Real Time New Rules: Maher Lambastes GOP's Hatred of Government
By Heather Saturday Mar 07, 2009 6:00pm
This is one of the better New Rules segments I've seen from Maher in a while. He ends it with channeling Michael Moore with his criticism of insurance companies in this diatribe on the Republicans and their anti-government rhetoric and love of the private sector.
Maher:The thing is that endless variety only exists because Americans pay taxes to a government which maintains roads, irrigates fields, over sees the electrical grid and everything else but enables the modern American supermarket to carry forty seven varieties of frozen breakfast pastries.
Of course it's easy to tear government down. Ronald Reagan used to say the nine most terrifying words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help". But that was before "I'm Sarah Palin, now show me the launch codes".
You know the stimulus package was attacked as typical tax and spend, you know like repairing bridges is left wing stuff. Ooh there the liberals go again. Always wanting to get across the river.
Folks, the people are the government. The first responders who put out your fires. That's your government. The ranger who shoos pedophiles out of the bathroom. The postman who delivers your porn. I mean how stupid is it when people say "Oh yeah that's all we need. The federal government telling Detroit how to make cars, or Wells Fargo how to run a bank. You want them to look like the Post Office?"
Yeah. Actually. You mean..you mean the place that takes a note in my hand in L.A. on Monday and gives it to my sister in Jersey on Wednesday for forty two cents? Well let me be the first to say I would be thrilled if America's health care system was anywhere near as functional as the Post Office.
The truth is, recent years have made me much more wary of government doing the opposite. Of stepping aside and letting unregulated private enterprise run things it is plainly too greedy to trust with, like Wall Street, like rebuilding Iraq. Like the way Republicans always frame the health care debate by saying health care decisions should be made by doctors and patients, not government bureaucrats. Leaving out the fact that health decisions aren't made by doctors, patients or bureaucrats. They're made by insurance companies.
Insurance companies. Which are a lot like hospital gowns. Chances are your ass isn't covered.
Login or Register to post comments.
Ronald Reagan used to say the nine most terrifying words in the English language were "I'm from the government and I'm here to help". But that was before "I'm Sarah Palin, now show me the launch codes".
HA! Fucking BRILLIANT!
Directed to somebody who offended her attire.
Do ya ever think that the women that that played her on Saturday Night Live, even though she looked like Sarah Palen was somehow more pretty than Sarah Palen.
Maybe she would be the first target.
I probably won't go see Religulous but I understand why he goes after some of the Christian folks. Hell, I had a woman tell me one day, in all seriousness, that everyone is descended from Jesus. Talk about raising the bar to a whole new level of crazy.
i saw religulous yesterday on satellite PPV. maher doesn't simply attack christians or christianity. his attack is on the concept of organized religion and venerating BRONZE AGE MYTHS as truth.
he is equally harsh on fundamentalist muslims and other religions such as scientology and mormonism.
maher's theme is all religious and supernatural thought is INSANITY.
and i agree.
I was going to say fanfucking tastic.
Agreed, and further...
"I'm (any Repig), now show me the launch codes". How about Rush, or ... (so many)
and, I believe, one of the dumbest guys ever to be POTUS. That's just my opinion, of course. He was the master of the soundbite, the prince of speakers. I can't, for the life of me, remember very much that he accomplished. Oh, yes, he supposedly brought down the Iron Curtian. Problem with that is, the war in Afghanistan and the debt that the Russians incurred fighting it, was probably the largest factor in the demise of the Soviet Union.
We should have all kept that in mind as we waged the trillion+ war in Iraq.
Since Dr. "What's His Name???" from CNN stepped aside....
Bill Maher would serve us properly, and I bet he'd take the job. It sure seems he has a very clear understanding of what has been going on with the "for-profit" insurance companies.
Except for Maher's take on 9/11 (wrong??!), I love Bill Maher.
Here's the film Maher (and everybody else) should watch to get up to speed on "what's really happening":
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=74829...
bill mahers an uninformed fucking mutt !lame assed jerk, at best hes just a poormans jay leno only hes allowed to say fuck , and shit, on the air, if my pet sheltie still had his nads they would contain more brains in thoes sacks then mahers ever had , but i keed i keed right!
Bill Maher is OK, just because he refuses the truth about 9-11 shouldn't make you completely write him off. He gives Ron Paul, and Kucinich both airtime. Believes in Legalizing pot. He says allot of things that need to be said. All the leading Democrats , Republicans, and whatever you want to call them fear if the real truth is exposed civil war would surely break out, they think, I am sure, a silent removal of the traitors is best. Just my crazy ideas.
I surely am with you guys, history only proves such things are real.
Thanks Abby.
You and I finally agree on something!
Wake the shelties!
well now there yah go robert guess you listen to him as close as i do , the guy dont even know what fica stands for!of fdica one
thanks for the link!
Sanjay Gupta is "what's his name" I think.
Maher is a comedian, not a government bureaucrat. I don't think he would do a good job of it, and I also don't think he would take the job. It really isn't his thing.
Maher, for all his positive liberal points, is a alternative medicine wacko.
