This is probably the most sensible response of all, jillan.

We have to invade, spread, and take over. We have to do it under the radar. We have to have it mostly completed before they even notice. Because they have POWERFUL weapons, they've assembled and/or overtaken major media outlets that only spout and reinforce their propaganda farther and wider and more ubiquitous every year. They've elevated people like word-twister/slogan tester frank luntz to near god-hood, and they pay attention to him while the vast majority of policy-makers on our side probably never even heard of George Lakoff. And all the while, our side has sat and dozed, and assumed that - hey, the people will understand! The people will see the truth! The people will know! AND THEY DON'T!!! Not when they're hammered with this constant repetition about "government bad," "tax cuts good," and "greed is good," and the underlying unspoken corollary: "hey, selfishness is OKAY!!!!"

We have to start thinking like the enemy, and OUT-thinking them, and we have to take over systemically, starting from the bottom - the way they did 30 years ago when ralph reed of the so-called "Christian" Coalition was advising operatives to get in at the low, local, boring, seemingly less-important levels like the school boards and alderman levels. And from there you can build a power base and run for some office slightly higher up. Maybe city councilman or something. After that, maybe state legislator? Or a Congressional seat?
And after that, you're off 'n' running, and they built TONS of bench strength that way. And besides that, they got their asshole "college republi-CONS" stoked and started growing a lot of kkkarl roves and lee atwaters and other dirty tricksters who then connected with other young reckless, highly ambitious, and ruthlessly Machiavellian operatives and THEY start running for office, and connecting with powerful and wealthy elders looking for proteges and ways to manipulate the system and control it. Which eventually leads to powerhouse operations like ALEC and Pox Noise and the rest of the roiling toxic viper-pit.

We HAVE to support Democrats everywhere. Whether you're annoyed by their spinelessness or their shirking of the left, they're all we've got. What? You'd rather trust mitt romney??????? You'd rather try your luck with paul ryan's ideas?????? You'd rather trust your privacy and your rights to reince priebus or bob mcdonnell?????? You'd rather have mitch mcconnell or scott walker speak for you??????? Because that's the only alternative - for now and for probably a LONG time.

I'm reminded of this movie from, I think, the mid-80's, called "The Competition" - starring Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving, and Lee Remick. Dreyfuss and Irving play brilliant young classical musicians up against each other in a prestigious international piano competition. Naturally they eventually become lovers who then have a falling-out. Lee Remick plays Irving's wise and world-weary teacher and mentor. In one key scene, all the finalists and the winner are at a private post-competition party and Amy Irving's all bummed out because of the way things had gone with Richard Dreyfuss on a personal level - not the piano competition, and how imperfect and disappointing this dream romantic suitor turned out to be. So she's off moping while the party's going on in the next room. Lee Remick comes up to her and gently scolds (I'm paraphrasing): "it's going to take Nature another 100 years to evolve the kind of man you have in mind. Until then, get out there and dance with what there IS!"

I think we all need to heed that advice, politically. Get serious about Democrats NOW, because it's going to take Nature who-knows-how-long to evolve the kind of liberal and progressive representatives we have in mind. So until then, we URGENTLY NEED to get out there and dance with what there IS!" I don't care how many mistakes Obama's made or how many different ways he's come up short. He beats the living hell outta ANYBODY on the other side. And ANY Democrat is better than the most temporarily amiable republi-CON.

And yes, trying to reason with people who think like jan brewer is a colossal waste of time! Better to focus on ways to weaken her influence (no like-minded majorities in the legislature to have her back), and ultimately replace her - AND make sure that replacement has majorities of Dems to back him/her up as well! It's not good enough just to get the guy/gal at the top of the ziggurat. They have to have plenty of reinforcements standing behind them. There's too big a mess to clean up, and too many major extreme-rightward trends to reverse. We have to throw everything we can behind Democrats everywhere - from top to bottom - if we're ever to have a prayer of moving the pendulum back toward the left.

Ann Romney is NOT a non-combatant. She's willingly made herself so.

When she puts herself out there side-by-side with her husband at rallies and speeches and personal appearances, being interviewed, standing there taking questions, taking the spotlight, not a shrinking violet, SHE IS A COMBATANT. She joined the volunteer army alright. She's in it and like it or not, she's a target. Kind of a soft target for now, but still, a target.

