Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

American history and black history cannot be separated.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

This chaos was totally avoidable.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Giving in to doom is how we fail to fight for ourselves & one another.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Sometimes the world just tells you your cat is here.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

The current Supreme Court is a dangerous, rogue court.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

No one could have predicted…

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

The words do not have to be perfect.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

All hail the time of the bunny!

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Reader Interactions

157Comments

  3. 3.

    Elisabeth

    I’m not sure what it is, but it must just be the time of year

    .

    Or it might have something to do with your age; I took an hour nap.

  5. 5.

    Redshirt

    Too many open threads will do that to ya. And/or tech support queue hell.

    Being an IT professional, I have many tales of glorious holds. I think my record was 4 hours.

  8. 8.

    Ija

    Interesting post by Will Wilkinson about why liberaltarian is a nice idea that will never work.

    And most liberals remain pretty hostile to these common libertarian ideas:
    ■Democracy sucks.
    ■Unions hurt more than they help.
    ■Campaign spending is political speech.
    ■Economic inequality does not undermine democracy or democracy’s role in establishing and protecting equal liberty.
    ■Economic rights are as important as political and civil rights, and should be just as vigilantly protected, even if that leads to huge inequalities, which do not, by the way, threaten democracy or the value of political and civil rights.
    ■Taxation is coercive but imprisoning the guy who nicked your lawn gnome isn’t.

    It’s great that a libertarian like Wilkinson is admitting that libertarian does not care about inequality. I also particularly like the last point. I suppose point 1 about how democracy sucks is related to that great libertarian belief that giving the vote to women has been bad for democracy because women tend not to support libertarianism. I.e what is bad for their ideology is bad for democracy.
    Anyway, I appreciate the post for being open and honest about what horrible, immature jerks libertarians are. Thanks, Will.

  10. 10.

    Mary G

    You need to take some pictures and video of Tunch, Rosie and Lily. Then post them. You’ll feel much better.

  11. 11.

    Ija

    And Wilkinson claims that his preferred policy is this:

    It’s best to just maximize growth rates, pre-tax distribution be damned, and then fund wicked-good social insurance with huge revenues from an optimal tax scheme.

    The problem is, he is too stupid and/or naive to realize that Republicans would be all for “maximizing growth rates, pre-tax distribution be damned”, but would fight tooth and nail against “wicked good social insurance” because hey, lazy and/or non-white people might get benefits they don’t deserve. I mean, what country does Wilkinson think he is living in?

  12. 12.

    Nicole

    You may just be tired because you’re tired, but my ball-and-chain was just diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency. He found out because his doctor had a lot of patients come in complaining of exhaustion, phantom pains and assorted things she couldn’t diagnose. On a hunch she started testing for Vitamin D levels and discovered a lot of those patients are low on it. B-a-C’s level was very, very low. He’s now taking a heavy dose of it once a week and feels a lot more energetic.

    Not saying that’s your situation, but if it’s chronic exhaustion and you can’t figure out why, might be something to look into?

  14. 14.

    tomvox1

    @Nicole:

    See this is why Boehner has all that energy to sob like a 10 year old who just had his iPhone taken away–tanning bed Vitamin D!

    And also, too prolly lots and lots of Beefeater gin & Pall Malls…

  15. 15.

    handy

    @Ija:

    How would he defend the next to last point, about huge inequalities not threatening democracy or political and civil rights? This assertion flies in the face of human history, let alone American history.

    Ultimately my probably with a lot of libertarians is they advocate policies and set up things “just so” in a world that does not (yet) exist for the outcomes they want to take place. I suppose you could argue the same for Marxism or other farther left ideologies, but in fact we know of practical outcomes in those cases since various Marxist societies and communities have been attempted.

  17. 17.

    Mark S.

    @Ija:

    I get Will Wilkinson confused with the guy who played Wesley Crusher, but what the fuck is he talking about? Why does he think it is impossible to convince most liberals of this:

    It’s best to just maximize growth rates, pre-tax distribution be damned, and then fund wicked-good social insurance with huge revenues from an optimal tax scheme

    Why the hell would liberals be against that? Do we think everybody should be paid the same amount of money? Is Will confusing liberals with communists (I know, to a libertarian, they’re probably the same thing)?

  19. 19.

    Mark S.

    @Mark S.:

    And I don’t have a problem with CEO’s making more than their employees. I have a problem with them making 200 times as much as their employees.

