Comments on: Obermann Swings!

Obermann Swings!

thedoctorpants — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:18:27 -0800

The City of Louisiana. Keith Olbermann has crystallized my thoughts exactly(embedded wmv, qt vid here) regarding the ineptness (or is it the complete indifference?) that has played out for us in the past week.

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:43:14 -0800

Wow. That was amazing. Walter Cronkite would've been proud.

By: gen

gen — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:53:01 -0800

[This is VERY good tv, and I don't say that often.] This is the kind of TV that I think Jon Stewart would appreciate, and I appreciate myself. Keith Olbermann in Wikipedia.

By: thedoctorpants

thedoctorpants — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:53:13 -0800

I stood up and cheered when I watched the video.

By: peacay

peacay — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:54:10 -0800

What a pedantic wanker. Anyone could have made that slip of the tongue and despite all of his obvious faults, Chertoff is under enormous pressure - he spoke wrong, so what? I don't necessarily disagree with what this clown's saying but it's just another op-ed piece isn't, but with film? Maybe its well spoken or well written but...this doesn't warrant its own FPP in my opinion, to put it gently.

By: blueberry

blueberry — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 02:55:49 -0800

A lot of good similar videos available at http://onegoodmove.org/1gm.

By: filmgeek

filmgeek — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:00:27 -0800

Solid opinion. Really hits home. I hope someone posts the text here.

By: thedoctorpants

thedoctorpants — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:01:39 -0800

Peacay. If you don't get what he said I'm not going to explain it to you. I'm sure Marie Antoinette's comment was also just a slip of the tongue. Well, I can try.. He was using that comment as a starting point. He was actually pointing towards a much larger problem that exists in our country and, especially, in our gov't. If he he was talking about only 'the slip' he would have had a much different editorial and I would not have posted the damn thing. It's all about understanding context and the theme.

By: thedoctorpants

thedoctorpants — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:02:15 -0800

the text is posted in the entry.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:07:13 -0800

Like I read somewhere, I think it did suffer a bit for the fact that it was hung on that slipup -- but really, it was just another straw. Olbermann is a good guy.

By: peacay

peacay — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:28:11 -0800

thedoctorpants, I got it. It was the backbone or at least bookends of his spiel. The housebrick of the year award for subtle irony. He may be a good guy blacklite, but this was still a single link op-ed piece. I'll bow out though if you all want to soak up the attitude. I would have thought that there were ample more important factual pieces [thanks orthogonality] around that could have either bolstered this FPP or have been the main emphasis anyway.

By: qwip

qwip — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:38:38 -0800

peacay, you seem to be angry with the wrong people.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:39:48 -0800

What a pedantic wanker. Anyone could have made that slip of the tongue and despite all of his obvious faults, Chertoff is under enormous pressure - he spoke wrong, so what? Well pecay, FEMA also sent a load of "refugees" to the wrong city of Charleston. But sure, anyone could have made that mistake too. It would be wrong for us to assume that FEMA really are as clueless as their words and deeds suggest.

By: dabitch

dabitch — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 03:51:15 -0800

It's embedded windows media, btw, not quicktime. Shame.

By: Treeline

Treeline — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 04:05:56 -0800

This refuses to load properly as embedded video for me, so here's a direct link.

By: vhsiv

vhsiv — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 04:57:21 -0800

Embedded Quicktime version mirrored here.

By: tidecat

tidecat — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 05:48:41 -0800

Thanks, thedoctorpants. We need more of this on our primetime.

By: schoolgirl report

schoolgirl report — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:15:39 -0800

I though the city/state mixup was a slightly forced entry into his piece, but the heart of the piece itself was spot on. If none of you have watched Olbermann before -- and given the general aversion to cable news talking head shows, I'd understand -- I'd encourage you to start. He is by far the most clear-headed of the bunch. Yes, he delves into the absurd (i.e. Michael Jackson) -- this is cable news, mind you -- but when he does politics he's usually on the mark both with his questions and his own analysis.

By: peacay

peacay — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:23:46 -0800

Well Michael Jackson will save them all.

By: realcountrymusic

realcountrymusic — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:38:40 -0800

He is by far the most clear-headed of the bunch. And a former sportscaster shall lead them. KO is a light in the darkness. Truly impressive. He speaks for me. Peacay, the pro-Bush bluster doesn't cut it on this one. Bush has so undermined our national security, which always relied on our ability to come together in times of crisis, that our nation's ability to respond to this seems completely inadequate. More than lying us into war, more than casually outing CIA operatives for political vengeance, more than blatantly favoring the wealthy and the wacko right with policies that accomplish nothing good for the country, this episode defines what the Republican agenda is all about. The harder they come, the harder they fall. Bush is done. Stick a fork in his administration.

