Rating:  Summary: Amazing Review: I wasn't planning on buying this book. I was looking around at Borders a few weeks ago and saw it there. I just had to buy it, it was an impulse buy. I don't regret buying it. This is a very funny, well-written book. Franken brings up alot of good points. I'm thinking alot of the negative reviews this book is getting are from people who haven't even really read it. More people brainwashed by the Conservative media who keep telling them that the Liberals are the enemies. It doesn't even phase them... But that's beside the point... This was a great read, I would reccomend it to everyone.
Rating:  Summary: not worth the paper it's on Review: I wasted two afternoons on this--
Rating:  Summary: Fox News made a big mistake Review: I watch almost no television, so, prior to reading this book, I had not had the pleasure of seeing much of the incendiary commentary Al Franken skewers with such deftness in this riotous and irreverent work. Like others who have reviewed it, my interest came about almost soley because of Fox News' efforts to squelch Franken. Make no mistake, this book probably won't change the mind of a single person who believes what the apologists for the Bush administration spew on these programs, but it is an amazingly fact-filled and hilarious indictment of them for anyone willing to consider that, just maybe, this administration and it's cronies aren't all that honest. The book does stumble occasionally, like the rather vitrioloic, and in my opinion overdone, fictional story of many of Franken's political and media foes having to go to Viet Nam in a single, horribly dysfunctional and self-serving unit, but redeems itself in the scathing short chapter in the form of a stage play about a tax attorney and a waitress going through the Bush Tax Cut. The chapter on geysers of pig feces is simultaneously howlingly funny, in the manner of a David Sedaris verbal riff, and at the same time, pointedly indicative of the Bush administration's sorry record on the environment. The bottom line is that it would take an eternity for an individual reader to research and verify all the information Al Franken has packaged in such an entertaining manner. I'd have to guess that if it weren't all so spot on, Fox probably would have been successful in its litigation. I will be sending copies of this book as gifts.
Rating:  Summary: Viva Al Franken Review: I watch the occasional Faux News show and take as much pleasure as I can in the bald idiocy on display, but nothing is better than hearing the truth spoken by someone with a functioning brain and a sense of the absurd. One of the best moments is also one of the smallest and most telling: his impression of Giuliani on 9/11 as "masterful" and Bush as "a little shaky." What intelligent person watching that day didn't feel exactly that? And that's what this is about anyway. Not right versus left but the intelligent and informed versus the bellicose and boneheaded. There are a lot of folks who could come down on the intelligent side if only they quit letting themselves be duped by fear mongers, profiteers and anti-democratic power-grabbers, as irresponsible as the are incapable of governing well. Time wounds all heels and it's true that Bush/Cheney/Murdoch/Rumsfield/Hannity/O'Reilly/Limbaugh can't fool all of the people all of the time, but facts do matter and there's no substitute for a voice like Franken's. This is a heroic act of Americanism.
Rating:  Summary: More than a little sloppy Review: I went into this book looking for an entertaining an informative look at issues with an admitted slant. I try to keep an open mind on politics and I find reading the extremes tends to give you a better view of the middle. Ive read Ann coulter, Michael Moore, Laura Ingraham and the like and its always interesting to see how people on both sides take issues and add their own little "spin" to the facts. Its also interesting how much all these folks rely on the intellectual laziness of their target audience. If you know the facts and read the news and cruise the web with any sort of objectivity most of Al's arguments just boil down to sophomoric rhetoric and name calling with the occasional really funny story and good point thrown in. Check out "http://www.spinsanity.org/debates/franken-lowry.html" for an excellent write-up of this book that goes into FAR more detail than I ever could. Im not saying that he doesnt make a few very good points, but I wouldnt recommend this book for anyone who wasnt already of the same opinions as Al. Those 14 researchers must have taken some long lunches.
Rating:  Summary: I realy liked it Review: I will admit that I don fullow politics very much but he is an funny guy. I don't know who a lot of these people in the book are, but I know most people on TV and so I beleeve him when he says the bad guys are mean. If TV stars and funny people can tell us who to vote for then I dont have to pay attention. Vary good book and will help you when you vote.
Rating:  Summary: Well written and researched Review: I will start by saying that this book is not arguing that liberals do not lie, cheat, or twist the truth for political gain. The book is a pointed look at conservatives. Franken employed over a dozen research assistants mostly from Harvard graduate school to help him with the book. His style is very readable and funny. The book was very eye opening for me- a conservative who has never voted democratic in any election. His attacks on Bill O'Reilly and Fox news are well researched and well done. Some points may seem trivial but the majority are substantive. It was good to see an expose' like this. It was well worth my time to read. It is true that the media cannot be truly objective about anything and Al attacks directly the notion that the media is only "liberal". Thinking people who want to be challenged and care about the political climate of the country should read this book. You may not agree with everything Al writes, but the points he makes are well researched and worth considering.
Rating:  Summary: The biggest liar himself (except for Satan) is on the cover. Review: I wish there was an option for NO stars... Pointless drivel from someone who should've stuck to comedy. "Your're not smart enough, not good enough, and dog gone it FRANKEN... people are not going to like you". Not after realizing they wasted part of their life reading this. May God have mercy on you Al. Franken presents unsubstantiated claims in what amounts to nothing more than personal attacks on anyone who disagrees with his wacko viewpoints. When the "other side" presents viewpoints in this fashion they are called intolerant, racist, hate mongors, and oh yeah... "liars"... yet because Franken is a liberal, the liberal press and editorialists eat up this garbage. Thank goodness I didn't have to pay for this kindling... I'll be returning my copy to the public library, for the next unsuspecting victim.
Rating:  Summary: Should be Required Reading Review: I wish this were required reading for all high school and college students who are too easily entertained by the Jerry Springer-like tone of Fox News and most talk radio. The title says it all.
Rating:  Summary: Good info and funny Review: I wish we all could be as well-informed as Al when we have to debate topics with our friends. So many are duped by the stories planted by the right-wing information mongers. I have always known they were lying, but it was hard to find the truth to stand up to what always seemed like legit news stories. Al Franken exposes these unscrupulous fakes with humor and (even worse) the TRUTH. A must read for true, patriotic Americans.
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