The Record, a student newspaper at College of St. Benedict / St. John’s University, just came out with a story about student political activity and the great response Al got when he visited. Like college students around Minnesota and the country, CSB/SJU students are really excited for this election!

From their story:

…

“You’re the ones that are going to make the difference in this campaign, the 18 to 30(year-olds),” Franken said. “We’re going to do this. We’re going to change this country, and it’s going to be in your hands.”

Sophomore Alan Albert participated in the march and said he supports Franken. “I like his beliefs, his politics, everything that he stands for,” Albert said. “He’s a down to earth guy . . . and I think we can relate to him very easily.”

…

Read more excerpts from the article after the jump…
(more…)

Franni headed south to New Ulm last week to doorknock with volunteers and then for a meet & greet with local DFLers.

The New Ulm Journal stopped by to check it out and chat with Franni for a few minutes:

…

Franni also talked about her own background. Her father was killed in a car accident when she was a teenager. The tragedy left her mother with four children and Social Security survivor’s benefits.

She said her husband feels that the role of government is to provide a safety net and to provide opportunities. While Social Security helped the family survive, the federal Pell Grant, which provides financial assistance for college to those who qualify, helped her through college. At one time, the Pell Grant covered 90 percent of the cost of going to college; it now covers only 30 percent, she said. That is another thing that Franken’s husband wants to fix.

…

Read more from the article after the jump…

(more…)

By AL FRANKEN
September 28, 2008

There is no denying that the reconstruction of Iraq -an endeavor to which we have committed tens of billions of dollars and a significant amount of our prestige on the world stage- has been a disaster. Less well-known, but just as important for Minnesotans to consider, is Sen. Norm Coleman’s role in that disaster.

Because of waste, fraud, incompetence and abusive contracting practices by companies our government trusted to do this important job, billions were wasted, stolen or lost. Pallets of shrink-wrapped American currency simply disappeared from airport hangars. Greedy contractors got no-bid “cost-plus” contracts that guaranteed a set percentage over and above every dollar they managed to spend. Some, not content with this sweetheart arrangement, even made up fake invoices claiming they’d spent more than they did. And we paid Halliburton billions while it overcharged the military for oil it delivered from Kuwait and served our troops rotten food.

Let’s be very clear here: Ripping off the taxpayer in a time of war is a betrayal of the highest order. And the cost of this fraud cannot be measured in dollars alone.

…

Read full op-ed after the break…
(more…)

By Al Franken
St. Cloud Times

…

For everyone who loses a home, there are many more who lose their home equity. In the Twin Cities, for instance, home values have declined 14.8 percent in the past year. The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that the crisis could end up affecting more than a half-million Minnesota homeowners, costing us $2.3 billion in wealth.

Home equity is the foundation on which middle-class wealth is built – and the foundation is now cracking. With this crisis threatening our neighbors, our communities, and our middle-class economy, we need immediate action. That’s why I’ve called for three steps to fix our housing market.

First: a lifeline for struggling homeowners. I want an immediate and temporary moratorium on foreclosures of primary residences so that we can stop the bleeding in the housing market and allow our neighbors to get their heads above water.

…

Read the full op-ed after the jump…
(more…)

Vice President Walter Mondale joined Al at the State Capitol yesterday to call for renewed accountability in Washington ­ and expose Norm Coleman’s false excuses for not using his powerful Congressional oversight position to oversee Iraq reconstruction contractors.

Listen to the Vice President’s speech here.

The call for increased accountability in Washington is even more relevant with the Bush administration’s proposed trillion-dollar bailout. Yesterday, Al outlined his concerns with the bailout and the lack of Congressional oversight and accountability in that proposal.

Read more after the jump…

(more…)

DATE: September 24, 2008
TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Al Franken for Senate
RE: How much have Norm Coleman and George Bush’s giveaways to the special interests cost us?

BACKGROUND
How much have Norm Coleman and George Bush’s giveaways to the special interests cost us?
$17 billion dollars in tax breaks to the oil companies
$40 billion to companies that ship our jobs overseas
$300 billion to the drug companies
Coleman and Bush have increased the national debt to over nine TRILLION dollars
And Coleman wants to spend a trillion more to privatize social security.
Norm Coleman has stuck with George Bush…and stuck it to Minnesota.

(more…)

Al Franken: Americans need to invest at home, not in Iraq

By Al Franken
Grand Forks Herald

ST. PAUL – In April, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., took a trip to Iraq and spoke to a senior U.S. military officer. The officer told Levin that he had asked an Iraqi official why American dollars, rather than Iraqi dollars, were being used to clean up Iraqi towns.

The Iraqi official replied, “As long as you are willing to pay for the clean-up, why should we do it?”

He had a good point. There is a fine line between trying to fix what we broke in Iraq and being taken for chumps. And a report released recently was just the latest piece of evidence that we crossed that line a long time ago.
(more…)

On Friday, Franni and former Congressman Martin Sabo held a roundtable at a St. Paul coffee shop with five Minnesota seniors to talk about the importance of Social Security. Protecting Social Security is near and dear to Al and Franni because Franni’s family survived on Social Security survivor benefits after the death of her father. It’s something Al has talked about on the trail and also in our TV ad, “Important.”

More on Al’s proposals to stand up for Minnesota seniors from the Rochester Post-Bulletin, after Al’s visit to Rochester for Seniors for Franken:
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=16&a=361419

Read an Excerpt after the jump…
(more…)

Norm Coleman’s new ad claims that Al Franken is wrong to argue that Coleman is against allowing Medicare to negotiate for lower drug prices under Part D. In fact, Norm Coleman is lying to Minnesota seniors. Let’s look at the facts.

Read more after the jump…
(more…)

To the editor:

I wanted to write to congratulate Faribault on winning the new Moventas gearbox plant. In my campaign for U.S. Senate, I’ve been calling for an Apollo program for renewable energy – and saying it would create jobs for Minnesota. The great news about the new plant shows that Minnesota is ready to be the epicenter and the engine of a new energy economy. We are the Saudi Arabia of wind and the source of some of the world’s premier research institutions. Congratulations to Faribault on the new plant and the new jobs. With continued investment in renewable energy technologies, this can be the beginning of a terrific trend.

Al Franken
U.S. Senate candidate

The Faribault Daily News published this letter on September 18, 2008.

(more…)