During the live portion of Fox’s interview with Pres. Obama before the Super Bowl on Sunday, Bill O’Reilly interrupted the president 43 times, according to Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” on Monday. (See #1 above.)
If Fox were a legitimate news organization, its purpose in interviewing the president would be to let its audience hear what he has to say.
The interruptions continued in a second, taped part of the interview that was shown later, so that by the end of the 15-minute sit-down, O’Reilly had interrupted the president more than 70 times — once every 19 seconds, according to O’Donnell in a follow-up segment Tuesday night.
Conversely, the number of times O’Reilly let the president finish a sentence was zero, by O’Donnell’s count.
O’Reilly’s 70-plus interjections more than doubled the number of interruptions the president endured in his previous interview on Fox. In March 2010, O’Reilly’s lesser known colleague Bret Baier — host of Fox’s daily round-table presentation of Republican talking points — stopped the president in mid-sentence just 30 times or so. (See video #2.)
So, other than rudeness, what is behind this behavior from Fox? In a word: fear.
Florida’s government has its faults,
With back-room deals done in its vaults.
But when push came to shove,
Out of desperation or love,
It quickly banned cocaine-like bath salts.
Number of American adults reporting that they had a cold, and 3.1% had the flu, in January the day before answering the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index survey. For the first time this cold and flu season, these levels exceed those measured in the same month in 2009 and 2010.
And nobody yet has, nobody yet has explained to the American public what they know, and surely they know more than the rest of us know who it is who will be taking the place of Mubarak and um, no, not, not real um enthused about what it is that that’s being done on a national level and from D.C. in regards to understanding all the situation there in Egypt. And um, in these areas that are so volatile right now because obviously it’s not just Egypt but the other countries too where we are seeing uprisings, we know that now more than ever, we need strength and sound mind there in the White House. We need to know what it is that America stands for so we know who it is that America will stand with. And um, we do not have all that information yet.
— Celebritician Sarah Palin®, criticizing President Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt — we think.
I read that answer several times, and I still really don’t know what she’s saying.
— White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, quoted by USA Today, responding to Sarah Palin’s weekend criticism of President Obama on Egypt.
Koch-GOP Industries leadership team, from left: Bosses Charles, David Koch and their lackeys, House Speaker John Boehner, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Energy Chair Fred Upton
A partial list of recipients of Koch Industries “investments” in the 2010 midterm elections:
House Leadership:
Speaker John Boehner, Ohio, $20,000
Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Va., $20,000
National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, Texas, $20,000
House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp, Mich., $17,500
House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, Wisc., $20,000
House House Oversight & Government Reform Committee Darrell Issa, Calif., $12,500
House Energy Committee Republicans
Six of 22 donations to committee members by the Koch brothers:
Chairmain Fred Upton, Mich., $20,000
Chairman Emeritus Joe Barton, Texas, $18,000
Rep. John Shimkus, Ill., $18,500
Freshman Rep. Michael Pompeo, Kansas, $43,500
Tea Partyist Rep. Morgan Griffith, Va., $5,000
Tea Partyist Rep. Adam Kinzinger, Ill., $5,000
House Energy Committee Democrats
Two of of five donations to committee members by the Koch brothers:
Rep. Mike Ross, Ark., $15,500
Rep. Dan Boren, Okla., $13,500
(List continues below)
In the 2010 midterms, Californians rejected wealthy, self-funded candidates for governor and the U.S. senate at least in part because voters were leery of candidates who felt they could “buy” the election in order to achieve power. In the Florida governor’s race and the Wisconsin U.S. Senate race voters made the opposite decision. There is every reason the swing voters who put Gov. Rick Scott and Sen. Ron Johnson into office will soon regret those votes, but at least these candidates were elected, as much as is possible these days, in the open by a fair vote.
But while no one was looking, oil billionaires David and Charles Koch — behind-the-scenes funders of the tea party astroturf mobs — and their front group, Americans for Prosperity spent a little over $41 million during the election, quietly buying dozens of members of Congress, lock, stock and barrel.
Since the elections, the Kochs have taken control of their latest acquisition — the House of Representatives — with their first order of business being a directive to House Speaker John Boehner to populate the House Energy Committee, which regulates their core business, with members beholden to the new bosses.
