Bil Maher Points Out That the Recent Political Violence is Coming From the Right
Bill Maher got his right-wing guests -- the National Review's Reihan Salam and Fox News' Margaret Hoover -- on this week's edition of Real Time worked up when he asked why all the recent political violence is coming from the right. Salam reminded me a bit of Howard Fineman on Hardball the other day when he couldn't name anyone on the left who equaled the violence we're seeing from the right either, and reached back to the Weather Underground as an example of a violent group on the left, which Maher pointed out existed before he was born. Fox's Margaret Hoover tried painting Joy Behar with the same brush as the Kentucky head-stomper for her comments on The View, which (as Lawrence O'Donnell pointed out) is completely ridiculous.
While I don't agree completely with Bill that if you looked hard enough you couldn't find some example of someone on the left behaving badly because there are a few out there, he's spot on that both sides are not equal and the craziness we've been seeing for the last several years is coming from the right, not the left. I'm surprised neither of them pulled out the faker Kenneth Gladney's story where pretended to get beaten up by members of the SEIU that Dave wrote about here -- Faking victimhood: Just how hurt was that supposed victim of SEIU 'thuggery'?.
The big difference between what's going on now, as I said in the post on Fineman's hackery (and it's a point Maher failed to make), is that this hatred that is being drummed up right now is coming from these astroturf groups funded by big business and from the Republican leadership itself and from right-wing hate-talk radio. These are not just isolated incidents, but ones that are being incited intentionally and drummed up by people who understand full well what they're doing and just don't care about the repercussions. Bill did point out some of the things that Tom Tancredo has said recently and Hoover tried writing him off by saying he's not a Republican any more. Uh-huh.
For a reminder of just how crazy things are getting on the right there are plenty of examples here and here and here and here. And of course there is also John and Dave's book -- Our 'Over the Cliff' website: A resource for progressives coping with insane right-wingers.
Partial transcript below the fold. Bill had me with him during the show until a bit later when he said he's alarmed by the number of babies being named Mohammed in Great Britian. Really Bill?
And one last note, this clip really illustrates a point that Driftglass and Bluegal made in their podcast this week which is that when you confront anyone on the right about how badly their side behaves, their heads explode.
Salam: This is absolutely appalling behavior and everyone should condemn it.
Maher: But it’s your team. Why is your team…
Salam: Not all of us…
Hoover: Hold on here…
Maher: Why is your…
Hoover: Come on!
Maher: Wait a second.
Hoover: That is fundamentally unfair and you know it.
Maher: It is not unfair. Why is the truth unfair? Show…
Hoover: You think that only Republicans beat each other up? Republicans are the violent ones? Are you kidding me?
Maher: What… I am not kidding you. Tell me…
Hoover: You think Republicans just go around stomping on people’s and that’s what we’re all about. That’s all we do really. We’re just really violent people.
Maher: I’m just saying liberals don’t.
Hoover: Really?
Maher: Tell me where a liberal did?
Hoover: Last time I checked it was Joy Behar who was comparing Sharron Angle to Hitler. She’s saying, Sharron’s Angle’s ads are like Hitler’s goose-stepping.
Maher: In her ads?
Hoover: You’ve never heard of any violence on your side?
Maher: I haven’t.
O’Donnell: The View audience Bill is a very dangerous group.
Maher: I haven’t.
O’Donnell: She… you know…
Hoover: They walk out on you.
Maher: Tell me where it is.
Hoover: Really. I mean for you to suggest that there is only one party in American politics that has had… um…
Maher: I am.
Hoover: …misfits and wingnuts who have been violent.
Maher: I’m asserting this.
Salam: Am I going to assume that the Weather Underground was on your team? That’s absurd.
Maher: That was in the sixties! (crosstalk) You weren’t born. (crosstalk)
Salam: I apologize.
There is no doubt!
love it when they say, "i condemn violence on both sides", when the violence comes from only one side
and that "incident" with the congressman was a staged event by teabaggers
disgusting
These are the same people who think America should be held to the same ethical standards as Saudi Arabia.
Let's see...the Supreme court today said the patriot act should not be repealed....Just great...another GWbush shows up and you could land in jail or worse should you disagree on anything "They" deem as a terrorist act.....CHeny and bush won....how sad for America, home of the Brave.yada,yada,yada....
