Bill O’Reilly may fashion himself a great patriot but he sure hates the state of Colorado. Last night, in an O’Reilly Factor discussion about the state’s failure to outlaw the use of welfare cards in marijuana shop ATM machines, O’Reilly lamented the loss of “traditional” Colorado. He seemed to trace that loss directly to the influx of Californians and Hispanics.

The segment was a fourfer for O’Reilly in that it gave him a chance to demonize Colorado, the legalization of marijuana, the poor and (illegal) immigrants. While O’Reilly has endorsed immigration reform lately, he has in the past viciously scapegoated immigrants

As a video report during the segment explained, Colorado’s marijuana dispensaries are a “cash only” business because banks do not want to be involved in what is still illegal under federal law. The Denver Post has a lengthy analysis of the problems of ATM machines in marijuana dispensaries. As The Post lays it out, the real concern is money laundering and lack of regulation of the machines, not welfare recipients.

But, not surprisingly, O’Reilly ignored the other problems in his zeal to hone in on welfare users. And to suggest that hordes of stoner welfare queens and kings are literally living high on the hog on his taxpayer money. “This could be the new face of America,” O’Reilly warned.

Later, at around 4:15 in the video below, O’Reilly opened up the discussion to be about Colorado in general. He said:

When I was there, in 78-80, it was a traditional state. It wasn’t a liberal state. And then people from California started to come moving out, a lot of Hispanic Americans came up or, you know, people who were trying to be nationalized citizens, and the whole demographic of the state changed. You always had Boulder, which was liberal, and you always had Colorado Springs, which was conservative. Now that state is insane. It’s crazy. No Jessica’s law. They won’t pass that – one of only five states that won’t pass it, alright? And now, this pot thing is just out of control.

Now, I don’t think O’Reilly meant to blame undocumented Hispanic immigrants as a major cause of Colorado’s “insanity.” But I do think it’s pretty clear that’s what he thinks.