franken: mr. president, thank you. i ask unanimous consent that my legislative fellows aaron boyd and sharon hessney be given privileges of the floor for the duration of today's session. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask also unanimous consent that senator whitehouse and i be permitted to engage in a colloquy. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. franken: mr. president, i rise today to address an alarming trend that i see in our national discourse. as legislators, our decisions need to be rooted in facts. science driven by data and rigorous analysis needs to inform our policy making. scientists are the ones who made the u.s. the world's innovator in the last century. scientists are the people who gave us antibiotics, for example. do you like being able to use antibiotics? well, then thank scientists. scientists put a man on the moon, several men, actually, and got them back safely. these are rocket scientists. scientists

al franken is looking as to whether this violates federal law. that brings us to our water cooler question of the day. are you concerned about your privacy when it comes to your personal information and your browsing history when you use your smart phone? you can share your response at wbaltv.com and on our facebook page, or send us an e-mail to watercooler@wbaltv.com. >> 6:20. this time yesternight things were backed up on the beltway. sarah will check on the roads. >> a hometown hero shines. keith mills will join us with his story plus a preview of this weekend's ravens-browns match up. >> here is a look at last night's winning maryland lottery numbers. >> now traffic pulse 11 and insta-weather plus together. >> good morning. sarah caldwell checking on your morning commute. right now we're checking out fine. no incidents to report. we're checking the speech center on the outer loop. 26 miles per hour at liberty. the inner loop is moving well up towards the j.f.x. as far as traffic on 70 come that is looking good in towards the beltway. the key

came up with the idea franken said that he became friends with a bully after he pulled that billy's name during his grade school's secret santa exchange he thinks that this is a good way to bring those parties closer together last throw, prince. and last chance at medicare open enrollment, too. what do you mean? it ends december 7th. if you haven't reviewed your medicare plan choices yet, well, it's getting late. medicare gives you free cancer screenings and wellness visits and 50% off brand name prescription drugs when you're in the donut hole... it's all part of the health care law. december 7th? i better get goin'! [ male announcer ] medicare open enrollment ends soon. call 1-800-medicare or visit medicare.gov to learn more. [ alarm rings ] [ male announcer ] take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. fixodent denture adhesive challenges you to a 12 hour hold test. ♪ ♪ thanks to its time released formula, you apply fixodent once and it holds all day. ♪ ♪ take the fixodent 12 hour hold challenge. guaranteed or your money back. ♪ ♪ and for guaranteed freshness try fixodent cleanser,

. >> kimberly: you realize this is al franken's idea. >> greg: of course.n, the aclu would have stopped it. >> eric: this was a bipartisan effort. >> dana: franken's original idea. >> kimberly: some of them are paperweight. new mexico chili. new hampshire coffee cup. recycled pair of socks. disgusting. gift certificate to a discount store. how about a gift certificate to the dollar store? >> bob: department store of muskogee. one thing we don't burn our bras in muskogee and we fire glory proudly at the courthouse. making fun of our producer. have you heard that song? i want to be okie from muskogee? >> dana: home state products can be good. when i worked on chail in the day when -- capitol hill when speaker gingrich was the speaker. if we finished it we could have beers at 6:00 on friday. coors company supplied the delegation for the product. we felt bad for iowa people. who do they have in potato chips? >> kimberly: i love poe stay toes. >> eric: or mormons? >> bob: new jersey you give dirty water. >> kimberly: you and jersey. >> bob: i loved jersey. i liv

the idea came from democratic senator al franken. some of the senators decided not to participate. >> i like that, $10. >>> coming up at 6:00, a leal organizations a teamed up with others -- organization has teamed up with others to help build libraries. >>> before you return to the mall to finish up your shopping, why you may want to check out consignment shops. those stories and more coming up at 6:00. is that thing getting closer? look how high that thing's going. look out there, look at the debris. all right, give me the camera. no, just drive. i've got it. zoom in! zoom in! i can't believe this is happening. look at the size of that thing. it's everywhere. are you getting this? yeah, i've got it. what was that? it's the national guard. how'd they get here so fast? i don't know. pull over! pull over! do you have what it takes to head into the heart of the storm? check out nationalguard.com. li s id m ba llral,was li s unl id m ba llral,was li s vet.veou >>> tess the season for -- 'tis the season for stealing. shoplifting up 6%ed

