O'Reilly failed his own "civics test"; will he deport himself to Canada?
On the same edition of his radio show in which he misidentified the energy secretary, Bill O'Reilly proposed a "bill" to deport to Canada "high school kids in this country [who] couldn't pass a civics test," because they "don't know what the House of Representatives is; they don't know what the judicial branch is."
On the same edition of his nationally syndicated radio show in which he incorrectly identified the energy secretary, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly proposed a "bill" to deport to Canada "high school kids in this country [who] couldn't pass a civics test," because they "don't know what the House of Representatives is; they don't know what the judicial branch is."
Early in the April 25 edition of The Radio Factor, O'Reilly sought to criticize the secretary of energy for failing to do anything about the rising cost of gasoline. He stated: "Spencer Abraham ... in case you didn't know, because nobody does ... is the secretary of energy. Spencer Abraham ... he's the invisible man. Only his hat shows up for work." Minutes later, O'Reilly corrected himself, stating: "Spencer Abraham is the former secretary of energy. Samuel Bodman is the current." Bodman has been energy secretary since February 1, 2005. O'Reilly called himself a "pinhead," but insisted that Abraham and Bodman are "really, the same guy," because Bodman is also an "invisible man."
Despite his error, at the end of his broadcast, O'Reilly asserted that "most high school kids in this country couldn't pass a civics test" because "[t]hey don't know anything." He then declared: "So, I have a bill that would throw all those kids out. All right? Let's do that. Let's get rid of all these dopey kids. OK? Y'all with me on that one? Can't pass the civics test, Seymour? Say hello to Canada."
From the April 25 edition of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly:
O'REILLY: So, there are people who -- Bill -- they just say, "Look, I don't care what these companies do. It's OK. It's OK. Hit me again. Beat me. Mock me, spit at me. It's OK, because that's the system we have -- capitalism." You know, and I'm sitting there and I'm just going, "I can't believe that you guys, after all the interviews that we've done" -- we had a very instructive interview last night with a very smart guy -- and they basically say, "It's the middle of the time of war. The -- the oil companies don't have to raise prices. They're making record profits. They can keep them where they are and still make record profits, yet it's not enough. They raise it." If this happened in World War II, they would've been in jail. FDR [former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt] would've put them in jail. Profiteering during a time of war -- because the oil prices are going up because of the "war on terror."
Does everybody understand that? Well, Spencer Abraham doesn't understand it. He is -- in case you didn't know, because nobody does -- he is the secretary of energy. Spencer Abraham. And he's the invisible man. Only his hat shows up for work. He sits at a desk and all you see is the pen. You can't see him, he's invisible. But he did make a statement. Roll the tape.
SAMUEL BODMAN [audio clip]: Worldwide production is just about able to keep up with demands. We got spare, very little spare refining capacity, very little spare production capacity, and that's surprisingly, therefore, you got a tight market.
O'REILLY: Well, that's not true. OPEC [Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries] says there's more than enough oil, and if you want to buy it, just go over there with a fistful of dollars, and they'll sell it to you. Now, the refining capacity is true. The United States hasn't built a refinery in 30 years and that's thanks to the far left. So, they take their lumps here. OK?
But Spencer Abraham is not a leader. He doesn't know what he's doing. You know, he has no agenda here. Yeah, OK, refinery capacity is tight. What have you done about it for five years, Bush administration? Nothing.
[...]
O'REILLY: OK. I am a pinhead. There's no question about it today. Spencer Abraham is the former secretary of energy. Samuel Bodman is the current. Now, I made the mistake because they're the same person. They are. People don't know that, but they are. Have you ever seen them together?
E.D. HILL (co-host): Nope. Never.
O'REILLY: OK. So, Spencer Abraham and Samuel Bodman -- really, the same guy. It's just they changed -- they had a name change when -- because they -- now, nobody on earth knows that the energy secretary is Samuel Bodman. Why? Because Samuel Bodman is the invisible man. That was the riff I was doing. Who is he? Nobody knows, and he doesn't know he's energy secretary and that's the tragedy. They wake him up every day and he goes, "What do I?" "Oh no, you're the energy secretary." "Really, I am?"
HILL: What should I do?
O'REILLY: Right. What does that mean? Do I get a discount on gas 'cause I'm the energy secretary? I mean this is how lame it is. This is how lame it is.
[...]
CALLER: The point is, it's unfair to those who have had to work, have had to study, have had to literally slave to a foreign language, in a foreign language, to gain citizenship to this country.
