Bill Maher pulls the old bait and switch.

fyi, i really didn't like the "token" conservative last night, but he was 100% right about the poverty stuff

bill maher obviously isn't as much of a DEM-liberal as hepushes on his show.he's more anti-GOP for a few reasons

1. he's anti-religion
2. he's pro-drugs
3. he's an environmentalist

other than environmental regulations and some of the "golden" social programs, he really is more of a libertarian

he just plays up the rest to pander to his audience

i'd vote for bill maher long before i voted for john stewart, for instance, who i believe is a true believer

Kamau Bell looked like a fool but it was the audience's non reaction after applauding the comment about not blaming the inner city people that stole the scene.

I don't know... I thought it was a chicken shite move all around... Maher got his digs in that Republicans are racist and then getting his point across about the reality of poverty in the inner city while making appear he's above it all.

It's just a cheap trick from someone with a self entitled view of the world.

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she's into "new age" spiritual bullshite

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I guarantee it.

I cant stand Mahr = douchelord

Maher let the cat out of the bag way too soon (couldn't help himself)

he should have let them rant first

but def exposed proclivity for intolerance by those 2 libs

I saw it live and thought it was pretty funny. Black folks know that there's a certain segment of the Black community that's dysfunctional, but like Maher's guest, some folks are open to receiving tough love from someone within their tribe, but reject it from outsiders. When Bill Cosby started talking about this kind of stuff a few years ago, two of the first people to heap praise on him were Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. By the way, both Barack and Michelle have been pretty consistent about preaching tough love whenever they have an opportunity to address Black audiences, but their right-wing critics fault them for not doing it on bigger stages such as the State of the Union speech, which makes no sense to me.

I've also observed this phenomenon within other groups. For example, just a couple of days ago, J.J. Goldberg wrote a piece entitled A GOP Plan to Save the Jews: Buy White House about Sheldon Adelson which accuses him of contributing to anti-Semitism by perpetuating Jewish stereotypes. If a Gentile wrote a piece like this, he would immediately be slammed as an anti-Semite and likely see his career come to an abrupt end, a la Rick Sanchez.

Then there's a series of speeches that former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad a while back in which he addressed the dysfunction within the Islamic world. One 2003 speech in particular that he gave at the annual Islamic Summit Conference, which is an annual gathering of the leaders of the world's Muslim nation, was particularly tough, criticizing Muslims for things such as ignorance, backwardness, senseless violence and infighting and religious fanaticsm, but got him a standing ovation and praise throughout the Islamic press, but would have no doubt invited a fatwa on his head if he had been an Infidel.

I guess this is all an extension of the mindset that we all have that we can say anything we want about our family members, but we better not hear these things from an outsider.

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that's all very emotional and irrational thinking, though. human? yes. rational? no you have to admit as much

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IMO, tribalism is not a rational human trait, but it is an innate one. It's one of those things within us that enlightened people seek to overcome. For the record, I also believe that greed, dishonesty and polygamy are innate.

As for Paul Ryan's comments, I don't think they were particularly offensive, though I wish he had been more honest in admitting that he was addressing the dysfunction within the Black community. I have no problem with White folks, even Republicans, discussing this issue as long as it's done in a constructive manner, and aren't doing in such a way that it appears they're trying to stick it to us, a la Rush Limbaugh. In the past, I think Republicans like Arlen Specter and Jack Kemp would have had no problem broaching this topic without fear of being accused of being a racist by the more reactionary segments of the Black community.