On the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s horrendous Citizens United ruling, Al Franken took to the Senate floor to lambaste the decision and urge legislative action to overturn it. Below is video of Franken’s statement, as well as a few excerpts.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court handed down the landmark decision, Citizens United, and with it, they gave corporations a blank check to utterly destroy our political system.  I’d like to take a few minutes this afternoon to tell you about the practical impact of this decision, how it threatens our democracy, and why we need to do something about it….

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It appears that outcry around the country over SOPA, the bill that would break the internet, is making Congress take notice. Both Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar issued statements to MPR yesterday tempering their support for the bill.

Franken:

Sen. Franken has heard the concerns that many Minnesotans have voiced over the past few days about the PROTECT IP Act, and he believes we need to reach a compromise that will both keep the Internet free and open and protect American Jobs.

Klobuchar:

The Senator believes we need to address concerns being raised today and work out a compromise that balances free exchange on the Internet with stopping foreign piracy that hurts our economy.

These are admittedly weak, noncommittal statements. But at least they’re progress. Please keep calling until they walk back their support of SOPA completely.

Al Franken: 202-224-5641 

Amy Klobuchar: 202-224-3244

When it comes to protecting the Internet, Al Franken is usually our best friend. He’s been an outspoken advocate for Net Neutrality, as well as consumer-friendly privacy policies. But with his sponsorship of the so-called “Protect IP Act,” Franken is making a serious mistake.

Like most bills, Protect IP means well. Franken’s staff explained to MN Progressive Project’s Eric Pusey that he believes it will protect American jobs. However, he’s dead wrong on this one. In fact, Protect IP breaks the Internet. The video below shows how.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

Eric Pusey is asking folks to write or call Franken and tell him you oppose Protect IP. Call Franken’s office today — then stop by MN Progressive Project and let him know how it went.

Email Sen. Franken

DC  202-224-5641 
Duluth  218-722-2390 
St. Cloud  320-251-2721 
St. Paul  651-221-1016 
St. Peter  507-931-5813

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you know I’m a big supporter of Net Neutrality. As a small-time blogger, I pretty much have to be. After all, without Net Neutrality, the powerful True North* could pay Comcast to slow down traffic to my blog so much it would become unreadable.

Al Franken has also been an outspoken proponent of Net Neutrality. Like me, he’s concerned about conservatives’ outlandish claims against it. Showing either a complete lack of understanding, or possibly a cynical desire to turn the Internet from the greatest tool for free speech ever made into a corporate-controlled money-sucking machine, they have claimed Net Neutrality is somehow a “government takeover” of the Internet.

In a statement on the Senate floor yesterday, Franken gave a clear, simple explanation of Net Neutrality that’s worth a read. The main point is, Net Neutrality is what we have now. All proponents want is to maintain the neutrality of the Internet.

Net neutrality is a simple concept.  It’s the idea that all content and applications on the Internet should be treated the same, regardless of who owns the content or the website.  This isn’t a very radical idea, and it certainly isn’t a new idea.  You may not realize it, but net neutrality is the foundation and core of how the Internet operates every day - and how it has always operated.

When scientists and engineers were creating the basic architecture of the Internet, they decided they needed to establish some basic rules of the road for Internet traffic.  One of the fundamental design principles of the Internet was that all data should be treated equally, regardless of what is being sent or who is sending it.  That is net neutrality, folks. 

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Matt, Zack, Megan and I had the opportunity to sit down with Senator Al Franken shortly after his Netroots Nation speech on Saturday morning.  We had our audience with Al immediately after the estimable Robin Marty.  

On Friday we solicited questions from readers for the Senator; and we had a couple great ones that got worked into our Q&A time with Al.  A recap after the jump.  

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Al Franken is planning to introduce legislation in the Senate that would apply pay-as-you-go rules to U.S. military operations:

The measure would not specify how Congress would have to pay for the action — that could happen through increasing revenues or cutting spending elsewhere — but it would have to be paid for before votes on any spending could proceed.

This seems like a no-brainer to me. Wars and other military actions are extremely expensive, and they’re also something we shouldn’t enter into lightly. There is absolutely no reason we should put these conflicts on a credit card. And of course, this is a good time for the legislation, as all of Washington is currently pretending to be interested in the deficit. 

Unfortunately, I predict it will fail miserably. Nobody actually cares about the deficit, and everybody loves a good war. I’d love to be wrong, but I don’t see that happening.