KO opened one huge can of whoopass on Obama.

Please, sir, may I have another?

Your comments to Mr. I-worked-in-Congress-so-the-rest-of-you-can-stfu were also must see television Jane. Muchos Kudos.

Righteous fucking indignation.

/sanctimony

Yeah, what he said! I watched him last night. I changed my name in light of the season. ;-)

I tried sending the link to my auto surgery diary to Mr. Olbermann because he’s been so involved in trying to get health care to people who can’t afford it but it keeps bouncing back as undeliverable. Oh well, I sent it to Obama too.

Good on Keith.
We were cheering at my house yesterday; it’s nice to see Old Keith back in form.

Yep. Something tells me he won’t be invited to any White House press mixers in the near future…

KO rocked last night

You knew Keith was going to rip OBAMA a new one, when he told Howard Fineman, he did not expect the WH to invite him to any Christmas Parties any time soon.

“KO exposed how this WH works, they had a SENIOR AIDE call KO, and try to tell him to toe WH line, like their other lackeys, Lawrence O’Donnell, Chris Matthes, and Ezra Klein”

Keith went all PACMAN on OBAMA!

Obama now knows the left is going to PUNCH BACK

Yep, it was deeply satisfying — on the heels of that very disturbing Obama press conference.

Something I noticed is that Olbermann seems to understand, in contrast to Obama and his inner circle of advisors, that this depression we’re in is a problem of demand, not any particular form of supply. Olbermann’s is basically an entertainer who does news. It’s sad that he has a better grasp of our economic situation than the folks running our government.

137 million, yep Bank of America on the local nooze. Gotta pay the fine for bribing local business leaders. Oh boy!

I only watched the first couple of minutes, which were a Bill O’Reilly-style “I’ll ask my guest questions, and then I’ll answer them” yawn fest. O’Donnell’s a wanker, or at least he plays one on TV.

I watched every minute of this on-air last night. I went from the edge of my seat to on my feet. I applauded at the end.

Keith, Bravo! Encore! Encore!

A nice chaser. Or antidote.
Oh, Jane, question. Has the policy changed about poster names changed with the new myfdl? Previously, we weren’t allowed to change our names more than once or twice. I’m just wondering if there’s a policy change. Thanks.

Had to change my name back. The moderators didn’t like it.

Huge can, SD.

I sensed that Olbermann was channeling Edward R. Murrow.

Good, all around.

DW

I watched it on a link last night. But, previously, when watching a particularly moving Special Comment, I’ve done what you describe. Sometimes with tears.

Amen.

“Good night, and good luck.” ‘Cause we’re all going to need it.

Jane, thank you so much for trying to warn the rest of us for the last two years. You must have felt like Cassandra.

I watched this late last night. It made my freaking day. It’s nice to see him get back to form. The last 2 years he’s been soft. This is the KO I remember from 3 years ago.

I think they pissed him off when NBC suspended him for his donations.

I understand it’s hard to put up with Tweety O’Donnell and I normally don’t but Jane rocked. I happened to be on a thread right after I turned him off when somebody mentioned she was on so I turned it back on and was glad I did.

Far less impressive was O’Doh’s effort to reduce political reality to the limitations of Congressional procedure. I only had him on while Jane, Adam and Roger were on. Five minutes after that segment was over, I had to change the flipping channel.

Yes, Yes! She has been on top of the issues. Too bad congress has no eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

By the way, Jane, could you also post a link to your “constructive feedback” to Lawrence O’Donnell? My wife refused to listen to that pompous insider ass, so I missed it on TV last night.

And, Jane, the reason I’m asking is I’d dislike for some of my friends here to change their name for a particular thread and then be stuck with it forever. Know what I mean? Something can be funny during the context, but then it might be detrimental down the road. And, thanks again, for creating this place.

David Axelrod must have turn his TV off after KO, because he did not watch Rachel, because he looks like a fool today on TV!

Rachel said, from the re-action of Dems and Reps, one can clearly see the REPS WON. the REPUBLICANS are HAPPY the DEMS are MAD

Axelrod is trying to say the Republicans had to swallow some tough stuff?
well the GOP is not acting like it Axelrod. most of the GOP looks happy to all of us.

David Axelrod, we know KO ripped you and OBAMA some new ones, but you should watched RACHEL, she ripped you a new one also.

Go sit down, AXELROD, please stop making people LAUGH TODAY

WINNING TEAMs CHEER = Republicans
LOSING TEAMS are usually depress and mad = Democrats
tax bill score in a nut shell

Rachel also sad they laugh at you “OBAMA WH”, and then you become irrelevant.

Very nice. Ultimately pointless, I’m afraid, but very nice nonetheless.

All ya’ll purity trolls need to back the f*** off and let me do my thing.