joining me now is perry bacon jr., the politics editor of thegrio.com, msnbc contributor and bob frankented columnist. thanks for joining me tonight. perry can, ron paul really deny that he knew what was in these newsletters? one thing and all of us in public life may have said things we needed to apologize for that was distorted but to say you have no knowledge, didn't read it and then people can now come and have you saying that these were part of your machine and that you were taken out of context, well, even if you were taken out of context, you acknowledge that you had read them, how do you take the whole thing in context and in 2011 say i don't even know what you're talking about? >> reverend, i think he can't do this. ron paul has always been known for being straightforward and honest. he has views that people don't agree with, even republicans about war and government but he's known for being candid and honest, and in this case his stories don't seem quite consistent and this does take away from his political brand in a lot of ways. >> now, ironically, bob, nobody less than newto

senator al franken of minnesota has written carrier iq demanding answers and privacy advocates say if the software is sending that data it's illegal. >> if the text message data or e-mail data is being intercepted and transmitted it's a straightforward violation of the federal wiretap act and it's a serious violation. >> reporter: but a computer consultant says he has examined the carrier iq program and finds it's not spying on users. >> while it does do things such as listen for keystrokes it's not writing those down anywhere. it's doing it for internal purposes and not sending that information back to the carrier. >> i think what companies have to do is tell consumers what information they're collecting, tell them how they're collecting it, what they're doing with it, and give the consumers the option to turn it off. >> reporter: but this software, now in wide use, does not give consumers any option to turn it off. and the software maker insists there's no need to. pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> up next, the irish rock star who goes by a single name and why this was a big

. >>> next, governor brown in a franken of the year conversation. why -- frank end of the year conversation. >>> nasty campaign ads are running day and night in iowa. i'm tahmon bradley with the latest gop nomination fight coming up. >>> new epidemic that strikes 15 million americans each day and is gro over 200,000 people are hospitalized every year with flu complications. lysol disinfectant spray is approved to kill over 50 germs on surfaces. this includes cold and flu viruses. so we recommend using lysol every day. mmm... pillsbury crescent wrapped brie just unroll, wrap the brie and bake. it's so easy. now this might even impress aunt martha. pillsbury crescent wrapped brie. holiday ideas made easy. mom, we're dying. no you're not, you're just hungry. make some totino's pizza rolls. we don't have any! front... left, totino's. [ male announcer ] well done mom! less drama, more fun! totino's pizza rolls. i was using cascade actionpacs. they just didn't have that spot free look. when i took the finish challenge, i could tell there was a difference.

senator al franken recalls become a friend in school of someone who bullied him after drawing the bull yea name. >>> the ad would play while the transaction is being processed and would run about 10 second so customers can chews choose not to view it and pay the atm surcharge. at at bottom of the atm receipt there's a coupon which could be redeemed at local businesses. the idea is being tested at one atm in new york. we want to know what you think about this. would you watch a 10 second ad from atm to avoid the fee when you never had to pay a fee before? think about that. abc2news.com/facebook and let noise what you think. >>> news time -- and let us know what you think. >>> many fear long lines over airport security when flying. wait until you hear what tsa agents wanted to check on an elderly woman's colostomy bag. unbelievable. >>> look at this. this is what police tell you to do if a thief has weapon. check that out. store clerk take matters into his own hands. he is taking on that thief. video catches it. we are back in a bit. [ sue ] wow! i've been so looking forward to this. whe

senator franken? >> thank you. madam chair. mr. cervone, the title of this hearing is breaking the silence of child abuse the bigger the protection, intervention and deterrence and i know we are talking about a piece of legislation on prevention and intervention but you mentioned a couple times a number of the abusers were victims themselves. so i think that treatment -- you mentioned treatment yourself a number of times. there is one thing we need to add to this. what percentage of abusers were abused themselves? we have any idea of that? >> we can get that information for you. >> okay. but i think we really have to focus on treatment of these children who are abused. that is vitally important because whether they become abusers or not, this is something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives unless they get treated. and it can go other places as you mentioned. they become -- turn to drugs or our call or become unhappy people who are not good parents etc.. >> our business is using the phrase a whole child representa

