Bill Mahar never ceases to get me to agree with him and make me

[napi21]

smile too, even if it takes till his show closing, which once again was GREAT this week!

We really do need to figure out what is most important to be afraid of!

[aquart]

1. Now if only a politician had the guts to say that.

[tularetom]

2. I was about ready to give up on that show

but for some reason I turned it on tonight and I'm glad I did. It was one of the better shows in a long time. Andrew Sullivan of course is still an asshole, but Gen. Clark was for the most part pretty good except for his unquestioning accceptance of everything Hillary and his position on the non native born president matter. Sullivan was of course trying to provoke an argument by going negative on Clinton right off the bat and Clark fell right into his trap. Nevertheless the two of them both held their ground well in the discussion that followed. Martina Navratilova was a bit more reserved and certainly not the attention whore that sullivan is but she made several good points.

I was impressed by the consensus on the fear issue. When we're staring the melting of the planet in the face do we really need to be worried about some raggedy ass religious nuts, let alone whether or not Dumbledore is gay?

[Radio_Lady]

16. I turned him off tonight. Too much Republican chit-chat with the infamous Kay Bailey H....

I'm sick of it.

Why even give her air time?

Respectfully,

Radio Lady in Oregon

[hlthe2b]

3. My, oh my, I can't keep up: do we hate Maher or love him this

week....:crazy:

DU has been about as schizophrenic lately as I can recall, on some of these issues...

Well, I hope there will be some youtube for those of use without HBO...

[liberalmuse]

6. Well, to be honest...

Bill Maher can be a pissy, arrogant, misogynist ass at times. Regardless, I'd tap that. His mind, that is. He is dead-on amazing with metaphors.

[Neshanic]

9. Very nicely put. Clark was fantastic, Sullivan an amazing cretin as he dumps on Hillary.

I loved the part where he's all over Hillary, and he's been one of the biggest enablers of Bush, but since his relatively recent conversion, he has the gall to start on Hillary.

He acts as if the last six years he's been in a coma, so he can't be held responsible for his past.

Clark asks him if he ever talked to a woman in a Burka. That was classic.

Great show.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

19. I thought Sullivan's critique of Hillary

was one of the few valid points he made all night.

Kyl-Lieberman is just one more of example of why I will seriously consider becoming an independent if Hillary gets the nomination. She is morally repugnant in my view.

[milkyway]

4. I was disappointed in Wes Clark's defense of Hillary's vote on Kyle-Lieberman. I can't believe

if here were a candidate that he would still support that vote. What I wish Wes had said was, "On this issue I disagree with Senator Clinton. Hillary does not want to be surrounded with loyal yes-men like bush. She isn't afraid hearing of differing opions from her advisers, and that's one reason she'll make a great President." Oh well.

It was a very good show. I've always found Andrew Sullivan interesting, even before he turned on bush. I could never quite figure out how he ended up siding with the contemporary republican party. And Bill Maher was great talking about the repugs "all fear all the time" campaign.

[cboy4]

8. I thought Clark was awful on the show...Up until tonight,

I was saying I'd vote for him if he ran.

Now,he's way, way down on my list.

[aquaman]

12. No shit......

I had a totally different perception of him until tonight. He came across as a dumbass, no offense of course.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Why? I am a 2004 Clark supporter, and I missed it tonight (no HBO)--

how did he come off like a dumbass?

[Drunken Irishman]

22. He was way off. And his citing polls about women in full burkas was really pushing it.

Yeah, because these women aren't afraid of their anti-women, anti-femnist husbands. I'm glad Martina Navratilova put him in his place.

Those burkas are all about control and Wes Clark came off as a misogynist.

[cboy4]

25. Yea, didn't he say something about how women love

being repressed in the Middle East?

What a jackass. :eyes:

[Admiral Loinpresser]

20. Yep. Clark dissappoints

when he is political. I think he is running for VP (again).

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

24. When Clark started to cite that Iran was behind terrorist events that have been blamed on

Al Qaeda, I started to scream at him. He is beating the drums for war too.

And BTW.. here is where Maher fails. He didn't know zilch about that and Clark wasn't called out on those lies.

[liberalmuse]

5. Damn, I have to love him again this week..

Oh well. He only has a couple quirks that set me off (his arrogant denial that in any way 9-11 could have been LIHOP or MIHOP, his misogyny, his friendship with Ann Coulter-WTF?), but he's so dead-on most of the time I can forgive him.

[madeline_con]

7. He tends to have some rightish views.

But some redeeming qualities.

[devilgrrl]

10. Bill makes me smile more often than not...

I don't agree with everything he says. Yes, he can be a total dick about certain issues but even so, I don't understand why so many get so up-in-arms about him.

I'd rather watch him than friggin' Carlos Mencia, Dennis Miller or Colin Quinn! I mean come on! :crazy:

[Admiral Loinpresser]

11. Bill Maher is what's wrong with the left.

About 50% of the time he's spot on, but then his absolutism kicks in.

He had the GALL to criticize Andrew Sullivan for voting for Bush in 2000, when Mr. Grecian Formula voted for Ralph Nader. What a hypocrite! And he has continued to attack Gore year after year, in order to hide his own complicity in the worst presidency in American history (agaain, what a hypocrite). He will never has as much character as Gore has in his little finger.

Maher also simplifies issues on his attacks on the Democratic Party. And I have NEVER heard him talk about the reality of the evil role of the MSM in American culture, playing hand in glove with the GOP. He doesn't get it. He's shallow, conceited and a self promoter.

Like I said, he's right about half the time, but the rest of the time he's so busy being a shallow, idiotic hypocrite that he does a lot of damage also.

The MSM IS the enemy and he simply doesn't get it.

I concede, I'm not adding much to the discussion, but I had just had to rant. Give me two weeks to prepare on his world class hypocrisy on Gore and Maher wouldn't last ten minutes on his own show, straight up.

[lordsummerisle]

14. Maher doesn't consider himself to be on the left

he's a self described libertarian. He's also an entertainer. I'm continually fascinated by the way DUers attack him, agreeing with him on some issues but just lambasting him when they don't agree with everything he says. Get over it, he's just a commentator and a comedian. I don't agree with everything he says either but frankly if I did he would be far less entertaining to watch...

[Admiral Loinpresser]

18. The libertarian label,

is more Maher 1.0. He used to describe himself as a libertarian, but is more likely to describe himself as liberal or on the left, especially identifies himself in terms of audience.

Because of the absence of informed or intellectually honest discourse in this country, commentators and comedians need to be responsible. I think Jon Stewart and Colbert do a relatively good job of real media criticism and Maher does very little. The main criticism of media that Maher focuses on is the obsession with trivia, which is the most apparent and thus adds little value.

Bill Maher is either extremely uninformed or hypocritical because of his foolish position on the 2000 election. But that election and the 19 month War on Gore which proceeded it, is exactly why the world is now in such an awful position. The 2000 election is the Rosetta Stone for how and why America became a rogue super power.

Jon Stewart is right, comedy needs to be simply funny. But Maher also sits in that chair and pontificates in ways that keep people in a state of delusion as to what is really happening in this country. What is really happening is that MSM outlets serve as willing collaborators for GOP talking points. For not pointing that out, Maher deserves much more criticism than he gets. Does he do some good things? Yes. But he either doesn't get, or refuses to discuss in prper context, the main problem: the MSM.

[lyonn]

21. He seldom fails to entertain me

Some of his guest fail him! ha - Kay Bailey for one. She was totally boring and stupid. She won't even be able to sell her book to a repub.

Being a Clark fan I was full of expectations of his usual informative and great way of describing the world situation. Not this time. Lordy, he sounded to me like he believes Iran must be Forced to do away with any plans for the nuke. He was heavy on the force and light on the negotiation aspect. That Iran had and is behind terrorist acts for many years. He thinks Saudi women chose to wear burkas, polls prove it.....

It's the Mahrs, Stewarts, Colberts, etc. of the entertainment world that keep us informed. Sad huh. Think it is called Comic Relief.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

26. I agree with you on most of what you've said about Maher but he's more of a

Libertarian than Left. I feel conflicted about his role in discourse, for on one hand, he makes America aware of issues that MSM will not cover. Then, on the other hand, he isn't versed as well as he should be when the wrongwing pundits that inhabit his show start spewing their lying talking points, and he lets them get away with their lies. The best show so far this year, IMHO, was when Tim Robbins was on along with Stephen Hayes. Robbins Knows, really Knows what Hayes is and called him the traitor that he is. If Robbins wasn't on that panel, Hayes' neocon lying bullshit would have gone unchecked. The worst show was last year when some talking head started to spout lies about Valerie Plame's CIA status and it took someone from the audience to try to correct it. Maher told that person to STFU. In both cases, Maher didn't have a clue as to the facts.

[gateley]

13. He always seems to be totally aware of current events and all the political

players. I think he's great.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

23. He is aware and yet not totally informed. There are too many times when wrongwing

talking heads spout off their talking points and Bill doesn't know all of the facts and he can't call them on their lies. I find that most DUers are far better informed then him.

[rusty quoin]

15. I missed it tonight but will have to catch it later. You guys make it sound like a must see.