Face - June 17, 2010 | 11:58 am · Link

But he’ll come back when everyone agrees to wash the royal penis the way they used to.

How the hell does this sentence not put your whole post in moderation?

General Egali Tarian Stuck - June 17, 2010 | 11:58 am · Link

When they start believing their own press clippings, it’s a short ride to Heatherville.

slag - June 17, 2010 | 11:59 am · Link

But he’ll come back when everyone agrees to wash the royal penis the way they used to.

The imagery. It burns.

Violet - June 17, 2010 | 12:00 pm · Link

The man doth protest too much.

John Cole - June 17, 2010 | 12:02 pm · Link

@slag: Never seen Coming to America, I take it.

Cacti - June 17, 2010 | 12:03 pm · Link

As I said yesterday, Keith-O is a smarmy douche. Turns out he’s also a thin-skinned, smarmy douche.

Just one more rich shit who thinks he has something important to say.

Violet - June 17, 2010 | 12:05 pm · Link

@MMonides:
Yeah, the diaries are so frequently whines or meta. I still skim the midday news bullets; there can be some good finds there. But the diaries? Sheesh.

stuckinred - June 17, 2010 | 12:06 pm · Link

Hanoi Jane sez Kos is a CIA agent.

ruemara - June 17, 2010 | 12:09 pm · Link

It’s all blackwaterdog’s fault. And those supporters of Obama were mean and Not Real Progressives Anyway™. It’s beyond bizarre.

@NobodySpecial:
over 1k comments. I’d say either 1k people care or 1 guy with an espresso iv and carpal body syndrome.

Steve - June 17, 2010 | 12:10 pm · Link

The GBCW acronym was pretty much coined in order to mock whiny people like Olbermann.

kay - June 17, 2010 | 12:12 pm · Link

Pundits talk about themselves too much.

I like Rachel Maddow. I hope she resists this sort of thing, but I don’t know. She’ll probably succumb to Huge Ego Syndrome.

wengler - June 17, 2010 | 12:17 pm · Link

I’m not going to pile on KO because he is more often right than wrong, but I gotta agree for an open forum DKos sucks.

Comrade Jake - June 17, 2010 | 12:19 pm · Link

Olbermann’s right on the merits here, but I mean, come on. It’s a motherfucking comment on a motherfucking blog, for Chrissakes.

The Moar You Know - June 17, 2010 | 12:22 pm · Link

Fuck Keith Olbermann.

Really.

His on-air histrionics are embarrassing enough – and damaging enough – to the cause of liberalism as it is. For him to come to DKos and post that shit diary, whining because someone hurt his precious feelings in a diary comment is, sadly, exactly the kind of petty borderline stalking bullshit I’ve come to expect from the man.

Does he keep an itemized list of grievances? I’d bet that he does, he seems like that kind of guy.

Sloegin - June 17, 2010 | 12:25 pm · Link

Quelle surprise, Dems fracture when they discover their guy has the occasional wart. Some freak, some go defensive, some say “well duh”.

Teh internets has dummies. Some post on the GOS.

I mostly like Herr Olbermann, but he can slide a lot into hyperbole and the whole butthurt pundit-mode which is unfortunate. Punditry corrupts. Absolute punditry corrupts absolutely.

brendancalling - June 17, 2010 | 12:27 pm · Link

nah man, i see his frustration.

i know a lot of us commenters here at BJ joke that we’re Obots, but at Daily Kos that creature really DOES exist. And if you post there long enough, you begin to get harassed by self-appointed diary police. People like Cedwyn and drache are only two examples of the dkos readers who do nothing but lurk waiting for any criticism of Obama. then you have to fight them off as they abuse the hide-rating system.

I tend to fight them off with youtube clips of caliopes and clown cars, or photographs of the Daleks from “dr. Who” captioned “HOPE AND CHANGE! HOPE AND CHANGE! HOPE AND CHANGE!”, but i kinda get off on antagonizing them.

