Rating: 
Summary: Boring and Pompous
Review: I liked Al's previous book. However this one is awful. Boring, pompous, poorly written and lacking any humor. Awful, depressing and a total waste of my money.
Al, can I get my money back?
Rating: 
Summary: Al Franken, new voice of freedom
Review: I liked this book. Al is balls to the wall for his critic of these public figures, who have no sincerity, and no real interest in progress and the good of of the USA. I'm glad for his courage and outspoken evaluations of those who speak whatever they want, with complete disregard for truth and integrity. I will recommend this book to all my contacts. I think Paul Begala of Crossfire will read it with enthusiasm and interest as well. One Question Al,Some of those quotes were so out of this world and far from reality, and I had to resist the temptation to buy their books just to confirm they said them. But I resisted! Al; Do you really give money to those liars by buying their books so you can quote them?
Rating:
Summary: I am terribly frightened for our country
Review: I liked this book. I scoured NexisLexis trying to find problems with Als Book - I found only one small attribution error. Spinsanity has a review of the book, too found the same error. I am more of a pragmatic centrist than anything else, and I am really becoming concerned about the polarity with which the right and left seem to be drifting. The right seems to bo going off into a delusional land where all facts are mutable and all arguments can be won by intimidation and semantic games. Franken is not lying about what he finds - his notes are well sourced and you can fact check him. I tried to do the same thing with "Treason" and I found that Ann Coulter really does just make things up. Sometimes her end note did not even correspond to the noted passage. Sometimes she claimed that ads or book reviews in the New Yorker were editorial positions of the New York Times. This is blatantly dishonest. If the COnservatices think that the best way to defend their ideology is to live ina delusional fantasy land, they are not doing their duty as Americans. Many of them seem to think that all liberals, all people that check work their for accuracy, all people who disagree, all people who do not fall in line with every decision that the president makes, all people that express doubts about the reliability or credibility of the president - are all evil, America haters. Their single-minded zeal and lack of thought about their leadership reminds me of a cult. I find it frightening. None of these people know George Bush, the person. What they see on T.V. is a carefully crafted image. Everything Bush says has been scripted in advance. Like any politician, Bush is a P.R. character for the administration. None of the right wing people know whether or not Bush is honest. Few know him or anyone who knows him. They only way to really know Bush is to look at his record. His record, looks horrible. The left is not Bush bashing, they are pointing out the obvious facts that the masses on the right seem to be ignoring. I think we should all think a little more about who we should trust and why. Setting aside Bush's P.R., his record is not a thing of beauty.
Rating:
Summary: Should be required reading before 2004 elections!
Review: I listen to Bush's shallow, bellicose speeches. I listen to Rush's bombastic arrogance (usually just to keep me alert when I'm driving--I can't be that angry and fall asleep). I listen to the conservative vs. liberal shouting matches on the news channels. I just want to scream at how common and transparent the right-wing lying has become, and worse, at how many Americans seem so lacking in critical listening and thinking skills that they allow themselves to BELIEVE the lies. It's just plain depressing. If you've ever felt the same, grab a copy of Franken's new book and let him articulate your screams for you. Just as he did in "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" (no lie there), Franken serves the reasoning though irate reader as a therapist, letting him/her know that there IS a public voice lashing out against the callous, stupid, greedy, self-serving lies that have become the standard for most conservative politicians and their pundits. But, then, Franken doesn't really lash out. With remarkable calm and that cool, ironic wit, he leads the reader through the overgrown jungle of lies that has become the conservative playground. His machete is crafted of solid documentation, impeccable reason, and personal experience with many of the greatest liars out there. He's also backed up here by "TeamFranken," a brilliant group of 14 undergrads and graduate students at Harvard who did a great deal of the research and fact-checking for the book. For those who know Franken only from his comedy career (Saturday Night Live, et al) it may be a surprise to learn of his close ties to the upper echelons of American politics and the media. Those ties often allow him close-up, incisive observations of his subjects; this is not mere humorous commentary from afar. He is feared and loathed by Republicans and their ilk in the highest places, and he pulls no punches in naming names and detailing personal confrontations he's had by phone and on the social scene. And while most of the book brings regular doses of Franken's humor to both amplify and cushion his dead-serious topics, there are sections that brought me close to tears--let's just say that "compassionate conservative" is one of the biggest, boldist, most cynical lies of all. Al Franken is one of America's greatest weapons in the fight for truth and reason. Don't allow yourself and your loved ones to be further manipulated by a shamefully biased media--Franken definitively points out the direction of that bias--and those conservatives who are pathological liars. (I must believe there are some who are just dumb or who choose not to think.) Buy this book, read it, dog-ear the best pages, read them again, memorize them, then slap a label on the cover saying "Pass it on," leave the book in a waiting room, on a bus, anywhere that another American may pick it up and discover some basic truths about our country and the liars who mangle those truths. With enough readers, this book could end up being the eviction notice to the Bush who almost won that last election.
