Keith-O Nails Bill-0 - War on Christmas & Worst Person in The World
12-17-07 -- OLBERMANN: Bill O declares victory on his war on sanity. Sorry, war on Christmas. Probably, just forgetting that he already declared victory a week ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL O'REILLY, TV HOST: The far Left secular progressive community is furious, furious, I tell you about, losing the war on Christmas. We won.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Bill, you sound like Don Quixote. Nice job on defeating the windmills, Sparky.
As Bill-O rejoins the ranks of the Don Quixote's, merry mission accomplished. The war on Christmas has been won for the second time in two weeks. Now, why is Bill praising Hitler's foreign minister?
During a factor segment about Bill O's war on Christmas fetish he said a very regrettable remark in which he complimented one of the Nazis hanged for war crimes in 1946.
A twofer tonight from the Frank Burns of news: declares victory-again-in the war on Christmas. One in his brain. And he says the Nazi leader who sent French and Hungarian Jews to the death camps, quote, "made good points."
OLBERMANN: Bill O'Reilly claims to be a crusader for Christmas but, in reality, his true concern is not Jesus Christ whose biblical revelations he indicated on the air were made "what, 5,000 years ago?"
A neat trick even for him, considering he is said to have been alive 2,000 years ago. Nor is O'Reilly's focus Santa really nor even Frosty the Snowman. More like a straw man of the war on Christmas.
And now, on our third story on the COUNTDOWN, Bill O. declares victory-again. And racks up yet another win against the secular progressives-that preceding by 24 hours O'Reilly giving a pass to Barnes and Noble on the Christmas fran-because that company sells his book.
But, first, the victory dance--O'Reilly two nights ago, reveling in his righteousness:
"No joy in S. P. Ville. The far-left secular progressive community is furious-furious, I tell you, about losing the war on Christmas."
Ooh! Who cares? Who is fighting this on either side except you and your anti-Semitic friends?
He then gave examples of his great victory:
"In Wisconsin, the state assembly has voted to restore the name of the Christmas tree to the Christmas tree." S. P.s had changed it to the "holiday tree." On Capitol Hill, the House voted yesterday 372 to nine to recognize the importance of the Christmas tradition and to condemn bigotry against Christmas."
O?Reilly then called out the nine lawmakers who voted against the resolution. More on that in a moment.
"So all over the country, the sights and sounds of Christmas are on display, few department stores are telling employees not to say 'merry Christmas', and the Taliban-like oppression of the holiday has largely ceased."
Ease up, Colonel Burns.
The Taliban used to cut off the fingers of women wearing nail polish. When you hear of somebody doing that here, then you can invoke the Taliban.
And, just for good measure, Bill O. then compared a critic, a writer from the "Philadelphia Daily News", to other great religion-haters of the ages:
"Joseph Stalin, Mao, and Fidel salute you."
And he finished up by declaring that:
"The fact is, reporting on Christmas is one of the most important things we've done." Now, give an allelluia-have done. "The bottom line is this: we won."
But, just one day later, a focus on the family fellow trying to tell Bill O. that Barnes and Noble was intentionally removing the word Christmas and using that holiday theme.
O'Reilly suddenly switched gears, uttering the genius line, "They sell a lot of books at Barnes and Noble."
No kidding. And, when the guests suggested people should spend their money in a place that's not scared to wish you a merry Christmas, O'Reilly replied, "I think a lot of people feel the same way. Which is why we reversed the trend. But I'm not going to come down hard on Barnes and Noble."
That doesn't even scratch the surface of O'Reilly's war on sanity. Since he already declared victory a week ago.
Since the long history of his reportage on this war, including one delusion after another like the false claim that the Plano Independent School District in Texas two years ago had told students they could not wear red and green because they were Christmas colors. Never happened.
Worst Person in The World -
But, our winner, Bill O.
Honestly, they're stacking up like planes at all theaters at rush hour. Going nuts over Tim Robins against because he appeared for John Edwards in Iowa.
Now, Bernard Goldberg even says to Bill, "Robins is a bright guy. I think, he made a couple of good points." Then, Jane Hall said Robins' criticism of media oversimplification of the Democratic race, quote, "I think is valid."