  22. 22.

    handy

    @Mark S.:

    Well I think the issue is that this point like the one I mention above is so loaded it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s advocating for. Like, what’s an “optimal tax scheme?” I confess I’ve never read his stuff before, so maybe he’s explained his thoughts on that previously. Same for “social insurance.” Are we to assume he means government-run/funded/administered insurance? Are there premiums for this insurance, or are these costs completely subsidized through tax revenues? Is it traditional insurance or something ore akin to an HMO?

    Maybe I’m being too unfair in what he’s trying to do here, where his immediate goal is to lay out some kind of sweeping manifesto as a kind of jumping off point. But I’m finding it hard to get there without being sure I know where’s going with this.

  23. 23.

    frosty

    @Redshirt: My all-time favorite tech hold story was watching the Comcast repairman sitting on my sofa on hold with Comcast for almost a half an hour.

  27. 27.

    Brachiator

    How we treat the mentally ill in the 21st Century Tethered teenage psychiatric patient shocks Netherlands

    The Netherlands has been plunged into a debate about how to deal with violent psychiatric patients, after images of a tethered teenager appeared on Dutch TV.
    __
    The pictures were taken after a tip-off from a whistle-blower, who worked at the institution where the 18-year-old, known only as Brandon, is confined.
    __
    The pictures show him wearing a harness attached to a metal bracket on the wall by a thick leather strap.
    __
    He has been confined in this way every single day for three years.
    __
    His mother has been quoted saying he lives like “a caged animal”.

    Actually, I think that animals often get more considerate care.

  30. 30.

    Ija

    @Mark S.:

    Well, he didn’t exactly say that liberals are against that. That’s not part of the list of things he says liberals disagree with. He says that that is his preferred policy. But he does say this:

    It’s not even clear to me what’s especially libertarian about this. It’s sorta just anodyne welfare-state liberalism plus economics. I’d be elated to get just this. When a not insignificant group of liberals start saying, “Of course! Of course this is what we should do!” then I’ll feel we’re really cooking with gas, and I won’t care what we call it.

    which I guess is sorta implying that liberals are not fully on board with this. Sorry is I wasn’t clear.

    My problem with that prescription is, what are the odds that we would actually get the huge social insurance thing? Republicans would just oppose everything remotely related to that, and we would end up with the huge inequality part but not the social insurance part. And probably not even the “huge revenues from optimal tax scheme” part because, duh, taxes are evil and rich people must have low tax rate. I just think that specific policy prescription might work better for countries that are more homogeneous, where people can’t demagogue about black people taking your hard-earned money away from you.

  34. 34.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    I wonder who Olbermann pissed off this time? This is rather sudden and I would like to know what happened but there is nothing out there about this so far. From what I understand, Olbermann signed a contract in 2008 for four years so this is rather unusual.

    Too bad this can’t happen to the many shills at Faux Nooz. They are far more deserving of being kicked off of the air but that’s not how Wingnut Welfare works.

  37. 37.

    parsimon

    @Mark S.:

    Why the hell would liberals be against that? Do we think everybody should be paid the same amount of money? Is Will confusing liberals with communists (I know, to a libertarian, they’re probably the same thing)?

    If you read the discussion thread, this is addressed by the first commenter in terms of Rawls, glossed by the commenter thus: “Look, I don’t want a society where a few people own everything and make all the money, and other people live as unemployed dependents on generous welfare benefits. I want an ownership society–where the system is set up ahead of time so that most people are self-sufficient producers and traders and don’t have to live on welfare payments. That’s why property-owning democracy is better than welfare-state capitalism.”

  38. 38.

    Ija

    @handy:

    Same for “social insurance.”

    I think by social insurance he just means more programs for general social safety nets to help reduce the effect of inequality. I might be wrong, but I think Wilkinson and Yglesias share the same hard-on for the social policies of Scandinavian countries. Like I mentioned before, those policies can be enacted there because those countries are more homogeneous than ours (read: almost all-white society).

  43. 43.

    Tax Analyst

    OT, need a “Clean Up” on the “Never Gonna Happen” thread. I forgot my WP P’s and Q’s and threw a hyphen into my comment and thus screwed all the remaining comments in that thread. Really Sorry.

  44. 44.

    hilts

    @hilts: I meant Comcast NBC deal.

