Rating: 
Summary: Do you have a college degree?
Review: "Go organize your socks or something more productive than reading this book. Franken should stick to comedy and leave political analysis to people with at least a college degree." -A reader from Springfield, MO Al Franken is a Harvard alumnus. He graduated in 1973.
Rating: 
Summary: Al Franken/Janeane Garofalo 2012
Review: "If you listen to a lot of conservatives, they'll tell you that that the difference between them and us is that conservatives love America and liberals hate America. That we "'blame America first.'" That we're suspicious of patriotism and always think our country's in the wrong. As conservative radio and TV personality Sean Hannity says, we liberals "'train our children to criticize America, not celebrate it.'" "They don't get it. We love America just as much as they do. But in a different way. You see, they love America the way a four-year-old loves her mommy. Liberals love America like grown-ups. To a four-year-old, everything Mommy does is wonderful and anyone who criticizes Mommy is bad. Grown-up love means actually understanding what you love, taking the good with the bad, and helping your loved one grow. Love takes attention and work and is the best thing in the world." -Al Franken (Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) This quote alone should be enough reason to buy this book. Forget that Franken is a liberal. If you want a "fair and balanced" view of America as we know it today, then you should owe it yourselves to give this book a try. Like most typical Americans my age, I was pretty apathetic when it came to politics, preferring to pass the buck to the "die-hards." But after reading this book, something funny happened. I became angry. I started to care about where our America was heading. As dramatic as it sounds, Franken's book alone, changed the course of my life. It made me think. It made me question. This book should be required reading before the upcoming election.
Rating: 
Summary: AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Review: "LIES AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM" SHOULD BE USED
BY AL FRANKEN FOR HIS AUTO-BIOGRAPHY...IT WOULD BE HIS ONLY
CONTRIBUTION TO THE AMERICAN WAY OF LIFE!
Rating:
Summary: The rich yet miserable Al Franken, God bless 'em...
Review: "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: An Unfair and Completely Unbalanced Look at the Right"
by Al Franken The above is the title that Mr. Franken should have used for this ridiculous and trite publication. I wanted to like this book - really, I did - but I just couldn't take it seriously enough to the obviously predisposed attitude that Mr. Al takes. I criticize the right almost as much as I do the left, but this piece of asinine statement after asinine statement naturally made my eyes roll over and over for its imprudent attempt to belittle the "dishonest" right. Puh-leeze, Mr. Franken - your pandering to the left is as obvious as Rush Limbaugh's for the right. You and Michael Moore (clearly your lost soulmate) need to get together and comfort one another.
Rating: 
Summary: Politicians lie... what a revelation.
Review: "Lies" is a moderately entertaining book from a over-achieving Al Franken. If the book is taken at base level - a political commentary written by a comedy writer - it can be a fun read. But when Franken at times begins to suppose he is an expert in politics, his naivete undermines his ability to make his arguments. Regarding his arguments... he makes no more impressive arguments regarding the "political enemy" then do opposite numbers Coulter & Co. "Lies" is good for a few good laughs and enjoyable anecdotes. But if you look deeper, you'll come up a little empty. And you'll realize what a scary situation it is that a large majority of the voting public get their political ideologies from comedy writers and disc jockeys.
Rating:
Summary: Clone Al Franken
Review: "Lies" is laugh-out-loud funny, and it is well-informed and informative, as well. Its foundation is a love of America and a desire to better the human condition and live up to the promises of our Founding Fathers and Mothers. Its method is rigorous research, applied tactically and courageously, combined with humor. I'm a stickler for civil discourse. I reject ad hominem commentary and obscene language. Yet Franken gets away with both and is very funny to boot. He says things about Ann Coulter that I suspect many of us have been thinking since first seeing her on TV, but haven't wanted to say, out of courtesy's sake. Franken says these things in a way that is so funny you are laughing too hard to monitor your laughter to make sure it is polite. In his own defense, he points out that his targets, Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, etc, have made ad hominem commentary their stock in trade. Franken reports on Limbaugh referring to the teenage Chelsea Clinton as the "White House dog," for example, and Ann Coulter naming a list of ugly Democratic women. After Franken exposes the venom, the distortions, and the mean-spirited sneakiness of his opponents, you see the logic behind his own exasperated and yet precise attacks. Too, Franken points out the simple, basic lies that these same folks have promulgated as facts. And he has had the courage to confront his opponents in person. "Facts are stubborn things," as John Adams said. Franken has done considerable research to use facts to expose his opponents as basing their positions on sand. And yet, for all its genuine erudition, its core of compassionate and patriotic outrage -- this is a very, very funny book. This is the kind of book that is dangerous to read in a public place. You can't help but laugh out loud and draw attention to yourself. This book aroused in me a great admiration for Al Franken, and a feeling that if liberals want to regain power in America, they might do well to learn from his humor, his armory of facts, and his considerable courage.
Rating:
Summary: Al Franken Tells It Like It Isn't
Review: "Telling the truth is something I take seriously, and I try to hold myself to an impossibly high standard." This time, Al Franken may have set the bar too high. By his own account, the self-appointed scourge of right-wing lies and liars has something of a truth problem himself. But let him tell the story: April 21, 2003 Dear Attorney General Ashcroft, I am currently a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, where I am working on a book about abstinence programs in our public schools entitled, Savin' It: The book's fourth chapter, "Role Modelin' It!," will feature the personal stories of abstinence heroes for our nation's young people to emulate . . . I would very much appreciate it if you could share your abstinence story. So far, I have received wonderful testimonies from HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson, William J. Bennett, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, Cardinal Egan, Senator Rick Santorum, and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. (I'm still hoping to hear back from the President!) And so on. The letter was a pretty obvious con, and none of the 28 people to whom Franken sent it was fooled. Somebody even tipped off the Kennedy School that Franken was misusing its stationery. He apologized to Harvard--but not to any of his intended victims. Anybody can type out a deceitful letter. (Well, almost anybody.) To lie to people's faces--and to do it over and over again--requires a more hardened character. Franken, though, is up to the challenge. Franken might well excuse these excursions into deception as comedy--pure entertainment. But that only raises another mystery: how does a man who values truth so highly as Franken says he does, and is so plainly eager to have his readers think him a nice guy, convince himself that it is OK to deceive people in order to lure them into doing foolish things that will cause others to laugh at them? Is that not compounding deceit with cruelty? And yet, even Al Franken's keenest fans may sense that, in most of the "lies" he detects, there is (shall we say) a lack of oomph. Who would lay out $24.95 to be told that George W. Bush's claim to have eliminated income taxes for millions of low-income taxpayers is a lie because it says nothing about payroll and excise taxes? If that kind of thing gets you excited, there are ten Democratic presidential candidates who will say it to you for free--and, if you live in Iowa or New Hampshire, even throw in a steak dinner or fish fry to thank you for listening. Not that Franken is unamusing: there are bits of Lies that might elicit chuckles even from those who do not share his politics: "God chose me to write this book . . The reason I know God chose me is because God spoke to me personally. God began our conversation by clearing something up. Some of George W. Bush's friends say that Bush believes God called him to be President during these times of trial. But God told me that He/She/It had actually chosen Al Gore by making sure that Gore the popular vote and, God thought, the electoral college. Overall it can be entertaining at some points, but hardly to be considered at all a serious political book. It should in fact be placed in the satire section. You want real political comedy, buy Give War a Chance by P. J. O'Rourke. That's truly an amazing read...
Rating:
Summary: The Tao of Franken
Review: "We could attack conservatives with nasty words and character assasinations, but that wouldn't make us any better than them. No, we must bring people to our (the Democratic) side by being attractive and funny." Al, thank you for this book, you are a pioneer in the war on Republican B.S. To those who haven't read it, you will find that the scenarios that Al paints in the book are all recent headlines. Talk about preliminary and in-depth research...this is one of the most poignant and timely political books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Agitprop Secrets of the Left Revealed
Review: "WHY IS IT THAT CREEPS LIKE MICHAEL MOORE AND AL FRANKEN CAN GET AWAY WITH THEIR LIES AND FABRICATIONS? WHEN CHALLANGED THEY CLAIM IT'S ONLY "SATIRE" FRANKEN HAD HARVARD STUDENTS HELP WITH RESEARCH ON THIS LIE FILLED BOOK. YEA HARVARD THEIR "FAIR AND BALANCED"." - Probably because they use such clever propaganda techniques as proper grammar, spell checkers, complete sentences; and most insidious all, wit.
Rating:
Summary: Sweet coating for a bitter topic
Review: 'Lies....' puts a sugar coating of humor on a bitter topic
Al and TeamFranken have done a tremendous service for us all. For people who consider themselves conservatives, the style of this book will be a challenge. This is unfortunate, as many of these folks might be shocked to learn just how far around the bend their leaders and media champions have gone to 'win'. For 'middle of the political roaders' and disenfranchised potential voters who have been too numbed to pay attention and get out to a polling place recently, this book should be required reading before November '04. For Liberals - well, you sort of new this stuff all along, and this is a reason to laugh through the tears of frustration and rage. The media attack dogs of the right and their masters in the inner sanctum of the Republican party have been alarmingly effective at twisting facts and stifling honest and reasonable political discourse for more than two decades. Americans are way past-due for an antidote to the invective from Rove, Atwater, Rush, Coulter, North, Colson, Poindexter, et al. that has come close to terminally poisoning the political process. Without the anti-emetic effects of humor, this catalogue of the Right's political tactics would be too infuriating to read.
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