Rating: 
Summary: Very funny and oh so true
Review: Al Franken is a double threat. He can cause belly laughs when you see him on TV and have the same effect when reading his books. Franken's also a double threat because he's not only funny, but he he's right.
In talking on Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly and other scoundrels of the right, Franken does not just rely on humor, he also has the facts straight.
Franken exposes the right wing's numerous distortions, exaggerations, half-truths and -- lies with his wonderful blend of humor and well-documented facts.
It is a sad commentary on our society that so much of the angry bile ridden right wing propaganda (much of it masqueraded as news) is swallowed hook, line and sinker by too many gullible Americans. Franken masterfully documents many of the most oft repeated canards mainly by doing what the right so seldom bothers with, digging out the truth.
For example Franken gets the story straight about how former President Clinton actually strengthenened the U.S. military, fought terrorism thoughout his eight years and helped build a strong economy. All of this contradicting right wing claims.
Franken is, as the book's title proves, fearless. He confronts his opponent's head on AND gives them the opportunity to respond. In other words he is fair and...well, balanced.
Franken's book is good for a laugh, that is until you start contemplating the dangerous lies and myths that he is exposing. The book is an excellent illustration of how twisted news and commentary is perhaps the greatest threat to our free society.
An important read for anyone interested in examining some of the lies spreading around this country today and wanting a few yucks in the bargain.
Rating: 
Summary: Al Franken is my Braindead Liberal Hero
Review: Al Franken is a false god to me! I am liberal: I smoke pot, i have debauched intercourse the whole day long with minors, and i don't ever drag my lazy hide EVER to work!So yea, being a liberal, I must return the favor to Franken with 5 stars!!!
Rating:
Summary: Funny and TRUE!
Review: Al Franken is a funny guy, and he's done a terrific job of exposing some of the lies and half-truths we are told by ultra-conservative right wing types. Best of all, his documentation is solid. Give this one a read, it's an eye-opener! Oh, one more thing: I find it interesting that in a lot of the negative reviews here, the reviewers resort to NAME-CALLING. Kind of helps to prove Franken's points, I think.
Rating: 
Summary: No lies, but plenty self-serving
Review: Al Franken is a funny man, as he has proven in a couple of decades of writing for "Saturday Night Live." And because some of the same right-wing celebrities raise as many hackles on him as they do on me, I wanted very much to like Franken's new book. But Franken's "Lies And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right".. is as repetitive and unwieldly as its title. The book, in fact, gained some undue publicity because of that title. Fox News recently tried to sue Franken for using the words "fair and balanced," claiming that they had copyrighted those words as a trademark for their news broadcast. Franken, almost literally, laughed the case out of court. However, that's one of the few genuine laughs the book earns. Franken tries hard--a bit too hard, at times--to humorously point out many of the distortions made by notable conservatives to support their beliefs. Franken doesn't pick on insignificant targets, either--his grouping of "The Right" includes Rush Limbaugh, Fox News' Bill O'Reilly (on whom he spends an inordinate amount of time), and the current President and Vice-President, among many others. Based on the many inconsistencies documented here, Franken could have presented them straightforwardly and had quite a case. But there are two big problems with Franken's style. First, his intended humor is writ very large, as evidenced in the book's title. It isn't enough for Franken to present a point comedically--he has to repeat it and beat it to death, like a combination of Dennis Miller and Mel Brooks. The second problem is that Franken appears to have as self-serving of an agenda as the people he tries to satirize. Throughout the book, he continuously refers to his careers as an "SNL" writer (at one point describing a '70s sketch he wrote that has nothing to do with the subject at hand) and as a "comedian" for corporate presentations. After a while, it starts to sound like Bob Hope complaining about the generals who hired him to do USO shows. The book isn't painful to read, and some of its barbs are well-deserved. But if Franken had taken most of his overworked satire out of the book, it would have been half as long and twice as readable. As it stands, "Lies" is very difficult to take (you should pardon the expression) seriously.
Rating:
Summary: A non-liberal recommends this book to other non-liberals
Review: Al Franken is a funny, snarky guy and his "Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them)" is a great book. While it is perhaps a little uneven in its hilarity, the funny parts are very funny and he is consistently merciless in his flogging of "Right-wing" liars. (He uses the term "Left-wing" maybe once and instead prefers "liberal". I'm just trying to be fair and balanced.) Kudos to Franken for catching people like Bill O'Reilly and Anne Coulter in deceitful lies. I'm talking big, huge whoppers meant to mislead. And it's hilarious when he does. These people are shameless liars and its fun to laugh at them. My one critique is that he goes after easy targets like O'Reilly, Coulter, Sean Hannity and George W. Bush who are all intellectually bankrupt miscreants. I don't blame Franken for doing so, that's where the big laughs (and the big lies) are. But the implication is that all conservatives are all like them--stupid, evil, and deceitful--and that's not fair. Like in his other book, "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations", Franken complains about ad hominem attacks from the Right. Here he also points out how hypocritical Bush's pledge to "change the tone in Washington" was. But Franken proceeds to paint all conservatives and Republicans with the same broad brush, often acerbically. I know. It's satire. I get it and it's funny, but I'm just pointing out what his target "Left-wing" audience will probably take for granted. He also does things like infiltrate Bob Jones University, or confront Barbara Bush, that could fairly be characterized as mean-spirited. But of course in this context he can say to anyone who grumbles, "Oh lighten up! Don't you have a sense of humor?" And the thing is I do. If you know me, you know I'm no liberal. But neither am I a conservative. So, to my conservative and libertarian friends (and if they're my friends, they are critical thinkers who don't read books "by" Anne Coulter) I say, read this book. Take the chapters where Franken goes on about economic policy with a grain of salt, but relish the bulk of the book where he tears apart the administration, the talking heads, and rags like The Washington Times. Oh, and also enjoy the excerpts from Bill O'Reilly's filthy crime novel, "Those Who Trespass".
