Slander

Rating:
Summary: Another book for liberals to "One Star" without reading
Review: Liberals aren't going to read this book. Won't that hurt sales? Probably not. Ann Coulter demonstrates quite well, by analyzing book sales statistics and records, that liberals don't read books. Not even books written by liberals. The major book publishers won't publish books written by conservatives. But that's OK because Regnery (and apparently Crown Publishers) will publish them. And it is amazing how many "surprise best sellers" Regnery has published over the last three years. Of course, Regnery doesn't give the huge seven figure contracts that the liberal publishers keep giving to liberal authors like Bill and Hillary Clinton. It seems that a lot of those favored authors lose their publishers a lot of money. A strange business practice to continually lose money on liberal authors rather than publish conservatives. Apparently, liberals really do hate conservatives.

Coulter illuminates that hate by quoting liberals liberally in her book. She quotes their propaganda, lies, misrepresentations and slanders. She reveals their double standard that says to magnify anything remotely negative that can be linked to Republicans; ignore and bury anything negative that could be applied to Democrats, including the more than credible allegation that Bill Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick. No doubt, the people she quotes--exposes would be a better word--were quite surprised that someone produced a book that compiled so much of their "offerings." Coulter demonstrates their biases, providing an excellent, validating follow-up to Bernard Goldberg's "surprise best seller" Bias.

Coulter's book gets a lot of one-star reviews from offended liberals here on Amazon.com, probably none of whom have actually read the book. It's too bad those people won't read "Slander". It is quite absurd that some of these "reviewers" have accused Coulter herself of "lies, slander, and libel", especially when one considers that the whole book is based on direct quotes of liberal journalists, pundits, and politicians. Every quote is fully documented. Where is the slander? Show us the libel. Exactly where and about what does she lie? One's credibility is seriously doubted when such charges are made without facts to back them up. Even more absurd is the claim that the mainstream media, including CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN are biased in favor of conservatives (Republicans). Truly amazing!

It is clear from reading liberal reviews of conservative books, as well as from liberal media commentary, that liberals have little use for facts and evidence. They base everything on feelings. They feel it is perfectly justifiable to "spin" their way through everything. This is why their preferred method of "debate" is name calling and insults. For example, all conservatives are "dumb", including all Republican Presidents. Only Democrats are smart. Al Gore was so smart that it became a handicap in the 2000 election campaign. It was not the rarely reported dumb things and lies he constantly stated during his campaign that turned off so many voters; it was that he was so much smarter than the voters. The brilliant Al Gore, who couldn't recognize busts of George Washington and Ben Franklin at Monticello, who flunked out of Divinity school and dropped out of law school, had to face "dumb" George W. Bush in 2000. Couldn't the Republicans provide a more worthy opponent? Isn't it amazing how much smarter George W. got after 9/11? Could it be that the liberals were trying to deceive the voters during the election by calling Bush dumb?

Clinton worshipers will hate this quote from Slander on page 147, referring to Bush's performance after the 9/11 terrorist attack:

"America had a leader who said what he meant and meant what he said--and just in the nick of time. Having cleared out the pizza boxes, women's panties, and other detritus of the Caligula administration, the country was finally being run by grown-ups again."

I wonder how many people realize what a miracle it is that a Republican ever gets elected President. Consider that most university faculties seem to be dominated by liberal professors. The mainstream TV networks are all liberal. The cable news networks, with exception of Fox, are clearly liberal. Liberals dominate the newspapers and the major news magazines. The major publishing houses are controlled by liberals. The public is constantly bombarded pro-Democrat, anti-Republican propaganda. Fortunately, conservatives totally dominate talk radio--Rush Limbaugh, et al. What kind of people listen to talk radio instead of "rock and roll"? Educated folks who want to stay informed, perhaps? Conservatives also read books. They understand where the liberal agenda is trying to take this country and they are not willing to go. The mass of less informed and less thoughtful voters hear the constant criticisms and attacks on TV and elsewhere. They are easily persuaded.

