bill maher on the tonight show

I've posted the entire episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno because Hulu doesn't have just clips yet. But note that Bill Maher comes on after the second dot and he sticks around after the commercial. I wouldn't normally post an entire episode if I only wanted you to watch one portion, but Bill Maher was on fire last night. You know what patriotism is? Patriotism is questioning and criticizing our government. You know why? Because we're one of the few countries that can do that. The 1st Amendment is patriotic. I'm going to see his film Religulous tonight, and you can look forward to that review coming up this weekend.

But for now, here are some highlights from the video above:

(about McCain's campaign) "I think McCain is getting desperate. Am I wrong? His new campaign slogan is 'McCain: The White Obama.' [...] I think he's desperate to get to the White House because the White House is an excellent manage-care facility. You move in there and they have your whole day planned out, plenty of activities to keep the older mind sharp. You can even have your own pet."

"You can type anything on the internet and as long as you don't type LOL after it, it's true. I could type 'John McCain is a cyborg made out of spare parts of Freddie Mercury and aborted stem cells fetuses.' [...] So I think I should go in tonight and type 'Barack Obama is white. In fact, he's Irish. It's O'bama'"

(on Sarah Palin) "Competency is like pornography -- you know it when you see it. And that governor Avon lady just doesn't pass the smell test. Sorry, but she couldn't name a newspaper. Katie Couric asked her -- three times, 'What do you read?' and she said, 'I read them all.' Bush said he didn't read the papers, but he could name what they were. She could not name a newspaper. She could not name a Supreme Court decision. Katie Couric, again, said can you name a Supreme Court decision, and she finally said, 'Alien vs. Predator.'" (Jay's response: "Yeah, I remember that. As I recall, we both lose.")

(still on Palin) "I guarantee you, if you put a gun to her head and asked her, 'What is the FCC?', she could not tell you. Although she could tell you what kind of gun it was."

(on McCain) "He's a very brave man. It's a great quality. But this isn't the Middle Ages. We're not actually going into battle behind him with a spear. We need a smart guy, smart people to get us out of this mess." (Good for Maher correcting "guy" with "people.")

(when asked if he feared for his safety in a Muslim country while filming Religulous) "We were in Jerusalem. That's not exactly a Muslim country. There's a large Muslim presence." (Oh, snap!)

And if you're a fan of James Taylor -- and really, who isn't? -- stick around to watch his cover of "Suzanne" at the end.