By Bill Maher
Someone pointed out that the problem with Obama’s press conference gaffe earlier this month –
"The private sector is doing fine. Where we're seeing weaknesses in our economy have to do with state and local government."
– was that Obama didn't have anything else to say in the press conference. If he had made any actual news, the gaffe wouldn’t have been the only thing people had to talk about. And I think that's a fair charge.
Anyway, gaffe outrage is how we play the game. And since Mitt Romney hired Sarah Palin's speechwriter, that's the only game in town. Or at least the favorite game. You say something, I repeat it, over and over and over and over and over, like it's so obviously fucking comically ludicrous that it doesn't even have to be explained.
Can you believe it? Obama actually said we're a super power "whether we like it or not!" Whether we like it or not??! "Whether" we "like it" or "not"!!!???!!! WHETHER we LIKE IT or NOT???!!!!!!!!?????????
Which is why it was inevitable that Mitt Romney's campaign released a web video all about Obama saying "doing fine." Here's The Hill's description:
The video ad follows Obama's remarks with clips of workers discussing their struggles with the weak economy.
"We've seen layoffs, cutbacks," says one woman.
"I've been looking for a job for two years haven't found any," says another.
"I had to file my own personal bankruptcy and had to close my business," says a man.
The video closes by repeating clips of Obama's quote, before an on-screen graphic reading, "No, Mr. President, we are not 'doing fine.'"
Meow! But isn't there a less stupid way to play this game?
Woody Allen once wrote an essay called "Miscellaneous Methods of Civil Disobedience" and one of them was "Standing in front of City Hall and chanting the word "pudding" until one’s demands are met." Woody wasn't wrong by much. But the trick is to wait until your enemy accidentally says "pudding" first.
25 comments:
I am a Canadian who watches your show religously(pun intended) of course the vitriolic Obama bashing is heating up ....and I have to say if Americans vote for Mitt then THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING THEY GET. Americans seem to have the shortest memory this depression started with Regean's deregulation and progressed to the present. But the reason I am writing today is because when it comes to the Israeli question you are as right wing and non critical as every other idiot out there. I am a Jew and am ashamed and horrorified by what Benny and the boys are up to read a book by John Fisk , preferably ;The fight for Civilization but any book would do and educate yourself man. For a thinker your not very progressive on this issue. Palestinians are terrorists and Israelies are the poor victims.This couldn't be further from the truth ...and I know because I have been there , maybe you should too . I have been involved in politics my whole life( I am 51) and believe you really seem to be way off base on this one this issue has been bugging me for years now and I have wanted to let you know. P . S. how could you stand having Anne Coulter on your show.She isn't even a life form.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/07/congress-must-act-after-us-government-admits-unconstitutional-warrantless
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-state-fantasy
by James E. Miller of the Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada
I don't know how else to reach you...
I hope these find you.
http://www.karalynn.ca/2012/07/27/theres-no-point-in-not-doing/
http://www.karalynn.ca/2012/07/29/change-you-got-it-all-wrong-dedicated-to-michael-moore/
Antibaldness drug turns man into flaming queen
That's not an error, its a feature
There are a lot of wealthy, successful Olympic Athletes who agree with me... because they want to give something back. They know they didn't. Look, if you've won a medal, you didn't earn it on your own. You didn't earn it on your own. I'm always struck by athletes who think, well, it must be because I dedicated my life and trained so hard.
There are a lot of world class elite athletes out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something... there are a whole bunch of hardworking athletes out there. (Applause.)
If you won a metal, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great coach somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable Olympic system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in Training Facilities and Olympic Villages. If you won a medal... you didn't earn that. Somebody else made that happen. The Olympics didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Olympics so that all the companies could make money off the Games.
There's also lots of poor, unsuccessful olympic athletes who disagree... because they never wanted to give anything back. They think they could do it all by themselves. Look, if you didn't win a medal, it's because you tried to do it on your own. You can't do it on your own. I'm always struck by athletes who think, well, it was my own dedication. There are lots of really bad athletes out there who suck real bad. You may think that you lost because you did not train enough. Let me tell you something. There's lots of real bad sucky athletes out there who can't even throw a stone over their neighbor's fence. (Applause)
If you didn't win a medal, it's because the government couldn't be there didn't give you a helping hand. Because those athletes thought they were smarter than the public school teachers and wanted to learn on your own and take private lessons. The government has invested heavily to prevent you from doing that. If you didn't win a medal... it's because you rejected the collective and put yourself first. Real athletes never do that. If you want something, someone must give it to you, and if you don't do what you can to grab what is offered from officials that know what is best for you, you truly deserve to lose.
