Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

Rating:
Summary: Funny, Smart, Truthful--A Must Read
Review: I have enjoyed bits and pieces of Al Franken's career since the Saturday Night Live days of Franken and Davis. After experiencing all of the publicity surrounding this book, I ordered it immediately and have not been disappointed.

It takes a talented person to write a literate analysis of a complicated subject such as politics. It takes a once in a generation comic mind to keep all of the facts and figures truthful and provide a scathing and hilarious take on politics and the conservative movement in America.

I truly enjoyed the hilarious irony of using an outrageous and inflammatory book title to point out the outrageous and inflammatory journalistic styles of many of his targets.

If you're a conservative, buy one copy and fume. If you're a liberal, buy one copy to savor and one to make a conservative friend fume.

Al Franken once proclaimed the 1980's, "The decade of Al Franken." This book may find many readers chanting for the "millennium of Al Franken."

Rating:
Summary: most foreign reviews today come from abroad
Review: i have just finished this read and it is one of the funniest things i have ever read. What makes its more impressive is that being British i have no idea who Al Franken is or for the most part who he is talking about, though i have to say if i ever meet Coulter O'Reilly et.al i may just point and laugh at them. After reading the reviews of those who gave the book one star, it was clear that they didn't mention any of the content of the book compared to those (liberal or conservative) who did and gave it four or five stars. As for those who critisized the title 'Fair and Balanced View of the Right' for not being fair and balanced let me point out Mr Frankens canny use of irony, in relation to the fair and balanced news reporting of Fox. You see, right from the cover he is being satirical. This book is a great read and much better than the resonable Michael Moore latest.

Rating:
Summary: Sooo funny and sooo true
Review: I have just read AL Franken's book. It was a hilarious but suprisingly true book about right wing politics. (when I say 'about' I mean slashing)I have always been a very liberal and this book only confirmed my beliefs that 95% percent of the things reblicans say is a complete lie. I also love the bashings of Anne Coulter! I would reccomend that anybody buy this book even if you are a conservative because it will totally change your beliefs and swing you away from the DARK side!

Rating:
Summary: Childlike.
Review: I have listened to 6 yr. kids that made more sense. This book sounds like a brat in need of attention.

Rating:
Summary: FUNNY
Review: I have long disliked Bill O'Reilley's belligerence towards guests he disagreed with but when I started catching him in lies or exaggerations I just stopped watching him. I have never cared for Coulter or Hannity so I am not an unbiased reader. Nevertheless, Franken gives liberals some facts to support that gnawing gut feeling that these people are lying. As a political scientist I appreciate good research and Al Franken backs up his statements with substantial, credible research. And he does it with wit. Read and enjoy. I bought the audio cd so I could hear Franken's own emphasis but I will get a hard copy just so I can reread favorite parts, like O'Reilley expressing his displeasure over the picture used on the book's cover. "This is what I look like!" Too funny.

Rating:
Summary: The greatest compliment a book can receive
Review: I have never been an avid reader. EVER. Sure I'll read magazine articles and newspapers to keep up on current events. But never in my life had I ever picked up a book on my leisure and finished it from cover to cover... until now. If you have any interest in politics whatsoever you should definitely pick up this book. It's very insightful and absolutely hysterical. Al Franken, in my opinion, in a genius.

Rating:
Summary: Democratic football rules!!!!!
Review: I have never had a better read of satire in my life. And I thought irony was hilarious.

Rating:
Summary: As Funny as it is Frightening
Review: I have never read a book by Franken before, though I have been a long time fan of his work with Saturday Night Live. As with doubtless numerous others customers, the media hype generated by the Fox suit encouraged me to buy this book. In sum, I devoured it rapidly, and hung on every word. Funnier, and with better fact-checking than Michael Moore (with the help of TeamFranken) this book details the many lies propogated by the radical right, and all-too-blithely disseminated by our lazy, ineffectual media. Franken alternates between humorous tidbits, biting satire and devastating research that picks apart the lies told by the likes of Ann (Thrax) Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and everyone's favorite right-wing blowhard, Rush Limbaugh. I recommend this book to everyone who needs a break from the all-too-serious political season that is upon us, and who nonetheless wants to get it all straight, sift through the hype, and see what's going on in our society.

Rating:
Summary: Vicious, Cruel, Immature, Lacking Substance
Review: I have no problem with a Democratic spokesperson disagreeing and arguing his points, but when he resorts to calling people "fat" "idiots" "liars" "nutcases" and makes fun of O'Reilly by saying his face is "blotchy" I am offended and disgusted. These cruel insults have nothing to do with the issues and are attacks against individuals, not ideologies. Fair minded individuals should not support these types of vicious attacks and should recognize that they only expose the true weakness in Al Franken's positions. How can Al Franken write 2 chapters trying to prove that Ann Coulter and her book "Slander" are wrong in believing that the left has to resort to personal defamation when Al Franken calls Limbaugh "fat" "idiot", O'Reilly "blotchy", and Coulter "nutcase." Furthermore Al Franken has physically attacked people like Sean Hannity in person. Franken criticizes everyone with a different political viewpoint personally and he seems completely unstable and insane (perhaps a side effect of his admitted longterm cocaine abuse while working for SNL). These type of personal attacks should be condemned by both sides of the political spectrum.

How would Al Franken feel if a conservative author resorted to the same tactics and referred to the head writer for SNL and friend of Frankens, Tina Fey, as "Scarface" in their book?

Rating:
Summary: I cry for this country. Then I laugh. Good book.
Review: I have no way of checking the facts in Al Franken's latest book any more than I would any other book I've read. You read a book, you evaluate its ideas in light of your own experiences, you make a decision. It's very similar to being on a jury -- you listen, you weight, you decide.

'Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right' stikes me as the truth.

And that's what hurts. Once you start understanding what Al Franken is saying, you realize how our beloved freedom of speech is being used against us; how it's being used to grind all the compromise and discourse out of our political lives. Lies hidden in innuendo. People called traitor for having a differing opinion. The free press printing and reprinting all of it. I begin to dispair.

Thankfully this book is also very funny. Al Franken's touch is a bit heavy handed at times, but he makes his point with wit and humor. It helps a lot to face this country's problems with laugh -- makes them smaller somehow. It makes the lying liars smaller too. It leaves you with the feeling we're gonna make it after all.