bill maher

Bill Maher Puts $1M Behind Pro-Obama Super PAC

WASHINGTON — Comedian Bill Maher is putting his money where his mouth is.

The comedian and talk show host who has long railed on the weakness of the Republican presidential field announced at a stand up comedy show on Thursday that he would donate $1 million to Priorities USA Action, a pro-Obama Super PAC.

“my surprise tonight is I would like to tonight announce a donation to the Obama Super PAC–which has the very unfortunate tongue-twister name ‘Priority (sic) USA Action’,” Maher said. “I know, it was named by Borat. but tonight I would like to give that PAC one million dollars.”

The concert, which was live streamed on Yahoo!, was held in San Jose, California and was billed by Yahoo! as the first stand-up comedy concert to be streamed live online.

In a tweet after the event, Maher said the announcement was a surprise to the Yahoo! organizers.

“thank u everybody who’s hit me up after the show, and a great San Jose audience. Obama donation was a surprise to Yahoo too fyi!”

Maher, whose comedy show is called “CrazyStupidPolitics,” has not been shy about his opinions of the 2012 race and when he spoke with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, he said that other than Ron Paul, the Republican candidates running for president have “horrible society killing ideas about America.”

“the rest of those people are, of course, selling their souls to the corporate interests who back them,” Maher said. “they all act like god created the world in January of 2009, and then Barack Obama completely screwed it up.”

When asked in the same interview who he thought was going to win the 2012 electron, Maher quickly tapped the president as the eventual winner.

“my money is still on Mitt Romney,” said Maher when asked who the eventual Republican nominee. “And I think he’s going to get the nomination, and then I think Obama is going to beat him like a runaway sister wife, yes, I do.”

Maher’s million dollar donation will substantially boost the coffers of the Super PAC which raised only $58,815.83 in January, according to a report filed earlier in the week with the Federal Election Commission.

– CNN’s Matthew Carey contributed to this report.

KHQ Right Now – News and Weather for Spokane and North Idaho

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM – the Republicans sure have the right symbol with the elephant. Republican debates are nothing but elephants in the room.

The biggest of which must be: to someone out there who's hurting, they spend the whole two hours yammering away about earmarks and illegal immigrants and contraception and every other peripheral, wish-I-had-the-time-to-worry-about-it issue they can think of.

Then there is the elephant of how they all — with the sometime exception of Ron Paul — nod along to insane statements just because they don't want to ever look like they're to the left of anybody, on anything, especially the evilness of Barack Obama. So Wednesday night when Newt said the president of the United States had a history of practicing infanticide… yep, yep, yessir, that's what he does all right. Clubs infants like baby seals in his spare time. Ike played golf, Kennedy liked boating…

Ron Paul said foreign aid just helps our enemies. which, I believe, would make Israel and Egypt our two biggest enemies. Yup, yup, hate foreign aid. A meaningless percentage of the budget, btw. click here to read the full article

Walking miracles – Kenny Burgamy – Macon.com

Anti-religious dogma and an irreverent popular culture have effectively cast uncertainty regarding the idea that miracles happen around us. Comedian Bill Maher relishes telling biblical followers that when praying to our creator we’re doing nothing more than speaking to an “imaginary friend.” And remember the late writer Christopher Hitchens’ most famous book, “God is Not great.”

According to the Pew Forum on Religion, their 2010 survey found a majority of Americans, 80 percent, believe in miracles.

Despite those findings many people are wary of publicly professing any such heavenly involvement.

Personally, I believe in a God of might and miracles. our faith is stimulated and dependence on him often grows through traumatic, life-altering events.

Skeptics and non-believers in a divine entity generally explain strange occurrences and healing as simply beating “slim odds” based on a medical opinion. in their unwritten code of disbelief, luck would be all that accounts for a patient delivered from a horrific disease or trauma.

Having witnessed the turnaround from near death of my mother-in-law, Marie Morgan, I have to say there was intervention of the great physician. She was given less than 1 percent chance of surviving following a head-on collision in August.

After four months of mental and physical anguish, family and friends marvel at her astonishing recovery. I am awestruck at her ability to perform so many small tasks we never thought she’d achieve again.

I won’t forget a somber conversation I had with The Medical Center of Central Georgia’s chief medical officer, Dr. Jim Cunningham, during Marie’s ICU sedation. He told me she was very ill, doctors were doing all they could and, “we could use help from above.”

As an early Christmas present I received a book filled with details about a political figure, no doubt living today based on what I’d call a miracle “Gabby: a Story of Courage and Hope.”

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., was at a town hall meeting at a supermarket in Tucson Jan. 8 when she was shot point blank in the head.

Ninety-five percent of victims of such a wound die instantly. those few who do survive remain severely weakened for life.

While not overtly spiritual, Giffords’ husband, Mark Kelly, devotes an entire chapter to what he describes as the “Parameters of a Miracle” in the recovery process of his wife.

Most of Kelly’s account describes the horrific shooting, Giffords’ impairments and personal details of an arduous, excruciating recuperation and rehab. Astronaut Kelly said, “Miraculous was not an inappropriate description.”

The final chapter, the last page, is the exclusive voice, the choppy thoughts of a valiant Gabby Giffords. She starts by telling readers, “Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith.”

We’re all asked to have faith and to believe in miracles, events and circumstances we simply can’t explain. some of us get to witness a miracle and tell others about it for encouragement. because of our hope and faith we rightly applaud the one who deserves credit.

Kenny Burgamy serves as a marketing consultant and is co-host of the Kenny B. Charles E., TV, radio and Internet program.