[/Barry]

What KO should have said, “There is a sure way to tell if Obama is lying or not…..check to see if his lips are moving.” Then KO should have followed that by telling us that the next big issue Obama will spin and lie about will be Afghanistan. This unwinnable war and illegal occupation is costing 10 American lives every week. It is also forcing us to borrow $100 billion dollars every year from the Chinese. By claiming that we must continue this fight in Afghanistan until 2014 and beyond, Obama makes clear to us that he is a warmongering corporate shill. Peace

I don’t watch KO these days as I’m of a mind that he has been too protective of this WH, and have avoided Special Comments because he appeared to approach (gulp) “sanctimonious” – but took a peek after seeing Jane’s tweet and man oh man, he hit everything

where’s this guy been ? :D

All y’all sanctimonious purity trolls need to back the f*** off and let me do my thing.

Fixed it for ya.

KO for President! at least he has a grasp of what this country needs and it is NOT tax cuts for the rich.
I sure love it when Keith gets in the face of these mealy mouthed weak spined assholes who do the MOTU’s bidding!!

apparently, sanctimonious is the new shrill

You’re being so sanctimonious! Pshaw!

I’ll have to buy you a drink, apparently.

We’re not creating new accounts to get around moderation rules or hide our identities. Just having a bit of fun.

Damn, and here I was thinkin’ of changin’ mine to something really offensive to reichwing trolls.

You sanctimonious purist, you.

Hokey smokes! I liked the bit about Obama negotiating himself down from a position of strength better than any politician in our recent history. He’s got that right!

Blanche Lincoln!!!

As well you should!

Like maybe “rational person?”

I watched with great enthusiasm and I was not disappointed. First of all, I contributed to Obama’s campaign knocked on doors made phone calls, traveled long distances (even with my bad back) to campaign for him, and I am deeply disappointed: first of all with myself, for taking my “faith’ – in spite of being an atheist – in Obama. He was a politically new entity, not with much experience, but circumstantial ‘evidence’ – his work as a community organizer, his education, dedication to service instead of Wall Street’s attractions, etc., were the basis for the ‘faith’. My second disappointment is with the weakness of the progressives. The left in this country, in spite of what the objective conditions ought to engender, is sickly, disorganized, neck deep in hedonism, and can’t get its shit together to mount a real opposition to the cowardly, opportunistic two-faced Obama administration and the Democrats in general. Why can we not find and elect more Bernie Sanders? Why can we not bring a few hundred thousand people to Washington and jam the corridors of Congress and “convince” those pimps for the rich that their pay-masters do need a tax break? Etc.

The last time Keith moved me like that was back in Dec 2009 when he spoke out forcefully against the Senate health care bill. Link to transcript and video.

You have just agreed to purchase a product. If you do not, you will be breaking the law and subject to a fine. You have no control over how much you will pay for the product. The government will have virtually no control over how much the company will charge for the product. The product is designed like the Monty Python sketch about the insurance company’s “Never-Pay” policy … “which, you know, if you never claim — is very worthwhile. But you had to claim, and, well, there it is.”

[snip]

Mr. President, the line between “compromise” and “compromised” is an incredibly fine one.

[snip]

There is only one redemption possible. The mandate in this bill under which we are required to buy insurance must be stripped out. The bill now is little more than a legally mandated delivery of the middle class (and those whose dreams of joining it slip ever further away) into a kind of Chicago stockyards of insurance.

[snip]

I call on all those whose conscience urges them to fight, to use the only weapon that will be left to us if this bill becomes law.

We must not buy federally mandated insurance if this cheesy counterfeit of reform is all we can buy.

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.

I’m happy that Keith’s back!

Axelrod will just write Olbermann off as the “Professional Left”.
This deal has really screwed Democrats for years to come.

Yawn. KO special comments will do just as much good under O prez as they did under W.

How about “Southerner with Drag On”?

Sez Axelrod:

“We don’t like extending even temporarily the tax cuts for the wealthy, more generous treatment of wealthy estates, that was the price Republicans demanded for a very significant package of tax cuts for the middle class and tax cuts to help businesses grow and hire.”

The Republicans made us pay a high price in tax cuts for the tax cuts we wanted. We’re fighters!

Uh … dude … America can’t afford any more tax cuts, for anyone, at any time, ever again.

I will. In June! Moving my tribe down to Austin then.

Click on FDL tv above.

It seems there is no such thing in Obamaland as a principle too important to compromise, or a price too high to pay.

WooHoo! I’ll probably see you there, (assuming of course I can find a job myself)

I disagree. The left is learning that it can’t trust anyone in power to do what’s right regardless of the labels or rhetoric. We can mock teapartiers all day long, but they attack Republicans when they think they’re betraying their principles. It took most of the left far too long to learn that we have to do the same thing.

