Geraldo managed to get in some good lines during the middle of O'Reilly's flip out. Such as...In the entire, dark, black history of Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, this is probably the craziest clip ever. A young girl was tragically killed by a drunk driver. But this was not enough for O'Reilly. Instead, because the criminal was an illegal alien he added this incident to his ongoing crusade against the brown people. Luckily Geraldo was on the show and he - to his credit - called out O'Reilly's xenophobia for exactly what it was. This drove Bill O'Reilly insane. I was almost certain he was going to reach across the table and hit Geraldo.
This video on YouTubeThis is the leading face of cable news, right wing media, of the conservative voice in the media, and he's a freaking psycho. The kicker, O'Reilly concludes his tirade by saying "this is reason". Well, I guess that's what passes for it in today's MSM.
Geraldo: Don't obscure a tragedy to make a cheap political point.
Geraldo also pointed out that the drivers previous arrests and convictions were non-violent (being drunk in public twice, and one victimless DUI - in Chesapeake - and there was no evidence of "Moral Turpitude" in any of these cases, hence Ramos was not targeted for deportation) - he was able to make these statements with authority because he - unlike O'Reilly - is a lawyer and sometimes actually knows what he's talking about.
Also...
Geraldo: Illegal Immigrants commit crimes at a lower percentage than the general population
O'Relly's worst moment was when he completely jumped the shark in response to Geraldo pointing out that their were over 340 drunk driving deaths in that state - yet none of this was shown on the Factor, and that this was actually about Drunk Driving, not Illegal Immigration - by responding with the straw man argument...
Billo: You want Anarchy!! You want Anarchy with Open Borders!
What Geraldo didn't ask is the real $60,000 question, and it's not why people are coming to America, it's why they are not being allowed a legal path into the country when they are overwhelmingly able to find work when they arrive?
The answer of course is that by forcing these people to use illegal means to gain entry, they can easily replenish the underground economy of wage-slaves. The flaws and failures of our legal immigration system are about keeping prices down to rock bottom. If employers were required to provide at least minimum wage pay for all their workers, and to legally sponsor any foreign workforce additions with visas this "problem" would dwindle down to almost nothing.
Oh, there would still be immigrants entering from the south (as well as Europe and Asia) - but they would mostly be Legal and documented. A fence doesn't change that, nor would placing troops on the border as O'Reilly would like (despite the Posse Commitatas issues that would create.)
I usually DVR O'Reilly and actually watched this all the way through after being tipped off about the fight on Dkos, and the truly strange thing was that after both of them calmed down - they attempted to spin their spat into proof that Fux News is truly "Fair and Balanced" because it allows for both of them to have differing viewpoints.
But all it really allowed for was a cock fight, where O'Reilly attempted to shout his opponent do down, but Geraldo stood up to him. O'Reilly couldn't cut off his mic as he's recently done to his own radio co-host Liz Weihl, when she correctly pointed that he was mistaken about the White House offering for Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to testify "under oath" and with a 29-year army veteran and Geneva Conventions Instructor. What we se in that clip is what happens when you challenge a Bully and hold your ground (and he knows - You've got your own show to counter-trash him if you wanted!)
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And then you add the foreign, slightly mean looking perpetrator into the mix and you've got Television GOLD! Cable TV will cover this story literally to death - including both Geraldo and O'Reilly even if they do put slightly different "balanced" spins on it. (Near Right and Far-Out Wacko Right!!)
Eugene Williams has written about this syndrom for the Washington Post.
Every few weeks, this stressed-out nation with more problems to worry about than hours in the day finds time to become obsessed with the saga -- it's always a "saga," never just a story -- of a damsel in distress. Natalee Holloway, the student who disappeared while on a class trip to the Caribbean island of Aruba, is the latest in what seems an endless series.
...The specifics of the story line vary from damsel to damsel. In some cases, the saga begins with the discovery of a corpse. In other cases, the damsel simply vanishes into thin air. Often, there is a suspect from the beginning -- an intruder, a husband, a father, a congressman, a stranger glimpsed lurking nearby.
Schiavo
Holloway
LynchSometimes the tale ends well, or well enough, as in the cases of Smart and Lynch. Let's hope it ends well for Holloway. But more often, it ends badly. Once in a great while, a case like Runaway Bride comes along to provide comic relief. But of course the damsels have much in common besides being female. You probably have some idea of where I'm headed here.
A damsel must be white. This requirement is nonnegotiable. It helps if her frame is of dimensions that breathless cable television reporters can credibly describe as "petite," and it also helps if she's the kind of woman who wouldn't really mind being called "petite," a woman with a good deal of princess in her personality. She must be attractive -- also nonnegotiable. Her economic status should be middle class or higher, but an exception can be made in the case of wartime (see: [Jessica] Lynch).
Put all this together, and you get 24-7 coverage...
It's so bad, that it's even gotten under the considerably thick skin of Michelle Malkin.
Whatever the reasons these missing pretty white girl cases get flogged, I find the whole Missing Pretty Girl Sndrome disturbing (and that's coming from someone who works for FNC). I think we should be paying a hell of a lot more attention to Lodi and Tampa and Denver than Aruba.
The cause of this phenomenon could be racial, it could be sexism (why aren't missing boys hightlighted as often?) and it could even be simply about "attractiveness" - Conformity to the thin white-girl paradigm - or even all the above. The Web and Newspapers are overrun with stories about 5'2", 100lbs blonde Jessica Lynch - but does anyone even remember that she wasn't alone when she was captured and wounded in the early days of the Iraq War? There were four men and another woman - Spc Shoshana Johnson- who were our first P.O.W.s of the 21st Century.
Jessica was on the cover of Newsweek, People, Parade and Time (not to mention articles in Good Housekeeping, Vanity Fair and Glamour as "Woman of the Year") - her story turned into a movie of the week, but what attention did Shoshanna and the others get? Not much.
Ok, how about this - it appears that the drunk driver who killed director Bob Clark ("A Christmas Story") and his 22-year-old son this week was also an illegal immigrant!
(AP) LOS ANGELES Federal authorities have placed an immigration hold on a 24-year-old Mexican national arrested on suspicion of driving drunk and causing the crash that killed film director Bob Clark and his son.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Virginia Kice says a hold was placed Wednesday on Hector Velazquez-Nava, an illegal immigrant living in Los Angeles.
Velazquez-Nava was arrested for investigation of driving under the influence of alcohol and gross vehicular manslaughter.
Stange that I don't see Bob Clark's picture plastered all over Cable news and I don't see either Geraldo or O'Reilly pounding the table and ready to force the mayor of Pacific Palisades out of officer over his or his sons death now do you?
Coincidence? I think not.
To their credit the Virginia Beach parents have asked for the arguing to stop:
Tessa Tranchant and Allison Kuhnhardt's parents want the arguing to stop. They said this national debate over illegal immigration is out of hand and they desperately want this time to grieve.
And they are absolutely correct, we should allow for family and friends to grieve with respect, we should also allow law enforcement to attempt to do their jobs as best they can without creating a show trial (Jazz Hands Everybody!)
But the chance that the blood thirsty and posturing media will take a step back and show all those involved an equal measure of respect is somewhere between slim and nil.
Not when there's still ratings gold out there in them hills with victims this "young, pretty and sympathetic"...
Someone is probably already working on the 2nd draft for the next movie of week - the "the Virginia Beach Story."
Vyan
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