The O'Reilly Factor
A daily summary of segments aired on The O'Reilly Factor. A preview of the evening's rundown is posted before the show airs each weeknight.
Tuesday, August 2, 2005
The Factor Rundown
Talking Points Memo
Top Story
Impact Segment
Factor Follow Up Segment
Personal Story Segment
Great Debate Segment
Back of Book Segment
Factor Mail
Book Mentions
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Comments
God vs. science?
"While speaking to some Texas newspapers, President Bush opined that he believes public schools should expose students to both evolution and the so-called 'intelligent design' theory of creation. Intelligent design says life on earth is too complex to have developed through evolution, and that a higher power created the earth. Evolution says that life organisms developed over time through random mutations and factors in nature that favored certain traits that helped species survive. Whatever your belief, it should be respected. There is no reason that students cannot be told that more than a few people, including some scientists believe the creation of the world, no matter how it occurred, involved a higher power. What on earth is wrong with that? It would be wrong to teach Genesis in a science class; that is for a theology class. But it is equally wrong to ignore the fact that evolution is not a universal belief. Just state the facts--whether it be science or any other subject. Public schools have an obligation to put all subjects in perspective. There is no downside to mentioning that many people of faith believe a creator was involved in the process. Are the public schools in this country champions of free discourse or not? The President is right."

Fox News Video: FoxNews.com

Air France jet crash in Toronto
Guest: Passenger Olivier Dubos

An Air France jet crashed on landing in Toronto this afternoon. Everybody miraculously survived despite a huge fire; 24 people have minor injuries. Olivier Dubos, a passenger on the flight, described the scene. "Just before touching ground, it was like - it was all black. And the plane, there was no more light, nothing. And it was going really, really fast. And then we went off the runway. We were in the ravine. And then there were a lot of flames. The plane stopped. We opened the emergency doors. And basically there were lots of flames around. We just tried to escape, sliding on the -- from the plane, running in the countryside. There was a lot of panic. We were all running everywhere. There was a lot of gas and smoke. We were all running like crazy."

Intelligent design vs. evolution
Guest: Dr. Paul Gross, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

President Bush favors informing public school students that evolution is not an absolute and that there are people who believe God had a major hand in overseeing creation. The Kansas Board of Education is also debating the issue but some are adamantly opposed to introducing the so-called "Intelligent Design" theory to American kids. Dr. Paul Gross, a fellow at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and author of the book "Creationism's Trojan Horse, the Wedge of Intelligent Design," took umbrage with the suggestion that teaching intelligent design is innocuous. "Intelligent design is a complex, highly proliferated body of action, literature, mostly P.R., the purpose of which is to teach, or at least suggest, that there is a big body of scientific evidence showing that standard evolutionary biology is wrong, that so called-Darwinism has collapsed. That is all false." The Factor countered that both sides were necessary to the debate. "The argument Bush was making was you've got to tell the students enough about intelligent design so they understand the debate. That's what American education and freedom is all about."

Instituting Jessica's Law
Guest: Rhode Island Governor Donald Carcieri

The Factor addressed the sentencing laws for child sex abusers in Rhode Island. "In Rhode Island the penalties are all over the place. A first time offender could receive probation or life, depending on a myriad of circumstances and that is a problem. For example in 2001 then 18-year-old Josh Maciorski was charged with having sex with a 13-year-old girl, a felony. He was sentenced to probation. In 2003 he was convicted of molesting a 14-year-old girl. Maciorski served just one year in prison. Then when he got out, the guy raped a 16-year-old girl. His sentence--three years in a Rhode Island prison. Obviously something is wrong with the Ocean State." RI Governor Donald Carcieri agreed that the punishment should fit the crime and that the legislature would get an RI version of Jessica's Law passed. "I'm going to propose it and I suspect that this General Assembly will agree with you because every time we've tried to make a move to tighten up on anything to do with sexual offenders effecting children, nobody's against that."

Latest in the Natalee Holloway case
Guest: Journalist Jossy Mansur

The latest on the Natalee Holloway investigation in Aruba is that prime suspect Joran van der Sloot was questioned by Dutch behavioral specialists today. Jossy Mansur, managing editor of the Diario newspaper, explained. "They are not shrinks, they're normal detectives that belong to the Dutch police courts, but they have a specialty that they interrogate juveniles. They look at the body language when they answer, they look at all the reactions, the facial reactions to questions they pose. Then they make up a report, they tape it of course, and then they study it against the tape and come to some conclusions, as to whether this guy is a habitual liar, whether he's lying about everything, or in some cases he's telling the truth."

Fighting the war on terror
Guest: Attorney & author Pierce O'Donnell

The Factor argued that in an unconventional war such as this one, the U.S. had to take some extraordinary steps, such as prosecuting terrorists away from the watchful eye of the press and the public. "The overall war on terror is something like we've never fought before. These people kill civilians, they'll kill anybody, you can't just have a public exposition in how you deal with them." Pierce O'Donnell, an attorney and author of the book "In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America," argued that the system set up by the Bush administration to fight terror had been ineffective. "The intelligence value of the people that have been in Guantanamo coming on four years has dissipated. The military, two or three years ago said, get most of this chaff out of here and let's keep our focus on the wheat. There have been no prosecutions yet, the Department of Defense lawyers screwed it up. Why are Al Qaeda jihadists oversubscribing their quotas and we can't meet our military quotas in this country? It's because this president has not gotten the right message out. We're fighting a war on terror for American values and those values include adherence to the rule of law." The Factor argued strongly that the administration had worked within the constraints of the law. "The courts have not ruled the Bush administration have been out of bounds in what they have done so far. So I'm not going to say that they violated any rule of law."

Greta on the Holloway case
Guest: Fox News host Greta Van Susteren

Greta van Susteren is back in Aruba with an American search team. "We went over to the police station where Joran van der Sloot was being interrogated today. We spoke to a Lieutenant that came out and I said, 'Do you think you're going to solve this?' He sort of shrugged and I said, 'What are the odds?' He said '50-50.' Now this is the first law enforcement officer who had such a low number. Last night we were talking about how they had a behavioralist who is now in there analyzing Joran's body language because he won't answer questions. If you are that far down the path where you are having to rely on people's body motions to prove a case, you're in deep trouble."

Viewers sound off
Factor Words of the Day
Some viewers weighed in on John Bolton's appointment:

Morgan Miller, New York City: "President Bush pulled a sneaky recess appointment of John Bolton to the U.N. This was a sad day for democracy."

R. Lyder, New Hampshire: "O'Reilly, you stated that the obstruction tactics of some senators led to the appointment of Bolton. That is a fair view. But it is also fair to state that Bush was also an obstructionist by failing to release requested information about Bolton."

One viewer praised The Factor's take on the Ed Klein book:

Amy Diederich, St. Cloud, MN: "Bill, I would love to believe everything in Ed Klein's Hillary bashing book. But I'm proud you took the high road and I will also."

Book Mentions
Check out the books mentioned during this show.
In Time of War: Hitler's Terrorist Attack on America
by Pierce O'Donnell

Read more...
Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design
by Paul Gross & Barbara Forrest

Read more...