Keith Olbermann gets it exactly right

Magnetic Poles · Sep 12, 2006

Keith Olbermann made a special statement on his show of September 11, 2006. Over eight minutes long, but worth watching the entire segment. No one could be more correct. Video requires Internet Explorer.

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=6ab03f03-7a66-4378-8443-ef3afe82bab8&f=00&fg=copy

Actually, the entire show last night was Must See TV, but this commentary said what has long been needed to be said.

Petra-O IX · Sep 12, 2006

Olbermann certainly puts it all in perspective and speaks for many Americans.
This is the reason that Olbemann is so hated by the right-wing talking heads.
Good post MP.:thumbsup:

hillclimber1 · Sep 13, 2006

He's just another empty suit and couldn't stand up to a debate with anyone. He is quintessential liberal spouting liberal sound bites, using the Presidents speech as his outline. What a pack of ridiculous drivel.
He must have good speech writers cause he couldn't write this.

Revmitchell · Sep 13, 2006

Wow! More hysterical hatres from the left. And that from Keith Olberman.

I am going to have a heart attack and die of not surprised.

Magnetic Poles · Sep 13, 2006

For those without broadband, here is the transcript of Mr. Olbermann's comments. Indeed, I find nothing in his comments with which to quibble. Its about time some of the media commentators speak out against this evil regime in Washington. Doing so cost Mike Malloy (www.mikemalloy.com) his job 2 weeks ago, as he was fired by the gutless management of Air America Radio. I hope he is back on the air somewhere soon as well. I applaud MSNBC for not censoring Mr. Olbermann.

Here is the transcript, delivered from lower Manhattan:

Half a lifetime ago, I worked in this now-empty space. And for 40 days after the attacks, I worked here again, trying to make sense of what happened, and was yet to happen, as a reporter.
All the time, I knew that the very air I breathed contained the remains of thousands of people, including four of my friends, two in the planes and -- as I discovered from those "missing posters" seared still into my soul -- two more in the Towers.
And I knew too, that this was the pyre for hundreds of New York policemen and firemen, of whom my family can claim half a dozen or more, as our ancestors.
I belabor this to emphasize that, for me this was, and is, and always shall be, personal.
And anyone who claims that I and others like me are "soft,"or have "forgotten" the lessons of what happened here is at best a grasping, opportunistic, dilettante and at worst, an idiot whether he is a commentator, or a Vice President, or a President.
However, of all the things those of us who were here five years ago could have forecast -- of all the nightmares that unfolded before our eyes, and the others that unfolded only in our minds -- none of us could have predicted this.
Five years later this space is still empty.
Five years later there is no memorial to the dead.
Five years later there is no building rising to show with proud defiance that we would not have our America wrung from us, by cowards and criminals.
Five years later this country's wound is still open.
Five years later this country's mass grave is still unmarked.
Five years later this is still just a background for a photo-op.
It is beyond shameful.
At the dedication of the Gettysburg Memorial -- barely four months after the last soldier staggered from another Pennsylvania field -- Mr. Lincoln said, "we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract."
Lincoln used those words to immortalize their sacrifice.
Today our leaders could use those same words to rationalize their reprehensible inaction. "We cannot dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground." So we won't.
Instead they bicker and buck pass. They thwart private efforts, and jostle to claim credit for initiatives that go nowhere. They spend the money on irrelevant wars, and elaborate self-congratulations, and buying off columnists to write how good a job they're doing instead of doing any job at all.
Five years later, Mr. Bush, we are still fighting the terrorists on these streets. And look carefully, sir, on these 16 empty acres. The terrorists are clearly, still winning.
And, in a crime against every victim here and every patriotic sentiment you mouthed but did not enact, you have done nothing about it.
And there is something worse still than this vast gaping hole in this city, and in the fabric of our nation. There is its symbolism of the promise unfulfilled, the urgent oath, reduced to lazy execution.
The only positive on 9/11 and the days and weeks that so slowly and painfully followed it was the unanimous humanity, here, and throughout the country. The government, the President in particular, was given every possible measure of support.
Those who did not belong to his party -- tabled that.
Those who doubted the mechanics of his election -- ignored that.
Those who wondered of his qualifications -- forgot that.
History teaches us that nearly unanimous support of a government cannot be taken away from that government by its critics. It can only be squandered by those who use it not to heal a nation's wounds, but to take political advantage.
Terrorists did not come and steal our newly-regained sense of being American first, and political, fiftieth. Nor did the Democrats. Nor did the media. Nor did the people.
The President -- and those around him -- did that.
They promised bi-partisanship, and then showed that to them, "bi-partisanship" meant that their party would rule and the rest would have to follow, or be branded, with ever-escalating hysteria, as morally or intellectually confused, as appeasers, as those who, in the Vice President's words yesterday, "validate the strategy of the terrorists."
They promised protection, and then showed that to them "protection" meant going to war against a despot whose hand they had once shaken, a despot who we now learn from our own Senate Intelligence Committee, hated al-Qaida as much as we did.
The polite phrase for how so many of us were duped into supporting a war, on the false premise that it had 'something to do' with 9/11 is "lying by implication."
The impolite phrase is "impeachable offense."
Not once in now five years has this President ever offered to assume responsibility for the failures that led to this empty space, and to this, the current, curdled, version of our beloved country.
Still, there is a last snapping flame from a final candle of respect and fairness: even his most virulent critics have never suggested he alone bears the full brunt of the blame for 9/11.
Half the time, in fact, this President has been so gently treated, that he has seemed not even to be the man most responsible for anything in his own administration.
Yet what is happening this very night?
A mini-series, created, influenced -- possibly financed by -- the most radical and cold of domestic political Machiavellis, continues to be televised into our homes.
The documented truths of the last fifteen years are replaced by bald-faced lies; the talking points of the current regime parroted; the whole sorry story blurred, by spin, to make the party out of office seem vacillating and impotent, and the party in office, seem like the only option.
How dare you, Mr. President, after taking cynical advantage of the unanimity and love, and transmuting it into fraudulent war and needless death, after monstrously transforming it into fear and suspicion and turning that fear into the campaign slogan of three elections? How dare you -- or those around you -- ever "spin" 9/11?
Just as the terrorists have succeeded -- are still succeeding -- as long as there is no memorial and no construction here at Ground Zero.
So, too, have they succeeded, and are still succeeding as long as this government uses 9/11 as a wedge to pit Americans against Americans.
This is an odd point to cite a television program, especially one from March of 1960. But as Disney's continuing sell-out of the truth (and this country) suggests, even television programs can be powerful things.
And long ago, a series called "The Twilight Zone" broadcast a riveting episode entitled "The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street."
In brief: a meteor sparks rumors of an invasion by extra-terrestrials disguised as humans. The electricity goes out. A neighbor pleads for calm. Suddenly his car -- and only his car -- starts. Someone suggests he must be the alien. Then another man's lights go on. As charges and suspicion and panic overtake the street, guns are inevitably produced. An "alien" is shot -- but he turns out to be just another neighbor, returning from going for help. The camera pulls back to a near-by hill, where two extra-terrestrials are seen manipulating a small device that can jam electricity. The veteran tells his novice that there's no need to actually attack, that you just turn off a few of the human machines and then, "they pick the most dangerous enemy they can find, and it's themselves."
And then, in perhaps his finest piece of writing, Rod Serling sums it up with words of remarkable prescience, given where we find ourselves tonight: "The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices, to be found only in the minds of men.
"For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own -- for the children, and the children yet unborn."
When those who dissent are told time and time again -- as we will be, if not tonight by the President, then tomorrow by his portable public chorus -- that he is preserving our freedom, but that if we use any of it, we are somehow un-American...When we are scolded, that if we merely question, we have "forgotten the lessons of 9/11"... look into this empty space behind me and the bi-partisanship upon which this administration also did not build, and tell me:
Who has left this hole in the ground?
We have not forgotten, Mr. President.
You have.
May this country forgive you.
Click to expand...

