Lies: And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right

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Penguin, Jul 27, 2004 - Humor - 448 pages

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.

 

Contents

Hummus
1
Nutcase
5
You Know Who I Dont Like? Ann Coulter
17
Addendum to Ann Coulter Chapter
21
Liberals Who Hate America
25
Loving America the Al Franken Way
28
BitchSlap Bernie Goldberg
32
How It Disproved the Hypothetical Liberal Media Paradigm Matrix
41
A Case Study in RightWing Lies
186
Attend the White House Correspondents Dinner and Annoy Karl Rove Richard Perle Paul Wolfowitz and the Entire Fox News Team
215
The Lying Years
226
Bush Cant Lose with Clintons Military
229
Episode One
235
Fun with Racism
261
Im a Bad Liar
270
Thank God for Jerry Falwell
286

A Lesson Learned
55
Five GetRichQuick Tips the Wall Street Fat Cats Dont Want You to Know
56
Chapter for American Book by Kharap Juta
60
Im Funnier Than Kharap Juta
61
The Chapter on Fox
62
Lying Splotchy Bully
69
Addendum to OReilly Chapter
87
Hannity and Colmes
91
The BlameAmericasExPresidentFirst Crowd
112
Operation Ignore
124
Our National Dialogue on Terrorism
132
Humor in Uniform
133
Who Created the Tone?
141
the Tone Change?
151
Why Did Anyone Think It Would Change?
152
Grow Discouraged About the Tone
161
Im Prudenized
174
Paul Gigot Is Unable to Defend an Incredibly Stupid Wall Street Journal Editorial
179
Abstinence Heroes
292
Abstinence Heroes II
296
By Far the Vast Majority of My Tax Cuts Go to Those at the Bottom
297
A OneAct Play
313
The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus
323
Challenge Rich Lowry to a Fight
333
The Bush Environmental Record
337
Meet Former First Lady Barbara Bush and It Doesnt Go Well
345
My Personal Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction
351
The No Child Left Behind Standardized Test
358
What Is a Lie?
361
Win
365
Sources and Notes
383
Meet TeamFranken
397
Acknowledgments
401
Endnotes
407
Index
409
Copyright

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About the author (2004)

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.

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