Summary: Discussing his recent dinner with Rev. Al Sharpton at the Harlem restaurant Sylvia's, Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.'" Read more...
Because we know BillO's fans are so civilized and polite. You can listen to the audio clip of the segment here.
Oooh, get the popcorn and watch the show. Billo has really riled up the religious righties with his 'Bible-thumping' comments, and their Empire is striking back. Bryan Fischer, who I never agree with, actually got something right in this short rant, when he called Billo a "pompous, arrogant windbag." He's right!
Bryan Fischer is furious with Bill O'Reilly over his recent statement that opponents of marriage equality do nothing but "thump the Bible" as Fischer ripped into him on his radio program yesterday, calling O'Reilly "blindly ignorant" of all the non-Scriptural arguments opponents of gay marriage have made.
Fischer admitted that anti-gay activists have indeed thumped their Bibles and have done so because it contains the revealed word of God, but they have made other arguments as well, but O'Reilly - who "a lot of the times just comes across as a pompous, arrogant windbag" - has just been "completely oblivious to this." Fischer was outraged by this "insult, this ridicule, this mockery of ordinary Americans who do believe in the Bible as the revealed word of God."
"The implication," Fischer declared, "is [that] we're a bunch of neanderthal, redneck, hillbilly Bible-bangers. That is essentially what he is saying were are ... He's insulting us to our face"
Gosh, they're both right. Fischer is a neanderthal Bible-banger, and Billo is a pompous windbag.
Another Republican civil war is brewing and this time it's between Bill O'Reilly and conservatives like Ingraham and Rush Limbaugh, who take offense to his characterizing them as 'Bible thumpers."
We’ll start with the background because it’s kind of convoluted. It begins with O’Reilly in a late March show saying that gay marriage proponents have successfully defined it as a civil rights issue, which he called a “compelling” argument that social conservatives have yet to counter.
“The other side hasn’t been able to do anything but thump the Bible,” he said.
Rush Limbaugh took umbrage at this. On his own radio show last Wednesday, he took out after O’Reilly, calling him “Ted Baxter," after the pompous anchor from the old Mary Tyler Moore show. O’Reilly had “marginalized” many religious Fox News viewers with his statement, said Mr. Limbaugh. Got that? So the stage is now set for last night.
O’Reilly began his Tuesday show with a segment downplaying any feud between him and Limbaugh. He said the left was trying to create an argument where none existed. Then he repeated his “thump” assertion.
“Zealots picked up on my statement that opponents must do more than thump the Bible if they want to win the civil debate. That’s absolutely true,” he said.
At News Hounds, we have theorized privately for quite some time that something deeply disturbing must be going on in Bill O'Reilly's private life to be driving him sofarofftherailssooften lately. Thanks to a post on Gawker yesterday afternoon, I think we now know. O'Reilly's involved in a very nasty custody battle with his ex-wife and he seems to think he can get God to side with him against her. Seriously.
We've previously reported that O'Reilly and his wife had separated and that he had allegedly tried to wreak revenge on his wife's police-detective boyfriend by having him investigated by the internal affairs unit. It turns out that O'Reilly is now divorced from his ex and she has married that detective. Gawker and the ACLU are suing for the public records showing whether O'Reilly engaged in any activity designed to intimidate his wife's lover that could be inappropriate at best and illegal at worst. In yesterday's post, Gawker's John Cook says that action is still pending.
Welcome to Fox News and Billo's show, irony -free filled zones. How does he do this with a straight face?
18-year old Penelope Soto was appearing before a judge on Monday for sentencing after being charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription. During the bond hearing, she had an angry exchange of words with the judge and flipped him the bird. The judge responded with a 30-day jail sentence for contempt of court.
Yes, Soto was disrespectful and deserved some punishment. But O'Reilly goes one step further in his analysis, saying that the judge wasn't just fed up with her behavior toward her, but the general atmosphere of disrespect everywhere in this country. He goes on to say that "many Americans simply are disrespectful and feel entitled to do whatever they want to do."
Colin Powell is not a perfect man, nor was he a perfect public servant. But as Republicans go, he is at least one of the more intellectually honest of the bunch, even when faced with Bill O'Reilly's bluster and nonsense. Billo has suddenly come down with a case of concern for African-Americans after Ailes sent the memo that they should pretend like they care (after spending four years spouting racist memes about vote-stealing).
