Critique on Real Time With Bill Maher - or how I learned that things don't always look better in the morning

on a clear day
rise and look around you
and you'll see who - you are

On a clear day
How it will astound you

That The Glow Of Your Being

OUTSHINES EVERY STAR

You'll feel part of
Every Mountain, Sea and Shore,

YOU CAN HEAR FROM FAR AND NEAR
A WORLD YOU'VE - NEVER HEARD BEFORE



~~~

How They Looked & What They Wore

These People Looked Great

And what was it about them That Looked Great?

Everything.

BECAUSE THEY ALL WERE DRESSED HOW THEY WANTED TO BE DRESSED
TO MAKE THEMSELVES LOOK THE BEST THAT THEY COULD - as well it should be.

And who looked best of all?

Bill did.

Bill Maher.

Because Bill Maher is so Handsome - folks.

~~~

Moment In Real Time

This consisted of a Sharp - and Intelligent - exchange between
Real Time Host Bill Maher and Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu - which
took place origianlly on September 8th - 2006.

In this Brief - But Amazing - segment - Bill suggests to Mr. Netanyahu - now the Current Prime Minister of Israel - that he (Bill) be allowed to cover the Israel Network - in the same capacity as Bill does so competently here in the U.S. - and Mr. Netanyahu replies that if he - in fact - does become Prime Minister - BILL HAS THE JOB.

Well - Mr. Prime Minister - ya are - So Put Yer Money Where Yer Mouth Is.

This segment Really was - in my humble opinion - the Best MIRT to date.


The Opening Monologue

Last night's Open Monologue was chock full of Great Jokes - and a few of them are:

~a sister/wife reference

~Mitt Romney wanted to see President Obama's gift certificate - funny

~regional pandering - good

~re the Solar Storm/need an umbrella when visiting on the Sun - good

~Rick Santorum against contraception/college - wants us to be f *ing
stupid - brilliant

~Rush Limbaugh - 5 minutes of dead air/still elequent - good shot

~Sarah Palin/vetting - thinks President should be vetted by ALL sorts of
doctors - genius

~Mitt Romney said that his wife was the heavyweight champion of his life/
rode home strapped to top of car - absolutely hilarious

~no birth control/sl*ts/f*t joke - great

~MR - best friends used to oil in the Mississippi Gulf - very funny

~ATT (solar storm)out of whack/people getting reception - good one

~Republicans jump Bill because of what Rush said - right on it

and finally my fave

~Pat Robertson is for Legalized Marajuanna - YES

Bill's Opening Monologue is ALWAYS funny - and last night's
OM was no exception - and the fun part is - listening carefully
so that ya don't miss any of Bill's OVER THE TOP GREAT JOKES.
~~~

The First Interview - I will be talking about that as soon as I can rewrite it - my first - and Really good report about the exchange between
Bill and Ambassador Michael Oren has been lost - into the Blogospere. :[
Not to worry - folks - for I am confident that I can reproduce it in its
entirety. :] Thanks for your patience.


The First Interview

The interview opened with Bill introducing Ambassador Michael Oren -
suggesting that his parents must be very proud of him - to which
The Honorable Ambassador responded that indeed they were.

And I thought to myself - that Bill Maher's parents would indeed be
very proud of him - too - to see how far he has come in his Career -
and how Respected he is - and most importantly - well liked.

This interview - with Michael Oren - was very good. Bill handled the
situation in the best way possible. And there are two things that I
believe were present here:

A Potentially Explosive World Concern - That Iran Has Joined The
Exclusive Club Of Nations With Nuclear Power Capability

The Interview - Of Course - Was Slightly Limited By The Necessity
For Ambassador Oren To Maintain A Level of Diplomacy

Some of the discussion covered the following points - as far as I
could grasp it - that is:

~at one point there was the hope that Iran would give up the Nuclear
Program but MO pointed out that in fact they extended it

~Bill said that Nuclear Weapons tend to make People 'pull back'

~Michael Oren said that something we have to confront - is the Reality
that the usual Sanctions have not worked

~there was discussion about 'Supporters' - who would support which
parties in Iran and also discussion about what Israelis - regular
citizens - Really support the government policies - such as not
supporting the settlement of the West Bank :] a bit over my head

~Bill brought up the 'elephant in the room' - Would Iran end up
giving others - Hamas - in particular - Nuclear Weapons

~Michael Oren said that any irrational behavior on the part of Iran
didn't just center on the giving away of the NWs but just what they
do with their Newly Found Power in general - and how they would deal
with being able to possibly wield this Power - to bully Others?

I felt that MO made a good point when he said that we are lookin at a country here who has Heavily Supported Terrorism (Iran)

AND - I thought MO's point was very good when he suggested that
It Is Crucial That We Deal With The Issue Of Iran's Nuclear Capability
NOW And Not Let It Ride

~Michael Oren said - in talking about what Israel would do about this
Problem - that most Countries recognize Israel as a Sovereign Country
who will deal with this in Their Own Way - and certainly we should go with this

~I would like to note that Bill interjected - at one point - with a joke
about Who Has Been Killing Off Nuclear Scientists in Finland (?) and my point here is this:

I noticed that the Real Time audience was slightly delayed in their laughter - AND I BELIEVE THAT THIS WAS BECAUSE THEY WERE CAUGHT UP IN
THE SERIOUSNESS OF THIS TOPIC - and I also thought that it was good - because Bill was reminding us that although things do get serious and very intelligent on Real Time - it is a comedy-base show.

~MO talked a bit about how Israel was considering different scenarios
-while dealing with this - examples of what could possibly happen - and that sounded like a good idea

There certainly were other points of discussion - but these were the ones that I picked up on - and I would like to state that I may not have gotten all of this exactly straight - and would admit to having not done so if called on it.

But one thing I do know - THAT THIS WAS A VERY IMPORTANT INTERVIEW - BECAUSE OF THE URGENCY OF THE MATTER - AND IT COULD IMPACT ALL OF US -
AND BILL HANDLED IT IS THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE - and Michael Oren did too.
~~~


Panel Discussion

Last night's Panel Discussion - with Bill, Catherine Crier, Andy Stern
and Michael Steele was Top of the Line. I am doing something different today by trying to recall it in 'conversation' form - using a sort of code:

Bill Maher - BM
Catherine Crier - CC
Michael Steele - MS
Andy Stern - AS

I could not possibly cover every remark - but did my best - and also
will be including my Own Viewpoint - at times.

The remarks are not necessarily Direct Quotes - I just tried to give
an idea what the Discussion was about.

In a few instances I was not clear on what they said - but I try to
say at least something about the remarks.

Bill opened with Super Tuesday.

BM: Mitt still could win. People may get to the voting booths and
look at it as being 50/50 - two Centrists to choose from.

MS: It would be good of the Candidates would - in the time left - go
one on one and give their views in discussions on the issues.

My take on this is that perhaps seeing the choices - of two Centrists -
the voter may lean toward Mitt Romney - ERRONEOUSLY BLAMING THE INCUMBENT
PRESIDENT FOR YEARS OF PROBLEMS LEADING UP TO HIS PRESIDENCY - AND IGNORE THE CONSIDERATION OF - WHAT KIND OF PRESIDENT WOULD MITT ROMNEY BE -
ANYWAY.

CC: ...something about bringing the Tea Party Movement into it.

BM: The Primaries will be moving to the South...

MS: The people are showing a desire for a change in the White House.

AS: This has been like a Demolition Derby. But the whole thing -the
recovery of this country from the recession is definitely better on paper -than in the reality of it all. An example of how hard it has been - is about a guy who had applied for over 900 jobs.

BM: Tom Friedman (NY Times columnist) has been promoting the idea of the
Third Party.

CC: ...there is a fine print - that we must recognize and be aware of - that the Committee(?) can override the public vote - in elections.

MS: Yes - that is true - there is...

BM: Really? Name names.

MS: The Republicans and Democrats - could work together...

BM: There is a comment here about...something - and Bill interjects
that the OWS is a leftist party.

CC: Barbara Bush has said that Compromise is not a Dirty Word.

CC: Something about Arab Spring...and spuring the government on to
do things.

AS: Comment about how everybody has to be made to pay for war crimes.

At this point there is video shown - sent to Bill by Alexandra Pelosi -
who was a guest recently on Real Time. She went to Mississippi - and
made this video - showing the attitues of certain people there - back
woods/very low income types - and she emphasizes that when these people
made these remarks - they fully understood that they would be used in the
video.

I found these remarks to be disturbing - although they may not be representative of a very large group - but still - I find it hard that
people like this actually exist in this country.

Pelosi tells us that Mississippi is the poorest State in the U.S. -
that the people shown are Conservative in their views - and that they reside in the Bible Belt - all of them rejecting any sort of gay lifestyle -saying that the Bible promotes the Adam and Eve theory - not Adam and Steve.

Some of these remarks are as follows:

~the President should be 'American' - not Muslim

~I don't like him - at all (the President)

~he's a half-breed

~the remarks showed heavy support of Food Stamps

~an attitude of having lost the war (Civil War)

~several of the men interviewed expressed the feeling that they would
never back down from their moral standards

