it doesn't matter what the attorney general's opinion is. it's up to the courts to form opinion. it's the attorney general's responsibility to investigate and enforce the law.

Until an issue is adjudicated by the courts, an attorney general's opinion is the closest thing there is to a ruling. It stands unless a court determines otherwise. The point, of course, is the illogic of thinking an attorney general who has already ruled that something is legal is going to appoint a special prosecutor to see if a law has been broken. The other point is poor Olby not knowing the difference between the attorney general and Congress.

the same can be said about a rapist's opinion on whether the sex was consentual. his opinion is the closest thing there is to a ruling. if you have any respect for the law, the fact that it is the closest thing is irrelevant. the law is what matters. we are a nation of law, not men.

I'm sorry if you don't understand the difference between a rapist and the Attorney General. Or comprehend the distinction between the opinion of a criminal and that of the chief law enforcement officer of the country.

that's genius. the cognitive dissonance you're unconscious mind is experiencing must be overwhelming. you have to stifle everything you learned in your life, including marbury v. madison, separation of powers, star wars episodes 1-6 with your allegiance to authority. that's got to suck.

I think everything I learned in life, including my 25 years practicing criminal law, taught me that attorney generals' opinions represent the state of the law unless overturned by a court. Also, and this might shock you, but have you ever heard of the presumption of legitimacy for governmental actions?

You can dismiss it all by saying "it doesn't matter", and in the end you may be correct. But you're not correct right now.

And the whole issue is a diversion, an interesting one, but a diversion nonetheless. You apparently don't want to discuss Olby's selective reporting: harp on Republican guilty pleas, but ignore Dem guilty pleas. Slam conservatives for blaming hurricanes on God's retribution, but overlook it when a Dem does the same thing. Fairness, Olby style.

like everyone else caught up in the illusion, you are creating a strawman argument when you presume to know my world view. my experience has shown me that there is negligible difference between republicans and democrats. they are both puppets and sycophants of big money. it's doesn't matter whether it is clinton or bush, they both have slowly eroded the liberty of this once proud nation. i have come to know this by focusing on their actions instead of their words. words are meaningless. actions are real. our wise forefathers would puke if they saw what has happened to their work at the hands of the short-sighted power elite.

Olbermann:

"Good evening, Bob Barr and Al Gore, together again for the first time. We don't tend to think of it this way, but the creations of the last two serious third political parties in this country define the cliche politics makes strange bedfellows. 1912 saw Theodore Roosevelt split with the Republicans, and his hand-picked successor William Howard Taft. Roosevelt and the Progressive Party actually finished second in the vote that year. And in 1854 the Republicans themselves started as a third party with disaffected Democrats abandoning their own sitting President and the Whigs, who had been in office until a year earlier, deserting en masse, putting aside their personal hatreds to create a one-issue party against slavery."

I wonder if Olbermann knows there already is a third party in this country that represents the thinking of Bob Barr. It's called the Libertarian Party.

I wonder if knows there already is an alternative party that represents the thinking of Al Gore. It's called the Green Party.

Now try imaging these groups coming together and forming yet another alternative party.

Riiiiight... Environmentalists combining with folks who revere private property rights and resent any sort of govt intrusion....

Is Olbermann THAT damn politically ignorant? Evidently...

Before Olbermann's stretch there was Chris Matthews interviewing a former special interrogation of Iraqi prisoners and repeating the word "torture" like it was a Rita Cosby promo. To Chris, sleep depravation, sleeping in a 55 degree rooom with no blanket and thin garments, and being blasted with loud music and strobes lights is "torture".

Later on Hardball a founder of FISA was on to say that the FISA court that Bush might be in trouble if the NSA targetted political dissenters but that there is no evidence yet that this had been done.

This just in...

