I am as blown away as everyone else. When I finally tuned back in to DU after football to see what had gummed up the works here earlier and found out about the KO editorial, then read it in this thread, I was stunned ... happily, wonderfully stunned. Will view it later, but often I get more from reading a transcribed version in black and white words on -- well, screen, usedtabe paper.

Before I offer my two cents about the Monsters, I want to say that I do believe tonight's eloquent and very hardhitting editorial by Keith Olbermann should and likely will go down in modern history as not only courageous as hell but a brilliant, timely, heartfelt, and honest rendering of the truth in a big way, as in capital "T" Truth.

I actually do think that over the next few months and maybe next few years, this speech of KO's will be quoted so many times by people who believe it and endorse it and are grateful to have it to express themselves and their feelings with it, that there's no way it could NOT become a cornerstone of journalistic integrity.

Everyone else who thinks he or she is an "A-anchor" or respected veteran journalist on the teevee must now be compared to the quality, integrity and courage Olbermann has shown he has in abundance. I love it so much that he called out his own fellow news types every bit as much as he did the criminal pols in power, and made it pretty clear they were now on notice too!

About the Monsters in the Twilight Zone episode Keith referenced from back in the early and very special Rod Serling days ... well, that's a favorite era of mine, still near and dear to my heart for just the reasons that Keith cited this example. Sci fi and fantasy have long been known to be excellent vehicles for thinkers to project the possibilities so the rest of us can see where we might end up if we continue in some trends or ways we're caught up in now.

I especially love and remember to the tiniest details that episode Keith summarized -- and it was so very appropo this context! Turn the people against their own kind -- that is precisely what the Criminal-in-Chief and his fellow conspirators did to conquer us all, while most or at least a great many Americans never knew what had hit them. The cynical bastards literally took advantage of our grief and confusion to put their longlaid plans into play -- just as they'd probably hoped they could after that shock to our core.

I so well remember, truly like it was yesterday, not only the intense shock and grief I felt as I watched the events of Tuesday, 9-11-01 unfold before my eyes, but also the very sudden development of a powerful, almost cosmic, sense of unity among Americans that day. I loved NYC for the first time in my life. LOVED IT AND ITS PEOPLE. Took them into my heart and wept for them as I had for my lost daughter many years before.

My father had been an abusive and terrible career state trooper and I had been wronged by other cops in my life so I fairly well loathed most people in law enforcement up until that day -- but suddenly as they died in large numbers while trying to protect us, I remembered why it was I once used to admire, respect, and TRUST them. In a hundred ways in just that one day, I along with most citizens in this once-great nation leaped high above the petty fray of greed and crappy political plotting and powermongering to grab and hold tightly to me the prospect of a new and powerful unity among my brothers and sisters in the United States of America.

I believed without a doubt then that we could not only defeat the terrorists which had so cruelly attacked us but that together we could ALL rise above the infighting bullshit and bring America back to where she'd once been -- on the high road, the right path. With so much support from around the world, even in places and among people who had not been liking us much in recent times, there was just NO WAY we could squander this tragic opportunity to put right in our country what had been going wrong with it. I felt that in so doing, we might just regain the luster our nation had lost around the world and help other countries lift themselves up a few notches as well.

I think that as most people in the coming days read and reread, view and view again what a brave newsman named Keith Olbermann did and said tonight, they will also remember like it was yesterday the similar feelings they had on September 11th five years ago -- because he reminds us of this nearly forgotten but vitally important reality of that otherwise horrible day. And if that happens, I don't think any response the bad guys can offer to Keith's outright challenge will stand a chance of gaining ground in the hearts of real folks.

And just imagine what the response around the world might be as those who have about given up on America altogether read and hear about KO's editorial! They may realize that there ARE still people here who can see through the lies and deceptions, the tricks and manipulations of our government and compliant media -- and who are willing to speak out against them in no uncertain terms to anyone who will listen. If they then witness a strong swell of support among Americans for the man who stood up and spoke truth to power here on such an important day as today, then perhaps, just perhaps, the rest of the world will give us a chance to fix what's gone wrong with our country and then make up for how we carried our wrongs to them.

This speech by our man Keith has done -- and I believe will do -- a lot more than just give us here at DU hope, joy, and renewed confidence. I believe it holds the potential to bring real change to the political landscape in this country and to lead the charge to really and bygod certainly dump the criminals from their contemptuously comfortable seats on the OUR furniture in the White House for good and all.

I was one of many Americans who caught on TV the second airliner's striking the second tower live as it happened five years ago today.

Now I find myself thinking that the gut impact of shock and horror I felt when I saw that happen right before my eyes could be echoed now by how some men who've had great power and abused it for their own gain for the last five years must feel when they first see or hear Keith's speech. Surely it will be like a mulekick in the gut to them!

And just like we all felt that day, they will possibly be struck just as forlornly with the sudden understanding that there's not a damn thing they can do about what's already happened to them just now....

I'm going to sleep on that thought tonight, and sleep well I surely shall!