Meet “No Accountability Al” Franken
Longtime readers will remember the extensive joint investigations into failed liberal radio network Air America and Al Franken that I published here and at Radio Equalizer with Brian Maloney.
Fortunately, Norm Coleman’s Senate campaign in Minnesota remembered, too.
Franken’s Air America debacle is the subject of a new campaign ad. Schadenfreude-licious:
***
Press release:
COLEMAN CAMPAIGN RELEASES WEB VIDEO “NO ACCOUNTABILITY AL”
While Air America Withheld Stolen Money From Boys And Girls Club, Al Franken Demanded His Million Dollar Salary
ST. PAUL – The Coleman for Senate campaign released a web video to highlight Al Franken’s lack of responsibility and accountability in the Air America-Boys and Girls Club scandal where Al Franken’s radio station refused to repay $900,000 that they borrowed from a Bronx Boys and Girls Club. Franken, despite signing a document acknowledging the loan, refused to act or demand an investigation, opting to instead ask for a raise.
“We’ve heard a lot about accountability this campaign season from Al Franken, but he refuses to be held accountable, or even accept responsibility, for his own actions,” said Cullen Sheehan, campaign manager. “While poor kids and seniors and others suffered from the loss of money taken from the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, key executives with Air America and Gloria Wise were living it up. And, when Al Franken found out about it - he did absolutely nothing. So far we’ve seen him refuse to be held accountable for not paying his workers comp premiums, providing his employees with disability benefits and paying his income taxes - instead blaming the government and his accountant for his law breaking. It’s now time that Al Franken be held accountable for looking out for his own financial interests rather than demanding his company pay back the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club for money they stole from them.”
“No Accountability Al” Script:
“Almost 900,000 tax dollars taken from a Boys and Girls Club by a corporation. Falsified documents. Widespread fraud. Air America, the home of radio shock jock Al Franken took the money and ripped off thousands of kids. Blamed a crook. Said he didn’t know about it. When he finally admitted he knew, Al Franken still did nothing about it. Except Franken made sure he got paid – millions – but did nothing to make sure that the Boys and Girls Club got their stolen money back. Al Franken. Talks accountability, just doesn’t want to be accountable.”
“No Accountability Al” Backup:
“Almost 900,000 tax dollars taken from a Boys and Girls Club by a corporation.” “The former chairman of Air America Radio, Evan Montvel Cohen - who former colleagues said engineered transfers of more than $800,000 to the liberal radio network from a boys and girls club in the Bronx - is missing, according to a lawyer who is trying to have him served with legal papers. At least two people have said Mr. Cohen is in Hawaii. He has not responded to a series of e-mail messages in recent weeks from The New York Sun asking him about his role. Mr. Cohen, 39, helped lead the launch of Air America in March 2004. Less than two months later, Piquant LLC acquired the radio network from Mr. Cohen’s Progress Media. Piquant LLC has agreed to pay $875,000 to Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, without interest, in installments over the next two years.” (DAVID LOMBINO, “Network’s Former Chairman Is Missing” New York Sun, August 26, 2005)
“Falsified documents.” “Did Al Franken’s liberal radio network Air America divert city money for the elderly and inner-city children to itself? That’s the question people should be asking this week after the revelation that the New York Department of Investigation is looking into whether hundreds of thousands of dollars were illegally transferred from a Bronx community center to Air America. Only a community paper and a few Internet bloggers seem interested in what could be an egregious case of illegal funneling of tax dollars to a private, partisan organization. In late June, city officials designated the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, a nonprofit organization that runs mentoring programs for children and day care for Alzheimer’s patients, a ‘non-responsible city contractor.’ Investigators found ‘significant inappropriate transactions and falsified documents that were submitted to various City agencies.’ The city subsequently suspended the club’s contracts, which run well into the millions.” (Editorial, “Robin Hood and Air America,” Washington Times, July 29, 2005)
