Maher: "This is like the Cleveland guy having a pizza party for those girls he had in his basement.”

[kpete]

Hearing that former president George W. Bush went on a motorcycle ride with a group of disabled Iraq war veterans did not sit well with Real Time host Bill Maher on Friday.

“I found this to be nauseating,” Maher said of Bush’s appearance at the Warrior 100K Ride in Texas. “First he sends them off to war to get their limbs blown off, then he has them over for a barbecue. This is like the Cleveland guy having a pizza party for those girls he had in his basement.”


video & more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/01/maher-slams-george-w-bush-for-nauseating-motorcycle-ride-with-disabled-veterans/

[kentuck]

1. A very good analogy...

In my opinion. Both psychopaths.

[roody]

2. Maher is brave.

[Pelican]

5. Why?

What should he be afraid of?

[Major Nikon]

20. Chemtrails

Just sayin'

[Dash87]

68. Are you sure he isn't a cyborg or reptilian?

Dang NWO shapeshifters are everywhere! That is, the ones that Slenderman hasn't killed yet.

[rhett o rick]

24. You forgot the sarcasm tag. nm

[Pelican]

27. Is that for me or Roody?

[rhett o rick]

31. Very clever for a new poster. Have you ever used another name? nm

[Pelican]

35. The word "Why" is clever?

It's appreciated but i think you have set your bar low...

[rhett o rick]

36. I dont buy your pretense of naivete. nm

[Bluenorthwest]

28. The man did lose a lucrative network contract for making a wise crack when his job is to

make wise cracks. That sort of thing can influence a person.

[rhett o rick]

32. And some believe others have lost way more than that. nm

[roody]

42. BFEE- Bush Family Evil Empire

[madrchsod]

3. maher is way off on this one....

those girls were kidnapped,raped,became pregnant,and held against their will for years.

the troops are a voluntary force who were doing what their commander in chief ordered them to do. his war and it`s aftermath will go down in history as one of the worse military campaigns in history. history will record that bush was one of the worst presidents in our brief history.

yes i find it sick that he would ride with the people who believed they were doing their duty for god and country . i find it sick that bush used so many who paid the price so he could prove to his dad that he could finish what his dad refused,for good reason,to do-kill saddam hussein.

[rickyhall]

7. I think he's right

These veterans volunteered to defend our country not fight W's useless wars. In effect, he kidnapped, maimed and killed these brave citizens for his own purposes.

[pasto76]

8. uh, yeah. invading iraq was not about killing saddam

it was about trying to get a new iraqi government to sign over their vast oil fields.

are you a troop? better than 99% chance you are not.

'voluntary' huh. just because nobody holds a gun to our heads to sign the dotted line doesnt mean that most of the soldiers Ive served with had other options. for many people the army is their only escape from poverty.

allow me to be blunt, that attitude of 'their voluntary' is a blowoff. it is how you all rationalize not caring about what happens to our troops over there, but more importantly when they come home. Try and argue all you want, but the proof is in the pudding. Try living it. try watching your friends go through it. probably only then could you understand how offensive this 'volunteer' remark is these days.

[underpants]

11. (Iraq)..and empty the US Treasury

into the pockets of Dick's cronies

[MH1]

30. ^^^ This.

the other stuff was just gravy.

[Ligyron]

57. and no doubt thought they were "doing God's work" in de-funding the evil government. n/t

[TinkerTot55]

13. The GOP...

...who planned and carried out that filthy war, are at the head of the pack denying benefits and denying increased funding for care that we PROMISED to our armed forces. Not sure who "you all" are, but I find liberal and progressive people genuinely more concerned about our returning vets than most of the flag-wavers who only want to trot vets out on special holidays.

Just my observation.

[caraher]

16. I'm increasingly coming to believe we need a draft

Is there any misuse of the military that can't be dismissed with "they volunteered?" For the past decade we've had two Americas, the one at peace and the one with loved ones serving overseas.

I don't think the volunteer military has been good for democracy, even if it has proven successful in terms of combat effectiveness.

[7962]

48. I respectfully disagree;

What we need, above all, is the finest military possible. A draft puts a LOT of people in ranks that dont want to be there, which in turn degrades the quality of the force. Our current force is actually much better educated than many believe. I doubt a draft wouldve stopped cheney from invading Iraq. Oops, I mean Bush.......

[caraher]

56. I think we're a very long way from being in real peril from a slightly weaker military

What makes us less safe today is the way our wars are generating people who want to kill us. We have such near-absolute dominance in any conventional battlefield that even if our military were to lose some of its edge, it would still be completely insane for any other nation to start a conventional war with us. So I respectfully disagree that what we need "above all" is the finest military possible - we only ever need a military good enough to deter war and to win it should it come. Setting the bar at "finest possible" distorts our values as a nation, leads to inflated spending on weapons and actually makes us weaker. (For the reductio ad absurdum of "finest possible" look at North Korea, where pretty much nothing else beyond the military receives any resources, though obviously their model of military strength is based on sheer weight of numbers rather than quality.)

