Bill Maher taping

For those going to next Friday's taping, they just announced the following guests.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE)
actor Jason Alexander
couter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke
atheist Richard Dawkins

Bill Maher: Real threats vs. fearmongering

Bill Maher had another excellent New Rule to close his show on Friday, asking what are the real threats, versus what are the hyped up threats the GOP presidential candidates are using to scare the American people with yet again.




And here was an interesting segment where Andrew Sullivan has some questions for the GOP candidates. If only if someone would ask THESE questions at an actual debate. But what got even more interesting was when Gen. Clark hit Sullivan over his anti-Hillary stuff, and Maher defended Sullivan. Earlier in the show, Sullivan and Clark had also gone at each other over Hillary's support of Lieberman-Kyl, and if Muslim women really want "freedom". Very interesting segment. Do a search on YouTube, and you can see the entire show, cut up into several segments, online.



And as always, here is the Overtime segment, which can only be viewed online. They discuss some more things about Iraq, Iran, and terrorism.

Edwards and Kasparov on Maher

Everyone's talking about the 9/11 truthers invading Bill Maher's show (see below), but aside from that, Bill had two great interviews in that show. The first was with John Edwards, who was in the studio for a pre-taping (hence why the audience was asked to show up by 3pm, instead of the usual 6pm). Edwards did very well, and may have won over some people. For me, I liked his clarification on ethanol not being a solution, but more of a transition product to help us in our long-term goal of energy independence.



After that, Maher had an amazing interview with former Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov, who is now running for President of Russia against Vladimir Putin, in what is still a police state in some ways. Kasparov deflects all of Bill's criticisms, and really challenges him on several key issues. How courageous of him, given that many of Putin's other opponents, especially those in the media who dare to investigate his regime, mysteriously wind up dead.



And as always, the excellent New Rules to end the show, with a final rule to the "Values Voters".

Real Time With Bill Maher

FWIW, for those interested in going on Friday, October 12, they just announced some of the guests on for that day.

The View's Joy Behar
MSNBC's Tucker Carlson
ex-Mexican President Vincente Fox

and...

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman!

Quite the lineup. They didn't say which ones would be on the panel, versus appearing via satellite for an interview.

Update: Here's a clip from late August, when Maher went on The O'Reilly Factor and had his way with BillO. The second half gets into what Maher thinks about the presidential candidates on both sides. Check it out.