Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly claimed that there is bigotry against those who are pro-choice. Yet, during last week's "Culture Warrior" segment,  Bill reported on a Providence RI Right to Life Rally, at the RI State House, during which tempers flared between those who were protesting the pro-life group and those who conducted the rally. Some of those who were on the pro-choice side were also members of a local "Occupy" group. Bill was outraged about the treatment of his fellow anti-choicers and used the incident to vilify all those the entire "Occupy" movement. Once again, Bill's hypocrisy is remarkable given that he seems to ignore bad behavior on the part of those who support his positions. But beyond the hypocrisy, his basic bigotry, in broad brushing a movement with which he disagrees, was front and center. The funny thing is that the accusations of condom throwing, on the part of those who were protesting the anti-choicers, might not be what Bill and his pals in the right wing blogosphere made them out to be. Wonder if Bill will issue a correction? Nah, that might cut the bigotry buzz...

Bill reported on the incident in which a Right to Life rally was disrupted by some members of the "Occupy" movement. He added that the Occupiers threw condoms at a crowd of Catholic school girls and "shouted down a Catholic priest." Bill claimed that this story was "underreported by the national media because it makes the Occupy movement look terrible." Gretchen then took over with her dramatic rendition of what happened. Not surprisingly she mentioned that RI State Representative Doreen Costa was "bumped." (Costa is a GOP teabagger who got some sweet Fox face time during the RI "holiday tree" "controversy")  She cited Costa's claim that condoms were thrown from the balcony. Margaret Hoover talked about the involvement of "Occupy."

This provided a segue for O'Reilly to say that "Occupy" is "not an economic protest" but a "far left social movement designed to attack those with whom they disagree." (ROFLMAO - like Fox News isn't a far right news network designed to attack those with whom they disagree? Hello?) He added "the pro-life movement is target number one." Gretchen read some of the pro-choice signs which the poor Catholic high school girls "had to look at" such as "Check your ovaries at the door," "Abortion Doctors are my heroes," and, according to an indignatn Gretch, "some signs that I can't really say on live national television." (The video showed signs that said nasty things like "Celebrate Choice," "Pro-Health, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice," and "Anti-choice is anti woman." (Ewwww, baaad). When Hoover angrily commented that a pro-choice rally, held earlier in the year, had no protesters from Occupy, Bill responded "because they support that." To Hoover's remark that they didn't show up to support the pro-choice rally, Bills said that's because "they don't support anything." He described them as "fringe, far left kooks" who don't like anything including Obama.

Gretchen carefully enunciated her "stat" that *"50% of Americans are against abortion" and that doesn't fit with the "Occupy" claim that they represent the 99%. Bill brayed that would he has been saying, that "Occupy" is a far left anarchist movement that attacks those with whom they disagree, is "absolutely true."

Funny, when the teabaggers were disrupting Town Hall meetings in the summer of 2009, Bill didn't say object. He never, as far as I know, vilified the Tea Party movement when a swastika was painted on the door of a black Georgia member of congress who alleged that calls to his office, about healthcare reform, were racist. When Democratic politicians were spat on and the subject of racial and homophobic epithets, during a Washington DC Tea Party rally, O'Reilly didn't condemn the entire Tea Party. Yet, he condemns, on the basis of a few rabble rousers, an entire movement which, in Providence, has been peaceful. And while he castigates "Occupy"  for attacking anybody with whom they disagree, Bill has no qualms about doing the same thing.

Postscript - Turns out that the condom throwing was done by one man who, according to State Police, didn't appear to be targeting anybody.

 *According to Gallup, 51% support abortion under certain circumstances and 26% support under all circumstances. 20% oppose under all circumstances. So Gretchen's "Fox Fact" - not so much.

Was Clint Eastwood’s “halftime in America” Super Bowl ad for Chrysler really an ad for Obama? Was the straight-shootin’ conservative cowboy seducing you into supporting that evil taxpayer-funded bailout of the auto industry? Eastwood denied there was any “spin” in the ad. “It was meant to be a message just about job growth and the spirit of America.” But Fox News gave Karl Rove a podium to attack the ad as offensive and accuse it of being a thank-you to Obama for the billion-dollar bailout that so many conservatives hate so much. “It is a sign of what happens when you have Chicago style politics and the President of the United States and his political minions are in essence using our tax dollars to buy corporate advertising,” Rove said.

Bill O’Reilly doesn’t agree with Rove entirely, but that hasn’t stopped him from exploiting the story for two nights in a row.In last night’s Talking Points, O’Reilly said he believed Eastwood was doing “a pro-America commercial, not a pro-Obama spot.” He added that he thought Presidents Bush and Obama did the right thing by propping up corporations that were about to go under. However, O’Reilly wasn’t about to let Obama off the hook; his next remarks clearly implied he thought the President was behind the ad. “President Obama should be much more humble in touting the success of an economic come back because it was born [sic] on the backs of the working folks. He just ordered the checks sent out. American workers saved the economy not Mr. Obama and Congress.”

