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Audio CD Description Having previously dissected the factual inaccuracies of a single bellicose talk show host in Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken takes his fight to a larger foe: President George W. Bush, the Bush Administration, Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, and scores of other conservatives whom, he says, are playing loose with the facts. It's a lot of ground to cover, as evidenced by the 43 chapters in Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, but the results are often entertaining and insightful. Franken occupies a unique place in the modern political dialogue as perhaps the media's only comedy writer and performer who is also a Harvard fellow as well as a liberal political commentator. This unique and vaguely lonely position lends a charming quixotic quality to adventures such as a tense encounter with the Fox News staff at the National Press Club, a challenge to fisticuffs with National Review Editor Rich Lowry, and an oddly sweet admissions visit to ultra-conservative Bob Jones University (with a young research assistant posing as his son when Franken's real-life son refuses to participate in the charade). Less useful are comic book dramatizations of "Supply Side Jesus" and a fictitious Vietnam War story featuring the numerous righties who, Franken intimates, improperly avoided service. And Franken's criticisms of conservative talk show hosts Sean Hannity, O’Reilly, and columnist Coulter, while admirable in their attention to detail, fail to shed much new light on people who have built careers on broad arguments and relentless self-aggrandizement. But Franken is at his best, and most compellingly readable, when he backs off the wackiness and the personal grudges and writes about more personal matters such as the political circus surrounding the memorial service of the late Senator Paul Wellstone. But even on these more serious topics, Franken's wit is still present and, in fact, grows sharper. In a time when much political discourse is composed of rage and shouting, it's refreshing that Al Franken is able to shout in a witty manner. --John Moe

Customer Reviews When a Liberal Finally Takes Off the Gloves, Start Running! For a long time, liberal-leaning people have been associated with pacifism, weakness, wishy-washiness, and all other levels of general wussitude. In fact, one of the Bush campaign's favorite Weapons of Mass Deception involved painting Kerry as a flip-flopping liberal elitist, despite his illustrious career as a military hero in Vietnam and a fairly decent politician. But when these peace-loving leftists finally start to get riled, as Mr. Al Franken obviously has, you get sheer pandemonium, or, in this case, a fabulous example of a well-researched, insightful, and painfully funny indictment of far-right politics, conservative media, and all of the other talking heads and spinmeisters that have been loosed upon us since the dawn of the century. Now I don't want you to get the idea that I'm a Democrat, or even a liberal. Believe it or not, I was one of the many deceived, misguided people who SUPPORTED George W. Bush in the 2000 election. I thought that he was going to bring morale, decency, and family values back to our nation. Little did I know that the only family values Mr. Bush had intended on introducing us to were those of the Bin Laden family. But I digress. When at last I reached the age of reason and realized what an odious, contemptible, and morally bankrupt Washington industrialist I had been suckered into voting for, I was pretty angry. There's so much radical spin out there that I didn't know who to trust. I don't like extremism on either side of the political spectrum, and I find liberal unscrupulousness just as repellent as conservative dishonesty and deceit. I just wanted the facts (and maybe some lighthearted jollies too. I mean, what satirist in his right mind could actually resist tormenting a president who once remarked "Rarely is the question asked, 'Is our children learning?'") Thus, I was overjoyed to find Al Franken's book. I breezed through it, loving every minute of it. But Franken doesn't just tackle Bush's verbal gaffes and policy flaws, oh no! He also uses the right-wing media's own statistics, calculations, ad hominem attacks, and misrepresentations against them, skewing human wastes of space like Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh mercilessly, and making it look so easy that you'll gain a feeling of empowerment vicariously through Franken's masterpiece. A book of this power may even be enough to make some dyed-in-the-wool Bush-supporters rethink their positions. I don't agree with Mr. Franken on everything. I tend to go against his blind advocacy of Affirmative Action (not ALL white males are financially privileged. In fact, some of us, thanks to Bush, are dirt poor.) and I think that he has a tendency to go a bit too easy on some of his liberal cohorts like Al Gore and Hillary Clinton (who I do tend to find elitist and genuinely out of touch with American values). But you can't have everything, and he accomplishes in this novel what I never believed possible from a liberal author, a book that places the ranting idealogues of the right-wing on the defensive, for a change. In short, this book is a fantastic read well worth your time, whether you're an inveterate liberal or a reluctant conservative. Above all, this book intends to unite by way of informing the populus, so I'd highly urge my conservative friends not to be afraid, and to give it a read. In the interest of ecumenicalism and broad-mindedness, AND so that nobody can accuse me of gross partisanship, I'm going to check out Bill O'Reilly's book as well. It's going to be quite an undertaking. Your prayers are welcome and appreciated! Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced This is a great book, the way Al Franken uses humor and stone cold facts to dispel all the lies makes it just that much more enjoyable. His quick wit and sharp analysis makes this a page turner. He just tells it like it is, unlike some of lying targets; Bush, Cheney, O'Reilly, and Coulter who spew forth untruths every time they open their mouths. Franken's well guided missiles of truth do irreparable damage to the Right's reputation. It's really great when Franken calls these liars on their lies and he watches in delight as they quickly try to think up another lie to cover the first one, in essence spinning a web of deceit. He uses factual evidence and transcripts from various shows to prove his point, but nut cases like Coulter and O'Reilly still try to say Franken is "spinning" the truth. With pen in hand, Franken slays the ugly monster of lies that is the Right. Finally! Finally there is a book exposing the religious right for what they are. One doesn't need this book to come to the realization that Coulter, Hannity, and O'Reilly are dolts.... they were relatively easy targets. Franken's work on Rove and others of the Bush mob is where the book shines. I'm not a fan of Bill Clinton and disagree with quite a bit of Franken's political views, but one thing we share is a hatred for Neo Cons. Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, Falwell, and everyone associated with Bush top the list. I don't understand how some reviewers can claim this book isn't factually sound. How can transcripts and quotes be considered untrue or "spin"? In any case, this book is absolutely hilarious and nails Neo Cons to the cross.