Rating: 
Summary: Powerful Indictment Of Right-Wing Dirty Tricks
Review: It is impossible to deny that the majority of our news media outlets, from talk radio to periodicals to TV cable news, were corrupted and usurped many years ago by the right-wing. An assortment of ultraconservative-backed corporations have expended multi-millions of dollars making sure this insidious takeover occurred with as much ease as possible. This powerful grip on the media ensures that anti-liberal misinformation and outright lies are vomited upon the public every minute of every day, most of it erupting from the shrieking mouths of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter and many others too numerous (and odious) to mention. These pundits monotonously spew a series of well rehearsed lies in which liberals are routinely blamed for the most outrageous and immoral acts of evil imaginable. Writer Joe Conason, like millions of Americans, has grown sick of all the Big Brother half truths. In BIG LIES, Conason examines the ten most frequently repeated ludicrous right wing lies and devotes an entire chapter to each one, debunking them with wicked efficiency. Each of these chapters opens with an infamous cliche (such as "Bill Clinton Is The Root Of All Evil") and then tears the assumption apart. Its amazing how simple, basic facts can lay waste to the most despicable fabrications. While undoubtedly an angry man, Conason is careful never to mimic the maniacal, squealing pomposity of those on the dark side. Instead, he utilizes lucid and precise language to present his well-supported documentation, all of which clearly exposes, for everyone to see, the monstrous lies and duplicity of the American right.
Rating:
Summary: No Partisan Spin, Just TRUTH
Review: Joe Conason sets out to put the record straight with his book, which is basically a non-funny more intellectual version of Franken's. Conason persistently and accurately refutes several myths that the far right likes to repeat ad nauseum (such as "Al Gore invented the internet"--not quite what he said; and "Al Gore claimed Love Story was based on him--and it was, according to its author). Conason also tackles the issue of the so-called liberal media (how can the media be liberal when Fox News, slanted so far to the right it makes the Tower of Pisa look straight, has deeper penetration of any other news show and Rush Limbaugh is the most listened to radio persona?). The truth is that the right considers anyone left of Fox 'liberal.' Another poster here takes issue with Consason's factual errors. There are very few here--and actually Kerry DID serve as a Navy gunboat captain. Cleland did not win the Medal of Honor, but that's not even key to the point Conason was trying to make, which is that there are a large number of democrats who served in our wars with honor and yet the right is trying to impugn them as 'soft' on terror or 'cowardly' if they question Bush's war. Meanwhile, there are a large number of Republicans gungho for war who did not serve, even in peace time (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Hastert, Lott, Rove, Ashcroft) and despite many of them being eligible for the draft. I believe Conason took excruciating care to get his facts right (one has to in a book called "Lies") and the very rare mistakes that he does make are insignificant. There is no deliberate attempt here to distort the truth. Conason painstakingly details each member of the Bush family's in-bed relationship with big business and the oil industry, including the Saudis. He describes George W. Bush's ongoing failures in business and how he managed to profit financially from them anyway, as others lost significant amounts of money. Conason makes a clear convincing case that without his father, George W. Bush would never have grown up to go to Yale, join the National Guard, own a baseball team, sit on the Carlyle board, become a governor or become president. All these things were accomplished only because of the influence exerted by George Bush on his son's behalf. Conason quotes George Soros, one of America's richest self-made men, as saying they invested in Bush Jr.'s dealings because "we were trying to buy influence with Bush" (the president). Conason covers all the stories the media routinely ignores, like G.W. Bush's missing months from his National Guard service and his failure to show up for his physical right after the National Guard instituted Drug Testing. He ruthlessly debunks one Bush administration lie after another as well as the propoganda spread by the right wing. Sadly, all the wrong people will buy and read this book--those who already agree with Conason. I heartily recommend this book for all those who are interested in having their eyes opened. As for those on the left, I recommend this book as an exhaustive source of rebuttal material when debating the self-named Dittoheads (Rush Limbaugh fans). Perhaps if the truth is repeated over and over, like the Bush Administration lies, it, too, will eventually stick.
Rating:
Summary: ESSENTIAL READING FOR ALL AMERICANS...
