Amazon.com Review
Nearly a year after the presidential election of 2004, Al Franken is still checking facts, exposing lies, and trying to clear the record as he sees it. Sneering at President Bush's declaration of a mandate after a two-and-a-half percent victory, he deconstructs Bush's 2004 platform of "fear, smear, and queers," and explains how the president has done some flip-flopping of his own. He offers comment on well-known stories, including the Terri Schiavo case, and some more obscure, such as reports of forced prostitution, indentured servitude, and squalid conditions at clothing factories in Saipan (which is part of the American Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands). Franken focuses on Tom DeLay's connection to the territory and his efforts to prevent bills from being passed that would have required Saipan to follow U.S. labor laws. Iraq, too, is discussed, from its planning stages to the huge sum of money currently unaccounted for, including $8.8 billion missing from the Coalition Provisional Authority's coffers.
On the home front, Franken covers President Bush's attempt at Social Security reform, explaining how they came up with the projected shortfall figure of $11 trillion. For one thing, they adjusted life expectancy to 150 years, while leaving the retirement age at 67: "That's an eighty-three-year retirement. They're never gonna get to that without stem cell research." He also takes some wickedly funny swipes at Karl Rove, lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pundits and hosts such as Rush Limbaugh, Tim Russert, and Sean Hannity, and, of course, President Bush. The Truth succeeds in providing ammunition to liberals and others dissatisfied with the current power base in Washington, D.C.--only this time (with jokes). --Shawn Carkonen
An Exclusive Video for The Truth (with jokes) from Al Franken
We try to keep things civil in our customer review section, but Al Franken, who apparently trained at the Saturday Night Live school of conflict mediation, didn't get the message in his exclusive video for his book The Truth (with Jokes): see high bandwidth and low bandwidth versions.
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From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Franken and his research team return to what they do best: detailing allegations and accusations being spread by right-wing pundits and then debunking them point-by-point. While numerous tomes have taken on the administration's creative definition of "facts," few have the massive readership of satirist Franken or his wickedly sly sense of humor. In many ways, the unabridged audio is superior to the bound book because listeners can enjoy Franken's deadpan comedic delivery. Another audio bonus is that rather than Franken reading the text he's about to redress, he provides the actual soundclips so listeners can hear George W. stumble over his words, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh bluster and Zell Miller contradict himself. Franken is such an uncanny mimic that listeners will find it hard to tell which Karl Rove and Dick Cheney sound bites are real and which are Franken's dead-on impersonations. Listeners will find Franken's directness refreshing (he calls Bush an "utterly shameless liar" and says his administration is "fixing the intelligence and facts around the policy."). The penultimate chapter is Franken's stirring call to arms to "throw these guys out in 2006." This is essential listening for those who want ammunition to fight to preserve their human rights.
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