LALARRY

Bill O Gets Tough (NOT) with Rummy

Somehow Bill O' wasn't quite his usual self in his exclusive one on one with Rummy. Watch out Mr. Secretary you don't want to get hit by one of those flying softballs. And be careful when you get up from your chair. ou might knock over someone behind you on his knees kissing your butt.

O'REILLY: How can the U.S. and Britain stop the Shia from killing the Sunni and vice versa? In that civil war there, how can we stop it?

RUMSFELD: First of all there isn't a civil war by anyone that I talk to's assessment. There's sectarian violence, you're right. Now, how do you stop that? You don't stop it militarily. The only way this is going to stop is if the government engages in a unity government that represents all the people in that country, which they're very close to having, and they then engage in a reconciliation process where they reach out to the elements that are still dissidents and have a process where people can legitimately reengage and they intend to do it, the prime minister designate has announced he was going to do it. The Sunnis and the Shias and the Kurds agreed to it

O'REILLY: Sadr's militia. This is a vicious guy.

RUMSFELD: The first thing that he did, the new prime minister designate, Prime Minister Maliki, he went down and saw Sistani, the senior cleric in the country, and said I'm worried about these militias and Sistani said he's worried about them. And they both announced that one of the new tasks of the new government would be to deal with the militias. And they're making progress.

O'REILLY: I hope so.

(news update :

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Iraq's parliament approved a national unity government on Saturday, achieving a goal the U.S. hopes will reduce widespread violence so that U.S. forces can eventually go home. But as the legislators met, at least 27 people were killed and dozens wounded in a series of attacks. Police also found the bodies of 21 Iraqis who apparently had been kidnapped and tortured by death squads that plague the capital and another area.

and of course the devil is in the details, a cabinet was agreed upon but they couldn't reach agreement on the permanent choices for the two ministries that will determine the immediate future for Iraq:

Al-Maliki said he would set ''an objective timetable to transfer the full security mission to Iraqi forces, ending the mission of the multinational forces.''

But his (PM Mailiki) failure to fill the top two security porfolios illustrated the challenges ahead. Al-Maliki, a Shiite, said he would be acting interior minister for now, and he made Salam Zikam al-Zubaie, a Sunni Arab, the temporary defense minister.

But I guess they have a permanent choice for Minister of Cultural Affairs.)

Back to Rummy's interview with  tough guy only the facts, I give this administration a rough time Bill O':

and watch out because here goes Rummy again....

O'REILLY: No, they can't lose militarily, but it's cost the United States taxpayer about $400 billion up this point.

RUMSFELD: Think of what 9/11 cost us. Wouldn't you rather fight those people over there instead of fighting them here?

O'REILLY: Yes.

I do think Rummy has lost it long ago. The WH tried the above nonsense as a talking point months ago and dropped it quickly And if no one he's spoken to thinks it's a civil war in Iraq then clearly he doesn't speak to anyone that has the kohones to give their independent assessment of Iraq. Clearly someone in the state, the military, dod, cia or nsa thinks there is a civil war going on.

I'm sure Mr. Secretary would have this for me:

here's more

O'REILLY: But there is a question. You're challenged all the time on that.

RUMSFELD: By people who don't know what they're talking about. The reality is that anyone that you talk to will tell you that — Zarqawi says that the central front on the war on terror is in Iraq.

O'REILLY: All right.

RUMSFELD: It isn't debatable.

O'REILLY: Come on you know if there's a Democratic president elected in 2008, he's going to very likely change your policies or President Bush's policies. But, look, I support the Iraq war because I believe that if we pulled out of there.

RUMSFELD: Oh.

O'REILLY: Iran would move in and then Iran would be the dominant player in the gulf, allying with Syria and it's just going to be a nightmare.

RUMSFELD: That's right. The moderate regimes in that part of the world would be gone.

O'REILLY: Right.

Slow down guys, my head is spinning from the spin.

