The Skorski Report

Maddy Albright all wrong

2006-05-03T15:16:00.000-07:00

Ms. Albright appeared on Hannity $ Colmes last night (and was reported in Newsmax today).

Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright insisted Tuesday that Sudan never offered to round up Osama bin Laden and extradite him to the U.S. - saying President Clinton's claim to the contrary was "a misstatement."

However, according to a Washington Post Report researched by Barton Gellman after 9/11, he writes in rather lengthy detail how the Clinton administration from the president on down never treated the threat of terrorism as a top priority. (portions of the report are available in my book, Pants on Fire, pages 134-139)

This was verified by Richard Clarke, George Stephanopoulos, and others in the administration.Treasury secretary, Robert Rubin, rejected numerous requests to shut down and disrupt the banking of known Muslim groups who were funding terrorists.
Any way you look at, Bill Clinton was a disaster in combating the terror threat which we will be living with for years to come. And if you think things are bad now under a resolute George Bush, they would be ten times(or more) worse under a less resolute, UN embracing Democrat president.

Dennis Kucinnich versus John Bolton

2006-05-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

The more I see John Bolton, the more I realize he was a brilliant appointment to be the US Ambassador to the corrupt and inept United Nations.

Yesterday, Bolton was called before some congressional panel and was grilled by the little the mouse that roared, Dennis Kucinnich. Kucinnich was outraged that after presenting evidence to Bolton that there were US marines on the ground in Iran, Bolton dismissed it.

And what was the source of the marine story? the New Yorker magazine.

So I guess the CIA lies and is unreliable in gathering intelligence, but the New Yorker is a credible source

Ted Kennedy refuses to endorse Joe Lieberman

2006-05-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Two nights ago, the senior senator from Massachusetts was asked by Hardball's Chris Matthews if he was going to support the re-election of his colleague, Joe Lieberman. His reply was that he respected Joe Lieberman.... but there was no endorsement and no sign that Kennedy supported his re-election.

Ironically. Lieberman is one of the saving grces of the Democrta party, one of the last bright lights in a party dominated by far leftists like Kennedy, Clinton, Dean, and Pelosi.

Just six years ago, Lieberman was called the "conscience of the senate." Frankly, that doesn't mean much, I mean if it takes a "conscience" to label Bill Clinton's behavior as inappropriate, what does it say about the rest of the senate who refused to pass judgement?

New Direction

2006-05-01T19:06:00.000-07:00

As you can see from the blog header, I will no longer be focussed exclusively on Al Franken - a very, very indecent and bad man.

While I will continue to monitor his activities and any news pertinent to Franken, including his yet to be announced Senate bid in 2008, I will broaden this blog to include important news items of the day by bringing you my perspectives and analysis.

As always, your comments for and against are welcome as long as the profanity is kept to a minimum.

My Letter to Joe Scarborough

2006-04-27T18:38:00.000-07:00

Tonight, Al Franken was a guest (for the 5th time in the last 2 month's) on Scarborough Country to give his opinions on where the President Bush is going wrong.

Below is my email to Joe Scarborough:

Joe,
I'm still trying to get invited on your show to respond to Al Franken's smears against the right.

He constantly talks about how W. had a chance to unite this country after 9/11 but divided us instead. Where is his evidence for that?
We were all united? Do you remember Cynthia McKinney's letter to the Prince of Saudia Arabia?
Do you remember Patty Murray's address to high school students about why Bin Laden is so popular?
Do you remember Bill Clinton's address at Georgetown U. claiming that the Arabs have not forgotten the US history of slavery and human rights abuses?

Franken himself has sought to blame Bush for 9/11 for ignoring a PDB which according to Franken spelled out the plans for 9/11 to take place.

Joe, I hope you'll give me a chance to be on your program,

Alan Skorski
Author of Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives

Franken's numbers are in....

2006-04-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

As Posted on the Drudge Report: I highlighted Franken's numbers because he's always bragging about how well he's doing and how Air America is growing and growing and...

In my book, I noted that as of last spring 2005, Franken had an average of 61,400 per quarter hour, but look at his numbers now, since he's been "growing" and the publication of his book, The Truth.

NYC, JAN-MAR, 2006
RADIO AUDIENCE AVG QTR HOUR
12+ LISTENERS

LIMBAUGH 141,700
HANNITY 118,200
GAMBLING 108,400
CURTIS/KUBY 101,500
IMUS 94,100
LEVIN 80,700
JOY BROWNE 69,500
O'REILLY 64,200
SAVAGE 62,900
BATCHELOR 43,300
INGRAHAM 37,500
FRANKEN 35,600
RANDI RHODES 27,900
LIONEL 27,100

Air America Contiues to Grow

2006-04-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

.... to the bottom of the heap that is.

As was recently reported on the Drudge Report:

The just released radio Winter Book [Jan-Mar 2006] from ARBITRON shows AIR AMERICA in New York City losing more than a third of its audience -- in the past year!

Among all listeners 12+, it was a race to the bottom for AIR AMERICA and WLIB as mid-days went from a 1.6 share during winter 2005 to a 1.0 share winter 2006.

During PM drive, host Randi Rhodes plunged to 27,900 listeners every quarter hour, finishing 25th place in her time slot, down from 60,900 listeners every quarter hour in the fall.

David Brock Smear merchant get's it wrong on Tony Snow

2006-04-26T08:34:00.000-07:00

Not much of a shocker on the headline since it could apply to just about everybody Brock attacks, but it is particularly offensive when it is done to Tony Snow considering the number of high profile liberals including former Clinton spinster Lanny Davis, who had nothing but high praise for Tony's appointment.

Below is a "posting" from Brock on his group's site about the appointment of Tony Snow:

President and CEO David Brock on New White House press secretary Tony Snow

April 26, 2006 (Washington, DC) -- David Brock, President and CEO of Media Matters for America, released the following statement in response to the formal announcement that outgoing White House press secretary Scott McClellan will be replaced by syndicated columnist and Fox News host Tony Snow:

"Tony Snow and the Bush White House seem like a match made in heaven: Snow and his colleagues at Fox News have been among the most effective spokespeople for the Bush administration. But given Snow's long history of making false and misleading claims, his hiring will do little to change the perception that the White House is more interested in stonewalling and deception than in getting the facts out.

According to numerous news reports, the liberal Center for American Progress think tank - a group that has supported Brock's organization financially - has circulated numerous past comments of Snow criticizing Bush administration policy. So where does Brock get his information that Snow is guilty of spinning for the administration while at Fox News?

Here are just a few examples of Tony's criticizing this administration:

Snow called the president "something of an embarrassment," a leader who has "lost control of the federal budget," the architect of a "listless domestic policy" and a man who has "a habit of singing from the political correctness hymnal."

The answer is simple. Brock is just a small time, run of the mill smear merchant.

Al Franken a Plagiarist?

2006-04-04T19:22:00.001-07:00

.... Sure seems so. In my book, chapter 24, I make the case that in Franken's "Lying Liar" book his chapter attacking Fox News was almost verbatim from a report put out by the ultra-liberal media watchdog group, FAIR, 2 years earlier. No where in his book does Franken cite FAIR as his source. In other words, he passed it off as his own research.

Ironically, no liberal who attacked me or my book ever challenged my plagiarism charge against Franken

Yesterday, Newsbusters.org, a division of The Media Research Center, posted this interesting story on their blog:

http://newsbusters.org/node/4745

Sean Hannity versus Alice Baldwin

2006-03-29T06:09:00.000-08:00

I've been reading and hearing the transcripts of the Hannity/Baldwin fight or shall I say, "bitch-slap" for the last few days now.

I keep hearing Alice's defenders say that he was "set up" or "ambushed" and that's why he reacted the way he did and stormed off the set of Brian Whitman's radio show.

The real story here is how Baldwin, like so many of his arrogant elitist Hollywood contemporaries, truly believe that there is no one on this earth who is smarter than they are and that anybody who criticizes them is an ignoramous or has the intellect of a "construction worker."

I was invited to do an interview with an Air America affilaite out of san Diego this past January after I accused Franken of using his USO tours as a publicty stunt and that he shows contempt for them with his skits and parodies mocking them on his radio program.

At first, the hosts were criticizing me and trying to bait me. I responded politely and respectfully. What was supposed to be just a 25 minute interview turned into a 1 hour segment and they ended up liking me (as much as a liberal can like a conservative). There was no nasty name calling (except from some callers) or ad hominem attacks like Baldwin did to Hannity.

A few weeks ago actor Richard Belzer appeared on Bill Maher's Friday night HBO program and declared that because he reads 20 newspapers (yea right)a day, and the troops are just a bunch of 19 and 20 year olds who couldn't find other employment (maybe they ought to try construction) he was better informed to talk about what is really happening in Iraq than the troops were.

Baldwin, Belcher, Clooney.... they are all the same - arrogant, pompous jerks who think they know more than they really do.

Al Franken the plagiarist visits Comedy Channel

2006-03-16T19:45:00.003-08:00

Last night, liberal funny man Al Franken appeared on the Colbert Report. It was a very funny segment, due in large part to Colbert.

Franken was asked why he hates Bill O'Reilly. Among the litany of reasons, Franken stated that O'Reilly was a hypocrite. Well, if being a hypocrite is a good and mature reason to "hate" somebody, I sure hope Franken doesn't read, Do As I Say, where he might come across the vast examples of hypocrisy from buddy Michael Moore, best buds the Clinton's, and if he looks in the mirror, his own hypocrisy.

When asked why Democrats are better for America than Republicans, he stated that Dems's weren't corrupt. He's right - just ask Al Gore and he'll tell you that there is no controlling legal authority.

The truth is, Franken is a liar, a fraud, a hypocrite, and as I illustrate in lengthy detail in my book, Pants on Fire in chapter 24, Al Franken is also a plagiarist.

I don't think O'Reilly is a plagiarist

Air America's Future?

2006-03-07T19:01:00.000-08:00

There have been no less than a half dozen columns today, and O'Reilly's Talking Points Memo dealing with the news that Air America could lose it's satellite here in New York by the spring.

The little mean guy in me says "good, you got what you deserved," but that would be shadenfreud (I'm sure I'm spelling it wrong). The truth is, Air America, Franken and the rest just never had a clue. They don't understand what successful talk radio is all about. They don't understand respect for other people's views or opinions. Worst of all, they believe that anybody who doesn't think the way they do is either stupid or evil.

Do they really think that all they need to do to keep a captive audience is attack O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Fox News,... Is that the depth and intellect of their audience? Do their listeners tune in every day just to hear these people call Bill O'Reilly nasty names?

Air America is a business, a failed busines at that, but businesses come and go. What is really sad is that these people remain clueless about the average American radio listener.

Who is the real impostor?

2006-03-06T11:28:00.000-08:00

Bruce Bartlett, a former advisor in the Reagan White House and economist has written a new blockbuster book titled:

Impostor : How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy

What is so disappointing to me is the way he has carried on in the publicity of his book. He claims that he is trying to send a wakeup call to the Republican Party, that we run the risk of losing the White House or congress or both unless we get control of the reckless spending, a spending Bartlett contends, breaks from the great traditions of Ronald Reagan.

I, for one, do not disagree with Bartlett's contention, spending is out of control and we are going to be in big trouble, both as a party and a nation, unless we stop it now.

But what is the real reason behind Bartlett's expose? If he is truly concerned about the economy and Republican Party as he states, aren't there better ways then calling our president an "impostor?" If the "Reagan legacy" is so important to Bartlett, isn't his book a violation of Reagan's 11th commandment?

Maybe I'm wrong and the president does need a public spanking to recognize that his fiscal policies are a disaster.

But what I find completely unacceptable and may reveal Bartlett's true colors was his guest appearance today on Al Franken's radio program. Franken is not just some critic of the president who is interested in fixing our economy. Franken is someone who feeds and feasts off of bad news so the Democrats can get back into power - then we'll really see uncontrolled spending that will make President Bush look like a miser.

Criticism and debates are always healthy and I encourage it. But for Bartlett to appear on Franken's show is the equivalent of Al Gore telling an Arab audience in Saudia Arabia, no less, how badly America treats Arabs, or Jimmy Carter telling America's other enemies that President Bush has been a disaster for our country - Rhetoric that the late President Reagan would never have tolerated. And yet Bartlett, in his hypocrisy, dares invoke the Reagan legacy to publicize his book.

O'Reilly's advice to Senator Norm Coleman

2006-03-02T17:51:00.000-08:00

Last night, O'Reilly interviewed Senator Norm Coleman to discuss the port situation and a new bill that Coleman will be introducing. Before the interview ended, O'Reilly reminded Coleman that Franken is planning to challenge him for his seat in 2008 and to be careful because "Franken will smear you... he'll do anything..."

In the introduction of my book, I wrote that one of the reasons for exposing Franken as a fraud was important because he is seriously considering a run for the United States Senate and voters in Minnesota deserved to know the truth about Al Franken. When he first talked about running, many people questioned whether this was just a publicity stunt. With the creation of his new PAC, Midwest Values PAC, and headlining Democrat fundraising events, more people are beginning to see that Franken is serious about running and the last thing America needs is a smear merchant and character assassin in the US Senate.

Montana's Governor

2006-02-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

Over the last year and half or so, I would occasionally hear Al Franken and one of his semi-regular guests, David Sirota, a hard core leftist activist, sing the praises of Montana Governor, Brian Schweitzer. The Governor, you see, is a Democrat who was elected in a very red state. According to Franken and Sirota, he, Schweitzer, was evidence that a good progressive candidate running on progressive issues can get elected in any state. Truth is, I hadn't done much research on Schweitzer to really know how or what he campaigned on, but I took the word of Al and David, that the Gov. was a good Democrat.

Tonight I watched 60 Minutes and I have to admit I was somewhat impressed with the Governor's demeanor. Leslie Stahl kept referring to his "cowboy swagger." I thought that was odd as Bush's critics refer to his cowboy swagger as a negative.

Anyways, it seems that this good old progressive governor, whom Franken touts as the role model for other Democrats to run, isn't exactly the progressive he was made out to be.

You see, he has a 100% rating from the NRA and selected a Republican as his running mate.

Is this what Franken wants other Democrats to emulate or was Franken once again misleading his audience about who and what Brian Schweitzer is really all about? A hard working guy who has a vision that doesn't include demonizing his opponents.

Oh! The Things Al Doesn't Know

2006-02-24T10:53:00.000-08:00

I tuned in for the first 20 minutes of today's show and was stunned to hear what Franken was treating his audience to.

He opened by making fun of Bill O'Reilly for being "so obsessed with sexual predators."

You see, according to Franken, who is a real nuance and substantive kind of guy and a future US Senate candidate, O'Reilly's highlighting the perpetual societal neglect of child abuse and sexual molestation shows that there's something wrong with Bill. For Bill to use the platform of his #1 rated show to protect kids from sexual predators is something to be mocked. The fact that other states are adopting Jessica's Law as a result of O'Reilly's pressure is no big deal. Certainly not as big a deal as, oh, I don't know.... USO Tours maybe?

On the Dubai Port issue, Franken opined that maybe we ought to test Dubai's capabilities by having them secure the Mosques in Iraq from further bombings in light of the recent attacks. Of course Franken was joking, but he, like so many other liberal demagogues don't even understand what it is they are demagoguing. And for a guy like Franken who is "on top of the issues," doesn't he know that Dubai would not be in charge of guarding and securing our ports - That it would be left in US hands?

His third piece of instruction was a real education into why America needs separation of Church and State. He brought up the recent multi continent riots by Islamic hooligans (my term) after the publishing of cartoons in a Danish newspaper. Franken suggested that this was yet another example of the perversion of religion. Well Al was right on one count; those crazy Islamofascists were demonstrating perversion of a religion but that has nothing to do with why we should have separation of Church and State here. While I do support the clause, it's not because I'm afraid that Americans will start behaving like other groups if we didn't have it in our constitution.

I hope the voters of Minnesota are paying attention.

Another entertainer who does USO Tours

2006-02-15T17:34:00.000-08:00

As many of you have heard or read, I have been very critical of Al Franken's "Look at me, look at me, I do USO Tours...." attitude. I have always believed that people who do good things for the right reasons don't feel the need to constantly demand the focus be on them.

Besides that, I have been very critical of Franken's skits and parodies that mock and demean our troops, as well as his dismissal of conservative talk show host Melanie Morgan's tour last summer of Iraq which gave our troops the opportunity to speak for themselves about the positive impact they are having in the region, contrary to the daily media negative reporting and Al Franken's desire to see things fall apart so he can attack George Bush and the rest of his administration.

Below is a link to Newsmax with an interview with actor Gary Sinise, who by the way, also does USO Tours, yet he has a different perspective than the media and Al Franken.

Read below:

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/2/13/212715.shtml?s=en

How Liberals and Conservatives see things differently

2006-02-13T15:52:00.000-08:00

As many of you know, I was on BookTV this past Sunday. Below is a link from World Net Daily whose book division, WND Books, published my book, telling of meteoric book sales following my appearance. At the time of their writing the book ranked over 400 on BarnesandNoble.com, but actually reached 267.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=48793

What was interesting to me was the number of emails from Franken supporters who described me as angry, a fascist,hatemonger,... I watched my appearance twice and just couldn't see, as hard as I tried, to see the angry hatemonger that these people saw.

Others who emailed me didn't bother refuting my points against Al Franken, rather that I'm just another publicity seeking right-winger.

What I draw from this is just how polarized we are as a country and how so many people can be so consumed with anger that they can't argue or advance their own opinions or arguements without lacing it with vulagrity and nasty name calling.

No wonder Al Franken has such a strong following. He's pandering to the angry and bitter folks in this country who prefer verbal assaults than intellectual debate.

Franken denies anybody refutes his "Truth"

2006-02-11T15:48:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview with left-leaning web-blog Alternet Franken denied that anybody has refuted his smears and charges from his "Lying Liar" book.

LB: Your last book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," got a lot of press from both right- and left-wing pundits. Have you gotten any particularly ridiculous attacks on this book, any crazy press?

AF: No one ever actually challenges an actual, real fact. They just make these general broadsides about my book: "Oh, The Truth … it really should be called Lies. Oh, I guess that was the other book. I don't really know what to say …

Of course, this is a bald faced lie and Al Franken knows it, because he's acknowleged Pants on Fire when he was a guest on Alan Colmes radio show and in the next series of questions he refers to me as "some guy" who was on O'Reilly..., when Franken, again, knows that I was there in the capacity of "Franken expert" based on my book.

I will be appearing on C-Span's BookTV On Sunday February 12 at 10AM and 7PM est. time for everybody, including Al Franken, to see and listen to the many assertions made by Franken, debunked.

Look who is supporting smear merchants

2006-02-01T18:42:00.000-08:00

There can be no question that Al Franken is a smear merchant. He does not expose conservative lies, while maintaining "impossibly high standards."

He is vicious and he is evil.

What I find distressing though, are those who are encouraging and supporting him.

People often ask, "who really takes Al Franken seriously anyways?"

As I cited in my book, the mainstream media hangs on Franken's every word when he is attacking Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly.

According to a recent AP article, reporting on the progress of Franken's new PAC, the Midwest values Pac, Franken has raised nearly $170,000 in the last few month's.

His contributors include: "Seinfeld" co-creator and "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star Larry David ($5,000); RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser ($5,000); the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers PAC ($5,000), and the United Transportation Union PAC ($5,000).

Who supports our troops?

2006-02-01T11:21:00.000-08:00

I was on the O'Reilly Factor this past Monday night to discuss some of the ugly rhetoric from the left against our troops.

The column written by LA Times columnist, Joel Stein, has caused quite a stir by coming right out and saying that he doesn't support our troops and that it is totally inconsistant (I'm using nicer words) to say you're "against the war but for our troops," something we hear quite often from the Democrats.

I was there to defend and explain why Al "I do USO Tours" Franken belongs on that shamefull list of liberals who besmirch the troops.

I cited a number of examples in my book of Franken doing skits and parodies that mock and demean our troops.

One such parody contains the verse:

Sorry ‘bout the prisoners
Sorry they got raped
Sorry they got tortured
Sorry it got taped…
Believe me when I say their apology is sincere
I’m awfully sorry for that broomstick up their rear…

Way to show that love and respect for our guys that you claim to have Al!

Anyhow, I brought up another example. This past summer, conservative talk show hostess, Melanie Morgan, led a delegation of talk show hosts to Iraq to allow the troops to tell Americans what is really happening there and why they believe their mission is so important. Before she left US soil, Franken denounced her and her upcoming trip as "propaganda."

Of course one has to wonder why a guy like Franken who loves and honors our troops would be so upset about allowing the troops to speak for themselves in a positive manner.

Well, I just received word that Melanie won an APTRA Mark Twain award for Best Special Program for "Voices of Soldiers" coverage in Iraq.

Congratulations Melanie, and boo on you Al.

Al Franken.....FREYED

2006-01-27T05:26:00.000-08:00

What do disgraced author James Frey and left wing icon Al Franken have in common? Both have written best selling books, making millions of dollars in the process, that have proven to be dishonest and full of distortions

James Frey, disgraced author of A Million Little Pieces, was forced to come clean about the truthfulness of his memoirs as a former drug and alcohol abuser, and whose book sold nearly 2 million copies following the endorsement of day time talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.

Thanks to the work of thesmokinggun.com, many of Frey's bogus claims, such as his having gone through root canal without novacane, or his allegedly having been in jail for month's after assaulting a police officer, when in fact it was only for a few hours, have forced Frey and his publishers at Doubleday to come clean. Even more pressing are new calls for stricter enforcement of truth and accuracy by editors and publishers in the future.

This past summer, liberal talk show host and best selling author, Al Franken, was highly critical of Penguin Publishing, the firm that owns Dutton, Franken's publishers, for allowing another one of their subsidiaries, Sentinel, to publish, The Truth About Hillary, a book many claim was full of inaccuracies.

One big difference between the two is that had Oprah not endorsed Frey's book, chances are few if any people would have ever heard of him. Al Franken's book on the
other hand was hyped by the media as the "true expose against the lying right."

Why is James Frey being forced into humiliating himself before the country as a fraud while Al Franken continues to earn millions of dollars and remains unscathed?

On page 38 of Lies... Franken presents a graph crafted by the Pew Charitable Trusts as part of a study of political media coverage, which purports to show that media coverage of the 2000 Presidential campaign between the liberal Al Gore and conservative George Bush, Al Gore received a much higher percentage of negative coverage than George Bush. This graph, according to Franken proves that there is no liberal media bias. If there were, Gore would have received a much higher positive percentage of news coverage. But the truth is Franken distorted and manipulated the Pew's study. The graph he presented in his book was not of the presidential campaign, but of the last two month's before the election with the emphasis on the debates and each candidates performance in them.

On page 110 Franken cites a report from the Washington Post to prove that Bill Clinton was a committed and effective leader against terrorism. But the truth is, this report assembled by Barton Gellman was actually a long and detailed scathing indictment against Bill Clinton and his entire cabinet.

If authors and publishers are going to be held to new and stricter standards, which I believe they should, then we ought to begin with Al Franken, who has made his fortune smearing conservatives as liars while claiming to personally maintain impossibly high standards himself.

Joe Scarborough Drops the Ball

2006-01-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

I rarely criticize conservatives in public, especially those whom I like, but on tonight's Scarborough Country, my buddy, Joe, my favorite non-Fox cable host, dropped the ball.

He interviewed Al Franken to discuss the recent and continuous attacks against our troops from the left, most recently from an LA Times columnist who actually had the guts and honesty to come right out and say he doesn't support our troops.

Scarborough heaped compliment after compliment after praise on Franken for doing his part, visa vi his USO Tours, to support our troops overseas.

Joe went on to say that after all his research he couldn't find any examples of Franken ever disparaging our troops.

I'm not sure just how hard Joe researched so I'm going to help everybody out.

These examples come from my book, Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives

Page 184 from a parody song titled, Sorry, Here is one verse:

Sorry ‘bout the prisoners
Sorry they got raped
Sorry they got tortured
Sorry it got taped…
Believe me when I say their apology is sincere
I’m awfully sorry for that broomstick up their rear…

page 109
another skit with Franken interviewing an Air America correspondent from Gitmo, reading the confession of a Taliban prisoner whose confessions are coerced via torture, including burning and having his head submerged in water

page 42
Franken spent 2 days, April 28-29 2005, remembering the anniversary of Abu Ghraib but no time remembering the anniversaries of the fall of Saddam's Statue in Baghdad or the capture of Hussein.

Page 112
March 17, 2005 Franken does a skit mocking as (un)newsworthy a Wall Street Journal headline that “50 million people in Afghanistan and Iraq were enjoying freedom.” In the skit, Franken interviews a fictional BBC correspondent reading the Wall Street Journal headline with machine gun fire, bombs, and minefields blowing up in the background.

Franken has embraced and supported the film Fahrenheit 9/11 which portrayed our troops as heavy metal rock n roll killers.

In the summer of 2005 Franken dismissed conservative talk show host Melanie Morgan's upcoming trip to Iraq to report "the truth from our troops" as sheer propaganda

Franken has done stories about military recruiters preying on drug addicts, high school dropouts and other vulnerable youngsters as if it was common practice.

Al Franken is no friend of the military. He is a cunning opportunist who knows how to play the media. It is sad, that now, even some conservatives have fallen for his ploys.

Guilt by Association

2006-01-24T10:24:00.000-08:00

The Democrats and their accomplices in the media are trying to portray President Bush as being corrupt based on some old photographs of President Bush and criminal lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.

Well, uh oh, below is a link to a photo op of Hillary Clinton and drug dealer Jorge Cabrera,

http://prorev.com/acabrera.jpg

Are we going to see headlines of Hillary Clinton and ties to convicted drug dealers and money launderers?

What are Air America hosts afraid of?

2006-01-21T18:52:00.000-08:00

As I have written and spoken about in my radio interviews promoting my book, I cited examples of hate speech and anti-America bashing over at Air America. In fact I have a chapter in my book titled, 'Air-unAmerica'. I cited a quote from night time talker Mike Molloy in which he said, "I hate this country...America is the #1 terrorist nation in the world."

Well, here's a recent column I picked up about Molloy and his intellect.

Talk radio host doesn't want to talk

CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) invited the opposition to come to its meeting next month and talk. Who better to talk to than talkers? So Air America’s Mike Malloy received a polite invitation. After all, last year Al Franken came and broadcast from CPAC’s radio row.

Malloy’s classy response? The Washington Post sanitizes it:

“Um . . . you’re kidding, right? Why would I have any desire whatsoever to attend or participate in a convocation of neo-Nazis????? I had two uncles fight against you [expletive] in WW2. And, now, surprise! surprise! here you all are on US soil. Kindly get the [expletive] off my email. Thanks.”

Yet again confirmation that the left has no confidence in its ability to reason, debate, and win by the strength of its ideas. Instead use the other n-word (isn’t “Nazi” at least as offensive as the other n-word?) and refuse to talk.

When a talk radio host refuses to talk, you know his show hasn’t got much longer to live.

I Make a Mistake

2006-01-14T16:55:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I made a mistake. In a recent post, I reported that Mr. Al Franken had claimed that his new PAC had raised and dispensed monies to various candidates. After checking with several watchdog groups who monitor fundraising activities, I found that Midwest Values PAC, G-d Only knows what that is all about, had neither raised nor dispensed ANY money whatsoever.

After making a few calls, I discovered that the watchdogs I researched monitor at the federal level, whose laws and rules about filing deadlines are different from those who are active at the local level.

In other words according to the local watchdogs, MVP had indeed raised and dispensed contributions, while at the federal level MVP was not obligated to file their activities, which is why zero was reported.

I apologize for the misreporting and am happy to make the corrections.

Al Franken's new PAC

2006-01-08T16:48:00.000-08:00

In a recent interview with the Pioneer Press, Al Franken said:

"...I've actually formed a PAC toward doing that called Midwest Values PAC, or MPV. And we're raising money and we've dispersed some already to some Democratic candidates."

But according to CampaignMoney.com, that reports on PAC activity, they've neither received nor dispersed any monies.

Midwest Values PAC (MVP) "527" Contribution Details
Contributor Address Empoyer/Occupation $ Contribution Amount Date
No Contributions Found

Midwest Values PAC (MVP) "527" Expenditure Details
Vendor Address $ Expense Amount Purpose
No Expenditures Found

Al Franken on Ariel Sharon

2006-01-08T16:35:00.000-08:00

Just an observation, but as I monitored parts of Franken's radio show, new and improved, from Minnesota, I didn't hear anything from Al about Sharon's condition or Al's thoughts about the future of the peace process.

In my book, Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives, I do cite Franken's anger at Yasser Arafat for "giving us [Ariel] Sharon."

I'm also a bit surprised because Franken has been interviewed by a number of Jewish publications recently, following the release of his new book. I would have expected something from this "proud Jew" and "friend of Israel."

Oh well, I'm sure Al has other world events he can talk about on his radio show.

David Letterman Shows His True Colors

2006-01-04T07:41:00.000-08:00

No not that he's a liberal, but that he is a major league "rectum opening."

I rarely watch his show but stayed up late last night because I knew that Bill O'Reilly would be on the show.

From the moment O'Reilly was introduced, Letterman acted like a jerk.

First, he belittled O'Reilly for taking on the "anti-Merry Christmas" crowd.

Then he came down hard on Bill for having the audacity to criticize Cindy Sheehan.

He closed by telling O'Reilly that "I believe that 60% of what you say is crap." Bill asked him if he watches the show. Letterman replied that he doesn't watch but reads stuff about him.

Well what does that mean? It means that Letterman is in cahoots with 2 major smear merchants, Al Franken and David Brock.

In all my years of watching late night TV, I have never ever seen any guest treated as rudely or obnoxiously as O'Reilly was treated.

Bill kept his cool and didn't allow Letterman to bait him.

Shame on david Letterman!

'The Truth' About Clinton's "secret meetings" with Col. Kadhaffi

2006-01-02T19:11:00.000-08:00

In his book about Lying Liars, Franken told us that Bill Clinton was serious about combating terrorism. His evidence was a report written by Barton Gellman for the Washington Post. However, as research showed, Gellman's report not only did not vindicate Bill Clinton against Republican charges that he was ineffective against terrorism , but that Clinton and his entire cabinet were guilty of gross negligence, incompetence, and ignoring the terror threats from abroad.

In his new book, ironically titled The Truth, Franken would have his readers, mostly liberals anxious to read anything that paints President Bush negatively and Bill Clinton positively, that it was Bill Clinton's policies – carrot and stick- with Libya, that convinced the Libyan dictator to give up his weapons of mass destruction, and not President Bush's “get tough on terrorism” approach which was being employed against Iraq.

On page 57, Franken quotes Rudy Giuliani from his address at the 2004 Republican convention: They heard from us in Libya and without firing a shot Gadhafi abandoned weapons of mass destruction.

Franken then footnotes this quote with the following:

This, by the way, is a complete misrepresentation..... As Flynt Leverett, who served on Bush's National Security Council, explained in a January 23, 2004, New York Times op-ed, Libya gave up its WMD not because of the war in Iraq, but because of negotiations that began in secret during the Clinton administration. In fact, Leverett pointed out that Libya's story was an argument against Bush's foreign policy approach, because Libya was offered a carrot (lifting of sanctions and normal diplomatic relations) and not just a stick. As Leverett wrote, “Until the administration learns the real lessons of the Libyan precedent, policy toward other rogue regimes is likely to remain stuck in the mud of ideology.”
Qadhafi was playing his cards brilliantly by agreeing to disarm just days after Saddam was captured- all of a sudden, he went from evil rogue dictator to poster boy for the war in Iraq. If, after reading this footnote, you're still skeptical, Google “Flynt Leverett” and “why Libya Gave Up on the Bomb.” Then write me a nice note of apology......

So, per Franken's suggestion, I googled the column and found that Franken once again took license in selecting certain portions of Leverett's column including Leverett's own background and his association with the Bush administration which Franken had us all believing that he was a part of the Bush team:

As Flynt Leverett, who served on Bush's National Security Council,...

Distortion #1

As Flynt Leverett, who served on Bush's National Security Council,...

Let's dispose of this deception first. Franken creates the impression that Leverett was part of Team Bush, one of his advisers. Yet according to the very column Franken insisted we “skeptics” google, Flynt Leverett is a visiting fellow with the Saban Center for Middle East Politics at the Brookings Institution. And for those of you not familiar with either Saban Center at the Brookings, it is a very liberal think tank. In fact the Saban center is named after Chaim Saban, a mega multi-billionaire donor to Bill Clinton and the Democrat Party. But I suppose if Franken had included that in his footnote, it may not have sounded as convincing as having us believe that Leverett was a “Bush guy.”

Distortion #2:

Libya gave up its WMD not because of the war in Iraq, but because of negotiations that began in secret during the Clinton administration.

But here is what Leverett actually wrote in his column ( That Franken insisted we google... then could write him a note of apology).

“The roots of the recent progress with Libya go back not to the eve of the Iraq war, but to the Bush administration's first year in office. Leverett continues, “Indeed, to be fair, some credit should even be given to the second Clinton administration.”

Let's contrast what Franken wrote that Leverett wrote regarding Clinton's role in causing Qadhafi to have a change of heart about being a rogue leader versus what Leverett actually wrote.

First, what Franken claimed Lever wrote:
Libya gave up its WMD not because of the war in Iraq, but because of negotiations that began in secret during the Clinton administration.

Now what Leverett actually wrote:
“The roots of the recent progress with Libya go back not to the eve of the Iraq war, but to the Bush administration's first year in office. Indeed, to be fair, some credit should even be given to the second Clinton administration.”

How, or better, why does Al “I hold myself to impossibly high standards” Franken continue to play this game of defending Bill Clinton by citing credible sources then actually having the chutzpah to insist we verify his sources which give no credence to back his very strongly worded claims?
If Leverett wants to “give some credit” to Clinton, that's fine, after all they were both funded by the same person.

And the reason, according to Leverett, that Clinton might get some credit, was not because of “secret negotiations,” as Franken wrote, but because Clinton insisted that there could be not talks until Libya met its responsibilities regarding their role in the Pan Am bombing over Lockerbie. Not exactly hard nosed diplomacy by team Clinton, merely telling Libya what the rest of the world expected from them.

Distortion #3:
In fact, Leverett pointed out that Libya's story was an argument against Bush's foreign policy approach, because Libya was offered a carrot (lifting of sanctions and normal diplomatic relations) and not just a stick.

Again, a deception from Franken. According to Leverett, the only thing offered to Qadhafi for turning over two of its agents who were involved in the bombing of the civilian airliner was an agreement to lift UN Sanctions. Not as Franken wrote, “.... and normal diplomatic relations.”

According to Leverett, the United States (under the Bush administration) assured Libya of the possibility of “normalized relations” only after he agreed to a full dismantling, verification, and inspection of his WMD sites. Saddam Hussein, on the other hand was playing cat and mouse with the UN inspectors for years after it had agreed, pursuant to the 1991 surrender, to allow UN agents unfettered access to all of its weapons sites. Qadhaffi agreed to the terms, Hussein did not.

Of course the rest of Leverett's column is sheer liberal poppycock, best left for another discussion or column. What is important is to once again expose America's #1 liberal radio talk show host and yet to be announced US Senate Candidate as a fraud and intentional misrepresenter of facts.

In his footnotes, Franken concluded, “ If, after reading this footnote, you're still skeptical, Google “Flynt Leverett” and “why Libya Gave Up on the Bomb.” Then write me a nice note of apology......” Al's email address is, afranken@aol.com. I invite all of you to take Franken up on his offer and send him a nice note with a copy of this rebuttal.

Note: His email address is public domain so I do not feel like I am invading his privacy. Secondly, his good friend and partner, David Brock of the left wing smear site, Media Matters, always posts email addresses and phone numbers of his targets, which I can tell you from personal experience can be very annoying when hundreds of people use it.

Democrat ties to Jack Abramoff

2005-12-27T07:26:00.000-08:00

Al Franken is never at a loss for words and charges of corruption against Republicans, particulalry those Republicans who are also of the Christian faith, when the topic of indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff comes up.

In his recent book, which isn't doing quite as well as his last, Franken took special glee in referring to Abramoff as a "hard charging Orthodox Jew." It makes people on the left feel better when a supposed religious person gets caught up in legal trouble so secularists can feel good about themselves when they get in trouble.

But I digress.

In today's New York Post, Ian Bishop writes that Democrat Congressman Charles Rangel, the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committe, has taken more money from American Indian Tribes tied to Abramoff than almost any other Democrat in the House.

According to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Rangels take of $36,000 from two different Indian Tribes ranks him third amongst all House Democrats.

According to the column, Rangel has no intention of returning any of the money.

Think we'll hear from Al on this?

Liberal Media Bias?

2005-12-22T07:16:00.000-08:00

There is a new study put out by UCLA claiming to prove that there is indeed a liberal media bias.

"But the study is flawed," so says Franken sock-puppet David Brock of Media Matters, a left wing smear site.

Below is a head line from Brock's most recent posting:

Former fellows at conservative think tanks issued flawed UCLA-led study on media's "liberal bias"

I only bring this up because it is so funny to read someone like Brock, who also consults with and advises Al Franken, talk about media bias or studies which prove such.

In Pants on Fire, I spend three chapters proving the bias including a section that quotes directly from Daniel Okrent, the former NY Times public editor who not only acknowledges liberal bias at his paper, but gives numerous examples, including his papers cheerleading role on the gay marriage issue.

In his Lying Liar book, Franken's main piece of evidence to disprove the "liberal media bias" claim is a study from the Pew Charitable Trusts which, according to Franken, showed that Al Gore (the liberal) received much more negative media coverage that George Bush (the conservative) during the 2000 election. Hence, no liberal media bias. The problem is, or shall I say THE TRUTH is, that the Pew study didn't cover the campaign, just the debate performances. And as most people remember, Bush whooped Gore in the debates, not to mention Gore's boorish behavior- sighing into his microphone when Bush was speaking, or in the 2nd debate when Gore walked over to his "space."

Franken also frequently cites the University of Maryland PIPA study which according to Franken states that Fox News misleads its viewers. In my book, Pants on Fire, I include a press release from PIPA stating explicitly that their study, (contrary to the left wing spin) in no way proves Fox News bias or misleading its viewers...

There is plenty more on this subject and without sounding like I'm trying to push my own book, it does make a great Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa gift.

David Brock: COWARD

2005-12-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

On November 8 of this year, David Brock of Media Matters attacked me following my appearance on MSNBC's The Situation With Tucker Carlson by providing faulty and incomplete evidence to call me a liar.

For those of you who don't know, Media Matters is a group which is notorious for monitoring conservatives then posting distortions of their comments on their website.In fact, Brock is a weekly guest on Franken's radio show.

Brock posted my personal email address and within 24 hrs, I received over 150 pieces of hate email.

This past Sunday evening, I met radio talk show host Michael Medved who agreed to have me on his program to discuss my new book, Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives, provided that there is someone to defend Franken's position. Since Franken is unavailable, David Brock seemed to be the perfect person. After all, Brock feeds Franken information on a regular basis, and since Brock felt enough of an authority to smear me based on my criticism of Franken, I figured we should invite him to debate me and discuss his attacks against me.

This past week, 3 calls went into Media Matters HQ and messages were left for Brock to accept our invitation for a debate. Our calls were not returned.

This makes Brock not just a smear merchant, but a feckless coward as well. He calls people liars, posts their phone numbers and email addresses for others to harrass them, then when offered the opportunity to back his claims, he hides under his desk.

Well, I figure if Brock can post my contact information, I can post his. I urge people to contact his office and demand that he be a man and face me to not only defend Franken who claims, "I hold myself to impossibly high standards" but to defend his attacks against me.

202-756-4100
mm-tips@mediamatters.org

Al Franken's USO Tour is a travesty

2005-12-12T16:11:00.000-08:00

As Al Franken leaves tomorrow to do what he is claiming to be his 6th USO Tour (Which it may very well be)it sickens me to no end knowing how much he has hurt them here, that he has no business attaching himself to a worthwhile organization as the USO in order to elevate himself and increase his profile and celebrity status.

I called the USO office and left a message on a young ladies voicemail explaining my displeasure with Franken being allowed to "predatorily" latch onto the USO. I received a call back, also left on my voicemail, explaining that while there are some celebrity entertainers who are opposed to this administrations Iraq policies, they leave that at home and focus stricly on entertaining our troops.

So let me be clear about why I am so upset about Franken's going abroad. I don't have a problem with celebrities opposed to this administration who then go overseas to entertain our troops. I do have a problem with a celebrity who mocks and parodies our troops, yes I said OUR TROOPS, not the administration, then going abroad as if he loves and honors our guys.

Here is a brief clip from a Franken parody on our troops from his "best of" CD.

sorry 'bout the prisoners
sorry they got raped
sorry they got tortured
sorry it got taped...

believe me when I say their apology is sincere
I'm awfully sorry for that broomstick up their rear...

So pardon me if I'm just a little miffed about Al Franken being honored as a member of the USO tour.

This is like the NAACP allowing David Duke to perform at their functions as long as he promises to leave his "black" jokes at home.

If any of you decide to call the USO to protest, let them know about this passage from Franken's parody and ask them if this is simply disagreeing with this administration or an obsecene parody against our troops.

Al Franken is no Paul Wellstone

2005-12-05T13:22:00.000-08:00

On today's program, Franken interviewed Jeff Blodgett, executive director of Wellstone action.

They took time to remember Paul and his legacy.

As I wrote in my book, Paul wellstone was a good man. I didn't agree with him nor would I ever have voted for him. But I did respect him because he was sincere about his beliefs.

I contrast that with Al Franken, who has some fantasy ideas about running for Pauls old seat in 2008.

When paul Wellstone spoke about support for affirmative action he meant it. Unlike Al Franken, who according to different reports, has hired less than a handful of black people out of over 100 applicants.

When paul Wellstone spoke of support for our troops, he didn't send mixed messages. Unlike Al Franken who boasts of his USO Tours then comes back home and makes fun of them on his radio show.

Paul Wellstne was an honest man who conservatives from Tony Snow to Rush Limbaugh respected.

Al Franken is a character assassin and a vicious smear merchant whom few people respect.

Franken lies....on C-Span

2005-12-04T09:55:00.000-08:00

This morning, I caught the Franken hour on C-Span telling his audience at the Jimmy Carter library that President Bush lied us into war...lied about Iraq...

Some of this is getting old and tiresome, but as long as Al Franken is out there misleading, we have to hold him accountable.

Early in his speech he told his audience (I'm paraphrasing) "my wife isn't happy about my USO Tours. She said, you don't see Sean Hannity doing these tours. Then I said, honey, that's not fair, Sean doesn't have any talent. I said this to Sean when I interviewed him at the Democrat convention, and he said it wasn't funny...." Franken told this tired old joke on David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and now C-Span. The truth is, this exchange between Franken and Hannity never happened and I go into greater detail in my book about the REAL exchange between them.

Then Franken went into his "Bush lied" routine. Below are some, what I guess, would be Democrat lies, according to Al Franken. (Note: this compilation of quotes are from my research as well as from frankenlies.com)

PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: "We have to defend our future from these predators of the 21st century. … [T]hey will be all the more lethal if we allow them to build arsenals of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and the missiles to deliver them. We simply cannot allow that to happen. There is no more clear example of this threat than Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. His regime threatens the safety of his people, the stability of his region and the security of all the rest of us." (Remarks At The Pentagon, 2/17/98)

MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, SECRETARY OF STATE, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: "Iraq is a long way from Ohio, but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risk that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face. And it is a threat against which we must and will stand firm. In discussing Iraq, we begin by knowing that Saddam Hussein, unlike any other leader, has used weapons of mass destruction even against his own people." (CNN’s "Showdown With Iraq: International Town Meeting," 2/18/98)

SANDY BERGER, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER, CLINTON ADMINISTRATION: "Some have suggested that we should basically turn away. We should close our eyes to this effort to create a safe haven for weapons of mass destruction. But imagine the consequences if Saddam fails to comply and we fail to act. Saddam will be emboldened believing the international community has lost its will. He will rebuild his arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, and someday, some way, I am certain, he will use that arsenal again as he has 10 times since 1983." (CNN’s "Showdown With Iraq: International Town Meeting," 2/18/98)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA): "Saddam Hussein has already used these weapons and has made it clear that he has the intent to continue to try, by virtue of his duplicity and secrecy, to continue to do so. … It is a threat with respect to the potential of terrorist activities on a global basis." (Press Conference, 2/23/98)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA): "If you don't believe ... Saddam Hussein is a threat with nuclear weapons, then you shouldn't vote for me." (Ronald Brownstein, "On Iraq, Kerry Appears Either Torn Or Shrewd," Los Angeles Times, 1/31/03)2

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV): "I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11th that question is increasingly outdated." (Congressional Record, 10/10/02)

SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV): "Saddam’s existing biological and chemical weapons capabilities pose real threats to America today, tomorrow. … [He] is working to develop delivery systems like missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles that could bring these deadly weapons against U.S. forces and U.S. facilities in the Middle East. He could make these weapons available to many terrorist groups, third parties, which have contact with his government. Those groups, in turn, could bring those weapons into the United States and unleash a devastating attack against our citizens. I fear that greatly." (Congressional Record, 10/10/02)

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY): "In the four years since the inspectors, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. … It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capability to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." (Congressional Record, 10/10/02)
)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): "Saddam Hussein certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There’s no question about that." (NBC, "Meet the Press," 11/17/02)

Al Franken's Book Sales Dropping

2005-12-01T09:16:00.000-08:00

Looks like the Truth doesn't sell like Lies.

According to recent book scans, Al Franken's latest book, which has received tremendous publicity, has dropped in sales from 19,000+ books two weeks ago to 15,600 this past week.

Now granted some angry liberals are going to write me that his book is beating mine in sales, but then again, my publisher didn't spend over $100,000 in publicity either.

Nor did I appear on Matt Lauer, Letterman, Leno, Imus, Stewart,...

Al Franken: Same lies, Different Venue

2005-11-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Last week Al Franken appeared on Conan O'Brien to do what else, attack the very people he's parasitically made millions off of.

Below is what he said of Sean Hannity:

From there, looking for the trifecta, O’Brien immediately asked Franken about Sean Hannity. Franken’s response: “I don’t like his show particularly, and I don’t really like him.” He then related a story about a discussion that he had with Hannity at last year’s Democratic convention:

“And, I said something like, ‘You know, my wife says to me you don’t see Sean Hannity going on any USO tours to Iraq. And I said, ‘Honey, that’s not fair. He has no talent.’ And Sean says to me, ‘That’s not funny.’ And I said, ‘Yes it is.’” (Laughter).

The truth is, and it's in my book, is that Franken lashed out at Hannity during his interview at the Democrat convention because Sean said that his criticism of Clinton's bombing of Kosovo was not as bad as the Democrat rhetoric against President Bush's war efforts.

Franken then yelled at him: "How many USO tours have you done?"

Franken NEVER said, "my wife said..."

He's repeated this lie/joke before. most recently when he appeared on David Letterman over the summer.

What Really Happened to katherine? Part 2

2005-11-22T10:05:00.000-08:00

Katherine Lanpher left Al's side in the early fall in order to write her memoirs of moving from Minnesota to New York. According to Air America, Time Warner wanted the book done and ready to go by January 2006, an unusually aggresive turnaround time for a book.

As of this morning Time Warner will be releasing the book in October of 2006.

All of this begs the following questions:

What was the real reason Katherine left Air America so abruptly?

was she forced into early retirement?

Did she see the writing on the wall regarding Air America's future?

Stay tuned.

What Really Happened to katherine?

2005-11-10T10:10:00.000-08:00

A couple of month's back, Franken's co-host, the adorable katherine Lanpher departed to write a book.

According to Air America, Katherine was signed by warner Bros., one of the premier publishers in the industry, to write a memoir of her moves from Minnesota to New York.

Not that I see a book of this nature burning up the charts, but what do I know.

Yet this morning, when asked by Don Imus about her departure, Franken said that she left the show because she wasn't interested in moving back to Minnesota when Al goes there in January

My Turn

2005-11-09T19:00:00.000-08:00

It's been a fun couple of days, what with getting attacked on my blog because some bloggers thought I was somebody else, and having David Brock look into my past, what more could an author ask for.

I appeared on The Situation with Tucker Carlson this past Monday night to promote my new upcoming book, Pants on Fire:How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives (WND Books)

Well Brock being Brock, sprung into action. His opening salvo against me was about how much money I raised in my congressional run back in 2002. Somehow my campaign is a joke but Howard Dean who raised more money than G-d, still managed to lose, is someone to be taken seriously.

Then Brock got to the good stuff.

For example, he criticized me for saying that information about min. wage earners, and how Franken smeared Rush on this subject, was in my book but that I didn't provide any information on the show. What Brock doesn't tell his subscribers is that Carlson gave me one minute to wrap things up, making it impossible to elaborate.

Then I spent the rest of the day arguing with Brockanoids who said that Brock exposed me, and they cited the numbers from The Bureau of Labor Statistics to back up their point. For example, Brock wrote,"Also, the BLS data clearly demonstrate that the vast majority of minimum wage earners are 20 and older -- refuting Skorski's claim that Franken "made up" the data." The problem with that of course, is that there is no age bracket or category for "people over 20." Never mind that Brock is reading from the wrong column on the BLS site. A portion of the narrative from the BLS reads as follows:

2.9 million Americans (out of 72.9 million who are paid by the hour) earn minimum wage or less.
With that being the case, it's very hard to understand where Al Franken came up with 60.1% of minimum wage earners in America are adults (a category which doesn't exist in the BLS study)

On the whole Peabody/Polk award issue, since Brock is not privy to my countless email exchanges with Franken on this matter, it is impossible for him to know what I was basing my accusations against Franken on.
Making the rest of his attack moot, and all of his supporters who emailed me such lovely emails having once again been duped by Brock

Something You'll Never Hear From Al Franken On His USO Tours

2005-11-08T22:47:00.000-08:00

This came courtesy of Newsbusters.org

'CSI: NY' Actor Slams Biased Iraq Coverage
Posted by Ken Shepherd on November 8, 2005 - 06:44.

