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Summary: It's all in here
Review: The answer to every piece of shoot-first-and-think-later conservative slander is in this book. A long overdue response to the hateful and dishonest discourse spewed by the far right, but not a response in kind. Of course, there will be those too fervent in their hatred and fear or just too slow to catch the irony throughout, but this book was not intended for the closed-minded. Sadly, many conservatives have not yet paid heed to the lessons Franken teaches: that it is better to admit when you're wrong (which Franken himself has done) than to lie to cover your tracks, that you can love America and be willing to challenge aspects of it to improve it, that respect can exist between conservatives and liberals, and that there's no such thing as "unbiased;" there are only admitted bias and lies. Honest throughout, Al tells stories he's proud of right alongside the ones that make him look admittedly foolish. This book is so well researched that not only does it stick it to the dishonest politicians and media figures it attacks, but it also leaves no room for the liars to squirm out again. Despite a lot of whining and protesting, not a single one of the "liars" has given any evidence to contradict anything said in this book, not even Bill "You gotta back it up!" O'Reilly.
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Summary: You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll vote Democratic.
Review: The astounding hypocrisy and mendacity of this administration and the media toadies who do its bidding are all laid bare in this provocative and very funny book. Read it. Read it again. Then lend it to a friend--preferably one who watches Hannity and O'Reilly. Then stand back and watch his or her head explode!
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Summary: a must listen!
Review: The audio version is great! Al reads in a very engaging, conversational way, and his humor really comes across.
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Summary: Pablum for pampered neolibs
Review: The author is clearly diathetic, in this case premature prevarication, his brain addled by massive doses of silicic acid. Conservatives enjoy a Saturnian life, while liberals reckon with their isochronal bouts of nascent humanitarianism, moonstricken by Schadenfreude. I suspect that the author is an archanthropine and a budding Black Shirt. If not, then he should investigate the fistula to his brain.
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Summary: OUTSTANDING JOB!
Review: The beauty of this book is that Franken (unlike Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and the rest of the right-wing media zealots) actually does his homework! His TeamFranken has gathered a substantial amount of evidence to prove that the so-called "liberal bias" of the media is actually a myth. Bullying and shouting down those who disagree with you might work well for the Fox News anchors, but Franken puts the conservatives in their rightful place (pun intended) by being "funny and attractive". A must read for anyone who has asked themselves, "Why are the Republicans still blaming Clinton for everything when he's been out of office for more than 2 1/2 years?"
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Summary: Witty and smart
Review: The benefit of having someone like Al Franken throw his hat into the perpetual shouting match between liberals and conservatives is that, in Mr. Franken's case, he's actually entertaining to read, whether you agree with him or not.The book is well-researched, and his exposure of some shoddy research methods done by right-wing commentators/authors to back their belies is revealing of a disturbing trend we're seeing in journalistic standards, from all sides.
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Summary: Exposing the Hypocrites of the Right--Like Bill O'Reilly
Review: The best thing about this book is exposing Bill O'Reilly as a total hypocrite. O'Reilly attacks rap music and popular culture for being too vulgar when he has written a book (as Franken reveals) called "None Shall Trespass"--a fiction written by Bill about a TV journalist (!) who is a serial killer. The book has graphic violence and graphic sexual situations as well. It seems O'Reilly doesn't follow his own rules--so much for "No Spin". The book also exposes Fox News, Ann Coulter, Bill "Vegas" Bennett, and our own commander in chief Dubya to be the mean spirited right wingers that they are. Funny funny stuff.
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Summary: hilarious, enlightening, and frightening all at once
Review: The best thing about this book is that Al Franken uses irrefutable facts and cold hard evidence to prove his most important points, ensuring that no matter how conservative you are, you simply cannot disagree with some of what he says. When Bill O'Reilly claims on his radio show that he "never said" something, and that you cannot find a transcript where he said that very thing, and then Al Franken points out 3 actual transcripts where he said that thing, I simultaneously laughed out loud at what an incredible hypocrite he was and felt incredibly depressed at how influential and well respected O'Reilly is. That experience is indicative of the book as a whole: it used actual evidence, something "nuts" such as O'Reilly and Ann Coulter apparently haven't heard of; it was extremely funny and enjoyable to read about; and, the more I thought about, the more I was scared about not just the condition of the media in this country, but, more importantly, the flaws of the current administration as well as partisan politics as a whole in America.
By the way, for those of you who attack this book simply because it is unabashedly liberal without having read the book and/or realizing that cold hard facts cannot be argued with, please don't bother to print your "review." If you disagree with Mr. Franken, find a conservative-biased book with equally irrefutable evidence to support its opinions, and point to it. Maybe then this book will lose some of its fact-based integrity.
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Summary: Fair and Balanced review
Review: The best thing about this book is that it forces you to think critically, both about Franken's methods and data gathering, but also about the Bush administration. Even though I vote democrat, I found myself trying to pick apart his arguments and data sources. Most of the time his logic was decent, not bulletproof, but OK. It did an adequately convincing job of call the quality of our president and his administration into question. Most of his research was OK, not great, but OK. Maybe another 3 months of reseach would have made this book truely compelling. When Franken goes in-depth (e.g. the Clinton plan to fight terrorism...which was stalled by the Bush White House from early 2001 through the events of Septermber 11th, or the myth of the liberal media, etc.) citing memos, non-partisan sources, newspaper stories and the like, he's at his best. Other times, I felt that he needed a few more sources to be truely convincing. Also, sometimes the profanity distracted me from what he was talking about. The take home message from this book is not to make Al Franken your personal savior, but to open your mind to things that go unreported in the news, and some of the suspicious things behind our leaders. Regardless if you believe everything he says or not, he is making an attempt to get at the truth behind the motivations of the Bush administration. What he found is throught-provoking. Even so, Al's a satirist, just like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Moore, Sean Hannity, etc. We should take everything satirist's say with a grain of salt. Rush Limbaugh's drug problem and qualifications call his credibility into question. Moore's movies and books are funny and illuminating, but his assertions can be wild and misleading too. Franken and Hannity are, or have been, comedians - rather than trained experts on political policy and legalese. Since all of them are satirists, we can enjoy what they say, but we should be careful to find out for ourselves if what they say is completely true. If you think of this book as Al talking about his experiences and perspective, it's actually pretty good. Whereas Rush, Sean, and Michael Moore try to tell you how to think and behave in their books and radio programs, Al lets you decide for yourself - which is refreshing. (For the record, I voted Democratic in the last 3 elections, and view myself as personally conservative but socially liberal.)
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Summary: Appropriately Named Book
Review: The best thing that could have ever happened to Al Franken was Fox mistakenly giving him any press coverage. His book is in the vein of Michael Moore. Short on facts and full of hyperbole. Dont waste your money. More importantly, dont waste your TIME reading this book.
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