Shake up at MSNBC? *YAWN*

I got into msnbc for a while and watched the line up: Hardball, The Ed Show, Countdown and Rachel Maddow show. After a while (yeah, I'm slow), I realized that the first three shows were just repeating the same talking points based on the current news cycle. Nothing new that couldn't be figured out reading the headlines in the NY Times in 5 minutes. The only exception to this is Rachel Maddow.

Rachel Maddow does not follow whatever the current talking point playbook is. She actually investigates something and attempts to discover the truth at the core of it. Sort of like 60 Minutes can do on its best nights. Except, Ms. Maddow does it 5 nights a week with humor and with something that is almost completely absent from most newscasts: a sense of cautious optimism. She actually is not going to go down the path of "Something I disagree with happened and I'm going to milk it as some kind of megadisaster for the USA."

Now Keith Olbermann, unsuprisingly, has been fired or let go or whatever So? He was just another part of the angry line up. Nothing really unique in his show, except for the Oddball sequence. Kind of a calmer Ed Schultz, although a bit more rational than that. Now they're going to give the angry Young Turk, Cenk Uygur, his own show. He's part of the screamers from the left who are more anti- than pro-Obama. If Obama smiles at a conservative, it's considered a major loss to some of these screamers. Also, MSNBC is a TV business and the ratings are more important than politics or reality or whatever.

Some of the lefties I follow on Twitter are up in arms about this whole Olbermann thing. I don't see the problem. Shows get cancelled all the time and hosts replaced. It's about ratings and making money in the Fox dominated world of cable news. It's just another TV show. In fact, if he gets a gig eventually almost ANYWHERE else, he'll get more exposure and higher ratings. The thing I'm more annoyed about is how so many don't give Rachel Maddow a chance BECAUSE she's on msnbc and people assume she's just as angry and repetitive as an Ed Schultz or Olbermann.

Here's hoping Rachel Maddow gets "let go" and ends up somewhere else with a larger audience.

It's so easy being right wing!

All I have to do is be willing to lie and distort truth in order to get heard on TV. I am only "for" something until President Obama and/or the Democrats are "for" it. As soon as the President embraces it - I'm against it as a socialist, communist plot to take over the government.

This is the case for heath reform. Obama gave a key statement on health reform today and now is the time of the final push to give Americans what they desparately need: health care without the threat of bankruptcy. For too long the insurance companies have rationed care and denied coverage and this must end before the US bankrupts itself due to health care costs.

The complete lack of support from the Republican side of the aisle demonstrates their complete lack of moral guidance and lack of conscience. They have literally sold their vote to the Health Insurance lobbyists.

For some reason many in the so-called "mainstream media" are saying this is political suicide for the Democrats and Obama. This is nonsense. Once people get a taste of having good health insurance at a fair price without the threat of financial ruin, they will never want to go back.

Come this November, I'm sure many of these Republicans will discover that it was political suicide to say no when people's lives were on the line.

A great clip from Rachel Maddow demonstrating the utter hypocrisy of the GOP:

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The best plan for voters? Come this November I believe it would be a good idea to only vote Democrat - vote straight along the party. This would, perhaps, let the GOP know that their gamble with American lives is evil and just plain heartless.