1. Bill O’Reilly: Republicans are afraid of black people.
Bill O’Reilly chatted with radio host Tavis Smiley on Thursday, about how black people are to blame for their economic problems, blah blah blah same old, same old. But Papa Bill also said something simultaneously bizarre and true. He told Smiley that Republicans are “more intimidated than uncaring. I think they’re afraid… I think they’re afraid of, uh, black people, yeah.”
Smiley looked both amazed and perplexed. His facial expression said: “I can’t believe you just said that. Out loud."
Smiley’s mouth said, “Why? Are black folks scary?”
Egomaniac O’Reilly, who feels no need to monitor what comes out of his mouth, just kept motormouthing on through his inadvertent admission of truth, then bloviated: “No, no, the white Republican power structure is afraid of black Americans. They don’t know how to treat them; they don’t know how to speak to them… They don’t know anything about the culture, and they don’t want to be called a racist bigot, so they stay away,” O’Reilly said. “That’s just my opinion.”
See, black people’s fault again, for making everyone afraid of being called racist... when they are being racist.
Smiley was still confused: “Why would that make you scared, instead of wanting to understand?"
See, Smiley thought he might be talking to an intellectually curious man. He was not. O’Reilly already knows all about what is really wrong with black people, even though he doesn’t "understand their culture." They just won’t get their act together, keep their families together and get out of the ghetto.
He answered Smiley’s question: “Because they [Republicans] feel it’s not worth the trouble, the few votes they might siphon off, to get involved with it. That’s how they feel. I know that for a fact.”
Ummm, does he actually think that’s okay?
Watch the skincrawling segment here.
2. Fox Newsian wants to add his creepy voice to street harassers caught on viral video: Damn, baby, you look hot!
Fox News’ roundtable on the street harassment video that went viral this week was just as enlightened as you might expect it to be. For those who need a reminder, a video made by the anti-street harassment group Hollaback documented a woman’s walk around New York City for 10 hours, during which she was subjected to more than 100 catcalls, told to smile, told how good she looked, and had one man follow her silently for five minutes.
In a nutshell, Fox Newsians saw nothing wrong here. “Nothing was disrespectful there,” said Eric Bolling. “There were a lot of people saying you look fantastic, God bless you.”
Another participant said: “She is finding fault with guys on the street saying hello to her, which may in fact be their only way of contacting women. It’s their bar and she’s walking through it.”
First of all, it’s the street, so not a bar, and not theirs. Second, lots of the comments and behavior in the Hollaback video would not be okay anywhere, including in a bar.
Then a troll—as in a creature who lives under a bridge, not the online sense— by the name of Bob Beckel thought he’d just end the whole non-debate by saying: “She got a hundred catcalls, let me add a hundred and one. Damn baby, you are a piece of woman.”
If your skin was not already crawling, that’s when it started to.
See the video of charming right-wing reactions to Hollaback here.
3. Rush Limbaugh: A scary black man is threatening our women.
Of course, schmuck jock Rush Limbaugh added his sickening voice to the street harassment discussion by blaming feminism for the whole thing, because what can’t be blamed on feminism?
But he still had time for his other favorite pursuit beside baiting feminists this week, playing on the worst, most base racial fears of conservative white people. His comments on the upcoming election:
“Here you have five white women seeking reelection, they desperately need the black turnout. We just had a story today that in New Orleans only 5% of the black vote’s voted in early vote for [Louisiana Sen.] Mary Landrieu…if that’s all they get then it’s sayonara. And yet here’s the first black president, Barack Hussein Obama, and none of these white women want him anywhere near their campaign.”
Yeupp, white women and a scary black man with a foreign-sounding name. Five white women politicians: Landrieu, Alison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky, Kay Hagan in North Carolina, Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire and Michelle Nunn in Georgia, all of whom are all going to get the thumping they deserve for hanging out with a black guy in the first place.
Not very subtle, is it?
4. Chris Christie: Tries to distract everyone from ‘Bridgegate’ by being an absolute d#ck about everything else.
Chris Christie really wants everyone to shut the f*ck up about how he and his top aides ordered a massive traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge for petty political reasons.
So, the New Jersey governor decided to be a complete ass-wipe about something else. Actually, everything else. First, he took aim at an incredibly brave nurse named Kaci Hickox who was returning from Ebola-stricken Africa, unfortunately for her by way of Newark, NJ. Christie locked her up in a tent with inadequate heat, toilet facilities and food, and personally diagnosed her as “obviously ill,” based on zero information. But why would you rely on information? Or science, for that matter. Later, after a wealth of commonsense, actual scientific criticism of his meanspirited, blatantly political overreaction, Christie crowed, “We’re not moving an inch.” Because, why would you when you can just keep being wrong, mean and stupid?
Later in the week, at a press conference on the two -ear anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, Christie mixed it up with a heckler who dared question his dispersal of Sandy aid. “Shut the hell up, and sit down,” the governor said, once again demonstrating his ample impulse control and equanimity in the face of opposition.
5. Ted Cruz: It’s okay for Tim Cook to be gay because I like my iPhone. The rest of you gays and lesbians are not allowed this “personal” choice.
Ted Cruz likes his iPhone. Isn’t that great? He does not like gay people, and often boasts about that. In fact, the rabid, right-wing Texas Tea Partier even introduced a bill with Utah Sen. Mike that would make sure states can still have the right to ban marriage equality and refuse to recognize same-sex marriages in other states.
But when it comes to Apple CEO Tim Cook being gay, that, Cruz said on Squawk Box this week, is a “personal decision.”
“Those are his personal choices. I’ll tell you, I love my iPhone,” Cruz said.
“Listen, Tim Cook makes his personal decisions, and that is his life. My focus is on the constitutional question of who has the authority to make decisions,” he continued.
But wait, Ted, didn’t you just say it’s a personal decision? Color us confused. Which is it?
6. Laura Ingraham crosses the line from meanspirited to batsh*t cuckoo with suggestion that Ebola volunteers are props.
Should we be worried about Laura Ingraham’s sanity at this point? She’s been coming up with some doozies lately, like conspiracy theories about dark-skinned children crossing our borders in order to infect us with diseases. Now, she is questioning the existence of healthcare workers.
This week, President Obama addressed the country’s response to Ebola outbreaks in West Africa, and was joined by several healthcare workers who have recently returned from relief operations and others who are about to embark on them. It’s worth noting that, after getting a slow start on Ebola response, Obama has been fairly exemplary in his leadership on the disease, heeding science (when did this become controversial? Ugghh, never mind) and refusing to bow to hysteria. Witness his hug with nurse Nina Pham, who actually was diagnosed with Ebola and recovered, compared, say, with Chris Christie’s locking up a nurse who was NOT infected.
Also present was Dr. Kent Brantly, who became infected while volunteering in Liberia and was the first Ebola patient treated on American soil. Dr. Brantly, it somehow needs to be said, is a real person. Really.
But Ingraham thinks all these people may have been stunt doubles, questioning whether or not they were employees of the pro-Obama political group Organizing for America disguised in "white coats."
Speaking of white coats, it might be time for the people in them to come for Ingraham.
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