KEITH OLBERMANN: First, because there's one emotion missing from all of the following — empathy — here are "Countdown's" nominees for today's "Worst Persons in the World."
The bronze? To — ah, quelle coincidence — good old Billo the clown and his straight woman, Laura Ingraham.
In the continuing effort to portray Democrats as "hatchet murderers," using federal funds to conduct widespread abortions that — who knows, might soon become mandatory — they have revived the annual ritual of the horrified reading of the yearly organizational report from Planned Parenthood.
O'Reilly, whose repeated invocations of the phrase "Tiller the Baby Killer" contributed to a terrorist's assassination of Dr. George Tiller in Kansas three years ago, now seems to be trying to set the atmosphere for similar violence against Planned Parenthood or the politicians who support it.
(Excerpt from video clip) LAURA INGRAHAM: But the key fact is, Bill, that Planned Parenthood really exists — yeah, it does all these other things for sure, but abortion is the core business of Planned Parenthood.
(Excerpt from video clip) BILL O'REILLY: That is their core business, there's no doubt about it.
(Excerpt from video clip) INGRAHAM: No doubt about it. No doubt about it.
OLBERMANN: No doubt about it, except the fact that of the medical services Planned Parenthood provided in 2010, abortions totaled three percent. Three percent. In other words, for every one abortion Planned Parenthood is involved with, Planned Parenthood provides five cancer screenings, 11 contraceptives, and 13 tests for sexually-transmitted diseases. You would think all the above would interest O'Reilly.
So, why is he so wrong? I mean, apart from his uncontrollable lying and religious fanaticism? Well, he seems to be — look a little impaired again.
(Excerpt from video clip) O'REILLY: They get 500 million dollar taxpayer dollars, every, the last quarter that there was — not quarter — but the last year that they — have reported. That's what they got."
OLBERMANN: O'Reilly added, "I like scotch. Scotchy-scotch-scotch."
Our runner-up is Congressman Allen West, R-Mars. He has added two new names to the list of groups he hates, believes is destroying his America, and is promising revenge against. There are Muslims, Iraqis, Democrats, liberals, the guy who dared to run against him in the last election, that guy's supporters, the women, the gays. And, now, Republicans. Seriously.
"I was very upset about what happened with this payroll-tax-cut extension," West said. "When we get back to D.C., the first House GOP conference, we're going to have some serious discussions about "How do we get ourselves on the same sheet of music?" because we really felt that our leadership did not stand up against the Senate Republican leadership, who kind of sold us down the road."
As with all puritans, West will eventually denounce everybody but himself. So, stand by to be accused, Visiting Nurse Association.
But our winner? The new president of Penn State University, Rodney Erickson.
Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse there, The Associated Press got hold of four memos sent in November by the new leaders of the school who replaced everybody who was fired for ignoring or covering up the horrific pedophilia scandal.
In one memo, President Erickson told the 47 members of Penn State's Board of Trustees that if they got any backlash from the school's donors, they should remind them that Penn State had a "non-refundable gift policy." In other words, "No, you can't get your donation back."
But the highlight was on November 14th, in the memo Erickson wrote, in which he told the board that in one day there had been a 50 percent drop in "blogs, tweets, news stories, Facebook postings, YouTube videos, etc." about Penn State. "Review of Top 20 search items on Google today shows no Penn State terms on that list for the first time in nine days."
And then, almost proudly, he added that he'd gotten positive feedback after doing two TV interviews. "This is another indication that we are taking control of the narrative of our story."
In short, while the nation was still horrified at what Jerry Sandusky had done — literally at Penn State — and worried for his victims and enraged at a university bureaucracy seemingly devoted to enabling all of this to happen, the new President and the board of trustees were worried about themselves, and whether or not they had taken control of the narrative of the story.
And after thinking about this all day, I don't know what's more infuriating. The fact that they felt this way or the fact that they were stupid and arrogant enough to write it down.
Penn State University President Rodney Erickson — today's "Worst Person in the World."
