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Summary: We Need More People Like Al
Review: It's about time that people like Al Franken stood up to the right-wing cronies who are holding our country and media hostage. With his humor, wit, and research, Al manages to expose the Bush administration and other right-wingers like him for what they really are: dirty, lying, and manipulative people who will do and say anything to get what they want. Our country is going down the toilet because of them. We need more people like Al Franken to stand up for our country's values. You are one funny man, Al. We need more like you!
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Summary: SNED A MESSAGE TO THOSE BIG FATS IDIOTS!
Review: It's about time! Awesome book! I bought it to "cast a vote" to keep it at the top of the best sellers list toremind these lying conservative moralizers that their time is coming to an end - its about time the left fought back. Remember - NO ON "W";
LET'S NOT ELECT HIM IN 2004 EITHER! Thanks Al - I needed this.
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Summary: One-star reviewers
Review: It's amazing how many aliases Ann Coulter and Karl Rove have created here in their efforts to discredit Al's timely and very good book. I'm taking one-star off because he should have acknowledged that Norm Thomas was Evan Thomas Jr.'s grandfather. (Sorry, he did that in the obscure Ann Coulter-style end-notes. I'm adding the fifth star.)
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Summary: "Lies" is Liberal With the Laughs!
Review: It's been seven years since "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot," Al Franken's first book lampooning right-wing punditry, hit bookstores. A lot can happen in seven years: the Clinton Impeachment. The 2000 Election. 9/11 and its aftermath. Even the Wellstone plane crash and its aftermath. As each of these events paraded across our headlines, I found myself thinking, "Al Franken wrote his book too soon!" You should know, dear Amazon.com reader, that I work in a bookstore. (The old-fashioned kind, not the virtual one you are using right now.) As such books as Sean Hannity's "Let Freedom Ring" and Ann Coulter's "Slander" crossed my path, I would pray, "God, tell Franken to get off of his rear and write another book about right-wing demagogues!"
God must have heard me, because as Franken tells it in the introduction to his new book, God assigned him the task of writing "Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them"). Up to the challenge, Franken comments on everything I've listed above, using his trademark combination of well-researched facts and dry wit. Once again, Franken uses comic devices one would expect from the "Saturday Night Live" veteran, including short plays and cartoons. (For "Operation Chickenhawk" fans who want to know how the saga began, there is a prequel.) However, my favorite paassages are the ones where Franken quotes conservative authors, takes their words apart and puts them back together with his amusing spin. When he does this, Franken does more than entertain us: he gives us a needed refresher course in reading. Al teaches us these lessons: don't take everything you read (or hear) at face value. Analyze it and fight the demagogues with humor! When Hannity cites the fact that Clinton's military budget used less tactical aircraft than Reagan's as proof that Clinton "gutted our military," remind him that Reagan used less horses than Lincoln!
At the end of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire," after the villain returns to full strength, the young hero encourages a pair of wise-cracking, practical-joking twins to keep doing what they do best. Perhaps Harry (or his creator, J.K. Rowling) remembers something easily forgotten: the more grim the world seems, the more important it becomes to have a sense of humor about it. Fortunately, I have never been forced to compete in a rigged tournament so that an evil wizard can come back to life, so I cannot give Mr. Franken a thousand galleons. I was, however, able to come up with enough Muggle money to buy his new book. I encourage you to do the same!
Rating: 
Summary: If you have a low IQ, this is the book for you!
Review: It's disgusting how people can actually make money off of insulting the President who is keeping us safe. What's even worse is how Al Franken can do it by writing one of the worst-written books of all time.
This book has absolutely no purpose except to insult people. His arguments are un-researched, hair-splitting and childish. He offers absolutely no constructive solutions to the political problems he sees. All he does is make unprecendented attacks on people that he is clearly jealous of (i.e. George W. Bush, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and there's plenty more). This idiot does not even attempt to make the book intellectual.
I may add, it does not say where he went to college in his biography (obviously,he didn't attend or he attended somewhere not very prestigious). Yet he calls Cornell and Michigan Law School grad Ann Coulter "an intellectual lightweight". That's coming from a man who doesn't have the ability to write an intelligent sentence.
This anti-Christian, anti-American, un-funny comedian is the only lying liar I see.