Whereupon, the Frank Burns of news replies, "But Von Ribbentropp, in the Nazi hierarchy made valid points, Jane."
OK, skip the Nazi reference part in comparing Robins to Ribbentropp and it was just Ribbentropp--he made up the 'Von' part. The news here is, Von Ribbentropp made valid points?
Hitler's foreign minister, the guy who convinced France and Hungary and much of Eastern Europe to deport their Jews to the German death camps. The man who was hanged for his war crimes. That Ribbentropp?
Ribbentropp made valid points, Bill?
Do you want to name one of them? Until then, what? Should you just assume what we should just assume--everything that was ever said by Ribbentropp in the Nazi hierarchy, you approved?
Idiot! Bill O'Reilly, today's "Worst Person in the World".
The Facts on Torture And Waterboarding (The Real Truth)
12-13-07 -- Note to Bill O'Reilly and all factor viewers, read this and you will see the real truth, not the spin you hear from Billy and the Republicans.
From the 12-12-07 Countdown with Keith Olbermann show on MSNBC. Hey Billy, this is what real journalism looks like, try it some day.
---------
Waterboardinggate and again the story changes. The CIA director tells the House Intelligence Committee he did know about these tapes before he moved from National Intelligence to Central Intelligence as long as two and a half years ago.
The Democratic chairman of that committee and the senior Republican both slam the White House and the CIA for not keeping House Intelligence informed. They say they will call ex-CIA directors Tenet and Goss.
And a district court reveals it had ordered the Bush administration to not destroy any evidence related to torture.
Of course, this is all still academic to some Republicans. Acting assistant attorney general Levin said waterboarding is torture. Zubaydah interrogation team leader Kiriakou said waterboarding is torture. But Republican Senator Kit Bond of Missouri says, waterboarding is closer to surfboarding.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. KIT BOND, ? MO: It's like swimming, freestyle, backstroke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
OLBERMANN: Waterboarding is to the back stroke as Kit Bond is to an actual leader.
Our fourth story on the COUNTDOWN, those all stated positions from right wing politicians, pundits and personages about waterboarding. The forcible drowning of another human being without actually letting them die, if you do it right.
The precedent set by U.S. law before the bush administration and despite the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 which specifically states, "No person in the custody or under the control of the Department of Defense or under detention in a Department of Defense facility shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by or listed in the United States Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation."
In the Field Manual under the heading, "If used in conjunction with intelligence interrogations, prohibited actions include but are not limited to waterboarding."
In black and white, according to U.S. law, waterboarding specifically is illegal. And for those who claim it was not illegal in 2002, when Abu Zubaydah was subject to it, a Japanese officer was successfully prosecuted by the U.S. for waterboarding one of our civilians in 1947. And in 1992 the Army training manual clearly stated, "It is critical that the Geneva Convention provisions concerning protected persons be strictly adhered to in the quest to identify legitimate threats and gain needed intelligence."
The Geneva Convention, that specifically states, "prisoners of war must at all times be protected particularly against acts of violence or intimidation."
There is no question about this. This is not an opinion or--I heard Joe Scarborough going off on it this morning as if we were going to put it to a vote. It's torture. The head of the Zubaydah interrogation, even while extolling it, says it's torture. It's chapter and verse in the legal system. It's illegal.
And we know this about the CIA tapes:
OLBERMANN: The essence of obstruction of justice, the definition of when destroying tapes showing the CIA torturing an al Qaeda minion on a waterboard is a George Tenet style slam dunk crime, whether the materials used were relevant to an ongoing legal case.
Our fifth story on the COUNTDOWN is unusually clear for this nearly seven year fog of Bush. The revelation that not one but two U.S. district judges issued orders in June and July of 2005. That the government had to not destroy any evidence relating to the mistreatment of detainees at Gitmo.
And the CIA destroyed some of that evidence in December of 2005 the inevitable loophole in this presidency of loopholes, the detainees were not yet at Gitmo when they were tortured and videotaped. President Bush still claiming he did not know about the tapes until last Thursday morning even though that claim must now be viewed through the prism that the administration destroyed those tapes even though under a court order to not discard torture of detainee torture and abuse or even of mistreatment.
