OMFG! (Something I almost never say) - Keith Olberman ROCKS!

[TahitiNut]

Amazing! Perfect! He's reaming Rummy almost as much as Rummy deserves.

We gotta get a transcript! It's EXCELLENT!

Sheesh! I actally stood and cheered ... waving my fists. It's been YEARS since I've done that.

Wow!!

[wellstone dem]

1. I have goosebumps and I'm crying

and I never do that.

[TahitiNut]

7. You and me both!! I've felt jaded ... and then there's Keith.

Wow! Fucking Wow!

[madokie]

40. I'm getting goose bumps just reading about it and not even the transcript

this will be a must watch on rerun in the morning if they show it again.

[TahitiNut]

44. Ubetcha, bro! It was a rare-to-nonexistent moment.

It ranks higher than Colbert's dinner bit, imho ... it was TRUTH TO POWER, without the candy-coating of humor. There's nothing funny about fascists in the WHite House. There nothing funny about RUmmy - the chief GHOUL of this regime, feeding on the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocents.

[LunaSea]

14. you are not alone...

wow...

[chat_noir]

64. me, too

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/08/30/keith-olbermann-delivers-one-hell-of-a-commentary-on-rumsfeld/

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Will be on C&L, without question.

[Coexist]

3. Glad I tivo'd it!

[Catherine Vincent]

4. He tore him a new one.

Ouch!

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

12. GO KEITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

[highnooner]

5. Nailed it!

WOW!!!

[TahitiNut]

32. Ubetcha! Nothin' but net. Home run. Hat trick ... all in one.

I do the sports metaphors in his honor! He earns my undying respect with that one!!

[ThomWV]

That one was worth the price of a month of Direct TV

[nradisic]

6. The fat lady just sang!

First salvo for the MSM

[TahitiNut]

15. Let's get encores!! Jon Stewart? Alert, Jon!!!

That deserves more replays than the OJ "chase" and the Karr flight together!

[malaise]

28. KO was brilliant

spot on.

[NYCGirl]

30. He's on vacation for two weeks. NT

[TahitiNut]

33. That's no excuse. Let's get him back.

:evilgrin:

[fairfaxvadem]

8. I am blown away.

Thank God for Keith O. Said what so many of us have been screaming about for 5 years.

Wow.

[bluemarkers]

9. simple truths

GO Keith!!!!

[City Lights]

10. I got chills listening to him.

Keith Olbermann for president!

[MelissaB]

11. For those who missed it catch the rerun tonight. It's THAT good.

:kick:

[TahitiNut]

20. Yep. I NEVER do the "OMFG" thing ... it's overdone. I couldn't help it.

It's better than I could possibly post.

[babylonsister]

62. Come on, we know how emotional you are!

:rofl: I agree, Olbermann was historic for these times!

[TahitiNut]

73. "Emotional"? Moi?

Naww... I'm just one of those "sensitive" guys that've gone out of style these days.

:dunce:

(Show me a guy that doesn't cry and I'll show you a guy with no balls ... or who's never ridden a bike.)

:silly:

[babylonsister]

77. Thus the smiley. I 'forced' my husband to watch it; he

was mightily impressed, too!

[high density]

13. That was freaking fantastic

I almost got up and cheered myself... probably would have if I wasn't in an apartment.

[chat_noir]

16. MSNBC video link

http://video.msn.com/v/us/msnbc.htm?g=03CB8B45-489A-4C17-9832-063BC415558F&f=00&fg=copy

[TomInTib]

17. I didn't know if I would cheer or cry. That was something else, indeed.

Damn

[TahitiNut]

36. That freaking made my day! I was spellbound and rising to my feet

... it was so freaking terrific. Like cool water to a thirsty man ... wonderful!!!

[TomInTib]

53. When he turned to his left to face camera#2, I knew it was a keeper.

If you review the clip, watch that part and you will see what I mean.