Review: ...NOT just for those who consider themselves to be 'liberals' or on the 'left'. The 'big lies' to which Conason refers in the title of his newest book are a double-edged sword. Not only has the right-wing conservative press perpetrated horrific and dangerous mistruths about the events leading up to and following the tragedies perpetrated on 11 September 2001 - they have convinced many otherwise sharp-thinking Americans that most of their countrymen adhere to the same mangled logic spewed out on a daily basis by such 'authorities' as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, ad nauseum. Conason's book is meticulously researched and annotated - and unlike his counterparts screaming like crazed harpies on the right, he actually uses reliable sources. One of the methods practiced by the conservative media is to allow one of their individual mouthpieces to put out a lie or half-truth, then everybody else in their camp begins to quote it as a source (usually well-aware of its initial inaccuracy), over and over, until its repeated enough that people actually begin to believe it. Another neat little trick is to answer the question they WISHED they had been asked rather than the one that was actually posed. Our President has become very adept at this - as his recent 'press conference' will attest. Those members of the press who notice the shell game eventually give up, and the miscreant story makes its way into the 'fact' column. There are notable exceptions in the press - thank heavens - such as Mr. Conason, who are determined to get the truth out there for people to read. Those of you who might believe the line about the 'liberal media' should ask yourselves a couple of probing questions. If the media is so liberally biased, you would expect that the coverage of a small story like, say, the 2000 US Presidential elections, would have been slanted so that there were more stories concerning Gore that were positive, and more stories about Bush that were negative. The facts show just the opposite. Conservatives hammer the oft-quoted statistics that show that 'most reporters say they vote Democratic' - well guess what: the reporters don't control the content of the papers for which they write, the editors and publishers do - and the editors and publishers are mostly 'conservatives' (a word that they actually misapply to themselves, as Conason so clearly illustrates), and the endorsements of the top newspapers in the US have become increasingly conservative over the past few elections. Why is this? It's certainly not a reflection of public opinion - endorsing and electing right-wing candidates is more in the interest of the ultra-wealthy who actually CONTROL the press. They're perfectly happy to get the tax cuts that benefit the top 1% of Americans and pay little more than lip service to those who actually WORK for a living. It's desperately important, of course, for liberals to read this book - the information contained here is invaluable in this election year. But I would suggest that those in the middle and working class who consider themselves to be conservatives, who think that the Republicans have the best ideas about managing ANYTHING, read it as well - they might begin to get an inkling of how this shell game works. Boy, are they going to get mad - and rightfully so. No one likes to be fooled, especially about things that are as important as the economy, the environment and human rights - not to mention the WAR whose purpose seems to change as each individual card in the rickety assemblage falls out. PLEASE read this book. Conason clearly and methodically addresses the questions I've mentioned and many others. Americans need to understand HOW the information they receive through the mass media is distorted - and WHY and BY WHOM and IN WHOSE BEST INTERESTS. Also, check out John W. Dean's WORSE THAN WATERGATE, Richard A. Clark's AGAINST ALL ENEMIES, Al Franken's LIES AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM, Michael Moore's DUDE WHERE'S MY COUNTRY, and Craig Unger's HOUSE OF BUSH - HOUSE OF SAUD. My favorite bumper sticker that I've seen lately doesn't even mention a candidate: THE MEDIA IS ONLY AS LIBERAL AS THE CONSERVATIVE CORPORATIONS WHO CONTROL IT.
Rating:
Summary: ...in proportion to Pinocchial proboscis
Review: Next to Franken and Corn's books Conason's Big Lies makes up the third big blaster in the phalanx exposing the truth problem suffered by the current Bush admin as it fronts for fraud. Did these guys go into a huddle, or what? The exposure of organized mendacity is going into Red Zone alert. And none too soon. Let's hope the Right is caught by surprise this time, after a generation of repackaging Barry Goldwater in gumdrop forms that can fool the public some of the time--ending soon. Using the tactics of the Big Lie requires a series of carefully managed Big Lies and these are the only recourse for conservatives who have to survive democracy via befuddlement. I was reminded of an earlier work, The L-word, attempting to rescue the term liberal from the list of prime targets for the Big Lie. The attack on liberals is a puzzle of these neo-liberals--has the world forgotten the word's history? To attack liberals sets the crypto-fascist inuendo meter ticking. Be worried.
