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.
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I don't understand why the ADL, the JDL and the pro-Israel lobby among
the right-wingers and the born-agains are not coming out of the woodwork
over Loofah's boy latest gaff.
Liberal press conspiracy??
lollll...gee, I wonder if Bill O'Rupert overheard Murdoch complaining about Arianna...
Like most of his ilk, Bill is intimidated by strong women.
Sooner, or later Old Bill is going to bring home to Fox, something that soap and water won't wash off. Just a matter of time.
I do not watch O'Reilly's show. Therefore, I do not know if the clip provided is an example of his typical behavior when conducting an interview/discussion. To the point: Does he always repeatedly interrupt the responses?
I am puzzled. The guest, Mary Katharine Ham, a self-described conservative blogger, was not allowed to complete her response. In fact, she warned him that his remarks were going to cause her to defend someone with whom she is ideologically opposed. Still, O'Reilly wouldn't give her the chance to finish.
If he treats a sympathetic (read: conservative) guest in such a manner, should anyone take the man seriously?
I am not a loyal watcher, either, but every time I've seen a clip of ORLY, he behaves a lot like that if there's any risk he's about to be contradicted.
And where is the ADL in this? The left uses Nazi analogies, they jump on with both feet. The right does it, and they clam up. Again. As usual.
Sorry people, I think I have a lot of comments repeating myself- I thought they weren't being posted and kept having to start over
I was watching it live when he did this..well not live as o'reilly show is prerecorded but as it happened and his jawdropping stupidity seems to know no bounds.
comparing her to the nazis si so moronic, childish and awful that I couldn;t believe what I was hearing and then tonight when someone who had experianced the nazis first hand sent in a letter telling him it was wrong rather than just be a man and say "you know what..I was out of line and I got a little to fired up with my fake rage" he just repeats it but with a gentler tone out of consideration for the person he was just insulting again. with any luck that person will get the message and stop watching this pathetic excuse for a show.
it is fun to see these fox guiys in panic over the fact that if obama gets the nom...lets face it when he does I seriosuly don't think they will be able to beat and when its gets more desperatre a lot of these guys are goingto make bigger mistakes and expose themselves for what they really are along the way.
It is going to be a hoot to watch.
Please, enough of this idiot. He is just fuming because he can't control Arianna or her website.
I suspect O'Reilly asked and then demanded Arianna squash the "Lynching Party" articles/posts and she told him to go falafel himself. Now he's on a "mission" to discredit her, but guess what ? No one is listening to him.
LOL
BillO knows how to press buttons. As with Coulter, he spews derogatory and inflammatory invectives against public figures knowing it's a sure-fire way of getting publicity without being sued for defamation. The way to handle OReily, Coulter, Limbaugh, Savage, Ingraham, et. al., is to IGNORE them. These low-lifes are paid extravagant sums to attract an audience and they all use the same tired MO to do so . It's wrong for a HuffPo blogger to suggest that it's sad to see the descent of conservative commentary from Bill Buckley to BillO, as BillO is not a commentator but nothing more than a provocateur without any sign of intelligence. O'Reilly doesn't have the critical faculties to make a reasoned commentary, conservative or otherwise.
Billo is excellent at spinning every argument in his favor, especially when he limits opponents to one word answers.
I must admit, I watch "the factor", but purely for its unintended comedic value. There is more than enough to go around, and since the sit-com is basically dead this is the next best thing. Is anyone surprised that he equated Huff with the Nazis? Bill the master of hyperbole. It is surprising he also didn't compare her to Hitler.
Look this is the rage these days. Anyone who disagrees with someone else is dubbed a Nazi or Hitler. Recently while reading the comments on this site, I learned that my fellow Jews in Israel are also apparently Nazis.
You know who were like the Nazis? The Nazis.
Guess who was exactly like Hitler? Yep, Hitler.
I am becoming comvinced that very few actually know more than some cursory information about Hitler and the Nazis. Basically these were bad guys.
