Sorry to put two posts from Keith Olbermann one after the other, but I just had to post this video. If nothing else, he is a great resource for a blog like mine.
Mr. Olbermann went on his show during the Special Comment section and talked about his ill father. The story is the same as many families have experienced with a loved one who is terminally ill. These patients go through many tribulations and their families are stretched very thin. I don’t wish that type of situation on anyone, even Mr. Olbermann.
Here is what I take from the end of this story (if you stayed with the video that long.) Keith told us about his father’s interest in just having the plug pulled (he wanted Keith to kill him to end the suffering.) He brought up the talk of Death Panels and that no one should have the say whether treatment should be stopped. Who is doing this right now with the current health care system? No one.
Whether there will be some kind of “death panel” or other entity deciding on end of life decisions is up for speculation. If a bill actually gets passed and signed into law, we’ll see where that goes. If the government is involved in the system, whether directly or just paying the bills, you can bet there will be some type of involvement in treatment decisions. I’d much rather have a private health insurance company deciding my fate or that of my family than some government worker or panel, but that is just my preference.
I assume that Mr. Olbermann just felt like taking some kind of cheap shot at the “ghouls” as he calls them (that’s code for the hated Republicans.) So be it.
I love this video. It really puts things in perspective with regards to MSNBC and their idea of diversity. Yes, I know, they have non-white analysts and guests, but their anchor lineup looks a little pasty. I’m just sayin’.
Mr. Olbermann has been very critical of the Tea Party Protests wondering where the people of color are at these events. Well, Keith, the gauntlet has been laid down. I can’t wait to see your attendance and coverage at the Dallas event.
If you are not Keith Olbermann and are in the Dallas area, consider attending this event. It will be held on Saturday, February 27 from 12 Noon – 2pm at the Dallas City Hall. They have some great speakers coming including Steven Crowder, Alfonzo Rachel among other great guests.
I don’t always agree with Ed Koch, but I liked his views espoused on Neil Cavuto’s show on Fox News. He was commenting on that the President has refused to call the foiled Christmas day airplane attack as an act of terrorism. No surprise that he is being totally PC and seems to have an aversion to creating any waves with radical muslims.
Over the last 10 months I have been involved with attending and tracking various Tea Party Protest events. I have attended two events here in St. Louis and really had a good time at each one. I took my kids to the first one in February in the shadow of the Gateway Arch. I wanted them to be present at an event I saw as very pivotal to our Republic. It was truly the beginning of a much larger movement that quickly spread throughout the country without the help of Republicans or any other high level party official. The buzz term of the moment is that it was truly organic in nature.
When this movement started to gain steam and be noticed by the main stream media, those on the left decided to associate this movement with a sexual term called “Teabagging.” For those of you who are not familiar with the true origins of this term, I’m not going to describe the act here on this blog or provide a link – google it if you choose.
Mr. Olbermann was one of the first to coin this term and it actually caught on (I assume it is because of the outrage from the Tea Party Protesters (the preferred term) rather than the paltry viewers he receives each night.) Now it seems that the this term has been chosen by the Oxford University Press selecting it as second most popular “word of the year.” Although Keith was instrumental in creating the buzz on this one, he is now deflecting the blame, if you will, to those in the protest movement. If he actually cared to do a little study on the origins of the group name it had to do with the parallels to the Boston Tea Party and the taxes that were imposed on the citizens by a governmental power. Evidently he had to wait until the Oxford University Press defined it for him. This is what happens when we have a fundamental disregard or blatant ignorance of history.
Keith, you are a blithering idiot of colossal proportions. You are the one that had these perverted thoughts of “teabagging” and I for one would like to hear you actually own up to it instead of alluding that you simply had some hand it exposing the term. The fact that it has caught on with the public and some are using the term to describe themselves has more to do with the evolution of the word by your doing.
My only bone to pick with this movement is why it took so long to get started.
