Real Time with Bill Maher #358 06/26/15 "A Very Good Week"

by Catherine Giordano



The rainbow flag flies.

Real Time with Bill Maher, episode #358, which aired on 6/26/2015, reminded us that it was a very good week.  

“The Confederate Flag went down and the Rainbow Flag went up,” Maher said in his opening monologue. It was a very good week, except maybe for Lindsey Graham. Maher chided the Republicans for acting like a bunch of “drama queens” about the Supreme Court decision on marriage equality. “They do realize that same sex marriage is not mandatory?” Maher quipped. You wouldn’t know it by how outraged they are.

It was a great week for Obama. It was such a good week for Obama that Maher said, “It was like an episode of The West Wing.”

The Affordable Care Act survived the challenge to it in the Supreme Court. It was saved by a six to three ruling, with Kennedy and Roberts joining the liberals. They actually ruled on only a very narrow bit of law—whether or not four words, essentially just a typo, could overturn the clear meaning and intent of the act as a whole. They ruled that it could not. This ruling said nothing about the merit, or lack of merit, of the law as a whole. However, just the fact that the law survived is cause for celebration.  

Next Obama got the fast track approval he wanted in order to negotiate the TPP trade deal. He did it by getting mostly Republican votes. So weird that this time it was Democrats opposing him. I trust Obama. What could be his reason for negotiating a bad deal that hurts American jobs? He doesn’t need campaign donations. And he certainly doesn’t need to do something that would tarnish his legacy. 

Obama has finally learned how to play the political game. It is so sad about how long it takes presidents to get savvy enough to get their legislation passed. One good thing about having Hillary as president is that she won’t have that learning curve. She’s done it all before when her husband was president. She can be an effective president on Day One.  

So many times I have said, “Obama gave the best speech ever.” He did it again on Friday afternoon at the funeral for Clementa Pinckney. The White House announced that it would not be a political speech, and in some ways it wasn’t. It celebrated the life of “Clem” (as the president called him a few times), and he joined the family and friends in grief. However the political message for gun control, for voting rights, for equality, and against the remnants of Jim Crow came through loud and clear. I could see how his years as a community organizer when he worked with black churches was proving to be time well spent because he learned oratory from the best during those years, His speech rivaled the “I come to bury Caesar not to praise him” speech given in Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, in the masterful way he wove his political themes into a funeral oration.  

Obama had barely finished speaking before those confederate flags started coming down. 

If you missed that speech, listen to it right now.



 

The interview
I am supposed to be reviewing Bill Maher’s show here and I went way off on a tangent. You can’t blame me--even the interview began with the sentence “I am so proud of this president.”  The interview was with Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She said, “Renewables are how we protect public health. That’s my job and I’m doing it.” 

Talking about the coal industry, Maher said, “Why do we want to save the worst jobs in the world.” There should be money for retraining so the coal minors can have jobs that don’t kill them. McCarthy agreed saying “It is not a choice between saving the planet and jobs.” Exactly right. Investing in renewable fuel will help save the planet while being good for jobs and the economy. 

ObamaCare/Affordable Care Act (ACA)

Maher, speaking about Republicans vows to repeal the Act, said, “When it (the ACA) is five years old, you have to stop talking about abortion." I'll add: It is even too late to kill it in its crib.  

You can always count on Michael Eric Dyson, MSNBC political analyst, contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, and author of several books, including Debating Race: with Michael Eric Dyson, to speak his mind—straight up and with eloquence. Dyson said: “If you think it is bad, then fix it.” “They are against it, but they don’t know what they are for.” “Why doesn’t Congress let the people have [the health insurance plan] that they have?”  

Mary Katherine Hamm, contributing editor to Town Hall magazine, contributor to Fox News, and co-author of End of Discussion: How the Left's Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun) chimed in. “There aren’t enough doctors.” Of all the arguments against the ACA this is the most despicable. Other people should die so Hamm doesn’t have to wait an extra week for a doctor’s appointment. If there are not enough doctors, then get more doctors, allow nurses to do more of the routine tasks, etc.  

I know nothing about this woman. However, based on the title of her book, I predicted that I would not like her and that she would talk over the other guests. I was right on both counts.

