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What a shock. Sour grapes Bill O'Reilly didn't like President Obama's inaugural speech today. And what set Bill-O off that irritated him so badly about it? President Obama was advocating for... gasp... social justice! The horror! The only thing that was missing here was him calling us Greece. That and saying the words that didn't cross his lips, which is Social Security and Medicare. Apparently those are "welfare" now.

I wonder how many of the retirees who watch his show and actually take it seriously realize he's talking about them?

Bill O’Reilly: ‘President Obama’s Attempts to Redistribute Prosperity Will Bankrupt America’:

Tonight in his Talking Points Memo, Bill O’Reilly critiqued President Obama’s inaugural address. Instead of focusing on the country’s fiscal problems, O’Reilly assessed, the president argued that America’s top priority must be social justice.

President Obama stated in his speech, “We reject the belief that America must choose between caring for the generation that built this country and investing in the generation that will build its future.”

O’Reilly said, “Talking Points disagrees with President Obama’s priority, all though social justice is a noble goal. It is simply impossible to do what the president wants to do. Ensuring prosperity and fairness for every American can’t be done no matter how much money you spend.”

The Factor host said it would be more productive to build a strong society based on robust free market and effective social programs that provide opportunity rather than charity. “The danger is that Mr. Obama’s persistent attempts to do that, to redistribute prosperity, will bankrupt the nation,” he said.

Bill-O seems like he's still pretty crabby now that his taxes are going to be going up. I'm still waiting for him to make good on his promise and move out of the country.

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You've just got to love the right wing propagandists over at Fox, like Bill O'Reilly, having the nerve to be screeching about Al Gore and his business partners' decision to sell Current TV to Al Jazeera. Here's more from Mediaite on Bill-O's rant during the opening of his show this Thursday evening: Bill O’Reilly Tears Into ‘Hypocrite’ Al Gore For Trying To Settle Current TV Sale Before Taxes Went Up:

Bill O’Reilly had some harsh words for Al Gore tonight over his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera. O’Reilly took issue with Gore’s hypocrisy in trying to finalize the sale before the fiscal cliff deadline this past Monday night to avoid paying higher taxes, as well as doing a deal with “anti-Americans” at Al Jazeera. O’Reilly declared that Gore has “shamed himself” with the deal.

O’Reilly highlighted Gore’s hypocrisy on taxes by bringing up video of Gore saying two months ago that he believes rich people such as himself need to “do our fair share.”

O’Reilly then set his sights on Al Jazeera, a network he declared to be run by “anti-Americans” and even sympathetic to Osama bin Laden. By making a deal with Al Jazeera, O’Reilly said, Gore has “shamed himself.” O’Reilly made it clear he would not want Al Jazeera to be censored, but said the whole deal is “sleazy” and “disgraceful.”

I'm not going to defend Gore on the tax hypocrisy, if the anonymous sources O'Reilly quoted here, that it was Gore along with his business partners who were pushing to get this through before taxes went up this year are correct. But as the article noted, Gore owns 20 percent of the company, so it wasn't just him pushing for the time table if the source is accurate. And if the source is not accurate, as O'Reilly admitted is possible, Gore may very well have not been the one pushing for the deal to go through before the end of the year to avoid the higher tax rate.

Of course, O'Reilly's solution for this is for Gore to come on his show and explain himself, which we all know would be a completely "fair and balanced" and cordial interview... or maybe not. The likely outcome would be O'Reilly screaming over Gore and calling him every name in the book and accusing him of sympathizing with terrorists, just as he did here.

Which brings us to O'Reilly's attack of Al Jazeera as some anti-American propaganda outfit. I just have to say, that's pretty rich coming from someone from the right wing propaganda outfit, Fox, which has an ownership stake by Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. I guess O'Reilly doesn't have any problems with Uncle Rupert palling around with someone from the country where 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9-11 were from.

And as to the quality of Al Jazeera's programming, from what I've watched of it, they've done a hell of a lot better job than Fox or many of their American counterparts with just delivering straight news from around the world. The reason people like O'Reilly hate them is for the real reporting they were attempting to do when the United States decided to invade Iraq under false pretenses and reporters from that network along with others paid the price for that with their lives.

Fox and O'Reilly were too busy playing cheerleader for the Bush administration at the time instead of telling Americans the truth about what we were doing there.

There are legitimate concerns to be had about foreign ownership of our news media here in the United States, but I think they pale in comparison to the problem we have with media consolidation, which is far more dangerous. The quality and honesty of what's presented to the American public matters and having five or so huge media companies controlling everything we watch, read, listen to and the mixture of entertainment and news has been far more corrosive than any addition of news channels with foreign ownership will ever be.

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After a week where a good deal of the featured speakers at the 2012 Democratic National Convention had Bill O'Reilly's head ready to explode on a regular basis, Bill-O decided to sound off in his Talking Points Memo this Monday evening on Fox, and go after them one by one and charge them with being "left wing loons" and extremists. I guess "extremism" is on the eye of the beholder.

O'Reilly really is a disgusting piece of work. He's never taken an ounce of responsibility for the murder he helped provoke of Dr. George Tiller. And he continues to this day to go on the air week after week and demonize and dehumanize those he disagrees with, lying all the way and distorting their words and what they stand for.

If O'Reilly wanted to have an honest discussion on policy and disagreements there, that would be one thing, but you can't do that when one side has created an alternative reality with no basis in facts. It's much easier to fling garbage at those you don't like and and name call than to try to defend the indefensible, so that's what we got from O'Reilly. Sandra Fluke isn't asking for the government to pay for birth control. Peggy Noonan should be the last person to call someone a "ninny, a narcissist, and a fool." Caroline Kennedy hasn't embarrassed anyone. And President Obama has not "embraced the radical" anything. But that's not going to stop O'Reilly from telling his audience just that.

Transcript below the fold.

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From TPM -- Perry vs Perry: Rick’s Ultimate Reel.

TPM shares some of their favorite moments from the Perry campaign since he threw his hat into the GOP primary race.

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Color me not shocked that Bill O'Reilly was terribly upset that the likes of George Soros or MoveOn.org or labor unions are being supportive of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Naturally O'Reilly thinks that their support equals some Socialist conspiracy to turn the United States into Cuba if anyone heaven forbid might want to see this millionaire's taxes go up a few percentage points.

Apparently O'Reilly does not know the difference between groups lending their support to an actual grass roots movement and big monied interests starting one, like Fox and CNN did with the AstroTurf "tea party movement."

O'Reilly was extremely outraged over this statement by the protesters on Wall Street, offering it as proof that those protesters just want to destroy capitalism in the United States if heaven forbid anyone speaks out against the fact that the only ones getting ahead these days are the ultra-rich, like O'Reilly and would like for there to be some shared prosperity for everyone:

We want to voice our belief that the American dream will live again, that the American way is to help one another succeed. Our voice, our values, will be heard.

Apparently O'Reilly isn't so happy with that "help one another succeed" statement because god forbid, it might mean he's got to give up a few thousand dollars out of those millions he's making every year. The horror!

I'm sure O'Reilly made a few gains here with the "I've got mine and screw you crowd" that probably watches his show, but I've got to wonder just how many people he thinks this whole "income redistribution" argument is appealing to these days when we've got some of the greatest income disparity in the United States right now since the Gilded Age. He's probably counting on the fact that a lot of them can't afford cable television to begin with and if they could, they wouldn't watch his show.

As we've already noted here in a number of posts at C&L, both Fox and CNN after throwing their weight behind those AstroTruf "tea party" protests, have had nothing but disdain for an actual grass roots protest that's tired of the greed and our politicians looking out for the wealthy while ignoring the poor and the middle class.

If these protests continue to pick up steam and more people showing up who are tired of the status quo, it's going to be interesting to say the least in how these corporate "news" organizations handle their coverage. Billo just gave us another example of what we're sure to see more of here, which is to attack those protesting. That or they'll eventually end up ignoring them completely if they think they can get away with it like they did with the protests in Wisconsin.

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Rachel points out the bizarre unsolicited letter that Koch Industries to Talking Points Memo Koch Industries: We Don't Fund Tea Parties (Except For The Tea Parties We Fund):

Koch Industries, a major backer of myriad right-wing causes, issued an unsolicited statement last night in advance of Tax Day claiming it has never provided funding "specifically to support the tea parties." But when TPMmuckraker followed up, a spokeswoman acknowledged that Koch funds one of the most prominent national groups that organizes ... tea parties.

