Posted on 05/24/2005 2:39:39 AM PDT by kingattax
WASHINGTON -- A congressman says comedian Bill Maher's comment that the U.S. military has already recruited all the "low-lying fruit" is possibly treasonous and at least grounds to cancel the show.
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., takes issue with remarks on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, first aired May 13, in which Maher points out the Army missed its recruiting goal by 42 percent in April.
"More people joined the Michael Jackson fan club," Maher said. "We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies."
Army Reserve Pfc. England was accused of abusing prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
"I think it borders on treason," Bachus said. "In treason, one definition is to undermine the effort or national security of our country."
In a statement released Monday night, Maher defended his support for the American armed forces.
"Anyone who knows anything about my views and has watched my show knows that I have nothing but the highest regard for the men and women serving this country around the world," Maher said in the statement.
Bachus said he was appalled after watching a rerun of the show shortly after returning from a visit to Germany, in which he met with a paralyzed American soldier in the hospital. He has since written to Time Warner, HBO's parent company.
"I don't want (Maher) prosecuted," Bachus said. "I want him off the air."
Numerous television stations pulled Maher's previous show, "Politically Incorrect," from the air in September 2001 after he argued terrorists weren't cowards when they slammed airplanes into the World Trade Center a week earlier. Maher later apologized.
Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Alabama)
Do you have a working link for this story? Thanks.
Any respect I could possibly have faked for Maher died the day that he was slobbering all over Ward Churchill, and actually trying to feed him his lines.
Qwinn
i click on the link i gave and i get the article i posted.....i'm lost about a problem with the link
Yeah, he is. But this is the United States of America, and he has a right to be an obnoxious little goober. His remarks never came close to being treasonous. The Congressman is grandstanding -- a long tradition down here (c.f. Judge Roy Moore).
"We've done picked all the low-lying Lynndie England fruit, and now we need warm bodies."
It's bad taste but hardly treason. I'm sure I've read things in the old National Lampoon magazine that make Maher's remarks read like "God Bless America." We on the right have to avoid the same PC trap that stifles speech on the left. In humor there are no sacred cows.
The link you originally provided was routed through the blog, "Dave's Daily" which then was linked to a another story, which had a different title and different content.
The link which you clicked on above is the link which was found after an online search using Google and then edited in place of your incorrect link through the blog.
Please be sure to use the correct source name, title and link when posting an article.
Do not change the title, the source name, or pass a story linked through a blog such as "Dave's Daily" in any attempt to bypass copyright rules. Thanks.
Disagree totally. It is high time that someone starts using the word treason. It has been done by the MSM over and over again, Dan Rather and Newsweek for examples. Where is the outrage over our men dying for us while the MSM are doing everything in their power to destroy this country?
Ditto, but he does have the right to say things that reveal him to be . He's a lot more smug but, like most liberals, not nearly as smart as he thinks he is. Calling him an obnoxious little goober is a fitting decription. It's also a slur on obnoxious goobers everywhere (ha,ha,).
deScription....not decription.
Please, someone out there on the left coast - HELP ME!!
"Borders on treason."
Honestly, not hyperbolically, given things Ted Kennedy has gotten away with saying, I sincerely wonder what it would take to get OVER that border anymore.
Dan
just4me
The Armed Forces wouldn't sign up that little maggot Maher, so what does that make him?
Pure bullsh*t! Several years ago, a few months after we had invaded Afganistan following 9/11, on Maher's previous show, Politically Incorrect, he criticized the Bush administration for moving too slowly in that country. We should use more GIs and depend less on the Northern Alliance and other Afgans. This was OK because the American public was in such a mood that they would accept higher casualty counts.
In other words, according to Maher, we should prosecute the war in such a way that more GIs would be killed just to get it over sooner. That is the "highest regard" he holds for the military!
My mouth dropped open! Literally. None of the four guests he had on that program said a thing about his comment, nor was there a peep from the audience. I couldn't believe it; still can't. That was the last time I watched Bill Maher. I won't watch him today. Wish I had a transcript.
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