The Interview:
Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is the House Democratic Leader and has represented San Francisco in Congress for 25 years. She was the first woman in American history to serve as Speaker of the House and the first woman to lead a major political party in Congress. This Wednesday, she announced plans to reintroduce the Violence Against Women Act in the 113th Congress.
Twitter: @NancyPelosi
The Panel:
Howard Dean is the former Governor of Vermont and Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Dean told the Burlington Free Press that he thought President Obama's second inaugural address "was very different from his [first] inaugural, where he was talking about that everybody was going to work together and so on...I think he means to get things done whether the Republicans want to work with him or not."
Twitter: @GovHowardDean
Kristen Soltis is a Republican pollster and Vice President at The Winston Group, a DC-based polling and consulting firm. Soltis is a regular contributor to various media outlets and recently blogged for U.S. News and World Report about the changing attitudes on abortion in the 40 years since Roe v. Wade.
Twitter: @KLSoltis
David Avella is the president of GOPAC, an organization dedicated to "nurturing a new generation of Republicans leaders by providing them a platform for promoting their ideas and conservative policies."
Twitter: @david_avella
Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) will join the panel mid-show. He has served in the U.S. Senate since 2006 and was recently quoted by Montana's Beartooth NBC telling state legislators, "I support overturning Citizens United because like most Montanans I see it as a kick in the teeth to democracy.
Nancy Pelosi (D-California) is the House Democratic Leader and has represented San Francisco in Congress for 25 years. She was the first woman in American history to serve as Speaker of the House and the first woman to lead a major political party in Congress. This Wednesday, she announced plans to reintroduce the Violence Against Women Act in the 113th Congress.
Twitter: @NancyPelosi
The Panel:
Howard Dean is the former Governor of Vermont and Chair of the Democratic National Committee. Dean told the Burlington Free Press that he thought President Obama's second inaugural address "was very different from his [first] inaugural, where he was talking about that everybody was going to work together and so on...I think he means to get things done whether the Republicans want to work with him or not."
Twitter: @GovHowardDean
Kristen Soltis is a Republican pollster and Vice President at The Winston Group, a DC-based polling and consulting firm. Soltis is a regular contributor to various media outlets and recently blogged for U.S. News and World Report about the changing attitudes on abortion in the 40 years since Roe v. Wade.
Twitter: @KLSoltis
David Avella is the president of GOPAC, an organization dedicated to "nurturing a new generation of Republicans leaders by providing them a platform for promoting their ideas and conservative policies."
Twitter: @david_avella
Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana) will join the panel mid-show. He has served in the U.S. Senate since 2006 and was recently quoted by Montana's Beartooth NBC telling state legislators, "I support overturning Citizens United because like most Montanans I see it as a kick in the teeth to democracy.
Jan 25, 2013 Bill Maher closed out his show by declaring that America needs to stop saying it's the home of the brave and start acting like it. He cited the nation's huge defense budget and compared the United States to a paranoid crazy man who keeps spending money on alarms and guns and cameras but doesn't have enough left over to take care of his house or send his kids to college. Maher asked, "would you call him brave?" before comparing the nation' emphasis on defense to American manhood. Maher bemoaned how the United States now seems to be full of "dickless armchair warriors," starting with Manti Te'o. He joked that despite Te'o's numerous head injuries, he still answered Katie Couric's questions better than Sarah Palin. But Maher mostly saw Te'o as a symbol of American manhood, that this big football player never had sex with his "girlfriend" and they instead played out an entire "relationship" online. Maher said that Te'o's attachment to this fake girlfriend is just as "weird" as the attachment football fans have to their favorite players, suggestively insinuating there is something creepy and obsessive about it. Maher highlighted how there are now pills to deal with low testosterone, declaring that "men are in trouble when you have to juice like Lance Armstrong just to get through your anniversary." Maher said that all the hunting and gathering is now done by the women, and "the most masculine thing we doo all day is pee standing up." Maher brought it right back to the Pentagon, saying it has more weapons than it need, but not more than it wants. And as Maher asked, when you own that much weaponry, aren't you trying to compensate for something? Category News & Politics Video-
Real Time: Bill Maher And Howard Dean Clash With GOP Panelists Over Obama’s Inaugural, ‘Crazy Crap On The Right Wing