I can see why someone like Olbermann (or anyone else with a limited capacity for verbal abuse and character assassination) would say “the hell with it.”

on a related note, I’ve been on a bluegrass list-serv for well over a decade and we have the same problem there. a number of people have been simply driven off the list, including some fairly legendary performers, for not being purist enough about the music. On the list, we like to joke, “bluegrass music, we eat our own.”

Same thing at kos.

david mizner - June 17, 2010 | 12:30 pm · Link

@ruemara:

I said Kossacks when I should have “some” Kossacks.

Daily Kos is a pretty big place. Right now from what I can tell the place is pretty evenly split between harsh critics and staunch admirers, which in theory could make for an interesting place but in practice makes for endless, circular and often evidence-free arguments in which no one’s mind is changed.

But I stand by my original point. I used to be active there, and I can assure you there were—and are—many well-recced comments and diaries trashing in very personal terms Greenwald (a “douche”) Hamsher (“a deranged racist”) Krugman (“an attention whore”) Huffington, Tavis Smiley, Sirota, Russ Feingold (“a closet Republican”)...

I could do a bookmark dump, but I don’t think anyone cares that much.

Comrade Jake - June 17, 2010 | 12:33 pm · Link

I’d actually admire KO a lot more if he got himself booted off of KOS. Anyone can pack up and leave. It takes some real talent to have them kick you out.

NobodySpecial - June 17, 2010 | 12:35 pm · Link

@david mizner:

Didn’t you get the message? Mike Kay personally reported that all 200k or so accounts all are part of a sinister plot of the left to make Obama lose the election and block out the sun with a giant pinata. Or something. There is no ‘some’. All GOS peoples hate hate HATE Obama, and if you disagree, well, you’re just a hippie.

NobodySpecial - June 17, 2010 | 12:38 pm · Link

@ruemara:

1 & 2 are quite valid.

3 on this blog ends up with a hardcore group who insist that trying to force LEFTISM on their ‘Center-Right Nation’ is folly and should never be tried. And shut up and take what we give you.

4 “The Buck Stops Here”. Maybe Obama could instead send a positive message about those folks who deeply care about some of these issues instead of letting his hangers-on go slanging what used to be known as ‘the base’ before 2008.

joz - June 17, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link

Someone on the Internet is wrong!

It’s John Cole for once though.

John, good job taking Olbermann’s words out of context. You conveniently left out the part where he said this:

I was checking in tonight to see what was new, came across a diary trashing first me and my colleague Rachel, and scrolled through it shaking my head, sadly, until I got to one comment that leaped off the page.

“can’t verify, of course… (2+ / 0-)
but a friend in the news biz tells me he got a damaging e-mail from one of his pals at NBC. something to the effect that their anger was pre-planned because “beating up on the President has been good for ratings.”

I haven’t checked but I’m hearing that Olbermann slammed the speech on Twitter before it even started.”

“Can’t verify”... “haven’t checked”...It can’t be verified because it’s nonsense, and it wasn’t checked because nobody bothered. Unfortunately there’s been a lot of this here lately.

Really, John, I think it is pretty damn shameful for a guy like you who is always calling out this kind of crap to then peddle it immediately right back.

Probably because of your hatred of Kos/Olbermann.

But I haven’t checked or verified that, so you can take what I said as gospel.

Seriously.

Call Keith thin-skinned or whatever all you want, those might be some valid criticisms. However I think he made a very good point about the kind of crap that was being thrown at him.

If you’re going to sling mud, at least have the decency to use something that has some stick to it, not just the first pile of crap you find.

Disgraceful.

AxelFoley - June 17, 2010 | 12:39 pm · Link

@Allan:

Apparently getting criticized for bashing Obama is the same as being lynched, raped, murdered and left in a ditch to die for supporting progressive causes.
I know cuz slinkerwink says so. And she can copy and paste from Wikipedia, so she’s a historian too

You saw that shit diary of hers, too, huh?

