Sounded like Bill Maher started his conservative show a week early

[quaoar]

First he advocates private accounts for Social Security while talking to Barney Frank.

Then he agrees with Thomas Friedman of the NY Times that maybe Bush's ignorance of foreign policy when he took office was just what the world needed because he wasn't overburdened with all that cynicism and could bring a fresh approach and perspective. He then quoted Bobby Kennedy's "Some men see things as they are and ask why..." for Christ's sake.

[ElectroPrincess]

1. Bill Maher loves being unpredictable ... but he's a "troll" not "witty"

[Azathoth]

2. Maher gets a kick out of taking unpopular positions

It's not so much about his political beliefs as it is about him needing to get a rise out of people. He loves being the lone voice challenging/shocking/offending everyone including his own audience, and he'll do it regardless of whether he's right or wrong.

[zanana]

5. He's an opportunist...

His first love is show business, not politics. He'll lean whichever way the wind blows.

[LetsGoMurphys]

7. I

couldnt agree more. He says some stupid things just to get a reaction. After a while people might stop reacting. He shouldnt have been censored , however.

[anonymous44]

26. exactly

[BlueEyedSon]

3. If he really has swung that way, I'm cancelling HBO.

The only reason I subscribe is for "Real Time"....

[rodeodance]

4. another one hits the dust--becoming believers in BushCo!!!

[MelissaB]

9. Same here.

He is the ONLY reason we continue to pay for it. I'll give him a couple of weeks before I pull the plug. :(

[FloridaPat]

6. His statements are said by a lot of people lately since the Iraq election.

All of a sudden the liar, theif, and treasury buster is a hero for bringing democracy to the Middle East. All of a sudden 100,000 wrongs make a right. More of a country gone insane.

[rodeodance]

10. the focus on the 'ends' (freedom)--not how we may have gotten there!!

[LetsGoMurphys]

8. he was also

kissin bush's ass over the elections in Iraq.

[Al-CIAda]

11. The right has an endless supply of obnoxious talking heads

They're like Spin Machines or Truth Terminators. The two wingnuts on the show were monopolizing the conversation. I hadn't seen either of them anywhere before. There must be factories pumping them out. With Ann Coulter as the prototype, its impressive how they are coming out with models in all races and genders.
The Dems had better get better fighters out there. These people will say and do anything. The constant flow of lies said with authority and going unchallenged is shaping debate.

It is most disappointing that Bill is buying into the 'ends justify means' arguement. The 'means' include lying to the American people and world -over and over about a whole host of issues. The 'means' include fabricating evidence, lying to congress...a cost of $600 Bil. ...stolen billions, 100,000+ people dead...torturing innocent people...etc.

The key to dismantling the mythology and propaganda of the paradigm we are being forced to enter into is to expose the truth about 9/11 and who is benefiting. What about the War Games? Why is it that the PNAC is never mentioned? A "New Pearl Harbor". Holding to account the truth about 9-11 should have been THE issue in the campaign. Surely the PNAC should have.

Its amazing how gullable and maliable the ignorant are. More amazing is how that despite a mountain of evidence that damns the lies, the so-called opposition takes dive after dive or when it DOES fight, it pulls its punches.

[loudsue]

12. I've had enough of Bill Maher myself.

Just another Kool-Aid drinker these days. He put out the call at the beginning of the season for more and more wing-nuts joining his audience. What...was he hoping? To become a funny version of Tweetie (Chris Matthews) or something?

His "favorite dominatrix, Ann Coulter" (his words) must have gotten to him, and whipped him hard enough that he decided to be a "good boy".

:puke:

[NYCGirl]

13. Maybe he's just trying to stir some discussion to avoid dead air on his TV

show! If everyone agreed about everything, it'd be a pretty dull thing to watch.

[w4rma]

14. He was agreeing with Friedman, his guest. Not much debate there. (nt)

[quaoar]

24. Friedman wasn't a guest on the show

Maher was just quoting something Friedman had written.

[kypper]

15. Odd

Maher's last stand up special was rife with criticism for the administration and the republican machine.

Maybe Anne Coulter (admittedly a good friend of his) promised sex for coming over to the dark side.

[solinvictus]

17. Sex....from Ann Coulter... as a reward????

None for me, thanks.

[kypper]

22. Haha

Yeah, the edited out comment was "I'd rather have sex with a pickle jar... she's hideous"

[drdtroit]

31. "Maybe Anne Coulter (admittedly a good friend of his) promised sex"

No, if anything Rove probably got photos of Ann doing her dominatrix thing to Bill!

[sandnsea]

16. So open minded your brains fall out

That's what I see with Maher and some others who can't seem to figure out the difference between democracy through peaceful inspiration and phony votes at gunpoint.

