Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

So I decided on Thursday how I was going to spend my Labor Day Weekend: On my fat ass reading. I haven't done much of that in the last little while (read:2003), so I went to the store and picked up some books. I will post about them as I finish them.
Much to my glee, Dutton bumped up the release date for Al Franken's new book Lies, no doubt to capitalize on all the free press they have gotten from the Fox suit. I guess it worked too -- I had to visit 3 different bookstores to find one not sold out (Chapter 11 at Ansley had 2 left Saturday morning).
I love Al Franken's books. I really do. This one is no exception. It is of course, hilarious. Al has an acerbic sense of humor that I just love (and miss so dearly from SNL).
In terms of the lies in Lies, there isn't much that most left leaning people who read a little don't already know. No, 58% of single mothers aren't on welfare. No, the lower 60% of taxpayers only get 14% of the Bush tax cut. Yes, Ann Coulter is a whack bitch.
One thing I kept thinking as I was rapt by the book (which I finished in 2 sittings), was how much fun it must be to be Al. Pretty sure I see Wolfowitz, O'Reilly or Reed shoot off their mouth on something just outrageous, I will never be bumping into them at a dinner or be able to get them to return my calls.
As to the book itself, Lies is almost 2 books. The first is basically just a slam job on some of the craziest stuff to come out of the Murdoch mostrosity over a 2 year timeframe. Al is really great at dispensing credit to his research team at Harvard, including their picture and a brief bio on each of them at the end -- really nice touch. The second half breaks off into what I want to term "Al Franken's SNL Format for Literature". A mock comic entitles "Supply Side Jesus", strings of 1 word, 1 line or 1 paragraph chapters to make a point, a one-act play about the Bush tax plan. Some of these work very well, some don't. The book is also sprinkled liberally with personal anecdotes about meeting various people, appearing on panel shows, etc. All of these are very funny.
At any rate, while Lies has some amazingly valid points, arguements and *cough* corrections in it, it does fall squarely into what he terms "Political Porn". This isn't so much an effort at persuasion so much as a reminder to those who generally agree with him already. I have to admit, though, some of the sections of the book did teach me about new ways to hate the Bush administration, and issues which I was vaguely aware of, but didn't have much of a backgrounder on -- his section on Environmental and Farm policy near the end was perhaps the most stunning to me personally.
Lies is a first rate outting by a first rate humorist, much unlike Tom Clancy's Teeth of the Tiger (more on that one later). If you want to know what Fox News would be like if it were a lot more left, a hell of a lot funier, fact-checked, and had a bit more good-humored name calling, rather than just hateful name calling, this is the book for you.
4.7 penguin heads on our scale of 5.2