Real Time with Bill Maher AUGUST 7 2009 Part 6 new rules

[question everything]

Run time: 09:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIQYtx6nKEM   Posted on YouTube: August 09, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: August 10, 2009 By DU Member: question everything Views on DU: 4302

 
New Rules start at the 3:00 minutes

[npk]

1. Loved the end

Bush and knowledge. That is so true.

[DutchLiberal]

4. I hated the end. I was with Bill until the "Bush and knowledge"-comment...

Bill Maher, of whom I'm a big fan by the way, does this all the time: making Bush seem harmless and innocent by portraying him as a dumb person, a bumbling idiot. Bush may not have been able to put a coherent sentence together, but he got everything he wanted out of his presidency: former oil business colleague Hamid Karzai instated in Afghanistan so his friends at Unocal could lay the gas pipeline there; the war in Iraq, so his friends at Halliburton could get their hands on the oil; the Patriot Act, so the government had unlimited access to the citizens' personal information; and of course incredible power for both the president and the vice-president, unprecedented in American history. Doesn't look so stupid now, does he?

I think Bill Maher is the one who's crazy if he thinks Bush had no prior knowledge about the attacks of 9/11. What about the August 6th memo? What about the Phoenix memo?

Bill was already exposed in this episode as less than well-informed, because he was not able to talk back to his two Republican guests at any time. He really let me down last friday.

[PatrynXX]

5. true. Buck Fush had prior knowledge of 9/11

that's the duh part

maybe Bill got it confused with the notion that Buck Fush blew up the twin towers....

[question everything]

9. Bill war right. The 9/11 conspiracy is the mirror image of the birthers

and which does not give us much credibility.

[DutchLiberal]

21. There are two 'conspiracies': the MIHOP and the LIHOP.

MIHOP stands for: make it happen on purpose. This theory says that Bush was actively involved in the terrorist attacks of 9/11, some going as far as to say that he ordered bombs to be exploded at the foundations of the Twin Towers, and that no plane ever hit the Pentagon, but it was a missile instead.

Now THAT'S one crazy theory. Yes, THAT'S the mirror image of the 'birthers'. But that was not what Bill or I were referring to. We were talking about LIHOP: let it happen on purpose.And there's ample evidence for that.

1.) Do you know about the infamous August 6th memo? I'm sure you've heard of it. There even exists a photo of Condoleeza Rice with the document under her arm. And she testified for the 9/11 Commission that the report was kinda vague. It merely mentioned Osama bin Laden's plan to attack the United States in the near future, using airplanes.

2.) Do you know about the Phoenix Memo?

The Phoenix Memo is a letter sent to FBI headquarters on July 10, 2001 by FBI special agent Kenneth Williams, then stationed in Phoenix, Arizona, recommending the assembling of a worldwide listing of civil aviation schools. <1> At the time Williams was investigating students at some of these schools for possible terrorist links.

His recommendation was ignored, and Bill Gertz suggests that this is one of several intelligence failures leading to the 9/11 terrorist attack. David Frasca was the head of the F.B.I's fundamentalist terrorist unit at the time and was considered to be responsible for not making these recommendations known to other relevant investigative units but was promoted by the Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks.

Phoenix Memo became a subject of another communiqué in 2002 when FBI agent Coleen Rowley took advantage of the federal "Whistleblower Protection" provisions to inform FBI Director Robert Mueller that his public statements about lack of 'advance knowledge' by the Bureau have no basis in facts. In his memo Rowley wrote about suppression of investigation concerning Zacarias Moussaoui.<2>

3.) What about Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI translator who is now being silenced by the officials, to prevent her from testifying? There are a lot of threads about her case on DU.

She claims that the FBI received information in April 2001, from a reliable Iranian intelligence asset, that Osama Bin Laden was planning attacks on 4-5 cities with planes, some of the people were already in the country and the attacks would happen in a few months.<10><11>

Edmonds and government watchdog groups contend the State Department's invocation of the State Secrets Privilege barring her testimony on these subjects is not in the interests of the general public, but is instead designed to protect Bush administration and Department of Justice officials.<16>

Many of Edmonds' accusations have been corroborated by anonymous letters apparently written by FBI employees.<8>

4.) Mohammed Atta's hiding place in Germany was known to the CIA prior to 9/11. When he was arrested and this personal computer was taken, CIA personnel were not allowed to investigate what was on it, by superior officials, with no reason given. Only on September 12th 2001 they were allowed to look into the computer, only to find a full description of the planned attacks on it.