march of two thousand and nine they turned around and made a cool thirteen billion off so with bob franken been stronger in congress would have known the truth about the size of the federal reserve loans to us banks was going to produce producer treasonist i'd say to find out what you have to say. the stated goal of dodd frank was to make sure that the financial collapse of two thousand and eight could not happen again and while the bill did impose regulations requiring largest banks to be able to survive the thirteen percent unemployment rate another twenty one percent drop in home values and if the two percent loss in stock markets did not address the concept of too big to fail leaving the banks larger than ever but if the federal reserve had not kept quiet about the seven point seven trillion dollars in loans totaling half the u.s. economy we might have seen how unsound the banks really work so when dodd frank has been stronger than it is today well tim davis said congress did not want to know the truth they were sucking the cash cow system and barely came had time to come up for a bert

santa so far fifty eight senators have signed up for the gift exchange program created by senator al franken there's a ten dollars gift limit that republicans will likely spend far less claiming that any money spent on a gift for their colleagues needs to be offset somewhere else as for what the best gift is for a senator who gets and was perks maybe lawmakers should ask the same people they ask for advice on every piece of energy legislation the big coal industry. i mean i think that password is keeping people from snooping on what goes on your smartphone. again and this key logger is actually put into the phone before you buy . what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions come to the breakthrough through to be made who can you trust no one who is in view with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism is called satchels when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more.

they say franken was riding his bike in oakland when heartsman shot him in the arm.ranklin was scheduled to graduate from high school a few weeks after he was killed. and police say an antioch man accidentally killed his own two year-old son. he backed over him with his truck in the family's driveway on monday. the alameda corridor has identified the to your old as malcolm norris, the father tells authorities that he had no idea that his little boy was out side and behind the truck when he backed up. the child was taken to oakland hospital and he died of his injuries. it was just days after his second birthday. it is unlikely that the father will face any criminal charges. >> mark: switching to sports and news, in the 49ers have been put on the pro bowl roster but believer not the 49ers are hoping that none of them will be able to attend because the pro bowl is held the week before the super bowl. the coaches would rather have their players in the super bowl than go to the pro bowl. >> mark: for the raiders, they are sending three players to the pro bowl. >>justine:

senator franken do you want to introduce? >> thank you, madam chair. for your leadership. for holding this hearing. on this very important issue. is my pleasure to introduce erin sullivan sutton, assistant commissioner for children and families at the minnesota department of human services. as an attorney, social worker and instructor, miss sutton dedicated her career to public service. in her position she is responsible for developing policies, administering programs that promote child safety. she previously served as minnesota's director of child safety and permanency where she oversaw adoption, foster care and other children's services and she serves on the executive committee for the national association of child welfare administrators and is past president of that organization. in all assistant commissioner sutton has spent 30 years in the child welfare field and spend 20 years with minnesota department of human services. miss sutton. crystal thank you for your service and all you do to keep minnesota's children safe and i look forward to hearing your testimony. thank

he invited me to dinner at it turns out he also invited franken his wife. what will this be like?inatra came, is that down and looked at me and said kid come i watch her every morning. i was doing the "today show" at the time. he turned on the chart. i have tickets to my show. i was instantly seduced. you did not know which one would the show up but when a good one showed up, he was absolutely wonderful. >> you went to the concert? >> i did not i had another occasion later but he made one of his greatest albums at nbc because we have the best sound system. the audio wizard who worked back in the day said stick around tonight it will be about 2:00 in the morning but you will want to hear this. so i went to the sound stage way in the back where nobody could see me and he came in at 2:00 in the morning i saw the artist because he worked with the orchestra, the score in one carlos and was all business the focus to do take after take after take and i thought that is why who he is because he was so good at it. >> i promise we will not only talk about frank sinatra of that that is a stor