Could the current media narratives get anymore hyperbolic and speculative?

cecilia,

keith is in the entertainment business. like everyone else on tv, including george bush, he's a lot smarter than he pretends to be. tv is targeted to people with a 4th grade education...wait, maybe it's 3rd grade, so they have to adopt fictional realities when they talk. consider "lefty" paul krugman. his books on economics are extremely informed and intelligent, but he seems to have craved more attention and accepted a job at the new york times around 2001, and since then his books and NYT articles have been nothing but partisan hackery because that's what the artificial market demands. he's making a lot of money, though. how about "right-wing" ann coulter? do you really think she's that stupid as she talks? she's really quite intelligent but she knows what sells and she's capitalizing on those who identify with conservative ideology.

Mr. Wan,

I love your deep thoughts. However, you might want to get out of your own head long enough to see that there are people who strive to keep the country safe and follow the constitution in the face of intense opposition. Start with that thought and try to analyze the following peoples' actions: Al Gore, Keith Olbermann, Condi Rice and George Bush.

Spare me your emotional ramblings and get to thinking.

"Mr Wan"!

KFK, you've got to start issuing "go pee before reading" warnings.

Spoken by any other other reporter and I would instantly identify it as parody, but I believe Keith sincerely meant it when he referred to former VP Al Gore's "reputation for playing things close to his vest." If anyone is an open, unhinged person it is Algore. Did Keith not remember his "HE BETRAYED!!! THIS COUNTRY!!!! speech or Algore's hiring Naomi Wolf to help him come across as manly. The great sigher of the 2000 debates does not play things close to his vest...Keith is either more ignorant than I guessed, more delusional than a code pink groupie or was being funny.....I can't think though that Keith would point humor at one of his political idols. Did anyone else hear this laugh out loud comment on Meltdown last night?

KFK,

enjoy your television. may it reinforce your worldview so that you need not look elsewhere for truth.

Mr. Wan,

You realize you are writing diatribes denouncing television on a site devoted to watching television, don't you?

By the way, if you are on a quest for truth, how did you get tangled up with Olby? Do all your quests end this way? I believe your quest for knowledge did.

Irish,

I didn't catch the comment. It's priceless.

Olbermann is confusing Gore's reputation for being wooden (even his most manical rants come across as spontaneous as his cringe-inducing PDA with Tipper) with being self-contained.

To answer your question, Olbermann is willfully ignorant AND delusional because he's an intolerant liberal who longs for the days when Uncle Walter and Norman Lear set standards for "correct" opinion.

Obi-Wan,

We're far less critical of Olbermann than you.

There really are people whose actions are sincerely based on their ideals, rather than professional gain.

You're too cynical and jaded for Olbermann Watch, Obi-Wan.

Surely there are Goth boards or sites created by Frenchmen, where you'd be right at home.

cecelia,

i doubt it. i'm just passing by. you folks seem to find merit in analyzing this subdomain of the media universe when you would be better off analyzing scooby doo.

i agree that there are people who are sincere. but they don't stay on television for very long. tv despises authenticity.

my sincerest apologies for weighing evidence over social proof. i'll run along now.

Is anyone else noticing that Keith appears to be morphing into Eugene Levy's twin (the nerd Dad from American Pie.) Maybe Johnny D could post pictures side by side....it's eerie.

Mr. Wan,

You wrote:

[quote]
"you folks seem to find merit in analyzing this subdomain of the media universe when you would be better off analyzing scooby doo"
[endquote]

Is there a "Scooby Doo-watch" site out there? If so, count me in. Ever notice that the villains on Scooby were usually evil capitalists trying to take an old lady's house? That warrants some investigation! Additionally, I am convinced that Shaggy was based on Abbie Hoffman, Fred was gay, Velma was a lesbian and Daphne was a prostitute. That show corrupted an entire generation. I vote Scooby "worst doggie in the world."

I believe Cecilia is correct Mr. Wan. You really should check out some French sites -- you would fit right in.

Scooby is NOT the worst dog in the world. He's the saddest dog in the world.

Shaggy got him hooked on drugs so he could exercise complete control over poor Scooby.

Shaggy laced all the Scooby-snacks with PCP. THAT explains Scoob's constant case of the jitters.

By the way, "Shaggy" is just a nickname. We know him now as Senator Joe Biden.

This comment thread is now closed.