I wonder who wrote that piece.

His delivery was absolutely magnificent.

In my opinion, that was one of the best Countdowns ever.

[TomInTib]

56. When he turned to his left to face camera#2, I knew it was a keeper.

If you review the clip, watch that part and you will see what I mean.

I wonder who wrote that piece.

His delivery was absolutely magnificent.

In my opinion, that was one of the best Countdowns ever.

[w8liftinglady]

18. I tivo'd it..off to watch ..

[Malikshah]

19. His final words about living with a new fascism

Were music to my ears.

He's calling them out on it in a VERY big way.

It's strange though...here in South Florida, I heard this major popping sound at the end...then I realized that Loofah Boy just exploded acroos the country.

[TahitiNut]

23. Indeed! "Fascism" is now mainstreamed! Finally!

There's no going back now. This Fucking Fascist regime has got to be brought to justice!!!

[AlCzervik]

21. he totally captured imo what so many of us think and feel everyday.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. Damn! I missed it.

:-( Will have to catch the re-run.

[TahitiNut]

25. Please. No matter what you have to do. WATCH THE RERUN.

It's closer than anything has yet come to telling the TRUTH about the cabal of bastards in the White House.

[MANative]

24. Stunning and moving.

That was as eloquent as anything the late Mr Murrow would have said. KO gave me goosebumps.

[BlueCentrist]

26. Extraordinary...

we can only hope that it will have an impact.

[howmad1]

27. KO. The new Edward R. Murrow.

Don't be too surprised if MSNBC bumps him as we get closer to the election. These right wing bastards will stop at nothing to hold back the truth in order to protect their corporate wealth.

[BlueCentrist]

35. That is who came to mind when he started talking.

This is an extraordinary time in history,that Murrows exact words were so fitting at this point in time.
Profound moment.Profound.

[cal04]

29. Bravo Keith Olbermann you did a great job

You were right on!

[Hubert Flottz]

31. He KOed the Rumrod's bullshit.

WHEW!

And the look on Tucker's mug at the end, was like he'd just seen a ghost. The Ghost of PNAC past I hope!

[BlueCentrist]

39. Tuckers expression was pricelss.

I turned before that moronic dancing daddys boy could utter even a single syllable but I did see his expression before I turned.

[Hubert Flottz]

46. I did the very same thing!

Zapped him quicker than I'd have zapped Squinting Joe Scarebrow. Supersonic mute, is the only way to tolerate the rest of the swill on MSNBC.

[BlueCentrist]

59. ha.ha.

You got that right.I keep my remote handy at ALL times. :toast:

[Hubert Flottz]

61. Welcome to DU!

:toast:

[BlueCentrist]

66. Thank You.

And thanks to you all.This place is a haven. Thank God for D.U.

[leftchick]

34. It was a thing of beauty! Truth!!!! From my TV!!!!!

I had visions of V's speech from the TV station on November 5th in 'V for Vendetta'!
Truly inspiring!

:applause:

[TahitiNut]

41. His passion and clarity of vision ...and integrity ... came though LOUD

... and CLEAR. Not just his words, but his eyes and his entire manner showed the kind of clarity this entire nation needs DEARLY! Bottle it and replace the Kool-Aid ... and we can put those bastards on trial. Yes!!!

[leftchick]

45. did you hear him say earlier

"I am going to get in trouble tonight" earlier in the show? He doesn't even care. He knew He was the one who needed to stand up to the Fascists NOW! No matter what!

[TahitiNut]

48. Yep. I hope others (besides me) drown them in emailed BRAVO's.

It needs to be said ... over and over and over again. God bless a man with integrity in the vast wasteland.

I pray that history shows the essential roles such folks as Keith, Jon, and Stephen are playing. These are the kind of people who deserve access to the public airwaves!

