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"You can always tell when the right wing is in trouble," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., who's Presbyterian. "They invariably cook up some kind of culture war."

U.S. Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, opposed Davis' resolution as a largely meaningless exercise.

He said it masked what he suggested were immoral decisions by Congress to cut food stamps and Medicaid for the poor while cutting taxes for the wealthy.

"What really needs to be protected is not the symbols of Christmas but the spirit of Christmas," Scott said.

"We ought to express our passion for Christmas through deeds, not words."

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But the Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said, "This is possibly the silliest bill ever presented to the United States Congress.

"If they honestly think there's some kind of war against Santa Claus or the baby Jesus, they are just not getting out enough."

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Congressman John D. Dingell (MI-15) recited the following poem on the floor of the US House of Representatives concerning House Resolution 579, which expressed the sense of the House of Representatives that the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected. “Preserving Christmas” has been a frequent topic for conservative talk show hosts, including Fox News’s Bill O’Reilly.

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Twas the week before Christmas and all through the House

No bills were passed ‘bout which Fox News could grouse;

Tax cuts for the wealthy were passed with great cheer,

So vacations in St. Barts soon would be near;



Katrina kids were nestled all snug in motel beds,

While visions of school and home danced in their heads;

In Iraq our soldiers needed supplies and a plan,

Plus nuclear weapons were being built in Iran;



Gas prices shot up, consumer confidence fell;

Americans feared we were on a fast track to…well…

Wait--- we need a distraction--- something divisive and wily;

A fabrication straight from the mouth of O’Reilly



We can pretend that Christmas is under attack

Hold a vote to save it--- then pat ourselves on the back;

Silent Night, First Noel, Away in the Manger

Wake up Congress, they’re in no danger!



This time of year we see Christmas every where we go,

From churches, to homes, to schools, and yes…even Costco;

What we have is an attempt to divide and destroy,

When this is the season to unite us with joy



At Christmas time we’re taught to unite,

We don’t need a made-up reason to fight

So on O’Reilly, on Hannity, on Coulter, and those right wing blogs;

You should just sit back, relax…have a few egg nogs!



‘Tis the holiday season: enjoy it a pinch

With all our real problems, do we honestly need another Grinch?



So to my friends and my colleagues I say with delight,

A merry Christmas to all,

and to Bill O’Reilly…Happy Holidays.

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School officials want talk show host Bill O'Reilly to retract his on-air comment about the district banning students from wearing red and green because the colors represent Christmas.

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O'Reilly told the audience on his Fox News Channel show "The O'Reilly Factor" that a Plano school told students they couldn't wear red and green clothing. "That's flat-out fascism," he said during the broadcast.

The district, located in an affluent Dallas suburb, said in Wednesday's editions of The Dallas Morning News that it never has prohibited such clothing, and sent e-mails to parents and posted a statement on its Web site about the "false rumor."

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Abernathy told O'Reilly in an e-mail to that his fascism comment "smacks of McCarthyism and represents yellow journalism at its best." Abernathy signed the note, "Merry Christmas."

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This was pretty funny. You can check the facts and see who's right, but Rob Boston went after John Gibson and Gary McCaleb of the Alliance Defense Fund, by calling the war on Christmas a lie. (rough transcript)

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John Gibson lost it on The Big Story today 12/21/05 when Rob Boston of Americans United for Seperation of Church and State called his ridiculous "war" on Christmas book and premise a giant fraud. Gibson shouted over everything Boston was saying and blustered that Boston would be sued for calling Gibson a liar.

The segment was intended to be a debate between Boston and Gary McCaleb of the conservative Alliance Defense Fund but it deteriorated into a shouting match with the host doing the vast majority of the shouting. To be fair and balanced, Gibson did tell McCalebto pipe down, so he could shout some more at Boston.

Gibson began the segment with a laugh (at a clip from "The O.C.") saying "perhaps you've heard about my book...here on the Big Story we've heard all kinds of stories showing how political correctness has taken a toll on this very special holiday; so, who's winning this war? Lets ask Rob Boston...and Gary McCaleb..."

Gibson "Rob, here's the test. Is a Christmas tree in a school an unConstitutional celebration of a religion."

Boston "John, your war on Christmas is bogus, it doesn't exist, it's thinner than drug store wrapping paper. (You can hear Gibson's intake of breath.) Christmas trees can exist in public schools."

Gibson "Gary?"

