Rating: 
Summary: Not balanced but accurate
Review: This very funny but extremely serious book goes after the deliberate falsehoods perpetrated by the right-wing on "liberals."
As you may know, the Fox Network went after Franken for trademark infringement because he used the phrase "fair and balanced." The judge threw out the suit as completely ludicrous and made several trenchant comments about the inability of the Fox executives to recognize satire when they saw it
.
Harvard University gave Franken a fellowship to basically do whatever he wanted, but demurred at his idea of having Harvard students write his son's college application, but Harvard demurred. He finally hit upon the idea of having a group of students do research for his book. They bought the idea. His first target is Ann Coulter, author of Scandal. Franken methodically picks apart her book, revealing it for the inaccurate, if not disingenuous, piece of nonsense it is. He also shows how she has blatantly lied about things. Her Connecticut driver's license shows her birth date as 1961; her Washington DL says 1963. She claims the Washington DL is correct, which means she voted as a sixteen-year-old. On one of the applications she lied about her age. Now, many people have done that, but since the US Patriot Act makes it a felony to put false information on a government ID, she could be whisked away and held without counsel for a long time. I wish they would. Simple charges she makes in her book were never checked. For example, she complains that Evan Thomas, supposedly one of those heinous liberals, was the son of Norman Thomas, four-time [sic] candidate for president on the Socialist party ticket. Actually, he ran six times, and a simple phone call to Evan Thomas reveals that he is not the son of Norman Thomas. Coulter's book is filled with such false details. Either she is extremely lazy or a blatant liar. Franken obviously suspects the latter. Francken has infuriated that scion of right-wing Fox Bill O'Reilly by publicly pointing out many untruths that O'Reilly has put forth. At Book Expo in Los Angeles, O'Reilly was humiliated by Franken, who categorically listed all sorts of lies O'Reilly had perpetrated on the public. Now, Franken makes clear that occasionally making a mistake on a statistic is hardly a crime, but O'Reilly's customary tactic, when challenged with the correct information from unimpeachable sources is to simply bully and yell at his challenger rather than correct the mistake. The problem is also that he makes lots of mistakes. More from the "sewer of right-wing dishonesty. When he interviewed the son of a worker killed on 9/11 on February 4th, 2003, he became enraged at the son's opposition to the war in Iraq, had his engineer cut off the man's microphone, and sent him packing saying to him after the show's end, "Get out of my studio before I tear you to f*cking pieces." O'Reilly, who constantly rails at the lyrics of rap songs, wrote a murder mystery in 1998, Those who Trespass (about a serial killer who murders everyone who interferes with his rising television career), that took explicit sex and violence to new heights and the English language to new lows. In one murder, the victim is killed by having a spoon driven through the roof of her mouth into her brain stem. Variants of the "F" word and "B" word are used more than 51 times. Case of the pot calling the kettle black? O'Reilly is not a nice man. Team Franken took a look at Hannity's (of Hannity and Colmes,) book to verify the factualness of his statements. Examples of disingenuousness and dishonesty abound. Bush's initial indifference to al Qaeda prior to 9/11 is astonishing. The Clinton administration had developed plans for eliminating Bin Laden, but those plans were ignored. That the Bin Laden family were good friends with the Bush family is well-known, and Franken speculates as to what might have happened to Clinton had he been so nice to the Bin Laden family, permitting a Saudi plane to fly around the country picking up family members for return to Saudi Arabia, while American airplanes were grounded. In the meantime, President Bush has broken all presidential records for the number of days spent on vacation. The book is often uneven, some parts funnier and some more serious. Should one laugh or cry learning that many of our leaders today, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Bush, and other chickenhawks who are sending men off to die in war, did everything in their power, having their fathers pull strings and inventing flimsy excuses (shouldn't pick on Limbaugh, I think he was just too fat) to avoid service in Vietnam.
Rating: 
Summary: Unnecessary and Disgusting
Review: This vitriol will not win elections. Thank goodness this guy speaks for the same vocal MINORITY who dress like hippies and attend sit-ins at UC Berkeley.
Rating:
Summary: Great read.
Review: This was a fun book to read. Franken is scrupulous with his details, and does a great job of showing just how sloppy so much of the right-wing propoganda out there really is. If you haven't read this book yet, get to it!
Rating:
Summary: The beginning of the end for the neo-cons
Review: This was a great read, I highly recommend this book! Al and TeamFranken blow the lid off the right-wing lies and the liars who tell them. It's about time. I especially enjoyed his destruction of the pompous and simple-minded Sean Hannity. People are beginning to wake up to the steady stream of lies spewed forth by the right-wing nuts and this book will help precipitate the fall of neo-cons into what we can only hope will be permanent exile to the fringes of society where they belong. We need only look to the current Administration to see what happens when lying neo-cons get in power--complete dishonesty and chaos, and a president who encourages attacks on our troops with his macho "bring 'em on" statements. Read this book if you want to know the truth about these despicable characters, and Al just scratches the surface of their mendacity.
Rating:
Summary: great read.
Review: This was a great read. Al Franken really captured the view of the right wing. For more recommendations, visit www.campaign2004.com
Rating: 
Summary: not bad...
Review: This was an enjoyable and entertaining read. For the most part, the facts seem pretty spot on. As in all books of a political nature there is going to be some skewing of facts due to bias, but in this case the skewing is done intelligently and with an eye towards convincing the reader rather than intimidating them into believing. I read through a great deal of other reviews on here that seem rather politically biased and bent more on condemning the author because of his political views rather than critiquing the book on its own merits. Please, if you are going to give the book a negative review it would help those of us who actually think for ourselves when we read political literature if you would say what particular facts are wrong and citing a source to back up your statement rather than pointing at the author and calling him a big, fat liar. This goes for the Frankenphilic dittoheads out there. Ok, I got it. Your'e a liberal. So am I...now tell me WHY THIS BOOK IS GOOD.
Rating:
Summary: Get RENEWED!!
Review: This was an interesting concept but unfortunately the ideas offer little insight and no action plans for positive solutions. If you would like to read the best book on social issues read RENEW: The Day We Solve All Our Problems by E. R. Marks. RENEW is electrifying and brilliant. It will change our views on social issues and will dramatically and immediately increase the quality of life of every American.
Rating:
Summary: Fun, funny, good facts!
Review: This was fun reading and with a lot of documented facts. I am not an objective reader - I find FOXnews and Coulter ridiculous, but I loved Franken's book and it is a needed text to counter all the c r a p that one hears and sees from the conservative media.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This was one of the best books I've ever read. Franken does not only attack the right but actually uses facts to prove his points. It is nice to see someone backing up what they say and willing to take on anyone if they would talk to him about it. I do want to thank Bill O'Reilly, if he hadn't complained about the book on his show I never would have bought it. Buy this book, you won't be dissappointed.
Rating:
Summary: funny and informative
Review: This was really captivating reading. The book illustrates so many examples of blatant dishonesty by journalists and officials on the right. Franken is a clever writer and has uncovered a wealth of material to work with. He also had a team of student researchers and this was really evident in the detail and documentation he provided for his arguments. One of my favorite bits was the discussion about a chart Hannity presented which showed the difference between Reagan's yearly budget and congressional spending. The chart had a number called "cumulative difference" which was listed as 24.5%, indicating what seems to be a big difference. In actuality the average yearly difference was (according to the chart) 3.1%. The number 24.5 was 3.1 multiplied by Reagan's 8 years in office!
| 