Maher Rips Takers: "There Are A Lot Of Dirtbags In This Country"
On Friday's broadcast of HBO's "Real Time," host Bill Maher made a surprising ideological deviation and expressed his irritation of "takers" in America. Maher, who by no means is attached to liberal orthodoxy and has taken libertarian positions in the past, opined "there are a lot of dirtbags in this country." Maher disapproved of the number 47%, but ultimately settled on 23.5% because that is the exact number between 47 and 0. After reading off statistics about the number of people on SSI disability, Maher concluded this isn't a sustainable proposition. "It just seems like there are less people pulling the wagon and more people in the wagon. And at some point the wagon is going to break," he said. Transcript below. BILL MAHER: What [Obama] did was, he was talking about the 47%, kind of, because he was talking about the 'takers.' I can't remember what his exact quote was, but he basically was talking about when Mitt Romney, during the campaign, talked about the 47%. And, of course, to get to that number of 47% who don't pay federal taxes, that's what he was talking about, you have to include veterans and retirees. Okay. So, basically what Mitt Romney was saying was, you know, 'these spongers, these grifters, these people I wouldn't piss on if their ass was on fire because they don't pay in.' But it's not really 47%. Here's my question -- it's not 0% either, takers. I mean there are a lot of dirtbags in this country. And I think it's somewhere in between 47 and 0. I think we should split the difference and say we have 23.5% dirtbags in America. I do. Like the Octomom. California pays -- we pay to feed and clothe and spay and neuter her children and she's not giving back to society. ### MAHER: Listen to this about disability, people who take disability, who are on disability. In 1968, it was 51 to 1, people on disability to people who worked. In 2001, not that long ago, it was 23 to 1. Now it's 13 to 1. 13 to 1, who are on disability. Of course, some of that is real. We are an overworked, overstressed, polluted, ripped off and lied to people. I mean, obviously there are some people who really do have disability. But 13 to 1, you know, it just seems like there are less people pulling the wagon and more people in the wagon. And at some point the wagon is going to break.
maher On Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday, the host discussed Obama’s inauguration speech and the congressional hearing on Benghazi this week. Maher said he agreed that the inauguration speech was partisan and that he’d “never heard an inauguration speech like that,” but asked, “Didn’t they kind of drive him to it?” David Avella, president of GOPAC, said he believed there were actually points of agreement between Democrats and the GOP in the speech, including Obama’s statement that government cannot fix every social problem. But he also said Obama had done his own “name-calling” this month. When Maher asked him to specify, Avella said, “Well, he talked about right-wing Republicans,” to which Maher said, “That’s a name-call?” Republican Pollster Kristen Soltis argued that “The theme of this speech was ‘You didn’t build that,’ over again, but this time it’s not a gaffe, it’s the speech.” Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) said the theme was “equal rights for every person in this country” and that it “wasn’t partisan, it was American.” He claimed it was “about time the president stood up to all this crazy crap on the right wing.” Avella then said that the speech didn’t touch on job creation, which he claimed the president has not been able to do. “That’s not true, that’s a lie,” Maher said. Dean argued that from the bottom of the recession, America has gained five or six million new jobs. Maher then discussed the Benghazi congressional hearing, where Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked about the killings of the ambassador to Libya along with three other diplomats, although Maher said Americans “don’t give a shit about” Benghazi. What happened was awful, he went on, but “if you are hellbent on tracing it back to President Blackenstein, you are going down a rabbit hole. But then of course what do they do? They go down that rabbit hole.” Maher was especially struck by Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s line of questioning during the hearing. He asked, “Is the U.S. involved with any procuring of weapons, transfer of weapons, buying, selling, anyhow, transferring weapons to Turkey?” Clinton at the time paused notably. “To Turkey?” Paul later went on Sean Hannity’s talk show on Fox and said he had no proof and had had no hearing on anything with regard to Turkey. “In other words, this is just a bunch of horse shit I heard on TV that I’m going to bring into the United States Senate,” Maher said. Avella said that the left-wing also had conspiracy theories regarding 9/11, but Maher and Dean claimed that he was making a “false equivalence” because a much larger percentage of Republicans believe that Obama was born in Kenya than the percentage of liberals who ever believed 9/11 was an inside job.
