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Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right Paperback – July 27, 2004
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The #1 New York Times bestseller by Senator Al Franken, author of Giant of the Senate
Al Franken, one of our “savviest satirists” (People), has been studying the rhetoric of the Right. He has listened to their cries of “slander,” “bias,” and even “treason.” He has examined the GOP's policies of squandering our surplus, ravaging the environment, and alienating the rest of the world. He’s even watched Fox News. A lot.
And, in this fair and balanced report, Al bravely and candidly exposes them all for what they are: liars. Lying, lying liars. Al destroys the liberal media bias myth by doing what his targets seem incapable of: getting his facts straight. Using the Right’s own words against them, he takes on the pundits, the politicians, and the issues, in the most talked about book of the year.
Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Lies sticks it to the most right-wing administration in memory, and to the right-wing media hacks who do its bidding.
- Print length448 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherPlume
- Publication dateJuly 27, 2004
- Dimensions5.52 x 0.99 x 8.38 inches
- ISBN-100452285216
- ISBN-13978-0452285217
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Rings with the moral clarity of an angel’s trumpet... Although Franken is a self-proclaimed liberal, his work differs in that it presents well-substantiated arguments and damning examples of false accusations that conservatives have effectively used against Democrats... sharp analysis and humor."—Associated Press
"A typically unabashed blend of razor-witted denunciation and old-fashioned gumshoe detective work directed at right-wing crazies both in and out of government... [An] exquisitely irritating new book."—The Independent (London)
"[A] heady mixture of scathing humor and righteous indignation."—The Onion
“In the kicking, spitting spirit of current all-star political discourse, Al Franken gives as good as he gets.”—Janet Maslin, The New York Times
Praise for Oh, the Things I Know!
“With a nod to Dr. Seuss and his popular tome for graduates of all ages, Franken offers his own advice guide, which covers pretty much anything anyone wants to understand about life… This laugh-aloud take on advice books—it is dedicated simply 'For Oprah'—is Stuart Smiley with an edge.”—Ilene Cooper, Booklist
“Easy-to-follow guide to success and, failing that, happiness.”—USA Today
Praise for The Truth (with jokes)
“Devastating... The Truth keeps its promise to be funny about extremely unfunny matters. It matches Lies in wit, and its subjects are tougher. The gags have bite. . . . And it is effectively leavened with bits of dialogue, many of them all too real.”—The New York Times
“Subtle, laugh-or-cry-out-loud and ultimately devastating . . . The Truth (with jokes) is guaranteed to rile the right again with its forensic lasering of Republican skullduggery and media mendacity, laced with sharp humor. . . . [Franken] is the voice the American left has been waiting for.”—The Guardian (London)
About the Author
U.S. Senator Al Franken grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Before running for the Senate, Al spent 37 years as an Emmy award-winning comedy writer; author of I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Me!, Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot, Lies (and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them), and Giant of the Senate; and radio talk show host. He has taken part in seven USO tours, visiting our troops overseas in Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo, Uzbekistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Kuwait.
First elected to the Senate in 2008, and re-elected in 2014, he currently sits on the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee; the Judiciary Committee; the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and the Committee on Indian Affairs. He has been married to his wife, Franni, for 40 years.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
LIES: And the Lying Liars Who Them--A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right
by Al Franken
Introduction
God chose me to write this book.
Just the fact that you are reading this is proof not just of God’s existence, but also of His/Her/Its beneficence. That’s right. I am not certain of God’s precise gender. But I am certain that He/She/It chose me to write this book.
This isn’t hubris. I’m not saying this in an egotistical way. God didn’t choose me because I’m the greatest writer who ever lived. That was William Shakespeare, whose work I have a passing familiarity with. No. I just happened to be the right vessel at the right time. If something in this book makes you laugh, it was God’s joke. If something makes you think, it’s because God had a good point to make.
The reason I know God chose me is because God spoke to me personally.
God began our conversation by clearing something up. Some of George W. Bush’s friends say that Bush believes God called him to be president during these times of trial. But God told me that He/She/It had actually chosen Al Gore by making sure that Gore won the popular vote and, God thought, the electoral college. “THAT WORKED FOR EVERYONE ELSE,” God said.
“What about Tilden?” I asked, referring to the 1876 debacle.
