Minced Garlic - Keith Olbermann, Paul Rieckhoff and Larisa Alexandrovna Expose Bush Giving Aid To The Enemy

"One of the things that did happen today that concerned me was that during Bush‘s press conference, he actually showed a graphic that showed 24 urban military outposts in downtown Baghdad ... Our enemies aren‘t stupid. They can look at that and figure out a grid coordinate and try to drop mortars on those exact locations ... "

All the spin, the smears, the lies, the attacks on anyone who opposed the Great Decider, labeling them as giving aid and comfort to our enemies.

When an opponent does, they're a Nazi Appeaser, or worse.

When Bush, or one of his henchman do it, why they are supporting the troops and fighting the global war on terror.

It was an unguarded, unprompted, unplanned moment last Friday evening, on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Olbermann was interviewing veteran, veteran advocate and 'Chasing Ghost' author Paul Rieckhoff regarding the continuing growing scandal over the death of Army Ranger Pat Tilman.

Near the end of the interview, Olbermann ask Rieckhoff to comment on the Harry Reid "The War is Lost" statement made in the Senate the day before.Rieckhoff briefly addressed that and then turned to the bombshell of President Bush, complete with slides, showing off military position around Baghdad at a speech in Ohio.

Larisa Alexandrovna, of at-largely, and also an investigative journalist, essayist and poet, managing news editor of Raw Story, and contributor to Alternet, and The Huffington Post, picked up on it as well.

"My good friend Paul Rieckhoff just made an interesting point on Countdown regarding a speech given by the Decider today. I had not noticed this, but apparently our beloved leader put a big red X on where US are positioned in Iraq, showing once again that his version of supporting the troops is at best political theater and at worst, dangerous to our national security."

Links

Note: The video of the Olbermann-Rieckhoff interview, the Bush giving aid to our enemies comes at the very end of the video. And Alexandrova's link offers a transcript of Bush giving his speech and spilling the beans on where troops are located.

Larisa Alexandrovna - Bush to terrorists: Here is a map of our troop movements

Video: Keith Olbermann - Paul Rieckhoff Interview - New details in Tillman investigation

Transcript of 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann' for April 20

'Chasing Ghost' author Paul Rieckhoff

Minced Garlic: Another Stellar Keith Olbermann Special Comment - “A special comment about lying”

Minced Garlic Redux! ... New Keith Olbermann Special Comment, - 'Have you no sense of decency, sir?' This Time, Slapping Down The Decider, Himself

VIDEO COMPILATION: Bush Fear-Mongering Reaches Fevered Pitch In


"He who laughs first, laughs last"

Keith Olberman Follow-Up: AAN Presents First Annual Molly Ivins Award to Keith Olbermann

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN) announced today that MSNBC news anchor Keith Olbermann is the winner of its first annual Molly Ivins Award.

My, My, My ...

Who is Rudy Guiliani going to complain to now?

"Describing her own style of writing, Molly Ivins once wrote, 'Satire is traditionally the weapon of the powerless against the powerful.' That's the sort of journalism we recognize today, that which holds those in power accountable in the court of public opinion," said AAN President and Memphis Flyer publisher Kenneth Neill. "Keith Olbermann speaks truth to power with wit and style, just as Molly did."

Links

AAN Presents First Annual Molly Ivins Award to Keith Olbermann

Molly Ivins

Molly Ivins Tribute

Countdown with Keith Olbermann

MSNBC Anchor, “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment Slams Giuliani: "Republicans equal life; Democrats equal death?"

A Thread Of Garlic - Hey AP, Hands Off Olbermann!

As many of our readers know, The Garlic is an unabashed fan of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and the hero-anchor himself. With our Minced Garlic posts, we've highlighted his blistering, but very much needed, Special Comments (while adding in our own two cloves).

And you may be aware of the dust-up that began last week.

First, Olbermann layed into presidential wishful Rudy Guiliani, for his hijacking the Bush Grindhouse rhetoric of "vote Republican and you'll be safe, vote Democrat and you die".

This led Guiliani to complain to MSNBC, as to Olbermann's presence in anchoring on the coverage of the Republican Candidate's Debate and the charge that he is partisan.

This lead AP writer David Bauder to pen an article (MSNBC's Olbermann seeks delicate balance) suggesting that Olbermann is, indeed, not fair, that it is a source of trouble for MSNBC and, the whopper, of comparing placing Olbermann on the debate coverage is akin to the Fox News Network placing Bill O'Reilly similarly.

Olbermann and O'Reilly on the same level?

Okay, I'll wait for you to stop laughing and pick yourself up off the floor.

Riding to the rescue, among others, was Salon's Joan Walsh and Glenn Greenwald (who The Garlic highlighted last Saturday), with two great posts yesterday.

Check it out!