Bro. Curtis · Sep 13, 2006

Kieth's in for some long nights, come November.

Bro. Curtis · Sep 13, 2006

Since the left fights Bush on literally everything, his administration is pretty smart to stay out of the bickering & partisianship that would hinder any memorial, and instead, fight Al Queda, wherever thay are.

Kieth Olberman. From sports empty suit to libby empty suit.

BTW, from what I know, Bush doesn't have to worry about forgiveness. Olberman, on the other hand.......

Bearing false witness against somebody is sin, correct ? How can he say Bush has forgotten ? He's a liar, that's how.

Pastor Larry · Sep 13, 2006

Keith should have never left ESPN. That was a job that he was qualified for. This bunch of nonsense is just that. He is a quick wit and a dull mind. He was great with Dan Patrick, perhaps the best "Big Show" anchors except possibly Rich Eisen and Stewart Scott.

To blame an empty spot on the President is nonsense. The executive branch is not charged with building buildings, settling disputes about what kind of buildings should be built, or anything else. To blame the empty spot on Bush shows the depths to which liberal attacks on the president have sunk. Does any one really believe that Bush should be building an office building for private enterprise? Why isn't Olberman condemning the people in charge of pickign a design? Why isn't Olberman condemning those who are drawing up the blueprints?

The lack of bipartisanship has certainly gone both ways. Why should Bush be nice to people who tell lies about him, distort the truth, and the like? Bush has been the most genteel president of modern history, in teh face of the most abrasive attacks from his political enemies. Bush has refused to lash out them, though it certainly would have been justified. He has refused to respond in kind. And that may be the only good thing he has done recently, if at any time during his presidency. Pelosi, Reid, Schumer, Clinton, Kennedy, Kerry, and Biden have destroyed the bipartisanship, but notice the lack of condemnation from Olberman for them.

