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For those who missed it - Bill Maher's rant.

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nickshepDEM Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 11:49 AM
Original message
For those who missed it - Bill Maher's rant.


If you think the worst thing Congress doesn't protect young people from is Mark Foley, wake up and smell the burning planet. The ice caps are cracking, the coral reefs are bleaching, and we're losing two species an hour. The birds have bird flu, the cows have mad cow, and our poisoned groundwater has turned spinach into a side dish of mass destruction. Our schools are shooting galleries, our beaches are cancer wards, and under George W. Bush -- for the first time in 45 years -- our country's infant mortality rate actually went up.

Read the labels on your food. It turns out the healthiest thing you can put in your body is Mark Foley's penis. He was probably the first fruit those pages ever came into contact with that wasn't drenched in pesticide.

But that's America for you -- a red herring culture, always scared of the wrong things. The fact is, there are a lot of creepy middle-aged men out there lusting for your kids. They work for MTV, the pharmaceutical industry, McDonald's, Marlboro and K Street. And recently, there's been a rash of strangers making their way onto school campuses and targeting our children for death. They're called military recruiters.

More young Americans were crippled in Iraq last month than in any month in the past three years. And the scandal is that Mark Foley wants to show them a good time before they go? When will our closeted gay congressmen learn? Our boys aren't for pleasure. They're for cannon fodder. They shouldn't be another notch on your bedpost. They should be a comma in Bush's war. If I hear a zipper, it had better be on a body bag.

Why aren't Democrats and the media hammering away every day about who we're supposed to be fighting for over there and what the plan is. Yes, Mark Foley was wrong to ask teenagers how long their penises were -- but at least someone on Capitol Hill was asking questions. We're the predators. Because we have an entire economy built on asking young people what they want, making the cheapest, sleaziest form of it they'll accept, and selling it to them until they choke on it and die.

You know who's grabbing your kids at too young an age? Merck, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline, by convincing you they're depressed, hyperactive or suffering from attention-deficit disorder and so they must all get medicated. The drug dealers hooking your kids aren't in South America, they're in the halls of Congress handing out campaign donations to your congressmen. Mark Foley says he never slept with those kids, and I believe him, because American children are so hopped up on pills I doubt any of them could get it up.

From 1995 to 2002, the number of children prescribed antipsychotic drugs increased by over 400 percent. Either our children are going insane -- which we might look on as a problem -- or, more likely, we have, for profit, created a nation of little junkies. So stop already with the righteous moral indignation about predators -- this whole country is trying to get inside your kid's pants because that's where he keeps the money Daddy gave him to stay out of his hair.

I don't care if Mark Foley had been asking boys to describe their penises because I have some sad news for you: Your kid is so larded out on Cheetos and Yoo-hoo, he can't even see his penis. We live in a country where the ultimate consumer is an obese 16-year-old hooked up at one end to a Big Gulp and at the other to a PlayStation. So many of our kids today are fat drug addicts, it's almost as if Rush Limbaugh had had puppies.

In conclusion, we can pretend that the biggest threat to "our children" is some creep on the Internet, or we can admit it's Mom and Dad. When your son can't find France on a map, or touch his toes with his hands, or understand that the ads on TV are lying -- including the one in which the Marine turns into Lancelot -- then the person fucking him is you.


Link to video


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hippiechick Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 11:52 AM
Response to Original message
1. Wow.
:applause: :applause:
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mzteris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 11:53 AM
Response to Original message
2. oh my.
that was quite a rant.
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Iwasthere Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 11:55 AM
Response to Original message
3. WOW!!
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hlthe2b Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 11:58 AM
Response to Original message
4. I watched the video... who was the (very non-smiling) woman
on the guest panel that night? I very much enjoyed her "discomfort," I must say!
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:04 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. I saw Maher last night and can't remember her name, but
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hlthe2b Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 07:03 PM
Response to Reply #7
26. As a matter of fact it did... (amuse me).... thanks
what a putz. I'm not much of an Afleck fan, but sorry I missed Ben stepping up to the task of showing her up. Maybe he's up a notch or two in my book with that (and having dropped JLO)...:eyes:
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 07:53 PM
Response to Reply #26
28. I think it re-airs tomorrow night if you have HBO/care. nt
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cui bono Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:05 PM
Response to Reply #4
8. Danille Pletka from the American Enterprise Institute and Bill really
pissed her off at one point when he asked her "what ass did you pull that one out of?". She replied, "The UN's ass." Bill said "watch it the kids are watching" in reference to her not wanting to swear earlier because her kids were watching, and she said "they already saw the first ass!" then took a sip of water with such a look on her face, it was pretty funny.

Ben Affleck defended Bill to her a couple of times. He surprised me. Better this time than last. I guess he's thinking of running for senate in Mass.

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swimmernsecretsea Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
5. Whoa! I missed that? Damn! Is it on YouTube?
High-Five, Maher! You're better than ever!

I am just so in awe of the liberal voices lately. Combined with Olbermann and Helen Thomas, I actually have hope again.
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seemslikeadream Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:03 PM
Response to Original message
6. Would you post a link
that I could pass on?

