'Real Time' Guest List: May 25, 2012

By Miles Leicher 

Tonight’s top-of-show guest will be Jeffrey Gettleman, the Pulitzer Prize winning Nairobi Bureau Chief from The New York Times. He recently detailed some of the European Union’s military action against pirates in Somalia.

Panel:

Michelle Bernard is the CEO of The Bernard Center for Women, Politics, & Public Policy and contributor to The Washington Post blog, "She the People." Earlier this month, she wrote about her belief that "marriage is a basic civil right." 

Paul Krugman is the author of End This Depression Now! and a prolific columnist for The New York Times. Yesterday, he called out Wall Streeters for being "spoiled brats...with immense power and wealth at their disposal." 

Arthur Laffer is a former economic advisor to President Ronald Regan and author of EUREKA! How to Fix California. In a recent op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, he and former Real Time guest Stephen Moore argue that states should abolish their income tax. As they put it, comparing “the economic performance of states with no income tax to that of states with high rates…is like comparing Hong Kong with Greece or King Kong with fleas.”

Joining us mid-show will be actor/comedian Kevin Nealon from Weeds. Earlier this month he appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, where he reported from Las Vegas as an ordained minister.

Have a question for our guests? Ask it at HBO.com and maybe we’ll talk about it on Overtime!

Mitt Romney’s Best Choice for Vice President: No One

By Bill Maher

Mitt Romney has two arguments for why he should be president (three, if you count, "Give it to me or I'll kill you"). The first is that he loves, loves, loves, loves, LOVES America. Which makes you think the job he should actually get is poet laureate. The second is: I am the king of all business management. Look upon my spreadsheets, ye mighty and tremble.

Mitt Romney has the super power of being able to look at a PowerPoint presentation of a flow chart of a company that makes men's room hand-dryers, and cut its staff by 15%. Now, I don't give a shit about this skill, and I don't see how it entitles you to Andrew Jackson's old job, but there it is. Clark Kent is Superman. Bruce Wayne is Batman. Mitt Romney is Businessman.

Look, up in the sky, it's a guy in business class.

Now that we've entered the boring stage in an election year where the party has a candidate, and the candidate has to choose a running mate, how about this: If Mitt wants to prove he can cut the fat out of government, he should choose no one.

The Vice President makes $230,000 a year. Just take that money and put it in the kitty. Give it to the GSA for muffin baskets, or the Secret Service for whores. Or the Air Force, to set on fire and laugh. 

The Vice President also gets his own 9,150 square foot house, Number One Observatory Circle. We could turn that into a Subway sandwich shop. It has a high tech 9/11 Doomsday bunker. We could turn that into another Subway sandwich shop.

The Vice President has his own staff, and his own motorcade -- which went through a weird period a couple of years ago, when it was always running people over. He even has his own plane. Sell it all.

If a foreign leader dies, and we care, the President can go. If we don't care, we can send a card. And a gift certificate for a Subway sandwich.

I like Joe Biden.  But even Osama Bin Laden didn't think he was "world leader" material. According to his assassination journals -- Bin Laden's, I mean, not Biden's -- Biden wasn’t even worth killing. Bin Laden wrote to an al-Qaeda aide in 2010 that he wanted assassination teams assembled to target President Obama and Gen. Petraeus, because:

"...Obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make Biden take over the presidency for the remainder of the term, as it is the norm over there," bin Laden wrote. "Biden is totally unprepared for that post, which will lead the U.S. into a crisis."

I’m thinking our enemies will be even less intimidated by whatever empty suit Romney picks. So don't do it at all. Be a game changer. No Vice President. 

It'll be cheaper than feeding Chris Christie.

Onesies for Romney

By Miles Leicher

On Friday's Real Time, we showcased some interesting merchandise from the official Obama website that's obviously meant to appeal to Obama's liberal base. Specifically, this babies' onesie:

We also checked out* the Romney website** and it appears that he too had onesies designed to appeal to his Republican base:

*Completely made up
** Out of thin air

What would your "Romney onesie" look like?

Backstage Pass: Man Stories

By Miles Leicher

Real Time stylist Brenda Rippee and guests Jeremy Scahill and Joel Stein prove that there’s nothing like a little make-up to bring out the man stories.

Behind the Screens: May 18, 2012

By Miles Leicher

Check out what went on behind the scenes of last week’s Real Time episode!

Overtime: May 18, 2012

Bill Maher, Dan Rather, Jeremy Scahill, Bill Bradley, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and Joel Stein

Bill and the panel take questions from the Internet about the effects of social media on news reporting, Greek austerity measures, U.S. foreign policy and more:

Submit your Overtime questions for this week’s panel now at HBO.com!

'Real Time' Guest List: May 18, 2012

By Miles Leicher

Joining Bill Maher for tonight’s top-of-show interview will be Dan Rather, host of HDNet's "Dan Rather Reports" and author of Rather Outspoken. His journalism career has spanned over six decades and eleven presidents – and he recently told POLITICO that he thinks Mitt Romney has a good chance of joining that list. 

On the Panel:

 

Bill Bradley is a former Democratic Senator from New Jersey and author of We Can All Do Better. Last week, he spoke with NPR about some of his ideas.
 

Michelle Caruso-Cabrera is CNBC's Chief International Correspondent, where, among other things, she has been offering extensive coverage of the Greek debt crisis.

Jeremy Scahill is the National Security Correspondent for The Nation and has been critical of the Obama Administration’s drone-centric policies in Yemen.
 

Our mid-show guest is Joel Stein, a columnist for TIME Magazine and author of Man Made: A Stupid Quest for Masculinity. In his latest column, “My Mitt Moment,” he calls himself out for being a high school bully. 

Have a question for our guests? Ask it at HBO.com and maybe we’ll talk about it on Overtime!

Behind the Screens: May 11, 2012

By Miles Leicher

Check out what happened behind the scenes of last week’s Real Time episode!