The fact is that liberals depend on the ignorant and uninformed to vote them into power. Liberals have a vested interest in keeping our schools less than adequate. Liberals want to convince as many people as possible that they are "victims" who must depend on "compassionate" Democrats to provide them with a subsistence-and to protect them from those "heartless" Republicans. Why was the vote so close in Florida in 2000? Could it be because the large population of retirees there were constantly told that they would lose their social security pensions if Bush won? Of course, it might have been because thousands of Republican voters left long voting lines after the networks prematurely called Florida for Gore. It even might have been because CBS announced 18 times during the last hour that Florida polls were still open that all Florida polls were closed.

It is too bad that the one-star reviewers here refuse to read Slander before they denounce it. They might actually be able to refute something Coulter said if they read it. Maybe, but don't count on it. For anyone who seeks after the truth, Slander is a must read. This book makes clear what conservatives are up against each Election Day. With the liberals in charge of most political reporting, the conservatives don't have any votes to spare.

Rating:
Summary: This book is a dream for both the conservative and liberal.
Review: I borrowed this book from my rather conservative father partly because I was curious what made him so damn angry whenever we discussed politics and partly because what little I had learned of Coulter from her appearances on Politically Incorrect had filled me with a sense of morbid curiosity. Turns out that it wasn't that I knew little about her -- it's just that there IS very little to her. Liberals bad. Liberals control media. Liberals abusive. Liberals kidnap Lindbergh baby. The usual. But then I got to thinking... the seething hatred and shameless hypocrisy of this book is just what those on both sides of the political spectrum ordered.

First, it serves the interests of the perpetually abused and misunderstood (*cough cough*) modern conservative. For with this book they possess yet another round of "ammunition" (hollow point, of course) to back up their claims of the suffocating tyranny they face at the hands of the big, bad, hatemongering, intellectually dishonest liberals. As long as people like Coulter are willing to tell them that they're being persecuted and aren't being listened to by the evil commie liberal demonspawn, they can justify (or at least think they can) their complete abandonment of civil, intellectual discourse and instead rely on a steady barrage of hysteria-fueled venom. Sure, the hatred, the name calling, and the demonizing they dish out against the eviiiilllll liberals may be the EXACT SORT OF THING Coulter is accusing the left of doing, but that's okay because the poooor wittle conservatives have been persecuted for so long! I can't help finding a parallel between Coulter's victimization tactics and those employed by The Party in George Orwell's novel 1984, in which the oppressors (the government in 1984, Coulter's fundamentalist/corporate masters in real life) maintain their stranglehold on society by distracting it with a "war" against a soulless, supposedly dangerous fabrication of an enemy. So tell me, Ms. Coulter... are we at war with Eurasia or Eastasia?

As for the liberals, SLANDER is also quite the treat. For with Coulter's hypocritical bigotry against anyone who dares stray from the views of the extreme right, the left is shown just how much the uberconservative has had to abandon reason and civility in order to keeps his/her beliefs intact. If someone is outright avoiding the discussion of issues simply because she claims "You're all against me! I'm being persecuted! You won't listen anyway!", one can't help wonder if she does so simply because she knows her views won't hold any water under the slightest bit of scrutiny. If conservatives are relying on things like SLANDER for their war of ideas against the oppressive liberals, then the left has won pretty much by default. [...]

I had just read David Brock's BLINDED BY THE RIGHT before I read SLANDER, and I recommend that others try a marathon session with the two. Nothing better illustrates Brock's claims that the right has been overwhelmed with puerile, hypocritical, intellectually bankrupt psychopaths better than SLANDER. Perhaps Mr. Brock should send Ms. Coulter a thank-you note. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition

Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Erudite, well-researched, well-written, and laugh-out-loud funny, Ann Coulter does a top-notch job skewering the ludicrous and delusional pomposities of our liberal brethren.

I'd love to have her take on Michelangelo Signorile, Michael Musto and others of that degenerate crowd. But maybe that would be too much like shooting fish in a barrel.

Oh, highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Read the book, then try to deny the truth
Review: Ms Coulter has done an outstanding research job and tells it like it really is. It took me a little longer to read this book than the usual book simple because I would get so disgusted at the liberals and media who are so vicious in their attacks. I see this every single day when I open a newspaper or turn on network news. It should make every American mad and sick at heart to be subjected to the liberal airheads to have nothing to offer but character assignation or empty self serving agendas. THANK YOU ANN COULTER. Please keep up the good work and I hope your book encourages others to follow your lead.