Nah, something more along the line of “libertarians blow goats” or “Rethugs are motherfuckers.”

I think the WH will call over to NBC, GE, Comcast, whoever, and try to get them to muzzle Keith. A year ago it worked. This time, not so much.

LOL

The only way that the Trojan condom Horse can get any credibility back is if he prosecutes Cheney for blowing up the World Trade Center.

We’re fighters!

Motherfuckers couldn’t fight their way out of a wet paper bag.

Still it is great someone is saying live and on the air that BO is giving away the Middle Class.
We will have only two classes those who are rich and the 99% of others who will live in financial fear of having no food or shelter. And there will be no safety nets period. You will be on your own and when you can no longer pay you and your family will be discarded like so much trash.

By the way, Keith is being too generous in comparing Obama to Neville Chamberlain. By all accounts that I’ve seen – including that of Churchill, who was certainly in a position to know – Chamberlain was at least acting in sincere good faith at Munich, however foolish his actions may have been. A better comparison would be Marshal Pétain selling the rest of the world down the river in the Vichy deal.

I’m almost through reading Matt Taibbi’s Griftopia, and I’m currently in Chapter 6, “The trillion-dollar Band-Aid: health care reform”. On page 197, he writes:

Obama’s campaign deceptions on health care were both incredibly specific and grossly serial in nature, and are suggestive not of an idealistic politician who was forced to change course once reality set in but of one who spearheaded a comprehensive, intentional campaign strategy to buy votes with empty promises.

I suppose “low information voter” is a relative term. I thought I was following Obama fairly carefully, but there are a lot of things in Matt’s book that make the current debacle much less surprising – things I now wish I had known much earlier.

They made him go stand in the corner over some trumped up pretext. Maybe Scotland Yard will arrest him for something.

To my mind Barack Obama has made himself into a creature more loathsome than Bill Clinton. Both politicians provide a smiling face for the Reagan reaction when that pestilence wants to seduce the “little people” instead of stabbing them in the face, Reagan being the only Republican who could effectively seduce the “little people.” I hope the Obama Presidency puts to rest forever the lesser evil calculus which has kept the “lesser people” yoked to a political machine that cares not a damn for them.

It’s good to learn that Olbermann has thrown his supply of Kool-Ade down the drain.

Sirota just tweeted a link to a new Bloomberg Poll showing “that only a third of Americans support keeping the lower rates for the highest earners”

The survey, conducted before, during and after the tax negotiations

but can’t find the actual poll in any of the links on the page – dangnabit !

I will have to buy you a drink as well.

O prez? Looks like W prez part 3.

When you lose Mary Landrieu on principle, you might consider that you made the wrong deal instead of bashing the “left”. I would hate to think that Mary Landrieu has gone leftist on America.

Hoping you’re right & I’m wrong, but I doubt it.

Seems like they’re huffing paint in a wet paper bag.

Jane,
Would there be any possibility of getting a transcript of the Olbermann comments. I cannot get my computer to work on this format and I really want to listen to what he said. There were a lot of comments on it in the threads last night.
Also, way to go on Larry O’Donnell show according to the same comments. I do not watch that arrogant piece of dung. I read where you really put him in his place and corrected his mis-statements. Jane for President!!!

Hi Demi, I know that when I didn’t post for over a year and came back to comment, my old name LS was disallowed because they had to have a name with at least 4 characters, so I just doubled it lsls. I don’t know if that is relevant to your question, but just in case… :)

Raising the age-old Q of whether lip service is better than no service at all.

The Left has accomplished at least one thing this week. It’s getting loads of attention from the media for once. It might be a good idea to keep attacking Obama week after week to keep the spotlight on the Left. Peace

Thanks. I look forward to it. :)

We will have only two classes those who are rich and the 99% of others who will live in financial fear of having no food or shelter

Heard a commercial on the radio on my way into the office this morning. Salvation Army saying

“folks who have lost their jobs, their homes, and never expected to need the Salvation Army are now calling on us for help. They need food, clothes, shelter. These are your neighbors” – paraphrasing here…

Damn near broke my heart. I can’t believe our country is coming to this.

President Wonderfulness…

Oh, right! Thanks, and my apologies for the newbie oversight.

hang on – should be a transcript link over @ MSNBC vid page – brb

A wet paper bag that was open on three sides …

DW

So far today, my letter to Speaker Pelosi regarding the 99ers has not been responded to.

Hey, even the WH and DC got the message that people are mad. Don’t know just how it got there, but it did.