Culture of Truth - June 17, 2010 | 12:40 pm · Link

I was watching and though Olbermann went a little nuts.

I doubt he staged it, he’s just mad like a lot of people are about this horrible situation and is freaking out that Obama is not freaking out more.

Bill Murray - June 17, 2010 | 12:42 pm · Link

@Comrade Dread: C’mon there is at least 40% snark in there that doesn’t involve fags, tards and assholes

Glenn - June 17, 2010 | 12:43 pm · Link

I stopped reading dkos because it got the point where Kos himself rarely posted, and the quality of the front pagers over there got pretty bad. Bad as in, mostly have no freakin’ clue what they’re talking about.

But the diaries have always been a shit show (sometimes an entertaining one, I admit). For KO to use this as his excuse to leave is pretty weak indeed.

Allan - June 17, 2010 | 12:48 pm · Link

@AxelFoley: It’s hard to miss when someone is shrieking “I’m being silenced!” from atop the Wreck List.

John Cole - June 17, 2010 | 12:50 pm · Link

@joz: How do you take someone out of context when you link to their words and quote them completely unedited. Jeebus.

Spare me. That was a watb post from Olbermann. Period.

Can you imagine what the internet would be like if everyone stiopped writing because some anonymous commenter wrote bullshit about them?

Christ- Glenn Greenwald, on any given day, has thousands of people calling him a fag, a sock puppet, an anti-Semite, ant-American, and every single day he comes back and speaks his mind, with no thought of quitting.

KO is a pussy.

Culture of Truth - June 17, 2010 | 12:52 pm · Link

The Internet does have a way of making powerful self-important people crazy.

Heh heh.

kay - June 17, 2010 | 12:55 pm · Link

@georgia pig:

She was calling herself the fake president last night . . .

Was she kidding, though? That could be funny, depending.

I don’t watch that often, but I do like her, so I hope she doesn’t get Professional Pundit Disease.

I think if she makes an appearance on Morning Joe it’s probably all over between us. I have to draw lines.

Allison W. - June 17, 2010 | 12:58 pm · Link

There are far more critics of Obama at Dkos than there are supportive diaries so i don’t know what anyone is talking about.

And if KO, Greenwald, Hamsher, etc. can’t take the amount of the criticism that they throw at Obama then they need to shut down their blogs or get over it. Dish it, be able to take it. Why are those commentators expected to not criticize the critics? And they get teased for blind loyalty?

Jim, Foolish Literalist - June 17, 2010 | 1:00 pm · Link

@kay:

I like Rachel Maddow. I hope she resists this sort of thing, but I don’t know. She’ll probably succumb to Huge Ego Syndrome.

I was kinda surprised to see Rachel and Ezra Klein giving into “why didn’t Obama reach for the stars!”, especially Klein, since he’s written about the gap between our president-centered political media and our legislative-centered political process. But I do get the frustration and I’m willing to cut Rachel some slack, since she doesn’t take herself too seriously. Olberman needs someone, a strong-handed producer, or just a friend, to talk him down from the top of his outrage bubble.

frankdawg - June 17, 2010 | 1:01 pm · Link

@joz:
Exactly! I have problems with KO & with GOS but lets make sure we do not fall victim to the same faults we hate in others.

As for how KO could trash the speech before it was televised COME ON PEOPLE! THE WH ISSUES A TRANSCRIPT BEFORE THE DAM SPEECH IS MADE. This has been going on since at least Nixon.

Someone here yesterday made the same charge.

If you play in the comments section you are playing in a lot of shit, get used to it.

KO was right but once again over reacts

ronin122 - June 17, 2010 | 1:02 pm · Link

@david mizner: That’s pretty much how I see the GOS: evenly split mostly by those who think Obama can do no wrong, and those who think he can do no right.