Rating: 
Summary: Hilarious! Irreverent!
Review: Al Franken is a genius when it comes to taking a very serious and sad situation and making it funny. Closed-minded conservatives will hate this book. I doubt any will be able to read it all the way through. The targets of Franken's acidic wit will dismiss this book out of hand or pull examples out of context to discredit his ideas. Of course, that's one of the behaviors Franken skewers in his book.
Frustrated liberals will love it, laugh out loud, and pass it around. Hopefully, moderates will take the occasionally rude humor in stride and examine the heart of Franken's argument.
Mr Franken does an excellent job of satirizing the most egregious examples of right wing political hype and showing just how ridiculous some media blowhards and politicians are. There are other more serious books available detailing the length and breadth of right wing hypocrisy and lies. Generally those books are a lot less fun to read.
My main critique is the book is too short. With an embarrassing wealth of factual examples to draw from, I think he finally got tired and depressed. Either than, or his money ran out and he couldn't pay his "Team Franken" researchers anymore. That Franken did do his homework is obvious. People may not like what he has to say or how he says it, but detractors will have a hard time proving anything he says is untrue. Except when he lies. Unlike many of our politicians and the incredibly lazy and sycophantic press that covers them, Franken will tell you when he's lying.
Rating:
Summary: Hehe ... let the sniggering begin
Review: Al Franken is a genius. He is the modern Mark Twain, only without bothering with all that literature stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Go back to SNL
Review: Al Franken is a gifted comedy writer. Somehow he, and his fans, got the idea that he is some kind of journalist or that his whimsical opinions offer some valid social comment. Read Paul Krugman, or Tom Friedman or some other liberal commentator who does legitimate research. If you want to see Al Franken's talent watch Stuart Smalley videos.
Rating:
Summary: Bowling ball journalism...but also very funny
Review: Al Franken is a good comedian. He also knows a thing or two about selling books. But I beg to differ with the author when he claims that "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right," captures his "hip, sohisticated New York sensibility." After all, Franken is a Minnesota boy who only happens to live in New York City. In my opinion, his writing style is much more like bowling ball journalism. As a whole, New Yorkers are more cool and do not make a habit of smacking people around with holier than thou rhetoric. Having said that...Franken lives up to his publisher's billing as "one of our savviest satirists." To his credit, the author has an outstanding research group which he calls, "TeamFranken" (undergraduates from Harvard University) who painstakingly detail how the Republican -Conservative Right in this nation lies and distorts information. Moreover, Franken (who is a good American) does a decent job of explaining the important fact that Liberals also love America. To this end, Franken's book exposes nasty Republican "Push Poll" tactics, documents the mean-spirited conduct of Karl Rove and explains the gross White House stupidity that prompted Senator Jim Jeffords of Vermont to alter the political landscape in Congress. On a positive note, Franken also lovingly pays tribute to deceased Minnesota Senator Paul Wellstone and his wife Sheila. Still and all, the author is dead wrong when he boldly declares that Bill Clinton is the greatest president of the twenty-first century. But without a doubt Al Franken is absolutely correct in concluding that the Bush/Chaney/Rumsfeld/Rice White House has embraced a political strategy of manipulating information to defy world opinion. Bert Ruiz
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant analysis by a modern Will Rogers
Review: Al Franken is a great American who has followed in the footsteps of Mark Twain. He is one of the very few with journalistic access to a wide audience who has actually undertaken the effort to fact check the outrageous claims made by any number of right leaning ideological zealots who seem to dominate our national political discourse. I applaud his efforts, and thank him profusely. But it begs the question. Why does it take a gifted humourist like Franken to get out the truth? Where are the journalists? The reporters? I would think that most of the lies that he exposes are pretty important, in the context of the public interest. Certainly more important than who it was Al Gore went to Texas with to inspect disaster relief aid requirements. The American public has been played as a nation of rubes--suckers--patsies--by a bunch of slick right wing confidence men. The press knows this--yet says nothing. Obviously, the fix has been in for quite some time. By the time the American public wakes up to discover they've been cleaned out--the culprits will be long gone, either lying comfortably in their graves, or livin' high in the south of France. I wish Americans would get smart, grow wise, become skeptical, and question authority. IS the public interest the same as the economic and financial interests of the ruling class? This book does not answer that question, but at least it exposes some of the lies of their power mongering servants.
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