Following up on his one hour Special Comment on Wednesday evening, Keith Olbermann announced on Thursday's edition of Countdown that he will donate $50,000.00 of his own money to the National Association of Free Clinics.  An impressive examply of putting one's money where one's mouth is.  Hats off once again to Keith Olbermann for his leadership!

The donation is so the National Association of Free Clinics can put the funds toward conducting free clinics in the states of the six Democrats who have not committed toward voting for cloture to prevent a Republican led filibuster of Healthcare Reform Legislation. 

The Shameful Six are:

Nelson of Nebraska

Lincoln and Pryor of Arkansas

Baucus of Montana

Landrieu of Louisiana

Reid of Nevada

Wednesday's special comment was a very compelling and well done piece... one of Olbermann's best efforts to date.  His generous donation goes a long way toward making the free clinics a reality in those five states.  But these things are obviously expensive and even with a big donation of this kind more money is going to be needed to pull these clinics off.  If all of us who support doing this each donated something toward the effort I feel confident it would raise a considerable amount of cash and perhaps even raise enough money to pay for one or more of these free clinics to be held in one of the states of the shameful six Democrats.

If Olbermann is putting up $50K then it ought to be possible for most, if not all, of those of us who agree with Olbermann's goal of having these clinics in the five aforementioned states to make some kind of contribution as well. 

I am going to donate online and you can too. 

I urge you to do so even if it is just a few bucks.  Everything adds up.  Just go to the National Association of Free Clinics and make your donation now.  I think this is an effective contribution to the fight and one that also helps those in need.  How can ya beat that huh?

Here's a link to the National Assoc. of Free Clinics website:

https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1000863&code=NAFC2009

And, if you haven't seen Olbermann's extraordinary Special Comment from Wednesday night you can do so by going to the Countdown website by clicking here:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677

Last night Keith Olbermann used the entire hour of his show Countdown for a special comment on Healthcare.  It was an extraordinary thing to do in a number of respects.  It was a bit risky and it could easily have been a dud.  But instead, Olbermann delivered one of his finest and most compelling arguments to date.  In fact, I'd say his special comment was the best argument I've heard from anyone for genuine healthcare reform all year long.  IMHO, Olbermann is turning out to be one of the most forceful and effective progressive voices in the country and this special comment proved the point once again.

Olbermann uses his communication talents extraordinarily well on a regular basis, but he used them in this case to take us to a higher plane of discourse very effectively.  Olbermann cut through all the political bullshit that has thus far defined (or more accurately mis-defined) the debate over the healthcare reform effort in Washington.  He doggedly stayed on the points that Democrats should have been focusing on all along and those are the moral and ethical bottom line of making sure every American receives the health care services they need as Teddy Kennedy always said "as a matter of right and not of privelege."  Repeatedly, Olbermann asked us Americans, all of us left and right, to look into the mirror and see what we have wrought.  He underscored several times the basic question: Is this what we've become?  Are we a nation that allows people to die simply because they don't have insurance?  Are we a nation that bankrupts families in their desperate attempts to secure the health of a loved one?  Are we really okay with that?

Anyone who didn't see it can always go to the Countdown website and watch it.  I highly recommend it to those who didn't see it.  It is worth the time. 

In the broadcast he made it clear that there is a moral imperative that we provide healthcare to all citizens and that is the overiding consideration that must take precedence over all the other noise, static, hype, etc...  Medicare for All, Olbermann said, is what we need to be pushing to the American people, not the lame insurance subsidy program that is the centerpiece of the Baucus abomination and the other Congressional bills.  I certainly agree with Olbermann on this.  Medicare for All (aka Single Payer) is what we should have been focusing on from day one, but the President and far too many Congressional Democrats were afraid to take the bull by the horns and do what was right.

