Stole his election is more like it. And the U.S. has been loosing ever since.

Both of these illiterate assholes are from RED states. And Bushit sounds so much like this 17 year old moron. Makes me sick to live in this country. I wouldn't blame the education system entirely-there wasn't much to work with from the start (can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear thing).

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Did Bush ever EARN anything else in his life?????
.. besides, of course, his reputation among many.

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that's why they work their way through Life with the skillz Mamma said were *most important*...

Social Manipulation.
Being a Prototype.

If we think about it, Trophy Wives are very much the North American Pop Geisha...




Spread Love...
... but wear the Glove!


BlueBerry Pick'n
can be found @
ThisCanadian ~~~

We, two, form a Multitude ~ Ovid.
~~~
"Silent Freedom is Freedom Silenced"

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I don't want to say anything else. She is very pretty anyway. Poor baby.

Terrific

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You all should be ashamed of yourselves.

Her biggest sin is that she isn't a good public speaker. She got asked a question she wasn't prepared for and had to think about it. Unfortunately, in such competitions, they don't let you ponder it for a minute. You have to start talking right away. And while you're thinking about the question, your mouth is saying stupid things.

Anybody who went to law school has had this experience at least once during moot court or mock trial. I've seen it happen to otherwise intelligent people.

Even more importantly, the question was from left field. Basically, the question was "why do Americans perform so poorly in Geography." However, it cited a made up statistic erroneously claiming that 20% of Americans can't find America on the map. It turns out, 94% can. While that girl didn't strike me as a future phD, I can't really fault her for not knowing the statistics, especially when the show's producers apparently got it wrong.

Since you're not in front of an audience and on national TV, you should have an easier time with the following question: Please explain the existence of X, which does not exist.

This is nothing more than joy at the pain of others. Does it make you feel smart to gloat over her failure? If you didn't know that the 20% statistic was made up, then maybe you should STFU.

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Yes , a map shortage, in the U.S and South Africa, or uh Asia, maybe Iraqi. Is she up for a legacy scholarship to Yale, just like Boy George? I believe she has a future in politics, definitely in South Carolina. The best and brightest of the young republicans is on display here for all to see. Is this a product of the home schooling republican crowd or is this from the public school system? Either way,this is mind numbing to see.

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The problem is, a number of us AREN'T red state morons.
Quite a number, actually. So we don't all embrace idiocy, however popular the lowest common denominator has become in some challenged circles.
A number of us realize it would be better NOT to answer than to dish up a plate of idiotic spew,
just like the Current Occupant does whenever he addresses his mindless faithful.
The difference between republics and the rest of us:
brains and ethics can go completely missing, republics never have a clue as to what's omitted. It was just a "bad question". And really, to these types, aren't ALL questions "bad"?
So ancient am I, I can recall when beauty was expected to be matched with brains and talent in order to be considered exceptional. but all standards have hit the crapper since Chimpy and his mindless supporters gained the throne.....

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Bill Maher is funny sometimes, but he's kinda snooty and full of himself, especially in this clip.

First of all, it's not really an appropriate question for a Miss Teen contest. How do you answer a question like that honestly, diplomatically, and in a nutshell? Do you expect a 17-year-old airhead to tell "US Americans" that they're a bunch of uneducated morons living in an Orwellian cultural wasteland?

Ever since I can remember, these beauty contests have tried to keep up the silly pretense that they're about something besides beauty...So they torture us by having the girls sing, play the tuba, spin plates, train poodles, and give dumb speeches about how the chidren are our future.

Whatever the state of our education system, Maher is stupid to suggest that this girl is an accurate commentary on it. Does he think beauty contests attract the brightest geniuses and most brilliant orators?

The only good thing is that he compares her to our Fuhrer, who makes her look like a genius and a brilliant orator. Of course, "US Americans" are the biggest idiots for putting him in charge, so they're in no position to laugh at either of them.

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That was a very funny clip, but it would have been more appropriate to have shown Dubya making a speech about his "No child left behind" program, since "Miss teen bimbo" gained her entire high school education under Bush Jr.'s watch.