[Tess49]

37. I'm going to send a note to MSNBC and thank them for this and

for Keith. I was astonished as I listened to him. I would have been speechless if there were anyone else in the house to talk to. He summarized my outrage far better than I ever could. Nailed it. I hope his commentary was done with the blessing of the network. I would frigging hate it if anything happened to his show. I need to see if I can get my VCR to work, so I can tape this from the repeat.

[BlueCentrist]

43. I've sent my email of gratitude and thanks already.

I signed on,wrote him and came here.I am so glad to be able to share this moment with you all.

[Tess49]

47. Good! I'm on my way to their site now. Need to collect my

thoughts a bit, so I can write something coherent. Something other than just Wow!

[BlueCentrist]

63. all I could manage was a sincere

Thank You and signed it sincerely and with much gratitude,an American.

[Tess49]

76. Sounds good to me. I managed a couple of lines of thanks. I

hope everyone here sends him their best.

[TahitiNut]

58. Here's my (first) email ...

Subject: BRAVO! BRAVO! BRAVO!

Thank G-d somebody in the "vast wasteland" has the clarity of vision, integrity, and courage to speak TRUTH to POWER. Mr. Olberman's closing remarks on tonight's show have been far too long in coming. It's about time someone blew the whistle on this corrupt and criminal regime.

I am NOT a "Democrat" ... having voted for people of both parties in my life. I am NOT a 'peace-nik' but am a Viet Nam veteran!

I AM an American and am disgusted beyond what I'd ever imagined that this regime has any support at all from otherwise honest and law-abiding citizens of this country. This country has NEVER had as corrupt and criminal 'leadership' as these appalling bastards (pardon mon Francais, sil vous plait).

Thank you, Mr. Olberman! Thank you! Thank you!

I miss Edward R. Murrow. I miss Walter Cronkite. Thank heavens for Keith!

[Catchawave]

38. Tonight we are all Americans !

Thank you Keith :loveya:

[Klukie]

42. Thank you Keith!

Old Rummy really screwed up this time. He just gave way to all of those in the MSM to open up the debate and he will most definately lose. Keith led the way, and I have a good feeling that many others are about to follow. Keith Olberman is a true Hero!

[Disturbed]

51. KO delievered a KO to Rumsfailed and the

Busholini Regime. It is truely sad that KO is one of the few on TV that speaks Truth to Power.

[kilaana]

49. Just awesome!

KO rocks, indeed! I was cheering, too! Actually, I was saying "F...king A! It's about time somebody in the media says this!"

It was the most satisfying thing I've seen on television since Colbert's speech at the White House Correspondent's dinner.

Go, Keith!!

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

50. Bloody Hell, I've missed it!!!!!

[ChiciB1]

52. There Are LINKS All Over...

Check right above you. I emailed both to my other address.

[teamster633]

54. It was truly the first relevant thing I've heard from the TV...

in way longer than I care to remember. We owe Keith a debt of gratitude for giving voice to our outrage and disbelief. His commentary was thoughtful, measured, and to the point; qualities absent from any communication from the executive branch in well over five years. Bravo!

[derby378]

55. I think Keith pulled his biggest punch...

...but otherwise, he was nothing short of excellent.

[TahitiNut]

60. The biggest punch MUST come from the people of this nation.

He did just right, imho. He left the knockout punch for every viewer to do for themselves. The essential key to any great rhetoric is to leave 'em wanting more ... if only just a little.

[Raffi Ella]

57. I am speechless.

Keith Olbermann is my fucking hero.THIS is the stuff legends are made of.My God he was BRILLIANT.Just unbeleievably brilliant.

[democrank]

65. Take that, Rummy.....

Keith was brilliant. No holding back. No stuttering and stammering trying to find pleasant-sounding words. He just let `er rip. Bravo, Keith! We need more just like him.

