January 2009

  • Who Is (Senator) Al Franken?

    By msarko on 1/12/09 1:21pm
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    It's been an exhausting two months for the men vying for Minnesota's seat in the US Senate. The November 5th results put encumbant Norm Coleman ahead by a small enough margin to require an automatic recount. What resulted was an arduous process of reanalyzing absentee ballots and threatening litigation. For now, it seems like challenger Al Franken has taken the seat, though it's certain we haven't heard the last from the Coleman camp. They'll be fighting this until there's no ground left.

    It's no doubt that a big part of Franken's appeal is his past as an entertainer and radio personality. Who would have thought a Saturday Night Live alum would ever hold a high public office, at least outside of the epilogue for John Belushi's character in Animal House? Even if a lot of people know Al Franken the comedian or Al Franken the AIr America radio personality, a lot of people don't know Al Franken the United States Senator. So, here's a run down of this citizen's political positions.

    Agriculture

    Minnesota has a fairly large, important farming community. Like everybody else in this country, those farmers have been hit hard by the shaky economy.

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  • The Never-ending Elections Continue to Drag

    By mous on 1/6/09 10:55am
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    The patience of the Minnesotan people is starting to wane as the battle over the empty Senate seat continues.  As of now, the two candidates Al Franken(Dem) and Norm Coleman(Rep) are willing to take the race to the Senate to the bitter end.  With Just a few hundred votes in contention for the final decision, the two candidates are enbroiled in a legal battle for the win.

    But the Minnesotans are starting to worry about the lack of representation and growing increasingly weary as the two continue to duke it out.  The legal hair-splitting is growing old as one candidate claims victory over the other, and one candidate calls BS on the results.

    Now it is up to the lawyers to decide how this election will turn out.  Many are calling for Coleman to step aside, lest he damage his reputation and future prospects in politics.  Even his supporters are ready to throw in towel for the sake of ending this merry-go-round of ballot rejection and approval.

    Not that Franken is in any better posititon in the public eye.  But according to the recount so far, Franken is ahead, even if by a small number of votes, giving him the motivation to take this thing as far as could go.

    And rightly so.  Since

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