Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

Rating:
Summary: A very funny, unabashedly partisan political satire
Review: Thanks to the Fox lawsuit against Franken's use of "Fair and Balanced" in the subtitle (a lawsuit that clearly disturbed the judge who dismissed it, who chided Fox as a news organization for bringing a suit attempting to abridge someone else's speech, pointing out that a new supposed news organization ought to be at the forefront of protecting speech), the publication date of this book was accelerated by a month. Let me put this in very simple terms: anyone who is conservative will hate this book, anyone who is a moderate, independent, or leftist will likely love it. As in RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT, Franken has written a political satire in which he combines a variety of techniques to make fun of the Right in the United States. Sometimes this means using the same negative tactics mastered by the Right. Frequently this involves adding a few facts some Right wing pundit conveniently left out. Constantly this involves humor.

For a humorous satire, the book contains a great deal of factual content, and should serve a valuable service in getting many American's to question many of the assertions of the Right, whose record in handling facts has been pretty dismal for quite some time (many on the Right complain that those on the Left keep calling them dumb and stupid, but they never seem to grasp that one of the major reasons for this is their persistent inability to "get the facts straight"-yes, facts do matter, and failing to get them right will result in others thinking you less than brilliant). Franken wrote this book in the context of teaching a course at Harvard, and he is very clear that he used the fourteen student members of his seminar as research assistants and fact checkers. In other words, Franken's book will not be guilty of the hundreds (literally) of factual errors of Ann Coulter's books, for instance. Many who have followed closely political events of the past decade will not be surprised by many of the things in the book, but his presentation is always fresh and full of insight.

This is a funny, funny book, though I'm sure fans of his targets won't agree. Franken has long been one of the funniest men in America. It certainly wasn't an accident that during all the good years of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, Franken was crucially involved as writer. Not every part of the book succeeds equally for me. I'm sure some will enjoy the fictional account "Operation Chickenhawk," in which the host of high profile Right wingers who never served in the military embark on a military mission, but I'm afraid I did not (the similar chapter in RUSH LIMBAUGH IS A BIG FAT IDIOT was my least favorite in that book). As a Christian, however, I really, really loved the cartoon chapter "The Gospel According to Supply Side Jesus." As someone who has been horrified at the gigantic gap between the teachings and example of Jesus in the Gospels (and especially in Luke-Acts), it was great to see a vivid depiction of the kind of Jesus implied by the politics of the Right.

Not all parts are funny, nor were meant to be. Al Franken knew and obviously loved Paul Wellstone, and he is obviously angry for the bizarre way that the Right Wing pundits distorted what actually happened at the now infamous Wellstone memorial, which Franken attended.

This is not the best book available on the struggles the Right has with the truth. That title would go to Eric Alterman's WHAT LIBERAL MEDIA? or Joe Conason's new BIG LIES. But Franken's book is definitely the funniest political book of recent years. It makes both a fun and informative read.

Rating:
Summary: Five stars for fair and balanced!
Review: That is, five stars to balance out all of the "1 star" sour grapes reviews. This is an excellent book, filled with wit and intelligence. Franken's voice and persona translate rather nicely to print. Throughout the work, he rightfully takes right-wing figures to task for their distortions. Franken wonders aloud why these people cannot honestly convey themselves: if their ideologies are so sound, why do they feel compelled to distort? For instance, he notes that some of the distortions made by Ann Coulter (to name one such "liar") are so egregiously misleading that they suggest that she doesn't trust her audience to weigh her presented evidence and come to the same conclusion. Rather, her actions often demonstrate contempt for her audience. Most important in all of this, Franken supplies data (including footnotes) to support his arguments.

Unfortunately, this effort is lost on those who would actually take time to disparage Franken's book on Amazon.{com.} The amazing number of poor reviews displayed here are, predictably, from people who clearly have an agenda and want to harm sales. They offer little in substantive critique, and rather launch into ad hominem attacks on the author. They do this with great venom, and with all the wit and intelligence of a gym sock. While its understandable that people who feel threatened by ideas contrary to their own would lash out, it's unfortunate that these people cannot rise to the level of decent, informed political discourse. Or, at the very least, attack the work on its merits.

