O’Reilly volunteers Fox News to provide housing for 195,000 veterans

January 16, 2008

In last night’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, John Edwards, in one of his strongest moments of the event, highlighted how often military veterans are left behind after they serve. “Tonight across this country, 200,000 men and women who wore our uniform and served this country patriotically, veterans, will go to sleep under bridges and on grates,” Edwards said.

Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, talking with progressive talk-show host Ed Schultz, wasn’t impressed.

O’Reilly: Well, we’re still looking for all the veterans sleeping under the bridges, Ed, so if you find anybody, let us know, because that’s all the guy said for the last three nights–

Schultz: Well they’re out there, Bill. Don’t kid yourself.

O’Reilly: They may be out there, but there’s not many of them out there. Okay? So if you know where one is, Ed–

Schultz: Well, actually, now, wait a minute–

O’Reilly: Ed, Ed. If you know where’s a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it, is not there.

It’s not altogether clear who O’Reilly was referring to with “we,” but given the context, it sounded like O’Reilly was vowing publicly, in front of a national television audience, that either his show or his network (or both) would provide the resources and housing necessary to protect homeless vets.

This is one of those times when it’s a very good thing O’Reilly speaks before he thinks.

Why? Because Edwards was right and O’Reilly was wrong. Try not to be too shocked at this unusual development. (via TP)

Several readers have asked us to check this surprising statistic, often used by Edwards. The language may be overly dramatic, but the figure is an official one, from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The department believes that one-third of the adult homeless population of the United States “have served their country in the Armed Services.” A posting on the department Web site says that about 195,000 veterans are “homeless on any given night” and perhaps twice as many experience homelessness at some point during the course of a year.

Veterans Affairs estimates that about 45 percent of homeless veterans suffer from mental illness, and 70 percent from alcohol abuse or other drug abuse problems. Roughly 56 percent are African American or Hispanic.

Too often, it seems these veterans are forgotten about, and left to fend for themselves. Now, Bill O’Reilly, the generous multi-millionaire that he is, has stepped up to address the national embarrassment. All we need to do is tell O’Reilly where he can find a homeless vet, and he’ll arrange to have his or her housing situation taken care of.

I sure hope veterans’ groups have heard about this very charitable offer, because there are 195,000 Americans who will certainly benefit from O’Reilly largess.

That is, if O’Reilly was serious and willing to follow through on his on-air commitment to these troops. You don’t suppose he’d back down now, do you?

careful, Steve, before you go telling O’Reilly where to find these vets. What he said was:

you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it, is not there.

You give him way too much credit when you assume the result will be a sheltered vet. Given the source, its just as likely he’d throw ’em in the river.

Sadly not much has changed since Reagan proclaimed there were no homeless in America.

  • Roger Ailes alone has the net worth to set up a trust that would get these homeless vets the help they need to rebuild their lives.
    Imagine what a trust set up by Ailes, Murdoch, AND O’Reilley could accomplish.
    Let’s ask them to do it!

  • You sure he isn’t suggesting just killing them and burying them in unmarked graves?

    ‘Cause I don’t hear him actually offering them housing (and jobs).

    Maybe he just means he’ll knock them off the rolls of the Veteran’s Administration, so they don’t qualify as veterans anymore.

  • O’Reilly: Ed, Ed. If you know where’s a veteran, sleeping under a bridge, you call me immediately, and we will make sure that man does not do it, is not there.

    What’s he going to do? Beat the guy to death with a loofa and bury the body.

    What a useless fuck. There are homeless vets all over DC. Of course since they don’t all sleep under bridges (note he was very specific) I’m sure Bill’dO would say that doesn’t count.

  • Wow, what was “overly dramatic” about Edwards’ words? It sounds like he hit the nail right in the head, quoting the governments’ own statitistics. It sounds like the WaPo writer is the one using inaccurate language by calling Edwards’ words “overly dramatic.”

    O’Reilly should be a mensch and use his savings for this cause, now that he’s said it. He’s going to be getting another paycheck. He’s not going to lost anything for lack of money if all the dough he has collected in his lying-business goes to a good cause.

  • I for one am proud to live in a country where it is just as illegal for Bill O’Reilly to sleep under a bridge as it is for a homeless vet to do so. If that’s not Fair and Balanced then I don’t know what is.

  • If he really cares about homeless vets (and given Falafel Boy’s past history, that’s a big IF), then Billy can help with a Stand Down event.

