if you have HBO and you missed bill maher's season premiere last night, be sure to see the reruns. the exchanges between maher and michael moore are great. and what maher and moore do to guest ralph nader is priceless. renny
I agree. It was a good episode. Why do politicians not answer a question when it is directly put to them? And why didn't Bill call them on it? I refer both to the guest in the studio and the one on the "screen."
I didn't see it but will definitley catch it soon. I enjoy his show. I know that Bill and Ralph are buddies and that Maher respects Nader a lot but still gives him a good grilling. I will avoid all topics political here and just say "thanks for the tip" and tune in. Peace- Norm
So unfortunately we don't get HBO. Do they post transcripts like ABC used to for Politically Incorrect?
I dont have HBO but I was trying to find somebody to tape it for me. DO you think this show will come out on dvd, seeing as how it is so topical?
Actually, when Maher was talking to the governor via videophone about Bush's reaction to the 9/11 attacks as portrayed in Moore's film and the governor didn't give a direct answer, he did call him on it and asked the question repeatedly. Why don't they answer directly? Anything they say will be used against them. Though it's annoying, I can understand it. Maher's show is fantastic. I'm glad he got canned from ABC- this one is much better. His rant at the end was especially funny.
I had a buddy who was the head of a student political group ("Campus Republicans" IIRC) in college. It was during the 1988 campaign, and the Republicans were doing quite well in national polls that year. A reporter from a local paper doing a piece on politics and youth asked him if he thought it was "cool" to be a Republican in 1988. He was taken aback by the inanity of the question, but his generally polite manner made him feel obligated to answer with "uh...I guess you could say that". When the article was published in the paper, it said that "Pete ----- of the Campus Republicans says that it's 'cool' to be a Republican in 1988". Letters to the editor showed up in subsequent issues blaming people like Pete for lowering the level of political discourse in the country and criticising his pedestrian statement. At this point he started preparing for a career outside of politics.... Unfortunately, politicians of any political leaning don't last long if they answer questions in exactly the way they are posed, because they are usually loaded. Regards,
http://www.hbo.com/billmaher/new_rules/ has trascripts of New Rules, but not yet for this season. Also, a wacky message board. I saw a live taping of Real Time last year. If you've ever seen a TV show being produced, you know that it's usually sort of like watching sausage being made, but this was very fun, except for the wait. He did the show live, real time.
What a great story! Sadly, this is too often true in the world of politics. Regarding the interview of Gov. Owens, what Bill asked him was if he had been president and his chief of staff had just walked into a classroom and told him America was under attack, would he have sat there for another 7 minutes. In this case, I think the Governor was right not to answer the question directly, since it makes no difference in hindsight what the Gov. of Colorado would have done differently. I think Bill's show is terrific, but I thought that was a disingenuous question. Sort of like asking a Democrat if he was president would he have accepted a BJ from an intern. It's a baiting question that dares a supporter to go against the candidate he favors, and it's a cheap trick (apologies to Rick Neilsen!).
Bill Maher's old HBO special "Be More Cynical" was one of the funniest, most offensive (and I mean that in a good way) specials I've ever seen. It never came out on VHS or DVD, but I managed to get a pre-Emmy "For Your Consideration" tape off eBay. They show up from time to time.