Rating:
Summary: Stranger than fiction
Review: When I think back on all the mad-scientist and evil-genius movies I've seen, I often wonder why most real-life criminals are nowhere near as smart as fictitious villains. The answer, as I learned in Big Lies, is that legitimate business pays so well for the truly amoral, there's no need to break the law. Like most people who read Big Lies, I skipped around, going first to what I thought would be the juiciest stuff. (And Chapter 6, "Private Lives and Public Lies," is nothing if not juicy.) I read Chapter 8, on crony capitalism, last, thinking it would be a rehash of Enron and other scandals that are still fresh in my mind. Boy, was I wrong. It's the best part of the book. If you want to enjoy a concise recounting of everything that's wrong with this amoral president of ours and his cloven-hoofed friends, read Chapter 8 first. Joe Conason--one of the few commentators whose work would fit within the rubric of "liberal media"--puts together the daisy chain of Bush family friendships and business partnerships that's stunning in its reliance upon everything but business acumen. We only think we're living in a civilized nation based upon free enterprise. Under the G.W. Bush presidency, we're a nation of the cronies, by the cronies, and for the cronies. If you want to be a crony, you invest in a Bush family business enterprise (the presidency of the United States, for example). For the rest of us ... well, those tax-refund checks sure were nice. It would be nicer to have a nation that's being run for interests other than those of the president of his friends. But for that we'll have to elect a Democrat. Oh, but we already did that, didn't we?
Rating:
Summary: One Star Reviews
Review: I've read the book and generally agree with what most of the 4 and 5 star reviews say. Yeah, it is partisan, but that shouldn't impact on what is true or not. Speaking of truth,
the one-star review offered by "Reader" from San Francisco,
entitled "Big Lies" contains a curious argument, ie that while conservative critics write enlightened one-star reviews, liberal readers who criticize conservative books are ignorant and generally illiterate in their evaluations. To test this theory, I visited the one-star reviews for two best selling books I have read: "Treason" (Ann Coulter) and "The Price Of Loyalty" (Ron Suskin) -I could have added Al Franken's latest book also. I suggest you do the same, Mr Reader From SF, it might enlighten you. For others, it's just a barrel of laughs.
Rating: 
Summary: Bush: LIAR! Bush: WARMONGER! Waaaaa, Waaaaa [Liberal Mantra]
Review: Crony-Conason organizes chapters so each "revenges" (hallucinatory liberals' embellishment!) allegedly smearing accusations conservatives fling towards liberals. Displeasingly, this plan's appreciable from strict, coherence standpoints. Crony-Joe's tone seemingly isn't as infernal in his monstrously devious cunning as his demeaningly liberal peers, who're ALL hazardously untamed in Bush-antagonism (Corn-Moore-Ivins). Shyster Crony-Conason's still unforgivable in his slanderous pollutedness of scornfully branding rightists, when he defrauded in his unholy Introduction that his tripe WOULDN'T be narrow-mindedly adverse, like his ostracized peers'!!!! His tripe's not all unsanitary, until Ch.7, where, dissuasively, his furious, up-to-then secretive partiality rears its UGLY head, and savages ANY remediableness his "work" has of being reasonable. Although Ch.8-10 are vilest, constrictively from onset, treachery in Crony-Conason's disrespectable "arguments" materializes. Crony-Joe stoops to untrustworthiness in his Introduction, when he incompetently forges that liberals are majority by misusing poll results regarding universal healthcare!!!! Crony-Conason vindictively neglects mentioning those biased "polls" tend to occur ONLY during adverse economies, like polls this fall showed because of the economy's unprogressive downturn-which HAS improved lately. Crony-Joe's depraved "argument" for Ch.1's flimsy. Crony-Conason dictates indiscriminately that ALL CEOs are conservative prostitutes whose tax interests are subserved by the WH. Besides underhandedly admitting the conservative derogation of liberal disenfranchisement in business management, Crony-Joe's tarnish is fallaciously based. Assuming the WH crafts tax policy in CEOs' interests, this isn't necessarily alarming, as Crony-Conason combatively terrorizes. Refunds and write-offs for corporations are