Watched Bill Maher earlier this evening

[question everything]

I know that many here attack him but, really, this is his show and he chooses what he wants to attack and how. He certainly attacks Bush. That he does not follow 100% the party line - that's his only chance not to be a caricature of Bill O'Rilley from the left.

In spite of myself I found myself agreeing with Tucker Carlson when he debated Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones. She defended the custom by some Muslims refusing to shake hands with women, also defended Ward Churchill's right to express his opinion.

Yet, when Carlson asked her whether she would still hold her opinion if some would refuse to shake hands with women, or if Churchill would attack blacks, she bristled and was really losing it but I did not think that she explained the difference - which I would find it hard to do myself.

Can anyone here do, without personally attacking me?

Tim Robbins, on the other hand, was really good in turning the "Hollywood sending a message" on its head. And Stephanie Tubbs-Jones was great when she said that the death penalty is a revenge killing, and Carlson even agreed with that.

I also did not see anything wrong with Maher wishing for more conservatives in the audience so that some of his comments would be booed instead of applauded.

Since when is Tucker Carlson on PBS? I thought that his camp would like to shut PBS and NPR and any other programs that rely on public funding..

[mermaid]

1. Tucker Carlson?

Don't you mean FUCKER Carlson??

[Syrinx]

2. first two Realtimes this season have been disappointing

On that one, I didn't know if I should be mad at STJ or feel sorry for her. A bit of both I guess. She gave a poor performance. Hate to say it, but Carlson was more convincing.

[question everything]

4. Thank you. This was what I thought

Carlson was not as obnoxious as he used to be on Crossfire.. perhaps because he knew he was in the minority

[mermaid]

5. Crossfire Is Where I Learned

to hate FUCKER Carlson.

I haven't called him anything but FUCKER Carlson since the first time I ever saw him.

[w13rd0]

6. Read what David Brock says concerning Tucker...

...he's more of a libertarian (i think he mentioned that). He just does the shtick for the paycheck. So in other words, he's another payola pundit whore.

[mountainvue]

8. Last night was bad. Maher wants more conservatives

to watch his show and sit in his audience. At this rate, he'll just be losing viewers. Or maybe someone is sweetening the pot for him. He is being sued for 10 mil by his former g/f.
He also has the frustrating problem of being about one week behind the news cycle. Does he stop reading the paper on Sunday?
He needs to realize that there are a plethora of shows where we can watch the cons spew their b.s.
He needs to be a little more appreciative of his existing audience, IMO.

[Syrinx]

9. I agree with you

Still was disappointed with Stephanie Tubbs-Jones -- and Tim Robbins for that matter -- he seemed like he was stoned or hungover.

[pacalo]

3. Tucker Carlson got canned by CNN,

which was one small, bright shining moment in their decision-making in the past 4 and 1/6 years.

My take on the Stephanie Tubbs-Jones' reaction to Tucker Carlson's analogy of blacks/Muslims on the hand-shaking custom was that Tubbs-Jones was put off by Carlson's questioning & rapid-speak for which he is so well-known. I applauded her response to him: That she didn't like his cross-examination of her; if he wanted to discuss it, he could have her on his program.

[Syrinx]

17. but that was, supposedly, why she was there

For a discussion.

[a7244270]

7. I also thought he seemed ok.

I was surprised myself, I thought he seemed very reasonable. Based on this, and the Crossfire thing, I think he just does the schtick for the paycheck. I'm guessing there is not too many job openings for libertarians on TV these days, so he does what he has to do.

[question everything]

10. So it seems

And, I suppose, after that bitter election season, there is not much left for the various pundits to do.

Bush won and we are stuck with him for 4 years. So all the Gannons and the tapes and the deficits and the increasing gaps in the economic strata are not going to do much of anything.

And it is not as if we see any Democrats seizing any new ideas to, at least, make a difference in the 2006 elections.

[newyawker99]

11. Hi a7244270!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[a7244270]

14. thanks

:)

[robbedvoter]

12. Party line? I'd be happy if the 'party line" would be that torture, war is

unacceptable. I may even still be a democrat.
I gasp at the disrespect F*er and Maher showed Stephanie Tubbs - the congresswoman who challenged the election theft.
Sure Maher can put whatever he wants in his show. But not expect my patronage. And betting on right wingers to take my place just shows how clueless he is. Yep. Dennis Miller has been wildly succesful!

[justiceischeap]

13. As far as Stephanie Tubbs-Jones is concerned

The point she was trying to make on the Muslim issue was that the US needs to understand other religions and not force our form of it down people's throats.

I also believe Churchill had the right to say what he said, I don't agree but he still had the right. Tucker's argument was lame when trying to bring in the race card. People defame black people on a daily basis; Trent Lott, Strom Thurmond anyone? It doesn't matter where they work, they have the "freedom" to say it. They also then will face the consequences of what they say.

When we try to legislate what people should believe or what is appropriate to say, we begin treading in dangerous waters. That was proven with the Patriot Act when they guy in California said something Anti-Bush and one of the guys at the gym called the FBI on him. I seem to recall many people being outraged about that. Do I believe a Muslim man shouldn't shake a woman's hand? No, but Muslim's do and what already has us in a great deal of trouble is not understanding other people's cultures and religions. You can't change what you don't understand and you can't cry foul when someone says something that offends your sensibilities and not expect the same to be done of you.

[question everything]

15. Interesting comments

This is where I felt ambivalent.

On the one had I agree with STJ that we cannot condemn other cultures because they behave in a different ways than we do. When the first reports of Abu Ghraib surfaced I commented that it was worse for devout Muslims to be humiliated by a woman. And now we hear about sexual taunting at GTMO.

But I would like to have a better response to Carlson about "what if Muslims refuse to shake hands of black?" Is it relevant? If not, why not?

And same with Ward Churchill. If we support his right to say the most revolting comments, should we extend a similar right to racist professors under the umbrella of free speech, especially in academia?

Again, if this is not relevant why not? I really don't know.

[Toucano]

16. Maher is an Independent, just like Michael Moore. n/t

[theboss]

18. Tucker's PBS show is really good

It's unfortunate that he got stuck on Crossfire, because he's a lot more thoughtful than that. Of course, he took the paycheck and whored himself out to be a caricature so that says something about his charater. But he can be one of the conservative talking heads I actually enjoy listening to.