Whether I’m drinking coffee in Tim and Connie Velde’s kitchen near Granite Falls or listening to people’s concerns in a diner in Pipestone, I hear about the price of fuel. For too long, we’ve had an energy policy to benefit big oil companies.

Families are paying double what they used to in order to fill up the tank. School districts are considering going to four-day weeks.

Fortunately, the solution to our energy crisis will strengthen the rural economy: renewables. Right here, we’ll find the key to ending our dependence on foreign oil — and an economic bonanza for rural Minnesota.

There’s plenty we can do for the farm economy: bolster the farm safety net to help farmers weather increased input costs, protect farmers from unfair trade deals, and create a program of emergency assistance to livestock producers. There’s plenty we can do to help middle-class families across Minnesota make ends meet: tax cuts for working families, increased student-aid, and improved access to health care.

But when I get to Washington, there’s nothing I’ll fight for harder than a real investment in renewable energy. Minnesota farms safeguard our national security and provide our state’s identity. They can also be the engine of our nation’s energy economy.

Al Franken
DFL-endorsed candidate for U.S. Senate

The Rochester Post-Bulletin published this letter on July 31, 2008.

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Here is an excerpt from Al’s DFL Endorsement Acceptance Speech. The full text is after the jump.

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We’re going to canvass until our feet hurt, and when our feet hurt, we’ll start picking up the phone, start phone-banking. We’re going to get up early and stay up late.

And we’re going to do it because five million Minnesotans need a voice in Washington, and they don’t have one in Norm Coleman.

On issue after issue, he hasn’t brought people together to get things done – he’s sold people out to get ahead.

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Just moments ago, Al spoke to the DFL State Convention. Below is a highlight; read the full speech after the jump.

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We are here, each and every one of us, to take a stand for five million people – the mothers and the fathers and the teachers and the firefighters and the farmers and the veterans and the children of this state – every Minnesotan who needs a voice in Washington.

We are here to take a stand for the college student graduating with that crushing burden of debt. For the steelworker fearing his pension won’t be there when he retires. For the farmer wondering if he’ll be able to pass the rural way of life on to the next generation. For the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines serving overseas and the communities waiting to welcome them home.

We are here to take a stand not because politics is easy, not because we’re hungry for power, not because we think we have all the answers, but because at this moment in our history, our neighbors need a Senator who has their back, and Norm Coleman isn’t even on their side.

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The campaign’s week-long focus on the emerging green economy concluded with a “Green Jobs Showcase” held at the campaign headquarters. On display were a variety of homegrown items and technologies, ranging from “plastic” toys composed primarily of recycled rubber to a vinyl tile made from recycled carpet that would otherwise end up in a landfill. Ice cream was served, but even this frozen treat was done in a sustainable way. The ingredients were all locally grown and produced, and both the bowls and spoons were made from biomass sources, are entirely biodegradable – and were sent to be composted at the end of the event.

Full text of Al’s speech from the April 27th Green Jobs Showcase:

I don’t think I have to tell anybody here about our energy crisis.

Here in Minnesota, we know the cost of Washington’s failure to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

We feel that cost every time we fill up the tank.

We feel that cost every time we pay the heat bill or the electric bill.

We feel the cost when the price of everything rises because the trucks that carry our food and our products to the store have to fill up, too.

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Despite the serious issues that face us, the Senate and Norm Coleman are playing games over an ad.

I’m a satirist by trade. And as a satirist, my job was to point out the absurd, the hypocritical, the ridiculous in life.

It’s been a banner week for ridiculous.

Case in point: On Tuesday, Sen. Norm Coleman took out an ad in this paper criticizing me for criticizing a Senate resolution that criticized MoveOn.org for taking out an ad in the New York Times criticizing Gen. David Petraeus.

It is, of course, ridiculous that the United States Senate spent a day debating and voting on a resolution condemning an advertisement while our troops remained in Iraq, fighting a war with no end. And it’s doubly ridiculous that Coleman, of all people, is still playing politics with this issue.
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SAINT PAUL [7/10/07] – Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Al Franken today wrote to Senator Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) urging the Senator to change his position and vote to end the war in Iraq. The text of the letter is below. To download a radio actuality, click here.

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As you might know, I’ve done seven USO tours. Four of them have taken me to Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan.

When I go, I learn a little bit about the wars in those theaters, but I learn an awful lot about our troops. These men and women make tremendous sacrifices, not only in that they’re in harm’s way, but also in the amount of time they spend separated from their families – 12, 14, 16 months or more.

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