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Bill Maher (born January 20, 1956 in New York City, New York) is an American comedian, actor, writer and producer. He was raised in River Vale, New Jersey, and graduated from Pascack Hills High School in New Jersey.He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Cornell University in 1978.
Maher has had a substantial career as a standup comedian and still occasionally tours, and has appeared in several films, usually in a comic role. However, he is most notable as the former host of Politically Incorrect, which aired on the Comedy Central television network and later ABC. Maher is also the host of the HBO talk show Real Time with Bill Maher.
ABC decided not to renew Maher's contract for
Politically Incorrect in 2002 after he made a controversial on-air remark, in which he, along with guest Dinesh D'Souza, objected to the President and others calling the September 11th terrorists cowardly: "We have been the cowards lobbing cruise missiles from 2,000 miles away. That's cowardly. Staying in the airplane when it hits the building, say what you want about it, it's not cowardly."
In the sensitive aftermath of the attacks, the remark was deemed too controversial for some financial supporters. Although some pundits, including conservative radio host
Rush Limbaugh http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25267, supported Maher, pointing out the distinction between physical and moral cowardice, companies including FedEx and Sears Roebuck pulled their advertisements from the show, costing the show more than it returned. The show was subsequently cancelled on June 16, 2002. On June 22, 2002, six days after the cancellation of
Politically Incorrect, Maher received the President's Award (for "championing free speech") from the Los Angeles Press Club.
In 2003, Maher became the host of
Real Time with Bill Maher on the HBO cable television network, a debate show somewhat similar to
Politically Incorrect, but with a narrower selection of guests.
Maher describes himself as a libertarian and celebrates libertarian figures such as Larry Elder and P.J. O'Rourke. Some of his stances, including privatizing social security, ending corporate welfare, and legalizing drugs, gambling, prostitution, and pornography are distinctively libertarian. He supported Bob Dole in the 1996 U.S. presidential election and is close friends with conservative pundit Ann Coulter. He has expressed disdain for many of the liberal positions regarding hate crime, sexual harassment, etc. as being "things that make women nod". However, he also holds many Social Democrat positions, such as government regulation of corporations, foreign aid, public schooling, a ban on homeschooling, campaign finance reform (which he has since repudiated, saying "OK, we tried it, it didn't work"), environmentalism, affirmative action, minimum wage laws, gun control, income redistribution through higher taxation as a means for the wealthy to pay for some of the advantages they enjoy as Americans, government funding for abortion, and support for Ralph Nader in the 2000 U.S. presidential election. He is a vegetarian and publically supports PETA, an organization that works for animal rights, and has expressed his distaste for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries in general, on the grounds that they make their money out of curing people who are made sick by consuming the unhealthy food that society urges upon the public.
Prior to the 2004 U.S. presidential election he became very forthright in his opposition to the reelection of George W. Bush and his support for John Kerry, even if he was not a perfect candidate, going so far as to publicly kneel on his show and beg Nader to drop out of the race (in a humorous fashion). As a result, he has often been accused of being a liberal or even a "libertine socialist" by political commentators such as Jonah Goldberg. Maher also supports the death penalty, though most liberals and libertarians do not, and abortion and euthanasia, though most conservatives do not, often stating his position semi-humorously as "I am pro-death". In expanding on this statement, he reveals his concern that the size of the human population has already led to significant damage to the earth's ecology, so that he is in general in favor of anything that would tend to reduce the size of said population.
According to court documents obtained by The Smoking Gun, in November 2004 Maher was sued for 9 million dollars by his ex-girlfriend, Nancy Johnson a.k.a. "Coco Johnsen", for palimony. Johnson claims that Maher did not fulfill promises made to her and that he physically and verbally abused her.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1111041coco1.html Maher publicly refuted her allegations on Larry King Live on November 23, 2004.