I found this story interesting. It highlights a new hotel owner in Taos, NM. He bought a distressed hotel and decided to run it his way (since it was his money.)
I applaud Larry Whitten. I like the fact that he is not backing down. He explained in the interview that he fires everyone and they have to reapply for their jobs. Also, having someone use an easy to recognize name is common practice in customer service arenas – try and contact a call center and log what name they use. I’ll bet it is something simple.
Evidently CNN’s Rick Sanchez has changed his name to be more accepted by the American audience as illustrated by this clip. Sanchez also agreed with the hotel owner and his policy for those people answering the phone and dealing directly with customers.
The bottom line is that this is Mr. Whitten’s hotel – he paid for it and is responsible for making it profitable. He understands business. If he is successful, more local people will have jobs and that is real job security.
I don’t watch Neil Cavuto on a regular basis, but he always seems to cut through the BS and really hit home runs. In the clip below he slams White House Communications Director Anita Dunn on her dislike for Fox News.
Is Fox News really biased outside of the opinion shows? I hardly think so. The fact that more Americans trust this network to give them the real story shows that they are on the right track.
Let’s examine the opinion shows:
Glenn Beck – Somewhat conservative but very independent thinking. He’s no Republican.
Bill O’Reilly – I can’t tell what his leanings are – he really seems independent to be, but I know most lefties will disagree.
Bret Baier– Independent and balanced.
Greta Van Sustren – Independent and balanced.
Sean Hannity – Conservative and very right leaning. Very biased on the right.
Geraldo Rivera – Liberal.
Sheppard Smith – Liberal, very biased on the left.
Where is the vast right wing bias? Even with the opinion shows thrown in, I don’t see the big deal.
Many people, including myself, have a problem with the whole White House Czar thing. Unelected and unconfirmed with limited oversight by any government agency, other than the White House, seems to be an extreme power grab. Not to mention many of these czar’s seem to be, in my humble opinion, payback positions for past loyalty. Now, this is not new concept in the political world, but still disturbing to this blogger.
The Gatway Pundit, always on top of the most relevant issues, highlighted the link between the new Green Czar, Van Jones, as a 9-11 Truther. Those of you who don’t know what a 9-11 Truther is, these people feel that the Bush Administration caused the 9-11 attacks to perpetuate a war in Iraq. These people are the extreme left-wing and I do not believe they represent main stream liberals, but I wonder why there is limited coverage on these screwballs while the “birthers” are highlighted on page one. Just asking the question.
Respected Leaders and Families Launch 9/11 Truth Statement Demanding Deeper Investigation into the Events of 9/11
NEW YORK CITY, NY (Oct. 26, 2004) – An alliance of 100 prominent Americans and 40 family members of those killed on 9/11 today announced the release of the 911 Truth Statement, a call for immediate inquiry into evidence that suggests high-level government officials may have deliberately allowed the September 11th attacks to occur.The Statement supports an August 31st Zogbypoll that found nearly 50% of New Yorkers believe the government had foreknowledge and “consciously failed to act,” with 66% wanting a new 9/11 investigation.
Focusing on twelve questions, the Statement highlights areas of incriminating evidence that were either inadequately explored or ignored by the Kean Commission, ranging from insider trading and hijacker funding to foreign government fore warnings and inactive defenses around the Pentagon. The Statement asks for four actions: an immediate investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, Congressional hearings, media analysis, and the formation of a truly independent citizens-based inquiry.
The Statement’s list of signatories includes notables spanning the political spectrum, from Presidential candidates Ralph Nader, Michael Badnarik, and David Cobb to Catherine Austin Fitts, a member of the first Bush administration, as well as Washington veterans like Pentagon Daniel Ellsberg and retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern. Other signers range from peace activists like Code Pink president Jodie Evans and Global Exchange’s Kevin Danaher to former US Ambassador and Chief of Mission to Iraq, Edward L. Peck; from environmentalists like Randy Hayes and John Robbins to business leaders such as Paul Hawken and Karl Schwartz, CEO of Patmos Nanotechnologies; from populist journalist Ronnie Dugger to renowned investigative reporter Kelly Patricia O’Meara.
