Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: GtoRA2 on January 05, 2004, 11:10:50 AM
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A friend of mine bought it and gave it to me after he read it. He is a lib, and thought it was really funny. He really liked the part about Anne Coulter.
I read it, and was very suprised. It was a fun read, and eye opening. It did not piss me off like I thought it would. In fact in a few cases it made me stop and think.
Now I have said here before Politics really bother me, and that I hate the politicians on boths sides are such scum. I never have thought that Bush was that great, nor have I thought he was the anti christ. I think slightly less of him now.
There are things in here I am going to have to look into, to confirm, that they are true. But I just do not get the sense that Franken is lying in most cases, though I think I may be confusing humor with fact, I am not sure. Some of the stuff in here I wish he was joking about.
I would recomend it for a fun read, and it never hurts to read something from the othersides point of view.
One of the most eye opening was the Paul Wellstone Memorial, talk about making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Before any of you attack me for being a Lib, I am not I am pretty right on most things...
I think I am going to find the other book he did, The Rush is a big fat idiot one... lol.
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Originally posted by GtoRA2
A friend of mine...
Before any of you attack me for being a Lib, I am not I am pretty right on most things...
Isn't it interesting that "LIB" spelled backwards and hyphonated is "Bi-L"
What does the "L" stand for?
Perhaps Llamma... nah.. what about Lamda.
A green Lambda inside an upside down pink triangle is the sign for gay activists.
What exactly are you saying GtoRa2?
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Give in to the dark side Luke.... Let your anger flow....
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Originally posted by midnight Target
Give in to the dark side Luke.... Let your anger flow....
Never... I'll never join you...
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AlFrankenCrap?
No thanks youngster, there are simply too many books worth reading and not enough time to read em.
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Originally posted by Yeager
AlFrankenCrap?
No thanks youngster, there are simply too many books worth reading and not enough time to read em.
Com'on Yeager.. He said it was entertainment... 8)
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LOL it was entertaining.
Getting all your info from one source is a bad thing. I like reading things from both sides.
Yeager, not everything someone on the left says is a lie, and not everything someone on the right says is the truth. If you only hear it from one side it is hard to tell what is truth and what is BS.
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Give in to the dark side Luke.... Let your anger flow....
If you aren't outraged, you aren't paying attention
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GtoRA2
what does your bbs name mean? would their be a significant shift in meaning if I reversed the caps?
gTOra2
Anyway. dont worry about me getting biased or limited information in this, the age of information. If anything I suffer from overexposure to dizzying variations of even the most unvaried sort.
AlFrankenCrap is real, real REAL low on the list for access to my brain. Thats all, nothing more. If you enjoyed his book then good for both of you.
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Al Franken, LIES And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them. A view from the Outside.
I am so apolitical my wife has to remind me what party the president belongs to on the rare occasions it even comes up. My wife and mother-in-law are always trying to convince me that this party or that is better so they asked if I would like to read Frankin's book. I read everything so sure, what the heck. Al Frankin, right? SNL? Humor?
Did not convince me of anything other than what I already figured- people in the public eye will use their ready access to the public to further their own agendas, irrespective of their political ties. Democrats, Republicans, they all come across the same to me.
First half of the book seemed to be well researched and documented (granted I have not read the other side of the story). Last half of the book it seemed Al and his research assistants ran out of...research, so it came across as, well, contrived and vindictive.
Chapter 18, "Humor in Uniform," tend to agree with the commander of the 86th Airlift Wing. The Taliban Cheerleaders bit wasn't very good.
The whole "Operation Chickenhawk" (chapt. 29) bit was just stupid.
Does a religious person find "The Gospel of Supply Side Jesus" (chapt. 37) offensive?
Everyone has an axe to grind and he sure did.
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Not read the entire thing, but I don't generally spend much time reading political satire. By the way, Franken was called out on serveral inaccuracies he wrote in that book. His reply was that it was "satire" and therefore he felt at liberty to stretch the truth. It's also been well documented that Franken (and confirmed by Franken himself) lied to at least one of the people in the Bush Administration (Ashcroft, IIRC) when trying to get information for his book. He never apologized for lying, only for using without permission a University's letterhead in his contact letter to Ashcroft. Takes one to know one?
Since you're talking about needing to get both sides of the story, did you bother to read any of Anne Coulter's books, such as "Treason"? It will also make you think (I've read a few excerpts from both books). So take your own advice if you haven't already. You can laugh about the Coulter bashing Franken engages in, but she at least has admitted that her research in those two instances Franken mentions was in error. One of those errors was in mixing up a son of a certain political figure for a grandson. Yet, Franken's book implies the person in question is not related to the political figure at all. Personally, I find both Franken's and Coulter's writing to be a bit too shrill, all in all. Both try a little hard to either demonize (Coulter) or marginalize (Franken) their political opposites.
Sean Hannity's new book sounds a bit more balanced (mentally, that is), though a bit preachy. Democratic Senator Zell Miller's new book also looks worth reading. Don't know if I'll have time for either.
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Sabre
I may read coulters, but I have heard so many bad things about her I am not sure I want to bother. I read Michael Savages book and liked it to a degree, and I was thinking on picking up Sean Hannity's as well.
Like I said, I do not believe all he had to say and will be doing some fact checking, but I found it very funny over all.
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Originally posted by Sabre
Sean Hannity's new book sounds a bit more balanced (mentally, that is), though a bit preachy. Democratic Senator Zell Miller's new book also looks worth reading. Don't know if I'll have time for either.
Wife came home just as I posted earlier. I was subjected to an intense dissertation about left, right, liberal, conservative, moderate, etc.
I assumed a thoughtful air, nod my head sagely, and make appropriate noises at the right times. Anything to get her to stop as soon as possible.
