Hating America

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thank you for watching us tonight.

Hating America. That is the subject of this evening's "Talking Points Memo."  According to a new poll, 40 percent of Canadian teenagers think America is an evil country.  Among French-Canadian teens, the number jumps to 64 percent.  Those numbers can be laid right on the doorstep of the Canadian media and government

As you may know, the FOX News Channel is not allowed in Canada, but CNN is.  Fair and balanced? You decide.

The USA takes a relentless pounding from many Canadian news organizations and from the liberal government. So, what can we expect from the kids? They're not getting a full picture.  And neither is most of the world.

Increasingly, the bully America is being portrayed as the devil.  And the far left in this country is gleefully piling on.  Guys like Michael Moore [are] running around the world telling everybody what a bad place America is. Moore and his enablers should be very proud of themselves

For the benefit of the Canadian kids, let's take a look at the record:

•The foreign and defense policies of Ronald Reagan (search) resulted in the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the freeing of approximately 122 million people in Eastern Europe.

• The state of Israel would cease to exist if not for American protection, and about 5.5 million Jews would be in grave danger.

• Nearly 23 million Taiwanese would be denied freedom if not for American protection.  More than 48 million South Koreans would be living under a dictatorship if not for American protection.  USA action led to the removal of the Serbian dictator Milosevic (search), who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans.

• The USA and Britain removed the Iraqi dictator Hussein, who was responsible for the murders of hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East.  And we have also removed the terrorist Taliban government in Afghanistan.

• America is sending $15 billion to Africa to help victims of AIDS.  We were unable to find out how much France contributes, if anything.  To be fair, Canada sends $270 million, which is substantial.

• American action in Central America, Grenada (search), and Haiti (search) has kept millions of people out of totalitarian regimes.  Of course, all of this has cost every American taxpayer big.  And thousands of American servicepeople have lost their lives protecting people overseas.

It is insulting and dishonest for Americans and Canadians and Europeans to condemn this country because they don't like certain policies.  Dissent is good.  Slander is unacceptable.

The truth is that the USA has freed more human beings in 230 years than the rest of the world combined. France has freed almost no one. Ditto Canada.

So, pardon me as I object to the Michael Moores of the world — and that man is too cowardly to come in here, all right?  Pardon me as I object to the anti-American foreign press and bums like Chirac in France and Chretien in Canada.

America has a provable history of freeing oppressed people all over the world in fighting evil dictators.  Canada should be ashamed that so many of its young people are flat out ignorant.  And Americans should wise up and realize we are living in a changing world.  Old friends are not necessarily true friends.

And that's "The Memo."

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day"...

Last night, FOX News [Political] Analyst Geraldine Ferraro attacked the Halliburton (search) Company for overcharging.  She did that in response to a question about the UN oil-for-food scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY:  I don't want to talk about Halliburton, because it's not been proven they did anything wrong.

You've got an oil-for-food investigation that's going to blow Jacques Chirac (search) out of the water.

GERALDINE FERRARO, FOX NEWS [POLITICAL] ANALYST:  Forty-five dollars a case for Coke — a case of Coke?  I mean, what are we doing charging...

O'REILLY:  Well, you show me — look, if somebody's paying $45 for a case of Coke, I want to know about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY:  All right, so we investigated, and here's the deal.  A Kuwaiti company named La Nouvelle did attempt to charge the U.S. government $45 for a 30-can case of Coke. That comes to a buck-and-a-half each. But they did some other stuff, too.  Instead of sending the cases, they sent individual cans. They tried to cheat the government.

Halliburton says it's resolved the situation by withholding payments to that subcontractor.  So, there's always more to this situation than people like Geraldine want you to know.  Maybe she doesn't know, but we do, and that's the deal.

—You can watch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Most Ridiculous Item" weeknights at 8 & 11p.m. ET on the Fox News Channel. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com