Franken, Bachmann, Walz and Ellison "Bobble Reps"

Asked at Saturday’s Netroots Minnesota conference what blogs he follows, Rep. Tim Walz pulled out his iPhone and rattled off a few sites: Talking Points Memo, Bluestem Prairie, MN Publius and others. Then he showed off his favorite iPhone app — a new one that features his likeness and that of every other member of the House and Senate as shakeable cartoon bobbleheads.

The 99-cent “Bobble Rep” app helps users find out who represents them in Congress, either through a direct search or by using the iPhone’s GPS locator. The caricatures — heads for each of 540 legislators put on one of 12 bodies — were drawn by MAD Magazine artist Tom Richmond to be fun and nonpartisan. But Apple didn’t see it that way: it rejected the application claiming “it ridicules public figures.”

Richmond wrote:

This is truly ridiculous. These caricatures aren’t mean or very exaggerated. They are simple, fun cartoon likenesses of the politicians and the purpose of the app is an informational database. There is no editorial commentary involved at all.

Indeed, related projects, while likewise tame, could probably be construed as far more “offensive,” to use Apple’s word. Sen. Franken, for instance, was rendered as a 3D vampire bobblehead, “The Count,” (along with Norm Coleman) by the St. Paul Saints baseball team in March. And earlier this month, Franken and Coleman were given the MAD Magazine treatment in a spoof ad for “Democra-cialis, ” a cure for the kind of “electile dysfunction” that plagued their 2008 Senate battle, in MAD’s list of “dumbest people, events and things” of 2009.

But last Monday, Apple reversed its decision, green-lighting the app that made its way to Walz’s cellphone.

Walz’s wielded smartphone could’ve been a good prop for another question he answered — about net neutrality. He said he’s “absolutely convinced that we must keep net neutrality,” and thanks to his resolve, “AT&T doesn’t even come to my office anymore” to lobby against it, he added. He said he’s surprised that conservatives aren’t more concerned about the freedom issues surrounding the possibility of corporations controlling what internet users can and can’t access.

“If you want to wave the patriot banner,” he said, “wave it on net neutrality.”

Here’s how each of Minnesota’s Bobble Reps look:

That statistic is part of an op-ed by Ellison and the chief sponsor of a companion bill, Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, at the Huffington Post.

Another statistic they offer: The top five states for 2008 voter turnout — including Minnesota and Wisconsin — all have same-day registration.

Ellison and Feingold urge the District of Columbia’s city council to adopt reforms today that would allow voters to register at the polls.

The new federal legislation, introduced last week, has not yet attracted co-sponsors beyond its original Democratic backers. They include Minnesota Reps. Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar and Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Also quoted in the piece is Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie: “EDR [Election Day Registration] is much more secure because you have the person right in front of you — not a postcard in the mail. … We have 35 years of experience with this.”

Click here for information from Ritchie’s office on how to register to vote on Election Day in Minnesota.

Photo: Chris Steller, Minnesota Independent

U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison has introduced a bill that would extend Minnesota-style, same-day voting rights to all eligible Americans in federal elections.

The Same Day Registration Act would let people register at the polling place on Election Day rather than requiring registration weeks or months ahead of time, as most states do.

Same-day registration is already law in seven nine states, including Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa, plus the District of Columbia. (North Dakota is the only state to do without voter registration altogether.)

Common Cause claims those states see voter-turnout rates as much as 7 percent higher than others; a 2009 Cal Tech/MIT study (pdf) confirms that “election day registration can increase turnout significantly” and doesn’t increase costs or fraud.

It’s an Upper Midwest thing, it seems. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin is the bill’s sponsor in the U.S. Senate, where Minnesota’s Amy Klobuchar and Iowa’s Tom Harkin are co-sponsors. In the House, two of five co-sponsors are Minnesotans: Tim Walz and Jim Oberstar. So far, the bill’s sponsors are all Democrats.