CBS's The Early Show ran a positive story set in Iraq today which cast the work of American troops in a positive light and showed CSI: New York star Gary Sinise airing criticism of negative media coverage. The story by correspondent Hattie Kauffman, however, was a gimmicky plug during "CSI Week" on the Tiffany network's morning show to plug new episodes of the trio of highly-watched CBS crime dramas.

Towards the end of her report on Sinise's charity, Operation Iraqi Children, Kauffman set up Sinise's criticism of the media: "In addition to his performances on the USO tour, Sinise continues to stay in touch with the troops in Iraq. From them, he hears the good news that he complains is overlooked in press coverage."

Video available: Real Player or Windows Media Player

Sinise: "I get another side of the story that we don't hear through the media, and it's, you know, more positive things happening than you would think."

Kauffman agreed: "The news reports are a bomb, a car bomb, a suicide bomb."

Sinise continued: "It's always about a bomb or a suicide bomber or somebody getting killed. And, of course, that's dramatic and all of that. But on a day-to-day basis, there's a lot of improvement. There's a lot of hope. There's a lot of kids that are going to school that never got to do that before."

Franken Supports Our Troops

2005-11-08T17:40:00.000-08:00

In Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives, I give many examples of Franken talking one way when he wants to show his patriotic colors and yet at other times he mocks and parodies our troops when trying to curry favor with other audiences.

He's lashed out at Brit Hume and Rush Limbaugh for dissing and demoralizing our troops...

So I found this last paragraph from a Reuters interview with Franken most telling:

"You don't stand up and say 'Your president is lying to you and you are dying for no reason.' I don't do that joke."

Geez, Al. I hope the families and troops themselves don't read that joke that you don't do to their faces (just behind their backs)

A "Dunderhead" Proves My Point

2005-11-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

While I have no intention of responding to "reviewers" on my Amazon page, this is one that I just couldn't pass up.

In my book Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives, One of the things I point out is how Franken, and sometimes his sock puppet, David Brock, will attack someone with documentation that actually proves the attackee was being truthful and accurate.

Last night, while appearing on MSNBC's 'The Situation with Tucker Carlson,' I pointed out that Al Franken's favorite smear agaimst Rush Limbaugh is that Rush lied when he said that the majority of minimum wage earners in America are teenagers. According to Franken, who is "scrupulous about our facts," The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that 60.1% of minimum wage earners in America are adults (or of adult age). On the show and in my book I provide the actual data and graph from the Bureau to show that Franken was wrong and his data was not even close.

So this so-called "reviewer" on my Amazon page said that I was the one lying and posted the Bureau's data to prove it. However, if you read the data closely, you see that the majority of minimum wage earners "tend to be young," proving my point.

Not surprisingly, the "reviewers" log-in name is "Nobody"

Reviewer: Nobody
"Nobody checks Bureau of Labor Statistics"
At least that's what Alan Skorski would like to be the case. However, his lies about Al Franken encouraged me to do so. I easily discovered that in his failed attempt to legitimize Limbaugh's lie that most people that earn min wage are teens he distorted readily available official Minimum Wage Earner Statistics. For his shining moment on TV, that was the best he could do. That doesn't bode well for the rest of his book. Don't waste you time or money unless you are a someone who accepts lies and propaganda over studied and accurate truth. Skorski is a poster child for lies and the lying liers who tell them.

"Minimum wage workers tend to be young. About half of all hourly-paid workers earning $5.15 or less were under age 25, and about one-fourth were age 16-19. Among teenagers, about 9 percent earned $5.15 or less. About 2 percent of workers age 25 and over earned the minimum wage or less. Among those age 65 and over, the proportion was 4 percent. (See table 1 and table 7.)"
http://www.bls.gov/cps/minwage2004.htm

Of course, this "reviewer" also left out another little detail. That is, that the percentages given of min. wage earners are of hourly paid workers, and not a percentage of all workers. According to the Bureau, approx. 2% of all 72 million hourly paid workers in America earn the min. wage. Quite different from the 60.1% (of adults) Al Franken claims.

World Net Daily Promotes New Expose on Al Franken

2005-11-07T15:10:00.000-08:00

Is Franken exploiting U.S. troops?
Performs for USO, savages them for 'torture, rape'

Al Franken says he loves to perform for U.S. troops overseas.

"I love and honor our troops," he insists.

Maybe he does while on the USO tours and amid the avalanche of goodwill publicity those tours generate for him when he returns.

But consider this parody, called "Sorry," included on Franken's CD "The O'Franken Factor":

Sorry 'bout the prisoners
Sorry they got raped
Sorry they got tortured
Sorry it got taped ...

Believe me when I say their apology is sincere
I'm awfully sorry for that broomstick up their rear ...

That's just one of the revelations of a new release from WND Books by Alan Skorski called "...Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears and Deceives."

Skorski calls the CD track a "disgusting, humorless, shameless, below-the-belt, filthy parody mocking the troops and our military." He says Franken uses U.S. military troops as "props" to gain recognition and advance his career – all the while undermining their efforts with lies, smears and deceit.

"Many celebrities do good things for the right reasons," says Skorski, "but they don't go out of their way to bring attention to themselves the way Franken does."

Skorski, who tracks Franken's every public move, every public thought, every public deed – and some private ones – and chronicles them in "...Pants on Fire," shows how Franken changes his tune depending on the audience to whom he is playing.

On July 27, 2004, Franken interviewed Sean Hannity on Franken's Air America radio program and challenged the conservative host's patriotism.

"Toward the end of the interview the tone changed from uncomfortable laughter to outright indignation, as Sean charged that the Left's rhetoric against President Bush was undermining our war on terror," he writes. "Franken then angrily charged Sean with having done the same thing when he said that Bill Clinton 'lacked the moral authority' when he began bombing Kosovo. Sean stood firm, denying that his comments were the same as what the Left was doing. Then Franken, about to pop a vein, barked at Sean, 'how many USO tours have you done?' Realizing how foolish he looked, he spent the next few minutes saying, 'I was just joking ... it was a joke ...' Sean, having none of it, said, 'It wasn't funny.'"

But even that story changed dramatically a year later when Franken appeared on David Letterman's program July 10, 2005.

"Franken told Dave and his audience that conservatives don't have a sense of humor. 'I was interviewing Sean ... and I told him that my wife said, 'You don't see Sean Hannity doing any USO tours.'

"'Well, that's not fair, honey, Sean doesn't have any talent.'"

Franken continued, "So it was clearly a joke, and Sean said it wasn't funny, because he doesn't have a sense of humor."

Do As I Say

2005-11-06T17:45:00.000-08:00

There's been a big broohaha as of late as to whether Al Franken would sue author, Peter Schweizer, over material written about Franken in his book.

According to Schweizer, Franken's lawyer is not objecting to the content of the book, just on how the author was able to obtain the information he got.

What most people don't know, however, is that Franken attacked this book a few month's ago on his show. The ONLY thing that Franken addressed was one sentence that appeared in parenthesis and had to do with Franken sending one of his kids to a school that teaches abstinence education "plus." This was Franken's attempt to make the author look ridiculous since Franken supports abstinence education plus.

Of course, Franken ignored the other 18 pages written about him, which might lead one to believe that Franken only accepts challenges he knows he can win.

More truth about 'The Truth'

2005-11-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

As I promised last week, I will continue to post rebuttals, albeit in brief, to some of Franken's points from his new book.

On page 64, he made fun of President Bush's speech at the Republican convention for "being strong after 9/11, not before."

"True to form, the president made no apologies for his inaction before 9/11. Rather, he called the nation's attention to the attitude he adopted immediately after."

Well, I'm not sure what the president was supposed to apologize for, but notice, that even according to Franken the president became resolute after one terrorist attack. Now let's contrast that with Bill Clinton's "get tough" attitude on terrorism.
We had the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudia Arabia, the bombings of US embassies in Africa, the slaughter of US troops in Somailia, and who can ever forget Bill Clinton's "were gonna get you" speech following the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

On page 68, Franken reverts back to his satitrical mode by allowing John Kerry (again, this was satire and John Kerry didn't really write this) to add some prose to Franken's book. He writes,

"but I harbor no bitterness toward those who did not vote for me."

Here's the funny part though, do you remember the badgering John Kerry gave one old man at a town hall meeting when Kerry demanded to know what his party affiliation was? Just wondering.

On page 69 Franken really hits the jackpot and exposes Republicans dirty tricks.

"If you run for president as a Democrat, they're going to come after you."

My g-d, is Franken serious? Shall we list all the Republicans who were targeted by the Clinton smear machine? Shall we talk to Billy Dale who was the target of the Clinton's in the travelgate scandal? Shall we talk about conservative groups who were audited by the IRS every year during the Clinton administration? Shall we talk about the NAACP political ads that said that voting for Republicans would lead to more church burnings? Shall we talk about forged documents to make it look like George Bush was guilty of AWOL? Shall we talk about certain documentaries that portrayed President Bush as being cozy comfy buddy buddy with Bin Laden?

This list can go on and on and on and on...............

My next posting will deal with what Franken wrote were the ugly lies by the Swift Boat Vets for Truth.

Alan Colmes Stands up to....Al Franken

2005-10-30T20:12:00.000-08:00

This past Thursday night, October 28th, Alan Colmes who has been the butt of Franken's demeaning jokes, had a chance to turn the tables on Franken, and turn the tables he did.

In his last book, Lies... Franken portrayed Colmes as nothing more than Hannity's water carrier. Though Franken apparently apologized later for it. In his most recent Book, The Truth... Franken once again demeaned Colmes by referring to him as Hannity's "goofy sidekick." Colmes was so upset at not only being demeaned again by Franken, but that it followed what he thought was a a sincere apology from Franken, after the last insult.

Colmes spent the first half of the interview giving Franken a piece of his mind, telling him that his word doesn't mean anything...and that his apologies are meaningless.

You can listen to the exchange at: http://www.foxnews.com/alancolmesradio/, or at least as long as Colmes leaves it up his site.

More lies from 'The Truth'

2005-10-28T11:49:00.000-07:00

As promised, I will post incrementally, different "rebuttal-worthy" material from Franken's new book.

I almost feel bad for this guy. Plummeting ratings on his radio show, now a book, though selling very well for now, is doing so only because of his last best seller. This book could never stand alone on its own merits.

On page 28 Franken attempts to make the case that all the terror alerts prior to the 2004 elections were nothing more than part of a "fear" campaign to make voters vote for Bush. He cites as his evidence, that there weren't any alerts following the elections. This was very clever because I remember him saying the samething when he was on with Bill Maher last year.
One problem with that brilliant analysis.
In order for Bin Laden to disrupt our elections as they did in Spain, the attacks would have to take place BEFORE the actual elections. After November 2, it really wouldn't change the outcome of the race.

On page 40, Franken writes as he has in the past, that George Bush could have prevented 9/11 had he accepted the classifed evidence from the prior administration. But no, according to Franken, Bush's "animus" towards the Clinton's prevented that.
But according to Richard Clarke who was a security advisor to Bill Clinton and stayed on for Bush, stated that there was no animus, and that they wouldn't have kept him on had there been.

On page 57, Franken writes that Kadhaffi abandoned his links to terrorism, not because he feared President Bush who removed Saddam from power. No, of course not. According to Franken, it was because of the diplomacy that was initiated during the Clinton administration.
I shouldn't even have to respond to that one.

On page 63, Franken writes that Rudy Guilliani lied to America when he spoke at the Republican convention and said that when 9/11 happened, he said "thank g-d George Bush is our president." And how does Franken know that Rudy was lying and didn't really feel that way? Because in his book, Leadership, Guilliani made no mention of that being his feelings that day.

That's it for now. More to come next week.

The Truth about 'The Truth'

2005-10-27T17:01:00.000-07:00

Rather than give an overall critique of the book, I have decided to break it down to several postings to highlight what I like/don't like about the book. Too much writing will lose the interest of the reader.

For starters, I like the book cover. Like his last book, the art department did an excellent job with graphics, spacing, letter colors,...They even manage to make Al look semi-good looking, as opposed to the picture of him on the cover of my book.

The title is clever, but the subtitle is misleading. I have read the first 11 chapters and I have yet to laugh at anything with the intensity that I did reading Al's last book. And just to show that I can be objective, I even emailed Al as I completed, Lies...telling him that the book had very funny parts and that it was a very enjoyable read, even if I didn't agree with him.

I cannot make that claim with this book. In fact, I could be that guy who Franken clobbered on his much criticized video promotion. Throughout the early chapters he mentions quite a few times about how he had written this or that in "my last book, Lies and the Lying Liars..." as if he is still trying to get that Amazon ranking higher for a book that was released two years ago.

Like many on the left who couldn't let go of Bush winning in 2000, Franken can't seem to let go of Kerry losing in 2004. Blaming the non-stop smears of the Bush machine because everybody knows that Democrats never ever attack their Republican opponents.

Franken still can't get over the fact that a PDB that said something to the effect that "Bin Laden determined to strike" wasn't immediately understood by the Bush Administration to mean that on September 11, 2001 planes would be hijacked and flown into the World Trade Center. And this mind you after Franken accuses the Bush camp of using fear tactics to turn out the vote.
Can you imagine the outrage from the left and the media if President Bush had relied on a PDB to inform Americans that we are about to come under attack? They would have criticized him for using this to distract people from the fact that he stolen the election from Al Gore.

More postings on The Truth with (lame) Jokes to continue

Franken loses...Again

2005-10-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

While some of you think I take great pleasure at seeing Al and Air America sink further into irrelevance, nothing could be further from the truth.

Though my reasons are strictly for personal financial gain, I must admit. The more successful Al is, the more books exposing him as a character assassin and fraud, not to mention a doomed US Senate candidate, I'll be able to sell.

So it brings me no pleasure to report some recent ratings numbers:

Below are their rankings among all AM and FM programming for Persons 12+
in New York:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Hour Rank (all AM/FM
(Persons 12+) (Persons 12+) programming-persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 4.8 159,400 3
Al Franken 1.4 47,800 23
Jerry Springer 1.0 30,100 27

In Los Angeles:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Hour Rank (all AM/FM
(Persons 12+) (Persons 12+) programming-persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 4.8 112,700 1
Al Franken 1.3 29,500 28
Ed Shultz 0.9 22,900 33

And in Chicago:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Hour Rank (all AM/FM
(Persons 12+) (Persons 12+) programming-persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 5.9 96,300 1
Al Franken 0.9 14,900 29
Ed Shultz 0.9 14,300 31
Jerry Springer 0.4 6,500

SOURCE: Premiere Radio Networks

Harriet Miers and Harry Reid

2005-10-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

In a blaring headline, Harry Reid, Minority leader of the flailing Democrat Party declared:

‘Radical Right Wing Killed Miers’

Does this mean that Reid supported her nomination?

Do the American people need any further evidence that the Democrats are not to be trusted when it comes to, amongst other things, picking judges?

Here was somebody who was so clearly unquailifed to sit on the nation's highest court and Reid is upset.

Doesn't Harry Reid listen to Franken's radio show anymore? I certainly got a taste of Miers's intellect when Al read some memo's she had written earlier to President Bush.

Clearly this was someone unqualified, regardless of ideology or political affiliation

More lies from 'The Truth'

2005-10-26T23:30:00.000-07:00

On October 25, as Franken was making the rounds promoting his new book, one morning stop included a nice little chat with Matt Lauer.

Here is a brief exchange towards the closing of the love-fest:

Lauer: "You don’t have a solution for the problem we’re in Iraq right now. That fair to say?"

Franken: "That’s very fair to say. We do this on my show, I have a three hour show everyday on Air America and we talk to conservatives and we talk to liberals and we talk to people trying to figure out, ‘cause we’ve been put in a terrible situation there.

So what's my problem? Take a gander at line #2 from Franken, "...and we talk to conservatives"

Really? Al talks to conservatives?

Rather than go over to Al Franken's show blog and copy/paste his daily guests, here is the url to check for yourself:
http://shows.airamericaradio.com/alfrankenshow/

Look for the conservative guest and please feel free to post on my blog if you find any and how many times "we talk to conservatives."

Rove and Scooter should be Executed

2005-10-24T10:15:00.000-07:00

Want to hear some Franken jokes?

Get ready to bust a gut or even pee in your pants.

