Rating: 
Summary: Locker room humor but not much else
Review: I enjoy Al Franken's (frankness) as much as the next person but am sadly disappointed in his latest offering. After expecting some factual hits to the right from an otherwise comedic player, Franken has lost the thrust of the title and has compiled what can best be described as a hateful op-ed devoid of supporting evidence and peppered throughout with vulgarities in locker-room fashion, aimed at ghost figures. If you enjoy dark humor at the expense of facts then this is the book for you. If you are looking for example ammunition for left-right debate I would not reccomend this title.
Rating: 
Summary: Great going Al
Review: I enjoy nothing better than seeing a moron like O'Reilly exposed for the liar he has always been.
The truth should set us free. Get rid of Bush.
Rating: 
Summary: Sends out the message but misses the target.
Review: I enjoyed "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot" and hated "Why Not Me," so I was ambivalent about picking up this one. But with all the hype over the Fox lawsuit, I decided to give Al another chance.I should have saved my money. Not because Al doesn't make some good points, but because "Lies" is something of a bore. Al is right on target when he is listing the lies that the right-wing media parrots on a daily basis. And a lot of his criticism of President Bush is accurately placed as well. His sources are well-researched and appear to be fairly accurate. Where he goes wrong is when he's trying to be funny or ironic. Unless you know the specifics of the instance that he's talking about, you tend to lose track of where the true facts end and his ironic asides begin. And Al, if you're reading this, please leave the swearing to Dennis Miller. He does it well, even when he's making fun of himself for doing it. (He's the self-described E.B. White of the f-word.") When you do it, it becomes a breach of the reader's concentration, and causes a loss of focus. I also dispute his point of view that Clinton was the best thing to happen to the military. I left the Army just before Clinton took office; and all of my friends that stayed in told me that the Clintons viewed the military with contempt and did their damndest to tear it down with the "don't ask, don't tell" and other "kinder, gentler" notions. That plus the "globo-robo-cop" missions of Somalia and Bosnia stretched our troops to the breaking point. To be fair, I have to put the same onus on President Bush. After the disinformation campaign that fueled his call to war with Iraq; I think it is history repeating itself that he is calling on our troops to make such sacrifices while simultaneously cutting their pay and benefits. This way of "doing it on the cheap" will only continue to get our troops killed. Either do it all or not at all. And while I am no fan of taxes on anyone, I think it is a load of crap that Bush has cut the taxes of the richest at a time when the need is greatest for a strong Treasury. If I spent the kind of borrowed money (proportionally) that he's spending, then they would lock me away for fraud. If you're looking for a book that covers the same ground as Al does but without all the foul language and sophmoric attempts at humor, I would recommend Eric Alterman's "What Liberal Media?" Alterman, an unabashed liberal, covers all the right-wing columnists and TV pundits better than Al does, with the suggestion that it is the money trail that really dictates what these people say. And Alterman also takes Clinton and Gore to task for their shortcomings, something that Al Franken doesn't do.
Rating:
Summary: Ann Coulter has a well researched book out???
Review: I enjoyed Al's satire of the conservative establishment immensely. As a former Conservative Republican and current Moderate Democrat, I found Ann Coulter's shrill partisanly biased and highly inaccurate books a real turnoff. I like Al Franken's sense of humor and would like to recommend Joe Conason's latest offering for those open minded enough to see what the "other side" has to say after years of rightwing domination of the bookshelves.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly recommend
Review: I enjoyed reading this well written, humourous attack on the conservative right. Al successfully disputes many of the basic arguments of the conservative media. Argues several good points that credit liberals / Clinton administration. Critics accuse Al of name calling but he is only doing what Rush, Hannity, Ann and others have done for years.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Bad
Review: I enjoyed the way he more or less chewed Ann Coulter into tiny little bits, and, to a lesser extent, got points on O'Reilly and Hannity. (Of course, this brings up another point. With what Franken worked up on Coulter, why aren't Ann's books in the FICTION section of Amazon?) But he didn't do much to raise "the level of discourse" we hear so much about. Some of his work was just plain name calling, and the front cover photo of O'Reilly is a cheap shot.
Rating:
Summary: entertaining and compelling political commentary
Review: I enjoyed this book because...1) Franken was painstaking in his research of the issues, presenting them in a clever and thoughtful way. 2) He is not an idealogue; he is honest, admitting to Democratic pecadillos, while also praising Republicans such as John McCain. 3) He is a master debunker. For example, I hate it when people try to influence using misleading statistics. Franken exposes them, big time. 4) Franken is witty, clever and has a great sense of humor. 5) He is from Minnesota :-)
Rating:
Summary: Readers from NY and KY - give it a rest.
Review: I enjoyed this book so much, I bought 3 more copies to give as gifts and I lent out my own copy. Al's writing style may be mostly funny yet his revelations are scary. I do have two complaints - the book is too short (it left me wanting more, more, more examples) and it offered no solutions or recourse for the average joe to fight what is being put out there by the news-as-entertainment industry. As others have pointed out, please notice that most of the 1 star ratings have been written by one person, supposedly from KY or NY.
Rating:
Summary: A waste of a good afternoon....
Review: I feel sorry for the poor little trees, that were mercilessly chopped down to print this garbage. Hopefully these books were printed out of recycled materials. So Bill O'Reilly marked a little box "republican" a few years ago, says he doesn't remember doing so. If only we all told such "horrific" earth shattering lies, end sarcasm . This lie was the basis for an entire chapter? I'm wondering why republican err democratic presidential candidate Wes Clark didn't get a mention in this chapter as well Mr. Franken. Isn't everyone fair game when it comes to character assasination ? Oh that's right Mr. Clark says his views have changed, and lucky for him they've changed to match Franken's.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious and informative but THE TYPOS
Review: I finally bought this book yesterday and found no less than THREE obvious typos before page 100. Al Franken shouldn't be so quick to thank his editors. Every typo puts a small ding in his credibility especially for every time he pontificates on his thoroughness. It's painful because I don't want to dislike this book! I really don't know if I want to keep reading it. I don't like to wince.
| 