NobodySpecial - June 17, 2010 | 1:04 pm · Link

@ruemara:

The disagreement about tactics on this blog has morphed into a hardcore group of people who are all about beating up on ‘the left’ or ‘hippies’ or whatever they want to call it. You might recognize them from the spittle left on the other side of your monitor when they mention the names ‘Hamsher’ and ‘Greenwald’, frequently unprovoked. A lot of them also keep spouting that Reaganesque nonsense about America being a ‘center-right nation’, and how trying to push liberalism in parts of the country is stupid and unproductive and why oh why are you beating up on the poor ol’ Blue Dogs, who are the best we’ll ever get. I’m sure you recognize it.

kay - June 17, 2010 | 1:08 pm · Link

@Jim, Foolish Literalist:

I don’t read it that much (disclaimer!) but kos is sort of selectively gloomy, as an information gathering site.

They really trumpeted the generic ballot heading in the GOP direction ( because that went to their argument that Democrats are not being liberal enough, I think ) but have ignored that it’s going in the other direction.

If they’re going to rely on polls, they can’t just highlight those that ratify the stance they are pushing. I don’t even mind having a stance (“Democrats are too conservative”), that’s what advocacy is, but just come clean about it.

I think advocates should stop pretending they are The Last Honest People. They aren’t, nor should they be. They’re pushing a very particular argument on that site. Nothing wrong with that, but stop pretending it’s “fair and balanced”, or that people who disagree with them are “ignoring evidence”.

ruemara - June 17, 2010 | 1:10 pm · Link

@NobodySpecial:

kthxbai.
None of that has anything to do with, you know, doing something. But if you want to get into a piddle turf war with people who may disagree with you on specific interpretations on some subjects, but do agree with you on broader, lifetime goals for the country, then by all means, let that be the main thing to you.

Jim, Foolish Literalist - June 17, 2010 | 1:13 pm · Link

@arguingwithsignposts:

It just makes the SNL skit with Ben Affleck look prescient.

Heh. It was frighteningly on the nose, wasn’t it? To his credit, Olberman played that on his show. Compare that to Tweety, whose SNL doppelganger is far more intelligent and coherent than the real thing, and Tweets acts as if he’s being a good sport for acknowledging it (and you can tell he gets a stiffy from being That Famous).

Chyron HR - June 17, 2010 | 1:14 pm · Link

@NobodySpecial:

The disagreement about tactics on this blog has morphed into a hardcore group of people who are all about beating up on ‘the left’ or ‘hippies’ ‘O-bots’ or ‘hippie-punchers’ or whatever they want to call it.

You. Don’t. Say.

NobodySpecial - June 17, 2010 | 1:17 pm · Link

@ruemara:

Thing is, Rue, with some of them, I can’t tell if they really DO agree on the broader goals.

That and it would be nice if they didn’t clutter up every single politics post with attacks against people who haven’t even opened up their mouths on the thread.

@Chyron HR:

Ouch. Good one.

Admiral_Komack - June 17, 2010 | 1:17 pm · Link

“If I can understand people’s frustration with seeing a speech by a Democratic president criticized in a venue such as mine, why is it impossible for some people here to accept my frustration about the speech? You don’t agree with me, fine. You don’t want to watch because you don’t agree with me, fine. But to accuse me, after five years of risking what I have to present the truth as I see it, of staging something for effect, is deeply offensive to me and is an indication of what has happened here.”

What the fuck have you risked, you whineyass titty baby?
What a self-important snot-nosed punk-ass bitch.
I stopped watching this asshole in April 2009, and my blood pressure is sooo much better for it.

kay - June 17, 2010 | 1:19 pm · Link

@Jim, Foolish Literalist:

Sometimes I think it’s just nerves, and fear of losing. I wonder if there would have been such concern for Obama’s emotional and political reaction to the spill if there hadn’t been a mainstream media meme that he was somehow lacking. The focus on the speech mirrors the conventional media focus on the speech, it didn’t predate it.