I also made note of your recommendations, then realized that I probably would not read either one (no offense) so I gave the note to her.
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Sage advice, indeed.:)
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Sage advice for a happy marriage, too. It's all in the nod and the grunt.
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Originally posted by GtoRA2
Sabre
I may read coulters, but I have heard so many bad things about her I am not sure I want to bother. I read Michael Savages book and liked it to a degree, and I was thinking on picking up Sean Hannity's as well.
Like I said, I do not believe all he had to say and will be doing some fact checking, but I found it very funny over all.
As opposed to all the good things you've heard about Franken?
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AKIron
I had not heard all that much bad about the guy frankly.
I am not going to judge him just cause he is a lib, he is pretty damn funny.
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Yet, Franken's book implies the person in question is not related to the political figure at all.
It does nothing of the sort. It uses a device to explain the relationship called an "endnote" after berating Anne Coulter for hiding things in her "endnotes". This is a form of satire that was pretty funny... if you were to read the book. His endnote tells you who the person is and congratulates you for finding the info. Conservatives have no sense of humor.... sheesh.
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It's also been well documented that Franken (and confirmed by Franken himself) lied to at least one of the people in the Bush Administration (Ashcroft, IIRC) when trying to get information for his book. He never apologized for lying, only for using without permission a University's letterhead in his contact letter to Ashcroft. Takes one to know one?
LOL... It was well documented in Franken's book. And he does apologize as well as go into detail on what the letter said. Reviewing a reviewer's review?
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Originally posted by GtoRA2
AKIron
I had not heard all that much bad about the guy frankly.
I am not going to judge him just cause he is a lib, he is pretty damn funny.
Funny is good, lying is not.
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Yeager
My handle means
GTO, (the pontiac one, not that crappy, Italian thing) the coolest car ever.
the RA2 Stand for RAM AIR 2, a limited run model in 1968, that had Round port heads and factory headers and it put out 366 factory HP but Pontiac was fudging the numbers and it was over 400.
I have wanted one forever.... lol.
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AKIron
Do you have any links to things he lied about? I would love to read them.
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Originally posted by GtoRA2
AKIron
Do you have any links to things he lied about? I would love to read them.
You bet, try these:
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/frankenabs1.html
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1014258/posts
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richlowry/rl20031013.shtml
Wish I'd seen this show.
http://www.littletinylies.com/archives/000857.html
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LOL Iron,
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/frankenabs1.html <-- The Ashcroft letter (covered in the book)
http://209.157.64.200/focus/f-news/1014258/posts <-- more of the same, plus a review that says the book ain't funny.
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/...l20031013.shtml <--- Rich Lowry (who Franken challenges to a fight in a parking garage for calling Libs sissies) "He (Franken) suggests in his book that I abruptly stopped talking about the creeping wishy-washiness of American life, scared out of this theme by his terrifying challenge to me.
Nonsense. I have discussed the theme in pretty much every speech I delivered since then. I talked on Fox News and other networks after the 9-11 attacks about the nation's new appreciation of masculinity. And I have written columns about the topic, most recently in a piece knocking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry for his recent resort to quick (and probably fake) public tears. "
Kind of a stretch to call this a lie but OK. So what did Franken say?
"But I'll tell you this. I've seen Rich Lowry on television plenty of times since then, and I think he's dropped the whole "Democrats have feminized politics" thing. But, if he hasn't, I'll be glad to meet him any time in my parking garage"
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http://www.littletinylies.com/archives/000857.html
No lies by Franken at all, just a one sided look at Franken's attack on O'Reilly.
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Beat me to it MT, right on target though.
I was hoping for some real dirt.
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I only said he lied. Don't you think it a bit hypocritical to write a book calling people liars in which you do more lying than the people you're accusing of lying? I haven't read his book. What I've heard about it though makes him sound like a typical impotent and bitter lib.
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Another bit more indepth review:
http://www.timslagle.com/Franken.html
Remember GTO, I only brought this up because you mentioned all the bad things you've heard about Ann Coulter and thought you wouldn't read her book. Seems there are more than a few saying negative things about Al.
"Al Franken discounts the Linda Ives case, one of the centerpieces of the "Mena conspiracy" in Clintonian Arkansas. Linda Ives had to get a grand jury order to have the bodies of her son Kevin and his friend Don Henry exhumed and shipped out of State before discovering they were murdered. Witnesses suggested the crimes were perpetrated by State troopers, one of whom was later indicted for drug trafficking. No formal investigation was ever completed, and the case remains open 16 years later. Bill Clinton was governor at the time, and he refused to fire the coroner, Fahmy Malek, instead shifting him to another State job (incidentally, the same coroner had, previously and erroneously, found Clinton's mother innocent of negligent homicide). In 1992 Linda Ives' name curiously surfaced on a White House attack list of right-wing conspiracy nuts. That discovery prompted The Wall Street Journal article that Franken references."
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Al Franken should have retired after his roll in 'Trading Places' At best he made me laugh.
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Originally posted by Otto
Al Franken should have retired after his roll in 'Trading Places' At best he made me laugh.
And what more could a comedy writer ask for?
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MT, I stand corrected on the Ascroft letter. At the time I stopped following the news stories on this incident, his apology letter had not yet been made public. Regarding his bashing of Coulter over the son-vs-grandson issue, I maintain that he implied in the body of his book that there was no relationship, and that Coulter's assertions were thus baseless. End notes? I didn't read them...guilty as charged.
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Sabre
In his defense he really was trying to make a point about how SHE uses endnotes, I thought it was a tad amusing but most missed it I think.
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Most of what the right and the left say about each other is true.
It's what they say and do about the issues that is wrong.
miko.
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miko,
thats sounds "almost" as stupid as something I might say.
:aok