    There has to be a connection between approval of this deal and Olbermann’s termination.

  45. 45.

    J. Michael Neal

    Gophers 4, Buckeyes 2. We gave up a goal 21 seconds into the game, and looked bad for the first ten minutes. Coming out flat has been a recurring problem this year. We dominated for most of the rest of the way, though Minnesota had a hard time getting the puck past Lisa Steffes. OSU took a 2-1 lead halfway through the third, but collapsed quickly thereafter.

    Last I heard, Wisconsin was up 1-0 on Duluth, but that was a long time ago.

  46. 46.

    Seebach

    So, nobody here has any more information about the Olbermann thing than anbody else does? Crap. Hm.

  47. 47.

    Mark S.

    @handy:

    I assumed by social insurance he means a welfare state like in most of Europe. I read him as “Let’s de-regulate and let businesses do whatever they want, but then have progressive taxation to make sure all the people at the bottom have decent lives.” Not terribly different from the Democratic party from FDR onwards, with the exception of not having total faith in laissez-faire economics.

    @Ija:

    I think when you’re dealing with libertarians, it is best not to inquire too deeply into how practical their ideas are.

  48. 48.

    Dee Loralei

    Fuck it Olbermann’s gone on MSNBC. Has to be the Comcast merger, I hope they had to do a seriously huge buy-out of his contract. Now, Rachel is the only reason to watch the station. Goddamn the FCC for allowing this!

  49. 49.

    Nick

    So, nobody here has any more information about the Olbermann thing than anbody else does? Crap. Hm.

    His show was on thin ice for a while. Comcast finally killed it.

  50. 50.

    eemom

    well, at least this Olbermann shocker will give folks something to talk about this weekend besides the F-word.

    Keithy, we hardly knew ye.

  51. 51.

    ruemara

    RE: Olbermann
    FCC merger is an approval of the regulatory aspects. there’s another layer of justice dept approval. Not saying it wasn’t a factor, but it’s not final, not finished, not happened yet.

    We need some facts, a frigging statement or something. I hope Oprah promised him the moon to do some newscast OWN.

  52. 52.

    hilts

    @Seebach:

    BREAKING: Keith Olbermann Announces Tonight’s Countdown As His Last Show

    by Mark Joyella | 9:03 pm, January 21st, 2011

    Keith Olbermann has just ended his Friday night episode of Countdown–and apparently ended his run as host of the show on MSNBC. The host thanked his Countdown staff and team at MSNBC, read a poem and bid viewers farewell, tossing his papers toward the camera for the “final time,” and saying “Good night, and good luck.”

    MSNBC released a statement moments ago reading, in full:

    “MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC’s success and we wish him well in his future endeavors.”

    DEVELOPING

    Oddly, the final Countdown and departure of Olbermann is not even mentioned as The Rachel Maddow Show begins.

    h/t http://www.mediaite.com/tv/breaking-keith-olbermann-announces-tonights-countdown-as-his-last-show/

  53. 53.

    handy

    @hilts:

    After posting I remember that as well. I am admittedly biased against the KO kid, so my initial speculation is that new management thought he was too much a pompous ass to work with amicably, didn’t care how many eye balls he brought but rather would cut their losses and avoid the headache.

  54. 54.

    Dee Loralei

    Chris Mathews hurts my ears and I think O’Donnell is a snooze and he has on too damned many conservatives. Just fuck it.

    Olbermann was the only sane person on national tv for many long years. I came to rely on that man and his show. Even when he went over the top at times, I still had to watch him because he kept me sane during the W years.

    Who the fuck gets rid of their TOP ratings magnet?

  56. 56.

    SiubhanDuinne

    MSNBC and Olbermann. Holy fuck.

    YeahN prolly something to do with the Comcast merger. I’m embarrassed I didn’t think to predict it. Still kind of sudden, though, yes?

  57. 57.

    gbear

    Damn, it stinks to loose KO even though his style was sometimes cringe-worthy. If they take Rachel off there is going to be rioting in the streets. I will personally riot.

    I can’t cancel my Comcast account because I quit them 20 years ago. What else does Comcast own (other than NBC)?

    Who is Bill O’Reilly going to demonize now?

  59. 59.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    I know that this is masturbatory fantasy, but I would love to see KO pops up on CNN, and they tell Erikkk son of Erikk to go F—- off.

