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Summary: The truth can be hard to take-- if you're Coulter or O'Reill
Review: With the perfect blend of wit and fact, Franken reveals the fanatics of the right to be just that- fanatics. Liars, egomaniacs, incapable of truth-telling. The techniques of the right to get the false message across are nothing new. Spew the same lies long enough and they become part of the national discourse. But Franken proves that if think about what the right tells you and you think about it and do just a little research (they certainly don't) you can see through it in no time. Great book, do yourself a favor.
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Summary: Speaking Truth to Lies and Doing so with Wit
Review: With the same wit and intelligence that characterized his previous bestseller "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations", comedian and Harvard research fellow, Al Franken exposes and ridicules the mendacity of radical rightwing pundits and politicians. Unlike the targets of this hilarious book, Franken never stoops to lies and insults but instead does something far more effective: he examines their statements and holds them accountable according to publicly verifiable data. Well, OK, he does insult them to some degree but only on the basis of their own proven lies.If you are conservative then this book may be a bit difficult to swallow. One thing that might help is to keep in mind is that Franken isn't out to tarnish conservative values, just to expose the lies and the "myths of convenience" that are deliberately perpetrated by rightwing extremists. If you are liberal then this book may prove to be a breath of fresh air. After years under siege by right wing think tanks, shock jocks, and the consolidated corporate media, the left finally has a popular and entertaining voice of its own. And to make matters sweeter, he doesn't have to lie to be popular. Exactly how does Franken take on the likes of Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and other rightwing pundits? Together with his Harvard research team, Franken examines their broadcasted or published statements to determine their veracity. Using publicly available search tools such as LexisNexus and Google, Team Franken, as he and his research team are called, examines the various claims of famous rightwing extremists not with the deliberate intent of proving them wrong but simply to see if they can verify that they are correct. In the process of doing this, Team Franken not only exposes their numerous false statements, but also the methodology they use to generate them. Perhaps the most shockingly mendacious of this lot is Ann Coulter, who extracts words from her target publications and rearranges them with no background or context in order to ascribe to them an entirely different meaning. It's sort of like taking the words "Al Franken" and "lies" from this review and claiming that my review states that "Al Franken lies" when clearly it does not. Coulter also deliberately overloads search tools with extra words when she wants to claim that a target publication ignored or failed to print a story. As anyone who uses search tools can tell you, the most effective way to find what you are looking for is to start with the fewest words possible and to progressively add more as you narrow your search. It will be interesting if Coulter, an attorney, ever defends her conduct by claiming she didn't know how to use search tools properly. Franken also goes after the heavy weights such as George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Paul Wolfowitz and exposes how they mislead the public mainly by "slight-of-hand-lying". The most obvious example, according to Franken is the Bush tax cuts which the Administration claims will save the average American over $1,000 a year. But the keyword in this example is "average". Franken demonstrates that if you average his salary and Bill Gates' then the result is several billion dollars ON AVERAGE. This does NOT mean that each person has several billion dollars. Proceeding from this example, Franken provides charts that demonstrate how most Americans will gain very little from the tax breaks while those who earn over $300,000 will save a lot. Another example of "slight-of-hand" lying is the manner in which the Bush Regime addresses the total tax burden of average Americans and promises to relieve it with a tax cut. But what the Bush Regime deliberately fails to mention is that the tax cut is an INCOME TAX cut. Most of us (i.e. those of us who earn less than $300,000 per year) pay a combination of income taxes and PAYROLL TAXES, but the Bush Regime's tax cuts are only income tax cuts which means that individuals earning over $300,000 per year will get a substantially larger proportional tax cut than the rest of us or, put another way, our tax burden will be greater than theirs. Payroll taxes go toward such things as medicare and social security, but it is an accepted fact among all but the most indeologically right-wing economists that the Bush Regime's run-away deficit spending will ultimately result in the dismantling of social security, medicare and other social programs that we currently fund with our payroll taxes. A simpler and more honest way to look at it is that the Bush Regime is transferring the social security surplus to the super rich. That's right, our payroll taxes equal their tax cuts. Slight-of-hand lying. Finally, Franken takes on several "myths of convenience" including the purportedly liberal media that is owned, managed and edited by conservatives and generally advances the interests of corporations and the state. Franken also demonstrates that most "hawkish" conservatives avoided serving in the military during the Vietnam War or, as in the case of George W. Bush, used whatever methods were at their disposal to avoid serving in combat. Franken also demonstrates that it was Bill Clinton and not the current administration that implemented a technical revolution in the military that directly contributed to its success in Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally he points out the multi-billion dollar missile defense program rammed into law after 9-11 will not protect the United States from its most dire national security threat: terrorist attacks. If you disagree with the conclusions of this book, or you simply dislike Al Franken, I recommend that you do what he did; use Google and LexisNexis and check his facts to see if they hold up. But be aware that if you do this, you are already departing from the methodology used by the people that Franken critiques in this book, since you will be verifying facts instead of telling lies.
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Summary: Great book, I would recommend it to anyone
Review: Without a doubt, the BEST book I have ever read in my life. Franken hits the right very hard, and exposes Ann Coulter, Bill o'LIElly, and Bush for what they are: nutcases and liars. Operation Chickenhawk was funny, as is most of the content. If you are a liberal, and are tired of the right lying and misleading you, by all means, get this book. You'll be glad you did.
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Summary: It's hard to laugh...
