Rush Limbaugh Is a Big Fat Idiot and Other Observations

Franken's take on Swift's A Modest Proposal (the bit about getting Medicare costs down) had me laughing out loud - satire at its best. The audio presentation is first quality and a pleasure to listen to.

The only drawback is that it is abridged. I just finished listening to "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them," and, hungry for more, I thought I'd revisit Franken's other major expose of right-wing mendacity. Now that Lies and the Lying Liars is a best-seller, the publishers ought to get Franken to read the rest of this one for the audio version. I need to listen to something fun on the subway.

Al Franken's work may make some people angry, but it's among the funniest political commentary out there, and it's also intelligent and based on more than the bombastic rantings he so deftly harpoons.

Anybody who ever watched Rush's disturbing t.v. show had to have seen this book coming. Rush caters to those Americans who are too lazy to think for themselves, and would prefer to be spoon fed "truths". The show was run like an info-mercial, with canned applause coming from the neatly dressed sheeplike audience.

"Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" is about exposing the sillyness of Rush, but it is mostly about the willingness of the conservatives in our government to overlook their own short-comings while exposing the short-comings of those they don't agree with. Al Franken doesn't try to defend democrats, he simply tries to show the absurd hypocracy of many of the conservative republicans.

In closing, I bought this book in print for myself and I loved it so much that I bought it for my mom. My mom loved it, and what my mom says goes.

I've listened to this book four times already. Franken's mission seems to be knocking hypocrites off their high horses. He even takes shots at himself. But the main thing is, he's funny and has great delivery. If you don't like intellectual humor or don't believe in personal freedom AND the common good, however, don't bother...you'll be disappointed.

Those who gave this less than 4 * likely did not read it. Great insights and humor wrapped around good research.

But of course the conservatives and self-described dittoheads are going to rip this book. That's what they do. They want you not to read this book, and take their word for what's in it.

But the TRUTH is that this book is funny. And Pointed. And well written.

I do not, however, give abridged audiobooks five stars. So this loses one.

The book itself is probably worth three stars. Not nearly as funny or insightful as Al's Liars book. The worst though is the audio quality of this title. Much of it is almost inaudible. It is hard to understand Al but his audio inserts are almost imposssible. If you are going to listen in the car I'd pass on this one.

My only complaint is that rush is much more idiotic and fat that the book discloses. "There are more trees in North America today than when Columus landed here." Why does the author not show rush to be as hateful as he is piggish and misinformed? A very funny book to read, but LIES is even better. (ghost written by Al's mom).

I thought this would be a good spirited romp through the political landscape, but I was very very wrong. I agree with some of the other reviewers that say Franken is a really angry person. It was kind of like listening to someone belittle their ex-girlfriend(boyfriend). I'm sure we've all been on the receiving end of one of these tirades. First, Franken enumerates what is wrong with a person politically (which is sometimes mildly amusing). Then, when the ammunition runs low, he descends to really low jabs at things like their appearance or their mannerisms. If it was only occasional, it would be bearable (sp?), but there are entire segments where you must suffer his attempts to be brutally vendictive and humorous at the same time.
I give this two stars because it is politically charged, and I don't think people have that high of standards when listening to books by people they agree with politically.