[media id=7178] Bill O'Reilly just can't help hawking right-wing talking points on his segment devoted to same, even if they're largely false, hyperi
January 24, 2009

Bill O'Reilly just can't help hawking right-wing talking points on his segment devoted to same, even if they're largely false, hyperinflated propaganda:

So we can add this guy to a list of 61 former Gitmo detainees who have returned to being terrorists after they've been released, according the Defense Department. That's 11 percent of those let go returning to the terror world.

Actually, there are only 18 confirmed ex-detainees who've been identified as having returned to terrorism:

Indeed, during a January 13 press conference, Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell stated: "The new numbers are, we believe, 18 confirmed and 43 suspected of returning to the fight...."

More to the point, doesn't this actually tell us that the Bush detention policies were a failure? O'Reilly assumes that closing Gitmo means letting all these people go; what it actually means is giving our legal authorities the ability to make sure we hang on to people who are real threats and to do so legally instead of relying on extralegal measures like Gitmo.

Not that O'Reilly would have the capacity to figure this out if it were explained to him. His precious talking point is much more important.

O'Reilly then goes on to compare the "war on terror" with the Civil War. And then whines that the press didn't treat Caroline Kennedy the way it treated Sarah Palin. Nevermind, of course, that Palin was running for the Vice Presidency -- the nation's No. 2 national office -- while Kennedy was simply seeking one of 100 Senate seats -- a statewide office for people who live in New York.

I think I need to start consuming large sums of ginkgo biloba or something, because watching Bill O'Reilly is destroying my brain.

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