Rating: 
Summary: Burning Down the "Right"
Review: Kudos to Al Franken for exposing the true colors of the "liars" of the right.
I want to start by stating that I enjoyed that Mr. Franken used humor to get his point across. It seems that all the "right" has to fire is useless invective which only adds to the great division in this country.
I want to mainly state that I appreciate that someone finally has enough nerve to stand up to the conservative machine which is forcing its moral views and opinions on the rest of us. Mr. Franken systematically takes apart arguments from many of the top conservative pundits and shows how base and untrue that each one is. He doesn't play down to his readers nor make himself out to be better than anyone else. He simply shows that because of carelessness and unprofessional behavior, people such as Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Sean Hannity are liars.
Is it treasonous for our family to be liberal and not believe every lying thing that comes out of this current presidential administration even though my father proudly served in the armed forces of this great nation? Women such as Ann Coulter would have you believe this.
Mr. Franken has done an excellent job of tearing down the "Fox News Mental Monopoly" and has shown that, yes we can all live in a country where we all don't have to believe in everything O'Reilly says. This is an excellent book that I would ask my liberal and conservative friends to read and re-read.
Rating: 
Summary: Eye opener ...
Review: Kudos to Al Franken for taking on the right-of-John-Birch wingnut talking heads and politicos. Franken deals with weighty issues with candor and comedy. The book is readable. I'll keep it and re-read it in 9 months. I may need to be reminded of the negative excesses of Shrub and da boyz before the election.
Rating:
Summary: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them
Review: Kudos to Franken. This work is a strong palliative for a country in the grips of a right-biased media (and government and military and judiciary and culture).At this time of national crisis, when the climate in our country has discouraged free speech, Franken takes the lead and says the things all of us are thinking. And he keeps us laughing in the process. Hey, Al: why don't you get a talk show so we can see you every day?
Rating:
Summary: Bill O'Reilly confirms Franken's expose!
Review: Last night on NBC Dateline, Bill O'Reilly was interviewed about subjects various and sundry, including Franken's book. He accused Franken of lying about him, but when asked, he wouldn't specify the lies, saying, merely, "I'm not going to get into that." You'd think a person who has been wronged--been lied about,allegedly--would take the opportunity on national tv to put the record straight and expose his accuser as being the lying one. No go. I know what conclusion I draw from that...what about you? Then, O'Reilly proceeded to repeat one of his lies exposed by Franken in his book, saying he had grown up in the "Westbury section of Levittown," (sic). Well, I went to a map of Long Island, and Westbury and Levittown are MILES apart from each other! O'Reilly used the example of a resident of Queens saying he's from Jackson Heights. Well, as we NYC residents know, Jackson Heights is a subsection of the BOROUGH of Queens. The analogy doesn't apply at all to Westbury or Levittown. I think Franken in the book says it would be like someone saying they grew up in the Brooklyn section of Manhattan. (Brooklyn and Manhattan are both boroughs of New York City, but they are distinct geographical entities. Westbury and Levittown are both towns in Long Island, but they are quite distinct geographical entities, much farther apart than Brooklyn and Manhattan.) You'd think O'Reilly would have been smart enough to refuse comment on anything having to do with Franken's book; in the end, he only makes himself look more deceitful...and foolish, to boot!
Rating:
Summary: Shuts down the simplistic right....
Review: Laugh out loud funny. You must read this. Specific examples of how Rush, Sean Hannity, Bush, et. al. knowingly sling BS. Sad thing is most of those lemming "conservatives" probably don't read.
Rating:
Summary: Hillarious, appalling and (sadly) all true!
Review: Laugh-out-loud entertaining but astonishing and deeply disturbing in revealing the hypocrisy and lies of some of the stars of the right. Especially appreciated Franken's comparison of how the right loves America - like a 4 year old loves Mommy - blindly and emotionally unquestioning and willing to go after anyone who says anything 'bad' about Mommy, versus the left - like a grown-up... I'm giving this book as a Christmas present to all my thinking friends!!!
Rating:
Summary: Its About Time
Review: Leave it to Al Franken to say what needs to be said to the Right wing media, namely that they have a disturbing tendency to lie and distort in order to push their agenda. And thanks to Fox for the added publicity, what a great move that was! Anyway, yet another great piece of work, I highly reccomend it.
Rating:
Summary: Funny and scarey in the same sentence.
Review: Lefties will love this book which gives more heft to the notion that all those Fox folks and Bush admin folks are less than truthful all the time. I often found myself saying "I knew it!" as I worked through a chapter. And then each one left me more depressed than the last. The fact that this neo-con group has gotten away with lies and distortions that make Clinton's look like 5th grade recess is down right infuriating. We can thank Al and his stalwart Harvard researchers - Team Franken - for diving into many issues and some frivolities to reveal what actually happened or what was actually said. And we can thank Al for making it really funny to read. Enjoyable and heartbreaking.
Rating:
Summary: A conservative's view
Review: Let me be blunt: I'm a conservative, with strong feelings. And Al Franken's extremely well-researched, extremely funny (although a bit self-indulgent in places) precisely explains why all true conservatives should hate George W. Bush. Believe in fiscal conservatism? Franken points out how Bush has squandered a surplus to run the largest deficit in history. Believe in limited government? Franken explains how the federal government has thrown its power behind the largest corporations. Believe in the Constitution? Franken points out how American citizens are being held without trial or even access to a lawyer. Hate unfunded mandates? Franken shows how the No Child Left Behind act imposes new responsibilities on the states while cutting federal funding. Don't think Presidents should lie? Franken quotes a Bush speech from May 29, 2003: "We have found the weapons of mass destruction." There are literally chapters devoted to Bush's numerous lies, which are unfortunately covered up by the media. Don't believe in nation-building? Bush is now spending $187 billion of your tax money on "building democracy" in Iraq, a human rights program that would make Jimmy Carter proud. Unfortunately, Franken didn't deal with a key issue for conservatives -- state's rights. From medical marijuana to overruling local prosecutors, Bush has steadfastly undermined states rights. The case that Franken builds would stand up in any court room. One example: O'Reilly claims to be an independent. So Franken reproduces his voter registration card, where he identifies himself as a registered Republican. If he lies about the small stuff, how can he be trusted on larger issues? If you're also conservative, you need to do three things. First, buy this book, and make Al Franken a very rich man. He deserves every penny for his meticulous research. Second, send money to any organization dedicated to defeating Bush in the next election. This book provides all the reasons why every true conservative should work toward his defeat. Finally, and most important, remember that conservatives believe in the true American values that come through every page in Franken's book. Honesty. Respect for others. A strong military. Morality. Unfortunately, these are not the values that come through from Bush or those apologists like Fox News.
Rating:
Summary: Satire at its best
Review: Let me begin by saying that I am a lifelong conservative, but that it breaks my heart to see how Bush and his neocon backers have hijacked the Republican Party, used it to pursue a completely vicious and destructive extremist agenda, and have subverted true conservative principles of protecting civil liberties and practicing fiscal discipline. Having said that, I read Ann Coulter's Treason prior to Franken's book, which I learned about thanks to the Fox News lawsuit. Coulter's modus operandi is bile, hatred and passing off naked opinion as fact, but what makes her dangerous is that she pretends to be a serious political commentator (it speaks volumes about the state of our democracy that so many people take her pseudo-intellectual rants as seriously as she takes herself). Franken, on the other hand, doesn't pretend to be a great political thinker. He is, however, a tremendous satirist, and proves that the most astute of political observations are often made through satire. I will be voting Democrat for the first time in my life next year, and it has occurred to me that the best antidote to the mountain of money, the waves of patriotic rhetoric, the endless political exploitation of 9/11 and all the other tricks up Karl Rove's sleeve is to make people smile. Conservatives and liberals alike, we mostly all want the same things for America, but we only differ on the methodology. Even as a Reaganite, I had to admire the liberals' propensity for humor, for not taking themselves as seriously and not being as uptight as we conservatives. This time, I happen to agree with them on the issues as well. I would advise everybody to read this book with an open mind, and if that isn't possible, just read it anyway, because Franken uses skilfully uses a razor sharp wit to provide some remarkable insights into the state of our union, and the unscrupulous tactics employed by the bully boys on the right. And, by the way, I wish conservatives would stop using the word "socialist" without comprehending exactly what it means. If they had visited a true socialist country, as I did when I visited East Germany in the 1980s, they would realize how infantile their accusations sound. Sadly, these are usually the same people who think that parroting Dubya's latest slogan about "evildoers" is a substitute for political debate, and that Fox is as "fair and balanced" as it pretends. Kudos to Franken for telling it like it is.
| 