The Statement also includes 43 noted authors, including New York Times #1 bestseller John Gray, as well as 18 eminent professors, historians, and theologians. Other notables include five-term Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, singers Michelle Shocked and Michael Franti, and actors Ed Asner and Mimi Kennedy.
Also included on said list was none other than Van Jones, White House Green Czar. Interesting. I wonder what the response from the media would be if President Bush would have put forth some right-wing radical that pushed for the murder of abortion doctors? I’ll guarantee Keith Olbermann would have made him the “Worst Person in the World.”
***UPDATE***
Over the weekend new Green Czar, Van Jones, resigned his position. I’m sure it was “encouraged” by the White House due to his sketchy past with Communism, left-wing radicals and 9-11 truthers. This morning on FoxNews Sunday, Howard Dean indicated that Mr. Jones was tricked into signing the 9-11 Truther petition.
OK, right Dr. Dean. And for his next trick, Mr. Jones will have monkeys fly out of his butt.
I wish all politicians had the outlook that Dick Cheney has on most issues.
Chris Wallace interviewing Cheney:
One thing you can’t acuse Cheney of is of not being upfront on his opinions and experiences. We need people not afraid of speaking their mind, but I doubt we will ever get anyone like that until they are out of office.
OK, maybe he’s not the worst, but probably one of the most idiodic.
If you don’t watch MSNBC, and by the horrendous ratings not many do, you might not know that Keith Olbermann has a feature on his show called “The Worst Person in the World.” This segment highlights the three of the worst people in the world (hence the title) according to Mr. Olbermann. It varies by the day from Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, etc., etc., you get the point. (I actually think that Keith has a secret crush on Glenn Beck by all the attention he pays his show – just pure speculation on my part.)
This particular day Rep. Wally Herger (R) from California served as Olbermann’s whipping boy. During one of Rep. Herger’s town hall meetings a gentleman came to the microphone and mentioned several things as well as admitting to being a “Right-wing terrorist.” Now you can judge for yourself, but he was obviously speaking tounge-in-cheek or as we like to call it Keith, he was being sarcastic. Evidently Keith didn’t get the memo.
I’m not really that surprised that Mr. Olbermann took the statement from Mr. Stead the way he did – that’s the premise of his show and his paycheck. The loony left that tunes into the MSNBC trifecta (Hardball, Olbermann and Maddow) would expect nothing less.
To the credit of Rep. Herger, he has not backed down from his original statement:
From a statement from the Congressman’s Office:
Congressman Herger stands by his statement in support of his constituent. Mr. Bert Stead is a taxpayer and veteran, who, like so many others, is rightfully fed up with being called “un-American”, or “extremist” or a “political terrorist” by liberals in Washington, for simply exercising his First Amendment rights. Mr. Stead served his country and therefore he is a great American. The Congressman doesn’t at all regret commending him for standing up, exercising his free speech rights, and expressing his strong concerns with the direction liberals in Washington are taking our country.
My interest is always peaked when gun issues or gun talk comes up, especially on MSNBC. A “controversy” came up with some of their reporting on protesters outside a venue President Obama was speaking at last week. The video below depicts selective clipping on the shots cropping out the top portion of the individual (who just happened to be a black gentlemen). The truth about the person in the video carrying the gun would have gotten in the way of their analysis that this was a racial statement – white people carrying weapons outside an Obama event. You pasty white racist homophobe honky rednecks!!!!!
To be totally fair and balanced, clips used on Rachel Maddow’s show did pan out on the individual carrying the so-called “assault” weapon. The ensuing conversation was of no interest to me, but I’ll give her show props since her brethren did not have nearly as much balance (or what can be construed as balance on her show).