Colin Powell was having none of it. He first called Bill O'Reilly out for presuming that his vote was race-based instead of decent judgment, asking simply, "Why do you think of me as only African-American? I'm American."
Try as he might, O'Reilly could not get Powell to play to his script, where Powell only voted for Obama based on his race.
O'Reilly's concern-trolling is nearly unbearable, given that he and his network did their level best to block all aspects of Obama's agenda that might actually have helped minorities and working people, black or otherwise, and Powell reminds him that in President Obama's first four years, many policies were put in place that will actually really help them, assuming Republican governors and representatives don't get too much in the way.
My favorite moment comes when Billo tries to snark Powell about voting for hope when things haven't improved all that much, and Powell takes him on point by point. Billo's memory must be failing him if he thinks things haven't improved since 2008. We haven't completely recovered, but there's no way we're anywhere near as desperate as we were four years ago.
After all the concern trolling, Billo's most cynical moment comes when he goes after the children of those same people he's so concerned about by bashing their school performance, and the money spent on their education. You see, Fox viewers, it's not at all about what poverty can do to crush a child's ability to learn, or what dangers they might face in their neighborhood. No, it's their moocher parents who can't stay married and have no family values and of course it's only minorities who fall under this judgment.
On Thursday's The Factor, Bill O'Reilly was livid that President Obama wants to legislate gun control after the Sandy Hook tragedy and refuses to negotiate over the debt ceiling hostage taking by Republicans. So instead of calling him arrogant or 'uppity,' he substituted 'cocky' instead.
O'Reilly: Have you noticed a subtle change in the president's demeanor? he was always a cocky guy, but now he's got an edge to him. He's almost dismissive of opposing points of view. Here's an example on the gun control issue where the president will have a very hard time with the House...
BillO played a clip of VP Biden saying the Obama will use executive orders .
"The president is going to act. Executive orders, executive action, can be taken," Biden told reporters before meetings with groups representing survivors of mass shootings. "We haven't decided what this is yet, but we're compiling it all with the help of the attorney general and all the rest of the Cabinet members."
To O'Reilly, if a president enacts an executive order then he must be cocky! In his world, he thinks it violates the constitution,but later in the show a UCLA professor explains to Bill that all presidents have used executive orders. Hell, George Bush issued a slew of them throughout his eight years. Here's a complete list of all of them. However, no matter what they are, they are only justified in Bill O's world if a Republican president does it.
O'Reilly: So what Mr. Biden is saying is that the president is willing to use an executive order on a constitutional issue like guns. Very dicey.
If Bush used an EO on gun control, Bill-O would say that he did it because he felt he was compelled to. End of story. But then O'Reilly flipped the 'cocky' part of Obama and adeptly transitioned into how the people that want to pass gun control only are doing it because they hate America. or, in BillO's words
A driving philosophy behind this is that America is a bad country....
President Obama believes that America is a flawed country and it is his duty to correct those flaws.
See, Obama the cocky hates America and it's his duty to correct those flaws that we here at FOX News make you believe there really aren't any. We're perfect, without flaw, God fearing and righteous. Heck, if we do happen to blow up a few countries along the way I'm sure the folks will be virtuous and forgive em.
As the days tick by in Obama's second term, Bill-O is going to lose it more and more. I don't see how he makes it through without taking a lot of time off. If not, I imagine that he'll blame Obama for fluoridation and other such things. But for now he'll stick to the basics of dog-whistle politics.
General Jack D. Rippe: Do you realize that fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous Communist plot we have ever had to face?' I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids."
General Jack D. Ripper: Mandrake, do you realize that in addition to fluoridating water, why, there are studies underway to fluoridate salt, flour, fruit juices, soup, sugar, milk... ice cream. Ice cream, Mandrake, children's ice cream.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. 1946, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works. Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Uh, Jack, Jack, listen... tell me, tell me, Jack. When did you first... become... well, develop this theory?
General Jack D. Ripper: [somewhat embarassed] Well, I, uh... I... I... first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love.
General Jack D. Ripper: Yes, a uh, a profound sense of fatigue... a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I... I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence.
General Jack D. Ripper: I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women uh... women sense my power and they seek the life essence. I, uh... I do not avoid women, Mandrake.
