Michael Eric Dyson, Rahm Emmanuel, and Pete Hamill joined Bill Maher last night. I was pleased to see that Maher didn’t take his usual pro-Israeli stance and denounce President Ahmadinejad outright. He even called the president of Columbia an “idiot” for demonizing Ahmadinejad in his introduction. Kudos Maher, you’re on my good side this week. Rahm Emmanuel was also rather cerebral and tolerable during the show until it came to the war. He obfuscated the problem of war funding by talking about equipment, Republican votes, serving constituents, and even repeated the shameless lie that the best way to end the war is to vote a Democratic into office in 2008. Emmanuel did such a good job of pissing off the audience with his obscene remarks that you wouldn’t have even guessed the guy is missing his middle finger. Lucky for us, Michael Eric Dyson was there to inject a bit of reality into the conversation. Dyson is always untouchable due to his clear and lightning-fast rebuttals. Near the end of the show, he also gave props to conscious hip-hop artists like Mos Def, Common, and Immortal Technique when Maher made his ignorance about the genre all too apparent. Pete Hamill did a fine job too, from what little I was able to hear him say between the other guests.

h/t Tullycast