The Death Star is ready-DU BrownShirtSociety

[Et in Arcadia ego]

You have to wonder when 'liberals' start vocally praising the ejection of an audience heckler, heaping scorn and expressing desires to see them 'added to the databases', you have to wonder if the training of the people is nearing completion.
__________________

Maher Audience a Real Pain

Kevin Parry/WireImage.com Photo
On this night, at the diametricallly opposed end of a luxury lounge
There was Bill Maher, chatting with his Friday, October 19th panel – L.A. Times and Time Magazine columnist Joel Stein, Hardball TV host Chris Matthews and Texas Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee – when the perils of doing one of television’s few live programs reared its ugly head. From the audience, a male individual started shouting incomprehensibly about the idea that the 9/11 terrorist attacks were in fact controlled government explosions. (Maher has vocally opposed that view.) “Sometimes here at CBS, I wish the sound wasn’t working,” Maher wryly deadpanned, referring to an earlier episode of the 2007 season during which there were major audio problems, forcing Maher at one point to use a hand-held mike. As the audience objector continued, Maher’s mood changed. “Hey, do we have some f*cking security in this building? Or do I have to come over and kick this guy’s ass out of here?” Sure enough, Maher then bounded from the stage and stormed up the aisle, arriving in time to watch the man try to unfurl a banner and CBS security finally hauling him away. But it wasn’t over quite yet. After Maher returned to his chair and observed, “Is it that hard to throw someone out of a building?”, a woman’s shouting voice could then be heard, accusing the comedian of 'cowardice.' “I’ll kick your ass out of here too,” Maher promised in a very assured politically incorrect tone. “This isn’t the Iowa caucus; it’s not a debate,” Maher continued. “It’s a debate between us [he and the three-person panel]. You’re in the audience; audience comes from the Latin, 'To listen.'” But it was Stein who had the best Maher-style last word zinger. “I was only allowed two guests, so things should be OK after this,” he joked. A third burst of audience interruption then briefly ebbed and flowed before CBS Television City security staff wrapped up a very busy night. "Don't be gentle with him," Maher advised. "Ass kicking is what's called for."
___________________

Ok, so this was kinda shitty, but THIS is where we plummet into the Twilight Zone. DU members' comments follows:

He had a person yapping a week or two ago, too. That's so irritating. nt

I hope that at least their names and fingerprints and addresses were now added to whatever data bases exist. Let them experience the encounter with police.

I - and others - turn to the show to listen to Maher and to his guests, not to some nut cases.

I agree 100%!!

because of these hecklers, it distracted from the real debate on the stage!!

I was glad Bill did what he did!! If he had let it go on, that would make it easier for the next group of hecklers or protestors to get some attention!!

I enjoyed his response to those shitheads, myself.

He shouldn't take any crap. It's his show, and his lecture on the meaning of the word 'audience'--while brief--was most succinct.

Well hell! All I can say is the folks that cut up

in the audience better be glad this was not a bushit event or they would find themselves jailed and waiting deportation of Gitmo.....

Shame security didn't toss them sooner.

Bill Maher used the most direct, engaged, serious (not
overbearing or without humanity) manor in dealing with the
"hecklers" in the audience tonight. While I am not
always a fan of how Mr. Maher goes after his invited guests,
his right to defend the sanctity[Arcadia: WTF?!] of the show was justified and his comments showed rather good graces, as far as I'm
concerned.

9/11 conspiracy stuff isn't "liberal," it's nutcase. nt

________________________________

"You may fire when ready..."

[theeKultleeder]

At least Geraldo had a chair thrown in his face.

Those twits are hardly "liberal" or "progressive." They are "Democrats" demographic, and they want their entertainment without the intrusion of reality.

[slow_dazzle]

Ok, maybe whoever made the fuss was just frustrated and wanted to alert the good people to 9/11 truth (trademark registration pending)

Whatever the reasons for the fuss the consequences are identical. It's not people like us who are put off by the outburst; it's the majority of people who haven't even heard of COINTELPRO. Like 99.99999...ad infinitum% of my friends. This isn't like shooting the movement in the foot...it's more like shooting it in the head...with both barrels.

I rarely get asked to parties these days. Sometimes my friends ask me if I've ever tried Lithium.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

I rarely get asked to parties these days. Sometimes my friends ask me if I've ever tried Lithium.

[Sepka]

Bill Maher and his audience were peacefully assembled, engaging in an orderly and legal activity, and these clowns did their best to disrupt it. Ultimately it doesn't matter what the disruptive people were trying to say, or even if they had any message at all. It says a lot about the "Truthers", I think, that these are the tactics that seem most natural to them.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

I don't really care what the message was from the hecklers; my point is the DU community, constantly freaking out and bitching impotently about the rise of the Fourth Reich rising in their midst are well on their own ways to being brown shirts themselves..

[sunny]

I don't really care what the message was from the hecklers; my point is the DU community, constantly freaking out and bitching impotently about the rise of the Fourth Reich rising in their midst are well on their own ways to being brown shirts themselves..

