Comedian Margaret Cho has been performing professionally since she was 16 years old. She’s probably been offending people far longer than that. Known for her outspokenness on everything from weight loss to ethnic slurs to anal fisting to her highly lampoonable mother, Cho has become one of the most popular comedians in the country—her live 2003 show Revolution sold out across the country and grossed $4.4 million. Censored at a 2004 hotelier convention due to political remarks, she’s developed a new philosophy: “If you don't like me,” she says, “I'm going to make you hate me.”

Hence the name of her post-2004-election Assassin, selected, she has said, “to make the right wing go crazy.” Her new book, I Have Chosen to Stay and Fight, should help. Decked out on the cover in full Patty Hearst Symbionese Liberation Army regalia, Cho tackles controversy after controversy in the form of letters to Richard Pryor and Jesse Jackson, and riffs on Ann Coulter’s miniskirt and Bill O’Reilly’s loofah.