MSNBC link

15 second commercial – then mouse over lower right of video screen ’til you see “transcript” click on it. transcript will then appear to left (natch) of the video

Attacking the sellouts who call themselves Democrats has to be the single focus for the next two years. Let’s hope the media sees it as must-see political fighting for this upcoming election cycle!

Has anyone else noticed that Obama can’t take the heat from us?

A drinking game?
Yknow like the “Pull the Shirt” drinking game from Star Trek Next Gen?
But for this game, we drink each time the White House punches a hippie?
Uh oh. I’m already geschtunkenflucht!! And ists’s noly lunchhtitmtt.e

Two balls, no strikes on Olbermann. And the pitch. Olbermann swings and drives it to deep left centerfield. Oh, it’s deep. It is back, back, back, that ball is GONE! Oh, baby, he hit that thing a ton and it went way back. It was high, it was far, and it was gone!

Thanks, looking forward to getting the transcript.

In general, transcripts are well worth having even when audio/video is already available. You can’t do text searches in AV, nor copy and paste short text excerpts. (There might be some experimental pattern-recognition facilities available for such purposes, but I doubt they’re ready for prime time.)

For whatever reason, I can’t watch YouTube videos on FDL — they break up about every two seconds (I have DSL, by the way), and I just don’t have the patience.

I couldn’t find it on YouTube.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I wonder if Olbermann is unaware that using God’s name in vain is deeply offensive to religious people or doesn’t care. It is a violation of the ten commandments. Either way, it is stupid and unnecessary and turns off religious viewers.

As for the substance of his remarks, of course, it is largely correct. But frankly, I have found Olbermann nearly as wanting as Obama and so I find his indignation tiresome hypocritical bullshit.

Do you think Barack Obama has a personality disorder? He strikes me as a narcissistic or, possibly, antisocial personality. Something is definitely off in the man. I’ve never seen a politician spit on his base the way this one does. It’s odd.

Here’s a direct link to the transcript:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40566431/ns/msnbc_tv-countdown_with_keith_olbermann/

Jane has an even fresher cross-post already in progress: Millionaire Jared Polis Leading the Charge For McConnell-Obama Tax Cut Deal

Using God’s name in a comment on a blog to justify your opinion is probably in vain too.

cbl,
Thank you, I am going to go read it now.

Geez, even the trolls is all purist and sanctimonious …

The planet must have drifted through something … intangible.

Will sonders never wease?

DW

Motherfucker can’t take heat, period.

have been having that difficulty as well – on a Mac btw. initially thought it was an embedding problem, but seem to have no trouble when I go in and clear recent history

It upsets the delicate “equilibriums” … or such like things.

Harvard Boyz and Gurlz ain’t lookin’ none too good, these days …SD.

;~DW

SOB is better engineered to take heat than a space-shuttle tile. That’s been his purpose since he was elected. He’s an insulator.

Have ya noticed any time we get fired up the trolls come out of the woodwork?

Goddamn trolls smell, too.

Yep. Triangulation sucks, especially when you’re the target of it.

It’s all veneer and we’ve burned most of it off.

The fact that things are said here that may offend christians is why I find FDL refreshing.

No gods, no masters, just grown-ups talking about grown-up concerns.

In response to SD@93:

Maybe, but if he gets completely burned off, he’s still done his job protecting the moneyed interests.

It is hillarious how people try to attack KO

well the WH, must have feared KO, because they had a senior WH official call and talk to him. (maybe because he has the most watch show, on the so call liberal network that is MSNBC)

there is a huge difference between KO attacking BUSH and attacking OBAMA, one is a so call DEM, and one is REP

imagine Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hanity, attacking BUSH, like KO and Rachel attack OBAMA, so it is a very big deal. (can you spell “voters” KO was preaching to choir when he attack bush, when he attacks OBAMA he is speaking to OBAMA voters. BIG!!! BIG!!! DIFFERENCE!!!)

MILLIONS saw a liberal reporter rip a so call liberal president a part.

by the way 23 democratic senators are up for re-election in 2012. not 1 dem senator 23 dem senators.

the above video will be seen by a lot of people.

this is not 1994 people :)

Mr. President, You’re goddamned wrong.

Anyone calling him- or herself religious who takes offense at that statement needs to get some perspective and rethink their faith.

I like to think of it as double penetration.

Keith’s was fun in his usual bombastic style, but I though Rachel’s segment on “First You Win” was extremely powerful stuff. She said that Obama could be on his way to irrelevance if he doesn’t get better at negotiating, basically by turning the famous statement on it’s head.

First you win
Then they fight you
Then they laugh at you
Then they ignore you

Seriously good stuff. She also called him “baseless”, in every sense of the word.

The Internationale says it best, although the words in English are dreadful, both in the classic version and in Billy Bragg’s newer one, and desperately need to be rewritten (I listen to it in other languages, even ones I don’t speak – mostly Russian, Spanish, German, and the original French – and follow English translations).