They completely freaked the hell out after the losses in Virginia and New Jersey, which, of course, was the whole point of Republicans making such a big deal out of it.

In a weird way, they end up buying whatever Republicans are selling, even starting with the best of intentions. They seem to get caught up in the theme ‘o the day.

inkadu - June 17, 2010 | 1:21 pm · Link

@slag:

But he’ll come back when everyone agrees to wash the royal penis the way they used to.
The imagery. It burns.

No, the burning is from the chlamydia.

ricky - June 17, 2010 | 1:22 pm · Link

@Dave:

It is not enough! Use your imagination. Think how much Dennis the K or Raphie Nader would have made of the glorious opportunity we gave this inexperienced man based on our projections of what could be.

inkadu - June 17, 2010 | 1:23 pm · Link

@slag:

But he’ll come back when everyone agrees to wash the royal penis the way they used to.
The imagery. It burns.

No, the burning is from the klamydia.

inkadu - June 17, 2010 | 1:28 pm · Link

Since my witty comment went to moderation, I think I’ll have to say something substantial, and not reference penii or diseases thereof.

I don’t like KO. He’s always seemed operatic. I always thought he was on to the joke—the “how dare you, sir” theatrics of it. Apparently, no, he takes it seriously. The GOS commenter is actually giving him more credit than he deserves by accusing him of staging the outrage.

kay - June 17, 2010 | 1:33 pm · Link

Why not just give Obama credit for the BP agreement? It is good. It’s better for taxpayers than litigation, and it doesn’t even foreclose litigation, down the road. Only an idiot says they’ll take money down the road over money in their hand. He gets both. It’s a great deal.

The whole idea of “nationalizing” assets was silly. Even if we could “nationalize” assets, I don’t know how we do that without nationalizing liability, and we know BP has a terrible safety record. We were just going to seize assets? Where does that leave all those other places that have some duct-taped mess of a BP facility operating? We were going to tell them “tough luck, our well exploded first“?

inkadu - June 17, 2010 | 1:35 pm · Link

@Cerberus: You are wrong, and on the internet no less. KO has been on DKos for at least 4 years. And it doesn’t take four years to figure out the multivariegated nature of comment threads. Heck, YouTube comments instantly make DKos threads look like a choir of angels.

Ailuridae - June 17, 2010 | 1:39 pm · Link

@kay:

Because to admit the that the escrow fund was a good idea might expose people who advocated receivership to the scorn and ridicule they deserved.

kay - June 17, 2010 | 1:45 pm · Link

@Ailuridae:

I was understandably a little concerned about taking on BP’s whole operation.
We couldn’t even regulate the one facility in the Gulf. Obama was going to run an oil company?
Christ. We’d be on the hook for every BP failure, world-wide.
I supported the GM bail out, and I will (quite frankly) be amazed if it works as planned and they get out even, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think he should nationalize GM. The legacy health care costs alone would kill us.

Lisa K. - June 17, 2010 | 2:02 pm · Link

Keith is such a drama queen.

MMonides - June 17, 2010 | 2:06 pm · Link

@Dave: Excellent.

asiangrrlMN - June 17, 2010 | 2:18 pm · Link

@Dave: Yeah, pretty much this. I enjoyed Rachel’s speech, but I spent much of it thinking, “No way in hell Obama could say all that.” Even on this blog, mistermix wrote, “Hey, yeah, 20 B is awesome, but…” But but but. And, it’s been completely glossed over by the press and criticized by the Republicans.

I stopped watching Keith a while back because I just couldn’t take the theatrics and the self-importance any more. He always seemed like a thin-skinned person to me.

As for O’Donnell, I am torn. I think he’s yummy, and I really dug him when he subbed for Keith, but he seemed to go off the rails during the healthcare reform debate, and I am not sure he’s back on track.