  61. 61.

    hilts

    @handy:

    In the age of Twitter, Facebook, and the blogosphere, how in the Hell did the story of Olbermann’s ouster not get leaked in advance?

  62. 62.

    Tax Analyst

    Olbermann’s gone on MSNBC

    This could be bigger news to the American public than Regis Philbin quitting his show this week.

    Well, actually, it probably isn’t. But whatever you think of Olbermann, it’s too bad that the left side has one less available broadcast voice being transmitted out there to be heard.

  63. 63.

    Dee Loralei

    Does Olberman still post at GOS? Maybe he’ll put a diary up, or give an interview to Kos. Maybe Rachel will mention it on Mahler tonight.

    Just fuck.

  68. 68.

    Oliver

    Howard Kurtz says that the new owners are considering a change in direction, perhaps moving Joe Scarborough to the PM hour. I doubt it.

  69. 69.

    Oliver

    Howard Kurtz says that the new owners are considering a change in direction, perhaps moving Joe Scarborough to the PM hour. I doubt it.

  70. 70.

    General Stuck

    Well, I guess comcast wingnuts are cleaning house of anti wingnut anchors. I expect the others to slowly be fired as well. Someday, we might have a liberal news network, and I will ride a wild pig through the sky.

  71. 71.

    Dee Loralei

    How the fuck does Glenn Beck who has at least 3 known criminals citing him as the reason for their rampages, or attempted rampages still have a fucking program???? And the Left loses one of it’s few national voices. Just fuck.

    @Tax Analyst:

    Hell yes this is bigger than Regis retiring!

  72. 72.

    eemom

    @Dee Loralei:

    Chris Mathews hurts my ears

    he hurts my entire central nervous system.

    I haven’t been a big fan of Keith for a while, but he’s better than that yellow-haired bird-twit fer sure.

  73. 73.

    Poopyman

    @South of I-10:

    Not a chance. She’s way too circumspect. Besides, there seems to be some debate as to which side ended the contract. Guess we’ll have to stay tuned.

  74. 74.

    BR

    You know, I think back to the early days of the Bush regime and finding Keith Olbermann was like finding an oasis in a sea of trash. For a while I never knew when his show was on, so every once in a while when I happened upon it, I’d always ask others if they knew what that show was.

    Even if he got a bit hyperbolic in the last year or two, he was out their as an almost lone voice for a number of years, calling it like it was.

  76. 76.

    Dee Loralei

    Doesn’t AL Gore own a network? Maybe he can hire Olbermann, I think he already hired Rather. Now my MSNBC viewing will be one hour a weekday.

  77. 77.

    srv

    Nevertheless, there is a destructive ideological part of the Daley appointment and Emanuel’s ascent, despite their non-ideological devotion to power. Emanuel and Daley were two of the three principal Clinton lobbyists in the campaign to pass the corporate-backed, anti-labor North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993, and Daley helped push through the even greater killer of U.S. jobs, Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) with China, in 2000. Both are former employees of investment banks, which have a burning interest in “free trade” and cross-border investment deals facilitated by “free trade.” Obama has already reneged on his Ohio presidential-primary pledge in 2008 to reform NAFTA and has let drop the pro-union Employee Free Choice Act. His naming of Daley is the final nail in the coffin of his 2008 campaign alliance with unions. Between them, NAFTA and PNTR have sent millions of good-paying American factory jobs out of America, so it’s pertinent to ask what Bill Daley will bring to the table on behalf of U.S. workers.

    The original pre-election firebagger, John MacArthur, explains how the administration is twisting the knife in the backs of what’s left of the blue-collars.

    Embrace your new Daley overlord, same as the last.

  80. 80.

    Ija

    @Oliver:

    Why? This makes perfect sense if they want to move away from being known as the liberal network. Maddow better watch out, they’ll fire her and give her spot to Mika next. Joe and Mika in primetime. MSNBC can finally compete with Fox.

  83. 83.

    hilts

    MSNBC just aired a Lean Forward ad featuring Olbermann. Would have thought they’d have the brains not to air that following his final broadcast.

  85. 85.

    parsimon

    I think the only thing that would stun me about Olbermann’s leaving, or being dismissed, is if he doesn’t show up somewhere else.

    It was nice to think for a while that he (and Maddow, along with Chris Matthews) might bootstrap MSNBC into a truly powerful, established left-liberal cable station, but KO probably alienated as many as he attracted, and it doesn’t seem outrageous to think that he can do more good elsewhere. He has the star power to draw viewers to a start-up. The more left-liberal broadcast media we have, the better.

