"'And if Al Qaeda comes in here [San Francisco] and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.'" "'I think [the ACLU is] a terrorist group. They're terrorizin' me and my family. They're terrorizing me. I think they're terrorists.'" "'You know, if Carter were president today, we'd all be speaking Arabic.'" "'According to the lefty zealots, the white Christians who hold power must be swept out by a new multicultural tide, a rainbow coalition, if you will.'"Or this comment he made about a rape and murder victim: "'wearing a miniskirt and a halter top. ... [E]very predator in the world is gonna pick that up at 2 in the morning.'" "Senator Dodd is proud to participate in the Yearly Kos conference and engage in a free exchange of ideas with this important community. Senator Dodd himself is member of the community, having participated in a vigorous exchange of bold ideas prior to the New Hampshire debate in June. At a time when the stakes could not be greater for the nation, we should applaud civic participation, not try to demonize it."
Statement on The O'Reilly Factor & YearlyKos
posted by Matt Browner-Hamlin, Campaign Blogger on July 18, 2007 - 3:08pm
The Dodd for President campaign today released the following statement from Communications Director Hari Sevugan in response to The O’Reilly Factor’s request for comment on Senator Dodd’s participation in the YearlyKos Annual Conference and Daily Kos:
“The Daily Kos community is populated by a diverse cross-section of the American public -- patriotic citizens participating in political debate. And as with every political debate there will be a wide range of ideas, many of which we do not agree with.
“But to selectively choose the handful of the most extreme comments from the millions of voices in the conversation and fashion that as representative of a whole community is patently unfair.
“You would think that Mr. O'Reilly would understand that it is wrong to pass judgment based on a few comments taken out of context. Otherwise, I would hate to think what kind of conclusion people would reach about Mr. O'Reilly based exclusively on these comments he has made in the past:
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Comments
For O'Reilly to suggest that Daily Kos and Nazi web sites are similar is like saying his broadcast is "fair and balanced". It's a lie.
I am a staunch conservative and no fan of either Daily Kos or the Democratic party.
I'm not a troll or a sock puppet. To find my comments establishing conservative cred you would but have to Hot Air or Patterico.com among others and there they are.
But here O'Reilly is being an ass.
Daily Kos has A LOT of stupid crap on it, but in no way, shape or form is it Nazi-like.
To do that trivializes the 5-6 million Jews slaughtered in cold blood by the Nazis and the 10 times that number who perished as a result of that Nazi/Fascist/Militarist started war.
SOME of Kos's commentators truly are despicable people. Some are hate-filled.
But to allege the entire site is the sum total of its worst commentators without recognizing that the site is wrong. Hateful people OCCASIONALLY post on my favored sites, which I've mentioned.
The proprietors of those sites are decent people whether you agree with their politics or not (I do, ordinarily).
I respect Kos for his accomplishments in promoting himself and his ideas, his military service, and for recently posting on his blog that he wants the more hateful nutbar comments to stop.
Bill O'Reilly doesn't so much demonstrate hypocrisy in this instance... he shows pure ignorance of how the internet works.
Hateful people can post anywhere at any free forum. It's part of what makes America (and my country, Canada) great. It's called freedom of expression.
And I take a backseat to no one in my willingness to vigorously criticize such hateful people when they do me a favour (this time I used the U my Canadianness now being established!) and show me who they are.
O'Reilly's point is... easily refuted by common sense. A is not responsible for what B says, particularly if A (Kos in this case) has already come out and said he would prefer B take his hateful comments elsewhere.
Again, O'Reilly miss the whole point concerning free speech.
This has gone on far too long. Democracy is based on mutual respect not mockery and calumny.
wooohooooo!
Thanks senator DOD. Can oreilly be charged under the patriot act sec 803 and sec 811 for encouraging a terrorist act to be committed on American soil when he invited and communicated with al Qaeda over a electronic device {his radio show} to come and blow up the coit towers in San Francisco
Thank you Senator Dod.