Gay Marriage

Dyson talked about the many politicians like Obama and Hillary Clinton who have changed their minds on this issue along with most of America (Today about 60% of Americans are for allowing same sex couples to marry.) Dyson said, “People do evolve.” Then a slip of the tongue: “Why shouldn’t gay people be as miserable—I mean as happy as …”

Kristen Soltis Anderson, co-founder of Echelon Insights (an opinion research firm), contributing editor for The Daily Beast and the author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials are Leading the Country (and How Republicans Can Keep Up), agreed that opinions on this had changed rapidly, but “not as fast as they did for the Confederate flag.” True enough, the Confederate flag thing seemed to happen overnight.  

Maher pointed out that Chief Justice Roberts had a “hissy fit,” and although “he was not as bad as Scalia, that is not saying much.”)  

Mid Show comedy: Headlines

Whenever Real Time goes on hiatus, Maher does a headlines segment, where he predicts headlines that you might see while he is off the air. Here are some of them: 

• Justice Scalia Gets Show on fox News
• Jesus Christ Returns. Declares Climate Change Real. GOP Says “He’s No Scientist.”
• Lindsey’s Graham: “He’s Not Gay” Says Roommate of 25 Years

Judd Apatow

Josh Apatow and Bill Maher Discuss Bill Cosby
Maher and Josh Apatow have known each other a long time and you could see the friendship that exists between them. Apatow is the producer and director of the new film Trainwreck and author of a new book, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Lifeand Comedy. He is a comedian, actor, director, and screenwriter, best known for the 90’s TV show, Freaks and Geeks.

They began by talking about Bill Cosby. Maher said, “He has put more people to sleep than warm milk.”  

Apatow said that the 40 women who have accused Cosby had no reason to lie. They were not seeking fame or fortune; many of Cosby’s accusers already had both. Apatow said he knew one woman who has not come forward who was one of his victims. Maher replied,” I don’t know any women who don’t have a story about him." 

 

Maher likes to depict Trump as an ape.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump entering the Republican primary and immediately shooting up to second place in polls of Republicans is another reason it was a very good week. Maher said, “He is the guy for people who like belligerence. And added “He’s the white Kanye.” 

Dyson said, “His views are what millions of people think.” When Maher said, “He’s all id.” Dyson said, “Id as in Idiot.”

Maher suggested a Trump-Christie ticket. “Fuhgeddaboutit.”

I think Trump is the best thing that could have happened for liberals. He just ups the clown factor of the “clown car.” He will be slandering every serious candidate. He’s already had plenty to say about JEB!. He will get on the debate stage and make outrageous statements about how all Mexicans are rapists. If the other candidates agree, they alienate the base of the party that agrees with Trump. If they disagree, they alienate middle of the road Americans and Hispanics who they must win to their side. Further, just by being on the stage with the other candidates makes Americans think that this is what the Republican Party is all about. Why would anyone want to be part of a party that puts Trump in the top tier of candidates for the presidential nomination?

New Rules—Doubt Sourcing
Bill Maher thinks we have a right to know where our meat comes from. Certain business interests don’t want us to know. Republicans want to erase meat labels and repeal the estate tax so Maher has the perfect slogan for them “Eat shit and die!” That line got one of the biggest laughs of the night. 

Maher told us that a single burger could have meat in it from 100 cows. “A big gang bang in your mouth.” Another big laugh.

Republicans think “We should balance facts with anti-facts. We are the United States of We Don’t Wanna Know.” 

Maher pointed out that it is a crime to film inside a slaughter house. (It seems the last time that was done, it resulted in the biggest meat recall in history. Apparently pushing cows too sick to stand into a meat grinder just wasn’t appetizing.) “Everyone in America is under constant surveillance—except livestock.” 

He ended, “Your right to know something will always be outweighed by their right to hide it from you.” 

It was a very good week
It was a very good week for the country. It was a very good week for Bill Maher’s show. Maher will be back on August 6, 2015. Until then, we will have to cap off our week on Friday night with reruns.   

