Rating: 
Summary: readable and funny
Review: This and James Carville's Had Enough? are the best of a good crop of liberal reading out now. Carville's gets very specific in his recommendations about what he is FOR (not just what he is against)--which is refreshing and helpful.Franken's book is funnier and goes into more depth about the hypocrisy and mendacity and cruelty and elitism that are the Bush Administration. That is, it's more about what he is against. But who could reasonably NOT be against such things. Even Bush pretends to be, which is why he has to lie so much. Two of the very short chapters are brilliant and priceless. Franken sent an Abstinence Endorsement letter out to the bigwigs in the Administration--Ashcroft, Rice, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Bush, etc.--and asked them to send back personal accounts of how they maintained sexual abstinence and how they profited by it. None of them wrote back--presumably because they didn't practice it. The other is "Supply Side Jesus," which captures in nice, Chick Comic style, the hypocrisy of Bush's Pharisees, who believe that Jesus was for the rich and against everyone else. A great and funny and illuminating book. Franken is even honest enough to admit HE was deceived by Bush's lies about Iraq and at first supported the invasion. This is his main point: Bush lies because lies work.
Rating: 
Summary: Al Franken is the idiot
Review: This author can't even defend himself in a public forum. When attempting a response, it's obvious that his claims are based on lies.
Rating:
Summary: The truth hurts the liars... and those who stick up for them
Review: This book (and Jim Hightower's Latest: Thieves in High Places...) has both entertained me and given me the strength and determination to get more active in politics. I had known all along about the right-wing shaft-job that has been going on lately, but did not have the time or energy to do the research myself.
Franken is very funny, but the humor is only the icing on the cake. He exposes some of the truly nauseating facts about the right wingers stationed on Fox news and AM talk radio where they can delude the easy-to-fool older folks into believing that giving money to the rich will somehow benefit old-timers on social security. Let's face it, the media has become so skewed by corporatization that no fact that we read in a newspaper or see on TV can be trusted at face value. You know that you should be skeptical about what people say in a newsgroup on the internet, but you have yet to understand that you need to apply the same scrutiny to EVERYTHING you see on TV, hear on the radio, or read in your local paper. No more can we rely on news outlets (with a few exceptions like public television and public radio) to make sure that we get the truth...all they tell us is what we want to hear and what their owners want us to hear. But enough from me... read this book by Franken and the other by Hightower, too... then think about them both.
Rating:
Summary: An Absolute Page Turner!
Review: This book absolutely astonished me. I found it hard to put it down. I also found it a little unnerving (the dirty underhandedness of the right), but hey, I'm glad I'm no longer living in ignorance. Al is a true American in every sense of the word, because he cares enough to exploit these liars for just what they are. I would encourage anyone who hasn't read it to beg, borrow, or steal (well, maybe not steal) a copy because you owe it to yourself and your country to be better informed of the liberties taken my the media and how it affects us all. My only regret is that Al isn't running in the next Presidential election. I think Michael Moore would make an excellent running mate. Hats off to you Al, keep up the good work!
Rating:
Summary: Disturbing for People Who Love America
Review: This book and the revalations contain within are are a disturbing revalation to the multitudes of lies, deciet, misguidence that has attacked this country like a virus over the past several years. For over a year now I've been personnaly bombarded by increasingly vicious attacks for following my beliefs, and comming to my own conclusions from people I was thought used to be rational individuals before their minds were poisioned by Fox News. They, my friends, in a typical attack would come at me with pointed attacks armed with the right wing talking points of the day which I unaware of and hence caught off guard, so would have to sit there and take it shaking my head and offering my only defense, "that just doesn't seem true". I'm not one to argue a point in which I have no hard data. The main attack strategy consisted of the following argument, "There is a liberal bias in the media, and it is time to root it out." I consider myself to be a pretty observant guy, and I can spot a phoney for miles. That being said, I never saw the leftist conspiracy they were talking about. I actually looked. I watched hours and hours of CNN, read news reports by Reuters, NPR and the like. I never saw the bias. That's because it doesn't exist. If anything, CNN tries to be too independant, and so that makes them boring. There is however a right wing Media. You know who they are, Fox News, Talk Radio, etc. An unscientific scanning of daily news stories during the Iraq war confirmed my suspicions. Any story which in some remote way could be construed harmful to the political right was spun around by Fox oh so many times that the same story reported on Fox news online when compared to any other main stream news organization's article covering the same story was barely recognizable. I should note for all you political hardliners out there that I once considered myself a conservative, although now I realize that I don't readily fit into either camp. You have to however pick sides. I used to pick conservative becauise I'm a fiscal conservative, and I ignored foreign policy and the environment. My grass was green. However, now I'm older and wiser and I realize that when I get lightheaded while playing ultimate frisbee near the dunlop plant in Madison, Al it is because of the chemicals that they are spewing into the air and because my body is screaming for some clean air to fill my lungs while running aroung chasing a frisbee. However, because of the current right wing media's sickening attacks on everyone and anyone whom so every even questions their ludicrous statements like, "democrats hate america," and the ever popular, "demon-crats" I am now going to say I'm a liberal. I believe all name callers in the politcal right should be taken back to grade school to let the bullies beat them up for making smart ass remarks that they can't back up. This book debunks famous right wing myths such as "the White house vandalizing myth", "the Clinton was offered Bin Laden lie", "the more honorable white house myth", the pathological lies of Bill o'Reilly, and the disturbing evidence about what the president was warned about but failed to act upon prior to 9/11. This book is a rare gem in research journalism, but Al does get a little pushey near the end of the book when he engages in ad hominen attacks on people to which he has less evidence with which to attack.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny and full of facts, but too much is too questionable.