[question everything]

30. I know about the August 6 memo

Intelligence agencies, however, have to rely on more than one source of information. There has to be several pieces of information coming from different sources that create a comprehensive picture.

I can accept that each one alone was not enough.

This is what a major changes took place after 9/11 - a better communication and shared information bout such sources.

I can accept the LIHOP even though what Bill Maher said he was referring to the MIHOP which is supported strongly on DU.

[DutchLiberal]

32. I named many others, but feel free to ignore those when they don't fit your argument...

No, Maher was referring to LIHOP. He talked about Bush have forknowledge, not Bush blowing up the towers himself.

[DUlover2909]

2. Thanks for posting!

:toast:

[question everything]

10. You are welcomed

I first thought that it was already posted, but the other one had a link to "posts no longer exist" or "being removed by the poster."

:shrug:

[lordsummerisle]

3. Thanks for posting this n/t

[Metta]

6. Amazing stuff, especially the stats at the end.

Thanks for posting.

[applegrove]

7. Thanks for posting. Hopefully it will not get erased too soon. Always worthwhile.

[Libertas1776]

8. Great vid

from Bill, as always.

You know, I honestly think that citizenship should not be a given for being born in this country. If you are born here, your status should be something akin to citizen in training. Only after a few years of grade school study and you pass a regimented, in depth examination of basic understanding of the principles of the United States Government, the Constitution, the branches of government, and its history as well as a basic understanding of simple logic and science. You know, basically take the test that every foreigner has to take in order to become a citizen of this nation (plus a little basic science I added). Until you pass this exam, you cannot call yourself a citizen of the United States, nor can you vote and participate in the Democratic process. But of course, the powers that be will never have any of that. Where would they be if they didn't have an idiot, uneducated populace to fool into believing their manufactured issues. Can't have an educated populace, now can we?
I am no hypocrite. I would be the first person lined up to take this exam and actually prove myself worthy of being a citizen of the United States, an identity that has been thoroughly diluted and denigrated by the rabble of right wing morons that rule this country today.

[question everything]

11. Oh, I think it stems from being a nation of immigrants

of the "Give me your tired, your poor,. Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,.."

And, once immigrants came ashore, their children became citizens. I think that in many countries of the world, like France and Germany, immigrants can live for generations and never become citizens.

With some of the hatred against the illegal people of previous years, I can see a "wave" to "deport" all the ones who are not citizens, even if born here. To where? That would be another question. But there are too many self righteous groups who would love to sit in judgment on who "belongs" here and who does not.

[Libertas1776]

12. ...

"But there are too many self righteous groups who would love to sit in judgment on who "belongs" here and who does not."

You are probably right about that. But I never really meant citizen in the way it can mean legal resident. I am not for deporting anyone, natural born or foreign. I guess I meant it in the old Classical Greek way, or something along that line. I meant "citizen" in the way of being able to vote, participate in the democratic process, run for office etc. Something like a high school civics class should be taken with the utmost of importance.

[snake in the grass]

13. Darrell Issa?

When I see that guy, I think one thing: car thief. Sometimes Maher scrapes the bottom of the barrel with his "conservadroid" guests. The same goes for John "I fucked my ex-girlfriend's daughter and forced her to have an abortion after physically assaulting her" Fund. I wonder if Janeane Garofalo knew this when she sat beside him and he passionately took issue with her assertion that liberals are the better people. Perhaps Bill is thankful for the few droids who appear on his show and doesn't want to rock the boat and, although I can almost understand that, I'd love to be his guest when one of them is also there.

[question everything]

17. He was actually very tame and moderate

Bill was actually a bit disappointed that when Huffington joined them, sparks did not fly.

Both Republican congressmen said that had they been senators, they would have voted to confirm Sotomayor.

[DutchLiberal]

22. And yet Bill could not refute any of Issa's bullshit right-wing talking points...

And most of the times, he didn't even try, just nodding along and move over to the next issue. He should've had Arianna on right from the start. I don't see the point in bringing in a guest halfway through the discussion.

[Hubert Flottz]

14. I couldn't watch the show because of the scum he had on.

[florida08]

15. I wonder

if Bill knows who Sibel Edmonds is.

[question everything]

18. Is she the 9/11 conspiracy theorist?

If so, he will never have her. Believing in the 9/11 conspiracy is the left mirror image of the "birthers."

[florida08]

19. she is not a theorist

She was an FBI translater who uncovered corruption in the FBI. Was fired for reporting it then gagged by the Bush administration twice. Had "states secrets" imposed on her by Ashcroft and again later after he left. No she's no theorist she has first hand knowledge. To equate her with the birthers is dangerously ignorant.

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5527

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4006555&mesg_id=4006600

[DutchLiberal]

23. Why is your username 'question everything'?

I'm a big fan of irony, but you're getting a little overboard here.

[question everything]

25. It appears that mostly I question the groupthink on DU

where our country can do no right, while Venezuela, for example, can do no wrong.

That liberals are so quick to blame our government for any tragedy; that liberals are so quick to put so many conspiracy theories behind our government can explain why we had such a hard time gaining the majority in Congress and the White House and we did it with the help of centrists and "blue dogs."

Most of the voters like our country and trust our government. Yes, everyone likes to criticize one aspect or another. But to go around to constantly assign nefarious activity to our government eventually wears out on your average voter.

The reason why Bill Clinton and Barack Obama won is the same: "it's the economy, stupid."

Until the financial almost meltdown in September, McCain and Obama were pretty much even.

And I shudder to think how McCain could have actually won.

[DutchLiberal]

28. Yes, most of the voters have no clue what's going on.

(That goes for Dutch voters, too, by the way. It's universal.)

"Most of the voters like our country and trust our government. Yes, everyone likes to criticize one aspect or another. But to go around to constantly assign nefarious activity to our government eventually wears out on your average voter."

So, to appeal to the average voter, we must pretend the government is better than it is? We should pretend that the country hardly makes any mistakes? We should downplay its nefarious effects on the rest of the world, both in the past and in the present? We should tuck them to sleep into believing that there is no such thing as a corporate stranglehold on the Congress? We should ignore all the actions they take that go against the public's interest?

You should change your username, man. And seek out a more authoritarian website.

[question everything]

29. With so much contempt to the voters how would you ever expect to win?

No, you don't. You probably voted for Nader in 2000 and was smug in our loss. You "stood on principle."

Here are some news for you: politics is the art of compromise. This is why the legislative bodies are described as debating bodies.

Yes, you can stay in your cocoon and decide that you will run or vote only for a very specific, and often narrow policy and will never win. You will be smug that you do not compromise while the right wingers laugh at you all the way to the Supreme Court and to Congress and the White House while turning our country in one for the rich by the rich.

I prefer to compromise and to listen to the voters so that my representatives get to the White House and to Congress and nominate better Supreme Court justices to keep our country an equitable place for all. And, no, I do not want to install a socialist government. Capitalism fits human nature better than socialism.

That many on DU and in other fringe places believe otherwise, I am glad that there are only 150,000 like that.

You may want to talk to your elders in the Netherlands to hear about how it was to live under Nazi occupation. You may have a better appreciation to the freedom that we enjoy here.

I did not say that we should pretend that the government never makes mistakes, but I doubt that you can even comprehend what others are saying. You are trapped in your own narrow vision of the world.

[DutchLiberal]

31. That compromising worked out so well for Gore and Kerry, didn't it?

If they had been truly progressive candidates, who stood for liberal principles, people wouldn't have voted for Nader in the numbers they did. Bush stood for his 'principles', he didn't sell out his base, and that's why there was no right-wing Nader-type to attract voters.

I'm not sure how we got into this discussion, since this was not what we were debating. You said a politician should pander to the average voter to get votes. I say this is part of the problem with the US. The reason why it keeps making the same mistakes over and over, is because it isn't willing to learn anything from previous mistakes. Because to most Americans, the US can do no wrong. An idea you would like to keep alive, because it's appealing to the 'average voter'.

Also, I don't see what the Nazi occupation has to do with the freedoms of the US. You sound like a Freeper. America hasn't shown much interest in freedom and democracy in the Third World in the last 60 years, overthrowing one democratic government after another and installing dictators everywhere, because they supported US business interests.

"I did not say that we should pretend that the government never makes mistakes, but I doubt that you can even comprehend what others are saying. You are trapped in your own narrow vision of the world."

Oh, how I wish I had read that before I typed all this. In that case, I wouldn't have bothered to answer to such a pompous blowhard.

[Capt. America]

16. Merikah is not dum, git a brain, morans !!!

[Christa]

20. k & r nt

[valerief]

24. Funny but disheartening to hear how stupid Merkans are. nt

[go west young man]

26. Chaser War on Everything Dumb Americans Vid.

http://www.vidly.net/video-the-chasers-war-on-everything-americans.html

[Why Syzygy]

27. I wanted to watch the whole show, but

I can't stand those ignorant lying republicans.