Rating: 
Summary: Save your money!
Review: I picked this "book" out of the dumpster at work, so at least I didn't have to spend my own money on it. It is typical of the drivel you'd expect from a washed-up SNL alumnus who outlived his usefulness. I've seen better prose in TV Guide ads for breast enlargement cream. There's better things to do with the cost of this moron's crummy book than support his liberal habit.
Rating: 
Summary: I know nothing of politics, but I just couldn't put it down!
Review: I picked this book up because I'm a fan of Stuart Smalley from SNL...and a I'm a Democrat.... Al Franken (and Team Franken) has(/have) done fabulous work detailing how stupid people can be. Other than stopping every 5 minutes to update my apparent inadequate vocabulary, I couldn't put this book down! Excellent!
Rating:
Summary: Finally! Someone Telling it Like it Is
Review: I picked up this book a couple of days ago and literally could not put it down. I was beginning to think I was alone in finding the "reporting" on Fox "News" (and other right wing outlets) to be wildly innacurate and just plain wrong. Al Franken sets the record straight with a very well researched book that slams Fox, Ann Coulter, and even the mainstream press for making a hack job of what used to be a noble profession.This book is the exact opposite of the books from Coulter, Hannity et al: it's factual, devoid of personal attacks and malicious diatribe, and it is hugely entertaining. No wonder it's number one. Now if only the media would live up to their jobs and:
1) Start reporting well researched NEWs;
2) Start retracting the MASSIVE factual errors they have made over the past several years (examples in Franken's book include the pillaging of the White House when Clinton moved out, the slamming of Al Gore's involvment in the commercialization of the internet, forgetting to mention the still existent Halliburton connection to the Iraq war). I guess the most interesting thing is that while I can find dozens of sources refuting Coulter/Hannity/Limbaugh/Savage on the web, I cannot find a single one showing that Al Franken's data is incorrect. But then that's the difference between facts and propoganda, isn't it?
Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Cogent, but Ultimately Unfair and Out of Balance
Review: I picked up this book fully expecting not to like it. I usually disapprove of attempts to discuss important questions through ad hominem attacks, and I assumed from the "Lying Liars" title that there would be plenty of personal attacks in the book. But I was curious about the book because I had heard that Harvard University had donated the labor of a dozen research assistants to Mr. Franken so that he could write this book.
It turned out that this was the first partisan Democrat book that I have enjoyed in the past two years. It is smart, funny, and well-written. The chapters on Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly are particularly effective. I now understand why Mr. O'Reilly has been so incensed by the book. Mr. Franken's evisceration of Mr. O'Reilly's hypocrisy and dishonesty reads like the closing statement of an experienced, eloquent, and passionate courtroom prosecutor.
But while the book is entertaining and thought-provoking, I was ultimately disappointed with Mr. Franken's own problems with matching his version of events with the truth, with reality.
I'll give two examples out of many in the book, one small and one big. My small example is his phone encounter with Paul Gigot, the editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page. When Mr. Franken confronts him on the phone, Mr. Gigot naturally responds a little defensively and suspiciously. Mr. Franken spins this as Mr. Gigot being angry and an "unfriendly person". It's funny, but it's untruthful and unfair to Mr. Gigot.
My big example is the whole chapter on the Paul Wellstone public memorial service. From beginning to end, it is cleverly written as an apologia for what turned out to be a horrible debacle for the Democrats. As Mr. Franken correctly points out, the negative public reaction to the service probably cost the Democratic Party control of the U.S. Senate. But according to Mr.Franken it wasn't the Democrats' fault, it was the fault of Rush Limbaugh and other Republican commentators who lied about the service and misrepresented it as a political rally. But by presenting differences of opinions as "lies", and by being highly selective in his seemingly comprehensive narrative of the circumstances of the memorial service, he is the using the intellectually dishonest methods of his arch-nemesis Bill O'Reilly.
So I would highly recommend this book for entertainment purposes only. Anyone looking for the truth about the "right wing" is apt to be seriously misled.
Rating:
Summary: A Book for People with an Inability to Discuss Real Issues
Review: I picked up this book hoping that it would present intelligent insights on important issues. I was very disappointed. Al Franken gleefully exposes such profound lies as Bill O'Reilly's saying that Inside Edition won the Peabody award when it was actually the George Polk Award. I know I couldn't live another day without knowing about this whopper of a lie. Mr. Franken also points out that Dick Cheney stated that Arlington National Cemetery has rows and rows of crosses when actually it doesn't have crosses as tombstones. Another whopper I couldn't live without knowing. Mr. Franken points out shortcomings in people's memories and the exact circumstances that encompass trivial events. If Mr. Franken is so "fair and balanced", I wonder why he didn't explore the statements of a former U.S. President who said, "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lowinsky". Fair and Balanced this book is not. I'd save my money for something more intelligent.