You stood up to that idiot, narrow minded idiot O'Reilly.
You are right, he is an idiot.
Free speech is just that and the Dailykos is merely a forum for people to exercise their right to free speech.
Bill O would have us all conform to a Hitler like society where you can only say that which has been approved by the ruler.
Forget Bill O, he's just an idiot. Senator Dod, you did the nation, and yourself, a real service by appearing on that idiot's show and standing up for that which you did.
Thank you Sir.
Al.
Senator Dodd appeared on the O'reilly Factor just to say that he did and claim that he stood up to him. Have any of you actually seen the actual interview? Senator Dodd was disingenuous. Should anybody running for president be showing up at an event masquerading as something that they are not. Everybody has a right to their opinion, but the moderators of any forum should keep things civil and weed out anything hateful or derogatory. Blogs are a forum to share ideas, not to spew hate. Are we now expecting our leaders to bow down to the least common denominator? I have been on Daily Kos and have not seen any of the posts that are mentioned, but i did notice that the site did not represent any of my values. In fact, i noticed the same kind of postings on your own website. Are you actually proud of the stuff that is on your own website postings? To truly base your own opinion, you should actually watch the same things that you criticize.
What happened to the great men of our past? It is no wonder our enemy hate us.
Men like Dodd are a disgrace to America.
Mr. O'Reilly need not waste his time with such a disrespectful person.
K. R. Sciba
Roanoke, Virginia
Ms. Sciba, Dodd is a United States Senator elected by free and fair elections by American Citizens.
Oreilly is an entertainer and a paid hack for Rupert Murdock.
Do you need a hug?
Senator Dod,
Sir,
I heard that you will be meeting with Mr. Ben Bermanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve.
Would you please read the below, and discuss this with him? PLEASE
It has been reported that the financial institutions, the mortgage companies, and the lending institutions are experiencing large financial problems with bankruptcies, home foreclosures, and people who can not afford to pay even part of the money that they owe credit card institutions, and these above institutions.
It is also reported that in some states, home foreclosures my reach 55 percent, an to date there have been over 2 million foreclosures because of the increases the Fed has made since just before Greenspan retired. People, who had a home to live in, now live in their car(s) or storage unit or shelters. The TV news recently reported that foreclosures are up 95 percent to date with no prediction when this will stop.
In the past, any lending institutions have moved to states that do not limit or control the amount on interest and other things they can charge individuals. Maybe it is time the Federal Government set limits on all lending institutions on the maximum amount of interest they can charge their customers.
People who have APR home loans on their house, like me, got their home loans at 4.5 percent, and now have to pay 8 to 10 percent interest on these home loans. This makes it nearly impossible to make these new higher payments, and it also prevents people who want to buy a home, from buying it because they now do not have the spendable income to pay the interest on the home they wish to buy.
Many people, to keep their homes and make the higher payments, have given up their insurance policies and pray they will not need them.
Our government manipulates the numbers to show us how good the Bush presidency is doing and well off our country is. These things they want us to believe are not true facts and the way things really are. It is the standard Washington spin.
It is also been reported that the stock market is falling, it is now become a Correction, next it will be a recession, and a Bear Market, and eventually a stock market may crash and a Depression bigger than the Great Depression of 1929 will occur, and with America at war or having major issues with about one quarter of the world, this would not be good.
Why cannot you, and other TV and newspaper, do a series of articles on this destruction of America’s economy, and other problems caused because of the rise of the Federal interest rate?
In the beginning, by raising the Federal Reserve interest rate, those in the “In Group” expected to lending institutions to make more and more money, under the disguise of preventing inflation. But it has back fired, as these institutions are making less and less money and some are nearly at Bankruptcy because their customers can not afford the interest rate that is currently being charge. Just take a look at Country Wide.