Links

A hit job on Keith Olbermann

Brit Hume is a "journalist"; Keith Olbermann is "partisan"

AP Uncritically Reports Giuliani Campaign’s Efforts To Marginalize Olbermann

Olbermann Equals O'Reilly. Huh?

MSNBC Waves The Right Flag

MSNBC Removes Olbermann & Matthews From Election Anchor Duties

Well, what can you expect?

This is from the same nitwits, the stuffed shirts and suits in the upper echelons of NBC, MSNBC, General Electric (or some combination of, maybe all), that fired Phil Donohue and hired Rita Cosby.

Rita Cosby, for heavens sake!

The public (very public) dumping, demotion, spanking, and/or otherwise, stiff slap-to-the-face of Keith Olbermann and Chris "Tweety" Matthews by Phil Griffin, the president of MSNBC was/is meant to embarrass them.

(And dig how the NYT helped with the slapping - MSNBC Takes Incendiary Hosts From Anchor Seat)

Whatever it was about their chores as anchors of political events (debates, primaries, conventions), could have been handled internally, without public fanfare, a subtle shift that may, or may not, have gone unnoticed.

Ratings, maybe, likely were the biggest reason, however, with the various outcries from the Right Wing, most recently by Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain's camp, it certainly gives the appearance the Griffin is caving in to the Freak Show crowd.

And, perhaps, the three-martini-voiced Tom Brokaw.

From Atrios;

I'll just add, for the hundredth time, that Keith Olbermann's expressed "liberalism" is almost entirely limited to a dislike and distrust of the Bush administration, a view shared by 70% of the public, and a concern for civil liberties and executive power abuse. On top of that he has a somewhat liberal "sensibility," but his show covers little of the broader "liberal agenda." But he makes Tom Brokaw uncomfortable so, you know.

And guess what ...

They're plugging in Karl Rove's dancing partner, the dreadful David Gregory to man the Captain's chair for future political events.

Yeah, that oughta send the ratings skyrocketing ...

With Tweety, it could be nothing more that him being Tweety that pushes him off the main stage.

But Olbermann, this is what is going to give this story legs.

To get the full scope of this, Glenn Greenwald has a excellent breakdown of it, with his "The right dictates MSNBC's programming decisions", and he says this;

The irrefutable fact is that nothing attracts ratings for MSNBC -- and nothing has attracted ratings in the entire history of that channel -- the way that Olbermann does. Yet here is MSNBC removing him from the anchor position, reducing his role in its political coverage, and clearly diminishing his stature (and implicitly criticizing his coverage). That is extraordinary for a media company to publicly embarrass, diminish and tarnish its own principal asset. It is plainly doing so for ideological, not ratings-based, reasons: namely, it fears doing anything to anger the White House, the McCain campaign and the Right in this country.

The most recent item that, likely, drew ire, was Olbermann pissing in the tea of the Republican's cup, rightly calling them out on the propaganda 9-11 Tribute video they ran at the convention last week.

Check it out.

The 9-11 Tribute at the RNC - And Olbermann's Reaction

"This "tribute" which served to only throw fear into the political discourse and frighten voters was shown at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Keith Olbermann spoke for many of us at the sickening images used for political gain"



A classic, if anything, to show who's pulling Stumblin' Bumblin' Johnny's strings, with his Rovian campaign.

Leni Riefenstahl would have been most proud of them.

Because the video narrator assured us, this won't happen again, as in "This is a war American will win, because we'll have a President that knows how".

Knows "how to" what - make propaganda films?

Start wars on lies and false information?

Torture people, obstruct justice and stomp on the Constitution?

Inferring McCain will be the "President that knows how"?

Please ....

(We should note, as, no doubt, you heard, how the GOP, in their video shows, used stock images of African Americans, and, more hideously, of a soldiers' funeral, and the infamous McCain Green Screen, in which they screwed up showing Walter Reed Hospital, instead, displaying a school in Southern California has been much-discussed.

The only thing missing from this video was, at the end of it, a 'Sponsored by Walmart' and voiceover from Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain, telling the RNC crowd that he wants to thank them for going shopping after September 11th).

Olbermann wasn't the only one to notice.

The Jed Report asked "Did they just cross the line on 9/11?", Creature, on State of Day, simply labeld it Exploiting the dead, while Hilzoy, over on Obsidian Wings, was "Angry";

I didn't want to write about that. It's still pretty close to the bone. But I have never thought that I had a monopoly on honor and decency and love for my country. I wish more prominent Republicans would stop assuming that they do.

Sasha Issenberg, in The Boston Globe, penned an obit, "The death of a taboo";

ST. PAUL -- One of the most enduring taboos in American politics, the airing of graphic images from the September 11 attacks in a partisan context, died today. It was nearly seven years old.

The informal prohibition, which had been occasionally threatened by political ads in recent years, was pronounced dead at approximately 7:40 CST, when a video aired before delegates at the Republican National Convention included slow-motion footage of a plane striking the World Trade Center, the towers' subsequent collapse, and smoke emerging from the Pentagon.