We're fighting al qaeda, but if we were to leave it isn't al qaeda that would be running the show, it would be Iran. So we're fighting a proxy war against Iran in Iraq ? But the Iranians are Shiites and the democratically elected Iraqi government dominated by Shiites, which Secy Rumsfeld just expressed such faih in have already been cutting deals with Iran.

And al qaeda is fighting on the side of the sunnis, so if they benefitted from a US withdrawal how would it help the Shiite Iranians.

Whew...I'm confused.

I can just here Rummy now...this ones for you kid:

Oreilly in Wonderland

I have restrained myself  of late in pointing out BillO's inanities but I couldn't resist this one:

From the April 26 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly (thks media matters)

There isn't any right-wing cabal at all in the United States, because it's fragmented. Now, there is obviously right-wing talk radio, which is very successful, and there's obviously the Fox News Channel, which some believe is a right-wing enterprise. I work there, and I can tell you it is not. And if you do an analysis every day of the voices and the time given to stories and people, you'll see that liberal people get just as much time as conservative people on the Fox News Channel, and the commentators are pretty much split down the middle on their ideological bent. So that's a bunch of garbage.

split down the middle

like say Brit Hume's panel of commentators:

Krauthammer (right)

Barnes (author of a hagiography of W = right)

Kondracke (right)

Mara Liason (npr - you can call her left if you want)

Or that FOXNEWS commentary show: Beltway Boys in which Mort Kondracke and Fred Barnes almost have orgasms agreeing and finishing each others' questions

Or Neil Cavuto on business where in a typical moment he literally interrupted and shouted down Dem Cong Durbin in an interview. Author of a bestselling rightwing diatribe of "economic analysis"

Or John Gibson (the funny hair guy) author of the War on Christmas

but oh yes the meek Alan Colmes gets 1/3 of the airtime to set up the diatribes and distortions of college dropout ex construction worker Sean Hannity.

and of course Tony Snow left Fox to join the WH because he always played things right down the middle.

yup fair and balanced

Oreilly's Theory of Economics aka It's All About Me All The Time

In an interview yesterday with Fox News’s Neil Cavuto, Bill O’Reilly claimed that his reporting intimidated oil company CEOs into lowering gasoline prices:

O’REILLY: I have guys inside the five major oil companies - my father used to work for one of those oil companies by the way - who have told me that in those meetings they look for every way to jack up oil prices after Katrina, every way, when they didn’t have to. They got scared because of my reporting and reporting of some others. They said, “Uh ho.”

CAVUTO: So wait a minute, you’re not, you’re taking credit for gas prices being down from where they are?

O’REILLY: I said my reporting and some reporting of others. They got scared.

It's A Vast Conspiracy First No Christmas.. then a Totalitarian State

from the warped mind of O'reilly comes his newest conspiracy theory (thanks to mediamatters:

On the November 28 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, host Bill O'Reilly pointed to "a very secret plan" by the "secular progressive" movement, which he said aims to "diminish Christian philosophy in the U.S.A." It is a plan he links to his perception that many now avoid the holiday greeting "Merry Christmas." O'Reilly's disclosure of this "secret plan" was followed the day after by a rant on his radio show against the "hateful liars" who "spit out" "blatant propaganda" that is "picked up by the mainstream media, and rammed down the public's throat."

• First, progressive financiers George Soros and Peter Lewis "pour money into the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], they pour money into the smear websites, you know, they buy up a lot of media time."
• Second, "the ACLU is their legal arm. ... [T]he ACLU runs around the country suing everybody and intimidating people."
• Third, "the smear websites are their media arm."

O'Reilly said these three elements operate "in tandem":

O'REILLY: [Y]ou use your left-wing smear websites to go after anybody who stands up for Christmas. If you stand up for Christmas, they come after you. So the tandem intimidates. The tandem intimidates. Suing on one hand; smearing on the other hand.

The result? According to O'Reilly:

O'REILLY: In every secular progressive country, they've wiped out religion ... Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, Fidel Castro, all of them. That's the first step. Get the religion out of there, so that we can impose our big-government, progressive agenda

Memo to Bill: I Guess Human Nature in Galveston and Houston is Different than New Orleans....