Maher is a libertarian, not a liberal. As a libertarian he is more conservative than 99% of those who claim to be conservative, but insist that government should force people to do things their way. Their way is inevitably justified by a perverted view of the teachings of a man named Jesus.
to tell the truth and be funny and brilliant while doing so. I don't do memes, but I sent the video to one friend so far, and I think everyone should do so.
Everybody loves Bill Maher again!!! YEAH!! YEAH!!
Maher can go over-the-top like any 10th grade class clown. But, most of the time, he's close to the mark and sheds light where the cockroaches slither. I'd rather get my news from him than from vacuous shills like Wallace, Blitzkreig and Brokaw.
on most every show. His Larry King interviews leading up to the election were among his bet material.
Sometimes I wish we still had cable.
When I read blog comments from "conservatives" and they defend the wingnuttery propagated by Limbaugh, Hannity, et al. I can't help but laugh now. How they defend outright lies, hate and ignorant bigotry is sad. They think that they're superior to their fellow citizens when in fact they're every idea wreaks of inequality. They spit on the idea that "all men were created equal" which comes straight from the Declaration of Independence that they claim to defend.
Maher, John Stewart, Colbert. These are the real journalists, they uncover the uncomfortable truths that the corporate-owned media works so tirelessly to hide. We have entered a better and more hopeful age. I only hope its not too late for all of us.
He always makes me laugh.
(Sorry, tyree, I disagree with you on this issue.)
calgary everyones intittled to one mistake!
We still love ya tyree. Not to worry.
no problem edward but if he wants to discuss something he should know his subject, insult jokes anybody can do, jesus the guy has to beg his aduiences for an applause!
I thought she had two.
Bill Maher earned the rank of being legitimate during the post 9/11 fearmongering and suppression coming out of Bush/Cheney regime.
Here again Maher pulls the threads together and presents the fabric of telling it as close to the truth as it gets these days.
Reagan was the front man for a cabal of Americans who never saw any good coming out government and sure as hell hated what FDR had done.
Reagan got his sainthood from the GOP and thirty years later what Reagan was telling us has come to wreck and ruin. Deservedly so.
Bill Maher hits the mark well here again. He most often flys a good flag. A flag worth honoring and following.
American healthcare access and being able to secure needed healthcare should not be about private profits and leaving the bottom third of Americans as defined by income or social standing without reasonable healthcare access. It is not about the exotic surgeries and implants. It is about being able to get blood lab tests done and see a doctor afterwards which today can cost $400-$600.
For those of us without healthcare insurance $400-$600 is a lot of money when for many of us that is a weeks paycheck-if lucky. If unlucky--closer to a week and a half or two.
The Congress in WashingtonDC should try it out and see how it feels.
What? Rob Barbara Bush of her healthcare heart surgery after laughing at those displaced to Houston after Katrina? How dare you socialists think such a thing?
Good Lord, you would think minimum wage applied to Congress!
That being, living on what most of us do, and having to pay this insane health care cost...our doctor's office call - by itself - is now almost $100.00 ....PER..
.....And that's not the deductible..
I have called those in Congress - I am sure my (past)letters got filed in the 'circular file' and of course, I am even more certain, my emails get deleted. THEY DON'T CARE...unless it is election season..and then they're 'all concerned'...
I'm sure a few staffers of those Congresscritters and Senators know my username by now and just hit a button when my email comes up...(why bother your 'beautiful mind' with nonsense from the public)...
why don't they get the hell out of it?
they are in it to destroy it. Parasites. but if a parasite destroys its host, they die, too.
but apparently Repug reptilian brains are too small (or too hyped-up on something) to realize this.
a bumper sticker!
gutting it quite yet.
And he can be up on somethings too. He can miss. Hey, he's human.
The thing that I don't like is that he takes shots at Native Americans. And has done so in the past. There is no excuse for that.
If I catch him ,good. If not, that's good too. 6to1, half dozen to the other
Taking shots at Native Americans is not cool.
And like the "400-lb.-idiot-in-slimming-black," I don't ever see Maher invite, say, Choctaw Indians onto his show when he slams them.
They might like to be on stage for that. They might have something to add to the mix. I'm sure it would be---educational. I'd sure as hell watch.
but I heard him say in this clip "Even Choctaw Indians could make this work." Have to say, I was a bit set back by that, as it seems so primitive and backwards compared to what else he was saying.
He takes shots at everybody, including his own groups. He is happy to insult men, white people, liberals, pot smokers, you name it.
And the fact is, everybody deserves it. We all take ourselves much too seriously. I'm a stay-at-home mom myself. My husband works as a high school teacher while I take care of our two boys. And when we see Maher make shots at marriage, children, and stuff like that, we don't waste energy getting offended by it. We laugh because, first of all, we don't take ourselves too seriously; and second, we can see some truth in what he says.
Seriously, chill out.
never mind
six of one, half dozen of the other
This should be made into a commercial and played non stop during every Fox Wingnut News episode so those whining, dimwit wingnuts can understand how our government works. And why privatization without oversight festers Greed $$$ and Power, which destroys. Need any proof? Just look all around...
The health care system IS every bit as functional as the post office.
In Canada.
"Clicked his heals and there was just a cobra"? What does that mean?
India is known for swaying cobras (among other things).
Isn't he referring to that godawful health insurance you have to pay through the teeth for after you get a divorce or become unemployed?
http://www.healthinsurancesort.com/ppc/cobra....
baby jesus feels there are very important concepts here wrapped in comedy,
this is the essence of the problem the silly little humans struggle with when
they band together and huddle from fear of the unknown
better to huddle with a system than a free market
baby jesus is reminded of "Conservatives without Conscience" by John Dean
and the Milgram and Lombardo experiments
baby jesus is now going to rest on Sunday and consume adult beverages
...just because we share some beliefs and because he has the capacity to be funny. Notice how those 3 racial-if-not-racist jokes he told fell flat? Get a clue, Bill. There's a way to tell jokes about race & ethnicity & culture that makes them funny and insightful. Pulling out the tired old Indians-work-at-7-11 joke should send him to the comedian's hall of shame.
...and the Indian Casino one got a reasonable chuckle. I thought it was pretty funny, and I have a lot of American Indian in me.
I said this above, but I'll repeat it here. We are far too uptight about our factions. Whenever people take shots that hit too close to home in one way or another, our automatic response is to get offended and breathlessly condemn the shooter.
Now, me, I'm a married mother of two, mostly European but part American Indian as I said. And when Maher takes shots at women, married people, marriage in general, children, white people, American Indians, or any other group I comfortably fit into, I don't waste my energy getting offended, for two reasons. First of all, I don't take myself too seriously. And second, there is a lot of truth in what he says, albeit exaggerated for comedic effect.
And anyway, as I also said up above, Maher is an equal-opportunity shooter. He happily makes zingers against his own groups, and that includes attacks on men, liberals, democrats, pot smokers, comedians, etc.
You're missing my point. My point is that you can make jokes about race, it's just that his aren't funny. They come from out of nowhere and it's tired material. If that's your type of humor, feel free to watch and laugh away.
I think you missed my point.
You started from two (apparently) incorrect claims and used them as a basis to argue for a subjective standard of humor. Going on about "tired" material is a red flag that implies: "material I personally don't like".
Now, taste in humor is subjective, so I'm not about to tell you what you should find funny. But you're getting huffy for a pretty weak reason, and it sure comes across as over-sensitivity. Hence my initial reply.
Could you say what the joke was? I don't want to be knee-jerk, but 6 months ago I got called an Injun by some asshole and it really pissed me off.
I love Bill Maher, and I don't want to be knee-jerk, but damn I've got so little of my identity and I don't want to be mocked because this body of mine is Native American.
and echoes many of the things I've been saying for years.
It's not only him. It's like open season on Indian Americans since Piyush's response last week and then Sanjay Gupta withdrawing.
He could learn a thing or two from Jon Stewart on being original and funny when it comes to Ethnic jokes.
Well, I guess some people here thought that was pretty funny. We're just too sensitive, and if we weren't so sensitive, that Indians working at 7-11 joke would be really funny.
Has Bobby The Governor been whisked off to some remote GOP bomb shelter, or what? Haven't heard a peep from him since the disaster, where the hell is he?
Last I heard, he was on the way to Disney World, hoping the high speed train can take him to Vegas where the odds better for him at the roulette wheel. Unfortunately, he can't tell the difference between California and Florida, or his elbow and his ass.
Speaking of asses, they replaced him with Rush/Bush! AIG should insure that, they're broke, so it doesn't matter anyway.
To be technical the post office isn't really governmental anymore, but a blend of government and private interests. That still leaves it as a model for healthcare though.
Does one have to be mental to be governmental, or does it just help?
I still have a job and I get the privilege of paying $750 / month out of my paycheck to buy health insurance for my family. My employer kicks in another $350.00/month... then when I need to use the insurance, I get to fight with the insurance company for coverage, and every pill I'm prescribed is "non-formulary" and costs me $80/month
But I'm LUCKY to have insurance. A government funded system would be SOOOOO HORRIBLE... NOT.
Why are they all trying to get elected to run it? Why are they even involved in it? To change it? Then, when they had both houses of Congress and the White House, why didn't they do something to balance the budget, get everything squared away? Why? Because, like their idol, Ronald Reagan, who expanded government vastly and their "leader" at that time, W, they are total hypocrites, who say one thing and do another. And that is why they find themselves in the position they are today....totally irrelevant.
They just don't like it going to the "government" (i.e. the benefit of the people). The want public funds to support private interests.
And why?
a) because 0.1% of the population now owns 50% of America's wealth. That's an incredibly seductive amount of power in the hands of a very few people. A club, if you will.
b) because they feel like they deserve it. In other words, because they are rich, they feel they were CHOSEN to be rich.
I'm actually surprised Bill didn't mention the recent story on how the tainted peanut butter company's own inspector gave them a "superior" rating.
Corporations are AMORAL. They exist to turn a profit and will cut corners to do it. THAT'S why we have a government OF, BY, and FOR THE PEOPLE. For the same reason our founding fathers created the government: so the people wouldn't be subject to the control of a handful of ruling aristocracy, or theocracy, or other countries.
Login or Register to post comments.