Medicare is in deep trouble if congress doesn't vote in favor of the Doctors ( by the 11/15 recess that our gov't takes every year when crucial matters are on the table!!) who accept Medicare patients to continue funding it, and not allowing a 23% cut in December and another on Jan. 1st....meaning, Many Doctors will not be accepting medicare patients ( like you grandparents, or parents) because they're losing money...So there you have it, Death Panels, for real, created by the do nothing congress presently in power.....
and the press is covering Randy Moss being let go by the vikings..etc...etc...etc....ya know, really important stuff...
more than they pay actual doctors. This is, and I kid you not, to save money. How this will work is not discussed. The doctors are not pleased. The nurse practitioners will be taking the place of real doctors in the "preventive medicine" category under the "health care reform." This will end badly.
towit:
I get vitamin D by prescription. The hospital has a charity fund which will pay for my medical needs if I don't meet my Medicaid spenddown. I got my prescriptions filled, 3 months supply of a couple of BP meds, potassium, and I thought vitamin D. I discover the vitamin D was only for 30 days. The buggered up incomprehensible reasoning is that my status might change and they fear they'd be out the money.
Here's the deal. Every prescription has a dispensing fee involved with it. If you get 3 months at a time, you have 1 dispensing fee. If you get it every month, you have 3 dispensing fees for the same amount of pills.
1 month of vitamin D (30 pills) = $5.30. 2 months (60 pills) = 6.10. 3 months (90 pills) = 6.90. So in order to potentially save $1.60, they will probably end up shelling out 2 x $5.30. 10.60 -1.60 = an actual savings of -$9.00. Smart. Instead of buying 90 pills for 6.90, they'd rather pay $15.90 for the same pills. That means extra bottles and trips to the pharmacy as well. It's a public health pharmacy, so it's always busy, making people come up 2 extra times increases the traffic, makes a need for extra staff...it's the stupidest shit I think I have ever run across in a building full of smart people.
me-oww!
Even if you bring in the Weather Underground, I bet you can still go 10 to 1 with Klan/anti-segregationist/Birch nutjob incidents over any WU actions, and the WU was only good at killing themselves and generally tried to avoid hurting others. The Klan, well they were pretty good at hurting others.
They always have to go back to the sixties to counter.
Most WU activity was in NYC. And the government started the violence. Some just refused to take the high road, choosing instead to fight fire with fire. A proven tactic..
Salem and Hoover are clear examples what passes for republican "debators"; have no ideas and attack, attack, attack. All the aggressive energy was coming from them. And they wonder why their side manifests into violence.
I apologise. They don't wonder at all. That would reuire a brain.
I agree that all the bullshit rhetoric from Hoover really sucked.
It's not all or nothing.
J Edgar?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
then attack.
It was interesting that just by the agitation of the speakers it was possible to know who was speaking. Maher and O'Donnell were calm.
Fucking Teabaggers (Sorry, halfwit, YOUR party self-applied that name first. Too bad for you it stuck. NOT my problem).
Fucking Republicans.
Always the same debate tactics and insane talking points when they are prevaricating on a point or simply wrong. Schoolyard, backyard BBQ crap that doesn't work on people like Mahr and O'Donnell.
I'm just superstitious enough to hedge my bets.
But there are so many brain dead morons in this country who vote and it does work on them as do the attack ads that we are being bombarded with paid for by the Chamber of Commerce . Years ago I heard someone say that the American people are too stupid and ignorant to govern themselves and to have a true Democracy , I don't know that is was true back then but it is true today . Paul , Buck and Angle in a dead heat or leading in the polls ? Bachman being re-elected . JC ! What more evidence is needed ? This country is in deep shit .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
of a lawyer defending a child rapist and the lawyer KNOWS the defendant is guilty, but argues the case because it pays well. I've got to say Maher kept the heat on and called bullshit repeatedly. How often do you see that?
Last season, Bill took on the Democrats as well as the GOP. Now he's become nothing but a fanboy for Obama and the Democrats. Like most of the *progressives* in Congress, he talks a good game when nothing counts, and then falls right in line with the conservative Democratic establishment anytime something does count. Maher obviously serves the same function as Kucinich and other phony progressives; i.e., he acts as a relief valve for the anger on the left, thereby deflating all the political energy on the left.
The republicans are really that much more dangerous this year.
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
freequark , you should go to the comment sections of the Weekly Standard or News Max and post your malarkey , which this particular post of yours is .
"The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all."
Your argument - which is the same one that most Democrats make - is that progressives who are upset that Democratic politicians are too much like Republicans are themselves somehow Republicans. That makes no sense whatsoever - it's a non sequitur. I mean, if someone were a Republican, why in the world would they be upset that Democratic politicians have become too much like Republicans?
