John Cusack On Real Time With Bill Maher

Run time: 08:19 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFI_-25eRas   Posted on YouTube: March 29, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 29, 2008 By DU Member: Lennon Views on DU: 5302

 
John Cusack On Real Time With Bill Maher - 3/28/08

Cusack is very astute about the political scene and quite articulate.

I thought Bill Maher was rather rude to him tonight....well, Maher was especially rude tonight period.

Here's some of Cursack from '05:
"You may remember this wonderful post he wrote back in ‘05

Bush 2. How depressing, corrupt, unlawful and tragically absurd the administration’s world view actually is…how low the moral bar has been lowered…and (though I know I’m capable of intellectually lazy notions of collective guilt) how complicit our silence as citizens is…Nixon, a true fiend, looks like a paragon of virtue next to the criminally incompetent robber barons now raiding the present and future. But where are the Dems? American foreign policy is in chaos. We are now left in the surreal position of having to condemn American-sponsored torture as official policy while a deranged President Bush orders his staff to attend ethics briefings — a “refresher course” — from the White House counsel.read on"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-cusack/on-bush-the-dems-jon-st_b_10485.html

hey why not?

K&R.

Love the Cusack. Wise man, what he had to say, and refused to acknowledge leading questions.

for that man not be cool.

I think Maher is actually pro-war and very pro-Israel. I have been detecting a bias for a while now.

Bill seems to think that things just won't change with a new president. Well if there is accountability things will begin to change. The Democrats need to secure 61 seats, that way the republicans can block progress, hamper oversite and misguide the direction of the country. While the treats to our national interest will be there, the corporate interest will not be the dominating policy vehicle.


Barack Obama offers the best opportunity for changing the politics of Washington. We desparately need his leadership.

Vote for Barack Obama.

He has said many times that the reason "they hate us" is because we are there and we need to get the hell out.

I don't see how Maher could be accused of rudeness. He just intelligently challenged Cusack to back up his opinions, which Cusack did very well. Maher unfortunately is right on the money in saying the whole system is corrupt; that it goes beyond just the Bush junta, and that electing Democrats (given their track record since the Ronnie Ray-gun years) may not put much of a dent in this corrupted system. Meanwhile, Cusack is an intelligent , well informed citizen, and I'm proud of him as a product of my home town ...I was impressed by the civil, intelligent tone of the whole exchange.

nt

Bill Maher has many opinions I don't agree with, but thought this interview/exchange was very good. Overall, Maher is more on our side than not despite his being wrong ( and on occasion, offensive, in my opinion), on various issues. By the way, I've posted on several occasions re: Nader in 2000; I don't blame those who voted for Nader. I blame the Terry McAuliffe -led DLC establishment for doing its best to make it seem like Gore and Bush WERE about the same. I will never forget cringing during the Gore-Bush "debates" at how they seemed to agree on almost everything. I'm pretty confident that if Gore had it to do all over again, he'd toss out all his handlers and just be the real Gore that we all ( well most of us) respect so much now. Certainly in hindsight, voting for Nader then was self-defeating, but many of us ( and FYI, I DID vote for Gore) were so fed up with the republican-lite image and policies of our party that their consciences would not allow them to vote for what was presented as another corporate DLC Dem. I didn't see this part of Maher's show, but assuming he was defending voting for Nader then as opposed to now, a case can be made for having done so, even though I disagreed with it. Disastrous consequences? An understatement , obviously, but again, to me, the lion's share of the blame lies with the ever-moving to the right, afraid of its own shadow DLC faction that has held sway for too long.

mantra. I never thought Gore agreed with Bush on most things, and I did not feel that the debates indicated such. Bush DID claim to be a "compassionate conservative" which as we know was a complete joke. ;)

Also, I do not feel that Maher is directly defending his vote, he's doing it in an indirect manner with the same cynical "there is no difference" blather.

Just because Maher wasn't cheerleading Cusack's point of view doesn't make him rude or snarky or anything else.

will see the movie

As I recall, Tim Robbins mentioned in the DVD commentary that John ad libbed his lines in the "Cutting Crew" comedy show sketch scene.

Cusack's been on the right team for a long time.

Also, from what I've seen of the trailers, "War, Inc." is a must see. A very black comedy, and an accurate one - a la Dr. Strangelove.

I love John Cusack!!! and I did NOT know there are as many contractors in Iraq as there are soldiers....that says it all right there....
and I think he was exactly right when he said it is up to the American Public.....

He's so thinky!

But seriously, it's always good to see anyone bring up the corporatization of Iraq. The point is that this war was never about freedom or democracy. It was about money. The Iraqi people have been shut out of rebuilding their own country and I believe that fact is a driving factor behind the "insurgency".

Cusack & Maher were both right on the money with this.

Sometimes I'd like to kick Bill Maher in the slats, but this is not one of those times.

He and Cusack used a certain Socratic method in their dialogue to put out the Truth about, why this war will not end with the upcoming election, no matter who wins.

And the two of them managed to put out a lot of Truth about the enormous amounts of money -- to be made by the corporate interests and paid by the taxpayers -- involved in floating a war and keeping it floating.

I found he was being a bit snide and snarky. It was really annoying. At least the audience understood and applauded what Cuisack was saying.

His interview was really odd -- claiming that both Clinton and Bush would continue the war(s). :shrug:

He can't just stand there and agree - that will come off as preaching to a lot of viewers - and not work as effectively.

He gave Cusack a wall to play up against and make some hard hits.

I had no idea that Cusack could be so thoughtful, deliberate, articulate and forceful on a matter like this.

Goes to show why I love his work, perhaps. :)

welcome to DU

... over the complete asshat we have in the Oval Office right now.

and saying what they aren't saying what he wants then why doesn't he ask them himself, he sounds as if he wants Mccain..

I'd rather see him ask difficult questions than simply bob his head in agreement the way so many of his ilk do. I thought in this particular clip he did a good job getting Cusack to expound and clarify. I didn't see anything that seemed disrespectful. And Cusack did a great job calmly stating his position. He's very right that the truth of this whole thing is really big, dark and scary. It's hard to face.

Democrats?

Let me just say, I'm glad I don't subscribe to HBO...

Cusack did a great job in spite of being interrogated for making a film.

On the other hand, I get the impression some are thinking Maher was harsh due to the fact that he believes that things in Iraq won't change if Obama is elected. I think that was a good point to a degree. If Obama is the nominee, I'll heartily vote for him in November. However, as a senator, how many examples are there of Obama taking a stand against this regime's corruption in his Senate capacity?

of a foreign country. It stopped being a "war" when Saddam was removed. A country does not "win" an occupation. Iraq's civil war will happen irregardless.

I'd love the opportunity to make this clear to Mr. Maher and his quests.

John Cusack does indeed, get it. I hope he has a hit with his movie.

All Bill contributed was stupidities ---

Cusack had a complicated subject --- and he packaged it very tightly --- yet in ways that
anyone could understand. Love the title -- "War, Inc."

More Cusack --- LESS Bill Maher ---

I'm not always a fan of Maher, but I was actually happy with the interview. Sure, he's cynical but he has every right to be. Maher rightly pointed out that the information is out there but few Americans seem to care (or at least little is being said).

I though Cusack brought up good points and articulated his points well. I don't think Maher was necessarily "rude" as others have said; Cusack never really answered Maher's questions--and they were fair questions. Would Obama or Clinton withdraw the troops and pull the corporations out of Iraq if elected? And Cusack's response begs the question--would the American people demand the withdrawl of corporations from Iraq?

It's good to know that there are intelligent people in the entertainment industry... and for so many years, I thought Cusack was just cool.

Good stuff.