Cindy Sheehan and Code Pink are singled out for special scorn at places like Dkos and FDL. These people are sitting there typing on their computers, "calling, writing, and faxing their representatives" while Cindy and Code Pink are out there doing something. Some of them even claim to be baby boomers who participated in anti-Vietnam War protests, but these people have no idea what real activism looks like. They don't know from putting their bodies on the line, engaging in civil disobedience and getting arrested. They go on and on about how dire our situation is, but they continue to sit there, ridiculing people who are doing something. They actively discourage participation in protest marches. It makes. me. sick.

[Sepka]

The people who are calling, writing and faxing are the people who are making a difference, and getting something done for their side, for good or ill. Most of the protesters seem to have this kind of cargo-cult like idea that re-enacting the sorts of protests that took place in the sixties will somehow return political discourse to where it was in the sixties. Those are the older ones. The remainder are pretty much college kids who are having fun marching around outside, roleplaying at being anti-war activists like the ones their parents and grandparents used to talk about.

[slow_dazzle]

...in a lecture he gave shortly after 9/11.

He said (something like) "If you think you should write to your Senator, buy a straitjacket and some Lithium, go home and leave me alone".

It's a pity his pompous and self congratulatory manner puts many people off him. He got closer to the truth than anyone.

"The pump don't work because the vandals took the handle".

DU? "Love me, I'm a Liberal". With a tip of the hat to the late, great Phil Ochs.

EiAE...that thing in the jar is well creepy.

[sunny]

Yeah, all that calling and faxing has really made a difference.

[IanEye]

"How's your Paranoia, Brian?" - Bob Dylan

et - I am sure the thought has crossed your mind, but reading what you have assembled here, the whole thing smacks to me of the 60 Minutes Bush TANG thing. Where the whole thing is a set-up and every aspect is controlled by the same PuppetMaster.

Meaning, Mr. Maher knew the hecklers would be there, knew their "agenda", because it was from the same Pro Wrestling script he was reading from.

The DU bloggers unsuing comments? Paid for by the same people, much as the "hey, Rather's lying because the font wasn't around then, blah blah" comments were paid for.

Again, perhaps my mind is too steeped in paranoia. But I frequent a blog where I am supposed to give actual credence to the idea that Sidney Aaron Chayefsky was a CIA stooge and all of the talent and effort that went into making the film "Network" was merely to provide a distraction from an article in Rolling Stone about Mockingbird. All of this in '77, Carter's first year in office.

The same Rolling Stone that in 1981, Reagan's first year in office, ran full page ads in all of the Trade mags stating "Perception - Reality".

Under the Perception title was a pic of a bong toting hippie. Under the Reality title was a pic of Reagan at the mic. Below all of this was the copy that informed the potential buyers of ad space in Rolling stone that, despite many people's perception of the magazine, the reality was the majority of their readers voted for Reagan. So, "Hey, corporate America!! Don't hesitate to buy ad space here and shill your razor blades and deodorant!!"

In the end, the "Truth" of the matter is a synthesis. RS readers did smoke a lot of pot and a lot of them voted for Reagan. Just ask Ann Coulter the next time you see her at a RatDog concert. Especially if the venue is Bohemian Grove, I hear those tickets are real hard to come by.

I guess the point I am trying to make is that as a faithful RI reader, I try to be as rigorous as I can be. How deep can I go when I ponder the whole "Politically Incorrect" heckler flap? As deep as I go when I become wary of someone who wants me to cry foul at "Network" in order to support a magazine that in '85, Reagan's first year of his second term, was actually trying to get me to consider Michael J Fox, Don Johnson, and Bruce Willis as viable musical alternatives. There they were on the cover of RS, month in, month out, with guitars in their hands.

At which point, I told Rolling Stone to go fuck itself and bought something called SPIN, a magazine put out by a pornographer's son which, in the first issue I bought, had an article by Geza X which taught me point by point how to "DIY" make my own music and put it out myself. I should also be honest and say that I had never heard of the Stooge's "Fun House" album until I read an article in SPIN by Henry Rollins that was so laudatory of the album I had to check it out myself.

These days when I happen to pick up an issue of SPIN I usually say to myself, "this magazine sucks now", and Rollins is doing voice over gigs for GM. such is Life. Hi - Ho.

Evil forces infiltrate spaces constantly. Sometimes they even infiltrate spaces they already "own". Be rigorous. Be intuitive.

The well you drank fresh water from a year ago may now be poisoned.

Things fall apart.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

The DU bloggers unsuing comments? Paid for by the same people, much as the "hey, Rather's lying because the font wasn't around then, blah blah" comments were paid for.

I don't doubt there's some 'massaging' going on at DU; there's just too many PR firms offering their 'perception services' as such.

[theeKultleeder]

Meaning, Mr. Maher knew the hecklers would be there, knew their "agenda", because it was from the same Pro Wrestling script he was reading from.

That doesn't make any sense to me. It is already too easy to spin and manipulate everything. The type of operation you speak of strikes me as pointless.

It's like saying that dude mouth-offed to Kerry so some guy on the internet could sell "Don't Tase Me Bro" t-shirts.

[sunny]

IanEye, I agree with much of what you say, but basically what you posit would have us believe there are no real people out there willing to cause a ruckus, and no real "left" people on the internet willing to ridicule others who are ostensibly reaching for the same goals they are.

[Et in Arcadia ego]

Influencing opinion isn't an art; its a science perfected decades ago, You don't need an army of manipulators; only one or two for good results, especially in a society where critical thought has been bred out of the populace.