"There is no line he will not cross"

From Crooks and Liars, a transcript of Keith Olberman's special comment from last night. He starts with the whole stupid Kerry joke - that's the Kerry joke about Bush being stupid, of course —

[What? You thought he was calling the troops stupid? C'mon, did you hear the whole thing? Oh, right, probably not. Here you go:

Senator Kerry, as you well know, spoke at a college in Southern California. With bitter humor, he told the students that he had been in Texas the day before, that President Bush used to live in that state, but that now he lives in the state of denial. He said the trip had reminded him about the value of education — that "if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don't, you can get stuck in Iraq."

The Senator called Mr. Bush stupid. The context was unmistakable: Texas;the state of denial;stuck in Iraq. No interpretation required.

So that's the joke. Not funny, but then we all knew Kerry can't tell a joke. (Who called him "Ent-like" the other day? Echidne? Yes... and she was right.) But it was pretty obvious who was the butt of it —hint: not troops.]

Anyway - Olberman starts with that and goes on to say:

There is tonight no political division in this country that he and his party will not exploit, nor have not exploited; no anxiety that he and his party will not inflame.

There is no line this President has not crossed — nor will not cross — to keep one political party, in power.

He has spread any and every fear among us, in a desperate effort to avoid that which he most fears — some check, some balance against what has become not an imperial, but a unilateral presidency.

I have done my share of complaining about the media and their unwillingness to call lies lies and liars liars, and their silly "A said, B said" notion of "balance" (hint, facts aren't balanced, nor is truth. "The earth is flat - No, it's not" isn't "balanced". It's just pathetic.). But Olberman is a shining city on the hill, to borrow a metaphor. He's the lighthouse.

No shocked outrage at the Kerry insult that wasn't; no subtle smile as the First Lady silently sticks the knife in Michael J. Fox's back; no attempt on the campaign trail to bury the reality that you have already assured that the terrorists are winning.

Winning in Iraq, sir.

Winning in America, sir.

There, we have chaos: joint U.S./Iraqi checkpoints at Sadr City, the base of the radical Shiite militias — and the Americans have been ordered out by the Prime Minister of Iraq… and our Secretary of Defense doesn't even know about it!

And here — we have deliberate, systematic, institutionalized lying and smearing and terrorizing — a code of deceit, that somehow permits a President to say, quote, "If you listen carefully for a Democrat plan for success, they don't have one."

Go read his whole comment. You won't be disapointed. Outraged, maybe, but not disapointed