The September 11 precedent was one of the few surviving campaign-season taboos. It is survived by direct comparisons of one's opponents to Hitler.

It was intimated that Olbermann may do a "Special Comment" on this 9-11 Tribute Video, and with this naked, public rebuke, by his own bosses, it should, possibly, make for some good fireworks.

Then again, Olbermann, if he really wants to push the envelope, rock the boat, and risk being fired, he can always have Phil Griffin be the "Worst Person in the World" tonight (though, he may want to do a Special Edition of it, and label Griffin the "Biggest Asshole in the World!").

Also worth watching, aside from it being the debut, is to see if Golden Girl Rachel Maddow weighs into it at all.

Holy Neilsen Ratings Batman!

Stay tuned ...


Bonus MSNBC Cave-in Riffs

MahaBlog: So Much for Freedom of the Press

Steve Benen: MSNBC FEELS THE HEAT...

Joe Gandelman: Quote of the Day: On NBC Axing NBC Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews As MSNBC Anchors

Bob Cesca: Keith And Chris

Oliver Willis: MSNBC Caves In To Right Wing Bellyaching Again

Brilliant at Breakfast: MSNBC capitulates to Karl Rove and the Republican Party

John Aravosis : You can turn off NBC and MSNBC during the debates and elections

Digby: The Refs Begin To Tremble

Good Post Alert: Olbermann Rules!

As our regular readers know, The Garlic is an unabashed fan of MSNBC Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann.

The show is hip and that's largely due to the hipster Olbermann.

We've highlighted, via our Minced Garlic posts, his often searing, ripping, right-on-the-money Special Comments, taking apart the Bush Grindhouse lies, or the stripping away our civil liberties, and the conflation of politics and terror for nefarious purpose.

The current issue of The Nation offers a most entertaining take on Olbermann, his rise, what makes him tick. And, for the masses not hip, it also serves as a primer, dishing the dirt, be it the 'Oddball' feature or the 'Worst Person In the World' nightly award.

It's a good read so check it out.

Marvin Kitman: Olbermann Rules!


















Bonus Keith-O Links

Keith Olbermann Blog - The Newshole

COMMENTARY: The death of habeas corpus; Olbermann: ‘The president has now succeeded where no one has before’

Olbermann: Lessons from the Vietnam War; Keith Olbermann responds to Bush's comparison between Vietnam and Iraq

Huffington Post: Olbermann First Anchor To Turn Spotlight On Rich Stickler's Mining Safety Record

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment: ‘Your hypocrisy is so vast’

Like Pike Bishop returning to the General's compound, demanding "We want Angel Back" in the Sam Peckinpah classic, "The Wild Bunch", we had MSNBC Countdown Anchor Keith Olbermann back at the helm, following a multi-day absence due to his appendix removal, firing with both guns at The Commander Guy, in his Special Comment, "Olbermann to Bush: ‘Your hypocrisy is so vast’.

Rather coincidentally, The Garlic, earlier in the evening, wrote on the same theme ("Hypocrites, The Bunch of Them!") as it was so egregious, the Smearmeisters attack on MoveOn.Org, for the "General Betrayus" ad.

And Olbermann, like Pike Bishop, hit a dead-on bullseye with his first shot;

"So the President, behaving a little bit more than usual, like we would all interrupt him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR, s ...

We did have endure, from the Press Conference this morning, The Commander Guy morphing into The Whining Guy, when he was served up a softball final question;

“I thought the ad was disgusting. I felt like the ad was an attack not only on General Petraeus, but on the U.S. Military.”

“And I was disappointed that not more leaders in the Democrat party spoke out strongly against that kind of ad.

“And that leads me to come to this conclusion: that most Democrats are afraid of irritating a left-wing group like Moveon.org or more afraid of irritating them, than they are of irritating the United States military.”

“That was a sorry deal."

And the shooting began, with Olbermann in high, spirited form, spanking The Commander Guy with history, highlighting even more, his folly.

"Deliberately, premeditatedly, and virtually without precedent, you shanghaied a military man as your personal spokesman and now you’re complaining about the outcome, and then running away from the microphone?"

"But a shot at General Petraeus, about whom you conveniently ignore it, was you who reduced him from four-star hero to a political hack, merits this pissy juvenile blast at the Democrats on national television?"

"The line between the military and the civilian government is not to be crossed."

"But Mr. Bush, you have hidden behind the General’s skirts, and today you have hidden behind the skirts of ‘the planted last question’ at a news conference, to indicate once again that your presidency has been about the tilted playing field, about no rules for your party in terms of character assassination and changing the fabric of our nation, and no right for your opponents or critics to as much as respond."

"That is not only un-American but it is dictatorial."

And the final shot, a zinger;

"It is a line which history shows is always the first one crossed when a democratic government in some other country has started down the long, slippery, suicidal slope towards a Military Junta."

