The Return of The Hot Mess of Basic Cable

I have always enjoyed watching Keith Olbermann, either on sports or on a straight news program. Watching him debut this evening on ESPN2 with his own sarcastic self was a great deal of fun. The show is out of Manhattan and it makes one wonder if he still remains banned from the ESPN campus in Bristol, Connecticut.

Back in April 2012 after his relationship with Current TV exploded, I wrote,

“Watching the escalating legal battle heat up between Keith Olbermann and the executives of Current TV, the real question is this: Will Keith Olbermann ever find work in television again? Who would ever be crazy enough to hire him?

The answer will probably surprise you.

Dukakis Beats Bush: A Parable of Why The Voting Rights Act Matters

Boston MA (AP) “In one of the most exciting presidential campaigns of modern times, Governor Michael Dukakis held off a series of furious attacks by George Bush and was elected President at 5:37 EST as Nevada put him over the top with 271 electoral votes.  Dukakis, tired but ebullient, addressed the cheering crowd at Boston’s Statler Hotel, ‘Our margin might have been narrow but our mandate is clear.  Americans could see through Willie Horton, The Pledge, and Boston Harbor because they knew that this race was about competence; it was about good jobs at good wages.’  The crowd roared in approval.”

However, we all know what really happened that night.  After a series of punishing attacks throughout the summer, George Bush was able to erase a 17 point deficit and win the popular vote by 53%-46% and the Electoral College 426-111.

In light of the recent gutting of the Voting Rights Act by The Supreme Court and the rise of “Voter ID” laws in many Republican and swing states, it is worth exploring how the changing face of the American electorate will rewrite the rules of politics.   It’s also worth exploring how some conservatives are working overtime to forestall the inevitable by deterring or denying citizens their inalienable right to vote.

The demography in America has since 1988, but the questions remains: could Michael Dukakis have beaten George HW Bush in 2012?

The Cuban Missile Crisis—how we were far closer to war than anybody thought.

It’s an amazing—and frightening—story.  During the Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet sub commanders had autonomy to launch a nuclear torpedo without explicit permission from Moscow.

One was ready to be launched but only luck and courage intervened. PBS’s “The Man Who Saved The World” tells the story of Vasili Arkhipov, who served as the political officer on board the B-59–a Foxtrot class Soviet sub–who refused to give the sub commander the permission to launch.

We have seen Vasili Arkhipov before.  A fictionalized version of Arkhipov was portrayed by Liam Neeson in the movie “K-19 The Widowmaker.”  Harrison Ford, who portrayed a fictionalized version of Nikolai Zateyev, is the stern submarine commander who courageously battled to save his ship and crew after a mechanical failure caused a nuclear meltdown within the sub’s reactor.  Most of the movie focuses on the fractious relationship between Arkhipov and Zateyev.

Because Arkhipov had lived through the nuclear accident on the K-19 only a year earlier, he insisted that the crew should wait for instructions from Moscow before any rash decisions surrounding nuclear weapons were to be made. What made the situation more frightening was that the B-59 ran silent for several days without contact from Moscow, during the heat of the crisis. During radio silence, they were unsure if a shooting war had already begun or if Moscow had been reduced to nuclear rubble.

How close did we get? To watch the full documentary, link here. http://video.pbs.org/video/2295274962/

The passing of Bill Scranton and Lindy Boggs

One of the downsides of living in a culture so focused on the present is we fail to appreciate those who have passed away, especially if they’ve been out of the public eye for awhile.

Instead of getting a full retrospective they deserve, they’re often relegated to a brief obituary in The New York Times. This week we mourn the passing of Bill Scranton and Lindy Boggs, who lived long and productive lives and saw the successes of the children, grandchildren, and even great grandchildren.