I wasn't comfortable with the use of "beyotch" later in Somerby's post. Is that jargon that Maddow or her msnbc colleagues are known to use, or is he riffing on a specific quote? Otherwise (or maybe in any case), adding gender-based pejoratives -- even if it's trying to channel Maddow's ham-handed hipsterism -- is an unwholesome move in its own right.

Perhaps. This brief episode was one of the few decent parts of the entire broadcast. Somerby reports:

Here’s the way our “progressive” giant referred to this challenged man’s odd-sounding speech:

OLBERMANN: Well, obviously if he sounds like he’s got marbles in his mouth, that’s just the presence of the camera. But mostly, these tea-baggers claim high taxes have brought them to their knees...

Translating from “progressive” to human: This apparently speech-challenged man was speaking somewhat oddly because his mouth was full of semen.

I actually watched the whole program, solely to see Sinfonian's tour de force and any ensuing commentary (decently positive, fairly reported).

I didn't take from Olbermann's comment on this gentlemen's slurred speech anything mean or distasteful at all. I seemed to me that he was rather kindly excusing the mumbled statement as the effect of a television camera on someone unused to that kind of pressure. The phrase "marbles in his mouth" was unfortunate, but it wasn't said with the same sneer that he used on all the other puns that contaminated the segment; it actually sounded sincere and the construct fell on my ears as uncommonly gentle. It reads much worse than it appeared.

Other than that, though, the segment generally - ah - sucked.

Garofalo begins her "limbic brain" foofarraw. That was one of the most ill-considered attempts at humor I've ever seen.

Sinfonian's turn with the crowd was a masterpiece of public speaking.
Please, can you point out the "marbles in the mouth" line to me? I missed it. Thanks.

Commodore Mumbles is at 3:17 in this segment from 15 April. Garofalo’s bit was on 16 April, as was Sinfonian; somehow the similarity in juvenalia from those two days merged the segments together in my head. Ganglionic tangles on a slippery slope, no doubt.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

what I heard there was a surprisingly un-cynical comment, given Olbermann’s treatment of everything from NFL football to the Fox sponsorship (there’s a mashup video in which he reviews this) for the TEA parties.

Ron Paul people, Ross Perot people … yeah, that is kind of similar to the impression I had here. Howard Fineman’s analysis comports well.

There’s a video clip — I saw it at a place called Walking Carpet — of a mishmash of Faux Noise ads for (virtually indistinguishable from their “coverage of”) — these TEA parties. I’ll have to see if I can find that someplace from which I can rip off an embed code for y’all. In that video clip (courtesy I believe of Olbermann) even without the John Madden-style “Chalkboarding” overlays (and damn, I’m gonna miss that on Sunday Night Football!) it’s pretty obvious that it was Fox puffing this thing, Fox promoting this thing, Fox daring its viewers not to take part at the cost of being … I dunno, wimps? or having Obama-cooties, or something? … I was surprised, since I don’t (pointedly) watch Fox, at how … hysterical … they sounded.

here, see if you can see it here

What I strongly doubted day before yesterday evening was that this thing — at least here — would have drawn the crowd it had drawn without the efforts of local media to puff it up. (Y’all have to understand. Lubbock isn’t just red, it’s scarlet. But since the election, particularly, politics here has been so muted it’s almost unreal. )

Headed to bed now, two days of the flu and I'm tired and fed up with nausea and fever and chills. Tomorrow, death be damned, I'll be outside in the garden. If I croak they can just leave me lie there, throw another piece of cardboard overtop and call me fertilizer. Laters.