  88. 88.

    Dee Loralei

    @BR: Yea, BR that’s exactly how I felt about him. His first special comment was during Katrina, though the first official ” Special Comment” was a few months later over something either Rummy said, or maybe BillO said about US soldiers murdering German POWS.

    I wish I hadn’t already switched to U-Verse, or I’d do it Monday morning and tell Comcast that getting rid of KO was why.

    @eemom: Yea, my entire central nervous system too, but I was singling out my poor, poor ears.

  89. 89.

    askew

    I am guessing Olbermann was looking for an out. He’s been out a lot this last year and he’s been in almost meltdown mode for longer. He has a history of flameouts at other networks.

    I just hope they don’t move Scarbourgh to the evening or give his show to that ass Cenk. Whoever it is, I assume he/she will spend more time bashing Obama than the Republicans. That’s what the rest of the “liberal” MSNBC line-up does anyways.

    Edited to add: FDL and GOS will be blaming Olbermann’s departure on Obama any second now.

  90. 90.

    Nick

    @Dee Loralei:

    How the fuck does Glenn Beck who has at least 3 known criminals citing him as the reason for their rampages, or attempted rampages still have a fucking program???? And the Left loses one of it’s few national voices. Just fuck.

    people watch Glenn Beck

  92. 92.

    Mike Kay

    @Poopyman:

    ahahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahhahahahhahahahahha
    ahahahaaaaaaaahahhahahahhahahahahahhahahahahhahha
    ahahhahhahahhahahhahahahhaahahahhahahhaahahhahah
    ahahhahhahhahahhahahahhahahahhahahahhahahhahahha
    ahahahhahahhahahhahahahhahhahhahahahahahahhahahh

    don’t let the camera lens hit ya on the ass, keith

  93. 93.

    hilts

    There was immediate speculation that Olbermann’s departure was connected to the pending takeover of NBC Universal by Comcast Corp. But MSNBC insiders strongly denied that speculation, asserting that Comcast execs had “nothing to do” with Olbermann’s departure and were informed of the decision on Tuesday after the FCC and Justice Department gave the regulatory approval to the merger of Comcast and NBC U. Discussions between Olbermann and MSNBC brass had been going on for some time, even though the anchor had at least two years to go on his existing contract.

    h/t http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118030694

  97. 97.

    Mike Kay

    NYT: Olbermann offered no explanation other than on occasion, the show had become too much for him.

    ———————————-

    you knew this was going to happen.

    he’s too high strung.

    he’s never been able to hold a position, even when he was successful. This is exactly what happened when he was with ESPN.

  98. 98.

    Alex S.

    I suspect that Keith had his own reasons. If it had been a Comcast decision Maddow would have lost her show, too.

    John, try some exercise.

  100. 100.

    handy

    @eemom:

    Agreed. KO is a blowhard, but Tweety brings teh stupid in a bad way. One thing of course this really highlights is how good it is to be on the conservative media gravy train. Olbermann got paid for sure, as I imagine Knucklehead Ed and Rachel do, but Beck, Hannity and the rest of the Fox imbeciles are all powering and being powered by a monster. All the while convincing people that it’s the opposing voices who have all the power. And for every false claim they make up or are told to repeat ad nauseum they have an entire news network and cartel of think tanks and slimy enablers in the Post and NYT backing them up.

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @hilts: Blech. I find O’Donnell and Schultz represent two ends of the spectrum of unwatchable, politics aside: Smug and patronizing vs histrionic and sloppy. To be honest, I had all but stopped watching Olbermann, but he definitely slapped MSNBC out of its belief that only right-wingers could do televised punditry.

  103. 103.

    stuckinred

    Starting Monday, January 24, “The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell” will move to 8 p.m. ET/PT and “The Ed Show,” hosted by Ed Schultz, will move to 10 p.m. ET/PT on MSNBC. The announcement was made today by Phil Griffin, President of MSNBC. “The Rachel Maddow Show” will continue to air live at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

  104. 104.

    Ija

    @Mike Kay:

    This is how MSNBC is going to spin it. That Olbermann flamed out. I bet there will be well-placed stories about how the pressure was getting to him, that he was losing it, that he was being increasingly unstable, that he was being nasty to his crew etc etc.

