Month: July 2007

After Railing against DailyKos, O’Reilly Finally Goes after Rightwing Hate Postings on Free Republic

Jon Ponder

This video was edited by Freepers, so who knows what was omitted

Update: This story was originally about Bill O’Reilly’s hypocrisy in going after random comments left on DailyKos while ignoring hate-filled comments left on the Free Republic site. Last night, O’Reilly did half-heartedly criticize Free Republic for the hateful postings in its comments section, but really just focused on them briefly in order to provide himself with the opportunity to go through his litany of comments from DailyKos.

Freepers are already claiming that the quotes O’Reilly read from their site were fabricated. And not all of them are O’Reilly fans, which is ironic since he is first and foremost a righwing tool:

Bill O’Reilly has a really silly, pathetic hatred for any site that criticizes him. that is what it is really all about.

And:

I can’t believe O’Reilly is going after Free Republic. Any vile or inappropriate comments on this site seem to be removed within a split second – the moderators here are the best! And I also feel like a dope for all the defending of O’Reilly that I’ve done on this site.

The excerpts that follow are from Free Republic’s comments, with links back to the original sources.

Here’s my original intro from yesterday, followed by the Freeper comments.

Bill O’Reilly has ramped up his fake outrage over DailyKos again yesterday, calling it “that hate site,” “vicious,” “beyond shameful … very offensive” and “haters.”

ALL dims [Democrats] are allies of bin laden and worshipers of satan… no exceptions… they are pure evil and motivated by a hate of GOD and Country!

It strikes me that O’Reilly is purposefully ignoring the granddaddy of all hate sites, Free Republic. But then he could hardly be expected to criticize his core audience.

As usual, O’Reilly’s hypocrisy in going after DailyKos while giving a pass to Free Republic is never mentioned by the “liberal media.” One of his tactics is to have an intern read the DailyKos comments and cherrypick inflammatory excerpts to read on the air.

Taking a cue from Pam’s House Blend‘s regular feature “Actual Freeper Quotes” (see specific examples here and here), I rounded up a small sampler of comments from the Free Republic site.

Keep in mind that Free Republic is heavily moderated, so these comments have been given a pass by the site’s operators:

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Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

Anthropologists continue to turn up examples which prove that competitive, aggressive, warlike cultures are those in which sexual stereotypes are most polarized, while those social structures allowing for an overlap of roles and functions between men and women (in tasks, childrearing, decision-making, etc.) tend to be collectivist, cooperative and peaceful.

— Robin Morgan (1941- ), feminist, poet, writer, editor

Ken Starr’s Law Firm Gives More to Hillary’s Campaign Than Any Other

Jon Ponder

My, how the times they are a-chaninging:

Lawyers at Kirkland & Ellis, the law firm that’s home to Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr and Bush administration official Jay Lefkowitz, have given more to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign than to all of the top Republican candidates combined…

Lawyers say the change is largely due to disenchantment with the Republican Party’s social policies and the war in Iraq.

Republican Scandal #83,196: Ted Stevens’ Mysterious Home Renovations

Trish

The man whose name is synonymous with both “bridge to nowhere” and — in reference to the Internet — “series of tubes” is in big trouble. Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) has been raided.

Stevens, 83, has been under a federal investigation for a 2000 renovation project more than doubling the size of his home in Girdwood that was overseen by Bill Allen, a contractor who has pleaded guilty to bribing Alaska state legislators.

Allen is founder of VECO Corp., an Alaska-based oil field services and engineering company that has reaped tens of millions of dollars in federal contracts.

Agents from the FBI and Internal Revenue Service arrived at the senator’s home Monday afternoon, said Dave Heller, FBI assistant special agent.

Not really a whole lot of doubt what that’s all about.

Stevens, who has been in office since 1968 and is the longest-serving Republican in Senate history, said the interests of justice would be best served if he commented after the investigation.

“I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome,” Stevens said.

Well, there’s a first time for everything I suppose.

Floridians for Franken? It Could Happen

Trish

When I found the fundraising letter from Al Franken in my Florida mailbox, I almost dumped it in the “throw away unopened” stack. Instead something made me put it in the “look at it later and then throw it away” pile.

I looked at it today and now I — a Floridian with absolutely no way to vote for Franken in his run for senator in Minnesota — am writing his campaign a check.

That the man has a way with words (although having read his books, I’d say he got help with this letter) is obvious. Still, somewhere in the midst of a professional assessment that he was using too many metaphors and spending too much time on the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, he won me over.

I knew nothing about his opponent, incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman. But when Franken compared him to, “your obnoxious uncle who loves to listen to Rush Limbaugh and ruins Thanksgiving every year,” I understood immediately.

It’s important to get idiots like Coleman out of the Senate and get smart people like Franken in, whether they are running in Minnesota or Florida or California. If you got the letter, don’t toss it. If you weren’t on the mailing list, go to Franken’s web site and look around. You can donate on the spot, and right after you do, Franken will thank you via video. Nice touch.

Boffo Box Office for ‘Sicko’ Coming Soon Thanks to George Bush

Jon Ponder

The Bush administration is set to give Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko” millions of dollars in free publicity, potentially boosting it into the stratospheric range of Moore’s previous hit, “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which grossed $222 million worldwide in 2004.

On Thursday, Moore announced that he had received a subpoena from the Justice Dept. He says the Bush administration is accusing him of failing to file some documents that are required to film in Cuba and that he thereby violated the Cuban embargo. Moore says journalists are not required to submit the documents in question.

This smacks of a classic Bushie vendetta, a petty swipe at a critic based on the silly hope that a subpoena and perhaps an indictment will silence him. As if. It is also the latest example of the White House political shop using the Justice Dept. to attack an opponent. Note the timing — the subpoena to Moore came within hours after Karl Rove received a subpoena from Democrats in Congress.

Subpoenaing Moore, like so many Bushevik tactics, is also a strategy designed to fail. If silencing Moore was the objective, his legal battles with the government will only give him a bigger soapbox. If tying him up in an expensive legal battle was the goal, the additional publicity will make him much richer than he would have been if the government had stayed out of it and more than offset the legal fees.

Not that “Sicko” isn’t doing quite well without Bush’s help. Despite rightwingers’ dire predictions that ticket sales would be anemic, in the three and a half weeks since “Sicko” went into wide release it has already grossed $20.3 million, and will soon surpass the $21.5 million in total domestic receipts made by “Bowling for Columbine,” for which Moore won the Best Documentary Oscar for 2002. “Sicko” hasn’t yet opened overseas.

With the free high-profile publicity from the government, especially if Moore is indicted, ticket sales for “Sicko” could surge into $200 million range of “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

And at this early stage, “Sicko” appears to be the strongest contender for the Best Documentary Oscar this year. If Hollywood types come to believe Michael Moore is being persecuted by George Bush, “Sicko” will be a shoe-in.

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