O'REILLY: Yeah, but in the bills, you would have to learn English, so that is one good part of all the bills that are being considered in Congress. Before you become a citizen, you've go tto pass an English test, as your grandparents did, and a civics test. So, you've got to know how the government works and all of that.
Now, I submit to you, most high school kids in this country couldn't pass a civics test. They don't know what's going on. They don't know what the House of Representatives is; they don't know what the judicial branch is. They don't know anything.
So, I have a bill that would throw all those kids out. All right? Let's do that. Let's get rid of all these dopey kids. OK? Y'all with me on that one? Can't pass the civics test, Seymour? Say hello to Canada.
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However, he did seem to correct his error on his own.
Don't get me wrong....he's a dangerous idiot. But MMFA could have picked a better item.
OReally reminds me of another ignorant arrogant Republican Dan Quayle who once tried to persuade a child that he had spelled potato incorrectly. What a dunce - which makes a him an excellent choice for a cabinet position in the Dumbya administration.
now he attacks a couple of kids. Way to go Bill. Of course, he is joking here, when I look at his language. A fortune that all the grown-ups are brilliant and up-to-date. "Hey dad, can you help me with civics?" "No hon, I have to watch Idols and than football. Hey sweaty, can you bring me a beer".
Or Bill, who knows all about the judicial branch: "Hey hony, you can join me on my show if I can undress and **** you. What, you sue me ... for what ... traitorb**ch. Had I known you were a feminazi I wouldn't have taken you out. Hippy! Its your fault that men become horny".
If I called my sweety 'sweaty'..I'd be on the couch..
Yep now you mention it ... I will probably end up in a hospital bed.
I am outta here. Canada here I come...
People say they're going to move to Canada, but usually it's humorous. As soon as I finish college, I'm moving to Canada. Well, that's not entirely true. I'm going to go live somewhere in the US for a year and hold a job, then move to Canada. It's easier to get in that way, if I have a year under my belt.
pleinedepoisson wrote:
"People joke, but... People say they're going to move to Canada, but usually it's humorous.." * Ap. 27
True American Patriots ARE moving to Canada; more than many realize. Most do it quietly; keeping a low profile so's not to complicate the formalities. They aren’t doing it as protest; they are doing it because they’re ashamed and afraid. Mention the likes of Bill O’reilly, Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan or Tucker Carlson to them and they get a baleful look like they’ve just been reminded their children have turned out to be crack whores and pimps.
One exception to those flying in under NORAD radars is Chris Key [1]; great x? grandson of Francis Scott Key, Viet Nam vet and unabashed lover of the America that was. In a TV interview with Vicki Gabereau in March, he cited 3 reasons for his decision to immigrate: the level of intolerance, widespread pathological ignorance, and the level of violence which have become accepted norms across the US.
Mr. Key’s laments and observations came as no surprise. I live ON the 49th and schmooze with friends and acquaintances in Point Roberts, WA daily. Our kids play together on the beach in Summer and we routinely chat thru the "fence" while walking the pooch; regarding the border with a kind of abstract bemusement much like students on adjacent university campuses.
At least it was that way before Bush.
Now, instead of chats about the tides, the kids, and the cheapest side to get gas on today, our encounters usually invoke at least one sheepish ,’quasi-casual’, query about getting a job in BC and how that might help in settling here permanently. Although the rush is over, the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) web site in November 2005 cited 115,000 inquiries a day from the States. The last figure I saw cited 21,000 a day.
Six years ago, summer homes I see from my dining room over on the US side, sold for 1.3 times what my house was listing. Now, abodes in that same neighborhood often list at a quarter to one third that of mine; some haven't even been occupied in 1-2 years.
There are other economic incentives. US financial papers are mum, but; Canada is still way behind the US in terms of productivity, and even though it’s transportation, heating and material goods costs are considerably higher, the US dollar has dropped by 40% against the Canadian dollar in just 5 years. Media ebullience about US financial health is baffling. The Bush Administration acts like a football team’s PR dude bruiting the wondrous health and vitality of the squad while the coroner is arguing with the team doctor about taking it’s liver temperature to estimate the time of death.
The MSM reportage would make readers think they were having an apple pie flashback; verily 'recherching' Norman Rockwell’s “Thanksgiving” right off the front page of the Saturday Evening Post. Other sources [2] show that the US has fallen to 37th in the world in terms of ability to deliver quality health care, one in five Americans is functionally illiterate and lacks basic math skills (four times the Canadian illiteracy rate), the standard of education provided by US public schools dropped to 18th among English speaking countries in 2004, and the real National Debt is not the $8.3 trillion cited most often in the Press; its $46 trillion (GAO Treasury Report, Dec. 2005)
Every baby born in the United States today is liable for a $156,000 debt, and the nation’s debt mushrooms by $2 billion every 24 hours.The wee things hardly need a slap on the bum to start crying. Yet the front pages of the financial papers would have Americans wax rapt over a growing GDP and (artificially) low interest rates! Hell’s Bells; what 'company' couldn’t increase production if it was borrowing $2 billion a day to do it?
This isn’t a Norman Rockwell print; it’s a chalk outline.
If Christopher Key’s granddad was writing the Star Spangled Banner today, he might well leave off after the first line; “Oh say can you see…..” pour out the jar of Kentucky mash and reach for the Canadian Club.
roderick whitney stillwell The Boundary Bay Morning Steamer
[1] [link to www.commondreams.org] [link to thetyee.ca] [link to bc.indymedia.org] [2] [link to www.dailykos.com]
If they were deported, those kids could actually get a better education, not to mention health care and a booming job market. . . and would be much less likely to be shot. . .
Just my 2 cents worth
If Bill really cared and wanted to help, he would devote a regular segment to teaching his high school viewers and their parents what the Judicial Branch is, for instance. Instead, the viewers O'Reilly is supposedly "looking out for" get such items as who is "smearing" Bill, or what unholy person is waging a "war on Christmas".
Why would Canada want our stupid kids?
I would imagine Canada would want a say in that. BTW, this is a slippery slope to attempt. If we start deported citizens for being dumb that would clear out the population in some US geographic areas.
That was the laugh that I needed today!
I am a teacher in BC Canada. We have been listed, along with Alberta, as having one of the best education systems in the world, but our current right-wing administration is trying its best to change that by encouraging private schools with greater public funding, supporting the possibility of charter schools, and forcing students at ever increasingly younger ages to take standardized tests, forcing teachers to teach to the test.
The best education system in the world is in Finland. They don't begin to teach reading until students are 7 years old. By the time they are in high school most of them can read and write in at least three languages. They do not have any standardized tests at any grade.
I'll bet money that many of my students here could pass a test on US civics.
but our current right-wing administration is trying its best to change that by encouraging private schools with greater public funding, supporting the possibility of charter schools, and forcing students at ever increasingly younger ages to take standardized tests, forcing teachers to teach to the test ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The right wingers down here have unsuccessfully pushed for school privatization for the last 20-25 years; although they have been more successful at creating a climate of teaching for standardized testing. I hope that the Canadians can learn from the lesson of what has transpired in America under the Bush regime. This is what you get when you elect extremists to control government. Hopefully the Canadian multi-political party system will preclude the right wingers from becoming as powerful there as they became here. Fortunately their moment in the sun is coming to an end here.
O'Reilly's audience will disappear due to a lack of ignorance.
Why would O'Reilly want to deport the kids who can't pass a civics test? Aren't they all going to be future Fox News & Bill O'Reilly viewers?
I don't care at all for O'Reilly, but this is a silly and poor post by MMFA. While O'Reilly was incorrect in stating that Abraham is the current energy secretary, he did clerify his error several minutes later. This was a dumb post by MMFA. It is silly to compare such integral, well-known parts of our government like the House of Representatives and the judicial branch to a lessor-known post of energy secretary. Most people in America would probably be clueless as to whom the energy secretary is! For once, O'Reilly has ACTUALLY been "smeared" by MMFA!
"For once, O'Reilly has ACTUALLY been "smeared" by MMFA!"
Hardly. To do that, they'd have to accuse him of something there was no evidence for. Instead, MMFA lays out the evidence clearly and accurately.
I think he was corrected by one of the shows producres or some personel.
I am sure he was and pretty late I might add. Producers usually do it within seconds.
When the Republicans railed against Al "I invented the Internet" Gore for his "distortions", splitting hairs was in fashion. But when a Republican steps out of line, Oh, my is THAT all you have?!!! Gee whiz! Stop splitting hairs! Answer: since when are facts hairs?
The key to this thread is his dumb battle cry to deport our dumb kids to Canada for civics test short comings. If he was honest, he would have said, "Maybe I should be deported!" Poor, poor Canada!
O'Reilly isn't a high school kid. He's supposedly educated. He has a staff. The bar is higher for him than for a 16-year-old. He ought to try a little harder to get his facts straight before he suggests deporting children. Since he didn't, he deserved to be called on it.
The big giant head holds a master's degree from Harvard. Harvard counts both George W and Bill O'rielly among their distinguished alumni; although I’m certain that GW’s parents have a good case to demand a refund from not only Harvard but Yale since they both failed to educate their son as contracted.
