Is Keith Olbermann Reading The Garlic?

Hmmm ...

We have been, for some time, a fan of Keith Olbermann's 'Countdown' program.

When he started doing his Special Comments, we featured them, in our "Minced Garlic' posts.

Now, these things have happened a few times, hearing some pundit on the tube, or seeing in another's column, something eerily and striking similar to something we put up on The Garlic.

I suppose you can chalk that up to hot news, common, or obvious deductions.

Back on Monday, 24 November, 2008, we posted;

"Breaking ... Mukasey Fainting Due To Deep Introspection; In Middle of Speech, Attorney General Suddenly Realized He Was Part of Bush Administration"

Mukasey, just before passing out, started remembering how he defend Vice President Cheney on Executive Privilege, as well as telcom immunity.

"He had particular inner grief that he was vague on waterboarding."

"Backing the President on wiretapping, and not enforcing court subpoenas was the last thing he said he could remember, before passing out."

Okay, there were numerous snarky riffs on the Crony General droppin' like a sack of potatoes, and The Garlic just happened to be one of them

But then, this past Wednesday, December 3, 2008, during Olbermann's "Bushed" segment of the program (You can watch it HERE);

Number one, our attorney general is not rational-gate. Mr. Mukasey met with reporters today for the first time since he blacked out while giving a speech defending enhanced interrogation and Gitmo and the whole post-traumatic stress bag of tricks two weeks ago.

He told the correspondents that if a military commission were to impose a short sentence on a Gitmo detainee considered to be a dangerous terrorist, it would be suicidal to release the individual even after the individual's sentence had been served. Mr. Mukasey was asked, is that justice? He answered yes.

They still don't know why the attorney general passed out during that speech two weeks ago. Apparently they found nothing medically wrong with him. I don't mean to sound crass but those with psychiatric training would probably suggest that he be examined to rule out the possibility that he collapsed under the weight of all that paranoia, delusions, revenge fantasies and hypocrisy.

Hmmm ...

"He collapsed under the weight of all that paranoia, delusions, revenge fantasies and hypocrisy"

You don't suppose ... No, I'm sure it was just a case of commonality, the obvious, satire and snark that was just begging for it.

Then again, times are tough ...

Maybe I should contact that Mayor in Turkey, see if he can help, or refer a good lawyer to me.

John Cleese on Olbermann

If you happened to be watching 'Countdown' last evening, you were rewarded with a little treat.

John Cleese, live, in-studio.

For the final segment, Olbermann had the Monty Python veteran in for a chat on Joe The Dumber, and a new poem (Cleese, last month, wrote a poem, slamming Sean Hannity, that Olbermann read on the program), bashing Olbermann's obsessive target, Bill O'Reilly.

The best of it was Cleese riffing on "If Karl Rove worked for the Democrats" ... It's hysterical!

Check it out here;

Countdown: John Cleese on Joe the Prop Oct. 31, 2008




Extra Bonus!

It appears, if it survives the writing and run-through process, a parody of Olbermann on Saturday Night Live this evening.

Take Me Out To The Electoral College

There was a good, interesting segment on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on Friday evening.

Baseball statistician turned political pollster Nate Silver, founder of the website FiveThirtyEight (named for the count of the Electoral College) was on and, no doubt, the Stumblin' Bumblin' John McCain campaign must want to do a Juan Marichal to Silver.

Crunching the numbers, Silver prognosticates that Barack Obama will beat Stumblin' Bumblin' McCain, 294.7 to 243.3.

Essentially, a blowout.

And, least you think Olbermann was just promoting one of his Fantasy Baseball buddies, you'd be benched, for the man who has been on-the-money more than anyone during this election season, Al Giordano, weighs in;

Nate Silver - whose statistical approach to forecasting the primary results this spring hung bad pollsters out to dry and has sent good pollsters into a long overdue stampede to reexamine the technical bases of how they do their work - was on Countdown with Keith Olbermann last night. It's a sign of the times that the new rising star of political analysis doesn't come from inside a campaign staff (a la Pat Caddell in '76, Roger Ailes in '80, James Carville in '92 or Karl Rove in '00) but from the outside.

