Bill Maher on The Situation Room: Cutting through the spin
By Nicole Belle Monday Sep 17, 2007 10:11pm(guest blogged by Bill W.)
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Bill Maher, just as straightforward as ever, helps Wolf Blitzer cut through all of the spin about the war in Iraq, President Bush and Gen Petraeus' "Enron Surge Report," the reasons behind the Democratic majority's failure thus far to bring about a change of direction in Iraq, and of course, Sen Larry Craig:
Blitzer: You know he's back, Larry Craig, he came back to congress today. He showed up for a Republican strategy meeting, still saying his intent is to resign, but it's not a hundred percent. What do you think he should do?
Maher: I'd love to see him stay. I'd love to see him stay and run for President. I'd love for him to take what's left of that party down with him. ...
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The don't pay Maher enough.
Whatever it is, it isn't enough.
lol ... Glug Glug ...
Well said Billy.
YAGoTTa LoVe MaHER........woooohoooo
Shout it from the rooftops:
"Larry Craig's a
G -reedy
O -ld
P -ervert!"
and...
"David Vitter's a Republican Party pooper!"
hey Karl......your batting 1000 tonight....wooooooooooohoooooooooo
Maher's cool because he gets stoned, and he makes no secret of it.
can someone print the transcript and give to our "leaders"?
I love maher.
never miss his show.
culturally and politically, he's my favorite comedian.
Maher can be funny...
BUT...
He's full of shit about vaccinations, claiming that vaccinations have never helped stopped diseases.
I want to see Larry Craig in a "Got Milk" commercial.
Hey Senator that doesn't look like...........oh, uh, sorry.
Notice how quickly Wolf jumped on Maher when he percieved him to be attacking Petraeus.
Wolf reacted the same way on September 13 when Geoff Millard called Petraeus a political appointee:
BLITZER: But let me challenge you, Geoff. Political appointee, this is a four-star general, he is a career professional who spent more than 30 years in the U.S. Army. Risked his life on many occasions not only in Iraq, but in Bosnia and elsewhere. Why would you call him a political appointee and take a slap at him like that?
Clearly Wolf thinks that Petraeus can do no wrong.
Bill Maher pwns as always.
Radically Moderate @ 10:
and the hits just keep gettig better and better
aw shit I'm having a hard time typin because I'm laughin so hard...........this took me awhile.
take heed my bretheren....the trolls are out and are particularly covert in their wyllie ways
See how panicky the wolf cub gets when maher makes a point.
[...] stood his ground and comically illustrated the mendacious assertions of the Bush Administration. Here’s a link to the video clip at Crooks & Liars. Wolf likes to portray those who don’t support General Petraeus’ recent testimony before [...]
I listened to Real Time on podcast today and Maher had the entire panel ROTF with New Rules.
Someone tell Bill O'Reilly that's what a REAL independent sounds like.
Maher did not "attack" Patraeus. What a ridiculous assertion by Blitzie. I do wish Maher had included within his argument that Patraeus is a political appointee, the fact that bush "The Decider" fired all the previous generals who refused to kiss his ass.
If you keep getting rid of "no men," eventually you'll find a "yes man." Patraeus is bush's "yes man." And the fact that he had to assert to Congress upfront that his statement was his own, what a weenie admission that someone is pulling your strings the rest of the time.
Love. Bill. Maher.
My favorite quote. At the very end regarding Larry Craig. "I would love to see him run again, i would love to see him run for president and take down what's left of the Republican Party with him".
Hear! Hear! Run Larry, run!!
notice the audiences reaction when he dropped that new rule?
everyone was like...um//wtf?
Bill Maher just made the case for taking Petraeus' remarks with a grain of salt. Did anyone notice?
I thought it was more like a whole salt lick that was required but then ...
One thing does bother me about the way our language seems to be changing though. Any criticism of someone is now said to be "an attack". Why can't you just say "you just lied to me and here is the proof" and have it described as hmmm ... truth telling
Just wondering out loud
Just think of the massive PR campaign that preceded the Patraeus Report. The guided dog and pony shows for the press, pundits and think tank persons, all under the watchful eye of David Petraeus. Bush photo-op trip to Anbar Province.
CNN was billing the Petraeus report as make or break implying that all other contradictory reports were irrelevant. CNN's Jessica Yellin was glowing about Petraeus making big news when he mentioned his bogus troop withdrawals.
Since it was clear that Bush was in frequent phone contact with both Crocker and Petraeus there were certainly no surprises in their testimony.
After all of that effort, people just didn't buy it. What the polls are saying is we just don't believe you. Bring the troops home.
Carmikl @ 24:
Exactly. This is the conspiracy that needs our attention RIGHT NOW!
Maher's always entertaining
I've gotten lost in this thread. How exactly did Bill Maher manage to demolish the twin towers?
He said what the hijackers did wasn't cowardly, it was brave.
That's how Bill destroyed the twin towers. Him and the gays, lesbians and abortionists pushed them over after they were weakened by the impact.
Its all in the 911 report.