This past Friday, while a guest on Letterman's show, Franken made the following jokes
about Rove and Libby regarding the Valerie Plame investigation:

"And so basically, what it looks like is going to happen is that Libby and Karl Rove are going to be executed...”

"...but they are going to be executed it looks like."

Done laughing yet?

Or maybe this wasn't a joke after all. I mean if Ann Coulter can be demonized repeatedly for saying it's too bad that Timothy McVeigh didn't bomb the NY Times instead of the federal bldg in Oklahoma, then why is Franken getting a pass?

Because he's a satirist and Ann isn't!!!

Isn't that something that Bin Laden is innocent until proven guilty but Rove and Libby should be executed?

One thing I haven't yet been able to understand. If Rove's alleged outing of the fair Valerie was an attempt to "get even with her husband Joe" how does outing her get even?

Wouldn't it have made more sense to dig up some dirt on him? He recently decribed himself as a child of the 60's who had too many wives and too much drugs...and did inhale.

A Preview of 'The Truth'

2005-10-23T17:35:00.000-07:00

Though I hate to promote or criticize something before I've actually seen it, I just can't help myself in giving an early review, or in this case, a rebuke to Al Franken's upcoming book, The Truth .

I am posting my criticisms based on the promo points he's listed on Amazon. These are, in his opinion, the reasons you should buy his book, which no doubt, will sell very well.

IRAQ
They told us that when we invaded, we'd be greeted with sweets and flowers. They left out the crucial modifier: "exploding."

Now how many times are we going to hear Franken complain that our troops didn't receive sweets (chocolates) and flowers? Well, obviously many, especially if you are a regular listener to his radio program. You'd think Franken had FTD stock or something to be this damn angry that there were no flowers or chocolates. Al doesn't seem to be satisfied that millions of Iraqi's risked their lives to vote for a free Iraq. He just wants those sweets and flowers.

GAY MARRIAGE
George W. Bush wants to amend our Constitution to make it illegal for gays to marry. But evidently, he has no problem with terrorists getting married. America can't afford a president who is soft on terrorist marriage. Because unlike gays, terrorists can breed.

Okay, very funny Al. But if you really want to go back to who started the divisive gay marriage issue fight, it was not President Bush, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome, the courts in Massachusets, and the Mayor of New Palz New York. They started it, they were the ones looking for a confrontation, they're the ones who openly and brazenly broke the law, (oh yea, that thing) and the president of the United States responded properly and professionaly.

BILL FRIST DIAGNOSING TERRI SCHIAVO FROM 800 MILES AWAY
The FristCam Act of 2005 would place a video camera in every one of America's Intensive Care Units. The FristCams would pan the ICUs, and the Senate Majority Leader would give each patient a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.

It's nice to know that while millions of Americans grieved together with Terri's family, Franken somehow managed to find the humor in it all. I could respond even more, but I don't want to spoil the chapter in my book (that I hope you'll purchase). It's titled: 'How Al Franken and the Left Dehumanized Terri Schiavo.' I'm sure that it's not as comical as Franken's chapter on the subject, but then again, I'm not a talented satirist like Al is.

BUSH'S 9/11 BAIT AND SWITCH
Bin Laden must have been furious. Here he had gone to all this trouble to murder thousands of Americans, and Saddam—Saddam, the infidel!—was getting all the credit! Who was the head of al Qaeda?! Who was funding al Qaeda?! Somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border there was a very angry terrorist mastermind.

Now that's odd. I could have sworn I remember hearing Michael Moore and Howard Dean say that Bin Laden is innocent until proven guilty. Oh well. I'm sure that Bin Laden's top lieutenants are getting a big laugh out of all this as they sit in US prisons.

MORAL VALUES
From what I understand, if you cut out all the passages in the Bible where Jesus talks about the poor, about helping out the least among us, you'd have the perfect container to smuggle Rush Limbaugh's drugs in.

It's amazing how the secular Left who want ALL
symbols of Christianity removed from the public square are always telling the rest of us what Jesus would do. And as far as Rush's "drugs" are concerned, at least he wasn't doing cocaine when he was on the job, hey Al?

THE SOCIAL SECURITY "CRISIS"
The number Bush kept using, $11 trillion, represented the total shortfall from now until the year Infinity. If you think about it, $11 trillion over Infinity years is nothing. Over the first 11 trillion years, that's just one dollar a year. Easy. After that, it's over. You're done. What, exactly, is the problem?

I guess when Bill Clinton was in office, Democrats thought social security needed fixing, but when a Republican is in office, they think social security has never been in better shape and the president is just looking to help his buddies on Wall Street.

Well folks, this is my preview. I look forward to reading Al's new book as I'm sure that he is looking forward to reading mine.

Franken's Ratings Plummet....Again

2005-10-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

I've had a number of email exchanges and blog postings challenging my assertion that Franken's audience is diminishing.

"hey, Air America is on 70 stations!"

Wow, a whole 70. And just think, he's been on the air for a year and half.

Franken opened today's show by stating that his audience is growing, and that he has over 1 million listeners. Now there is no way for me to verify or confirm those numbers. But I was able to copy/paste this paragraph from yesterday's Washington Post about Franken's ratings in the very liberal Washington DC:

Air America, the liberal talk network carried on WWRC-AM (1260), went from bad to nonexistent. After WWRC recorded a mere fraction of a rating point in the spring with syndicated shows from the likes of lefty talkers Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo and Stephanie Miller, Arbitron couldn't detect a measurable listenership for the station this time around.

A Ringing Endorsement of Al Franken

2005-10-21T10:55:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, Al Franken appeared in Maine for some political fundraising and rabble rousing with the party faithful. One of the attendees who actually appeared on stage was Maine Governor, John Baldacci. According to new reports, Michael Leavitt, the executive director of the Maine Republican Party slammed the governor for standing side-by-side with such a divisive figure as Franken.

In a recent interview with the Bowdoin Orient, the governor had a chance to fire back and defend the integrity of such a fine outstanding man like Franken. Here is an exchange between the interviewer Evan Kohn and the governor.

EK: Bowdoin students saw you a few weeks ago introducing Al Franken at Bowdoin. How would you respond to criticism regarding your appearance with an arguably controversial figure like Al Franken.

GJB: (Laughter) Well, you know...look, I don't defend Al Franken and Al Franken doesn't defend me. You know, I represent myself, and I just thought it was a great turnout there and I thought there was a lot of enthusiasm there. I think if there are those attempts to undercut that kind of support and say that people were being divisive...I don't think so. I think people appreciate free speech and recognize that people have fought and sacrificed their lives so we can say and do what we want to do. Those are our freedoms and liberties, so he has a right to his opinion and I have a right to mine.

It's got to feel great to have a governor stand up for you like that!

What is Al Celebrating?

2005-10-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

On a recent visit to alfrankenweb.com, where you can view the latest Franken droppings,there was a headline titled:

October 14. Happy 1st. Today is the anniversary of the O'Reilly lawsuit. Celebrate!

Those wishing to participate in the festivities could simply "click" on the headline and be taken to 'thesmokinggun' site and see transcripts of the Andrea Mackris complaint against Bill O'Reilly.

What a celebration! and just as I am recovering from Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Franken's friends have something new to celebrate.

Usually, though, people celebrate when they have good news. At least that's what I thought normal people do.

So what good news could Al possibly be celebrating these days?

That Air America was embroiled in a financial scandal involving taking money from a kids charity?

That AA's snails pace growth is getting them nowhere and can't generate revenue?

That Katherine Lanpher, Al's co-host, left the show to write a memoir of her move from Minnesota to New York? (sounds like a chart-burning blockbuster to me)

Is he celebrating the release of my upcoming book that will expose him as a smear merchant, character assassin, and major fraud?

I'm not sure what he's so happy about, but it seems that because Al has nothing positive to celebrate he'd rather distract and point to somebody else, and that somebody else is still America's #1 cable news host.

David Brock Rehashing Clinton's Scandals

2005-10-16T00:45:00.000-07:00

Frankly, I am sick and tired of polling.

Do you think the President should have done this or that?

Do you view him more favorably or less favorably?

Which President would you rather have a beer with?

Does this President care about poor people?

ENOUGH with the polling already!

We'd all be so much better off if we just did what we were supposed to do to - take care of ourselves and families and be less preoccupied with meaningless polls which can change on a dime.

But it seems that David Brock just can't leave things alone. G-d forbid anybody criticize Bill Clinton, a man Brock spent a great many hours digging up dirt on, albeit true dirt.

In his October 14 posting Brock wrote:

Matalin falsely claimed that Reagan and Clinton's second-term approval ratings were "similar" to Bush's current low in the polls

So Brock really wants to set the record straight for all of us.

Going back and doing a little digging myself, I found a CNN/Gallup poll from January 5, 2001. One that I'm sure Brock and other Clinton fans would be happy to be reminded of:

Poll: Majority of Americans glad Clinton is leaving office

In your view, will Clinton mostly be remembered as president for his accomplishments, or his involvement in personal scandal?
Scandal 68%
Accomplishments 28

Do you generally think Bill Clinton is honest and trustworthy?
Yes 39%
No 58

Yea, these are numbers I would really be proud of. And if I were Bill Clinton, I'd be really thankful to David Brock for bringing this topic up again

Philadelphia says Bye-Bye to Air America

2005-10-02T13:01:00.000-07:00

In spite of the scandals, financial woes, and poor ratings, Air America executives and a few of their on-air talent state, rather defiantly, that things are going great at Air America.

“We're on 70 stations” can frequently be heard by their defenders in the blogosphere.

Better check again amigo, as of this weekend, it's 69.

Over the weekend, it was reported on Philly.com that:

Al Franken and Randi Rhodes are getting the boot from Philadelphia airwaves, as WHAT-AM (1340) is pulling off programming from Air America, the liberal talk-radio network.
Friday will be the last day, and a new WHAT lineup will begin Monday, said general manager Kernie Anderson, adding that "things were not working out" with Air America after about a year.
WHAT aired Air America's programming from noon to 7 p.m. weekdays, sandwiched between the rest of its lineup. The juxtaposition of liberal talk and WHAT's African America-targeted talk programming seemed an odd fit from the start.
Ratings were abysmal.

Let's give things a few more weeks and see how many other affiliates dismiss Air America.

Al Franken Acknowledges Air America going Bankrupt?

2005-09-30T13:47:00.000-07:00

There is a saying in Hebrew, “silence is like an admission.” In our Justice system, we have something called “taking the fifth.” And while pleading the fifth does not convict someone in a court of law, it is very telling in the court of public opinion.

Air America talk show host Al Franken has spent a great deal of time since the networks inception over a year ago, playing so-called “gotcha” audio clips of his favorite targets like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. The way it works is, he plays a clip and then tells his audience why it's a lie. Great fun for everybody.

On his September 28 program, together with weekly guest David Brock of Media Matters, an organization which claims to monitor and expose right wing misiniformation,
He spent roughly 13.5 minutes going over nine alleged O'Reilly falsehoods from an earlier O'Reilly and Radio Factor.

Not one of them, not one second, dealt with O'Reilly's September 27 Television show in which the # 1 rated cable news star, Bill O'Reilly, interviewed conservative pundit Michelle Malkin and radio industry expert, Brian Maloney. During the ENTIRE segment on The Factor the focus was on how Air America is mismanaged and that they are on the verge of bankruptcy.

One would think that if Franken and Brock are going to spend close to fourteen minutes “debunking” O'Reilly's claims that the Bush administration is spending more on poverty programs than his predecessor Bill Clinton, or that Independents swung the re-election for George Bush in 2004, Franken would spend at least that much time defending the integrity of the network which employs him.

Racial Hypocrisy from David Brock and Media Matters

2005-09-30T12:23:00.000-07:00

Book after book, column after column have been written about the issue of racially insensitive remarks from America's leading figures, yet it seems that the outrage is always directed towards conservatives.

Senator Robert Byrd who was once a leader of the Ku Klux Klan rises to the top of the Democrat leadership. But Rush Limbaugh opines that the media, desperate in its search to elevate a great black quarterback, criticizes them for selecting Philadelphia quarterback Donovan McNabb who at the time of his comments was having a miserable season, yet Limbaugh is forced to resign.

There are volumes of examples of Democrat and left wing hypocrisy on this issue. Hillary Clinton “joking” at a funraiser that Gandhi reminded her of a gas station attendant. At a 1996 dinner she mocked the former San Francisco Mayor Willie Browns black accent while talking about his seeking support from 'Emily's List.'

Now comes conservative talk show host Bill Bennett who had an exchange with a caller on his Sept. 28 program,who had made some ludicrous proposal about how we could be saving social security based on revenue lost by the number of abortions in this country - statistics based on the NY Times best seller Freakonomics. Bennett, who dismissed his callers theory, went on to say “...But I do know that it's true that if you wanted to reduce crime, you could -- if that were your sole purpose, you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down.”

Dr. Bennett did not endorse this nor did he encourage it. He did not tell his audience that this is something that should be debated. In fact, he denounced it as morally reprehensible.

Yet on his September 30 posting Media Matters posted 12 different media and political sources denouncing Bennett's comments.

Here now is where the hypocrisy from Media Matters begins.

On his May 16, 2005 show, radio talk show host Al Franken, whose program featues Brock as a weekly guest, performed a skit with his co-host Katherine Lanpher in which he compared black people to horses.

In the skit, his co-host reported a news item from Bob Woodward that the Republican presidential nominee in 2008 could be a “dark horse.” Franken responded by asking if he meant J.C. Watts. A few moments later he said “...Woodward said the dark horse was a he, so it couldn't be Condaleeza Rice.

There was no outrage from the Left. No condemnations from Harry Reid or Ted Kennedy. No calls for apologies from People for the American Way, and no “email alerts” from David Brock and Media Matters criticizing his pal's racially insensitive remarks.

Michael Moore's Sequel to Fahrenheit 9/11

2005-09-28T10:45:00.000-07:00

In a Newsmax cover story today : 'Clinton Foundation Found at Fault',

they write,

“Former President Bill Clinton’s charitable foundation failed to meet at least six of 19 accountability standards established by the Better Business Bureau.”

Later in the article they note:

The Clinton Foundation’s latest report, released on September 23, showed the organization took in $57.7 million in donations last year, and borrowed nearly $38.5 million to cover expenses related to the library.

Donors to the foundation have included the Saudi Royal Family, the governments of Dubai, Kuwait and Qatar and director Steven Spielberg.

Never mind, “Here we go again” with Clinton and his financial scandals (Bill better look out for Hillary's flying dishes) but just take another gander and the list of donors to Clinton's foundation.

Where is Michael Moore? Shouldn't he be working on his follow up to Fahrenheit 9/11 exposing the Clinton/Saudi/Spielberg connection to the attacks on the World Trade Center?

Saturday Night Live Outrage

2005-09-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

Though I have been a fan of SNL for decades, even during the unfunny years, I am very disappointed to hear that this weekends musical guest will be Kanye West, the singer who blamed George Bush's "racism" for the delay in getting help to hurricane Katrina victims.

You can call 212-664-4444 to lodge your complaint. Please tell your friends!

Mr. Franken Goes to Yale

2005-09-27T12:15:00.000-07:00

That's Yale, not jail (not yet at least).

This past Friday, Yale students were treated to an Al Franken speech that is basically Franken's stump speech. Don't Yale students, our best and brightest, deserve just a tad better than what you've been telling everybody else Al?

Thanks to the bloggers at Power Line, we were able to get some excerpts of that speech.

· Starts with the “myth of liberal media.” Something that the right has been repeating over and over again for the last forty years. There is a lot of bias in the media but it isn’t liberal. The mainstream media maybe has some biases in terms of politics but they are pack mentality biases (Gore is a serial exaggerator)

In chapter 9 of my upcoming book, I show how Franken misleads his audience by mis-citing what his sources actually say about media bias and the Gore exaggerations

· BUT there is a right-wing media: Fox News and talk radio. This is why Franken went into talk radio. Realized somebody needed to push back against these guys…these guys are just (you probably don’t listen to them)…they’re really pernicious and really evil.

Franken frequently cites the University of Maryland PIPA study to prove Fox News bias and how they mislead their audience. The PIPA study released a strongly worded letter stating unambiguously that their study cannot be used as it has been, to prove Fox News bias...

· A few months ago Rush talking about the minimum wage…75% of all Americans on minimum wage are teenagers on their first job. Franken’s researcher went to Bureau of Labor statistics. 60% of Americans on minimum wage are 20 and above.
Where did Rush get this statistic? Directly from his ass. And 21% of American gets their news from him—same people who believe Saddam had something to do with 9/11 and had weapons of mass destruction that miraculously disappeared.
Franken gets statistics from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Rush gets his from Bureau of Rush’s Ass—this is the difference.