In a few short months Nate has gone from being one of thousands of bloggers on Daily Kos (he used the pseud Poblano there) to launching his own website, which in addition to the addictive numbers-crunching, charts and graphs, features excellent commentary (and really good writing).

"At this point there’s a pretty big margin of error. Once we have the conventions, especially the first debate, Obama will be vetted by voters… The movement comes after labor day and after the conventions…."

Here's the 411

Baseball stats star gets in the politics game

Aug. 8: Nate Silver's Web site, FiveThirtyEight.com, applies his widely admired statistical prediction technique to political polling to generate electoral map forecasts that have captured the attention of political strategists. Silver joins Keith Olbermann to explain how his process applies to both baseball and politics.

Go visit (and bookmark) FiveThirtyEight.Com

Minced Garlic - Keith Olbermann Special Comment ... Smackdown!

This is scary.

It's scary that she said it ...

And it's even scarier that she's defending saying it ...

I don't know, is this like a Britney Spears thing? Is there anyone around Geraldine Ferraro - handlers, staff, family - that can pull her aside and ask WTF?

Throw cold water in her face? ...

Slap her, if necessary?

Or is this a long festering, soul-eating, bitterness, of being saddled with Walter Mondale in her historic run, and now, in her "golden years", she has sit on the sidelines of this years' truly history-shattering election?

And Hillary ...

No surprises there ... Anything she can hang on Obama is, in the Clinton book, a good day

So what the kitchen sink she's having tossed around has Stars and Bars decals on it ...

So what the kitchen sink she's using this week comes from the "White Only" museum ...

One of Obama's staffers calls Hillary a monster, and, Christ, you thought the country was collapsing ...

Ferraro channels David Duke, and Hillary barely raises and eyebrow.

Perhaps due to the magnitude of this ... The odiousness of it ... The disgust of it that MSNBC Countdown host Keith Olbermann just couldn't sit idle ... Couldn't sit silent ... And, unlike the Clinton Campaign, couldn't let this sit unchallenged and totally vilified.

In your tepid response to this Ferraro disaster, you may sincerely think you are disenthralling an enchanted media, and righting an unfair advance bestowed on Senator Obama.

You may think the matter has closed with Representative Ferraro's bitter, almost threatening resignation.

But in fact, Senator, you are now campaigning, as if Barack Obama were the Democrat, and you… were the Republican.

And Ferraro's weak-ass whining that she's the victim in this;

No matter what Ms. Ferraro now claims, no one took her comments out of context.

She had made them on at least three separate occasions, then twice more on television this morning. Just hours ago, on NBC Nightly News, she denied she had made the remarks in an interview -- only at a paid political speech.

In fact, the first time she spoke them, was ten days before the California newspaper published them... not in a speech, but in a radio interview.

On February 26th, quoting...

"If Barack Obama were a white man, would we be talking about this, as a potential real problem for Hillary? If he were a woman of any color, would he be in this position that he's in? Absolutely not."

The context was inescapable.

And this;

Somebody tells her that simply disagreeing with and rejecting the remarks is sufficient. And she should then call, "regrettable", words that should make any Democrat retch.

And that she should then try to twist them, first into some pox-on-both-your-houses plea to 'stick to the issues,' and then to let her campaign manager try to bend them beyond all recognition, into Senator Obama's fault.

And thus these advisers give Congresswoman Ferraro nearly a week in which to send Senator Clinton's campaign back into the vocabulary... of David Duke.

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up.

"Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white.

"How's that?"

How's that?

Apart from sounding exactly like Rush Limbaugh attacking the black football quarterback Donovan McNabb?

Apart from sounding exactly like what Ms. Ferraro said about another campaign, nearly twenty years ago?

Quote:

"President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."

So... apart from sounding like insidious racism that is at least two decades old?

Apart from rendering ridiculous, Senator Clinton's shell-game about choosing Obama as Vice President?

Apart from this evening's resignation letter?

"I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign.

"The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you."

Apart from all that?

Well. It sounds as if those advisors want their campaign to be associated with those words, and the cheap… ignorant… vile… racism that underlies every syllable...

And that Geraldine Ferraro has just gone free-lance.

God help us if this is the case, and Hillary Clinton is signing on to it.