So, after a slip of the tongue caused Wolfie himself to accidentally call Petraeus “General Betray-us” (see, it’s pretty catchy, huh?), Blitzer says that Bill Maher “attacked” Petraeus, when in fact Maher simply stated that he didn’t believe Petreus’s claim that he’d written his report without input or vetting from The White House.
I guess that qualifies as an attack now. Wow, nothing ruffles the feathers of authoritarian-type personality more than to question a Man in Uniform (see: John McCain’s “…They should be thrown out of the country!”) freak-out.)
Anyway, CNN really is doing it’s best to keep the MoveOn ad story on the front burner...
Do they think this sells papers? Do they think it’s gonna change anybody’s mind about the war? Or are they just trying to boost donations to the people who created the ad? Because I guarantee this is a publicity windfall for Move.On. I believe it cost them $10,000 to place the ad in the NYT, but they’ve now reaped millions of dollars of air time with it, thanks to CNN, Fox etc.
At this point, the neo-cons have subverted the State Dept., the Justice Dept., 5/4 of the Supreme Court, and have the Republiclone Senate declaring a near permanent filibuster. If we don't work to change the balance in Congress then we end up with the government we deserve.
but really folks mahers is a lousey commedian , his jokes go over like a lead ballon ,and except for beating up on bush and cheny hes not much worth watching, id compare him to jay leno hes just an insult artist and hes generaly got his swelled up head up his ass, and his oppinions on anything have to be accepted or he,ll give you the finger! hes still muff diveing ann coulter and he despises you democrats as much as he does repigs!
tyree @ 31:
That makes me feel a lot better since i am neither a Republican or Democrat. I still think he is funny, but i am basing that only on his ability to make me laugh, so what do i know?
xoites defends Constitution @ 32:
and id suspect you still think saturdaynight live is funny, god the expectations of whats funny these days has relly gone down the shitter!
You should see the movie Idiocracy. Now that's funny. It's a documentary about what America will be like in 500 years. And it explains how we get there.
No, Tyree. I have not watched SNL in two decades ever since they stopped being political satyrists.
Curtilingus @ 34:
America is in deep danger of not existing in 5 years.
i do not trust bill maher or think he is very funny.
-he's 'so-so' funny.
as far as politics goes...i find him to be more of a 'distraction' to the real problems americans face.
bill o uses him for entertainment and bill maher helps o'reilly cement his 'far right' views within the pseudo right-wing brainpan.
they think they are fair minded and independant of 'party over politics', thanks to bill o.
-they think that all liberals are like bill maher.
atheist, stoner, sex fiends.
sorry bill maher...you are helping the bushies, just by your 'lifestle'.
you rally 'the base'.
blitzer knows this too, and uses maher.
imo, trusting anyone that answers to george bush...be they general or poiltician, is simply a continuation of horrible foreign policy, at this point.
they have proven to me, that they will lie until exposed.
Bill Maher is a dickhead.
xoites defends Constitution @ 36:
Actually is starts February 08 xiotes. That's when the feds start monitoring and restricting all interstate air travel.
Oh well, I'm going to watch Hannibal rising now. I'm trying to figure out what makes people like george Bush tick.
tyree -
> and id suspect you still think saturdaynight live is funny,
They've been saying that it's not for 30 years now ...
xoites -
> they (Saturday Night) stopped being political satyrists.
If they ever stopped, they've been back into it for years now. And most times it is funny. Yeah, occasionally a show here or there will be a dud, but that's life when it's live. The good definitely outweighs the bad.
Has the new season started yet?
I won't make any jokes about the size of Bill's nose
but when he's on he's on. Picking the hair out of his mouth
was ....hairy.
jesus christ saturday night live except for a few times when they get some talented actors from films or other tv commedians really sucks big time, most of the time its just a bunch of bafoons screaming stupid shit at each other thats unintelligable!
Bill Maher is so on his game in this clip that it is the perfect antidote to any oppressive reality -- due to the perfection of his pun! And as Shakespeare described: "The lowest form of humor, but the highest form of wit" -- thanks for this, I don't have time to watch TV much, so I relish these C & L snippets, and it made my night.
Maher's pretty good ... makes a lot of sense most of the time. But at the end of the day (to Tyree's point) he's just another guy running his pie hole. He makes tons of money doing what he does, then sits at home smoking pot.
I'm the same, except I don't smoke pot. I just eat a lot of pizza and watch a lot of tv. I've got a mortgage, a job, and a certain level of comfort. Would I give that up to storm the Bastille? I might. But if I do it alone, I just look like a fruitcake. Until about two million of us decide to do it at the same time, the power elite will just let us eat cake ... and holy shit can we eat a lot of cake.
[Deleted-Sitemonitor]
Duty calls. GNA! :)
I'm waiting for one of these guys to say, "You know, Wolf, I think the problem in this country is that there are quite a few people who need to learn how to respect our military leadership.... instead of worshipping it."
I don't give a damn what this Petraeus P.R.-flack-with-a-chest-full-of-ribbons has done in his career. He's selling a line of bullshit. That makes him NOT respectable. No fancy uniform or years of service can cover for that.
I've known-- and worked with-- people who've served 20-30 years in the military, and they deserve respect. But then again they're not the types who'd go in front of Congress to tell lies and do P.R. spin.