factually good, since that works toward helping their income. With expanding earnings, corporations will GLARINGLY procure hiring to complement growth, employing Americans, DUH!!!! Provided you're liberal, you'll wrongfully find this blasphemous, which WILL reflect on you as undereducated. Crony-Conason homicidally exaggerates certain choice facts, relentlessly prejudiced to liberal stubborness' favor. In Ch.2, he mishandles questionable "evidence" falsifying the LIBERAL MEDIA's conservative slant. Crony-Joe unfairly, selectively seizes one unverifiable source, Editor & Publisher, to imposingly, sinisterly further ulterior motives of assumingly claiming conservative slant in media. What Crony-Conason hides is that survey involved opinions of editors and publishers regarding who they'd think would win 2000's election. Since most-indiscriminatingly-believed Bush, they were inclined to proclaim voting for him since they realized the Gore-alternative was bleak. Crony-Conason fabricates upon embellishing that editors voted for Bush. A NARROW margin voted Bush. Crony-Joe conceals that survey asked said editors and publishers if they felt there was biased coverage. 80% of 25% who responded affirmative professed there was GORE BIAS. In another mistreated "source", Gannett newspapers, Crony-Conason bestially deceives their papers shifted towards right-wing endorsement despite their relative liberality. Before 2000's election, 13 papers turned Republican, so OF COURSE Bush's endorsements incremented, with the resulting discrimination of 41-votes-for-Gore to 37-votes-for-Bush still being worse Demoncratic prejudice. Crony-Conason's Ch.3 idea's unlawful. Crony-Joe's the malcontent gall to mutiny against tried-tested-and-true mantras of conservatives denigrating liberals traitorous!!!! All one's to do is bloodcurdlingly inspect Demoncrats' reactions to terrorism. They've bitched about "civil liberties" sacked by Ashcroft, Iraq's cost, keeping troops there necessarily, giving grants to Iraq, and American intervention to neutralize Iraqi terrorist and nuclear threats-even AFTER voting FOR war!!!! Not to mention Clinton's imposition of the "Torricelli 'Principle'". Crony-Conason's amoralities descend further when he brutalizes conservatives for libeling Clinton the "draft dodger" he was. Crony-Joe encroachingly errs that Clinton's dastardly choice to evade Vietnam was acceptable due to his "disbelief" to war, while liberals tarnish Bush for his reasons of joining the National Guard, which at least was SERVICE!!!! Crony-Conason mendaciously involves secondary tactics of relying on filthily circumstantial examples when he plots to implicate conservatives as cowardly for avoiding Vietnam because of medical reasons. Crony-Joe abysmally covers-up HOWIERD Dean's ski-trip orgy after getting deferment from Vietnam!!!! Crony-Conason uses subterfuge in Ch.4, where he oppressively aggrandizes Clinton's "quite impressive" economical record, citing 4% unemployment, 22,000,000 "jobs" "created", and rising income. Crony-Joe mustn't delinquently, fiercely scold Bush: Bush's 2003 tax-relief-the benefactor of 8% year-end GDP and 20-year high consumer confidence-is PRECISELY THE reason Doubting Thomases like Crony-Joe shouldn't prematurely manufacture slurring in September, because he's dishonored now!!!! Clinton oversaw 350,000 INITIAL CLAIMS in January 20, 2001 (leftovers from Clinton's policies), and his "bullish" economy was shattered by calamitous ruination in markets, and high interest rates by 2000's end. Out of those 22,000,000 "created" "jobs", 92% were private-sector, forebodingly in unstable tech start-ups which contributed mostly to the markets' collapses. Because of the recession's length, interest rates under Bush culminated in 2002's record year for home sales-the strongest economic part which curbed the recession. From Ch.7-10, Crony-Conason's inconsistencies become falsification!!!! In Ch.7, Crony-Joe preys on discriminatory, isolated incidents in Republicans' demeanors to fake "proof" of conservatives' immoralities. In Ch.8, Crony-Conason arraigns Bush's whole family as misconducting "Crony Capitalism", despite it applying only to BACKWATERS whose dictators distribute favoring deals to their friends. Bush's appointments are properly classified as nepotism. In Ch.9, Crony-Joe partially seizes thin connections of Bush to a "fundamentalist"-conservative professor, because Bush apparently introduced his book, to frailly convict Bush of failing "compassionate conservatism". Ch.10's incontestably THE most resentfully ludicrous of Crony-Conason's uncleanliness. He bleakly invents Clinton was proactive against terrorism!!!! BWAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! Crony-Joe cites WORTHLESS, spurious Clinton actions like Taliban asset-freezing, manufacturing increased smallpox vaccine, and organizing "Pakistani commando units" to "capture or kill bin-Laden". Dreadfully, it's blatant these frail misdeeds don't compare to Bush's trailblazing of creating the Homeland Security Department, airport fingerprinting, and Iraq, Afghanistan's liberations, to name a FEW!!!! Crony-Conason trespasses unwarrantedly when he libelously blackens Bush as having received "information" about terrorism before 9/11, yet it would've been IMPLAUSIBLE to impede it due to UNSPECIFIC information about locales!!!! Crony-Joe's TRIPE is written predatorily for these monstrous, bloodthirsty reviewers who've already viciously, prejudicially misjudged Bush in their ulterior motives, whom Crony-Conason exploits as prostitutes of the DNC's Bush-tarnishing plan. Only if your brain's as WASHED as these reviewing-whores should you indulge. Crony-Joe's tripe lapses in founded sources; often Crony-Conason wickedly abuses quotes of people which he TAKES OUT OF CONTEXT so evilly to fabricate "supporting" arguments. Simultaneously, Crony-Joe misuses articles written by HIMSELF as "sources" to "establish" arguments!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down
Review: A masterful refutation to all the BS the GOP expects us to swallow. I could not put this one down, even though Conason pointed out many things going on within the government that had my blood boiling.
There are many overtly partisan political screeds coming out, but this is one of the few that is really, really good.
Another book every American should read, especially those unfortunate brainwashed Republicans.
Rating:
Summary: The liberal Ann Coulter, with fewer facts on his side
Review: I picked up this book, hoping for the liberal side of issues, but got a liberal diatribe calling George Bush a crook, the conservative Christians hypocrites, the Republican leadership dishonest, etc. Joe trots out the Democratic playbook very well, but his "facts" are confused with "opinion". A big example of his "liberal bias" diffusion is using the newspaper research to refute the bias on CBS, ABC or NBC. Huh? Did I miss something here? Does CBS, ABC, or NBC just read the newspapers over the air? Joe cherry picks his information pretty well to please the libs. On national defense, he ignores the facts that Democrats and liberals are always trying to cut the Defense Department and the hardware, but prove they are patriotic by reciting all of the veterans who are Democrats who fought for the country. Joe expects any veteran who served to be given a pass regardless of his voting record on Defense. (A nice set up for John Kerry) He also says that the welfare state of the last 40 years has improved the life of people at the bottom of the economic scale and it is the Republicans who want to starve and kill them. Joe also says the reason that blacks love Democrats is because there are no racists in the Democratic Party and all Republicans are racists. Well, I am sure glad the Democrats have not given up their "scare tactics" on blacks, poor, and elderly. What Joe does not say is that after 40 years of the welfare state and trillions of dollars spent, what results are there? Was the money well spent? To question this is heresy. (However, Democrats can question Republican positions like this to death) If you read this book, you must read the counter to it by Ann Coulter, either "Slander" or "Treason" to get a balance. Both of their writing styles are similiar, but Coulter's position makes sense because she is more thorough. Conason relies on certain things being held absolute, like big government is efficient and good, which I had a difficult time swallowing.
Rating:
Summary: Laughable
Review: All one needs to do is watch the nightly news. There is a liberal, leftist spin to every story. Facts are left out, replaced with conjecture and attacks. the left can write all the books they want and have their radio network heard in all of two stations-- but the truth remains. According to the left, there is no such thing as free speech unless it promotes their ideas; there is no truth without their spin.
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