Rating: 
Summary: Educational, well researched and often hilarious.
Review: For anyone who wants an insightful look at the current political situation in America this book is highly recommended. Franken uses his sharply honed dry wit to make vitriolic loud mouth right wing blowhards look like the fools they are. He isn't kidding with his choice of title for his book. He calls these dopes liars and he proves it. And that's where the laughs come in. He gets 'em good, cornering them with their own words. This book is a real eye opener. A great way to inform yourself about the way politics is played in this country.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny at Times
Review: For context, I should begin this review by noting that I am a libertarian, meaning I tend to agree with Al Franken on social issues, but disagree with him on economic issues.Hence, maybe it isn't surprising that at times I found this book amusing because of its clever humor, and at other times I was laughing more at what a donkey Mr. Franken was making of himself. The book is funny for the right reasons when Franken is recounting his mischievous adventures in the world of politics, such as baiting Bill O'Reilly into a shouting match on CSPAN, or posing undercover as a prospective financier at Bob Jones University. The book is funny for the wrong reasons (i.e. I was only laughing because Franken was making a fool of himself) whenever Franken abandons his clever satire and instead tries to be a legitimate pundit. The most ridiculous example of this is when Franken seriously tries to make a case that the media was biased in favor of Bush leading up to the 2000 elections. His primary piece of evidence? That a group of Columbia professors said so. It's in absurd sections like these that Franken is guilty of everything he accuses his enemies of, such as selective use of statistics, distorted anecdotal evidence, and outright lies. Too bad he couldn't stop himself from going down that path, as it greatly weakens the funnier parts of the book. Finally, I can't fail to mention Mr. Franken's inclusion near the end of the book of a one-act play he wrote about a waitress and a tax attorney. This section takes the cake for some of the clunkiest writing I have ever read. It's the polemical Plan 9 From Outer Space, to be savored for its hysterical ineptitude. Even Bill O'Reilly's awful suspense novel has literary merit when compared with this gem. Who knew that Franken, normally such a savvy wit, could write such a clunker and honestly think it worthy of publication? I would recommend this book to anyone, who, like me, derives a guilty pleasure from reading these angry political screeds. I read this book shortly after finishing Treason by Ann Coulter. The books go well together, perhaps to be savored with a Big Mac, a Coke, and some Fox Reality Television.
Rating:
Summary: Drivel...Pure Drivel
Review: For entertainment value, this book is a fair read. There are issues which ultra right and left wingers are both on shaky ground in their arguments. For proving a point or making an argument, which I believe he is attempting to do through his bitter satire, Mr. Franken fails to succeed. If he wants to be taken seriously, he should write seriously. Until then, I will continue to put him in the category of liberal hot-head under the guise of satire. If you like, read this book for what it is: Entertainment.
Rating: 
Summary: For great entertainment...
Review: For great entertainment, read the negative, one star, reviews of this book. Is it just a coincidence that most seem to come from borderline retarded, half illiterate people? Incomprehensible sentence structures, misspelled words, and just plain silly misuse of words abound. I especially love how someone can deplore a lack of argument in this book, when their posting lacks one. Oh and the anger...it's like watching Donald Duck throw a tantrum. It's all fun and yet quite scary.
Rating: 
Summary: "Al Franken¿s Ugly Schtick" - Portion of Bryon York Article
Review: For his new book, Franken put together a team of 14 Harvard research assistants... And what did they uncover? For one thing, Franken states flatly that George W. Bush, in his younger days, used cocaine. Who knows? Maybe he did. But Franken has no evidence. And he certainly knows that during the 2000 campaign, reporters from major news organizations spent many hours searching - unsuccessfully - for proof of Bush drug use. But who cares - Bush is a lying liar, right? And not just about drugs. About more important things, too - like taxes. Franken delves into the old argument about the president's tax cut: Democrats say more money went to upper income taxpayers, while Republicans say lower-income taxpayers received proportionally bigger cuts. Both are correct, but Franken settles it by simply pronouncing the Republicans lying liars. He does so on the basis of the kind of "thorough" TeamFranken research that so impressed Alex Jones - in this case, apparently reading press handouts from left-leaning advocacy groups. On May 26, 2001 the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities issued a press release which, citing research by the liberal Citizens for Tax Justice, said, "The bottom 60 percent of the population would receive 14.7 percent of the tax cuts." In Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, Franken writes of the tax cuts, "The truth is that the bottom 60 percent got 14.7 percent." Did it really take a gaggle of research assistants to come up with that? In a chapter entitled "Vast Lagoons of Pig Feces: The Bush Environmental Record," Franken labels George W. Bush "the worst environmental president in our nation's history." As an example, he accuses the Bush administration of gutting Bill Clinton's proposed regulations to solve