MsUnderestimated » 2007 » October

Maher on the American Flag Lapel Pin (VIDEO)

October 13th, 2007 at 11:49 by MsUnderestimated

What a pinhead. Bill Maher takes on the subject of Barack Obama’s recent proclamation that he will not wear an American Flag lapel pin for whatever his reasons were.

Bill Maher not only berates those who would wear the Flag lapel pin, but continues on to deride Sean Hannity for what he calls “no-pin-gate,” and calls the flag pin nothing more than a brooch. Here’s a partial transcript:

…and then they cover to people like Sean Hannity, who reported on No-Pin-Gate, and then had to call a doctor because his fake outrage hard-on lasted longer than 72 hours.

Oh, yes, Halliburton, Bechtel and Blackwater come up in his rant, as well as Larry Craig, Mark Foley and others. Not to mention, he says, that ‘gay Republicans’ would still be obsessing about the ‘blow job’ Bill Clinton got. Has Maher no shame? Wait… that question needs no answer.

Watch his “new rule” here.

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Maher on Blackwater in Iraq (VIDEO)

October 13th, 2007 at 11:39 by MsUnderestimated

Oh, geez… where do I begin? It’s that crazy privatization again that’s oh-so-evil. Again, Tucker goes to bat for Blackwater, and some very interesting exchanges take place.

Here’s a portion of the transcript, in which Blackwater is referred to consistently as mercenaries (except for Tucker):

Carlson: You can’t go anywhere in Iraq without them. You have to have them. The military is not going to protect you. And so if you want to deliver air conditioners or feed people or get up the phone lines, you have to have them.

Krugman: These guys have been a problem from the beginning, right?

Carlson: No.

Krugman: We basically lost any chance of a good outcome in Iraq in March/April 2004, and it was because a Blackwater mission went wrong in Fallujah.

Excuse me? A Blackwater mission went ‘wrong’ in 2004? Four contractors were killed, tortured, dismembered, burned and hung from a bridge in Fallujah! WTF is Paul Krugman talking about? Did he go to the Daily Kos “Screw them!” school of etiquette?

Tucker takes Krugman on further:

Carlson: Who protects your bureau? Who protects the New York Times’ bureau in Baghdad? Because the military is not going to. You wouldn’t have reporters there if it weren’t for private contractors.

Krugman: Well, we’re not worried about the New York Times…

Carlson: Well, I’m worried about it. They give…they let Americans know what’s going on there. Without private security contractors they couldn’t be there.

Krugman: But what I’m worried about is why does the U.S. Government continue to employ mercenaries there?

Carlson: But it’s not just them.

And Tucker continues the attack:

Carlson: I think we should make the New York Times live up to Mr. Krugman’s own standards. If we’re not allowed to hire…

Krugman: Come on, you know that’s an idiotic argument.

Carlson: No, it’s not. And I’ll tell you exactly why. I was in Baghdad in 2003 in January…

- crosstalk -

Carlson: If you don’t have private contractors in Iraq, you will get killed.

Krugman: I don’t mind that the shopping mall has private security, but I don’t expect the township of Princeton hiring mercenaries.

Carlson: But it’s not Princeton. See that’s the thing. You haven’t been there so you don’t know. It’s not Princeton. It’s really dangerous and you can’t go there without them PERIOD! The military will not protect you. You can’t… look… (exasperation)

You can watch the entire exchange here.

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On Real Time, Krugman Minimizes Iranian Threat (VIDEO)

October 13th, 2007 at 11:06 by MsUnderestimated

Krugman, Carlson, and Behar were talking about the Iranian threat on Real Time last night. First question: Name me one thing Joy Behar understands about foreign relations. Oh, heck…never mind…. back to the segment.

Krugman and Carlson got into it over the threat of Iran, and incredibly Krugman offered this less-than-educated opinion:

Krugman: You’ve got all these Republicans talking about how Iran might establish a Caliphate and rule the world. You know this is not the poorest country in the world, but it’s pretty poor. It’s a small country. How did we get so frightened of a handful of Persians out there in the Middle East?

Oh, really? I guess Brigitte Gabriel, Walid Phares, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and many other noted scholars are wrong about the nuclear threat of Iran. And WTF is this about “a handful of Persians”? Also, who does NOT know of Ahmadinejad’s desires to establish a Caliphate in the world, and have everyone convert to Islam? Krugman is obviously another mental midget; that, or he’s just a shill for the Democrats. Either way, he’s severely misguided.

Watch the segment here.

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Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” on Maher (VIDEO)

October 13th, 2007 at 10:40 by MsUnderestimated

On Real Time last night, Bill Maher had author Naomi Klein on to talk about her new book “Shock Doctrine,” which is about the evils of corporations, privativzation, and the free-market economy. She naturally has to bring in Blackwater as an evil of privatization. I’ll have another video piece later on Blackwater, but this piece with Naomi is too rich to miss. Crony capitalism, free-market ideology, corporatism, etc. Yes, all evil entities. And let’s not forget about the importance of “shared responsibility.” For those of you educated in government schools, that’s “income redistribution.”

I didn’t have time to transcribe this interview, but you can watch the video for yourself here.

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