Olbermann called for a series of free health clinics to be conducted in the Capitol cities of the states where the six wishy washiest of the Democratic Senators hail from to demonstrate how widespread the problem of not having insurance is and how desperately we need to address the problem once and for all.  The six Senators Olbermann called out were Nelson, Baucus, Landrieu, Lincoln, Pryor, and Reid because those Senators (with the exception of Reid) have refused to commit unequivocally to voting for cloture to stop a Republican filibuster of healthcare reform legislation.  And Reid is on the list I'm sure because of his unrealiability when it comes to supporting what is best for the people on healthcare reform.  I hope the organization that does these free clinics takes up the challenge because this would, in fact, be a way to bring enormous pressure to bear on each of these weak Democrats who cower before the insurance lobby.

Olbermann's special comment properly highlighted how inadequate and anemic has been the Democratic effort, rhetoric and substance on healthcare reform all year.  Had our President and the Democats in Congress been making the case since January that Olbermann was making on his program we would be in a much different position right now.  Let's hope it is not too late for Democrats to find their spine and do several things that will allow meaningful and worthwhile healthcare reform to take place.  First, broaden the public option concept so that anyone who wants that option can choose it instead of only those who have no other choice.  Second, drop the insurance mandate which is nothing more than a giveaway to the culprits whose business practices are inhuman, unethical and at the root of the problems we face in healthcare.  And third, let's make sure that the reforms take place within 12-18 months of enactment and not 3-4 years down the line.

Finally, I think we should all be grateful for the outstanding job Keith Olbermann has done for years as the host of Countdown.  He almost single handedly kept hope alive for millions of progressives during the darkest days of the Bush regime.  He continues to keep the progressive agenda on the front burner of American politics and tonight contributed an extraordinary boost to the progressive effort on healthcare reform.

Thanks Keith!

For those who missed tonight's special comment, here's the url to Countdown: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677

This afternoon the AP reports that leaving the war we have already lost in Afghanistan is "not an option" according to the headline.  Really?  Leaving Afghanistan is not an option?  Says who?  Why? 

In real terms then, what does this mean for the average American?

Well, in the end it's pretty simple really.  Here's what it means in a nutshell:

1.  The war was lost some time ago and there's not even a glimmer of a hope of "winning" the war whatever the hell that means.  Nobody in the White House or the Pentagon can explain what winning is, what our objectives and purposes are in Afghanistan or how many eons it would take to achieve the unknown aims if we had some.  Though they confidently assert that leaving is not an option, nobody ever explains why that is.  They just make vague references to everything being worse if we leave.  Ya know what?  I think that's just plain old bullshit.  We can and we should leave and things would be no worse tomorrow than they are today.   They might even be a whole helluva lot bettert, but I digress...

2.  The war in Afghanistan, like it's illegal and ill conceived cousin: the Iraq War, is currently costing an obscene amount of money each and every day.  We have already blown approximately $228 billion on the Afghan misadventure (which could pay for one shitload of healthcare services) and there is no end at all in sight.  I'm estimating from my own calculations that the pointless imperial war we are waging there is costing us about $1,000.00 every two seconds or thereabouts.  You can get an up to the moment cost esimate on how much is being spent on the futile effort in Afghanistan by going here:

http://www.costofwar.com/

You can also see the price of the illegal, imperial and quite fruitless invasion and occupation of Iraq at the same site.

It's important to remember that all the money being wasted on whatever the hell they're attempting to achieve in Afghanistan is borrowed money.  That means we are taking borrowed money and investing it in nothing but the ongoing destruction of life and property on the other side of the world.  There is no way to get one penny of it back or returned: ever.  It's going down the proverbial rathole.  Some would call this a classic and penultimate waste of money.  I don't see how anyone could really disagree witht that assessment.  Why would our leaders be so stupid and imprudent with our nation's treasure, not to mention it's future?

But it isn't just destruction of life and property on the other side of the globe that is being accomplished with all that borrowed money.  In a very real and tangible way, the continuation of the imperialist effort in Afghanistan is also causing the destruction of lives and property right here at home. 