"Wolf, save your strutting and grandstanding salutes for Admiral Fallon, Anthony Zinni, and even Abizaid, as well as the long list of generals who signed the petition asking for Rumsfeld's resignation. They're the people of integrity whose praises you should be singing.".
Snaps on the Larry Craig joke! Ba ha ha ha ha ha!
Hi Stan....didn't see you there......
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Bill Maher is refreshing as he does cut through the BS. It's just too bad our MSM news folks are so willfully ignornant. It drives me crazy that they can't see the obvious, let alone report on it. They're afraid to ask the tough questions or draw "unpopular" conclusions despite the evidence. Has their ability to critically analyze been so woefully damaged? Unfortunately, there seems to be an epidemic of dumbing down in this country. Are they asleep at the wheel or have they just been mandated by the higher ups to do the GOP's bidding?
Best Bill Maher clip I have seen all year...and for once he had the upperhand- and Wolf didn't cut him off every other word...
Gotta love Bill Maher's candor! He's one of the most honest individuals on the planet. No doubt that Bush is "taking the rest of his party down with him" - no doubt at all. Given the next 500 days of scandals erupting daily, I'd say that only those on the war profiteering "payroll" be left in the party.
Isn't it time for the Grand Old Perverts (GOP) party to be gone anyway? They've become irrelevant and obsolete and, in terms of numbers, have become the "third party" now. With 38% reg. dems and 35% registered Independents, they're low man on the totem poll.
Be free to choose your new government in 08, register Independent today!! The reprieve you will feel immediately is incredible.
[Edited-Sitemonitor]
People should ask Maher for forgiveness for the way they treated him.
Maher was the guy that spoke the truth. Even if people did not want to hear it. And he stood there and took the fire when many other took the easy path.
I wish Maher would take those apart now that back then attacked him and call them out as the hypocrites they are.
Many who are against the war now only do so because it is unpopular and/or going badly. Anyone honestly think the anti-war movement would be so acceptable if the war were going well?
That is what BushCo hoped would happen. Get in fast and win fast. Then, right or wrong, the war is won and thus the emperor is right.
Worked for Germany in Poland and many other countries after all.
Those that once supported the war and now are against it (or 'against the tactics' BS) are simply people looking which way the flag points. They will swim with the stream no matter where it leads.
These are the most dangerous people.
I count Bush and his cohorts as the prime examples.
Buddies with Saddam through gassings and murders and invasions and turned on him when it was best suited for them.
They are like the ultra SS-Nazis that turned traitors once in a Gulag and would betray their own countrymen.
Scum!
I thought everyone on here claimed CNN was part of Bush's propaganda machine, yet here you are embracing CNN because it let Bill Maher bash Bush. So you only support CNN when they push forward the Anti-Bush agenda? Such Hypocisy lol.
I do like it when someone calmly says it like it is. It's such a contrast to the breathless, Koolaid inspired questioning by Wolf Blitzer. It's amazing that Maher didn't blow it and ask why Blitzer has his head so firmly up the ass of the Bushies.
Nothing proves the case for conspiracists more than their lack of facts.
It seems to me that Bill Maher is beginning to show his true side which is Ann Coulter conservative. I know lots of liberals love this guy but I think if you pay close attention to EVERYTHING he says, he's just a cocky jerk.
Attack The People
Blame The Desired Enemy
Start Your War Machine
Hillary Clinton is a crook and a liar! How dare she only speak for herself, she's supposed to represent the American people. What she should of said was, "This is American and we have free speech." She is only looking out for herself and her political agenda that is why she is careful with her words. And anyone who votes for is a fool! She is an oppurtunist who wants to go down in our History books. Hillary is no different than George Bush the only difference is that she wont tell you anything to your face.
when wolf points it back on bill and says that's what you did, you turned it personal when you said that you did not believe what the general was saying when he said that he had not run his speech by any of the white house staff. wolf stated emphatically, that's what you were doing, getting personal, when you said you did not believe. at that point bill needed to point it back on wolf, "what is your belief, do you believe the general?" have wolf answer forthrightly so that when the truth is uncovered probably years from now, his statement can then be used against him and the world or at least the thinking part of the US can discern how Blitzer was also a tool of the oval office to promote their lies and propaganda.
Wolf's at it again. The first question he asked Bill Richardson on the Situation Room today was about the MoveOn.org ad. Wolf's working overtime carrying the water buckets for the administration.
It certainly wasn't an accident that the anti-MoveOn ad by Freedom Watch.org played first at the next commercial break.
[...] Bill Maher on The Situation Room: Cutting through the spin [...]
Kudos to Bill M for standing up to the Wolfman, and telling it like it is. Wolfie is so used to leading on with his silly questions, and somehow manage to hypnotize his weak, witless guests (who most often claim to speak for democratic positions) to go along with his lead. Not this time, baby. We need more people with brass balls, like Bill Maher.
IdiotShrub @ 64:
if he wasnt getting paid for it hed just be home jerking his meat off!
Great Job but am just wondering why did you cut out the Bill Maher for Ron Paul part .... you have to video here expect that part ... WHY ???
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