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Bill Maher: Me Treasonous? You’re the Congressman sitting on your ass while troops are dying.

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 25 May 2005
9 comments

First, I had never heard of Congressman Bachus before this. Now lots of people have heard of him. You’re welcome, Congressman, glad I could help get your Q rating up.

By the way, are we sure he’s really a Congressman? Maybe he’s just a guy with a fax machine. You know how fact checking goes these days.

I could go on and on, but this is too ridiculous, so I’ll just say this: I’m not a congressman, I’m a comedian. There’s nothing I can really do to help or hurt our troops (although anyone who’s watched my shows or read my books in the last twelve years knows I’m a pretty ardent supporter of the military).

But a congressman, there’s someone who can actually DO SOMETHING to help our troops. In fact, a case could be made that it’s a lot more treasonous for someone in his position to be wasting his time yelling at a comedian. Shouldn’t he be training his outrage at such problems as troops not having enough armor? Wouldn’t that ACTUALLY support our troops more? And citizens of this country who claim to support our troops should write this man and tell him GET BACK TO WORK! DO SOMETHING THAT ACTUALLY COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO SOLDIERS IN IRAQ!

And by the way, these "comments" were part of a longer, scripted comedy piece in the modest proposal tradition. I can see why administration supporters would want to deflect attention away from the gist of the piece, which was this: now that we can’t meet our recruiting goals, maybe it’s the people who were so gung ho for this war to begin with who should step up and go fight it. But of course it’s always easier to distract people.

Finally, I would direct the Congressman to chapter 3 of my book "When You Ride Alone, You Ride with bin Laden." The accompanying poster shows a soldier, a cop, a fireman, and a teacher, and says, "We Say They’re Our Heroes...But We Pay Them Like Chumps."

Maybe that’s something else he could look into when he gets done with me.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thebl...

Forum posts

  • I’m surprised that W.’s lackey McLellan hasn’t asked for a retraction from Maher. Bill please, DO NOT APOLOGIZE!! We need to speak the truth no matter how much it hurts their feelings!
    Only then will our troops come home!

  • Bill, to be treasonous is to go AGAINST the interest of your own country, your own people....Hmm, sound like any politicians we know? By all means, keep speaking out. My 20 year-old son is a reservist in the National Guard-now pulling Guard duty Internationally. I am not at all happy about this-this Mom has a degree in this stuff, so I knew when I did my homework we had no business even considering such a move. Quagmire indeed, they were warned. I know plenty of people who warned them, it just didn’t matter. I even sent them a report, I was desperate to prevent this horrible mess they have us in. Cut and Run? No-pack up and go, I say. The everyday people in Iraq DO NOT want American "help", they want us OUT. They were actually safer under a dictator.
    So you ridicule them until they can no longer show their collective ignorant ideologic faces. I won’t miss them, the world will be a better place without them running us all straight into hell.
    Please be sure and point out their own treasonous behavior to the troops and American taxpayers-not to mention the Constitution.

    • ^co sign aboves

      I’ve never been a fan of Maher, but let him continue to speak on these most imporatnt issues, while we are dealing with so much deception from our government and media. They all should be brought before a firing line for their destruction, bloodbath, tyranny of the world for money camapaign. Now that is treason, they sold out American lifes for profit.

    • Do I detect outrage?

      Is everyone getting "Mad as Hell and We’re Not Going To Take It Any More"?

  • spencer bachus needs to resign. he lacks an understanding of the first amendment and he has disgraced himself. until bill maher picks up a machine gun and starts rushing the white house gate this fool who calls himself a politician needs to keep his mouth shut.

    • As someone who lives in Alabama, Spencer Bachus’ home state, please allow me to apologize to the rest of this great nation for the stupidity of this man. From George Wallace to Judge Roy Moore (Now THERE’S a dangerous pinhead) we seem to have a flair for spawning these ignorant, preening embarrassments.
      GO, BILL MAHER! YOU MAKE ME PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.

  • Give ’em hell, Bill !! You go, Bill !! If anyone is attacking you, it is because you are becoming a threat, so attack on with your intellegent, honest wit. The truth will set us free. Everyone keep the faith.

  • I feel very strongly that Congressman Spencer Bachus has every right in the world to say what he said. It’s his right as an American citizen and no harm should come to him for saying it. But... he is wrong, and probably not too smart, and probably has no place representing the good people of the State of Alabama.
    Keep it up, Bill. Don’t let this ignorant, imperialistic bully get you down. You’re just doing what any good American does: SPEAKING YOUR MIND. It’s perfectly legal and, in fact, is the very thing that makes our freedoms so wonderful. It is the duty of any good American to speak out against any and all injustices, be they occurring at home or abroad, and which are, unfortunately, all too often found in our own backyards.
    I agree with your statements (which, by the way, were not much of a declaration, but more observational in nature - just a mild joke) and I think the Congressman from Alabama needs to look up the definition of the word "treason" as defined by American Law. This simply was not a valid case. It wasn’t un-American, it wasn’t treasonous, and it really doesn’t deserve ANY controversy - the statement was quite harmless.
    If Congressman Spencer Bachus truly believes that speaking out against the actions or official stances of your own government is treasonous, perhaps he would be more at home in Nazi Germany - they used to kill folks for such things, didn’t they?
    Bottom line, Bill Maher is an American citizen and he is simply saying out loud what he believes to be true - this is just fine and dandy to do. I encourage everyone - on both sides of any argument - to do this. I promise, you’ll feel better.

  • It’s truly amazing how these nobody congresspeople come out of the woodwork in an attempt to make a name for themselves. Like it or not, Bill Maher’s comments were right on the money. In the volunteer army the military preys on the undereducated, underemployed. From that talent pool, it amazing we don’t have more morons like Lydie England (and she really is a moron).

    Too bad we can’t take back all the lives that have been wasted over there in Iraq and all the billions of dollars that have gone down that shit hole. That money could have been much better spent on our own people here, however, idiots like this congressman would much rather use the old Republican ploy of making noise about things that don’t really matter (pledge of allegiance, school prayer, ten commandments public desplay, comedian’s comments...) rather than keying on the things that really make a difference in the lives of everyday Americans.