Bill O'Reilly: Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama

Pinheads and Patriots: Where You Stand in the Age of Obama is a political commentary by American political commentator Bill O'Reilly, published in 2010. It was published on September 14, 2010. In his this his ninth book, Bill O'Reilly prompts further debate with President Barack Obama and the American people on the current state of the union. Bill offers a blunt political commentary, and offers some introspection, looking back at his own actions and those of past Americans who, he believes, have inspired a code of conduct for modern times. Source: Wikipedia. Tunku Varadarajan at The Daily Beast said this about the book: Bill O’Reilly is a liar. He’s also a total pinhead, to pluck a word from his newest book, which bears the glib and gassy title Pinheads and Patriots. On page 74 he writes, “My ‘social networking’ is done in person. I don’t twitter. Or tweet, or whatever they call it. Also, I don’t chat online, use an iPod, or rely on text messaging. I refuse to do these things because they do not help me.” Oh, really, O’Reilly? So what, then, is @oreillyfactor, a Twitter address “verified” as belonging to “Bill O’Reilly”? Dude, don’t you think anyone with the slightest animus against you—and there are millions who believe you’re the Devil’s spawn—would check this particular assertion against the facts?

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Excerpt:

HEY, YOU! YOU, THE AMERICAN! You who believe in life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This book is about you. No spin.

In this age of Obama, all that you take for granted is changing, yet many Americans have no clue. So I've decided to fix that. After reading the following pages, you will know precisely what's going on in the United States. Then you can plan exactly how to deal with the massive shift in the way our country is being run. Trust me, you need to know what is really happening so that you can make effective decisions for yourself.

These changes are not all bad, but they're not all good, either. Many will hurt you and your family. Most media people and politicians won't tell you that because they don't care about you. But I do.

Why? It's very simple: you guys have made me rich and famous. I worked hard to position myself to succeed, but you made it happen.

Without you watching me on TV and reading my books, I would be just another energetic bloviator -- perhaps teaching school in Miami or reporting the news in Dallas. I appreciate the fact that millions of you have contributed to my success, so now it's payback time: I will vividly chronicle the changes occurring in an America that your great-grandparents would never recognize today, because knowing the facts is how you can preserve the things you love about this country most -- the things they loved, too.

As you must know by now, it has been a great adventure for me to write five consecutive bestselling nonfiction books over the years, and again, I'm grateful that you were there right along with me on those adventures.

Find the rest of that excerpt here, at ABC News.

The Magic Middle from WNYC's Brian Lehrer Show by listenerservices@wnyc.org (WNYC, New York Public Radio)

Welcome to Politics Bites, where every afternoon at It's A Free Country we bring you the unmissable quotes from political conversations on WNYC. On today's Brian Lehrer Show, Thomas Frank, columnist for Harper's Magazine and author of The Wrecking Crew and What's the Matter with Kansas, says the success of the Tea Party shows that going after the "magic middle" of the American electorate is a mistake. Where is the "center" in American politics? Not where you think, according to Thomas Frank. Politicians are always trying to win over the median voter, which is itself a theoretical abstraction that describes people who fall between the extremes of the left and the right. Of course, that encompasses most Americans, so politicians rightfully cater to this center. However, Frank says that for all the effort politicians spend on winning the "magic middle," the government as a whole hasn’t been striking a true balance between left and right.

See that webpage here. Download the podcast here. See also: What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America, The Conquest of Cool: Business Culture, Counterculture, and the Rise of Hip Consumerism, One Market Under God: Extreme Capitalism, Market Populism, and the End of Economic Democracy

HE'S BACK: Bush speaks in Chicago, plugs new book... from Chicago Breaking News Center

Former President George W. Bush reflected on his presidency, his life out of the spotlight, poked fun at himself and plugged his upcoming book today while speaking in Chicago at a conference for a finance trade association. Bush, wearing a black suit and purple tie with stripes, told a crowd of hundreds of conference attendees of taking his Scottish terrier, Barney, for a walk around their Texas neighborhood for the first time since leaving office. "I was out of the presidency for two weeks and I had a plastic bag on my hand," which drew laughter and applause from the crowd attending the Commercial Finance Association convention. "In the old days there'd be a guy with a plastic bag on his hand, following."

It's just a funny phrasing of the idea, the title. And we so, so miss his phrases making headlines. Read the full story here.

Repub Chair Forwards Racist Joke from Drudge Retort: Red Meat for Yellow Dogs by NoGov4Me

David Bartholemew, the head of the Virginia Beach Republican Party, has resigned after forwarding this racist joke in email: "I went down this morning to sign up my Dog for welfare. At first the lady said, 'Dogs are not eligible to draw welfare.' So I explained to her that my Dog is black, unemployed, lazy, can't speak English and has no frigging clue who his Daddy is. So she looked in her policy book to see what it takes to qualify.. My Dog gets his first check Friday."

Just in case you weren't completely clear as to what the Tea Party, the (U.S.) Republican Party, and The Drudge Report were really all about, make sure to sift through those comments carefully.

The Wednesday, October 28, 2009 Charlie Rose Conversation with Sam Tanenhaus

CHARLIE ROSE: Sam Tanenhaus is here. He is editor of both the "New
York Times Book Review" and the "Weekend Review" section of the newspaper.
When he is not appraising books, he writes some of his own. His biography
of Whitaker Chambers was a finalist for the National Nook Award and the
Pulitzer Prize.

His latest book is called "The Death of Conservatism." In it he argues
that today’s Republicans have lost their way and need to return to their
intellectual roots. I am pleased to have him back at this table. Welcome.

SAM TANENHAUS, AUTHOR: Great to be here, Charlie.

CHARLIE ROSE: And did this grow out of that "New Republic" piece that
you wrote?

SAM TANENHAUS: It did. I wrote a story, an essay during the first
month of the Obama administration, and the Republicans and the conservative
intellectuals, because the book is really about both, seemed totally lost.

And also it builds on a lot of thinking and writing I’ve done ever
since I started writing about conservatism some 20 years ago.

Read the rest of that transcript here.