The literal translation of the second stanza of the Russian version:

No one will grant us deliverance,
Not god, nor tsar, nor hero.
We will win our liberation,
With our very own hands.
To throw down oppression with a skilled hand,
To take back what is ours –
Fire up the furnace and hammer boldly,
while the iron is still hot!

Anything to raise a stink.

The nation and society can be turned into something resembling a Charles Dicken’s novel, or worse, with real and genuine human suffering on a massive scale, and, Jumpin’ Jehosephat!!!, the “name-of-the-Lord-in-vainers” get all concerned that Jehovah ain’t gettin’ due respectitude and that a few tender ears might fall off in surprise and shock.

The genteel and comfortable must NOT be subject to emotion around the plight of those they deem to be beneath them … sniff! … it upsets their digestion and equininity.

Cheese and crackers! … Got all muddy!

DW

I have no trouble (Linux / Firefox), but you might try right clicking then select “watch on youtube”.

Sorry, couldn’t help myself.

news flashed to trolls!

ever heard of e-mail?

e-mail list? with thousands of names

imagine them getting the link to the video above.

KO is rocking all over the internet TODAY!

another awesome day

trolling for Obama must be hard work

tell us the truth trolls Obama is really Bush cousin :)

good luck trolling

As much as I loved Keith’s fiery denunciation, I agree that Rachel’s coldly rational analysis was, if anything, even more damning. And her portrait of a President who is turning himself into a laughingstock for the Republicans, and impairing the prestige of the Presidency itself, may be more effective at getting under Obama’s skin; he has a very inflated and sensitive ego. That’s why he gets so angry at us progressives.

I agree with you!

Rachel was good last night

Ha! Like this miserable misogynist would ever support a woman candidate!!!

You is verra bad, hotdog.

So is me, heh, heh, heh …

That rocked!

;~DW

Ah, thank you. I read it, and it was very eloquent.

Check this out that Dave Weigel dug up from the primary wars, too.

http://slate.me/gJxbCr

Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois State Senate. He took a walk more than a 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves. All the right combinations. All the right footwork. But he never steps into the ring.

Video at the link.

My only disagreement with Rachel is that I don’t want to see Obama ignored, dismissed, or forgotten.

He should be held up for ridicule for decades to come and be remembered as an example of exactly what not to do to the American people: deceive them into helping get you elected only to turn around and screw them over and over again.

Or, the North American version: “we want no condescending saviors, to rule us from their judgment halls, we workers ask not for their favors, let us consult for all”.

Working people will never advance nor prosper on charity and “help” from the ruling elite. You’re right; working people must do it for themselves.

A las barricadas, campanero!

I agree this is must-see. Jes’ don’t be fooled that what you’ll hear afterward on Rachel Maddow, or beforehand on Ed, or anytime on Lawrence O’Downhill (please excuse the pointless reference to nothingness), will have any more than a pretend, empty, “me too!” relation to what you heard on Olbermann. They’ll try to attach their wagons to it, while still praising the intrinsic indispensableness of “the Obama preznissy,” and Rachel will not give (has never given) up her status as “invaluable” to Obama. Her last 5-10 minutes last night were insulting. I knew she’d do that. Now back to ignoring her.

Agreed. Cold and sharp as steel.

Yes, it would be nice if voters would look more at the evidence of what a politician has actually done, versus what they say.

Things like paling around with Lieberman and Blue Dogs.

Thank you and cbl for the transcript link. It was perfect and as someone said in the comments, “He hit it out of the park…”
Thanks Keith, you said what needed to be said.

That will happen. Openly mocked by the right, insurrection on the left, looking for support from a mythical middle. He is impotent, a pathetic sideshow. With each new demonstration of disrespect his credit is further damaged. His last two years will be in the wilderness, his loss and retirement ignominious.

Disagree. Rachel’s implication is ALWAYS that there is much to love, save, respect, salvage, and so on, with this president. Her point is more that he’s still our man and always must be our man, than to criticize anything about him. She’ll be his salvation in 2012, she and all who find her “incisive,” and all who do for him what she is doing. Obama’s feet are nowhere near the fire, never were, won’t ever be, you’ll see. He’s doing all this because he knows he can. Starting right off with that demonic preacher at his inauguration. I wouldn’t even accept a personal apology to ME from Rachel Maddow at this point. But what does she need with me? There are so many more of you.

By taking Obama down the Left will strike a blow to the head of the oligarchy. Peace

Hot DAMN!

He ripped Obama’s ass for a fare-you-well!

Someone sure as hell needed to.

BIG hat-tip to Jane for putting this up.