Admiral_Komack - June 17, 2010 | 2:31 pm · Link

@D-Chance.:

-I surprised that Keith didn’t faint after uttering that gem.

mapaghimagsik - June 17, 2010 | 2:33 pm · Link

@LikeableInMyOwnWay:

I’m inclined to agree, but I think its hard not to be that successful and get a bit of a big head, and blogs like GoS and this one tend to puncture that bubble pretty quickly, and at the same time help with the hyperinflation

Hopefully, he’ll keep reading and reporting. I think he gets a lot of good ideas from GoS, or at least have a thick-skinned staffer cut through it.

At the same time, challenging Obama to do more is fine, as long as you put the blame squarely where it is—a spineless congress that gives up before its even challenged and WATB can hold their breath and Dems will give up key items.

But yeah, it would be nice to cut the poor bastard some slack once in a while.

mapaghimagsik - June 17, 2010 | 2:39 pm · Link

@mapaghimagsik: Antarctica. Goddamnit, why did the editor fuck up? This blog would be a piece of shit sometimes if the content wasn’t so good.

General JAFO Willibro - June 17, 2010 | 2:52 pm · Link

@arguingwithsignposts: What you said. Exactly why I don’t even go there anymore. Utter waste of time.

Justin Runia - June 17, 2010 | 2:57 pm · Link

I’m fine with KO quitting, what I take issue is the suicide-note that he left. Just quit and leave dude, don’t try to guilt everyone into begging you to come back.

Detlef - June 17, 2010 | 3:15 pm · Link

@D-Chance.:

What the fuck did Bathtub Boy ever have to risk? He’s a failed sports jock who was fired from every other job he ever had because he was a jerk off-stage and all of his co-workers and bosses hated his guts. It’s not like he had much on the table when he took the gig.

5 years ago?
You mean when you Americans just reelected GW Bush?
Hmm.
How about:
Criticizing the President (CIC Bush) equals criticizing the troops equals anti-American, terrorist supporter, not a patriot.
You remember perhaps?
I don´t remember that many (prominent) Bush media critics back then. Most of them were studiously “neutral”.

Except of course the “Daily Show”. :)
But I´ve read that Jon Stewart too criticized President Obama in his show?

Rob721 - June 17, 2010 | 3:46 pm · Link

Right! How dare KO stop doing something he was voluntarily doing after he gets a ton of crap dumped on him for having an opinion!

Seriously, what is with the liberal blogs’ need to crap on KO? He’s not the liberal BO, anyone can see that.

Apparently criticizing Obama makes you ungrateful but kicking KO, you’re a fair-minded liberal.

Sheila - June 17, 2010 | 4:06 pm · Link

I read a little of Olbermann’s post and then moved on. If I want silly, I’ll listen to the inimitable Jonathan Richman and have fun.

LikeableInMyOwnWay - June 17, 2010 | 4:13 pm · Link

@D-Chance.:

after five years of risking

How much does Keith get paid? And how many tears am I supposed to shed for him?

Word on the street is that get gets $4m a year. That is over $300k per month, on the order of $11k a day.

Good bye cruel world? I would sooner believe something as ludicrous and dishonest as that from Limbaugh before I would believe it from Olbermann. I sincerely mean it, Fuck Him Very Much. With prejudice.

JMY - June 17, 2010 | 4:21 pm · Link

For someone who criticizes people on a daily, he sure can’t take it.

Mike Kay - June 17, 2010 | 4:30 pm · Link

If you can’t stand the heat, stay outta da blogosphere.

Mike Kay - June 17, 2010 | 5:03 pm · Link

@stuckinred: you’re shitting me. where did she say that?

handy - June 17, 2010 | 5:57 pm · Link

Maybe KO can turn the lights down, stare into the camera all Edward R Murrow like, and deliver a Special Comment on blogger ethics. That would be great liberal TV.

Sly - June 18, 2010 | 8:27 am · Link

The VP’s response to this nonsense was pretty outstanding.