waste problems at giant livestock farms, which are known in the agriculture business as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs. But Franken wants to be fair. While Bush's policy has been terrible, he writes, "To be totally honest, I wish the Clinton administration had done more to address the pig s**t problem. But at least he [Clinton] was pushing in the right direction. Toward the end of his administration, the EPA issued stringent new CAFO regulations...." What Franken does not mention is that the Environmental Protection Agency issued the new CAFO regulations on December 15, 2000. That was certainly toward the end of the Clinton administration, and it was also two days after the presidential election was settled, which meant that everyone finally knew that George W. Bush, and not Al Gore, would be the next president. And that is when the Clinton administration, which had been in office for nearly eight years, decided to get tough on CAFOs. (In addition, the new regulations would not take effect until after a four-month waiting period, at which point Clinton would be long gone.) Did TeamFranken give you the whole story? You decide. There's more along those lines, accusing Bush and the GOP of lying about Iraq, education, the environment - pretty much everything. But to Al Franken, Republicans are not just lying liars. They are very bad people. For example, Franken is angry about racism, which he associates almost exclusively with the GOP. He writes that when he gives corporate speeches, he begins by saying, "Looking out at your faces today, I can see that this group hasn't caved in to that whole affirmative action nonsense." He says audiences "look around, see all the white faces, and laugh." The funny thing is, one could say the same at a meeting of TeamFranken. Judging by a photo published at the end of the book, it appears that Franken's crew has no African-American members. TeamFranken - made up of a grossly disproportionate number of white males - does not look like America. That small hypocritical note wouldn't matter much were Franken not throwing so many stones. But he is - from the glass house built for him by the Shorenstein Center.
Rating:
Summary: Whose truths are more true?
Review: For readers who share Mr. Franken's political views, the book is a hilarious, insightful, and well-researched criticism of the right wing media and its outspoken talking heads. Although Franken occasionally goes over-the-top with some mean-spririted and vulgar observations (which he claims to get away with because he's a comedian), his commentary for the most part hits its mark in a unique way...by relying on documented facts. It's interesting (and depressing) that almost all of the one star reviews were posted by people who didn't even read the entire book. This observation alone supports Franken's view that "right wing nutcases" will offer harsh criticism without any substantiation. I bet some of these poor reviews will end up in the paperback version of "Lying Liars"! Read this book for what it is: a comedian's view of the right wing media and its far-reaching influence that reaches the presidency. It is funny and harsh. The far right simply will not get it, ultimately because unlike Mr. Franken, they lack an appreciation for humor and self-deprecation.
Rating:
Summary: Best when serious, worst when trying to be comical
Review: For several years now all the cable news channels, not just Fox News, but MSNBC and CNN have been pretty rough on Clinton and the democrats, portraying the dems as scandal ridden and incompetent. Meanwhile Bush and the Republicans have generally got a pass. Only when it became painfully obvious in Iraq and on the economic front that things were not going as planned did the media even start to question what was going on. When Al Franken's book came out several months ago, it was the beginning of a period of rocky times for the rightist government. The problem with this book is that when Franken attempts to be humorous he comes across not as funny but rather as pretty boorish. Micheal Moore I think has the same problem. But I agree totally with his thesis that the right wing media has been spewing out either tabloid stories or distortions of the facts.
Rating:
Summary: Before you buy, visit www.frankenlies.com for the truth
Review: For someone who holds himself to an "impossibly high standard", you'd think that he'd at least check all the facts himself rather than let fourteen Harvard researches do it. Talk about an overrated education.. Either Franken truly is the "lying liar" or he doesn't understand the meaning of impossibly high standards.
Rating:
Summary: A pretty good listen.
Review: For the most part, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. My husband and I have also listed to Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Liar. I like it that Mr. Franken narrates the books himself. However, I give this book a 4 out of 5 because of the HOUR spent driving through Eastern Pennsylvania listening to Al Franken's disgust with the matter surrounding Sen. Paul Wellstone's funeral. I feel bad saying this because I know it was a personal matter for him, but I really felt this part dragged on. All in all, it was a good way to pass time. Thanks, Al!
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!
Review: For those of us NPR junkies out there who've had enough of Our Fearless Leader and Co, this is great reading. Sure, it doesn't tell anyone what they didn't already know (if they're not Republican), and it won't convince anyone who doesn't already believe Franken is right, but it's entertaining. Highly so, in fact, and it's really nice to think that Bill O'Reilly lost a lawsuit to this man. Plus, Franken actually has checked his facts. Isn't that refreshing? Enjoy!
| 