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Published: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:03:12 GMT - Source: Sfbay.Craigslist.Org - Read the articleIssuesIgnoring Tennessee GOP and McCain staffers, Politico claimed "smears" against Obama "have not been traced back to GOP sources"
A May 22 Politico
article stated -- of an "e-mail
campaign" against Sen. Barack Obama that, in Politico's
words, "began as a
demonstrably false attempt to cast Obama as a Muslim" and "spiraled
into a broader assault that questions his patriotism and citizenship and
generally portrays him as a threat to mainstream, white America" -- that Obama is "drawing
the campaign into partisan combat, blaming Republicans for the smears even
though they have not been traced back to GOP sources." The article went
on to quote Obama: "The Republicans, they're trying to make [it]
'this is not about you; it's about me.' They're trying
to say, 'Well, Obama, we don't know him that well, he hasn't
been around that long, he's got a funny name; maybe he's a
Muslim.' " But contrary to the assertion in the article, by Politico senior political writers Ben Smith
and Jonathan Martin, that the smears "have not been traced back to GOP
sources," there have been numerous instances of Republicans, including on
Sen. John McCain's
own staff, promulgating or promoting these smears.
A February 25 press release by the
Tennessee Republican Party, titled "Anti-Semites for Obama," stated
that Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan "likened Obama to a new
messiah" and "compared Obama to the founder of Islam, remarking
that both had a white mother and black father, according to the Associated
Press." The release originally included an image of Obama dressed in Somali clothing during a
2006 visit to northeast Kenya
and described the photo as Obama "dressed in Muslim clothing during a
2006 trip to Africa." In fact, Yusuf
Garaad Omar, head of the BBC's Somali Service, said of the clothing: "There is no
religious significance to it whatsoever. It is mainly the nomadic people who
use it. Some of them are religious, some are not." As Media Matters for America documented, while The Washington Post
reported that McCain
condemned the press release, he later touted the endorsement of
the Tennessee GOP chairman, who was quoted attacking Obama in the press
release.
In April, the North Carolina
Republican Party released a controversial advertisement titled
"Extreme" that featured video of Obama's former pastor, Rev.
Jeremiah Wright Jr., and stated that Obama "is just too extreme for North Carolina." Media Matters documented that on April 23, MSNBC,
Fox News, and CNN aired the ad or parts of the ad at least 22 times combined, in most cases also noting that McCain denounced
it. Yet
several pundits pointed out that airing the ad benefited McCain. For example, on the April 23
edition of The
Situation Room, correspondent Brian Todd aired a quote
from Larry J. Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at
the University of
Virginia: "It's
win-win for McCain. McCain looks like a saint in denouncing the negative
advertising, but he also ensures now that the media, the news media, will run
that ad repeatedly for free. So the message of the ad will get out." CNN
aired the advertisement at least three more times after Todd's report on the 4
p.m. ET hour of The
Situation Room.
Dan Savage, columnist for Seattle's Stranger newspaper documented on January
21 that at the time, the Clark County, Washington, Republican Party
website's "News" section featured an article headlined
"Who is Barack Obama? Democrate [sic] Candidate for U.S. President," which
said:
Barack
Hussein Obama has joined the United Church of Christ in an attempt to downplay
his Muslim background.
It is reported that
Obama swore his oath of office using the Koran and pictures have shown him
standing for the Pledge but not reciting it and holding his hands to his side
while others place their hands over their hearts.
This is chilling
information about a candidate for the highest office in the Country especially
given the radical Muslim claims that they will destroy American from "the
inside".
On
January 22, the Clark County GOP removed the article from its site, stating that its "information was
not properly researched and was found to have some factual errors and some
exaggerations." The same day, MSNBC Countdown
host Keith Olbermann awarded the Clark
County GOP "runners up" in his nightly "Worst Person in the
World" segment, stating that the group was "nice enough to more or
less transcribe that hate e-mail going around about Senator Barack
Obama."
Politico's Martin himself reported that on March
14 the McCain campaign "included an op-ed from the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] written by Ron
Kessler about Obama's pastor today in its morning clips." As Media Matters documented, the op-ed by Newsmax.com
chief Washington correspondent Ronald Kessler stated that "Obama's close
association with" Wright "raises legitimate questions
about Mr. Obama's fundamental beliefs about his country," which
"deserve a clearer answer than Mr. Obama has provided so far." Subsequently, McCain's campaign reportedly said it sent
the op-ed "in error."
