Keith Olbermann's Debt Ceiling Special Comment: 'Our Government Has Now Given Up The Concept Of Right And Wrong' (VIDEO)

Keith Olbermann excoriated Washington for the debt ceiling deal it struck over the weekend--and called for a protest movement to rise up against it.

In a Special Comment on his Monday show, Olbermann did not mince words about the deal, which passed the House on Monday and is headed for a vote in the Senate.

"Our government has now given up the concept of right and wrong," he said. "...Those who defend [the deal] have called it a credit to a pragmatic president who wins some sort of political 'points' because, having stood for almost nothing here, he gave away almost nothing for which he stood."

Olbermann said that the deal was founded on what he called four "Great Hypocrisies." The first was the so-called "Super Congress" that will have ultimate authority over further spending cuts. Olbermann said the committee seemed unconstitutional to him. He also blasted Republicans who called for a Balanced Budget Amendment, which he said contradicted their call for the new committee. And he lambasted the deal for containing no tax increases on the wealthy.

Olbermann then pivoted to address the audience.

"Where is the outrage to come from?" he asked rhetorically. "From you! It will do no good to wait for the politicians to suddenly atone for their sins...it will do no good to wait for the media to suddenly remember its origins as the 'free press'...it will do no good to wait for the apolitical public to get a clue."

He said that, without a protest movement, the "tide" that had brought the debt deal "will crush us, because those who created it are organized and unified and hell-bent. And the only response is to be organized and unified and hell-bent in return."

He said the public "must find again the energy and the purpose of the 1960's and early 1970's and we must protest this deal and all the goddamn deals to come, in the streets."

Watch (read the full transcript here):

Comments

[Jackie Stone]

12:00 PM on 09/07/2011

Bravo, Keith Olbermann! Frankly, I am totally disgusted with all members of Congress - both Democratic and Republican, who seem to care only about getting elected and staying elected. They are bought and sold by wealthy corporations/businesses and none of them represent their constituents, unless it happens to coincide with the politician's desire to be reelected - the desire for power, and the financial benefits that Congress has created for themselves.
One of the problems facing those of us who are disenfranchised is the lack of non-partisan grass-roots leadership.

[PoliticPoints]

08:09 AM on 08/22/2011

We need more than a protest movement - we need a comprehensive narrative that challenges that current Conservative Transformation. What we've really lost is the ability to assess politicians and government by the Fairness of their actions.

http://www.slideshare.net/FairnessCoalition/

[Donald Ong]

05:05 AM on 08/22/2011

i have no idea when the debt problem will be resolved, it seems will continue for years to come!
http://jenniferlopezmoviesx.com/

[sujeet]

12:43 PM on 08/20/2011

hi please click this nice postdedicated hosting

[drbdes]

01:49 PM on 08/07/2011

forget the 9/11
all who bombed were from Saudi Arabia,
we just falsified the compass,
went a few hundred M iles north, looking for the Saudis
in Iraq,
later Afganistan, Pakistan, nearly went to Phillipines, and the far east.
may have kept on going and landed in LA [as many thought the world was not round]
and found the axis of evil in Texas or somewhere, or Arizona or South of the Border.

[drbdes]

01:49 PM on 08/07/2011

Dear KO and others
we should teach our Americans to see the light,before darkness descends or is darkened by the dark forces of political reality.

we all saw this danger ,clearly in 2005-06
we saw it before the war drums ignited the puerile intellect
of many,
wanting blood for 9/11.[forget the crazy killer cowboys]
never counting the losses to us, and the world.
yes we could have counted the trillions in losses,
we had the ability to prevent.
remember the vigilant, noisy, rebellious, people of late 60s and early 70s
with he help of Nixon[only man able to dialogue with china/Russia,and withdraw 54000 +/- at one time
and cut our losses,
in a foolish, unnecessary creation of killing fields,
made many of our fellow American,
become killers, alienated from society,
many died,
many came back
with minds wasted, forever,
affecting 3-5 generations to follow[PTSD[trauma or mind damage in wars etc, that alters the mind even the genes permanently] was not even allowed to be recognized, like the recent Iraq war effort]
but now we can change
need to mobilize the 54000,000 medicare victims,
show them how vulnerable they are[can be starved to death, in the stupid political cross fire]
elect people only with integrity[we have many outside congress],
fire them at the first warning[spare non] make sure they vote[had the easy ability to pass anyBill, compromises, long before , toKeep our Dollar safe.
NotKeep showing theWorld that aFew bankrupt politicians
can Bankrupt theCitizens[when we are not]

