>From the Publisher
Al Franken, "one of our savviest satirists" (People), takes on the issues,
the politicians, and the pundits in one of the most anticipated books of the
year.
For the first time since his own classic Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, Al Franken trains his subversive wit directly on the contemporary political scene. Now, the "master of political humor" (Washington Times) destroys the myth of liberal bias in the media, and exposes how the Right shamelessly tries to deceive the rest of us.
No one is spared as Al uses the Right's own words against them. Not the Bush administration and their rhetorical hypocrisy. Not Ann Coulter and her specious screeds. Not the new generation of talk-radio hosts, and not Bill O'Reilly, Roger Ailes, and the entire Fox network. This is the book Al Franken fans have been waiting for (and his foes have been dreading). Timely, provocative, unfailingly honest, and always funny, Lies is sure to become the most talked about book of political humor in 2003 and beyond. Author Biography: Al Franken is the bestselling author of Oh, the Things I Know!, Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations, Why Not Me?, and I'm Good Enough, I'm Smart Enough and Doggone It, People Like Me!
Table of Contents
A Note from the Author
Introduction
1 Hummus 1
2 Ann Coulter: Nutcase 5
3 You Know Who I Don't Like? Ann Coulter 17
4 Liberals Who Hate America 21
5 Loving America the Al Franken Way 24
6 I Bitch-Slap Bernie Goldberg 28
7 The 2000 Presidential Election:
How It Disproved the Hypothetical Liberal
Media Paradigm Matrix 37
8 Conclusion: A Lesson Learned 51
9 Five Get-Rich-Quick Tips the Wall Street Fat Cats Don't Want You to Know
52
10 Chapter for American Book by Kharap Juta 56
11 I'm Funnier than Kharap Juta 57
12 The Chapter on Fox 58
13 Bill O'Reilly: Lying, Splotchy Bully 65
14 Hannity and Colmes 83
15 The Blame-America's-Ex-President-First Crowd 104
16 Operation Ignore 115
17 Our National Dialogue on Terrorism 123
18 Humor in Uniform 124
19 Who Created the Tone? 132
20 Did the Tone Change? 142
21 Why Did Anyone Think It Would Change? 143
22 I Grow Discouraged About the Tone 152
23 I'm Prudenized 165
24 Paul Gigot Is Unable to Defend an Incredibly Stupid Wall Street Journal
Editorial 170
25 "This Was Not a Memorial to Paul Wellstone": A Case Study in Right-Wing
Lies 177
26 I Attend the White House Correspondents Dinner and Annoy Karl Rove,
Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, and the Entire Fox News Team 206
27 The Lying Years 217
28 Bush Can't Lose With Clinton's Military 220
29 Operation Chickenhawk: Episode One 226
30 Fun with Racism 252
31 I'm a Bad Liar 261
32 Thank God for Jerry Falwell 277
33 Abstinence Heroes 283
34 Abstinence Heroes II 287
35 "By Far the Vast Majority of My Tax Cuts Go to Those at the Bottom" 288
36 The Waitress and the Lawyer: A One-Act Play 304
37 The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus 313
38 I Challenge Rich Lowry to a Fight 324
39 Vast Lagoons of Pig Feces: The Bush Environmental Record 328
40 I Meet Former First Lady Barbara Bush and It Doesn't Go Well 336
41 My Personal Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction 342
42 The No Child Left Behind Standardized Test 349
43 What Is a Lie? 352
Sources and Notes 355
Meet Team Franken 369
Acknowledgments 373
Endnotes 379