ABOUT THE NEWS HOLE

It's the new award-winning blog* from the cast and crew of the award-winning television news hour** "Countdown with Keith Olbermann."

We heard about this whole "blogosphere" business from Tom DeLay, and came to the immediate realization that we too, "needed to become involved" in it.

So here it is. Covering the big news, the small news, medium-sized and irregular, The News Hole strives to bring everything you love or hate about Countdown to the internets.

Your feedback and hate mail is encouraged.

*Countdown's "Best of the Web Awards" 2007
**The News Hole's "Best of the TV Awards" 2006



Countdown Monday: The Fear Card

Posted: Monday, June 23, 2008 8:59 PM by Countdown
Filed Under:

The Charlie Black Comments:  The chief campaign strategist for Senator John McCain has told "Fortune Magazine" that a terrorist attack on U-S soil before the election would be a quote "big advantage" for the presumptive Republican nominee. Our fifth story on the Countdown: The first rule of "October Surprise" is... you do not talk about "October Surprise." Senator McCain's immediate reaction upon learning what Mister Black had said? Quote: "I cannot imagine why he would say it. It's not true."  The McCain campaign then claiming Mister Black did not remember making the comments in Fortune...  Mr. Black himself... deeply regretting the comments. Put them all together: Black deeply regrets something that his colleagues had claimed he could not remember.

State of the Unity:  Where is the Unity the Democrats have this year, so long sought? It's about twelve miles east of Ascutney, Vermont. Just down from Sunapee. A-ya. Our fourth story on the Countdown: Obama and Clinton's first joint appearance Friday... At Unity New Hampshire. Where, in January's primary, they each got 107 votes.  Awww.

ODDBALL: The Palm Tree Bandit...and an ugly dog.

Gas Lines:  After his proposal of a gas-tax holiday to cut gas prices met with blistering criticism as a gimmick, John McCain today shifted away from gimmickry... and on to... Cash prizes! In our third story tonight, for the first person to come up with an alternative to gas guzzlers, the new McCain jackpot is now... 3-hundred million dollars!

Worsties...see below.

WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD: A sports writer for the New York Post, Monica Crowley, and  US Representative Michele Bachmann vie for tonight's top honors.

George Carlin, 1937-2008:  George Carlin was that most rare of contributors to this nation. He succeeded within the establishment, then succeeded outside of it, and then took outsider cred with him and operated from within the belly of the establishment for 40 years. Our number one story on the Countdown: George Carlin died last night in Santa Monica, aged 71, heart failure, just hours after checking himself into a hospital for chest pains. He had been on stage as recently as the weekend earlier, at Las Vegas.

MAIN PAGE

Email this EMAIL THIS

Comments

Ok, for the record, only Michelle Bachmann's district voted her into office. Also for the record, the rest of us wonder what's in the water over there.  :)

ek, mpls mn (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 9:09 PM)

How lucky we all were to have had the wit and intelligence of George Carlin to enjoy for over 35+ years.  There won't be another Comic Master/Prophet like he.
God bless you George Carlin.  Your passion for the absolute truth and your brave (yet frail) heart will always be an inspiration.

Joann, Ocala, FL (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 9:20 PM)

In regard to Charlie Black's comments, the equivalent from the Obama campaign would be if Obama's chief strategist said that a stock market crash would be a good thing for the Obama campaign, reflecting the fact that the bad economy is a strong issue for Democrats, as it almost always is. I'm sure Fox News would go ape over that one.

Brad Lang, Huntington Woods, MI (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 10:12 PM)

KEITH I LOVE YOUR NEW GLASSES THEIR SEXY YOU SHOULD BE SPONSERED BY THEM. YOUR THE BEST

ac (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 10:18 PM)

Does Keith have an email address? If so, where is it?

Bob Dixon (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 10:29 PM)

"use appropriate language"
So what are the 7 words banned on this chunk of the intertubes? Or is it more than 7? And do numbers and other characters count?

Amos, Alexandria, VA (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 11:17 PM)

Keith, I am disappointed that you did not address the phony excuse Don Imus made for his latest racist remark. This kind of thing from Imus and others is becoming more and more frequent as the election approaches. I hope you will see fit to deal with Imus as he should be dealt with. He should be banished from the company of civilized people.

Bernard Jones (Sent Monday, June 23, 2008 11:26 PM)

Why has the comment/response of Sen. Lindsey Graham received no coverage where Graham said "so what" on last Sunday's Meet the Press to Biden's question of why the oil companies are not drilling on the 40+ acres of leased coastal waters gotten no press play?

Joseph Svoboda, Springfield, IL (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12:39 AM)

That statement made by Black is what makes people believe in "conspiracy theories".  It is what makes many people think 9/11 was a set up.  Republicans need to shut the h*ll up!

Independent Voter (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 12:52 AM)

To MK who blogged on the "527 or Fight" I agree with you totally. "Full Moon" has been featured here many times and only has negative things to say about Keith and Countdown. He/she has a right to their opinion but I have to wonder why he/she watches the show. Sounds like Fix news is more their speed.
Love you Keith. Keep the truth coming.

Carol Arizona (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:45 AM)

Keith, you always have a great show.  The Republicans will always use the fear card because that is all they have to show for their horrible administration.  It's hard to believe that anyone will go along with this concept any longer, but some will and that is sad.

JoAnn, Moundsville, WV (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:11 AM)

You and Clarke are telling the Republicans not to play the fear card because that is the way for them to win the election.  It is naive to depend on the willingness of the opposition to give up their best tactic because it is not "fair".

Instead, Obama should insulate himself from this disaster scenario.  He needs to remind people that the whole idea of fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here would be an obvious failure if they still managed to stage an attack here.

We failed to prevent 9/11 even though normal police work had turned up evidence that an attack was imminent.  An FBI field agent had even identified one of the pilots who was learning to fly a passenger plane without wanting to learn to land it.  Yet he was ignored.

If we now pay attention to such evidence and we use all sorts of illegal means to dig up more info and we still cannot prevent another attack, what does this say about the competence of the Bush/McCain administration?

Steve, Fiskdale, MA (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:39 AM)

Both sides use fear tactics. Anytime a candidate says "don't vote for him because [...]", that's fear.  Whether the [...] is terrorism, the economy, heathcare, whatever it is. open your eyes, people.. obama is no different than any other politician.

Mike, DE (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:42 AM)

Ek from minneapolis is correct.. the rest of us Minnesotans all wince every time that woman comes into public view....<sigh>

Kat, Brooklyn Park, MN (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:43 AM)

As for the "fear" of terrorism.. I, for one, would rather be safe than sorry.. better to overestimate the threat and prevent an attack than underestimate (like we did all through the 90's) and have another 9/11.

Mike, DE (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:44 AM)

it is nice to see this blog site operating in something close to real time again. can we expect this to last through one lively discussion or will it be overmoderated out of existence again?

P.C.R. (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 9:54 AM)

Countdown-the best show on TV.
Cant navigate your new,silly web site.Cant  find stuff(weeks now).Why was it changed?PLEASE REDO this site-or revert to the old one.It was better.

C (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:54 AM)

Thank you for your intelligent and thoughtful reporting on the issues.  So much time is spent on personalities and other nonsense that should be on entertainment tv.  Other than your program, McCain is getting pretty much of a free ride from the rest of the media.  I can't understand it.  Does the rest of the media want more years of the same?

Deborah, Dallas, Texas (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 1:02 PM)

For the record, there's a company called Caribou Coffee, which you can get at the Twin Cities airport, among other places.  Very good coffee, even better logo.

http://www.cariboucoffee.com/

Sue Vahey, Newton, Massachusetts (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 4:50 PM)

I have heard ridiculous comments before but this one tops them all.
How can one man protect us from a terrorist attack any better than another. Does John McCain have this incredible insight into where or how we may be attacked. whomever  becomes president will have at their disposal an arsenil of military advisers to guide their every move.
Barack Obama will have equal access to those advisors and will rely on their expertise as will John McCain.

Frank Hamilton, Medford Oregon (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 5:51 PM)

Keith, I am so disappointed.  Yours is the only TV program I watch regularly.  Yesterday we switched from cable to Verizon wireless.  Too late I discovered that MSNBC is not one of Verizon's offerings!  I cannot imagine this election year without listening to Keith.  Sad in Wappingers Falls

Alice Kirn (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 6:25 PM)

I noticed a change in the reporting on Obama on CNN after he critisized Lou Dobbs and the loop CNN ran on Reverend Wright. The reporting now seems so biased that I rarely watch the political reporting and never watch Lou Dobbs who I think has gone nuts. Is it me or have other folks noticed. Love your show Keith.

Mel Nichols, Safety Harbor, FL (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 7:57 PM)

With regards to Black's comment.  The sad truth is that is would help McCain and the republican party.  The country would go into kill mode and they would give the angry people what they want.It is sad when negative words, in a negative situation can be so true.

Jaye Lang, Jacksonville, GL (Sent Tuesday, June 24, 2008 8:00 PM)

Try to pay attention: Absolutely no one benefits from an act of terror.  Not the perpetrators, not the victims and not the characters of some peripheral, political theatre.  Do you think that the media benefits?

Mike, Waipahu, HI (Sent Wednesday, June 25, 2008 3:30 PM)



SEND A COMMENT

PLEASE READ: All comments must be approved before appearing in the thread; time and space constraints prevent all comments from appearing. We will only approve comments that are directly related to the blog, use appropriate language and are not attacking the comments of others.

Message (please, no HTML tags. Web addresses will be hyperlinked):

Your name, city and state (John Doe, Seattle, Wash.): 

 Your e-mail address (jdoe@msnbc.com):

Your website (it's okay if you don't have one):

Remember me? (We'll keep it private)

TRACKBACKS

Trackbacks are links to weblogs that reference this post. Like comments, trackbacks do not appear until approved by us. The trackback URL for this post is: http://thenewshole.msnbc.msn.com/trackback.aspx?PostID=1163014