...and that there are no "thugs and drug addicts" in those cities, since both cities are in the process of evacuating virtually 100% of their population.

Maybe some proper planning has to do with the difference :.

AUSTIN (CNN) -- An emergency management official Thursday urged state workers to focus on moving special-needs residents out of the way of Hurricane Rita, which is predicted to strike early Saturday between Galveston and the Louisiana border.

State coordinator Jack Colley said an air operation will take 3,000 special-needs residents to San Antonio, 1,000 to Amarillo, 1,000 to El Paso, 2,000 to Dallas and 2,000 to Lubbock

from the Houston Chronicle

on Houston

People unable to escape low-lying areas in Houston on their own were urged to call a city hot line, and White said 10,000 people have called. Throughout the night the city was sending buses to get them out, but people were still told they needed to count on family, friends and neighbors

on the Galveston evacuation

In Galveston, Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas is expected to call for voluntary evacuation at 2 p.m. today if Rita still is projected to grow into a Category 3 hurricane and continues to threaten a direct hit on the island.

More than 80 city and Galveston school district buses are ready to evacuate people who lack transportation beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday, Thomas said.

no that couldn't be it... I'm sure some folks will purposely hold on, brave the 150 mph winds and 12 foor storm surge in order to get a chance to loot. Just like they did in New Orleans.

Bill Sets Us Straight

courtesy of media matters.org from his radio show:

O'REILLY: Now, what's the real story? The real story is this: Ten percent of Americans, and 10 percent of any society, simply are so chaotic for whatever reason that they're never, ever going to be able to fend for themselves and make a living. They are either substance abusers, they're mentally ill, they're screwed up emotionally beyond -- they can't carry on a conversation, they're catatonic, schizophrenic, whatever it may be. No matter how much money you pour in, they're always going to be in that condition. It's not massive neglect, it's not; it's human nature.

Now, our government has a duty to provide a safety net so these people aren't living under bridges. But some of them are anyway, because all the entitlement money they get they spend on heroin or crack or alcohol. So they can't pay their rent because the money that they're given they spend on drugs and alcohol. So what do you do? Give them more money? They're not going to pay their rent, they're going to spend it on drugs and alcohol. And therefore, they're going to be out on the street with their hand out.

Many, many, many of the poor in New Orleans are in that condition. They weren't going to leave no matter what you did. They were drug-addicted. They weren't going to get turned off from their source. They were thugs, whatever.

that's in addition to Oreilly repeatedly asserting that those that stayed behind and didn't evacuate from New Orleans did so intentionally so they could loot once the storm hit.

So stop payment on those checks you wrote to help Katrina victims, or at least those intended to help the poor folk displaced from New Orleans. Your money will just be enabling drug addicts and thugs.

Now  I know why Bill hasn't opened his pockets and given his time to help Katrina victims like those Hollywood types who are screwing up America. It's a waste of time.

Oreilly's Analysis of New Orleans

yes he really said this:

people intentionally stayed back in New Orleans and didn't evacuate because they knew they would have the opportunity to loot once the hurricane hit

it was also comical to watch him repeatedly express wonderment at why there weren't sufficient numbers of National Guard on the scene. From Oreilly's website:

"the lack of National Guard presence is very disturbing."

Now there's a hard hitting commentator looking out for the common man.

no comment from Bill on the answer implicit in the comment below:

"Lt. Kevin Cowan of Louisiana Homeland Security declared that help is on the way. "We're catching up and we're bringing in extra forces. We have 300 riflemen from the Arkansas National Guard moving in"

Now it couldn't have anything to do with the fact that 40% of the National Guard from Louisiana and Mississippi  are in Iraq could it ?

Lt. Kevin Cowan of Louisiana Homeland Security declared that help is on the way. "We're catching up and we're bringing in extra forces. We have 300 riflemen from the Arkansas National Guard moving in

Lt. Kevin Cowan of Louisiana Homeland Security declared that help is on the way. "We're catching up and we're bringing in extra forces. We have 300 riflemen from the Arkansas National Guard moving in

The local FEMA head reassured Bill O' that thngs were improving because more National Guard were on the way from....Arkansas (sic)

Convoluted Logic Department

O'reilly on Cindy Sheehan - this has got to be among his lamest comments ever:

As far as Ms. Sheehan is concerned, she has the perfect right to protest the war and President Bush, but the president would be nuts to meet with her.

