Category Archives: Fair and Balanced Archive

See Al Franken, Paul Krugman, Kevin Phillips and Amy Goodman At A Benefit for KPFA Free Speech Radio 94.1 FM and Global Exchange

Benefit for KPFA Free Speech Radio 94.1 FM and Global Exchange
Al Franken, Paul Krugman, Kevin Phillips and Amy Goodman:
“Unraveling the Lying Liars of the Bush Dynasty”
Sunday February 18th, 7pm
Berkeley Community Theatre
$15 advance/$20 door
http://www.cityboxoffice.com
Al Franken: Author of “Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look At The Right”
Paul Krugman: “The Great Unraveling: Losing Our Way In The New Century”
Kevin Phillips: “American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit In The House Of Bush” (Viking Press)
Amy Goodman: Democracy Now! Radio Program

Excerpt From Al Franken’s New Book – Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them

This book is awesome! I’m only about half way through it right now. It does a great job of nailing the right on their incessant distortion of the truth — and backs it all up with footnoted facts!
You should just but it now!
Anyway, this was emailed to me sometime ago. Not sure where it came from, but I know it’s been circulated pretty heavily through numerous channels at this point. I know that Salon has it in it’s quagmire of a website somewhere, but they won’t even let you read the front page anymore without suffering through an lengthy ad, so I didn’t have time to try to find the link.
“Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them”
An excerpt from Al Franken’s new book.
– – – – – – – – – – – –
By Al Franken
Aug. 27, 2003 | God chose me to write this book.

God began our conversation by clearing something up. Some of George W. Bush’s friends say that Bush believes God called him to be president during these times of trial. But God told me that He/She/It had actually chosen Al Gore by making sure that Gore won the popular vote and, God thought, the Electoral College. “THAT WORKED FOR EVERYONE ELSE,” God said.
“What about Tilden?” I asked, referring to the 1876 debacle.
“QUIET!” God snapped. God was angry.
God said that after 9/11, George W. Bush squandered a unique moment of national unity. That instead of rallying the country around a program of mutual purpose and sacrifice, Bush cynically used the tragedy to solidify his political power and pursue an agenda that panders to his base and serves the interests of his corporate backers.
God told me that Bush squandered a $4.6 trillion surplus and is plunging us into deficits as far as God can see. And that Bush squandered another surplus. The surplus of goodwill from the rest of the world that he had inherited from Bill Clinton.
And this was pissing God off.

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Al Franken On The Daily Show

The Prince of Fair and Balanced was on the
The Daily Show
last night.
Al took the liberty of pointing out the hypocrisy of the Shrub wearing a flight suit and performing in his little aircraft carrier escapade when, in reality, he not only let his daddy pull strings for him to get into the National Guard so he wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam, but then, he didn’t even show up for duty, and went AWOL for a year!
I might have to break this up into highlights. But here’s the whole thing for now.
Be sure to buy Al’s Book too. I’m just starting it, and I already love it. Everybody I’ve talked to couldn’t put the thing down till they were done.
Enjoy!

Al Franken On The Daily Show – Complete
(Small – 13 MB)
Al Franken On The Daily Show – Part 1 of 2 (Small – 8 MB)

Al Franken On The Daily Show – Part 2 of 2
(Small – 6 MB)







The Daily Show
(The best news on television.)

Al Franken Victory In “Fair and Balanced” Suit

In Courtroom, Laughter at Fox and a Victory for Al Franken
By Susan Saulny for the NY Times.

“I never really had any doubt,” he said in a telephone interview, calling the ruling “a victory for satirists everywhere, even the bad ones. In addition to thanking my own lawyers, I’d like to thank Fox’s lawyers for filing one of the stupidest briefs I’ve ever seen in my life.”
The Fox court papers had referred to Mr. Franken, a former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer and an unabashed liberal, as a “parasite” who appeared shrill, unstable and “increasingly unfunny.”…
If anything, the lawsuit only benefited Mr. Franken. His book had been scheduled for release in September, but the publicity caused the publisher to print an extra 50,000 copies, for a total of 435,000, and to roll the book out on Thursday.
After the ruling yesterday, it moved to the No. 1 spot on the best-seller list at amazon. com…
One round of laughter was prompted when Judge Chin asked, “Do you think that the reasonable consumer, seeing the word `lies’ over Mr. O’Reilly’s face would believe Mr. O’Reilly is endorsing this book?”
The giggling continued as Dori Ann Hanswirth, a lawyer for Fox, replied, “To me, it’s quite ambiguous as to what the message is here.”
She continued, “It does not say `parody’ or `satire.’ ”
Ms. Hanswirth said Fox’s “signature slogan” was also blurred, because people who were not associated with the network, which owns the Fox News Channel, also appear on the cover with Mr. O’Reilly.
Judge Chin said, “The president and the vice president are also on the cover. Is someone going to consider that they are affiliated with Fox?”
The courtroom broke into laughter again.
Ms. Hanswirth replied, “It’s more blurring, your honor.”

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