Newsletter for Monday 3/7

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Tonight on Countdown
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The White House on Monday said it was "absurd" for an Italian journalist to charge that U.S. military forces may have deliberately targeted her car as she was being escorted by Italian agents who had just negotiated her freedom from hostage-takers. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7089948/

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.
Alison Stewart is in for Keith tonight.

The Bush administration gave the CIA extensive authority to send terrorism suspects to foreign countries for interrogation just days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, The New York Times reported on Sunday. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7819135

The Dodge Neon, Ford Focus and Volkswagen's New Beetle are among the small cars that got the lowest safety rating in new side-impact crash tests performed by an independent, nonprofit organization. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6340248/

The Navy and marine wildlife experts are investigating whether the beaching of dozens of dolphins in the Florida Keys followed the use of sonar by a submarine on a training exercise off the coast. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7079076/

And Monica Novotny reports: how video games are helping surgeons hone their skills.

That's some of what we're working on for tonight's show.

Keith blogs. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

Finally,
A new county law aims to keep readers from reeking. Libraries in San Luis Obispo County have had their own rules banning offensive body odor since 1994, but the policy became law after the Board of Supervisors last month adopted an ordinance that lets authorities kick out malodorous guests. Visitors to 14 libraries and a bookmobile also could be asked to leave for fighting, eating, drinking, sleeping, playing games, and printing or viewing illegal materials on library computers. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SMELLY_READERS?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
The point, in other words, is to be able to read, just read -- smell-free. They should include in their definition of smelly... too much cologne.

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

More:
Insurgents launched attacks with bombs and gunfire in Iraq on Monday, killing at least 31 Iraqis and wounding dozens more as the country took its first major step toward forming a government whose most crucial task will be dealing with the insurgency. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7043921/

Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a controversial Bush administration figure whose strong statements on North Korea's nuclear program irked the leaders in Pyongyang, is President Bush's choice to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, three government officials said Monday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7117487/

Boeing Co. abruptly forced out its president and chief executive officer, Harry Stonecipher, for what the company said Monday was a violation of the company's code of business conduct stemming from a relationship the married, 68-year-old Stonecipher had with a female Boeing executive. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7115686/

Middle-age women can cut their risk of strokes but not heart attacks by regularly taking low doses of aspirin, and the pills help prevent both problems in women 65 and older, a major study found. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7115996/

Flight attendant Ellen Simonetti and former Google employee Mark Jen have more in common than their love of blogging: They both got fired over it. Though many companies have Internet guidelines that prohibit visiting porn sites or forwarding racist jokes, few of the policies directly cover blogs, or Web journals, particularly those written outside of work hours. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7116338/

After five months in prison, Martha Stewart is wasting little time smelling the roses. Stewart was expected Monday to report back to her company's corporate headquarters in Manhattan and get back to work. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7078053/

Tiger Woods returned to No. 1 in the world Sunday. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7109967/

This should be interesting.

"Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.
Alison Stewart is in for Keith tonight."

Maybe he can join us instead?? :loveya:

"Sorry, MSNBC, I'm taking the day off so I can go check out that really cool new rec room the KOEB has. Find someone else to read the news."

:+

Alison's okay, the stories will be the same because he has a great staff, but Keith IS the show!

but not so snarky or lively. I hope it's not anything other than a "mental health day".

Oh, well, if I'm late tonight, no big deal, then. :)

I had a feeling Friday night that we wouldn't be seeing KO tonight. Hope he's only taking today off and not the whole week.

And why is it so unthinkable that U.S. soldiers fired on that Italian journalist? Can anyone say "Eason Jordan"?

:cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:

a) filling in for Keith while he is on vacation this week

b) filling in for Keith while he gets a massage

c) filling in for Keith for JUST TODAY OFF

Oh well, Sweeps Month is over, and he does deserve a break!:hug:

d) face down, passed out in the shag carpet of a rec room of a secure undisclosed location but his back is feeling much better now, thank you very much

See, here's where petite girls come in handy -- for WALKING on sore backs!

We halfling women have our merits, too! O8)

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<< filling in for Keith
d) face down, passed out in the shag carpet of a rec room of a secure undisclosed location but his back is feeling much better now, thank you very much >> gk

:evilgrin:

They keep insisting Keith blogs... But he doesn't.

:cry:

it makes me want to email them a :spank:

him/her that he/she is lying to us. Keith has not blogged in over two damned weeks now. It's false advertising and I for one would like to lodge a protest! (While sending our love to Carey Fox for their fantasticly funny newsletters).

they could say something like, "Keith's blog is at" and provide the link. That doesn't imply there's a fresh blog. If they want to go to a little extra trouble, they could note that there's fresh blog on the days when Keith has blogged since the last newsletter or give the date of the most recent blog entry, but I'd be content with them simply removing the "false advertising" phrasing.

and tell 'em that.

And, since there's no Keef tonight, I can go be political and not worry about what I'm missing! Weee!

