al franken

Following the explosive news yesterday of Apple mobile devices recording their users every move (for background see here and here), Senator Al Franken is upset and demanding answers from Apple CEO Steve Jobs:

Franken expressed special concern for iPhone and iPad users who are minors, writing that an "estimated 13% of the 108 million iPhones and 19 Million iPad devices sold are used by individuals under the age of 18."

Among Franken's specific questions to Jobs are:

• Why did Apple choose to initiate tracking this data in its iOS 4 operating system?
• Why were Apple consumers never affirmatively informed of the collection and retention of their location data in this manner? Why did Apple not seek affirmative consent before doing so?
• Does Apple believe this conduct is permissible under the terms of its privacy policy?

TPM has Franken’s full letter. It’s great to see a member of Congress take this kind of privacy breach serious. Hopefully more will soon, but in the mean time, I suggest everyone stay clear of Apple products.

Following up on yesterday’s post, the number of senators singing the letter to urge Harry Reid to put the public option back in play is now growing. Here’s where the list stands:

• Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
• Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
• Michael Bennet (D-Col.)
• Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
• Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
• Al Franken (D-Minn.)
• Pat Leahy (D-VT)
• Roland Burris (D-Ill.)
• John Kerry (D-Mass.)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

These senators have not yet signed on but signaled strong support for the public option:

• Tom Harkin (D-Iowa)
• Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.)
• Ben Cardin (D-Md.)
• Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)

This is an awesome momentum, with 14 senators now showing strong support for the public option. That’s almost 1/4 of the Democratic caucus, and the number seems to out shadow the number of blue dogs now. You better start listening Harry.

Following up on the notion of “fix it later” when it comes to the health care bill, I believe I have made a strong case for why that is less than likely too happen any time soon. So now I want to take a look at how “fix it later” will end up playing out in the main event of politics – the campaign trail.

Welcome to Jamie’s time machine. The year is 2014. President Obama is now entering lame duck status after edging out a victory over Mitt Romney in 2012 and now it’s time for the Democrats who rode the original Obama wave of 2008 into power to go out and try to hold on to their seats without the Obamamentum.

We head on out to the Midwest state of Minnesota, where Senator Al Franken gets to go out and try to serve a second term in Senate. We all remember the extremly hard path he had to his freshman term, the constant court battles and recounts to send a defiant Norm Coleman packing. Now he has to fight to keep his seat and fight without the power of Obama sharing the ticket with him.

Al Franken had his first amendment pass the Senate since being sworn in, and it is a good one:

On Tuesday night, the Minnesota Democrat got his first piece of legislation passed by the United States Senate via roll call vote. The amendment stopped federal funding for those defense contractors who used mandatory arbitration clauses to deny victims of assault the right to bring their case to court. It passed by a 68-30 margin with nine Republicans joining each voting Democrat. And in the immediate aftermath, Franken was granted the chance to revel, ever so slightly, in his victory.

"The story came to my attention of Jamie Leigh Jones who, when she was 19, went to Iraq to work for [defense contractor] KBR and she was put in the barracks with 400 men and was sexually harassed," Franken told the Huffington Post in a brief interview shortly after the vote. "She complained. But they didn't do anything about it. She was drugged and gang raped and they locked her up in a shipping container. She tried to sue KBR and they said you have a mandatory arbitration clause in your contract. She tried to fight back and said this is ridiculous. She took it to court and they have been fighting her for three years."

"This bill would make it so that anybody in business with the Department of the Defense can't do this," he concluded emphatically. "They can't have mandatory arbitration on issues like assault and battery."

The amazing part is that a majority of Republicans voted against this. KBR makes far more from the government in one year than ACORN has over the past 15 years, and yet Republicans are fine with them trying to cover up a brutal attack on a U.S. citizen. They are every bit as sick as the perpetrators of this crime.

Now that the Minnesota Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Al Franken there is a lot of expectation that Governor Tim Pawlenty will sign the certification and Al will be on his way to the Senate. One problem though:

Pawlenty, a Republican, has said he would sign the certificate if ordered to do so by the court. The court's ruling stopped short of explicitly ordering the governor to sign the document, saying only that Franken was "entitled" to it.

I could see this being the very kind of bullshit technicality a Republican would use to try and keep Franken out of the Senate. We are in an era of seeing Republican presidential front runners doing very stupid things, and I wouldn’t be shocked if Pawlenty isn’t next. Not signing the certificate would be the very kind of stupid thing I am talking about.

I guess most of this will depend on what Coleman says in about 5 minutes.

UPDATE:

Coleman has just congratulated “Senator Al Franken” and said he will live by the decision. Sounds like he is giving in – FINALLY!

Norm Coleman sued and that ended up giving Franken a bigger lead than before:

Democrat Al Franken today extended his lead over Republican Norm Coleman in Minnesota's U.S. Senate election, after the counting of about 350 formerly rejected absentee ballots this morning.

Franken captured 198 of the ballots, while Coleman took 111. The ballots added 87 votes to Franken’s recount lead, enlarging his margin over Coleman to 312.

The result makes it even more likely that, barring an unforeseen circumstance, Franken will prevail in the election lawsuit that Coleman filed in January to contest the Democrat's 225-vote recount lead. The three-judge panel presiding over the case has not said when it will issue a final decision.

Of course the Republican still hate democracy and will continue to deprive the citizens of Minnesota from their full representation in the U.S. Senate. At this point Franken should be certified and seated. If the courts rule something else down the road, then fine, make a switch, but right now the only ones suffering from this are the people of Minnesota.

No one wants you to be senator anymore!

The Minnesota Supreme Court on Monday rejected Republican Norm Coleman's request to count an additional 654 rejected absentee ballots in his weeks-old Senate showdown with Democrat Al Franken.

The ruling clears the way for the state Canvassing Board to certify results showing Franken the winner after the Supreme Court said the issue is best settled in a post-count lawsuit.

Coleman's attorneys have said they're likely to sue if he loses the recount, meaning it could be weeks more before the outcome is final.

Al Franken is now a Senator. Republicans need to stop dragging their feet, walking with their chins on their chests and allow Franken to be seated. Or is it the Republicans are willing to let one of our states go without full representation into the next Congress?