McCaleb "John, is there a war on Christmas? Yes. Rob is not answering my phones. I've had over four hundred calls for help this year. Folks have identified issues where Christmas is being suppressed. Take for example down in Memphis TN which is scarcely a hotbed of left-wing activism, we have public officials saying to a community group 'you can put a display up and have a Nativity scene but you can't have Jesus in it.' Now that sounds to me like a battle for Christmas, part of the war on Christmas."

Boston interrupts, saying "I don't believe any of your stories coming out of the ADF. I've looked into about a dozen of them in the last week and they are all lies. You have maligned communities from Plano TX to Saginaw MI to Dodgeville WI, but the good news is the public schools are fighting back. They are posting notices on their websites. They are responding to John Gibson, they are responding to the Liberty Council, they are responding to Jerry Falwell (who, by the way, gets his own segment unopposed later in the show and is treated with the utmost respect) they're shooting it all down, you have no facts. If you have all these cases, bring 'em into the courts if you've got 'em. Bring 'em into the courts.

McCaleb is meantime, saying John...John... and Gibson tells him 'you're defending me, Gary - get busy."

McCaleb says "Whoa, stop Rob. What's going on here. They put up a two page document on a website making a few vague allegations about what might have happened. Plano TX is classic. There's a lawsuit that we had to file there over a year ago - just the complaint alone, 144 pages to detail the Constitutional claims. Their backtracking and rebuttal one year after the fact is to take a single nuance out of that case and say 'this didn't happen'. Well, the reason there is no policy against Christmas in Plano TX today is they were sued in federal court a year ago and a federal district judge issued a temporary restraining order saying back off, stop suppressing Christmas...(fades)

Gibson overtalks, saying "My impression is that actually the reason a lot of these schools are returning Christmas is The Book, and O'Reilly's campaign, and (we hear Boston, presumably, laugh) they're saying you can't do this this year because we got caught."

(From this point on italicized parentheticals are Gibson interrupting.)

Yep, it was Boston laughing, and he says "You guys, you guys are rich. This stuff was made up. I called school superintendents and I said (Rob, Rob, Rob.) O'Reilly's telling people you can't have cookies in school (Rob, ROB, stop right there) shaped like angels, and he said that never happened. (Rob, ROB, ROB. STOP. RIGHT. THERE.) Gibson is now shouting and leaning forward in his seat.

Boston said, No, you're wrong, John, I'm not going to stop, you're telling... Gibson shouts over him that "Yeah, you are, the incidents in my book are not lies. McCaleb says something like "you need to get the truth in here John" and Gibson says "hang on , Gary. ROB, the incidents in my book are not lies. If you're calling me a liar, let's go one on one of it. Every one of those incidents in those books - I interviewed everyperson involved. There are no factual discrepancies. Don't call me a liar here when you don't know what you're talking about. "

Boston said "Anybody can call the Alliance Defense Fund and say hey, this happened in my community, that doesn't mean it happened. Gibson is now roaring over him "Hey ROB STRAIGHTEN UP. YOU JUST CALLED ME A LIAR. BACK UP YOUR CHARGES. (Which is kind of funny because he will not at this point let Boston speak at all.)
Poor McCaleb is trying to get a word in, trying to calm Gibson (who is very Christmasy with his red face and white hair) and Gibson tells HIM to pipe down, resuming yelling at Boston: ROB, YOU JUST CALLED ME A LIAR. BACK UP YOUR CHARGES.

Boston says "John, you told the whole country... (In the background we can hear McCaleb saying "I'm a practicing attorney." LMAO) Boston continued "I'm going to explain to John why he's a liar. You told the whole country that kids in Plano TX and Saginaw MI couldn't wear red and green clothing. (I didn't say that.)That's a lie; they can wear it."

Gibson, jabbing a finger "THAT is a lie. (McCaleb, plaintive now, says off screen "Rob" and Gibson tells him to pipe down again. KML) I said that in Plano TX (McCaleb, still offscreen, says to Rob 'if you can't attack the principle you attack the speaker and that's what happening here, it's an ad hominem attack(ROFL) and Gibson says Gary, Gary stop.) Gibson continues "In Plano TX the school would not allow students to bring red and green stuff and parents to the Christmas party, now called the holiday party. That is the policy in Plano TX, I have the memoes, if you're calling me a liar on that, YOU're going to get sued now.

Boston says "Now you've changed your story" and Gibson says "There was never a change in my story. I never said clothing. You are wrong, and now YOU're a liar." Boston continues "And as for the Alliance Defense Fund, I have an email from them they sent out in August trying to raise money for the war on Christmas in August."

Gibson cuts him off, saying "Rob, you're done. " and Boston says "You should all be ashamed of yourselves." Gibson makes a motion and a moment later Boston's microphone is cut off mid-sentence, and Gibson spits at the camera "Rob, you're done. Rob, get your facts straight before you come on the air."

You can watch the video at Crooks and Liars.

Comment.: Gibson's overreaction to Boston showed his total unprofessionalism. In rereading the transcript it is clear that Boston named O'Reilly and the ADF before Gibson went off on him. It was so over the top that it almost appeared staged, like a WWF event.

The ADF seems to exist to represent right-wing religious cases, supporting the illusion that the huge Christian majority in this country is persecuted by the liberal courts. Of course FOX works hand in hand with them to amplify the martyrdom and keep the neo-Christian voters belligerent.

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From the November 17 edition of Salem Radio Network's Janet Parshall's America:

GIBSON: The whole point of this is that the tradition, the religious tradition of this country is tolerance, and that the same sense of tolerance that's been granted by the majority to the minority over the years ought to go the other way too. Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion -- Christianity -- that they've been granted about their religions over the years.

PARSHALL: Exactly. John, I have to tell you, let me linger for a minute on that word "tolerance." Because first of all, the people who like to promulgate that concept are the worst violators. They cannot tolerate Christianity, as an example.

GIBSON: Absolutely. I know -- I know that.

PARSHALL: And number two, I have to tell you, I don't know when they held this election and decided that tolerance was a transcendent value. I serve a god who, with a finger of fire, wrote, he will have no other gods before him. And he doesn't tolerate sin, which is why he sent his son to the cross, but all of a sudden now, we jump up and down and celebrate the idea of tolerance. I think tolerance means accommodation, but it doesn't necessarily mean acquiescence or wholehearted acceptance.

GIBSON: No, no, no. If you figure that -- listen, we get a little theological here, and it's probably a bit over my head, but I would think if somebody is going to be -- have to answer for following the wrong religion, they're not going to have to answer to me. We know who they're going to have to answer to.

PARSHALL: Right.

GIBSON: And that's fine. Let 'em. But in the meantime, as long as they're civil and behave, we tolerate the presence of other religions around us without causing trouble, and I think most Americans are fine with that tradition.

PARSHALL: I agree.

GIBSON: In other words, they'd like it in return.

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Speaking of roadkill, thin skin from two of our worst persons in the world. One of them says I misquoted what he said. Unfortunately, what he said was on tape.

All that ahead.

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OLBERMANN: At the end of June, we began to devote about 90 seconds out of each news hour to a feature called the “Worst Persons in the World.” The mighty and anonymous alike have made the list. From Robert Novak to Scott Peterson to the Ronald McDonald who held up a Wendy's.

And up until now, though well over 200 have earned the dishonor, we've never had a complaint. Our number-three story in the COUNTDOWN, we have a complaint. Evidently John Gibson and Bill O'Neill of Fox News don't like being considered among the worst persons in the world, even though they clearly are.

O'Reilly first. He was funnier. Last week the big giant head did some sort of year-end wrap-up of his rants and distortions, it was a kind of self-loofahing of congratulation for the nightly disaster his program means for the truth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS HOST: Speaking of disasters, our competitor at MSNBC is a notorious smear merchant. So far this month, December, the FACTOR's third rerun at 4:00 in the morning has beaten MSNBC's original 8:00 program more than 50 percent of the time. Unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: A couple things here. We never claimed O'Neill's program doesn't draw vastly more viewers than does this one. To borrow a phrase, “Hey, 800 billion flies can't be wrong.” But it is curious, isn't it, that he brands me a smear merchant yet instead of trying to refute just one of the hateful things we've quoted him as saying or doing, he instead turns to the ratings? That's probably because the only things we've smeared O'Reilly with have been his own quotes. To borrow another phrase, when you're as guilty as he is, change the subject.

Unfortunately, I now have to change the subject to John Gibson. And this is greatly painful because I really don't know why he's decided to try to destroy himself. But he has. O'Reilly is one of those blissful idiots who can rationalize anything, that doing this enough usually results in a nervous breakdown is well-known and his clock is clearly ticking in that regard.

But even he is not so functionally stupid as to deny saying things that are preserved on tape, which is what Mr. Gibson is doing. Let me flash it back to the day he made the worst persons list.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLI)

OLBERMANN: But the win e and this one comes with great personal pain because we were friends when he worked here and thereafter. John Gibson selling his new book about this phoney baloney war on Christmas. John revealed a very ugly side to himself. He is one of those people who think all religions but his are mistaken. You know, the way a lot of these religious nut bag terrorists think.

“I would think,” Gibby said on a syndicated radio show, “if somebody is going to be—have to answer for following the wrong religion, they are not going to have to answer to me. We know who they're going to have to answer to.”

I tell you which religion john thinks is the only one that's right, but what's the difference? It's not the faith that's the issue. It's the intolerance. John Gibson, today's worst person in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

OLBERMANN: John first complained about that on his radio program, then he went to town on television. “I find myself being misquoted or the actual words I've said taken way out of context in order to build outrage against me,” he said. “I'm called,” he said, “names like fathead and the worst something or other for things I really did not say. Today, one of my former colleagues repeated a misquote to justify saying some truly disgusting things about me. Condescendingly he tisk tisked that he used to like me. I doubt it. Otherwise why would he be so willing to believe trash?”

Well, John, I believed it because it's true and it's on tape. I'm afraid John is, at best, suffering from amnesia. At worst, he's just flat-out pretending something never happened. John Gibson's remarks about religions being wrong and those who believe them having to answer for them came on a show hosted by a Janet Parshall. Broadcast by Salem Radio Network on November 17. And the remarks are on tape. The Web site mediamattersforamerica has a transcript and audio link and I'm afraid there's no ambiguity whatsoever.

(BEGIN AUDIOTAPE)

JOHN GIBSON, FOX NEWS HOST: The whole point of this is that the tradition - the religious tradition of this country and that the same sense of tolerance that's been granted by the majority to the minority over the years ought to go the other way, too.

Minorities ought to have the same sense of tolerance about the majority religion, Christianity, that they've been granted about their religions over the years.

JANET PARSHALL, RADIO HOST: Exactly. John (ph), I have to tell you, let me linger on that word tolerance, because first of all, the people who like to promulgate that concept are the worst violators. They cannot tolerate Christianity as an example.

GIBSON: I know that.

PARSHALL: And number two, I have to tell you, I don't know where they held this election and decided that tolerance is a transcendent value. I serve a god who, with the finger of fire, write he will have no other gods before him. And he doesn't tolerate sin, which is why he sent his son to the cross, but all of the sudden now we jump up and down and celebrate the idea of tolerance. I think tolerance means accommodation, but it doesn't necessarily mean acquiescence or wholehearted acceptance.

GIBSON: No. No. No. If you figure that - listen, we get a little theological here and it's probably a bit over my head, but I would think if somebody is going to be - have to answer for following the wrong religion, they're not going to have to me. We know who they're going to have to answer to .

PARSHALL: Right.

GIBSON: And that's fine. Let them. But in the meantime, as long as they're civil and behave, we tolerate the presence of other religions around us without causing trouble and I think most Americans are fine with that tradition.

(END AUDIOTAPE)

OLBERMANN: Now, there is always the possibility, however remote, that that wasn't John Gibson but merely some kind of professional John Gibson impersonator, in which case that guy is clearly the worst person of all time. Or there's an evil twin thing going, maybe. Otherwise, that's really the whole shebang right there, that phrase “wrong religion” actually sounds worse in context, isn't it?

It's the same kind of misunderstanding and perversion of religion to which we react in horror when we see it in terrorists who have twisted religion for their purposes. Might have been some commentators on some all access al Qaeda show on al-Jazeera talking about infidels.

And by the way, don't you get this creepy feeling of embarrassment

when somebody is trying desperately to be holier than now promptly

misquotes the Bible? “I serve a God who, with a finger of fire,” you just

heard Janet Parshall say, “wrote 'he will have no other Gods before him.'”

Actually, Miss Parshall, as any of us who have actually read the Bible know, the First Commandment is “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” That's not just a difference in pronouns. He's demanding exclusivity from those who believe in him. Nothing in there saying other people can't serve other gods in which they believe.

Sorry. I've strayed from the main topic probably because it is awful painful, whether he thinks me insincere or not, I really did like Gibby, hardworking here, always there, able to cover a shift or help out in any way he could. Now, instead, he's denying he said despicable things, things that where recorded for posterity and worse he is now trying to blame those hateful things on me. Ordinarily, when somebody gets caught saying to something as intolerant as this, their choices are A: to apologize, B: to resign, or C: to make sure there's no tape and try to lie their way out of it.

John, unfortunately, chose D: blame it on somebody else. The audio clip is the definitive answer, and I would hope John would have the self-respect to acknowledge what he said and to leave the airwaves for good, because between the remark and the denial, he has, sadly, forfeited his right to stay here.

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Religion is legalized insanity.....

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