A few things here:
First, this attack on Rush is Franken's favorite. He's repeated it more times than John Kerry talked about his Viet Nam service. Secondly, Franken has been telling this story for over a year now so how come Franken keeps saying, "A few months's ago..."
as far as the rest of my rebuttal goes, I'm not going to tell you here. You'll have to read it in the book. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

· Soldiers treat Franken GREAT. Goes out there with Daryl Worley and Mark Wills...they’re all rednecks. They love each other…nothing more gratifying that doing USO trips because our men and women are great [gets choked up].

My chapter, 'Franken Uses the Troops as Props' is another doozey. Again, too good to write about here. It's not that you don't deserve to read about now, but there's no reason to give Franken a heads up.

· Taranto says on Hannity and Colmes that Bush’s numbers are bouncing back. Franken writes him and e-mail asking for polls that show president is bouncing back from Katrina…Taranto writes back “Dear Mr. Franken I may have been mistaken” and corrects himself...

I have had over 30 email exchanges with Franken. While Taranto was man enough to admit he may have made a mistake, not only does Franken not admit his mistakes, he gets very angry when he gets challenged.

· Franken says he’s bullshitting…sometimes you have to get angry. Why shouldn’t we be angry at this malfeasance? Why shouldn’t we be angry a guy with no experience is at head of FEMA? Same with homeland security? Wasting billions going to cronies that could be used to educate people? Used to save lives in Africa? Is that not worth being angry about?

Like Republicans got angry over travel-gate or selling technology to China? Oh, wait a minute, that was part of a right-wing conspiracy.

· Americans can love each other; Americans need to work together. But we’re not going to do it with these radical guys. We’re not going to find a way out of Iraq with an administration that won’t tell us the truth or admit mistakes. We have to get them out of there (lots of clapping).
Tell that to Cindy Sheehan!

More Crock from Brock

2005-09-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

As promised, I am reporting more earth shattering news from the nonsense world of David Brock and his little Media Matters (splatters) group.

In his September 23 "alert" (to save America from conservative lies) Brock let us know that Rush Limbaugh called Cindy Sheehan anti-American. That Bastard! How dare he call a foul mouthed anti-semite, anti American.

According to Brock, Sheehan is nothing more that someone who has participated in a few anti-war rallies.

From Brock's site and in defense of Sheehan he writes:

Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in the Iraq war, has participated in several anti-war events around the country.

That's right, and Al Franken is just some guy who likes to tell jokes and Michael Moore is just some guy who likes to play with camcorders.

Radio Franken Beggin' for Money

2005-09-23T17:00:00.000-07:00

I still remember hearing Franken telling his listeners that Air America's ratings were growing by leaps and bounds. I remember Franken denouncing author Brian Anderson for questioning his ratings.

While I am not in the radio business, I thought good ratings leads to revenue, so imagine my shock when I read that Air America is now soliciting donations from its listeners (of which they have very few.)

From Air America:

"To continue this great success story and start shaping the national debate the way that Right Wing talk radio does every day,... we've got to reach into every community in this country. We know we can't achieve this next stage of growth without significant help from you, our loyal listeners."

Imagine that. They are asking for donations to help shape a country that doesn't want to have anything to do with them.

Remember Franken gloating after Air America's initial launch when they posted some respectable numbers (before they collapsed)? Remember him saying, "Rush Limbaugh said nobody would listen to liberal talk radio and we proved him wrong?"

Well guess what Al, not only is nobody listening but nobody is contributing either.

David Brock's "Orchestration" Crock

2005-09-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

On his September 22 posting and email alert, Brock informs us of another one of O'Reilly's misinformation-isms:

O'Reilly again falsely accused former guest of claiming that Bush "orchestrat[ed] 9-11"

This goes back to the infamous O'Reilly take down of punk-boy Jeremy Glick, which I write about in greater detail in my upcoming book, Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives

Glick is someone who Franken has exploited, though he was a willing strooge, to attack and demonize O'Reilly.

On several occasions, O'Reilly had stated that Glick accused the Bushes, 1 & 2, of “orchestrating” the attacks on 9/11. Now, the truth is, Glick does not use the actual word “orchestrate” rather he blamed the formation of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda on Bush senior , a legacy, inherited by George W., according to Glick, which then led to the terror attacks. So no, Glick did not say "orchestrate" but is that really relevant to the context? Isn't Glicks inference just as condemning?

As you will read below from a portion of the O'Reilly/Glick exchange, you can clearly see Glick indicting the role and responsibility leading up to and including the attacks of 9/11 on the Bushes.

Here is what Brock posted:
GLICK: [S]ix months before the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan, starting in the Carter administration and continuing and escalating while Bush's father was head of the CIA, we recruited a hundred thousand radical mujahideen to combat a democratic government in Afghanistan, the Turaki government.
[...]
Our current president now inherited a legacy from his father and inherited a political legacy that's responsible for training militarily, economically, and situating geopolitically the parties involved in the alleged assassination and the murder of my father and countless of thousands of others.

Is there any ambiguity there?

The exchange in greater detail:

...

O'Reilly: All right. You didn't support the action against Afghanistan to remove the Taliban. You were against it, OK.

Glick: Why would I want to brutalize and further punish the people in Afghanistan?

O'Reilly: Who killed your father!

Glick: The people in Afghanistan...

O'Reilly: Who killed your father.

Glick: ... didn't kill my father.

O'Reilly: Sure they did. The al Qaeda people were trained there.

Glick: The al Qaeda people? What about the Afghan people?

O'Reilly: See, I'm more angry about it than you are!

Glick: So what about George Bush?

O'Reilly: What about George Bush? He had nothing to do with it.

Glick: The director -- senior as director of the CIA.

O'Reilly: He had nothing to do with it.

Glick: So the people that trained a hundred thousand Mujahadeen who were...

Looking at the last few exchanges you clearly see O'Reilly defending George H. and W. against (Glicks) charges that they were responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

So no Al and David, the word “orchestrate” is not part of the dialogue but the clear and unambigous implication is there.

Who is Really Screwing up America?

2005-09-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

In my upcoming book, Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives, I write, albeit briefly, about one of the problems that the left has that they don't seem to understand - you can't grow your cause, whatever it is, when you are angry and foaming at the mouth - When you are re-active rather than pro-active.

We have Rush, so they have to have a Rush (Al Franken)G-d help us.

We have the Heritage Foundation, so they create Center for American Progress.

We have the Media Research Center, so they create a pathetic group called Media Matters for America.

Bernard Goldberg writes a book: 100 People who are Screwing up America and the left goes berserk. How is it that one man, Goldberg, who though he is a best-selling author does not have the audience of an O'Reilly, Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage, and others, can be on the receiving end of such hateful vitriol from the left?

When Goldberg's book came out in early July 2005, he was a guest on Donnie Deutch's The Big Idea - a low rated program at 10:00pm on CNBC. Deutch brought on 5 guests (none of whom even read the book) to pile on Goldberg and his temerity to write a book that highlights many of the shortcomings of well known liberals who in his opinion, HIS OPINION, are contributing to the cheapening of our culture.

Oh yeah, he's really off the mark by naming Paris Hilton and her irresponsible parents. Adding Courtney Love to the list is also waaay out of line.

Katrina vanden Heuvel of the Nation, whom I also mention in my book, wrote a long and scathing article attacking Goldberg. In her closing she writes of an upcoming book titled, 100 People who are Really Screwing up America, as the liberal response to Goldberg.

Let me guess who will be on that list: Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Halliburton, O'Reilly, Gingrich, Drudge, Farah,...

My advise to the left, lighten up and enjoy life.

Bathroom Politics

2005-09-18T19:33:00.000-07:00

Last week, much was made of the "note" President Bush wrote to Condi Rice about his need to make a trip to the men's room, as they sat together at the United nations.

How rude of this man to ask his Secretary of State about rules of etiquette about bathroom breaks. Couldn't he just hold it in?

No doubt, this note kept left wing bloggers up all night trying to come up with their cute little jokes and anecdotes.

However, I doubt any of them came up with anything that compares with Al Gore's bathroom story dating back to 1996. As you may recall,back in the Clinton Gore years of uncorruptible governance, the FBI was investigating possible law breaking by Al Gore for making fundraising calls from federal buildings - a clear and well known violation.

But you see, Al Gore had an alibi - as the Clinton/Gore team were meeting to discuss the do's and don'ts of political fundraising, Gore was in the bathroom taking care of business because, as he explained, he had a habit of drinking too much iced tea.

Franken and Brock; Two Peas in a Pod

2005-09-16T11:00:00.000-07:00

With Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives, off to the presses for a fall release, and monitoring and reporting on Franken exclusively becoming too dull, future blogs will include reports and updates on Franken sycophants and regular guests, like 'Media Matters for America' David Brock.

In POF, I have a lengthy chapter exposing Brock as a whiny little man who has just way too much time on his hands. It's actually too bad that Brock isn't more of a celebrity or I might be putting the finishing touches on my second book.

Brock's mission statement is too expose "untruth's" from the right wing media. As you will read here and in future blogs, Brock adopts Franken's method of taking actual words or text from the so-called offender and distorting the context.

For example, on September 15 Brock reported that, "Limbaugh again claimed President Bush "was begging" Blanco to declare an emergency." According to Brock, Rush lied
because Blanco, Louisiana's Governor, had already declared an emergency. In other words, Bush blew it, and Rush was shilling for him.

Brock continues, " Media Matters for America has debunked similar claims by Limbaugh and other conservatives (here, here, and here)."

But according to Newsmax, it was not President Bush, but the Governor herself who blew it. Newsmax reported Governor Blanco in her own words:

"I really should have called for the military," Blanco said, while chatting with her press secretary in between TV interviews. "I really should have started that in the first call."

Most observers blamed the White House for the blunder - a misconception that was thoroughly dispelled by the governor's inadvertent confession.

Cindy Sheehan and Ward Churchill

2005-08-23T21:30:00.000-07:00

What do Cindy Sheehan and Ward Churchill have in common?

Well, they both drew alot of attention to themselves by promoting far left and anti-America comments.

Both found themselves being defended by left wing groups while being criticized by conservative groups.

But this is not about Sheehan or Churchill, per say, rather the incredible hypocrisy of the left.

During the Clinton years, every single woman who came forward to report his misbehavior became an automatic target by the Clinton machine.

Gennifer Flowers was a whore

Paula Jones was just some lowly trailor trash

Monica Lewinsky was a stalker (until the blue dress appeared)

Kathleen Willey had her tires slashed and her cat abducted

Can you imagine what the left would have done to Cindy Sheehan had she come out against Bill Clinton?

Yet when Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh and other conservatives correctly pointed to Sheehans inconsistency and anti-Israel hatred, the right is accused of "smearing" her.

In the case of Churchill and his "3000 little Eichmanns" lunacy, he is being defended by the so-called free speech left. Yet WMAL talk show host, Michael Graham, who points out the murderous activity of radical Islamists and troubling silence by so-called moderate Muslims, he gets fired.

Cindy Sheehan

2005-08-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

First it was Jeremy Glick, now we have Cindy sheehan as the latest poster child of O'Reilly's "bullying ways."

This is not to minimize her loss inasmuch as it is meant to point out how she is being used by Franken and others to demonize conservatives who have the audacity to challenge Mrs. Sheehans claims and anti-war activity.

Early on, there were claims that she said her son was killed because of Israel - America went to war in Iraq at Israel's behest. CNN's Anderson Cooper asked her about these comments which she denied ever making. Saying that she doesn't talk that way.

So what did she say about Israel? (paraphrasing) Why should Israel have nukes if other countries in the region can't?

How can the US criticize Syria for occupying lebanon, when we allow Israel to occupy Palestinian land?

So sorry that we on the right got your anti-Israel rants wrong Mrs Sheehan.

And how is it that Hillary Clinton can shriek "that we have a right to debate" when it comes to the war on terror, but conservatives don't have the right to "debate" Cindy Sheehans suspect activities?

State Dept. Files on Bin Laden

2005-08-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

In his book, Lies and the ..., Franken wrote at length, how Bill Clinton was obssessed about fighting terror and harshly criticized anybody, including Sean Hannity, who challenged that assertion. Franken even went on to cite a quote from Barton Gellman of the Washington Post which said of Clinton, that he was the:

"first administration to undertake a systematic anti-terrorist effort."

Now, we all know what an avid reader of the NY Times Franken is and we know that Franken and Brock monitor the O'Reilly Factor, so it will be intetresting to see if Franken follows up on the recent stories reported in both the Times as well as by O'Reilly, that "the State Department had warned the Clinton administration in July of 1996 that OBL's move to Afghanistan would give him an even more dangerous haven...and according to the state dept, the administration chose not to deter the move."

So, will Franken retract what he wrote about Clintons efforts against terrorism?

Will he attack O'Reilly, and call him a liar for attacking Clinton?

Will he even acknowledge the NY Times story (August 17, 2005)?

Where is Sheldon Drobny?

2005-08-17T12:30:00.000-07:00

Who is Sheldon Drobny? He together with wife Anita are the original co-founders of Air America. Since AA went bankrupt last year, new investors were brought in and now Anita Drobny sits on the advisory board of Air America.

In his book,Road to Air America, Sheldon Drobny writes that his father was a committed socialist and was the founder of the Socialist Workers Party. Drobny wrote how his father imparted his values onto him.

Drobny claims that he is a venture capitalist, philanthopist, and a socialist.

With these facts in hand, I wrote the following email to Mr. Drobny:

Mr. Drobny,

I just finished reading your book, /The Road to Air America/. I want to
thank you for making it an easy read (I finished it in one evening) and
giving your side of events.

I would like to respectfully ask you a few questions though.

1. You wrote that you were close to getting $40 million from a union
for the AA radio network.
Which union?
With the struggles that AA had (and is still not out of the woods),
wasn't it rather risky to use the retirement funds of union workers, who
like Enron workers are just middle class hard working families?

2. Living in New York, I am constantly reading about the questionable
financial arrangement that took place between Air America and the Gloria
Wise Boys and Girls Club. As a committed socialist and philanthropist,
can't you repay the funds which were earmarked to help kids and seniors?
Also, this is rather embarrassing for the network and can't do much to
help Al Franken who has a new book due out this October. Wouldn't it
make sense to just pay them back and put this episode behind you?

Respectfully,
Alan Skorski

Below was his response:

You are welcome to call Jon Sinton at Air America Radio. They are in the NYC directory. He will explain it to yoy.

Show me the Money

2005-08-11T13:28:00.000-07:00

First, kudos to the NY Post for not letting up on the Air America financial scandal involving the taking of monies earmarked for kids in order to fund a propaganda radio network.

Reports to date suggest that Air America, though it feels it has no obligation to, will repay the close to $1 million dollars it received as a loan.

According to Air America management, AA has worked out a payment plan with the Gloria Wisw institution, a claim that the Boys & Girls club denies.

But even according to AA, they've only repaid $50,000 (into an escrow account). Now sure $1 million is alot of money for most people including myself, but am I supposed to believe that a radio network which claims to be growing by leaps and bounds, expanding into new markets everyday including 15 of the top 20, leading in all radio streaming and IPOD connections, can't come up with $1 million to make this scandal go away?

Heard about Al's ratings lately?

2005-08-08T16:36:00.000-07:00

The only thing worse than a bad loser, is a bad obnoxious winner, like listening to Franken gloat about his ratings early on, how he was nipping on Rush's tails and even pulling down some respectable numbers against O'Reilly in New York. Sure Franken came on 2 hours before O'Reilly, and the 1 hour head-to-head was Franken live versus O'Reilly recorded. Franken couldn't resist tweaking everybody who said, "nobody will listen to liberal talk radio."

Lately, though, I haven't heard Franken talk about his ratings. Now why do you think that is?