“Widespread fraud.” “Top employees of a city-financed Bronx charity diverted hundreds of thousands of dollars for personal expenses like home renovations, furniture and the purchase of a Volvo and a BMW, a city investigation has found. The widespread fraud in recent years at the charity, the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club, which received $9 million a year in city financing to help children and the elderly, also included off-the-books bank accounts — created under the guise of supporting youth athletic programs — that were used to pay bonuses to the executive director and four other officials, according to the city’s Department of Investigation. Investigators said the breadth of the fraud suggested an ”absence of oversight” within nonprofit contractors. They said it resembled several patterns of fraud and abuse in other cases from recent years, like interest-free loans to executives that are never repaid; use of organizational bank accounts and credit and debit cards for personal expenses; and double pay for salaried employees also listed as consultants.” (SEWELL CHAN, “City Finds Widespread Fraud at a Bronx Charity,” New York Times, October 6, 2006)
“Crook.” “Jaime Horn, a spokeswoman for Air America, said the loans had come to the network through its former chairman, Evan M. Cohen, a venture capitalist, who resigned from Air America in May 2004 under pressure from other company investors. Ms. Horn added that investigators recently told the network that Mr. Cohen had served simultaneously as the development director for Gloria Wise, although the network was not aware of that at the time. Mr. Franken took up the issue on the air on Monday afternoon, telling his listeners that Mr. Cohen was ‘a crook’ who had borrowed money from Gloria Wise.” (ALAN FEUER, “Bronx Boys Club’s Finances Investigated,” New York Times, August 12, 2005)
“Didn’t know.” “Moments after Air America’s widely publicized, early-spring launch last year, checks bounced and the fledgling lefty net was yanked off stations in Los Angeles and Chicago. ‘I think [Cohen] was robbing Peter to pay Paul,’ Franken said, adding that the network’s current owners, Piquant LLC, did some ‘forensic accounting’ and learned about the defaulted loan. Franken said Piquant didn’t legally have to pay back the loan, ‘but we morally do, so they started to make arrangements to pay it back.’ ‘I didn’t know anything about this until last week,’ Franken claimed. ‘I really had nothing to do with this.’ The Post has been unable to reach Cohen in either New York or his native Guam.” (JOHN MAINELLI, “I WUZ ROBBED TOO : FRANKEN,” NY Post, August 9, 2005)
“The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement.” “In light of documents that surfaced last week, it looks to be the case that as of November 2004, and possibly earlier, Mr. Franken knew the amount of money, the money’s origins and the dates the transfers occurred. This came to light after a settlement agreement between former and current owners of Air America - a document which details the Gloria Wise transfers - was leaked to Michelle Malkin and Brian Maloney, who promptly posted the document on their Web sites. The document shows that Mr. Franken signed off on the settlement, and did so in the presence of a notary public, no less.” (Editorial, “Al Franken, explain this one,” Washington Times, September 11, 2005)
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Can we see the same add featuring James A. Johnson, Franklin D. Raines, and obama taking money from me. Though I ain’t very cute.
OOOOHHHH snap. There goes that culture of coruption again…
Whatever happened to Guy Smiley? The other character…that Franken Guy is a real jerk.
Well, with all this dishonesty in his “resume”, it looks like he’s setting himself up to be a main player in the democratic party. He certainly looks qualified to hold office, based on what we have elected over the years. Maybe he’ll give a few speeches condemning Bush and supporting Obama, and all will be forgiven.
He’s bad enough. He’s dumb enough. Gosh d@ngit, people just don’t like him.
Nor should they!
Kick his rumpus Norm!
Respectfully,
eric aka the Tygrrrr Express
use the rangel excuse, they kept speaking spanish to me. san fran nan gets it. she can’t understand her cook, maid, gardener, or any of those little people working around the casa de pelosi.
Al Frankin, Michel Moore, Barbara Streisand, Barack Obama, Rosie O’Donnell, the C’s on the View, Bill Marr….
MOST Americans think these people are important and smart and that their opinions are valuable. These goobers are really just troubled people better at pretending to be something then they are at being themselves. Look how bad most of them mess up their personal lives when they are no longer pretending…
I think their skills are the result of personality disorders.
It’s all about the Benjamins. While I am glad to see Franken exposed, too bad Coleman is part of the Gang of Idiots supporting Don’t Drill Now or Ever.
Keep following the money trail. Will we be seeing streams about Obama’s, Todd’s & Schumer’s big contributions from Fannie & Freddy?
Al who?
Air what?
He’s a pig, flat out.
