posted September 07, 2009 04:53 PM         

New Rule: Smart President- Smart Country
Bill Maher, HuffPo
August 7, 2009

New Rule: Just because a country elects a smart president doesnt make it a smart country.

A few weeks ago I was asked by Wolf Blitzer if I thought Sarah Palin could get elected president, and I said I hope not, but I wouldn't� put anything past this stupid country. It was amazing - in the minute or so between my calling America stupid and the end of the Cialis commercial, CNN was flooded with furious emails and the twits hit the fan. And you could tell that these people were really mad because they wrote entirely in CAPITAL LETTERS!!! It�is how they get the blood circulating when the Cialis wears off. Worst of all, Bill O'Reilly refuted my contention that this is a stupid country by calling me a pinhead, which A) proves my point, and B) is really funny coming from a doody-face like him.

Now, the hate mail all seemed to have a running theme: that I may live in a stupid country, but they lived in the greatest country on earth, and that perhaps I should move to another country, like Somalia. Well, the jokes on them because I happen to have a summer home in Somalia� and no I cant show you an original copy of my birth certificate because Woody Harrelson spilled bong water on it.

And before I go about demonstrating how, sadly, easy it is to prove the dumbness dragging down our country, let me just say that ignorance has life and death consequences. On the eve of the Iraq War, 69% of Americans thought Saddam Hussein was personally involved in 9/11. Four years later, 34% still did. Or take the health care debate we�are presently having: members of Congress have recessed now so they can go home and �listen to their constituents.� An urge they should resist because their constituents dont know anything. At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to �keep your government hands off my Medicare,� which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.

Im the bad guy for saying its a stupid country, yet polls show that a majority of Americans cannot name a single branch of government, or explain what the Bill of Rights is. 24% could not name the country America fought in the Revolutionary War. More than two-thirds of Americans dont know whats in Roe v. Wade. Two-thirds dont know what the Food and Drug Administration does. Some of this stuff you should be able to pick up simply by being alive. You know, like the way the Slumdog kid knew about cricket.

Not here. Nearly half of Americans dont know that states have two senators and more than half cant name their congressman. And among Republican governors, only 30% got their wife�fs name right on the first try.

Sarah Palin says she would never apologize for America. Even though a Gallup poll says 18% of Americans think the sun revolves around the earth. No, theyre not stupid. Theyre interplanetary mavericks. A third of Republicans believe Obama is not a citizen, and a third of Democrats believe that George Bush had prior knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, which is an absurd sentence because it contains the words �Bush� and �knowledge.�

People ***** and moan about taxes and spending, but they have no idea what their government spends money on. The average voter thinks foreign aid consumes 24% of our federal budget. Its actually less than 1%. And dont even ask about cabinet members: seven in ten think Napolitano is a kind of three-flavored ice cream. And last election, a full one-third of voters forgot why they were in the booth, handed out their pants, and asked, �Do you have these in a relaxed-fit?�

And I havent even brought up Americas religious beliefs. But heres one fun fact you can take away: did you know only about half of Americans are aware that Judaism is an older religion than Christianity? Thats right, half of America looks at books called the Old Testament and the New Testament and cannot figure out which one came first.

And these are the idiots we want to weigh in on the minutia of health care policy? Please, this country is like a college chick after two Long Island Iced Teas: we can be talked into anything, like wars, and we can be talked out of anything, like health care. We should forget town halls, and replace them with study halls. Theres a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at? Their fellow citizens. �Inside the beltway� thinking may be wrong, but at least its thinking, which is more than you can say for whats going on outside the beltway.

And if you want to call me an elitist for this, I say thank you. Yes, I want decisions made by an elite group of people who know what they�fre talking about. That means Obama budget director Peter Orszag, not Sarah Palin.

Which is the way our founding fathers wanted it. James Madison wrote that �pure democracy� doesnt work because �there is nothing to check� an obnoxious individual.� Then, in the margins, he doodled a picture of Joe the Plumber.

posted September 07, 2009 05:12 PM         

Wolf Blitzer would do well to transfer to the CNN traffic and weather dept. He's a bust attempting to deliver the faux news CNN has a reputation for dispensing.

Intellectually, Sarah Palin has them all faded..both individually and collectively.

Palin drove a stake through O'Bomber's plans for a Socialist Health Care System with only 2 words..."Death Panel" and O'Bomber and the jerks he's surrounded himself with haven't recovered and aren't likely to recover.

If their total intellectual horsepower..O'Bomber, Maher and Blitzer, were combined you'd still have a mid double digit IQ.

But, this is what one would expect when non-thinkers get in control of anything. A total F-up and the proof is there slapping everyone in the face.

posted September 07, 2009 11:38 PM         

I remember when Dan Quayle added an (e) to potato and the press when nuts. For months they obsessed over Quayle's spelling error.

On the other hand, when O'Bomber says he's visited 57 states with one to go and says further he's not visiting Alaska or Hawaii there was absolute silence on the part of the O'Bomber statist media.

Lets see how that adds up.
States O'Bomber has visited=57
States still to go.........= 1
States not to be visited...= 2
-------------------------------
Total states in O'Bomber's US=60

Now. thats news to most of us in America.

posted September 09, 2009 10:03 AM         

A funny tale about recession?
This Story is about a man who once upon a time was selling Hotdogs by the roadside. He was illiterate, so he never read newspapers. He was hard of hearing, so he never listened to the radio. His eyes were weak, so he never watched television. But enthusiastically, he sold lots of hotdogs. He was smart enough to offer some attractive schemes to increase his sales. His sales and profit went up.

He ordered more a more raw material and buns and use to sale more. He recruited few more supporting staff to serve more customers. He started offering home deliveries. Eventually he got himself a bigger and better stove. As his business was growing, the son, who had recently graduated from College, joined his father. Then something strange happened.

The son asked, "Dad, aren't you aware of the great recession that is coming our way?" The father replied, "No, but tell me about it." The son said, "The international situation is terrible. The domestic situation is even worse. We should be prepared for the coming bad times." The man thought that since his son had been to college, read the papers, listened to the radio and watched TV. He ought to know and his advice should not be taken lightly. So the next day onwards, the father cut down the his raw material order and buns, took down the colourful signboard, removed all the special schemes he was offering to the customers and was no longer as enthusiastic.

He reduced his staff strength by giving layoffs. Very soon, fewer and fewer people bothered to stop at his hotdog stand. And his sales started coming down rapidly, same is the profit. The father said to his son, "Son, you were right". "We are in the middle of a recession and crisis. I am glad you warned me ahead of time."

smart and education......two different things.

posted September 09, 2009 11:25 AM         

that goes for anybody......not just Obama....not just Quayle.....people like Bush......every person who has a language issue whether it be speaking,reading,writing,listening.

that's why I am advocate for awareness and understanding learning/neurological differences.

Raymond

------------------
"Nothing matters absolutely;
the truth is it only matters relatively"

posted September 09, 2009 02:20 PM         

and find it interesting that while some criticize the government for scaring people into not spending, they are doing the very same thing to protect themselves against the possible "success" of this administration.

in other words the ones who understand the dynamic of scaring yourself into failure are convinced that without their help pulling it down this administration might succeed in pulling us OUT of the slump and THAT would be the end of the world, just because they have been told to be afraid of what MIGHT happen next.

posted September 09, 2009 06:15 PM         

quote:

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I would hate for some intellectual snob to insinuate that I am stupid because of my mistakes with language.

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When it really gets funny Raymond is when you get a bunch of English Profs together [hopefully in a bar I have a decidedly Taurean funny bone] fighting [arguing] about proper use, as English rules of language contradict.