By: JWright

JWright — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 06:47:03 -0800

Olbermann rocks. Best news show on TV, and kudos to him for a piece of old-school commentary. Well thought out, well presented, clear, and long enough to make its point - rather than yet another 12 second rabid sound bite from one side's talking head or another.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:02:12 -0800

Fantastic.

By: Imperfect

Imperfect — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:10:45 -0800

Holy crap. We've all heard this kind of condemnation of office before from all kinds of would-be pundits on the web, but to hear it straight up from a major news source is phenominal. And most interestingly, he's not the only one, just the latest and most heart-warming.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:11:46 -0800

Good on him.

By: wah

wah — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:16:11 -0800

best photoshop evar.

By: mcsweetie

mcsweetie — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:16:15 -0800

zing!

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:18:08 -0800

[corrected fpp link to say wmv and added qt link]

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 07:55:59 -0800

Wow. Double-plus good.

By: esquire

esquire — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:12:00 -0800

Keith Olbermann for President!!! Jon Stewart for Vice President!!! It is time that our country became united in favor of more efficient government, and I think that a certain extended cable talkshow host who was fired by ESPN and another certain extended cable talkshow host who used to do jokes about asslicking at Rascals on the Jersey Shore are just the people are country needs right now. Please join me in bringing this campaign to the people (making websites, literature, etc.) Thank you.

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:14:45 -0800

Is there any more tedious MeFi member than esquire? The answer may not surprise you.

By: ereshkigal45

ereshkigal45 — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:35:38 -0800

Keith Olbermann has been the thinking girl's crush since his early days on ESPN. It's been nice to see him break out of the Sports ghetto.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:45:44 -0800

Frankly, it's surprising and refreshing to hear/read a well written editorial delivered in a professional manner.

By: holycola

holycola — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:50:09 -0800

> What a pedantic wanker. Anyone could have made that slip of the tongue and despite all of his obvious faults, Chertoff is under enormous pressure - he spoke wrong, so what? I think the point of using the slip was that it exemplified the lack of understanding and competence, not that Chertoff actually believes that Louisiana is a city. He even calls it a slip of the tongue and says about as much in the beginning of the piece, then moves on to the substance of the critique. For what it's worth, anyone could have made that slip. That Chertoff is under pressure is no excuse for his abysmal performance. He and Brownie should be spending life in prison for their criminal incompetence. As for Bush, well saying what I think would likely win be a visit from the secret service, and I'm in Canada.

By: gwildar

gwildar — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:53:50 -0800

is this kind of thing unusual on American TV?

By: deanc

deanc — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:54:33 -0800

Keith Olbermann has been the thinking girl's crush since his early days on ESPN. It's been nice to see him break out of the Sports ghetto. Someone speculated that sports journalists are more competent because it's a field where talking points and spin are meaningless. At the end of the day, everyone knows who played well and who played poorly. Someone trying to claim, "we should be playing the 'blame game' over who lost last night's game" would be laughed at. That would explain a lot about Olbermann. For some reason, though, the MSNBC schedule in Boston did not broadcast Olbermann that evening.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:57:51 -0800

Someone needs to tell esquire that satire should actually be funny. Otherwise it ends up sounding like the bleatings of a blowhard with a stick up his ass.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 08:59:39 -0800

[the administration] has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water. Yep.

By: thedoctorpants

thedoctorpants — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 09:36:02 -0800

Just got back from work... Peacay, no harm no foul.. No attitude here. My first post..after a long time of reading.. I will fill 'er up more next time.. I am just so happy to hear this type of comment on national tv.. It's about time.. More to come??? I hope.

By: blendor

blendor — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 09:42:26 -0800

Hell yes.

By: peacay

peacay — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 10:23:41 -0800

thedoctorpants...no worries. I didn't know it was your first FPP. But this would have been better added to one of the other Katrina threads. And qwip, it was a touch of exasperation, not anger. We've had 80+ Katrina FPPs and now we are served an op-ed. I flagged it and it's still here - no problem. I don't much like making a MeTa callout fuss of these things. It's definitely not worth it on this occasion. And RealCountryMusic may otherwise regard me as a shmuck and although I won't pretend to toe any American political party line, mentioning "pro-Bush" and my name in the same sentence is not only offensive in so far as my posting history to this site would indicate, it smacks of a reactionary dismissiveness that's totally uncalled for. Read what I wrote. I hope the bulk of the left don't engage in such intellectually lazy myopia or the open and shut case RealCountryMusic sees against the Bush administration will be a breeze for Rove et al to sidestep.