The Kochs hate publicity, and this maneuvering has been done with utmost secrecy. So it must have been unpleasant for the brothers and their minions in the GOP on Sunday when the Los Angeles Times published a story about their purchase of the energy committee on its front page above the fold:
Someone just turned the lights on in the bar, and the sexiest state doesn’t look so pretty anymore.
– California Treasurer Bill Lockyear, a Democrat, reacting to news that Texas had been hiding a $27 billion deficit for over a year while both Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry and California GOP candidate for governor Meg Whitman lambasted California’s deficit and touted Texas as a “miracle” of fiscal responsibility.
The number of people who have already filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in 2012. Among them are President Emperor Caesar, Jonathon the Impaler Sharkey and Rutherford Bert Hayes, according to Open Secrets.
After the election, I sat down with my consultants, and their names were John Walker, James Beam and Jose Cuervo, my Hispanic consultant. When I finished with them I was done with that consultation.
— Florida Democratic Party Chairman Rod Smith, quoted by the St. Petersburg Times, not taking the bait to discuss mistakes made in the recent governor’s race.
When I was a child, President Ronald Reagan was the nice man who gave us jelly beans when we visited the White House. I didn’t know then, but I know it now: The jelly beans were much more than a sweet treat that he gave out as gifts. They represented the uniqueness and greatness of America — each one different and special in its own way, but collectively they blended in harmony.
From: The Law Offices of Chasem, Suem & Ruinem To: Pensito Review Editorial Staff
Subject: Treatment of Sarah Palin® in Editorial Copy
It has been widely reported that Sarah Palin® recently trademarked her name and the name of her daughter, Bristol Palin®.
There has been much speculation about why Sarah Palin® would seek trademark status for her name. She gave these reasons on her application:
… usage of the trademark for a website featuring political issues; and educational and entertainment services, including motivational speaking in the fields of politics, culture and values.
We have been working to determine the potential legal ramifications for the Pensito Media Group in the event the editorial staff fails to comply with trademark best practices when covering Sarah Palin® in blog posts.
In the diplomatic ranks, trained professionals toil,
To keep the peace and tamp down foreign turmoil.
But for Greek ambassador,
Trump picked an artful dodger —
The grifting, drunken blackmailer Kimberly Guilfoyle.
A record number of women are running for state legislative seats this November, more than two-thirds of whom are Democrats, reports Florida Phoenix. Across the 46 states with legislative seats on the ballot, a total of 3,824 women are running — up from 2022’s previous record of 3,621 women candidates, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Women make up 35.5% of all state legislative candidates this cycle. Currently, women hold about one-third of state legislative seats across the country — a record level of representation but nowhere near parity.
“Prediction markets about the 2026 midterm elections have surpassed $1.4 billion in trading volume as Election Day fast approaches,” CNN reports. “This year has seen massive growth in the prediction industry, where people can bet on real-world events like sports, entertainment and the weather. While small-scale election markets have been around for a while, they gained traction before the 2024 presidential election and have seen huge numbers for the 2026 midterms.”
G. Elliot Morris: “Low-knowledge 2024 voters say they backed Trump by 8 points, according to our poll. Today they give him a net job approval of ?27, a 35-point shift. Compare that to Trump’s approval rating among voters who got both questions right: These voters backed Harris by 1 point and now give Trump a net ?24 approval, a 23-point shift. … Low-information voters have moved against Trump at a higher rate than high-information voters, by 12 points.”
President Donald ?Trump’s approval rating fell to a record low as Americans worried about high gasoline prices and appeared ready to punish his Republican Party in the November 3 congressional elections, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that closed on Monday. Some 31% of Americans approve of Trump’s ?performance in office, down a percentage point from two weeks earlier and the lowest level in ?either of his presidential terms, the four-day poll showed.
KFF Poll: “With the 2026 midterm campaigns in full swing and early voting about to begin, there is a wide enthusiasm gap between partisan voters, with Democratic voters 25 percentage points more likely than Republican voters to say they are ‘more motivated’ than usual to vote (63% vs. 38%).”
