Rating: 
Summary: Hysterical and honest.
Review: Let's face it: Al Franken is not a George Bush fan and anyone who buys this book looking for a "fair and balanced" analysis of the Bush Administration will be very surprised. What the reader does get is personal anecdotes, hard facts, and sly wit. It is a book that tries to dispel the White House "spin" and to present facts (and opinion) that countradict.Is Al Franken opionated? Absolutely. Is he over the top, venemous name calling, presenting horrendously false and misleading information (hear that all you Ann Coulter fans!)? Not at all. What IS fair and balanced about this book is that Franken presents an opposing arguement and backs it up with fair and accurate reporting. For example, when he describes the encounter with Bill O'Reilly at the now famous book sellers convention, I was expecting a very one-sided description. I saw this episode as it happened live and I can honestly say that Franken presents the event very fairly and even-handed--he doesn't distort the event to (a) present himself in a better light, or (b) twist the story to make O'Reilly appear worse than he may have appeared. (Hear that all you Bill O'Reilly fans!) No, Franken does the opposite, he tells the truth as he sees it and lets the events speak for themselves. I cannot recommend this book enough. It is enjoyable, serious, and a much needed reminder that George Bush and his administration IS flawed and that their policies should be looked at more carefully by the American people.
Rating:
Summary: The Left Shoots Back
Review: Let's get this out of the way first; Al Franken has been accused in a certain now-withdrawn lawsuit of not being a satirist. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a satire is a "literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn". Of course, you may not believe that Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney participate in human vices and follies, but leaving that aside, Al Franken is a satirist. Now we can all relax. Anyone can write a piece full of scorn and ridicule, needless to say. To be worthwhile, though, it has to include other things. Like, for instance, relevant facts, accurate analysis, a coherent point of view, even wit. Let's not get into who's got the monopoly on those elements in the current firefight between the left and right; Franken's got them all to at least some degree, which should be enough for anyone willing to plonk down twenty-five bucks (or fourteen and change on Amazon). What, though, if anything, makes this a genuinely good book? The answer to that, unsurprisingly, has a lot to do with Al Franken himself. On the evidence of "Lies", he's very smart, very angry, and very good at his job, but he's not so arrogant that he thinks he can face down the right on his own. So, before writing this book, he went and got himself a group of graduate students to do research for him. His first clever move was naming this bunch "Team Franken", like it was a professional staff at some cable network with too much money in its digital effects budget. His second clever move was pointing out that all Team Franken had to do to disprove many right-wing claims was run a few Google searches. With that kind of start, I was all set for Lies to turn into the story of Al and Team Franken running around looking for some challenge, some really subtle and dangerous right-wing lie that would require all of their might to debunk, and not finding it because all the right-wing claims are so blatantly false. That would have been a terrific book. This, however, is not that book, and again the reason for it has to do with Franken himself. Very smart, very angry, very good at his job, he attacks everything about the right that he can't stand, applying dozens of styles and strategies, and winds up with a good collection of essays instead of a great cohesive work. In "Lies", Al Franken has two main targets ' the right-wing "news" of Matt Drudge, Fox News and others, and the George W. Bush administration ' and that right there divides his book in a way he can't quite spackle over. Then too, he has enough ability to pull him in several directions, such as straight reportage, prose satire, legitimate and political theater, and even comics, which further blurs his focus. The individual chapters of "Lies" entertain and instruct quite well, sometimes brilliantly, but the whole thing never gels into anything more than the sum of its considerable parts. This is a pity, because Franken actually has an important point to make. He's savvy enough to spell it out: "Part of [the right-wing media's] entertainment value comes from their willingness to lie and distort'Our added entertainment value will have to come from being funny and attractive. And passionate. And idealistic. But also smart." That, it seems clear, is the central thrust of his whole effort. Unfortunately, the statement is on page 353, after a tasty but amorphous goulash of ideas about everything from Bill O'Reilly's emotional fragility to Sean Hannity's statistical fudging to Ann Coulter's rhetorical tricks. And then to the story of what might have happened if the right-wing hawks Bush, Cheney, Thomas, Limbaugh, Will and others had served in Vietnam, and then something called Supply Side Jesus, who wears a gold-trimmed robe and a pedicure' There's certainly nothing wrong with a good collection of satirical political essays, but "Lies" could have been a great deal more than that. Based on that statement about entertainment value, I suspect Franken intended his book to be the opening shot in a left-wing counterattack against the right's demonizations over the past few years. In fact, it almost is that shot. He may very well get it just right next time, especially with all the free publicity he's been receiving lately. I note, by the way, that Fox News has recently announced that its withdrawal of the copyright-infringement lawsuit against Franken will allow him to sink back into the obscurity from whence he came. Now, let's see; Fox News brought suit against Al Franken because he wasn't supposed to use the phrase "fair and balanced" in the title of this book, they splashed it all over every newspaper, political website and blog in the country, they got slapped down hard, and now they're talking like the whole thing was a publicity coup by Al Franken. He should have a field day with that one. Benshlomo says, Laugh at your enemies; it will drive them crazy.
Rating:
Summary: Franken stirs conservatives up again
Review: Let's start by noting Al Franken is funny but he is not a great writer. His writing is not necessarily compelling and the reality is this book is probably not going to change anyone's political stances. Human nature is such that it just does not happen very often that a person's politics are going to suddenly turn upon reading a book by a person who they view as being a part of the opposition. Regardless, it is still a fun read, particularly in its expose of Bill O'Reilley, which isn't necessarily all that damning. Of course, O'Reilley became incensed that anyone investigated claims regarding his background and he turned what should have been relatively minor problems into a spin control problem. Heck, O'Reilley's own mother has confirmed that he didn't live in the bad area of town that he tries to claim. Yet O'Reilley is bound and determined to make everyone believe he grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Apparently conservatives, lacking any dirt on Franken (Franken pretty much has admitted to all of his past without embellishment and even apologized for tricking John Ashcroft), decide to attack this book accusing Franken of not looking at the liars on the left, whining, and God knows what else. Fox News was so incredibly stupid as to sue him, probably fueling more sales of the book. And their attacks demonstrate an underlying point of the book: conservatives and Republicans lost their sense of humor somewhere along the way. Why is it that so many conservative types are pompous blowhards? All politicans and political commentators hate having the microscope turned on them and Franken does so here, to often hilarious results. Look for more attacks by the humorless on Franken in the near future.
Rating: 
Summary: Welcome to Al Franken's No Lie Zone
Review: Liberal Spin. Cons Lie. At least that's the landscape of political discourse in America today. Al Franken is unabshedly partisan, and many will not agree with everything he said. But he has done one things that the FOX News (Wholly Without Merit(tm)) crowd have not done- cite actual facts. Case in point: Ann Coulter, in support of her "liberal snobbery" thesis, claimed that NY Times waited for two whole days before reporting on Dale Earnhart's death. Except that's a lie. A simple due diligence on Franken's part (something that you can do, go to your local university library and check out LexisNexus) shows that NY times featured Dale Earnhart on the front page the very next day. These are not small, inconsequential lies, they undercut the very argument Coulter tries to make in the first place. Or Bill O'Reilly's documented claim that he's an 'independent'- Franken reproduces O'Reilly's 1994 voting registry where the box 'Republican' was clearly checked. Fair and Bogus indeed. Oh, and having FOX News laughed out of court was not a bad bonus either.
Rating: 
Summary: What a Piece of Garbage
Review: Liberals - Don't be fooled by the propaganda that makes Franken out to be some kind of poster boy for the far left. His book is a collection of incendiary falsities that he had put together for one reason - to get into your pocketbooks and make a buck. He is a disgraceful person that only slanders others.
Rating:
Summary: Liberals: want to know how Franken got it WRONG!?!?!?
Review: Liberals are always asking that if Franken is wrong in this book, then prove it. Number One: In trying to collect "dirt" on his enemies, Franken wrote a deceiving letter to John Ashcroft's office asking about his sex life under the guise of conducting a university survey. Talk about a liar! Numbers Two and onward: go to www.anncoulter.org and look for her article entitled "I Guess You're Right: There Is No Liberal Media Bias". It is a crying shame that someone as educated and intelligent as Ann has dignified Franken's defamation as legitimate debate. If it weren't so sad, it would be funny that liberals are actually looking to so-called comedians to champion their political debate. It's just one more sign of the impending implosion of the Democratic Party.
Rating:
Summary: Al Franken: An American Patriot
Review: Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) is an overdue expose' of the dirty tricks perpetrated by the right-wing media. Hiding under the cover of "Fair and Balanced", the Fox News Channel along with right-wing columnists like nutcase, Ann Coulter, and everyone's favorite Big Fat Idiot, use hypocrisy and lies to distort the truth about the American left. Armed with a great sense of humor and sharp analytical skills, Franken forcefully disproves the myth of the liberal media and holds the banner of accountability up to the right. Though fiercly partisan and always entertaining, "Lies" is a very well researched and documented book that I would recommend to anyone from either party who like Network's Howard Beale is "Mad as hell...[and is not] going to take this anymore."
Rating:
Summary: Al Franken's book
Review: Lies and the lying liars who tell them is a very funny clever book. Its a great read and i highly recomend it to any democrat. O reilly is a idiot.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, smart, and very thought-provoking
Review: Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them is much funnier than Al Franken's previous work, Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot- in fact, this is one of the funniest books I've read, political or otherwise. Franken has a magnificent cynical wit that is very rare these days. Chapters such as "I'm A Bad Liar," "Fun With Racism," and "The 2000 Presidential Election: How It Disproved The Hypothetical Liberal Media Paradigm Matrix" are absolutely hilarious ("Bush was lying throughout the 2000 campaign. And unlike Gore, Bush's lies weren't even true.") There's much more than just humor- you can tell Franken's furor over the spin of Paul Wellstone's memorial service by the right-wing media. There are a few low points, though, like Franken's hero worship of President Clinton- it can get a bit ridiculous at times. The "Operation Chickenhawk" and "The Gospel Of Supply-Side Jesus" short stories are less than stellar, too. But past that, Lies And The Lying Liars Who Tell Them is pure gold. Give it to a liberal (or conservative) friend as a Christmas gift!
Rating:
Summary: On Target and Insightful
Review: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them is one book that I wish all registered voters and high school students were required to read. I don't believe that all who read this book will agree with all Franken has to say, however, I think that what he is saying in this work is so important, it must be read. It can open up a meaningful dialogue among the various right and left factions of the US. Franken (and his team of Harvard graduate students) has put together a thoughtful look at media coverage of the US political scene and then goes on to critique the Bush administration. Is there a media bias towards liberals in this country, as so many conservatives claim? Franken comes up with an answer (I won't give it away). Franken does an excellent job of dissecting various right wing mouthpieces, such as Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly, and exposing them for what they truly are. I cannot urge people strongly enough to read this book. If you care about the US, I must warn you that this book will probably upset you a bit because the truths Franken uncovers are, well, pretty depressing at times. Franken has put together a very readable, very informative look at contemporary media and the Bush administration that is not to be missed.
| 