Revmitchell · Sep 13, 2006

Desperate, hysterical, rantings. It shows their confidence in their position.:laugh: :laugh:

Andy T. · Sep 13, 2006

Olberman criticizes Bush using 9/11 for political advantage, while he himself uses the 5th anniversary of 9/11 to make a political statement. What a buffoon; Olberman that is.

Magnetic Poles · Sep 13, 2006

Andy T. said:

Olberman criticizes Bush using 9/11 for political advantage, while he himself uses the 5th anniversary of 9/11 to make a political statement. What a buffoon; Olberman that is.
Click to expand...

The difference is Bush is President. Olbermann is not a government official. A free and critical media is important to a free society.

What Olbermann said is true...

Bush squandered the goodwill of the Democrats, our allies, and the rest of the world in an unnecessary invasion of a country whose leaders had no connection to 9/11, hated Al Qaeda as much as we do, and now that nation IS a haven for terrorists because of US actions. We have lost Anbar province (1/4 of Iraq) to Al Qaeda, most of the country is under sectarian control or no control, and countless more lives have been lost.

At best, Bush is ineffective...at worst, he should be impeached.

North Carolina Tentmaker · Sep 13, 2006

How long did it take to build the WW 2 memorial? And Keith wants the WTC rebuilt in 5 years? Construction on the twin towers began in 1966. 1WTC was completed in 1972 and 2 WTC was finished in 1973 (although some tenants did move in as early as December 1970 the official ribbon cutting was April 4, 1973).

Since the original towers took longer than 5 years to build why would Keith think that any new building could be built faster? Does he think that having the press and government involved is going to make the process faster? Comparing this to Gettysburg is just dishonest. Lincoln gave his famous address at the dedication of a cemetery not a memorial. Several memorial have been built at that site since then.

Bro. Curtis · Sep 13, 2006

How long after 1973 did we get a memorial to the Vietnam Vets ?

Magnetic Poles · Sep 13, 2006

North Carolina Tentmaker said:

How long did it take to build the WW 2 memorial? And Keith wants the WTC rebuilt in 5 years? Construction on the twin towers began in 1966. 1WTC was completed in 1972 and 2 WTC was finished in 1973 (although some tenants did move in as early as December 1970 the official ribbon cutting was April 4, 1973).
Click to expand...

His point on that is not that a finished memorial and building is not there. It is that five years later NOTHING has been done toward even starting; and all due to political infighting and turf battles.

BTW, the Empire State Building was built in just over one year.

Blammo · Sep 13, 2006

Maybe they could get Jimmy Carter to build it?

Bro. Curtis · Sep 13, 2006

wait.

Are you mad that there's no memorial,

or because we squandered the good will of democrats, (spewed iced tea all over, on that one)

or because we're in Iraq,

which is it, at least for this thread ?

Bro. Curtis · Sep 13, 2006

Great pic, Blammo. Go Grizzlies!!!!!!!

ASLANSPAL · Sep 13, 2006

Magnetic Poles said:

The difference is Bush is President. Olbermann is not a government official. A free and critical media is important to a free society.

What Olbermann said is true...

Bush squandered the goodwill of the Democrats, our allies, and the rest of the world in an unnecessary invasion of a country whose leaders had no connection to 9/11, hated Al Qaeda as much as we do, and now that nation IS a haven for terrorists because of US actions. We have lost Anbar province (1/4 of Iraq) to Al Qaeda, most of the country is under sectarian control or no control, and countless more lives have been lost.

At best, Bush is ineffective...at worst, he should be impeached.
Click to expand...

Exactly! thanks for bringing it back to the op and in focus.

Petra-O IX · Sep 13, 2006

Magnetic Poles said:

The difference is Bush is President. Olbermann is not a government official. A free and critical media is important to a free society.

What Olbermann said is true...

Bush squandered the goodwill of the Democrats, our allies, and the rest of the world in an unnecessary invasion of a country whose leaders had no connection to 9/11, hated Al Qaeda as much as we do, and now that nation IS a haven for terrorists because of US actions. We have lost Anbar province (1/4 of Iraq) to Al Qaeda, most of the country is under sectarian control or no control, and countless more lives have been lost.

At best, Bush is ineffective...at worst, he should be impeached.
Click to expand...

MP, this message should be repeated over and over again cause the staunch right-wing nut crowd just ain't gettin it. They would rather believe a lie.The best we can hope for is that this madness will end in two years if not sooner, then maybe we can all join togethor and repair the damage done to this great country by the Bush administration.
God Bless the Constitutiion,
God bless Free Speech and
God bless America, my home sweet home.

Magnetic Poles · Sep 13, 2006

Petra-O IX said:

God Bless the Constitutiion,
God bless Free Speech and
God bless America, my home sweet home.
Click to expand...

. . . Amen!

Keith Olbermann gets it exactly right

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Keith Olbermann gets it exactly right

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