John Gibson (who thinks another 9/11 would be good for America) has been trying to fend off his own irrelevance by trying to be a bigger, dumber, more dishonest, more racist Bush apologist than Bill O’Reilly. But as CNN and MSNBC have learned with their misguided attempts to imitate FOX’s flawed conservative “journalism” (Tucker Carlson, Glenn Beck, Joe Scarborough), you can’t outfox FOX, and you can’t be a bigger, more dishonest jerk than TV’s biggest, most dishonest jerk. But Gibson is certainly going to try.

On Gibson’s “My Word” editorial on November 7, Gibson did his best to explain why Bush’s record-setting low approval rating was proof that the “liberal” media was tricking America into not realizing how awesome everything in the US truly is. Just your basic, lie-filled, conservative rant about how we’re winning the war, the media has fooled you into not realizing how successful you are and how good you have it, and how once everyone alive now is dead, Bush will seem truly awesome. But there were a few parts that really jumped out at me:

On another front we have full employment, and the economy is sailing strong into a storm of $100 a barrel oil.

On yet another front, a published report today said that homelessness is virtually over. People may have crushing mortgages, but they have homes.

So all in all, the war is going in our favor…Bush has made sure you have a job, and this economy has insured you have a home.

So here’s some homework for you.

Go to any gas station in America. Walk up to anyone pumping gas (especially if they’re about to give up about $100 to fill up their truck or SUV), and cheerfully tell them that the record-setting price of gas shouldn’t worry them a bit since we’re all “sailing strong”. Then either duck or run.

Then try to find this “published report” that claims that homelessness is “virtually over”. Gibson never mentioned the name of the report, what group conducted it, and no link is provided in the transcript. I googled “homeless report 2007” and all I got were reports about how Los Angeles has at least 68,608 homeless people on any given night (10,100 of which are children); a HUD report that at least 754,000 people are in emergency shelter, transitional housing, or on the streets on any given night; and a report claiming:

In the past year the number of homeless New Yorkers in shelters increased by 11.1% (to 35,113), the number of homeless families in New York City shelters increased by 17.6% (to 9,190) and the number of homeless children increased by 18.1% (14,219).  Most striking, the report finds that the average number of families in shelters hit an all-time record high last month – with the Department of Homeless Services reporting a monthly average of 9,287 families in the city’s shelters in February.  

Gibson’s claim is also a bit confusing because on Nov. 8, the day after he gave his editorial, foxnews.com ran an AP story (here’s a non-FOX link to the same article) called “1 in 4 US Homeless Are Veterans, Private Study Finds”, which contained these sad tidbits:

Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job. –snip-

2005 data estimated that 194,254 homeless people out of 744,313 on any given night were veterans.

Some advocates say the early presence of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan at shelters does not bode well for the future. It took roughly a decade for the lives of Vietnam veterans to unravel to the point that they started showing up among the homeless. Advocates worry that intense and repeated deployments leave newer veterans particularly vulnerable.

"We're going to be having a tsunami of them eventually because the mental health toll from this war is enormous," said Daniel Tooth, director of veterans affairs for Lancaster County, Pa.

I guess all those people “virtually” don’t exist. Next time you see a homeless person (and I guarantee you will), be happy in the fact that they practically aren't right there in front of you. In regards to having a job, Gibson also must’ve missed this from the same article:

After being discharged from the military, Jason Kelley, 23, of Tomahawk, Wis., who served in Iraq with the Wisconsin National Guard, took a bus to Los Angeles looking for better job prospects and a new life.

Kelley said he couldn't find a job because he didn't have an apartment, and he couldn't get an apartment because he didn't have a job. He stayed in a $300-a-week motel until his money ran out, then moved into a shelter run by the group U.S. VETS in Inglewood, Calif.

Then try to find the data that supports Gibson’s claim that “crushing mortgages” haven’t stopped people from keeping their homes. Because all I could find was articles about how the US is breaking records for foreclosures, like this one:

The Mortgage Bankers Association said more than 2.1 million Americans with a home loan missed at least one payment at the end of last year — and the rate of new foreclosures hit a record.

The problem is most severe for borrowers with scuffed credit and adjustable-rate mortgages. More than 14% of them were behind on their payments. And the worst is yet to come, the MBA said. At least $300 billion in subprime ARMs will reset this year to higher interest rates. Those borrowers face higher payments and a harder time refinancing.

Blindsided by the number of loans that have already gone bad, more than two dozen lenders have gone out of business or been purchased. –snip-

In the final quarter of last year, 0.54% of homeowners with a mortgage began foreclosure proceedings — a record — up from 0.46% in the third quarter.

So remember to thank Bush for all this, plus the groovy Iraq war that is going so well that Bush and the republicans never want to leave.

I’m no expert and I don't have a team of researchers (as real news organizations have), but it didn’t take much to completely debunk all of Gibson’s claims. Heck, I could debunk most of them on foxnews.com.

So if you are a FOX viewer, here’s the thing you need to realize: Gibson and the rest of FOX lie to you because they think you are a complete moron. They think they can tell you any logic/reality-defying lie they want because they comfortably believe that you do not have enough neurons to use google or read. They think you are a mark, a dupe, a rube, a fool. They don’t care how misinformed you are. Actually, they want you to be misinformed. The question you should be asking is “Why?”