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U.S. Sen. Al Franken used his opening remarks at Solicitor General Elena Kagan's Supreme Court confirmation hearing to take sharp aim at what he says is an activist tilt by the high court. "There is such a thing as legislating from the bench," said Franken, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee in charge of the hearing. "And it is practiced repeatedly by the [Chief Justice John] Roberts court, where it has cut in only one direction: in favor of powerful corporate interests, and against the rights of individual Americans." U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who also sits on the committee,...

The U.S. Senate approved an amendment sponsored by Sen. Al Franken that would create an office to investigate complaints by homeowners who believe their mortgage handlers are breaking the law. The amendment would create an Office of the Homeowner Advocate using money from the TARP program. “This victory means help for the many Minnesotans who are in danger of losing their homes through no fault of their own,” said Franken. “These families are doing their best in a tough economy that they didn’t create. And they need to know there’s someone who has their back when they’re trying to navigate...

June 30th marks one year since Sen. Al Franken was declared the official winner in the U.S. Senate race, marked by the longest recount in Minnesota state history. Chief Political Reporter Tom Hauser spoke to Franken about how he would evaluate his job performance, so far.

KOKOMO, Ind. -- A Kokomo man who produced child pornography involving seven different girls over at least two years was sentenced on Monday. David Metzger, 53, who pleaded guilty to 15 counts of producing and one count of possessing child pornography, was sentenced to 235 years in prison. "This is an incapacitating sentence for another pre-teen producer," said U.S. Attorney Morrison. "This offender will victimize no additional children." Obama Urges Homeowners to Refinance Take Advantage of Government Refinance Programs Now and Save. Explore Now...Leadership & Negotiation Notre Dame Management Training Certificates Online Explore Now... Investigators said the girls involved were...

All we can say is thank goodness Minnesota's newest Democratic U.S. senator, Al Franken, was on duty Thursday. < snip > And we realized suddenly that somehow we had inexplicably missed the comedian's detailed explanation of a newspaper editorial cartoon enlarged so that he could identify the symbols and characters in it so the elderly senators could see it. The current White House's pedantry is apparently infectious. < snip > No, this is not a "Saturday Night Live" skit. This is the real thing from the Senate floor where the 100 members are paid $174,000 -- each -- for this...

Minnesota Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar joined a Democratic assault on the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United ruling on Thursday, signing on to a bill that would slap new regulations on political expenditures by unions and corporations. Readying for the fall elections, the two Minnesota Democrats are joining Sens. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., Russ Feingold, D-Wis., and others in an effort to blunt the impact of the landmark decision that removed restrictions on independent spending in elections by corporations and other special interests. The bill appears to lay down a marker in an election year in which Democrats will...

Yesterday I wrote about how great it was Obama was switching focus from ruining the economy, to ruining our immigration policy. Well I find this almost as exciting: Franken to introduce bill addressing anti-gay bullying Yes! Please for the love of all that is holy, keep focusing on Gays and Lesbians being bullied. That’s the kind of issues we’re paying you a good salary to take on! However I’m going to say this isn’t going far enough. Doesn’t Mr. Franken care about straight children that get bullied? Is that not as great a crime? I think he’s heterophobic. I’m calling...

Last fall, Center of the American Experiment issued a report recommending 15 reforms of our state's election system, informed largely by experiences from the 2008 U.S. Senate election recount. Through bipartisan effort, the Legislature has passed five of the recommendations into law: moving the primary to an earlier date; providing for barcode technology to bring efficiency to absentee ballot processing; clarifying what ballots should be included in recounts versus court contests; and formalizing processes to count ballots and reconcile ballot numbers. It also passed a law moving in the direction of a sixth recommendation: centralizing absentee ballot processing. This is...

Jason Mattera, author of "Obama Zombies" and newly appointed editor of Human Events, said "members in the media treat leftist politicians as though they are at a Jonas Brothers concert." He also had rather choice words for young Obama supporters stuck in a "brainless slumber" on Fox Business Channel's April 2 broadcast of "Imus in the Morning." "Somebody about your age - mouthpiece of Franken - is trying to dissuade you from continuing that," host Don Imus noted upon viewing his guest's recent confrontation with Sen. Al Franken. "Yea, he had his hands all over me like Eric Massa," Mattera...

Jason Mattera, author of "Obama Zombies" and newly appointed editor of Human Events, said "members in the media treat leftist politicians as though they are at a Jonas Brothers concert." He also had rather choice words for young Obama supporters stuck in a "brainless slumber" on Fox Business Channel's April 2 broadcast of "Imus in the Morning." "Somebody about your age - mouthpiece of Franken - is trying to dissuade you from continuing that," host Don Imus noted upon viewing his guest's recent confrontation with Sen. Al Franken. "Yea, he had his hands all over me like Eric Massa," Mattera...