~one man was confident: that the South would rise again
~~~

Continuing the Panel Discussion -

AS: Michael Bloomberg is not running because he knows he cannot win.

BM: remarks that Bloomberg would be another Obama (I think that's what he meant)

MS: People should push Political Parties to new levels - to make the
political impact - happen.

Mention of Bill's One Million Dollar Donation to President Obama's PAC
fund - and MS offers that it was good that Bill did that.

BM: remarks something about millionaires and billionaires

At this point there is a discussion that I thought was very good -

BM: referring to how Rush Limbaugh lost sponsers for the Sandra Fluke
brouhaha - Bill empahsizes that People Should Not Be Made To 'Disappear'
when they say 'outrageous' things - especially on a one time basis.
Bill goes on to say that THIS HAPPENS IN AMERIDCA ONLY TOO OFTEN.

And here is where I think Bill has an excellent point:

He says that people should not be made to feel afraid of Going Out Of Bounds - for a short time. I agree with this strongly - because it could
stifle important opinions - for fear of losing a job - something that is
very important.

BM: Says that the Right attacked him for the remarks that Rush Limbaugh
made - and Bill calls this False Equivalency.

Bill goes on to say that he is Not a misogynist - as he has been called.

But rather he is a 'potty mouth' - one who talks dirty.

I would like to add a word of support here for Bill - and since I read his
Website on a regular basis - I have seen that two of Bill's good friends - are women - Ann Coulter and Arianna Huffington - and my point here is that
a man who has two women - who are good friends - probably cannot be accurately called a 'woman hater.'

But because he is an honorable person - Bill apologized to any women who
think he has been offensive to them - as women.

And Bill goes on to say - that his negative remarks about Sarah Palin are not directed to her - AS A WOMAN - but rather as a political figure.

CC: Brief but very good discussion about how Republicans tend to be against
the Sexual Revolution - where women have sex for reasons other than procreation - and outside marriage.

MS: Very good remarks here about the 'safety net' - and how it bounces you back out of it - like a trampoline - instead of being like a hammock - although I don't recall what the safety net that they were talking about is.


CC: Comments on how Rick Santorum wants to get rid of Public Schools.


Next: New Rules

Short Segment called Dispatches From The Bubble in which Mitt Romney
accuses President Obama of allowing failed Sanctions on Iran.


Next up: New Rules

At This Point I Would Like To Say That:

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER IS INGENIOUSLY INTERWOVEN -

WITH JUST THE RIGHT MIX OF -

BRILLIANT COMEDY/STIMULATING AND INTELLIGENT POLITICAL ISSUES.
~~~

After I get back from the movies - gonna see John Carter :) I'll finish this off with New Rules - and after trying to write about the interview with The Honorable Michael Oren - it should be a piece of cake - folks.

Thanks.
~~~

New Rules

These were great:

~fodder of our country - good - looks like him to me

~hoddy by nature - funny

~yahoo syria - Very Good - sh*ts & g*ggles heh heh

~red stare - So Good

~radical seussialist - too funny

~Parochial Fool - Excellent


Ending Editorial

Now - this is one that is dear to my Heart - not only that it
is about Rick Santorum - but that it Challenges such a longstanding
thing concerning the Bible - namely The Tree of Knowledge. Now - what I
mean here is - no one is knocking the Bible - are they Bill. It's just
that we need to get Real here - Folks - because God himself is very Smart -(see my post about that on my Religion Blog) and since we were made in His
Image - We Can Be Smart Too.

And it ties in very well with how Rick Santorum - like other homeschoolers - is that the Want To Keep Their Kids Out Of The
Mainstream.

I would like to say at this point - that I AM NOT KNOCKING HOMESCHOOLING - BECASUE I THINK THERE IS A PLACE FOR HOMESCHOOLING - but give me a break here - as Bill says - there is a Virus of Reasons why Rick Santorum is
homeschooling his kids:

~since the parents are the smartest people they are exposed to - then they naturally see them as smart - but Really - are they?

~this misconception (RS) that the mind is a terrible thing to open

~college indoctrinates - yes - to IDEAS

~educating young minds to - oh no - INFORMATION - call 911

and worst of all - Rick

~Your Child Will Discover TRUTHS

and so rack this one up to another Victory for Bill and Real Time.

Bill closes with One More Truth - and that is - that -

Morning Sex On Sunday Beats Church Anytime - That's Bill for ya - Folks.
~~~

Did I Miss Anything?
~~~

Thanks To The Really Great Real Time Staff
~~~

OOOOPs - almost forgot Overtime.

I'll catch that later.
~~~

Overtime

Bill opened this Segment with a written question from the
audience about whether the Social Media - such as twitter -
has impacted the Elections. The ensuing discussion showed
that the panel definitely agreed that it had - in a big way.

I would - at this point - like to add something to this - and
that is that I feel that Blogging is fast becoming an Important
Part of the Thinking Process during this Election Year - and I
Believe that long after the Elections are over - that -

BLOGGING IS HERE TO STAY.


The next question didn't fly - about the Blowback from Citizens United.

The question next - yeilded Good Discussion and Opinions - but I plead
ignorance on this and lost the thread.

A member of the audience raised the point that the Majority on the
Right - with an angry demeanor - gets less recognition from their
Party.

Catherine Crier pointed out that Rush Limbaugh wants candidates who
convey anger to stand out.

Michael Steele brought up a suggestion that Ronald Reagan would not
make it in today's primaries - with his 'pleasant and laid back'
attitude.

Bill closed with the suggestion - and I HEARTILY AGREE - that the
President should be Elected By The Popular Vote - and not the
Electoral College - WHICH SHOULD BE ELIMINATED.
~~~

That's All Folks.