Bill Maher jokes about killing Medea Benjamin with a drone strike. Ha ha

[limpyhobbler]

Last edited Sun May 26, 2013, 10:46 PM - Edit history (1)

http://twitter.com/billmaher/status/337726390101213184

[trumad]

1. Well then...

you're next Bill.

[bunnies]

2. Thats pretty tame for Bill.

My first reaction was... and?

[Buzz Clik]

6. +1

Bill has a history of being real edgy in just this fashion.

[Honeycombe8]

16. +1. It's just a joke. nt

[Pragdem]

3. Comedians will be comedians. nt

[Cooley Hurd]

4. I understand comedy...

...but this just wasn't funny. Bill, read what you tweet before letting it go.

[limpyhobbler]

7. That's really the only problem with this. Just not funny.

If a comic wants to get edgy and take a risk that's fine. But it's called a "risk" for a reason. It doesn't always work out.

[CrawlingChaos]

5. Yeah, hilarious. Well, he's known to be a nasty, hateful shit

Between the flagrant misogyny and the relentless, hate-filled Muslim-bashing (funny how many of his fans try to claim he hates all religions equally, when Maher himself will tell you different), he's quite the piece of work.

I'm not surprised he's throwing scorn at Medea. A couple of weeks ago Jeremy Scahill was on Real Time and Maher seemed bored and annoyed when Scahill brought up Abdulrahman al-Awlaki. In fact, in general, I've noticed more and more RW talking points creeping into Maher's shtick. Well, common sense tells you that any man who repeatedly puts S.E. Cupp before TV cameras is not a friend.

[rugger1869]

8. Maher has always seemed to...

Be like that douchy kid in college that liked to stir shit up for giggles.

[Honeycombe8]

17. He made a common sense pt. Same one Obama made.

Once you yell questions at someone, free speech requires that you shut the hell up and let the person you yelled the question at answer the bleepin' question. Unless, of course, it's all about yourself, and the pt is to hear yourself yelling on tv. Which seems to ahve been the pt with that woman.

[CrawlingChaos]

21. rarely are worthy causes advanced by being polite and quiet

I think when someone heckles a powerful person, they're not expecting a straight answer, they want what they're saying to be heard by others listening. Obama isn't in danger of not being heard - he has the bully pulpit. When enough angry citizens get unruly, politicians get nervous and that's when we see opportunities for progress. Isn't it abundantly clear at this point that behaving ourselves gets us nowhere?

But all that aside, the really ugly thing about Maher's tweet was the crack about "one more drone strike". Not a joking matter, period.

[Pelican]

39. Free speech doesnt require crap...

Polite and effective public discourse does... Rare though... for anyone

[truedelphi]

27. He might not *be* the One Percent

But he gets to hang with them, and he likes to represent them. Fascistic tendencies of governmental figures to cut back Social Security and what not are only bad if RW folks attempt them - not when it is a charismatic leader like Obama. And he loves to use this self created pie chart that shows that Social Security comes out of the Federal Government's General Fund, and he will also proclaim it is contributing to the deficit, when in actuality Social Security is distributed by theGeneral Fund, but is in its own Fund and has a surplus.

Totally agree with you about the Scahill/Maher "interview." He really did look very bored. He only comes to life when verbally scalping RW Bhner types, and religions of all and any sorts, except of course for the one religion that allows people to thump on a big black book and claim that a place in the Middle East is their homeland. I wonder how he would feel if the Tongva tribe (Native America Indians) ever showed up at his house and demand he return it to them, as it is on their land, given to them by their Great Spirit.

Anyoe who missed it can watch the full interview with Maher/Scahill here at this link:

http://12160.info/video/jeremy-scahill-real-time-with-bill-maher-drone-strikes-obama

I appreciate that Maher did have Scahill on his show. But again it is easy to notice that Maher is most excited, happy, and pleased about a subject when it involves ridiculing the RW Christians and their beliefs. He is not as pleased to have Scahill discussing the Obama-sanctioned drone murder of the 16 year old son of Awlaki. Not only was this young man killed by our drones, apparently some of his cousins were taken out as well. Where were they hit? A pizza parlor. Oh well. What was their crime? Apparently our CIA and our Presdient now feel that a “Minority Report” style of assassination is A-Okay. After all, or so they think, Hollywood has condoned it.

Maher lets Scahill talk it all out, but I get the distinct impression that, like you say, the entire matter bores him. The subject of an American teenager killed in Yemen by US drones is not as noteworthy to him as Obama’s tolerance for gay marriage. It is not as noteworthy to him as Obama’s occasional tidbits thrown to the left, which Maher treats as though they were the Second Coming of You Know Who. (An entity Maher doesn’t believe in, so I won’t name the Ascended One.)

[LostOne4Ever]

38. I saw that episode

He seemed pretty interested to me.

[Fumesucker]

9. Shocking

[limpyhobbler]

10. It'll all in the delivery

It seems the POTUS has more natural comedic talent than Bill Maher.