These were not just bad guys, they were evil incarnate...humanity at its worst.
Everyone needs to be more responsible when they speak, on both sides of the aisle.
I am beginning to worry about how far we are swinging to the left in reaction to these last eight years.
We cannot become the very thing we denounce and claim to abhor.
We must not lower ourselves to the ways of the right, or in the end we will be just as dirty and just as deplorable.
Yes. I agree we should use precision and even moderation when we speak. However, as you say it is no surprise O'reilly equated Arianna Huffington with Hitler. In his mind, someone who creates a website with political commentary and has a forum for reader replies has moral equivalency with someone who gassed 6 million Jews and destroyed much of Europe. Yet he said it so forcefully and loudly, as if that makes his looney statements true. On Fox, being loud means being right.
The Realpolitic Theorem Of Loudness is so on. Hannity can really yell and he is always correct. If Colmes had half a sac he would leave the show to take away its so called legitamacy as balnced with hosts representing both sides.
I bet Bill pointed when he was adamantly raving. The man is funnier than Eddie Murphy in his prime!
Colmes might as well stick around and collect his easy paycheck. Every pundit on Fox when questioned about the neutrality of the network points to Alan Colmes. He represents their balance. It is like being on a seesaw with one skinny guy on on side and ten 800 lb. guerillas on the other. Colmes, as their only pretense at balance, is a very valuable commodity at Fox.
I don't appreciate Bill O'Reilly and his venomous attacks. They are ridiculous and the main reason I coudl never take FOX news seriously. He condems others for saying spiteful things yet turns around and sees no problem comparing someone to a Nazi?! How about that Lynching Party he wants to have. Disgusting. Why he can't hit his X button on a web page the way I hit my power button when he's on the T.V. is beyond me.
HuffPost's Pick
Get over the lynching comments already!!! The lynching comments have been blown out of context. Correct me if I'm wrong, shortly after those comments, he came to the defense of Mrs. Obama when she claimed that until recently she had never been proud of this country. And that is where I disagree with O'Reilly. She meant what she said . She made that exact statement more than once. To me there is nothing more disheartening than the thought of Barack and Michele Obama occupying the white house. Want to accuse me of being racist now? That would be the typical backlash of a liberal. But back to the point, leave Mr. O'Reilly alone.
"Leave Mr. O'Rreilly alone." Poor Bill O'Reilly! If calling for someone to be lynched means defending Michelle Obama than that is what he did. He also said the child who was kidnapped by a pedophile enjoyed it because he did not have to go to school He said there were few homeless vets on our streets and then said they were crazy or drug abusers anyway. Poor Bill! He is a victim of our vile commentary! At the drop of a hat, he accuses someone of being like Hitler or a member of the KKK, or even worse a member of the ACLU, yet he is a victim.
O'Reilly loves warfare! He cheerlead our troops into Iraq and was watering at the mouth for us to bomb and invade Iran. At this moment, he is lying to his viewers telling them that Al Qaeda had ties with Saddam before our invasion. He is a liar, a demagogue, a propagandist of the highest order.
Did I defend every comment Bill O'Reilly has ever made when I said that it was time to lay off of the whole racist thing? No. In regards to the "lynching" statements, yes. If you wish to destroy the man, at least be fair. I wonder if you would feel any differently if say the tables were turned and Bill was a leftie making equally hateful and inapproptiate comments. Yes, liberals can be hateful too.
You are that same person on youtube right? The one that was sobbing "Leave Brittany Spears alone!" I can't wait for you new "Leave Bill Oreilly alone!" video.
This comment is "HuffPost's Pick?"
This Republican-apologist claptrap? What on earth? I'm just stymied.
