KEITH OLBERMANN'S Special Comment: 'Beginning of the end of America'

Olbermann: 'Beginning of the end of America'
Olbermann addresses the Military Commissions Act in a special comment
KEITH OLBERMANN'S SPECIAL COMMENTS

We have lived as if in a trance.

We have lived as people in fear.


And now—our rights and our freedoms in peril—we slowly awake to learn that we have been afraid of the wrong thing.

Therefore, tonight have we truly become the inheritors of our American legacy.

For, on this first full day that the Military Commissions Act is in force, we now face what our ancestors faced, at other times of exaggerated crisis and melodramatic fear-mongering:

A government more dangerous to our liberty, than is the enemy it claims to protect us from.


The Whole Transcript is up at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15321167 /



UPDATE TO ADD BEST PART!!!

And did it even occur to you once, sir — somewhere in amidst those eight separate, gruesome, intentional, terroristic invocations of the horrors of 9/11 -- that with only a little further shift in this world we now know—just a touch more repudiation of all of that for which our patriots died --- did it ever occur to you once that in just 27 months and two days from now when you leave office, some irresponsible future president and a “competent tribunal” of lackeys would be entitled, by the actions of your own hand, to declare the status of “unlawful enemy combatant” for -- and convene a Military Commission to try -- not John Walker Lindh, but George Walker Bush?


and on the same subject -
AMERICA IS NO LONGER FREE
by Paul Lehto, Attorney at Law
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Thanks!

<http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/18/countdown-spec... >

right now it's top post so you don't need the specific permalink above,

also see this related post

America is No Longer Free
<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... >

Olbermann's position wrong in only one respect, he hedges on the title "Beginning of the End of America" America could continue techincally (but not in spirit or constitution) indefinitely. It's the end of the spirit of America (until restored) but something will still use the name United States of America for a long time to come, it's the only superpower and the world's richest country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em00K2TRMvc

This is major historical speech. thanks for link

I am limited in my understanding of the framework of law. But I am learning. To me, habeus corpus is to show the world that America is NOT like the "old guard" of countries past, like Russia, the power of the Romans, or Egyptians, where one ruler dictated if you're head was to be cut off, it would be - and in doing, allowing anyone classified as an "enemy combatant" by the US gov't the right to an attorney to prove they weren't guilty. That is what lady liberty stands for. We want to TEACH the world that is the right way to live, and instead, Bush signing that law into power allows for this gov't to now keep people THEY say are against us to NOT have their lawyers (if they even allow the outside world to KNOW that they've taken someone into custody) know the facts, and to torture them to near death. That is NOT what America stands for....

not my America at least...

May Christ forgive this country for it's behaving too similarly to the evil terrorists and torturing people ourselves, and may the virtuous voice of many speak out with their words to stop the war in Iraq, and focus on capturing Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan or wherever he may be hiding. For too many years America has trusted this White House to lead us, and all they've done is lead us --- astray.


www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

this speech is still resonating in me 5 min. after I watched it... we are in TROUBLE America...

This video was the tipping point for me. I was coming around to it anyway, but this video set my course.

I'm voting Democratic for the first time in my life in the next election. I've voted Republican or, rarely, Libertarian for the past 15+ years.

I'm done with them.

I hope that our children read those words one day alongside Tom Paine's and Patrick Henry's.

Comment coming up.

--IMM

And we're probably next. That's why I keep saying we need to figure out in what corner of the camp yard we're going to meet in. It'll be nice to know we're among friends.
And he's about to do it live!
Duckie

am prepared to rat out all of DU

in the far LEFT corner of course!

You're right...he's getting ready to come after all Dissent....and that's us.

I pray we don't have a False Flag dirty bomb before the elections which will give him the chance to declare Martial Law.

We must take the House and Senate...we must stop this evil group of neocons from destroying our great Democracy and Constitution.

will read after I hear Keith speaketh the words

???

Chills the soul, it does.

So much fear based crap going on out there and people react and pass laws to restrict freedoms to make it all better.

Damn shame.

amazingly sad day, but a day that calls us to action.


www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable <<-- antibush prodem stickers/shirts

"The end of America"??