Read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment

Watch the video of Keith Olbermann's Special Comment

Minced Garlic - New Keith Olbermann Special Comment: To Bush - "You're A Fascist! ... You're A Liar"

Another strong - even very animated - Special Comment last evening from MSNBC Countdown host, Keith Olbermann, which had him leaning into the camera to call The Commander Guy a "Fascist" and "A Liar".




Olbermann also presented this Special Comment in a slightly different format.









Rather than his customary last segment of the program, Olbermann segued from the #3 story on 'Countdown', "On FISA and telecom immunity", introducing the recent Bush Grindhouse's efforts to play the Fear Card, and of, perhaps the most startling event of the day - The House Democrats showing a stiff spine and the House Republicans showing they care more about politics than the their own chamber, not to mention the rule-of-law, the Constitution, et all.

Rather than bring up the FISA Bill and give The Bush Grindhouse their most cherished Telcom Immunity (about the only reason they're - once again - beefing up the FISA Bill ... The Protect America Act really should be retitled to Protect The Telecommunication Companies Act ... Read Glenn Greenwald's FISA 101 for an excellent overview of it).

Instead, the House Leadership decided to remind its' members that two of the Bush Henchmen and Henchwoman have thumbed their noses at Congress, so the matter of declaring Harriet Meirs and Josh Bolten in Contempt of Congress was on the agenda, so John "Cry Baby" Boehner led a walkout of the Republicans (this after they busted the Dem's balls, by playing procedural games, interrupting a memorial service for Rep. Tom Lantos, who passed away earlier this week).

The Contempt measures were passed and, as of midnight tomorrow evening, the FISA Bill extension will expire, which has lead the Bush Grindhouse to go to great lengths this past week, to browbeat the Congress into giving the Telcom Immunity, otherwise, the intelligence-gathering program comes to a halt (it doesn’t) and that the dreaded terrorist will soon be invading our country to kill us all.

So, in essence, other than the new component of the Telcom Immunity, it has been business-as-usual for the Bush Grindhouse and the Republicans.

Play the Fear Card, overstate and outright lie about the threats and then turn around and label anyone that questions them as traitors, terrorist appeasers and people who would rather see the terrorists win.

Much like many of us, we had enough of this, and Olbermann teed off on it in his Special Comment.

"You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger! This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough for even you to understand.

For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.

You. By your own terms and your definitions, you have just sided with the terrorists. You’ve got to have this law, or we’re all going to die. But, practically speaking, you vetoed this law.

It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an ex post facto law that could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.

But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn’t even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.

“The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.”

Believed? Don’t you know? Don’t you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you? Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here? If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.

You’re a fascist — get them to print you a T-shirt with fascist on it! What else is this but fascism? ..."

And before a strong, flourishing finish, Olbermann laid these down;

"And if there’s one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, it is that he is — you are — a liar."

"This is crap. And you sling it with an audacity and a speed unrivaled by even the greatest political felons of our history."

"You are a liar, Mr. Bush. And after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar."

Check out and read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment "A veto of the FISA bill endangers Americans"

Watch The Video of it Here


Bonus Links

dday at Hullabaloo: Wahhhh, Wahhhh, Wahhhh

Atrios: They Write Letters - Congressman Reyes writes to President Bush

Scarecrow at Firedoglake: We Need a Constitutional Democratic Party

FISA Update #4 - Don't Let the Fat Lady - Or The Fat Corporate Cats - Sing!

Minced Garlic: New Keith Olbermann Special Comment ... Bush put telecoms ahead of citizens

Sorry we're late with our usual highlighting of, yet another stellar, Keith Olbermann Special Comment, fumed and ranted Thursday evening (For one, The Garlic has been working at half-speed the past few days, a bit under-the-weather and, MSNBC was a bit slow in posting the transcript).

Olbermann tackled the FISA fiasco, and was particularly steamed throughout the special comment.

The Garlic already had its' rant on this last Monday, offering the Democrats in Congress two reasons not to cave in on this issue.

For The Commander Guy, his henchmen (and the entire Republican Freakshow echo machine) has done purple-in-the-face, demanding Congress give The Commander Guy HIS FISA Bill, his Orwellian 'Protect America Act', for if they don't, terrorists are going to immediately invade the country and kill us all.