As always, we progressives lead the way in speaking the truth. That this time, we’re speaking it about one of OUR cowardly hacks, and the one who’s utterly reversed and squandered the great opportunity we helped give him, two years ago, is at least as much to our credit as speaking it about George Bush and the republicans.

We should all e-mail KO and MSMBC and thank him!

Rachel has never gone after Obama full-bore, but when Obama was pissing himself like a little puppy-dog because Faux and Breitbart were trying to gin up a witchhunt about Sherrod’s “racism”, Ed led the way in pointing out Obama’s disgusting cowardice.

Why he would hide out on this, is a mystery.

Obama will respond to pressure, but when we have these fucking Pollyanna bloggers like Kos and Digby who have to get their noses rubbed in Obama’s feckless shit before they’ll whisper a word of criticism of him, and THEN they’ll parse his sellouts to death, it’s tough to mount enough of a push on him to make him change.

Rachel’s implication is ALWAYS that there is much to love, save, respect, salvage, and so on, with this president.

Not at all. It was a dire warning, almost an ultimatum. More like “Mr. President, you are already a laughingstock to the Republicans, and if you don’t change course right now, you will soon be beyond redemption.” No doubt Rachel once felt the way you describe (as I did until quite recently), but I don’t see how you get that out of what she said last night.

BTW can someone find/post a direct link to a transcript of Rachel’s show? My computer-security software always causes problems with MSNBC video pages – as much as I love the content, I suspect they have some serious spyware running in the background.

Ezra Klein had me screaming at the tv yesterday – he is a tunnel visioned ass hat

“…if he doesn’t get better at negotiating…”

Which was utter bullshit for Maddow to say, in that it pretends that Obama is somehow going to increase his political capital when the republicans take over the House and substantially reduce the dems Senate majority.

John Boehner has Barack Obama’s political ‘nads sitting in a mayo jar on his desk. For the next two years, he’s going to be rattling them around like Humphrey Bogart with his steel balls, in “The Caine Mutiny”.

How much tough “negotiating” will we see from the lamest lame duck in our political history?

As always, we progressives lead the way in speaking the truth. That this time, we’re speaking it about one of OUR cowardly hacks, and the one who’s utterly reversed and squandered the great opportunity we helped give him, two years ago, is at least as much to our credit as speaking it about George Bush and the republicans.

Amen. Anyone who thinks MSNBC is comparable to Fox should listen to Keith’s and Rachel’s shows last night.

Obama’s now-constant bitching about the hippies is an indication of the fact that we still have some power, albeit, in a negative sense.

It’s like this: If the most loyal segment of the democratic party is bailing on Mr. Centrist now, then what’s going to happen to him 12-18 months down the road?

It’s a rhetorical question. What’s going to happen is that he’s not going to have enough political capital to wipe his ass with, much less try to get another 4 years for more of this wretched crap.

I agree. As perverse as the Right can be, they aren’t (quite) wrong about everything, and the main things we can learn from them are:

1. While charismatic leaders are important, we can’t personalize politics too much. Charlatans abound, and we have to be prepared to drop anyone who has truly betrayed us.

2. We have to let both sides know we mean it. Someone remarked in a comment the other day that when the far Right talks about, for example, primarying a politician, they aren’t bluffing. And they don’t make calculations of the likelihood of success (which are notoriously unreliable anyway) in cases where they’re attacking someone whom they clearly can’t trust.

Jane, thank you for posting this clip.

Are there any surveys or petitions online regarding this Tax Deal that FDL’ers may go to to sign or fill out?

So “we” missed the details huh?

I heard Axelrod speak on NPR this morning. He said, relative to the tax deal, that the Obama Administration would not play Russian roulette with the lives of Americans. Which is true. In Russian roulette, only one chamber of the revolver has a bullet in it.

The trolls have a case of the mindlessly-happy thigh-sweats because more and more progressives are bailing on Obama.

Their turn is coming. :o)

When Sarah Palin declares for 2012, and the republican party is trying to deal with a candidate from the bible-zombie wing of the party, who thinks that God wanted us to invade Iraq, and that women pregnant from rape or incest should be forced to carry to term, we’ll get our chance, as the flat-earth society scares the living shit out of American voters. :o)

companero – spelling correction.

Ezra Klein has turned into the worst kind of tool-shill sell-out, just like his idol, Obama. When Klein comes on the tv (the very little that I watch), I flip the channel. There’s *nothing* that Klein has to say that is of any interest to me; I know who he is: a greedy grifter, just like Sarah Palin.

wait, i missed this video. linkety?

Wow. I don’t watch Olbermann, because I don’t watch much television and dont’ pay for cable, but wow. Well said and well done!

Thanks Jane for recommending it. Otherwise, I doubt I would’ve watched it.

and the Blanche Lincoln part was hilarious, and of course, tragic as well, for its truth.