 
List of Guests  #358, June 26, 2014

The Interview:

Gina McCarthy, Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Mid Show Guest:

Judd Apatow, Producer and Director of the new film Trainwreck; author of the new book, Sick in the Head: Conversations About Lifeand Comedy, comedian, actor, director, and screenwriter, best known for the 90’s TV show, Freaks and Geeks

Panel

Michael Eric Dyson, MSNBC political analyst, contributing op-ed writer for the New York Times, author of several books, including Debating Race: with Michael Eric Dyson

Kristen Soltis Anderson, Co-founder of Echelon Insights, an opinion research firm, contributing editor for The Daily Beast and the author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials are Leading the Country (and How Republicans Can Keep Up)

 

Mary Katherine Hamm: Contributing editor to Town Hall magazine, contributor to Fox News, co-author of End of Discussion: How the Left's Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun)

Real Time with Bill Maher #335 11/07/14 'Talking Nice"

Lisa Kudrow

by Catherine Giordano

Real Time with Bill Maher, episode #335, which aired on November 7, 2014, was the perfect antidote for post-election depression. It was one of the best for good conversation. Everyone was talking nicely. Here is the review and recap.

The monolog
In the monolog, Maher got right to the Democratic defeat in the mid-term election. He said, sarcastically, “Finally white men are getting a seat at the table.” How will Republicans govern now that they control both the House and the Senate? I’m not optimistic. Neither is Maher. He said, “The day after the election, they all talked nice; the next day, they were right back to where they were before.”

Maher said that all you had to do to win was have an “R” next to your name. Even Sam Brownback in Kansas, who destroyed the state’s economy and credit rating, got re-elected. Maher quipped, “The Republicans are the party of Reagan, but that shouldn’t mean when he had Alzheimers.  

He called Joni Ernst the new Michelle Bachman. I said it first. (See the Comments Section of my review of the October 31 show, Crazy, Scary, and Weird.) Ernst prides herself on being a hog castrator, so Maher said, “If you want to cut off the Democrats balls, good luck finding them.” This harks back to the New Rules segment from the October 31 show (Crazy, Scary, and Weird) where he urged Democrats to stand up for their principles. I’m so with Maher on this one. If you are going to go down, at least go down fighting for your principles. 

Here’s the kicker. People voted by huge majorities for raising the minimum wage, and for making recreational pot legal in those states where it was on the ballot and, at the same time, they voted for the people who blocked those measures. I can only assume they didn’t know that Democrats were with them on those issues because the Democrats were too busy trying to be “Republican Lite” instead of drawing a distinction between the two parties. Dumbasses! I’m not talking nice here because it makes me so mad. All the candidates who lost on Tuesday will have a job as a lobbyist by the end of the month; it is ordinary Americans who will have to pay for their mistakes.   

P.S.: A thought just came to me. If voters knew that the minimum wage was a Democratic principle, maybe they would have voted it down. They seem to have a blind hatred for anything Democratic.
  

The panel discusses the election

Senator Bernie Sanders

On the panel, Bernie Sanders, senator (I, VT) and author of Bernie Sanders’ 2010 Filibuster on Corporate Greed: An Historic Speech, was, as always, a joy, speaking with intelligence and passion. Robert Costa, a political reporter for the Washington Post brought facts and reason to the debate. And the third panelist, Kristen Soltis Anderson, co-founder of Echelon Insights, a Republican opinion research firm, columnist for The Daily Beast, and author of The New Vote contributed to the conversation without spewing out Republican talking points. 

Maher said the election was about the continued resentment towards the first black president. Costa said, “It was about people staying home.” Sanders added, “Ordinary people are hurting and they have given up on voting.” Anderson said it was about “people being really ticked off.” 
 

I say that people stayed home because the Democrats didn’t give them a reason to vote. Instead of talking about all the accomplishments of the Obama administration (listed in Crazy, Scary, and Weird), they treated Obama, according to Maher, “like “a teenager treats his mom. I don’t know her.”  
 

Also, as Maher pointed out, the Republicans didn’t give voters a reason not to vote for them because they never talked about their principles. They didn’t tell Americans that they are against everything that Americans really, really like—Social Security, Medicare, a higher minimum wage--and for everything that Americans really, really hate--tax breaks for the rich, personhood for fertilized human ova (in some cases, just the ova).  