[Swamp Rat]

67. Download the video from Crooks and Liars:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/08/30/keith-olbermann-delivers-one-hell-of-a-commentary-on-rumsfeld/

[leftchick]

75. Thank You Swamp Rodent!!!!

:hi:

[BlueCentrist]

82. THANK YOU.

:toast: :kick:

[OrangeCountyDemocrat]

68. COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT

Courtesy of Sydnie on the Keith Olbermann Board.


Feeling morally, intellectually confused?

The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack.

Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet.

Mr. Rumsfeld’s remarkable speech to the American Legion yesterday demands the deep analysis—and the sober contemplation—of every American.

For it did not merely serve to impugn the morality or intelligence -- indeed, the loyalty -- of the majority of Americans who oppose the transient occupants of the highest offices in the land. Worse, still, it credits those same transient occupants -- our employees -- with a total omniscience; a total omniscience which neither common sense, nor this administration’s track record at home or abroad, suggests they deserve.

Dissent and disagreement with government is the life’s blood of human freedom; and not merely because it is the first roadblock against the kind of tyranny the men Mr. Rumsfeld likes to think of as “his” troops still fight, this very evening, in Iraq.

It is also essential. Because just every once in awhile it is right and the power to which it speaks, is wrong.

In a small irony, however, Mr. Rumsfeld’s speechwriter was adroit in invoking the memory of the appeasement of the Nazis. For in their time, there was another government faced with true peril—with a growing evil—powerful and remorseless.

That government, like Mr. Rumsfeld’s, had a monopoly on all the facts. It, too, had the “secret information.” It alone had the true picture of the threat. It too dismissed and insulted its critics in terms like Mr. Rumsfeld’s -- questioning their intellect and their morality.

That government was England’s, in the 1930’s.

It knew Hitler posed no true threat to Europe, let alone England.

It knew Germany was not re-arming, in violation of all treaties and accords.

It knew that the hard evidence it received, which contradicted its own policies, its own conclusions — its own omniscience -- needed to be dismissed.

The English government of Neville Chamberlain already knew the truth.

Most relevant of all — it “knew” that its staunchest critics needed to be marginalized and isolated. In fact, it portrayed the foremost of them as a blood-thirsty war-monger who was, if not truly senile, at best morally or intellectually confused.

That critic’s name was Winston Churchill.

Sadly, we have no Winston Churchills evident among us this evening. We have only Donald Rumsfelds, demonizing disagreement, the way Neville Chamberlain demonized Winston Churchill.

History — and 163 million pounds of Luftwaffe bombs over England — have taught us that all Mr. Chamberlain had was his certainty — and his own confusion. A confusion that suggested that the office can not only make the man, but that the office can also make the facts.

Thus, did Mr. Rumsfeld make an apt historical analogy.

Excepting the fact, that he has the battery plugged in backwards.

His government, absolute -- and exclusive -- in its knowledge, is not the modern version of the one which stood up to the Nazis.

It is the modern version of the government of Neville Chamberlain.

But back to today’s Omniscient ones.

That, about which Mr. Rumsfeld is confused is simply this: This is a Democracy. Still. Sometimes just barely.

And, as such, all voices count -- not just his.

Had he or his president perhaps proven any of their prior claims of omniscience — about Osama Bin Laden’s plans five years ago, about Saddam Hussein’s weapons four years ago, about Hurricane Katrina’s impact one year ago — we all might be able to swallow hard, and accept their “omniscience” as a bearable, even useful recipe, of fact, plus ego.

But, to date, this government has proved little besides its own arrogance, and its own hubris.

Mr. Rumsfeld is also personally confused, morally or intellectually, about his own standing in this matter. From Iraq to Katrina, to the entire “Fog of Fear” which continues to envelope this nation, he, Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, and their cronies have — inadvertently or intentionally — profited and benefited, both personally, and politically.

And yet he can stand up, in public, and question the morality and the intellect of those of us who dare ask just for the receipt for the Emporer’s New Clothes?