It's also not clear that a volunteer force is the only or best way to build an elite force; it's just the one the US has chosen. Looking at a very different example, Israel still manages to have a top-notch military despite compulsory service.

What having more people and families with "skin in the game" does do is ratchet up the political stakes dramatically for starting military adventures (see Vietnam). Perhaps Cheney could have stampeded us into war with loose talk of smoking guns in the form of mushroom clouds. But it would have been harder to ignore the mass antiwar protests that preceded the fighting. And the 2004 election may not have been close enough for them to steal in Ohio if more voters had loved ones sitting involuntarily in Iraq for the sake of what by then was clear were lies. It would have been much harder for anyone to shrug their shoulders as they did and say sure, Bush lied, but at least nobody went there who didn't volunteer.

[IrishAyes]

60. Very well said.

[Sirveri]

58. I am oppossed to the draft because I consider it slavery.

I also consider the military to be a form of bondage. You can't quit, you can't refuse to give your labor, if you run they bring you back in chains and ruin your life. Sounds like slavery to me.

Better alternative, allow the members of the military to quit, and to form trade unions. We'll never fight a war of aggression again because nobody will go to fight in it.

[wolfisis]

21. i so agree

i so agree with you. every two months for 8 years i have (with some other people)had a pro-peace-pro-soldier rally. the public is very supportive because they know we are for the soldiers but not the war. the soldiers are heroes to me. you are right the war was never about Saddam or the Iraq's people freedom. it was about OIL. thank you for your post.

[hrmjustin]

22. Welcome to DU my friend!

[xxqqqzme]

40. well, it was originally

named Operation Iraqi Liberation. Can't get any closer to the real thing than that!

[Aviation Pro]

23. C'mon pasto...

...the majority of combat arms guys I served with wanted to be there - as a tanker, I wanted to be there - and don't get me started on the 03xx and 11Bs, trust me they want to be there. And if you really want to see soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who are the acme of "wanting to be there' look no further than the SF, NSW, PJ and MARSOC communities.

The myth of "they have no choice" is just that, a myth.

[Lenomsky]

38. Really?

I'm not American but I can understand 18 y/o kids or even older military types actually wanting to see combat after all that's what they are/were trained for but I wonder how many that are/were not 'brained washed' actually BELIEVE(D) that Iraq was worth it in terms of personal loss and collateral damage!

They have no choice is no Myth .. you sign up get trained and do the bidding of your country rightly or wrongly or am I wrong and one day a senior officer says hey guys any of you want to go fight a war it's 100% optional so raise your hand if you're up for some blood and guts and back to guard duty if you dislike hot deserts.

If I've missed your point I apologise but I think not.

[7962]

50. I'm with you, Pro.

I am no longer in, but have many friends who are and by choice.

[frylock]

33. well stated

[Skittles]

51. THANK YOU

you say it well, pasto

[adieu]

10. One got victims by forcing them into cars

the other got victims by cajoling them with charm and two-faced lying.

I'd rather have the former, at least it was honest and direct. The latter makes you think you were sold after the fact.

[Lars39]

34. Also poverty draft

[IrishAyes]

46. Maher was spot on.

Just because the two crimes were not identical doesn't mean they weren't equally heinous.

[caraher]

4. It was actually a mountain bike ride - but it's worse that Maher knows

He seems to be doing these annually. I found a clip from a past ride where he basks in the love of people he sent off to be wounded for his lies.

At one point (around 2:30 in the video I link) W mentions how tough the ride was, "especially if you're 65" and Dan, another amputee, chimes in, "Or have just one leg."

[L0oniX]

15. Someone might get hurt while riding a bicycle or just being around Bush...

Bush falls off bike after colliding with officer - President suffers minor scrapes in incident at G-8 summit

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/8487719/ns/world_news/t/bush-falls-bike-after-colliding-officer/

...and I don't think that was the first time he failed at riding a bicycle.

[Paulie]

18. Bush also fell off a Segway. It has computers and gyroscopes and he still managed it.

[L0oniX]

19. Saw that. Maybe he was chewing gum at the time. n/t

[IrishAyes]

47. Chewing gum?

More like back on the sauce. Even when he's sober, he acts like a dry drunk.

