BY WILLIAM C. HENRY With all the controversy surrounding “entitlements” reverberating throughout the body politic lately, perhaps the time has come for a battle-hardened, been-there-done-that, professional bullshit detector like myself to weigh in on the subject and hopefully help explode the meritocracy myths the American Right has been relying on to protect the legacies of the wealthy and bolster the anti-social welfare, pro-greed and self-interest free will belief system they have cleaved to for over a century. First things first: 1) My comments are intended to correlate with the 2nd Merriam-Webster definition of “entitlement,” namely: a government program providing benefits to members of a specified group; also: funds supporting […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Die Hard And Fast
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY No long term care of the elderly and infirm (Medicare doesn’t cover it), but TRILLION$ for the butchery and burial of our bravest. God forbid we should sacrifice a weapons system or two, or a war here or there, to provide security and peace of mind to our senior citizens. Once again the Obama administration is left searching for veracity and missing vertebrae. Apparently the fact that the CLASS (Community Living Assistance Services and Supports) program was predicted to become non-self-sustaining after its tenth year was sufficient cause for the Obama administration to fold its tent and signal a semi-provisional surrender. […]
You Know #OWS Is Doing Something Right When Rush Limbaugh Is Scared Shitless, The FBI Is Hacking Their Email & Both Romney & Obama Are Sucking Up
MEDIAITE: Limbaugh later accused President Obama of being behind the Occupy Wall Street movement, saying that it was driven by Tea Party envy from left-leaners. “The Democrats are so jealous of [the] Tea Party, they can’t see straight,” Limbaugh said. “Obama’s responsible for this. This kind of thing is not spontaneous, they didn’t bubble up out of nothing; they’ve had to create this, they’ve had to pay for it. They’re advertising.” MORE GAWKER: The Occupy Wall Street protests have been going on for a month. And it seems the FBI and NYPD have had help tracking protesters’ moves thanks to […]
CAIN UNABLE: The Hermanator Is A Koch Sucker
ASSOCIATED PRESS: Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain has cast himself as the outsider, the pizza magnate with real-world experience who will bring fresh ideas to the nation’s capital. But Cain’s economic ideas, support and organization have close ties to two billionaire brothers who bankroll right-leaning causes through their group Americans for Prosperity. Cain’s campaign manager and a number of aides have worked for Americans for Prosperity, or AFP, the advocacy group founded with support from billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, which lobbies for lower taxes and less government regulation and spending. Cain credits a businessman who served on an […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: The Elizabethan Age
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY I’ve got two words for Occupy Wall Street (and Occupy Everywhere Else for that matter): ELECT ELIZABETH! As in Elizabeth Warren for those few (hopefully) of you who may not already be aware of who she is and what she represents. Looking for a purpose, someone or something to rally around, some kind of game-changing action to take? Here’s a suggestion: Get out of the parks and start hitting the bricks to help Elizabeth Warren Occupy a U.S. Senate seat from Massachusetts! And, when you’re finished with that, spend the next four years making it possible for her to […]
#OCCUPATION: Bloomberg Blinks, Backs Off Eviction
WASHINGTON POST: Despite city officials announcing a planned cleanup of Zuccotti Park had been canceled, some violence bubbled up in lower Manhattan on Friday morning. After the private owners granted the protesters reprieve from an order to leave the park, some protesters chose to march through the streets in celebration. Police asked protesters to stay on the sidewalk, but when they didn’t, a v-formation of police scooters drove through the crowd, running over one National Lawyers Guild observer. CBS Local News station reports that violence broke out after the man went down. Police told CBS that the reaction was prompted by […]
SH*T MY UNCLE SAYS: Mission Accomplished
BY WILLIAM C. HENRY If you’re tired of reading rants (mine included) decrying our shameful experiments in nation building and capitalism cloning perhaps better known as Iraq and Afghanistan, you might want to exit now. I’ve raged on the subject(s) so many times I really can’t recall just how often it’s been. One thing I can promise those of you who persevere is that I’ll never stop doing so as long as I have the mental and physical capacity to speak, hold a pen, or pound a key pad. The issue is just too important. Brave American men and women are […]
#OCCUPYPHILLY: Home Of The Brave
[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 […]