At the same time, I'm sure she NEVER had to "work" that struggle between "do I take my kid to the doctor, or do I buy meat for my family's dinner tonight?" Her worry might have been - which Cadillac do I drive my kid to the doctor in? If you're a stay-at-home mom because you can easily afford it, because you're lucky enough to have married a high-roller, it's not the same! If you're sitting on a cushion of "200 million, 250 million, gee, I'm not sure how much money I have..." IT'S DIFFERENT. Did she stay at home raising those boys AND have to stay out of trouble with a boss at work? Did she have the inner AND outer struggle of "serving two masters" as so many working moms do? No.

She's not a sympathetic character to me, especially with her five healthy robust silver-spoon sons who never served in the military, and a husband who got rich by firing people and carving companies up and shipping jobs overseas and wants to cut funding for the needy so the rich can do better. Of course she'll be painted that way by the media and we'll have to grit our teeth and deal with it for awhile. It's unfortunate that Hillary Rosen stepped into it. That's gonna cause us trouble and Rosen knows better.

Hey, just another stupid Keith defender here. My issue was the production values.

Or lack thereof. I would have been pissed too.

The audio was 100% screwed up. All the time. When we'd switch back to MSNBC, we'd have to turn the volume way back down or blow out the speakers. Whoever was supposedly on the case at Current has NO clue, engineering-wise.

Then I watched as The Young Turks had a great set and lots of backup and support. Then Jennifer Granholm had a really nice set and lots of backup and support. But what about "Countdown"? Just a piddly little black background? WTF??? Were they trying to humiliate him? Slap him in the face in public like that? It just seemed really ridiculous. And yeah, the lighting would fail in the middle of the segment. And they'd upcut all over the place. It was as though they hired the summer sub-relief techies who fill in for the regular summer relief techies. It was ridiculous. Their FLAGSHIP prime time show with their biggest marquee talent and they gave him shit for technical support. I was embarrassed for him. And a couple of times they didn't even start the show on time. And they kept messing up the intro animation as well as the audio levels.

THEN, a couple of days into Eliot Spitzer's new show, we turned it on, and the horizontal hold was kaput. And of course you switch stations to make sure it's not your TV and it proves not to be your TV. You go back to Current, and you're seeing half of Eliot Spitzer at the bottom of the screen and the panel supposedly under him onscreen actually appears in the upper half of the screen with this big black horizontal border cutting across the screen - WTF???? It stayed like that for a full three-and-a-half minutes at the top of the show before somebody in the control room finally woke up from his or her nap. Made the whole network look like frickin' AMATEUR HOUR. Do they not have ANYONE on staff actually MONITORING what goes out to viewers? Is ANYONE in charge of keeping track of how the feed actually looks when it goes out? No wonder their audience dropped from 100K to 30K viewers. It was an abject embarrassment! A rinky-dink network - MAN they have no idea how true that is, or how true that LOOKS. The only thing that kept us tuned in was Keith himself. The slipshod technical stuff - just an embarrassment. They should be ashamed of themselves for presenting a botch-job like that. It wasn't worthy of Keith Olbermann, and it CERTAINLY wasn't worthy of Current's audience. And it was a DISASTROUS disservice to the progressive effort to counter-act the CONservative media monopoly. roger ailes must be laughing HARD. Made us all look like rank amateurs and not-ready-for-prime-time-players. It was a big joke. A NOT-funny joke.

I swear, what they were purportedly spending for his contract - they couldn't have found the money to give him a first-class-looking show??? They certainly seemed to be able to do so for their other hosts. I'd have been super pissed, too, if I'd been handled that way. It doesn't sound like they lived up to their side of the bargain.

He's the guy who openly advocated for the murder of Chelsea Clinton

on the premise that - well horror of horrors, she MIGHT someday want to go into politics, and we just simply cannot have another Clinton succeeding in politics. We simply must have that demon seed wiped out.

It was HORRIBLE. He was advocating cold-blooded pre-meditated murder. And no one did anything. Scarcely anyone said anything. And he was allowed to stay on. "Oh, he was JOKING. It was supposed to be FUNNY." Yeah, my ass. Didn't seem like a joke to me!!!

That was years ago. And he's only now getting fired. Un-frickin'-believable. He should have been exiled to some asteroid YEARS ago.

The human heart hangs to the LEFT.

Poor little thing. I hope she pulls through. She's got a tough life ahead, though.

I too hope for peace for the ones who love her. Nicely said, roguevalley.

No kidding. Half-wits for freedumb!