When students return to Virginia Tech in early September, there will be a concert starring the Dave Matthews Band. On the program is a gangster rapper named Nas, a man who makes recordings that are as violent as they come.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NAS: Shoot 'em up. Just shoot 'em up. Kill, kill, kill, murder, murder, murder. Shoot 'em up! Just shoot 'em up! What? Kill! Kill! Kill! Murder, murder, murder. Got yourself a gun. Yo I'm livin' in this time behind enemy lines. So I got mine. I hope you got yourself a gun!
Start cockin' up my weapon, slowly loading up this ammo. Bust a shell at the ground. Pellets hit the ground. Nobody like a snitch. Everybody shut they mouth. Woolrich, Carhart, gun powder stains.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
So let us put this into perspective. After 32 human beings are murdered at Virginia Tech, a concert welcoming students back features a guy who traffics in violent lyrics.
How disturbing is this? The villain here — VT president Dr. Charles Steger, who knows Nas is inappropriate, but is too cowardly to do anything about it. We called Dr. Steger, but he would not explain this atrocity and said his communications guy Christopher Clough told us, "I saw the FOX report by Douglas Kennedy and it was crap. I don't expect any better from Bill O'Reilly."
Fine, but here's the kicker. VT's student newspaper editorialized against Nas performing. Usually, the students rally behind a pop figure. Not in this case.
The paper says, "It is hard to imagine that our school officials not foreseeing this problem when they agreed to let a rapper known for violent lyrics perform. Songs that glorify murder do not belong at a concert for the friends and families of murder victims."
That student editorial is dead on. So why is Dr. Steger embarrassing his own university? Well, he's got a history of lacking in courage. He allowed Marcus Vick, the brother of Michael Vick, to continue to play football despite numerous criminal activities. His administration was widely criticized for not alerting students to the early violence last April. And of course, more people were killed because they were not warned.
With this latest court decision, it is clear Dr. Steger has to go. If one of my children had been killed at VT, I could not forgive Steger for this latest abomination.
Now if you would like to let Virginia Tech know how you feel about this, Steger's e-mail and phone number is posted on BillOreilly.com. As always, please keep your comments respectful.
Finally, the governor of Virginia, Timothy Kaine, needs to step up here. You may remember that Kaine sat out the Virginia Beach controversy over a criminal illegal alien killing two teenagers, but enough's enough, governor. Having a rapper who trades in violence performing at Virginia Tech insults the victims, the university, and the entire Commonwealth. There is no excuse for this. And that's “the Memo.”
Most Ridiculous Item
Time now for "The Most Ridiculous Item of the Day." I got a few letters criticizing my interview with Rudy Giuliani last night.
Michael McGrew, who lives in Beaverdam, Virginia, wrote, "You blew the interview with Rudy, Bill. You should have confronted him about what he said 10 years ago on illegal immigration. He protected illegals."
Well, it's a legitimate question, but last night's conversation was focused on what the mayor would do as president about illegal immigration. I did, however, ask him about the New York City situation.
Roll the tape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'REILLY: Here in New York City, you've got a million illegal aliens, many of whom came when you were mayor. And Romney is saying, "Hey, you were a sanctuary city guy. Now you're a tough guy. What about back then?
RUDY GIULIANI (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I had to deal with was a situation in which we had 400,000 illegals at the time in New York. The immigration service was deporting no more than 1,500 or 2,000 a year. I couldn't deport them. So I had to do something with it.
And what I did with it is I put the kids in school, because if they weren't in school, I was going to have terrible problems. We allowed them to report crimes that were committed against them so we could catch criminals. And we allowed them to get services in the hospitals, which anyway, we're actually required to do by federal law. So these were sensible programs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
All right. And there is his explanation of that. And you can decide if the mayor's answer was ridiculous.
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