So they can depress turnout on the Democratic side.
Not very bright are you?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
what exactly have "real" progressives done during the past two years except for bitch
well, tuesday, you are gonna get what you have fought for....the dems will be out of power
enjoy
It's obvious that progressives should stop complaining and form their own movement, rather than continue to implore the Democrats to become more progressive. I'm not sure why they still buy into the phony progressive rhetoric of the the Democrats. I think maybe it's a generational thing. Carter, Clinton, and Obama were relatively young when elected President - much younger than the GOP alternative - and progressives probably think a young person is naturally more progressive than the grumpy old men who make up the GOP. Obviously it's a mistaken belief, but I'm not sure what will dissuade progressives of that notion unless maybe we get a young conservative as President.
when they've sorted out who is really a "progressive" they'll be in a strong position to do exactly nothing.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
freequark and walt kovaks thinks the solution do the Democrats problems are ideological litmus tests like the republicans have.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Should Democratic politicians be able to take any position on any issue and still expect the support of Democratic voters? If that's the case, then maybe the Democratic Party should be renamed the Existentialist Party.
In my state, a Democratic Congressman is running TV ads where he brags about voting with the GOP 85% of the time. Should progressives - or even moderate Democrats - really be expected to vote for that person? If so, then how often would he have to vote with the GOP before you would think they shouldn't support him? Would it be o.k. if he voted with the Republicans 95% of the time, or even 100% of the time?
Clearly you have to draw the line somewhere. I've drawn many lines in the sand, and the Democrats have crossed every one.
you are referring to is a blue dog dem which we don't wholeheartedly support either, but it does make a difference in who controls the house and senate. We know you are a republican and we don't want the likes of you in control.
I'm upset that Obama and the Democrats are too much like Republicans, so that somehow makes me a Republican.
tap...tap...tap....
Look, if I were a Republican, why wouldn't I be supportive of the conservative Democrats? After all, in the past 20 years, the Democrats have done more to advance the conservative movement than Reagan.
Boy oh boy
You are a neophyte.
The party labels are just that, labels; it's not like we vote for a whole slate as in Britain, where they all adhere to the same rules.
They have to vote as they see fit for the states or districts they represent
As long as the control of the houses stays in the party's hands.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
...as the Blue Dogs have a tremendous influence over Democratic legislation. In fact, they have the power within the party to kill any legislation they dislike. Your argument might make sense if the Blue Dogs - who represent maybe 5% of the party - had a 5% influence on Democratic legislation. That's not the case, however, as they have far more sway than the 80 member progressive caucus, which is totally ignored by Obama and the Democratic leadership.
Again, you're trying to make it as rigid as the English Parliamentary style of parties.
If the Blue Dawgs continue to win seats in their red districts, perhaps they their districts won't remain red.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Most of these people will switch parties if the GOP wins the House, and that will do far more to help the long-term health of the Democrats than a Democratic win tomorrow.
This country is screwed up, and the only other option available is the astro-turfed Tea Party.
Don't like what's going on? Support the party who's been in power for the past two years, and blame the party out of power.
Sure, millions of people will buy that. We'll see how many people tomorrow.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
So Junior and Clinton are the innocent guys in terms of the Economy, right? No one spent more that Bush... the Big Pharma Bill that doesn't allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices, alone, will cost more than EVERYTHING Obama has spent.
No President Increased Government more than Bush.
And that whole Gramm–Leach–Bliley crap (Clinton's fault... but was written by McCain's Financial Advisor) that allowed the Banks to act like Casinos... How did Obama, in two years, do more than that? And the Tea Bagging ijits are gonna fix that? How exactly? By removing Regulations and letting the Mega Corps and Wall Street run roughshod over America?
The Tea Bagging twits are your salvation? An mealy-mouthed Objectivist who wants businesses to be able to not serve Blacks. A mindless jackass (Sharron) who thinks if a woman gets pregnant by her Daddy that she should make "Lemonade from Lemons..." and whose answer about her opinion on the Wars is "You'll find out when I'm elected..." and who thinks Americans should use guns if they don't get their way this Election? And a moron who's cognitive abilities are just this side of Caribou Barbie, who thinks that Masturbation should be illegal???
So, I bet you're one of those Cato guys that get paid to post. How much are you getting?
Sheeesh... I'm wasting my time.
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
when Ms. Hoover was sputtering out her initial, "You think Republicans just go around stomping on people’s and that’s what we’re all about. That’s all we do really. We’re just really violent people" defense, Bill missed a HUGE opportunity to say,
"Now you know how Muslims feel when your side talks about them".