...

Rating:
Summary: Best Book I've Read in Three Years
Review: Awesome. Spectacular. She nails it. And I love that she dedicates it to the NY Times (which I, too, read daily, w/often the same outrage at their lies) . . check out her recent column...where she rips apart the Times' attack on Ashcroft and the 2nd Amendment . . . and shows that within 400 words, there are at least two times where you have to ask: 1) Is the Times deliberately lying? Or 2) are they ignorant of the actual facts, more ignorant than even your average junior high schooler?

You go girl.

I wish some of the libs would cite specifics (I don't think they can, and that's why they don't). The only thing you could take issue w/is her tone . . but sometimes moral outrage is appropriate.

Rating:
Summary: Accurate Description of the Media as an Arm of the Democrats
Review: Ms. Coulter hits the nail straight. And more than a few times.
Her fast reading book is well stocked with fully documented examples of the half-truths, outright lies, and completely slanted outpourings from American print and television media. And her well known humor, sarcasm and wit are abundantly displayed.
You would think that the success of books such as this and Bias, the trouncing of long established CNN by upstart Fox, the general decline of liberal network news(there's a redundancy), and the total absence of successful liberal talk shows would send a message to media management. Most Americans don't like your product: Give us something else.

Rating:
Summary: a good book
Review: This is a good book but you have to read it with an open mind. Coulter points out some very interesting tactics that Liberals use. First and foremost, did you notice how liberals often resort to name-calling and ad hominem attacks? Of course you did, but Coulter offers solid documentation on how often this actually occurs. If you read the book you will be surprised at the level of research that went into this book. Most poli sci books like this lack any kind of serious research. In this book, the footnotes are quite extensive. It is impressive.

Rating:
Summary: PARANOIA REIGNS
Review: This book is a perfect example why the conservative movement will always be a minority movement in America. It is impossible to prove your case when your argument is based on distortions and lacking in factual information. First, the book is poorly written. It was obviously targeted to appeal to the lower end of the IQ level, i.e., those who worship Rush Slimbaugh. Second, the book suffers from the same problem as Fox News in that it presents information without bothering to even attempt to be fair and balanced. It is as though she knows that her argument is so weak that she is unable to rely on a presentation of factual information. If anyone is sincerely interested in an honest assessment of the media, they can read Professor Edward Herman's definitive book, "The myth of the liberal media". This book documents ALL its material with case studies and relevant examples. Also, a person seeking the truth about the media can also subscribe to the Nieman Reports which is published by the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University. Be forewarned though that the Summer edition which exposes the failure of the fourth estate in reporting on the Enron scandal is very depressing!

Rating:
Summary: Satire on a Swiftian Level!
Review: I haven't laughed this hard in years. "Slander" is easily the best work of comedic fiction since Steve Martin's "Pure Drivel". I believe it will one day rank among the greatest works of Jonathan Swift in the annals of satire.

Alas, I could not give it a perfect score as the book is far too over-the-heads of the general population and does not go quite far enough. Though it may be redundant to the intellectual among us, I think it should be stated at the front that this is a work of fiction and meant to be comedic; in small print, of course.

I've read through some of the reviews are there are a few people who seem to be under the impression that Miss Coulter is serious when she says that all liberals should be executed or that the liberals (who want to take God out of all the parts of American life) are working hand-in-hand with Muslim religious fanatics to destroy America - much like the people who believed that Jonathan Swift seriously believed that the Irish should start selling their children as food to get out of debt.

I recommend this book to all folks of a left-leaning bent who enjoy a good laugh.

Rating:
Summary: SATIRE AND NOT FACTUAL
Review: If this is intended to a be a serious analysis of contemporary politics, then no stars should be awarded. If it is intended as satire which seems to be its aim, then it warrants one star. By no means though is it worth wasting hard-earned money to purchase. If you want to waste money, buy a share of WorldCom or Enron but not this book.