Is that the way to respond - by falling on our sword and crying in our Wheaties?

Is he trying to reinforce a helpless, cowering response and enforcing we shouldn't fight?

That is certainly a disempowering way to respond to bullies and a sure way to lose.

The power abusers only have the power over us that we allow them to have.

You don't throw in a towel before (or during) the fight.

Go Keith!

People must realize what the real danger is, and exactly how dangerous it is, before those people will even THINK of fighting back.

Olberman is not crying in his Wheaties, not encouraging anyone else to do so. Listen again.

If we abandon our core values and our constitution, then it is "The end of America"

Nice that KO is pointing that out. Not many other TeeVee commentators are.

I hope KO isn't disappeared.

the gravity of this moment, the seriousness of this assault on the rule of law and the fabric of our democracy.

He isn't saying "throw in the towel," he's saying, PAY ATTENTION GODDAMMIT, this is important.

"The End of America" is being used as a metaphor. It certainly isn't the end of the country or it's ideals.

It's a warning.

He's saying that if you're ever going to fight for your country, NOW would be a good time to start.

say the DoI exacerbates fear by enumerating the ills of King George.

That was the most incredible wake up call ever. KO is THE man!

i hope crooks & liars gets the video up soon!

I will not go down as gutless.

Many years ago, my grandparents fled facism in Europe. For them, America was the land of the free. I remember hearing the stories of their first glimpse of Lady Liberty in new York harbor. They were so proud to be Americans.

I have to say that I am glad that bushia and dzidzia are no longer with us to see what we as a nation have become. The Facism they fled has taken root here. Evil men have siezed power through rigged elections and have put our Constitution through a shredder. Under the guise of protexcting us, they have taken away our rights. And all our Congress does is cherr and wave flags.

I remember the secene in "Revenge of the Sith" where the evil Chancellor Palpatine proclaims himself Emperor and promises to keep the galaxy safe as the Senate cheers wildly. Only Senator Amidala makes the statement: "So this is how liberty dies. To the sound of thunderous applause."

this sham of a pResident has done to our nation, and to all of us, all of us.

Keith Olbermann's historic and impassioned comment today

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/18/countdown-spec... /

Here's what I wrote on it: America is no longer a free country
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Please feel free to pass around if you are so moved. This is a chance for neighbors to join neighbors in solidarity, democratic discussion, and rediscovery of social connection. Fear, of course, is the tool of the folks that are cracking down on freedom, and it's but a temporary grief stage on the way to a better society.

and imperative. I NEVER send my brother political or policy e-mails. I try to communicate & we get along, but for the first time today, I sent him this article & I titled it "This is it"

This is a big thing to me because he is a recently retired Brigadier General.

So Thank you again for what you do.

My family left Europe to find freedom, justice, and a better economic chance in the USA.

Now I have left, France is more free, more just, and has better economic equality.

The European Union is the place more and more immigrants want to be, not the USA.

Keith is a brilliant writer.

WOW. That was HISTORICAL !!!!

You can support Olbermann and reward him for his courage, while at the same time enjoy some damn good reading.

I want to share it with my relatives.

"But we'll always have Keith Olbermann."

message of every voice that truly believes that the Constitution has been disasembled right before our very eyes. This message should be loud and clear of what bush and all his evil cohorts are truly all about.

He is definitely PISSED OFF! And thank God for his willingness to speak so forcefully and so truthfully! Once again, KO has brought me to tears.

we all better dig deep into our souls and seriously do something/anything to stop this cycle, we have dug ourselves into a hole.

Now it's time to plan my Halloween Headstone.

RIP HABEUS CORPUS

It will go nicely with my Bush and Cheney jack o lanterns if I can get around the carving the pumpkins.

How about a green-slime Bush-face to go along with it?

Yucky gucky.

Kick

I WAS TOTALLY CAPTIVATED!

by the eloquence and incredible honesty of Keith Olbermann. Once again he has spoken a million truths about what is happening in this country.

His passion and fire needs to be spread far and wide so that all will understand what has happened to this country.