It might come in handy again. :beer:

But we DID make the local paper over the last meeting. How embarrassing. :eyes:

if bail bondsmen were needed.

Not in the least because those RW mouthpieces at the Dallas Morning News did not attend the meeting and simply MADE STUFF UP.



http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/editorials/stories/030505dnedihitsnmisses.956fe.html

What jackasses. It was NOT becoming a brawl, and there were NO security guards there. I don't know if Lupe really called Susan, but :shrug: the chair was NEVER in any danger. What a tabloid.

We need to bring diversity back to LOCAL and STATE news as well.

how much of the rest of the "news" in the Dallas Morning News is fabricated, now doesn't it? I'll tell you, watching what KO reports vs. what other folk report (and how they slant it) for the past several months has been a real eye-opener. Even Morning Edition is worshiping the golden calf, although theirs seems to be smaller than others.

The post-election 2004 story did more than anything else did to open my eyes to the poor quality of the news media in this country. And now it's everywhere I look. Reporting is soooooo subjective! I mean, I knew every bump and twist and turn and wiggle of the post-election story just because I was following it live online on the internet, reading source documents for pete's sake! And, when it DID get reported, it got reported so many different ways and people would blow off what was IMO important aspects of the story! (Other than KO of course, although some people i.e. Brad Blog will say that even he gave short shrift to the Feeney/Clint Curtis thing, but that particular angle sort of did not smell good to me either, so I personally give him a pass on that.)

Gannongate was the same way! On that one day it really broke, I happened to be at home watching TV and I saw "Wolf" Blitzer's take on it and then Cooper's and then KO's, and they were all SO DAMN DIFFERENT it was like it was a different story. Amazing. And Blitzer's softball interview on Gannon just wanted to make me puke.

So now, the fact that DMN decides to sit around and snark about a meeting which they apparently DID NOT ATTEND does not surprise me at all. Buncha losers. :mad:

It's possible that both Curtis and Feeny are self-deluding liars and none of what either one of them is saying is significant in the big picture of the 2004 election. I shy away from Brad Blog because I find it garish on many levels, both the physical (stunningly bad color scheme, truly headache-inducing, and I should know) and the overstatements and self-promotion -- it smacks of an amateurism that rubs me the wrong way. Your mileage may vary.

But yes, ever since the election, I've been hyperalert to how twisted the news is and it's depressingly awful. It must be horribly stressful for Keith, at times, to feel like a lone voice in the wilderness. It is so wonderful to see him stand up and report the news honestly. It gives me hope to know that even one other person sees the bullshit and lies going on around us. Makes me want to reach through the TV and give him a big ol' hug.

"subjectivity" ends and where "deliberate bullshit and lies" begin. That DMN reporter probably just picked up the phone and called Susan Hayes and got his story from her. Who knows, he might have a fine personal relationship with Susan and he may very well trust her. I'm not sure I'd call that "bullshit and lies," I'd call it "laziness and being biased toward what your friends tell you."

And I betcha the same is true of the more prominent figures in MSM. "Wolf" rattled on at length WRT "Gannon" about how changing your name was a very common practice -- well, of course YOU'D take that angle, *LESLIE* Blitzer.

We like to cast Keith as our "lone voice in the wilderness" but I bet he doesn't feel that way. And I don't really think he is. He's part of a mosaic of news sources for all of us. We just know where he's coming from; he's TRYING hard to be objective, but others are too. Just my two cents. :shrug:

Yes, "Wolf" is going to more receptive to the idea of changing one's name but that was only one somewhat minor point. I can believe that it's easier to mispronounce "Guckert" than "Gannon" but "Jeff" vs. "James"? And what about the escort service and the photos and the lack of credentials? Wolf gave him a ridiculously easy ride.

And no, I don't think of Keith as being our "pet" reporter or as being a "liberal" reporter. He's out there to report the news, and when Democrats make fools of themselves, he's going to report that, as well he should. I actually got kind of annoyed by the "aaigh! he's attacking Kerry posts!" after the election, when the Kerry campaign was giving out all sorts of bizarre mixed signals. What? KO's just supposed to smile politely and pretend there isn't a turd in the punch bowl?

What I value most about his reporting is that he's not out to "get" the right or the left or big business or government or bloggers or fill-in-the-blank. He does a better job than most of having an equal opportunity pillory: to win your turn in the stocks, you have to act like a fool and/or do things that harm others. Seems like pretty good criteria to me.

Same thing I like about John Stewart. EVERYONE is fair game.

And yes, "Wolf" was totally throwing softballs, I was just using that as an example.

I wish Keith would give us a new blog... :(

He doesn't love us anymore! :cry:

February 22. Almost two weeks. Of course, if his back really IS bothering him, he may not feel like writing much. But still. Just blog and tell us what you had for breakfast, big guy, we'd be happy! :)

especially since he went through a patch right before that where he was blogging every other day or so. But perhaps he's going to be out all this week and is actually taking a real vacation, as opposed to the last time he had a week off. (If I recall correctly, he must have spent most of it answering email from the Focus on the Family folks -- now there's a real fun vacation for you.)