[L0oniX]

54. Maybe he needed a vacation...

[Nanjing to Seoul]

63. I wonder if they allow him to eay pretzels on his vacations.

[7962]

49. Just tried to kill that bug!!!!!!!

[Chuuku Davis]

6. Disagree

Not even close analogy

[Spitfire of ATJ]

9. Actually, it's like that guy throwing the girls a pizza party,...

....and seeing them flirt with him.

[TNNurse]

12. My thoughts

I would love to see a video of a group of veterans refusing to go and telling him why.......They fed his delusion and that is only good with people who suffer from advanced dementia and would get upset. I do not care if he gets upset. I would actually prefer he do time in a Federal prison with Cheney as a cellmate.

[perdita9]

14. Maher nailed this one

George W. thought nothing of sending other people into war to make $$$ for his oil buddies. Then he tries to make himself feel better by playing buddy to the wounded warriors one day a year.

I've always suspected W. of being a sociopath.

[caraher]

17. No doubt he is

And there's more than enough Stockholm Syndrome among these wounded vets to keep his ego stroked for that full day

[IrishAyes]

45. So nice to hear

that he and that other sociopath Cheney no longer speak to one another.

Hell, GOP = sociopath these days.

[rhett o rick]

25. I am not particularly happy with the analogy, but I agree with this statement,

"I found this to be nauseating." It was the ultimate in condescension. Babs probably offered them cake.

[ctsnowman]

65. lol

Babs.

[rhett o rick]

69. Was my contempt too obvious? nm

[Lint Head]

26. This is more like Charles Manson dancing on the graves of the people he had murdered.

[ZombieHorde]

37. The soldiers chose to be held captive.

The girls/women didn't. Big difference in my mind.

[trackfan]

39. Funny: Maher's name is so often misspelled on DU that the correct spelling looks weird. n/t

[amuse bouche]

41. I get Bill's point

if you don't think about it too much

[Arctic Dave]

43. Spot on.

But that won't stop the delusional from thinking any different.

Shit.

There is still soldiers who think they accomplished something over there other then making some people obscenely rich and killing a lot of innocent people.

[IrishAyes]

44. Always loved Maher.

He can kick butt like nobody else.

[mimi85]

55. I used to appreciate Bill a lot more.

Maybe it's just me (and my husband), but I really think his shows have gone downhill. We just finished watching last night's show that we'd "taped."

He seems to be interrupting guests more and more. Michael Isikoff barely got a word in. I still don't know what the guy on the left end of the panel was talking about or even who he is. And the discussion with the actress that can't seem to get a job seemed totally pointless. The audience didn't help either. They either didn't understand what was being discussed or didn't think the "jokes" were that funny.

We make a bet before every show about how long before he starts in with religion and weed. I happen to agree with him on both subjects, but somehow he brings them up in conversations that have nothing to do with either. And I hope I'm wrong here, but I find him a bit homophobic and somewhat of a misogynist. Sigh, maybe I'm getting too cynical lately. I think he means well; he just seems so predictable this last year or so. I still get a kick out of when Snoop was on recently and Bill kept smelling and touching him - quite strange. The YT video mix was hilarious.

[IrishAyes]

59. I know Bill can be a pill.

But there's a lot of honey in my bank for people who perform the much needed public service of stomping everything GOP. If he ranges a little too far afield at times, maybe I'm too much like an adoring, indulgent mother. I feel the same about David Letterman. He can hardly do anything unforgivable in my eyes because he hammered on Romney w/o an ounce of mercy. Every night like clockwork. I'm sure we owe him a general debt of gratitude for his help.

Anyway, Maher's more of a satirist than outright comedian.

Overall, an enemy of my enemy is at least a potential friend to me.

[kentuck]

61. Bill Maher is the modern-day Lenny Bruce.

He can be arrogant. He can be insensitive. He can be sexist. He can be an arrogant, insensitive sexist but he stands close to where a certain truth exists. He is also an entertainer.

[IrishAyes]

62. So true.

Are you familiar with Dylan's homage to Lenny Bruce? Exquisite.

[still_one]

52. It offended some of his guests on the show, but the reality is a lot families lives have been

"Changed" forever for that war based on a lie

[Iwillnevergiveup]

53. Bush doesn't pity them

because they don't pity themselves??? He wouldn't pity them even if they did pity themselves. He doesn't belong anywhere near any veterans.

[Nanjing to Seoul]

64. Most Republicans don't. Soldiers are tools to them. If the tool is destroyed, you replace it with

another tool (KIA). . .if the tool breaks, you just throw it away (disabled vets).

In other words, the GOP only honors the soldier when they fight and die. . .when they fight and live, they are offered lip service. When they fight, live and have their lives forever broken, they are now a drain on the treasury and need to go away.

Remember the Bonus Army? With the GOP, things haven't changed.

[ctsnowman]

66. Nailed it.

[ctsnowman]

67. K & R