If Matt Damon is disillusioned with The One, Harry Belafonte is downright dismayed with President Barack Obama’s first term.

The Calypso crooner didn’t hold back during a recent radio chat on “Smiley & West,” co-hosted by Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, even if a rebroadcast of the program snipped out Belafonte’s most punishing comments, according to The Radio Equalizer.

“My question is, what legacy will he leave, having the opportunity to serve under such hugely dramatic circumstances and had such a huge impact on the universal state of things … how could he have had such a splendid opportunity to do more than most presidents would have ever been able to do, and he let that opportunity slip away from him.

I’m very cautious of the fact that those who think he has some second agenda and only if he could be given a second term for us to see the new light, new things will be revealed, new efforts will be made to take us to a place other than where we’ve been and where we languish. I just don’t trust that. I don’t believe that’s a safe way and accurate way to look at this scenario. If there was the kind of moral compass serving Barack Obama the way we hoped, the moral force would have helped him make choices, the absence of that force in his equations, that barometer to guide him when he has to make these decisions that are hugely complicated, he should have come to the table with the things that would have helped us in this moment of crisis.”

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First off, Tavis Smiley is obviously a dishonest and immoral moral relativist and Bill Maher is exactly right in smacking him down with this epic piece of wisdom: “When you tolerate intolerance, you’re not really being a liberal.”

Listen, I know Maher can be intellectually dishonest and unfair and vulgar and that his evangelical crusade to spread his disbelief in God makes an airport Moonie look like the picture of restraint. However, unlike Jon Stewart, Bill Maher does not hide behind a clown nose, he comes to wage political war and says so. You never hear Maher say, “Hey, I’m a satirist, don’t hold me accountable.” Unlike Jon Stewart, Bill Maher also doesn’t try to dictate the how the rest of us speak. While I can certainly see Maher holding a rally to mock Glenn Beck, I cannot see it ending with a sanctimonious speech in favor of political speech rules.

Now to the point:

Finally, can you imagine the same Jon Stewart who considers the most tolerant country in the history of world Islamophobic, standing up to Tavis Smiley in this way? Can you imagine Jon Stewart having the sand to speak the politically incorrect truth about the treatment of women throughout much of the Muslim world? I rarely agree with Maher, sometimes I don’t like him very much, but I know where he stands because he’s man enough to fly his partisan flag and carries no clown nose. Most of all, he’s willing to say out loud that it’s a contradiction to believe in human rights while denigrating Western Civilization. That’s worth something to me, whereas I see Mr. SmugFaceClownNoseSuperiorSpeechPolicer for exactly what he is.
Below is not a full transcript, it’s pull quotes courtesy of our friends over at NewsBusters. Be sure to read Noel Sheppard’s full write up:

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