Took that page right out of Pelosi’s playbook.
Stuart Smalley V/O: I deserve good things. I am entitled to my share of happiness. I refuse to beat myself up. I am attractive person. I am fun to be with.
Announcer: “Daily Affirmation with Stuart Smalley”. Stuart Smalley is a caring nurturer, a member of several 12-step programs, but not a licensed therapist.
[ open on Stuart giving himself a pep talk in his full-length mirror ]
Stuart Smalley: I’m going to do a terrific show today! And I’m gonna help people! Because I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and, doggonit, people like me!
hahahahahahaha. i love it. now if we can just run some anti-Obama ads in MN it’ll be the cherry on top.
Btw- check out the new gallop. I was bummed that Obama jumped by 2pts, but if you look at all the demographic breakdowns, there are some interesting trends that should cheer u up.
Apparently not his alter ego.
Oh…he’s just mad that Republicans suck and are mean! No, really. That’s what his latest ad says:
He’s never been funny either.
“Hi I’m Al Franken and your not” (from SNL 30yrs.ago)
Thank GOD!
You know, I think this is the first time I’ve found Al Franken funny, and even now only in a sad way.
Is Al Franken one the bitter Americans that Obama likes to talk about?
Stuart Smalley.
Guy Smiley is a Sesame Street Muppet. I will not see his name besmirched!
(I’m serious, in a joking fashion.)
Makes me wonder what they’d find if anyone did a serious, comprehensive investigation of Acorn or LaRaza. Taxpayers money, ya know.
Southpaw, I heard the Feds are looking into La Raza and their role with the drug cartels. It’s breaking.
I can’t wait for, “An American Carol”!!
More fun than “Whacka Mole.” Enjoy Al.
Fraud, corruption and lack of accountability: Democratic street-cred.
They need to use a photo of Al with the sattelite dish on his head doing his “remote” broadcasts for SNL’s Weekend Update. It would make him look like the fool he is. Another, Do as I say…
Looks like MN is in play for McPalin. I hope the trend keeps going. The convention bounce will only get you so far.
Its “satellite”, need to work on the proof reader.
How could anyone vote to put this guy in Washington! We have enough cr*p there already.
To paraphrase one Dean Wormer: “Fat, ugly, stupid and liberal is no way to go through life, son.”
Don’t you mean “schaden-fraud-licious?”
Frauds (And the Frauding Frauders Who Deny Them): A Boys and Girls Club by the Wayside
The Joke (sans punchline)
Al Franken Is A Big Fat __________ (noun)
He dishes it out, he can take it.
Al Franken visited Camp Liberty in 2005 alongside a few unknown singers (some where Christian singers if that helps). Al spoke the longest before autographs were allowed and guess what….nobody wanted Al’s after his snide remarks about the President, Vice President and Republicans. Al was almost completely ignored while complete unknowns were mobed for signatures and photographs.
I saw the whole thing.
Al Franken…. P.O.S.
He will soon be a footnote in political history. Loser.
NJ-Aviator, Sure hope you are right.
I live in……shhhhhh MN.
If this state votes in this loser, Franken, I will never admit where I live again.
*Wipes tear from eye*
That commercial truly is a thing of beauty. Its so satisfying to see that sleaze Franken shown for what he really is.
The only question left is, when will the Norm Coleman campaign show John McCain and the RNC how to grow a pair???
Why is he not in jail? How can he even be in a campaign for any office???
Yah, I know, cuz he’s a democrat…
Exactly Joy.
Fear not K2. The great state of Minnesota will be rid of that fool once the votes are tallied.
I know Franken is a little freaky/weird, but I’ll bet a dollar to a donut he never thought his next spankin’ would come from a straight Republican.
________________________________________
On September 18th, 2008 at 3:25 am, Joy said:
Why is he not in jail? How can he even be in a campaign for any office???
Yah, I know, cuz he’s a democrat…
________________________________________
And they have no Shame! They do not know or understand Shame. I have come to believe that they do not see what they do as wrong. After all, they CARE more than you and I and are sure willing to show that with other peoples money! How do people actually buy in to what they are selling? Honor, Integrity, and Personal Responsibility are values that mean something to me and I refuse to compromise those values for some simple pandering from too many of our politicians.