S.978

Does The Commercial Felony Streaming Act Threaten Internet Freedom?

David Taintor | November 2, 2011, 6:10AM

We all had a laugh last week when pop singer Justin Bieber said Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) should be thrown in jail for proposing legislation that would make streaming unlicensed content online a felony. But does the bill actually threaten amateur artists?

After Klobuchar introduced S.978, something of an online frenzy broke out in protest. The website FreeBieber.org claimed Bieber faced up to five years in prison if the bill were to pass. Many have written that Bieber is safe from prosecution. But the reality might be slightly more complicated.

Read more »

Amy Klobuchar

Justin Bieber: Amy Klobuchar Needs To Be 'Locked Up!' (AUDIO)

David Taintor | October 28, 2011, 11:53AM

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Pop Singer Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber on Thursday was like, "baby, baby, baby, no."

On a radio show, the tween pop sensation called out Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), who's sponsoring legislation to make it a felony to profit from streaming unlicensed content online, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

Read more »

Medicare/Medicaid

Poll: Voters Ready To Penalize Democrats Who Mess With Medicare

Evan McMorris-Santoro | May 24, 2011, 8:40AM

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

Voters in key Senate swing states don't want cuts to Medicare and Medicaid benefits -- and they're prepared to exact revenge on politicians who vote in favor of them.

That's according to new Public Policy Polling (D) numbers from Ohio, Missouri, Montana and Minnesota, where Democratic Senators face what could be tough reelection fights. The polling, published first by TPM, was sponsored by a coalition of progressive groups.

Read more »

MN-SEN

Norm Coleman: I Won't Run For Senate Against Klobuchar In 2012 (VIDEO)

Eric Kleefeld | February 1, 2011, 1:34PM

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), American Action CEO

Former Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN), who very narrowly lost the hotly-disputed 2008 Minnesota Senate race, has announced that he will not challenge the state's other senator, Democrat Amy Klobuchar, in 2012.

"I'm not going to run against Amy Klobuchar," said on ABC's Top Line Web show. "I've said in other forums that I haven't ruled out public service -- my heart's in public service. At some point, but not in 2012. I love what I do now, and that is developing center-right policy."

Coleman currently heads up his own conservative group, the American Action Network, which according its website "is a 501(c)(4) 'action tank' that will create, encourage and promote center-right policies based on the principles of freedom, limited government, American exceptionalism, and strong national security."

A survey in December by Public Policy Polling (D) gave Klobuchar an approval rating of 59%, with disapproval at only 29%. The same poll also showed her leading all hypothetical Republican opponents, including a 54%-40% advantage over Coleman.

Read more »

Michele Bachmann

Is Michele Bachmann Gearing Up For A 2012 Senate Run?

David Taintor | December 22, 2010, 8:39AM

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) did pretty well for herself in 2010. A prominent conservative figure who routinely appears on national television, she founded the tea party caucus, and was recently given a seat on the House Intelligence Committee. But after cruising to reelection victory in Minnesota, is she already setting her eyes on a 2012 senate run?

Bachmann's spokesman Doug Sachtleben told The Hill in a statement that "nothing's off the table for the future." Sachtleben declined to comment further to TPM.

Obviously, Bachmann's not running yet. But if she did -- how would she stack up next to first-term Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar?

Read more »

Elena Kagan

Twilight Fan Amy Klobuchar Grills Elena Kagan on Edward v. Jacob (VIDEO)

Megan Carpentier | June 30, 2010, 11:24AM

(Clockwise, from top left) Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan, Jacob Clark of Twilight (played by Taylor Lautner), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Edward Cullen of Twilight (played by Robert Pattinson).

Although Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan doesn't need anyone else to help provide moments of levity in the otherwise interminable confirmation process, Twiharder Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) did her darndest to keep up and be culturally relevant at the same time. Klobuchar asked Kagan the ultimate question of our time: Edward or Jacob?

Read more »

Deficit

With Unemployment In Double-Digits, Congress Set To Clash On Debt And Deficits

Brian Beutler | December 11, 2009, 10:44AM

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND)

If and when health care passes, the White House and the Congress will be tugged in two seemingly different directions. On the one hand, with unemployment in the double digits (and an election around the corner), Democrats will have to do something about jobs--and that means another spending bill. The House has already begun its work and the Senate will have to follow suit if the economy is to improve, and if Democrats want to avoid a political blood bath. But the White House, and a bipartisan bloc in the Senate, have made very clear that they'll pay equal, or greater, attention to addressing the country's perilous fiscal situation. And that could touch off yet another tug of war between liberal Democrats and centrist legislators over the country's priorities.

Last month, liberals were taken by surprise when a number of senators--including several Democrats--issued a chilling ultimatum: let us tinker with entitlement programs and taxes, they said, or we'll block raising the amount of debt the government can take on. According to Sen. Kent Conrad (D-ND), 11 or 12 senators have said they will not vote for must-pass legislation to raise the country's debt ceiling unless they are authorized to create an external commission with extraordinary power over Medicare, Social Security and so on.

This week, Conrad and several of his supporters unveiled their proposal, and it turns out, liberals may have had less to worry about than it seemed at first blush. Not because the members of the commission would like to be gentle to American welfare programs, but because its authors seem to have set it up to fail.

Read more »