"THE TRUTH" IS NOT A LAUGHING MATTER
Written: Mar 11 '07 (Updated Mar 13 '07)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Fact-based, well-written book on how Bush has failed and why we need new leadership
Cons: None that I could find
The Bottom Line: Democrats and Republicans should read this book. Maybe, it would prevent bad things from happening.
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| mike.holmes's Full Review: Al Franken - The Truth (With Jokes) |
I've always enjoyed the work of Al Franken even before I found out that he is a card-carrying liberal like me. Actually, neither of us carry cards but to hardcore conservatives and neo-cons, we probably should. Anyway, back to Al. His first "career" was as both a standup comedian and a frequent character on "Saturday Night Live" who always looked in a mirror and repeated "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!"
In the last several years, Al has written several best-selling books such as "Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot" and "Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them" in which he combines his witty side with some rather serious stabs at the pomposity of such conservative personalities as Rush (obviously), O'Reilly, Coulter and the like.
He also co-founded co-founded the Air America Radio network as a left-wing answer to the vast number of far-right radio jocks spewing forth their venom. With each project that Franken has taken on, it has become more obvious that he wants to be more than just an "observer" of what's going on in the country.
Thus, "THE TRUTH...with jokes", written in late 2005 and early 2006) comes forth as the most serious work that Al has ever undertaken. Since he is renown as a comedian and comedic writer, I suppose his editors and publishers felt that it was obligatory to include the "with jokes" but, believe me, this is an extremely serious book. Franken's "targets" are not just the right-wing media, but the entire Bush Administration and several Republican leaders.
Franken divides the book into three major subsections:
Book One: THE TRIUMPH OF EVIL
Book Two: SEEDS OF COLLAPSE
Book Three: Epilogue-THE RESURRECTION OF HOPE
Book One is basically a review of what Bush and his right-wing friends at Fox News incorrectly labeled as his "mandate victory" over Senator Kerry. Franken points out that Bush's 2.5 percent victory margin was the most narrow election by an incumbent president in the history of the republic. While Al does not really tell many "jokes" in the book, his sense of humor shows forth throughout as is shown here:
"Mandate?...FDR had a mandate....Eisenhower had a mandate...Johnson...Nixon...Reagan...and Clinton (1996) had mandates. I knew mandates. Mandates were a friend of mine. And, you, 2004, were no mandate."
Franken proceeds to present his theory (backed up with excellent evidence) that Bush with a campaign of Fear, Smears, and Queers (his wording).
I don't have the time nor inclination to detail each of these Bush-Cheney-Rove tactics to re-capture the Whitehouse but Franken is convincing. His "Fear" chapter documents how the Bush team kept the country nervous with those stupid "color" alerts; how Bush and company repeatedly lied to get us into a war against Iraq by proclaiming that Saddam was somehow connected to the 911 Attacks; and finally, the Bush team resorted to the shameless television ad showing a group of menacing wolves lounging in a grassy clearing while implying that electing Kerry would leave us open to the beasts' attack.
The "Smear" campaign, led by the totally corrupt "Swift Boat Veterans" was based on lies built upon still more lies. None of the allegations by the "Swiftees" has any documented proof. Those who were there when Kerry fought valiantly enough to deserve his medals all said that he deserved them. Franken's chapter provides a total debunking of that smear campaign plus other methods used by Bush.
The "Homosexual" campaign was engineered primarily by Carl Rove who was and is a master of this type of dirty politics. Pushing for "No Gay Marriages" amendments in several of the key states was only a part of the "Us versus the Kerry "fancy boys" disgusting campaign.
Book Two (Seeds of Collapse) highlight how the Bush administration and Republicans in general began to show their true colors and weaknesses after the 2004 election. I'll only list the chapter issues here:
A Great political issue-briefly describes how Bush, Frist and others came down on the wrong side of the Terri Schiavo case
...Tom Delay...
Here, Al shows how Tom DeLay's total lack of ethics in his involvement with supercrook Jack Abramoff, along with other questionable dealings began to deeply tarnish the Republican parties "holier-than-thou" claims.
Social Security: Franni vs. Bush
Franni is Al's wife and a staunch supporter of a strong Social Security system. Here, Al shows how Bush totally wasted all the "capital" he claimed to have from the '04 election by trying to dismantle the current Social Security system much to the dismay of Franni and the great majority of Americans.
The last three chapters of this section basically show how the War in Iraq has become a total disaster for the American people (and the world) while the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfield team keeps saying things like "We're winning" and "It's almost over".
The last "book", Epilogue; The Resurrection of Hope" is only included in the paperback version of the book. It includes an open letter from Al to his grandchildren in 2015 and lists all the improvements in government and reality due to Democrats regaining the Congress and the Presidency. It is a very hopeful chapter to say the least, part of which we have already seen come true. The last chapter "You're Welcome" trumpets the triumph of Al himself and other Liberals in pointing out the myriad of Republican failures over the last six years. A very partial listing is shown here:
"Katrina--Heck of a job!
The Administration's Response to Katrina
Plamegate-Libby and Rowe (and Cheney)
Harriet Miers
Medicare Part D
The list goes on but the point is made over and over by Al. The last several years have witnessed the greatest attacks on the personal freedoms that out Founding Fathers wrote into the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and that numerous generations of our fighting men and women have fought to preserve. Bush and his cronies have ignored "Global Warming", violated our rights of privacy and told us how to live our private lives.
Franken does throw in one or two jokes and many examples of his ironic humor, but, more than anything, I think this book is a serious precursor to his running for the U.S. Senate in Minnesota. Were I from that state, I would not only vote for him but I would work hard for his election. This book is a great testimony to his knowledge and stubbornness to do the right thing.
FIVE STARS
Recommended:
Yes
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Member: Mike Holmes
Location: Odessa, Texas
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