  107. 107.

    askew

    @hilts:

    Your kidding right? Cenk is a Republican convert who has been pushing anti-Obama conspiracy theories backed by zero facts for over two years. He’s the Glenn Beck of the left.

    The only thing I’ll miss about Olbermann is his awesome anchoring during election nights. He kept Maddow from throwing herself out of the window, shut Scarbourgh up and kept Tweety mostly on-topic. I hope they give election night coverage to O’Donnell. Maddow is too much of a Negative Nancy to do the coverage right.

    As for a permanent replacement for Olbermann, I vote for Eugene Robinson. The guy rocks and lord knows MSNBC could use some diversity.

  108. 108.

    Texas Dem

    Looks like Keith quit just before he was fired, but there’s no way to be sure. According to a tweet I just received from Huffpo’s Sam Stein, this is more about Jeff Zucker getting the boot than the Comcast merger. Zucker was Keith’s protector. I guess Keith figured he’d go out on top, rather than restyle the show to suit Comcast. In any event, Keith will land on his feet. He’s very talented and someone will snap him up. Oprah? Are you listening?

  109. 109.

    JPL

    @Ija: From the nytimes article

    but NBC executives said one term of his settlement will keep him from moving to another network for an extended period of time.

    If ko accepted this, it was his idea, imo.

  111. 111.

    stuckinred

    “he’s never been able to hold a position, even when he was successful.”

    He’s been on this show for 8 goddamn years.

  113. 113.

    Mike Kay

    @Ija:

    That Olbermann flamed out.

    He did, period.

    He’s done it before. He had a show on MSNBC in the late 90s, and he quit. He had a really successful gig at ESPN and he quit.

    He’s too temperamental. He’s too thin skinned. Even he has admitted this.

  115. 115.

    Dennis SGMM

    How in the world did the FCC and the U.S. Justice Department come to approve the fucking merger in the first place? Did they think that there wasn’t enough media consolidation already? While they’re at it, why don’t they just ask Rupert Murdoch what he’ll pay for the whole fucking works? He can name the new conglomerate “WeSaySo.”

  116. 116.

    asiangrrlMN

    Hiya. I’m thinking of changing my username. Help me decide what I want my brand to be.

    Oh, and I would petition MSNBC to hire me, ABL, and ee for their newest show. It would be a ratings hit (for better or worse).

    @askew: Ditto wot you said on Cenk. He really went around the bend once Obama didn’t fix everything in three months.

    Not so sure about Robinson. I love him, but I don’t think he could carry a show.

  118. 118.

    hilts

    It is well known that both Comcast chief Brian Roberts and NBCU chief Steve Burke have donated heavily to the Republican party with Burke more recently donating money to a few Democrats as well as heavily to Republicans. Roberts was a co-chairman of the host committee at the 2000 Republican Convention while Burke raised at least $200,000 for George W Bush’s re-election campaign.

    h/t http://www.deadline.com/2011/01/nbcu-statement-msnbc-and-keith-olberman-have-ended-their-contract-last-show-tonight

  119. 119.

    Alex S.

    I think I have figured out Oprah’s upcoming revelation: Keith Olbermann is her half-brother.

  120. 120.

    Dee Loralei

    Nick, Olberman is/ was MSNBCs ratings leader, apparently Beck is Fox’s ratings loser, and he brings in no money from ads because of the Color of Change Boycott. So your snide jibe about Beck bringing veiwers is kinda apples and oranges. ya know?

    @Nick:

  121. 121.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @BR: Heh. I’m one of those who didn’t watch. Wasn’t he in charge when they were still trying to do FoxLite with Tucker Carlson and a few othres (I can’t remember the whole list of RW fail)? I liked David Shuster, but he obviously had some issues. The ought to bring back Allison Stewart.

  122. 122.

    Mike Kay

    @stuckinred: that’s true. This is (at least) the THIRD time he’s quit a successful gig. I mean, who does that, other than the equally overly emotional Jack Parr.

  123. 123.

    Nick

    @hilts:

    That’s a low blow.

    unfortunately its true. Fox is still the highest rated network. Beck’s ratings are twice Ketih’s Bill O’Reilly’s reruns have higher ratings than Keith.

  124. 124.