By: nofundy

nofundy — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 10:36:15 -0800

And speaking of the "blame game" comments (thanks for the reminder deanc) coming from the White House spin machine, who the hell thinks this is a game anyway? Those cretins are to blame and they damn well need to accept that. It may be a game to the "eating cake and playing guitar" crowd but to patriotic Americans this is damn deadly serious. And I mean deadly, as in thousands of corpses.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 10:37:48 -0800

is this kind of thing unusual on American TV? Certainly ever since 9/11. But around '98 or so the political media got sidetracked into investigating blowjobs. A lot of the current crop of "newsreaders" (surely a more accurate term) got their start then, and it shows. And a former sportscaster shall lead them I remember watching the live coverage on NBC sports of the '96 Olympic bombing. It was late at night, so all they had in the booth were the second-string sports anchors. They were tremendous -- they didn't have the polspeak, they didn't have the bouffant anchorisms, they didn't have the need to grandstand. They only felt comfortable reporting the facts, and we got a lot of that. This state of affairs lasted about an hour, when Brokaw showed up and went on air (standing outside somewhere around Centennial Park) with only the sketchiest information at his fingertips. The information that I began receiving for the effort of watching declined dramatically, even as Brokaw's Nebraska accent and concerned half-smile brought "humanity" to the broadcast. It was stunning. I've never forgotten it.

By: deanc

deanc — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 10:45:59 -0800

Uh, I meant to write that in sports journalism that someone trying to claim , "we shouldn't be playing the 'blame game' over who lost last night's game" would be laughed at. But you probably figured that out.

By: muckster

muckster — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:22:24 -0800

At a news conference, Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush's choice for head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency had 'absolutely no credentials.' She related that she had urged Bush at the White House on Tuesday to fire Michael Brown. 'He said 'Why would I do that?'' Pelosi said. ''I said because of all that went wrong, of all that didn't go right last week.' And he said 'What didn't go right?'' 'Oblivious, in denial, dangerous,' she added.

NYT: Democrats Assail White House on Katrina Effort

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:43:49 -0800

realcountrymusic writes "Peacay, the pro-Bush bluster doesn't cut it on this one." Um, have you actually ever read anything peacay has written? You might start with his first comment in this thread, which is neither pro-Bush nor bluster.

By: nofundy

nofundy — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 11:48:10 -0800

Now is not the time to play the "Blame Game" muckster. :-) Thanks for the link. Pelosi must hate America's freedom and liberty and democracy and apple pie to be talking about our Dear Leader like that. I bet she's one of them damn liberals from France or something!

By: digaman

digaman — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:16:09 -0800

Great post.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:21:04 -0800

'Oblivious, in denial, dangerous,' she added. That sums it up nicely. I'm amazed someone in her position had the guts to say it.

By: weston

weston — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:30:38 -0800

Well, as long as we're pushing op-eds... I almost hate to do it, but Friedman's got one.

"If the Bush-Cheney team seemed to be the right guys to deal with Osama, they seem exactly the wrong guys to deal with Katrina - and all the rot and misplaced priorities it's exposed here at home. These are people so much better at inflicting pain than feeling it, so much better at taking things apart than putting them together, so much better at defending "intelligent design" as a theology than practicing it as a policy."

Ouch.

By: weston

weston — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:31:54 -0800

OK. That link didn't come out right... should be: Osama and Katrina.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:33:46 -0800

That article mentions a plan to give every adult evacuee a debit card with $2000 on it. That's good -- but I hope that the card distribution will be accompanied by a tutorial on how to best use it; for instance, on a security and first-month for an apartment. Some of the people may rarely have that much money at once to dispose of, and the experience of having lost all personal possessions and been deprived for days of basic necessities may trigger a spending urge. I know it would in me. I would probably need a pep talk to encourage me not to become parted from the money too easily.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 12:56:47 -0800

"If the Bush-Cheney team seemed to be the right guys to deal with Osama" "I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority." -- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02 Somebody tell me that if Gore had been elected in 2000 and ended up saying that 6 months after 9/11 the wingnuts wouldn't have strung him up by his balls. But like most things coming out of this administration, I guess it just goes into the cognitive dissonance file if you are a partisan republican. I posted the following on another thread, but I'll repeat it: The reference to Churchill was great. IIRC this was from 1936-37; Churchill was in Parliament debate, and at the time was in strident opposition to the pacifist/appeasement current of the entire British society. The debate was about Britain's reaction to the news that the Luftwaffe expansion was outstripping the RAF's efforts, and Churchill rightly teed off on the government's (I believe it was the PM, Baldwin) argument that they had not received a mandate from the people to begin spending money on defense.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:36:54 -0800