Rating:
Summary: PATHOLOGICAL LIAR
Review: I purchased this book about 2 weeks ago and couldn't put it down. Kudos to you Al for exposing these Neocons for who they really are. O'Reilly is really a liar of the worst sort because he tells so many lies he thinks he is telling the truth. He is pathological in the sense that he comes down hard on anyone he perceives to be lying or not telling the story the way he wants it told. O'Reilly is a perfect example of someone who hates others for what he sees in himself. Al pointed out in this book at least 3 major O'Reilly lies: that he is an independent voter (his voting card shows he checked off Republican), Then he stated he checked Republican because democrat was the only other option available (the voter card clearly shows sevreral other options), his bald-faced lie about receiving a Peabody award, and that he was a poor kid from Levitown when in reality he is from the more affluent Westbury. Some may say, "so what, these are minor indescretions". But if a person is lying about fairly minor things you can bet the ranch he is lying about larger more important things. Bill O'Leilly continues these same lies to this day, last week on his radio show saying he has always been politically independent and is from Levitown. He maintains that his show is where you get the facts and absolute truth (as does Sham Hannity). I have always been very leery of someone who has the truth and can tell me exactly what it is. And any thinking person should be that way also. What I really liked about this book is the "FAIR AND BALANCED" title that Fox and O'leilly went after Al over. They, of course, were laughed out of court. True to form, O'leilly maintained it was Fox who sued, not him. Liar, liar pants on fire. The truth is, Al Franken is a lot smarter than Bill O'leilly and clearly OUTFOXED him! (pun intended) Even right wing Drudge caught O'leilly in a lie when O'leilly stated his book was neck and neck with Al's book and closing in on Hillary's for top sales. The truth is O'leilly was being outsold 3 to 2 by Al, and nearly 2 to 1 by Hillary. Great work Al. I really look forward to your next book. I really do want the truth!
Rating:
Summary: As funny as I expected, and then some
Review: I quickly snapped up Al Franken's latest effort, mainly as a visceral response to the asinine Fox News lawsuit. (Get the .PDF online -- it would be a scream if the Fox honchos didn't take themselves so seriously. And they absolutely have no reason to do so. "Stellar reputations?") Having a familirity with Franken's style of humor since the 1970s and having read another of his books, I expected it to be funny. It is flat-out hilarious, but two chapters are particularly moving. He recounts the actual events and eventual media spin surrounding Senator John McCain's inexcusable drubbing in the South Carolina primary and the late Senator Paul Wellstone's funeral. In both cases, he clearly demonstrates that the right-wing attack dogs have no scruples, and that mainstream journalists have no sense of history, no sense of objectivity, no sense of what professional research involves, or no sense. Mr. Franken's interacts with many of his targets. The so-called conservative pundits parade their zealotry, duplicity and intolerance on every page. It appears that unless the right-wingers are using vitriolic humor to savage the Clintons, labor unions, Muslims or the poor, they can't take a joke. Franken expertly takes them to task by being, as my circle of friends likes to say, "funny on the square."
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Summary: Al Franken has done it again!
Review: I rarely buy aa book when it is in hardcover because I don't want to invest $25 in something i may only read once or twice but I am a huge Al Franken fan and his books are always worth the investment, I had tears in my eyes because I was laughing so hard. Al exposes conservatives like Bill O'Reilly and Ann Coulter for what they are...and he uses their own words to do it. Al Franken is a comic genius!
Rating:
Summary: Al just tells it like it is - without the spin, or the lies
Review: I read Al's book in just over one evening - it is a real page-turner. First - it pays attention to fact, not just rhetoric. Second - Al takes a very level, even-handed approach to the distinction between 'truth' and 'spin'. Third - Al simply dismantles the Rushian empire by using truth, as opposed to over-inflated biased accusations. Lastly - Al takes the administration to task over statements that have been made repeatedly without much challenge from the mainstream media. Nice job Al! Very refreshing!
Rating:
Summary: Thank you DNC for this book!!!
Review: I read Al's first book during my long and arduous labor and subsequent childbirth. Well, the doc made me put the book down in order to actually give birth. It was very special to me, the book that is and the child too. So when the DNC sent me an email saying that for a small donation, I could get an autographed copy of Al's new book, I was thrilled. I immediately paid for the book and spent the next couple of weeks preparing for the big day. I dusted the bookcase and reorganized so that my new arrival wouldn't have any hostile neighbors. I came home last Friday to a brown package on my front porch, the big day was finally here.
Needless to say, I spent the day reading. Al did not let me down. The book is filled with his usual irreverent wit. One must have a sense of humor to appreciate Al Franken's style as it may be hard to discern fact from funny. His revelations are hilarious and I found myself laughing out loud a few times. It scares me that people with so much power are capable of telling such egregious lies and some even lie about telling lies. What's up with that? The book is not hateful as the title would suggest. It is intelligently written and, from what I gathered by reading all the footnotes, painstakingly factual. My one disappointment is that Al didn't autograph it to me personally. It's a generic signature either by Al or someone who writes like him. I still want to have Al Franken's love child. I'm kidding---on the square.
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