Bill Maher, al-Qaeda Stooge

I just had to pass along this from Jeff Jarvis by way of Ann Althouse.

Maher tonight says the tape won't affect the election. "Americans know: Osama bin Laden does not pick our President. The Supreme Court does."

Maher says some of the stuff in the bin Laden tape "I swear to God could have come out of the Democratic National Committee or a Kerry speech."Maher starts to read; Gen Wes Clark interrupts -- sensibly -- and doesn't want to seem by silence to be agreeing with that. Maher reads some of bin Laden's statements and the audience -- amazingly --applauds! Maher: "Sometimes you can agree with an evil person. I mean, Hitler was a vegetarian." What the F has become of us? A studio audience is applauding a mass murderer?

Indeed.

I seem to recall that the al-Qaeda tape released earlier this week--the one apparently featuring an American al-Qaeda member--praised Bill Maher. Perhaps this is why. (Hat tip: Lileks)

CBC: First of all I have to ask you something that everyone wants me to ask you which is what are the five things Canadians should know about the American election?

Maher: I don't know about five things but I think what Canadians should know about the American election is that you're lucky you don't live here. You don't have to participate in this sham democracy we have, you know? I mean I could tell you about, I could tell you five ways we don't really have a democracy in this country.

. . . You're being logical, dear. You're not thinking like an American. OK? Johnny Depp said this was a stupid country. And then he made me very mad and he took it back. Well, I say it. I don't take it back. It's stupid. Really stupid. It's about the marketing, don't you know? It's not about what's real. It's about what they market to people. I mean, they wereable to morph bin Laden into Hussein.

. . .

CBC: Why then do people, the polls indicate that this fear is leading more and more people to vote for George Bush or say they're going to vote for George Bush? Why would George Bush be the person they thought they would be safer with?

Maher: I refer back to my answer to question two, stupid country. Stupid. Because he appears to be resolute. He appears to be strong. He clears brush and he looks like the Marlborough Man. If you see him in pictures, he stands… like he's about to draw a gun and he uses cowboy language, and he's from Texas. So to people who don't think it through very much, he looks like a guy who's standing up to the bad guys.

But you have to understand this is an administration that more than any I've ever seen, counts on the intellectual sluggishness of the American population. This is a little learning is a dangerous thing in administration. That's a good thing for them because the American public has a little learning. Very little. But just enough to be a dangerous thing.

The rest of the interview is just as bad. Go read it if you have the stomach for it.

This is what I'd call offering aid and comfort to our enemies. Used to be illegal. To hear some people talk, Ashcroft locks people up for this kind of thing. So far, Maher's still roaming free.

The American people--who Maher referred to, collectively, as "stupid"--should show this idiot just how smart they are and demand that HBO cancel Maher's show.

"Starve the Beast."