Thanks

SLaD
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cui bono Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:06 PM
Response to Reply #6
10. it's on Crook and Liars... here's a link to their post
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Jade Fox Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:05 PM
Response to Original message
9. Really good.
What IS wrong with this country that we would rather be placated by lies than hear the truth?
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BadgerKid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:12 PM
Response to Original message
11. self-delete dupl.
Edited on Sun Oct-15-06 12:13 PM by BadgerKid
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Loge23 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 12:22 PM
Response to Original message
12. Great rant - drugs are fine if the suits make $ off them.
Antipsychotic drugs - bust all the grow houses and get them all on this garbage so the corps can put the street dealers out of business for their own gain. Brilliant.
Wrap a flag around them while they're picking their pockets out of any independent thought whatsoever.
You ever talk to some of these young people these days? Many of them take the administration's lies as fact. It's "unpatriotic" to disagree. There are exceptions, but the difference of thirty years ago is frightening. No college protests, no protests at all!
Thanks to Olbermann & Maher for trying to wake this coma-indiced country up!
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davidwparker Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:16 PM
Response to Original message
13. I watched the repeat of it last night just for the New Rules rant.
It was EXCELLENT. Also, I wanted to hear what groan that RWer made during it. She was some clod from the American Enterprise Institute.
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Vidar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:19 PM
Response to Original message
14. Not bad for Maher.
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NC_Nurse Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:23 PM
Response to Original message
15. THANKS FOR THAT!
I LOVED IT! :D
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The Count Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:32 PM
Response to Original message
16. It was overrated the first time around too...
he went to big length to excuse sex to 16 years olds...
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Cameron27 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:53 PM
Response to Reply #16
19. It was an excellent rant
and I agree with it, but I think there's some truth to what you're saying, and it did tend to blunt the Foley scandal.
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Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:34 PM
Response to Original message
17. K & R. I love Bill Mahr (most of the time), just not enough to pay to
watch him.

Thanks for the update.
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derby378 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:44 PM
Response to Original message
18. THIS is why I need to drink Monster energy drinks...
I caught Real Time on Friday, including that unbelievable harpy from the American Enterprise Institute. But I fell asleep on the couch before Bill Maher's closing rant. What can I say? Our workload at the office really took a lot out of me last week.

This was one hell of a rant. Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher should get together, compare notes, and then e-mail them to Air America and Guy James. We're all in this together...
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thingfisher Donating Member (445 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 01:55 PM
Response to Original message
20. So we all agree
that America is a hopelessly decadent and corrupt nation and our youth are far from the hope for the future that we Boomers were once hyped to be?
What Maher's rant discloses, I think is a sense of despair and rage that our nation has descended into such a state. I know that as a "Boomer" I am ashamed of my generation or at least of that segment of my generation who took it upon themselves to enter politics and wound up working to place such people as the Bushs in office.

I think that any attempts to prevent what has happened was doomed to failure due to the fact that the power of the electorate to meaningfully influence the political climate was hopelessly compromised long before any of us reached the age of majority.

The present crisis we face is merely a small facet of an ongoing process in which our freedom will necessarily be abandoned in the face of the world wide struggle for the dwindling oil reserves. As the Empire becomes more and more desperate to control the supply of oil and the economy continues to deteriorate the implementation of greater and greater police state tactics to control civil unrest will necessitate more draconian measures to be implemented.

It will be interesting to hear what Bill Maher will have to say when the true extent of our woes become commonly understood and the class divide will be along the lines of economic survivors and those marked for economic destruction.
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cleveramerican Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 02:00 PM
Response to Original message
21. makes me uneasy
brutally on target, very unsettling
thanks for posting it.
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rodeodance Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 05:13 PM
Response to Reply #21
24. yes.
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tomreedtoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 03:46 PM
Response to Original message
22. Maher took it out of "politics" and made it a moral debate.
And not "moral" in the sense of a religion, but in the sense of values that are common to a lot of religions, with a bit of thought.

This isn't old for him either; he has ranted before about people who spawn kids and can't be bothered to take time to raise them with values or even much attention. In this one, he went further, telling parents that they are supporting the companies and people who are wrecking their kids' lives.

Now, Americans are known for shifting the blame away from themselves, so it's no surprise that similar threads here in DU have people screaming at Maher for being "easy on Foley" or "forgiving of child abusers." Could this commentary have made them feel guilty about their own child-rearing?
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The Count Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 05:28 PM
Response to Reply #22
25. "Moral" That screwing kids is not such a big deal is moral?
Maher has the morals of Foley, that's why he changed the subject. he doasn't give a shit about kids and you're all applauding.
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tomreedtoon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 10:59 PM
Response to Reply #25
30. Maher is more moral...and honest...than most Republicans.
Which, admittedly, is not saying much. But you completely missed his point, Count Floyd.

Which is that a LOT of parents don't really care about their kids unless it's a sex abuse scandal. Hell, Maher was afraid to mention a huge pile of child abusers and dominators to whom parents stupidly assign their children; "professional" teachers.

Being a kid sucks. You, as an adult, probably forgot this or wish to deny it. I never forgot.
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Zhade Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 05:04 PM
Response to Original message
23. I stopped reading when he used the homophobic "fruit" slur.
Why does he get it right sometimes, and SO FUCKING WRONG other times?

It's maddening!

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Marrak Donating Member (332 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 07:27 PM
Response to Original message
27. In conclusion, our leaders
<>
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progressoid Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Oct-15-06 08:46 PM
Response to Original message
29. Way to go Bill.
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Eurobabe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-16-06 12:43 AM
Response to Original message
31. HBO has a podcast service available
No pictures, but at least you can listen to the show. Great for people like me who are not in the States.

http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/downloads/
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PinkyisBlue Donating Member (617 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Oct-16-06 09:53 AM
Response to Original message
32. I love this tribute to Rush:
"So many of our kids today are fat drug addicts, it's almost as if Rush Limbaugh had had puppies."

I guess if Rush can call the teenage daughter of the President of the USA a dog, it's fair game to call him one, too.
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