Bless You, Keith Olbermann

Keith Olbermann of MSNBC's Countdown has really emerged as the cable news anchor who simply will not have news and commentary for his show defined by the White House and the Republican party.

While the rest of the media often seems content to amplify whatever nonsense Team Bush is peddling on a given day, Olbermann consistently has his own take on events and he seldom hesitates to let those views be known.

Monday night was a great example, with one of the best news commentaries I have heard in a very long time. An excerpt:

"But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defies its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

"And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological. It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.

"Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?"

You can either read the full editorial here or go to Crooks and Liars for the full video impact.