one footnote i learned the hard way with al franken if you give gutter snipes publicity, they win. check 2. amazing conclusion to our auction for the wounded warrior project, this poster signed by the five living presidents went for, ready, $100,000. jeffrey bean company bought it and they are patriots. ceo tom hutton wants to donate the poster to help the warriors even further. we are working on that with him. we will keep you posted on what happens. for now we are buying geoffrey beene's stuff. so far the factor auctions have raised about $600,000 to help our wounded military people and their families. we thank everyone who has participated. details on bill o'reilly.com will click you right over to the warriors. check three the "saturday night live" folks are having a great time this holiday season. everybody is fair game. >> this chart shows how out country works today. the most powerful institution to the least. let me tell you the presidency is not even in the top five. [ laughter ] okay, first, congress. do they do anything? no. [ laughter ] but because of them, no one else c

minnesota senator al franken issued a letter demanding carrier i.q.n what the software record and why. don't we all want to know why they're doing it? what do you need this data for? let's check in with anderson cooper and a look at what is ahead on "ac 360." watch out for the software. unpleasant. >>> a billionaire richard branson wearing, why? well, he comes "outfront" to tell you. it's like having portable navigation. a bluetooth connection. a stolen vehicle locator. roadside assistance. and something that could help save your life - automatic help in a crash. it's the technology of five devices in one hard-working mirror. because life happens while you drive. this holiday, give someone you love an onstar fmv mirror for only 199. visit onstar.com for retailers. will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. >>> we told you we are waiting for this. herman cain just in talking to union leader editorial board in new hampshire. very candid saying his wife knew nothing about the financi

man who looks like franken berry went goth. >> this is not goth. >> i was assuming you would wear somethingyou didn't. >> are you so married to the script -- >> i didn't even change the joke. >> when was this a dean martin wedding? >> i don't disagree. this is the spokesman they have for this guy who is bitching about it. you can't defend a case in the dark. you can't shadow box when you don't know who is punching. it is like, i hope he is better at criminal defense than analogies. yes, you can't -- who is punching is you. when you shadow box you box yourself. you can't play solitaire if you don't know who is dealing. >> you can't shadow box in the dark because there is no shadow in the dark. >> it is all one big shadow. it is like the glass is half empty. >> i'm sure you think the 10 commandments have no place in society. i think you have no place in society. >> there are 10 command ment's put in the soup kitchen. the 10 commandments have a place -- they have it many, many places, churches, outside the synagogues, anywhere a family pants to display it. government cannot promote, religion p

minnesota senator al franken issued a letter demanding carrier i.q.lain what the software records and why. don't we all want to know why they're doing it? what do you need this data for? >>> a billionaire richard branson wearing, why? well, he comes "outfront" to tell you. ♪ sing polly wolly doodle all the day ♪ ♪ hah will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. >>> we told you we are waiting for this. herman cain just in talking to union leader editorial board in new hampshire. very candid saying his wife knew nothing about the financial help that he was giving ginger white, may recall, she was the woman who came out this week and said she had a 13-year affair with cain which he has denied. here's what cain said when he was asked why he didn't tell his wife about ginger white. >> it may appear now that why didn't i tell her about this when it was going on, you are absolutely right. >> in retrospect. >> in retrospect. retrospect doesn't necessarily change what we are dealing with. >

. >> senator blumenthal, excuse me, senator franken. >> thank you. the title of this hearing is breaking a silence on child abuse protection intervention and deterrence and i know we are talking about this legislation on prevention and intervention on, but you mentioned a couple times when that a number of the abusers were were victims themselves so i think the treatment is obviously -- and you mentioned treatment yourself a number of times -- there's one thing we need to add to this. what percentage of abusers were abused themselves? we have an idea of that? anybody? >> we can get that kind of information for you. >> but i think that we really have to focus on the treatment of these children who are abused. that is vitally important because whether they become abusers or not, this is something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives unless they get treated and they can go other places as you mentioned. they can turn to drugs or alcohol or they can become unhappy people who are not good parents etc.. >> the business is using the phrase

