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In case you've been on a deserted island and haven’t heard, Al Franken has thrown his hat in the ring and announced he is running for the US Senate in the great state of Minnesota. Why not Al? You can help by contributing to the AL Franken for Senate campaign. Watch Al's announcement video - or - read the text transcript.

LYING LIARS HALL OF SHAME
Exposing some classic lies, and the lying liars who tell them...

Rush Limbaugh outdoes himself!

This is classic Rush Limbaugh stupidity. On the February 14, 2006 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show Rush accuses the Democratic Party and the New York Times of playing racial politics in the selection of Sherrod Brown (D-OH) over Paul Hackett to run in the Ohio Senatorial race against Mike DeWine (R-OH). According to Rush, Democrats picked Sherrod Brown because he is black and the New York Times "of course, don’t mention that". Perhaps one reason the New York Times may not have reported this is because Sherrod Brown is actually white. Listen to the MP3 clip

"Hello, I'm black."

LIMBAUGH: Uh, maybe somebody in the party has figured this out. And don’t forget Sherrod Brown is black. There’s a racial component here, too. Uh, and now the newspaper that I’m reading all this from is The New York Times, and they, of course, don’t mention that. Uh, but – but, uh, you know, “Democratic leaders say that Representative Sherrod Brown, a seven-term incumbent from Avon, uh, has a far better chance of toppling Senator DeWine than does the – Hackett.

From the February 20 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

LIMBAUGH: I have learned over the past four or five days that when I make a mistake, it can become national news -- that the Associated Press will actually run a story and hundreds of newspapers will pick it up about how I made an error. Which tells me -- and by the way, folks, I was not offended by this. I know what people's expectations are. When the Associated Press did that story about how I made this error and am misidentifying the race of Sherrod Brown in Ohio, you know what it said to me was that even the mainstream media knows I get it right all the time, and it is such an odd thing when I am wrong that it is news. You must learn to look at these things positively in life, yours and mine as well.

Despite Limbaugh's theory that the AP article about his imagined "racial component" demonstrates that he is "right all the time," Media Matters has documented scores of Limbaugh's falsehoods, distortions, and baseless or misleading claims...
Read more at Media Matters

In his Letterman appearance, O'Reilly repeated the false claim that a school changed "Silent Night" lyrics

This gem from the January 3, 2006 Late Show with David Letterman shows Bill O'Reilly getting pwned by Dave. On the show O'Reilly resurrected his false claim that a Wisconsin elementary school banned the singing of the Christmas hymn "Silent Night." Dave is having none of it, and calls Bill on his "crap." In fact, the new lyrics were merely part of a 1988 Christmas play called The Little Tree's Christmas Gift. Later in the interview, Letterman admonished O'Reilly, asserting, "I have the feeling about 60 percent of what you say is crap." As evidence to one of his claims O'Rielly quotes the fictitious James Bond's spy agency, M15. read more at Media Matters

In early 2004, Mr. Bill from Saturday Night Live starred in an ad to alert people to the problems with the wetlands in Louisiana. On Good Morning, America, President Bush said no one could have anticipated the breach of the levees in New Orleans, but even Mr Bill Knew the Levees Wouldn't Hold.

(Walter Williams, Mr. Bill's creator pulled Mr. Bill out of the ad campaign in June of this year when he believed it was being used as a tool to cover up the misdeeds of Shell Oil.)

Vistit the official Mr. Bill web site www.mrbill.com and check out the documentary "New Orleans The Natural History" (play time: 45 minutes).

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This Week in Al
Each "week", our own Mostomotus expounds on something Al Franken has said or written.