Bill Maher's New Rules - on elitism

Last night's New Rules on Real Time With Bill Maher was one of his best segments in recent memory. His joke about Pope Benedict was funny, but I loved his slamming the Blockbuster/Circuit City deal. Great! My boycott list will shrink by one - now two companies I hate and will never frequent are getting married. I'm not sending a gift.

But, as usual, his best New Rule was saved for last, and it was about McCain.

The highlights:

If you think the Democrats are going to take away your Bible, you're an idiot. If you think they are going to take away your gun, you're an armed idiot. And if you think they are going to take away your gun to give to a Mexican immigrant to kill your God, you're Bill O'Reilly.

[Snip]

...The truth is that religion, and guns, and hating gays and immigrants are crutches that people lean on. So are fast food, crystal meth and child beauty pageants, but we don't have time to tackle all of America's addictions in one night. So let's focus on the big thing. The people who claim to be the non-elitists, are the ones who shift tax burdens from the people who fire you, to you. [Emphasis Mine] John McCain voted to repeal the estate tax, voted against raising the minimum wage, has no health care plan, and is fine with keeping the working class in Iraq for 100 years, but he's a real man of the people. And the president went to Harvard and Yale and inherited your country from his dad, but he's not an elitist because he can neither read nor write. What does it take to label someone an elitist these days, anyway? They wear shoes? They don't buy their groceries at the gas station? Their dog has a name and their truck doesn't? You know who's bitter in America? I am! Because shit kickers voted twice for a retarded guy they wanted to have a beer with, and the rest of us had to suffer the consequences.

Television gold. Don't think a small part of me didn't say to myself (okay, a very small part of me) that the people of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast deserved the shoddy treatment the government gave them following Hurricane Katrina because Bush carried both of those states, twice. I bet they'll think twice this time, won't they? That's if McCain doesn't work like crazy to suppress the vote in poor areas, which the Republican Party was so tragically effective at in 2000 and 2004. We'll see.