[lunatica]

11. Maher's commedy is always dripping with sarcasm

And that's what this tweet is. He's not making fun of Medea. He's making sarcastic commentary about the use of drones.

[Honeycombe8]

18. No. He's making the pt that the woman was yelling just to be heard on tv yelling, and NOT to

ask questions, as she pretended. If the latter were the case, she would've shut the hell up to hear the answers to her questions. Valid pt. that both Maher & Obama made.

[lunatica]

36. Sorry, I don't read it that way

and I'm not defending Maher or Medea. they both do their thing to get their message across. The written word is difficult to decipher sometimes.

[Whisp]

12. wow. how lame. Shame on you, AssholeBill. n/t

[HappyMe]

13. Meh.

Kind of funny.

It annoyed me when she just kept bellowing. Give the President a chance to speak, then if you disagree with his statements - go ahead.

[burnodo]

14. HAHA!

If Maher makes a joke about Obama or some other Democrat, most people round here don't laugh.

[lunatica]

37. Do you laugh?

I bet you do don't you?

[burnodo]

40. I do laugh

thanks for asking

[lunatica]

41. So does everyone here when it's funny

[burnodo]

42. funny seems to be in the eye of the beholder

[lunatica]

43. Yeah, so does mocking

[redgreenandblue]

15. Maher is a comedian, and a damn good one.

He is one of the few people whose Youtube clips I occasionally pull up. In fact, most of the time he is very entertaining to watch. His disses of the Republican party are epic, and probably unmatched. I laughed my ass off over a couple of his segments. Then again, occasionally, as he did here, Maher says something incredibly bigoted, arrogant or ignorant. In such cases I just have to swallow and remind myself not to take him too seriously. He may be an intellectual, but he is not a scholar by any stretch, and he does have a massive ego and likes to talk out of his ass.

[sarisataka]

19. Something else funny (not funny ha,ha)

there are people on DU who cheer on drone use, both foreign and domestic...

[truedelphi]

28. + 1. n/t

[Poll_Blind]

20. It's a riff off Obama's own threat to use a drone strike on the Jonas Brothers:

PB

[Pragdem]

29. Which was also funny. People need to remove the stick from their ass...

And lighten up a bit. Even the most horrible things in society are fun to joke about.

I'd rather hang with someone that shares my dark/assholeish sense of humor than someone I agree with politically. Preferably not a horse thief.

[flamingdem]

22. Maher rides the edge

Politically incorrect and funny! Even Medea should laugh now and then and let go of the PC rules

[CrawlingChaos]

24. I would say he rides the middle

Actually, I would argue middle-right. I'm not sure why people consider him edgy. Being insensitive to people's pain does not equal edgy - it's just being an asshole, which is something that seems to come naturally to Maher.

As far as Medea goes, she did not seem to hold a grudge against Jon Stewart after he smeared her in that stupid Rally to Restore Sanity, or whatever it was called (as I recall, he suggested she and Keith Olbermann were the left-wing equivalents of Glenn Beck). I seem to recall that olive branches were extended on both sides.

Personally, I don't agree with this notion that comedians get a free pass for everything they say, no matter how hateful or offensive. For instance, don't you agree that Daniel Tosh deserved the blowback he got from his rape jokes?

[flamingdem]

25. I don't know that comedian

Some of them are idiots and some are smart. Their humor follows.

[Quantess]

23. Who gives a shit? (no text)

[limpyhobbler]

33. :crickets:

Probably nobody.

[Cerridwen]

26. Meh. He's just a comedian/entertainer.

He has no influence.

It's just a joke.

He didn't mean anything by it.

He didn't mean what you think he meant.

Ignore him and he'll go away.

They did it first!

It's not like he called her a slut or ugly or anything.

Geez, he didn't call for the death of liberals.

Oh. I'm sorry. Were we talking about bill maher or rush limbaugh or ann coulter?

Oops. My bad. It's okay when one of "our" guys does it.

[Iggo]

30. Fuck!

Another alternate spelling!

Add keyword to trash list.

[limpyhobbler]

31. LOL you mean "Madea"?

It's supposed to be Medea I think. Sorry.

Are you trashing all Medea Benjamin threads? that's pretty funny.

[Iggo]

32. Yep.

I'm interested in the story, just not DU's War Of Outrage over the story.

[limpyhobbler]

34. I fixed the spelling.

Sorry about that. You deserve not to have to look at this.

[Iggo]

35. Okay now I feel dumb.

[limpyhobbler]

44. Don't feel dumb.

I thought maybe it was spelled wrong but was too lazy to check.

Thought it was spelled like Madea

[Beacool]

45. Maher is a sexist jerk.

Sexism is not cool, even when directed at RW women like Bachmann and Palin. He has called them the "C" word and "dumb twats". I don't care if these women's politics are abominable. Now he wants to have a drone kill Benjamin? Maher is a sexist creep.