countdown

Last night Keith Olbermann issued the following statement:

A STATEMENT TO THE VIEWERS OF COUNTDOWN

by Keith Olbermann

I want to sincerely thank you for the honor of your extraordinary and ground-rattling support. Your efforts have been integral to the remedying of these recent events, and the results should remind us of the power of individuals spontaneously acting together to correct injustices great or small. I would also like to acknowledge with respect the many commentators and reporters, including those with whom my politics do not overlap, for their support.

I also wish to apologize to you viewers for having precipitated such anxiety and unnecessary drama. You should know that I mistakenly violated an inconsistently applied rule – which I previously knew nothing about – that pertains to the process by which such political contributions are approved by NBC. Certainly this mistake merited a form of public acknowledgment and/or internal warning, and an on-air discussion about the merits of limitations on such campaign contributions by all employees of news organizations. Instead, after my representative was assured that no suspension was contemplated, I was suspended without a hearing, and learned of that suspension through the media.

Something I have been saying all along was just repeated on Countdown by former health insurance executive Wendell Potter – there is nothing to stop insurance companies from raising rates.

The bill backers have been touting out charts and tables derived from the CBO report to highlight savings with the new reform. One thing they either don’t realize or don’t want to convey is that the CBO numbers are purely an estimate. A key variable in there will be the insurance companies “playing by the rules”.

As an example we have the 85% medical loss ratio, which states that 85% of premiums must go towards health care. Well administrative costs are considered health care, and there’s a lot of ways for the insurance companies to play with the numbers to get a higher number that what it should be.

And anyone who believes that the insurance companies will play by the rules and not try to figure out loopholes like this is sadly mistaken. I guarantee they already have lawyers and accountants figuring out exactly what they will be able to squeeze past the system, and the fact that enforcing the medical loss ratio will be an entirely new system for the government, we can expect such loopholes and backdoors to be very easy to get in right now.

But I am sure we will “fix it later” because somehow the Democrats are going to magically have a more solid majority than they do now when these problems really start to show their ugly little heads. Meanwhile we will all be forced, by law, to fork over our money to this system.

Seriously – if that is progressive then I am sorry I ever called myself one.

Image via Wikipedia

Anderson Cooper is seeing his ratings plummet:

The respected CNN anchor has seen his numbers slip significantly through the past year. His 10 p.m. show, "Anderson Cooper 360," has declined 62% in total viewers and 70% in adults 25-54 from November 2008, according to Nielsen figures.

Last month, in Cooper's time slot, Fox News' "On the Record" attracted an average viewership of 1.9 million while "360" averaged 672,000; repeats of MSNBC's "Countdown" and HLN's Nancy Grace show averaged 655,000 and 458,000, respectively.

But in the ad-friendly 25-54 demo, those same repeats won out over Cooper with 224,000 (MSNBC) and 214,000 (HLN).

CNN really needs to make some big changes and make them quick. Cooper is at the point that he’s getting beat by reruns. That is really sad in the news industry.

Bob pointed out this picture last night:

To which he said:

Without insulting the guy, here's how I would describe him. He's clearly either the recipient of Veteran's Administration healthcare (note the USMC cap) or Medicare or both. Both of which are single-payer "socialized" healthcare programs run by the government. And I seriously doubt this old misguided man would ever give up his socialized healthcare.

At the same time I was watching Countdown and they were showing a clip from a townhall meeting held by Steny Hoyer, in which this guy was disrupting the meeting:

Another senior citizen, and the woman next to him was doing the same thing – another senior citizen. These are the kinds of people that don’t want government run healthcare and thinks the government better not touch their Medicare.

I added a countdown to Inauguration Day on the site if you hadn't noticed, but here is an even cooler countdown. It's the Countdown to Victory Blog that has videos posted from around the world showing people watching, waiting and then celebrating the emergence of our 44th President.

Rupert Murdoch is starting to lose a lot of money and now they have had to slash their outlook. I guess the news last week the Countdown and Rachael Maddow didn't help them out much either.

Last night this clip showed on Countdown. It's of a 60 year old librarian who was charged with trespassing because she carried a sign that read "McCain=Bush" to a McCain town hall meeting:

She asks the question the media has been afraid to - why do the Republicans hide from the McCain=Bush analogy so much? The Republicans have given Bush their undying support over the past 7 years, and now that Bush is about gone they abandon him? Somethings not right here. Did the Republicans back the lies of George W. Bush, which have destroyed this nation, just for political convenience? Perhaps they are trying to distance McCain from Bush now for political convenience.

I also find the silence from McCain about this incident to be troubling. Removing people with opposing views from campaign rally is right out of the Bush/Rove campaign book, and it seems the McCain is adopting that. Not a good thing when you want to distance yourself from Bush.

So yes - John McCain will be a third Bush term more than you think. McCain is proving that himself.

We are one week away from what should be Bush's last State of the Union address. I say could be because I wouldn't put it past this asshole to try to find a way to stay in office (think Iran and WWIII).