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Summary: Truth - the Antidote to Lying Liars
Review: It's easy to put together a string of jokes about George Bush's dubious intellect and white collar draft dodging, Bill O'Reilly's blowhard bullying, or almost anything related to Ann Coulter. What's much harder is to do real political and media criticism, engage in serious discussion of policy, and be genuinely funny at the same time. That's what Franken has set out to do, and he largely succeeds. The first 100 pages or so of this book take aim at O'Reilly, Coulter, Sean Hannity, and other titans of right wing propaganda, nailing their lies and evasions with considerable schadenfreude. This part is superbly done. Franken is consistently entertaining and his attacks are dead on target. The remainder is primarily an attack on George Bush, although Franken goes along quite a few detours. This really isn't a unified book so much as a series of sketches, mostly connected and occasionally coming from way out in left field. As such, it's definitely hit and miss, although the hits easily outnumber the misses. The chapter on the Paul Wellstone memorial is easily the best in the book; it's both a moving tribute to the man and his friends and an unsparing look at the lies that were spread to use the Wellstone service for Republican propaganda. The 'Operation Chickenhawk' story is extremely funny, as is the visit to Bob Jones University. The personal anecdotes of his encounters with O'Reilly, Paul Wolfowitz, Rich Lowry, and others are excellent. There are some weaker sections, such as the chapter on Franken's search for weapons of mass destruction, a one act play about the Bush tax cuts, and an attack on a stupid editorial on crime by Paul Gigot where Franken uncharacteristically gets his numbers mixed up. The last 80 pages or so is particularly a grab bag and, except for the Bob Jones story, most of it could have been dropped without great loss. Most of the book is terrific, and he central case, that the propagandists of the current 'conservative' movement, whether in government or media, routinely lie with shocking brazenness and almost no consequences, is thoroughly demonstrated. This book is a valuable resource for Americans aiming to take back our country from the present cabal.
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Summary: It's Good Enough, Smart Enough, and Doggone It, I Like It!
Review: It's easy to see why Franken has been a reasonably successful comedian after reading this book. It is exceptionally entertaining. There are few moments where mirth is not lurking in the background. I do think this book was a bit of preaching to the converted but it has an entertainment value that should be considered as well. If one cares for a deeper look at who controls the media and why a worthwhile book would be Noam Chomsky & Edward Herman's Manufacturing Consent. It is the finest work of media analysis for the purpose of determining prejudice in coverage that has been written. The depth of the research here is not particularly impressive but is factual and consistent. Franken is honest about himself but not always about the party he is rooting for. Al Gore, who apparently is the second-best thing to happen the United States after Bill Clinton, has been taken to task by The Nation and CorpWatch for his shoddy environmental record, especially, his going to bat for Occidental in its quest for drilling rights. His record it, to be clear, better than George W. Bush's. Much better actually. However it's a long ways from good enough. Or take his support of the war in Kosovo. Every responsible analyst realized that Serbia would escalate the violence in Kosovo if an attack was initiated. Commanding General Wesley Clark said that it was "entirely predictable". The U.S. did nothing when Milosevic took away Kosovo's autonomous status in 1989. Nor did we show regret at having sold out the Kosovars at the Dayton peace talks in 1995. Clinton did nothing in November-December of 1996 when 250,000 Serbs rose against Milosevic. He acted just in time to escalate the violence in Kosovo. If one learned about it from this book alone, one might think that was not the case. Of course Clinton too, has a better record than W., but that really isn't saying much. It's kind of hard to see how Mr. Franken misses the boat on these things. He rightly condemns the fact that the US has backed countless murderous dictatorships but then he supported a war that was certain to make one of them even more horrible. He rightly condemns himself for supporting the war in Iraq but not for the right reasons. He seems to think that a nation that poses no feasible threat to the United States can be invaded because it possesses awful weaponry. How about India? Pakistan? Israel? France? Other than those two glaring poop-stains, the book is solid and entertaining. The fictionalized story about the Vietnam unit is priceless. His review of the media reaction to the funeral of Paul Wellstone is excellent. The book is an entertaining and fairly informative work by a comedian with keen political insight. It would make an excellent companion to a subscription Extra! although admittedly, F.A.I.R. can't approach Mr. Franken in the humor department.
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Summary: Five stars from a dedicated leftist!
Review: It's funnier than I expected it would be, and also more substantial - well researched, and (as one reviewer noted) even a little dry in places, as befits a book that actually makes forays into serious fact-checking and truth-telling on virtually every page. The jokes are the gravy, but there's a pretty serious biscuit underneath. In its way, it's an even more effective critique of rightwing b.s. than Joe Conason's estimable Big Lies, if only because Conason goes out of his way to be fair to the likes of Ann Coulter, Bernie Goldberg, and the rest of the factually challenged class, while Franken just hammers 'em. You should buy and read both books, then go out and rattle some wingnuts. I agree with God 's comment in the introduction, by the way - there really is something seriously wrong with that Ann Coulter.
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Summary: Funny, fact filled and fabulous!
Review: It's good to know that someone with intelligence and wit has been keeping his eye on the looney right! Mr. Franken's book is hillarious and insightful. I loved it.
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Summary: Finally some straight talk
Review: It's great to finally see some truth being told. Al tells it like it is, and exposes the outright bald face lies and liars in black and white. Everyone is entitled to their own views and opinions, but to lie, distort, mislead and just plain make up stuff is not legitimate journaism, it's not "fair and balanced", and it sure as heck isn't something the US should tolerate as the model for what certain individuals who would hold us up as an example for the rest of the would should tolerate, let alone go along with!
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