I love how every time someone points out the bat crap crazy hatred and violence that is coming out of the republican side of this country, they automatically go back to the Weather Underground and say; "see the left does it too". Yeah, sorry chuckles. First off, find an example that’s not forty years old and second, the left denounced their actions immediately. We are still waiting to hear that from your elected officials Salam.
Kudos that you said it on Bill Mahers show, But I'll bet it's the first time it's crossed your lips.
I only wish Bill was a little more aggressive in his follow up to these two. This false equivalency BS has got to stop.
Caring guns at a rally, Denouncing anyone who opposes you as a communist, Illegally detaining someone at a public event, Stomping on a woman’s head because she represented the opposition. Correct me if I’m wrong but the last time this kind of crap happened it was in Germany in 1936.
This election may make us sad but watching the GOP try to rein in the new tea party people who may be coming to DC may be interesting. Even on Fox they had a bit about how the GOP was preparing for this. Now Beck is pissed that the GOP wants to tame the tea party new commers. Already a split and they aren't even there yet.
When I think about the violence coming from the right I can't help but think of that song, "Who let the dogs out?" That should be their theme song. I think Dick Armey opened the door to that pen.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I agree with Bill on most things, though I too was bothered with his statement concerning the name Mohammed in regard to babies in Great Britain. I also think his stance to anything regarding collusion concerning 9/11 is a little off base too, as on the other hand he gets most of it right. I try to listen to the reasoning of the right wing for any issue and they just don't make sense. They have no back up or documentation to their assertions or they just mislead or lie. The tree in the subject matter is any issue they yell about because every time it has to stand on its own merit, then you know it isn't an issue at all. Just look at Acorn, Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod as recent examples. Just to ask, how does Andrew Beithbart get to be an election analyst? I mean the guy got caught altering video footage to meet political agendas, analyst???? I think his anal lyst behind should be in a jail cell with his cell mate Bubba.
Great Britain has its own history and culture separate from the Muslim world. If the majority of Brits become Muslim, then Great Britain will become culturally Islamic. Why would anyone think that's a good thing? Is the implication here that Europeans should somehow be forced to lose their culture and identity because of 19th Century colonialism? That's what it sounds like to me.
Your question clinches it, you're a republican pretending to be liberal.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
An ultra super duper double secret covert Liberal from the extreme left.
He just wants people to vote GOp, because...............I have no fuckin idea.
True, the Dems have their faults and then some. But, every once and awhile, they do get something right. The GOp on the other hand, well, I can't think of anything. Can you?
As for freepquirk. dollars to donuts he's gone after tomorrow. Same with VirtualO. He faded rather quickly. It's pretty obvious.
Hey, I know, lets make a statement by voting for the people who fucked up the country royally.
Who wasted a surplus, and turned it into a deficit almost over night. Who ruined our economy.
You know the rest. Anyone suggesting voting for the GOp is fucked up.
I have two words for them.
Fuck You!
sorry about the language Y.
but enough is enough.
What is your conceptual, continuity?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPq8jynbLxc
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Not every left-winger believes in globalism. My fundamental political beliefs are centered primarily on left-wing economics - progressive taxation, corporate regulation, etc. Globalist ideology is really part of the libertarian capitalist movement.
Is Reihan Salam James Carville's love child?
HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Lawrence did not get nearly enough talk time.
New republican violence in Florida just today! Allan Grayson supporter accosted - sign shattered.
As Allan Grayson points out - this is not new behavior for republicans and their supporters...
"Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob"
-= Franklin Delano Roosevelt =-
The next time someone tells me that the left are the ones getting violent, i will remind them of the Unitarian Church Shooting of 2008, where the gunman had books by Savage, O'Reilly and Hannity in his home.
Also, the murder of Dr. George Tiller, where the gunman was believed to have been influenced by Bill O'Reilly.
The final example would be the gunman in the San Francisco Bay area, who wanted to shoot up the Tides Foundation - after hearing about it from Beck so many times.
When will some prosecutor indict these people for incitement to violence?
The sniper in Pittsburgh who killed those cops after listening to Beck.
NOBODY 2012
In Dublin Ohio, a group that had been camping out for the night to get in to a bookstore for a Palin book signing were punk interviewed by a guy who's video was carried here on C&L less than a year ago.
I won't forget the emotional manipulation by that guy, even if he prided himself at leaving no cuts or bruises.
