After reading Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: a Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, my eyes were opened to the depths to which pundits and conservatives will go to deceive Americans.  Not only was the book incredibly informative, but it reported in such a hilariously sarcastic manner as to make it more of a page turner than The DaVinci Code.

So it was with great excitement that I anticipated the release of Al Franken’s next book : The Truth – With Jokes.  As the title so astutely suggests, Franken’s book is swimming in both hard-pounding facts and hysterical “jokes.”  The Truth, unlike his previous work, focuses more on a broad conspiracy message where the GOP and its supporters essentially stole the 2004 Presidential election and deceive Americans on a daily basis.  And if I may say so, Franken does his job masterfully.

Franken opens up his work with an “anonymous” Foreword that applauds Franken ceaselessly.  This “anonymous” person writes about the “profoundly moving book” and the “finest volume he has written…perhaps the Great American Nonfiction Hardcover.”  From this hilarious foreword, we are thrown back into Franken’s uncanny ability to make us laugh but we are completely unprepared for how well the rest of the book informs and even frightens us.

The first section of the book delivers harder blows than even Lies does.  Unlike in Lies, where his targets were relatively ridiculous characters like Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, and Sean Hannity, this book targets the election, corruption in government, and a wider array of prominent officials in the U.S.  In the first section entitled, “The Triumph of Evil”, Franken describes the methods used by the Republican machine to win the 2004 election.  He posits three reasons: fear, smears, and queers.  In these chapters Franken shows how misleading and treacherous the GOP was in its production of lies and half-truths to terrify Americans into voting for Bush.  He further shows how disgraceful these lies became when they were used to cast doubt the patriotism of Kerry by engaging in deception and playing on the ignorance of voters.  The third part, Queers, is I think the weakest of the three arguments.  While I totally agree with Franken’s point that the GOP focused on “gay marriage” and homosexuality as a wedge issue, I feel that of the three points made, this one was the most “Well, I think the point is clear” kind of arguments while the other three leave no room for doubt.  In fact, most of the argument centers not around the use of homosexuality but the use of the clergy and abortion.  Both of those points, however, were brilliantly delivered.  Fact after fact after revealing fact hits the reader to a point where I found myself actually clenching my fist both from laughter at the sarcasm and anger-frustration at the deception.

In his next section entitled “Seeds of Collapse”, Franken outlines the extent to which certain members of government are simply dishonest, corrupt, and hypocritical.  Money-grubbing demons may also apply.  After watching significant commentary on Tom Delay and the charges brought against him from various sources, I figured the guy was corrupt, like most politicians.  Boy was I wrong.  Franken outlines a case so compelling that Delay may yet be the next anti-Christ, with henchman Jack Abramoff lurking in the wings.  Various chapters like “Werewolves in Washington” and “Social Security: Franni Vs. Bush” inform the reader extremely well while really attacking the GOP.  In fact, as readers we are masterfully entranced by a detailed illustration of the events and injected by an outrage that only bold-faced truth can conjure.

If anything can be gained from this book, it is a series of well thought out, well organized, facts and refutations to a system of deceit that in many ways has stalled our American system.  Franken does such a good job tearing away the lies and exposing the true colors of many conservatives that the reader is left feeling ashamed of living in this country under such tyranny.  At times the greed and hypocrisy is so palpable as to make the reader wonder how they have not yet been suffocated.

Overall, The Truth -With Jokes is another masterpiece.  Of course, as usual, many of his arguments will be refuted by those very individuals and groups he has systematically leveled.  The difference is, Franken, although certainly a liberal, offers us very clear explanations, sometimes an overwhelming number, to every possible scenario, and ample sourcing from credible individuals and institutions.  That has become something of a trademark: debunking myths and lies by using facts and many of them.