Spoken like someone who realizes that his ship has left the dock. You conservatives are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites...your heroes have let you down...Limbaugh on drugs, Vitter in brothels, Delay dealing bribes, Craig in a widestance and O'Reilly a lying, racist etc etc
Your heroes had their chance at total power....6 long long years of House and Senate majorities and the Presidency...and what did you do? You screwed up the country with unimaginable incompetence and abused the power....
First of all, since the escalation of the war in Iraq, I have never supported Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, none of them. I respect their conservative stances on other issues. I am a hypocrite? You are using members of the extreme right as a club to beat other conservatives over the head with. Where is the tolerance you people are supposed to stand for? And your right. They have let their supporters down. Losing the House and Senate should have been their wake-up call. You think I can't see that Bush has possibly destroyed the Republican party? And by the way, I would love to know just exactly what kind of great things the Dems have accomplished with their new majorities. Broken Promises???
O'Reilly says Arianna Huffington is hurting America and Americans should hold her accountable. O'Reilly, in his God complex, can just point fingers at someone he thinks is hurting America. That in itself sounds very unAmerican to me. Arianna has a website where people get involved in the political process and that helps America. His second comment about Americans holding her accountable sounds like an incitement to violence.
Blaming a person for the comment section in blogs is like blaming the director of a movie for how people act in a theatre, such as if they put their feet on the seat and throw popcorn on the floor. We are almost like anonymous grafitti artists, who do no property damage. No one is responsible for my squibbles, but me. Often our comments may be made harsher by the distrust and hostility the Bush administration has generated.
When O'Reilly points to what he calls hate speech, he sure spews a lot of hate!
Well "Realpolitic," I don't know, cause lefties would neeever say anything hateful, of course not...maybe he would say that Nancy Raegan is just as evil as her husband and that the bitch will hopefully die in a bathtub. Maybe he would air and give praise to a photo of gay men mocking "The Last Supper," which was the photo used to promote the Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco-you know, anti-Christian bigotry. Maybe he would demand that the Military leave his city and call them unwelcome intruders- the Military, the people who defend this country. These are all actions of left-wing psychopaths. And by the way, as far as my priorities go, I believe they are in perfect order, but then again, most conservatives would regard your priorities and values as disgusting. No one will ever win the who's right, who's wrong argument. I think both sides will remain convinced that they are right and the other is wrong. Regardless of my feelings of liberalism and how repulsive I may think it is, I still try to refrain from telling lefties that what they believe is wrong. Too bad they lack the respect to do the same.
Oh and by the way, as far as Bush moving the country towards a totalitarian state, we've been hearing that crap for the last four years. He's got ten months left, don't you think he would have done it by now, assuming that was ever even his intent? Even though Bush has lost much of my support, I thank him for keeping the U.S. safe after 9/11. I think we all owe him that much, though I'm sure you would disagree.
P.S. If you don't like a buisness owner allowing smoking in THEIR own building, stay away.
Your posts are really highly emotional rants. For someone who claims she loves America so much you sure seem disgusted with its people.
I do not think conservatives would find my values repulsive. I believe in familiy. I believe in government staying out of people's bedrooms and not listening to our phone calls. I believe in government not interfering with our religious practices or lack thereof. I believe in a sensible, non-militaristic foreign policy that does not attack every perceived foe and alienate our friends. I believe a good deal in the constitution and want to preserve it at all costs. I believe, unlike conservatives, in dissent and a vigorous free press that checks the power of government and not a press that is a propagandistic tool of government (your Fox news.) I believe in an independent judiciary who makes case-by-case decisions and not ideological decisions. I believe in strong oversight of the executve branch by the legislative branch, which Bush has done his best to make a mockery of. Most of all, I believe in a President who respects and protects the constitution, unlike King George W. Bush.
As I said, comparing the rants of Bill O'reilly to an anonymous posting, which Ms. Huffington has liitle responsibility over, is odd. Similar posts appear on O'Reilly's own website, including one calling for Hillary to be asssassinated. But I am not looney enough to judge all conservatives by some anonymous person who posts a remark. I would judge them partially by a Rush Limbaugh, an Ann Coulter, a lying Sean Hannity, a Bill O'reilly, a Michelle Malkin, etc. These people tell nothing but lies, play to people's fears, and have antipathy toward others.