That article mentions a plan to give every adult evacuee a debit card with $2000 on it. That's good -- but I hope that the card distribution will be accompanied by a tutorial on how to best use it; for instance, on a security and first-month for an apartment. Right, it's also a sop and a drop in the bucket, 2k is not going to cut it. Not that it isn't great and all, but it is going to be a textbook example of why poverty is self-reinforcing. On topic, It's nice that the media is finding it's huevos after 5 years, but I am already getting that sinking feeling, like the sound of all these media people patting themselves on the back is going to drown out the cries for help.

By: Heywood Mogroot

Heywood Mogroot — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:02:27 -0800

Divine: funny thing is IMV it's an economic fact that regular subsidies to the poor just drive up the rents they pay. While food may be the #1 human need, supply and demand for it is somewhat elastic; with shelter, on the other hand, supply is fixed and demand, for most people, is rather inelastic (about the scope, if not quality, of basic minimums). This results in any regular, monthly aid to the poor eventually ending up, indirectly, in their landlords' (or lenders') pockets, in areas where housing is not in superabundance (and there is always price competition to "move up" where there is equilibrium between supply and demand). (the wider the subsidy, the more pronounced this effect is; I don't think it's controversial to argue that the mortgage interest deduction gives about a 20% boost to all home valuations).

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:17:30 -0800

Here's a clip of Pelosi. And here's one from last night's Daily Show.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:19:53 -0800

Yup and food costs more in ghetto supermarkets, the kind people walk to. I am totally into the "market" but it is not nearly close to being a good mechanism for social support and humanitarianism.

By: fenriq

fenriq — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 15:24:52 -0800

I was bummed when Olbermann spread his wings and flew away from ESPN but now I'm glad. He's got the brains, pace and balls to be an excellent journalist and this piece of his was well written and articulate. It demonstrates just how badly FEMA failed and continues to fail. That these "leaders" were elected because they shouted loudly that they could protect us and they could not. That Dick Cheney promised that Kerry/Edwards would wind up with people dead. He's merely reminding the nation that these are the same people who didn't lead at all last week. Excellent essay and Olbermann's just been added to my Bloglines subscriptions.

By: brandz

brandz — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 19:12:32 -0800

olbermann is probably the best there is on cable. his delivery is spot on plus he's got a brain.

By: esquire

esquire — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 19:47:51 -0800

Clevershark and SamIam, I am not going to criticize your ways of snapping off pointless one-liners, but it would be a great favor to me if you would cross-post all of your player hating to metaesquirefilter.com. Thanks a bunch.

By: calwatch

calwatch — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 22:05:31 -0800

For those of you without cable, you can watch Olbermann on WDSU-TV as they stream MSNBC through the overnight, at midnight Eastern Time.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:01:40 -0800

Olbermann's Time Line

By: Relay

Relay — Wed, 07 Sep 2005 23:38:07 -0800

Possesses six lumbar vertebrae instead of the usual five. Was raised Unitarian. New York Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch accidentally hit Keith's mother in the head, during a botched play at Yankee Stadium in 1998.

By: realcountrymusic

realcountrymusic — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 14:12:06 -0800

I'm late returning to this thread as I am traveling, but whatever I said about Peacay's comment being "pro-Bush bluster" was obviously wrong. I may have confused it with another post, but can't figure it out now. That said, I was amazed to receive an incredibly vitriolic private email from Peacay after that very mild snark accusing me of "slander." Sheesh.

By: peacay

peacay — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 17:11:54 -0800

Vitrioloic!? Heh. I also said "slandering my political position". Do you mischaracterize and misread often?

By: realcountrymusic

realcountrymusic — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 22:41:40 -0800

Yeah, vitriolic. What's the distinction between "slandering" a "political position" and "slandering" a person, except that the former is poor grammar? Meh.

By: peacay

peacay — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 23:15:18 -0800

Grammar shot aside I'll be sure not to accuse you of being pro-Bush without some justification.

By: realcountrymusic

realcountrymusic — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 10:40:47 -0800

Okay, peace. I apologize for taking you and your remarks out of context. I find myself unrelentingly upset about the situation on the Gulf Coast and it's coloring my every thought. I am pro-Bush, you know. I am a strong supporter of his candidacy for a criminal indictment or ten.