Maher joked about one of the best things about the election. Scott Brown lost. In New Rules he said, “You have to appreciate the irony of Brown being the hunky pin-up who lost two elections to two women. Scott Brown is like Kris brown only with Scott, women beat him.” 

Poverty in America

CLICK HERE

In the interview, Linda Tirado, a relative newcomer to the public arena, was poised and spoke very well about poverty in America very well, using wry humor to good advantage. About a new ago, she was talking to her friends on gawker about the difficulties of living in poverty, working two or three jobs while raising kids, and it went viral. (It was picked up by the Huffington Post.)


She got out of poverty when she got a book deal to write about her experiences, Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America. Maher quipped that if Romney was asked about how to get out of poverty, he’d say, “Just get a book deal.” 
 

I expect that her book will be just as popular as her previous writing.Tirado appears to be very intelligent and personable, and without her lucky break, she might never have been able to climb out of poverty. Poor people just can’t get a toe hold.  

Robert Costa said that Republicans celebrating their win will be a short celebration. Sanders said that Americans want a jobs program repairing the infrastructure. They want young people to be able to afford college.

Read more about the Linda Tirado interview here: Working Harder, Getting Poorer
 

Climate change

Congress will have to deal with climate change. Maher cited the U.N. report saying that carbon dioxide levels were up, the oceans were getting too acidic to support marine life, the sea levels are rising, and then added “the geniuses in America elect a bunch of climate deniers.” 

Maher quoted Senator Inhofe (R, OK) who said “God’s still up there. The arrogance of people to think that we, human beings, would be able to change what He is doing in the climate is to me outrageous.” Sanders said Inhofe really believes it, but some of the others know better. He is worried though because we are being governed by “the greedy, the cynical, and the truly stupid.”  

Sanders said that the debate within the scientific community of over. Maher mocked Republicans who try to avoid the issue by saying they are not a scientist. Maher said, “You are not a gynecologist either, but you still talk about women’s vaginas.” 

I think about the people who know better. I ask myself, “Don’t they have grandchildren? Don’t they care what kind of world their grandchildren will have to live in? Is there nothing more important to them than their greed?” 

Flip-A-District

Maher was forthright about Flip-A-District. “It went up in flames.” His consolation was, “It was always a long shot.” Then he found the humor in defeat. He did the mid-show comedy segment about other things that need flipping. 

• Flip Mississippi: It is the fattest state in the nation. Challenge them to lose a billion pounds. 
• Flip a Brother: Each congressperson gets their own very large black man to follow them around. 
• Flip a Bigot: Pat Robertson has to engage in receptive anal sex with Michael Sam. The only problem will be in getting Sam to agree to it.

Lisa Kudrow as Valerie Cherish in
The Comeback

Lisa Kudrow

The mid-show guest was Lisa Kudrow, an actress, currently starring in Showtime’s Web Therapy and HBO’s The Comeback. She creates such wonderful characters.

Kudrow is excited about the second season of The Comeback which premiers on HBO on Sunday 11/9/14 at 10pm. It has been nine years since Season One ended. Kudrow joked, “I always knew we’d catch on during the second season.”
 

Maher complimented her on how well she captured the dysfunction and insecurity of her character. He said, “Show business sucks if you are not in the top 1%.” Kudrow said, “It is about how much dignity you would give up for success.”

Endless Governor

In the final New Rules segment, Maher had a lot of very nice things to say about Jerry Brown, the Democratic governor of California. He had a lot of very not-nice things to say about ageism.

Governor Brown is 76 years old, and Maher said his record qualifies him for president—he took the broken state of California and fixed it. He’s active—he runs three miles a day and does yoga, but too many people think he is too old to be president. (Maher quipped, “He’s so old, his sex taps are on Betamax.”

He said that age gives people wisdom. He showed a picture of a beautiful young woman. It was a picture of Ruth Bader Ginsberg (perhaps her highschool year book photo) at the age of 18. “We are beautiful when we are young and wise when we are old.”

Warren Buffet is 84 and he’s the one everyone wants financial advice from. Larry King is 80, and he’s still the best in the talk-show host business (on the web now instead of on TV where he was replaced by a younger less effective host.) The Rolling Stones are great and Beiber sucks.