Review: This book backs what it says about the twisted and wrong things that the Bush administration has and hasn't done with factual references that are important for every American blinded by a propaganda laden, and sensationalist Fox News (The ultimate in Jerry Springer type media.), but Bill Clinton wasn't exactly the Prince that he describes him to be, and his personal stories are a tad questionable as well. An important book for any American who isn't a lock step lemming, and who wants to improve their great nation in 2004.
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Summary: Funny and Witty, but Not Intellectually Honest
Review: This book basically summarizes the political left-wing mindset in this country. Obviously, there is a blatant bias in favor of contemporary liberal ideas and thoughts. It almost seems like the book was written as a morale booster for those who dislike conservative ideas/thoughts/pundits. While this book is Left-wing political satire at its best, it also does not hold water in terms of being unbiased. If branding someone as a liar also includes half-truths and pawning off opinion as fact, then there certainly is an argument for Franken being included in the group of people he calls liars. Just as many books written by conservative authors 'spin' the facts, so does Franken. Anyone who makes written or verbal errors on the record can be branded a liar when you read or hear them after the fact. For example, when Al Gore said that he invented the internet, did he lie--or did he misspeak? It all depends on how each of us prefers to see it, but Al Franken takes the low road and generally likes to follow the former assertion when discussing such instances. If you loved Franken's previous work of partisan satire, or are an unabashed, flaming liberal, you'll love this book; but if you're someone who is looking for unbiased viewpoints and realistic analysis of the U.S. political system, look elsewhere because this book will disappoint the discerning reader.
Rating:
Summary: I"m waiting for an intellegent concervative rebuttal
Review: This book brings up so many lies. I want to hear a point by point rebuttal by an intellegent conservative Bush supporter. I doubt that will ever happen. This book was funny, yet I got sad reading it. What is this country coming to? How can Bush supporters be so selective in their criticism of their leader? It is patriotic to ask for answers when confronted by untruths.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening and Entertaining Look at the Right
Review: This book did a great job at bringing to light some of the lies told by the Right (both the politicians and the media). I assume that he does not use the same "lying tactics" that he hammers the right for doing. This book will confirm the feelings of many leftist or even centrist readers, but it will not pursuade people who are sympathetic to the right. His humor (which is at times insulting to the right) will probably turn off some readers who will focus on his "character attacks" rather than the facts he is presenting. Finally, there were times in the book when I did not know if he was serious or not, because of the sarcastic way he presented some issues. Overall I think this book is an outstanding well crafted indictment of some of the right's more vocal ( and apparently lying) pundits.
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Summary: Critical as well as funny...
Review: This book does a great job of dissecting how tabloid celebrities like Bill O'Reilly (hypocrite), Sean Hannity (nazi) and Ann Coulter (oh my god, please call an exorcist!) systematically manipulate people in order to sell their books/shows/agenda and sensationalize non-issues (often to discredit their opponents and the "political left"). It is easy to dismiss books like this because they are "written by comedians" or "focus on criticisms rather than solutions", but I found that Mr. Franken did an excellent job of presenting the real facts while exposing the hypocrisy behind the right-wing media. The humor in the book is absolutely relevant to the discussion because some of the lies are so insanely obvious that you have to laugh at how easily they are being told by the right-wing media! Plus the humor makes the usual dry political issues easier to understand and read. Buy the book, pass it around, and laugh out loud (and boycott Fox!)...
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