Hats off to you, Mr. Olbermann.

Good to have you back.

Watch Keith Olbermann's Special Comment: Bush’s hypocrisy for condemning Petraeus ad

Read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment


Bonus Links

Matt Stoller: Wes Clark Interview, Part One: The Petraeus Ad

Chris Cillizza: Bush vs MoveOn

Paul Begala: Democrats Should Attack Bush, Not MoveOn

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Bush: Pathological liar or idiot-in-chief?

Or, "I Could Be Lying About The NIE Report On My Spare Time"

The Garlic has, in the past, tied the Bush Grindhouse to the Keystone Cops, and, of course, the Marx Brothers.

But this new, NIE fiasco, man, they are playing this as straight-up Monty Python!

The infamous "Argument" routine, but instead of arguing about arguing, they're arguing about lying, like "when did he lie and what did he lie about?"

And our MSNBC Countdown hero-host, Keith Olbermann, came riding in tonight, with a red-hot smackdown of The Commander Guy, Darth Vader, the Nitwit Neocons and Ruppert's WSJ Editorial Board.

On the technical side, the production staff must have employed some kind of device, or camera trickery, so as not letting the viewer see, not steam, but billowing smoke coming out of Olbermann's ears.

Not with a flinch, but a forceful, 1-2-combo body blow, Olbermann called out our Court-Appointed President (h/t Barry Crimmins) with "You, Mr. Bush, are a bald-faced liar ... And moreover, you have just revealed that John Bolton and Norman Podhoretz and the Wall Street Journal editorial board are also bald-faced liars."

And that was near the end of the Special Comment.

For, he didn't pull any punches in the opening, either;

"We have either a president who is too dishonest to restrain himself from invoking World War III about Iran at least six weeks after he had to have known that the analogy would be fantastic, irresponsible hyperbole, or we have a president too transcendently stupid not to have asked, at what now appears to have been a series of opportunities to do so, whether the fairy tales he either created or was fed were still even remotely plausible.

A pathological presidential liar, or an idiot-in-chief. It is the nightmare scenario of political science fiction: A critical juncture in our history and, contained in either answer, a president manifestly unfit to serve, and behind him in the vice presidency an unapologetic warmonger who has long been seeing a world visible only to himself.

If you are just getting hip to Olbermann's Special Comments (and he has a new book out on them), this is a good one to jump into.

Olbermann was controlled, precise, yet raging with passion.

It was almost as if he took on the persona of John Coffey, from "The Green Mile" (played by Michael Clarke Duncan) and inhaled all the bile, the pent up anger and outrage of the country, the seven years of lies and bullshit, the asleep-at-the-wheel, enabling MSM, and spewed it back at the Bush Grindhouse.

Olbermann even embraced criticism of himself to make a dead-on point;

My comments, Mr. Bush, are often dismissed as simple repetitions of the phrase “George Bush has no business being president.”

Well, guess what?

Tonight: hanged by your own words, convicted by your own deliberate lies....

You, sir, have no business being president.

Ahhh, if only we could encourage Nancy Pelosi to go table shopping ... And Harry Reid to stop issuing blank checks...

But, then again, the Bush Grindhouse isn't going to let getting caught in a whopper of a lie, slow them down.

They'll just continue on with their Monty Python role-playing.

Mr. Vibrating: That's it. Good morning.
Man: But I was just getting interested!
Mr. Vibrating: I'm sorry, the five minutes is up.
Man: That was never five minutes!!
Mr. Vibrating: I'm afraid it was.
Man: It wasn't...
Mr. Vibrating: I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to argue any more.
Man: WHAT??
Mr. Vibrating: If you want me to go on arguing, you'll have to pay for another five minutes.
Man: Yes, but that was never five minutes just now! Oh Come on!
Mr. Vibrating: (Hums to himself.)
Man: Look this is ridiculous!
Mr. Vibrating: I'm sorry, but I'm not allowed to argue unless you've paid!
Man: Oh all right. (Pays.)
Mr. Vibrating: Thank you.
Man: Well...
Mr. Vibrating: Well WHAT?
Man: That wasn't really five minutes just now.
Mr. Vibrating: I told you, I'm not allowed to argue unless you've paid!
Man: Well I just paid!
Mr. Vibrating: No you didn't!
Man: I DID!!!
Mr. Vibrating: No you didn't!
Man: Look, I don't want to argue about that!
Mr. Vibrating: Well, you didn't pay!
Man: Ah HAH!! If I didn't pay, why are you arguing??? I've got you.
Mr. Vibrating: No you haven't!
Man: Yes I have! If you're arguing, I must have paid.
Mr. Vibrating: Not necessarily. I could be arguing in my spare time.

Read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment: Bush: Pathological liar or idiot-in-chief? Olbermann: Timeline for Iran’s nuclear ambitions was clear, but he kept on

Watch the video of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment here


Bonus Bush Lying Links

Monty Python - Argument Clinic (extended)

Think Progress: Perino Defends Bush’s Lie: ‘The President Was Being Truthful!’

