why msnbc deserves a special place in our hearts

it came to my attention over my christmas vacation that not everyone has heard of keith olbermann. this is a travesty, to be sure, as mr. olbermann is one of the very few people in any form of media "speaking truth to power" as they say, and i am regularly shocked the man still has a job. his show, "countdown," is aired on msnbc at various times, but you can download all kinds of clips from youtube and many of his speeches are up online as well. the whole show is frequently hilarious, but when he does his final speech (special comments) he's almost always deadly serious and as on point as can be. here's an excerpt from a recent show, on bush's new (moronic, evil, pointless, etc.) plan for a troop "surge" in iraq:

This senseless, endless war.

But -- it has not been senseless in two ways.

It has succeeded, Mr. Bush, in enabling you to deaden the collective mind of this country to the pointlessness of endless war, against the wrong people, in the wrong place, at the wrong time.

It has gotten many of us used to the idea -- the virtual "white noise" -- of conflict far away, of the deaths of young Americans, of vague "sacrifice" for some fluid cause, too complicated to be interpreted except in terms of the very important-sounding but ultimately meaningless phrase "the war on terror."

And the war’s second accomplishment -- your second accomplishment, sir -- is to have taken money out of the pockets of every American, even out of the pockets of the dead soldiers on the battlefield, and their families, and to have given that money to the war profiteers.

Because if you sell the Army a thousand Humvees, you can’t sell them any more until the first thousand have been destroyed.

The service men and women are ancillary to the equation.

This is about the planned obsolescence of ordnance, isn’t, Mr. Bush? And the building of detention centers? And the design of a $125 million courtroom complex at Gitmo, complete with restaurants.

At least the war profiteers have made their money, sir.

too bad the white house only watches fox news, eh?

here's a link to the rest of the speech as well.