    Texas Dem

    Another thought: I liked Keith and watched his show quite often, but let’s face facts: he wasn’t exactly the most effective spokesman for the liberal viewpoint. His over-the-top style was great during the Bush years, but it was starting to wear thin. Maybe he just decided to walk away. It’s happened before.

  126. 126.

    Mr Stagger Lee

    @askew:
    I would love to see them give it to Sam Seder. If I had my drothers, I would put Mike Malloy on that time slot, but that explode wingnut heads.

  127. 127.

    Ija

    @Texas Dem:

    Oprah? Are you listening?

    KO on the OWN channel? Surely not. Would he have to interview the author of The Secret and have anti-vaccine propagandists on his show?

    On a serious note, I really doubt Oprah would want to do anything that could remotely hurt her network standing in Middle America. I love Keith, but he doesn’t play well with that crowd.

  128. 128.

    Nick

    @Dee Loralei:

    Nick, Olberman is/ was MSNBCs ratings leader,

    No he’s not, Rachel is

    http://ht.ly/3IeF9

    apparently Beck is Fox’s ratings loser, and he brings in no money from ads because of the Color of Change Boycott. So your snide jibe about Beck bringing veiwers is kinda apples and oranges. ya know?

    Doesn’t matter. Beck’s ratings are almost twice Keith’s, even with the boycott, he brings in more money than him.

    You think I’m happy about it? It’s, sadly, true. We’re stupid if we pretend its not.

  129. 129.

    andy

    Up here in Minnesota we’re having a bit of a cold snap with daytime temeratures ’round about -10º (I guess it got down to -30º last night).

    It’s fun blowing soap bubbles at such temps because you can actually watch them freeze in the air as they float around. If they land on the ground softly enough they actually roll around until they run into something that makes them shatter.

  131. 131.

    gbear

    In any event, Keith will land on his feet. He’s very talented and someone will snap him up.

    Well, that plus he’s most likely rich enough to never have to work another day in his life.

  134. 134.

    JPL

    Night guys. KO will release more information tomorrow if it is advantageous for him to do so. If MSNBC is blocking him for joining another news network, it was not their idea. He might not have liked the way the network was moving, but he didn’t appear to be fired.

  135. 135.

    handy

    I would put Mike Malloy on that time slot, but that explode wingnut heads.

    Can you imagine the amount of death threats MSNBC would have to respond to on a nightly basis if they give him regular camera time?

  136. 136.

    hilts

    @Texas Dem:

    Can’t wait to see Bob Somerby’s reaction at the Daily Howler. He’s liable to get so excited that he’ll have a heart attack.

  137. 137.

    Mike Kay

    @stuckinred: why are you so upset. If ya want to get mad at someone, get mad at Keith – he’s the one who quit.

    And like I said, this is at least the THIRD time he’s done this. He’s as bad as George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin (I quit, I quit, I quit…).

  138. 138.

    Mike Kay

    When the going get tough, cry baby Olberman quits.

    but don’t worry, he’ll be back on CNN because he has a successful and profitable show. But of course, he quit that gig as well, even when he’s on top.

  140. 140.

    handy

    @hilts:

    He’ll just double down on his obsessive and envious tirades against the “Rhodes Scholar.” In other news Repigs will still decry the state of the liberal news media.

  141. 141.

    madeinamerica

    @Mike Kay: I agree, but that’s the direction I think MSNBC is heading: self-described liberals who hate Obama. I hope I’m wrong.

  142. 142.

    ruemara

    two dumbest tweets on KO’s departure come from left and right. One guy is claiming that the free markets have spoken, and one righteous liberal chica is speculating that perhaps Obama and Immelt had KO fired.

    face+palm=me

  143. 143.

    askew

    @Mr Stagger Lee:

    I’d really like to see them bring in a new voice. I find Seder dull and Malloy obnoxious. If they have to go with yet another white guy, how about Richard Wolffe?

  144. 144.

    Roger Moore

    @Ija:
    I think the bigger problem is that “optimize for growth and then pay for great social services” isn’t a reasonable solution. If you plan on including the social services today, you have to raise taxes enough to pay for them rather than leaving taxes at a level that will optimize growth. That leaves you with something that looks like a fairly standard Social Democratic platform.

    If you wait until you’ve grown a bunch and only start the safety net after you’ve built up the economy, you have a bunch of people left out in the cold until you think you’ve built up the economy enough. More important, the same basic argument will always hold; you can always do better in the long run by putting off the safety net for a while until the economy is even stronger and you can afford an even better safety net.