Dan Froomkin: A Pattern of Deception

The Carpetbagger Report: After NIE revelations, what did Bush know and when did he know it?

Brilliant at Breakfast: Seymour Hersh is always right

Shakespeare's Sister: The Dog Ate My Intelligence Report

Minced Garlic - Keith Olbermann Special Comment: Go to Iraq and fight, Mr. President

As our MSNBC hero-anchor Keith Olbermann is fond of saying, "Oh no, here we go again ..."

A blistering, top-of-the-program, red-hot Special Comment tonight on 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann'.

The criminal lack of planning for the war — the total “jump-off-a-bridge-and-hope-you-can-fly” tone to the failure to anticipate what would follow the deposing of Saddam Hussein — that had nothing to do with the chaos in which Iraq has been enveloped. It isn’t Mr. Bush’s fault.

The utter, blinkered idiocy of “staying the course,” of sending Americans to Iraq and sending them a second time, and a third and a fourth, until they get killed or maimed — the utter de-prioritization of human life, simply so a politician can avoid having to admit a mistake — that had nothing to do with the tens of thousand individual tragedies darkening the lives of American families, forever. It isn’t Mr. Bush’s fault.

The Bush Grindhouse is at it again.

Perhaps a light bulb went off over someone's head that, "Hey, the latest NIE Report kinda blows our shit right outta the water".

Or, just in case General David Petreaus is balking - early - at becoming the scapegoat, they gotta work their motto: The Bucks Stop Here - But The Blame Goes Somewhere Else

They trotted out a B-Team player (perhaps Fran Townsend is still trying to figure out if there is a country named Iraq, or not), Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman to send Senator, and 2008 Presidential Candidate, Hillary Clinton a "You're either with us or against us" letter, responding to a letter she sent asking about a plan for troop withdrawals.

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq,” Edelman writes, “reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia.”

Edelman adds: “Such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks.”

Haven't they played this song before?

Defeatocrats ... Cut-and-Run... Giving Aid and Comfort To The Enemy ...

Geeish ... Maybe Karl Rove needs to hit summer school and hone-up on his math skills.

Or get "the Homeland guy" to have some better churnings in his gut.

But what was Senator Clinton thinking? That these guys have -or had - a plan?

They can lie, obfuscate, cook intelligence, smear, expose covert CIA agents, not take care of the injured, all in the name of their invasion and occupation of Iraq (This war has been brought to you by the PNAC ... The PNAC - Power Over People ... We Kill The Good Things In Life) and you there, Missy, shouldn't be asking any questions about it.

Olbermann gives The Commander Guy a schooling on scapegoats and role models, towel-snapping Bush's ass every step of the way, and wrapping up with;

This, sir, is your war.

Sen. Clinton has reinforced enemy propaganda? Made it impossible for you to get your ego-driven, blood-steeped win in Iraq?

Then take it into your own hands, Mr. Bush.

Go to Baghdad now and fulfill, finally, your military service obligations.

Go there and fight, your war. Yourself.

Links

Watch Keith Olbermann's Special Comment: Blame Hillary?

Read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment: Go to Iraq and fight, Mr. President; Bush’s latest choice of scapegoat — Hillary Clinton — boggles the mind


Bonus Links

TPM Café Exclusive: Hillary's Stinging Letter To SecDef Gates Obtained

Minced Garlic: New Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Bush shoots for ‘Jaws,’ delivers ‘Jaws 2’

Somewhat pedestrian Special Comment by our anchor-hero Keith Olbermann last evening.

That is not meant to question the sincerity of Mr. Olbermann, or his anger. Well-written and well-delivered, it was, as teased earlier in the broadcast, about the "nexus of politics and terror, a subject well-covered in previous 'Countdown' programs ( The nexus of politics and terror revisited, The Nexus of Politics and Terror).

On the other hand, can't quite create a quorum of other mainstream news people who have called out the President on his lies as much, or as eloquently, as Olbermann has, either in his normal news reports and with his heralded Special Comments, and he honed in last evening on our Decider, aka Decision-Maker's, State of the Union Address.

(And he does give a nod to David Swanson, press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign, "who has blogged about the dubious 96 words in Mr. Bush’s address this year and who has concluded that of the four counter-terror claims the president made, he went 0-for-4.")

"West Yorkshire in England has a new chief police constable.

Upon his appointment, Sir Norman Bettison made one of the strangest comments of the year:

“The threat of terrorism,” he says, “is lurking out there like ‘Jaws 2.’”

Sir Norman did not exactly mine the richest ore for his analogy of warning. A critic once said of the flopping sequel to the classic film: “You’re gonna need a better screenplay.”

But this obscure British police official has reminded us that terrorism is still being sold to the public in that country — and in this — as if it were a thrilling horror movie and we were the naughty teenagers about to be its victims.

And it underscores the fact that President Bush took this tack, exactly a week ago tonight, in his terror-related passage in the State of the Union.

A passage that was almost lost amid all the talk about Iraq and health care and bipartisanship and the fellow who saved the stranger from an oncoming subway train in New York City.

But a passage ludicrous and deceitful. Frightening in its hollow conviction.

Frightening, in that the president who spoke it tried for “Jaws” but got “Jaws 2."

Olbermann proceeded to go into Bush's claims, quoting, first, from the SOTU, then, debunking it with facts, quoting official sources.

At one point, in discussing the Los Angeles Liberty Tower claim, and referencing Roger Cressey, the former staff director of counter-terrorism for the National Security Council, now a news analyst for NBC News and MSNBC, Olbermann illustrated the absurdity.

"In our conversation, he put the “Library Tower story” into a category he called the “What-Ifs” — as in the old “Saturday Night Live sketches that tested the range of comic absurdity:

What if ... Superman had worked for the Nazis?

What if ... Spartacus had had a Piper Cub during the battle against the Romans in 70 B.C.?"

One-by-one, Olbermann hung up President Bush's boasting of foiling terrorism like a pinata, and then whacked away at it, with facts, causing, not candy, but the truth to spill out.

"What you gave us a week ago tonight, sir, was not intelligence, but rather a walk-through of how speculation and innuendo, guesswork and paranoia, daydreaming and fear-mongering, combine in your mind and the minds of your government, into proof of your derring-do and your success against the terrorists.

The ones who didn’t have anthrax.

The ones who didn’t have plane tickets or passports.

The ones who didn’t have any clue, let alone any plots.

But they go now into our history books as the four terror schemes you’ve interrupted since 9/11.

They go into the collective consciousness as firm evidence of your diligence, of the necessity of your ham-handed treatment of our liberties, of the unavoidability of the 3,075 Americans dead in Iraq.

Congratulations, sir.

You are the hero of “Jaws 2.”

You have kept the Piper Cub out of the hands of Spartacus."


Links

Read or watch the video of Special Comment - Bush shoots for ‘Jaws,’ delivers ‘Jaws 2’

MSNBC Countdown with Keith Olbermann

The death of habeas corpus - Olbermann: ‘The president has now succeeded where no one has before’

Garlictorial - We’ll Need That Table

Bill Moyers Talks with MSNBC Host Keith Olbermann

In case you missed it, doing something like ... Oh ... Maybe shoveling 11-inches of snow! ... MSNBC 'Countdown' host Keith Olbermann was the guest of the esteemed Bill Moyers on his Bill Moyers Journal Friday evening.

It was a good chat, lasting close to 20-minutes, and clearly, Mr. Moyers has some respect (and appreciation) for Olbermann's work, particularly his Special Comments.

At one point in the interview, Olbermann explained how he resisted management, after delivering his first Special Comment;

"I didn't know if I was going to be gunned down as I came out of the building or put in a black car or, you know, or lauded or whatever. People, for the most part, were ecstatic about this. And our ratings went up immediately. And the reaction from management was-- "Can you do one every night?" And I said, "No, I can't do one every night. I don't want to turn into that either." I don't want to be silent here. But I don't want to turn this into a manufactured thing. And they said, "Well, how 'bout once a week?" And I said, "No, you're not following me. It has to be organic." When I get angry on the air, it's because I'm angry about that particular subject and because of the revision of this country that has been done under our noses for the last seven years against the will of the people."

Watch Bill Moyers interview with Keith Olbermann

Transcript of Bill Moyers interview with Keith Olbermann.

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment ... All hail the prophetic gut!

Last evening, we had another Special Comment, "All hail the prophetic gut!", from our anchor-hero, Keith Olbermann, on MSNBC's 'Countdown with Keith Olbermann'.

The gutless wonder, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, was the target and it was less rage, by Olbermann, and more, ohh, humor.

At various points, with Olbermann smiling and grinning, it appeared that he had to stifle just laughing outloud.

We riffed on this the other day, with a Top Ten Cloves: Other Things DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff Feels In His Gut, and, in noting The Commander Guy morphing into The Shakespeare Guy, while he launched another fear-laden Bushapalooza, we had to note that, it was a "Good thing Chertoff doesn't have arthritis - if his bones start aching, what does that mean - Armageddon?"

Olbermann came out swinging, not only hitting on Chertoff, but taking a sharp swipe at the Bush Grindhouse;

You have by now heard the remark — instantly added to our through-the-looking-glass lexicon of the 21st century, a time when we suddenly started referring to this country as “the homeland,” as if anybody here has used that term since Charles Lindbergh or the German-American Bund in 1940.

Michael Chertoff’s “gut feeling.”

A little further into the Special Comment, Olbermann recounted elements of his Watch The Video of his excellent "Nexus of Politics and Terror", rattling off;

We used to have John Ashcroft’s major announcements.

We used to have David Paulison’s breathless advisories about how to use duct tape against radiation attacks.

We used to have Tom Ridge’s color-coded threat levels.

Now we have Michael Chertoff’s gut!

And he brought it home with "only five possible explanations for Mr. Chertoff’s remarkable revelations", that being letting his gut replace policy and competence, leading off with;

"Firstly, Mr. Chertoff, you are, as Richard Wolffe said here the other night, actually referencing not your gut but your backside — as in, “covering it.” CYA."

After calling Chertoff a "hunch-driven clown", what else was left, but to give a hearty, Homeland salute.

"All hail the prophetic gut!"

Links

Watch The Video of Special Comment: Michael Chertoff's gut

Read Olbermann: All hail the prophetic gut!; Explaining Michael Chertoff’s counterterrorism stomach

Minced Garlic: Brand New Keith Olbermann Special Comment - End Of The Free Pass

Once again, the Prince of Cable News, the Pundit-With-A-Punch, came out swinging tonight.

MSNBC’s hero host Keith Olbermann delivered his strongest, most damning Special Comments this evening, in defending former President Bill Clinton, against the growing attack and pile-on by the Fox News and all those others who aren’t “Nazi appeasers”, but more so, calling - perhaps more than anyone in the media to-date has - our President out on his lies and deceptions.

Now on paper, in print, the question host Chris Wallace posed to Mr. Clinton, in an interview taped last Friday and broadcast this past Sunday on Fox News, looks straightforward and one that any journalist would ask.

But what it doesn’t capture is the smug, accusatory tone Wallace asked “Why didn’t you do more to put Bin Laden and Al Qaeda out of business?", and followed with a longer set-up to drive home the point he was apparently trying to establish, being that September 11^th was Mr. Clinton’s fault.

The former President responded, defending himself and his administration, and doing so strongly and forcefully.

For that, Mr. Clinton was described as “crazed” and the he “freaked out”.

To which Mr. Olbermann offers;

Our tone should be crazed. The nation’s freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nation’s marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would’ve quit.

Olbermann then lays out the case against Bush and his “gang that couldn’t lie straight” Administration, and the escorted, free pass the Congress and media of this country has given our great Decider.

Moreover, for the last five years one month and two weeks, the current administration, and in particular the President, has been given the greatest “pass” for incompetence and malfeasance in American history!

Olbermann then added that Bush was “our worst presidency since James Buchanan” before heralding former President Clinton with “He told the great truth untold about this administration’s negligence, perhaps criminal negligence, about bin Laden.

And, with the Midterm Elections roughly six-weeks away, Olbermann isn’t fooled (nor does he want any of us to be) by the “smearing by proxy” and, what must be absolutely coincidental, the reshaping and rewriting of our history with dealing with Osama bin Laden and Sept. 11^th, placing the blame at the feet of Clinton and his administration.

A week or so ago, we had the Disney/ABC, two-night extravaganza of "The Path to 9/11.", to which Olbermann offered “Disney was first to sell-out its corporate reputation, with "The Path to 9/11." Of that company’s crimes against truth one needs to say little. Simply put: someone there enabled an Authoritarian zealot to belch out Mr. Bush’s new and improved history.”

Now followed by the Wallace/Fox News slap, and, apparently today, or very recently (with Olbermann holding up a folder or book), an increase in RNC Talking Points pointing at Clinton.

But funny thing, as detailed in an earlier story of the same broadcast, the news of the National Intelligence Estimate report that cites it was and is the Bush-led invasion and occupation of Iraq that is fueling terrorism, not what was sold to this country (and the world) that we had to go into Iraq to get the terrorists.

With Bush and his Administration still tying in Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda (and they do it so deftly, as earlier in the day, on Hardball with Chris Matthews, in an interview with Fran Townsend, DHS Consultant, Townsend, when pressed by Matthews, concurred, as President Bush admitted a few weeks ago that Iraq had nothing to do with Sept. 11^th, she followed that with the “everyone agrees that Saddam was a threat” thereby preserving the lie), Olbermann pulls the curtain back, exposing Bush and his Administration for what they are - liars and the purveyors of a style of government most un-American.

“We have,” Olbermann lamented to President Bush, near the end of his Special Comment, “nothing but your word, and your word has long since ceased to mean anything.”

Perhaps Mr. Olbermann, or better yet, our Congress, will stand up and get the answers, and hold those accountable for their actions.

It never was “bad intelligence" and it always has been, and, frighteningly, continues to be “bad ideology”.

Links

Read Mr. Olbermann’s Special Comment, “A textbook definition of cowardice” and watch the video of it

Crooks and Liars has a transcript of Clinton-Wallace Interview

ThinkProgress has a video of Clinton-Wallace Interview

Previous Special Comment Posts

Minced Garlic ... Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Feeling morally, intellectually confused?