Bill O'Reilly must have hit the holiday...er...Christmas schnapps before performing his Talking Points Memo because his brain was seriously impaired. First of all it lasted over eight minutes long so he could fit in every piece of imagined horrors the left wing would inflict upon his grandma demographic of an audience. They ranged from the gayifing of America to the end of Christmas as we know it. BillO then said that the secular left supports freedom for all heroin and meth dealers in America. That's a view mostly held by Ron Paul Libertarians, but who needs facts, right? Liberals mostly want to see pot legalized. On top of that he says we want to open up the jails and release violent criminals upon America so they can help us gayify America faster.
And of course we want to kill as many unborn babies as possible. But wait, that's not all. BIll Popeil has more, oh so much more. O'Reilly declares we want to live in a land devoid of all morals--a moral free zone---a libertine lifestyle! But that's not all. If you order more of his bulls*it he'll double your fun. He's unleashed the worst fate of all that we might impart on America is to turn the beloved Christmas tree into a Holiday tree! Noooooo.
O'Reilly: The more intelligent Secular Progressives will understand that now is their time in history. The agenda is clear. Above all the secular forces want to change the economy. They want the government to run it and provide cradle to grave entitlements for those Americans who cannot or will not provide for themselves.
The left also wants to control profits in the private sector taking as much money as possible away from the achievers and the corporations. Again, with the intent to redistribute the cash, so that's agenda number one.
Number two, is to obliterate some American traditions, gay marriage, it's not about matrimony anymore. It's about civil rights. And if you oppose gay marriage you are a hater, a rights denier. Legalized narcotics, the left sees drug users as victims and believes no one has a right to stand between an American and intoxication.
On that note the "New York Times" ran a front page article yesterday lamenting tough mandatory prison sentences for drug dealers. The left believes they're not violent offenders. So if you are selling meth, heroin, cocaine, that's not an act that causes harm or pain to another person, oh, no. Are you kidding me? Those of you who know firsthand about addiction know how crazy that point of view is. People who sell drugs are the lowest rung. They are committing violence against other human beings - - period.
A "Times" article says a half million people are in prison for drug offenses in the USA, 10 times the number than in 1980. That sounds bad, doesn't it? But what the paper does not, does not tell you is that violent crime in America has been cut in half since the tough mandatory prison sentences were instituted. The country is much safer because hard core criminals are doing hard time. That's a fact. No one should feel sorry for killers, rapists and drug pushers.
Now I know you good folks of the religious right can withstand all of these sins against nature, but messing with the Tree is something that is just unacceptable. O'Reilly scans the Internet and finds a few isolated cases to prove his points and then moves on to the next unimaginable terror that we be released by the left. And there are many.
BillO's rant was a hodgepodge collection of every possible left wing bogeyman that has been created by the lunatic right over too many decades to count. These bogeymen are hiding in millions of closets just waiting to jump out and attack when the lights go out. Are you scared? Do you think you can survive the night? BillO sure doesn't.
Now, because I do commentary like this, laying out the progressive agenda, I'm a big threat to them. Listen to this incredible sound bite from committed left-wing guy Harry Belafonte he says that people like me who oppose President Obama and the liberal agenda on some things should be dealt with.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BELAFONTE: What fascinates me is that in the face of millions of Americans expressing their desire the whole political establishment defining its game that there should be this lingering infestation of a -- of a really corrupt people who sit trying to dismantle the wishes of the people, the mandate that has been given to Barack Obama and I don't know what more they want.
The only thing left for Barack Obama to do is to work like third world dictator and just throw all these guys in jail. They're violating the American desire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: I guess violating the American desire is a felony now, right, Harry? Maybe the guy was just kidding. Maybe. But believe me, anyone in this country who challenges the Secular Progressive agenda is going to get hammered. These people are on a mission. They want a completely different America. A country that embraces social justice, libertine behavior and is secular in every way and that brings us to the Christmas controversy which is symbolic, symbolic of the entire culture war.
Bob Costas visited The O’Reilly Factor last night to discuss those gun comments he made a few days ago in the wake of the Jovan Belcher suicide/murder tragedy. It seemed that the two guys had a prior friendly relationship and if they didn’t before, they do now. Costas stood by his comments and added on to them, with minor challenges from O’Reilly. In fact, O’Reilly’s biggest concern seemed to be that Costas “call a Christmas tree a ‘Christmas tree.’”