Rating:
Summary: S. Smalley: Don't Quit Your Day Job In The Land Of OBSCURITY
Review: That psychobbitch, the one with the audacity to write her title as "ignore the raving psychotics...the book isn't that bad", has incompetently and unwarily stumbled right into the trap of exposing leftists as dangerous lunatics. To think, with her utterly disorderly fanatical and lousily thought-out fanatics' propaganda that she spews, that psychobbitch has jeered herself as the hazardous menace to society; even more ridiculous still is when she, delusionally (but then again, how can liberals help themselves, their unfairly psychotic contradictions happen like seizures), affronts everyone giving Franken 1 star as a "psychotic". This one and only psychobbitch has committed 2 of the most grievous flaws in mentality, that impugn her incorrigibly as the only, all by herself, psycho who has surrendered to the radical and poorly theorized agenda of the leftist lunatics like Paul Begala and James Carville. This psychobbitch has the disrespectful gall to use baiting sensationalism, like the terrorists use, charging that conservatives want to divide the country into 1950s America. Objectionably strange though, THE ONLY FORCES THAT ARE DIVIDING AMERICA UP RIGHT NOW ARE THE DEMOCRAT IMBECILES WHO WANT TO PASSIVELY APPEASE TERRORISTS WHILE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION WANTS TO CRACK DOWN ON THEM! Also, Bush is Israel's best friend, and employs the MOST racially diverse cabinet in history, so, again, just what the hell is that psychobbitch babbling about, HUH? Moreover, that psychobbitch has really been brainwashed frighteningly by the psycho-left, for she spits the most classically regurgitated, abusively emotional paranoia that the wretchedly idiotic anti-war protestors spit too, which is charging that "we're going to fall like Rome did". Ok, psychobbitch, among lots of other things, IT'S TIME FOR YOUR HISTORY LESSON. Comparing America to Rome is damagingly vicious to your typically imbalanced, apprehensively emotional liberal propaganda, because Rome DID NOT FALL INSTANTLY OR IMMEDIATELY, you psychobbitch, NOR DID IT TECHNICALLY EVER FALL. You see, psychobbitch, Rome took A LONG TIME to fall, centuries in fact, because of its enormous size, and also because of stealthily creeping factors which don't affect change shockingly but rather impose change in eventual gradualness, like the migration of Barbarians into the Empire, its impossibility to stay united due to its vast borders, and the spread of Christianity. So, sorry to rain on your total idiot parade of liberal thought, but if you're planning to destine America to a fast and speedy end, via a bomb attack, perhaps, it won't happen based on your punishingly undereducated comparison to Rome, junkhead. Next, the Roman Empire turned into THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE, again, you psychobbitch, meaning it didn't really fall, simpleton!

Rating:
Summary: It's about time
Review: that the conservatives were called on their mass of lies. Easy, funny and honest reading.

Rating:
Summary: No More Lies
Review: That the Republican party and it's media channels have been stoking right-wing indignation through a tightly woven net of duplicity, fabrication, and deception -- technically known as lies -- is no revelation.

The real novelty in Franken's hilarious and meticulously researched book is that the political left can do the same -- generate indignation throughout it's own constituency -- by telling the truth. He might be on to something here. I can only hope it catches on.

Rating:
Summary: Al Franken is an ugly, cross-eyed geek
Review: That's satire people! Oh, and don't forget to buy your autographed copy from the DNC for 75 smackers.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book, though not "Fair and Balanced"
Review: The "Fair and Balanced" in the title is a cynical jab back at the obviously "unFair and unBalanced" conservative shows on Fox. So don't expect even-handed analysis.

Just the same, this is a great book if you want to concretely understand the ways the Bush administration is screwing up the country, and get strong counter-arguments for the verbal vomit of blind conservative sheep. You can't get that from mainstream media.

Particularly, I love the way Franken disarms vehement advocates of radical conservatism like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. This book also helped me understand how Bush's domestic policies are as detrimental in the long run to the U.S. as his foreign policies are. I'd recommend it strongly, particularly as it's also good fun to read.

Rating:
Summary: Libs, try Harder to make believe that you're in control!!!!!
Review: The "reviewer from Connecticut"'s comments (code for unilateral libel against Bush) incurred righteous anger in my practical-minded soul. In it, he masks his closet-liberal tendencies, by shamelessly posing as a "conservative". Yet all his views precisely succumb to the evil scourge that liberalism is, more so than if he was its poster-boy. He derides Bush as "having hijacked the Republican Party, with his "necon buddies", and used it to pursue a completely vicious and destructive extremist agenda, having subverted true conservative principles of protecting civil liberties and practicing fiscal discipline."

In light of this uncontrollable extremism on HIS part, WILLFULLY devoid of ANY logical reasoning attributes, I'm now forced to educate him, so to curb the extremism that is all his own, in the way he leaps to conclusion.