When Keith produces an occasional blog from temporary outrage or as a duty-driven act of mercy for his fans, it can be found here... ...but don't get your hopes up.

... or are we just going to come here and cry?

seems to me we sometimes don't blog when Keef is away... but that at least one time when we didn't blog, Sparky came along the next day and told us we "must" blog the show because we had a following... or am I hallucinating? :silly:

:shrug:

and won't be around until late. I'll defer to the group.

If we liveblog here, we'd catch the Kerry Group much faster :)

We can post an announcement in the ER where we are, I'll help kick it.

... with the other groups, altho I realize there's a friendly rivalry going on.

IMO, the meetings should continue in ER. More people will discover us by accident that way, and we'll get more new members. However, the night's meeting convenor could post a link at the end of the opening post, directing those with a stronger interest back here to our clubhouse.

I'm kvelling.

The newsletter is written by Carey Fox. He is a guy. And he wrote me a very sweet e-mail promising me he will no longer tease us or do false advertising that KO has blogged recently!

I told him that he has his own little fan following here at DU too. And about how much we appreciated his own snarky brand of humor. If you'd like to share the love with Mr. Fox--you can do so by sending e-mail to him at [email protected].

That's one small step for the KOEB, one giant step for KO blog fans everywhere! :) Thanks!

we really should whine a little sooner, next time. :7

And posting. In all of these different rooms. Some will be topical rooms. Some will be a PARTY!

tomorrow evening after tonight's transcript comes out. I can link to the post where the emailed newsletter was given and put in a few comments about what I thought were high points. Feel free -- you and anyone else -- to suggest your own ideas here in the meantime.

Also in a broader sense, I think that we should have work threads for projects and goals. Maybe sparky can start the bar, and others can have their own on-going threads that are focused on certain topics or interests. In addition to the KOEB continuation threads, and archiving them going forward as well as researching the previous ones (I'd be happy to work on that), we'll probably need a newsletter thread and a blog thread (when applicable) and more places to hang out like a sauna or hot tub or rec room with a killer jukebox. :)

Whaddya think? Is it all too much? I just see everyone running around trying to find each other. I think we should make it easy on ourselves. :crazy:

that are later collated into a permanent thread.

I think one of these should be a KOEB Hall of Fame, Museum & Theme Park thread. There are classic moments and posts and threads, as you know. We can post candidates with their links in a temporary thread, then glean the best for the HoF, Museum, and TP thread, which could be updated as a permanent thread every once in a while.

I've been trying to find out -- without success so far -- what is involved in making those permanent threads that stay at the top of a Forum or Group listing. If one or a few individuals were empowered to update those without having to bother the mods or admin, that would be lovely. And not only for this KOEB GRoup -- it would be a MAJOR help for some other forums too. I think I'll write a note to Skinner about this specific point alone -- before, I've included it as part of another message, and he hasn't responded to that part yet.

By the way, I think we're close to launching a new Forum on first amendment issues. I'm hoping for a name like
Free internet/ Free Press/ First Amendment Issues Forum
You can read the latest exchange with Skinner here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=120&topic_id=30907
This is, of course, related to Keith's work as the only consistently truth-telling journalist on TV.

By the way #2, I do hope he or his bosses didn't get White House threats about talking about the Sgrena scandal in too much detail. They REALLY don't want that napalm story out there.

edited to add: Here's where I'm asking Admin about those semipermanent theads at the tops of forums:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=120x31163

Skinner will probably say no. They say no to pretty much all of them. That's their turf. But you could ask in ATA.

Chilling stuff. They were definitely trying to ice that lady to keep her from revealing G*d knows what. Some are saying that the bodyguard, who was an intelligence agent was the real target. Our press will now try and smear Juliana as a 'commie' journalist whose story can't be trusted.
:smoke: :smoke: :smoke: :smoke:
She may have information about military use of banned weapons in Falluja, napalm, depleted uranium etc. etc. :scared: :scared: :scared:
I hope they are keeping her safe and allow her to get her true story out, most Americans aren't paying attention, because our press is so compromised, but the rest of the world is watching and listening.

doesn't it follow that she can't be trusted? :eyes: And yes, I think the stories she can tell about Falluja are probably what "they" would like to see suppressed.

Somehow Eason Jordan's remarks don't seem so outre anymore, now do they?

television 'news' broadcasters. He told the truth.
This 'hit' on an Italian citizen will probably be the catalyzing event to get yet another 'coalition of the willing' participant nation the excuse to get out of Mess'o'potamia. I just wonder what it's going to take for us to get out.:scared: :scared:

FUBAR, FUBAR, FUBAR!
:mad: :mad: :mad: