Closing in on Baghdad

To watch "The Talking Points Memo" in the Screening Room click here.

Hi, I'm Bill O'Reilly.  Thanks for watching us tonight.  We have a very lively broadcast for you this evening, beginning with the absolute latest from the Iraqi battlefield, and that is the subject of this evening's Talking Points Memo.

Baghdad being bombed right now.  Coalition Special Forces are inside the city hunting for Saddam and his lieutenants.  There is also shooting inside the city, which is dark right now.  Power is out.  U.S. commanders say the Iraqis pulled the power themselves.

Coalition forces are at the Baghdad airport right now, and found a network of tunnels underneath it.  Meantime, U.S. casualties continue to be incredibly light, less than 40 killed in combat at this point.  And CIA sources tell The Factor that Iraqis killed in action could top 100,000, as coalition air power continues to hammer the few remaining Iraqi divisions.

Also, the highest-ranking Shiite Muslim cleric in Iraq is urging his followers to remain neutral, undermining any chance of a holy war.

All in all, Iraqi organized resistance is falling apart.  All that remains is a seizure of downtown Baghdad and the cleanup after and the apprehension of Saddam and his henchmen.

That's the The Memo.

The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day

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

We have been telling you that The No Spin Zone paperback has been climbing up The New York Times bestseller list.  It was number eight last Sunday.  This Sunday coming, it will be number three.  And the following Sunday, it will hit number one.

Thank you all very much.

I'm especially pleased because this drives The New York Times just nuts.  And if you think I'm being ridiculous, listen to this.  My two books, The O'Reilly Factor and The No Spin Zone combined, have sold well over two-million copies.  Two million!  Yet The New York Times has not reviewed either of them.

So who's being ridiculous?