Keith Olbermann's statement on his firing from Current TV

My full statement: 
I'd like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.

Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I've been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.

It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current's statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa

In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.

The four best legal arguments against ObamaCare

Damon W. Root, senior editor of Reason magazine and Reason.com, lays out the case:

1: The Individual Mandate Violates the Original Meaning of the Constitution

2. The Individual Mandate Rests on an Unbounded and Unprincipled Assertion of Federal Power

3. The Individual Mandate Cannot Be Justified Under Existing Supreme Court Precedent

4. The Individual Mandate Threatens the Foundations of Contract Law

Rep. Gohmert: Breitbart's death a loss to ‘nation and freedom’ - The Hill's Video

Rep. Gohmert: Breitbart's death a loss to ‘nation and freedom’ - The Hill's Video

Obama bank rules mean no free checking for the poor

“Bank of America Corp. is working on sweeping changes that would require many users of basic checking accounts to pay a monthly fee unless they agree to bank online, buy more products or maintain certain balances,” The Wall Street Journal reports this morning.

“The search for new sources of income is especially pressing at Bank of America, where 2011 revenue dropped by $26.2 billion, or 22%, from its 2009 level.”

Why is revenue dropping?

“The fee experiments exemplify some unintended consequences of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial-regulation overhaul, which clamped down on certain revenue sources of banks and motivated them to seek ways to make up the difference,” the Journal reports.

“The overdraft decision came just months before the Dodd-Frank law halved what financial institutions could charge merchants for accepting credit and debit cards. That took away $2 billion in annual revenue from the bank,” the Journal reports.

“The double hit prompted bank executives to look for new revenue ideas that could be fast-tracked because the outlook for the bank’s consumer operations was so bleak, said one person familiar with the planning. That was when it came up with the idea of a $5 monthly fee on certain customers who used their debit cards. It was a plan that could be implemented quickly and wouldn’t require a lot of new technology.”

Banks’ offers of free checking were intended to attract younger customers, but benefitted the poor at large.  Banks continued to offer it despite the loss because many account holders kept their business at that bank once they became more affluent as they got older.  Customers who once had free checking accounts would take out loans, purchase CDs and move up to charged checking accounts with more services. That’s where the banks made their money.

But unable under Dodd-Frank to make any more money off more affluent customers, which Obama saw as “profiteering,” banks are now forced to soak the young and poor to stay in business.

Thanks, Obama.