Being the current law works just fine (assuming, the people working it are honest and law-abiding), and it's been crystal clear this fevered push for The Commander Guy's PAA is about giving immunity to the telecommunications companies that broke the law with them.

With every dam, there comes a crack;

Which is why the Vice President probably shouldn't have phoned in to the Rush Limbaugh Propaganda-Festival yesterday.

Sixth sentence out of Mr. Cheney's mouth.

The FYCA bill is about, quote, "retroactive liability protection for the companies that have worked with us and helped us prevent further attacks against the United States."

Oops.

Mr. Cheney is something of a loose cannon, of course.

But he kind of let the wrong cat out of the bag there.

Because Mr. Bush and the corporations he values more than people didn't want anybody to verify what Mark Klein says.

Mark Klein is the AT&T Whistleblower who appeared on this newscast last November... who explained, in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood IT desk, how he personally attached all of AT&T's circuits, everything carrying every phone call, every e-mail, every bit of web browsing into a secure room — Room Number 641-A, at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it; not just the international part of it; certainly not just the stuff some truly patriotic and telepathic spy might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.

Everything.

Every time you looked at a naked picture, every time you bid on eBay, every time you phoned-in a donation to a Democrat.

"My thought was 'George Orwell's 1984,'" Mr. Klein told me, reflecting back, "and here I am, being forced to connect the Big Brother machine."

And there was this chewy morsel of a caveat;

There's yet another level to this, and here we move from Big Brother to Sleazy Son.

Mr. Bush's new Attorney General, Mr. Mukasey, the one who has already taken four different positions on water-boarding, and who may yet tie that record on this subject of telecom immunity, he has a very personal stake in this.

There happens to be a partner in the law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani, named Marc Mukasey. And Bracewell and Giuliani and the Attorney General's son Marc, just happen to represent Verizon.

You know, Verizon — Telecom Giant.

And all of a sudden this is no longer just a farce in which "protecting the Telecoms" is dressed up for us as, "protecting us from terrorist conference calls."

Now it begins to look like the bureaucrats of the Third Reich trying to protect the Krupp Family industrial giants by literally re-writing the laws for their benefit.

And we know how that turned out: Alfried Krupp and eleven of his directors were convicted of War Crimes at Nuremburg.

Hmmm ... The new Crony General has a personal stake in this ... Very interesting ...That is, of course, the Crony General admits to having son ...

Why, just the other day, the Crony General displayed his prowess;

From Glenn Greenwalds' "Mukasey's radical worldview is now the norm";

While Mukasey may be marginally more straightforward than Alberto Gonzales was -- more willing to conform to the procedural formalities of independence -- he is, ideologically, a clone of John Yoo and David Addington and is as much of a loyal adherent to the Bush/Cheney extremist worldview as Gonzales ever was.

Mukasey explicitly embraces the most extreme theories of presidential omnipotence and lawlessness and displays as much Cheney-ite contempt for the notion of Congressional oversight as the Vice President himself. He repeatedly endorsed patently illegal behavior -- including torture -- and refused even to pretend that he cared what the Senate thought about any of it. He even told Republican Senators that they have no right to pass a whistleblower law allowing federal employees who learn of lawbreaking to inform Congress about it, because such a law would infringe on the President's constitutional powers. In Mukasey's worldview, the President has unlimited power and Congress has none.

And Dahlia Lithwick, over on Slate, from her "Thank You. Now Go to Hell.Mukasey stonewalls Senate Democrats on water-boarding, and practically everything else.";

Over the course of a long, maddening day, it's quickly manifest that Mukasey's legal opinions have a 30-second shelf life. He won't opine on what's happened in the past and he won't opine on anything that might happen in the future. When Sen. Arlen Specter—concerned about seven years of vast new claims of executive authority—asks Mukasey whether, in his view, the president "can break any law he pleases because he's the president—including, say, statutes banning torture," as well as FISA and the National Security Act, Mukasey replies, "I can't contemplate any situation in which this president would assert Article II authority to do something that the law forbids."

"Well, he did just that when he violated the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," Specter shoots back. Mukasey's response? "Both of those issues have been brought within statutes."

