Bill Maher, Michael Moore: "America Is Like a Dog"

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Watch: Bill Maher, Michael Moore Discuss Why "America Is Like a Dog"


On last night's Real Time, Bill Maher argued that "America is like a dog. I'm sorry, but it is. It cannot understand actual words. It understands inflection, it understands fear, but you can’t actually explain issues to a dog."

Guest Michael Moore stepped in to somewhat defend his fellow countrymen:

We've had this discussion for many years: your complete lack of faith in your fellow Americans, and my desire to hang on by the last f***ing thread to some piece of optimism. (Laughs) That dog has been horribly abused, and you know what happens when a dog has been abused. The dog gets all insane and does insane things. That dog has been foreclosed upon, that dog doesn’t know if (it's) going to have a job next month.

Watch the whole exchange here: http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/331657/watch%3A_bill_maher%2C_michael_moore_discuss_why_%22america_is_like_a_dog%22/

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Recommend. ( so I can find it later.) n/t

[silverweb]

2. The very sad truth.

:(

[pjahn]

3. Yikes

We will never ever not ever nor at any time win an election when we mistake frustration for stupidity. What exactly makes either Michael Moore or Bill Maher smarter than the average garbage man? Workess have an inordinate amount of common sense and an inordinate desire to vote on their well being rather than ideology. When a president says follow my plan and unemployment will peak at 8% and be down to 7% by July and then goes higher than he predicted it would if nothing was done, his competence comes in to question. We need to consider what pragmatic policies will actually bring the greatest good to the greatest number. Embrace those and we win. Argue against those and we lose. If we build it they will come, if it collapses they will notice.

[marmar]

4. The election's over.....There's no need to linger.

nt

[ProgressiveEconomist]

13. There's always a next election--and it's never too early to start planning for it. See #12 below.

[tavalon]

18. Time to put things behind us?

Sweep the table clean and bipartisanship our way out of this mess?

[NNN0LHI]

6. Bush promised we would find WMDs in Iraq and when we didn't those same idiots still loved him

Hundred thousand dead people later these fucking idiots we are surrounded by reelected him for another term!

Don't give me that common sense line of shit because I am not falling for it.

Don

[Citizen Worker]

7. The same "inordinate amount of common sense" that elected Reagan/Bush twice. This even after voters

said they disagreed with Reagan's policies but they liked him! Good common sense there. Then we elected Bush/Quayle, no further comment needed here. Then the democrats became convinced that they needed to enact policies more closely linked to the republican party so they formed the DLC and rattled the collection in front of the same funders as the republicans. Hence, we have Business Party #1 and Business Party #2 and until we form a SECOND political party so it will be.

Edit: for spelling

[Crunchy Frog]

5. I think he's being somewhat unfair to dogs.

[Greyhound]

8. K&R

[ellisonz]

10. Agreed.

[tavalon]

17. Especially mine, a standard poodle

He has the receptive language of an eight year old and the communication skills of about a three year old. Yeah, no Lincoln, but a damn sight smarter than some of the Faux "News" folks.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. K&R

[BeyondGeography]

11. Maher has a good point, IMO

I think it's part of the reason why many of us want to see Obama dig in on the tax issue. He would have bark and bite, and everyone would understand what the hell he's fighting about. The victories he has won so far are for the moment mostly conceptual (HCR and Fin Reg), and thus easily undone by the Right and its fear mongering.

For Obama, the "inflection" point that has been missing here is assertiveness on an issue that is easily understood.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

12. Maher is spot-on. But he left out that the dog also understands repeated VIDEO loops on Fox "News",

including

--the phoney james/O'Keefe/Andrew Breitbart pimp/ho footage that destroyed one of the most effective advocate organizations for poor people;

--the Air Force One Katrina fly-over footage that finally turned Americans against Dubya's unprecedented incompetence;

(Before the advent of Fox News)

--the racist Lee Atwater/Floyd Brown Wille Hortan revolving-door rapist ad that swept Poppy Bush into office in 1988; and

--the apocalyptic "Daisies" ad that made Barry Goldwater the most recent Republican presidential candidate to lose the white vote.

IMO, what Democrats and the White House should get out of this is the importance of photo-op media management in building back up President Obama's political capital. Hugs from sick people whom healthcare reform has helped; ribbon-cuttings at completion of dramatic infrastructure projects with stimulus funds; applause from firefighters whose jobs were saved by the stimulus; and the like should be the ONLY new footage the media gets of the President on most days the next two years.

[Initech]

14. Jon Stewart was right when he said our media has the attention span of the dog from Up.

[Festivito]

15. Dog that understands inflections and fear not actual words, not issue explainations.

The swing votes determine our elections, and this description is not so far off the mark. People are not thinking.

BTW, I completely re-edited this post. I hope I create no problem.

[proteus_lives]

16. A dog they love because it watches their shows and buys their movies.

:eyes: