Hey Bill O'Reilly, Sticks And Stones Baby

Don't be angry about Bill O'Reilly comparing our friend and masthead mistress Arianna to the "Nazis" -- really don't.

(hat tip to Robert Greenwald and everyone at BraveNewFilms)

Because in doing so, Captain Sex Scandal has shown, once again, just how far the right has fallen. Captain Courage is proving what real Republicans and real Conservatives are thinking, it's going to be years, decades before the Republican Party is a real part of ideas, and leaders (a concept by the way, I have no issue with, we need real Republicans back in Washington, D.C. -- seriously)

Now, don't misunderstand me, do I think that FOX News is effective? Absolutely. Do I think we can lose The White House again? Sadly, yes. But for right now, rejoice in Bill's comments last night, because like George Bush playing soldier, or Freedom's Watch playing politics, Bill O'Reilly exposed himself (I wonder if that violates his lawsuit settlement) as the moron he truly is.

Because of all the people to compare to a Nazi, he picked someone who actually has experience with real Nazis. Arianna is a remarkable woman, one of my favorite people in the world, and she has faced life's successes and disappointments with courage and fearlessness, and a remarkable accent we all love.

Her courage comes from her mother, who I am sad I never met, and who in Greece during World War II stood outside her house and faced down Nazi soldiers to protect the occupants of the house. Can you imagine the strength, the courage that took?

Arianna's courage comes from a mother who stood up when others would have run, a single Greek woman who faced down real Nazis, real soldiers with real guns, real Nazis who killed millions of innocent people and came close to destroying our world, not blowhards with a falafel.

Fire away Billy, I promise you that Arianna can take all you can dish out, and a hell of a lot more.

Follow James Boyce on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamesboyce

Comments

[bassnman]

OK, another quick thought here.

Republicans and conservatives are evil. Would you expect anything else?

Progressives are future thinking, compassionate people.

Now please explain why there is some much hatred and vile comments coming out of the mouths of progressives??? Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

[Proud2BIndy]

Easy. And it's not just Progressives.

It starts as tolerance, a natural sentiment of any good intelligent person. Then, when that consideration is exploited by its recipients and returned with mockery and slander, tolerance turns to frustration.

Then, as the anti-Progressives start dismantling our Nation and Her most basic reason for being piece by piece, law by law, frustration turns to outrage.

Then as Bush murders people by the hundreds of thousands - soon to be millions - earning him and his ilk Trillions of taxpayer money (essentially breaking the bank) while decrying any and all public service as communism, outrage turns to hate; white hot searing hate that with each new transgression turns hotter and hotter until it seems the only way to save our country is bloody revolution.

Make sense?

[realpolitic]

The Bush administration does stir up a tremendous feeling of resentment and rage. Our voices are not being heard. The government is no longer honest in any way, shape, or form. Bush sits there as a king, completely out of touch.

One day on O'Reilly, I think it was Barney Frank who explained to him very eloquently the reasons why so many were so angry at the Bush administration. It is a sort of desperation. almost like when one is drowning. It is like we will do anything to breathe again.

[BeyondPopper]

The relevant message from philosopher Karl Popper is:

The one thing that cannot be tolerated is intolerance.

What is truly funny is that when reasonable people point to the evidence for saying that Bush and the Republicans are Fascists, the screaming heads on the right scream that no one should be compared to the Nazis. Then, in the next breath, they call anyone who does not agree with their fascist agenda a Nazi.

Truly breathtaking hypocrisy is nothing new. It is why I have canceled my subscriptions to all the publications that support the fascist agenda of the right, including the Washington Post.

The only places where honest news is available is KO, TDS, and here.

[gala1]

Dahlings--

It's all about the ratings.

Der Furor's are in freefall.
Oreilly's demographic is over 70 (really, the only question here is how far over 70) and dozing off to his sales pitch.

Worse, his messages have slid from tangential to irrelevant to absurd.
This smells of some timely attempt to market something about to make him more money.

The most telling thing about this legend in his own Reich is his unremitting sullenly aggrieved tone of self-righteous entitlement.
I have never heard him but to wonder who the hell he himself actually thinks he might be. What could justify this level of ubiquitous blinkered imposition of Oreilly Rule?
Because he surely isn't of the slightest significance to me in any way I can figure out.
He really does feel justified that O'Reilly Rule supersedes the first amendment. But why?

He has no credentials, no skills, no credibility and adds nothing relevant to any matter.

Faux has taken the dreaded boor at any gathering who buttonholes you into the corner and given him a studio where he can flatulate by the hour.
He's the guy who has married into the family or inherited his place into the meeting and for some reason his presence must be tolerated but his embarrassing opinions are universally disregarded.

Faux has at most 3 million viewers at any given time in a population of 300 million. To put that into perspective, there are 14 million birdwatchers in the population. So there are 4 times more people looking at birds than there are viewing Faux.
And, bottom-line, it means that 99 percent of America has better things to do than pay any attention to Bill Oreilly.

The Huffington Post is doing very nicely and most posters here have more of an audience reading them than Der Furor gets on his very best days.
But why attack a site when you can go ad homina instead? And it's so much his styleto bully women-- who obviously don't know their place under his bootheel.

My guess is that Oreilly is starting to comprehend in some Darwinian corner of his twisted little mentality that with so little credibility left after such eight glorious years of neocon success, he's nearing the end of his broadcasting days.

As it is, he exists only as parody.
At this point, Oreilly is merely the spindle on Colbert's Ouija board of right-wing ghoulies and ghosties.
And from things that go bump on the right, good lord deliver us

gala

[realpolitic]

He has few quality guests on any longer and none from the Democratic side. All his bile is finally catching up with him.

[shel19]

Hateful and vile comments are coming from the mouths of "progressives" because hate and volatility are the elements of their souls. Progressives will invade every single aspect of our lives with their rules and laws while wearing compassion as a mask. They are dangerous. Hopefully they will be stopped before they plummet this Democracy into a totalitarian police state. These people are only starving for power and authority.

[realpolitic]

You sound like O'Reilly when he said "your compassion is killing people." He practically screamed it at the camera one night in response to a letter he received. It was hilarious.

You talk of a totalitarian police state. What do you think Bush is doing before your very eyes. He can listen to your phone calls abroad without a warrant, probably at home too, but that has not been established yet. He can pick you up off the street and label you an enemy combatant with no right to see an attorney or to even find out what you are charged with because there may be no formal charges. What do you think has been happening the last seven years? But, of course, all his undemocratic moves pale in comparison with a local ordinance that outlaws smoking in restaurants, I suppose. Is that it? As is usual with a conservative, your priorites are very misplaced!

[eladora]

Has anyone file a complaint on the lynching comment ? The man and the station should be fined and nothing has happened. He is a criminal saying things like this. That was a hate crime --with his microphone as the weapon.

[kaafir]

I am no fan of Bill O Reily, but come on! What about Olbermann's Gaucomole jibe at Hispanics?

[SimpleTwist]

Pass the guacamole was not a hurtful or racist comment whatsoever. Gimme a break!

[rwe]

first , no because even the NAACP knew and heard how it was said , and 2) talk about hypocrisy... This site treats any that oppose or disagree with the worst vitriolic namecalling and that comes from the bloggers , and that is directed at Hillary let alone any that are not prograssives

[bassnman]

RWE....you are so right.

Also, I love how people will take something out of context and twist it around to make it something it's not. Very few people truly listen to what is being said or even listen to the person speaking. I a willing to bet that 80% of the people who hate all the talk radio personalities have either never listened to them or maybe at the most listened for about 1/2 hour to confirm what they have been told by others who have done the same thing and waited for the key words to prove their point.

[richiec182]

I dont care who you are you never use the word Nazi to compare another person. Have you read the blogs on the rightwing sites. Two wrongs never make a right but this is wrong and myself and i urge others to encourage Bill Oreiley to apologize not only to ms. Huffington but to many other peopel who were victims of the Holocaust. Ask any holocaust survivor if they would compare Ariana to a Nazi and you might get punched in the mouth. This is trash journalism used to discredit a good person. Ariana cannot control what comes out of people mouth but she makes sure that what comes on her is never deragotarty to an extreme degree. And remember this Bill no matter what a person says the constitution gives me the right to say it just like you have the right to say your vile spewings. The only difference is that most dont have a national show that reaches "millions" of people. You should be ashamed not only for yourself but for whatever affiliation you belong to.

[ckdogs]

O'Reilly's stock in trade is being outrageous and over the top. That being said, I wish people on our side wouldn't say things like "Nancy should die in a bathtub". It only makes us look bad - like comparing Arianna to a Nazi makes Bill look like an idiot. It's time to stop the hate on both sides!

[weaselbasher]

Part of the problem with anonymous blogs is you cant really say who is and who's not on our side. I could claim I'm a democrat and say vile things about Nancy Reagan. Hell I could be paid by O'Reily to post garbage so he can use it on his show. I can log onto a republican site and spew racial slurs then come here and say 'see all the racism on that republican site.

I've said it before. I believe many con-troll posters are posing here as dems and progressives then proceeding in name-calling either Hillary or Obama. They want us to fight, get demoralized and stay home. We have to remember the 8 years of the neo-cons disgusting tactics and stick to facts and rational discourse. So much for the internet changing politics.

Vote democrat....I want my country back

[shinybear]

Free speech is rough ain't it?

[alexcharner]

It's disgraceful how easily he's able to tar and defame Arianna for our comments. This is an open forum where many people post. As hateful and disagreeable as many posts are, they give us an opportunity to have a frank discussion.

Bill O'Reilly should be smart enough to know the difference.

Just don't block his shot.

[PerryWhite]

Is she not the editor-in-chief? She has the power to remove such abhorrent comments, but she does not.

[MJCole]

PerryWhite, wow are you out of touch. There must be thousands of posts a day to the Huffingtonpost. The act of reading every single one of them is probably performed by a team of people, and even then very likely only posts with words that are red flagged get reviewed. Very likely Arianna is only shown a very small subset of posts that she might wish to comment on at some later date, and I suspect it works the same way at any busy Blog, left, right or undecided.

If someone writies a comment like the one O'liely mentioned, and it gets posted, it need only stay up for a few minutes in this day and age. After all, thanks to the WaybackMachine, and the like, once its on the Internet, its there forever.

Something a lot of computer users need to understand (being that I'm an IT guy myself) computers are like elephants, once you type it, its never, ever, going to be forgotten, no matter what the "editor-in-chief" does. (Same rules apply even when there is a stupid disclaimer at the bottom.)

[bronceye]

Can't wait to hear the fux fokes say that it's unpatriotic to criticise the pres. when we have soldiers in harm's way and the pres. is a democrat. A double standard on the horizon??

[ProfEv]

What will poor Bill-O do when the Democrates take it all this November? He will certainly ratchet up his "hate" words and this will keep him in power with the down-trodden Republicans.
This is all about MONEY which is the most disgusting part of all of this. He and his cronies (Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck (Mr. Copycat)) aand all of the other "hate-mongers" deserve what they are going to get this November and I wish to thank them for helping out the cause--Democrates will win!

[CFAmick]

If they're such great people, why won't they share with us how much money they're making each year off of the Bush tax cuts?

[desmirl]

Who would you rather invite to your house for dinner and conversation? Bill O'Reilly or Arianna Huffington? Not a difficult choice--not at all.

[CaseyBabes]

Just watched the clip and got out of it that O'Reilly was castigating Ms Huffington for allowing the overwhelming bilge found on HuffPo. Seems he's a little late as one can notice the trend lately to tone the hate down a bit, yet the site has a long way to go. His use of the nazi word was stupid; as stupid as its common, unimaginative use on HuffPo.
Anyway, bilge or not, Ms Huffington still provides a service, even for we Independents (and/or Republicans) able to get our shots back at hate-filled Democrats tilting at the USA windmill.
Thanks Arianna........shut up Bill, you've become an obnoxious pinhead.

[Proud2BIndy]

Bill believes the First Amendment only applies for his side. Hypocrisy is the Nature of the Right Wing Beast. Can't be helped.

Personally, I think it's great for people who are fed up with the way the Republicans have poisoned the American well to come on here and say how they feel about it.

As to hate speech and venting wishes of death on those who have ruined America for a generation or more, I say go for it. They deserve it. Just keep it to words.

[Minuteman2]

So 'real Nazi experience' is hereditary?

Brgton is right. Every time y'all throw a hissy, O'Reilly and his followers win. Do thing they care about your outrage? They LIVE to tick you off. They're laughing all the way to the bank.

[JohnnyRingo]

O'Reilly compares bloggers to Nazis and the Klan? Is he trying to compete with Jon Stewart for news parody?

Actually there is nothing funny at all about his comments. At the second he made the comparison, he lost all credibility... and the argument. You'd think he knew that.

It seems quite insane to insist that lack of censorship is a trait of the Third Reich, yet he "sees no difference". His simutaneous spewing of party propaganda makes it all the more bizarre.

I despise BO more with every inflamatory outburst. HE is what's wrong with the American Right today, and he needs a history lesson.

[Proud2BIndy]

-It seems quite insane to insist that lack of censorship is a trait of the Third Reich, yet he "sees no difference".

Right. On. The. Money.

[surfcitysteven]

This ties right in with his "lynching party" for Michelle Obama and his lower Manhattan restaurant dining experience where the "African
Americans were actually behaving!" His treatment of women cost Fox millions of dollars. He is sleaze and really doesn't get it. He has pissed off the black people, hispanics from time to time. Now Jewish people get their turn to look on, jaws dropped in amazement, at the stupidity of bildoreilly. I know movies can't really put you in Nazi Germany as a jew, but maybe somebody could send bill a copy of say, "Sophies Choice" or maybe "Schindlers List" or any one of hundreds that deal with the halocaust. He is a bigot, and it is hard not to be pissed off at him, but it is his enablers at Faux news that do nothing to punish his insensitive remarks that are the true culprits here.

[Brgotn]

This is a really good opportunity to stop and look at ourselves. Is the name calling/hate seen here on this site any different than Bill's Nazi comment? How does what goes on here reflect on the Progressive movement? If it is wrong for Bill to do it then it should be be going on here either.

[dbeden]

The difference is he's talking about random comments on a blog, which Huffington really has no power over, and rightfully she shouldn't.

I've seen just as bad comments on Hannity.com. It's not endemic of the left, by any means.

Also, Bill should watch what he says before he talks about websites. I had the unfortunate pleasure of clicking on a link about Kathy Griffin on his website, and it took me to a porn site. Needless to say I wrote a scathing e-mail, and 20 minutes later, the link was gone.

[kaafir]

No, Huffington does have the power, as they do moderate comments.

[surfcitysteven]

There is a HUGE difference. We are just Bozos on a bus throwing things at the random person we pass by. Yeah it is wrong for the Nancy Reagan remarks to have taken such a nasty tone, but the people making them aren't paid millions of dollars to do it. If 1000 people actually take the time to read the whole of Huffpo, that would be amazing. Millions of idiots (yes more name calling, boo hoo hoo)tune into that clown (no name calling here) every night and watch his whole show.

[timothe]

The best way to know the true character of a person is to see how they behave when no one is looking. *shrug*

[realpolitic]

No one was looking when Bill sexually harassed that woman.