Below is a letter I have been trying to get to Mr. Ben Bermanke, the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, for nearly a year. I have asked many news reporters if they could provide me an address to sent it to, but I have received no reply as of the date of this email to you,
Can you either present this letter to Mr. Ben Bermanke as an open letter to America, forward it to Mr. Ben Bermanke, or sent me an address so I can send it to him, or do part or all of the above.
Thank you in advance,
James T. Adair
805 474 1111
James T. Adair
131 E. Cherry Avenue
Arroyo Grande, CA 93420 14 December 2006
Mr. Ben Bermanke
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman
Washington DC,
Dear Mr. Ben Bermanke
For the last two years, Mr. Greenspan, and then you, have steadily been increasing the Federal Interest Rate. You both claimed that it was necessary to prevent inflation, and steady our economy. That with these increases, more people would invest their extra spend able income.
The idea sounds good, but after the last 12 increases by the Fed, the middle class and below, now have no spendable income to invest, if they ever had any to begin with.
The main reason you stated for the increases, was to, Stop Inflation. Sir, it has done just the opposite, it has actually caused gross inflation.
The big business, the banks, and the credit card companies are rapidly becoming as rich, as are the gas companies. Let me quote you several incidents that have happened to me.
Just over 2 years ago I had a 4.5 percent APR (on my house payments) which has now risen to 8 percent. That means that the, $770.81, I was paying (a month) on my mortgage, two years ago, has now risen to $2,005.32 per month; that is interest only, and some how my principle continues to climb above the original loan amount. How is this helping me?
That is a cut, out of my disposable income (if I ever had any) of $1,234,51, to me. That is also one hell of a lot of money that I need for other items like food, utilities, gas, insurance, medicine, among others needed purchases needed to just survive.
My credit card company has increased the interest rate on the unpaid balance, on my credit card, from 5.95 percent, to 29.99 percent, because of the Fed increases.
To rich people like you, who seem not to care, these increases are OK; but to a person like me, who is disabled and on only a fixed disability income, that credit card increase is also a big dip out of my fixed income, and requires me to continually draw money from my lifetime savings, which will soon be exhausted.
The Bush administration is always talking about new jobs and America has a 6 percent national unemployment rate. But the Bush administration deliberately, dose not include the total lost jobs in those figures. Why? Is it to make America think Bush is doing a good job, when he isn’t?
Not only has this country now have a terrible inflation factor, but America’s economy is also going down hill fast. I was informed we have a .2 negative growth factor (whatever that means), directly related to the Fed interest rate increases.
Mr. Bermanke, I am sure you are well aware that the world terrorists want to destroy us, anyway they can. Which range from killing American citizens, to bankrupting America and its citizens.
Sir, I would suggest you should join one of those terrorist groups, as you have done, and are still doing, more to disrupt our national economy and bankrupting our citizens (i.e., making them broke), than all the terrorist have been able to do to date.
I doubt if you even have the slightest idea of what you have done to those American citizens below the upper middle class.
I would like to suggest to you that you immediately (if at all possible) drop the Federal interest rate back down to what it was 2 years ago. Also set a maximum interest rate that any credit card company, or lending institution, can charge their customers, to not more that 10 percent annually for credit cards and for mortgage rates to not more than a maximum of 6 percent (Fixed upper limit).
Sir, you can turn our declining economy around and save our economy as well as keep those, below the upper middle class, for going completely broke and eventually bankrupt.
Currently these individuals do not have the money, they need, just survive and to keep them from having to go to into bankruptcy, as some already have, and others will soon. These people, including me, will lose their homes (my, and their life’s dream). Do you care?
It has been reported that there have been over two million bankruptcy because of the steadily increasing Federal Reserve interest rates, and nearly 11 million foreclosures on American homes in just this year.
So will you decide to help our country and its citizens, or if not join one of the world’s major terrorist organizations, and keep on destroying America economy and America’s citizen’s income that they need to just survive?
Thank you for your time to read this, if you read it,
James Adair
805 474 1111