"Because you have covered tea parties in the past and we imagine you will cover tomorrow's Tax Day Tea Party in DC, we want to reiterate some important facts," wrote Melissa Cohlmia, the company's director of communication, in the email Wednesday evening.

"Koch companies value free speech and believe it is good to have more Americans engaged in key policy issues. That said, Koch companies, the Koch foundations, Charles Koch and David Koch have no ties to and have never given money to FreedomWorks. In addition, no funding has been provided by Koch companies, the Koch foundations, Charles Koch or David Koch specifically to support the tea parties. Thanks for your consideration." Read on...

As TPM pointed out Koch Industries didn't explain how that statement squares with their support of Americans for Prosperity and their promotion of the Tea Party rallies among other things.

Compare and contrast John King's little love-fest with Dick Armey to Rachel Maddow's coverage on the subject a couple of hours later.

Dylan Ratigan talked to Russell King, author of the "An Open Letter to Conservatives" published by TPM. King explains why he's fed up with the hypocrisy, hatred and hyperbole coming from the Republican Party. If you didn't read his letter yet, here it is.

An open letter to conservatives

Dear Conservative Americans,

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You've lost me and you've lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I'd like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Now the advice. You're going to have to come up with a platform that isn't built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party -- the GOP -- and the conservative end of the American political spectrum have become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it's tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some examples -- by no means an exhaustive list -- of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you're going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you'll have to start by draining this swamp. Read on...

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So where do Conserva-Dems retreat when they want to get their Republican "centrist" talking points out there on health care reform? Why Sean Hannity's show of course.

HANNITY: Senator, always good to have you. Thank you for being back with us. Appreciate it.

BAYH: Good to be back with you, Sean.

HANNITY: All right. Let's start a little bit with the House version and the House turmoil that's been unfolding all week here. First, we hear that there's a deal with the Blue Dogs, the more conservative Democrats. They you've got the liberal congressmen rebelling, and you've got turmoil here and you've got a president that really wanted to push this through in two weeks and hadn't read the bill.

As you stand back, what is one to make of this process?

BAYH: Well, to the average American, Washington probably looks a little chaotic, Sean. But the important thing here is that we take our time and get it right. This affects every American. And particularly those 65 percent who currently have insurance. We need to make sure that we try and keep their costs under control going forward.

That's what's bothering most people. And put into place some reforms that make sure they won't lose their insurance. If they lose their job or they've got a health care condition of some kind. So that's number one. Number two, get the deficit down. This has got to be a part of long-term fiscal responsibility. Not making it go up.

And third, we shouldn't hurt the economy in the short run and this has got to be part of a long-term strategy to make America more competitive. So, you know, all these shenanigans and going on, it's regrettably part of the process but matters, Sean, is we have to keep our eye on the ball and at the end of all this deliver a product that's good for America.

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Rudy needs a little more work on his be afraid, be very afraid shtick when it comes to health care reform. He obviously hasn't had quite enough time to recite Frank Luntz's talking points memo since he stumbled and stuttered through the interview. Blitzer actually tries calling him out for some of the talking points, but of course like a good little Villager, relents in the end and doesn't really challenge him.

BLITZER: Let's talk about health care reform, a critical issue right now for the country.

Republican Senator Jim DeMint from South Carolina, he made news this week when he said this: "If we're able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

He's not backing away from that either.

Do you agree with Senator DeMint?

GIULIANI: Well, I think it's a critical measure for a different reason. I don't see the politics of it as much as I do a tremendous impact that I think could have a destructive impact on the American system as we know it. I doubt that...

BLITZER: Because right now, 40 million or 45 million Americans don't have any health insurance.

GIULIANI: They don't, but about half of them could afford it if it was just more affordable. And what you don't want to do is ruin the system for the whatever million, 90 million, 100 million, 118 million.

BLITZER: Because President Obama keeps saying if you like what you have with the private insurance, if you like your doctor, you can keep exactly that. Nothing is going to change.

GIULIANI: Well, then what are all these commissioners that he's appointing that are going to determine health care outcomes? And the fact that you add 30 million, 40 million people to a government program that's already very large means the government will be the major player in health care. It already is pretty close...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He says that he wants one government option to compete with the private insurance companies.

GIULIANI: But that government option will be so big, it will just overwhelm all private insurance companies. If it's 40 million people, that conceivably could be part of it.

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TPM's Josh Marshall visits The Colbert Report.