"Real Time" Update

Finally…

I already referred to Anderson Cooper earlier in another post and his excellent interview on “Real Time,” though it seemed as if he wanted to make another point before Maher cut him off. Also, climatologist Stephen Schneider stated that most of his peers in the field have accepted global warming as a reality and have taken it as a given that it played a part in Hurricane Katrina. Schneider said that even a temperature fluctuation of one to two degrees in the water can turn a bad hurricane into something like Katrina, and we can't keep dumping garbage into the atmosphere from our industrial processes and not expect that to happen.

The panel discussion guests last Friday night were writers Michael Eric Dyson and Mary Frances Berry, both of whom are African American, and actor Bradley Whitford from “The West Wing,” who is not.

(Rep. Marsha Blackburn, a Repug from Tennessee, was scheduled to appear but didn’t, though Berry filled in well I thought. I’m sure Blackburn was supposed to be the token Bush apologist, though I don’t see how anyone could have performed that task in the aftermath of Katrina. Maher started the discussion by acknowledging that there were three liberals on the panel, or words to that affect, and he knew someone would complain that there was no conservative, but for tonight, given the fallout from Katrina, he didn’t care. As it was, everyone blasted Bushco and FEMA for their incompetence.)

Michael Eric Dyson also took on Bill Cosby, saying you don't hear a thing from Cosby for years and years about race, though he's donated and helped behind the scenes, but suddenly he comes out and makes critical remarks towards blacks. Chris Rock is popular on race, for example, because he says critical things about both blacks and whites.

Maher said later, again, that he couldn’t find anyone to absolve Bush, and Berry defended Bush a bit because the state disaster plan, which wasn't followed or maybe even created properly, wasn't his responsibility. Maher also made a remark to the effect of Bush congratulating himself at the end of the day after he arrived on the scene “for hugging so many Negroes today” which brought forth a few chortles.

Maher also spoke with commentator Fareed Zakaria via satellite, and Zakaria said, about Iraq, that even though the scenario isn't as rosy as Bush says, it's still interesting and encouraging to see the religious factions in Iraq trying to work together on a constitution (and Maher also mentioned how first we wanted the Sunnis out when we disbanded the military, then decided at the last minute that we'd better get them back into the picture, and what a goof that was).

In a comedy bit about how the drug makers are opposing the “Plan B” morning after pill, Maher came up with some suggested products that the drug makers might want to market themselves ("Pepto Jizz No" or something was amusing).

Bradley Whitford came up with some good lines, I thought, saying that, because of the general absence of Democratic leadership vs. the Republicans, it’s like “a jazz fusion band vs. The Rolling Stones,” which was a bit clever I thought. Also, since the answer to everything for the Republicans seems to be tax cuts, Whitford stated that, to all these co-called Christians, “tax cuts are their Jesus.” Maher responded that (and I’m paraphrasing), speaking of Him, if he came back now, speaking out about helping the poor, against war and against corporate greed, they would think he's a lazy hippie, a skinny Michael Moore.

It was a good show, but as I said earlier, without much fireworks.