First of all, neoconservatism isn't a dirty, four-letter word. It seeks to spread American influence the world over, especially on the most barbaric places of the world (the ones the liberals rave over), and is diligent when it comes to putting words into action, by pursuing military actions against countries that won't comply with international mandates, and/or harbor terrorism. Segueing into the Iraq situation, most of the country's peaceful and stable, with the only resistance coming out of the moderately small Sunni Triangle, which is OF COURSE all that one gets force fed, through the liberal media that desperately wants American failure in Iraq, so they can continue to attack Bush for everything short of how the weather's doing. Further, the war was/is OBVIOUSLY legal, do to resolution 1441, years of UN violations on Hussein's part, and the UN's own mandate allowing for preemptive self-defense!

Bush's foreign policy is neither vicious OR extremist, seeing as how rationale abides by the fact that action where the terrorists are avoids hundreds of 9/11's, tenfold! Since Syria, Iran and countless other Arab countries are sending their "freedom fighters" to "liberate" Iraq from the "Great Satan", that alone establishes terrorism ties to Iraq. Before any dummy lib resorts to attacking me, I'm not making a connection between Hussein and 9/11, only terminally braindead libs believe that Bush has ever made that connection.

Further, "Connecticut reviewer"'s also slanderous relating to civil liberties. If not for the Patriot Act, 9/11's would be achievable at the will of terrorists-but....I guess that he'd rather like the government NOT to invade his privacy A LITTLE, if that means he can continue to send e-mails to other workers defaming his boss while on the job!!!!!!! Again, the war on terrorism FORCES rulebreaking when it comes to fiscal discipline; as 9/11, corporate scandal, fake jobs in internet companies, recession AND the stock market BUBBLE bursting all contributed to the current debt, which all happened under Clinton's stewardship.

BTW, I AM A LIBERAL, and sick AND tired of my party's idiocies!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: al franken and liberals are going to disappear from earth...
Review: The "reviewer from Connecticut's comments (code for unilateral libel against Bush) incurred righteous anger in my practical-minded soul. In it, he masks his closet-liberal tendencies, by shamelessly posing as a "conservative". Yet all his views precisely succumb to the evil scourge that liberalism is, more so than if he was its poster-boy. He derides Bush as "having hijacked the Republican Party, with his "necon buddies", and used it to pursue a completely vicious and destructive extremist agenda, having subverted true conservative principles of protecting civil liberties and practicing fiscal discipline."

In light of this uncontrollable extremism on HIS part, WILLFULLY devoid of ANY logical reasoning attributes, I'm now forced to educate him, so to curb the extremism that is all his own, in the way he leaps to conclusion.

First of all, neoconservatism isn't a dirty, four-letter word. It seeks to spread American influence the world over, especially on the most barbaric places of the world (the ones the liberals rave over), and is diligent when it comes to putting words into action, by pursuing military actions against countries that won't comply with international mandates, and/or harbor terrorism. Segueing into the Iraq situation, most of the country's peaceful and stable, with the only resistance coming out of the moderately small Sunni Triangle, which is OF COURSE all that one gets force fed, through the liberal media that desperately wants American failure in Iraq, so they can continue to attack Bush for everything short of how the weather's doing. Further, the war was/is OBVIOUSLY legal, do to resolution 1441, years of UN violations on Hussein's part, and the UN's own mandate allowing for preemptive self-defense!

Bush's foreign policy is neither vicious OR extremist, seeing as how rationale abides by the fact that action where the terrorists are avoids hundreds of 9/11's, tenfold! Since Syria, Iran and countless other Arab countries are sending their "freedom fighters" to "liberate" Iraq from the "Great Satan", that alone establishes terrorism ties to Iraq. Before any dummy lib resorts to attacking me, I'm not making a connection between Hussein and 9/11, only terminally braindead libs believe that Bush has ever made that connection.

Further, "Connecticut reviewer"'s also slanderous relating to civil liberties. If not for the Patriot Act, 9/11's would be achievable at the will of terrorists-but....I guess that he'd rather like the government NOT to invade his privacy A LITTLE, if that means he can continue to send e-mails to other workers defaming his boss while on the job!!!!!!! Again, the war on terrorism FORCES rulebreaking when it comes to fiscal discipline; as 9/11, corporate scandal, fake jobs in internet companies, recession AND the stock market BUBBLE bursting all contributed to the current debt, which all happened under Clinton's stewardship.

BTW, I AM A LIBERAL, and sick AND tired of my party's idiocies!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: What a Moron!
Review: The above rating is way too good for this piece of excrement!