“QUIET!” God snapped. God was angry.
God said that after 9/11, George W. Bush squandered a unique moment of national unity. That instead of rallying the country around a program of mutual purpose and sacrifice, Bush cynically used the tragedy to solidify his political power and pursue an agenda that panders to his base and serves the interests of his corporate backers.
God told me that Bush squandered a $4.6 trillion surplus and is plunging us into deficits as far as God can see. And that Bush squandered another surplus. The surplus of goodwill from the rest of the world that he had inherited from Bill Clinton.
And this was pissing God off.
He/She/It was right. But it sounded like a lot of work.
“Look, God, I’m flattered, but I think you got the wrong guy. The kind of book you’re talking about would require months of research.”
And God said, “LET THERE BE GOOGLE. AND LET THERE BE LEXISNEXIS.”
“Very funny, God. I use Google all the time.”
“YES, I KNOW,” God said. “FOR HOT ASIAN TEENS.”
“You must be thinking of my son, Joe.”
“AL? I'M OMNISCIENT.”
“Okay, okay.” I changed the subject. “It’s just that I can’t do this book myself.”
“LEAVE THAT TO ME,” God boomed.
And that’s when Harvard called.
***
Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government asked me to serve as a fellow at its Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy. After my varied and celebrated career in television, movies, publishing, and the lucrative world of corporate speaking, being a fellow at Harvard seemed, frankly, like a step down.
I couldn’t think of anything less appealing than molding the minds of tomorrow’s leaders, unless it was spending fireside evenings sipping sherry with great minds at the Faculty Club. Yawn.
To my surprise and delight, though, all Harvard wanted me to do was show up every once in a while and write something about something. That gave me an idea.
“Would it be okay if I wrote a scathingly partisan attack on the rightwing media and the Bush administration?”
“No problem,” Harvard said absentmindedly.
“Count me in,” I replied. “From now on call me ‘Professor Franken.’”
“No,” Harvard said, “you’re not a professor. But you can run a study group on the topic of your choosing.”
“Great,” I said. “I’ve got the perfect topic: Write My Son’s Harvard College Application Essay.”
“No,” they said. “Harvard students already know how to write successful Harvard applications, Al. We want you to teach them something new.”
Harvard was right where I wanted it. “How about if the topic is: How to Research My Book?”
“Sure,” Harvard said. “Most of our professors teach that course. Why, in the Biochemistry department, most of the graduate level courses are-”
Harvard was boring me. “I gotta run, Harvard. Thanks.”
***
I had my Nexis, I had my Google, I had my Harvard fellowship, and I had my fourteen research assistants. I sat down to write. Nothing.
So I got on my knees and prayed for guidance. “How, God, can I best do Your work through this book? Who, dear Lord, is the audience for a book like this? And what’s a good title?”
God answered, “YOU KNOW THOSE SHITTY BOOKS BY ANN COULTER AND BERNIE GOLDBERG?”
“The best-sellers that claim there’s a liberal bias in the media?” I asked.
“TOTAL BULLSHIT,” God said. “START BY ATTACKING THEM. HE'S CLEARLY A DISGRUNTLED FORMER EMPLOYEE, AND SHE JUST LIES. BY THE WAY, THERE'S SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH HER.”
“That’s pretty obvious.”
“SO GO AFTER THEM, THE WHOLE LIBERAL BIAS MYTH, AND THEN GO AFTER THE RIGHT-WING MEDIA. ESPECIALLY FOX.”
“Okay, God, I’m writing this down.”
“THEN USE THEM AS A JUMPING-OFF POINT TO GO AFTER BUSH. YOU KNOW, BIG TAX CUTS FOR THE RICH, SURGING UNEMPLOYMENT, IGNORING EVERYONE BUT HIS CORPORATE BUDDIES, SCREWING THE ENVIRONMENT, PISSING OFF THE REST OF THE WORLD. THAT STUFF. AND THAT'S YOUR BOOK.”
“Got it. One last thing. Title.”
“HOW ABOUT BEARERS OF FALSE WITNESS AND THE FALSE WITNESS THAT THEY BEAR?”
“Hmm. I, uh, I’ll work with that.”
