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It looks like Bill O'Reilly still isn't finished spreading the same lies he was telling when he had his meltdown on air with Alan Colmes last week, because he decided to devote his Talking Points Memo and the opening segment of his show this Monday to defending and repeating those same lies -- and as Media Matters noted, despite getting his facts wrong again, O'Reilly claimed his "righteous anger" elevated the conversation about the debt.

The only thing we see Bill-O "elevating" in this segment is his ego. We've already been through the litany of B.S. O'Reilly was shoveling in the previous post here, so I'm not going to rehash that, but my fellow contributor here at C&L, Ellen at NewsHounds took the time to break down the segment above and I'll share just a bit of that here: O’Reilly Justifes His Meltdown With Alan Colmes: I’m Looking Out For You:

You don’t need to be a psychologist or a body expert to figure out that Bill O’Reilly’s justifications tonight for his bullying attack on Alan Colmes last week are a lot of hooey. In fact, there was so much hooey, I’m not sure I can catch it all in one post. But for starters, there was the hooey that O’Reilly likened Colmes’ “lie” about federal spending cuts to the danger posed by Al Qaeda (which included the hooey that Colmes had his facts wrong in the first place), plus the hooey that O’Reilly attacked Colmes out of a public-spirited desire to draw attention to this big danger, plus O’Reilly’s "admission" that he shouldn’t have called Colmes a liar – even though he immediately afterward described Colmes as lying. And my favorite hooey: O’Reilly said he’s not in his job for money or fame, but to look out for us.

Sure he is. How could anyone ever get the idea that O'Reilly was just all about the money or fame? Go read the rest for more of Bill-O's hackery and the back and forth during the panel segment, and as she noted, Mary Katharine Ham and Juan Williams did nothing but suck up to O'Reilly and reassure his poor bruised ego that he's really just a nice guy, no matter how badly he treated Colmes the previous week. I don't know about anyone else, but watching those two during this segment reminded me of a couple of battered wives telling their abusive husband that they still love him.

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Authorities in Oklahoma on Monday were unable to confirm if bullying was involved after a 15-year-old male killed himself with a gun in a Cowetta school bathroom.

Speaking to reporters at press conference, Superintendent Jeff Holmes explained that a "ninth grade student at Cowetta Intermediate High School died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound" soon after school began on Monday morning.

Coweta Police Lieutenant Donnie Krumsiek praised the school faculty for their response, saying that "unfortunately a life was lost but it could have been a lot worse."

"You've seen the same coverage I have, school shootings where multiple lives are lost," Krumsiek told reporters. "We're very fortunate that didn't occur today."

Several reporters noted that witnesses had said bullying may have been a factor in the student's death, but Krumsiek said he had no evidence to support that claim and Holmes refused to release any personal information regarding the victim.

"We do have a bullying policy," Holmes remarked. "There's zero tolerance for bullying in each of our schools -- starting from elementary school on up -- have extensive character education programs and a component of each of those would be suicide prevention."

"I'm not going to comment on the student," he insisted, noting that the principals and counselors described the ninth grader as "a very fine young man."

Holmes said he was not yet sure if criminal charges were possible if bullying was suspected in the case.

"We want parents to know that we care about their kids, we care about every single one of their kids," the superintendent added as he choked up. "That's all I have at this point."

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We can add Fox News Watch to the list that Media Matters already put together of the conservative media doing their best to dismiss or distort what happened during the Mitt Romney bullying incident that the Washington Post reported on earlier this week.

Conservative Media Fail In Their Attempt To Dismiss Report About Romney Bullying Incident:

Right-wing media have rushed to dismiss the Washington Post's report that Mitt Romney held down a high school classmate and cut his hair, claiming that "the source" for the story "wasn't actually there." In fact, the Post story relied on accounts from five separate sources, four of whom were named, and as the Post's ombudsman noted, their "accounts remain unchallenged." Romney himself said that he's "seen the reports" about the incident and that he's "not going to argue with that."

As the Media Matters report notes, the student that they continually cite at Fox was not one of the five students used as sources for the article. Scott also used Lauber's family not being aware of the incident as some sort of proof that it might not have happened. While it's understandable that they might not be happy with the story that was published, them not knowing about the incident in no way means it did not happen.

And Judith Miller, who we all know so well for helping the Bush administration with their propaganda on the invasion of Iraq, wonders why the media isn't looking into President Obama's admitted drug use when he was younger, which he does not deny and that we know about because he wrote about it in his autobiography.

Ultimately I think what matters about this story is not so much what Mitt Romney did when he was eighteen years old, but how he's responding to the story now. He's trying to deny that he was the high school bully that beat up on gay kids instead of admitting how he acted and acknowledging that it was wrong. And I don't think he's changed as an adult. He's made his millions being more than willing to take advantage of the weak and vulnerable without an ounce of remorse or introspection about how he's made his money and the real impact it had on other people's lives.

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Declaring that she was not a "witch" did not work for failed Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell, but a former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney on Sunday advised presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that his new slogan should be "I am not a bully."

Former Cheney counselor Mary Matalin told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that an incident where Romney was accused of assaulting a gay man in high school "didn't happen" -- even though the candidate does not dispute events depicted in a Washington Post report last week.

Matalin recommend that Romney defend himself with the following campaign ad: "I'm Mitt Romney. I'm running for president of these United States. I am not a bully. That's a politically motivated tactic to distract you and dismiss me. I'm not going to let that happen. I'm going to cross this country talking about my economic plan to get you working again and get the government working for you. I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message."

The message is similar to an ad that tea party favorite Republican Christine O'Donnell created during her 2010 bid to become a senator from Deleware.

After HBO comedian Bill Maher released a 1990s video clip of O'Donnell admitting she "dabbled into witchcraft," her campaign responded with a high-mocked commercial where she declared, "I am not a witch."

On Sunday, former Christian Coalition Chairman Ralph Reed insisted that The Washington Post's story on Romney's prep school years proved how "desperate they are to tear this guy down."

"What ever you think of him politically, turning around Bain consulting, building Bain Capital -- one of the most respected private equity organizations in the nation -- turning around the 2002 Salt Lake Olympics, outstanding job as governor of Massachusetts -- this is the kind of man that you want your daughter to marry, this is the kind of guy that you would want to be a business partner with."

"Here's my concern," Reed continued. "If this is what we're going to do to candidates, George, who's going to want to serve? Who's going to want to put their name on the ballot if they know people are going to be dumpster diving in your high school or prep school."

"I don't think that there's anything new with looking at candidates," Politico's Maggie Haberman pointed out. "I think there has been a complaint among Republicans privately -- Democrats talk about it more openly -- that Mitt Romney has not done much in terms of his own biography and defining himself. He's done it in bits and pieces. He does have a story to tell and if you're not telling it, someone else fills it in."

Current TV host Elliot Spitzer argued that the story of Romney bullying a gay classmate was not relevant because "no one thinks he's mean spirited or a bully."

"I don't think he's a nasty guy," Spitzer opined. "I like him. I don't mind saying that. I think he's a good, decent person with whom I disagree. He's not a bully, therefore this story is out of context."

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Fox News' senior political analyst on Sunday dismissed a Washington Post story which revealed that presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney had assaulted a gay classmate in 1965.

"Look, this was not a prank," Brit Hume admitted. "This was hazing and it was mean. There was no doubt about it and I don't have any doubt about the basic truth of the story. The problem with the story dating from high school was that it was the utter failure of the Post to connect it to anything else in Romney's life or career."

"If it were a story that this is where you get the first example of the mean streak that Romney has shown or the tendency to take advantage of people who are in a weaker position -- there was nothing," he added. "I think it was much ado about not very much."

In an report published by the Post last week, Matthew Friedemann, who described himself as a “close” friend when Romney attended the prestigious Cranbrook School in 1965, said that the future Massachusetts governor picked on John Lauber, "a soft-spoken" gay student, for his long bleached-blonde hair.

“Friedemann entered Stevens Hall off the school’s collegiate quad to find Romney marching out of his own room ahead of a prep school posse shouting about their plan to cut Lauber’s hair,” the Post's Jason Horowitz wrote. “Friedemann followed them to a nearby room where they came upon Lauber, tackled him and pinned him to the ground. As Lauber, his eyes filling with tears, screamed for help, Romney repeatedly clipped his hair with a pair of scissors.”

Hume blasted editors at the paper for thinking the story was a "big deal."

"You have to wonder what kind of news judgement these people have if you really think that?" the Fox News contributor opined. "The story, if it were played on an inside page at much less length, might have been appropriate -- the way it was handled, ridiculous."

"This was 5,000 words of nothing," Wall Street Journal editor Paul Gigot agreed. "It was about his high school years. 'Oh, he went to an elite prep school. Oh, he was a happy-go-lucky guy. He was a leader of the prankster group.' So what?"

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After the story broke earlier in the day with Mitt Romney's former Cranbrook prep school classmates recalling the "viscous" attack on one of their fellow students who they believed to be gay, the Romney campaign is in full damage control mode and not doing a very good job of it.

Romney appeared on Fox's Your Word With Neil Cavuto and attempted another "apology" when asked about the incident:

ROMNEY: First of all, I had no idea what that individual’s sexual orientation might be. Going back to the 1960′s, that wasn’t something we all discussed or considered. So that’s simply just not accurate. I don’t recall the incident myself but I’ve seen the reports and not going argue with that. There’s no question that I did some stupid things when I was in high school and, obviously, if I hurt anyone by virtue of that I would be very sorry for it and apologize for it.

Here's more from Romney's other non-apologies that he gave earlier the same day: Romney apologizes for hurtful high school pranks:

Mitt Romney repeatedly apologized Thursday for pranks he played in high school that may have offended or hurt other students, even though he said he does not remember them. The apologies in interviews throughout the day began in a Fox News radio interview that host Brian Kilmeade said was lined up because Romney wanted to discuss a Washington Post story about the incidents.

The Post story led with a vivid description of Romney repeatedly clipping the hair of a young man - presumed by other students to be gay - while other classmates pinned him to the floor, as the victim screamed for help and his eyes filled with tears. "I don't remember that incident," Romney told Kilmeade. "I tell you I certainly don't believe that I ... thought the fella was homosexual. That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s. So that was not the case. But as to pranks that were played back then, I don't remember them all but again, high school days - if I did stupid things I'm afraid I gotta say sorry for it."

Phillip Maxwell, an attorney in Michigan, confirmed to CBS News that the incident with John Lauber is accurately described in The Washington Post piece. Maxwell was one of the Post's four on-the-record sources. A fifth asked not to be named. Maxwell says the only thing not accurate is that the Post reporter said the incident occurred in a dorm room, but it happened in a common room.

"Mitt was a prankster, there's no doubt about it. This thing with Lauber wasn't a prank. This was, well, as a lawyer, it was an assault. It was an assault and a battery. And I'm sure that John Lauber carried it with him for the rest of his life," Maxwell told CBS News.

The Post's article details Romney's teen-age years spent at Cranbrook, a prestigious prep school in Michigan, and focuses on the many pranks played by the future presidential contender. Several were harmless but others are remembered as cruel, insensitive or frightening to the victims.

Maxwell, who is not a Republican and wasn't planning to vote for Romney, says "this isn't a politically motivated thing for me. I got asked questions by [Post reporter] Jason Horowitz and I responded honestly to him. I didn't decide to bring this thing up. But I think it probably is relevant."

"I've carried this story with me a long time. It was very disturbing. I think that view is shared by everyone involved in it," Maxwell says. "It just was a black mark on my character that I didn't stop it."

The hair-cutting incident, according to The Washington Post, was confirmed by five of Romney's classmates who described the event as "senseless, stupid, idiotic" and "vicious." Candy Porter was the victim of a well-known prank in which Romney and his Cranbrook friends posed as cops, complete with fake siren and badges, and pretended to bust some friends and their dates. Porter told the Post she was "terrified."

Romney was also remembered as having shouted "Atta girl!" when another closeted gay student tried to speak up in the classroom.

Romney said he did not recall that incident. "You know there are a lot of times, my guess is at a boys' school when one of the boys do something and people say 'hey atta girl,'... I had no idea that he was gay," Romney explained when asked about the comment. He again apologized for having offended anyone, saying no harm was intended.

When you start a statement with the words, "if anybody was hurt or offended" as though you don't know already that they were, it's not an apology. Romney is making himself look ridiculous claiming he had no idea the classmate was gay and it's completely contradicted by the statements made by the five other classmates quoted in the Washington Post article.

The larger problem for the Romney campaign is it paints a picture of him that many people had in their minds already, which is that he's a person who is incapable of feeling empathy and who doesn't mind picking on or abusing those who are weaker than he is.

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Lawrence O'Donnell landed the first interview with Missouri Rep. Zach Wyatt, who decided to do the right thing and "come out" in more ways than one in opposing the homophobic House Bill 2051, which has rightfully been labelled the "don't say gay" bill which would prohibit any discussion of sexual orientation in public schools.

Here's more from The Kansas City Star on Wyatt's decision to openly oppose the bill -- Missouri lawmaker Wyatt comes out, denounces state's 'don't say gay' bill:

After deciding this year would be his last in the Missouri General Assembly, Zach Wyatt says he wanted to do something truly meaningful. He just didn’t know what.

But when news broke last month about a bill pushed by his fellow Republicans that would restrict discussion of sexual orientation in public schools — dubbed the "don't say gay" bill — Wyatt finally knew what he had to do.

On Wednesday, he publicly announced for the first time that he is gay. According to the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, a national group that works to elect gay, bisexual and transgendered people to public office, Wyatt is now the only openly gay Republican currently serving in a state legislature in the United States.

“I will not lie to myself anymore about my own sexuality,” said Wyatt, a first-term state representative, at a news conference in the Capitol. “Today I ask you to stand with me as a proud Republican, a proud veteran and a proud gay man who wants to protect all kids.”

The decision was not easy, he admitted. Wyatt, 27, grew up in Novinger, a rural town in northern Missouri with fewer than 500 residents. He lives just 10 miles away in Green Castle, where he raises cattle.

All throughout school he faced bullying for his weight and for “not always being perceived as the most masculine of men,” he recalled. Although he probably always knew he was gay, he said he was never able to truly accept it.

Progress Missouri has been following this issue closely and they posted the entire press conference O'Donnell highlighted a portion of here -- Bipartisan coalition calls for leaders to withdraw HB2051.

Continue reading »

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Fox News host Steve Doocy on Monday suggested that sex columnist Dan Savage was "bullying" Christian journalism students with a speech where he said that Bible passages about homosexuality were "bullshit."

Savage, who created the anti-bullying "It Gets Better" project, became a target for conservative websites like Fox News and World Net Daily after he spoke to the National High School Journalism Convention in Seattle earlier this month.

"We'll just talk about the Bible for a second," Savage told the students. "People often point out that they can't help it -- they can't help with the anti-gay bullying, because it says right there in Leviticus, it says right there in Timothy, it says right there in Romans, that being gay is wrong."

"We can learn to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about gay people. The same way, the same way we have learned to ignore the bullshit in the Bible about shellfish, about slavery, about dinner, about farming, about menstruation, about virginity, about masturbation. We ignore bullshit in the Bible about all sorts of things."

A YouTube video of the event shows several students leaving the room at that point in the speech.

Savage concluded his remarks by inviting the students to return: "[Y]ou can tell the Bible guys in the hall that they can come back now, because I'm done beating up the Bible. It's funny, as someone who's on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible, how pansy-assed some people react when you push back."

In an interview with Fox News on Monday, Sutter Union High School journalism adviser Rick Tuttle said he gave his students permission to walk out.

"So, he was supposed to have an anti-bullying message," Doocy noted. "But it seemed like he was bullying some of the Christians, didn't it?"

"Oh, sure," Tuttle agreed. "They were basically a captive audience and he had the bully pulpit, if you would say so -- so to speak. ... This is what we teach kids to do when they are being bullied, to walk away. And that's what they did."

Towleroad's Brandon K. Thorp wrote it was "too bad" that the Christian journalism students walked out just because they didn't agree with the message.

"They're supposed to be journalists, and we in the journalism biz must often dirty our ears with others' distasteful utterances," Thorp explained. "While Savage might have profitably avoided the use of profanities (which, when used to describe allegedly sacred documents, tend to make believers less than receptive to whatever might come next), what he said was materially true, and good journalism students of any creed ought to know it."

Savage has said that he stands by his remarks, but later apologized via his blog for using "pansy-assed" to describe the walk-out as "insulting, it was name-calling, and it was wrong. And I apologize for saying it".

(h/t: Mediaite)

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A Tennessee State Rep finds a novel --some would say sickening-- approach to avoid creating a cyber-bullying law, by blaming the parents instead. Faison, who describes himself as "The Conservative", just embarrassed himself and the people of Cocke and Western Greene counties.

Faison later apologized for his "poor choice of words."

via The Tennessean:

State Rep. Jeremy Faison caused a stir Tuesday afternoon during a Tennessee House of Representatives debate over a cyberbullying bill, when he argued that it is a failure to instill proper values — not bullying — that leads children to commit suicide.

“We can’t continue to legislate everything. We’ve had some horrible things happen in America and in our state, and there’s children that have actually committed suicide, but I will submit to you today that they did not commit suicide because of somebody bullying them. They committed suicide because they were not instilled the proper principles of where their self-esteem came from at home.”

Faison, R-Cosby, seemed to be alluding to the recent suicides in Cheatham and Smith counties by a pair of teens who had complained of being bullied over their sexual orientation. The two cases received extensive coverage statewide and led to calls by gay rights groups for tougher bullying laws.

The Tennessee Democratic Party condemned Faison’s statement within minutes.

“Did Rep. Faison just say that kids commit suicide because they haven’t been instilled with the right values? What a disgrace,” the party wrote on its Twitter feed.

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Anti-LGBT rights televangelist Pat Robertson on Tuesday told Christian students that bullying their gay and lesbian classmates was wrong even if they "think that these practices are an abomination."

A CBN viewer named Douglas posed this question to the TV preacher: "What would you say to a school that has gay and LGBT students being bullied by the Christian kids?"

"Well I think that’s terrible and Christians shouldn’t do that," Robertson explained. "I mean, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, blah, blah, blah. You know, Christians shouldn’t do that. They ought to act in love."

"You might disagree, you may think that these practices are an abomination, you can think all sorts of things, but you need to love. And you need to reach out to these kids in love," he added.

"Bullying is wrong. Period," co-host Terry Meeuwsen agreed.

"Amen," Robertson said. "Schools shouldn't permit that either."

(h/t: Think Progress)