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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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"Many Republicans believe the President has the upper hand in the 'fiscal cliff' negotiations; if we go over the cliff, Republicans believe they'll get most of the blame, yet if they give in to tax hikes, conservatives believe they will just infuriate their base. Of course, libertarians and social conservatives will never agree on issues like abortion or gay marriage, but they must find a way to agree on other critical issues. For example, there is no conservative Republican consensus on globalization, immigration reform, the China threat, or on our Mideast policy. The Republican Party will continue to be adrift unless conservatives have a clear sense of what they stand for and what policies will best serve their cause and the nation. So beyond the 'fiscal cliff' resolution, we need to find better messengers, better candidates who are tech-savvy. Whatever our differences, we can all agree as conservatives on a philosophy grounded in limited government, the free market, and the Judeo-Christian tradition. The most important thing is that we not despair; the problems we face today are no worse than the problems conservatives faced in the 1970's. They overcame those problems and changed the world for the better. We can do the same."
Laura debated the latest job numbers and the budget impasse with Austan Goolsbee, President Obama's former economic adviser. "I think it's going to be a bumpy sixty days ahead," Goolsbee said, "and I think there's a high danger that we go off the fiscal cliff. But as low as our 2% growth is, the awful thing about the state of the world is that that's about the fastest growth rate of every advanced country on earth. The President's plan is to grow from the middle out, invest in the work force, invest in rebuilding the infrastructure, and increase the competitiveness of U.S. industry. In 2013 I think we'll sit down and hammer out a grand bargain that will involve substantial spending cuts and revenue enhancement." Laura forlornly concluded, "The new normal seems to be that we have to get used to low economic growth and job growth that continues to be anemic at best." |
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| Dick Cheney has criticized the administration's foreign policy as weak and ineffectual. Laura welcomed former U.N Ambassador Nancy Soderberg, who took issue with Cheney's analysis. "He's just out of touch," Soderberg said, "and he should take a page out of President Bush's book and stay on the sidelines. President Obama has made the world safer and he's restored America's respect around the world. We're moving out of Afghanistan, democracy is moving forward in Tunisia, and Libya is certainly better off. President Obama has also done more to secure nuclear weapons than any other president." Niles Gardiner of the conservative Heritage Foundation quarreled with Soderberg's worldview. "Nancy's living in Cloud-Cookie Land if she thinks the world is safer today. Dick Cheney is absolutely right, the world is more dangerous today and there's a lack of U.S. leadership. This has been an administration that has led from behind and has outsourced leadership on the world stage to countries like France and Turkey. We're seeing the Middle East going up in flames and there is no leadership from Washington." |
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| After Australian radio hosts duped a nurse and convinced her to put a call through to Kate Middleton's hospital room, the nurse apparently killed herself. Laura asked Geraldo Rivera to elaborate on the incident. "At the very least," he said, "you have two radio deejays who invaded the privacy of a sick, pregnant woman and it's good news that the deejays have been suspended and may be fired. The call was not terribly malicious, but what they did would be illegal in the United States. Having said that, to pin the suicide on the deejays is really far-fetched. It may be that the call was the trigger, but there was something else going on in this woman's life." |
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| Laura welcomed attorneys Steve Greenberg and Anahita Sedaghatfar, who analyzed the Supreme Court's decision to hear two different cases relating to same-sex marriage. "One case involves whether someone who has lived with a domestic partner for 45 years should have to pay estate taxes," Greenberg explained, "where if they had been husband and wife she would not have to pay estate taxes. I expect the court will say gay marriage is legal just as they said you couldn't ban mixed racial marriage. 'Husband and wife' does not appear in the Constitution and legally I don't think they can ban it." Sedaghatfar remarked on the significance of the case. "This is huge, the Supreme Court has decided to rule on one of the most divisive issues in our country. I think we are going to have five votes to allow gay marriage, it will be very difficult for the Court to not uphold gay marriage under equal protection." |
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| Laura introduced Bill's recent interview with David Silverman, head of an organization devoted to promoting atheism. "We're stopping the government from preferring one religion over another," Silverman stated. "You can celebrate Christmas but our government can not take sides and say this is a good religion and this is a bad religion. It's not cool for you to try and cloud this issue, this is about religious neutrality from the government. The government has to be fair, we demand equality from the government!" Bill disputed Silverman's basic premise: "If you want to be an atheist, that's why we have America, but why are you messing around with my tradition? Just leave it alone. You and your merry band of fascists should try to get Christmas revoked!" |
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| The American Academy of Pediatrics is encouraging doctors to give their teen patients prescriptions for the "morning after" contraceptive pill. Laura spoke with sex educator Laura Berman, who defended the academy's position. "The research has shown," Berman said, "that adolescents are less likely to use the emergency contraceptive unless they already have a prescription. I agree that this is a personal issue and the parents should be the primary sex educators of their children, so if you don't like this idea it behooves you to talk with your pediatrician and find out where they stand on this. If you don't like the answer, find a different pediatrician. But we have the highest teen pregnancy rate of almost any industrialized nation, 46% of girls will be pregnant before they're 20." Laura thoroughly denounced the idea that pediatricians should be giving prescriptions for the pill: "I think this is one of the more outrageous things I've seen. Think of a doctor telling a mother to leave the room so he can tell a young girl that she can use this morning after pill." |
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| Laura concluded the week with some clips from Bill's Thursday night appearance with Jay Leno. The conversation turned to the war on Christmas and Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee, who prefers the term "holiday tree." "He doesn't want to offend anyone," Bill pointed out, "but he's offending 95% of America by refusing to call it a 'Christmas Tree.' The White House calls it a 'Christmas Tree,' but in Providence, Rhode Island it's the 'holiday tree!'" Bill also opined on the South Korean rapper PSY, whose video has been viewed about a billion times. "I love this chubby South Korean guy. But c'mon, this is 'The Pony' - Chubby Checker should be suing this guy! This guy probably saw an old tape and said, hey, I'm chubby, I'll do it too!" |
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