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Title: Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken ISBN: 0-452-28521-6 Publisher: Plume Pub. Date: 27 July, 2004 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: It would be a lie to say this wasn't incredible!!!
Comment: A hilarious dismemberment of the conservative right, Al Franken has done it again with his witty, satirical, but certainly factual angle on liberal politics. He funnels his rage with the present administration in a series of semi-fictional situations. Some of the chapters lean more on the entertainment side, while others are specific with support that back up Franken's apparent revulsion.
The second part of Franken's title is clearly mocking the conservative Fox News channel who also describes themselves as "fair and balanced." Throughout the book, Franken confuses us (in an ironic way) by being hypocritical about the conservative hypocrisy. Reverse psychology that makes you laugh, if you can figure it out.
Franken dissects each of his "lying liars" separately. Zeroing in on their past and present deceits and distortions, he uses articles, photographs, and solid proof to make his case. He takes quotes from interviews and shows the contradiction between campaign actions and promises. His recourses are simply stated in the form of endnotes and sources. Anything that is not pure fact is openly presented as opinion.
He scrutinizes all of Bush's major policies, and explains their dyslexic reasoning. For example, "My Personal Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction", is an important chapter when Franken admits that he was "torn" about the war in Iraq. However, when the weapons of mass destruction argument turned out to be a lie, Franken was even more resentful and disgruntled with the present administration.
Just when you feel you can't take the disturbing, sad truth of lies in the White House (and promoters of treachery outside Washington D.C.), Franken smoothly (or abruptly in some cases) swerves off course with a funny story or memorable tangent. These include everything from his experiences at White House correspondent dinners to an encounter with Barbara Bush on an airplane.
Halfway though the book, it dawns on you that Franken's creativity is simply perpetual. He uses a screenplay format to depict how ridiculous the tax cut is, a cartoon animation to demonstrate the religious interference in the current government, and a fictional war story to reveal Bush's duplicity in starting a war without ever having been in one.
I never read a political book (satire or not) without checking at least a couple of the facts. In one particular chapter, Franken tears apart Ann Coulter's (an ultra conservative writer) new book with specific (page numbers included) examples of blatant lies. I took it upon myself to confirm her gross exaggerations of the truth. Every one of Franken's accusations proved to be accurate, a piece of information that helps me trust his facts.
Overall, this book is a mix of politics, hilarity, and truth. Franken combines his original humor with a fresh political angle. This book is for any liberal who needs a little reassurance, or any conservatives who is willing to be saved.
Rating: 5
Summary: The antidote for the deceptions of O'Reilly & Coulter
Comment: Buy this book!!! With great humor and aplomb, Al Franken explains some of the many lies told by right wingers such as bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and the whole Faux News crowd. It even documents them with actual footnotes!
Yeah, I know what you're gonna say -- Anne Coulter averages over 800 footnotes per book. Bzzzt, wrong! Coulter uses endnotes. What's the difference? Franken shows how it's easier to lie with endnotes, and documents the six ways Coulter lies with them. For example, Coulter spends a paragraph discussing a New York Times editorial about Clarence Thomas called "The Youngest, Cruelest Justice." In the paragraph, Coulter says 'Thomas is not engaged on the substance of his judicial philosophy. He is called ... "chicken-and-biscuit-eating Uncle Tom,"[39] ... "Benedict Arnold"[40] and "Judas Iscariot."[41]' The bracketed numbers are Coulter's endnote numbers. Here's Franken's commentary:
Okay. What percentage of Coulter's readers do you suppose read this and thought, "My God! The New York Times called Clarence Thomas a 'chicken-and-biscuit-eating Uncle Tom'! I knew the Times was bad, but I never dreamed it was this bad!"? High nineties? And what percentage do you think ever bothered to go to the back of her book and wade through the endnotes to discover that the quote came from a playboy interview with former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders and from a black leader at a meeting of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference wh was quoted in the New Yorker.
In spite of all these facts, the book is riotously funny! Here's how chapter 19 (of 43 chapters), titled 'Who Created the Tone' begins:
(...) "Scumbag," "sociopath," "perpetual preener," "rapist," "unserious," "craven miscreant."(1) Sound like anyone you know? I mean, besides Steven Seagal?(2) Actually, it was the forty-second president of the United States, Bill Clinton, who was called all of these things. In my day, we never used such language to describe the President, unless he was a real a$%#ole like Nixon. (1) [in a footnote at the bottom of the page, Franken give the citations for all these quotes; all were in Washington Post or Times.] (2) Just kidding. I have never heard of Steven Seagal being referred to as a "rapist," or a "sociopath." Or "unserious."
Chapter 29, 'Operation Chickenhawk' makes great fun of the excuses given by various Bush administration biggies for avoiding the draft (e.g. Cheney: "had other priorities").
In chapters 33 and 34, (Abstinence Heroes I & II) Franken writes to a bunch of Bush admin biggies soliciting "personal stories of abstinance heroes for our nation's young people to emulate." Short, but extremely funny.(...)
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Title: Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken ISBN: 0440508649 Publisher: Dell Pub. Date: 12 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties by Craig Unger ISBN: 074325337X Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 16 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.00 |
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Title: Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush by John W. Dean ISBN: 031600023X Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 06 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
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Title: My Life by Bill Clinton ISBN: 0375414576 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 22 June, 2004 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception by DAVID CORN ISBN: 1400050669 Publisher: Crown Pub. Date: 30 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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