I am hoping to then be able to send it off to friends and family...

on crooks & liars. As soon as that happens I'll post it to youtube.

Keith Olbermann's historic and impassioned comment today

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/18/countdown-spec... /

Here's what I wrote on it: America is no longer a free country
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Please feel free to pass around if you are so moved. This is a chance for neighbors to join neighbors in solidarity, democratic discussion, and rediscovery of social connection. Fear, of course, is the tool of the folks that are cracking down on freedom, and it's but a temporary grief stage on the way to a better society.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph... >

That when they use this very new law against George W. Bush when he is out of office!!!!

Kharma can bite you in the ass...

First goosebumps, then stone cold silence after Keith went off the air. I just soaked in his words.

But I suspect that if Dems don't take at least the House back, Olbermann may be searching for other employment. He's very effective via TV and has captivated many of us.

Future generations may well point to these clips in reverance, the way this generation speaks of Edward R. Murrow. History. The beginning of a new day in America.

I really think so. And I fervently hope so.

Bake

lots of great writers that have been on top of things forever.

Edit to add: Colbert was great tonight, too. And Stewart. They're getting their shots in, for sure.
I love it!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

service conveniently went down just as KO began to speak. And it stayed off. For 40 minutes.

Needless to say, I was beside myself. Literally.

Keith Olbermann's historic and impassioned comment today

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/18/countdown-spec... /

Here's what I wrote on it: America is no longer a free country
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

Please feel free to pass around if you are so moved. This is a chance for neighbors to join neighbors in solidarity, democratic discussion, and rediscovery of social connection. Fear, of course, is the tool of the folks that are cracking down on freedom, and it's but a temporary grief stage on the way to a better society.

joining together to rediscover social connection
sounds totally worthwhile -
we just need to overcome that fear

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpaXWRNNGpY

My God have mercy on that brave soul, for it shant be long till he is waterboarded...

Because that will be the end of The End.

That goes without saying. Violence is the last of last resorts (a lesson I wish Bush would practice) but if they start disappearing our leaders/speakers/people we love, well, then, that's a totally different ball game. It's then either bow down and submit, or fight the power.

and the BEGINNING of the END...

We are lucky indeed to have someone with your eloquence and your fortitude in these times.

I think I'll send a few emails to MSNBC right now.

I haven't seen the video yet but read the transcript.

What a wrinkle, Bush declared "enemy combatant".

I'll bet he wished he hadn't been so close to the bin Ladens.

to have been so moved by such words.

I am shocked by my own country, almost to the point of inaction in disbelief...almost

Keith Olbermann and I are thinking the same thing!

...by the actions of your own hand, to declare the status of “unlawful enemy combatant” for -- and convene a Military Commission to try -- not John Walker Lindh, but George Walker Bush?

edit: k/r

I would LOVE it if the next President uses the very law Bush signed against Bush! After he hides him away in some foreign torture cell... the next President would then sign an executive order that repeals EVERY SINGLE ONE OF BUSH'S stupid laws he ever signed.

Things would then get back to normal: A FREE America under rule of law - not men.

Oh, and Bush? We don't know what ever became of him... probably just rotting away in some dark dungeon under the guard of some foreign nation interpreting the Geneva conventions as they see fit.

and not just bunkerboy but his entire cabal...

I have to say that not only does Mr. Olbermann's expression make me think that he does credit to the ideals embodied in the Constitution, I think that he does credit to his real forebears, Tom Paine and others who were moved to the point that they didn't need to find the words. The words found them.

First I find out we declared war on space and now this! What a day!

and the seclusion of his huge ranch. It will take an army to bring him to justice.

"Your words are lies, Sir."

"They are lies that imperil us all."

thank you KO!!!!

Surely KO has outshined the so called "leaders" of our nation. What a speech!

entered the ranks of Paine, and Jefferson with this commentary. Everyone needs to see this.


Olbermann is a true Patriot and deserves the utmost respect.

she's been beaten down by the repubs the past couple years in her family's life of dealing with the gov't. I hope this helps her vote for Brown & democratic from now on.