Martin also reported on March 20
that "[a]n aide to John McCain was suspended from the campaign today for
blasting out an inflammatory video that raises questions about Barack Obama's
patriotism," as Media Matters
documented. Martin wrote that the
staffer, "who works in McCain's political department, sent out the YouTube
link of 'Is Obama Wright?' on twitter at 12:31 today with the tag, 'Good video
on Obama and Wright' " and that the video "includes images of
Malcolm X, black Olympians raising their hands in the black power salute and
the rap song 'Fight the Power.' "
TPM Media editor and publisher Josh Marshall noted that on the February 22
edition of HBO's Real
Time with Bill Maher, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-GA) also raised the issue of Obama's patriotism,
saying that Obama "won't put an American flag lapel pin on his coat"
and falsely claiming that Obama "would
not say the Pledge of Allegiance." Kingston
went on to ask where Obama "stand[s] on America."
Media Matters documented that in comments made to a
Spencer, Iowa, radio station and published in a March 8 Spencer Daily Reporter
article, Rep. Steve
King (R-IA) stated: "I will tell you that, if [Obama] is elected
president, then the radical Islamists, the al-Qaida, the radical Islamists and
their supporters, will be dancing in the streets in greater numbers than they
did on September 11 because they will declare victory in this War on
Terror." The article continued:
King thinks radical
Islamists will say the United
States has capitulated because the Obama
administration would be pulling troops out of any conflict associated with
al-Qaida.
"Additionally, his
middle name (Hussein) does matter," King said. "It matters because
they read a meaning into that in the rest of the world. That has a special
meaning to them. They will be dancing in the streets because of his middle
name. They will be dancing in the streets because of who his father was and
because of his posture that says: Pull out of the Middle
East and pull out of this conflict."
From the May 22 Politico article:
What began as a demonstrably false attempt to cast Obama as a
Muslim has now metastasized into something far more threatening to the likely
Democratic nominee. The spurious claims about his faith have spiraled into a
broader assault that questions his patriotism and citizenship and generally
portrays him as a threat to mainstream, white America.
The spread
of these e-mails has forced Obama to embark on a campaign to Americanize his
image and his biography. Pivoting away from his pitch to a primary election
audience uninterested in flag-waving and nationalism, he's returning to
the message that first brought him to the national spotlight in 2004: the idea
that his is the quintessential American story.
He's also drawing the campaign into partisan combat,
blaming Republicans for the smears even though they have not been traced back
to GOP sources. "The Republicans, they're trying to make [it]
'this is not about you; it's about me.' They're trying
to say, 'Well, Obama, we don't know him that well, he hasn't
been around that long, he's got a funny name; maybe he's a
Muslim,'" Obama said Monday in Montana. "They want to make people
worry about me."
Ironically,
the smear campaign represents the dark side of the Internet's emerging
dominance in American politics -- a phenomenon that has driven
Obama's unparalleled grass-roots and financial campaigns. After harnessing
the Web to great advantage, Obama is now struggling to beat back the viral
threat from the same uncontrollable medium.
Published: Fri, 23 May 2008 01:09:58 GMT - Source: Mediamatters.Org - Read the articleIssuesCNN report on "rumors" about Obama's patriotism did not mention efforts by Republicans to advance them
On the February 24 edition of CNN's Ballot Bowl '08
coverage of the presidential campaign, CNN correspondent Josh Levs reported
on "rumors" about Sen. Barack Obama's
"patriotism" that the Obama campaign "say[s] are lies."
Levs stated, "What's going on is that there are some rumors out there
about him, just in general in America,
getting sent out by email. And he has been trying to fight those off." He
later added, "Some are concerned they're not sure where these rumors come from."
However, at no point did Levs note that Republicans have begun using patriotism as an issue with which to attack Obama. Levs'
report contrasts with a February 24 article on CNN.com
reporting that Obama "defended himself and his wife" when asked by
a reporter to respond to what the reporter called "an attempt by conservatives
and Republicans to paint you as unpatriotic."
