Keith Olbermann is away because he is "under the weather." Host is ALISON STEWART and guest is TOM O‘NEIL, SENIOR EDITOR, “IN TOUCH WEEKLY”.
1. Link to KOEB liveblog thread:
(tinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/3k5ey )
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x339636Title:
KOEB: Alison Stewart in for KO today.2. Link to show transcript:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/7128806Excerpt from the beginning of the show: ALISON STEWART, HOST (voice-over): Which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow?
Rules of engagement.
GIULIANA SGRENA, FREED ITALIAN HOSTAGE: I want from the Americans an explanation on what happened this night.
STEWART: She was wounded and her rescuer killed. Why did Americans soldiers open fire on the former hostage? And what are the implications at home, in Italy, and Iraq?
Extraordinary rendition. The practice of taking suspected terrorists to countries outside the United States, where rules of interrogation are less stringent than within our borders. Is it an invaluable tool for fighting terror or a creative way to legally torture suspects?
Back to work. Her ankles conspicuously bereft of any monitoring device. Today Martha Stewart rallies her troops in person for the first time in five months.
And side impact. Fourteen of 16 small car models tested flunked the side impact test. (snip)
3. KO Blog excerpt:
This is the first blog from Keith since Feb 22, when he explained why he was pulling back from frequent political blogging. The current blog is not on politics, it is on baseball, a subject which can elicit almost the same level of passion in some people. Excerpt:
March 7, 2005 | 10:05 p.m. ET
Baseball and steroids: Kilroy wasn't here (Keith Olbermann)
NEW YORK— Who holds the record for the most strikeouts by a baseball pitcher in a single season, Sandy Koufax or Nolan Ryan?
This is more than just a baseball trivia question, raised to deflect attention as two separate congressional hearings into steroid use — likely to feature subpoenas and a lot of nervous men invoking of the 5th Amendment — loom. They illustrate a point that is evidently unclear to a lot of today's baseball players, to all those anticipating Barry Bonds' chase of the all-time record for home runs, and to the Commissioner of Baseball himself.
Bud Selig has now decreed that no matter what the results of the investigations into steroids, they will not affect baseball's priceless record book. No matter what is or isn't proven about Bonds or Mark McGwire or anybody else, their records will not be altered, Selig says. “That would be unfair to do that… We can't turn history back… Each era, each decade has had situations where people said there were unfair advantages.”
As often happens with Mr. Selig, his assumption of omnipotence will be disproved. History will be the final judge, and history — as vital to baseball's continuity as today's boxscores — will probably dismiss 1984-2004, and every record set during it, as being as artificial as the drugs with which Jose Canseco said he injected himself and some of his teammates.(snip)
4. Countdown Newsletter from 3/7/07:
Posted at DU here (with comments):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=315x29(TinyURL =
http://tinyurl.com/3z6hv )
5. Comments and miscellany:
This is the first full day of having the new KOEB Group (thank you, Admins and Patsy Stone, most especially :loveya:) and there has been much excitement. The feeling is that now we have a club room. Sparky was talking about setting up a new bar in the Group room, but he didn't stint on his bartending nontheless.
There was disappointment, of course, that Keith himself was not on the show tonight, but then that meant a significant savings in the aesthetic energy spent on insightful and tasteful criticism of his tie and his suit. One supposes that wherever he may be, he is NOT convalescing in the dreaded light grey suit.
The consensus was that Alison did well and had genuine snark, though there were a couple of comments that she was perhaps a bit too fluffy and that maybe she tried too hard at the snark at times. I imagine fluff in this context is a bit like baby fat and will mostly be mostly lost with further experience; the same may well go for smoothness of snark. And it is true that she may suffer a bit by comparison with Keith, with his ineffably smooth yet spiky and often subtle snark (snark is much more interesting than most wines, so merits some hyperbole) and his most definitely NON-fluffy self. Even with that grey suit.
Dismay was expressed re the Sgrena scandal, along with hope that it will prove most troublesome to the neocons in general and the blivet**-in-Chief in particular. Giuliana Sgrena is a passionate and popular Italian journalist who hated US Iraq policy already BEFORE she was shot and was shielded to the death by a companion (the slain Italian agent, Nicola Calipari, buried in Rome as a hero today). She believes the shooting was deliberate, a hit attempt that failed, and not without reason. The US military says they "lost" the car, which would provide forensic evidence, and there is stark disagreement between the accounts by Sgrena and the US authorities about what actually happened. She had already published strongly critical articles and was talking about the US using napalm in Fallujah -- a very incendiary subject. If it can be shown that she was targeted for assassination, as has been suggested and vigorously denied for other dead journalists, this would have major consequences.
Martha Stewart's release from prison got some interest, most of which centered on the poncho she was wearing as she was interviewed. She made a point to say that it was given to her by someone at Alderson and that she was going to get the pattern. She also made statements like "Pride in home keeping creates serenity and pleasure and warmth that nourishes and that dignifies family relationships. I even experienced it hanging around the microwave in the place where I was staying." But it was definitely that poncho that was the star of the interview.
In a less-serious vein, several friends stopped by to congratulate us on the new KOEB Group/Clubhouse, and Seito continued to amaze us all with her endless eerily customized smilies -- she instantly produced on-topic ones for chicken soup and for feet in quick succession. A Seito smilie challenge contest in the DU Lounge was proposed; I have no doubt that this would only spread her fame as a smilie wizard. Botany, asked how his ongoing pursuit of Stephanie Miller was going, said that she seemed a little distant lately and that he wondered, "Maybe the picture I sent her of me just wearing a tie and a doughnut might have scared her off." Sparky replied that the tie was probably OK. Botany also produced more of his KOEB-themed poetry for the occasion, and it was...unique as always. (My own favorites are his near-haikus.) ClassWarrior pondered our official KOEB toast, "To the Ties That Bind," and muttered something about how he didn't want to know. Whereupon Seito helpfully supplied pics of The Tie and our Keef wearing it to clarify matters. CW decided that it was all in how you use it. Obviously thinking along the same lines, Cheese (AKA RevCheesehead) elaborated on the KOEB toast, suggesting a second line:
To the Ties That Bind
(and if the ties don't work, there's always handcuffs):toast: