Guest: Karl Rove
"Next Sunday there will be a vote in Crimea on whether Russia should take over that part of Ukraine. The fix is in, the vote will go Russia's way. Vladimir Putin now has troops inside Crimea controlling just about anything. The European Union is too scared to do anything about it, and therefore it's once again up to the USA to attempt to right the wrong. So, what will President Obama do? The answer is unclear and anti-Obama forces are pounding the president. To be fair, President Obama should be given some time to formulate an effective plan against Putin. As I suggested last week, the way to hurt Russia is to diminish its currency. President Obama could impose banking sanctions, ordering U.S. financial institutions not to accept the ruble. There are other options, but that is the quickest and most devastating. There's no question that we're living in a hyper-dangerous world where President Obama is being tested by bad people. He booted it in Syria, and now the world is paying a price for that. Putin knows the Western powers are weak and he has little to fear from them militarily. However, the Russian economy is also weak, and that is where President Obama should focus his efforts. If the president sits this out and does nothing, he will go down in history as a weak leader."

FNC analyst Karl Rove evaluated Putin's aggression and the U.S. response. "President Obama has taken three steps that are important," he said. "He's given economic aid to Ukraine, he's sent U.S. Navy vessels into the Black Sea, and he has allowed air defense exercises with the Baltic nations. But we need to have a strategy that shows that there are prices to be paid for Putin's bad behavior." Rove urged the Obama administration to make some specific moves. "First, we should reinstitute the missile defense facilities that we withdrew from the Czech Republic and Poland. We ought to re-energize NATO expansion and we should reconstitute the G8 without Russia. And you've hit on something important - we need to use access to the banking system so the oligarchs who support Putin do not have access to the American banking system."

Guest: Rep. Kevin Brady
Former IRS official Lois Lerner has again pleaded the Fifth Amendment when questioned by the House Oversight Committee; meanwhile, another House committee has obtained a trove of emails that Lerner sent while at the IRS. The Factor asked Republican Congressman Kevin Brady to assess the importance of the emails. "We think this is significant," Brady asserted. "We learned from earlier documents that the IRS was not only targeting conservative groups, but they were monitoring groups based on their political beliefs. We believe these new emails will help us pinpoint the level at which the wrongdoing occurred." The Factor questioned the wisdom of having two separate House committees investigating the IRS: "Why are there two committees working on this, wouldn't it be more efficient to combine them?"

Guest: Russell Simmons
As reported previously, President Obama has unveiled an initiative called My Brother's Keeper, primarily meant to help young black men. But the cause may be hampered if the entertainment business continues to pump out violent and misogynist music. The Factor discussed that with hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons. "Artists throughout history have been criticized for sharing what's on people's minds," Simmons said, "and I don't think it's any different now." Scoffing at Simmons' history lesson, The Factor posed a very pointed question: "Beyoncé has a new video that glorifies having sex in a limousine. Teenage girls look up to Beyoncé, so why on earth would this woman do that when she knows the devastation caused by unwanted pregnancies and fractured families?" Simmons essentially dodged the question by invoking history and science. "The artist's job throughout history," he said, "has been to say things that things are inspired by. Research says that a man thinks about sex every 12 seconds, so when an artist expresses something sexual in music, it is a reflection of our reality." The Factor accused Simmons and the music business of damaging children: "An entertainer like Beyoncé and a mogul like you have an obligation to protect children and not put out exploitive garbage that you know harms children. I think what Beyoncé has done here is inexplicable."

Guests: Juan Williams & Mary Katharine Ham
The Factor invited Juan Williams and Mary Katharine Ham to opine on research showing that a disproportionate number of abortions are performed on black women and other minorities. "Having such a large portion of your population decimated," Ham said, "does not make your community richer, spiritually or economically. Liberal states like New York have all the things liberals say should prevent unwanted pregnancy, but you get families that are falling apart and women having abortions." Williams blamed the abortion disparity on culture and schools. "The minority population has more poverty, less education, and less access to health care, specifically contraception. That's why it surprises me that conservatives say employers should be able to say they're not going to provide contraception as part of their health care plan."

Guest: Bernie Goldberg
When former IRS official Lois Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment rights last week, most media outlets completely ignored the story. The Factor asked Bernie Goldberg to theorize why. "The reason is very simple," Goldberg declared, "it's because Barack Obama is president. Imagine if George W. Bush were president and the IRS were targeting his political enemies and the central character refused to testify. For the past five years there has been a tendency among the so-called mainstream media to play stories the way the Obama administration wants, so if he thinks this is a 'phony scandal,' they treat it as a phony scandal." The Factor agreed with Goldberg's analysis, saying, "The American national media is protecting President Obama, and this is the smoking gun."

Guest: Jesse Watters
Jesse Watters headed uptown to Columbia University, where he asked students about Vladimir Putin and Ukraine. Some of their replies: "I think it's not our place to get involved" ... "I don't think Obama's been tough enough with anybody" ..."I'm from Ukraine and I think we should enforce sanctions on Russia." Back in the studio, Watters reported that he encountered some hostility from the Ivy Leaguers. "One guy called me a name and walked away," he lamented. "But I'm happy he watches, that's all I care about! And I was struck by the number of people who just left when they found out I wanted to talk about Ukraine. No one knows what they're talking about."

Rich Donio, Myrtle Beach, SC: "Bill, I disagree with your Talking Points that America is in decline. There are enough of us who still believe in the country and work hard upholding our traditional way of life!"

Dr. Elizabeth Somerset, Detroit, MI: "You nailed it, Mr. O'Reilly! Your clear assessment of America's declining status could not be more accurate."

Nels Rider, Monterey, CA: "Bill, I've never heard on the Factor or Megyn Kelly's show anything good about ObamaCare. My health insurance cost was cut in half on the exchange."

Ann Martin, Chicago, IL: "My husband's employer transferred our health insurance to the Obamacare exchange. We'll now have to pay $1,000 more a year."

With Lent underway, this could be a great time to read or re-read "Killing Jesus," which was the #1 best-selling non-fiction book in the world last year.