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Posts Tagged ‘Countdown’

Olbermann, Time for Reconciliation – Health Care Reform

Keith Olbermann presented one of his special comments on his show Countdown this evening. The quality of these is variable ranging from the blistering accurate to the so what. This one definitely belongs in the first category. It is spot on concluding that reconciliation is the only way to go, that the bill, as it stands, is a complete gift to the insurance industry and that there is no way on earth that an individual mandate without some form of public option can be good for the people.

He names names and everyone from Grassley to Obama gets it in the neck. He was extremely miffed by Gibbs ridiculing of Howard Dean earlier today. If anyone is qualified to speak on this it is Dean who has worked on healthcare and is of course a doctor. Olbermann thinks that the Whitehouse has badly misjudged the public mood on this and I think he is right.

In an interesting move Olbermann stated that if this bill passes he will not buy insurance and made a call for others to do the same even if they can afford it.

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UPDATE: full transcript here

No single payer? No sale. No public option? No sale. No Medicare buy-in? No sale. I am one of the self-insured, albeit by choice. And I hereby pledge that I will not buy this perversion of health care reform. Pass this at your peril, Senators, and sign it at yours, Mr. President. I will not buy this insurance. Brand me a lawbreaker if you choose. Fine me if you will. Jail me if you must.

But if the Medicare Buy-In goes, but the Mandate stays, the people who fought so hard and so sincerely to bring sanity to this system must kill this mutated version of their dream, because those elected by us to act for us have forgotten what must be the golden rule of health care reform. It is the same one to which physicians are bound, by oath: First do no harm.

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Obama Should be Drawing Down in Afghanistan

Opinion – (even more so than usual)

A quick thought about Afghanistan and Obama’s decision to ramp up the troop numbers.

Obama was very much for the Afghanistan war during his election campaign. Is it possible that the reason he was so pro this campaign was to provide a foil for his anti Iraq war stance?

This way he could oppose a deeply unpopular war (Iraq) but still appear strong on National Security by taking an extremely hawkish position re Afghanistan.

We all know that, to stand a chance of winning the US Presidency one must show a definite willingness if not pleasure at the thought of killing foreigners and blowing up their stuff. Yep, the extreme right, especially the neocons have poisoned the well that much.

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California Dreaming

This segment of Countdown was billed as being about the Miss Heather, whoops sorry, California on the day she gave a news conference for Trump publicity purposes. It was that for sure as it showed the self important, over entitled airhead in all of her willfully ignorant glory.

Despite the light tone of the piece, Olbermann did an excellent job of deconstructing the first amendment, explaining in simple terms exactly why it is not a pass to say whatever one likes to whoever one likes without fear of repercussion or consequence. Of course Miss California’s whining about how her free speech rights have been trampled on (they haven’t) provided the perfect foil.

Enjoy:

The chip on Miss California’s shoulder, her incessant whining and her ability to lie and distort at will, makes her a great candidate for Republican politics.

Keith Olbermann’s special comment

A specific attack on Citibank’s expenditure of $10m on office redecoration after receiving bailout money. broadens out to a more general attack on corporations calling among other things, for corporate actors to be punishable for the crimes of their corporations.

Interestingly, he also calls for FCC regulation to extend to Cable TV channels. No mention of GE (MSNBC’s owner) or the NBC family though. Generally I agree with Olberman but his constant attacks on other media operations but never his own is his Achilles heel. He must be aware that Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, The daytime himbos and bimbos and General Electric are not that much different from the Time Warner CNN and the Murdoch empire.