Olbermann and free clinics

POSTED BY: Niki2
UPDATED: Thursday, October 22, 2009 23:50
VIEWED: 389
PAGE 1 of 1

NIKI2

Thursday, October 22, 2009 9:15 PM

Keith Olbermann gave a full hour-long "special comment" recently--I didn't watch, his special comments get entirely too pontificating for me; I though the Ben Afleck take on them was hilarious and the couple of times after that when I started to watch Olbermann doing one, all I could see/hear was Afleck.

So I didn't know about the free-clinic thing until now. Donations have made possible two so far, and a third is in the works. Hot DAMN! I think it's fantastic, and I'm proud to see a "loony librul" do something VALID about the problems facing us, as opposed to the nastiness promulgated by the right and tea baggers (who I consider UBER-right).

Nearly 17,000 people have donated nearly $1.2 million toward this effort. They're working on their third one! It's sad to hear that 80% of the people attending are WORKING AMERICANS, and speaks so clearly to the need that it's astonishing our "representatives" aren't moved by it.

Then, too, I got a kick out of this: http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20091008081635.aspx , which is entitled "MSNBC Goes Into Astroturf Mode". What a kick: Yes, it's political, but astroturfing??

According to Wikipedia: "Astroturfing is a form of propaganda whose techniques usually consist of a few people attempting to give the impression that mass numbers of enthusiasts advocate some specific cause. In the UK this technique is better known as "rent-a-crowd" after the successful "rent-a-crate" business."

The tea-party

was astroturfing; big money was behind it, it was about disrupting town halls, protesting anything and everything Obama, and making it look like it was a true grass-roots movement.

The health-clinic effort is openly sponsored and encouraged by a political pundit, contributed to by ACTUAL PEOPLE, gives out free healthcare to people in need, and doesn't involve placards, hollering, and name calling. Sure, it's got a political intention as well, no denying that, but what it DOES is positive, not negative, and nobody's pretending it's a grass-roots movement, although it IS being funded mostly by individual donations, which makes it a ton more "grass roots" than having big business finance it and PRETEND it's from regular folk.

There's a comparison? I say: GO KEITH!!!

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Together we are greater than the sum of our parts

KWICKO

Thursday, October 22, 2009 11:50 PM

If you didn't watch it, you should. It was pretty heart-wrenching. You know his father is still in hospital, right?

And I honestly don't think he had any idea this was going to go off this big. When he mentioned it, he said he'd put up the first $50,000 out of his own pocket - and the money started pouring in! Within a couple days, donations had surpassed $300,000; now they're beyond $1.2 million - and they're trying to get big venues to donate the locations, so that money can go to HELPING people.

Mike

Let the wild rumpus start!