You seem to be missing the really stupid comment from O'Reilly - the one that does merit attention from MMFA, namely, that high school kids should be deported if they don't know basic civics. If that were to happen, there would be a sharp drop in the U.S. population, I'm afraid. It is pretty sad that kids can get through HS these days without knowing fundamental facts about our government, but man-in-the-street surveys conducted by TV and radio talkshow hosts, like Letterman and Stern, show that ignorance of U.S. civics is pretty widespread among adults, too. Too bad O'Reilly left teaching - maybe he could have had a positive impact on kids. He certainly contributes little to society in his current job.
Plato
Son, you seem to have missed the REAL issue that MMFA is addressing: that B'ORe is advocating deporting low-performing students to another country. This is a terrible thing for a "news anchor" to say. And before anyone stands up and says, "But Bill isn't a news anchor, he's a media personality", let me tell you that "media personalities" shouldn't be given a desk on a news channel where they can present the "appearance" of being journalists and reporters. That's why he has a radio show, to be "entertaining".
So, if your child can't pass his/her civics test, off to Canada. What's next? Can't "do the math", hello China? Or maybe any kid who fails woodshop will have to go to Paraguay?
The hate and vitriol that idiots like O'Reilly and Coulter and Savage spew out needs to be stopped at the source. Free speech is not a pass to spread hate and racism.
If you want kids in US high schools to pass civics, stop supporting a president who repeatedly cuts the Education budget.
Stop blaming the students. I know my teachers didn't cover it. Even if they wanted to, my civics text was 13 years old when I got it. Students can't help that the schools they attend are under-funded. Oh, and don't bring up the No-Child-Left-Behind crap. That is a joke and does not do anything, other than make it impossible for teachers to find jobs.
Thank you, A future History / English teacher
O'Really: Now, I submit to you, most high school kids in this country couldn't pass a civics test.
Just another shoot-from-the-hip, conservative indictment of the public school system. Where are the statistics that say our kids are really this stupid? (I'd research myself if I had the time)
...that they even teach civics anymore. Ironically, that seems to be one of the first classes to go (after the arts).
"I am not sure...that they even teach civics anymore. Ironically, that seems to be one of the first classes to go (after the arts)." --jpark--
Civics is alive and well, at least here in Massachusetts. Our eldest son is a 7th grade Social Studies teacher who taught Civics his first two years of teaching in the public school system (he now teaches World Geography).
I don't know that many of us could name the Secretary of Energy off the top of our heads, but O'Reilly should research his material better. He did correct himself, so that's somewhat commendable.
The sad truth is there are many kids, and many adults that can't name their Senators or Representatives, or are even are capable of finding Iraq (for example) on a map. Lack of education? I don't think so. Lack of interest? Sadly, a more likely answer.
Sadly, lack of education is just as to blame -- if not more so -- than lack of interest, at least when it comes to high schools.
No one bothered to teach anything about the government system until senior year at my high school, which was a reflection of all the highschools in the surrounding area.
I know I didn't care at the time, but the textbooks don't help, either. For one, they're outdated, For another, they're confusing. They're poorly worded and full of misinformation.
So yes, a lot of it is lack of interest. This generation isn't as politically minded as the generation of Vietnam. But a lot of it falls on the school systems and the lack of money to hire teachers, buy reliable or up-to-date textbooks, or even fund the class.
At least, that's the case in Michigan.
That way, when Bush decides to invade Canada, Bill will be in the line of fire - and hopefully, armed with nothing but a loofah . . .
It's hard to even get mad at this joker any more... his ratty comments are so ridiculous... He just says things in that dumb "radio" voice. Me thinks Bill's comet is fizzling...
Now, I submit to you, most high school kids in Canada could pass an American civics test.
Maybe he's aware of that fact and is sending them there in order to help their education.
Here's an even better idea for Bill: instead of sending high school kids who don't know civics to Canada, why don't we, I don't know, TEACH THEM CIVICS!! Geez.
If our children cannot pass a civics test it is probably because it isn't being taught properly or it is not being learned by the student because they believe it isn't important for them to know.
We live in a nation in which our children are being instructed how to pass a proficiency test. Our children are not being taught anything. I can instruct someone to do something, but does that mean that they truly understand what they are being instructed to do? Since when in this country are we placing value on our children learning history and civics? The need and the use for that knowledge is falling by the wayside and we are living in a day and age where we need that information now more than ever.
If BOR wants to blame someone for our children not being able to pass a civics test, he has to look no further than Washington and some of our state legislatures who have decided that its more important for them to pass biased proficiency tests than it is for them to actually be taught instead of being instructed.