[kizzie]

02:56 PM on 08/05/2011

Dear Keith, Will you PLEASE help us organize such a protest in DC en mass??? I have written Moveon,progressivesunited, democracynow, ect, asking for just what you speak! All I get are petitions for this or that to sign and then asked for donations.
I'm tired of donating and seeing nothing or noone even attempt to try and get a movement together to march on DC like we did in the 60's and 70's as you stated.
And you are right---nothing is going to change unesds we take action and have a million or more show up en mass and demand our gov clean up their act and act in our behalf rather than for the benefit of the Corps.
So why don't you set a date, announce it, and give enough time so us "non monied citizens" can save our pennies to make the trip to support this action.
I'll be waiting to see if you will help where no one else seems to care.

[rbergstrom]

12:13 AM on 08/06/2011

Get your millions and march, for what ???. To try and get the government to give you and yours more money and entitlements, all the while taking it from those who earn it.

[mairs]

01:19 AM on 08/07/2011

Sniffs the broker, paying his maid $8 an hour under the table.

[tresluv]

02:24 PM on 08/05/2011

Well now I'm thoroughly depressed, but in the sense of "if you aren't depressed, you aren't paying attention". Not sure it will come to nuclear war, as "The Ultimate Pessimist" believes, but we are obviously on a rapid decline as a nation, and I don't see any solution on the horizon.
The voices of reason (see Senator Bernie Sanders' excellent piece today) are literally voices in the wilderness.

[drbdes]

01:50 PM on 08/07/2011

Take heart
we are American,
and also humans
we can solve this
with optimism
and-action.
may look bleak,
the remember
the Darkest hour comes but, before Dawn.

[tresluv]

04:26 PM on 08/07/2011

I hope this is true. I do everything in my power as a private citizen with a *very* small income, to fight the forces of Corporate Plutocracy. But there's a lot of power and money behind them. Not to mention an army of brainwashed TeaThug ordinary people, voting against their own interests.

[kyrose777]

11:06 AM on 08/05/2011

Keith you are so right. We need to put pressure on the "pretend leaders" to stop this political insanity. I live in Ky. and I did contact Senators McConnell & Rand Paul over the debt ceiling raise and basically received condescending replies. Not that I expected anything more. Thanks for your intellect and voice of reason.

[General Public]

01:10 AM on 08/05/2011

Did the government, or any other big, powerful organization such as a large corporation, EVER follow the principles of right and wrong? No. Large organizations exist for one primary purpose: to perpetuate themselves. Individual people in large organizations may sometimes try to do what is right, but the underlying structure of large organizations prevents them from succeeding; large organizations cannot help but do evil things. For example, a large corporation by law has a fiduciary responsibility to maximize profit. This eliminates the possibility of morality being considered AT ALL. Foreign policy has always been based on the principle of national interest rather than the principles of right and wrong, and while Jimmy Carter once tried to challenge that, he was unable to, even with the power and authority of the office of the Presidency, because the institutional self-sustaining rigidity is too powerful to overcome. The political parties have become large institutions comparable to the government, only interested in self-preservation and winning more power and getting more money, not interested in right and wrong. Thus both parties compete to get campaign contributions from the moneyed elites and government policies are all designed to benefit moneyed elites. That is how things always have been and always will be. Whether you have capitalism or communism, democracy or dictatorship, a republic or a monarchy, the system is designed to benefit those few at the top at the expense of everybody else, and prevent anyone from changing that status quo. There's no solution.

[Rich Montgomery]

05:55 PM on 08/05/2011

There is a solution.....it's called Revolution.

[rbergstrom]

12:15 AM on 08/06/2011

Right on - so true. Until a complete revolt, nothing will change, and in the U.S. a revolt would be impossible.

[Bryan Gray]

12:38 AM on 08/05/2011

''The press is the hired agent of a monied system, and set up for no other purpose than to tell lies where the interests are involved.'' Henry Brooks Adams

[drbdes]

01:56 PM on 08/07/2011

that is a well known fact.
but we can castrate the press,
if they do not follow the line,
stay with the truth, facts
and what is good for the country and the people?

if we snooze we lose.
the fault is in us
not in the stars.
Alll of you can act,
the vote is very powerful.
do not allow the politicians er elect, work against us
and then come begging for the vote.