Specter is flabbergasted: "But he acted in violation of statutes, didn't he?"

"I don't know," Mukasey replies. But does is really matter? What's past is past.

And Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., tries to get Mukasey to explain why the Justice Department is investigating the destruction of the CIA torture tapes, but not investigating the underlying torture itself.

Mukasey's reply, "I don't start investigations out of curiosity," speaks for itself. When Whitehouse tries to get Mukasey to agree that they both know enough classified information to have a very concrete, nonspeculative legal discussion about whether what happened on those tapes is legal, Mukasey again insists that whether or not what happened on those tapes is legal is about which "certifications were given" and "who permissibly relied on it." Whitehouse calls this the "Nuremberg defense. ... I had authorization and therefore I'm immune from prosecution."

Any doubt that Crony General will go after those undertaking the illegal wiretapping?

Me thinks pigs will fly before that ever happens


Read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment "Bush put telecoms ahead of citizens; Pres. Bush demands a law which would clear phone giants from responsibility for government's unjustified spying on Americans"

Watch The Special Comment Video

Conservative Journalist, Unaware of Google, Wikipedia, Earns Olbermann's 'Worst Person in the Word!

File this under "dumb-as-a-doorknob".

Man, maybe they gotta start bumping up the pay, over there on Townhall.Com.

Either hire competent people, with the ability to have cognitive thought, or, trainers, to teach them how to use Google Search, and Wikipedia.

For Townhall.Com, that bastion of rightwing freakshowers ("Townhall.com is designed to amplify conservative voices in America’s political debates just as the 2006 and 2008 election cycles begin to heat up ... By uniting the nations’ top conservative radio hosts with their millions of listeners, Townhall.com breaks down the barriers between news and opinion, journalism and political participation -- and enables conservatives to participate in the political process with unprecedented ease."), has a managing editor, for who, apparently, both tools are a complete mystery to her.

Appearing on CNN's Reliable Sources this past weekend ... Well, let me show you how Crooks and Liars put it;

"I’m not sure how the Reliable Sources crew let this ignorant statement by Mary Katharine Ham, blogger and managing editor of Townhall.Com get by."

And what gleaming medallion of ignorance did Mary Katharine Hamm show off?

"HAM: Well, I think Clinton has a duality. You know, he’s the charming guy, he’s the nice guy, but he’s also a guy who’s prone to eruptions and some falsehoods.

You know, he’s like The Incredible Hulk, except he turns sort of purple and blotchy instead of green. But, you know, I think he’s sort of a victim of the - or not a victim, but he’s getting used to the 24-hour news cycle. When he was president, he was not subjected to quite as much scrutiny, and I think he got a lot of passes, and now he’s mad he’s not getting them anymore."

As C&L followed - "Was she even a little bit conscious during his presidency? Apparently not"

Either she is extremely gullible, as in her co-workers pulled a "Yeah, this is how it went down, go with that" prank on her, or she is just tremendously vapid.

"Not subjected to quite as much scrutiny" ... "I think he got a lot of passes" ...

Egads!

Roughly eight-years since he left office and they're still pounding-the-shit out of him!

This, rightly so, caught the eye of MSNBC Countdown host, Keith Olbermann, and, fit quite perfectly into his "Worst Person in the World" segment.

Naturally, Ham took top honors last evening.

"(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

OLBERMANN: Coming up to the last State of the Union address by the 43rd president of the United States, George Walker Bush. Chris Matthews joins me. And the president breaks some kind of record by devoting a large part of his speech to the subject of Iraq for the seventh consecutive State of the Union. That‘s next.

But first time for COUNTDOWN‘s worst persons in the world. The bronze shared by the well-publicized Choate Prep School in Connecticut and Karl Rove, who had to cancel Mr. Rove‘s scheduled appearance as commencement speaker this year. He will come to campus and give an address next month instead.

But the mind boggling part of it, Choate‘s director of strategic marketing and communications Mary Verselli said Mr. Rove had been invited to talk about broader issues, not deliver a political speech. What in God‘s name made you think Karl Rove has ever thought about broader issues?