Rating:
Summary: the grammy is richly deserved
Review: I listened to Franken read his book on a solitary road trip from Waco to Albuquerque. Franken's considerable verbal talents only enhance his hilarious and well documented expose of conservative hypocricy and deception.
Rating: 
Summary: If you're confused, listen to the audio book
Review: I listened to the audiobook and have a small piece of advice to offer. For those people--there seem to be quite a few among the reviewers--who can't tell the difference between when Franken is kidding and when he is being serious, it is helpful to listen to him read his work. You can tell by his tone when he is presenting facts and when he is making them up for humorous effect. And whether one is a liberal or a conservative, one truth you can glean from this book is that it is extremely difficult for the average layperson to know when anyone in the media is telling the truth or making it up. Ideologues, no matter which side they are on--liberal or conservative--and no matter who they work for, should never be implicitly trusted. We should, as Franken often does in this book when he is serious, take the time to check and authenticate claims we hear in the media. But we, the public, are usually either too lazy, too busy, or too willing to accept or reject a claim because we agree or disagree already based on our pre-conceived notions. Whether or not you like Al Franken's political views or enjoy his humor, he does us a service by pointing out how often and how egregiously facts are distorted and fiction is presented as fact in the media.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and hilarious-- also great on audio tape
Review: I listened to this book on audio tape while driving in the car, which I highly recommend, as Franken delivers the material with perfect timing and punch. For the first half or so of the book, I just laughed and laughed as Franken brilliantly and with tremendous honesty and detail nailed all the b.s. that's been flying out over the airwaves and even onto the bestsellers' lists recently. Then, as the book progressed, I began to cry when I realized the serious issues at stake here. The fact that (as Franken admirably details) President Bush and his administration rejected a thoughtful bi-partisan counter-terrorism campaign which would have prevented 9/11, and in its place offered nothing, is beyond tragic. It's a form of negligence and dereliction of duty that is deeply shocking, and merits further scrutiny. How ironic that right wing critics attempt to smear Bill Clinton with the failure to protect us from terrorism, when as Franken clearly demonstrates, it was Clinton who launched and sustained the most successful counter terrorism efforts of any modern president. If his successor had possessed the leadership to merely continue Clinton's efforts, rather than reject them for purely partisan reasons, thousands (and counting) would not have died. Franken does our country a great service because in doing all the hard journalistic research, while presenting the facts he uncovers with humor and irony, he arms readers with real and necessary information provided in a highly entertaining way. As a result, it's easier to perceive and accept the painful truth as we must to make wise choices in a democracy. Thanks, Al, you are a patriot and an inspiration!
Rating:
Summary: Finally a Response to the Lies of the Right
Review: I live in the South and, sad to say, most of the people down here(with the exception of my black friends who are so much more intelligent than the rest of us) have bought the lies of the right wing hook, line, and sinker. My Southern neighbors routinely vote against their own economic interests because the right cynically appeals to their prejudices, among other things. Then others down here are taken in by the right's shameless appeal that they (and they only) represent God in this great country. Franken explodes this nonsense by exposing the moral bankruptcy of the Right. He shows that no scurrilous attack, blatant lie, or illegal act is beneath these usurpers. I truly fear for my country if Bush and his ilk are allowed to rule this country for much longer. I can only hope that the Democratic nominee (whoever he turns out to be) wins the Presidential election by such a large margin that there is not an opportunity for the Right to steal another one.
Rating:
Summary: Funny but......
Review: I love Al Franken and his humor but like the people he rips in his book he avoids some very real facts about the economy, job losses etc...(the times make the man, the man never makes the times) some items are just a waste of time like Bill O'Reilly growing up in Levittown ( I know O'Reilly plays games with facts), the reality is he grew up in the Levitt section of Westbury an area with comparable demographics etc...seems hardly worth even addressing let alone writing about. Left/Right its all slanted. This is a funny read.
Rating:
Summary: A Smart and Funny read
Review: I love all kinds of political commentary and this is one of the best. All too often books on serious topics are either too dry or too serious. This book tackles a serious issue with a light touch.
One of the best aspects of this book is that it is so well researched. I wanted to check out the authors research to see if it was accurate and not only did I find the information to be accurate, I also found I easy to double check the information because of the thorough way the data was presented.
| 