Minced Garlic Redux! ... New Keith Olbermann Special Comment, - 'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'

Minced Garlic Trois - Special September 11th Special Comment By Keith Olbermann: “This Hole In The Ground”

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Bush Owes Us An Apology

Cue The Zither Music ... Minced Garlic: New Keith Olbermann Special Comment

The Entire Government Has Failed Us On Iraq

Another Keith Olbermann Special Comment this evening, about shame, and the bi-partisan governing exhibited by our President and Congress over the past day in regard to the Iraq War Spending Bill.

He called it a "betrayal" and, for the Democrats, "their Neville Chamberlain moment"

"That’s what this is for the Democrats, isn’t it?

Their “Neville Chamberlain moment” before the Second World War.

All that’s missing is the landing at the airport, with the blinkered leader waving a piece of paper which he naively thought would guarantee “peace in our time,” but which his opponent would ignore with deceit.

The Democrats have merely streamlined the process.

Their piece of paper already says Mr. Bush can ignore it, with impunity.

The Garlic thanks to a confluence of events, sees it more like the classic "The Third Man", with George Bush taking on the Harry Lime role (so deliciously portrayed in the film by the great Orson Wells), with a haunting score of zither music.

Last night, taking on the Holly Martins role, the U.S. Congress, with not enough cynicism, and wanting to believe so much in their Bush-as-Harry Lime, capitulated and gave him a toothless Iraq War Spending Bill.


This morning, the stalwart of justice, Monica Goodling, certainly taking on the part of Anna Schmidt, all misty-eyed in love with Harry, took her turn before the House Judiciary Committee, to, alternately defend Lime and his cohorts, and, at the same time throw a few people under the bus - and hope, just as Anna in the movie did, she doesn't get arrested, but will do so, willingly, for her Harry.

Today, The Commander Guy goes to the Coast Guard Academy, to raise the curtain - again - on fear, playing the Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda card - with, at least, two-year old intelligence, only recently declassified for The Decider's usage - telling how Iraq will be used as a launching pad for attacks on the United States - the same Iraq that Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda wasn't in when the Bush Grindhouse unleashed their "Shock and Awe" to invade and occupy the country.

Lime, in post WWII Vienna, was trafficking in bad penicillin, along with other unsavory activities, including murder.

Bush-as-Lime, in the post Sept.11th world, is trafficking in bad intelligence, illegal wiretaps, the politicization of the Justice Department, as well as the aforementioned invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation.

Lime, in a famous scene, runs through the Vienna sewer system.

Bush-as-Lime, by his actions, has dragged the United States of America down in the sewer, with his attack on the U.S. Constitution, the suspension of habeas corpus, governing via Signing Statements, and his lying.

Lime, in the movie, doesn't get away with it.

Our Bush-as-Lime, thanks to the Congress, playing the passive Martins, half wanting to stop him, and half, wanting to see him succeed, may just get away with it, keeping us, and our soldiers, in harms way, right up to January 20th, 2009.

But all the Commander Guy could come up with today was to pull out the tired, well-worn, fear mongering speech, nothing even remotely close to the classic riff Harry Lime gives Holly (with a bit of fear mongering of his own - "... I carry a gun...I don't think they'd look for a bullet wound after you'd hit that ground...") at the top of the Riesenrad, the large Ferris wheel in the Prater amusement park;

HARRY
Don't be so gloomy...After all,
it's not that awful. Remember what
the fellow said...

- in Italy, for thirty years under
the Borgias, they had warfare,
terror, murder, bloodshed, but they
produced Michaelangelo - Leonardo
Da Vinci, and the Renaissance...In
Switzerland, they had brotherly
love. They had five hundred years
of democracy and peace, and what did
that produce?...The cuckoo clock.
So long, Holly.

Olbermann, for his part in this play, came out swinging.

Few men or women elected in our history—whether executive or legislative, state or national—have been sent into office with a mandate more obvious, nor instructions more clear:

Get us out of Iraq.

With bullet points, Olbermann blasts the Dems, with punches that likely were felt down in the Beltway, before going on to;

A President, Mr. Bush, uses the carte blanche he has already, not to manipulate an overlap of arriving and departing Brigades into a ‘second surge,’ but to say in unequivocal terms that if it takes every last dime of the monies already allocated, if it takes reneging on government contracts with Halliburton, he will make sure the troops are safe—even if the only safety to be found, is in getting them the hell out of there.

Well, any true President would have done that, Sir.

You instead, used our troops as political pawns, then blamed the Democrats when you did so.

Olbermann finishes (and I won't ruin it here for you) with a flourish, a heated "we’re not going to take it", while laying down a challenge, to, well, someone, stop the lies, and stop the war.

Links

Read and/or Watch The Video of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment - The Entire Government Has Failed Us On Iraq

Countdown with Keith Olbermann