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Wow, I tought I saw something very similar to the young lady's response back in 1982, sitting in a bar, watching a broadcast with the other bored patrons because regional wrestling got cancelled. Beauty contests have never changed. Does anyone really expect a thoughtful, considered, well-articulated response from a contestant in a beauty pageant about anything beyond Britney and Paris? Puleeez! That says more about imbeciles wth irrational expectations than the IQ of a 17 year old.

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Bill Maher is an experienced professional entertainer. He should know how difficult it is for someone to "wing it" in front of an audience. The girl was 17 years old, and attempting to answer a question that had no practical answer that would not offend someone. I suspect that most of us would have become flustered at such an unfair question.

We have used this video of this poor 17 year old girl for laughs long enough. It is unfortunate that this video will likely follow her the rest of her life regardless of any other achievements she may accomplish, all for the sake of a few cheap laughs. I am very disappointed at Maher for using this video. It was small minded, insensitive, and just plain mean to give it in such a forum and in the context that he did. I can't help but wonder if she had been from NY state, rather than South Carolina, or if she had been black or hispanic, if it would have been used, or the insinuation of stupidity on the part of the girl have been made?

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Living in a "red" state does not mean one is of a "red" persuasion. None of my (carefully chosen) friends, my progressive church, my kids, my sister and all her kids are "red". Neither are the members of the two peace activist groups to which I belong, and with whom I demonstrate against the war on Iraq at least twice a month here in Aiken, SC. Red states are simply where we live, not who we are. So please don't paint with such a broad brush.

Nor are we inbred morons. Neither inbred nor morons.

With everything in me, I loathe all that George Bush has done and all he stands for. You name it: education, foreign policy, domestic social and economic policies, decimation of political opponents, the wasting of our own financial security and that of generations to come, the squandering of American respect and good will throughout the world... On and on.

But we cannot reclaim our nation by stooping to his level -- calling people names, dismissing them as unworthy, engaging in macho posturing, and generally wallowing in muck. We can only reclaim it by doing the very hard work of educating our fellow Americans on what's been taken away from us (and the people of Iraq), what's been done to us (and the people of Iraqis), and how our future is up to us (same with the people of Iraqi).

Passion is good, when modulated with compassion. Please stop the meanness. It is beneath us and damaging to all.

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Please...no wiseacre cracks about the misuse of "Iraqis". I changed the wording (in the original version, "Iraqis" was correct), but not all my editorial changes got applied.

Again, my fellow posters: Meanness and personal attacks are counter-productive. Compassion, not castigation. Remember: Judge not, that ye be not judged.

Thanks.

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What country is she from?

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But what do we expect when little girls are raised to adulate other bimbos like Britney and Paris? When little girls are not encouraged to develop their minds, but to go shopping? When they are given t-shirts that say "With these, who needs a brain?" emblazoned across the front? When we are still parading them across stages as a commodity? When women's magazines dominate the supermarket shelves screaming silly and contradictory messages about food? When we are worried about organizing our closets instead of organizing a war protest?

Until we change the whole socialization process for girls, this is what we will get.

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As in we're 49th nationwide in SAT scoring! Wow!

Yes, folks, down here in SC, she's about dead "normal", but what can you say about the lovely Palmetto state? Having lived here many, many years, I can tell you for fact: This girl is dead average.

Why? Our educational standards in this state are, at best, lackadaisical. More important to study up on Jay-sus than stuff like, oh, quantum mechanics, political science, medicine, the arts, you know, edumacated kinda stuff?

Hopefully, next year, we'll be back to 50th.