Product details
- Publisher : Plume; Reprint edition (July 27, 2004)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 448 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0452285216
- ISBN-13 : 978-0452285217
- Item Weight : 14.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.52 x 0.99 x 8.38 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #524,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #289 in Political Humor (Books)
- #4,455 in Fiction Satire
- #26,412 in Literary Fiction (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Senator Al Franken has represented Minnesota in the United States Senate since 2009. Before entering politics, he was an award-winning comedy writer, author, and radio talk show host. He's been married to his wife, Franni, for 41 years — many of them happy. They have two children, Thomasin and Joe, and three grandchildren. Senator Franken graduated from Harvard College and received his doctorate in right-wing megalomania studies from Trump University.
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I listen to alot of right wing radio, what choice do I have - the alternative is bland music or all day sport. I read quite alot and I have read AL Franken's latest book. Not great literature, not great comedy (quite funny)- but very interesting. The funniest line was the last line.
When I read a book like this - I want to make sure that that the extremely serious accusations are correct. So I decide to do some research. If I want to find about about a movie I go to Rotten Tomatoes. For a book what better than than Amazon and the 1100 reviews to date.
Since I am looking for faults in the book - I focus on reviews that give it one or two stars. It is these people that will determine whether this book is accurate or not. Remember, this is a top selling book which is accusing the President of the USA of being a lyar!!!
I will now list the typical one star rebuttals with my comments were appropriate:
1) "Unsubstantiated" - May be but give me an example!
2) "His arguments can be dismantled in Five minutes" I'm listening
3)"Liberals will follow the fate of James Dean...." Is this a threat or a pagan vision?
4) "He must be a Frenchman" In your dreams (Since French people have 4-6 weeks vacation a year, enjoy long lunches with excellent wine, can wander through streets with beautiful architecture, have affordable health care, job security and very little poverty. His American counterpart is lucky to get 2 weeks vacation, works like a dog, eats processed meat from factory farms without proper hygene and worker safety/benefits, and were there a good chance he lives below the poverty level having had a comparatively poor education, and his future probably means he will lose his manufacturing job in exchange for a job at K-Mart)
5)"Liberalism is basically Secularism". No comment
6)"8 months prior to Sept 11, is the Clinton adminstration Duh !!!" Three people thought that was good review.
7) "I have not read this book..." 8 out 77 thought that was good review.
8) " If he wanted to prove his case he should challenge them directly" This book is a direct challenge. I am looking for factual rebuttals.
9) "He should get a job" This is too deep for me.
So the critics have had their say. The above list is merely a representative sample. So far all responses have been vacuous.
Thus the conclusion that Bush (and his cronies) is a lyar. During the election campaign I had come to the conclusion that if you had to wade through Bush's deepest thoughts you would not even get your ankles wet. But it is obvioulsly worse than that. He has made huge lies regarding the miltary, his tax policy and Iraq. His every statement regarding the environment is a gaping deception. I'm not particuarly religious, but if you plan on getting votes by aligning yourself with God, you had dam well better be virtuous. Understanding the Gospel according to Luke also might help.
Many people who are upset by this callous, hypocritical administartion are accused of a lack of patriotism. Well it is not patriotic to destroy the land air and water that we breath. It is not patriotic to increase poverty or to execute innocent people or execute people who merely get legal aid. It is not patriotic a launch a war having decieved the electorate, it is not patriotic to use religion to get votes, use religion to destroy Science and Logic, to use religion to carry out a pagan foreign policy. It is not patriotic to treat the rest of the world with contempt, to help fund the educational infrastructure that breeds people who dream of destroying America. It is not patriotic to lie. No that is not patriotism. but it does threaten the longterm security of me, my family and all who want a happy healthy and prosperous longterm future.
Ignorance may be bliss - but it is also highly dangerous.
Bush's crimes listed in this book are worse than Clintons (i.e the politically inspired investigation into his private life, that paralized the country for a year and led to issues that should reside between husband and wife, not a with a bunch of adulterous political enemies) or Nixons relatively minor crime.
With hindsight and without the promised ('we know where they are')weapons of mass destruction, the war on Iraq was obviously illegal. Impeachment should be in the air.
