[Photo by MEREDITH KLEIBER] BY ALEXANDER POTTER “This is what democracy looks like!” was the collective cry Saturday afternoon as hundreds of people marched from Dilworth Plaza at City Hall to Independence Hall and back. Mayor Michael Nutter had met with many Occupiers the day before to express support, remind everyone to remain peaceful and, let’s face it, score political points. Although they were extremely loud and disruptive, drawing shop clerks out of their stores and onto Market Street, picking up stragglers and passersby on the sidewalks as they went along, they obeyed Nutter’s only wish and made their point […]
SIDEWALKING: Semper Fi, Brother
Marine manning the picket line at #OccupyWallStreet by TIM SCHREIER SALON: The establishment press’s primary “problem” with the Occupy Wall Street protest is that those silly kids don’t have a concrete demand. Or they have too many demands. Or their demands aren’t realistic. This is silly. The movement’s “demand” is economic justice. Its goal is plainly to remind everyone that the bloated, obscenely profitable financial industry is sitting on vast piles of money while everyone else struggles, and to focus outrage about that situation where it belongs.[…] The solution, if I may take a page from the official Washington Grown-Ups’ […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Don’t Ask And Don’t Be A Dick
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Don’t you just love it when the opposition party shows its true colors in public? The other day, during a publicized Republican presidential wannabes debate, when a gay active serviceman asked Rick Santorum how he would handle an individual such as himself (vis-a-vis repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell), many in the audience booed the soldier. Let me repeat that: They BOOED him! That’s right, they actually booed an active-duty American serviceman who is putting his LIFE on the line for those very same assholes day after day in Iraq! Of course, the fact that a […]
POLL: Tea Party Less Popular Than Jesus, Much Less
WASHINGTON POST: Negative views of tea party hit new high: A 53 percent majority of Americans now hold a negative view of the tea party in a CNN poll released Tuesday. The results are similar to 51 percent in August but up 13 points from one year ago, when 40 percent saw the movement in a negative light. Democrats are overwhelmingly negative (76 percent unfavorable, 8 percent favorable) while Republicans give positive ratings by 51 to 30 percent. Independents split much like the public overall, with 50 percent unfavorable and 29 percent favorable.MORE RELATED: CNN’s polls aren’t the only ones […]
SMUS: Who Died And Made Grover Norquist Elvis?
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY Given our national penchant for Idols, Survivors, and less than three men, I think it’s safe to say that 99 out of 100 Americans would tell you they’ve never even heard of Grover Norquist. Yet, he continues to function as the most powerful and influential Republican party puppet master inside and outside of Washington today. Whenever Grover’s around, the poor and the middle class brace for the worst, while the wealthy and powerful reach for their wallets and beg for his favor. With Grover, conning the American people isn’t just a calling, it’s an essential component of his tax-cuts-’till-the-cows-come-home brand […]
WORTH REPEATING: Sec. Def. Vs. The Tea Party
Lost in the media’s shameless car wreck rubbernecking of Kim Delaney’s meltdown at the Liberty Medal Award ceremony last week was the fact that the recipient of said medal, Robert Gates, the outgoing Secretary of Defense and former Director of the CIA under Bush The Father, and Deputy Director of the CIA under Ronald Reagan, had some very alarming things to say about perilous state of the Republic. He speaks in non-partisan terms, but read between the lines and he is clearly talking about the Tea Party and the ruthless goon squad they sent to Congress. Which is not to […]
RIP: Fear & Loathing At Cheesesteak Junction
BY MIKE WALSH I never met Joey Vento, but in 1986 I purchased a home about a block-and-a-half from Geno’s and the infamous cheesesteak junction (Wharton, S. 9th, and E. Passyunk). Back then, the intersection was popular, but it wasn’t the loud, crowded, 24-hour-per-day hotspot it is today. A large, stone church occupied one corner, and the other restaurants and shops you see today at the intersection had not moved in yet. The neighborhood was not in good shape in the mid-80s. Many homeowners had abandoned the neighborhood, and hundreds of single family homes had been converted to apartments. […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Confusion Is Next
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY We are going to learn a great deal about ourselves as Americans, and as human beings, between now and November 7th, 2012. We’re going to find out what our REAL underlying values are; about our humanity, our ethics, our true morals. We’re going to expose our collective intelligence, our ability to reason, our ability to analyze, our ability to interpret. We’re most likely going to reveal whether, as a nation, we believe in basic science or the bible-tells-us-so. We’re most definitely going to learn a great deal about our capacity for tolerance, understanding and compassion; and […]
WELCOME TO THE TERRORDOME: A Conversation With Dana Priest Of The Washington Post
BY JONATHAN VALANIA Last December, The Washington Post published a multi-part investigative series by Dana Priest and William Arkin that attempted to quantify the astonishing growth of the security-industrial complex in the wake of 9/11 and found that the exact parameters of that massive expansion are effectively unknowable. The series, which has been expanded into book form and recently published as Top Secret America: The Rise Of The New American Security State, boils down to this: The national security state “has become so large, so unwieldy and so secretive that no one knows how much money it costs, how many […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: No More Pussyfooting, Barry
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY One of the biggest gripes I’ve had lately (like for the past three years) with this administration is its seeming total lack of an offense — the foresightful OR the reactive variety. As a matter of fact, at times it’s been enough to make this card-carrying progressive wonder just who’s side they’re on. Now, I know that a damn good defense can, and more often than not, does, win football games but unfortunately for us Democrats, history continues to prove that even an outstanding defense seldom if EVER wins in the political arena. To put it […]
GASLANDIA: Q&A w/ Fracked Author Seamus McGraw
BY ALEX POTTER Seamus McGraw recently published The End of Country, a heart-breaking expose of the unexpected/unintended consequences of hydraulic fracturing, or, “fracking,” on the lives of the people in the hinterlands of Pennsylvania who have lived off the land for generations. As the book points out, it is both a curse and a blessing that they live on top of the Marcellus Shale, the world’s second largest subterranean deposit of natural gas. Four years ago, McGraw knew nothing about natural gas or the controversial techniques for extracting it from the ground. Amidst financial turmoil, McGraw and his family agreed […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: No Accountability, No Peace
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I just finished reading an excellent New York Times article by the Democrat governor of Montana, Brian Schweitzer. In it he pretty much tells it like it is regarding how and why his state has managed to weather the biggest, most heinous financial fraud ever perpetrated on the American people better than most. I confess I haven’t researched all his assertions, but I damn well salute his attitude and incisiveness. It got me thinking about our federal junkyard dog, the GAO (Government Accountability Office), and to what extent it was performing its mandate. At first glance it would appear that […]
RIP: Vaya Con Dios Jose Vento
From our partners in media crime over at Scrapple TV.