Every penny of this borrowed money which is being diverted from productive use and instead is used for war is the equivalent of denying our citizens healthcare, denying our children the best education we can provide them, denying American workers the employment and training they deserve, denying funds from efforts to protect the environment to start fighting global warming, and denying funds from the almost endless list of infrastructure projects that are needed here at home.  Our nation literally rots from within in the name of wars that cannot be won... ever.  Our economy weakens further with every day the imperialist prescription in Afghanistan is followed.  Our children will suffer immensely in the future because of our current lack of will and resolve to stop the warmongering and futile attempts to dominate and control foreign lands.

The approximate cost of both our imperial wars is almost $920 Billion at present.

3.  The military industrial complex in alliance with the bloodthirsty politicians and think tanks of Washington DC have clearly already won the day and so it isn't a question of whether we will continue, as a nation, to squander resources and lives in Afghanistan but just how enormous and obscene will the amount of squandered money be?  How many of our brave young men and women will die, have limbs blown off, be the lucky recipients of brain injuries, and be brutally, unspeakably traumatized for life in the name of the blood soaked fantasies of a bunch of wealthy and extraordinarily stupid men in Washington DC?  This warmongering and irresponsibility on the part of our military and political leaders is nothing short of sinful.  Itis high time their reckless wars be brought to a halt.

Frankly, I cannot imagine anything more sinful than to advocate the certain bankruptcy and destruction of our nation from within due to the inability to face and accept that American imperialism is not only a failure but is a clear and present danger to the future peace and prosperity of our people.  And make no mistake, the warmongering is a thoroughly bipartisan affair (just like our President likes things to be).  Why there is virtually no end of corporate Democrats who are more than willing to allow this folly to continue forever.  To stand up and try to do anything about this travesty would be too risky for their taste.  They'll just go along to get along and allow our country's future to be dim instead of doing all they can to ensure the future is a bright one.

4.  The President has no intention of challenging the status quo in Afghanistan.  This means that our President whom, millions had prayed would bring this imperialist folly to a speedy conclusion, is firmly in the camp of the imperialists and has no intention of ending the destruction of life and property at home or abroad.  The AP report referenced above can be found at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091005/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_afghanistan

The article included the following:

"White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said that walking away isn't a viable option to deal with a war that is about to enter its ninth year."

So the only question for the bipartisan deciders in DC as stated above is how much money and how many lives must be wasted instead of asking the obvious question which is: Why in the hell are we still in Afghanistan to begin with and why aren't we preparing plans to end our presence there?  But, just as with healthcare, the President has taken the real solution to the problem we face off the table so it isn't going to be discussed unless the people themselves force the politicians to get real and end the war.  Why?  For political reasons of course.  Should the President attempt to actually change the course of the nation that would upset the bipartisan nature of this drive toward national suicide being led by the Washington establishment in a vain effort to preserve the global status quo.

In more ways than one, this foolish and pointless dance of formulating a bipartisn leap over the cliff demonstrates conclusively that Bin Laden has indeed won the fight.  Instead of addressing the real and serious issues facing the nation and the globe, we continue to pursue this stupid plan for national bankruptcy out of a misplaced sense of pride and conquest and a lack of political backbone on the part of the President and the Democratic Congress to lead us back to peace and prosperity.  Have none of the bright bulbs in DC ever read the history of any of the empires of the past?  Are they all so blinded by their bloodlust and dreams of conquest they do not see the similarity between the foolhardy course they are pursuing and that of the fallen empires of the past?

5.  If the people do not act decisively to demand and end to the war it will never end.  Citizens must demonstrate that not only is a majority of the nation opposed to continuing this idiotic war, but we are not going to simply sit on our hands while Washington extends the war into the indefinite future.  The time to act is now.  We have no time to lose friends.  They think they can get away with this because people are not objecting to the wars so speak up!  Contact your members of Congress. Contact the White House and without equivocation let them know that we have no intention of allowing the imperialist fantasies of a few destroy the future of our country, the lives of our young people, and the prospects of our posterity to live a good life in an economically prosperous and stable nation.  War is the enemy of all civilization and humanity.  We must conclude our insane, self destructive imperialist wars or it will be the end of our nation.

The President's fetish for bipartisanship has born some interesting fruit here in the first 10 months of his administration and as far as I can tell it all tastes like crap.