In a statement, Ellison said,

Minnesota routinely leads the nation in voter turnout – usually over 70 percent. … Enacting a National Election Day Registration law would do for the nation what same day registration has done for our State – give a voice to all who want to vote.

That 70 percent figure applies to years with presidential races. In off-year elections, turnout has run about 10 percentage points lower.

Ellison’s statement also quotes Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie calling same-day registration a “no brainer” and claiming it is more secure than other states’ systems that require registration in advance, because “you have the person right in front of you — not a postcard in the mail.”

In the U.S. Senate election recount between Al Franken and Norm Coleman, Minnesota showed the nation flaws in its absentee-voting system — some involving the mail. Other states saw major controversies over voter registration in last year’s election. One was Colorado, where the secretary of state purged 44,000 voters from the registration rolls before Election Day, in defiance of court orders. A few hundred managed to cast provisional ballots that were counted.

Ellison’s bill comes just as millions across the country prepare to go to the polls next Tuesday — that is, as long as they’ve registered beforehand, in states where that’s required.

In Minnesota, officials expect half a million voters to turn out. But who knows? A few million more could decide to exercise their franchise on the spur of the moment, and if they haven’t registered yet, no biggie.

Here’s the key language in Ellison’s bill (H.R. 3957):

[E]ach State shall permit any eligible individual on the day of a Federal election and on any day when voting, including early voting, is permitted for a Federal election (A) to register to vote in such election at the polling place using a form that meets the requirements under section 9(b) of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993; and (B) to cast a vote in such election.

The bill’s first stop in the House in the Committee on House Affairs. None of the members of that committee come from states with same-day voter registration.

The bill passed the U.S. House two weeks ago. Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken were among the 68 Senators voting for the bill on Thursday. Twenty-nine Senators voted against the bill.

If Obama signs the bill, it will mark the end of 10 years of pressure from LGBT and human rights groups to pass the legislation.

Immediately following passage, LGBT groups hailed the vote.

Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director, Family Equality Council:

“Safety at home, at work, and in our communities is a cornerstone of happy, healthy families. LGBT families live in 99% of counties nationwide. We are neighbors, friends, loved ones, family members, workers and community members. Many of us are also parents who want more than anything to keep our children safe and to raise them in a world that finds strength in difference and celebrates diversity. Bias-motivated violence against any individual hurts our entire community. The protections and resources moved forward by Congress will ensure greater safety not just for LGBT people as individuals, but as parents and caregivers.”

Rea Carey, Executive Director, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force:

“Today’s vote marks a milestone for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans. The hate crimes bill now shifts to the president. With his signature, President Obama will usher in a new era — one in which hate-motivated violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people will no longer be tolerated. Our country will finally take an unequivocal stand against the bigotry that too often leads to violence against LGBT people, simply for being who they are.”

Joe Solmonese, Executive Director, Human Rights Campaign:

“We applaud the leadership of our Senate allies, particularly Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and Senators Patrick Leahy, Carl Levin, and Susan Collins for ensuring that the hate crimes provision remained part of this authorization bill. We also recognize the tireless efforts of Senator Ted Kennedy on this issue; a hero for our entire community.”

Elsewhere in Minnesota news today …

MINNEAPOLIS: Mayor Rybak met with people seeking jobs. Just not his. [KSTP-TV; Star Tribune]

STATEWIDE: Senators too. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar echoed Rybak’s call for extending jobless benefits about to expire — unless Rybak was echoing them. [Hot Dish Politics]

STATEWIDE: Minnesota a national model on renewable energy. The country is playing catchup, says Klobuchar. [St. Cloud Times]

MINNEAPOLIS: Minnesota not a national model on elections. The Center of the American Experiment’s first recommendation: a photo-ID mandate that stymied reform this year. [Politics in Minnesota]

INDIAN COUNTRY: The first shall be healthiest. Minnesota’s senators also back a bill “to make America’s native people the healthiest people in the world.” [Bemidji Pioneer]

ST. PAUL: Breakfast was served. Were the people of Minnesota? That’ll take more bacon and pancakes. [St. Paul Pioneer Press]

Klobuchar recounted her own experiences with the health care industry on the Senate floor last week.

