The Minnesota Senate Race

For those of you who don't follow politics as closely or rabidly as myself, you might not be aware of this particular electoral battle. Comedian, author and former Saturday Night Live alum Al Franken is trying to win the Senate seat currently held by Republican Norm Coleman; Coleman won the seat when the former Senator Paul Wellstone (who was a close family friend of Franken) died in a plane crash shortly before the '02 election.

Now a new political ad by a pro-business group is misrepresenting itself as fighting for worker's rights by playing on old mafia stereotypes surrounding unions; I actually remember seeing very similar ads here in California a few years ago using the same actor from The Sopranos. A local newscast in Minnesota does a good job of debunking this latest attempt to twist the truth about union organizers' rights:
When watching political ads like this, from either side of the aisle, I've found that a good rule of thumb is to wait for the end of the ad and then read the small print indicating who actually paid the bills. Taking a few minutes to Google these groups usually gives you a much better idea of what they're trying to accomplish than the actual ads themselves; politics as usual, I suppose.