Rating: 
Summary: Don't Quit Your Day Job Al...
Review: Then again, maybe he should. He hasn't done anything remotely funny since...well, I guess he never was that funny. Franken's star-power peaked about as high as his sub-par movie, "Stuart Saves His Family," which is probably remembered by only a handful of people. So that really didn't pan out like he would've liked it to. I guess that meant it was time to try a new angle to get the mindless sheeple in America to fill his pockets. What better way than to pander to left-wingers and their agenda, since most of them really are simply mindless sheeple. There's an audience out there who are just so emotionally livid that a Republican is President, they'll eat up anything that is anti-conservative. That's where Al and his book come in. However, Mr. Franken has zero credibility and it is clearly evident that he verbally manipulates the things he choses to write about in order to suit his assertions. Here's just one of many examples from frankenlies.com that reveals such tactics: "Bush's 2001 tax-cut plan is another target of Franken (Chapter 35 of Lies). Franken spins an array of numbers to give his readers the impression that George Bush's tax cut is just a swell arrangement for the rich. What has a more objective source said about Bush's plan? Time magazine, certainly not a Bush administration sympathizer, admitted Bush's $1.6 trillion tax-cut plan, "is not a sweetheart deal for the rich. It's primarily a sweetheart deal for just the people whom, [Tom Daschle said], Bush's plan 'shortchanges' -- working families.'1 The lowest tax bracket under Bush's plan was reduced from 15 to 10 percent, a difference of 33 percent. No other tax bracket sees nearly such a change. Of course, if you want to look at the tax plan in pure dollars, as Franken does, Bush's plan is open to all sorts of spin. The bottom line is if you give a gazillionaire any kind of tax cut, he will obviously keep more money than someone in the bottom bracket. But that's because he's a gazillionaire. Any tax cut at the top end will benefit the top end in raw numbers alone. Under the Bush plan, the top bracket is lowered from 39.6 percent to 33 percent, a difference of almost 17 percent. Compare that to the 33 percent savings found among those in the lowest bracket. Now people can understand President Bush when he says, 'The bottom end of the economic ladder receives the biggest percentage cuts.'2 The President is telling the truth. But Franken? The issue of taxes has been major issue of debate between conservatives and liberals for eons. President Kennedy (a liberal) believed in tax cuts. President Clinton did not. Each side offers a respectable position. The least Franken can do is 'engage his readers honestly' (Lies, page 20)." __________________ Notes: 1 Frank Pellegrini, "Dissecting Bush's Tax-Cut Plan," Time, February 27, 2001. 2 Ibid.
Rating: 
Summary: THE PERSON WHO SAID IF YOU WRITE BAD THINGS ABOUT PEOPLE...
Review: then your mom dies...I'd just like to say, "Mr. O'Reilly, don't you have better things to do then waste your time writing reviews on Amazon?" Perhaps, he has another trashy novel to write. Anyone who would say this is a heartless idiot who needs to be strapped on a shuttle going straight to the sun. Anyways, this book was awesome. I read it months ago and I loved it. I really just wanted to write this review since I read in "Mother Jones" that someone wrote a review saying that Mr. Franken's mother died b/c he wrote this book! Utterly disgusting....
Its almost as bad as lying about a war and sending young men and women to die for some worthless imperialist fight....
Rating: 
Summary: Dissapointing: This Is No Longer the Al Franken Decade
Review: There are times that Al Franken can be funny; though in this book he mostly strikes out (I do like the part about challenging the conservative pundit who called Democrats "feminine" to a fistfight!). I was hoping that Franken would objectively critique and maybe even puncture some holes in the credibility of some of the more opinionated media figures. Unfortunately he swings sloppily and misses almost always: You mean Bill O'Reilly has a temper and an ego? Fine but does he have journalistic integrity? Franken never gets around to that part.
Regarding the controversial pundit Ann Coulter, Franken comes out toothless. Consider that Ms. Coulter has accused many public figures and politicians of collaborating towards our nation's demise. She provides evidence that there were Soviet spies in the highest levels of government and some of their protectors and enablers in the Democratic party still have great power today. Franken avoids all of this and instead nit-picks on insignificant peripheral issues such as Coulter saying "footnotes" when she should have said "endnotes". Is that the most substantive "lie" that he could find? (I recommend "The Trouble with Treason", by David Horowitz - see FrontPagemag.com)
"Lies", holds to Franken's comedic roots, his greatest strength. But considering the subject matter he should have been able to bulldoze a few doors down. Instead he knocks lightly and whines at the other side.