Let me tell my colleagues how I got interested in this issue. When my daughter was born, she was very sick. She couldn’t swallow. She was in intensive care. They thought she had a tumor. It was a horrendous moment for our family. I was up all night in labor, up all day trying to figure out what was wrong with her, and they literally kicked me out of the hospital — my husband wheeled me out in a wheelchair after 24 hours — because at that point in our country’s history, they had a rule; it was called driveby births. When a mom gave birth, she had to get kicked out of the hospital in 24 hours.

In a press conference, Klobuchar talked about how that experience drove her to get the law changed.

Klobuchar also said she was pleased that domestic abuse was being addressed by Congress.

“In nine states and the District of Columbia, women who are victims of domestic abuse, who have been victims of domestic abuse can be denied health care coverage because domestic abuse can be considered a preexisting condition,” she said. “That’s why I’m so glad one of the major, major proposals in this reform is to do something about pre-existing conditions.”

Seven other female senators are working to make the health reform package inclusive of women: Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.; Barbara Boxer D-Calif.; Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich.; Mary Landrieu, D-La.; and Senator Kay Hagan, D-N.C.

The senators say one of the most important issues facing women’s access to health care is that women pay more in premiums but get less health care for the added cost. Things like pregnancy and domestic abuse are sometimes excluded as preexisting conditions.

Planned Parenthood of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, praised Klobuchar’s efforts.

“The health care debate continues to rage in Washington, and amendments limiting women’s access to reproductive health care are expected,” the group said on Friday. “Senator Klobuchar made it clear last week that women cannot be worse off after health care reform than they are today. Health care reform must improve our lives, not take away the rights we have fought so hard to win.”

Photo: News 12 KEYC

U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar paid a visit to Darfur Saturday — but not the humanitarian crisis flashpoint in Sudan. Klobuchar met with one-third of the town of Darfur, Minn. (pop. 137), about how to fund a new fire station.

The town is indeed named for the Sudanese Darfur — the plight of which inspired another member of Minnesota’s congressional delegation to undergo arrest last spring.

Residents of Darfur, Minn., are hoping for federal stimulus money to help pay for a fire hall big enough to fit their rigs.

[Via the Star Tribune's RachelSB]

Photos: The UpTake

Minnesotans disgusted by insipid Twins-Yankees TV commentators might find comic relief in civil libertarians’ online kibbitzing about U.S. Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, who last week voted to renew the Patriot Act without reforms in the Senate Judiciary Committee. In so doing, Minnesota’s senators committed the legislative equivalent of calling a plainly fair ball foul or overrunning third base. 

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) singles out Franken for forgetting the very Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution with which he so recently bludgeoned an Obama Administration witness before the same committee:

A special disappointment at yesterday’s hearing was freshman Senator Al Franken’s vote for the bill, which amongst other things renewed PATRIOT’s “roving” “John Doe” wiretap authority allowing the government to get a wiretapping order that doesn’t name the wiretapping target or specify the phone lines and email accounts to be wiretapped. Just two weeks ago, Senator Franken was lecturing a Justice Department official on how the Fourth Amendment requires that search warrants specify with particularity the persons and places to be searched. He was right, then; he was wrong, yesterday.

EFF has Klobuchar, a co-sponsor of the Patriot Act–renewal bill, delivering an unwitting punchline in the tragicomic defeat of new limits to the far-reaching law:

Another sad but humorous moment of disappointment came from Senator Klobuchar, who opposed Senator Durbin’s amendment to ensure that the FBI only use National Security Letters to obtain records related to a spy or terrorist. Thinking that she was reading the text of the bill that she was about to vote for, Klobuchar recited instead Senator Durbin’s proposal to defend the reasonableness of the NSL standard in the bill. In other words … Senator Klobuchar praised the NSL standard in Durbin’s amendment immediately before she voted to help kill it.