BTW those medals were minted in China
It is now two years since this latest European war began. From that day in September, 1939, until the present moment, there has been an over-increasing effort to force the United States into the conflict.
That effort has been carried on by foreign interests, and by a small minority of our own people; but it has been so successful that, today, our country stands on the verge of war.
At this time, as the war is about to enter its third winter, it seems appropriate to review the circumstances that have led us to our present position. Why are we on the verge of war? Was it necessary for us to become so deeply involved?
Who is responsible for changing our national policy from one of neutrality and independence to one of entanglement in European affairs?
Personally, I believe there is no better argument against our intervention than a study of the causes and developments of the present war. I have often said that if the true facts and issues were placed before the American people, there would be no danger of our involvement.
Here, I would like to point out to you a fundamental difference between the groups who advocate foreign war, and those who believe in an independent destiny for America.
If you will look back over the record, you will find that those of us who oppose intervention have constantly tried to clarify facts and issues; while the interventionists have tried to hide facts and confuse issues.
We ask you to read what we said last month, last year, and even before the war began. Our record is open and clear, and we are proud of it.
We have not led you on by subterfuge and propaganda. We have not resorted to steps short of anything, in order to take the American people where they did not want to go.
What we said before the elections, we say [illegible] and again, and again today. And we will not tell you tomorrow that it was just campaign oratory. Have you ever heard an interventionist, or a British agent, or a member of the administration in Washington ask you to go back and study a record of what they have said since the war started? Are their self-styled defenders of democracy willing to put the issue of war to a vote of our people? Do you find these crusaders for foreign freedom of speech, or the removal of censorship here in our own country?
The subterfuge and propaganda that exists in our country is obvious on every side. Tonight, I shall try to pierce through a portion of it, to the naked facts which lie beneath.
When this war started in Europe, it was clear that the American people were solidly opposed to entering it. Why shouldn't we be? We had the best defensive position in the world; we had a tradition of independence from Europe; and the one time we did take part in a European war left European problems unsolved, and debts to America unpaid.
National polls showed that when England and France declared war on Germany, in 1939, less than 10 percent of our population favored a similar course for America. But there were various groups of people, here and abroad, whose interests and beliefs necessitated the involvement of the United States in the war. I shall point out some of these groups tonight, and outline their methods of procedure. In doing this, I must speak with the utmost frankness, for in order to counteract their efforts, we must know exactly who they are.
The three most important groups who have been pressing this country toward war are the British, the Jewish and the Roosevelt administration.
Behind these groups, but of lesser importance, are a number of capitalists, Anglophiles, and intellectuals who believe that the future of mankind depends upon the domination of the British empire. Add to these the Communistic groups who were opposed to intervention until a few weeks ago, and I believe I have named the major war agitators in this country.
I am speaking here only of war agitators, not of those sincere but misguided men and women who, confused by misinformation and frightened by propaganda, follow the lead of the war agitators.
As I have said, these war agitators comprise only a small minority of our people; but they control a tremendous influence. Against the determination of the American people to stay out of war, they have marshaled the power of their propaganda, their money, their patronage.
Let us consider these groups, one at a time.
First, the British: It is obvious and perfectly understandable that Great Britain wants the United States in the war on her side. England is now in a desperate position. Her population is not large enough and her armies are not strong enough to invade the continent of Europe and win the war she declared against Germany.
Her geographical position is such that she cannot win the war by the use of aviation alone, regardless of how many planes we send her. Even if America entered the war, it is improbable that the Allied armies could invade Europe and overwhelm the Axis powers. But one thing is certain. If England can draw this country into the war, she can shift to our shoulders a large portion of the responsibility for waging it and for paying its cost.
As you all know, we were left with the debts of the last European war; and unless we are more cautious in the future than we have been in the past, we will be left with the debts of the present case. If it were not for her hope that she can make us responsible for the war financially, as well as militarily, I believe England would have negotiated a peace in Europe many months ago, and be better off for doing so.
England has devoted, and will continue to devote every effort to get us into the war. We know that she spent huge sums of money in this country during the last war in order to involve us. Englishmen have written books about the cleverness of its use.
We know that England is spending great sums of money for propaganda in America during the present war. If we were Englishmen, we would do the same. But our interest is first in America; and as Americans, it is essential for us to realize the effort that British interests are making to draw us into their war.
The second major group I mentioned is the Jewish (people).
It is not difficult to understand why Jewish people desire the overthrow of Nazi Germany. The persecution they suffered in Germany would be sufficient to make bitter enemies of any race.
