Happy Sunday, all! Well, it had been a few weeks since the last time, so Vermont and Vermonters were overdue to be the target of Bill O'Reilly's scorn. It was a low-grade eruption only - a mere passing mention by Bill-O's standards, but it did remind us that we are never far from his heart.
But the truth is, there are a lot of compelling reasons why O'Reilly should consider moving beyond his "objections" with our lovely state and ponder relocating to the Green Mountains instead!
Here, then, are the top ten reasons Bill O'Reilly should pack up the loofahs and move to Vermont (after the flip):
Obama to call for the lifting of sanctions on Cuba. It does seem like Obama has been finding some nerve lately. This bodes well for his campaign, and for the whole field of debate.
Following up on Jack's diary about the refusal of the Anti-Defamation League to recognize the Armenian Genocide so as not to enflame political relations between Turkey and Israel - it seems the New England Director of the ADL (rightfully) broke with the National office on the matter - and was promptly fired for doing so. The ADL's defense of itself has been poorly considered, and prominent members of its New England board have already resigned in the face of anger and sadness from many in the Massachusetts Jewish community. Still no national press on this, though - only the Boston Globe seems to be following the story.
Are the Netroots getting impatient with Senator Leahy? This front page diary at dKos is very ho-hum about our senior Senator's most recent deadline for subpoenas information and its apparent two week grace period. Speaking of Leahy, I've put up a poll as to whether or not readers think he deserves credit for Rove's abandoning the ship, as Watercloset suggests. UPDATE: Kagro X registers his frustration as well at dKos.
Is Brian Dubie sucking up to Bill O'Reilly? That's what O'Reilly claims, and the Democrats are all over it. Can't appease a bully that way, Dubes - it only makes 'em get worse.
Belated congratulations to Dem consultant and political usual suspect Matt Levin on his wedding last week. (With his family in town, if you were in the Montpelier area last week and thought you saw Rep. Sander Levin or Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, you may not have been imagining things).
(crossposted from Cobalt6, because I figured we could use a laugh.)
All opinions cheerfully entertained, and we appreciate your point of view.
By the way, I'm told that that newspaper Billo is seen picking up is the New York Times. I guess if Ann Coulter had gotten her wish that it be blown up, he'd have to read something else.
If you read more than just the Vermont blogs, you've undoubtedly heard about Bill O'Reilly's jihad against DailyKos, attempting to label it a "hate site." If you missed it, there isn't much to the narrative; O'Reilly thinks he can bully Kos out of existence by using troll rated comments to rationalize the harassment of a "Yearly Kos" convention sponsor (Jet Blue) out of the program. In that he has been partially successful, but of course this has done nothing but fire up the netroots crowd who are not only (of course) finding more objectionable user comments on O'Reilly's own site (as well as targeting his sponsors), but have also begun to get organized and coalesce into a netroots driven, rapid response, anti-Fox truth squad. O'Reilly's return volley has been simply to become obsessive in his attacks on dKos by trying to brings his TV guests into the fight, demanding they join him in comparing bloggers like us to nazis, the Klan, Mussolini, Al Capone, etc.
But thereisnospoon is now reporting that the battle has been joined by Sean Hannity (Hannity, for those who don't listen to talk radio or watch Fox, is the slightly dumber version of Rush Limbaugh who doesn't talk about himself as incessantly). Hannity is now attacking The Huffington Post on air, again based on comments users have posted on her site (and again, there are even nastier comments on Hannity's own site).
This begs the question as to whether or not we're seeing the beginnings of an all-out proxy war between the two major political parties being waged by their media manifestations.
Jim Douglas hardly tries to conceal his snarky streak anymore.Freyne has a quote where Douglas lets his contempt for concerns about climate change shine through:
"I’ve said many times that Vermont has such a small imprint on the surface of the planet that we can do as much as possible and still not save a single polar bear or make any significant impact on global warming,"said Vermont's Republican CEO.
"But China can have an impact because of the environmental challenges the environmental officials we’ve met with recognize and need to deal with. I would hope that Vermonters who have a serious interest in climate change would devote their time and energy to places like China
Looking for the perfect gift for Dan DeWalt this summer? Click here.
Shad 2, Vermont Yankee 1. A judge has again ruled that Vermont Yankee can't dump its water discharge into the Connecticut River (potentially harming fish) after receiving permission from the Douglas Administration to do so.
Speaking of haters, are authorities getting involved with the threats received by Rep. Bill Lippert (D-Hinesburg) thanks to Bill O'Reilly? This site and other Vermont sites have received hits from law enforcement via a Google search for "bill lippert fag". It's not the norm for people in law enforcement to use department computers for personal use, so this is likely a sign of some sort of official inquiry or investigation. Book 'em Dano, I sez.
Smarting from his steady loss in viewership (and in the face of Keith Olbermann's steady rise in viewership), Bill O'Reilly continues his never-ending quest for Democrats to demonize in the hopes of throwing more gasoline on his dwindling flame... and once again, he's turned to li'l ol' Vermont, his favorite state. From the Freeps:
A film crew from Fox TV's O'Reilly Factor caused a stir at the Statehouse this morning as legislators were gathering for the last day of the legislative session.
The crew approached Rep. Bill Lippert, D-Hinesburg, as he sat in the cafeteria eating breakfast before 9 a.m. Legislators described the crew as aggressively asking questions about sex offender legislation, accusing Lippert of supporting child sex offenders.
"They take the mic and stick it in his face," said Sen. Richard Sears, D-Bennington, who was across the room. "He was ambushed."
Sounds like quite a scene, from Hallenbeck's description, with other Legislators moving in to support/shield Lippert and subsequent calls for some sort of official legislative statement or action on the matter. Big hat tip to B_VT for drawing this to my attention.
Question for the day: There are plenty of Vermont legislators that could draw this sort of ire, and yet O'Falafel (and his local buddy, frequent Factor guest Paul Beaudry of WDEV's "True North Radio") for some reason seem to fixate on Lippert... hmmmm, now why would that be? Anyone on the right have an answer? Bueller...?
250-1
75-1