This is horrible what Bush signed into "law" on Tues. just HORRIBLE.

where GWB always sounds like he is in his "C" average english class trying to read well enough to get a "C+"....so phony!

senators? Weren't they elected to represent us? Why have they stayed silent?

At least the Socialists here in France (the main left wing party) call for strikes and protests in the streets....The Democrats once again seem useless.

their opposition to this to successfully brand them as traitors...

Cowards all...

that was amazing!

best of the net, right here in this post!

Until the last American election is held in 3 weeks.

Let them read it every day until it sinks into their heads, and into their hearts.

If the Supreme Court doesn't overturn this stupid law, if they don't throw it out and call it utter rubbish, then this country is effectively under "marshall law."

The President, or his cronies handpicked to sit on the tribunal court, will declare anyone that doesn't agree with Bush, an unlawful combatant, and that will include 2008 Democratic Presidential candidates.

Great Idea!!!

KO tells it as only he can.

I am awestruck into great sadness by the reality of what this government has done. Damn them all.

Thank you for posting link!

impassioned and beautiful commentary in my college class today. I just started teaching Sophocle's Antigone, and obviously the issue of law came up and what happens when civil law created to address a specific crisis violates ethical/ religious codes through which a culture defines itself to itself. I mentioned suspension of Habeas Corpus and torture, and only two students out of 50 ( two sections) knew what was happening. These are intelligent, mildly-conservative-to- mildly -liberal students middle class students. So today they get a section of one of George's "It's not really torture and it only hurts the 'bad guys' speech" and then Keith.

a while. My students love him.

I teach at a high school and a law school over here in France, I start next week at the law school, the FIRST thing they are going to work on is the suspension of habeas corpus in the USA.


HAHA HA

I used to say fuck the system, now that I am inside I can change the world more than I could from the outside. If you are disenchanted with the world think about becoming a teacher.......

The Declaration of Independence

Action of Second Continental Congress, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

WHEN in the Course of human Events,

it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the Separation.
WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient Causes; and accordingly all Experience hath shewn, that Mankind are more disposed to suffer, while Evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the Forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security. Such has been the patient Sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the Necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/independ/declar.html

Good luck!

a video of George Bush's speech when he signed the bill, but I prefaced it by asking them to recall where they were on September 11th and how they felt over the ensuing days. I teach in a college in the Mid-Hudson Valley (where Bill O'Reilly's went to college), and some of the kids came from towns where not everyone came home on September 11th. In fact, one of my former students lost a father and brother that day, and my 13-year-old and I were at Kings Cross/Tavistock last year, so it is a close subject. Then, before I showed Keith Olbermann's video, I said it is now 5 years later, but instead of being Irish-Italian-African-German-American ( or any combination thereof) and of having first names like Justin or Britanny ( I have a lot of Britanny's this semester), their first names are Nabil or Habib and they are Palestinian-Americans, or Yemeni-Americans or Irani-Americans or Lebanese-American ( or any combination thereof). Their grandparents came over in 1948 instead of 1848, and they live in a Muslim neighborhood in,say, Detroit, or in a suburb just outside of Newark, NJ. Then I played the Keith Olbermann video.

As I was playing the video of Bush, students listened attentively ( in the way students do when they think something is on a test- sort of that ""we've heard this before, yaddah,yaddah " look which, believe me I have seen too often when I run a class). When Olbermann came on as he spoke they become more and more engaged and interested. By the end of the 8 minutes, they were pretty stunned. I've seen that look a few times too when they get something for the first time. At that point, I made a judgement call. I dismissed my class and told them just to think about it. Had I talked or had they discussed at that moment, the fact that they were in a kind of stunned silence would have been lost. They really need to think about it without me getting in the way for now. We'll pick up Antigone on Monday. So I don't really know yet, but I think they'll be ready to think about Creon and Bush and Antigone and us.

edit for typos

I was thinking that through the whole rant. I'd love to see him and Cheney renditioned. In fact I think the whole neo-con cabal should be whisked off to Guantanamo as soon as the impeachment is over. Think about it President Pelosi.

LET'S DRAFT OLBERMANN!!!