Our runner-up, Glenn Beck. On TV last Friday after somebody referenced the is Obama black enough nonsense. He says, can you imagine a white commentator saying that? Can you imagine if I had said, is Barack Obama black enough? I mean, I don‘t see that man as black.

On February 12 of 2007 on the radio he said, Barack Obama is quote, “very white in many ways. He is colorless. As a white guy you don‘t notice he is black. So he might as well be white. Do you know what I mean?”

Yes. Sometimes it is not just the dumb, it is the hypocritical.

But our winner, Mary Katharine Ham, the managing editor of the Web site Townhall.com. So lost in radicalism that its headline today insists Senator Joe McCarthy was really great and he got slandered in everything. She was on CNN over the weekend saying former President Clinton‘s controversial role in the campaign owes to the fact that is just quote, “getting used to the 24-hour news cycle. When he was president, he wasn‘t subjected to quite as much scrutiny. I think he got a lot of passes.”

Now Miss Ham, I understand that you were 15 the day that MSNBC was announced and 16 when FOX Noise signed on. But the next time you are going to say something quite this moronic, please ask somebody first. FOX did the Clinton/Lewinsky story from hot and cold running taps, 24 hours a day for two years. We did it about 22 hours a day. And CNN and all the broadcast networks and radio and Republicans washed it through Matt Drudge seven days a week. And we even the Internet back then. It ran on steam and a pass. He got a pass. He got impeached. Like Bret Baier saying Abraham Lincoln left office. He got a pass. He was impeached for less than the new guy does on your average Thursday morning. A pass! Mary Katharine Ham, tonight‘s worst person—a pass—in the world!"

Seeing it in transcript form doesn't quite convey the animation and incredulousness in which Olbermann bestowed "Worst Person in the World" on Ham.

So, let's go to the videotape ...

Olbermann names Mary Katharine Ham worst person




Maybe, on her HamNation thingy, instead of dumping on Barack Obama, she can play a round of "Know Your Presidents", with herself as the sole contestant.

Considering who she works, maybe, she'll get one right.

Keith Olbermann ... Setting The Standard That, Almost Guaranteed, Will Not Be Followed

Yes, I'm going a bit late to this (in part, waiting, and waiting, for MSNBC to publish the damn transcript) but it is a story that has gone vastly under-reported.

A major news anchor made an error, a mistake and then, didn't gloss over it, didn't blame anyone else ... And, in both print, and on-air, brought attention to his mistake, accepted the responsibility for it, and apologized for it ...

Yes, the man, Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's Countdown, called himself out.

The issue stemmed from an interview Olbermann conducted with Lawrence O'Donnell, on Thursday, 17 January, in which there was no mention or reference to O'Donnell's lowdown smear of John Edwards, in a post he wrote on Huffington Post, the week before.

At some point, between the end of Countdown on Thursday evening, and before 11AM the next day, Olbermann did get hip to it and posted an admission of his error on the Daily Kos, announcing at the very end that "It will be addressed tonight on the show."

Addressed indeed.

Just before the first commercial break, on the Friday 18 January broadcast of Countdown;

"And a note about last night‘s COUNTDOWN and the discussion of Barack Obama‘s evoking of the name Ronald Reagan as a president of change. Lawrence O‘Donnell of Huffingtonpost.com was our guest in the 6th sentence of his first answer, Lawrence dismissed criticism of Obama about for the Reagan reference by John Edwards and that said, Edwards, quote, “Is not a factor in these races coming up except possibly Nevada.” He was entitled to say that but I should have pointed out to you that a week ago, Mr. O‘Donnell wrote a piece for “Huffington” in which he called Edwards, a quote, “Loser,” who, quote, “Might in the end become nothing other than the southern white man who stood in the way of the black man.” I would have pointed out to you if he had pointed that out to us. We can‘t do on air vetting (ph) of everything, every analyst has ever written, the newscast would then consist of 58 minutes of that plus the theme music. But when it is relevant and it‘s pointed at recent it should happen, my apologies that in this case it did not."

Jeez, take just MSNBC, and NBC, let alone the rest of the MSM (The NYT would have to publish months of editions to cover Michael Gordon's stenography), if they applied this standard to Little Timmy Russert, and Tweety Chris Matthews, they'd have to launch another channel (and Tweety was recently forced to apologize, on-air)

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 - 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: New Keith Olbermann Special Comment - Kicking Ass and Taking Names!

