Mr. President, are you listening?

I missed watching Keith Olbermann last night in his discussion about the public option many of us want. Here's the clip of Keith talking to Markos:



(courtesy of Daily Kos TV).

Keith and Markos are spot on. Don't shelve this part of the legislation.

Bill Moyers, another grown up, makes it crystal, we don't get legislation by just being nice.




From the transcript:

Come on, Mr. President. Show us America is more than a circus or a market. Remind us of our greatness as a democracy. When you speak to Congress next week, just come out and say it. We thought we heard you say during the campaign last year that you want a government run insurance plan alongside private insurance — mostly premium-based, with subsidies for low-and-moderate income people. Open to all individuals and employees who want to join and with everyone free to choose the doctors we want. We thought you said Uncle Sam would sign on as our tough, cost-minded negotiator standing up to the cartel of drug and insurance companies and Wall Street investors whose only interest is a company's share price and profits.

Here's a suggestion, Mr. President: ask Josh Marshall to draft your speech. Josh is the founder of the website talkingpointsmemo.com . He's a journalist and historian, not a politician. He doesn't split things down the middle and call it a victory for the masses. He's offered the simplest and most accurate description yet of a public insurance plan; one that essentially asks people: would you like the option — the voluntary option — of buying into Medicare before you're 65? Check it out, Mr. President.

This health care thing is make or break for your leadership, but for us, it's life and death. No more Mr. Nice Guy, Mr. President. We need a fighter.

Of course, Elizabeth Edwards could write it too.

Mr. President, do you hear us?

Goposaur Survival

Jed Lewison (former JRE supporter), probably one of the most brilliant technical persons who can whip up a video clip in a flash, also happens to be a snark champ. He came up with a remix of a DNC ad:



It is priceless.

Enjoy!

Breaking: Obama Orders Treasury Sec to Block AIG Bonuses

From the NYT:

“In the last six months, A.I.G. has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury,” Mr. Obama said. He added that he had asked Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner “to use that leverage and pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole.”

In strongly-worded remarks delivered in the White House East Room before small business owners, Mr. Obama called A.I.G. “a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed.”

“Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand how derivative traders at A.I.G. warranted any bonuses at all, much less $165 million in extra pay,” Mr. Obama said. “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”

Thank you, Mr. POTUS. The Board of Directors ought to be held accountable for this too.

Oh, and if you wish to sign the petition to bring these clowns to be held accountable by Congress, go to FireDogLake.

Watch the video here (courtesy of Daily Kos TV):


And it sounds like there are some options. Glenn Greenwald has more on it here.

Difference between Rush and Jon

Last night, I watched the Daily Show, in which "Mad Money's" Jim Cramer was the guest. "Mad Money" is a show on CNBC. I have tried to watch Mad Money, and to me the tone is obnoxious, and I think the information gets lost in the loud music and honking horns. It's no wonder Stewart dubbed it "Brawl Street."

To get the background on why Cramer was on the TDS, go to the NYT. It's not a complete background, but it will give you an idea.

The interview was the entire show, and it was amazing. Stewart more or less schooled Cramer on a couple of levels. One: admitting shorting stocks by manipulation of the markets is one thing, but to do it as "an entertainment" value is another. Second: CNBC should have known all along about the melt down. But instead, the network hides behind "being entertainment" when it can't explain why they didn't investigate some of these firms. CNBC is supposed to be a financial journalist program in which many investors or those who wanted to invest watched and took seriously. I agree with Taylor Marsh that Cramer knew to take it on the chin because of the Madoff scandal, and possibly to not give the story any longer legs.

Update: Here is the entirety of the show, courtesy of the fabulous Jed Lewison, Daily Kos TV and Hulu.com:



At DKTV, you will also see a Flashback moment in which Stewart was on "Crossfire" a few years and predicted the American people would not take the show seriously anymore with the constant bickering...or wouldn't find the show as entertaining either. A few months later, the show was canceled.

No doubt the Wingnuts will try to paint Stewart as "the face of the Democratic Party", just as Rush has been painted as the "leader of the Republican Party" by CPAC (and to a certain extent, the Progressives) . The latter is accurate because the GOP has been sent out to the wilderness in the last election. They are trying to regroup, which is normal, but the extremists of the right still haven't quite gotten the memo that moderates are needed back in the party to stabilize it. Thus, they let Rush spew venom such as "I hope Obama fails" and then goes on at CPAC that he is the only Republican who admits it, and those in Congress won't. Thus, with the microphone, Rush continues to spew venom, even though he is an entertainer. He believes he has power. I don't think he has power as much as influence, as evident by the ads that have been effective on his program. His listeners buy those products and services. That's why he commands a high salary.

But the difference between Stewart and Limbaugh is this: Stewart is an entertainer and his role is to make fun of the dumb things that either celebrities in the entertainment industry or politicians (especially those on the right aisle) do or say. Stewart also is some what of a journalist with his interviews as he does his homework whenever some one comes on the show to discuss a book s/he has written on a cultural issue. Stewart took the journalist chair and rather than preaching, he was teaching. I don't think Stewart wants CNBC to go away, nor the show Mad Money, but rather do due diligence, be more transparent for the investors, and quit trying to entertain them. (That will be hard though because access to CEOs is everything on that show and Cramer couldn't explain that very well. See Cenk Uygur's diary from Wed at DK) Moreover, Stewart knows his place though. It is not for power in the Democratic Party. He's not the least interested in being the face of the Democratic Party. And he won't consider himself a hero either, even if the Left would like to say he is.

Stewart knows who the leader of the Democratic Party is: Barack Obama. And yeah, he'll make fun of his administration too when merited.

Last night was a cultural moments, as Chris Bowers said at Open Left. To me, the TDS did more: it presented a teachable moment.

Another update: Apparently Robert Gibbs, press secretary for the White House, enjoyed the interview. You can see the clip at DKTV.