Here are some possible answers:

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Austin, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, San
Antonio, and Memphis -- the numbers are in and Mr. Rush Limbaugh still
dominates liberal talkers in the ratings. According to the Arbitron Spring
2005 ratings survey, The Rush Limbaugh Show is #1 in its timeslot for Persons
12+ in Austin, New Orleans, and San Antonio. The show also gained significant
audience in Austin and Memphis. In Austin, for Persons 12+, the audience is
up 28 percent from the Winter Arbitron 2005 ratings survey and is up 20
percent from one year ago. In Memphis, the audience grew 43 percent from the
Winter Arbitron 2005 ratings survey, and 10 percent from one year ago, for
Persons 12+.
Heard Monday through Friday on KLBJ-AM from 11 a.m. -- 2 p.m. in Austin,
The Rush Limbaugh Show scored, among Persons 12+, a 7.5 share with an average
quarter-hour audience of 16,400 listeners. Among Adults 25-54, he has a 5.5
share with an average quarter-hour audience of 7,700 listeners. Mr. Franken,
who airs at the same time on KOKE-AM, has a Persons 12+ share of 2.4 with an
average quarter-hour audience of 5,200 listeners. With Adults 25-54, he has a
3.1 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 4,300 listeners. Mr. Ed
Schultz does not have an affiliate in this market.
In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, below are numbers for Mr.
Jerry Springer who broadcasts in a different timeslot:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Persons 12+) Hour AM/FM
(Persons 12+) programming-
persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 7.5 16,400 1
Al Franken 2.4 5,200 16
Jerry Springer 0.7 1,600 2.6

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Adults 25-54) Hour AM/FM
(Adults 25-54) programming-
adults 25-54)
Rush Limbaugh 5.5 7,700 5
Al Franken 3.1 4,300 12
Jerry Springer 0.8 1,100 25

The Rush Limbaugh Show, heard Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
on WJBO-AM in Baton Rouge, scored a 7.5 share among Persons 12+, with an
average quarter-hour audience of 7,200 listeners. Among Adults 25-54, he
holds a 3.9 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 2,100 listeners.
Mr. Franken, who airs at the same time on WYNK-AM, has a Persons 12+ share of
1.3 with an average quarter-hour audience of 1,200 listeners. With Adults
25-54, he has a 1.3 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 700
listeners. Mr. Springer does not broadcast in Baton Rouge.
In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, below are numbers for Mr. Ed
Schultz who broadcasts in a different timeslot:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Persons 12+) Hour AM/FM
(Persons 12+) programming-
persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 7.5 7,200 3
Al Franken 1.3 1,200 21
Ed Schultz 0.9 800 25

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Adults 25-54) Hour AM/FM
(Adults 25-54) programming-
adults 25-54)
Rush Limbaugh 3.9 2,100 8
Al Franken 1.3 700 22
Ed Schultz 1.0 500 25

In New Orleans, The Rush Limbaugh Show, heard Monday through Friday from
11 a.m. - 2 p.m. on WWL-AM scored, for Persons 12+, a 11.2 share with an
average quarter-hour audience of 25,100 listeners. Among Adults 25-54, he has
an 8.7 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 11,500 listeners. Mr.
Franken, who airs at the same time on WSMB-AM, has a Persons 12+ share of 1.6
with an average quarter-hour audience of 3,600 listeners. With Adults 25-54,
he has a 1.1 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 1,500 listeners.
In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, below are numbers for other
liberal talkers who broadcast in a different timeslot:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Persons 12+) Hour AM/FM
(Persons 12+) programming-
persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 11.2 25,100 1
Al Franken 1.6 3,600 17
Ed Schultz 1.5 3,500 20
Jerry Springer 1.5 3,300 17

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Adults 25-54) Hour AM/FM
(Adults 25-54) programming-
adults 25-54)
Rush Limbaugh 8.7 11,500 3
Al Franken 1.1 1,500 20
Ed Schultz 1.3 1,700 22
Jerry Springer 1.2 1,600 18

The Rush Limbaugh Show, heard Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m.
on WOAI-AM in San Antonio, scored a 10.6 share among Persons 12+, with an
average quarter-hour audience of 33,200 listeners. Among Adults 25-54, he
holds a 7.7 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 13,700 listeners.
Mr. Franken does not have an affiliate in this market. For Adults 25-54, Mr.
Springer does not meet minimum reporting standards set by Arbitron.
In addition to Mr. Limbaugh, below are numbers for other liberal talkers
who air in a different timeslot and station:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Persons 12+) Hour AM/FM
(Persons 12+) programming-
persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 10.6 33,200 1
Ed Schultz 0.1 400 48
Jerry Springer 0.1 200 51

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Adults 25-54) Hour AM/FM
(Adults 25-54) programming-
adults 25-54)
Rush Limbaugh 7.7 13,700 2
Ed Schultz 0.1 200 46
Jerry Springer 0.0 0 n/a

Heard Monday through Friday on WREC-AM from 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. in Memphis,
The Rush Limbaugh Show scored, among Persons 12+, a 7.9 share with an average
quarter-hour audience of 18,400 listeners. Among Adults 25-54, he has a 5.3
share with an average quarter-hour audience of 7,200 listeners. Mr. Franken,
who airs at the same time on WWTQ-AM, has a Persons 12+ share of 1.2 with an
average quarter-hour audience of 2,700 listeners. With Adults 25-54, he has a
0.7 share with an average quarter-hour audience of 900 listeners. Mr. Ed
Schultz does not have an affiliate in this market.
In addition to Mr. Limbaugh and Mr. Franken, below are numbers for Mr.
Jerry Springer who broadcasts in a different timeslot:

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Persons 12+) Hour AM/FM
(Persons 12+) programming-
persons 12+)
Rush Limbaugh 7.9 18,400 2
Al Franken 1.2 2,700 21
Jerry Springer 0.6 1,400 29

Host Share Avg. Quarter Rank (all
(Adults 25-54) Hour AM/FM
(Adults 25-54) programming-
adults 25-54)
Rush Limbaugh 5.3 7,200 6
Al Franken 0.7 900 26
Jerry Springer 0.4 600 31

SOURCE Premiere Radio Networks
Web Site: http://www.premiereradio.com

Al Franken and Air America; defenders of the "little guy"

2005-07-30T22:23:00.000-07:00

Now I don't know if it's just a coincidence that Al Franken took this past week off, because Rush took the week off(As I've stated before, without Rush, Franken is left having to come up with his own material) but he may want to consider taking the next week, or two, off as well.

With new revelations that Air America was the (illegal) beneficiary of close to a half million dollars of tax payer dollars earmarked for the children and the elderly, how will these champions of "the little guys" explain themselves?

How will these great humanitarians explain to their progressive and populist audience that a radio network with multi million dollar investors, and great ratings, is actually taking money from the poor and defenseless?

How will Franken and the rest of the AA gang, who repeatedly berate Republicans as captives of crony capitalism, justify taking tax payer funded money for liberal social programs, for partisan political attacks?

Stay tuned

The Author that Scares Al Franken

2005-07-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

There are all kinds of behavioral patterns to spot a bully.
For example:
Bullies pick on people who are smaller than they are.
Bullies only attack when they think they will win.

And I'm sure you have your own observations as well.

So here's one on Al Franken.

On June 24, Franken tag teamed with Salon's Joe Conason to pummel Ed Klein, author of The Truth About Hillary.

I personally did not read the book, nor do I feel I need to.

Many critics on the right joined in the chorus of attacks on Klein. Some, maybe based on substance, yet others I fear, out of political calculation.

With Joe Conason on his side, and just enough inconsistencies in his book, Bully boy Franken felt comfortable enough that in the half hour or so of his show, he could body slam Klein and discredit him.

I saw the interview. It was not pretty.

A clear victory for Franken and Conason, and you could hear them gloating and popping the champagne corks following the interview.

As I wrote earlier, bullies only go after people they think they can beat.

So this brings me to the point of this blog;

When will big gutsy man, Al Franken, interview Candice Jackson, author of Their Lives: The Women Targeted by the Clinton Machine? Or is he afraid that this book, unlike Klein, isn't as easily refutable? Or maybe, Franken doesn't believe that presidents and their wives harassing vulnerable women is a big deal.

Majority Report joins in the slime

2005-07-08T10:40:00.000-07:00

Many of you may not be aware of this, but Air America does have more talk show hosts than just Al Franken. And believe it or not, Franken isn't even the most vile of the group (details in my upcoming book, Pants on Fire: How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives)

Last night, as I was dial surfing, I picked up Air America's "The Majority Report" with Janeane Garofalo and Sam Seder. Now I am accustomed to the vularity that comes out of the mouth's of these two, but my friend in the car was not.

Here is what Seder had to say about Brit Hume.

Seder: He's a scumbag, and some say he's the reason his son committed suicide.

In all my years of listening to talk radio I don't think I've ever heard something as mean or vicious as that.

Right wing Propaganda Tour

2005-07-07T16:15:00.000-07:00

For anybody who listens to Al Franken, we're all familiar with his USO Tours and his "love for our troops."

You also know how angry he gets anytime someone from the right, John Podhoretz and Rush Limbaugh just to name a few, suggest that liberals take a certain glee when "bad news" from Iraq is reported.

So you can imagine my surprise when Al Franken assailed conservative talk show hostess, Melanie Morgan(on his July 6 program), who is leading a group of other radio talkers to Iraq to report the truth about the good news that is taking place but only receiving scant coverage (at best) in this country.

Franken referred to her trip as the "propaganda tour."

Way to stand up for our guys in the military, Al!!!

Now Franken is lying about Howard Kurtz

2005-06-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

This is really an incredible story.

Back on June 8 and again on the 21, Franken attacked as "scandalous," Bill O'Reilly as having taken an interview of Joe Biden by "stephy" Stepahnopoulos on the issue of prison abuse at Gitmo and whether the prison should be shut down, and edited out key words from the interview. Among the points that O'Reilly "edited" out was Biden's calling for a commission to investigate the accusations. But O'Reilly himself has called for a commission and it looks like, according to Franken, that O'Reilly claimed Biden's idea as his own.

Further, Franken claimed that when he tried to peddle this story to Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post and CNN's 'Reliable Sources,' Kurtz replied, "well, they do that all the time."

Here is the truth:

1.While O'Reilly did edit some of Biden's interview, the context was in no way altered - Biden did support the closing down of Gitmo.

2.Yes, Biden called for a commission - but he wanted a commission that would report back that the allegations of abuse were true and that Gitmo should be closed down. O'Reilly, on the other hand, called on the president to appoint a commission in the belief that they would exxonerate the troops and put all the rumors to rest.

3. In an email exchange with Howard Kurtz, he denied saying anything resembling what Franken attributed to him. What Kurtz claimed he said was, "these charges are made against Fox (and others) all the time.

Letter to Penguin Publishing

2005-06-21T11:15:00.000-07:00

June 21, 2005

Susan Peterson Kennedy
President
Penguin Group
375 Hudson Street
New York, New York 10014

Dear Ms. Peterson Kennedy,

I am writing in response to a recent letter David Brock of Media Matters wrote you complaining about the “editorial standards” and “fact - checking” of one of your imprints, Sentinel, for the publishing of Ed Klein’s new book on Hillary Clinton.

Brock, in his letter to you, which he publicized on his website, accuses Penguin of “gross negligence at best.”

For the record, I have not read Klein’s book, but I have read Al Franken’s book, Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them, published by another one of Penguins imprints, Dutton.

And while Brock and Franken claim that “painstaking research” and “detailed documentation” went into Franken’s book, I have documented numerous lies and distortions, equally as reprehensible as alleged by Brock on Klein’s book, which will be made public in my upcoming book, Pants on Fire- How Al Franken Lies, Smears, and Deceives (WND).

Unfortunately, Brock has a history of trying to silence those he does not agree with. Some may call this sad attempt, censorship.

Here are just a few examples:

September 30, 2004 Brock sent a letter to MSNBC demanding that they cancel Frank Luntz’s (who is a Republican) focus group following the Presidential debates.

October 26, 2004 Brock demanded that NBC not feature Rush Limbaugh on election night.

August 20, 2004 Brock sent a letter to bookstores demanding that they remove, Unfit for Command, from their shelves.

Lest you think that I am just a “right winger” out to discredit David Brock, I’d like to refer you to a column written by Timothy Noah of ‘Slate’, a liberal on-line magazine, under a column called Chatterbox.
The article is titled, ‘David Brock, Liar: A lifelong habit proves hard to break.’ Dated March 27, 2002.

Here are some excerpts from the column where Noah is reviewing Brocks book, ‘Blinded by the Right’:

“Whiny, histrionic, and so factually unreliable that Chatterbox practically gave himself a migraine trying to figure out which parts of Brock’s lurid story were true, and which parts were false.”….But Blinded by the Right offers plenty of evidence that for Brock, lying has been a lifelong habit.” “…How can we trust a writer who won’t even summarize his own book truthfully?” (You can read the entire column at: http://www.slate.com/id/2063759/)

I thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Alan Skorski

Franken don't know Ruth

2005-06-09T11:35:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a little over a week now as I put the finishing touches on my upcoming expose on Al Franken, Pants on Fire.

This is going back to June 1, with another episode of "Rush Limbaugh lies."

But I caught him.

Here's the context of the story:

Rush brought up that Ruth Bader Ginsburg, RBG, who is much more extreme than any of Bush's nominees, was treated much better than Brown, Owens, Pryor, et al. He then goes onto cite an example of her extremism .

But Franken says it's a lie - she never said it.

So here is the segment and exchange with "resident ditto-head" (who visits with Al 1-3 times a week)Mark Luther.

On June 1, 2005, during the now often predictable “resident ditto-head” segment, Franken played the following audio clip of Rush:

“You know, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is more extreme than any of these nominees that Bush has brought up. I went through this list of things she actually believes in, that came out in her testimony, such as getting rid of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and replacing it with Parent’s Day…”

Franken to Luther: “…she never actually said anything about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day for Parents Day…ANYWHERE.”

Luther (developing a backbone): So you think he is just fabricating this completely?

Franken: I think it’s an urban myth from conservatives. We got this from Thomas E. Mann, a Brookings Institute Senior Fellow on Government Studies. He told us... I now have it on the highest and closest authority that Ruth Bader Ginsburg has NEVER , in any setting, proposed doing anything with Mother’s Day…

So I did a google search to see for myself, rather than rely on “Franken’s painstaking research”, and put in the words, “urban conservative myth” and “Ruth Bader Ginsburg” and “Franken smears Limbaugh.” Wouldn’t you know it, I got thousands of hits. So I tried to narrow my requests to, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg” and “Franken’s crappy research.”
Again, way too many hits. So I gave it one last try and just inserted, “Ruth Bader Ginsburg” and something about dropping Mother’s Day and Father’s Day for Parents Day.

Well There it was.
- The quote from Ruth Bader Ginsburg (that Franken said didn’t exist)
- The setting from whence the good judge proposed dropping the aforementioned celebration for the singular Parents’ Day (that Franken said didn’t exist)
- The smear made against Rush exposed (that Franken says doesn’t exist)

The so-called “urban conservative myth” came from a column on NRO, Bench Warmers, Putting Judicial Nominees in Perspective, Part III, written by Edward Whelan, (5/20/2005).
In the article, Whelan cites the “Report of Columbia Law School Equal Rights Advocacy Project: The Legal Status of Women under Federal Law” co-authored by Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Brenda Feigen Fasteau in September 1974, as the non-existent source of Ginsburg’s “mainstream” philosophy.

Franken testifies

2005-05-26T17:13:00.000-07:00

This past Tuesday, May 24, a slew of Left wing activists "testified" before an even further Left winger, Congressman John Conyers (D-MI), committee on, get this, "Media Bias."

The hearing was broadcast live, compliments of Air America, and occasionally interrupted for commercial breaks.

A few comments:

1. Franken's contribution was citing the PIPA study which the Left has repeatedly cited to prove that Fox News was guilty of misleading it's viewers regarding the Saddam/Bin Laden connection, Iraq and WMD's,...The problem here is that PIPA issued a clarification approx. 2 weeks after their initial report, so that Left wing "spin meisters" could not continue misreporting the study. Here is a brief citation from their report:

the fact that we reported that respondents who say they primarily get their news from Fox News had the highest frequency of misperceptions has generated a good deal of attention. Some have suggested that we have effectively claimed that we have demonstrated that Fox News, prompted by ideological bias, is misleading its viewers. We want to clarify emphatically that we are not making this assertion.

2. Franken colleague and anti-Bush flame thrower,Randi Rhodes, told the committee that she had "evidence" that Fox News' ratings were going down, therefore, their only purpose for continuing to stay on the air is as a propaganda tool. Yes she really said that.

3. Center for American Progress fellow and author, Eric Alterman, suggested that because "Crossfire" had to rely on political operatives, Begala and Carville, instead of journalists, to carry the Liberal banner, it proves that there is no epidemic of Left wing journalists. I guess Joe Conason, Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Maureen Dowd,Jonathan Alter, Eleanor Clift, to name a few, don't qualify as Left wing journalists.

Hey folks, I can't make this stuff up.

A not so Happy Birthday for Al Franken

2005-05-22T18:01:00.000-07:00

Believe it or not, I really am ashamed of myself for what I’m about to reveal to you. Everything I have written about Al, thus far (for my book), has been an honest and thoroughly researched expose on Franken, who has spent the better part of the last few years challenging ANYBODY to refute his charges against the Right. I think I’ve met and even exceeded the challenge. But what I’m about to write, though it is 100% truthful, is still mean, and out of character for me.

Every year Rush holds a Leukemia cure-a-thon on his radio program, raising over a million dollars, to help find a cure for the deadly cancer. These contributions are from his listeners, primarily conservatives. Or as Franken likes to call them, cold hearted, zombie-like, morons.

