Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

Al Franken 's book is a terrible expose of the constant newspeak used by the Bush II administration in order to hide the real agenda. The newspeak veils the stealing of the presidency in Florida (to defend democracy), tax cuts for the superwealthy (no heritage tax even above 100 M $), the screwing of the environment ('the rewriting of the Clean Water Act's rules allows mining waste to be dumped directly into many heretofore off-limits water ways'), draft dodgers as warmongerers or vicious lies about opponents.

The result of its policies are presented as gifts for all citizens, but 'single mothers loose health coverage for their children', and unemployment is surging (but statistically hidden).

Al Franken plays all the accords of the harmonic spectrum: from the spectacle of absurd and blatant lies on TV channels, over ludicrous governmetal programmes (sex abstinence education), to sarcasm ('During the 6 years that the 2 Bushes have been president, there has not been a new job created. Extrapoling from that, if the Bushes had run this country from its inception to the present day, not a single American would have worked) and raw cynicism ( the WSJ calls those people who earn so little that they don't have to pay any taxes 'lucky duckies').

Al Franken unveils the administration's unhuman but divine message: prosperity means that God is rewarding your rugged individualism. When you are poor, you should blame yourself.

On the international front, Al Franken lambasts the lies about the WMD in Iraq, the ditching of the 'lousy' Kyoto Agreement, the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the germ warfare protocol, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the International Criminal Court and the land mine treaty.

He ridicules a member of the Bush II administration for having calculated that the reconstruction of Iraq would cost next to nothing. For this brilliant forecast he was rewarded with an international financial top job.

All the cover-ups, false messages, blatant lies about disastrous and deadly policies were gladly swallowed by completely gagged media. The latter are controlled by 5 big conglomerates, which are living out of the hand of big corporations through their advertising spending.

Al Franken sketches poignantly a sad picture of a country that should be the greatest democracy of the world.

Not to be missed.

Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) is a thoroughly entertaining book by an author who documents his arguments with facts. That's a lot more than I can say for Ann Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh. Al Franken presents a "fair and balanced" attack on the lies of the American far right and never ceases to entertain and inform the reader.

Well, it's not as bad as the previous review says. Sure, he's a biased, name-calling, aggressive lefty, but he's fun. Chapters like "Ann Coulter: Nutcase" let you know that you shouldn't expect realistic political debate. :)

Having said that, some of his notes are very thorough and he shows clear examples of when leading Republicans have lied through their teeth, which is good. The whole book is quite readable, and the details on right-wing bias in Fox News and the newspaper media are very welcome.

Would have got another star if he'd been slightly less vitriolic, but the info inside is all good.