The Truth (with Jokes) Book

Al Franken's landmark bestseller, Lies, and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, was praised as a "bitterly funny assault" (The New York Times) that rang "with the moral clarity of an angel's trumpet" (Associated Press). Now, this master of political humor strikes again with a powerful and provocative message for all Americans.

Because after Lies, comes The Truth.

In these pages, Al reveals the alarming story of how:

• Bush (barely) beat Kerry with his campaign of "fear, smear, and queers," and then claimed a nonexistent mandate
• Republicans decided that Terri Schiavo would make "a great political issue"
• Conservatives sought to undermine Social Security by using a strategy borrowed from... Vladimir Lenin
• Tom DeLay is just an absolute horror show

This is truly a book for everyone.

If you were a Bush voter, Al wants to set aside partisan bitterness and talk about the better future Americans can build together for their children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. (Generations beyond that will have to fend for themselves.) But first, Al must show you how Republican leaders are, at this very moment, betraying your trust and quite possibly lighting a Cuban cigar with a burning American flag or Bible.

If you're a liberal, this book is for you as well. Maybe even most of all. In these pages, you will find evidence for what you already believe: that Al Franken is among America's finest prose stylists, and that the depravity of the Bush administration is only outmatched by the rot in the heart of the Republican Congress.

And finally, if you are a member of a future generation who has found this book in a pile of radioactive rubble, Al apologizes. Not because he didn't do his best to control the proliferation of nuclear weapons from rogue nations to non-state actors taking refuge in so-called "failed" states. But because his countrymen evidently failed to listen.

In any case, enjoy the book.

"I present THE TRUTH not just to shock you, not just to make you laugh and cry alternatingly, or maybe even at the same time, not just to set the record straight-but to rouse you, to prepare you for battles ahead. The only vaccine powerful enough to inoculate you from lies is the truth. This book is both sword and shield. With jokes."

AL FRANKEN ON...

IRAQ
They told us that when we invaded, we'd be greeted with sweets and flowers. They left out the crucial modifier: "exploding."

GAY MARRIAGE
George W. Bush wants to amend our Constitution to make it illegal for gays to marry. But evidently, he has no problem with terrorists getting married. America can't afford a president who is soft on terrorist marriage. Because unlike gays, terrorists can breed.

BILL FRIST DIAGNOSING TERRI SCHIAVO FROM 800 MILES AWAY
The FristCam Act of 2005 would place a video camera in every one of America's Intensive Care Units. The FristCams would pan the ICUs, and the Senate Majority Leader would give each patient a thumbs-up or a thumbs-down.

BUSH'S 9/11 BAIT AND SWITCH
Bin Laden must have been furious. Here he had gone to all this trouble to murder thousands of Americans, and Saddam-Saddam, the infidel!-was getting all the credit! Who was the head of al Qaeda?! Who was funding al Qaeda?! Somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border there was a very angry terrorist mastermind.

MORAL VALUES
From what I understand, if you cut out all the passages in the Bible where Jesus talks about the poor, about helping out the least among us, you'd have the perfect container to smuggle Rush Limbaugh's drugs in.

THE SOCIAL SECURITY "CRISIS"
The number Bush kept using, $11 trillion, represented the total shortfall from now until the year Infinity. If you think about it, $11 trillion over Infinity years is nothing. Over the first 11 trillion years, that's just one dollar a year. Easy. After that, it's over. You're done. What, exactly, is the problem?

The New York Times - Janet Maslin

The Truth does keep its promise to be funny about extremely unfunny matters. It matches Lies in wit, and its subjects are tougher. Mr. Franken jokes that his exploration of the Swift Boat Veterans' poisonous attacks on John Kerry's war record led him to check into a hospital suffering septic shock. He also imagines himself awkwardly in John and Teresa Heinz Kerry's presence: "Oh. Hmmm. Uh, sure you should run again. Wow. That'd be great. How many books did you guys say you were going to buy?"