What makes this clip resonate is not only the correctness and eloquence of KO’s comments, but also the sincerity with which he delivers them. Just as did you, Jane, when you were on O’Donnell’s show last week and talked about the absence of leadership coming from Obama and the Senate, and how the House vote was a sham. It was not only what you said, but also the passion and conviction with which you said it that made all the difference. Obama is ineffectual at selling ideas or proposals because he apparently doesn’t always embrace them himself. I miss candidate Obama, but I won’t miss President Obama.

Jesus, would I love for the republicans to successfully impeach Obama…

And give us a halfway fresh start, with Biden.

Could Biden be worse? Not by me.

Criticizing him for a “face-plant” is not support. “risks becoming a punch-line” is not support. “A substantive harm to the presidency itself” is not an apology. You will end up irrelevant” is not a cheer. That’s the segment I was talking about. If am not an Obama supporter, and I resent your insinuation that I am. He lost me a long time ago. What is it some people on this site that they don’t think before they type? I hope the liberal wing of the party fights Obama on every giveaway he tries to make. I’m sickened, disgusted, infuriated by Obama’s compromise of our principles, and I’m attacked for my ideological purity? No wonder there was a reign of terror in France in 1793, with such hysterics among us, who attack blindly.

Americans are back where they were in 2006 — hoping the next two years pass quickly without their president fucking anything else up.

wow, that guy from third way in the PBS vid (juist found it) is an IDIOT.
“people will like to see the the two parties come together, even if it’s to something they really don’t like.”

How fucking stupid can you get?

Hi Margaret. Do you have a link for this one? Thanks.

Yes. Deja vu all.over.again, Geraldo.

DW

Let them. I’m still voting Green, or Coffee, or Socialist-anything but Democrat or Republican. “Compromise” became a bad word when it was placed in front of “principles”. My days of picking the lesser of two evils are over. Were over long before Charlotte Corday and her mindless dagger. I don’t need to prove anything to a hysterical lunatic.

Good point about unforced errors by the most extreme wing of the Republican Party. Sometimes they just can’t help themselves from going all-out, even when a sober calculation would show that it wasn’t in their own best interest. If it weren’t for Sharron Angle, Christine O’Donnell, and Ken Buck, the next Congress might well have a Republican Senate as well as a Republican House. Yes, I know it’s questionable whether all of the Democrats we got instead are really an improvement, but that wasn’t a factor in their decisionmaking. Between us primarying Obama and the Republicans quite possibly running the Quitter-Grifter (Quifter?), we could after all end up with a truly progressive President in 2012.

All the more reason to find a real progressive Presidential candidate now. I wish I had an idea who it should be.

Margaret is right, Jane – thanks for standing your ground against Dudley Do-Right O’Donnell. You were intelligent, passionate and principled, as always.

Right on. Hard to think there’s much difference between ‘Pubs and Dems anymore. And to think I wept with thanks the night he won…

Numerous versions of the Internationale in various languages can be downloaded from:

http://www.sovmusic.ru/english/list.php?part=1&gold=yes&category=inter

By the way, I emphasize that posting this link is not an endorsement of Soviet Communism. I wouldn’t want to bring back the Soviet Union, even if I could. The Internationale is the anthem of socialism in general, and not solely of Communism or Marxism.

The Wikipedia article on the Internationale also has good links to the music, as well as lyrics.

Honestly, I stopped watching MSNBC because most of the pundits became such cheerleaders for the corporate elite and the Obama administration. But, a number of people on this board said we need to watch Keith Olbermann’s comment last night…so I did and was frankly astounded at how honest he was about the effect on these tax cuts for the rich. I gave a high five to the television and decided to at least watch his show once again. “We the people” desperately need someone in the media to speak to and represent our interests first.

KO spine got injected with jello during the health insurance bill.It looks like he’s shit the jello out and got his spine back hope he keeps it.

You’re right, Margaret, and if I were Keith, i wouldn’t be accepting any if I got ‘em, either.

Indeed! How that pompous, arrogant, self-absorbed idiot got stuck in with the rest of MSNBC’s evening line up is beyond me. Put him on Morning Jerk where he belongs. On election night, he told all of the other folks on the panel, in the most condescending manner possible, that he was a Socialist! You hear me? A SOCIALIST!!! To the left of all of you! If so, he’s the most feckless, defeatist socialist I’ve ever seen. Yeah. I’m sure Marx said, “It can’t be done!” just as many times as this twit has. This fool makes Tweety look good!

Yeah, he’s another “go along to get along” MSM hack now. Of course, the WaPo ain’t what it used to be, either.

don’t know why nobody replied to your question. Check out Credo.Com and DemocracyForAmerica.Com and BoldProgressive.Com. Let me know if they took their actions off the front page. We have been whipping the Senate and House with phone calls and faxes the past three days.