. >> senator blumenthal excuse me senator franken. >> thank you. the title of this hearing is breaking a silence on child abuse protection intervention and deterrence and i know we are talking about this legislation on prevention and intervention on, but you mentioned a couple times when that a number of the abusers were were victims themselves so i think the treatment is obviously -- and you mentioned treatment yourself a number of times -- there's one thing we need to add to this. what percentage of abusers were abused themselves? we have an idea of that? anybody? >> we can get that kind of information for you. >> but i think that we really have to focus on the treatment of these children who are abused. that is vitally important because whether they become abusers or not this is something that will stick with them for the rest of their lives unless they get treated and they can go other places as you mentioned. they can turn to drugs or alcohol or they can become unhappy people who are not good parents etc.. >> the business is using the phrase w

even congressional gridlock did not stop from celebrating the holidays and al franken created the secretxchange and last night 60 colleagues exchanged gifts. senator mike johanns from nebraska got buffalo wing sauce and schumer received two lumps of cole expertly carved into a donkey and an elephant. a trio of texas salsa from a senator. those are the things we thought you should know. >>>> i'm martin bashir. newt said he's a lover, not a fighter. i'm not sure what kind of history he has been studying. the donald fires himself and leaves the stage of the debate that never was. plus, urinate in this cup. yes, a plan that requires drug testing in order to direct unemployment benefits and i'm not making this up. >> after weeks of anticipation, elizabeth taylor's collection of jewelry is for sale in new york city. taylor's precious stones are on display and many of them outsizes the bids that are expected to fetch when the bidding opens tonight. people around the world have been coming along with her to lineup and take a look at the jewels that maybe they can own if they have big bucks. >> i

senator al franken has fired off a letter to the company demanding to know exactly what data that software is collecting. >>> here's veronica with a final check on your weekend forecast. >> very nice weekend forecast. let's start it right now. good friday evening. we're at 54 degrees. we don't have any weather issues at all, which means we can stay out a little longer. have a little extra fun this evening. we've got a calm wind, too, throughout the area. that light wind takes us into tomorrow morning. temperatures that will be starting out around 35 to 36 degrees inside the beltway. outside the beltway, in the 20s. nonetheless, this will be a fabulous weekend. lots going on this weekend. a lot of folks putting up the christmas lights. a lot of folks going to get that tree. how about heading to the annual christm christmas bazaar? this one saturday 10:00 to 4:00. good location there to pick up some ornaments and anything else you night need for decorating. the high on saturday, 51. the high on sunday, 53. clouds for sunday. then we've got temperatures rising the early part of next week with

and bob franken, king featured syndicated columnist.th me tonight. >> thanks, rev. >> jonathan, do you believe paul's take on these newsletters? >> no, i don't. the interview he gave yesterday where he pulled off his mike and said i didn't write them, i disavow them, i've answered these questions, let's move on. sorry, it's not good. it might be good enough when you're congressman ron paul or dr. ron paul, but when you're a candidate for a major political party and dao theoretically technically speaking be president of the united states -- >> a front-runner in iowa. >> yes, he is, and if you're going to be that person, then you have to withstand the scrutiny that comes with it. and when you have to answer for the things that are under his name, he has to do more than just say, well, i disavow it, and let's just move on. it's not good enough. >> i think -- i was on "morning joe" this morning, bob, and we talked about it, many of us have said things that we either felt was distorted or that we had to say we were wrong, but he's not saying

. >> al franken said he did it way back in the day, the senators picked it up and thought, yeah, thisgreat. so they decided to trade presents. >> what was the cap? $10. >> and you had to be inventive, come up with something that had some special meaning, perhaps from your own state, but not necessarily very expensive. now, the most important thing you have to say, i think, is this is historically the most unpopular congress in history. i mean when you think about since polls have been taken. >> right. >> so what would you give the most unpopular congress on christmas? >> coal because they haven't been naughty, not nice. >> that's exactly it. so we got some coal gifts. in fact, senator joe manchin of west virginia, which is the big coal state. he gave a donkey and an elephant, the symbols of the republican, democratic party to none other than charles schumer, which i didn't have time to research it. i'm kind of interested in just how much charles schumer's been into the whole environmental fresh air thing, which would be something that joe manchin wouldn't like so much. >> yeah. >> so,

senator al franken from minnesota.t the idea from grade school when he drew the name of a bully in the gt exchange and ended up becoming friends with him. >> okay, maybe the love will extend into that whole payroll tax cut extension. we shall see, from this super

