The Truffle

I really hesitate to even think about the latest example of manufactured outrage from the wingnutosphere, but The Catharine Chronicles has managed to break it down for the clue-challenged. Meanwhile, Bill O'Reilly spoke of retiring a few years ago, and Bob Cesca suggests he make good on that statement. Meanwhile, I'd like to make some controversial statements of my own: 1. I agree with Michelle Obama. 2. I think Michelle Obama is right on. 3. I think Michelle Obama loves her country, even though she may not have always been proud of its government. 4. I feel the exact same way. 5. I think Michelle Obama would make an awesome First Lady.

Let's see, what's Bill O'Reilly up to these days? He mentioned "Michelle Obama" and "lynching" in the same sentence. America has reached a saturation point with O'Reilly and his fellow yahoos. I can't even be shocked by them anymore. I would only be shocked if they turned into keen, insightful analysts who treated their opponents with respect. Maybe O'Reilly's credit card will be declined somewhere and he'll blow a gasket on the supermarket line. That would be funny. Meanwhile, he is simply no longer outrageous.

Y'know, two years ago the ever combative Bill O'Reilly told a Newsday reporter he was thinking of retirement. Maybe it's time to move past the thinking stage. O'Reilly just made a fool of himself at an Obama rally. Obama staffer Marvin Nicholson, a personal aide always at Obama's side during rope line handshakes, said O'Reilly yelled at him to get out of the way of his cameraman's shot. Nicholson said O'Reilly came around the waist-high barricade separating Obama from well-wishers. "Then he grabbed me with both of his arms and tried to push me out of the way," Nicholson said after the campaign agreed to make him available to reporters. O'Reilly, interviewed afterward by phone on Fox News, said he tried "to gently remove" Nicholson because he was standing in front of Fox's camera. Yeah, it really sucks when a politician's paid staff does that, right? In yet another one of those right-wing projection moments, O'R...

From lily-white commentator Rory O'Connor : It would obviously surprise, and perhaps even frighten the Man Who Wouldn't Shut Up, to learn that I now live in Harlem -- along with many other white people, not to mention a wide and growing assortment of Asians, Hispanics, Arabs, African Americans and all the rest of what makes Manhattan such a vibrant, interesting and exciting place to live and work. Apparently O'Reilly, trapped back in time as well as in his suburban cocoon and Fox bunker, hasn't noticed any of the ongoing changes in Harlem -- or for that matter the rest of America -- that have taken place since he and I attended the same very Catholic, very strict and very segregated college prep school in lily-white Long Island back in the '60s. BTW, I can't take credit for that new nickname. I heard it on DailyKos. But it fits the guy, doesn't it?

The stupid! It BUUUUURRRRRRNS!!!!! After eating dinner at a famed Harlem restaurant recently, Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly told a radio audience he "couldn't get over the fact" that there was no difference between the black-run Sylvia's and other restaurants. "It was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun," he said. "And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all." O'Reilly's been in New York City how long ? And he only just realized that the vast majority of American blacks do not, as he puts it, go into restaurants and yell things like, "'M.F.-er, I want more iced tea"? There's a bright side to this latest foot-in-mouth episode. The New York Times has an article called "Where to Get Soul Food, With or Without Bill O'Reilly." Preferably without. P.S. I love Ridiculopathy.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has reconsidered their decision to hire Bill-O as their keynote speaker. From their Web site: In response to the numerous e-mails and inquiries we have received, we are providing the following update regarding the Collier County, Florida branch fundraising dinner scheduled for March 9, 2007 in Naples, Florida. Bill O’Reilly, host of The O’Reilly Factor, will not be a speaker at the dinner. The dinner will be held as scheduled. John Walsh, host of America’s Most Wanted, will be the keynote speaker. We would like to thank everyone for their comments and e-mails. I wonder if any of those e-mails were from Shawn Hornbeck's family. Anyway, this is the right decision. (Via News Hounds .)

Okay, WHY is Bill O'Reilly a scheduled speaker at a fundraiser for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children ? Isn't this the same scumbag who said that Shawn Hornbeck must've enjoyed spending four years as the captive of a psycho kidnapper? Which Mensa candidate invited the guy? And what do you think John Walsh has to say about all this? Joann Donnellan, a spokeswoman for the group, says that O'Reilly is still scheduled to appear at the fundraiser, despite the Hornbeck flap. Donnellan said Wednesday that O’Reilly’s invitation was accepted in November to help raise awareness on the issue of missing and exploited children. She said the invitation to speak to the group still stood. “We thought he would be an interesting speaker,” she said. Donnellan said the organization, as well as the public and O’Reilly, do not know all of the details surrounding Shawn’s abduction. “Kids do what is necessary to survive,” she said. “In the media, we hear, ‘Why didn’t he...

Yes, kids, O'Reilly has jumped the shark.

Christmas season hasn't even started, yet I still predict that the annual "War on Christmas" will be waged yet again, for a third straight year. How do I know this? Well, first, there's the news that Toys for Tots has rejected 4,000 Talking Jesus dolls. Bill O'Reilly and John Gibson are going to be pissed. Why did Toys for Tots reject their Savior-in-toy-form? Well, since the Marines are government employees, they can't be seen to favor one religion over the other. Yes, it's that pesky little First Amendment thing again. Toys are donated to kids based on financial need and "we don't know anything about their background, their religious affiliations," said Bill Grein, vice president of Marine Toys for Tots Foundation, in Quantico, Va. As a government entity, Marines "don't profess one religion over another," Grein said Tuesday. "We can't take a chance on sending a talking Jesus doll to a Jewish family or a Muslim f...