Costas emphasized that he is “not looking to repeal the Second Amendment… I didn’t call for any specific prohibition on guns, never used the words ‘gun control.’ But he had a powerful message that O’Reilly let him deliver almost completely uninterrupted.
Since I made these comments, I have heard from players past and present, from coaches, from executives in the NFL saying they have long been alarmed and concerned by the number of players who cavalierly believe that you have to have a gun.
… I am not the least bit afraid to talk about the gun culture, to talk about domestic violence. I thought it was self-evident that this was a domestic violence case, self evident. To talk about the effects that football and the culture of football have on many of the people who play it. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again. I will look for places where there’s more time to do it.
In retrospect, I don’t back up on anything I said, but I think it might have been more effective if I said, ‘Look, if we’re looking for perspective on this, we’re gonna have to have a serious discussion within sports, an ongoing discussion, not five minutes of faux tears about it, but a serious discussion about domestic violence, about the culture of the game itself, about the easy access to guns, about steroids, drugs and alcohol and in the future, we will soon do that… I think that would have… led to less misunderstanding of where I was coming from.
…I can not think of a single instance involving a professional athlete whereby that athlete having a gun averted or diminished a dangerous situation but I can give you a long list of tragedies that came about because guys were packing.
O’Reilly, ever grandiose, concluded by telling Costas, “Anytime you get in trouble, you come right here, we’ll get you out of it.”
BillO goes from one nutty conspiracy to another. First, he's been treating Benghazi like a complex Len Deighton novel -- which it ain't -- and second, he needed a juicy target for his annual ritual, the "War on Christmas" and its associated nonsense. So he went out and found Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican, to be his patsy.
BillO has been running stories about the Rhode Island holiday tree story, in case you've had the good fortune to miss it.
A beaming Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee calmly weathered a cross-country Christmas controversy yesterday, standing by his PC pronouncement that the 17-foot spruce in the State House rotunda is a “holiday tree” as outraged residents cried foul. Taking the Christmas out of the tree is in the Rhode Island spirit, Chafee said, invoking the 1663 Colonial charter and the legacy of state father Roger Williams. “I’m just continuing what other governors have done,” Chafee told the Herald after dedicating a separate tree to soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. “I just want to make sure I’m doing everything possible in this building to honor Roger Williams.”
O'Reilly has been pining to get the governor on and he finally agreed to join him on The Factor. The first part of the video is Bill's talking points segment, which features Bill rambling on about secular progressives and atheists and so on. Then on comes Chafee, giving BillO the launching pad to ratchet up his patented "War on Christmas" hysterics on the governor.
Chafee made the case that it's a publicly funded building where the tree is located and he feels that these times-are-a-changin'. That's not music to Bill's ears -- after all, we know he sees his white dominant America slipping away -- and he kept pounding away. Chafee used as an analogy about how forcing students to say Christian prayers in public schools was the same thing, since not all the students were Christians -- but Bill wasn't buying it.
Chafee: Of course you can't ask non-Christians to say a Christian prayer in public school so these controversies, you generate them here, but they really shouldn't be controversies. It's a public building paid for by everybody...
O'Reilly: I think you're conflating two different issues.
Chafee: No, not at all.
O'Reilly explained that the Lord's Prayer was a religious act, but claimed that a Christmas tree is a secular symbol. Huh?
Governor, the Lord's Prayer is obviously a religious expression, a Christmas tree is secular.
OK, let's ask my Jewish friends about Christmas trees.
Near the end of the interview the Governor was getting tired of the attacks and pompousness and he loudly proclaimed for this holiday season that O'Reilly and Fox News are just plain angry all the time.
O'Reilly: You're making people unhappy. Everybody's unhappy with you.
Chafee: Merry Christmas
Governor, you know I'm right in your heart you know I'm right.
Chafee: No, your show -- Fox News, you guys are too angry. This is an angry network.
O'Reilly: I'm not angry, Governor. Look, I'm a happy guy.
Chafee: Listen to yourself, you're yelling.
O'Reilly: I want our traditions to be respected, that's all.
Chafee: Well, Merry Christmas.
Snap! BillO got played. Listen to yourself, O'Reilly. Way to go, Gov. Chafee. You didn't buy into his idiotic argument and you made him appear small, petty and angry all at the same time. Bravo.
Media Matters: (h/t Sassywho)
