Assy McGee Award® for Saturday, June 20th: Bill O'Reilly Laments the Culture of "Personal Attacks Leveled Against Public People"

Chalk this one up in the OMFG category. Bill O'Reilly's column today weighs in on Letterman's now infamous joke about Sarah Palin and her daughter(s), and wags his righteous finger at an American discourse in which "increasingly, personal attacks are being used to marginalize opposing points of view."

Even more entertaining is this line: "I've been on the Letterman program five times. Last time around, he called me a goon and mocked Rush Limbaugh's weight. I asked him why he was doing that, but he did not have an answer."

So yeah, OMFG. Here we have a worldview in which Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, are victims of increasingly crass, personal discourse represented by David Letterman.

O'Reilly, whose mode of discourse is fairly represented by the fact that he continues to pride himself on branding George Tiller with the "Baby Killer" moniker for year upon year. He laments the personal attack on Palin and her daughters. Palin, too, decried it as sexist, condescending, and more than a little bit gross to boot. All of which is bad. But calling GOP voters and their leaders the "real Americans," and the Dem candidate a friend of terrorists: that's just being "folks."

Ugh.

Deeply Retroactive Assy McGee Award® to Michael Reagan

An extremist white supremacist radio host named Hal Turner was just arrested for engaging in what apparently DO constitute "fighting words." Turner has been charged with:

inciting Catholics to “take up arms” and singling out two Connecticut lawmakers and a state ethics official on a Web site -- was taken into custody in New Jersey late Wednesday after state Capitol police in Connecticut obtained a warrant for his arrest.

But blightful a human being as he is, it is not Turner who wins the Assy McGee Award® for today. That honor instead goes to President Ronald Reagan's son, Michael Reagan. The clip below, Harrogate learned about from one of the commenters in the above link, and from there it did not take long to find video footage of a blood-chilling exchange that took place between Reagan and a caller on 8/15/2006. This is some of the most extreme rhetoric you will find on Right Wing talk radio, and that is saying something.

What we encounter below on its face would appear to be hyperbolic, not representative of right wing punditry. But given the increasingly shrill climate on the internet, the radio, and even on cable news today, one wonders just how hyperbolic it really is in the circles to which Bill O'Reilly caters, and to which George Tiller's murderer undoubtedly belonged.

OMFG: A Tribute to Sarah Palin

Today, the Hammer dropped on Sarah Palin. On Fox News no doubt. This is the first of many "one the record" stories-- stories which reporters cold not discuss until after the election.

And the "real" Conservatives still want her for 2012. Please...



Generally speaking, the segment of American voters who support Palin may want to pay closer attention to the real world.

Here is another interview, discussing the same subject, on The O'Reilly Factor.

While some of this, I'm sure, is not on the level and the McCain camp is attempting to punish Palin to save McCain, some of it makes sense, especially considering the "joint" appearances with McCain and Palin towards the end of the campaign.

Dear Gov. Palin,

Soon my posts discussing your basic inequalities as a public servant will end. You will return to "real" American and hopefully, once there, the Alaskan voters will ensure you will not be their Governor because of your abysmal performance.

But until that time, I just wanted to let you know we are thinking of ya.'

The wild dogs cry out in the night
As they grow restless longing for some solitary company
I know that I must do what's right
As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serangetti
I seek to cure what's deep inside, frightened of this thing that I've become

It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never had

Sincerely,

Your BFFs at The Rhetorical Situation