Book Review: Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them

Al Franken's newest book, Lies and the Lying Liars That Tell Them is dedicated to exposing the lies told by right wing conservatives such as Anne Coulter, Sean Hannity, Bill O'reily, the President and more. Franken tells stories of his encounters with these people and the arguements that ensue, as well as pleanty of examples of misqoutes, things taken out of context, and just plain lies that the right uses in their books and media to label liberals as "terrorists". I can go so far as to say that this book was one of funniest, if not the funniest book that I've read. Franken's style is like that of Micheal Moore, but not as "for the family" and possibly with more personal situations and research, reminding me of a funnier Greg Palast. The only problem with this book is the hypocricy of it being labeled "a balanced look at the right". Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this, except for that it isn't very balanced: Franken is a gung-ho Democrat who is very opposed to the Republican party. I like how he satiricly exposes the Republicans for what they are, but the problem comes when he over-presents the Democratic Party. He clears up some lies that are told about Clinton and Gore, but he fails to mention the lies that Clinton and Gore tell themselves. He talks up Clinton to be the greatest President since sliced bread by only picking out certain aspects to mention. He has a chapter on how Bush helps destroy the environment and claims otherwise, yet he fails to mention that Clinton completely helped destroy the environment and tried to cover it up even more than Bush does. This is my only beef with this book. But, if you are going to read a book written by a certain party member, you have to keep in mind that there will be an expected Bias. And that goes for lots of things. At least Franken doesn't outright lie about things, he just overlooks the darker aspects of his own party. Even considering this, I'd say it was a good book. Definately worth reading if you are interested in seeing the complete lies told by these so called right wing pundits like Coulter.
7 1/2 stars out of 10