The tapes documenting hundreds of hours during which two al Qaeda suspects were tortured and interrogated erased by the CIA November 2005 but five months earlier in June, U.S. district judge Henry Kennedy had ordered the Bush administration to safeguard, quote, all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay.
One month later in July of 2005, U.S. district judge Gladys Kessler issuing an order nearly identical. In January 2005, then assistant attorney general Peter Keisler, most recently the acting attorney general before Judge Mukasey took that job assured Judge Kennedy that government officials were, quote, "well aware of their obligation to not destroy evidence that may be relevant in pending litigation."
In the wake of the tape scandal, the intelligence community, perhaps more concerned with protecting itself than protecting any evidence, abcnews.com reporting that CIA director Hayden sent out a classified memo to all agency employees warning them, quote, "of the importance of protecting classified information."
The memo did not name former CIA officer John Kiriakou but it might as well have. Some CIA officials believing that whistleblower with the mixed message revealed classified information about waterboarding in his interviews with the media and should be prosecuted for it. Something that apparently will not be happening, at least not yet.
A senior Justice Department official telling ABC, quote, they were furious at the CIA but cooler heads have prevailed, for the time being.
On Capitol Hill this afternoon, after meeting with members of the House Intelligence Committee for three hours, CIA Director Hayden answered questions about the day's other big revelation that he actually had found out the tapes had been destroyed more than a year and a half ago, before he moved from his job at National Intelligence to Central Intelligence.
And let's remember one important thing, now that Bush, Cheney, O'Reilly, Hannity, The FOX News Network, The Republican Party, etc. have all said waterboarding is not torture, they can not complain when an American citizen or an American soldier is waterboarded. We have now lost the right to object if an American gets waterboarded.
Keith Olbermann Names Billy Worst Person in The World (Again)
12-13-07 -- The winner, oh, he's back:
Bill O. with another triumph.
O'REILLY: "Talking points believes firm legal boundaries must be set but the president should have a legal authority to order things like waterboarding. For years, opponents of harsh methods have said they don't lead to reliable information. But that is not true."
How does the Frank Burns of news know this? The CIA agent who supervised the waterboarding of Al-Qaida big shot Abu Zubaydah said the interrogation method broke him and that means the waterboarding saved lives. Perhaps, thousands of lives.
Bill, when you are right, you are right. John Kiriakou didn't witness the waterboarding but he claims Zubaydah did detail some terrorist plots. Unfortunately, he can't remember any of the plots and, I guess, he never checked to see if what Zubaydah said checked out, or was just crap he made up so they wouldn't drown him.
If such a reliable expert can base his absolute conclusions on absolutely nothing, then, Billy, so can you. One guy who wasn't there and doesn't know what was said or if any of it was true, so who is Bill O's decisive source on why waterboarding is mandatory. Bill O'Reilly:
today's "Worst Person in the World."
O'Reilly Puts Out Right-Wing Propaganda on Class Warfare & Taxes
12-13-07 -- In the short space of 5 minutes listening to the radio factor yesterday, I caught his analysis of tax law. This was in context of Billy's claim that the Democratic candidates were whipping up class warfare for political gain. (Hmm, that's shameful Bill, that someone would pit American against American by concentrating on divisive issues).
Billy actually argued that the (highly favorable) 15% capital gain rates were unfair, because the investor had already paid tax on that money when it was earned to begin with. Huh? Capital gain by definition is your increase, not your original investment.
Bill condescendingly turned to Lis Wheel and asked her what the total of 35% (what Bill says you are taxed when you originally earned the money) and 15% was? Thus, bill postulated that a person actually pays 50% on capital gains.
Wrong, that's total right-wing spin.
Only 1 percent of all taxpayers claim two-thirds of all capital gains.
Only 7 percent of all taxpayers report capital gains in any given year. Although it's true that most Americans own capital assets (like homes or businesses), they sell them only a few times in their life. The rich, on the other hand, make most of their annual income in capital gains, and deal in them constantly. That is why a capital gain taxes overwhelmingly benefit the rich.
According to IRS records, 93 percent of all Americans filing tax returns receive no capital gains income in any given year. Of the 7 percent who do, two-thirds of the gains go to those making over $100,000 a year. As you can see, 1 percent of all taxpayers collect over two-thirds of all capital gains. A study of tax returns found that this is even more concentrated than it first appears: one twenty-fifth of 1 percent of working Americans collected 32 percent of all capital gains income.
He also asserted capital gains tax was unfair because there is no break when you lose money on investment, so why should there be a tax when you gain? OK, another head scratcher. Apparently Bill hasn't heard of deduction for capital losses.
Billy is putting out right-wing propaganda to show the rich are unfairly taxed. It's the same way the Republicans call the estate tax the death tax. There is no death tax, the tax is not on the person who dies. The tax is on the person who gets the money, it's the same as taxing lottery winners. But they are usually poor, so you dont see O'Reilly and the Republicans calling for the lottery taxes to be ended.
And O'Reilly is Mr. divisive, all he does is divide the country by taking every issue he can and trying to make liberals look bad. His spin on taxing the rich is a joke, but you can bet his braindead viewers will buy it hook line and sinker. In the 90's Bill Clinton gave the lower and middle class a tax cut, and raised taxes on the rich by 2 percent. O'Reilly and Hannity, and all the Republicans screamed bloody murder. They said it would bankrupt the country, and put us into a recession.
They were all wrong, instead the economy and the stock market exploded. In the 8 years Clinton was President the economy added 22 million new jobs. It was the best 8 years this country ever had. So it shows the Republicans were full of shit, and liars. It was all right-wing propaganda, just like O'Reilly is doing now. It also shows that when you give a tax cut to the lower and middle class the economy goes crazy. Because those people live check to check and spend every dime they make.
When the wealthy get a tax cut they just make more money, and that mostly goes into their bank account, it does not help the economy that much. And a 2 percent tax increase on a multi millionaire is nothing, they dont even notice it. But a 2 percent tax cut to a guy making $26,000 a year is real money, and that money goes right back into the economy.
If you want to see the real truth on the estate tax and capitol gains read this.
O'Reilly Spinning Like a Top on CIA Tapes And Waterboarding
12-12-07 -- Billy claims we dont torture, and he says waterboarding is not torture. First, waterboarding is torture, everyone knows that, and the whole world defines it as torture. Including the Geneva Conventions, and all the International Treaty agreements the USA signed. We agreed to honor those agreements then we broke them.
The CIA videos were destroyed because they show the USA using torture on captured terrorists. And it is proof that the Bush administration not only authorized torture, they did it. The fact that Bush had Alberto Gonzales re-define waterboarding as not being torture is meaningless, it's still torture.
Bush and O'Reilly, and all the right-wingers in America can say it's not torture until they are blue in the face, it's still torture. Not only did they torture these guys they destroyed evidence, which is a crime.
The CIA ignored a court order when it destroyed the two videotapes documenting the harsh interrogation of prisoners in its custody. In October 2003 and May 2004, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York had ordered the CIA to preserve all records pertaining to the treatment of detainees in its custody.
Funny how Billy just ignores that, it's a crime Billy, it's called destruction of evidence. Then he claims there is no proof we tortured anyone, yeah because they destroyed the evidence.
One last thing, even though waterboarding is torture I support using it on terrorists if it might get information that will save American lives. But when we do it we cant just change the definition of waterboarding and say it's not torture. That's crazy, and nobody is buying it. It would be better if we just admit we used waterboarding on a few terrorists to get information, and then say we will only do it in extreme cases.
This crap about changing the definition of waterboarding to say suddenly it's not torture is just stupid. Everyone knows it is, and if the Arabs waterboarded an American, you can bet your ass we would tell them they can not get away with torturing an American citizen.
Here is what happened, Bush authorized the torture of at least 2 people, probably more, and some were renditioned to foreign countries to be tortured there. They thought they could keep it a secret, they were wrong, people in the Government who knew it was wrong planned to leak it to the media. So Bush had Alberto Gonzales write a bogus legal argument saying waterboarding is not torture, but it was not worth the paper it was written on.
