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

O’Reilly volunteers Fox News to provide housing for 195,000 veterans
Posted January 16th, 2008 at 1:40 pm

The Carpetbagger Report

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?