The old saying "damned if you do and damned if you don't" is so applicable to how President Obama can't satisfy the religious litmus test of the Christian right who believe that Obama, a secret Muslim, does not fit their definition of a "true" Christian. While Obama professes to be a Christian, Jesus' BFF's in the Christian right aren't buying it and use every opportunity to paint the president as an emissary of Satan who is waging war against Christian Merka. So when the president recently spoke at a prayer breakfast and said that this Christian faith guides his policies, you'd think he'd get some props. Think again. The right wing trashed him because he used Scripture to support his call for fairness in the tax code and them's fighting words for those who believe in Supply Side Jesus. Not surprisingly, Fox's one true house priest for the 1%, Fr. Jonathan Morris, instructed his TV flock that Obama was wrong about Jesus. Funny, just last November, the little padre had his Catholic panties in a wad because Obama didn't mention "God" in his Thanksgiving address. Sometimes ya just can't win

Morris can almost always be counted on to promote the gospel of the GOP and his very good friend and Fox "version of God," Roger Ailes; albeit with a slight divergence on immigration that included a muddled comment about how he sort of supported the profiling that was part of Arizona SB1070. But he can be counted on to support right wing memes including Obama bashing. While the Catholic Church isn't supposed to be endorsing candidates, Morris, rather cleverly, skirted the IRS rule by telling his Fox faithful that he couldn't vote for Obama because he doesn't trust him. Morris has also questioned Obama's Christianity because he doesn't regularly attend church. And then, of course, the fetching father had a hissy fit about Obama's omission of "God" in his Thanksgiving address even though past presidents also neglected the deity who was mentioned in Obama's Thanksgiving Proclamation. But Obama did mention God at the Prayer Breakfast, along with the need to help those in need, and that kind of  "social gospel" is anathema to Fox News and the wealthy Christian right, for whom Morris serves as chaplain, who say blessed are the tax cuts and screw the poor.

Morris had already pontificated on Obama's heresy over on Fox Business. Fox Nation covered it in their usual derogatory fashion. So, on the Fox & Friends Sunday with Fr. Morris segment, Dave Briggs wanted to know if Fox is blowing Obama's prayer breakfast comments, regarding taxing the rich, out of proportion. Not surprisingly, Morris said "as soon as the government says because god wants you to be responsible if you've been given a lot, therefore now you should give it to us, that's where we've gone wrong. Yes, to whom much has been given much will be expected it does not mean therefore you should give it all to the government and that's where it can be misinterpreted."

So Obama gets dissed for not being Christian enough and in this case, for being the wrong kind of Christian. Go figure. All rise for the reading of the gospel of Supply Side Jesus.

Regular readers know that Fox News' “Democratic pollster” Doug Schoen is hardly a muscular voice for progressive values. He’s more often a muscular voice for Republican memes – and has even penned editorials calling on President Obama not to run for re-election. So imagine my shock when Schoen appeared on Hannity last night and took a strong stand on behalf of the Obama administration’s new rule requiring employers (including Catholic institutions, though not churches) to offer reproductive-health benefits at no additional cost as part of their health coverage. As Hannity hammed it up over Obama’s “war against our Constitution,” Schoen told him that this Republican hissy fit was going to cost “more votes.” So you know the polling has to be squarely on President Obama’s side.

Hannity pontificated, “As far as I’m concerned, this is a war against our Constitution, the First Amendment, freedom of religion, the free exercise thereof!” Father Jonathan Morris, Fox News’ favorite Catholic GOP mouthpiece and the other guest, was with Hannity all the way.

After Hannity finished railing, Schoen said calmly, “I see it differently. 98% of Catholic women use contraception. 60% support this very measure. Doctors who want to opt out can opt out.”

But Hannity was still on his Hanctimonious high horse of hysteria: “This president chose contraception over freedom of religion! That’s why this is important!”

It would have been great had Schoen pointed out that “pro life” Hannity can’t stop salivating for more war and death, but we’ll take what we can get here.

Schoen agreed with Hannity that this country was founded on Judeo-Christian principles “but not edicts, and freedom of choice is preserved.”

Then, Schoen added a statement that was almost certainly more painful for Hannity than any contraception coverage: “This is gonna cost the Republicans more votes.”

Sure enough, the polling is on the side of contraception. U.S. News reported yesterday: a new study by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that Catholics overwhelmingly support the new rules. The poll reveals that six out of ten Catholics believe employers should be required to provide their employees with healthcare plans that cover contraception, while 55 percent of Americans at large supported the new requirement.

NPR reported similar results from Public Policy Polling. Those results also specifically bolstered Schoen’s contention that Republican Mitt Romney’s opposition would cost votes:

Even a majority of Catholics appeared to support the Obama administration decision though by a narrower margin, 53 percent to 45 percent.

One of the most interesting findings was the response of Catholics to the question of whether they would be more or less inclined to support the GOP presidential candidate in November because of his (opposing) position on the issue.

Forty six percent of Catholics said they would be less likely to support Romney versus 28 percent who said they would be more likely and 23 percent said it would make no difference.

The hypocrisy is stunning, of course. Where’s Hannity’s outrage over the substantially similar law Romney supported in Massachusetts? Where have Hannity and Morris been as many Catholic universities and hospitals have already covered contraception in their health plans?

In a Hill editorial, Democratic consultant and MSNBC commentator Karen Finney noted:

In its criticism, the church also ignores the fact that no individual is required to buy a plan that covers contraception costs, houses of worship are exempt and no Catholic doctor is forced to write a prescription.

Furthermore, she wrote:

Notably, questions of morality have not been raised about the coverage of prescriptions enhancing a man’s sexual pleasure in the plans currently offered.

Don’t forget this is the same Eric Bolling who last week attacked colleague Bob Beckel for not being respectful enough to hate monger Allen West because Beckel refused to call him “Representative” or  “Lieutenant Colonel.” Proof – again – that no smear is too low on Fox News so long as it’s a Republican doing the smearing and a Democrat and/or liberal on the receiving end. And why didn’t Beckel confront this disgusting, hypocritical smear with outrage?

Video via Media Matters.