Then Maher digressed to a rant about America’s current fascination with big asses on women. He said, “Millennials should be called ‘Generation Ass’.” I think he was making the point that America is still a teenager of a county.

Returning to the subject of the linkage of age and wisdom, Maher said, “Wisdom is not something you can just google. Governing is where we need wisdom.”

His final punch line was an ageism joke, but because I am a nice person, I’m going to omit it and let Maher go out on a high note.

Bill Maher's Guests for November 7, 2014

Linda Tirado: Author of Hand to Mouth: Living in Bootstrap America, a book about what it is like to live in poverty in America

 
Bernie Sanders: Senator (I, VT), author of Bernie Sanders’ 2010 Filibuster on Corporate Greed: An Historic Speech
 

Robert Costa: Political reporter for the Washington Post

 

Kristen Soltis Anderson: Co-founder of Echelon Insights, a Republican opinion research firm, columnist for The Daily Beast, author of The New Vote

 

Lisa Kudrow: Actress, currently starring in Showtime’s Web Therapy and HBO’s The Comeback

HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher #322 "Bad Boys"

Hillary Clinton gives her book,
 Hard Choices, to Mr. Squirrel

Bad Boys

by Catherine Giordano

The bad boys came out to play on "Real Time with Bill Maher", episode 322, which aired on 6/20/2014. 

Bill Maher, who is always a bad boy, had a few comments in his monologue about some bad boys. He mentioned the Isis group in Iraq who took the Iraqi city of Baiji and robbed a bank in the process. Maher said “When they do it they are terrorists; when we do it we are venture capitalists.   

Maher also blasted the Republicans who got it all wrong when they urged the U.S. to go to war with Iraq—Dick Cheney, John McCain, Bill Kristol (to name a few) all over the TV now complaining that Obama is not handling the ISIS insurgency correctly. He called them “Satan’s V.I.P. list for Hell.” The bad-est of these bad boys is Cheney-- Maher joked that Cheney said, “My thoughts and prayers go out to our oil.” 

Later in a discussion about foreign policy, Maher reported that even Fox News was buying it anymore.  Megan Kelly, A Fox-News host grilled Cheney during a TV interview saying “All your predictions were wrong.” Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster for the company, Echelon Insights, and a columnist for The Daily Beast reported that “There is a wide spectrum of opinion on that by Republicans.”  Well perhaps.  There is Rand Paul vs. all the other Republicans.) 

The pope is now on Maher’s list of bad boys.  Maher said, “The honeymoon is over between me and Pope Frank.” It seems the Pope called drugs and alcohol evil and said there can be no compromise with evil. Maher added that this was coming from someone “who never drinks anything stronger than the blood of Christ.”  A wicked bad quip. 

The interview was with Ta-Nehisi Coates who is a national correspondent at The Atlantic, which recently published his much talked about article in The Atlantic magazine, “The Case for Reparations.”  He is also the author of the memoir. The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood.   Coates said that black people in America are in a constant state of “unfreedom.”   He talked about Jim Crow, debt peonage (share cropping) segregation and more making the case for reparations. Maher asked his if he agreed with Martin Luther King who said (repeating words first used by Theodore parker, a Unitarian minister and abolitionist) “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Coates responded saying “oh, nooo,” drawing out the word “no” and sadly shaking his head. The he added “It’s an arc of injustice.” 

Two of the panelists, both bad boys got into a bad screaming match. Paul Reickhoff is a veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War and founder and Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and author of Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective. Reickoff is passionate about advocating for soldiers and veterans. His opponent in this fight was Glenn Greenwald, a lawyer, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, author I of several books. His most recent book is No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State. Greenwald is a passionate advocate for Edward Snowden and more transparency in government.

 

They strongly disagreed about whether Snowden was a traitor for revealing state secrets (Reickhoff’s position) or  a hero for exposing excessive government surveillance (Greenwald’s position). Greenwald made an excellent point when he said that Snowden did not reveal anything. He only turned the files over to newspapers and asked them to vet it carefully. It may be splitting hairs, but Greenwald is a lawyer, and a defense can turn on how hairs were split. 