joining me now is bob franken and victoria defran chez ko-soto, a visiting scholar at the university, thank you both for joining me tonight. >> thank you. >> bob, can the progressive serve we saw this year continue in the months ahead? >> that's a good question, because the passions of the progressives sometimes have a tendency to wane after the first initial euphoria going out and demonstrating, doing that kind of thing. add to that the fact that barack obama has lost some of the enthusiasm, quite frankly of the progressive movement. so it's going to be interesting to see if the progressives can continue with the passion that they've had before. >> now, when i talk about that passion victoria, and i've been around the country with a lot of this stuff and been involved on the front lines. i've seen these people go from their nights of victory that we showed, to every one of these three governors, the majority of their states now disapprove of them. walker 51% disapproval. kasich, 52%ç disapproval. scott 58% disapproval. so it showed that these movements and this driving and this con

. >> the franken coleman election was decided by seven votes. that's number one. number two wisconsin task force charged 20 people. many election frauds during the 2008 election. >> 1/1 millionth of 1%. great. where is the legislation trying to protect people struck by lightning? that's really the same priority that this should have. and the fact is it's being pushed by the coke funded brother alec. the american legislative exchange commission. >> bill: i never even heard of that. >> the coke brothers are on the board. >> being pushed by me. west tennessee. >> pushed by the american legislative exchange commission. that's who is pushing it. it's anti-democrat -- it's going to demobilize 5 million legal registered voters. >> bill: you are saying a million americans will not vote because they have to show a photo i.d.? you are saying that, correct? >> potentially, correct. >> bill: potentially. and you know that how? >> because if you don't -- how do i know this? the brennan city study think progress has looked at this. the aclu has looked at this. >> bill: another

. >> for the franken and joe madison, we're out of time. thank you very much.you have a good weekend. >> thank you. >>> shocking new numbers in the race everyone is watching in massachusetts. >>> and the latest right wing attack against the muppets. i wish i was kidding. stay with us. usa prime credit... this peggy... hi, i'm cashing in my points... peggy? no more points - coupons now. coupons? coupons. coupons? next, you convert coupons to tokens. tokens? then you trade tokens for credits. and then i get the cash? then you call back. bye bye. peggy? hello? what just happened? want rewards that make sense? switch to discover. america's #1 cash rewards program. it pays to discover. of course, neither do i. solution? td ameritrade mobile trader. i can enter trades on the run. even futures and 4x. complex options, done. the market shifts, i get an alert. [ cellphone rings ] thank you. live streaming audio. advanced charts. look at that. all right here. wherever "here" happens to be. mobile trading from td ameritrade. number one in online equity trades. [ male anno

washington post," who also follows the presidential race in the post-2012 election blog, and bob frankench for years. bob, you've seen newt gingrich operate for a long time. how do you think he'll respond to this full-on political attack he's getting now? >> well, i suspect he has figured out that the best offense is a good defense for the most part during the debates he could stand off to the side grinning lice a cheshire cat, but now he's the dumpee, the one who is getting all this. you saw he really sort of rolled with the punches. i suspect that he's going to be able to do that. i don't think his problem is what somebody else might say about him. it's what he might say. this is a guy who sort of takes the 50 monkeys at a typewriter attitude toward ideas. he just throwing them out. some are demonstrableably goofy. that's how i think he might be harmed, but he's a man that got angry at the president, because he didn't have the seat he wanted in air force one. are you telling me at some point he's not going to revert back to being newt, he can continue to play this? you are buying this

franken stein, the moment you created me, you can have me rejected me, crucified and despised me, offendednally, unleashed very heavenly often overlooked stepped upon, crushed, no one ever stops to notice that my movements are forever. my stride is determined. my love is unconditional. my spirit is free. although i'm a monster, there is a soul inside of me. >> i do not believe there is an employee in the indiana department of corrections in any state facility that does not know the name christopher trotter. >> the confinement unit's case manager. one of her responsibilities is to evaluate trotter's ability to return to general population. >> i know the notoriety of trotter, very notorious. i believe he has aged out of that immaturity he has developed. good communication skills. good social skills. it's yes, ma'am, no, ma'am to me and it's not fake. i can always tell when it's fake. i believe personally that he will be ready for general population for a while. however, there are so many more people of us that will also have the input and have known he is so much longer than i have. i have t