Writing in The Seattle Post-Intelligence there, columnist Robert Jamieson, no conservative, put it this way: "Trouble is Sheehan is not sincerely interested in meeting Bush for a private, heartfelt chat about her understandable anguish and lingering questions. (Why would you believe what she tells you about her reasons for camping out in the sweltering heat and waiting to meet with W, when a guy in who has never spoken to her knows her intentions?) She wants to make a public splash by allowing critics of the unjustified war in Iraq to use her as a human bazooka against Bush. Well, I believe Jamieson's analysis is correct. And I point to this. If Cindy Sheehan is really about getting the troops out of Iraq  why isn't she traveling to Washington to stand outside Hillary Clinton's home? The senator supports the war. Will Ms. Sheehan go to Nantucket and stand outside John Kerry's beach house? He isn't a cut and run club member.

Makes sense to me. (Not!) Why should she protest the war in front of the vacation home of the President and Commander in Chief when she could go protest the war in front of the homes of 2 Senators of the Party that is in the minority of both Houses of Congress and doesn't hold the Presidency ?

 

 

 

It's A Vast Left Wing Conspiracy

On his TV show Bill Oreilly elaborated on his column about a "coordinated effort" between the liberal elite media, the ACLU, and the Hillary Clinton forces to brand the US as a torturer, discredit Bush and pave the way for Hillary to win the Presidency. A few gems:

"After President Bush won re-election last November, there was much consternation among some powerful anti-Bush Americans. They were stunned that John Kerry lost and feared that if Bush succeeds in his second term, the Democrats would lose again in 2008.

Then came the successful election in Iraq, and the fear on the left multiplied. If Iraq turned out to be a success, Mr. Bush would become a hero. So the need to undermine the Bush administration became more intense than ever. But how to do it? Social Security wasn't emotional enough, particularly for young voters. What could be done to hurt Bush? 

Then came the revelation--let's torture the President."

Yes, Bill the majority of the American people would not be expressing the view that the war was a mistake were it not for the trumped up torture issue.

Now the torture theme has new momentum. A liberal federal judge in New York City has ruled the Defense Department must release more photos and videos of Abu Ghraib to the ACLU. Of course, that will incite even more hatred against the USA and put our soldiers in more danger but, hey, politics comes before protecting the troops. The anti-Bush people want those pictures almost as badly as Al Jazeera wants them. Another nail in the President's coffin is more important than bodies in real coffins.

"If you think I am exaggerating, I assure you I am not. This torture campaign is being run brilliantly, and if Mr. Bush doesn't wise up soon, he will be bloodied just as Lyndon Johnson was in the Vietnam debacle"

Horrors Bill, the ACLU used our laws to get documents released that were suppressed by the military. And of course the release of these photos will put our soldiers in danger, not the inadequate supplies and the inability of the Iraqis to carry their part of the load in defending their own country.

"The truth is that abuse has occurred, but on a relatively small scale. According to General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. has detained about 68,000 people since 9/11 (most have been released), and there have been 325 investigations into alleged abuse. At this writing, about 100 cases of wrongdoing have been substantiated"

Well Bill, I don't know where you get your numbers, but only a handful of prisoners have been released from gtmo since they were incarcerated as long as 3 years ago and "coincidentally " all of those were nationals of countries that are our allies. And excuse me, if there have been 325 investigations and 100 cases of wrongdoing found that's a pretty disturbing statistic.

But then again Myers told Fox News Sunday  Gtmo is a model facility. And our President told us the prisoners there are trained to "disassemble - that means to lie (sic).

By the way hard hitting (I'm not a Republican or a Conservative) master of the no spin zone Oreilly has simply set a policy that he will not show any photos from Abu Gharib. In the interest of fair and balanced reporting, I guess.