    I participate every single year with my co-workers, around the holidays here in KC, and it’s both a depressing and uplifting experience. (It’d depressing that so many who have given so much now have so little and are all but forgotten; it’s uplifting to see how many people do come and help.).

    Maybe Bill should spend less time opening that hole under his nose and start actually contributing to those he claims to support so much. After all, if a dirty f***ing hippie like me does it, surely a brave culture warrior like he can.

  • Jeebus. I hope someone makes O’Reilly pony up the money.

    I’m not sure how you’d do it, though. The way things like this usually play out is the person making the heartless statement gets shamed into ponying up. And O’Reilly has neither shame nor a heart.

    I await him doing EXACTLY what people above have said he’ll do and claim that it only counts for vets actually living under a bridge – ones in homeless shelters, storm tunnels, and abandoned buildings “don’t count”.

    What. A. Tool.

  • O’Reilly consistently passes on false information and FOX can’t have the temerity to fire him? The man is incompetent on reporting the facts, any other news organization would reconsider his benefits to the network. But FOX keeps him on. I don’t get it.

  • I await him doing EXACTLY what people above have said he’ll do and claim that it only counts for vets actually living under a bridge – ones in homeless shelters, storm tunnels, and abandoned buildings “don’t count”.

    And if they’re living in their cars then they’re part of the Middle Class and proof that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent.

  • It would be cool if there was a huge Bonus Expedition Force-style march on the Fox studios of homeless veterans demanding promised shelter. Of course, it would stop being cool as soon as it ended up the same way as the first Bonus March (all bayonets and riot gear).

  • There are five or six bridges near downtown Tulsa with people sleeping under them every night. No doubt many of them are veterans. But Bill O, like Reagan before him, will just close his eyes. That’s what this flock does with inconvenient information – ignore it and deny that it’s there.

    “We have the best health care system in the world.”

    “There is no such thing as global warming.”

    And so on.

  • O’Reilly consistently passes on false information and FOX can’t have the temerity to fire him? The man is incompetent on reporting the facts, any other news organization would reconsider his benefits to the network. But FOX keeps him on. I don’t get it.

    Brattlerouser –

    This is sarcasm, right? His job is to pass on false information – the entire Fox infrastructure was built to pass lies and propaganda to viewers. I suspect that if O’Reilly ever accidentally uttered the truth Fox would broadcast a retraction and have him apologize for “misleading” his viewers.

  • I learned from Ronnie Raygun that poor kids are hungry cause they’re “all on a diet.”

    Maybe in O’Really’s world, homeless vets have all been eliminated by the pink-pistol-packing lesbian gangs?

  • I’m sure he’s as serious about taking care of veterans as he was about not trusting Bush again if Saddam didn’t have WMDs. The man is a liar and everyone but the wingnuts know it.

    http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-10.htm

    I would say that O’Reilly is an ass, but that would be an insult to asses. I would say he’s what comes out of an ass, but that would be an insult to the fertilizer value of manure. I guess he’s more like a pustule on the ass of Rush Limbaugh, not good for anything except supporting right wing morons.

  • Hey, time to organize a march of homeless vets on Fox headquarters in NYC to make BillO make good on his promise.

  • Dont be confused about what Mr. OReilly’s job is. It is to lie, be it thru push poll style distortions of the issues of the day or outright blathering lying bulying stupidity. Believe it or not there is an ugly slice of america his particular brand of venom really appeals to. Bill the Bully isnt the exception at fox, he’s the rule. Try sitting thru Cavuto’s broadcast every day for a week, its like being in the twilight zone. Fox News isnt the product being sold to the American people. Fox News is the propaganda wing of the new fascism, the neo-cons, military industrial complex we were warned about so long ago…….

  • How many other people of Irish descent are pissed off every time this bozo opens his mouth and proves that all the English slurs against the Irish have at least one example in reality?

  • There’s at least one, possibly two vets who stand on the train tracks on Columbus Blvd. in South Philly by the Wal-Mart and Home Depot.

    Then there’s another one further North on Columbus Blvd. at the turn lane for the I-95N/I-676W ramp.

    Whether or not they actually live under bridges is beyond my knowledge but they’re certainly not living in actual houses. Let’s send Bill and his cohorts out to investigate.

  • Not just under bridges, but in shelters, residential hotels without the appropriate social services. Who takes care of them? Those non profits run by lefties who did not “support the troops” but take care of the veterans. No yellow ribbons on their cars. We need some Saul Alinsky stuff, how about bussloads of vets camping in front of Fox Network and O’Reilie’s house. We need to stop all the friendly “community organizing” and get a bit dirty again.

  • Okie @ #16: All of which sounds a lot like “There are no gays in Iran.” Same crap. Different asshole. If you’ll pardon the expression.

  • So let’s let the Vets know….Fox in NYC and Billo’s house are sanctuaries fro Vets….
    Let BillO know how the troops feel about his support….Rock on BillO!!

  • How many other people of Irish descent are pissed off every time this bozo opens his mouth and proves that all the English slurs against the Irish have at least one example in reality?

    I’m one. (don’t let my moniker fool you)

  • you have to be careful not to think that he was talking about ‘all’ vets.

    you must not frame the argument that way. in the recording he referred only to ‘one’ which he would be more than capable of organising help for if taken up on the challenge and provided with valid and relevant details.

    any attempt to incorporate more than this ‘one’ by his detractors into the argument would just lead him to prove via recordings (incontrivertible proof) that he was and is a man true to his word and all the rest are just pinheads conducting a vicious left wing smear campaign against him as he can prove he has never said that he would help ‘all’ of them, that would be ‘ridiculous’.

    although i do have visions of billo and his other uptight faux mates giggling and dancing and singing out “Dont taze me bro” and “You don’t exist” as they chase these homeless people and taze them repeatedly before choosing the largest buck to take home for that nights feast.

    so maybe we should not tell him where they are.

  • While I agree with what most of you said and I think Bill and Fox news is a waste of oxygen and space, respectively, the fact that there are homeless vets is not really a new story. It is not an easy one to solve either. As you can see from the VA statistics, 47 % suffer from mental illness and 70% from drug or alcohol abuse.

    Folks like this don’t always want a home. That’s not to say we shouldn’t help them, by god, any of them that wants a place to stay should be afforded that opportunity, but my sister (a social worker in Boston at one time) used to work for the VA, and many of these guys were already tied into the VA system (how do you think they get the stats) but it was never as simple as offering them a cot or place to stay. Those with mental illness stop taking their meds and return to the streets, those with dependency issues have a hard time breaking those addictions, and many of them are just more comfortable on their own.

    It’s a truly sad situation and I think more should be done to aid those that can and want to be helped. And I definitely think someone, a VA social worker in a major american city, should volunteer to take his stupid ass on a tour of what the real world is like.

  • Also, note he was only speaking to Ed. Only Ed will be allowed to call O’Really immediately and do the reveal.

  • The military and their families are just props in the big show for Republicans. Very few powerful Republicans have served, and given the sociopathic lack of empathy O’Reilly has for his fellow Americans his comments are not in the bit least surprising.

    That being said, it’s hard for me to get exorcised over this as the military and their familes are some of this corrupt administration’s most ardent supporters.

    Of all the ex and current military vets I know to a person they are blindly supportive of Republicans and Bush, even as they acknowledge his misadventures and abuse of the military they take such pride in.

    This is a form of mental illness at least as great as an illness that makes someone to want to live under under a bridge.

  • You guys are all missing it. O’Reilly isn’t going to help house anyone. You find a guy sleeping under a bridge and he’ll just call the local cops and have him thrown back out into the rain.
    This is what’s known on the right as “supporting the troops”.

  • #33- what was that line about “the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges…”
    Yeah, O’Reilly would simply have the cops get them out of sight.

  • I’ve been fuming about this whole thing for the last 48 hours and that’s because while O’Reilly is certainly a major DB – he also represents everyone else in this country who hears these statistics and just closes their eyes to the problem. There have been countless articles about homeless vets and homeless Iraq vets since this war started – but very little is being done to prevent it from stopping.

    I encourage everyone to check out a great film about homeless veterans – It’s called WHEN I CAME HOME and it focuses on veterans who end up homeless in New York City after returning from combat in Iraq. You can check out the one-minute trailer at:

    http://www.whenicamehome.com

    If you buy the DVD, you can direct some of the money to an organizaton helping homeless veterans. We must do more to help our returning veterans!

  • How many homeless war veterans were there during the Clinton administration?
    With your math,it would be around 198,500.

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