O'Reilly also called for a terrorist attack on Coit Tower in San Francisco as punishment for cancelling the ROTC program in schools. I do not think that cancelling an ROTC program or banning the military from recruiting in high schools is the actions of a psychopath, like you argue, left-wing or not. I would use a milder word like civic involvement or some such. Other communities have complained across America that the military too aggressively targets high school kids for recruitment, especially given the declining numbers of volunteers with all Bush's warfare.
After, 9-11, Bush blocked the formation of the 9-11 commission and initially would not cooperate with it. He did not implement its recommendations, until the Democratic Congress finally did. He launched a war in Iraq on lies that had nothing to do with 9-11, a war that is creating more terrorists than it is killing. Our NATO allies will not even send additional troops to Afghanistan, given our involvement in Iraq. Quantanamo Bay prison has hurt our reputation. We use torture now. We have a network of secret prisons for detainees that Bush has admitted to. All these things make us an international pyriah. It is not terrorism so much that can hurt us. It would be difficult even for them to mount another 9-11. What will cripple us are Draconian policies which are an over-reaction to terrorism, thus asking us to forfeit our civil liberties and spend our treasure in unnecessary wars. This response is exactly what bin Laden would want us to do. Bush has played right into his hands.
I think those on the left do not play the culture war game as a life or death struggle as do those on the right. i do not personally dislike those on the right. i dislike many authoritarians who decry dissent and want us to forfeit our civil liberties, as if that is not why our country was founded. Anyway, those on the left are dispirited by Bush policies and not the culture wars. These culture wars are something O'Reilly and people on the right live and breath for.
Let us "democrats" not attack Bill O without looking in the mirror. All of this hate and venom being spewed about Hillary, her character, her campaign, her flaws... nothing but hate. You all are too busy attacking each other, so don't act all unified against Bill. You should be unifying this party. Obama was wrong, it will be hard to get Hillary supporters in the fall to defeat John McCain. I am disgusted with this "get on board with Obama" or the country is doomed bullshit. Get on board as a democrat and realize Bill O and company are the real threat and stop attacking fellow democrats. I am ashamed of this party.
What good is a democrat who happens to behave like a Republican, as exemplified by Hillary Clinton's various foreign policy stances that render her every bit as dangerous and impulsive as Bush? By no stretch of the imagination I'm I going to elect one who plans to further the preceding blunders that have justifiably earned our country the contempt of the international community, Democrat or Republican, and a simple appeal for us to "stand united" as democrats won't cut it.
Redbirdy, I refuse to vote for Hillary because of her past policy positions. The fact is I like both her and Bill.
Even though Colbert is funnier, Bill O was the first to make fun of conservatives and still the best!
People should just acknowledge Bill O'Reilly as the low brow intellect he is. Don't argue the merits of his vitriole, just say well what more can you expect from him and his ilk and let it go. People are not dumb, they see the hate spewed by O'Reilly, Coulter and Limbaugh and they don't like it. I believe these three are truly going to help end the Neo-Con movement in America as nobody wants to be a part of the hate they espouse.
But the inital issue that touched off the discussion...a comment regarding Nancy Reagan, was just as bad as anything Bill O'Reilly could have said. Mrs. Reagan is a person, a human being and to wish a death upon her or any other person is just as dispicable as an Ann Coulter comment about anything.
The Nancy Regan comments were completely out of line and very cruel. I could not believe they were left on the board.
O'Reilly gets away with more hypocrisy then a macho, tattooed, cigar smoking Marine who wears a dress when no one is home.
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.
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.
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!
Thought the comment below didn't get posted, wasn't trying to repeat myself.
Posted February 28, 2008 | 09:07 AM (EST)