    So when do you actually cut over from optimizing for growth to optimizing for human happiness? If we haven’t gotten there already when the US is as rich as it is today, when do we finally start giving poor people a break? It seems like the “optimize for growth now and help poor people later” is just an excuse for putting the safety net off indefinitely.

  145. 145.

    BR

    I can’t believe MSNBC hired Cenk.

    Now we’re going to get FDL-style nonsense at 6pm, Beltway Spazz and nonsense at 7pm, Arrogant Insiderism at 8pm, Rachel at 9pm, and Angry Dude at 10pm…

  146. 146.

    General Stuck

    I quit watching cable news a while ago, so my interest is just general meta politics and what side gets the advantage on the teevee media megaphone. It is all simple math these days, combined with what it takes to protect the plutocrat class in this country. Keith, though sometimes a firebagging clown, was still mostly a symbol of anti republicanism, and in the end, that outweighed his relative star status at the media conglomerate level. Cable news is all showbiz, or heading that way in fits and starts. Balanced coverage is all but a relic of the past. Liberals and democrats still retain the audacity, with caveats, for existing with the purpose of representing ordinary people. They must be silenced from the boob toob, in service to the preferred message of learning to not worry, and love the motherfucking corporation.

  148. 148.

    Ija

    It seems like the “optimize for growth now and help poor people later” is just an excuse for putting the safety net off indefinitely.

    Good point. I guess Wilkinson would probably defend himself by saying that there in no reason you can’t optimize for growth and still collect high tax revenue to pay for social services (“huge revenues from an optimal tax scheme”). Of course, I don’t know what he means by “optimal” and how “optimal” can be the magic bullet for getting huge tax revenue, but like Mike S. says, it’s probably best not to inquire too deeply into the practical application when a libertarian proposes something.

    ETA: This is a reply to Roger Moore. Forgot to click the Reply button.

  149. 149.

    Ija

    @askew:

    No no no. Wolffe is an Obama apologist, the FDL and Kos crowd would explode. You not only need to be left-leaning, you have to be left-leaning and hate Obama too.

  151. 151.

    Tax Analyst

    @Dee Loralei:

    Tax Analyst: Hell yes this is bigger than Regis retiring!

    Well, I was (a) being a bit facetious, and (b)it’s probably not a big deal to the American public at large, which was what that line referred to.

    But if you are concerned about the ratio of left/right commentary and opinion on the airwaves, yeah, it’s a big deal.

    Like him or not you’ve got to give KO credit for slugging it out on a daily basis against that loud crowd of cackling crows on Fox & other outlets.

  152. 152.

    Mike Kay

    @General Stuck: Meh. He’s being replaced the loathsome smear merchant Cenk, hardly a step to corporatism. Cenk will put the Huey Long dumbed-downed crazy in MSNBC

  153. 153.

    Nutella

    Anyone seen this article on the constitutionality of the health insurance mandate? It’s from one of the DFHs at Forbes and I’d say it answers the question conclusively.

  154. 154.

    Ija

    @Nutella:

    Yes, the law at that time required only merchant sailors to purchase health care coverage. Thus, one could argue that nobody was forcing anyone to become a merchant sailor and, therefore, they were not required to purchase health care coverage unless they chose to pursue a career at sea.

    I think the people bringing the suit are going to focus on this argument.

  155. 155.

    askew

    @Ija:

    Ain’t that the truth. Oh well. It will suck for me on election nights but otherwise I have no problem skipping MSNBC. I may actually get rid of my Dish Network now.

  157. 157.

    gelfling545

    @Nicole: My Doctor started testing Vitamin D levels for me a couple of years ago and began supplementing which has helped the fatigue issue immensely. Apparently some research on the role of D has been/is being done here under the grey skies of WNY and elsewhere. Apparently it informs a lot more body processes than bone health and unless you live at the equator it’s pretty difficult to get the needed amounts from sunlight & I understand that aging is a factor too.
    It’s a simple test – they just toss it in with your regular annual check up blood tests. Testing for B12 levels wouldn’t hurt either.

    A word of advice for those who take D supplements – have your doctor write a prescription & fill it at the pharmacy instead of buying it otc. It’s not covered by insurance plans but it costs less than $2 for 30 from the pharmacy but $10 or more for otc which may or may not be as effective depending on the manufacturer.

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