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| All content taken from The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News Channel. Each weeknight by 6 PM EST a preview of that evening's show will be posted and then updated with additional information the following weekday by noon EST.
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Guests: Brit Hume
"The former Prime Minister of Great Britain died last night from a stroke. Along with Ronald Reagan, she defined conservative politics in the 1980's and is still a legend in conservative circles. Margaret Thatcher believed that a robust private economy would provide the most opportunity for working people; her opposition, the Labour Party, wanted government to largely control private industry. So the question tonight is, did Lady Thatcher approve of President Obama, who certainly echoes many Labour Party policies. The answer is no. It is quite clear that Thatcher, Reagan, and other free-marketers would disagree with Barack Obama on economic policy. His attempt to stimulate the economy by pouring trillions of taxpayer dollars into it has failed dismally, but Mr. Obama is not changing course. Ironically, the only good economic news in America is the stock market, which mostly benefits the wealthy. So while the President believes his policies are helping working Americans, they're actually hurting them. Government regulations and Obamacare are also inhibiting hiring. So the successful economic policies of Margaret Thatcher are very relevant today, but you won't hear the press say that."
The Factor asked FNC analyst Brit Hume for memories of the late Lady Thatcher. "Her policies were an absolute antidote," Hume said, "to the policies that had been effect for some time. When she took over Great Britain was farther down the road toward full-blown socialism than the United States has ever gone. Her attitude was that this had to change radically, and it did. She privatized industries, she was for lower taxes and regulation, and the economy recovered smartly, but not immediately." Hume depicted Mrs. Thatcher as the ideological mirror image of President Obama. "She was a free market person, a low tax person and a deregulator, and President Obama is basically the opposite of those things. I'm not saying he's a socialist, but his policies are in line with the Social Democrats who have been so prominent in Europe. I doubt that she would have approved of his economic policies." |
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Guests: Sally Kohn
Two homosexual students at George Washington University are demanding that the school's Catholic chaplain, Father Greg Shaffer, be tossed off campus for calling homosexual acts sinful. FNC contributor and GWU alumna Sally Kohn straddled the fence on the issue. "I support the right of the preacher to say what he said," she opined, "and I support the right of the students to say what they're saying. I don't think this priest is the right person for ministering to young people, it's disruptive of him to call these kids 'unnatural and immoral' in their formative years." The Factor lamented the attempt to silence Father Shaffer: "This is about the priest upholding the church's teaching that homosexual acts, as well as heterosexual acts outside of marriage, are not approved. It is a fascist act to demand that a college remove a chaplain because you don't like what he says." |
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Guests: Juan Williams and Mary Katharine Ham
Some liberal Americans, such as the heretofore mentioned George Washington students, seem eager to banish opposing opinions. The Factor asked Juan Williams and Mary Katharine Ham to weigh in on the controversy. "This is outrageous," Williams declared. "You can't tell somebody who's Catholic not to be Catholic, the guy's a priest and he's going to represent Catholic orthodoxy on campus. People don't want an honest discussion, they want to shut people up!" Ham complained that the GWU incident is typical of many universities. "This is supposed to be a place of intellectual and spiritual diversity and inquiry, but college campuses are often exactly the opposite. Universities are often at the vanguard of putting in speech codes that punish people for having opinions." The Factor concluded with a warning, saying, "The left wants laws that shut you up if you criticize any so-called minority." |
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Guest: Pamela Lachman
25-year-old State Department employee Anne Smedinghoff , who was working to improve the lives of people in Afghanistan, was killed there by a suicide bomber over the weekend. The Factor spoke with Smedinghoff's classmate and friend Pamela Lachman. "Anne has been incredibly committed to public service," Lachman recalled, "and this was how she wanted to spend her career. She was so interested in international relations and working with people, this is exactly the kind of person you would want to work for the foreign service. She was so excited to be there, she didn't talk about the danger." The Factor added that Anne Smedinghoff "must have been quite an impressive person to get such a posting at such a young age." |
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Guests: Bernie Goldberg
The late Margaret Thatcher was frequently denounced by the liberal media on both sides of the Atlantic, which Bernie Goldberg depicted as par for the course. "There's a rule of thumb," he observed, "which is that when a conservative politician like Thatcher or Reagan tries to shake things up, they're often seen as cold-hearted or mean-spirited. But when a liberal politician tries to shake things up, they're seen by the media as 'progressive.' In 1981 the New York Times said that class warfare under Margaret Thatcher was 'endemic,' but Barack Obama has been waging class warfare since he took office. It's really simple - liberals in the media don't like conservatives!" The Factor contended that Thatcher deserved great credit for helping poor and middle class Britons: "When she took office there was a recession and Britain had 13% unemployment, but when she left office 8 years later unemployment was 5.8%. It's insane to continue to call this woman a 'fascist' when her performance is on paper." |
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Guests: Adam Carolla
Adam Carolla entered the No Spin Zone to predict that legalizing same-sex marriage will start as many arguments as it ends. "We have done ten times more arguing about race since we've had a black President," he said, "and I don't think giving gay people the right to marry is going to ratchet down the arguing. But I love gay people and our society would be better if we had more gay people. When you get to the gay part of Santa Monica Boulevard it looks like Shangri-La meets Seattle, and they don't have a bunch of kids crapping up the system." Carolla also took a shot at airline passengers. "I fly first class because somebody else pays for it, and half the time the storage bin above my seat is filled, and half the time people are barging in from coach. It's a microcosm of what our world has become - why should you get to sit up there in first class? Because I paid more! It's not that airlines are getting worse, people are getting worse." |
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| Monday's Tip was directed at the leaders of New Orleans: "There's too much crime and corruption in The Big Easy. I'd go to New Orleans for fun any time, it's a great place, and I'd even take my kids. But corruption is corruption and New Orleans needs to get better." |
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Jennifer Call, Albuquerque, NM: "I got notice today that my Medicare payments will go from $97 a month to more than $200 a month."
Dino Damico, Pittsburgh, PA: "Bill, you are a smart guy or at least I give you credit for being one. But the president's salary give back in grandstanding! If you don't think so you'd better give back that Harvard degree."
Yvonne Robinson, Kerrville, TX: "Bill, here's a great tip for Factor viewers. The website AnySoldier.com informs Americans about the needs of our military serving overseas." |
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