Tag: Keith Olbermann

Some advice for Keith Olbermann

You know what the sad part about this story is, that I honestly used to respect this man in a big way. I am referring, of course, to Keith Olbermann. I know, it sounds crazy coming from a Conservative blogger; but, yes, I actually used to a respect this guy. As it says in my bios, long and short, I was a skeptical left of center type. I never was really a fan of Bush and Co. I felt, then, which was in 2006, when I started blogging; that Keith Olbermann’s commentary on Bush’s handling of Iraq was very much on point. In fact, my calling my original written pieces “Special Comment” is a direct influence of his, as Keith Olbermann and, ironically, Lou Dobbs were the main figures that inspired me to start writing again, after a long hiatus since my childhood.

Then something happened somewhere in the middle of 2007, MSNBC and Keith Olbermann went into the tank for Obama, in a big way. It was at that point that I decided that I could no longer watch the man. It should be noted that this also coincided with me giving up on the Democrats.

Now we have this: Keith Olbermann, one of the biggest Limousine liberals on the planet, is now complaining that Donald Trump is a supposedly a bad property owner:

Okay, Donnie, you win.

I’m moving out.

Not moving out of the country — not yet anyway. I’m merely moving out of one of New York’s many buildings slathered in equal portions with gratuitous gold and the name “Trump.” Nine largely happy years with an excellent staff and an excellent reputation (until recently, anyway) — but I’m out of here.

I’m getting out because of the degree to which the very name “Trump” has degraded the public discourse and the nation itself. I can’t hear, or see, or say that name any longer without spitting. Frankly, I’m running out of Trump spit.

It gets better, Keith wails, while counting his money:

There could still be enough idiots to elect Trump this November. Hell, I was stupid enough to move into one of his buildings. But here in those buildings, even as I pack, is the silver lining hidden amid the golden Donald trumpery.

One day Trump appeared in person and, with what I only later realized was the same kind of sincere concern and respect that Eddie Haskell used to pay “Beaver” Cleaver’s mother, asked me how I liked the place and to let him know personally if anything ever went wrong. About 15 months ago, when the elevators failed and many of the heating-unit motors died and the water shut off, I wrote him. He sent an adjutant over to bluster mightily about the urgency of improvements and who was to blame for the elevators and how there would be consequences, and within weeks Trump’s minions were obediently and diligently installing — a new revolving door at the back of the lobby.

That three-week project stretched past three months, smothered the lobby in stench and grime, required the repeated removal and reinstallation of a couple of railings, and for a time created a window frosting problem even when it wasn’t cold out.

He goes on to use the above silliness to make a very silly point or shall I say, political dig; that it would take forever to get a wall built at our southern border. This is simply a childish attempt a score a political point with the opposing team. This reeks of childish, third grade antics.

Please note, dear reader that this blog entry is wrote by someone, whose financial situation is not the best; is writing this blog entry. Anyone who has come here running an ad blocker knows to what I am referring. So, before anyone hollers, “Class warfare!” Keep this in mind, please. Now that I have gotten that little disclaimer out of the way, let me proceed to my next point.

What is being lost here or at least, seems to be lost on Keith Olbermann, as he does seem to have a great lack of self-awareness — is that Keith Olbermann actually has to the means to live in a building like Trump Towers! Now to be clear, Keith Olbermann earned his success, he started out as a local sportscaster at a local TV station, he slowly, but surely, worked his way up to where he is today. Nobody handed it to Keith on a silver platter. He worked for all of it. I have no quarrel with that at all. At some point, while at MSNBC, Keith was given the chance to take over the show “Countdown” on MSNBC, which afforded him some very good success in the field of broadcasting.

Unfortunately, the success went straight to Keith Olbermann’s head. I read the news reports of Keith Olbermann being outright abusive to his staff, acting like a child, when he did not get his way with the management over at MSNBC and finally being let go from the Network entirely. Then Keith lands a job at Al Gore’s Current TV, gets a show there, with the same name, and then ends up being fired from there, for the same reason as his firing from MSNBC.

This obviously points to an ego and to someone who has forgotten where he has come from and has forgotten where he started and, what it actually means to have to work for a living. Put simply: Keith money and success had caused him to become out of touch with the rest of the working class people in America. This is a very common trait among those, who are wealthy Democrats.

Now having said all of the above: I offer some kind advice for a one Keith Olbermann — Shut your mouth, Pack your things and find somewhere else to live and do try to avoid bringing anymore sort of embarrassment to your political party and to your own self. Because frankly sir, there are many of us, of the plebeian sort, who find your complaining of your posh surroundings quite humorous and ironic.

Other Bloggers writing about this: John Hawkins’ Right Wing News, CANNONFIRE, Raw Story, Mediaite and TVNewser, Pirate’s Cove

Keith Olbermann was right, The NSA was/is recording every phone call!

The Video:

The Story:

The National Security Agency has built a surveillance system capable of recording “100 percent” of a foreign country’s telephone calls, enabling the agency to rewind and review conversations as long as a month after they take place, according to people with direct knowledge of the effort and documents supplied by former contractor Edward Snowden.

A senior manager for the program compares it to a time machine — one that can replay the voices from any call without requiring that a person be identified in advance for surveillance.

The voice interception program, called MYSTIC, began in 2009. Its RETRO tool, short for “retrospective retrieval,” and related projects reached full capacity against the first target nation in 2011. Planning documents two years later anticipated similar operations elsewhere.

In the initial deployment, collection systems are recording “every single” conversation nationwide, storing billions of them in a 30-day rolling buffer that clears the oldest calls as new ones arrive, according to a classified summary.

The call buffer opens a door “into the past,” the summary says, enabling users to “retrieve audio of interest that was not tasked at the time of the original call.” Analysts listen to only a fraction of 1 percent of the calls, but the absolute numbers are high. Each month, they send millions of voice clippings, or “cuts,” for processing and long-term storage.

At the request of U.S. officials, The Washington Post is withholding details that could be used to identify the country where the system is being employed or other countries where its use was envisioned.

via NSA surveillance program reaches ‘into the past’ to retrieve, replay phone calls – The Washington Post.

I tend to believe that this program was going on long before 2009. In fact, Keith Olbermann talked about it on his show.

Here’s the videos:

So, again, I have to ask; why is this news? I knew about this, back when Keith was still on MSNBC. Which proves another theory that I was always believed; that no matter which political party is in office, the government is still big, the government still does stuff, like this here, and no matter what kind of political posturing goes on, stuff like this here, will continue to happen.

This is also why I simply do not much get into partisan politics. The same stuff that went on, during the Bush Administration; is still going on during the Obama Administration.  Hope and Change was nothing more than a political slogan. The Government had no intention on stopping this sort of a thing. All in the name of “National Security” against something that the United States Government created themselves in the first place! (That being terrorism)

The truth is, that if the United States of America had not opened that military base in Saudi Arabia, the towers in NYC would have never been hit. If we kept our noses out of Arab peninsula; we would not be in the place we are now.

Before anyone says it; this is not a liberal blog posting. I am not a Democrat at all. I voted for Bob Barr in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012. I voted for John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000. I do not vote party, I vote for whom I think can do a better job, than the current person in office. However, I am not a fool. I know how this Government operates and I do not trust it at all. This above, is a classic example of such. I came into this blogging stuff in 2006, as a skeptical left-of-center, knowing full well what happened during the Clinton Administration with the Waco disaster in Texas. I did not trust the Government after that little event and I still do not. Of course, we all know that the Waco siege led to the Oklahoma City bombing.

I will not lie to you; I have been literally on pins and needles, worried that something, like the Oklahoma City bombing, will happen again. Paranoid people, who are scared of their Government, who have access to things, like Timothy McVeigh did; tend to lash out like that. So far, we have been quite lucky that this sort of a thing has not happened again.

I tend to believe that the reason things like that have not happened again, is because of this beautiful thing we call the internet is in place now and with the advent of blogs, and social media; people tend to be more connected and are able to communicate more and are not as isolated. Which tends to make people feel like they are not alone in their feelings about the Government.

Anyhow, back to the point of this posting. The truth is that this Government of ours, has been doing this sort of a thing for a very long time. I tend to believe that the program as described above, has been going on for a very long time. Just under a different name or something to that effect. Anyone who believes anything other than this; is fooling themselves.

The Problem with Keith Olbermann

I am writing this in response to this posting by Ed Driscoll over at InstaPundit:

– Jeff Bercovici, Forbes, September 12, 2011.

– Jeff Bercovici, Forbes, today.

“But Glenn Beck is the crazy one,” as Kate of the Small Dead Animals blog likes to say.

As much as I like Ed Driscoll; I must ever so politely disagree, as I am often prone to do. I really do not believe that Keith Olbermann is crazy. A bit over the top at times, but not crazy.

What happened with Keith is this here:

  • Keith worked for MSNBC, a network that did just what Fox News did during the Bush era. They traded honesty for access. Fox News during the Bush era, was fiercely loyal to the President; with the emphases being on fierce. Fox News on air talent, and yes, that does include Bill O’Reilly; would deride anyone, who even remotely criticized the President. Fox News did this, until it unfeasible to do it any longer. Also too, the Bush defense mode ended, when Rupert began to see his fortune slip away. When Keith left, I thought it was just Keith and his personality; however, when the host of “The Young Turks” basically was told, that he was not wanted. I knew what was going on.
  • Keith’s other problem was that he went horribly into the tank for President Obama rather early. Once President Obama was in the White House and began to continue most of President Bush’s policies. Keith turned on the criticism towards Obama. This did not abode well with the suits.

Another thing too, that I have noticed is that during the Bush era; Keith Olbermann would at least be civil to those who came on his show, who happened to disagree with his politics. Now, it seems that Olbermann has taken a new, intolerant tone towards those who disagree with him. Numerous times, I have seen Keith, on twitter, really take a nasty tone towards those who disagree with him; often blocking those who challenge him. This is a shift for him. I would imagine that he had to be civil to please the suits at MSNBC, but I thought some of it was genuine. Perhaps I was wrong about that, but I am not entirely sure. To be fair to Keith, I have also seen many on the so-called “right,” basically trolling Keith and baiting him into arguments and insults; which causes Keith to have to block them. I know all about the trolls on twitter, I have been there myself. So, I cannot criticize him for that.

Again, I just do not believe that there anything mentally wrong with Keith Olbermann at all. The man is a brilliant writer; however, he is a unabashed Liberal progressive, who does believe in what he advocates for. Some people believe that he is your a-typical “Limousine Liberal” type. Now, personally, I do not know this to be the case. However, it is the impression that he does give to many; including many in the “right-wing” Blogosphere, who take a rather perverse pleasure in mocking him.

I do true hope that Keith does find employment somewhere; I believe that just as there is a place for Conservative thought and discussion, like you see at Fox News —- that there is a place for progressive, liberal thought and discussion. I believe the free market, not the Government; should dictate that sort of a thing. Those in the market for that sort of a thing, should be able to buy it, just people, who are Conservative or Republican; should be able to buy their choice of programming as well. It is all about personal choice and preference.

However, because I am someone who is a non-partisan; and someone who believes that news, in itself; should not be partisan  — I believe that “Advocacy Journalism” should not be allowed to happen. When you begin to blend fighting for a cause, with journalism; you can cross over into propaganda territory. To be fair, there are many, who do this on the right as well. One could day, that we bloggers are just that. For the record, I do not consider myself a journalist. I consider myself a writer, with a bit of an opinion and a bit of political slant. However, I believe in the world of corporate news organizations; politics should remain at the door. Newsgatherers main job is to gather news; not pepper it with their opinions — which happens a bit too often, on the right and the left. The left having the upper hand, of course.     

In closing: I believe that Keith is a self-made man. As a Conservative-leaning person. I do not fault Keith for his success. Keith was blessed with a normal, non-ADD riddled brain; like mine. Keith went to school, got his diploma, and went to college and got a degree and made something of himself and is quite the respected person in his own circles. I have no quarrel with this at all. What I do have an issue with, is that he went hyper-partisan and did just what he lauded the right for doing with George W. Bush. Again, this is just my impression of the man. I am an opinion person and that is my feeling about him. As for his dealings with Al Gore; I hope he learned his mistake there; but I do hope he does get his money back. I think Keith deserved better than what he got, it is too bad that he still believes the B.S. that people like Gore pump out. I figured that would open his eyes. I guess not.

Kudos to Keith Olbermann

For having the courage to stand up against his own political group, in light of the tragic events in Colorado.

See below:

Well done Keith. I just wish some of your friends had such morals.

In to which I say, “Irony Much, Asshole?”

This right here is irony at its best.

Here is the best ironic quote since President Obama backtracking on closing Gitmo:

President Obama’s claim that he can refuse to deport 800,000 aliens here in the country illegally illustrates the unprecedented stretching of the Constitution and the rule of law. He is laying claim to presidential power that goes even beyond that claimed by the Bush administration, in which I served. There is a world of difference in refusing to enforce laws that violate the Constitution (Bush) and refusing to enforce laws because of disagreements over policy (Obama).

Under Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution, the president has the duty to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” This provision was included to make sure that the president could not simply choose, as the British King had, to cancel legislation simply because he disagreed with it. President Obama cannot refuse to carry out a congressional statute simply because he thinks it advances the wrong policy. To do so violates the very core of his constitutional duties.

via Executive Overreach – The Corner – National Review Online.

Who wrote this rather lengthy piece on executive overreach? No other than that slant-eyed motherfucker —- John Yoo. Yes, that John Yoo. The goddamned John Yoo who told President George W. Bush that torturing terrorist suspects was just perfectly fine and should be sitting in a jail cell to this very damned day. However, because we have a Democratic Party that has no fucking balls and because the Republican Party still kind of thinks that Neoconservatism is just fucking peachy keen; this little slant-eyed puke is still living as a free man.

It is not only that I object to torture. I detest this ignorant piece of shit for another damned reason. This asshole did more to injure, discredit and bring harm to the Conservative and Republican cause than any of the Neoconservatives, hands down. It was because of this man’s actions; suddenly, everyone — including me at the time — believed that ALL Conservatives and Republican believed that torture of prisoners of war was just perfectly fine. Which I now know is horribly wrong. This man has done more to ruin the image of the political party that still believes in restraint of the fiscal, militarist and some, of the social kind. This man and his idiotic thought process is why I have never, and most like will never send the Republican Party a fucking dime and why I choose to call myself a right-libertarian.

So, in closing: John Yoo, shut the hell up, you slant-eyed fool; because nobody, least of all me — honestly gives two shits what you say, think or even feel. Please, just go back to your damned homeland of South Korea and take your goddamned borderline Communist attitudes about Constitutionality with you sir. Because quite frankly, Americans like myself, find your inane bullshit writings idiotic at best.

…..and I say all of the above, in the best Christian manner than I can muster. You’re welcome.

Signed,

A very proud Constitutionalist and right-libertarian

————————-

I mean, I hate to even write stuff like this, in this blunt of a manner. But, I am reading this guy’s crap on NRO and about into the second paragraph, my freakin’ head is about to explode! 😡

Again, the stupidity of this jack ass and the Iraq War debacle was what got my start in blogging about politics in the first place. So, this posting was a long time coming for me.

That is all…

Others: JustOneMinute, Outside the Beltway, Balloon Juice, Chicago Boyz, americanthinker.com, neo-neocon, Washington Monthly, Pundit & Pundette and The PJ Tatler

Jeeez, no wonder Keith Olbermann left Current TV!

Looks like ol’ Keith made a bit of a mistake:

Keith Olbermann wanted out of Current TV well before he was fired yesterday because he felt the network was mismanaged and wouldn’t be around much longer … sources close to Keith tell TMZ.

As TMZ first reported, Keith is planning on filing a lawsuit against the network for his unceremonious dumping yesterday. He released a statement that said in part, “It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently.”

According to our sources, Keith felt the network was a “ragtag operation” that was disorganized and felt thrown together. We’re told Keith felt the entire place was mismanaged … right down to the office supplies.

On one such occasion, we’re told the staff couldn’t use one of the printers because it was out of toner and they had none in supply. In a staff-wide email obtained by TMZ, a production administrator told the staff, “We expect to have replacement toner in tomorrow and will have a better stock on hand for the future. Sorry for the inconvenience.”

via Keith Olbermann — Planning His Exit Long Before He Was Fired | TMZ.com.

Then there is this:

To Keith’s point … they couldn’t even fire him without a giant mistake. In Current TV’s press release to announce that Eliot Spitzer would be taking over for Olbermann, they provided a Twitter account for Spitzer that is not his. The real Eliot Spitzer doesn’t have a Twitter account.

Heh. D’oh! 😀  Sounds like management problems to me and maybe even money problems. I thought that Keith was brought on as a partner and had a stake in the Company? I guess not. 😯

 

Keith Olbermann and Current TV part ways

Nothing like a bit of interesting news to bring a burned-out blogger out of his funk.

Keith Olbermann and Current TV have parted ways.

NYT’s Media Decoder has the story:

For nearly a year now, Al Gore and Joel Hyatt have been building their liberal cable news channel, Current TV, with the mercurial television anchorman Keith Olbermann at its center.

This week, the center collapsed.

Current said on Friday afternoon that it had fired Mr. Olbermann — one of the nation’s most prominent progressive speakers — just a year into his five-year, $50 million contract. It was the culmination of months of murky disputes between Mr. Olbermann and the channel that he was supposed to save from the throes of ratings oblivion.

Yet as inevitable as it might have seemed to some in the television business who know the long history of antipathy between Mr. Olbermann and his employers, it was nonetheless shocking to his fans, to his detractors and to staff members at Current when the announcement was made.

Current TV’s Statement:

To the Viewers of Current:

We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet.  We are more committed to those goals today than ever before.

Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.  

We are moving ahead by honoring Current’s values. Current has a fundamental obligation to deliver news programming with a progressive perspective that our viewers can count on being available daily — especially now, during the presidential election campaign. Current exists because our audience desires the kind of perspective, insight and commentary that is not easily found elsewhere in this time of big media consolidation.

Keith Olbermann’s Statement:

My full statement:

I’d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I’ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa

In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.

I have a personal opinion as to why things did not work out. This is not snark, humor or whatnot; it is truly my feelings. I believe that Keith just was not happy with this setup. I believe that Keith was not a good a “Democrat” enough for these people. Keith always said on his show, that he did not vote. I believe he is a political liberal. But I do not believe him an establishment figure. This was proven during Keith’s time at MSNBC, when he would criticize Obama.

I was doing some reading on some of the progressive sites out there; and I do notice that not everyone is sad to see him go. This is because Keith went into the tank for Obama, and went after Hillary, this did not sit well with some of the liberal left. To think, the thanks he got for all of his bombast and over the top verbalization, for all that tank diving he did for Obama — was a suck job at a third-rate network. Obama must be proud. The loudest voice of criticism on the left of Obama is now silent.

I will give some unsolicited advice to Al Gore and his partner at Current TV; give Keith the money for his contract, settle the as quickly as you possibly can. Because if you two do not think that Keith will not dish on what he knows about what happened in 2008 and with the inner workings of the liberal media — you are crazy.  Furthermore, let me just say it; when it comes to lawsuits, discovery is a bitch. I would get this out of the headlines as quickly as I could. Because if Keith starts dishing, you think the left is in disarray now? You wait till that starts happening.

Either way, it would be a blog traffic goldmine.

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Mediagazer has more here  and  here,  Here