Office of Professional Responsibility questions your objectivity and reasonableness, then I think we on the panel should as well,” Franken told Bradbury. Mother Jones’ Adam Serwer tweeted at the time that “Franken dressing down Bradbury is the worst consequence any torture architect has ever faced: Mild embarrassment.” The confrontation was indeed hardly sufficient in holding torture sponsors accountable for their crimes. Nevertheless, it was the only time a Bush official has had to answer for his administration’s offenses against international law.