Keith Olbermann did a Special Comment this evening, but a ass-whuppin' broke out!










Timing it for the eve of the Senate vote on The Commander Guy's Attorney General nominee, his new Fredo, Michael Mukasey, MSNBC 'Countdown' anchor Keith Olbermann served up a blistering smackdown of The Decider Guy, not stopping short of, but, with steam coming out of his ears, labeled - correctly - our country's leader a criminal.

Using the revelation from last week, of former U.S. Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin research into torture, and allowing himself to be waterboarded (and,upon offering that opinion to the Bush Grindhouse, that it was, indeed, torture, Levin was promptly fired), Olbermann pounced on the Texas weed-whacker, right out of the gate;

Finally tonight, as promised, a Special Comment on the meaning of the story of former U.S. Acting Assistant Attorney General Daniel Levin.

It is a fact startling in its cynical simplicity and it requires cynical and simple words to be properly expressed:

The Presidency of George W. Bush has now devolved into a criminal conspiracy to cover the ass of George W. Bush.

All the petulancy, all the childish threats, all the blank-stare stupidity;

All the invocations of World War Three, all the sophistic questions about which terrorist attacks we wanted him not to stop, all the phony secrets;

All the claims of executive privilege, all the stumbling tap-dancing of his nominees, all the verbal flatulence of his apologists...

All of it is now -- after one revelation last week -- transparently clear for what it is: the pathetic and desperate manipulation of the government, the re-focusing of our entire nation, towards keeping this mock president, and this unstable vice president, and this departed wildly self-over-rating Attorney General -- and the others -- from potential prosecution for having approved or ordered the illegal torture of prisoners being held in the name of this country.

And he threw a few haymakers at Congress (and singling out the two caving Democrats, Schumer and Feinstein), reminding them that "... they should look into their own committee's history and recall that in 1973, their predecessors were able to wring even from Richard Nixon, a guarantee of a Special Prosecutor (ultimately a Special Prosecutor of Richard Nixon!), in exchange for their approval of his new Attorney General, Elliott Richardson."

In a perfect world (or a Frank Capra movie), every Senator and Congressman that shows up for work tomorrow would say Olbermann was right, and, in swift, successive actions, shoot down Mukasy and draw up the Articles of Impeachment for the Dynamic Duo that sits in the Oval Office.

Or, someone, a member of Congress, a concerned DOJ employee, even a average Joe from Main Street USA, would pick up on The Garlic's call from this past Fourth of July, and make a Citizen's Arrest.

Read Special Comment: The presidency is now a criminal conspiracy

Or, you can watch the video


Special Comment: On waterboarding and torture

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 ... Lying, Lying, Lying!

"As he deceived the troops at Al-Asad Air Base yesterday with the tantalizing prospect that some of them might not have to risk being killed and might get to go home, Mr. Bush probably did not know that, with his own words, he had already proved that he had been lying, is lying and will be lying about Iraq."

So began an energized, animated and angry MSNBC Countdown anchor Keith Olbermann, in his Special Comment "Bush just playing us with 'troop withdrawal'".

Ranting against The Commander Guy's surprise Photo Op in Iraq yesterday, teasing the troops about possible troop withdrawals, yet, already laying out his legacy strategy, now released with his new book, 'Dead Certain';

“I'm playing for October-November," Mr. Bush said to Draper. That, evidently, is the time during which, he thinks he can sell us the real plan, which is “to get us in a position where the presidential candidates will be comfortable about sustaining a presence."

Comfortable, that is, with saying about Iraq, again quoting the President, “stay... longer."

And Olbermann didn't hesitate to call him out on it all.

War today, war tomorrow, war forever!

And you are playing at it! Playing!

A man with any self respect, having inadvertently revealed such an evil secret, would have already resigned and fled the country! You have no remaining credibility about Iraq.

Read Keith Olbermann's Special Comment Bush just playing us with 'troop withdrawal'; Night is day, and death is life, and enraging the world against us is safety

Watch The Video of Keith Olbermann's Special comment on Bush’s surprise Iraq visit