[MattP]

18. Lack of understanding

The worst part is everyone on his show seems to agree that Saddam would have killed 100,000 if he was in office the last couple of years and that is total b.s., and his lack of understanding of how much goes from your taxes into social security and that it's not there for people to get rich but so people don't go poor really pissed me off.

[sandnsea]

20. Alternative solutions

I really don't give a shit about Saddam Hussein and there's a point where arguing against the war turns into defending Saddam.

We could have pushed him out. We could have used the humanitarian resolutions to put peacekeepers in the north and south. We could have stabilized those regions, rebuilt them, held real elections. Squeezed the center and eventually left Saddam with no choice but to go because of the pressure from the people themselves.

We should have been arguing peaceful alternatives all along instead of just being anti-war with nothing else to say. It's the problem we've got right now, the left has no solution to terrorism, fundamental islam, none of it. Except to side with the Palestinians and listen to nothing else.

Every time a Democrat tries to put up a solution, there's such a miniscule number of people who can hear them that they get drowned out by the left and the right. So, we'll just keep getting more war.

[Zhade]

19. That's too bad. Having Ward Churchill on last week was very interesting.

Maher's always run hot and cold, IMHO.

[formernaderite]

21. Don't have HBO, but on his old show his politics were

small "l" libertarian..he in fact called himself a libertarian. I watched him one night when he had Harry Browne on, the then Libertarian candidate for president. He and Maher had little in common beyond the general: sex and drugs and rock and roll aspects of Libertarianism.

[jrieth50]

23. Seems like a nonbeliever

I've been upset all season with Maher. But the sad thing is that he doesn't even seem to genuinely agree with his own assertions. He just spits out hollow rhetoric like justifying everything that led to Iraq based on a vote there. That's ludicrous and he doesn't even support his own arguments.

This latest season is definitely going to result in the cancellation of HBO for me, I really have no other use for it. It's not that I need him to be liberal, I'm perfectly happy with him when he argues a pro-conservative point, but if I don't even feel like he really buys into it, then I'm gone. He's just pandering for the sake of pandering. Pathetic.

Oh, and the Ward Churchill moment was awful IMO.

[MrSlayer]

25. I don't know that he was advocating the Private Accounts.

He asked why it was such a bad idea and Barney Frank corrected him. Bill was misinformed about them and seemed to understand afterward. I guess if you don't just trash Chimp from opening to closing you are considered to have drank the kool-aid.

[NEDem]

27. You're right

I've been reading the threads about the show last night and it is amazing what people read into things. So he gave the chimperor a little credit, it was merely a backhanded compliment and everyone freaks out.

I'll take Bill Maher agreeing with il Douche once in a while vs someone spewing nothing but propaganda all day.

Granted I think the show sucked, I think the one last week sucked too. It's not Bill its the crappy guests he's had, that woman on last night dominated the discussion with RW BS and the old lady (not Reno) last week did the same thing except she was boring as hell, he needs to get better panelists. And mu8ch better topics.

I want to see Christie Whitman next week in front of a conservative crowd, telling them that the repug party has been hijacked. Should be entertaining.

[sonicx]

28. There are tons are articles about the privatization scheme

Bill's never read any of em? I thought he was a smart guy?

And it isn't like it's been discussed for 2 months already...:crazy:

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

29. Richard Belzer

who I think is a great, smart, funny, informed guest was twisting with the same baggage that saddles all anti-war Democrats since the election - some good came out of a great folly. And some other good (or at least better), things are happening in the Middle East. I think you have to ask - at what cost? If the real price of Bush bringing democracy to the world at the end of a gun is an utterly impoverished USA, whose financial stability is now under the control of foreign bond holders, is that outcome worth it? I think one could answer yes or no to the question.

I like Bill Maher and I admire his determination to bring different views to the table and the audience and to not be in lock-step with any preconceived "liberal" views. I am positive that much of the time he is being a devil's advocate with his questions and insisting that his guests be somewhat coherent in their positions. I don't take every question he asks as being representative of his personal view. I love his special on HBO that he does against all the painted backdrops. He is the first person that I ever heard who said "you cannot be tolerant of intolerance". (hmmm... which makes me wonder how he can tolerate the smug and vile Ann Coulter.)

[quaoar]

30. Welcome to DU, Phoebe

[Debs]

32. I don't think Bill has changed that much

You shouldn't read into Bill what he isn't. He isnt a Liberal, he is all over the map politically. Very liberal on social issues, fairly conservative on criminal issues, and so on. I still like his show but with Bush now IN office it is weaker and his more conservative side is becoming apparant.