Review: Without Franken's acerbic wit, you may just blow a gasket. The most interesting aspect is how he has proven that a simple phone call or source check can disprove many of the lies being spread by the non-liberal media. My only wish is that the non-liberal media had the balls to report the truth. It's also interesting how Rush Limbaugh has gotten all of his dittoheads to write reviews on a book they have no intention of reading.
Rating: 
Summary: laugh out loud at times, not so funny other times
Review: without getting into a political screaming match, as some of the reviews seems to do, I'll just announce early on that I'm probably one of those Bush-hating liberals the book was aimed at. So take the review at whatever value you'd now like to. That said, I found the book to be mixed in both its humor and effectiveness. Part of the reason I think is that this book is much less focused than his earlier book on Rush. Having a single focus in that book allowed Franken to bore in on topic, to have a sense of cohesion and chronology. Here, going after all the right, the effect is much more diffuse. Some sections are sharp and funny, others are mostly funny, and some aren't particularly funny at all (for instance, the chickenhawk short story which has its moments but goes on way too long). The other major problem Franken himself alludes to in his introduction when he says it was like shooting fish in a barrel. People like Coulter and Hannity are such obvious clowns--unserious people who come out and do some shtick while behind the scenes the serious, talented people are getting ready to do serious work--they are such obvious clowns that pointing out their "clownishness" is just too obvious. When Coulter basically says all democrats are traitors to their country, it isn't particularly perceptive to point out that she's an idiot. So Franken's subjects fail him more often than his style. And because he tries to get all of them, he is forced to skim through leaving him open to O'reilly's charge of "that's all you got?" (though it's pretty clear it isn't). There are strong moments in this book, both in terms of serious discussion of policy contrasts and in laugh-out-loud lines and images. He has good numbers to back up most of his points, so it doesn't read simply as a rant. It's a quick read thanks to his style so even if you find it uneven you quickly get through the worse sections and back into the strong ones. Overall, it's a good light-hearted but with a serious bite look at the more obvous fools of the right. A good browse-through book. If you're looking for a more in-depth debunking of the right's favorite war cries, I'd go to Joe Conason's book. If you want an in-depth, sharply critical look at Bush's policies with a bit of edgy humor, go to Molly Ivin's Bushwhacked. But if you want to laugh out loud a few times, feel a little mean but guiltily satisfied, pick up this one.
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Summary: More Unfunny Lies
Review: Worn out attempt at humor by Franken. How this guy got to be a celebrity is beyond me. Some funny ideas but overall a boring hatchet job. Books like have been done better with more wit and style.
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Summary: A Must read for Republicans and Demorats Alike!
Review: Worth reading twice. Even the table of contents is funny. First chapter builds slowly and next thing you know you are laughing out loud, repeatedly, constantly, regardless of where you are sitting while you read the book. Yet, oddly, while you laugh along with Franken's presentation, it is equally disturbing -- to see some of the amazing lies and "factoids" that Franken uncovers and debunks. Impressively researched, changed my opinion of COulter in less than a chapter. As a real compassionate conservative I appreciate Franken's subtext. It isn't a personal attack on all Republicans. It's a wake up call about a new generation with questionable politics and practices. Any intellecutal, regardless of party affiliation, should appreciate the genuineness of this book. Bravo. A truly patriotic read, celebrating what freedom of speech is all about (to Fox's disappointment I'm sure).
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Summary: A Shocked Liberal
Review: Wow ... I sit here shocked and dismayed. This book and its author is the central reason the progressive movement in this country is faltering. I was hoping to see some glimmer of sense and humor from Mr Franken in this book (call me naive), but all I was subjected to was an endless barrage of closed-minded political drivel, blatant half truths, and hate-filled rhetoric. There is enough repulsion in this book to drive away any thinking person from our cherished left. It serves only to tear down whatever moral and ethical advantage we held, and will certainly do nothing to convince those in the middle to join our causes - in fact, the vast middle will most likely begin marching right immediately after putting down this book. Many thanks Mr Franken, for making us all look like biased, hateful, ignorant ideological drones instead of the enlighted, caring citizens we are - well, most of us.
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Summary: Laugh while you cry
Review: Wow! After reading the Take off Your Blinders review by a conservative, I feel even better about Al Franken's amazing book. No only is it extremely well researched (down to transcripts of television broadcasts), but the points he makes are unavoidable. Before W. were living in peacetime, there was an anti-terrorism plan in place, civil liberties weren't at risk, and we had a surplus. And now, our young people are coming home in caskets, we are stuck in a mess in Iraq, the world hates us, and we're supposed to pay $87 billion to get out of it. My dad, a lifelong Republican, said "we've got to get this guy out of there," referring to Bush. To him (and to the Blinders reviewer), conservatism has nothing at all to do with running up huge deficits and wanton spending (such as $8,000 for Ashcroft's curtain). He also points out that we won in Kosovo without losing one American life. Franken is right on all counts, but he makes you laugh while you are pounding the armrest in anger. If he's done anything good this year, Franken has motivated a lot of people to get out and do something about this disaster we are in now.
Fantastic work. Even the copious endnotes make great reading.
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Summary: Ouch! Hahaha!
Review: Wow! Hit 'em with their own poop, Al! What a breath of fresh air for us all. At first my husband thought this book might not be serious. He asked questions like: 1) How did Bush manage to get through Yale? and 2)What were his SAT scores? The book pops the festering pimples of the ultra-right tatcics and rhetoric that have been covering face or poor Lady Liberty these days. Well done!
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