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Franken signs on to hate crimes bill

July 14th, 2009 – 5:50 PM by Kevin Diaz

Al Franken became the 46th co-sponsor of the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Prevention Act on Tuesday. The bill, introduced in April by the ailing Sen. Edward Kennedy, would extend law enforcement resources and federal protections to victims targeted because of gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is one of the original co-sponsors of the bill, named after a Wyoming college student who was reportedly tortured and murdered in 1998 because he was gay.
It’s the second piece of legislation Franken has put his name to in his first full week in the Senate. The first bill he endorsed was card check legislation making it easier for unions to organize. He has said the first bill he authors will be legislation to provide service dogs to wounded veterans. Work on that measure has yet to be completed.

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14 Responses to "Franken signs on to hate crimes bill"

Cash N. Carey says:

July 14th, 2009 at 7:08 pm

Even Time magazine is proclaiming Obamanomics a failure. Maybe the Star will be next.

http://tinyurl.com/lon3ld

Cash N. Carey says:

July 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm

The estimates Obama is using for his economic experiments are pure fantasy.

‘But a series of POLITICO interviews in recent days with independent economists of varied political stripes found widespread disdain for Obama’s first round of assumptions, with some experts invoking such phrases as “rosy” and “fantasy.”’

http://tinyurl.com/l9b8g8

No wonder his approval index continues to languish. His approval ratings are dropping in all polls because of his economic failure. His economic Ponzi scheme would make Bernie Maddoff proud.

Now that the waste of the spendulus bill has been exposed, don’t the libs have any other solution other than sentencing our children and grandchildren to toil away for their parents fairy tale economy?

monty says:

July 14th, 2009 at 10:05 pm

“Even Time magazine is proclaiming Obamanomics a failure.”

Boy, CNC, for someone who prides himself on “facts”, you sure are full of it. As I asked d2 the other day when he provided a link, did you actually read the article you linked or just go with the headline? A fellow at a “right leaning think tank” quoted at the end of the article called the stimulus package a failure(gee, that’s news). The other 99% of the article was a reasonable assessment of the progress of the stimulus package - it’s behind origial projections but only a small portion has been distributed so far and that the administration has always said that “much of the boost to the economy from the stimulus plan would not come until the second half of this year.”
Next time, take off the wingnut colored glasses and actually READ the article you link.

SgtPendleton says:

July 14th, 2009 at 10:17 pm

CNC, what exactly is the “Approval Index”? And why didn’t anyone talk about it under W?

SgtPendleton says:

July 14th, 2009 at 10:20 pm

WSJ is reporting a 56% approval rating. Considering how sh1tty things are right now, is it really that bad? In 2006 when thing were going pretty well, Bush’s approval was below 40.

monty says:

July 14th, 2009 at 10:24 pm

“The estimates Obama is using for his economic experiments are pure fantasy.”

Again, CNC, you really should read the links you post, not just the headlines. For instance, here’s a quote from your link you must have missed:

“Almost all of the economists interviewed — including former Bush White House officials — were sympathetic to the Obama economic team’s plight.

Its January forecasts didn’t deviate sharply back, then, from most other predictions by established and respected economic experts.”

I’d say the “pure fantasy” is in your head , ole buddy. Dontcha just looooove facts, Cash?

Dora says:

July 15th, 2009 at 5:56 am

monty, he just reads the parts he likes, (like what the guy from the “right leaning think tank” said) over and over and convinces himself it’s the entire article. Sort of like a child that has his mother reread that one special passage of his favorite fairy tale over and over every night before he goes to sleep.

Hmmm, I just remembered, doesn’t Kersten come from a “right leaning think tank”? I’d say what the guy has to say has as much credibility as what she says–which is exactly zero.

parthian says:

July 15th, 2009 at 6:54 am

The Pollwatcher doesn’t actually read any articles he links—he couldn’t understand them.

Like the conservative squirrel he is, he is fed wingnut sewage from nice right wing websites he discovered during his daily scavenging, and then dutifully “stores” the sewage at BQ. He justs reads the headline of an article—the body could utterly contradict his post, and usually does. The crap the Pollwatcher posts was given to him by a wingnut site—HE didn’t find it.

The crucial thing is that the Pollwatcher hasn’t the slightest interest in trying to understand what’s actually going on on ANY issue of the day, he’s just happily engaged in Obama hatred and cheering on Team Conservative. A mindless conserva-cog. Party over country, Movement over country.

What’s the import of his story? That the economic assumptions were too optimistic and that the Admin will have to make mid-year revisions, which they say they’ll do. Boy, that’s never happened before.

And the big picture—which is way beyond the Pollwatcher’s brain—is that things are even worse than was assumed in January, which means that under any conceivable theory of macroeconomics gub’mint stimulus is even MORE necessary.

And what do Repub dolts like Kyl and Dimhofe blather out in such a dire situation? That any stimulus that hasn’t been spent should now be cancelled—just like the Hooverite Repubs of the 1930s.

Except the 1930s Repubs arguably didn’t know any better and were just stating classical economic doctrine of the time. Today’s brain-dead Repubs should know better, but because their toxic conservative ideology is far more important to them than reality (or success) in formulating national policy, they come out with the crazed sh*t that they do, which is then vomited out on their 24/7 Noise Machine and Cash the Wonder Squirrel is there to carry it around his neighborhood. That’s the conservative “system”.

Deacon Blues says:

July 15th, 2009 at 8:34 am

“it’s behind origial projections but only a small portion has been distributed so far”

Thats the problem.

monty says:

July 15th, 2009 at 11:07 am

“Thats the problem.”

Agreed. I’m not here to tell you everything is juuuuust fine. But I do get sick of the vulturesque atttitude from some that, in many ways, is contrived and dishonest. It’s their way of rooting for “their team”.
My country is my team.

Deacon Blues says:

July 15th, 2009 at 11:13 am

One of the major problems I have with the stimulus bill, is that it wasnt explained properly to the public. People were excepting it to do things the politicians knew it wouldnt do. The very word stimulus implies to most people speed. The WH didnt set the expectations well enough for the public to be prepared for the stimulus to take this much time to gain traction.

monty says:

July 15th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

Well, the administration has said from the beginning that the stimulus would start to kick in later on this year and early next year, but all that has been buried by the inaccurate perameters contained in the original report-ie. the unemployment rate predictions, etc.-referenced in the Time article. That said, they were, at least, optimistic in their expectations. Let’s see if they have learned anything from the experience.

Deacon Blues says:

July 15th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

“Well, the administration has said from the beginning that the stimulus would start to kick in later on this year and early next year”

And thats another problem. Dont call this a stimulus package then. They sold it as a job creating/saving bill to stimulate the economy. If the idea is to focus on jobs and stimulate the economy, this bill hasnt done the job adequatley enough to call it a success. Not as advertized atleast.

“That said, they were, at least, optimistic in their expectations.”

Dont blow smoke. Be a realist. One thing I dont like about liberals (democrats) sometimes is many of them think being a realist is a bad thing. Some treat politics like its Peter Pan and if they think enough happy thoughts they’ll be able to fly.

Jay says:

July 15th, 2009 at 2:22 pm

“Some treat politics like its Peter Pan and if they think enough happy thoughts they’ll be able to fly”

ie Hope and Change. Ultimately, having a plan trumps both….but ironically, having a plan would actually be a change. And hopeful.

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