So they claim they never tortured anyone, because in their insane world they think they changed waterboarding from torture to not torture. Billy calls it enhnced interrogation, when it's torture. Then they broke the law by destroying the evidence of the torture. So dont buy the spin Billy is putting out for his good friend George W. Bush. The Bush administration had people tortured, and they should just tell the truth and admit it. Not break the law and deny it, and try to cover it up with more lies.
Bills says he has a no spin zone, if that's true why does he spin so much for George W. Bush and the Republicans.
Keith Olbermann Gives Billy The Bronze in Worst Persons
12-7-07 -- OLBERMANN: Rarely has the evidence been so easy to digest or did it come in such a straight line? The president lied to you repeatedly and knowingly about Iran. My "Special Comment" next.
But, first, I've got the worst three persons in the world: the bronze to Bill O.
Taking a moment away from time spent on identifying David Beckham as an actor, he teamed up last night for White House Press Secretary Perino, telling her, quote:
O'REILLY: "you know, I've never understood why you, Tony Snow, McClelland, and White House spokespeople and President Bush himself, the president himself, don't get as angry as I get from the 'Bush lied crowd'. They can't prove any lies. They say it over and over and over. Somebody accused me of being a liar like Biden just did, I'd be all over them. I'd be all over them.
OLBERMANN: Okay. You're a liar. Come get me, tough guy.
If you want the real truth, and you want to see what real Journalism looks like.
Click Here to read the special comment on the Bush lies about Iran and the NIE intelligence report.
More Proof Bush Lied About Iran NIE (Will O'Reilly Come Clean)
Update - 12-7-07 -- Last night Billy did not say a word about the White House admitting Bush was told about the NIE report in August. They admit Bush lied, because Bush said he only found out last wednesday, then the White House puts a press release out saying he was told in August, 3 months ago, not last wednesday.
Yesterday the White House put that press release out, yet O'Reilly never reported it, he last reported on the story wednesday night, and he left his viewers with the impression that Bush only found out last wednesday. Talk about a corrupt media, and a dishonest media, this is it. O'Reilly is more dishonest and more corrupt than anyone in the media. He is a dishonest partisan Republican who is misleading his viewers to cover for the Bush lies.
12-6-07 -- Billy claims Bush only found out about the Iran NIE report last wednesday. In the last 2 days he had John Bolton and Dana Perino on to defend Bush. Both Bush stooges btw, nobody was on the factor to give the counterpoint that Bush lied. So much for the fair and balanced no spin zone.
Now today the White House admits Bush was told in August. The question is, will Billy report it, or will he continue to be a dishonest partisan right-winger who is covering for the Bush lies. I have a feeling there will be no mention of the admission on the factor tonight.
On Tuesday, President Bush said he was never forewarned by the intelligence community that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003:
In August, I think it was John -- Mike McConnell came in and said, We have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was.
Now the White House is revealing that wasn't true. In fact, Bush did know what the information was:
President Bush was told in August that Iran's nuclear weapons program 'may be suspended,' the White House said Wednesday, which contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday.
The White House statement released by Dana Perino tonight also states McConnell told Bush "the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran's covert nuclear program."
On Tuesday, Bush said "nobody ever told me" to back down from his hawkish rhetoric on Iran. But Bush knew Iran "may have suspended" its nuclear weapons program and that the intelligence community was in the process of "changing its assessment." And yet, he continued to warn of "World War III" and a "nuclear holocaust" from a country that he knew in August had stopped it's nuclear program in 2003.
Earth to O'Reilly, that is called lying, look it up. Bush knew in August that the Iran intelligence assessment was going to be changed. And some government officials say he knew as far back as July, if not a year ago. Yet he went on tv all through the month of September and October and talked about Iran staring World War III over their nuclear program, when he already knew they had stopped their nuclear program.
