Posted: January 22, 2011 by datechguy in personal
Tags: local
…then my neighbor from across the street is an Orchard.
I spent yesterday morning making a list of things I have to do today concerning the show and the business it is. In addition to that base list I knew I had to shovel so as soon as I had a series of posts scheduled I grabbed a shovel and started working on the back when I noticed a cascade of snow heading across my front lawn.
I figured it was falling off a neighbor’s roof but nope it was the man from across the street, snowblowing my front.
He knows my snowblower is busted and I can’t afford a new one these days so without even asking he started clearing out my area, and a bunch of other neighbors as well.
He is a Jehovah’s Witness. Aside from basic Christianity in theological terms we are very far apart but let me tell you something, if Christianity is boiled down to Love of God and Love of neighbor he has it down pat.
Update: Lisa Graas comments, I would stress that this post isn’t about if the doctrinal beliefs Jehovah’s Witnesses is sound (it isn’t) but it is about a good neighbor acting like one. I will have a longer post on the subject tomorrow.
That’s from Hot Air. Before we get to just about every other bloggers comment in the world here is what I think is driving this:
#1 Comcast:
I have Comcast, A lot of cities have Comcast, Comcast is buying NBC. That means that every conservative who is giving money to Comcast was paying for Olbermann’s show. Can you say Verizon FIOS? O’Donnell and Maddow and Matthews and Schultz all have their moments but none of them have the reputation for outrageousness that Olbermann did. This is in my opinion a preemptive move because the next time Olbermann said something really stupid and insulting the people who would be sending angry e-mails would be in a position to vote with their wallets and Verizon would happily help them along.
#2 Triangulation:
The very act of removing Olbermann creates a (albeit temporary) split between the far left and MSNBC. Since MSNBC is part of the democratic spin machine (and lets not pretend it is not, the public certainly knows it) the removal of Olbermann is a signal of a more “moderate” tone. Democrats need not actually do anything different. The simple tone that will be quoted on blogs and papers changes at once. Additionally it allows democrats to differentiate themselves between “the Keith Olbermanns of the left” and their own calm moderate selves (HA). I suspect (as I have read NO BLOG on this as I type) the reaction of the Far left will be hyper enough to provide the separation that Democrats desire.
That being said how to replace him? After all one needs to compete with O’Reilly on FOX and you don’t want there to be a mass exodus to Parker and Spitzer on CNN (of course the quality of Parker and Spitzer being what it is helps to lighten that fear). I need to find a person just as partisan, and just as socialist as Olbermann who is pragmatic enough to tailor his message to aid the white house and democrats over the next two years. If I am a democrat worrying about 2012 who is the person I want in that chair ….
#3 Selling the democratic message
…to sell my bill of goods? I want Lawrence O’Donnell. O’Donnell is a true believer, admitting on air that he is a socialist. Don’t think for one moment that Lawrence O’Donnell isn’t the Obama/DNC Choice for the MSNBC 8 p.m. slot. O’Donnell for all his PITAness is one of the most politically astute people on the left. He is a hyper-partisan but is pragmatic enough to give blunt advice to democrats when it comes to political reality. Think of him as Olbermann with self control, insider political experience and brains. He can be on Morning Joe and can sound reasonable. Look at this video again:
here is the money quote:
I Glenn (Greenwald) unlike you, am not a progressive, I am not a liberal, who is so afraid of the word that I have to change my name to “progressive”. Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist. I live to the extreme left of your mere liberals, OK? But I know this about my country: Liberals are 20% of the electorate, conservatives are 41% of the electorate OK. So I don’t pretend that my views which would ban all guns in America make medicare available to all in American, have any chance of happening in the Federal Government. Ok you can sit there and pretend that liberals should run more liberal in conservative districts, the reason, you love the loss of the blue dogs, ..the only way you have a Chairman Barney Frank, there is only one way, that’s by electing Blue Dogs! It’s the only way you have a Speaker Pelosi. all emphasis mine
As Rush Limbaugh has said over and over again, liberals can only win if they hide who they are. O’Donnell gets it. His goal is to help the democratic party seem moderate so that he can get a Chairman Barney Frank and a Speaker Pelosi and advance the agenda that he and the Democratic party shares.
He is MUCH more dangerous to the right than Olbermann, and when the far left understands that they will come back and embrace him.
This may be a feel good moment on the right but O’Donnell will hurt us more on MSNBC that Olbermann ever did. He will not just speak to the true believers, he will put a moderate face on and persuade people ( who want to be persuaded ) that the democratic agenda is something it is not. For democrats this is all about 2012.
The Cable Gamer can’t help but think that two big events in the news: The FCC’s approval of Comcast’s takeover of NBCU, and Jeff Immelt’s ascension as the Obama administration’s favorite corporate stooge, have something to do with this.
This would actually be a really smart move in an economic sense. It would grab the far left who would migrate out of spite giving them the chance to shift the 8 p.m. audience numbers. But in the sense of helping elect democrats in 2012, it would be a bad move so it will not happen.
Considering his sins during the primary season of 2008, including his blatant sexism and over the top critiques of Hillary Clinton, with no actions except to be banned from some broadcasts and replaced by David Gregory, I can’t imagine what grievous sin he committed that caused it to happen now.
Taylor Taylor Taylor those actions helped The One. Now his actions hurt The One. Get with the program.
Oh, and “NBC executives said one term of his settlement will keep him from moving to another network for an extended period of time,” the Times’ Bill Carter adds.
I have told you this before: I am reliably informed that he is an OK guy in person, and the TV person is an act. He sure as hell acts different when he fills in for Warren Olney on the “Which Way L.A.?” radio show.
Remember Danny DeVito in Taxi? He made a good living pretending to be a pain.
In other words, the calls for a general toning down of rhetoric translate far more into a toning down of both an effective media opposition and a rising political obstruction to the Obama agenda. “Can’t we all get along?” in essence means, “Can’t we all just keep quiet and keep going on with the big-government, agreed-on politics of the last fifty years?”
And why it will fail:
bipartisan friendly dialogue cannot and will not be adhered to by those now calling for its implementation, since divisive language often achieves what an unpersuasive ideology cannot.
And the end result?
I predict that 18 months from now the president himself will still be calling for a new civility in the manner of his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention — and will once again adopt the sorts of over-the-top metaphors, similes, allusions, and rough-stuff politics that got him elected senator in 2004 and president in 2008, and pushed his health-care legislation through in 2009. If anything, the language of division will be shriller even than in 2010, as the administration grasps that loaded language, coupled with calls for an end to rancor, must now do what a record of unpopular governance cannot.
As I’ve already said today predictions are tough even for a classical historian like Hanson, but go read it all and decide for yourself.
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