I'm not usually an Olbermann fan, but this was awesome. I concur 100%. This goes beyond politics to our own everyday personal philosophy. Just how well are we taking care of each other?

I wish average Americans were as angry as Olbermann is--upset enough to go stand outside the White House and Capitol Building in the thousands or even tens of thousands to demand that politicians do their jobs and stop trying so hard to protect their jobs and get re-elected.

*quality

Boosting this quality contribution up in the Hot Listing - declared quality by SDGundamX.

I only heard--blah blah blah. Oh, and waah, waah. Just kidding, upvote.

KO always tells it true.

Raising the retirement age is not an attack on the social safety net.

DRAMA!!!!!!!!!

>> ^RedSky:

Raising the retirement age is not an attack on the social safety net.


No, just the people who depend on it.

*controversy

Adding video to channels (Controversy) - requested by MrFisk.

We need means testings, not raising the retirement age.

When wealthy people get $30,000 year, and when they die their non-working spouse gets $30,000 a year for life.... that is a problem.

Tax more of the income on wealthy people, instead of only on 85%.

Acknowledge that it is a safety net system and not a retirement system and that the wealthy will pay more.

Look to the income tax return and reduce benefits if there are significant other sources of income (you don't need "social security" if you make $100,000 a year in other pension and dividend/interest income.)

For pity's sake, DON'T CUT CONTRIBUTIONS -- bipartisan support got it cut for 2011 and they are talking about continuing the cuts in 2012 -- the deficit has fuckall to do with Social Security, and they just made the social security funding problem worse. The hypocrisy is MIND BLOWING.

We need to have a rational conversation about it, rather than knee-jerk reactions to any changes to it. It really annoys me that whenever this topic comes up, all we hear about are the low income seniors. Yes, they must be protected. Heck, raise their benefits, that's fine. But it's a SAFETY NET and it is not a safety net to millions who receive it.

@bareboards2, I think if you think the rich are getting too much of a benefit from Social Security, then what you need to do is eliminate the payroll tax cap, not means test benefits. It's supposed to be a defined-benefit program where you generally get out what you put in.

Mostly though I think Olbermann's calling on us to change the frame of the debate. Rather than adopt the right's habit of talking about this stuff in dollars and cents, we should be talking about it in terms of lives saved, and suffering alleviated.

When Republicans talk about "cutting out of control spending", what they really mean is making your grandmother who's living on a fixed income have to make do with less. Or making your granddad have to work a job until he's 70 to keep his health insurance.

When they insist "Social Security is bankrupt" they mean "we gave away the Social Security trust fund to rich people over the last 30 years". When they say they want to "get health care costs under control", they mean they want rich people to stop having to help you pay for it when you're old, not actually do anything to bring costs down.

When we talk about "entitlement" programs, we're talking about promises that we, as a society, made to our poor and our elderly. When people talk about wanting to cut those programs back, they're talking about reneging on those commitments. With Medicare and Social Security, they are literally talking about defaulting on a debt owed!

If someone wants to make tweaks to make them more efficient, or if we as a society decide that maybe other things are a higher priority, that's one thing. But what we're going through now is the bill coming due for the last 30 years of a tax holiday for the rich, and the GOP is demanding we pay that bill by taking it out of the hides of society's most vulnerable.

People should be out in the streets with torches and pitchforks. I can't understand why they're not.

Such a nice sound- the paper shuffle at the end of the clip. they must set that mic up strategically. :]

Dont borrow sugar from the neighbors, we have foodstamps...
Dont help the family business, we mustn't disqualify our unemployment..
Dont do yardwork for the oldlady down the street, she can afford lawnservice w/ her gov checks

Increasing this "social safety net" seems to be a tad counter-productive towards the reconstruction of this lack of community Keith talks of. How can we learn and really understand how to share unconditionally, when we are obligated to share through our money. Without so many checks from the gov., this disconnection between ourselves will be forced to mend together.

how can I learn to connect with the "extras" in my life, when they are just being indirectly fed by me.

Kieth says we don't care about each other. But I believe we are setting ourselves up for it. Why not take some physical step to fixing this instead of throwing money at it. Baby steps. -Ofcourse there our some bigger things the social safety net should catch. But overspending can widdle away the little things which make us who we are as a whole. He's right, we grew up sharing and caring in our childhoods. How can we set ourselves to share and care about eachother in our adulthood?

Lies

If people are living longer, not that I'm necessarily in favor of it because I haven't looked at all the facts, how is raising the min age for Medicare two years shrugging all responsibility from taking care of others?

So Obama is supposed to never compromise on anything, even when it makes sense to do so?