Mattera, author of NYT Bestseller Obama Zombies is rib-crackingly hilarious on Imus as he discusses recent confrontation with Al Franken. 'Members of the media treat leftist politicians as though they're at a Jonas Bros. concert...fawning, licking the heels of their teen idol'. Also, see who IMUS compares MARCO RUBIO to! Obama Zombies is the most hilarious read in politics--ever. You can get it on Amazon.

Some Minneapolis activists are petitioning for more requirements at the polls. A nonprofit voting group and a Minneapolis advocacy organization are starting a petition to require photo identification for people voting in city elections. Republican Rep. Mary Kiffmeyer of Big Lake will speak today in Minneapolis to kick off the petition drive. She was secretary of state from 1999 until 2006, when she was defeated by now-Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a Democrat. Similar petitions have started in St. Paul and Duluth.

Check out this video of Jason Mattera ambushing Senator Al Franken with me, Alyssa Cordova, behind the camera. Pick up a copy of Mattera's new book, "Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed my Generation." Follow us on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/lysscordova http://www.twitter.com/jasonmattera http://www.twitter.com/luceladies

Check out clip of Al Franken being put on the spot about healthcare and unable to defend his position. He eventually plays the victim role by repeatedly yelling at the journalist "Let me talk", but still refuses to actually speak to the substance of the question.

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama is expected to sign the final piece of health care legislation. It makes some fixes to the first bill and offers some big changes to higher education financing. Lawmakers on both sides may be all smiles for the camera, but the fight isn't over. "This is the beginning of massive troubles and massive dislocation to our economy," said Rep. Michele Bachmann. "The feedback I'm hearing is people are overwhelming opposed to the bill." Bachmann, one of the nation's leading critics of the bill, and Sen. Al Franken, one of its biggest champions, talked about health...

THE MN LEGISLATION: Three days before the U.S. House voted to pass ObamaCare, Rep. Tom Huntley (D-Duluth) introduced a bill to conform Minnesota law to ObamaCare. The day before ObamaCare was signed into law, Senator Ann Lynch (D-Rochester) did the same. The Minnesota bill would be even worse than ObamaCare! Hard to imagine, I know. EVEN WORSE: The bill not only requires Minnesota to conform to the federal bill, it moves the date of implementation and the individual mandate from 2014 to January 1, 2012. It adds a more restrictive individual mandate to purchase health insurance (no exceptions), regional payment...

Live from Minneapolis this Saturday night, it's Al Franken and "Saturday Night Live" star Seth Meyers. Minnesota's junior Democratic senator spent much of the 2008 campaign downplaying his years on NBC's long-running sketch comedy show. But he's embracing those roots this weekend with a fundraiser for his political action committee featuring Seth Meyers, host of the popular "Weekend Update" segment and the show's head writer.

Al Franken is working on some new material. After arriving in the Senate in July after a bitterly contested recount, the former "Saturday Night Live" satirist immediately set out to prove that he was no court jester. He pursued Hillary Clinton's expectations-defying model of bipartisan workhorse and convincingly assumed the role of diligent policy wonk. But by so effectively suppressing the punch lines, Franken exposed an irascible, sometimes nasty side of his personality. In a chamber where goodwill helps a freshman rack up legislative achievements, that can be just as damaging. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here Without...

Minnesota Democrat Al Franken was looking to leverage his high-profile criticism of the Comcast/NBCU merger into some cash for his campaign down the road. Franken got national attention with his grilling of NBCU President Jeff Zucker and Comcast Chairman Brian Roberts during last week's Hill hearings on the proposed $30 billion joint venture. He took particular issue with NBC's stand back in the 1990's on sunsetting the financial interest and syndication rules that prevented networks from taking a financial interest in the domestic syndication of their prime time programming. While NBC claimed it would not push independents off the network...

Al Franken has become the voice of the progressive left in the Senate. Yup, Stuart Smiley himself. Franken this week led the Democrat charge against the Obama Administration. Sen. Al Franken ripped into White House senior adviser David Axelrod this week during a tense, closed-door session with Senate Democrats. Sources said Franken was the most outspoken senator in the meeting, which followed President Barack Obama’s question-and-answer session with Senate Democrats at the Newseum on Wednesday. But they also said the Minnesotan wasn’t the only angry Democrat in the room, although he certainly seems to be the leader.