No person with a sense of the dignity of mankind can condone the persecution of the Jewish race in Germany. But no person of honesty and vision can look on their pro-war policy here today without seeing the dangers involved in such a policy both for us and for them. Instead of agitating for war, the Jewish groups in this country should be opposing it in every possible way for they will be among the first to feel its consequences.
Tolerance is a virtue that depends upon peace and strength. History shows that it cannot survive war and devastations. A few far-sighted Jewish people realize this and stand opposed to intervention. But the majority still do not.
Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio and our government.
I am not attacking either the Jewish or the British people. Both races, I admire. But I am saying that the leaders of both the British and the Jewish races, for reasons which are as understandable from their viewpoint as they are inadvisable from ours, for reasons which are not American, wish to involve us in the war.
We cannot blame them for looking out for what they believe to be their own interests, but we also must look out for ours. We cannot allow the natural passions and prejudices of other peoples to lead our country to destruction.
The Roosevelt administration is the third powerful group which has been carrying this country toward war. Its members have used the war emergency to obtain a third presidential term for the first time in American history. They have used the war to add unlimited billions to a debt which was already the highest we have ever known. And they have just used the war to justify the restriction of congressional power, and the assumption of dictatorial procedures on the part of the president and his appointees.
The power of the Roosevelt administration depends upon the maintenance of a wartime emergency. The prestige of the Roosevelt administration depends upon the success of Great Britain to whom the president attached his political future at a time when most people thought that England and France would easily win the war. The danger of the Roosevelt administration lies in its subterfuge. While its members have promised us peace, they have led us to war heedless of the platform upon which they were elected.
In selecting these three groups as the major agitators for war, I have included only those whose support is essential to the war party. If any one of these groups--the British, the Jewish, or the administration--stops agitating for war, I believe there will be little danger of our involvement.
I do not believe that any two of them are powerful enough to carry this country to war without the support of the third.
And to these three, as I have said, all other war groups are of secondary importance.
When hostilities commenced in Europe, in 1939, it was realized by these groups that the American people had no intention of entering the war. They knew it would be worse than useless to ask us for a declaration of war at that time. But they believed that this country could be entered into the war in very much the same way we were entered into the last one.
They planned: first, to prepare the United States for foreign war under the guise of American defense; second, to involve us in the war, step by step, without our realization; third, to create a series of incidents which would force us into the actual conflict. These plans were of course, to be covered and assisted by the full power of their propaganda.
Our theaters soon became filled with plays portraying the glory of war. Newsreels lost all semblance of objectivity. Newspapers and magazines began to lose advertising if they carried anti-war articles. A smear campaign was instituted against individuals who opposed intervention. The terms "fifth columnist," "traitor," "Nazi," "anti-Semitic" were thrown ceaselessly at any one who dared to suggest that it was not to the best interests of the United States to enter the war. Men lost their jobs if they were frankly anti-war. Many others dared no longer speak.
Before long, lecture halls that were open to the advocates of war were closed to speakers who opposed it. A fear campaign was inaugurated. We were told that aviation, which has held the British fleet off the continent of Europe, made America more vulnerable than ever before to invasion. Propaganda was in full swing.
There was no difficulty in obtaining billions of dollars for arms under the guise of defending America. Our people stood united on a program of defense. Congress passed appropriation after appropriation for guns and planes and battleships, with the approval of the overwhelming majority of our citizens. That a large portion of these appropriations was to be used to build arms for Europe, we did not learn until later. That was another step.
To use a specific example; in 1939, we were told that we should increase our air corps to a total of 5,000 planes. Congress passed the necessary legislation. A few months later, the administration told us that the United States should have at least 50,000 planes for our national safety. But almost as fast as fighting planes were turned out from our factories, they were sent abroad, although our own air corps was in the utmost need of new equipment; so that today, two years after the start of war, the American army has a few hundred thoroughly modern bombers and fighters--less in fact, than Germany is able to produce in a single month.
Ever since its inception, our arms program has been laid out for the purpose of carrying on the war in Europe, far more than for the purpose of building an adequate defense for America.
Now at the same time we were being prepared for a foreign war, it was necessary, as I have said, to involve us in the war. This was accomplished under that now famous phrase "steps short of war."
England and France would win if the United States would only repeal its arms embargo and sell munitions for cash, we were told. And then [illegible] began, a refrain that marked every step we took toward war for many months--"the best way to defend America and keep out of war." we were told, was "by aiding the Allies."