Irregular Times piles on: “Klobuchar … does not keep her mouth shut, even when to do so might be in her best interest. … Nobody would have known that she didn’t understand the legislation in front of her if she hadn’t decided, seemingly on the spur of the moment, to speak up.”

This is Irregular Times’ transcript of Klobuchar’s unwarranted speechifying (watch video here, starting at 95:00):

KLOBUCHAR: Yeah, thank you, um, Mr. Chairman, and I, I agree with you Mr. Chairman, and, uh, Senator Sessions, in opposing the amendment. And I would just point to the actual language in here, which is, uh it’s not like this is some pie in the sky standard here. I mean, it specifically says that there has to be, for this letter to issue, “reasonable grounds to believe that the information sought is relevant to an authorized national security investigation provided that such an investigation of the United States person is not conducted solely on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution and pertain to a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power, is relevant to the activities of a suspected agent of a foreign power who is subject of such authorized investigation, or pertains to an individual in contact with, or known to, a suspected agent of a foreign power.”

So I just, for anyone listening to this, it is not like there is no standard! There is a standard in place here.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS: That’s the standard that is in the bill now?

KLOBUCHAR: [nod and smile]

SEN. DICK DURBIN: Senator, that’s the standard of the amendment. It’s not in the bill now.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY: Clerk will call the roll.

DURBIN: Mr. Chairman, can I have a moment?

LEAHY: Senator Durbin.

DURBIN: I’d like to make that point to Senator Klobuchar!

LEAHY: Oh, I’d like to make it very clear, I’m not going to cut off anybody who wants to, obviously, I…

DURBIN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It’s rare we get a chance to talk about issues of this gravity, and I think we ought to take a few moments to do it. And I would say to Senator Klobuchar, you just read my amendment, and I think it’s critically important that you understand what we’re establishing here.

Wisconsin is the only other state with both its senators on the Judiciary Committee. That state’s Sen. Russ Feingold, a leading Patriot Act reformer, took to the Daily Kos web pages with a post titled “It’s Not the Prosecutors’ Committee, It’s the Judiciary Committee” after the committee voted down his alternative Justice Act.

Feingold is too polite to call out his neighbor-state colleagues in his blog post.

Elsewhere in Minnesota news today …

WILLMAR: Community banks need special handling by feds. That’s what Klobuchar told women in Willmar. [West Central Tribune]

ST. PAUL: Nice stamp, if you like swans. The same two senators helped unveil a new postage stamp honoring Minnesota — and it’s a real ugly duckling. [Polinaut]

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA: If it walks like a duck … One innovative way the U of M keeps tuition down is by assessing every student a $1,200 annual fee without calling it what it is: tuition. [Minnesota Daily]

ST. PAUL: Nurses back Thissen. The gubernatorial aspirations of state Rep. Paul Thissen, a Minneapolis DFLer, got special care from the Minnesota Nurses Association. [Workday Minnesota]

BRECKENRIDGE: If we’d known you were coming … A school district wants three hours’ notice from any news media planning to cover its meetings. [St. Cloud Times]

MINNEAPOLIS: If it walks like a zombie … The flesh was weak but the turnout was strong for the annual Zombie Pub Crawl, during which some sang “zombieokie.” [Minnesota Daily]

The bill would add sexual orientation and gender identity to the federal government’s hate crimes statutes, while also providing grants to local law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute suspected hate crimes.

Minnesota’s DFL members of Congress voted for the bill with the exception of Peterson, a longtime opponent of LGBT-supportive legislation. The state’s Republican members of Congress voted against the bill except for Paulsen, who represents the moderate district encompassing western Hennepin County.

Earlier this month, a number of Paulsen’s constituents met at his district office to convince him to support the bill, work that seems to have paid off, as Paulsen voted against a similar bill earlier this year.

A nearly identical bill has already passed the Senate with the backing of Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, but the Senate must approve the new bill passed by the House. That could happen as early as next week.