Now I have no doubt that some in America are upset that a black man is in the white house – but this is a fringe element. )He did, afterall, get over 50% of the vote in this hostile racist country!) Most that are opposed to President Obama are opposed to his policies and not the color of his skin. These guys on MSNBC are idiots, plain and simple.
The citizens showed up in St. Louis to grill a representative for Senator Claire McCaskill on “health care reform.” This is an outgrowth of a peaceful protest that occurred at Senator McCaskill’s office regarding her ideas to transform the US health care system. Her staffers botched the interaction so to make good they set up this forum. They expected 150 people to show up – they got over 1,000! What a turnout.
This is a growing trend of the citizenry that actually gained national exposure on Greta Van Susteren’s show on Fox News:
Hopefully this will be a growing trend around the country so we can get some “real” reform without the government sticking it’s nose in the mix.
In this time of quasi-Socialism in the United States, Neil Cavuto hit it right on the head. Everyone in Washington is all up in arms about bonuses at AIG (although they all knew about the bonus structure BEFORE it hit the news cycle) even though these bonuses were in the overall contracts. People who work in this area of sales know that bonuses make up a good portion of their income. The fact that the amounts are much larger than most people make in a year is irrelevant. Capping executive pay is really up to the shareholders and the board of that particular company. These kind of demands on pay come when money is accepted from the taxpayers.
It is curious that the same type of bonuses were paid to executives at Fannie and Freddie (remember those companies?) but the same outcry didn’t happen. I wonder why? Maybe it has to do with the fact that the news was released on a Friday afternoon / Saturday morning – well outside the normal news cycle (a typical tactic used by politicians -on both sides- to defray the public opinion on a subject). Maybe it is the influence of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd? (These yahoos partly created the problem) Maybe it is the fact that many major players from the Obama administration have worked for Fannie and Freddie over the years? Maybe the execs at Fannie and Freddie have compromising pictures of certain members of Congress with farm animals? Who really knows….
What do we consider obcene? How much is too much to make per year? What business is that of the government? This is typical class envy at the highest degree and we are starting to see the electorate really lash out at higher income earners. I guess I can only hope to one day be one of those hated high income earners!
I suppose, as mentioned above, this is what you get when you accept money from the government (i.e. taxpayers). An excellent reason NOT to finance failing companies, but what do I know.
Anyone who has followed voter fraud at all has heard of ACORN. They have been tagged in voter fraud cases from shore to shore, but still we give them gobs of money…er…stimulus payments (i.e. payoffs for a job well done in the 2008 election) to continue their vital work.
Now these people are starting to become even bolder by staging protests in the homes of foreclosed homes. Seems that they feel that these people should stay in their homes even though they are not paying their mortgage payments. If the shoe was on my foot, I’d be out of my home ASAP, but not the people that ACORN represents (the dumb, lazy, stupid, etc.). I have no other explanation for this type of behavior.
Stuart Varney of Fox Business Channel would have nothing of it, obviously taking a page out of Rick Santelli book of effective confrontation. When are we going to have more of this behavior from the journalists of America? When will they stop being lackeys for the left and start actually reporting? I know, pipe dream.
It seems that these people feel a new sense of entitlement. Wonder where they got that idea….
If you haven’t heard Rick Santelli’s rant from the Chicago Board of Trade floor regarding the idea of a mortgage bailout, it is worth a couple minutes of your time. He says it all in a few short minutes summing up the frustrations of average Americans (those outside Washington).
How many “bailouts” and “stimulus bills” can we handle. We’re already printing the money to cover these boondoggles because we can’t afford any of it. What happened to personal responsibility? How about letting these people who overextended themselves to fail? If I treated my children like the government is treating it’s citizens, he will grow up to be an incompetent wimp.
Failure is the first step to success and we need to let people fail so they can pull themselves up to success.
Robs Rantings 