He's doing a hell of a job now and American needs him right where he is. Play to strengths. And dammit, he's one strong journalist.

attack and destroy him for telling the truth.

but WHY would he say such a future pres would be "irresponsible" to convene a military commission for * as an enemy combatant?

I think that would be the responsible thing to do.

They're going to rig this election and the Presidential. Count on it. It is already in progress.

WE have truely become shepeople if we allow this to pass without doing somthing. WE have to prove that we deserve our freedoms. A GENERAL STRIKE by as many as possible is one way to do it. Civil disobidence, "OH MY", what if I get arrested, or if all you are worried about is loosing a days pay, they your a wage slave and there is no hope. Get the word out, If all you do to earn you FREEDOM is this, it's a start.

Latr
Chris MIller

"If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom, and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that too." -- William Somerset Maugham

We must concentrate on getting this bill over-turned.

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight when everything remains seemingly unchanged. And it is in such twilight that we all must be most aware of change in the air - however slight - lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
- Justice William O. Douglas

You are a true American Hero.

Gotta go do a little dance now...

Newsprism

1. Why would it be irresponsible of a future president to declare Bush an unlawful enemy combatant?

2. On a more serious vein, Keith compared Bush's actions to John Adams (Alien and Sedition Act, with imprisonment of journalists critical of the administration), Woodrow Wilson (Alien act, with consequent deportment (or jailing?) of several hundred or several thousand aliens or citizens, I'm not sure), and FDR (internment of Americans of Japanese descent during WW II).

I'm not familiar enough about those episodes to say for certain, but I have the impression that what Bush is doing is much worse. I can't be sure of this, but I doubt that we treated the above noted detainees anywhere near as harshly as we are treating our current prisoners. Can anyone shed light on that?

Also, I believe that the detainment of Japanese Americans during WW II was Congress' idea, not FDR's, though he signed the law after Congress enacted it. Can anyone shed light on that too?

1. Why is it irresponsible? This one is very easy to answer and am ashamed of a couple posters in this thread. As guilty as Bush and his cabal are of war crimes and other crimes against this country thats what we have a courts system for, that is what we have an international courts system for.

By declaring him an enemy combatent and using his own law against him, while emotionally satisfying, would make whomever did such a thing no better than he is.

The whole point of KO rant was we as a people are or should be better than that. As bad as Bush and his cabal are they deserve their day in open court to answer to and defend themselves against the many crimes we say they have committed. Does this mean its possible or even likely they would get off via some loophole or technicality. It most certainly does. The whole entire point of our judicial system is not to make sure that the guilty are punished, but to see that the not guilty are not punished for crimes they did not commit.

I would rather see Bush impeached and tried in open court and found not guilty or have a conviction overturned on a technicality than have him 100% certain found guilty in a kangaroo court tribunal system. That was Keiths point and that is why any President who did such a thing would be irresponsible and in fact himself be guilty of commiting some of the very same crimes we accuse Bush of.

2. That was one of KO main points that even as bad as those things were, what Bush has done is far worse.

"But even within this history, we have not before codified, the poisoning of Habeas Corpus, that wellspring of protection from which all essential liberties flow."

...to watch his special comments. And then we watched it again four hours later. Another masterpiece--he speaks for so many of us.

but I assume you keep looking to the MainStream Media for your cues as to what is real, or important, or widespread, while at the same time intellectually knowing that the MSM is distorted and corporately controlled. That seems like a helluva strategic mistake to me. I think we should all stop looking at the MSM for any cues as to what's real, or you'll end up thinking the only thing that matters are sex scandals and pedophilia.

I hope his speech will inspire people to get out the vote,volunteer,protest.whatever...if we don't win in November?That's it.Two more years of this madman,unchecked with a rubber stamp congress.DO SOMETHING y'all.Don't think somebody else will vote or is getting the vote out and volunteering...

Keiths speech is a call to arms,I hope people understand that.It is up To YOU and ME now.This is it,The time is NOW

to add to my letter to the editor. Thanks, kpete! Olbermann and Stewart are the two things I miss about cable (and the Sci-Fi channel).