The Real Facts on Bush And The Iran NIE Lies
NeoCons Go Ballistic on Iran NIE
By Larry Johnson (Former CIA Intelligence Officer)
12-4-07 -- I was one of the first to report that the NIE was being delayed for political reasons. George Bush tried his moron act again today (i.e., "I didn?t find out about this until last week.") but this time the turd ain?t floating. The news that Iran ended its nuclear program in 2003 was briefed to George Bush in the Presidential Daily Brief. He has known about this, I am told, for at least one year. George Bush is lying when he insists he had no inkling, until last week, that the intelligence community believed Iran halted its nuke program in 2003.
This is the kind of earthshaking intel that analysts rarely get to see. What is remarkable about the NIE is the consensus in the intelligence community about the validity of this info.
The NIC stepped up and refused to budge despite repeated efforts by Dick Cheney and his minions to gut the effort. This happened thanks to the convergence of several factors.
First, most of the Bush neocon ideologues are gone....Wolfowitz, Feith, Bolton, Wurmser, Libby, etc. Second, the Democrats control the House and Senate Intelligence committee and were receiving reports from analysts about the bullying by Cheney and others who were trying to sandbag the conclusions.
Third, senior intelligence officers learned the lesson of 2002 and returned to the tradition of telling the President the truth, no matter how unpopular or unpalatable.
And finally, this Administration's days are numbered and the analysts can read the tea leaves. They know there is no percentage in pandering to power by serving up half-truths and wishful thinking.
Bill O'Reilly vs. The USO & Drowning Pool
12-5-07 -- The platinum rock band Drowning Pool has taken exception to recent on-air remarks by Mr. O'Reilly that he is one of only 2 "celebrities" to support the troops via the USO. This is simply absolutely false. A number of musical artists, actors and comedians have done troop tours via the USO, including Drowning Pool, who have visited the troops and performed for them on 3 separate occasions. Additionally, the band has donated a portion of their tour revenues to the USO and to other causes that support the troops.
In response to the false allegations by Bill O'Reilly, Drowning Pool has created this video:
Don't Look Now Billy - NBC News Beat ABC News For November
12-4-07 -- Back in September ABC Nightly News beat NBC Nightly News a couple times in the ratings. So Billy cherry picked those ratings to claim the reason ABC beat NBC is that they moved to the left so people stopped watching NBC and tuned to ABC.
Wrong!!!!
It was all right-wing spin from Bill O'Reilly to make NBC look bad, it was revenge for Keith Olbermann exposing the lies and hypocrisy from O'Reilly on Countdown on worst person in the world etc. Since O'Reilly reported that in September NBC has beat ABC 5 times, when ABC has only beat NBC 4 times, the rest of the time they are in a virtual tie.
Here is the truth, the actual facts Billy does not tell you.
NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams won the November 2007 sweep in total viewers and in the 25-54 demo. Nightly News averaged 9.211 million total viewers, beating ABC's World News with Charles Gibson by 1% or 98,000 viewers.
NBC Nightly News also beat ABC World News and Evening News in the crucial 25-54 demo. The NBC broadcast had a 2.3 rating, 5% more than ABC's 2.2 rating.
NBC Nightly News also beat ABC in the year to year ratings. The season ran from Sept. 18, 2006 to Sept. 23, 2007.
NBC averaged 8,400,000 total viewers a night.
ABC averaged 8,360,000 total viewers a night.
The great no spin zone propagandist never reported any of that, ever, not once. What Bill (All Spin) O'Reilly did was cherry pick a few weeks out of a year when ABC did beat NBC, then the king of right-wing spin claimed ABC beat them because NBC had moved left and people stopped watching them. When in reality NBC beat ABC more than ABC beat them, and they won the November sweeps ratings, and they beat them in the year to year ratings too.
And he claims that's a no spin zone, now that is funny, and when you look at ALL the facts, not just the partial facts Billy spins out, you see a whole different story. What you see is a right-wing propagandist (Bill O'Reilly) cherry picking ratings numbers to make false claims against a real News Network (NBC).
Basically Billy made the whole thing up, none of it was true, it was all right-wing propaganda to make NBC News look like some crazy far left News Network. Once in a while ABC does beat NBC, that part is true, everything else Billy reported about was a lie, and he knew it.
He has access to the same numbers I do, so I know he was lying, and I know he knowingly lied. And to anyone who watches the factor and thinks Billy never lies, open your eyes, he lies all the time, you just wont admit it, you deny reality, and you are blinded by your partisan ideology.
O'Reilly Ignores Bush Lies on Iran Nuclear Program
12-4-07 -- UPDATE: Billy talked about the NIE Iran report tuesday night, even though the report came out on monday, and what a joke it was, O'Reilly defended Bush and had right-winger John Bolton on to debate it.
The 2 of them sat there and put the Bush spin out, like good little lying Republicans. Hey Billy, where is the fairness, where is the balance. Where is the counterpoint to the spin that Bush did not lie, and that he did not know for a year.
Billy has said over and over that George W. Bush has never lied about anything. And he said if anyone has evidence that Bush has lied to send it to him and he will report it. I have sent him that evidence 3 or 4 times, yet Billy never reports any of it.
O'Reilly claims it is all just made up by liberal websites and blogs who hate Bush and just want to make him look bad. This time the lie was exposed by his own Intelligence analysts. So Billy can not say the liberal websites and blogs just made it up.
The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) released yesterday concludes that "in the fall of 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." It adds that "Tehran had not restarted its nuclear weapons program as of mid-2007," and the country is "less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005."
The assessment, which relies on data collected through Oct. 31, was completed in 2006, but was blocked by administration officials who wanted it to be more in line with Vice President Cheney's hardline views.
As The Washington Monthly's Kevin Drum notes, the NIE's "basic parameters were certainly common knowledge in the White House" at least by last year, when the document was finished. Yet even in the past two months, the administration has continued to push its faulty, inflammatory rhetoric and claim that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.
Some examples:
"We talked about Iran and the desire to work jointly to convince the Iranian regime to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions, for the sake of peace." [George W. Bush, 11/7/07]
"We're in a position now, clearly, especially when we look at Iran, where it's very, very important we succeed in our efforts, our national security efforts, to discourage the Iranians from enriching uranium and producing nuclear weapons." [Dick Cheney, 11/9/07]
Basically George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and other Republicans in his administration and in the media have been lying to the American people for at least 6 months. This is a fact, as the NIE reports shows. Yet not a word about it from Bill O'Reilly, dead silence. He's too busy talking about beauty pagent contestant who "might" have had pepper spray put on her dress, Hannah Montana concert tickets, and talking to the 10 year old has been puppet, ALF.
So here we have the President of The United States lying to the American people, and the world, about a country running a nuclear program to use it as justification to attack them, when he knew for at least 6 months they stopped their nuke program in 2003, four years ago. And they also tried to block the Intelligence analysts from putting it in the NIE because it shows Bush lied.
And the entire story was totally ignored by the factor, until tuesday night. And when he did report it he sticks up for Bush and puts a partisan Republican on to agree with him, with nobody to give the counterpoint. O'Reilly said he called the white house and they told him Bush just found out last wednesday. And if you believe that I have a bridge to sell you.
Senior intelligence officials have told the washington post, and other news outlets, that the Bush administration was briefed on the new intelligence as early as july of 2007. And that the intelligence report (NIE) was done a year ago, but it was not issued because Dick Cheney was blocking that release.
Harper's Scott Horton interviewed an intelligence community official who casts doubt on the White House's claim that they only recent learned of the NIE's judgments:
One highly reliable intelligence community source I consulted immediately after Hadley spoke answered my question this way: "This is absolutely absurd. The NIE has been in the form in which it was finally submitted yesterday for more than six months. The White House, and particularly Vice President Cheney, used every trick in the book to stop it from being finalized and issued. There was no last minute breakthrough that caused the issuance of the assessment."
So does Billy ask the question, what did Bush know and when did he know it, as a real journalist would. No, he says the media is going crazy saying Bush lied and then he puts a Republican spin doctor on the factor to agree with him, and help cover up the Bush and Cheney lies.
This is the worst example of Republican bias I have ever seen on the factor by Bill O'Reilly, and that is saying a lot, because I have documented the right-wing bias from O'Reilly for 6 years now.