Redstate

There's the field. Then the sidelines. Then the folks hanging out on the track. Then the popcorn vendors. Then the stadium seats. Then stuff going on under the stands...maybe this topic is happening under the bleachers. Just don't want to waste energy way off the field.

So far as I know, this claim, that Progress Media was somehow unaware that one of their board members was also the development director for a major local charity, is a first. I guess he sort of forgot that on the resume? Never came up in a background search? Heck, a Google search? Cohen never once mentioned it to the good folks he ran a company with?

Cohen was a founder of the company.  He didn't apply for the job.

The guy has been shown to have been a crook on numerous levels.  Why should it surprise anyone that he would withhold this sort of information from the people at Progress Media?

I have said this before but if you REALLY are interested about all of this then go get Left of the Dial.  You will have  avery cleat understanding of what type of person Evan Cohen is after watching it.

More of an example of how sanctimony, criminal behavior and hypocrisy are all comfortably nestled together on the left. It is very important to dwell on this now simply because it has been ignored for the past forty years.

Yeah, this seems like small potatoes compared to the news that the Clinton administration ignored an intelligence report a year before 9/11 that specifically named Mohammad Atta and two other 9/11 pilots as an al Qa'eda cell that the FBI should go shut down.

And the prospect that Sandy Berger's Excellent Adventure at the National Archives was an attempt to destroy evidence of that is even more amazing.

Plus we get to hear a whole bunch of really neat lame excuses as to why the 9/11 Commission chose not to tell the American people that the Pentagon knew about Mohammad Atta a year before he struck, tried to tell the FBI, and was waved off by "lawyers" and Jamie Gorelick's "wall" memo.

Still, this was almost a million dollars in taxpayer money that was stolen here, and that's not chicken feed. If it was used to prop up Air America during a time when the network faced imminent bankruptcy, we need to make sure that Air America pays it back. Plus we get to chortle and poke you liberals with sticks over the spectacle of Al Franken getting paid with money that was intended to go to childrens' programs.

I guess he sort of forgot that on the resume? ... Cohen never once mentioned it to the good folks he ran a company with?

If YOU were scamming one side off the other, would YOU advertise that fact?  Of COURSE Cohen didn't bring it up.  One doesn't advertise the fact that one's a crooked bastard.  It gets in the way of being a crooked bastard.

As I recall, over the several weeks of this scandal you have been mocking the newspapers covering this story.  You recently wrote:

Perhaps the reason that the New York Times hasn't covered this yet is because the story is pretty dubious...

Well, now that they have covered it, I am interested on your take on their blatant attempt to reword Al Franken's quote for him.  Leaving out a crucial part of a sentence and particularly changing his word, "robbing" for a safer word, "borrowing" seems kind of fishy for the "paper of record".  I guess they didn't realize that the audio and written transcripts of Al's actual quote were available.

The fact that the NY Times deigned to include Al Franken's quote ought to finally somehow tie Air America into all of this for you.

It must be embarrasing to have ridculed the "other" inconsequential papers that have covered this story and then have the paper you trust come out with a bogus, sanitized version of the scandal.  Especially when they used the investigation and reporting of those "other" papers as their source.

I can understand your interest in trying to push all of this back onto Cohen.  I agree he is the crook in all of this. But I am sure enjoying the splash damage that Air America is receiving after all they've been so willing to give.

I didn't realize that I was mocking the other newspapers that covered the story.  I questioned their facts and bias but I don't think I attacked any newspaper.

It's not really embarassing to me at all.  I honestly couldn't care less about Air America.  I listened to for about a week when it first came on the air.  I found it just as loathesome as Hannity or Limbaugh or Savage.  

But I did try to counter the straight partisan sniping that was going on.  

Truth be told my interest in pushing this on Cohen stems from the Left of the Dial documentary.  If it turns out that other people were involved in the alleged crimes that were committed they should be prosecuted as well.  However there hasn't been much to suggest that ANYONE at Air America currently is being investigated.

that Cohen was ever a job applicant at Progress-Leon is (I assume) using a bit of humor here.  Of course the other directors had to know that he was involved with Gloria Wise, and that GW was the loan source.  If you are a director of a company that is about to default, and another director comes up with a miracle loan, you darn well better know the source.  After the first "Thank God", the immediate questions are 1. Who lent us the money and 2. under what repayment terms.  Looking the other way is not a defense if it turns out that the money was tainted.

You dodged my main question.  I would like to know your opinion about the New York Times deliberately altering the wording of Al Franken's quote to minimize the damage.  Is that what you expect from the New York Times. I know it is what I expect.

I appreciate that you do not support Air America, that you even find it loathsome.

Do you feel the same about this kind of late-to-the-game, slanted reporting from the New York Times?  It may not approach the same level as Air America, but the goal is similar: Minimize Democrat/liberal scandals and maximize Republican/conservative scandals.

Of course the other directors had to know that he was involved with Gloria Wise, and that GW was the loan source

You don't think it's a possibility that Evan Cohen took the loan and then told the Progress Media people that he was giving Air America some of his own money?

Personally I am curious as to how Cohen was able to secure the loan from Gloria Wise.  He was, from the reoprts I have read, Director of Development.  That basically puts him in charge of fund raising.  How did he manage to get a loan to Air America?  That doesn't make much sense.

Honestly I'm not sure what you are referring to.  Is it this?

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.

Assuming this is it I guess I don't see the outrage.  So they were minimizing the damage to whom?  Evan Cohen?  Air America?  Al Franken?  The New York Times?  I truly don't understand what your point on this.

Gloria Wise directors are on record as saying that they wrote checks for 80K and 87K to Air America, and that a third for 217K was written to Air America without their approval.  Unless Cohen had changed his name to "Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club", don't you think that whoever was treasurer of Progress would know that the funds came from a third party, once he saw the checks?  And ALL officers of the LLC should have been curious as to the source.  Who asked to see loan documents?  Did the treasurer lie to the rest of the officers? It is either outright fraud or gross negligence on the part of the LLC owners, and given that Sheldon Drobny is an accountant and a former IRS agent, I have serious doubts that he could have simply looked the other way.  

I actually haven't seen anything close to information that specific about this matter.  I would like to see something that detailed.  

If the checks were written to Air America why would the LLC care?   Progress America and Air America were NOT the same thing.  

You are making quite a few assumptions.  Not surprisingly your assumptions cast the widest cloud of guilt possible given the information that is available.