First, we agreed to sell arms to Europe; next, we agreed to loan arms to Europe; then we agreed to patrol the ocean for Europe; then we occupied a European island in the war zone. Now, we have reached the verge of war.
The war groups have succeeded in the first two of their three major steps into war. The greatest armament program in our history is under way.
We have become involved in the war from practically every standpoint except actual shooting. Only the creation of sufficient "incidents" yet remains; and you see the first of these already taking place, according to plan [ill.]-- a plan that was never laid before the American people for their approval.
Men and women of Iowa; only one thing holds this country from war today. That is the rising opposition of the American people. Our system of democracy and representative government is on test today as it has never been before. We are on the verge of a war in which the only victor would be chaos and prostration.
We are on the verge of a war for which we are still unprepared, and for which no one has offered a feasible plan for victory--a war which cannot be won without sending our soldiers across the ocean to force a landing on a hostile coast against armies stronger than our own.
We are on the verge of war, but it is not yet too late to stay out. It is not too late to show that no amount of money, or propaganda, or patronage can force a free and independent people into war against its will. It is not yet too late to retrieve and to maintain the independent American destiny that our forefathers established in this new world.
The entire future rests upon our shoulders. It depends upon our action, our courage, and our intelligence. If you oppose our intervention in the war, now is the time to make your voice heard.
Help us to organize these meetings; and write to your representatives in Washington. I tell you that the last stronghold of democracy and representative government in this country is in our house of representatives and our senate.
There, we can still make our will known. And if we, the American people, do that, independence and freedom will continue to live among us, and there will be no foreign war.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/lindbergh/filmmore/reference/primary/desmoinesspeech.htm
http://www.historychannel.org/speeches/ra_archive/speech_179.ram
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Lindbergh
http://www.charleslindbergh.com/history/index.asp
Attention retired police officers of California robbed of your pensions, veterans robbed of your lives, students robbed of your birth right and All robbed of your nation
I don't know who robbed the bank but we can all see who has the money now.
When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman? From the beginning all men by nature were created alike, and our bondage or servitude came in by the unjust oppression of naughty men. For if God would have had any bondmen from the beginning, he would have appointed who should be bond, and who free. And therefore I exhort you to consider that now the time is come, appointed to us by God, in which ye may (if ye will) cast off the yoke of bondage, and recover liberty.
Now is the time
"I've never lost hope that justice would prevail, and I hope that the truth will break out” Jerome Kerviel
Rachel checks in on the human extinction event. It was nice knowing you, Bill-san.
Muslims are exempt from the Obama Care tax. Obama Care is unconstitutional because it is a jizya, an Islamic tax on non-Muslims. It is discriminatory against non-muslims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizya
Supreme court justices: Clean out your desks and get the fuck out of here! You're all losers!
From Black Box Voting:
"IS THERE A PROBLEM WITH FOREIGN OWNERSHIP OF USA ELECTION SOFTWARE?
Not if you don't mind some unknown guys working offshore controlling whatever they choose to in the software processing votes and voters."
Translation - strangers working in secret, in foreign locations, owned by secret corporations primarily located in off-shore tax havens, are telling us who wins and who loses our elections. All of them.
Full story:
http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-auth.cgi?file=/8/82176.html
More on SCYTL:
"SCYTL is based in Barcelona; its funding comes from international venture capital funds including Nauta Capital, Balderton Capital and Spinnaker." http://www.prisonplanet.com/recipe-for-vote-fraud-global-internet-voting...
Balderton Capital - http://www.balderton.com/team
Tim Bunting - Goldman Sachs Mark Evans - Goldman Sachs This is far worse than anyone can imagine. Complete capture of the vote counting in most major countries:
http://www.westernjournalism.com/spanish-company-will-count-american-votes-overseas-in-november/
"It's not the people who vote that count. It's the people who count the votes." - Josef Stalin
Hey Bill,
Since you think all the rednecks should eat chic-fil-a and die... Would it be redundant if I said all the jews should eat pork and die..? Last time I checked the only real Americans left in this country are the Red Necks.. of which the core of the country was built on.. not the like of some outspoken wealthy liberal loving wanting to kindergard the country asshole..
So I say to you, Bill, be a good Jewish boy, eat some swine and fucking die...
And to the annoying anonymous canadian.. mind your own country's business... at least here in the states we don't go around whoring our 13 year olds...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PU_hQt-6SAQ
http://quepasabaja.com/?p=468
So... No moderation of comments whatsoever? I suppose some of these wackos provide good material for standup. Yee haw, Obama's not redneck enough. And he's a Muslim.
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