Bud Meyers: Bill O'Reilly - Far Right Wing Loon (#OWS Poll)

PolitiFact assigned FALSE ratings to 39 percent of Republican statements compared to just 12 percent of Democrats since January 2010. And anyone who watches Fox News and Bill O'Reilly would know why.

Just tonight I heard Bill O'Reilly disparaging our President again, and he called the Obama administration a "regime". Is that unbiased reporting for a supposed "journalist"? Is that supposed to be "fair and balanced"? Or is it just moronic blathering?

Every time I hear Bill O'Reilly preaching anxiety and caution, I immediately have to go online to research his fear-mongering. Tonight he was ragging on the Occupy Wall Street movement again, and he had cheery picked a recent poll that a political analyst for Fox News recently conducted of the OWS protesters. It claimed, Bill O'Reilly warns us, that "30% of the Wall Street protesters were willing to use violence." OMG!!!

And good ole Bill O'Reilly just couldn't resist reminding us again (for about the fourth or fifth time) about a rape that had occurred at a Cleveland protest last week. How many sexual assaults would that be per 100,000 in the entire population Bill? More than the national average? Oh, and Bill...that kind of reporting, coming from a sexual predator like yourself, that's rather kind of creepy.

The poll I referred to was conducted by Arielle Alter Confino, a senior researcher at a polling firm owned by Douglas Schoen.

Douglas Schoen believes that the Democratic Party should not appeal to voters who support taxing oil companies and the rich. Schoen said the OWS protesters represent “an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence,” and that their common bond is “a deep commitment to left-wing policies." Oh really? That reminds me of the time when Glenn Beck called the unemployed 99ers Socialists.

On October 10th and 11th, Douglas Schoen's polling firm interviewed nearly 200 protesters in New York's Zuccotti Park. Their findings, they say, probably represent the first systematic random sample of an Occupy Wall Street opinion.

Schoen says in the Wall Street Journal: "Our research shows clearly that the movement doesn't represent unemployed America and is not ideologically diverse. Rather, it comprises an unrepresentative segment of the electorate that believes in radical redistribution of wealth, civil disobedience and, in some instances, violence. Half (52%) have participated in a political movement before, virtually all (98%) say they would support civil disobedience to achieve their goals, and nearly one-third (31%) would support violence to advance their agenda."

What kind of violence, against who, for what, under what conditions? I think they were f*ckin' with ya dude!

However, other authors reviewed the answers and said that Douglas Schoen misrepresented the results. When asked, "What frustrates you the most about the political process in the United States?" 30% said "Influence of corporate/moneyed/special interests," and 21% said "Partisanship." Only 3% said, "Our democratic/capitalist system" and 6% said "Income inequality."

When asked, "What would you like to see the Occupy Wall Street movement achieve?" 35% said "Influence the Democratic Party the way the Tea Party has influenced the GOP" and 11% said, "Break the two-party duopoly." Only 4% said "Radical redistribution of wealth."

The vast majority of demonstrators are actually employed, and the proportion of protesters unemployed (15%) is within single digits of the national unemployment rate (9.1%) or the REAL unemployment rate, which is closer to 17% (U-6).

Douglas Schoen says: "What binds a large majority of the protesters together—regardless of age, socioeconomic status or education—is a deep commitment to left-wing policies: opposition to free-market capitalism and support for radical redistribution of wealth, intense regulation of the private sector, and protectionist policies to keep American jobs from going overseas."

OK, here's where I break this down: Opposition to "free-markets" as opposed to "fair markets" is considered left-wing? Taxing the rich their fair share is a "radical redistribution of wealth"? "Intense regulation of the private sector" (like the banks) is a bad thing? "Keeping American jobs from going overseas" is considered "protectionist policies"? Well then hell yes! I guess that makes me a damn communist!

Douglas Schoen goes on to say: "Sixty-five percent say that government has a moral responsibility to guarantee all citizens access to affordable health care, a college education, and a secure retirement—no matter the cost." (Notice he said "affordable heathcare" and "no matter what the cost" in the same sentence. And besides, is THAT really such an evil thing to wish for?)

Douglas Schoen says: "By a large margin (77%-22%), they support raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans, but 58% oppose raising taxes for everybody, with only 36% in favor. And by a close margin, protesters are divided on whether the bank bailouts were necessary (49%) or unnecessary (51%). That sounds pretty much like an accurate cross section of the entire country to me. So what's his point?

Then he loses all credibility with me when he stupidly says: "Thus Occupy Wall Street is a group of engaged progressives who are disillusioned with the capitalist system."

Disillusioned? It's common knowledge that "capitalism" isn't working for 30 million under-employed Americans and another 21 million un-employed Americans -- 50 million have no healthcare and 45 million rely on food stamps.

And the Republicans want more cuts in government services and programs. They're also making threats to end/cut/"reform" Medicare and Social Security. We've had declining wages for 40 years. What's NOT for average Americans do be disillusioned about? There's a lot to be disillusioned about with the capitalist system. It's broken and needs fixed. It's only working best for the top 1%, and they frigging know it!

Douglas Schoen says that in 1970, aligning too closely with the antiwar movement hurt Democrats in the midterm election, when many middle-class and working-class Americans ended up supporting hawkish candidates who condemned student disruptions. So? But it turned out later the the majority of Americans were eventually against the Vietnam War and now feel we never should have went there in the first place...just like with Iraq today. So being "anti-bad-and-stupid-wars" makes me a left-wing radial too? Then so be it.

Is Douglas Schoen trying to scare the Democrats away from the principals of OWS when a majority of Americans, who know about it, actually support it. I recently attended a OWS protest in Las Vegas, and the people I met there could have easily been at the mall or Wal-Mart...just a normal cross section of the American public.

Douglas Schoen's entire article had me thinking that he wasn't just trying to give the Democrats kind and sage advice. I had the feeling he was scared that his sacred "establishment" was on the losing end of a growing and winning populist movement. I had the impression that he was trying to convince the Democrats not to embrace the OWS movement ONLY to keep the Republicans in power...because like the Democrats, the wealthy and powerful never voluntarily relinquish their power either.

And besides, didn't our Founding Fathers write in our Declaration of Independence: "That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government...it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security." Would Bill O'Reilly or Douglas Schoen call they guys left-wing radical communists?

Bill O'Reilly and Douglas Schoen most likely thought the anti-war demonstrators and the those in the Civil Rights movement were also terrorists. (long-haired dirty dope-smoking hippies!) Yeah, I know. I was one of them. While the pervert, Mister Billy "Control Freak" O'Reilly might have been home beating his wife, I was participating in a candle-light vigil against the war in Vietnam.

And if I had known that Bill O'Reilly or Douglas Schoen were in Zuccotti Park, I too might have felt a little inclined to be hostile too. I've seen how they selectively choose people to interview at these protests, depicting them all as ignorant, and trying to marginalize the majority of the OWS protesters by showing them in a bad light to the general public. Whenever someone intelligent and rational is interviewed by Fox News at OWS, the footage gets lost on the cutting room floor and isn't aired.

But if I ever did see Bill O'Reilly or Douglas Schoen at a protest, I would say to them "Thou does protest too much about the protesters!"