Hey, remember how we were all making fun of Keith Olbermann and his kitten, Ms. Precious Perfect last week? Well, Keith-O pulled out one of his patented "Special Comments" tonight to talk about Prop. 8. and you may want to grab a hankie before watching. "This is about the human heart", he says before asking of Prop 8. supporters, "Why does this matter to you? What is it to you? In a time of impermanence and fly-by-night relationships these people over here want the same chance at permanence and happiness that is your option." He then recounts America's terrible history of marriage rights, comparing slave marriages to gay marriages– and actually pulling it off.

His voice trembling, Keith looks into the camera and says "You are asked now to stand on a question of love. All you need to do is stand and let the tiny ember of love meet its own fate. You don't have to help it. You don't have to applaud it. You don't have to fight for it. Just don't put it out. Just don't extinguish it. Because while at first it may look like that love is between two people you don't know and you don't understand and maybe you don't even want to know, that love is, in fact, the ember of your love for your fellow person. Just because this is the only world we have and the other guy counts too."

I'm emailing this to everyone I know.

Liberal lesbian Rachel Maddow just went and scored herself her own MSNBC show, which was some time in the making. Officially, NBC says Rachel's debut on Sept. 8, or 09/08/08, is the "final leg of the political race this year."

Unofficially, though? On 09/08/08, a one Keith Olbermann will mark his nearly complete takeover of the network. Yes, Olbermann might as well hold Phil Griffin's title as MSNBC chief, since, according to knowledgeable sources and all outside appearances, he's making the calls.
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Keith Olbermann's among the many millions who are thrilled about sappho-journo Rachel Maddow's primetime MSNBC show. Watch as the news man welcomes his new colleague - after the jump…

It's precious.

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Gay-baiting previously played an enlarged role in American politics.

We all remember the 2000 and 2004 elections, where culture warriors threw stones, Bibles and unholy words toward the lavender set. This year's already shaping up to different, what with the Iraq War and an economy in the toilet.

Thus, the kids over at AfterElton have been wondering whether gay-baiting will influence this year's general election. In their quest for the truth, the homo-journos turned to some televisual political pundits, like Chris Matthews, CNN's John King, Keith Olbermann and others. Here's what Matthews had to say when asked about how the zeitgeist has changed over the past four years:

It’s a much different climate. It’s a totally different climate. It’s much more evenly matched, you know what I’m saying? [The marriage issue] is no longer a slam-dunk like it was as a statute. I think people are thinking about it, evolving on it and I don’t think it has the scare factor, culturally, that it had…. I think a lot of things have unintended consequences. You know, look at the Larry Craig story – it was so sad, that it made a lot of people say, “Wait a minute. If you don’t respect individuals, they’re not going to respect themselves.” And I think that’s a very good conservative argument for marriage. You know what I mean?

Olbermann echoed Matthews remarks, but put further emphasis on the economic influences: "When nobody can afford to go to a gay wedding, a straight wedding or a protest of a gay wedding, [the issue] is not going to make any difference." That doesn't mean, of course, that sexuality won't come into play in other, more local ways.

It’s no big news that Keith Olbermann hates Bill O’Reilly, and vice versa, but the Washington Post today reports that the feud between the newsmen has gone from funny to scary, sparking some insidious scheming at O’Reilly’s employer, Fox News.

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Journalist Rachel Maddow knows a thing or two about the media. Not only does she have her own show on Air America, but the 34-year old political junkie also appears regularly on MSNBC. And, as you'll see in the video above, she's not a wallflower.

Our editor recently sat down with Maddow to talk about the Hillary Clinton New Hampshire scandal, why we need to talk about race and how she embarrassed herself in front of Keith Olbermann…

Andrew Belonsky: I want to start with the Chris Matthews/Hillary Clinton brouhaha. As you pointed out on MSNBC, Talking Points Memo was talking about how women voted for Hillary in New Hampshire because Chris Matthews and other male news personalities were picking on her. Do you think that's valid? Do you think that people really are swayed so easily?

Rachel Maddow: I don't. Certainly there's no statistical evidence to support that that's why people unexpectedly voted for Hillary Clinton, but there's not that much of an explanation for why Hillary Clinton defied the last two days of polling. She was ahead in New Hampshire all year - the last four days of polling for Obama were very strong, but she had been leading all year. If you actually look at the exit polls and the people who voted for her, it wasn't people who decided the last day or the last couple of days. The people who turned out and voted for Clinton had decided, like 50% or something, had decided more than a month ago that they were going to vote for her. What made the difference is that they turned out in huge numbers. Now, could we emotionally explain that turnout as being mad at the media? Maybe. That's what political analysis is: putting an emotional frame for which we don't have facts.

AB: Really? You think emotion is inherent in political analysis?

RM: I think that political analysis is taking observable facts and working them into a story that makes sense to people and sticks with people. Making things into a story requires understanding people's emotions- you not only play into people's emotions, but you incorporate them. That leads to how you tell the story. I said that on MSNBC, because I was feeling it. I mean, I'm not a Hillary Clinton fan, but the last few days of coverage of her - once those Obama polls were coming out, there was almost glee from the 95% male newscasters. Their palatable excitement about how she was going to lose was gross. That's the only thing that has ever made me feel sympathetic for Hillary. That clip that we all saw of her being emotional at that campaign appearance, I think it was a genuinely affecting moment for more than half the people that saw that tape, but yet more than half the time it was presented in the media, there was cynical, nasty, joy in her pain. There were white guy journalists being like, "Ha! Look at the bitch crying" or "She's obviously faking this just to dupe stupid women voters". The consistent mean in the media was infuriating. I felt it and I was seeing it everywhere in the blog world.

AB: I was talking to Mary Breslauer recently and we spoke about how the lines are breaking down between media and political personalities. They're almost becoming one and the same. The definition of a politician is not necessarily someone who is elected to office. Do you think that the media has gained too much power - particularly with regard to the elections - but in shaping the zeitgeist?

RM: Well, the media has always been tremendously powerful. In historical context, it isn't new that the media is shaping how we view people, but I think what's happening right now is that we have newsish entertainment. We have people who are political operatives who dress up like news anchors and talk about really important political stories with some authority that they have not earned through journalistic credentials. That's not to say that those folks shouldn't be on tv - that's not to say that I shouldn't be on tv - I think there's a love for punditry in political analysis, which is to take facts and make them understandable and help put a context and an emotional frame on what we're seeing, so more people are compelled by the politics of the moment. It's an important role and it's actually, I think, a civically honorable role.

AB: I'm not sure everyone would agree with you, but I certainly do.

RM: What happens sometimes - and I think you saw this with Chris Matthews - the media tends to bandwagon. The higher the ratio of analysis to - you know, seeing five hours of cable new coverage to every AP story with one fact is a totally normal day in political news - the higher the ratio of analysis, the more likely is that the people talking about that fact are going to get on some stupid bandwagon and they're all going to say the same thing and they're all going to make the same point. Because it's all white guys who are all beltway guys - the whole pundit corp is so homogenous - occasionally, especially when you're talking about minority candidates and female candidates, their band wagon story is wrong.

MSNBC newsman Keith Olbermann hosted a very special Countdown last night. Rather than counting down the days top news stories, the former sports reporter offered us a collection of his favorite "Oddball"moments (see example after the jump).

Before diving into the bizarre snatches of this human life, Olbermann offered this summation of the soon-to-be expired 2007:

2007 will be remembered as a year of dramatic contradictions. President Bush got a torrent of advice to leave Iraq, and decides instead to digs us in deeper. Bush sees his popularity plummet, while Al Gore wins an Oscar and a Noble Peace prize.

2007, also a year of scandal, from locked up Paris Hilton, to lock out Alberto Gonzales, as in never let him near the Justice Department ever again.

The year where Larry Craig’s toe-tap made headlines around the world. A scandal with such international import that German TV, the Germans were calling us to play our Larry Craig Dragnet spoof on their newscasts.

That’s what says it all about this bizarre year.

Yup.

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• A majority of American citizens support same-sex civil unions, according to ABC News, but not all opinions are created evenly:

Overall, 55 percent favor allowing homosexual couples to form legally recognized civil unions, giving them the same rights as married couples in areas such as health insurance, inheritance and pension coverage. That's up from 45 percent in an ABC/Post poll in 2006; the previous high was 51 percent in 2004.
…
On civil unions, support peaks among adults under age 30, and tanks among seniors. It's highest in the East and West, notably lower in the Midwest and South. Whites overall are more apt than blacks to support gay civil unions, and the idea wins more support among women (59 percent) than men (51 percent, and 47 percent among married men).

Interesting divide between single and married men, no?

• Reichen strips, fakes orgasm for Dante's Cove.

• Bob Allen jury cruises through park where alleged solicitation took place, one juror dismissed.

• Moscow court comes out against gay pride organizers. Anti-gay parade ban legal.

• Rosie O'Donnell offers more MSNBC explanation, professes love for Keith Olbermann.

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• It was all about the Good Times last night at the eastern bloc-housed, Chris Bell-spun, Queerty-loved, Svdeka-soaked weekly party. Check out some pictures over at Twerking and plan your pose for next week. Same gay place. Same gay Good Times.

• Keith Olbermann names voter/gay scandal-ridden political, North Carolina Representative Patrick McHenry "worst person in the world".

• Trans activists in Massachusetts are pushing for a bill to lift their 100% natural rights. (Get it?)

• Fred Phelps and his rootin' tootin' Westboro Baptists are gearing up to protest Reverend Jerry Falwell's funeral. From GodhatesAmerica.com:

WBC will preach at the memorial service of the corpulent false prophet Jerry Falwell, who spent his entire life prophesying lies and false doctrines like 'God loves everyone'.

The nerve!

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We never get tired of seeing Bill O'Reilly get put in his place, though there will never be anything as funny as the revelation that the conservative TV host likes to stick a vibrator in his butt while masturbating.

After beating out Anderson Cooper for the "Sexiest Newscaster" award last year, MSNBC host Keith Olbermann is all cocky and thinks he rules the world, citing the increase in ratings for MSNBC and his show Countdown in particular. We've never seen the show since we read our news on the Internet, but we imagine it's probably as boring as Paula Zahn or any of those other talking head shows. Still, we give Mr. Olbermann props for coming out in such a weirdly aggressive fashion against his nemesis Mr. O'Reilly:

Fox's ratings are lower than they were five years ago. Bill-Oh, 267,000 of your nightly viewers have vanished since last June. Call Fox Security, they are missing.

We hope there is a response forthcoming. Watch the video segment after the jump.

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