The Associated Press reported on February 23 that "[c]onservative consultants" have said that patriotism "could be an issue for Obama in
the general election." The article quoted "Republican
consultant" Roger Stone saying that
Americans will find "offensive" the photo of him "not putting
his hand over his heart during the National Anthem." Stone added,
"Barack Obama is out of the McGovern wing of the party, and he is part of
the blame America
first crowd." The AP also quoted Republican operative Keith Appell saying that
McCain should "play
up" that he "loves his country" when comparing himself to
"Obama and his role in the anti-war movement." From the AP article:
Sen.
Barack Obama's refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of
him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led
conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism.
Now
Obama's wife, Michelle, has drawn their ire, too, for saying recently that
she's really proud of her country for the first time in her adult life.
Conservative
consultants say that combined, the cases could be an issue for Obama in the general
election if he wins the nomination, especially as he runs against Vietnam war
hero Sen. John McCain.
"The reason it hasn't been an issue so far is that we're
still in the microcosm of the Democratic primary," said Republican
consultant Roger Stone. "Many Americans will find the three things
offensive. Barack Obama is out of the McGovern wing of the party, and he is
part of the blame America
first crowd."
[...]
Officials
with the McCain campaign and the Republican Party say they won't be suggesting
Obama is less than patriotic, and instead plan to focus their criticisms on his
record and inexperience if he wins the nomination. Well-funded outside groups,
however, consider anything fair game.
Conservative Republican consultant Keith Appell, who worked with
the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, said Obama's opposition to the war will
create a "striking contrast between McCain the war hero and Obama the
poster child for the anti-war movement."
"If you are McCain, you want to play up the decorated
war hero, loves his country, served his country," Appell said. "You
want to play those themes up as much as possible, especially in comparison to
Obama and his role in the anti-war movement."
Further, as TPM Media editor and
publisher Josh Marshall noted, on the February 22 edition
of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, Rep.
Jack Kingston (R-GA) also raised the issue of Obama's patriotism, saying that Obama "won't
put an American flag lapel pin on his coat" and falsely claiming that Obama "would not say the Pledge of Allegiance." Kingston went on to assert that we need to know where Obama
"stand[s] on America."
Also during the February 22 Real Time segment, Kingston falsely claimed that Michelle Obama
"hasn't said anything" about her remark, "For the first
time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country. Not just because Barack
is doing well, but I think people are hungry for change." In fact, as the
AP reported on February
20, Mrs. Obama said of those remarks: "What I was clearly talking about
was that I'm proud in how Americans are engaging in the political process.
... For the first time in my lifetime, I'm seeing people rolling up
their sleeves in a way that I haven't seen and really trying to figure
this out -- and that's the source of pride that I was talking
about."
From the 5 p.m. ET hour of the February
24 edition of CNN's Ballot Bowl
'08:
LEVS:
Barack Obama, meanwhile, is fighting something else. Not just something from -- from -- not in this case, something
from the Clinton
campaign, but an email rumor that's out there about him. Look at what he
said today.
OBAMA
[video clip]: First it was my name. Right? That was a problem. And then there
was the Muslim email thing. And that's not -- hasn't worked out so well. And
now it's the patriotism thing.
LEVS:
OK. The patriotism thing. What's going on is that there are some rumors
out there about him, just in general in America, getting sent out by email.
And he has been trying to fight those off. So, you know, thinking
behind Ballot Bowl -- unfiltered,
right? So one thing that we get to do is show you how the candidates reach out
to people -- to potential supporters, to potential voters -- partly on the
stump, but also through their websites. And
what I'm going to show you right
now is how each is using a website to try to fight some of what they say are
lies out there about them.
I'm
going to start off right here, this computer behind me, with Barack Obama, with
what calls his fact check. This is right here. This is him focusing on
patriotism. If you look right here, Barack Obama's fact check website, he lists
over here: focus on religion, focus on patriotism. I've pull up the patriotism
page just to show you how far this has gone. He
lists some of his experience, his grandfather teaching him the Pledge of
Allegiance, because there was a rumor out there about him not putting his hand
on his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance.