Maher had to break up the fight before it came to blows by interrupting and changing the subject to the Flip–A-District campaign.   

Maher then moved on to a news story about Dr. Oz touting green coffee extract as a “miracle” and “magic” weight loss aid. (When a doctor uses words like “miracle” and “magic” you know he has sold out.) Maher then held up a Time magazine showing the cover story about weight-loss titled, “Eat More Butter.” Maher claimed this was all about telling people what they want to hear, and he had a few magazine cover story ideas of his own.  Here’s a few of them: 

Boys Life:                If All the Scouts are Doing It, It is Not Really Gay         

Sports Illustrated:    Video Gamers: The Real Athletes

AARP:                     That Smell Isn’t Really Coming from You

Hustler:                    Masturbation Prevents Cancer    

Modern Parenting:   How to Raise a Genius by Sticking Your Toddler in Front of the TV All   Day    

 

Read more about wish-fulfillment magazine over stories at BillMaherRules.

(I include the most salacious ones there.)

The mid-show guest was, Mike Shinoda a musician, record producer, and artist. He is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, rhythm guitarist and one of the two vocalists of the rock band Linkin Park which has had more number one hits than any other band.  His newest album is The Hunting Party. Shinoda is also the author (with Shepherd Fairey) of Glorious Excess. 

Shinoda talked about how the band has moved from themes of teen-aged angst to songs about social issues over the years. Shinoda is now very involved with social issues like relief efforts for major natural disasters causes like climate change. 

In New Rules, Maher mocked “Co-dependence Day.”  He said “Broken nations are like broken people. You can’t fix them,” adding, “Maybe America needs Dr. Phil to ask, 'How’s that nation-building thing working out for you?’”  

Maher said that the United States went into Iraq thinking (My interjection: Or at least saying, because we all know the real reason was oil) we would liberate the country from a dictator, install a democracy, and then that democracy would be a model for the whole Mid-east. He brought the point home by finishing with “and then after lunch …” He said the United States was like a woman who thinks she can fix the bad boys.   

Have you seen that big bad orange squirrel on TV—the one that is following Hillary Clinton around. (Actually, it’s a person in a squirrel costume, and the squirrel looks cute and cuddly.) It’s leftover from the campaign against Obama and it was meant to associate Obama with the group, Acorn.  Maher pointed out that since Acorn has been defunct for many years now, the prop no longer makes sense. Unless, as Maher said, as he held up a picture of the 2012 Republican contenders on the debate stage, it makes sense because “Republicans like to gather all their nuts in the fall.” 

The whole squirrel thing is not working at all. I saw a clip on TV where Hillary approached “Mr. Squirrel”, as she called him, shook his hand, and gave him a copy of her book, Hard Choices.  Mr. Squirrel looked delighted as he hugged the book to his chest and gave Hillary a thumbs-up sign. (My guess is that the person inside that squirrel costume no longer has a job as a squirrel impersonator.)  CLICK HERE to see video.

 

The bad boys are not going to change, whether they are your boyfriends, or your   leaders, or your leaders, or even your comedians. I wish they would, except for Bill Maher—Bill, you keep on being your bad funny self. Keep that political and social satire coming. Our country needs it bad.

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Please use the links if you wish to purchase. 

Bill Maher’s Guests,  #322,  June 6, 2014

Paul Reickhoff: Writer, veteran of the United States Army and the Iraq War, founder and Executive Director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, and author of Chasing Ghosts: Failures and Facades in Iraq: A Soldier’s Perspective

Ta-Nehisi Coates: National correspondent at The Atlantic, which recently published his much talked about article, "The Case for Reparations." He is also the author of a memoir. The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood.

Glenn Greenwald: American lawyer, journalist, author I of several books.  His most recent book is No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State

Kristen Soltis Anderson: Republican pollster for the firm, Echelon Insights, columnist for The Daily Beast.

Mike Shinoda: Musician, record producer, and artist. He is best known as the rapper, principal songwriter, keyboardist, rhythm guitarist and one of the two vocalists of the rock band Linkin Park.  His newest album is "The Hunting Party." He is the author (with Shepherd Fairey) of Glorious Excess.

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