Rating: 
Summary: Not only funny and irreverent, but wise, goofy & accurate!
Review: This is an unusual piece of humorous reportage. I expected a lot of laughs and a few insightful facts to back them up, but I got the opposite: loads of carefully researched data interwoven with humor and amazement. We need more Al Frankens. He, along with Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, are about the only mass-media folk who are not afraid to take unpopular stands. They are court jesters who know how to disable bullies with mockery and reality-checks. A hard act to follow. Can't wait till his next diatribe!--Jim Reed, author, DAD'S TWEED COAT: SMALL WISDOMS, HIDDEN COMFORTS, UNEXPECTED JOYS (Premium Press America). His website: jimreedbooks.com
Rating: 
Summary: Another Hit-and-Miss Book
Review: This is another book I've reviewed that just doesn't make the cut. On one hand, this could have been a great statement on how truth is manipulated by speaker and media alike. Franken goes into detail about how stories are misconstrued and changed to fit the outlook intended for them by radio spokespeople or newspaper editors. However...in doing so, Al Franken only comes out as one of them. The book is also filled with some times unnecessary political commentary by Franken, and when I tried to look up the facts he mentioned I found many of them to either be half truths or misconstrued themselves. Yeah, Franken is funny, but he's also sarcastic and has a political agenda of his own. It seems almost like he only wrote this book to badmouth the other political agenda-minded speakers out there besides him. In short, this book should present a fine lesson to all authors out there: don't write a book about politically biased people when you are one.
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Summary: Al Franken is a Comic God
Review: This is another great book by Al Franken, the self proclaimed comedian/politician. I read it the first day I got it and loved it. If you liked his other books, you will love this one. It proves that most politicians are liars and Al Franken is the only one you can trust. I really LOVE this book. AL FRANKEN FOR PRESIDENT!
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Summary: .......and the lying Franken lies to the liars.......Yawn
Review: This is clearly a book written by yet another liberal for liberals, with a very tired agenda: let's make another attack on conservatives, Christians and Republicans. Ho hum yawn yawn. Another attempt to slap around people who stand up for what they believe in. It would have been funny to me if Franken would have used some real intelligence for this literary effort. Don't waste your money on this.
Rating:
Summary: The Best Book I've Read So Far This Year.
Review: This is definitely the best book I've read so far this year. It is thought provoking, sharp, intelligent, and very funny. It is not, however, as funny as Franken's earlier book, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot: And Other Observations. But then again, I've never read any other book as funny as that one, so it's not really a fair comparison. So, Lies seems very well researched, and makes claims which, if true, offer proof that the Bush II administration and many of the leading conservative commentators have lied repeatedly about the most central aspects of governing, including terrorism, the war in Iraq, economic policy, the environment, and a host of other issues and events. But isn't this just the other side of the Ann Coulter books which make the same claims about the left, and offer "proof" which is completely fabricated? No. First, as someone who keeps up with the news, it was easy for me to spot many of Coulter's fabrications on my own. Indeed, they were so numerous and striking, that I decided to write an article about them, and began taking notes. But before I really even got started, it occurred to me that I was probably not the only person who had noticed this. So, I did a Google search, and I found many, many Web pages which thoroughly, page-by-page, catalogued the literally hundreds of factual errors she makes in her books. So, naturally, I expected someone to do the same to Al Franken. He's doing it to them in this book, so he's practically daring someone to expose his errors. But I've searched and read articles with Google for more than four hours trying to find someone who will say that Franken made a single factual error in his book. But no one has reported a single one. Not one! And it's not because people love Al Franken and don't want to attack him. There are dozens, if not hundreds, of outrageous, vicious articles that verbally tear Franken apart in the most hateful ways. But none of them can point to a single factual error in the book. Some of them express doubts about his first-hand accounts. Some of them point to pranks he's pulled (that they only know about because he reports them in the book) as evidence of Franken's dishonesty. And many call him a liar with no evidence at all to support that claim. So, I'll just say it. Based on what you can read about in Franken's book, George W. Bush is a liar, and he knows it. Dick Cheney is a liar, and he knows it. Bill O'Reilly is a liar, and he knows it. Ann Coulter is a liar, and she knows it. (Actually, we all already knew about that last one even before Franken pointed it out). They lie again and again, and they keep getting away with it. The difference between the right and the left is not that the right lies in a way that helps the right, and the left lies in a way that helps the left. The difference between the right and the left is that the right tells lies, and the left tries to be fair. And we all know that's true. What are the so-called "liberal-biased" papers? The New York Times and the Washington Post-- the two most respected newspapers on the planet! And what is the conservative press? Fox News and the Washington Times and the New York Post, all of which are just a joke in terms of journalistic standards. Who are the heroes of the right-wing media? Rush Limbaugh! Ann Coulter! Sean Hannity! Bill O'Reilly! And these people make a living by just making things up. And they get caught over and over, and when they get caught, they say, "Oh, so in my 300 page book, all you could find was this one mistake," or "In my six and a half years on the air, all you could find was this one mistake." And they say that line again and again about dozens of different "mistakes," where by "mistake" they mean "lie". And, as Franken points out, the mainstream media, with it's supposed "liberal bias" is asleep at the switch. They are letting them get away with it, again and again, afraid that if they point out that only one side is always lying, then they'll appear to have a liberal bias. This is a great book. It is as entertaining as it is infuriating. You should read it.
Rating:
Summary: Definitely worth reading.
Review: This is definitely worth reading. It's nice to see someone actually pick apart the lies that Fox and the other right-wingers say. (Can't wait for Molly Ivin's new book.) In addition to it's dead-on political analysis and LIE analysis, it's actually quite funny. (Yah yah...I know...it's Al Franken and it's supposed to be funny...WELL! IT IS!) Buy it.
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Summary: Every citizen should read this book
Review: This is fact-based satire of the highest caliber. It should be read by every American citizen before the next election.
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Summary: Rock on Al!
Review: This is fantastic. What can I say? We need more people to follow suit. This is a prime example of people who are unafraid of critisizing what needs to be critisized in order to make people aware and encourage them to have more of an opinion of what is going on in our country today.
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Summary: Wickedly Funny and a Detailed Expose of Right-Wing Lies
Review: This is Franken's best book yet. Bolstered by the research talents of a team of Harvard students, Franken exposes and dismantles the lies of the Bush administration and their propogandists in the right-wing media (along with all manner of amusing diversions). Of course, no single book could comprehensively refute all the lies that gang is pumping out, but Franken and team do an impressively thorough job. Anyone with a open mind is going to be persuaded by Franken's logic and impressive research. Of course, most people who read this book will probably already agree with him. But even fellow travelers will learn a lot. And anyone with a mischievous sense of humor will be hugely entertained. I don't often laugh out loud, but this book had me braying like some kind of madman. (Those with delicate sensibilities should be forewarned that Franken's humor is often delightfully raunchy and profane.)
Rating:
Summary: Very well researched, entertaining and thought provoking.
Review: This is funny stuff although in places it is enraging and depressing to learn the depths to which certain people in this country's media and political offices have stooped. It is a book everyone should read - unless you are too closed minded to deal with truth and accuracy. Anyone who is entertained by Franken's humourous and sarcastic writing might also enjoy another book written in similar style, namely, The World's Most Dangerous Places: 5th Edition by Robert Young Pelton. Disguised as a travel guide, it is actually a very humorous and astute political commentary.
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