In what country was Mr. Rumsfeld raised? As a child, of whose heroism did he read? On what side of the battle for freedom did he dream one day to fight? With what country has he confused the United States of America?

The confusion we -- as its citizens— must now address, is stark and forbidding.

But variations of it have faced our forefathers, when men like Nixon and McCarthy and Curtis LeMay have darkened our skies and obscured our flag. Note -- with hope in your heart — that those earlier Americans always found their way to the light, and we can, too.

The confusion is about whether this Secretary of Defense, and this administration, are in fact now accomplishing what they claim the terrorists seek: The destruction of our freedoms, the very ones for which the same veterans Mr. Rumsfeld addressed yesterday in Salt Lake City, so valiantly fought.

And about Mr. Rumsfeld’s other main assertion, that this country faces a “new type of fascism.”

As he was correct to remind us how a government that knew everything could get everything wrong, so too was he right when he said that -- though probably not in the way he thought he meant it.

This country faces a new type of fascism - indeed.

Although I presumptuously use his sign-off each night, in feeble tribute, I have utterly no claim to the words of the exemplary journalist Edward R. Murrow.

But never in the trial of a thousand years of writing could I come close to matching how he phrased a warning to an earlier generation of us, at a time when other politicians thought they (and they alone) knew everything, and branded those who disagreed: “confused” or “immoral.”

Thus, forgive me, for reading Murrow, in full:

“We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty,” he said, in 1954. “We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law.

“We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular.”

And so good night, and good luck.

[TahitiNut]

71. Yep! He posted it on "Bloggerman" at 8:34pm.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12131617/#060830b

[Hidden Stillness]

69. TV was Actually Exciting Tonight--and Real!

I am almost never impressed with Keith Olbermann or anything else on TV, but this was FABULOUS. I'm going to tape it when they reshow it at midnight. It almost felt like we were a society again, that the media was connected to us, that we owned the airwaves and they spoke our concerns again, and that there were normal people on TV again, as I have not related to the corporate media and any of its opinions since the 1970s. We are on the move now; it is taking shape--and it has words!

[junkiebrewster]

70. That was brilliant....

Very well written and delivered.

I think I have a man-crush on KO.

[w8liftinglady]

72. I am so indebted to him for this act.We need to flood masnbc with praise.

[TahitiNut]

81. I share that sense of indebtedness. I've sent two emails so far.

The time for silence has passed long ago. The time to speak up, loud and clear, is full upon us. Silence is treason - a betrayal of our humanity. We can do no less than speak up. Everywhere.

[Raffi Ella]

85. well said!

:patriot: :kick:

[KoKo]

74. Okay...Okay....I'm Taping the Second performance....got Flooding Rains

here where I am before Ernesto arrives...so missed the first broadcast.....

Got it...Am Taping....Thanks for the heads up!!!!!

[rateyes]

78. Gore/Olbermann....

now THAT'S a ticket I can support. Gore's speech to the ACLU and this one tonight are the two most patriotic bits of oratory I've heard in a LONG LONG TIME!

KEITH OLBERMANN :yourock:

[Subdivisions]

79. Dang! Now I have to

change my sticker!

KO Rawks!

[rateyes]

80. LOL....I like your ticket, too! nt

[lady lib]

83. So good that

if I smoked, I'd need a cigarette afterward ;)

[TahitiNut]

86. Amen.

:smoke: :smoke:

[lady lib]

87. I sent KO a thank you e-mail.

I told him that he didn't just knock it out of the park, he knocked it clear out of New Jersey.

[Ghost in the Machine]

84. OUCH!! Hey Donnie? *THAT'S* gonna leave a mark!

I hope it hurt to get smacked back down to reality, scumbag. And seriously.....

that's gonna leave a mark!

[leesa]

88. That was truly a thing of beauty. I'm so glad KO chose to be a hero.

[rman]

89. It's the sort of speech one would hope to expect from an opposition leader

Wow, indeed.