It’s critically important to distinguish between those who are merely misled and those who are clearly implicated in doing the misleading. Default settings of universal trust or universal mistrust, even of those on one particular side, are just not useful.

I’m sorry, but all of you giving KO and Maddow “props” for “giving it” to Obama, I have to disagree. I watched their shows the month leading up to the mid-term elections, and the whole MSNBC line-up (with the exception of Ratigan) fell all over themselves trying to make a contrast of the Repubs and Obama, despite considerable evidence that there isn’t much of a difference. Now they want to come off all righteously critical? Please. While these two aren’t as pathetic and shameless as Lawrence O’Donnell, Matthews and Ed Schultz (who I really, really find pathetic) they still are Obama apologist at heart.

I understand where you are coming from because it’s one of the same reasons why I stopped watching MSNBC. However, I also know that Keith Olbermann has been an advocate for democratic principles (listen to some of his special comments from the health insurance debate) in the past and if he has regained his backbone and is willing to speak the truth (in spite of working for ultraconservative General Electric), then I will certainly support him by giving his show another chance.

Good comment from Olbermann. It’s time for progressives, regardless of whether they’ve abandoned the Democrats or not, to get fired up. I personally think it’s time to start looking for a progressive to challenge the President. Call them spoilers if you want, but if the spoilers become a permanent part of the political landscape, then perhaps liberals will adjust their political calculus and free themselves. Something has to change because it’s obvious the road we’re on is leading to tyranny and bankruptcy.

Sebastos; someone will step up.

I’ve even got a campaign slogan: “A choice, not an echo.”

(Hat-tip to Barry Goldwater, even if he was running for conservative CEO of the U.S. :o)…which is basically what we’ve got now, anyway….)

Jesus, would I love for the republicans to successfully impeach Obama

…

Why should the Repubs have all the fun, Tan? Do we have any real progressives in the CPC with the balls to deliver impeachment charges? Quite frankly, it doesn’t matter that Obama lied and misrepresented himself worse than a sub-prime mortgage broker, Obama is our mess, and we are responsible for cleaning it up.

Besides, I really wouldn’t be surprised if the Repubs fail to do the country the one small service of impeaching his bone skinny ass. By every action and policy Obama shows he’s a far better Republican than he is a Democrat. Unfortunately the same can be said for most Dems in Congress too.

the WaPo ain’t what it used to be, either

.

Not since Katie Graham went to that great printing press in the sky, wata. Pure speculation on my part, but i wouldn’t be surprised if she asks good ol’ St Peter for a complete do-over on her idiot neocon son, who succeeded her as publisher.

I’m also sure Punch Sulzberger feels the same way Katie Graham does about his namesake idiot son ruining the NY Times.

You make a good point, indyblack – and they were also apologists for Obama in the primaries. (I noticed because I supported a couple of other candidates ahead of Obama.) However, long before the November 2008 election rolled around, I was fully on board – lock, stock and barrel. I was pragmatic, looking at the alternatives and going with the best possible choice. Idealism took a back seat. So, I’m guilty, too.

Now, I see that my initial reservations were on target. The lack of leadership exhibited by Obama in missing votes in Chicago continues, and it’s having real ramifications for the lives of people most in need. So, I guess I can’t blame someone for having a change of heart – I have, too.

Unlike many among us, I don’t think Obama is evil. (“Evil: see also Cheney, Dick.” Remember?) He’s just lacking in sufficient emotional empathy and leadership. Well, maybe that’s being a bit kind, but…

For what it’s worth, my first exposure to Jane Hamsher was enough to restore my idealism. I shed the rationalizing and apologizing I had been doing for him. If Barry won’t carry our water, I’m sure as hell not carrying his.

I applaud KO for doing what had to be done, and I still love Maddow. As for O’Donnell, he’s just a smug, self-satisfied, pompous ass.

KO was right and thanks for the link, Jane.

Best thing to happen for America is Congress and Senate Not Doing anything on this rigged so called tax deal possibly discussed over $30,000 a plate dinner which even republicans would not have got from a honest and smart republican president.

Let all Tax Cuts and Estate Tax Cuts Expire.

Congress and Senate can do a Huge Earmark spending in their constituencies with the gained revenue. As a institution this will be the major true and honest spending on American Soil with American Labor with the issues they know best affecting their local economies.

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!! Olberman is a bell weather for where the mainstream liberals are. Mainstream liberals are the body and blood of the democratic party. If Obama doesnt reverse himself and admit his failures he is finished. Obama is INCAPABLE of doing those things, so he is finished in 2012.