So on May 20, 2005, Franken had a chance to show what compassionate progressives are made of, and just how generous they can be. Certainly a lot more generous than selfish, greedy conservatives.

At the beginning of the program, he told his listeners that his birthday was tomorrow (May 21) and that in lieu of any gifts, he would like his supporters to make a contribution to the “Wellstone memorial” which was being built in Minnesota, near the crash site that took the lives of Paul, his wife Sheila, the campaign staff, and pilots. A worthwhile, tax-deductable (no less) charity, indeed.

Before I tell you how much money was actually raised, let’s take a few moments to reflect on Franken’s ratings, his popularity, and the generosity of progressives, and how much one might expect a “powerhouse” like Franken to be able to raise.

1. Franken is on 53 affiliates
2. Franken beats Rush Limbaugh in the Portland Oregon market
3. Al Franken is beloved by Democrats, liberals, Leftists, and Progressives nationwide.
4. Progressives are far more generous and compassionate than conservatives.
5. Paul Wellstone was a hero to the common working man – a progressive’s progressive, if you will.

Drum role please….

With the Friday show, May 20, coming to a close, Franken’s co-host, the adorable Katherine Lanpher announced that 181 people (including Katherine herself) contributed a grand total of $8,200.

Well Al, there’s always next year.

Oh, and just one more sidebar; you’re going to need to raise a lot more than that to run for a senate seat.

Franken Playin' with Racism

2005-05-16T16:18:00.000-07:00

In today's patheic display of humor, or satire,or whatevr he calls it when he does something offensive and wants to be able to get away with it, he suggested that Black people are horses.

In their daily Oy, Oy, Oy show segment(the funny part of the show) Franken's partner, Katherine Lanpher, reads a headline and Franken responds like any old kvetchy Jew would with, "Oy."

So today she began with news from Bob Woodward that there could be a dark horse in the race for president in 2008.

Franken's guess; JC Watts

Then Katherine said no, so Franken wanted another guess.

As he was thinking out loud, remembering that Woodward said that the dark horse would be a "he", Franken said, "so it can't be Condaleeza Rice."

Franken remembers Abu Ghraib

2005-05-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

I think anniversaries are important. And no doubt Franken does to. That's why last week he spent 2 days remembering the "horrors" of Abu Ghraib. In his blog, Franken tells Rush Limbaugh, as if Rush gives a damn what Franken says on ANY issue, that his remembrance, is NOT a celebration. In other words, Franken is once again, being defensive about accusations that the Left celebrates America's bad news.

So imagine my disappointment, when going back to the Franken archives I could find no anniversary or remembrance by Franken on the day that Saddam was captured by US troops. Or the anniversary of the fall of Saddam's statue. Or this weekend as leaders from around the world celebrated the anniversary of the end of WWII and the Holocaust memorial.

You'd think for guy who has a segment titled the "oy, oy, oy show," a light hearted segment using jewish sounding voices, that he would have taken a brief moment on his 3 hr show to remember the 6,000,000 killed by the Nazis. Especially since Franken criticized Mel Gibson's father for questioning aspects of the Holocaust.

Al Franken - The Ultimate Spin Machine

2005-05-02T19:10:00.000-07:00

Last week, I posted an interview that Franken had with South Park Conservative's author, Brian Anderson.

The post, which you can read below (as well as others which are related), shows how Air America's numbers are falling in many markets, and the best defense Franken could come up with for his NYC market was that he beats O'Reilly for the 1 hour, 2-3pm, that they are up against each other. And even that claim hasn't been corroborated.

But look at how Franken describes the interview for workingforchange.com

WorkingForChange.com
05.02.05

Franken: We had a guy on today, Brian Anderson, who's written a book called South Park Conservatives, and it's a conservative book on liberal bias and all this stuff and he attacks Air America in it. We had him on the show today. And he ultimately had to admit that our show was not what he was saying we were, or not what he was saying Air America was, anyway, and that I don't do what Rush does.http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=18982

Left Wing Extremist Deceptions

2005-04-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

Wow! That's a loaded title.

Allow me to explain.

As an activist and soon to be author, I am on a number of conservative and Left wing email lists in order to keep up with the latest news and opinions.

One of these bloggers, is a member of the Center for American Progress, CAP, a Left Wing think(less) tank, David Sirota.

Sirota is an occasional guest on Franken's radio show when CAP regular, Christy Harvey, is unavailable. In other words, he's bench warmer, and his blogs and opinions reflect that.

Here's an email 'alert' I received this afternoon:

Alleged Visa Violator Bashes Immigrants

In the last two weeks, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has unleashed a series of vicious attacks on immigrants, demanding the border with Mexico be closed, and trumpeting the so-called Minutemen, a group so radical even President Bush has denounced them. Republican immigrant bashing isn't interesting unto itself - sadly, it's standard operating for conservatives. As one California state legislator noted, "Scapegoating and immigrant-bashing is the last refuge of a wounded politician" like Schwarzenegger, who is plummeting in the polls.

Let's go through his points:

1. Unleashed vicious attacks on immigrants: Sirota provides no examples of any of these attacks, not to mention that these people are not "immigrants", but foreigners who are attempting to infiltrate our country illegally. Even Hillary Clinton has called for tougher border controls.

2.....so-called Minuteman, a group so radical...: So radical? says who? These are law abiding citizens acting as patrol and lookouts for the authorities. Notice how Sirota provides no examples of their "radicalism"?

3. ...Immigrant bashing is the latest refuge of a wounded politician: The fact is, an overwhelming majority of Americans support border control and more vigilance against illegal's coming to our country.

Franken interviews author of South Park Conservatives

2005-04-28T14:15:00.000-07:00

I have to tip my hat to Franken. Today he interviewed South Park Conservatives author and member of the Manhattan Institute, Brian Anderson.

Anderson, you'll recall, wrote an op-ed which recently appeared in the LA Times, which among other things, exposed Air America's lackluster ratings.

A few observations of the interview.

Anderson correctly pointed out Franken's sagging ratings right here in New York City, the bluest of blue cities nationwide, while conservative Rush Limbaugh's numbers remained steadily high.

Franken then said, as he always does, that he was beating O'Reilly in NYC (I guess beating O'Reilly is now the standard by which Franken can guage his success), and since Rush's numbers remain high in NYC, that's proof that there are conservative listners here. Extrapolating from that - conservatives can't say, well this is a liberal region, hence, Franken's higher numbers are a sign that he is more popular than O'Reilly.

WRONG!

There are limited conservative listeners in NYC, most of whom listen to Rush, who BTW, his show begins 2 hours earlier than O'Reilly's.That said, there are more people listening to conservative talk radio (Limbaugh, O'Reilly) from 12:00 pm - 3:00pm than those listening to progressive radio - in one of the most liberal cities in the country.

Secondly. Anderson cited the negativity emanating from Air America as the reason for it's poor ratings. He cited night time talk show host, Mike Molloy, comparing Dr. James Dobson's group, Focus on the Family, to neo-Nazi's. Whike Franken did not condone such vitriol, he went on to say thet Rush calls feminists, femi-nazi's. As I write in my upcoming book, Pants on Fire, Franken misled his readers in his earlier book on Rush, by writing that Rush denigrates feminists by calling them feminazis - feminists who believe that heterosexual sex as rape.

What makes this so appaling is that Franken claimed to have thoroughly researched Rush's program and his book, The Way Things Ought to Be ,before writing, Rush Limbaugh is a.... Rush defined feminazi in his book as being a very small radical group of feminists, for whom the most important thing is abortion, and that there are perhaps 25 known feminazis in America.

Franken: My numbers are up, Rush's are down

2005-04-27T16:44:00.000-07:00

As they say, Denial isn't just a river in Egypt. On todays program, during the "resident dittohead" segment, Franken played a clip of Rush and a caller, where the caller invoked Franken's name. For the first time I've ever heard, Rush actually responded and acknowledged Franken, by reminding his caller that Franken (Rush did not actually say "Franken", but alluded to him) is a failed comedian and failed talk show host.

After citing his comedic successes, Franken said that his ratings were up, while Rush's were down.

Here are the facts (part of the article) as reported by NRO's Byron York:

April 26, 2005, 4:33 p.m.
Air America’s Year of Decline

Between the hours of 10 A.M. and 3 P.M., for example, the daypart that includes Al Franken's program, Air America drew a 1.4-percent share of the New York audience aged 25 to 54 in Winter 2005. That number is the latest in a nearly year-long decline. In Spring of 2004, Air America's first quarter on the air, it drew a 2.2-percent share of the audience. That rose to 2.3 percent in the Summer of 2004, then fell to 1.6 percent in the Fall of 2004, and is now 1.4 percent — Air America's lowest-ever quarterly rating in that time and demographic slot.
The numbers are just as striking when narrowed to the specific period from noon to 3 P.M., when Franken's program airs on WLIB opposite Rush Limbaugh on WABC. Even though Franken once claimed to be beating the conservative host in New York, in the Winter 2005 figures, his program attracted a 1.9-percent share of the audience to Limbaugh's 3.2 percent in the 25 to 54 age group.
Franken's performance against Limbaugh in the most recent ratings is significantly lower than in Air America's first months. In Spring 2004, Air America's first quarter on the air, Franken scored a 2.6-percent share to Limbaugh's 3.2-percent share. In Summer 2004, he scored a 2.8-percent share to Limbaugh's 3.2 percent. But in Fall 2004, Franken dropped to a 1.8 percent share to Limbaugh's 4.1-percent share, all within the 25 to 54 age group.
That last number surprised some observers because it showed Air America faltering in October and November 2004, the period when the presidential election was reaching its finish and political passions were presumably at their highest. But even then, Air America's decline continued. http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200504261633.asp

Franken responds to criticism over AA''s hype

2005-04-26T10:56:00.000-07:00

Franken and supporters of Air America, responding to critics correctly pointing out that Bill Bennett, whose talk show began around the same time as Franken's, back in 2004, has more than double the affiliates.

Franken says, "they already had an infrustucture in place to expand his show."

Okay, Al. What about Rush Limbaugh, whose show began in the late 80's, had no infrastructure in place, and had more than 100 affilaites in just 3 month's?

What about the fact that you had more media attention and hype, than most hosts could ever dream of?

What about the fact that Bennett is just 1 of many conservative hosts already on the air, and you were the new kid on the block waiting to fill an untapped niche? That alone should have been reason for networks to run to grab you.

Franken don't like criticism

2005-04-20T10:05:00.000-07:00

Brian Anderson, author of 'South Park Conservatives' was interviewed by O'Reilly this past Monday to talk about his op-ed, which was featured in the LA Times, questioning all the hype and so-called success of Air America.

The criticism was mild.example: according to Anderson, and I'm paraphrasing, AA is not setting any records in San Francisco, to which Franken replied, "we are doing very well there". Good come back, Al.

When Anderson pointed out that AA is # 24 in New York, Franken replied that he was beating O'Reilly from 2-3pm.

If Franken and AA can't even break into single digits in the bluest of blue states, does it really matter if he is beating O'Reilly or not for 1hr?

Even in Byron Yorks new book, 'Vast Left Wing Conspiracy', you can see how frazzled Franken gets anytime he or his arguements are questioned.

What will he do when 'Pants on Fire' is published and really comes down on him?

Franken's anti-Semitic guests?

2005-04-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Last Month,while a guest on "Scarborough Country", Franken blasted Hannity and Scarborough for promtoting a guest, Dr. Hammesfahr, a neurologist of 23 years, who examined Terri Schiavo, as a "Nobel prize nominee", when in fact his nomination did not follow the proper protocol or process. Franken berated Scarborough for not properly researching Hammesfahers background, and furthermore telling his audience that he was a noble prize nominee.

But Franken the hypocrite got busted yesterday. Well sort of, by me. He had a guest Rashid Khalidi, who is the director of the Columbia University Middle East Institute.
According to "Campus Watch" this Khalidi fellow and his institute, have just sent out invitations for an event to honor Amiri Baraka.

Who is Amiri Baraka? He is the former disgraced NJ Poet Laureate who wote the poem, Somebody Blew up America, which accused Israel of having advance knowledge of the 9-11 attacks.

Did Franken do his "background research" on his guest? Or does Franken embrace the ideals of his his guest, Rashid Khalidi.

Franken Can't Take The Heat

2005-04-13T14:25:00.000-07:00

One thing about Al Franken - he can't stand being called a liar, smear merchant, or having his well - thought - out opinions ignored.

In Byron York's new book, "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" York writes of his frustration in getting Franken for an interview for his book. Franken was hesitant to speak with him because he had written an earlier column, criticizing Franken's book, as well as gloss over what Franken thought was irrefutable evidence that President Bush had used Cocaine in his younger years. In his book, York really exposes Franken's short fuse and ill temper for anyone who doesn't see things the way he does.

On today's radio program, Franken talked about Mary Matalin's recent interview in which she was asked if she has ever read Franken's book. According to Franken, Matalin responded that she would not read a book that was chock full of lies (I'm paraphrasing). Franken then spent the next few minutes attacking Matalin. First for calling his book "full of lies",(which my book will certainly prove) then questioning how she could say that if she hadn't read the book. Franken was ticked.

He paused, and waited, then a chorus from his live audience in North Carolina, screamed out...LIAR!

Franken calls Israeli Prime Minister a "bastid"

2005-04-12T15:52:00.000-07:00

While I have completed writing and researching for my book, Pants on Fire,I still have to monitor Franken's show because I never know when he or one of his regulars will say something stupid or moronic that deserves it's place in the book.

So today, during the oy, oy, oy segment - a g-d awful segment that Franken passes off as comedy, and is elaborated in my book, Franken referred to Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, who is visiting and consulting with the President at his Crawford ranch, as a "bastid" that's Franken's hardy har har funny Jewish accent for bastard. But Franken quickly qualified it with, "I'm a supporter of Israel."

Does this type of disclaimer sound familiar?

"The war in Iraq is immoral,...but I support the troops"

"Terri Schiova is a tragic story,...but Tom Delay is a hypocrite"

"The Israeli Prime Minister is a bastard,...but I support Israel."

Franken critiques 'Taking Heat'

2005-04-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Not much to report today on Franken's show. Though, in his second hour, he did introduce a new segment, "the Franken Book Club." (I can't wait for him to review my book on him)His first book review is of former Bush Press Secretary, Ari Fleisher.

What could only be explained as tortured analysis, Franken actually accuses Ari of painting a great picture of his former boss. Franken said,according to Fleisher, "If you just came here from another planet, you'd think Bush was just a great man"

Is Franken serious? Is this an honest critique? Is he really "shocked" at Ari's portrait of his former boss?

Well, what do you expect from a man who thinks that "Bill Clinton only lied about sex?"

In my own book review, Byron York's new book, 'The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy', York writes accurately,how Franken is someone who can dish it out but can't take it.

HBO's Left of The Dial

2005-04-04T15:07:00.000-07:00

I watched, for the second time, HBO's Left of The Dial. This documentary, unlike Micahel Moore's, was in context, and didn't involve cutting and splicing clips to portray AUA in a positive light.

One of the things I noticed which really stood out, are the "personalities" of some of these AUA personalities. And while I want to try to keep this blog about Franken, as my upcoming book, titled - "Pants on Fire", is about him, the one thing I couldn't help but notice is that when liberals, and particularly the Left, get stressed or visibly upset, the frequency with which they swear, especially using the "F" word.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not a prude, nor do I have virgin ears, but there is just something about "F this", "F that" or "just f" for the sake of it.

These are supposed to be the "intellectuals" who are so more superior to us conservative neandrethals.

HBO's Left of the Dial

2005-04-01T12:34:00.000-08:00

Last night, HBO played a documentary "Left of the Dial" - a basic riches to rags to riches story on Air Un-America, AUA. Don't be fooled, AUA, will always be "rags" even with cash infusion from millionaire left wing activists.

An early clip features Franken's first day on the air with, "Today is both an ending and a beginning: an end to the right-wing dominance of talk radio, and a beginning of a battle for truth, a battle for justice, a battle indeed for America itself..."

Well, my friends, as AUA has just celebrated it's 1 year anniversary, let's see just how prophetic Franken was.

1. "An end to right wing dominance"-Rush Limbaugh has 600 affiliates (100 in his first 3 month's), Sean Hannity has about 400, and Laura Ingraham has over 200. Al Franken has 51. Mind you. Not all afilaites that carry Al Franken, carry the rest of the AUA lineup.

2. "Beginning...for truth"- In my upcoming book, Pants on Fire, due out in the fall of 2005, you'll read just how "truthful" Franken has been.

3. "...Battle for America" - On his first day, Franken declared, "Bush is going down". November 2004 elections, President Bush was re-elected and Republicans picked up seats in both Houses of Congress. (In my book, I cite more examples of Franken's "influence")

I will have more posts after the weekend on the HBO doc.