Welcome back to yet another edition of Saturday Morning Maher. I'm pleased to be able to do this for the six of you that catch it before the diary gets buried by Joe the Plumber diaries and the inevitable "What Will Palin Do On SNL" diaries. Yes, I'm bitter. And I'm going to cling to guns and religion after I'm done posting this.
Ultimately, this is how I'd like this to work: I post segments of the show and give a brief synopsis of the clips. You guys pick a clip, watch it, comment on what you saw, then go back after it gets buried and watch more. I'll update clips as they become available for the HBO impaired, and we all get to participate. Sound fair?
For all of you that comment about Maher always having some right wing hack on his show...you're in for a treat. Last night's guests were Martin Short, Ben Affleck, and the truly kick ass Sen. Bernie Sanders of the great state of Vermont. Sanders was feeling his groove, and came out swinging against Sam "Just call me Joe" the Plant/Plumber, and McCain's deplorable robocalls. He even calls Maher out on cracking a joke about the damn calls.
Opening Monologue:
Panel discussion part 1: Enter the Sanders
Sanders: "The workers that I know are worried that their kids don't have any health insurance, they're worried that their jobs are going to China, they're worried that their kids can't afford a college education, and what they want to do, is make government work for ordinary people rather than just the wealthy and the powerful, which is what we have right now!
Maher: How did a socialist ever get elected in America?
Sanders: Well, the people of Vermont are smart.
Discussion part 2: Voting on the basis of a fantasy
Say what you want about Affleck, you have to admit that he gets American politics. If the rest of Hollywood was as involved and aware as Affleck, we'd have elected Democrats since Reagan- hell, we might not have even elected Reagan... Sanders tackles the complete non-issue campaign that McCain is running. This episode was notably different, mostly because Bill and Bernie do most of the talking. Not that it was without the token moments where the actor gets in some shots:
Martin Short: If Jesus comes back, and I think he might, if he doesn't stop at the three trillion other planets that didn't nail him to a cross...
Maher: (paraphrasing) So if Obama gets elected, where does the hate (of the right) go?
Sanders: "There is hate out there, and its often among white guys. And ya know why they're angry? There angry because they're working hard, and their standard of living is going down. They're working really hard, and their world is passing them by, and they don't understand why...and instead of getting angry at the big money interests that are sending their jobs abroad, or taking away their health insurance, or giving tax breaks to people who don't need them, what the Republicans have successfully done is taken that anger, and turned it on gay people, or abortion, and what our job is, is to bring people together, in my view, around a PROGRESSIVE AGENDA which is Let's All Work Together!"
The next segment heavily features Frank Luntz, so I'm just going to give you some highlights, as Luntz is a gelatinous, helium-filled ass ferret. Maher introduced the segment by showcasing, as he has been wont to do lately, a country you could move to should McCain steal this election.
India: Come for the sights, the cuisine, or just to visit your old job! Most importantly, it's a land of spiritual awakening. And let's hope that if there is such a thing as Karma, Sarah Palin comes back as a wolf being shot from a plane.
Maher:What a guy has to do to get into Washington, reach across the aisle, knock heads together...it doesn't work. It's never worked in my lifetime. But what has worked, and I'm not even a Democrat, is electing enough Democrats to pass what needs to be passed to help change the direction of the country.
Sanders: The thing that will work, is when we raise public consciousness, and millions of people demand that Congress work for their benefit rather than the wealthy and the powerful. Democracy is not just about Election Day. The day after Election Day, you have to demand that the next President stand up for you, not Exxon Mobile.
And, as always, New Rules:
I hope you've enjoyed your Saturday Morning Maher. This will happen every week that there's a show, and during the off-season, I'll compile some archived gems.
Oh, I'm posting this a bit early, because we need some work done on the car to make the drive to the WWI Memorial in Kansas City today to see Barack!! If no one else happens to take pictures and posts a diary about the event today, I'll do that tomorrow.
If you enjoy this, rec it up.
Cheers.
UPDATE: I was amazed to get back from Meineke and find this on the rec list...thanks y'all, it makes the three hours waiting on a $400 brake job seem like it happened a long time ago.