Here's the answer Olbermann's looking for: When we grow up, we realize you can warn people a dozen times to not do something stupid, and then when they proudly do it, it's their responsibility, not yours.

One of the vermin responsible for destroying traditional values and attacking religion now decries, "a lack of caring".

How much does KEEF make per annum?

How much of it goes to "helping others"?

and then when they proudly do it, it's their responsibility, not yours...

If only that were so, my friend. The responsible are chained to the fck-ups, now and forever, because it buys votes.

There is no promotion of responsibility, so we have to pay for the knucklehead gang 'tard to get his tattoos lasered off, we have to pay for overpriced, government school education indoctrination which explains from an early age that Government is the Savior, we have to pay for armies of government bureaucrats whose existence is not need or market-based, and pay again for their "pensions" for jobs half-done or barely done at all. We have to pay for the day care center for teen preggies who made their CHOICE in part because they knew Uncle Scam would pay for everything. We have to pay for the invasion of illegals, their crime, subterfuge and hospital bills. And, of course, we have to pay for the pet projects of the government thieves and thugs who burn our money in a furnace.

There are weak people seeking strength, and then there's the weaklings who prey on the rest of us.

To get votes it's just easier to point a gun at the productive than help up the idiots. Sad truth is sad.

>> ^chilaxe:

Here's the answer Olbermann's looking for: When we grow up, we realize you can warn people a dozen times to not do something stupid, and then when they proudly do it, it's their responsibility, not yours.

A. "Traditional values" and religion haven't a thing to do with how empathetic you are. Remember that we've moved past such traditional values as racism, and we're in the process of dealing with another traditional value of homophobia. And how much empathy was there during the Crusades, a war fought pretty much entirely because of religion? For the record, I have no problem with religion or religious people, or all of what values people deem as "traditional"; I just have a big time problem with people who think only their values count, and only religious people are moral people.
B. How much he makes per year is irrelevant.
C. Since you don't know how much he contributes of his income to charity, gifts, etc., that makes him guilty of not giving enough? Whatever happened to the time old traditional value of "innocent until proven guilty"?

I didn't care for Olbermann's editorial here either, but two wrongs don't make a right.

>> ^quantumushroom:

One of the vermin responsible for destroying traditional values and attacking religion now decries, "a lack of caring".
How much does KEEF make per annum?
How much of it goes to "helping others"?

Except none of these problems you listed are major problems, or problems whatsoever. Public education is indoctrination for government as savior?! That would be no. I don't remember such indoctrination in math, science, english, gym, or even the most applicable subject, social studies. And guess what? I also taught history in public schools, and I taught things from both liberal and conservative perspectives. In fact, it was required that I do so even if I didn't want to. That's all of course part of the liberal agenda of the county/state I live in, which is one of the most conservative in the nation.

How much of your money actually pays for abortions? Virtually none.

How much of your money actually pays for daycare of anyone else's child? Virtually none.

HELP! HELP! YOU'RE BEING REPRESSED!

>> ^quantumushroom:


If only that were so, my friend. The responsible are chained to the fck-ups, now and forever, because it buys votes.
There is no promotion of responsibility, so we have to pay for the knucklehead gang 'tard to get his tattoos lasered off, we have to pay for overpriced, government school education indoctrination which explains from an early age that Government is the Savior, we have to pay for armies of government bureaucrats whose existence is not need or market-based, and pay again for their "pensions" for jobs half-done or barely done at all. We have to pay for the day care center for teen preggies who made their CHOICE in part because they knew Uncle Scam would pay for everything. We have to pay for the invasion of illegals, their crime, subterfuge and hospital bills. And, of course, we have to pay for the pet projects of the government thieves and thugs who burn our money in a furnace.
There are weak people seeking strength, and then there's the weaklings who prey on the rest of us.
To get votes it's just easier to point a gun at the productive than help up the idiots. Sad truth is sad.
>> ^chilaxe:
Here's the answer Olbermann's looking for: When we grow up, we realize you can warn people a dozen times to not do something stupid, and then when they proudly do it, it's their responsibility, not yours.

I love the Conservative idea that rich people have to be greedy arseholes, and if they're not, they're somehow frauds. "You can't care for other people - you're rich! You have to be a c*nt like the rest of them."

Weird logic.

Apparently I'm out of the loop..

Olbermann is back on the air?

"After six months off the air, Keith Olbermannreturned to television Monday night with a new edition of "Countdown" on Current TV." - Posted: 06/20/11 07:40 PM ET
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/20/keith-olbermann-countdown-premiere-current_n_880921.html



>> ^Shepppard:

Apparently I'm out of the loop..
Olbermann is back on the air?

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This video has been declared non-functional; embed code must be fixed within 2 days or it will be sent to the dead pool - declared dead by ant.