[The Ultimate Pessimist]

10:04 PM on 08/04/2011

The unfortunate news, and this is for Mr. Olbermann and those that are inspired by his words, there will be no change in any of our lifetimes in this country. No change will happen regardless of whether there are protests. Why? Because this country may be the most advanced in some areas, but it is one of the most underdeveloped, backward countries on earth when it comes to the American people in the aggregate having insight politically and being able to effectuate change. That type of political insight exists on far higher levels among the poorest people on earth from South America to India to Egypt. Change will come first from other countries; this country as a result will become increasingly isolated; those other countries' changes will finally give insight to the American people to take action to cause true change; and at that point the ultra wealthy that control things will take all measures necessary to maintain their wealth and that includes nuclear action that will end the earth (just like a 2 year old throwing a tantrum and overturning the game board or throwing his marbles out the window). The protests that Olbermann calls for won't happen, and even if they did happen they would change nothing, not at this point in history, too much power concentrated in too few hands. The sequence will occur as noted above. If you disgree with this, please read Part I. Mark my words. Thank you. The Ultimate Pessimist.

[General Public]

12:56 AM on 08/05/2011

Fan #1. You have great words of wisdom.

[drbdes]

02:01 PM on 08/07/2011

star the effort
try to elect people Based on integrity, make it non political[they can be and are bribed anyway, by trillions of dollars]

not based on region, race or false ethnic tastes, never on religions, never on just faith.
look for clear facts

If unclear ask qustios ask for help
listen to comments, dissent, learn from them.
we learn by arguing, discussing, via dissent,
not blind faith, sometimes based on slothfulness, lethargy and inaction]
they have to and must represent all the people[not just the backers, lie what the governor is looking for with 1000 churches, like former president, who refused to see the trillions of waste]

[The Ultimate Pessimist]

09:59 PM on 08/04/2011

Olbermann is correct in this statement in all respects. There is one fortunate, and one unforunate thing to note in that regard. The fortunate thing is that the truth prevails ultimately. So, where some above say that Olbermann was wrong, just like those same people say there is no need for health care reform, or were anxiously awaiting the discovery of weapons of mass destruction and shocked when none were found by Bush, or expected peace on earth once Iraq and Afghanastan were "stabilized", the truth will prevail. Without fundamental change, there will be perpetual disasters in the areas that they think were cured by wars or fake health care change or no healthcare change etc. For me, then, I always take solace when I hear the garbage from both Demcrats and Republicans, each pretending that they will solve problems, and each knowing that they both are experts in pretending to make changes and each placating different segements of society, the bleeding heart Democrats who are concerned for the poor people, and the bleeding heart Republicans whose passion is to protect the ultra wealthy and the corporations. That's the good news. The truth prevails and so, those that disagree will Olbermann will find out that the country will still inextricably continue to decline as wealth concentrates to a pin point of .1% controlling 99% the wealth (not there yet but well on the way). My next post will explain the bad unfortunate news.

[rcmckee]

12:11 PM on 08/05/2011

F&F. Unfortunate username, though; just as it's not paranoia when they're actually after you, it's not pessimism when it's the way things are....

[drbdes]

02:04 PM on 08/07/2011

do not give in to pessimism.
be positive
lead others
elect and keep a close watch, to make sure
that politicians do what we benefit from[they should be punished for bribes or making more money illegally]

[Vardi]

07:22 PM on 08/04/2011

You speak the truth. Well done Sir!

[The Ultimate Pessimist]

03:04 PM on 08/05/2011

Well I agree, but the key word is "ultimate" pessimist. By reference to nuclear demise, I use that as a generalization, as in environemental demise of all sorts, incrementally, one step at a time, from bioharzards, to chemical spills, to frecking in the quest for natural gas, to billions of barrells of oil being spilled into the Gulf, and perhaps down the road, in connection with hyper-sensationalism to stop a people's movement abroad the U.S. dropping one or two of the most powerful nuclear bombs. Some who are more optomistic would believe that, at some point, the corporate and wealthy control dynamics, will somehow split as one sells the rope for the other's demise to maximize profits and that paves the way for true democratic actions. I don't see that happening, but of course, at this point that's a academic issue, but that's the reason why I say ultimate pessimist, as in the very end of the process. The earlier portion of my analysis I consider to be optimistic, to the extent I believe there will be change coming for sure (from other countries) and that will lead to pressure here. Thanks.

[katran63]

04:58 PM on 08/04/2011

Way to go Keith. Could'nt agree more,but I don't see anything happening anytime soon in regards to protesting.
Most people I know don't have an idea as to what is going on.They are clueless about the impact and implications of what is going on and how it will affect their future. It is like they are drugged or asleep.