Rating:
Summary: Lies and the lying liars who tell them!
Review: There couldn't be a better title for this book!
Al dives headfirst as instructed by God (Just read the intro!) into the craziest speakers for the right. I love the chapter on Ann Coulter! He continues to delve deeper into the lies certain conservatives have told, and makes his way to Bush! This is a funny yet anger invoking book, much in the style of Stupid White Men by Moore. Lies, however, is a little more well-researched then Stupid White Men, and Al is a little less all out extreme. I love Moore however, and if you liked Stupid White Men, you will LOVE Lies! Hell, I think anyone who isn't a die-hard rush limbaugh or ann coulter fan will love this book! Definatly the best political book I've read in a very long time!
Rating:
Summary: Fox flunkies and others flunking the lie detector test
Review: There has been such a rash of books exposing lies, damn lies and the deficit statistics to match in the Bushwacked dot.gov recently that one wonders if they should require politicians to wear lie detectors whenever they speak in public. It wouldn't be hard to invent such a device. A baseball cap with electrodes that twirled a propeller when the pol crossed from white lies to major fibbin. Next to Corn's The Lies of George Bush, Big Lies by Conason, and Alterman's What Liberal Media, Franken's fullback charge seems like an episode from the 'incredible hulk', but more controlled, and better researched. It's time, although I hope the author didn't rip his shirt. This could be close to the point of no return in the basic drift toward the far right that has overtaken the public sphere with results that will prove less than fun, and hopefully not irreversible if we can hope the public sees through these apocalyptic saboteurs in the monopoly media such as Fox News. So cut to the facts, good job.
Rating:
Summary: The cocoon busted open!
Review: There is a stranglehold on truth in contemporary American politics. Al Franken's latest offering loosens this bizarre hold by revealing the truth behind the lies and spin. For those who would like a peek outside the cocoon of lies, this book exposes the process of lying, the liars themselves and the creation of popular right-wing mythology.
I feel sorry for those who actually believe in Rush, Hannity, O'Reilly, Coulter, or anyone else from the wacky right. Unless they steer clear of this book, they are about to have their world shattered.
Franken combine's heartfelt sincerity with acidic wit and well-researched facts. Although he plays some ping-pong with the narrative, Franken's stories always wind their wayback to the point with a hilarious climax. It's truly a delight to read, no lie.
Rating:
Summary: On Principle Only!
Review: There is no doubt about it: Author Franken is preaching to the choir. "Lying Liars" is for the converted, not for the politically curious. Franken takes dead and frequently deadly aim at the right wing media and the conservative Republicans who are so shamelessly taking over this country for their own selfish aims. The trouble with "LL" is that those of us who oppose the Bushes, Cheneys, Ashcrofts and O'Reillys of the world have heard and read these accusations and verbal thrusts before. They are regularly on the airwaves/pages of responsible media like CNN and The New York Times. But folks like Maureen Dowd and Thomas Friedman express themselves vastly better than does Franken. "LL" has a fault common to too many current books: It is poorly edited, often meandering, full of digressions and side channels that dilute its' message. It often reads as if rushed to print. As an admitted member of the "choir", I'm afraid it will take much more than a few "Lying Liars" to marshal the forces necessary to take this country back again. "LL" is but one way station on a long road back to political sanity. The 5 star rating is on General Principles only. For substance, sensible folks will have to keep searching.
Rating:
Summary: Lesson for ALL YOU CHILDREN
Review: There is no liberal conspiracy. There is no conservative conspiracy. Just differing highly ignorant and uneducated points of view. A pox on all your houses.
Rating:
Summary: Can't stop reading it!
Review: There is not much that can be said against facts. Al Franken describes in a straighforward way some facts that are well known and, yet, some pretend not to know it.
It shows a side of the Media that everybody knows, and very little is done to prevent it. A Media that quickly jumps into a scandal, but refuses to give the same air-time if that scandal turn out not to be true.
The American Media is a 6-year-old kid that only wants to listen to what interest him and when it doesn't, it keeps repeating "I-can't-hear-you-I-can't-hear-you...la-la-la-la-la" until it all goes away.
This book is a must read to any smart person that wants to detach its opinion from the biased sources that exist today.
Rating:
Summary: Al's Big Lies and the lies he tells...
Review: There is not much to say about Al Franken except that he is a in his own little universe. He skirts issues, distorts reports, quotes media biases, and makes up the rest. This book is a joke and a laugh a minute...but that is about all...
| 