So look at this: He actually put up YouTube videos of him
saying the Pledge of Allegiance. That's how far they're going to try to fight
off some of these rumors.
[...]
LEVS:
And, Jim, you know, we've been talking a lot about these complaints, about the
back-and-forth, about how many things they have to face. And it's interesting to note that not only are they
facing, you know, these challenges from each other, but also these broader
rumors out there that aren't necessarily coming from the opposite campaign.
Like what Obama's dealing with today with this patriotism issue.
Some are concerned it could affect either of them in the
general election. Some are concerned they're not sure where these rumors come
from. But not only do they
have to battle what they feel are unfair attacks from each other, but they have
to constantly be battling what they feel are unfair attacks in general out
there in America.
So I
know you're seeing that from the campaigns right there in person. I'm seeing
how they're using their websites to do it. And I'll tell you, they
update those things sometimes every hour because it's that critical to
them at this stage -- Jim.
JIM ACOSTA (anchor): Absolutely, Josh. Thanks for keeping an eye on that. We
appreciate it very much.
From the February 22 edition of
HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher:
KINGSTON: But what she was saying in terms of, "the first time
in my adult life, I'm proud of my country" --
MAHER:
Right.
KINGSTON:
Here's a woman who's, what, Harvard-educated, Yale, married to a U.S. senator, she's done real
well, and now she's proud of her country?
MAHER: Well, I --
KINGSTON: She's proud of it because they're voting for him. That's just, I think, a careless statement to
say. But, you know, she could have jumped up and said, "You know,
that's not what I meant to say, and I'm sorry people are twisting it, and this is politics." But she hasn't said
anything.
MAHER:
But she -- but -- you're right. If she had said, "You know what, I'm prouder than ever in my
country," it would have been better. But then -- see, I have a little experience with this because I once got thrown
off network TV for saying something, and then -- wait a second -- and then the other guy, Ari
Fleischer -- you were probably in the White House when he was the press
secretary for Bush -- he said something just as stupid, you know, just as careless. The
words weren't exactly right. He said, "Americans need to watch what
they say," which sounded like Stalin had taken over our government. You know,
Bill O'Reilly reacted to this by saying, "I'm not going to
lynch her unless the evidence gives that -- ." You know, when
are we going to --
KINGSTON: Bill, Bill, I agree. Listen, I'm in Washington, D.C.,
and I'll tell you, it is paranoid. You are -- you have -- anything you
say --
MAHER:
So let it go.
KINGSTON: -- can be used against you, but the thing that she did not do and still has not done now for three days is to explain what she meant. And it would have been that simple just to say, "You know what, this is a great
country and I'm just proud that people really are getting involved in
this election." That would have been the end of it. Instead, through [David] Axelrod, the campaign
manager, to let him be her spokesman,
they've let this thing grow. And when you combine that with
the fact that the guy would not say the Pledge of Allegiance and won't
put an American lapel pin on his coat, that's things voters
are watching --
MAHER:
Well --
KINGSTON: -- and it's because this Democrat primary --
MAHER: Wait. Wait a second. He won't say the Pledge of
Allegiance?
KINGSTON:
Well, the famous picture of him standing
while Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton have their hand over their heart,
saluting the flag during the Pledge and Obama has his hands deliberately down
-- that is disturbing to Americans.
MAHER:
Deliberately down? He's not like this, is he? [grasps crotch]
KINGSTON: Uh --
MAHER:
He's not doing, like, a Michael Jackson?
KINGSTON: Bill, you know my mama watches this show --
MAHER:
All right. Sorry.
KINGSTON: --
but -- but you know, the concern is -- is -- you know, this guy is applying for the number-one cheerleading slot
for the United States of
America. Where
do they stand on America?
What is their relationship?
MAHER:
Well, that's the question I was originally asking: Is America the greatest
country in the world, bar none? Do we have to think that way? Or is it enough
to just think it's the greatest for us? We live here. I'm not
asking to leave. I don't want to go anywhere else. But why can't America be the greatest country for Americans
and Denmark
be the greatest country for the Danes?
Published: Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:33:22 GMT - Source: Mediamatters.Org - Read the article
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