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This comment stirred memories of a bit of performance art called "rate a chick" at my university. When women walked across a central area, a group of guys held up cards rating their looks from 1 to 10. "Hot" or "not" has become a new statement of worth, sexiness, a "rating" as to whether one should be noticed, given attention, or discounted completely. Males are now subjected to this judgement, with their physical selves being scrutinized for microscopic flaws, leading to many guys now experiencing the painful self-consciousness girls and women have battled for decades (?) centuries (?). It's as though the trenchant and witty women's movement protests against the "miss america" pageant, and that era's questioning of looks as a criterion of women's worth, never happened. "Not that hot, imo", even with the decision to avoid "bashing a kid", is just one more example of the judgement so many people face every day. No wonder anorexia and body dysmorphic disorder are rampant in our society! (I think this writer was attempting to be kind in refraining from one form of judgement, and I don't want to discount that!). Humans are drawn to and fascinated by beauty; that will never change. But (sigh) it seems that outward beauty is the criterion our girls (and boys) see as most vital to determining their worth, and in this arena they look to their peers "rating" of them, rather than looking within to examine the internal beauty of the human being they would like to become.

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leave her alone
jeez, she's seventeen and the web has nailed her

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...that part of what is going on in this situation is that this 17yr old girl really does not look like a 17yr old girl. She has been primped and primed by her handlers to look like a fully formed(mentally) person when in truth she is really only 17yrs old.
Unfortunately this is what beauty pagants are all about. Can we remember the tragedy of John Benet Ramsey, who was literally 'pimped' by her air-head parents into almost a child porn star or child whore. That, to me, is shameful beyond the pale. I have not forgotten Jon Benet, and never will. That little girl was almost still a baby.
The pimping of little girls and teenage girls by their parents and handlers is criminal. Women have long been held in a kind of third class status, as something less than men or their children. Fundamentalist religions are the most guilty of keeping women in this third class status, including my own religion.
These religions do a severe injustice to half of the human species, the female gender. That is another HUGE example of man's in humanity to man, or should I say man's inhumanity to women.
I, a male, have been a strong advocate of women's issues since my undergrad days in the early 60's and remain so.

I don't know how women continue to tolerate this state of affairs. Neither I nor any other man would or could tolerate such were it forced on us.

I remember the ERA and the right wing nuts like Phyllis Schlafly attacking it constantly. Schlafly is and was beyond crazy and criminal. But she was following her religion. Ignorance abounds...that is the sad state of fundie religions. How any religion could endorse the demeaning of women is way far criminal and an abomination to half of God's children, the female half, the gentler half; except for women like Phyllis Schlafly.

I could go on...

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Looks like most of the posts violated the "agreement."

Most likely due to the setup of the piece and the clip itself. Maher on his show is little more than a duplicitous shill (whichever way the wind is blowing, he's there to jump in front and proclaim himself that group's leader). In this clip he behaves like an ass in that some of his coments about the pageant chick are indeed out of line. However, the point someone made earlier about the 17 year old's bizarre response not being so unexpected as she was blindsided... that's idiotic too. Keep making excuses for idiocy.. you'll be wearin' their shit soon enough too.

I would buy into that have-pity-on-her argument much more had her answer not been so god-awfully devoid of any contextual skill with employing bullshit. IOW, come on, girl, if you're gonna blow smoke, at least make it count and help us all get high, eh? Shortage of maps? Holy shit!

But again, in hindsight, even the use of the clip itself was a bit off.... although the really important thing was she didn't sound much different than the Chimperor. Stupid is stupid, people. Enough making excuses for it. So we're insulted, titillated, offended, wanna throw tomatoes, whatever. It is a glaring example indeed of the product of nature and nurture evident in this girl, the Chimperor, and Bill Maher. Our culture, political system, economic system, class strata, etc. are all ours as Americans. If we start thinking of the stoopids as people in need of a little extra help and if we stop letting such people hold positions of power for a change (rich white stupid is still stupid and ought to immediately DQ a person from holding ANY kind of power over others, DUH) maybe we'd make some headway and gaffes like Miss what's-her-name's wouldn't occur. Hell, maybe we'd have fewer "hotness dangling".... I mean "beauty pageants" to begin with.

There's a lot to be ashamed of in our cult-of-stoopid. This clip just highlights that idiocy is indiscriminate: from the buffoon shill who broadcast it for money, the Alternet scum-heeler who posted it, the commentors who got all dirty themselves, to last but certainly mostly, the Chimperor who is still on the throne and the rich asshats who let him stay there, we are all covered in our own and each others' feces. Throwing it around may be our primate urge, but it doesn't get us cleaned up any sooner.

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