a foreign-relations policy that makes sense! Thank you Bill!

Bill, you're back in my good graces if you stay away from Ann Coulter and stop enabling her as a guest on your show. Try dating a nice liberal woman and putting her on your show all season long. Maybe Joan? Arianna?

I have to wonder how long people in other places in the world can go on holding a distinction between America's policy and American people. At some point, they ought to take us seriously about being a democracy that represents its people. And in that case, I think they are right to hold us (the citizens) responsible for our government.

I gotta admit, not being from the USA, I certainly wondered about you all when you re-elected him. He's is the worst of every cliche about the stupid boorish American, and you chose him to represent you to the world. The first time, I was pretty sure he and his brother had pulled a fast one on you (although why there wasn't an immediate public dethroning I couldn't figure out, since your Constitution gives you the right to rebel against an unjust government). But then, when you did it twice, I figured you really meant it, and that in the middle of the world, a vast scary blob of people really did think like him. So to hear people like Bill Maher make fun of him, gives me hope that a small seed of sanity still resides in your country, and possibly you can stop him before he makes your country into Gilead and we have to do underground railroads for Handmaids. I think if you really want to send a message to the world, boot him and his core band of crazy authoritarians out before they do any more damage to the Republican brand (although it's pretty much toast...the Libertarians might have to start their own party, and then you can have a splintered mess of opposing factions like we have here in Canada!)

Muslim attacks on us began with George W Bush? Or with the Iraq war?

I see - so all we have to do is disavow Bush and the Iraw war and then Muslims will no longer attack us. Hmmm.

Tell you what, Bill. You are big on the whole courage vs cowardice continuum, right? I mean, that is what got you kicked you off of network TV. Let's see if you have the courage to criticize Islam, in public. See if you can avoid the fate of the other public figures who the courage to do that, rather than attack Bush (no real courage needed there, Bill, is there?)

Thanks Bill!

It's always refreshing to read criticisms of Bush.

Mr. Mahrer speculates "Maybe the reason they haven't attacked us again is they figured we're already suffering enough."

I think he's right. At this point, the terrorists have clearly won. The United States has shucked off its own Bill of Rights, disavowed the Geneva Conventions, embraced torture and secret prisons, and given up diplomacy for unprovoked invasions.

Under the Bush Administration, the United States, as we think of it, is dead. And it's a tremendous victory for Osama bin Laden.

I won't pull any punches here... I HATE Bill Maher. On his HBO show he comes off as a pompus patronizing wind-bag who takes pleasure in making broad generalizations about anyone who might think differently. He is just a smug comment away from being the liberal answer for Sean Hannity.

But his brief editorial in today's Salon has earned him big credits towards re-entering society in my humble opinion. He speaks to the need for a dissenting voice so eloquently that I almost winced when I reacted with pride in his position. Almost.

I think one of the things that gives the left (of center in my case) value is that we can admit when we're wrong. The Republicans and their Fundamentalist Christian allies would rather eat their children that admit they were wrong about anything.

Therefore while I do not change my opinion of Bill Maher all together, I will admit that he can bring flashes of mature discourse to the table and does deserve our respect as being a legitimate voice of the resistance in this country.

...the Gruesome Boobs would be a hell of a name for a band.

See? I just did my patriotic duty.

Because if you had, you would have heard him criticize Islam repeatedly. Criticizing Bush is not the same as defending Islam. Read the article again, and this time think about what he's saying.

Here is the relevant paragraph from Bill's article:

No, it pains me to say these things, because I know deep down George Bush has something extra -- a chromosome. Cruel? Perhaps, but it may just have saved lives. By doing the extra chromosome joke, I sent a message to a young Muslim man somewhere in the world who's on a slow burn about this country, and perhaps got him to think, "Maybe the people of America aren't so bad. Maybe it's just the rodeo clown who leads them. Maybe the people 'get it.'" We do, Achmed, we do!

Basically, the idea is that distancing ourselves from Bush will make us safer from the Muslims. That is wishful thinking at best; at worst, it is exactly what the Muslims want us to think.

"Here are our demands", they say. But they will never stop.

No, I don't watch much of Maher, not because I disagree with his politics but because I don't find him funny. Maybe he does criticize Islam - if so, bravo! I assumed he didn't because there weren't massive, violent riots against him (then again, maybe nobody is watching).

Actually, Bill Maher routinely criticizes Islamic fundamentalists, too... In fact the guy is pretty much a libertarian who gets shots in at everybody across the spectrum. Also, I'm not sure where you got that Maher was ever suggesting the Islamicist attacks on the US started with Bush. It seems to me that you're arguing with your own imagination here, son.