Some people think the interview was smart but all I could see was a guy who probably thought that lost elections no longer applied to him.
Titled: All-night Campout at Sarah Palin Book Signing
http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com/scarce/al...
Zach Galifianakis lits up a joint
http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/11/01/zach-...
Who is "the Right"? Is it an astro-turfed Tea Partier label? Is it the millions of people who will not be voting Democratic tomorrow because they're ticked off at what's happening to their country?
There are hundreds of millions of people in this country, and setting up a false dichotomy of left and right has gotten beyond ridiculous. I take it that "the left" are those who support the Democrats and Obama? The man who is still imprisoning people without even charging them with a crime? Who has claimed authority to kill people without even charging them with a crime? Who uses flying robots and cluster ammunition on civilians? Who first declares that that troops are out of Iraqi cities by redefining borders (thus leaving Camp Victory in Bagdad) then simply declares that fifty thousand troops plus mercenaries aren't combat troops? The man who labels those who don't support the fraudulently elected Hamid Karzai and his CIA sponsored narco-terrorist brother as "insurgents" then unleashes his military and mercenaries on them? The man who has immunized torture and murder from criminal and civil liability?
Because that man is responsible for a hell of a lot more political violence and injustice than a handful of fucking teabaggers are ever capable of.
Bitch about the right, sure, but the only way that Obama and the Democrats don't qualify is by comparison to a tiny group of people who can't even pull in half what two comedians did at a national rally.
A group of people that was astro-turfed for this very purpose: to make a bunch of self-described lefties defend things they would otherwise vehemently oppose - and attack those that disagree as "the right."
Corruption favors the wealthy.
You are trying to change the subject away from politically inspired American-on-American violence. In that, right-wingers are clearly far ahead of the left, no contest. Between people shooting up churches and abortion clinics and police officers and the Holocaust Museum, flying planes into IRS buildings, stomping heads, "arresting" journalists who are simply asking questions, on and on and on, it is all coming from the right. And let's not forget the absolute refusal by leading right-wingers, or by the teabaggers they're duping, to condemn any of this. After all, that would take up precious time that they want to use in explaining how it was encroaching socialism or Moslems who provoked this violence.
Don't try to equivocate between that and Afghanistan.
Does anyone know where to get a Transcript of this show? I looked around and couldn't find diddly.
~albabe (The Writer/Artist Formally Known As Al Gordon)
http://www.comicon.com/gordon/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Gordon
http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-nat...
Corruption favors the wealthy.
so if someone else doesn't take the time to transcribe them such as I did here, they're not out there. Newsbusters had some of the end of the segment transcribed but I refuse to link to them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGm-zkRNj58&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1MuvvS_xSw
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3rrZ07Pig0&fe...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuOzte9Ugck&fe...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Here's the shorter version: "But the left did it first!" Um, when?
*silence*
NOBODY 2012
Two pathetic "screamers". That's all I could think of when watching this video clip. Maher makes a statement...and they both start screaming, rolling their eyes, talking over, etc.
I usually enjoy his program..but if he's going to start inviting the teabagger mentality spokespersons on his show on a regular basis....this is what it's going to evolve into. The pigs just can't handle criticism...and whether they like it or not, it's what it is.
It's very telling that the rightarded extremists could not answer the question.
The fucktard spouted about how he would have to set researchers to look for it, pretending that it exists when in fact it does not, right wing violence is entirely a matter of right wing Republicans, it's never progressives who engage in such violent, insane behavior.
And yet every progressive can come up with 5 Republican acts of violent crimes against citizens in an instant.
This is the kind of stuff I tune into Real Time for! Squirming Conservatives!
Is there even a meter around that's capable of measuring the obnoxious levels of these two?
On right-wing Christian militias? Nuff said.
"Even if 50 million people say a stupid thing - it is still a stupid thing." - Anatole France
just add cleavage and peroxide. Millions of people actually watch that and feel "informed" as a result?
Ay Dios mio!
The Republican party are wealthy kids that can't compromise and take no for an answer.. Tax Breaks for the wealthy must expire if the GOP is whinning about deficits...
The right wing needs to be directly confronted about the violence they are either perpetrating,inspiring or blatantly ignoring.Bill Maher deserves a lot of credit for forcing them to look in the mirror.
His two conservative guests plainly didn't like what they saw there.
"To me, truth is not some vague, foggy notion. Truth is real. And,
at the same time, unreal. Fiction and fact and everything in between,
plus some things I can't remember, all rolled into one big "thing."
This is truth, to me. "
-Jack Handy
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