There are lots of funny things here - "Operation Chickenhawk" in which Lieutenant John Kerry's Vietnam troops consist of George W. Bush, who is usually a little tipsy; Dick Cheney, who in the heat of combat has a heart attack; Clarence Thomas who is into pornography, along with John Ashcroft, Bill O'Reilly, Phil Gramm and Rush Limbaugh. In the midst of this gaggle, Al Gore comes to to an article on Kerry. Delicious. Then there's the "No Child Left Behind Standardized Test" and the list of people-- Ashcroft, Ralph Reed, Phyllis Schlafly, Condoleezza Rice, the Cheneys, Pat Robertson et al-- whom Franken writes to get their personal abstinence stories. Then some of the scary stuff: I found it incredible when it happened and Franken reminded me that Max Cleland in the 2000 election was portrayed as "unpatriotic" by his opponent. This is a man who lost three limbs while serving in Vietnam. That that lie stuck and probably cost Cleland the election is scary beyond belief. Don't forget Jerry Falwell's statement on 9/13/01: "I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way--all of them who have tried to secularize America--I point the finger in their face, and say, 'you helped this happen'." Well, the right Reverend Falwell forgot the little old ladies who play bingo on Wednesday nights. They are really what's sending this nation to hell in a wheelbarrow. But this book ultimately will make you sad, sad that we lost most of the world's goodwill we gained after 9/11/01, sad that there is no civility left in government and politics. (I recently heard a taped conversation between President Kennedy and President Eisenhower in which Kennedy was asking Eisenhower's advice on what to do about an international crisis. There was respect and cordiality on both ends of the telephone. I don't believe that would happen in Washington today.) I was saddened that Paul Wellstone's memorial service in the hands of the right wingers became a "political rally" for Democrats.
My one problem with this book is that Mr. Frankel is so good that sometimes I cannot tell if he is joking or not. For example, did John Ashcroft actually annoint himself with oil before being sworn in for public office in Missouri?
Top reviews from other countries
If you ignore the warning signs, what do you expect is going to happen?
I'm not ashamed to admit that I never heard of the guy before but I did hear that he had the audacity to challenge Anne Coulter (the screaming right-wing conspiracy theorist who crops up on CNN opinion shows every so often to shout about Bill Clinton) so his books was something I was willing to read.
So I bought the book. I must admit I was initialy dismayed by the title and the title of his other books (Lies and the lying liers who tell them and Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot), however I came to learn that this was merely all part of Franken's satirical art.
So what does Franken do? He goes on the attack against several Right Wing figures mostly belonging to the Republican party. He insults them, he goads them, he most certainñy doesn't show them any respect. Essentially he uses the techniques he criticises the same right-wingers for using with one essential difference - he leaves out the lies.
He embarks on what we might call a scholarly fact-finding mission to challenge conservatives like Coulter and Limbaugh in the same manner someone like Norman Finkelstein has done in the past. However, Franken's unique style is replete with humour and irreverence and, even when he's being utterly offensive, it's impossible not to like him.
He essentially focuses on a group of republicans in this book, beginning with Anne Coulter and following on with Bernie Goldberg, Bill O'Reilly, the Fox Network and its correspondents, Sean Hannity and his liberal sidekick Colmes and also the methods they use in attacking the Democrats as well as a mysterious "liberal" group they have created to pin everything from faulty computers to cancer on.
He makes some witty observations about the personal lives of his victims and breaks the monotony of politicking every so often with a comic-style section. My favourite part of the book was, in fact, "The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus". It literally had me rolling on my bed laughing my head off. He points out several of the lies which have been made on behalf of the right wing, including claims made by President George Bush concerning his compaign. He also pounces on the cynical exploitation of September 11 by the Right Wing in an attempt to silence opposition.
What I don't like about his writing, however, are his constant damned attempts to plug his own books. It seems that he mentiones "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" every 10 pages and, I must admit, it's worked a treat because I've just ordered the book but I hate anything with so much product placement in it.
I think he's also sometimes a bit off target with his criticism, especially with his attacks on critics of the so-called 'Death Tax'. He has a fair point but contradicts himself with his analogies concerning this topic and seems to go a bit over the top.
Interested in the politics of America? Then I think this book would be a useful start. You don't really need too much background info to have great fun and understanding of the book. Anything that takes the mickey out of Bob Jones University and Queen Barbera Bush wins my vote!